Re: I Write, Therefore I am : Sid Harth

[chhotemianinshallah]

The Book

I am currently writing a book with the preliminary title Sublime
Oblivion: A History of the 21st Century. I hope to have it finished by
spring 2010 and published by next summer.

Sublime Oblivion: The Book

Predicting the future has been a popular pastime from the ancient
oracle of Delphi to modern think tanks like the Rand Corporation. For
an uncredentialed amateur, writing a book on the subject may seem to
be a waste of time or even a symptom of egomania. I acknowledge these
criticisms, but would rush to add that the sole reason I am doing this
lies in my firm belief that almost all of today’s forays into futurism
suffer from a set of major flaws.

The big question – why I am writing this book?

First, the problem with relying exclusively on conventional experts
working in relevant fields is that they are prone to a certain
“specialized myopia” that discounts insights from other disciplines.
Technologists enamored of the tremendous progress in computing power,
energy efficiency, and artificial intelligence during the past decades
airily dismiss the peak oil prophets. Their technology would always
deliver, or at the very least the invisible hand would find another
source of high-quality energy. As long as we continue doing honor unto
Mammon, deliverance is ours – much as the cargo cults of the South
Pacific came to associate certain rituals and incantations with the
arrival of industrial goods, or “cargo”, to their isolated islands.

Furthermore, experts have reputations to protect and established
paradigms to uphold, which tends to impart a conservative rigidity
into their analysis – a phenomenon noted decades ago by Thomas Kuhn in
his famous study of scientific revolution. One typical example would
be Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift (1912), with plate
tectonics becoming widely accepted by the 1970’s after extensive work
on seafloor spreading and magnetic field reversals.

Second, most analysts are either part of, or suborned by, the System –
the sum total of the texts and power relations that make up a
society’s set of beliefs. The former category, which includes
government policy-makers and corporate strategists, suffers from an
“institutional myopia” which gives answers in advance and precludes
all questions questioning the legitimacy of their own institutions.

For instance, what can a rational, capitalist state – interested in
self-preservation, predicated on unlimited economic growth, and
confronted with irrefutable evidence of the dire consequences of
business-as-usual greenhouse emissions on the world’s climate – do to
resolve these contradictions? The answers are buzzwords like “green
growth”, “skeptical environmentalism”, or geoengineering; the
forbidden question relates to the efficacy of industrial capitalism as
a system to confront the imminent challenges of man-made climate
change.

Another example of “institutional myopia” is the American delusion
that they can retain their military bases and guarantees of stable oil
supplies from the Middle East, while reaching an accommodation with
Islamism through “democratization” and “inter-faith dialog”. This
ignores that the Arab street views their autocratic rulers as American
stooges selling oil, and Islam, down the river for American protection
money. Hence the absurd doublethink underlying the Western rhetoric of
“democracy promotion” and their labeling of Islamists as irrational
fanatics who “hate our freedom” – whatever that means.

The latter category, encompassing private think tanks and academia,
have a greater degree of freedom in asking questions. However, it is
ultimately the state that pays academics their salaries. Biting the
hand that feeds is always dangerous, especially if their fangs contain
the poison of the forbidden question. Anathema unto them. Therefore,
academia’s answers also tend to conform to the reigning paradigm – or
even reinforce it further with elaborate universal theories such as
Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” eschatology, which alleges that
Western liberal democracy is the final phase of mankind’s ideological
evolution.

Third, there is a tendency to engage in what I call the “linear
extrapolation of current trends”, or what Vaclav Smil describes as the
quantifying of current trends to make point forecasts. One famous
example he cites are predictions from the 1950’s that nuclear power
would soon make electricity “too cheap to meter”, which vastly
understated its real costs by discounting government subsidies for
nuclear R&D, the decommissioning of old power stations, and spent
nuclear fuel storage.

Similarly, we now have sunny predictions, derived from extrapolating
today’s exponential growth in electricity generation from
photovoltaics, that civilization will run on solar power by 2050. This
questionably assumes that costs will not become prohibitively high
long before saturation because of bottlenecks in silicon production,
shortages of the rare earth metals central to photovoltaics
production, and the inherent intermittence of solar power generation
(even apart from rainclouds, smog, etc, the Sun has this annoying
tendency to go down every day).

Finally, all humans are prone to a psychological blindsight called
“creeping normalcy”, or what Jared Diamond in his book Collapse calls
“landscape amnesia”. This describes a process in which slow,
detrimental changes to the environment go unnoticed by the general
population because of their slowness and gradualism, but whose
eventual accumulated impact becomes devastating. One tragic example
would be the Easter Islanders who chopped down all their trees,
accelerating the tempo in the last decades of their pre-collapse
civilization in order to construct ever bigger moai (statues) to honor
the gods that legitimized the tribal chieftains who ruled over them.

Gradually trees became fewer, smaller, and less important. By the time
the last fruit-bearing adult palm tree was cut, palms had long since
ceased to be of economic significance. That left only smaller and
smaller palm saplings to clear each year, along with other bushes and
treelets. No one would have noticed the felling of the last small
palm.

Similarly, today’s unconstrained economic growth, particularly in
emerging Asia, is putting unprecedented strains on global resource
stocks and pollution sinks. Dazzled by the astounding progress in
consumer wealth and electronic gadgetry of the last three decades of
beyond-the-limits growth, we pay little heed to the mounting
difficulties in exploiting ever smaller, remoter, and lower-quality
fossil fuel sources; to flat-lining crop yields and fisheries
productivity; and to the imminent breakdown of Pax Americana itself –
the imperial system that, for good or ill, underwrote this last Golden
Age of globalization by virtue of cheap oil, its military might, and
free-market ideology – under the pressures of peak oil, economic
failure, and geopolitical pressure from new challenger Powers.

Just as the late Roman Empire blamed moral dissolution for its
problems and pushed ever more of the same old – more legions, more
fortifications, more patriotism – as solutions, even as its economic
base – agriculture and Mediterranean trade, withered away into
oblivion: so the late American Empire, unable to escape the systemic
rigidities and institutional myopia covered above, continues its huge
budget deficits, prodigal military spending, and unrestrained credit
creation. Nothing more can be expected of a System with such immense
inertia, even if presided over by a man tirelessly preaching “change”
– if anything, Obama may well be just its last desperate roll of the
dice, much like Gorbachev for the Soviet Union. The System finds its
own solution, or it collapses. It ignores activists and dissidents.

The future history scenario outlined in this book is meant to be a
canvass to explore the global trends, regions, and geopolitical
dynamics that will shape the 21st century. My goal in this book is to
act as an outside observer of the world as a dynamic system always
seeking a homeostasis, or equilibrium, while eschewing to the maximum
extent possible the fallacies in conventional futurist thinking that
I’ve identified above. As such, I will do my best to maintain a
counter-intuitive, contextualizing, and cross-disciplinary
perspective.

What are the defining trends of the 21st century?

The most important is resource depletion, or more precisely the
exponentially rising marginal costs of exploiting new sources of the
fossil fuel, “renewable”, aquifer, and mineral resources that sustain
industrial civilization. One of the most essential concepts one needs
to understand here is Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI), which
is a ratio of the amount of energy acquired from a certain energy
resource to the amount of energy expended to obtain that energy
resource. The EROEI of oil production in the US was about 100:1 in
1930, but has since fallen to perhaps 10:1 today; the same pattern
holds true for other fossil fuel sources. Considering that the EROEI
generally considered necessary to sustain an industrial civilization
is around 5:1, these are ominous developments.

Ironically, the “cornucopians” (free-market techno-optimists) are
correct when they say there is so much oil we will never run out of it
– it’s just that the remaining deposits will be too uneconomical in
EROEI terms to ever be exploited. The peaking of global oil
production, which probably happened in 2008, is just a part of this
general trend. Given the centrality of big, reliable energy flows to
industrial civilization, the world economy will be forced into making
more investments into energy efficiency, as well as shifting towards
natural gas, coal, other hybrid fossil fuel sources, and renewables.
Generally speaking, these solutions will produce less useful energy
for greater cost in human effort, capital, and pollution.

Speaking of which, we come to the second great defining trend – rising
pollution, especially as manifested in anthropogenic climate change
(though this is not to downplay the significance of things like
topsoil loss, ecosystem destruction, deforestation, and growing
antibiotic resistance). Not all its effects are going to be negative,
especially during the early stages when rises in global temperature
rises are modest. Vast swathes of Siberia and Canada will see higher
grain yields, the Far North will become open for mass human
(re)settlement and an ice-free Arctic will facilitate shipping,
opening up new hydrocarbons sources and perhaps making Russia the
world’s major trading hub.

However, modest regional gains in some places will be counterbalanced
against increasingly devastating global losses. Ocean acidification
will kill off the world’s remaining fisheries. Spreading deserts
threaten agricultural breadbaskets like the Great Plains and will
eventually bury whole nations such as Botswana under their shifting
sands. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers that feed the tributaries
of the great Asian rivers – especially in conjunction with the
possible failure of the monsoons – could engender the greatest
Malthusian crisis in human history.

Until recently, the scientific consensus was that the most dire
scenarios were extremely unlikely, and in any case far off. However,
the paradigm is now shifting rapidly.

First, there has been much greater research into positive feedbacks in
global warming. Gathering the strands, the journalists Mark Lynas
posited a cataclysmic scenario in which every degree of global
temperature rise leads to an environmental disaster that pushes
temperatures up by another degree in an unstoppable reaction. What if
the Amazon burns down, releasing lots of CO2? The rapid temperature
rise melts the Siberian permafrost, unleashing vast amounts of trapped
methane. The whole sorry story could culminate in an extinction level
event featuring giant fireballs racing around a desert world
underneath toxic, green skies; a vision traditionally associated more
with apocalyptic fantasy than hard science…

Second, it is becoming evident that the true extent of global warming
has been dramatically understated because concurrent aerosols
emissions, by darkening the world in a phenomenon called “global
dimming”, canceled out some of the effects of global warming. This
means that we may have already passed the “tipping point” of self-
sustaining global warming, even if all greenhouse gas emissions were
to stop tomorrow. In a few decades, humans may have to play God, or at
least Mother Nature, and attempt to prevent the planetary climate
system from spiraling out of control by gargantuan geoengineering
projects, such as seeding the oceans with iron filings or releasing
sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere. Even if it works, this
project will be vulnerable to terrorist disruptions, geopolitical
squabbles, and even all-out war.

The third great trend is technological progress, especially in those
spheres subject to exponential growth – genetics, nanotechnology, and
robotics, or what the futurist Ray Kurzweil calls the “GNR
technologies”. Though I am not a cornucopian, neither am I one of
those “doomers” like James Kunstler (The Long Emergency), Jay Hanson
(DieOff.org), or Dmitri Orlov (Reinventing Collapse) who believe there
will be a collapse in the immediate wake of peak oil. I believe states
will push efforts to economize, to extract more, and to make do with
less; their citizens will be mobilized, regimented and coerced into
serving the System against a backdrop of falling living standards and
rising chaos in the multiplying “failed states” of the world. Since
technological growth is one of the two linchpins of the industrial
system (along with energy), it will continue to be funded and to
progress, especially the ones with the best payoffs – the GNR triad,
and its military applications – which will receive a new prominence in
an ever more cut-throat international environment.

Within one or two decades, life in the developed world – and even in
poorer regions, thanks to the plummeting costs of information products
– will become transformed by the arrival of universal databases,
ubiquitous surveillance, ultra-high bandwidth wireless networks, real
life p2p, the semantic web, perhaps even full-immersion virtual
reality. This will create the foundations both for unprecedented
levels of freedom and transparency… and the most perfect
totalitarianisms in history.

Advances in biotechnology will improve the productivity of the elderly
and may conceivably even reverse aging, a developed that would be
especially germane to a Europe facing the specter of demographic
collapse. With its definitional physical mastery over very small
sizes, nanotechnology will allow for the continuation of Moore’s Law
in computing power and fascinating new developments like neural-
electronic interfaces (and cyborgs), the widespread integration of
information products onto the physical world (“augmented reality”),
and the digital recreation of the human brain.

Yet the real revolution will be in robotics, as the world begins to
teem with highly-specialized artificial intelligences (“artilects”) –
a world, I would add, where the boundaries between the Real and the
Virtual are breaking down, where texts on fantasy displace reality,
and where, from the cathedrals of cyberspace, a global conscience
emerges, a strong AI – “the last invention that man need ever make”.
Salvation beckons. Yet who can presume to know the mind of God?

Putting it all together

The three above trends are profoundly interrelated with the older
trends shaping human reality – demography, economic growth, and socio-
political evolution. These trends will have different effects on
different regions of the world, on the relations between actors on the
internal stage, and on the global geopolitics, including wars, that
will result from these manifold interactions.

What we essentially have is a series of questions, which the book will
attempt to answer by postulating what I believe are plausible real-
world outcomes. My free online series of Sublime Strategic Reports
(SSRs), not all of which will be released, constitute the building-
blocks of the novel.

1.Principles of Metahistory
2.The Meaning of Sublime Oblivion
3.Shifting Winds: The End of Pax Americana
4.The World System: Economy, Society, Demography
5.The Geopolitics of Limits to Growth
6.Towards Singularity
7.Principles of Metapolitics
8.There Will Be War!
9.Discontinuities & Apocalypse
10.Europe, The Black Continent
11.America: The Waning Superpower
12.Dar al-Islam:
13.Asia: The Return of the Middle Kingdom
14.Eurasia: Russia’s Sisyphean Loop
15.Periphery: The Dark Continents
This is it. Anything more, and I fear I’ll cross over into making
outright spoilers. Keep your fingers crossed for a summer 2010
release, and after that, RAFO.

http://www.sublimeoblivion.com/book/

Best of S/O

This is a list of articles from the Sublime Oblivion blog relating to
geopolitics, futurism, and philosophy. They include many of the themes
of my upcoming book. The articles without hyperlinks will likely
appear in the future.

Philosophy & Theophilosophy

•I am a Communist – non-serious article taking an unconventional but
purer look at the elusive concept of Communism.

•The Tyranny of the Veil – musings on feminism and universal history.

•Green Communism is our Salvation – initial essay on why socialism is
necessary to avoid ecological catastrophe.

•Sublime Oblivion: What Might Be Is – there is no essential dividing
line between the material and Platonic worlds and our universe is
almost certainly a computer simulation nested within an abstract
computer program or simulacrum, the truth that hides that there is
none.

•What a Picture Wants – an exploration of the sublime.

•Philosophical Musing #1 – Long Live Death!, Totalitarian Aesthetics,
& The Power of the Text.

•Green Communism – a vision of a world state based on informatized
central planning, universal sousveillance, and ecotechnic spirituality
driving the transition to ecological sustainability.

•The Meaning of Sublime Oblivion – on simulation, simulacrum, and
apocalypse.

•What I Believe: 2 Year Update – includes an idea for a “new ethics”
based on patterns and a Hegelian interpretation of “herstory”.

•Philosophical Musing #2 – Freedom from fear, the only real freedom,
The problem is not with the American Empire, but its self-denial, &
Socialism Now! – if you want to live.

•Simulation, Simulacrum, and Consciousness – a clearer explanation of
how we are illusions living in a Matrix simulation that is itself a
simulacrum…

•Philosophical Musings #3 – whatever crap I come up with…

•Baudrillard’s Thought – S&S, On Nihilism, The Spirit of Terrorism…

•Philosophical Musings #2: The Totalitarianism of the System, Freedom
from Fear, American Empire, Socialism Now!, What’s Worse?…

•Sublime Oblivion – the old essay in fragments…
History

•Was the French Revolution a Class Struggle? – far from consolidating
the historical victory of the commercial bourgeoisie, the Revolution
temporarily interrupted their latent ascent; instead, this was in some
ways a return to an imagined past and a precursor to modern fascism,
especially during the Terror.

•Add in some Russian posts…
The World System: Economy, Society, Demography

•Education as Growth Elixir – I note that the speed of economic
convergence largely depends on the “potential gap” between a nation’s
human capital and its actual GDP per capita; considering that Russian
education system is of First World, this stands it in good stead for
rapid economic growth over the next decade.

•Education as Growth Elixir II – continuation of previous…

•Oil Origins of the Crisis – evidence for the theory that the economic
crisis was caused by the spike in oil prices.

•Decoupling from the Unwinding – those emerging markets not capsized
by the insolvent Western financial system are going to decouple from
the economic unwinding once the initial shock from loss of cheap
credit and export markets wears off.

•Вторая Великая Депрессия – a summary of my views on the Second Great
Depression (in Russian).

•The Struggle between Europe and Mankind – an introduction to the work
of Nikolai Trubetzkoy, who theorized that the West and the Rest stand
off in fundamental opposition to each other.

•The Road to Economic Sovereignty – Ha-Joon Chang on how historically
all “leader” states have risen to economic prominence through
mercantilism.

•Freedom, Welfare, and the Future – the future of freedom and the
welfare state in an age of limits to growth.

•Towards Singularity! – a collection of links… (Kurzweil.AI, etc)

•Review of The Singularity is Near (R. Kurzweil) – …

•SSR #4: Explaining Growth – collection of 1) education, 2) energy, 3)
industrial policy, 4) institutions, & 5) “scope expansion” & level of
liberalization…
Global Geopolitics & Trends

•Towards a New Russian Century?– Russia will profit from trends in
economic convergence, informatization, and climate change relative to
other Powers, and as such may become a swing state determining the
balance of power between the two future superpowers – the US and
China.

•Bitch Slappers of the Next 100 Years – a review of George Friedman’s
book on geopolitical trends over the next 100 years.

•Shifting Winds – geopolitical outline of the next decade, focusing on
the multiplying challenges to American hegemony – fiscal insolvency,
peak oil, Iranian intransigence, the Afghanistan quagmire, Russia’s
resurgence and the rise of China.

•New Year Special: Year in Review and 2010 Predictions – an overview
of 2009 with economic, country-specific, and military predictions for
2010.

•Decade Forecast: The Geopolitics of Scarcity Industrialism – an
overview of the history of “abundance industrialism”, the imminent
fall of Pax Americana, and the coming age of “scarcity industrialism”…
[OD]
Cliodynamics, Limits to Growth, & Collapse

•Russia and Limits to Growth – how Russia should steer itself in a
world of limited resources and pollution sinks.

•The Collapse of Complex Societies” (J. Tainter) – an excellent book
about the root causes of civilizational collapse – over-investment
into and declining marginal returns on complexity.

•Review of “World made by Hand” (J. Kunstler) – a not-too-convincing
portrayal of a post-peak oil world.

•Preparing for the Pandemic – how a flu pandemic would possible look
like, written at a height of the swine flu scare of April/May 2009.

•Top 10 AGW Denial Myths – nothing to do with Al Gore…

•Notes on “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet” (M. Lynas) –
the world’s future degree by torrid degree – and the reason why
stopping at 2C is absolutely vital.

•Notes on “The Last Generation” (F. Pearce) – more on AGW.

•The Dilemmas of Global Dimming – why the true extent of global
warming has been systematically underestimated and its disturbing
implications.

•Review of “Global Catastrophes and Trends” (V. Smil) – excellent book
on energy transitions & the future.

•Peak Oil and Resource Depletion – a collection of links to important
articles on energy issues.

•The Deeper Meaning of Climategate – a political limit to growth:
ignorance and the populist backlash will force an end to “scanning”
for solutions.

•Cliodynamics: Mathematizing History – modeling the rise and fall of
past civilizations offers very important clues as to the future of the
industrial System.

•Surviving Collapse Part 1 – collapse in Argentina.

•Surviving Collapse Part 2 – Dmitry Orlov on the Soviet collapse.

•The Final Gambit: Geoengineering – why the world, in desperation,
will eventually try to “hack the Earth” to prevent runaway climate
change; and why these efforts will probably fail or lead to a
dystopian outcome.

•Ecotechnic Dictatorship is Our Last Hope of Averting Collapse – a
comprehensive vision of collapse based on resource depletion, AGW,
Limits to Growth, Tainter’s work on complexity, and cliodynamics; and
arguments as to why an “ecotechnic dictatorship” is by far our best
chance of escaping from our overshoot predicament. This article
provoked a vigorous, even vitriolic, debate.

•Human Sustainable Development Index – an alternative way of measuring
human development.

•Collapse Ethics: Anarchy or Coercion? – a summary of my ideas on
“ecotechnic dictatorship”, with an embedded poll asking people whether
they prefer dictatorship to collapse.
•Review of “Limits to Growth” (Meadows et al) – …

•Review of “The Long Descent” (M. J. Greer) – …

•Review of “When the Rivers Run Dry” (Pearce) – particularly
significant chapters…

•Best Peak Oil Books – my views on The Long Emergency, Beyond Oil, The
Last Oil Shock, Twilight in the Desert, The Party’s Over

•Contours of Collapse – cliodynamics of collapse, metapolitics of
collapse, & preparation for collapse… [OD]
•Empire of Darkness – a futurist science fantasy about geoengineering,
ecology, and totalitarianism.
Politics & Metapolitics

•Twitter Terror in Moldova – case study of an abortive color
revolution.

•The Belief Matrix – a new way of looking at global socio-political
trends.

•Diasporas and Barbarians – the mentalities and values of diaspora
peoples, such as the Jews, and barbarians.

•Žižek’s Metapolitics – looks at his articles Welcome to the Desert of
the Real and When the Party Commits Suicide.

•SSR #7: Principles of Metapolitics – summary of main ideas from
Belief Matrix, Diasporas, and Sisyphean Loop…
There Will Be War!

•Violence is Reality – most primitive societies fought the equivalent
of the Great Patriotic War every single year.

•Thinking about Nuclear War – contrary to popular opinion, a global
nuclear war will not lead to human extinction or even civilizational
collapse – especially with the development of new BMD technologies.
•Thinking about Biowar – …

•SSR #8: There Will Be War! – a deep exposition of the future of war…
Europe: The Black Continent

•Review of “America Alone” (M. Steyn) – thoughts on the “Eurabia”
theory (it’s 80% wrong).
•One Nation under CCTV – Britain’s decline & current predicament.

•The Return of the Reich? – Germany’s past, present, and future.

•SSR #10: Europe, the Black Continent – beset by aging populations,
fiscal challenges, and energy insecurity, Europe is going to return to
its fractured, balance-of-power future.
The United States: The Waning Superpower

•USA 2009 = USSR 1989 ? – ways in which the US increasingly resembles
the late USSR (insolvency, imperial overstretch, etc).

•America’s Liberty Cycles – why the US is likely to become more
“patriotic-reactionary” within a decade, although it will retain a
basic level of liberalism & rule of law.
Middle East: House of War

•The Approach of the New Persian Empire – though Iran is going to
become more belligerent in the near future, it is likely to moderate
and become a Western ally within a decade.

•The US Strategic Dilemma and Persian Deadlock – the unstoppable
dynamics drawing the US, Israel, and Iran into a confrontation that
could end up being the geopolitical signal for the unraveling of Pax
Americana.
•Gulf Inferno – a fictionalized account of a Gulf War between Iran /
US vs. Iran & its proxies…

•Islamism in the Belief Matrix – a look at the roots of radical
Islamism as clash between traditionalism & modernity, therefore the
Sisyphean Loop of the Belief Matrix applies…
Asia: The Return of the Middle Kingdom

•A Long Wait at the Gates of Delusions – an argument against the idea
that China will not displace the US as the world’s leading superpower.

•SSR #13: China, The Last Superpower – a vision of China’s imminent
accession to its new role as the last superpower of global
industrialism, focusing in particular on its coal predicament, CO2
emissions growth, and preparations for neo-colonial expansionism.

•What do the Rest Think? – review of “What does China Think?” and
“What does Russia Think” (M. Leonard)…
•The Great Reconvergence – how China’s GDP was highest in pre-
industrial age (Angus Madison), and its return to that position…

•China’s Strategic Culture – Chinese geopolitical thought…
Eurasia: The Sisyphean Loop

•Armageddon – how Russia’s youth are rejecting the Idea of the West,
the fusion of postmodernist skepticism and civilizational identities
and how this will lead to Armageddon.

•Putvedev is Russia’s White Rider – explores Russia’s cycles of
consolidation, reassertion, over-extension, stagnation and collapse,
and how the rule of Putin and Medvedev fit into this pattern.

•Kremlin Dreams Sometimes Come True – Russia’s high level of human
capital, good macroeconomics, and energy windfall stand it in good
stead for rapid convergence to Western living standards.

•The Prodigal Superpower” (S. Rosefielde) – the “structural
militarization” of the late Soviet economy and its continuing
influence on Russia’s political economy.

•Reconsidering Parshev – a new look at the work of the geographical
determinist Parshev, who reiterated the idea that Russia’s
backwardness can be ascribed to its geographical and climatic
handicaps; in this era of economic crisis and rising disillusionment
with the West, I posit that Russia is going to return to its future of
sovereignty, autarky and sobornost.

•Russia’s Sisyphean Loop & Defending the Loop – a unified theory of
Russian history, with the idea that neo-Tsarist Russia is now creeping
back to its Eurasian past-and-future empire based on statism,
sovereignty, and sobornost.

•Lessons from Byzantium – what a historical documentary tells about
today’s Russia.

•10 Myths about Russia’s Demography – to paraphrase Mark Twain,
reports of Russia’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

•Regathering of the Russian Lands? – the implications of Yanukovych’s
electoral triumph in Ukraine, the redrawing of the Eurasian energy
map, Russia’s continuing economic and demographic resilience, and the
volatility of the Caucasus.

•SSR #14: Russia’s Return to the Future – summary of Sisyphean Loop &
other points…
The Peripheries: Americas & Africa

•Victimized Venezuela – Chavez’ bombastic rhetoric clouds the fact
that Venezuela has achieved great socio-economic progress under his
rule.

•SSR #15: Africa, the Dark Continent – the coming Malthusian crisis
and neo-colonial exploitation…

Sublime Strategic Reports

Finally, the SSRs are a series of Anatoly Karlin’s posts on the global
trends, regions, and geopolitical dynamics that will shape the 21st
century. They are meant to serve as bases of discussion in the forum
to which they are posted.

1.Principles of Metahistory
2.The Meaning of Sublime Oblivion
3.Shifting Winds: The End of Pax Americana
4.The World System: Economy, Society, Demography
5.Decade Forecast: The Geopolitics of Scarcity Industrialism
6.Towards Singularity
7.Principles of Metapolitics
8.There Will Be War!
9.Discontinuities & Apocalypse
10.Europe, The Black Continent
11.America: The Waning Superpower
12.Dar al-Islam:
13.China, The Last Superpower
14.Eurasia: Russia’s Sisyphean Loop
15.Periphery: The Dark Continents
This series forms the building block of Sublime Oblivion – The Book.

http://www.sublimeoblivion.com/blogs/sublimeoblivion/best/

...and I am Sid Harth

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Interview
February 2, 2010
‘Writing and writing is my happiness’
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ORHAN PAMUK: They identify me as a non-westerner who is writing about
'us' and is also successful. Photo: Vivek Bendre

‘Writing and writing is my happiness’

Orhan Pamuk speaks to Nirmala Lakshman on ‘The Museum of Innocence’
and his other novels, his Turkishness, and his exploration of the
human condition.

Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a
writer with a formidable international reputation. Deeply rooted in a
liberal tradition that values tolerance, freedom, and a respect for
the other, this Turkish writer passionately embraces his identity
while echoing universal human values. A reluctant interpreter of East-
West relations, he prefers to see himself as a bridge between the two
worlds. A novelist whose aesthetic sensibility is rooted in his
beloved Istanbul but draws from the tradition of great Western
novelists, he delights in history, memory, and the exploration of the
human condition. An outspoken critic of those who try to abridge free
speech, he faced imprisonment in 2005 in his own country on this
account. His eight novels, which include several international best
sellers such as My Name is Red, Snow, and now The Museum of Innocence,
are a testament to his profound ingenuity as a writer as well as to
his humanity. Nirmala Lakshman recently interviewed Pamuk in Mumbai on
his life and work. Full Transcript:

Nirmala Lakshman (NL): Beginning with your early books in translation,
The White Castle, The Black Book and the very popular My Name is Red
down to more recent works like Snow, Istanbul and now of course in the
Museum of Innocence, you have explored vast trajectories of history,
art, culture, the persistence of memory and tradition in our everyday
lives and the poignancy and beauty of the human experience. Your work
is also multi-layered, allusive, of multiple genres and in many
voices. You seem to want to get in as much as possible and pull
everything together. Is this your quest as a novelist?

Orhan Pamuk: Your question suggests that I am an ambitious novelist
who wants to explore all the great subjects, and yes, yes, I confess I
am like that [smiles]! In My Name is Red I wanted to create a
panorama, to look at the spirit of the nation to look at the cultural
truth in art. In The Black Book, I look at this spirit through the
layers of Istanbul and the enigmas of history. In Snow I see the same
culture through politics.

In The Museum of Innocence I am looking at the spirit of the nation
this time through love. Maybe it’s not the whole nation but it’s my
part of the world, the whole non-western world where all these issues
of love in a society where sex outside of marriage is problematical,
and there is the taboo of virginity. This book is very popular in
China, in Spain and in Italy, in Greece, in the whole of the
Mediterranean world, and is also being read in Germany and America.
These issues are Turkish issues but not only Turkish issues. In the
end this is the story of love in repressed societies where lovers
cannot easily negotiate their love. This has qualities of Romeo and
Juliet in a post-colonial non-western bourgeois society, and in the
wake of the tradition and the aspirations of modernity, posing as more
westernised than they really are and how to come to terms with the
legacy of culture and religion.

These are the same issues as in the classical Islamic romances. Even
in the Turkey of the 1970s, among the so-called upper class
bourgeoisie the space for the lovers to meet, to talk, to develop, to
explore their love is limited. In Turkey in the 1970s there were no
parties to meet the girls [laughs]! But then it’s not only negatively
judging about this, but also trying to explore that once there is this
kind of suppression, the human heart’s reaction to this is a sort of
sophistication of looks, of silences, raising the eyebrow and lovers
constantly test their intentions. They cannot communicate, they don’t
have the opportunity to talk about love as they do in America. But
they test and try to understand each other through a language that
they develop sometimes, which is very sophisticated, through looks,
silences and little punishments, double meaning, and gestures.

Kemal’s attention to Fusun is in that sense very typical of that
lover’s attention to the beloved where there is very little real
possibility for coming eye to eye, although Kemal sees Fusun almost
every night. Yet there is no communication because they are watching
TV together and they are never left alone. The only moments alone are
when they are looking at Fusun’s paintings, so instead of judging the
culture by saying well, ‘unfortunately, it’s such a repressed society
where lovers cannot meet and talk,’ which is the truth, I want to
understand the language that they develop.

NL: The fact that she does not acknowledge his looks is also a form of
communication. Very often, she gives a cold look or when Kemal looks
at her she turns away. This is a very dramatic form of communicating,
is it not?

Pamuk: Well, it is true but it is not their only way of communicating.
I am just showing different things, different ways, and the themes in
The Museum of Innocence, maybe somewhat melodramatically Bollywood or
Turkish Hollywood if you like, but treated my way.

NL: You are building your own museum. How is that going?

Pamuk: That’s going on. Lots of people are working on it right now in
Istanbul. Architects, builders, and construction people are doing
things. I am supervising of course and like my Kemal, I am the curator
of this museum. It is so much hard work, and sometimes it is difficult
but now I am away from it for a while and resting. I am really very
happy about it.

NL: Do you believe then that the everyday objects of our lives really
signify the truths of our existence and therefore that ordinary
people’s lives are important to document?

Pamuk: Yes, it is one of the points that Kemal makes at the end of the
book. This is important particularly in non-Western societies where
the idea of museums is not developed. People’s collections, let’s not
even call them collections, their gatherings are important. This is
important now and I come from an Islamic culture where painting is
suppressed. A museum should not just be a place for fancy paintings
but should be a place where we can communicate our lives through our
everyday objects. Museums are western inventions where the rich and
the powerful or the government and the state tend to exhibit the signs
and symbol and images of their culture. What my Kemal argues, and I
agree with him on that is that we non-western people can also exhibit
our humanity through the objects that represent our lives.

NL: It seems that The Museum of Innocence is your favourite book – at
least your current favourite book – and a lot of people are reading it
here in India.

Pamuk: Yes, yes, I know [smiles]. When I was writing it I used to say
to my friends, ‘I will be remembered by this book.’ It is my favourite
in the sense I’ve been thinking of writing this book so joyfully and
also of making the museum. But I also wrote this book in bad times,
when there was political pressure, then there was the Nobel Prize and
so much happening, changing cities, airplanes, but it was such
happiness. If I wrote one page of this book, I was a happy person that
day. It is also one of my favourite books in the sense that it’s based
on first-hand experience. I’ve been to the clubs and the places that
Kemal had been to, the restaurants and movie houses and so many
weddings and engagement parties at the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul. It’s
all based on my life.

NL: You keep going back to Istanbul in all your novels, perhaps with
the exception of Snow, to old Istanbul and modern Istanbul and your
memoirs are also titled Istanbul. It is as if you are the keeper of
the soul of Istanbul.

Pamuk: Oh, I am. I think I am [smiles]. Up until the age of 54 I have
lived all my life there except for some few years outside. I came
across humanity in Istanbul and all I know about life comes from
Istanbul and definitely I am writing about Istanbul. I also love the
city because I live there, it has formed me, and it’s me. Of course it
is natural. If somebody lived all his life in Delhi, he will write
about Delhi.

NL: Do you think then in that sense the authentic voice of the writer
emerges only when they write about the cultural contexts they are
rooted in? How important is it for a writer to be located in this?

Pamuk: Yes and no. The particularities, the uniqueness of any culture
is interesting in a novel but novels are more interesting if they go
deep into the culture and deeply into the universal, the eternal and
what is common to all human hearts. So I am that kind of writer. I
want to be that kind of writer in the sense that yes, you would feel,
smell and see the colours of Istanbul, but also you must recognise
that all human beings are the same everywhere in some sense, but the
cultures are different, so they behave differently. So these two
things should be visible in my stories, in my novels, and I care about
that. The particularities and what is universal. But you don’t look at
them too much. You just write your story as it comes to you.

NL: In ‘My Father’s Suitcase,’ your Nobel lecture, which was later
published in the New Yorker, you said that initially you did not feel
that you were at the centre of things. Do you feel differently now,
have you moved to that centre?

Pamuk: Yes. When I began writing, no one cared about Turkey, no one
knew about Turkey. In 1985 I went to America for two years and began
to write The Black Book around then. Finding that my voice was getting
stronger, I really remember thinking, ‘my God these Latin American
writers are so lucky, who cares about Turkish writers or Middle
Eastern writers or Muslim or Indian or Pakistani writers?’ That’s what
I thought then. But the situation has changed in 25 years and during
that change my books boomed, I am happy to say that. There are
political reasons, cultural reasons, history, all of which changed the
world. And now I would say that a big writer from Turkey or the Middle
East or India is more visible. Salman Rushdie, for example, was
visible in 1981. It all began after that.

NL: So now do you feel that you have come to that place? The
centre...

Pamuk: Well, I can’t really say things like that about myself, can I
[laughs]? You can...

NL: Are you then comfortable about where you are rooted now, in your
own location, in Istanbul, and yet moving on and exploring universal
questions?

Pamuk: Yes, but that’s being a writer. It’s not just the roots but the
intentions that matter. When the whole world reads your books, is
there any other happiness for a writer? I am happy that my books are
read in 57 languages. But I am focused on Istanbul not because of
Istanbul but because of humanity. Everyone is the same in the end.
Whether it is a reader from Buenos Aires or Bombay or Seoul, Korea,
they can understand a person from Istanbul, they can understand what
is eternal. Of course, there are specific forms of culture in the non-
western world, forms of culture of repressive societies where there is
still poverty, which is an important problem, there are problems of
democracy. These are the things that I am experiencing and the world
is experiencing.

NL: In the rise of a new kind of nationalism, do you also see a rise
of intolerance, a constant attempt to undermine dissent, and an
increase in censorship? You yourself have been a victim of this.

Pamuk: Okay, let's look at this from my experience. There was heavy
pressure, they tried to put me in jail, but then they dropped it; this
is one side. But in the last ten years, Turkey has been a much more
open society, much more free. Free speech is allowed, and the army and
all the institutions are criticised. So it is not just only one way.
You cannot generalise and say the nation is growing and nations are
not speaking, no, but individuality, distinct voices are also
growing.

When nationalism is growing, most of the time post-colonial societies
are getting richer. The ruling elite, a combination of the army and
the proletarian and the bourgeoisie, is getting richer. But also the
whole nation is growing, so the individual people who are living by
themselves, who disagree, their number is also growing. Dissent is
also growing along with the country. Dissent and the strength of
individual, dignified voices are also growing, you cannot stop it.

It's hard to control an open society where people can print their
books. You can send these people to jail, but you can't send a whole
nation to jail! There will always be central authoritarianism; I
expect even more central authoritarian movements if national
fundamentalism or religious fundamentalism suppress this. But there
will always be dignified people who will pursue their own humours.
Whether they will be crushed and sent to jail or whether they will
balance the picture is a matter of politics, but I am not pessimistic,
as a non-western post colonial nation.

Don't forget that Turkey was never a colony. But in the end they grow
richer, their national bourgeoisie. So whether it is nationalist-
fundamentalist or religious-fundamentalist, whether it is Turkish
nationalism or Hindu nationalism, they tend to be authoritarian, and
also ethnic, and have tendencies to disrespect minorities. This is one
thing. But then, in that nation there are also individual voices,
individual voices of the minorities. The number of distinct
individuals who would not join the community is also growing. How that
will be balanced is interesting – whether the nationalism or
fundamentalism in various cultures suppresses those voices or they get
out and raise their voices and find a solution to live together.

NL: Is it more the intellectual’s or the writer’s responsibility to
shore up this dissent and to constantly resist and critique the
attempts to suppress freedom and impose censorship?

Pamuk: We should certainly say it is a writer’s duty, but also any
citizen’s. If you are educated and know how the world is operating, of
course you have more responsibility. But I don’t want to underline
that the fiction writer is more responsible than others to politics.
The writers, you know, previous generations of Turkish writers, were
so well-meaning. They went into politics and ended up destroying their
art – and it turned out to be bad politics too. So in that sense I am
not political, I am not a political person.

My first motivation is really to write a good Proustian, Nabokovian,
Borgesian, whatever you like to call it, beautiful novel rather than
think about the politics. Of course, once you live in a troubled part
of the world everyone is asking about politics anyway. But I don't try
to answer them in my novels. I try to answer them sometimes in my
interviews and those interviews always put me into trouble [laughs].

NL: What is the status now of the controversial Turkish law, Article
301, under which you were charged for ‘denigrating Turkishness’ when
you commented on the massacre of Kurds and Armenians on Turkish soil?

Pamuk: Now they have changed Article 301, so that coincidentally or by
mistake they do not try to punish someone like me [laughs]. They
changed the Article so that you have to get permission from the
Ministry of Justice to prosecute and, if you are famous, they will not
allow it. I can get away with it, but you won’t [laughs]!

NL: In a novel like Snow, through a marvellous range of characters you
have projected the possibility that truth can exist in diverse and
opposing perspectives. For example, the character Blue raises some
important questions. You have also depicted both fundamentalist and
secular violence through scenes like the shooting in the national
theatre. Are you then trying to say that there is truth in every
situation?

Pamuk: I'm not saying there is truth in everything but it is the
novel’s job to understand points of view. A novelist's job is not to
find political or diplomatic solutions to conflicting desires and
pressures. Am I trying to promote this or that in Snow? No, nothing. I
just want to see the arena of politics through the participant's point
of view, not necessarily agreeing with any of them. Blue, if you ask
me, is not like any fundamentalist in my life. But my job as a
novelist is to make him convincing and try to see the world through
his point of view. His argument, for instance, ‘why should we non-
westerners wear a necktie?’ is an essential question that we should
understand, right? Why should we imitate with a necktie the western
men? It is a valid question. I am not necessarily agreeing with his or
anyone else's answer, but it is a question that one should take
seriously.

NL: There is that kind of elasticity and richness in the structure and
form of your novels: in Snow in a particular way, and then in The
Museum of Innocence in quite a different way. In this it is just one
beautiful linear progression much like your Aristotelian paraphrasing
of time. How do you work on this, I mean does it just come to you or
do you consciously work on different structures?

Pamuk: I write slowly, I plan my books. It took me 11 years to develop
– I explore – plan the details and write The Museum of Innocence. I’m
a slow worker, a hard worker. As such a novel can never come to you
like ‘this.’ It's a step-by-step, painstaking organisation, taking
notes, preparing scenes, it never comes to you in one light. So a
novel develops -- of course I plan ahead – but it also develops as you
write it. New ideas come, you read books, you talk to people, you
revise, you talk to your friends. It's an immense labour which I
love.

NL: Do you think that you will move towards different forms?

Pamuk: Yes, of course, that’s the joy of writing. I never imitated
myself, or inhibited myself. The joy of writing is available in each
book. Finding a suitable form for the boys and the girls [laughs].

NL: The Museum of Innocence, your newest book is beautiful and
brilliant, a haunting work. I was wondering whether you are planning
some sort of sequel to this or to any other novel.

Pamuk: No. I have other novel projects. I am writing a novel about a
street vendor losing his job in Istanbul in the 70s, in that period.
It is not clear yet. Then I have other novel projects, so many. They
ask me so many times, ‘Mr. Pamuk, you have the Nobel Prize, but you
have this…’ Well, I didn't write this novel after the Nobel Prize; I
thought of this ten years ago. But the next novel I am writing is
after the Nobel Prize, so I'm planning ahead. I have so many projects
in my mind, and really do not look for the success or failure of the
previous projects. I already am in the middle of the next one.

I'm happy that people like this, yes; this book is very popular all
over the world. But writing a sequel, no. Yet, I confess that I might
write up one or two sequences of Fusun and Kemal that are not in the
book. Why? Because I’m also doing a museum and sometimes think that I
may write about one or two groups of objects for one episode which is
not in the book. I may write things like that. Also, to make my museum
more attractive, with new objects perhaps ten years later.

NL: What is the international quality that you think makes a work of
fiction a classic? You are rooted in tradition; Garcia Marquez is
rooted in his tradition, Rushdie talks about his India, his Bombay.
What is it that makes a novel international or a classic?

Pamuk: In the end, it is a novel that has to be written well, people
find their culture and sentiments in it, and it’s in the quality of
the novel. We think that it's the culture. You can also write a bad
novel living in Istanbul and, believe me, there are so many people
like that. So it's not the culture but the writing. Garcia Marquez is
a great writer with such immense powers and balance. So it's the
writer that makes a subject interesting. There's so much to write, I
sometimes think, in Istanbul.

But my previous generation of Turkish authors who were some 20 to 30
years older than me, they used to say, ‘you are writing about
Istanbul, what’s interesting here? We’re writing about peasants and
villagers and bandits and feudal lords.’ And sure, that was
interesting reading in the 60s, and I felt all my bourgeois
privileges, but what’s interesting about Istanbul, they asked. That
was the ideology then and it has changed in 40 years. When I began
writing my first novel and told my friends ‘I'm not going to study
architecture, I'm going to do a novel,’ my friends said, ‘What, a
novel? And you haven't been to a village, you don't even know a
peasant, what are you going to write about?’ Because they thought the
novel had to be about peasants, and bandits and feudal lords, bad
masters, local sheiks, and outlaws and how they were treating the
peasants so badly. All the novels were about that!

NL: In what way has the Nobel Prize changed you?

Pamuk: The Nobel Prize and the recognition did not really change my
daily life. Writing and writing and writing, that's my only happiness.
It made me more visible. I was already translated into 46 languages,
and now perhaps 56 languages. But I have millions of readers. It gave
me less time, made me more serious about myself, my time, because I
feel more responsible. Now if I have say, ‘I'm writing a nice novel,’
I know that it will be published in so many countries, probably 35 or
so, so it's a responsibility.

You know, you get mails from all over the world, so many people from
Korea to Argentina. I was in Guadalajara, at the book fair, and all
the Latin American booksellers and publishers, they said, ‘you are so
famous,’ and this and that. It's such a joy but such a responsibility
too. Then, I also feel, especially in the non-western world or post-
colonial world including Latin America, India, and China, that they
also identify with me as a non-westerner who is writing about ‘us,’
and is also successful. I care about that so much that, it is such a
sweet and dear thing, so I have to be also serious about what I write,
and honour that respect and continue writing about ‘us.’

NL: Do you think more such voices are emerging in the literary arena?

Pamuk: Yes, there is a ground for such work especially in India and
China. Call it post-colonial or whatever, but the ruling national
elite are growing and getting richer and richer, right, and now the
trauma is not colonisation. The trauma is, I argue, how post-colonial
societies are the colonialism now. In China, in India, in Brazil, in
all these countries, the trauma of colonialism and post-colonialism I
should say yes, especially in India, it is still around. And now, the
ruling national elite, call them party elites, new bourgeoisie, are
emerging; a strong middle class is developing. I don't care much about
economics. But I know, I travel, and I see that now there is a strong,
local demanding bourgeoisie, the elite. Their private lives can only
be expressed in literature and that will be done and that will be
interesting for the world.

Also in these countries, especially in China, I have seen so much
demand for international recognition. They feel very frustrated
because people say that because of China, prices are going up, or
because of India we have pollution, that kind of thing. They want
their voices to be heard. It's inevitable, and they are taking over
the art of the novel. Everyone is writing novels, so the world will
not be saying, as the litterateurs of the French would say, ‘they are
imitating.’ That’s over. Some English fancy person writing an
experimental novel and we non-westerners trying to understand and
writing that in our culture, that will be over! An interesting subject
is the new cultural patterns that are emerging in non-western
societies. I understand the recognition of my work all over the world
in that context. I am aware of the fact that we are all getting to be
more interesting.

NL: Does that mean that writers like you have a greater
responsibility?

Pamuk: Well, look. I said responsibility of the Nobel Prize, I had
that feeling, but I do not want to undermine it. Responsibility, too
much responsibility, is not good for fiction. All of my responsible
friends went into politics but I stayed at home and wrote my novels.
Again, artistic creativity also comes from being a bit irresponsible.

NL: But in a society like India, how can we ignore the divisiveness,
the poverty?

Pamuk: You don’t ignore it. It is part of the picture, but it's not
the only thing. That's how I see it. My kind of novel is about
balancing of the whole picture. I think... I always argue that living
in a country with political and economic problems doesn't mean that
you have to write cheap and journalistic fiction. Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky wrote their fiction in a country where there were such
problems but they wrote their fiction well. It's not the job of
fiction to solve political problems. That joy of writing books in most
political situations – for example living in Afghanistan and you still
want to write like Proust – it's not at all a bad thing, please try to
do it, boy! In the end you would not be a political person. You would
be writing something very interesting, I would say, please trust the
autonomy of literature, it will give you back the whole world – not
only a sterile autonomy.

NL: Who are your favourite writers?

Pamuk: So many, you know. The greatest living writer in the world is
Garcia Marquez. If you're asking me for my favourite novelists ever,
there are four: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, and Marcel Proust.

NL: What do you think about making movies out of great novels? Is
something always lost in translation?

Pamuk: I'm ill-tempered about that, I'm notorious. There are so many
projects that they wanted to shoot. Now Turkish Bollywood sitcoms,
they want to do this. I am not enthusiastic. International filmmakers
wanted to make Snow, but I was suspicious. Why? Because they will
twist the types of Turkey. Bad Turks, Islamic fundamentalists, bad
guys, good guys, black-and-white, because that's the nature of movies.
Also Turks want to do it; right now the Turkish movie industry is
developing but I thought they will not have enough money to take it
forward. I'm not good at allowing people to make films from my work.
One reason is that I am getting more and more readers all over the
world. Why destroy that little growing thing with some movie? I don't
need that. I don't need this to happen to me.

NL: What is your own view of how Turkey is moving ahead politically?

Pamuk: Turkey is troubled in its relations with Europe unfortunately,
and particularly its relationship with the European Union, I was more
positive about it five years ago but it was stopped by the
nationalists of Europe and Turkey. They both did not want Turkey in
Europe: because Turkey is Islamic, because perhaps Europe is Christian
and also democratic. So it's blocked. So many things happened, my
case, so many others. It's not a sunny time for Turkish-European
relations but democracy in Turkey is developing a bit. There’s a lot
of criticism of the involvement of the Army. The attempts at military
coups are criticised openly. This is a novelty; ten years ago no one
would dare to criticise the Army. If they do a military coup, now they
will be criticised. This is a development, a minor development
compared with what the rest of humanity is doing.

NL: In that sense even other countries, whether it be China or India
or America, move forward and backward in their development. What are
your ideas about the directions in which the world is moving?

Pamuk: I'm a writer and I see it more from the literature perspective.
I think the world is moving towards the humanity of the non-western
world and that will obviously be more visible. What do I mean by that?
Middle-class lives in China, in India, in places like Korea, in
nations that were neglected, not represented, and then their
literature, their voices, their murmurs and all of middle-class life,
the private life of the nations that were suppressed will definitely
be visible. I can't say this author or that author, but I'm sure we
will be reading more Indian literature, because Indian literature in
English is slightly more visible, than say, Chinese or Latin American.
But I would say, the private lives of non-western nations will be more
visible in future. That I can only say. Non-western writers will be
more visible and domination of the European-American small world –
they were dominating the whole world – that domination will be less.
But it's not an animosity, it's not a clash, it's a friendship. We
have learned the art of the novel from them – Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky,
Proust, Mann. These are my brothers; I am not fighting with them.

NL: Do you think writing in your own language, Turkish, is the reason
for the growth in this kind of non-western writing or do you think
there has to be a translation of all this for a wider recognition?

Pamuk: Yes, I am a Turk. I have been born to Turkey, there is no
alternative. Turkish is a remote language no one knows and I'm born
into it and I am supposed to, I want to write in Turkish all my life.
I learned English late in life. I write better, my qualities are
better, in Turkish. In that I am like a Korean or a Finnish writer or
like a Hungarian writer. You are born into these languages and the
fact that no one translates, no one reads, I suffered so much for 20
years. You can't find a translator... no publisher can find a reader
in Turkish who could advise if this book is publishable.

This problem will continue. For a Hungarian or Korean or Finnish
writer or a writer writing in a local Indian language, there is no
solution to this. For those writing in English the accusations of,
‘Oh, you are writing in English to serve the Americans,’ etc., will
never end! I think everyone should pursue his or her own humours. I
wrote in the language that I spoke with my grandfather and grandmother
and there was no second language too.

Some people have second languages; they’ve got one language at home,
another language at the grocery store, another language at school! So
there’s now a reasonable dilemma: shall I write in the language that I
speak to the government, or school in, the language I speak at the
grocery store, or the language I speak with my grandmother? That's the
dilemma, I understand that. But I spoke the same language at school,
the same language at the grocery store, the same language with my
mother, the same language in my newspaper. I didn't have any
alternative.

Turkey's case, the inevitability of me writing in Turkish, is not the
same often as in the case of Indian writers who have a choice between
two or three languages. All these writers who are arguing – I know
about these issues – with each other; it’s valid but also damning. I
don't want to take any sides, I understand each side's point of view,
but thank God I didn't have that option! I also regret it so many
times, ‘Oh, I'm so unlucky, I'm not lucky like those Indian writers
who’re writing in English and next day get published in Harper-
Collins.’ I got my first book published when I was almost 40! It was
not easy! They said, ‘What, a Turk, forget it!’

NL: But there is a beauty, a lyricism, and poetry in this book [The
Museum of Innocence] which I think has not been lost in the
translation.

Oh, I am pleased with this book and I work with the translators. You
also lose so much money working with the translators [laughs]. Those
writers who are writing in English are lucky in that it is their
language too. Being a writer is so much hard work, but I'm not
complaining.

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/article98808.ece

January 21, 2010
Bourne differently
Krithvi Shyam

Written by a new author, it's a must read for all Bourne fans! Krithvi
Shyam

Do you like clichés? You do? Then you'll love Eric Van Lustbader's
fourth installment in his spin-off of Robert Ludlum's Bourne Series,
The Bourne Deception.

Plot thickens

While on holiday in Indonesia with Moira (his gun-toting new ex-
counter Intelligence girlfriend), Bourne is nearly killed by a man he
thought was already dead —Leonid Arkadin, a ruthless Russian seeking
revenge. With Borune out of the way, Arkadin has Abdulla Khoury
exterminated, consequently usurping the latter's position as head of
the Eastern Brotherhood, a.k.a my-ticket-to-world-domination/Drug-Oil-
Weapons-Dealing/Assassinating-People-Who-Forget-My-Birthday.

The story then jets all over the place to make sure readers in each
continent can feel adequately represented by the bad guys. It goes
through Egypt (where an American airline is hit by a missile), the
United States (where the government is full of suspicious fellows keen
to see Moira dead), Indonesia (Bourne's holiday spot), and Azerbaijan
(where The Showdown takes place). In addition, the Masterminds are
Russian, the lone Don is a Columbian in Spain, the assassin is a New
Zealander and the accomplices are from different parts of the Middle
East.

Two facts

Fact 1: a) No one is inherently bad. Evil-doers have either lost their
lady loves and are out for revenge, or have been scarred for life by
traumatic childhood events and unrequited parental love, or are simply
misunderstood individuals who need some good old TLC but would rather
point a bazooka at you than ask for it.

b) Since the reader needs to recognise point (a), it is necessary to
go into the detailed personal histories of each character so that we
can connect with them more, instead of jumping straight to the gun
fights and dismissing them as the baddies.

Fact 2: This Bourne is uniquely different from the Ludlum Bourne and
even the Matt Damon Bourne. No more is he just “Da Man”, a guy who
girls swoon over and boys envy. This Bourne is sensitive and
meditative, seeking answers from an Indonesian holy man and
complaining to himself about chest pain while stubbornly refusing to
get it treated. Between all this, he finds some time to exterminate
petty villains and face his nemesis (in a rather disappointing finale
which hints strongly at a sequel).

The plot moves quickly in some parts, but ponderously in others, to
the point where even skipping whole chunks won't leave you feeling
lost. You may want to read it for the sake of understanding (or at
least trying to understand) how several unrelated, accidentally-on-
purpose stumbled-upon incidents can weave into a coherent storyline.
Or if you're a hard-core Bourne fan who doesn't mind getting a bit
disappointed.

Krithvi is a II year student of B.Sc. Psychology, WCC

http://beta.thehindu.com/life-and-style/nxg/article82941.ece

[chhotemianinshallah]

Santokh Singh Dhir passed away
Punjab Newsline Network
Monday, 08 February 2010

CHANDIGARH: The world renowned Punjabi writer Santokh Singh Dhir on
Monday passed away at the age of 100 years after prolonged illness at
PGI Chandigarh.

Born on December 2, 1920 Sanotkh Singh Dhir Sahitya Academy Award
winner Punjabi writer has written 50 books including poetry, novels,
short stories and travelogues. He was awarded Sahitya Academy Award
in 1996 for Pakhi, a collection of short stories. He was also awarded
Shiromani Sahitkaar Award, Punjabi top literary honour in 2004.

Santokh Singh Dhir was known for his progressive writings. His
tranlated poems also appeared in The Tribune. Satpal Dang, the veteran
communist leader had translated the poem, “I am not an informer” — a
poem which reminds people of the days of militancy in Punjab when
people belonging to the left parties were often killed after being
accused of being police informers. Another poem, “The White Horse” was
translated by Balwant Gargi.

Personal tragedy struck Dheer when his son in law Bant Singh Raipuri
was killed. In 1988, Dheer wrote the poem “nay, I will not shed tears”

Nay
I will not shed tears
I will not tarnish the deep
of this blood with my tears
I will not defile it

His mosr memorable books are Giddiyan Pottelai (1944), Pauhfutala
(1948), Dharti Mangde Mhin Ve (1952), Pat Chharai Puranian (1955),
Bihriar (1960), Agg de Patte (1976), Kali Barchi (1980), Sanjeevni
(1983), Singhwali (1983), Aaun wala Suraj (1985), Jado Asin Aawagai
(1988), Peir (Unpublished).

Short-Stories: Shytian de Chawan (1950), Sewar Hon Tek (1955), Sanji
Kandh (1958), Sarab da Glass (1970), Usha Bhen ji Chup San (1991),
Pakhi (1991).

Novel: Sarabi (New Name ‘Do Phool’) (1963), Yadgar (1979), Meinoo Ek
Suphna Aaia (1991), Hindostan Hamara (1994), Nawan Janam
(Unpublished).

Safarnama: Meri Enbgland Yatra (1978).

Essay: Lok Geetan Barie, Punjab deian Lok-Kahanian.

Selected Writtings: Merian Shresth Kahanian (1980), Meri Pratnidh
Rachna (1991).

Translation: Kabir Bachnawali (1967).

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed profound grief
over the sad demise of Santokh Singh Dhir.

In a condolence message, the Chief Minister said that in the death of
Dhir Punjabi literary world has lost a gem that always worked
relentlessly for the promotion of Punjabi Language and served the
motherland.

Badal expressed heartfelt sympathies with the bereaved family in this
critical hour and prayed to the Almighty to give peace to the departed
soul and strength to the family to bear this irreparable loss.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal expressed profound
shock over the death of noted Punjabi writer Santokh Singh Dhir.

In a condolence message, the Deputy Chief Minister said that in his
death Punjab has lost a prolific Punjabi language writer who created a
specific niche in the literary world. He said that Punjab would always
remain indebted to him for his unstinted campaign for the promotion of
Punjabi Language.

The Deputy Chief Minister expressed heartfelt sympathies with the
bereaved family and prayed to the God to give peace to the departed
soul and strength to them to bear this irreparable loss

Meanwhile Education Minister Dr. Upinderjit Kaur and Information &
Public Relations Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan also condoled the sad
demise of Santokh Singh Dheer whose outstanding services for the
promotion of the Punjabi languages and literature would be ever
remembered by one and all.

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/23210/38/

Dr Faqir Chand Shukla.Name Dr Faqir Chand Shukla

Place of Birth V.& P.O. Khizrabad (West)

Distt: Ropar (Punjab)

Date of Birth 21st September,1944

Qualifications M.Sc.(Bio-Chemistry)

Ph.D (Food Technology)

Advanced international training in Foods and Nutrition

Profession Retired Professor & Head,

Deptt.of Food Science & Technology,

Punjab Agri.University,

Ludhiana.

Permanent address 230-C,

&address for Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar,

correspondence Ludhiana-141 012

Email fcshu...@yahoo.co.in

fcshu...@gmail.com

Phone 0161-2459030

0161-4612230

Dr Shukla is a prolific litterateur and was honoured by the Punjab
Govt.with the prestigious Shiromani Punjabi Sahitkar Award in 2000.His
works have been translated and published into
Kannada,Sindhi,Gujrati,Marathi,Telugu,Malyalam,Bangla and Tamil.

Dr Shukla has also acted in more than two dozen plays of national and
international repute.A good number of plays written by him have been
telecast by Doordarshan and also broadcast by All India Radio.

Awards and Honours

+ Millennium Award for outstanding contribution to hindi literature.
+ Shiromani Punjabi Sahitkar Award.
+ Punjab Rattan Award.
+ Dr Pruthi Award for outstanding work in Food Technology.
+ Two National Awards for books on health in punjabi titled ‘Khuraak
ate Sehat ’ and ‘Sasta bhojan-vadhia bhojan’.
+ National Award for children literature for the book ‘Sachchi Khusi’.
+ Mohan Rakesh Award for book of hindi plays ‘Jot se jot jaley’.
+ Shri Guru Hari krishan Award for children literature in punjabi for
the book ‘Minh wala din’.
+ Punjabi Sahit Akademy award for book of plays for children for the
book ‘Doctor Bee jee ate hor vigyanak baal naatak’.
+ Honoured with children literature award by Bharti Baal kalyan
Sansthan.
+ By now have received 9 National Awards and 15 awards of different
states.

And many more such awards and honours.

Published work in Punjabi

Novels:- Kensar lagge maan

Bedhian

Short stories:- Vakhre rang gulab de

Mera dard naa jane koye

Children’s literature:- Anokhi soojh (natak)

Rabba rabba meenh vasa(natak)

Doctor bee jee…(natak)

Saflata da bhet ( kahania)

Sachchi khushi (kahanian)

Meenh wala din (kahanian)

Akalmandi (kahanian)

Chaandi da rath (kahanian)

Chardha sooraj (naval)

Viang(satire):- Kutte di poochh

Vigianik sahit:- Khuraak ate sehat

Sasta bhojan –Vadhia bhojan

Poshan ate Naroya Shareer

Rogan to bacho

Naatak:- Ghar di raakhi

Hanera vadhda gaya

Bholu Ram

Navin Saver

Published work in Hindi

Novels:- Alag alag sandharbh

Pankh kati goraiya

Kensar lage maan

Short stories:- Band khirkion wala maan

Vishpaan

Ek tukra zindagi

Children’s literature:- Meethi saza(kahanian)

Nayi Subah (kahanian)

Chamatkar (kahanian)

Pol khul gayi (kahanian)

Sahas ka phall (novel)

Sooraj ke badhte kadam(novel)

Viaang :- Marwa diya angrezi ne

Swasthtya sambandhi: Nirog rahne ke liye aahar

101 Shakahari paushtik aahar

Naatak :- Andheri surang

Jot se jot jaley

Peedha ke beej

Dr Shukla is also the President of Punjab Sahitya kala Manch(Regd)-an
organization devoted to the twin cause of inculcating interest in
performing arts amongst children and also helping the needy and
deserving students.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/dr-faqir-chand-shukla.html

Dr. Kuldeep Singh Deep.Name : Dr. Kuldeep Singh Deep

Father’s Name : Sh. Jang Singh

Mother’s Name : Smt. Balveer Kaur

Address : V. Rojhanwali Th. Ratia

Distt. Fatehabad

Phone/Mobile : 01697-272346/9855255956

Post : Hindi Master cum Incharge Principal,

Govt.S.S.S.Reond Kalan(Mansa)

Academic Qualification : M.A. (Punjabi), B.Ed & Ph.D

Main Responsibilities :

A) Chairman, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Kala Manch Punjab, Boha (Mansa)

B) President, Madam Parkash Kaur Memorial Trust Mansa

C) Chairman, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Girls College Boha

D) Gen. Sec., Haryana Panjabi Sahit Kala Manch Ratia (Haryana)

E) Finance Sec., Punjab Lok Sabhiachark Manch Punjab

F) Head, Govt. Sec. School Reond Kalan (Mansa)

Recommended Area : social Service, Art ,Literature & Learned
Profession

Literature

Written, directed and performed plays:

1. IH JANG KAUN LARHE

2. RISHMAN DE KATIL

3. TIDKDE SUPNE

4. MAIN AJE JINDA HAN

5.KHULLA DARBAR

6. KHUDKUSHI DE MORH TE

7. SOORA SO PAHICHANIE

8. JEE JANAB

9. RAAKHE

10. BHUBBAL DI AGG

11. OPERATION TAG

12. VARDI FUND

13. SHIKARI

14. KUJH KIHA TAN

15. BAS RAHIN DE CHHER NA DARDAN NU

16. MUKDE SAHAN DI GAATHA

Choreographies:

1. KURSI RANI

2.DAASTAN-E- HINDOSTAN

3.DHEE DI PUKAR

4.MAIN AURAT TUHADI JANAM DATI

5. JANTA VICHARI

6. PAGRI SAMBHAL JATTA

7. HADDAN TORH DIO

8. SAKA-47

9. KITHHE GAYIAN KHEDAN

10. HIND VASIO RAKHNA YAAD SANU

11. IH DUNIA MANDI PAISE DI

12. MASHAALAN BAAL KE CHALNA…..

Book Publication :

1. Creative Writings:

IH JANG KAUN LARHE

(Opera collection) Shilalekh, Delhi, 2002

KHUDKUSHI DE MORH TE

(Full length play) Shilalekh, Delhi, 2003

BHUBBAL DI AGG

(Full length play) Under Publication

2. Criticism :

VISHAV OPERA: SIDHANT, SAROOP ATE SAROKAR

(Chetna Parkashan, Ludhiana, 2008)

BHART DI SANGEET NATKI PARAMPRA

(Chetna Parkashan, Ludhiana)

MAL SINGH RAMPURI DE OPERE:

PATH, PRIPEKH ATE PARCHOL

(Udan Publication, Mansa)

3) Editing :

MINI KAHANI : PATH TE PARSANG

(Udan Publication, Mansa)

BHULLIYA VISRIA KAVISHAR : JANGIR SING BRAR

(Udan Publication, Mansa)

JANGIR SINGH BRAR KIRT

KAUMI SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH

(Udan Publication, Mansa)

4) Under Publication :

PUNJAB DI SANGEET NATKI PARAMPRA

(Chetna Parkashan, Ludhiana)

Research Paper :

Sr. no. Name of research paper Organizing body Place Date
1 Lohe Di Bhathi: Likhat to Peshkari tak Kendri Pan. Rangmanch Sabha
G. N.D.U. Amritsar Jul. 1, 2001
2 Preet Mahinder Sekhon Da natak Dhol Sipahi Navyug Sahit kala Manch
Bhikhi Bhikhi Aug. 25,2001
3 Panian Di Parwaz:Ik Vishlashan Sirjna Art Group Raikot Raikot Jan.,
2003
4 Manukhi Sambandhan Da Tarzman:Tanha Tanha Tare Trade union Centre
Patiala Patiala 2002
5 Balraj Maan Da Naat Sangrah: Dandian Bachat Bahavan Mansa Mansa
March2, 2003
6 Niranjan Boha Da Kahani Sangrah: Pura Marad Panjabi Bhavan Ludhiana
Ludhiana
7 Dr. Kamlesh Uppal Di Natak Te Rangmanchi Alochana Kendri Pan.
Rangmanch Sabha Panjabi Bhavan Ludhiana June 12, 2004
8 Pan. Natak Te Rangmanch Da Ahim Visthar:Prof. Ajmer Singh Aulkh Pan.
Sahit Sabha Bathinda Teachers Home Bathinda Feb.26, 2006
9 Pan. Opera:Punar Mulaankan Pun. Deptt., Pun. Uni. Patiala Patiala
10 Pan. Has Viang Vartak:Punar Mulaankan Pun. Deptt., Pun. Uni.
Patiala Patiala
Summary of achievements

1)Publication of 7 Books.

2) 3 Books are under Publications.

3) 12 Research Paper read in State-National level seminar.

4) 26 Research Paper published in National-International level Punjabi
&Hindi journals.

5) 34 Articles published in various Punjabi & Hindi News Papers.

6) Judged ten times Academic and cultural competitions of Punjab
School Education Board

&Youth Festivals of Colleges as a Jury member.

7) Organized 11 Kala Melas (art festivals) for public awareness
against social evils in Malwa

Region.

Organized 3 Gen. Knowledge Competition at distt. Level (Mansa) by
Madam Parkash Kaur

Memorial Trust Mansa.

9) State & Distt. level positions of students in various academic and
cultural competition.

10) First position in Kavishari ( Punjab folk song) at Punjab level in
this session 2007-2008.

11) First position in state level Science Drama competition in this
session 2007-2008.

12) Student of school Taini Ram is choosed Best Actor at National
level Drama Competition.

13) Specially Awarded by language Deptt. Punjab ,Haryana Panjabi
Sahitya Academy, Distt.

Administration & many other institutions.

Social Service

Details of 11 kala Melas (Art Festival) & other program organized by
Shaheed Bhagat Singh kala Manch Punjab against social evils and
produce public awareness.

1. “Sakhrta Jago”(literacy awareness punjabi program in folk style) :
April 24,1997

2) First kala mela (art festival) : March23,1998

3) Second kala mela : 23-24Jan,1999

4. Third kala mela : 30-31 Oct,1999
5. Forth kala mela : 23-24 Nov,2000
6. Fifth kala mela : 18 Nov 2001(day and night)
7. Jugnuan de ang_sang (literary festival on short story) : Feb. 2002
8. Creative literature competition : 7 Oct,2002
9. Sixth KalaMmela : 1 Dec,2002(day and night)
10. Story Competition at Ratia : Jan 2002
11. Paper Reading Competition : 31 march,2003
12. 10 Cultural Carnivals named “Mahak” at Satnam Bhavan Ratia as a
Director.
13. Literacy awareness program in 30 village of distt Mansa.
14. Organised Gen Knowledge competition in various villages under the
banner of ‘Gian Prikarma’

( Knowledge Circle) by ‘Rooh’ institution.

15. Five kala melas at Reond Khurd
16. Three Kala Melas at Reond Kalan
17. Seven Kala Melas at Manghania
18. Three Kala Melas at Rojhanwali
19. Two Kala Melas at Bahamanwala
20. One Kala Mela at Sherkhan wala
21. Two Kala Melas at Hakamwala
22. Presentations of 15 shows in Haryana under the banner of Anti
Drugs Movement ‘Paryaas’
23. Eighth Kala Mela Oct 2004
24. Ninth Kala Mela Oct 2005 (two days and night)
25. Tenth Kala Mela 2006 (two days and night)
26. Eleventh kala mela 2007(two days and night)

Theatrical Productions

1) Presented 250 stage productions of various Dramas (written &
Directed by myself) among the Panjab, Haryana, Delhi (specially in
Malwa Region)

2) Specially “IH JANG KAUN LARHE” play has been demonstrated on so
many stages include. ‘ Little Theatre” of Delhi.

Establishment of College

Establishment of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Girls College for the purpose to
provide higher education to the girls in this backward area.

General Knowledge Test

Organized a distt. level G.K. test for last three years for the
purpose to prepare the young generation for competition test and
produce a thirst for knowledge under the banner of “MADAM PARKASH KAUR
MEMORIAL TRUST MANSA”.

N.S.S. Activities

1 Attended 10 days N.S.S. Camp on 2-12-91 to 11-12-91 in Kurukshetra
University Campus.

2 Running N.S.S. Unit in G S School Reond Kalan for last two years.

3 Organized 6 one day camps in the school campus & outside the campus
during last two years and invited many prominent figures as resource
persons.

+ The Different intuition running under my courtesy :

1. Shaheed Uddham Singh Kala Manch Manghnian
2. Shaheed Rajguru-Sukhdev Kala Manch Reond Kalan
3. Shaheed Bhagat Singh Kala Manch Reond Khurad
4. Malwa Sahit & kala Manch Jhunir
5. Naujwan Sahit Sabha Boha
6. Shaheed Uddham Singh Kala Manch Rojhanwali
7. Sahit Phulwari Manch Reond Kalan

AWARDS

1) I.C Nanda award-2003 from Language Deptt. Punjab

2) Sarvotam Nat Pustak award-2005-06 from Haryana Panjabi Sahitya

Accademy

3) State award of Edu. Deptt. (2007-08) from Punjab Govt.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/dr-kuldeep-singh.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Baljeet Pal Singh.

Name :Baljeet Pal Singh
Designation :S. S. Master-cum-Headmaster
Educational
qualifications M.A.(Pol.Science)B.Ed.

Date of birth :14th March 1956
Place of Posting :Govt Elementary School,Mankhera(Mansa)Punjab.
Residence :VPO Jhanda Kalan(Mansa)Punjab.

Status Married having one wife,one son(married) and one daughter.Also
have
Three years old grand-daughter.

Date of joining Joined as Clerk in Punjab Agricultural
University,Ludhiana and worked
Govt Job at Regional Research Station Faridkot(Punjab)w.e.f.1980 to
1990.
Joined as S.S.Master in Education Department,Punjab in April 1990 and
still working and likely to be promoted as Lecturer in this session.

Achievements &
area of interest Published two Punjabi Ghazal books namely”Kandyali
Rutt(1994) and
Suraj De Pichhwade(2004).The third one is near completion.Also
published
dozens of Punjabi articles,stories etc in almost all leading Punjabi
newspapers.
Honoured by many Clubs,Sahit Sabhas and also by Administration.Working
as Key Resource Person and Block Master Trainer in Sarv Sikhsa Abhiyan
in
Mansa distt.since 2002.Also recited poems on All India Radio(FM
Bathinda).
Honoured by Director General School Education,Punjab last month.

Membership Life member:Punjabi Sahit Academy Ludhiana(Sr.No.1148)
Life member:Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha Punjab.
Founder member:Malwa Kala Manch,Jhunir(Mansa)
Founder member:Punjabi Sahit Sabha Sardulgarh(Mansa)
Member consultation board:Shaheed Bhagat Singh Kala Manch,Boha(mansa)
Special interest Reading,listening and writing Punjabi Ghazals and
flowericulture
and friendship.

(Baljeet Pal Singh)
Mob.9417324432

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/baljeet-pal-singh.html

Roop Dhillon.Roop Dhillon (Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon) is an English
Punjabi Writer. He is the only writer who has been raised in the UK
and has chosen to write in Punjabi, as opposed to English. He is self
taught, having learnt to read and write Gurmukhi in his mid thirties.
He is the President of Baagi Batti, an organization set up to
encourage Punjabi children of the west to write and read in their
heritage tongue. His other objective is to introduce international
themes and ideas to Punjabi Sahit, and make Punjabi Literature
accessible and relevant to Western Born Punjabis who choose to take it
up as a subject.

Roop Dhillon lives in the County of Surrey in England. To date he has
written an English novel ( Annexation), published various English
poems in British Magazines and been the only Punjabi Writer to have a
novel written in the Gurmukhi script published in the UK. This novel
is Neela Noor (The Blue Light), the first of its kind.

Since then he has written a Science Fiction Novel – Bharind, which is
expected to be released in the near future and has a Surrealist Novel
about Life in Southall and Spain in the pipeline.

Other works include a score of Punjabi poems, mostly published on
Punjabilekhak.com and three short stories, including Sci fi Thriller
Kaldaar Kay Kaldaas and Dil Diaya Peerhaan. His most recent work in
Punjabi is Canadian Gangster, which is about the issue of wayward
Punjabi youth in Canada.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/roop-dhillon.html

Amarjit Chandan.Amarjit Chandan is a known writer for Punjabi
language, born in Nairobi, Kenya. Currently Amarjit Chandan resided in
London, UK.

Amarji Chandan graduated from Panjab University in India, and then
joined the Maoist Naxalite movement, and subsequently spent two years
in solitary confinement. As a Punjabi writer he had had been
contributing by writing punjabi novels, poetries and essays. He worked
for various Punjabi literary and political magazines, including the
Bombay based Economic and Political Weekly before migrating to England
in 1980, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Punjabi Writer, Amarjit Chandan has published 8 collections of poetry
and two books of essays in Punjabi and two in the Persian script in
Lahore. He also write one in English.

Amarjit has edited many anthologies of world poetry and fiction,
including two collections of so-called British Punjabi poetry and
short stories. His work is included in many anthologies in Punjabi
language|Punjabi]], Hindi and English published in India and abroad.
His poetry has been published in Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and
Romanian and Indian languages. He has participated in many poetry
readings in England, Hungary and at Columbia University. He has
translated work by, among others, Brecht, Neruda, Ritsos, Hikmet and
Cardenal into Punjabi.

He worked as a creative writer with the Punjab Drama Repertory Co.,
Chandigarh in the late 1970s and adapted Brecht’s play The Caucasian
Chalk Circle and Tagore’s Mukatdhara in Punjabi. He was awarded Young
Writer Fellowship by the Lalit Kala [Fine Arts] Akademi, India in
1980.

He is currently working on a Punjabi translation of Miguel de
Cervantes’ Don Quixote. His own works include Jarhan, Beejak, Chhanna,
and Guthali. He is a regular contributor to apnaorg.com and Sanjh
magazine. Recently a poem of his has been carved in Stone both in
English and Punjabi in Oxford.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/amarjit-chandan.html

Shivcharan Jaggi Kussa.Birth Place: Village Kussa District Moga
Present Residence: East London (England)
Education: Matric (Punjab), 4 years I.F.K. University Austria
Profession: Served German and Austrian Border Police from 1986 to
2006. Presently working as security officer in London

Works:
Novels: Jatt Wadeya Boharh Di Chhanvein, Koi Labho Sant Sipahi Nu,
Laggi Wale Kade Na Saunde, Baajh Bhravon Maareya, Aitee Maar Paee
Kurlaane, Purja Purja Cut Maray, Tavi Ton Talwar Tak, Bahreen Kohin
Balda Diwa, Ujarh Gaye Garan, Tarkas Tangeya Jand, Gorakh Da Tilla.

Serial: Haji Lok Makkay Walh Jaande (Being published in Hamdard Weekly
Canada)

Stories: Tun Sutta Rab Jagda, Uthaan Wale Blauch, Raje Sheen Mukadam
Kuttey, Budhay Dariya Di Jooh

In Press: Kulli Ni Faqir Di Vichon (Comedy), Haji Lok Makkay Walh
Jaande (Novel)

In Pipeline: Pratham Bhagauti Simar Ke (Novel)

Awards: 7 Gold Medals, 17 Achievement Awards from various
organizations and Nanak Singh Novelist Award from Punjabi Satth
Lambrha.

Contact:
Mobile: (+44) 7853 317891)
Email: jaggik...@gmail.com
Blog: http://www.shivcharan-jaggikussa.blogspot.com
Web : http://jaggi-kussa.blogspot.com

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/shivcharan-jaggi-kussa.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Darshan Darvesh.NAME : Darshan Darvesh

Acad. Qualification : Graduation from Pbi.Uni.Patiala (Punjab)

Diploma in naturopathy Mumbai.

Creative Background: Incentive work in Directon, Cinematography,

Writing & Journlism. Address :

1. # 1362/11, Sector 65, Mohali -160 062

2. E-mail: dddc...@yahoo.com

jeedar...@yahoo.com

3. Phone: 09814904362, 09357531362

Film Director & Writer

Experience

Independent Director

T.V.Channels : News Today, Era, Punjab TV, (Chandigarh)

T.V. Serial : Daane Annar De (Alpha Punjabi), Life Style,

(Doordarshan)

Ad. Films : Hindustan Combine, Guru Reaper, Discovery Jeans, Raja

Nasbar,

Documentaries : Chauphal, Giddha, Nagar Kirtan

Ek Akeli Ladki, U R in a Q [Awarded Films] Tele-Films : Ikk Masiha
hor, Sitaron Se Aage, Saka SarsaTon

Sarhand, Shahidi Saka, Bachpan Ra Pyar, Hai Mira

Raniye, Dhokha,

Jhoothe Saajna, Sonika Tere Bin,

Experience in Writing

1. Tital song, screenplay and dialogues of Hindi Serial ‘Dera’
directed by-Darshan

Rahi.

2. Tital song Screenplay and Dialogue of Punjabi serial ‘Raat Baaki
Hai’ directed by Ravinder Ravi

3. Tital song, of Pb. Feature film Qatal- E-Aam’ directed by Iqbal
Channa.

4. Tital song, screenplay and dialogues of Pbi. T.V. serial ‘Chitti
Chaadar’,

5. As a best story writer Award winner from languages Deptt.Punjab,
Patiala.

6. 30 songs recorded by various Punjabi singers.

7. ‘Uddas Silks’(A collection of self poems in 1989)

8. ‘Minas zero’ (A Novel Publised in 1994).

9. Many short stories and poems also published in compiled books.

10. 8 Lyrics for Punjabi feature film ‘Ishq Allah Di Jaat’

11. 10 Lyrics for T.V. serial ‘Daane Anaar De.’

In Journalism

1. Former Editor of monthly bi-monthly Punjabi magazines Hashisa,
Rizu, Marichka, Dehleez and Adab-Lok.

2. Regular coloum writer of Daily Punjabi Tribune, ‘Aaj Di Awaaz’
since 1990.

3. Free lancing in print media for ‘Jag bani’, Nawaan Zamana’, ‘Ajit’,
AND OTHERS SINCE 1991.

4. Regular coloum writer Pbi. Monthly ‘Aks’ and Quamaitri Panj Darya
since 1990.

5. Criticism on films literature Art and cultural activities also
publish in Dailies and monthlies since 1991.

6. Special lenthy interviews published in Punjabi magazines with
writers, actors, directors, cinematographers and singers.

Anchor Exp.

1. Many stage shows compiled with famous Punjabi singers Hans Raj
Hans.

Nirmaljit Nimma, Parminder Sandhu, Zakir Hussain and Neelam Sharma.

2. Award winner in debate from languages deptt. Patiala.

3. Winner of many punjabi competitions.

4. Anchor of many Punjabi ‘Kavi Darbars’ on Doordarshan Jalandhar.

Awards

1. Special awards in still visuals from federation of Indian
photography, club of Indian

Photography and extra frame club Banglore.

2. Award of Extra ordinary personality from Kundan Art Theater, Mansa
-1991.

3. Award of honour from ‘Salkam’ Punjab at Barnala – 1992.

4. -do- 1993.

5. Shiv Kumar Batalavi Award from Sachi Sahit Sadam, Karnal (Haryana)
1993.

6. Award of Honour from Nehru Yuva Kendra, Mansa.

7. Siromani Punjab Ratan Award from Shahid Memorial International Seva
Society, Ludhiana -2004-2005.

Membership

1. Film Director Association Mumbai

2. Western India Cinematographers association Mumbai.

3. Film writers association, Mumbai.

4. Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha, Punjab.

5. Gen. Sec. Punjabi Literature and cultural Fourm, Mumbai

(In Cinematography as an assistant cameraman.)

Film Cinematographer Director

1. Maachis Manmohan Singh Gulzar

2. Aur Pyar ho Gaya -do- Rahul Rawail

3. Dil to pagal Hai -do- Yash Chopra

4. Jab Pyar Kisi se Hota hai -do- DeepakSareen

5. Albela -do- DeepakSareen

6. London -do- Sunny Deol

7. Hu-Tu-tu -do- Gulzar

8. Mohabbatein -do- Aditya Chopra

9. Dekh Bhai Dekh -do- Devid Dhawan

10. Mera Pind (My Home) -do- Manmohan Singh

Independent T.V. Serials

Serial Director

Raat Baaki Hai (Zee Punjabi) Ravinder Ravi

Sirnaavan (Zee Punjabi) Ravi Mahajan

Pindaan Vichon Pind Sunida (associate) RajeshSaxena

Darshan Darvesh

Reference – S.Manmohan Singh, Famous Director & Cinematographer in

BOLLYWOOD.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/darshan-darvesh.html

Deep Mangli.Deep Mangli was born and raised in the District of
Ludhiana (Mangli Nicki). It was along the streets of this village,
where he learned about the Punjabi culture and developed a respect for
his forefathers.

Deep Mangli remembers awakening to the sounds of prayers and music
being played throughout the village over loudspeakers. He can remember
the words, “Din Raat papanch gujaray bandaya”, entering his ears in
the early morning hours, which would cause a feeling of peace and
tranquility to rush over him. These words reached down to the inner
soul of Deep Mangli. It was then that a spark was ignited within him,
and a flame burned with the desire to share his passion with the
world. He didn’t know that he would become a writer at that point, but
seeing his culture filled with talented aspiring singers compelled him
into that direction.

He was only 21 years old when his songs were first introduced to the
world. Several songs made their way to renowned singer, Sohan
Sikander’s album, “Saal Solva”. From this album, Deep Mangli had his
first taste of success with the release of the hit song, “Akhian Nu
Rona Paigiya”. As a result of this hit, his writing was featured on
numerous other songs throughout the years, and he has been living his
dream ever since.

Although today he might be far from his native land of India, (while
currently residing in the United States of America) Deep Mangli keeps
with him the culture of Punjab and pledges his artistic devotion to it
as he continues to write. We hope you enjoy the website, and please
feel free to contact Deep Mangli.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/deep-mangli.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

B S Dhillon.B S Dhillon, born in Village Kot Fatta, Bathinda in Punjab
(India) is an advocate in High Court in Chandigarh, since 1980 and a
Freelance Writer/Journalist.

B S Dhillon

He is regularly writing articles & has been published by major Punjabi
newpapers and magzines and contributes to major online media also.

Has Written two Punjabi Novels, Wavarole and Baz in 1990 and 1994
respectively. His regular columns are read by thousands everyday all
over the World.

Is connected with various social & Literary Organisations and is
member of Chandigarh Club, Chandigarh.

Has visited U.K.Germany, France, Canada, USA. Talk shows on Radio
India in Vancouver BC.Canada.
Talk show on Channel Punjab TV India. Discussion on DD Punjabi
Jalandhar TV. Read papers in peace conferences at Dallas,Texas USA,
and Hunslo, London, U.K.

Address:-
B.S.Dhillon Advocate
# 146 Advocates Society, Sector 49-A
Chandigarh-160047(India)
Cell:9988091463
Phone:0172-4642146
E-mail: dhil...@yahoo.com

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/b-s-dhillon.html

Amrita Pritam.Amrita Pritam (August 31, 1919 – October 31, 2005) was
an Indian writer and poet. She was considered the first prominent
woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist. She was the leading 20th-
century poet of the Punjabi language .Amrita is equally loved on both
India and Pakistan and he work is appreciated and admired in both
countries and can find her name on the top poets/writers. She mainly
write in punjabi.

She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu
(Today I invoke Waris Shah - “Ode to Waris Shah”, an elegy to the 18th-
century Punjabi poet, an expression of her anguish over massacres
during the partition of India. As a novelist her most noted work was
Pinjar (The Skeleton) (1950), in which she created her memorable
character, Puro, an epitome of violence against women, loss of
humanity and ultimate surrender to existential fate; the novel was
made into an award-winning film, Pinjar in 2003.

When the former British India was partitioned into the independent
states of India and Pakistan in 1947, she migrated from Lahore, to
India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her
life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv
Kumar Batalvi.

Known as the most important voice for the women in Punjabi literature,
in 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award
for her magnum opus, a long poem, Sunehay (Messages), later she
received the Bhartiya Jnanpith, one of India’s highest literary
awards, in 1982 for Kagaz Te Canvas (The Paper and the Canvas). The
Padma Shri came her way in 1969 and finally, Padma Vibhushan, India’s
second highest civilian award, in 2004, and in the same year she was
honoured with India’s highest literary award, given by the Sahitya
Akademi (India’s Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
given to the “immortals of literature” for lifetime achievement.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/amrita-pritam.html

Shiv Kumar Batalvi.Shiv Kumar was a born poet who migrated from the
poetic region of Sialkot to Batala at the most miserable moment of
human history. It was the Independence of the sub-continent in 1947 -
the dreadful, painful, horrible, miserable, devastating, slaughtering
and marauding phenomenon, which bisected the trouble stricken North
India. The pangs of separation are recurrent themes of this great
lyricist of the land. He has been hailed as one of the great poets of
all times.

Sh iv Kumar was born on July 23, 1936 in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh
tehsil), in Punjab (now Pakistan). His father was a Patwari by the
name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partition his family moved to
Batala. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and
rugged, thorny plants on the Punjabi landscape. Shiv was exposed to
the -ramlila- at an early age, and it is to be expected that he
received what was later to become his instinctive understanding of
drama from these early performances.

Shiv passed his matriculate exams in 1953, from Punjab University. He
went on to enrol in the F.Sc. programme at Baring Union Christian
College in Batala. Before completing his degree he moved to S.N.
College, Qadian into their Arts program. It is here that he began to
sing ghazals and songs for his classmates. Shiv never gave the final
exams he needed to pass to receive his degree.

Around this period, he met a girl named Maina at a fair in Baijnath.
When he went back to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news
of her death and wrote his elegy -Maina-. This episode was to
prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to
distil into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his
fascination for Gurbaksh Singh-s daughter who left for the US and
married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child,
Shiv wrote -Main ek shikra yaar banaya-, perhaps his most famous love
poem. It-s said that when she had her second child, someone asked Shiv
whether he would write another poem. Shiv replied -Have I become
responsible for her? Am I to write a poem on her every time she gives
birth to a child?- Sounds much better in Punjabi (main oda theka leya
hoyaa? Oho bacche banayi jave te main ode te kavita likhda rehma?).

In 1965 Shiv won the Sahitya Akademi award for his verse-drama Loona.
He married on Feb 5, 1967
His wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur.
By all accounts Shiv had a happy marriage. He had two children,
Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom he loved
immensely.

By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, but both Batala and Chandigarh
became soulless in his eyes. Chandigarh brought him fame, but scathing
criticism as well, Shiv replied with an article titled -My hostile
critics-. Meanwhile his epilepsy got worse and he had a serious attack
while at a store in Chandigarh-s section 22. In the early 70-s Shiv
came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv-s
outrageous behaviour there is a story about his trip to Bombay as
well. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukhananda hall.
After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari),
Shiv got on the stage and began “Almost everyone today has begun to
consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is
writing ghazals”. By the time he-d finished with his diatribe, there
was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read -Ek kuri
jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai…-. There wasn-t a sound when he
finished either.

Shiv has been called a Bohemian. There were complaints about his
drinking and some suggestions that his -friends- had him drink so he
would exhibit his outrageous self. Shiv Kumar died in the 36th year of
his life on May 7, 1973 in his father-in-law-s house at Kir Mangyal
near Pathankot.

Shiv as the traditional poetical phenomenon was born out of the
literary conjugation (Kalmi sanjog) of Amrita Pritam and Mohan Singh,
to whom he appropriately dedicated his most important creation -Briha
too Sultan-. Both Amrita and Mohan had personally suffered in their
respective love lives on account of circumstances beyond their
control. In their romanticism therefore, a personal tinge of
desperation was in-evitable. Punjabi character is far more emotional,
both in happiness as well as sadness, than all other peoples- of the
Indian subcontinent. To succeed as a poet, therefore, one must succeed
in making people cry as well as bursting into hilarious laughter with
the flow of the lines. In contradiction to Amrita and Mohan, Shiv
therefore, developed the most superb art of recitation. He will be
long remembered, like Heer Warris Shah, for this emotional rendering
of whatever he wrote. I was deeply impressed by his exposition of this
vivid magic in the very first Kavita that he gave at our house - -Ki
puchde ho hal fakiran da-. This ren-dering has the touch of Sehgal-s
voice - -])ukhh ke Aab din bitad nahin- Shiv like Sehgal had the
inborn gift of soul-touching expression.

http://www.punjabiwriters.com/famous/shiv-kumar-batalvi.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Indian Urdu Writers

Many famous Indian authors have written numerous novels in Urdu
language. These novels highlight different aspects of human emotions
and society as a whole. In Urdu, novel writers flourished in India as
well as countries like Pakistan and other Urdu speaking nations. Urdu
has been derived essentially from Persian, Arabic and an offshoot of
Sanskrit. Many Urdu novel writers composed brilliant novels in this
beautiful language. These famous Urdu novelists have made their mark
in the field of writing novels in Urdu language. We have discussed a
few famous Urdu novelists in our related sections.

Deputy Nazir Ahmad
Known as the pioneer of Urdu novels, Deputy Nazir Ahmad was born in
1836. This great man was an advocate of education for women. At a time
when the Muslim society was going through a turbulent period, he stood
up for the cause of justice for women. He strongly wanted that women
should be educated and must be given due respect in the society.

Premchand
An extremely famous name that comes to mind when we talk of Urdu novel
writers is that of Munshi Premchand. The life history is of Prem Chand
is like that of any ordinary man. But what makes him stand out are the
numerous works he composed in his lifetime. They are still read with
much enthusiasm and admiration.

Rahi Masoom Raza
Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza was a famous author, play writer and novelist of
Independent India. Rahi Masoom Raza was born in Ghazipur district of
Eastern Uttar Pradesh. He completed his early education in and around
Ghazipur from where he went to Aligarh Muslim University to complete
his higher studies.

Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto was an acclaimed but a controversial South Asian
literary figure. He was born in Sambrala, in the Ludhiana district of
the Punjab in the year 1912. As a young man, Manto began his literary
career with an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's "The Last Days of a
Condemned Man".

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/urdu/authors/index.html

Deputy Nazir Ahmad

Known as the pioneer of Urdu novels, Deputy Nazir Ahmad was born in
1836. This great man was an advocate of education for women. At a time
when the Muslim society was going through a turbulent period, he stood
up for the cause of justice for women. He strongly wanted that women
should be educated and must be given due respect in the society. It
was at this time that the Muslim establishment considered that women
should not be educated at all. The life history of Deputy Nazir Ahmad
is given below as a short biography.

Through his novels he wanted to make people aware of the various
social problems that the society was going through. He was determined
to eradicate these social evils like illiteracy, poverty and
frustration of common man that had risen to alarming proportions. The
corrupt society with all its problems was coming to a stage where a
burn out was just around the corner. The instability was just adding
to the problems. His novels aimed at making people aware of this
dangerous situation. He wanted to infuse an innate sense amongst
people to eradicate these problems from the root.

His novels are considered to be the primary novels in Urdu. Among his
famous works are, Mirat-al-Urus and Taubat-un-Nasuh that laid the
foundation for future works and novel compositions in Urdu language.
This great personality breathed his last in 1912.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/urdu/authors/nazir-ahmad.html

Premchand

An extremely famous name that comes to mind when we talk of Urdu novel
writers is that of Munshi Premchand. The life history is of Prem Chand
is like that of any ordinary man. But what makes him stand out are the
numerous works he composed in his lifetime. They are still read with
much enthusiasm and admiration. Though he had financial crunches all
through his life, he had the rich collection of his works and
compositions. Read on further about Munshi Premchand biography to know
more about the life of this common man who was an extraordinary
genius.

Born in a village called Pandepur near Varanasi, he was named Dhanpat
Rai by his parents. Tragedy struck early in his life when he lost his
mother at the tender age of eight. His father, Munshi Ajayab Lal
worked as an ordinary clerk in the postal department. He left
Premchand in the guardian of his grandmother and married someone else.
He grew up without the love of his parents and was given
responsibility at a very young age. His grandmother also died soon and
he was left with no one to take care of him.

At the age of 15, he got married and it didn't work out well.
Meanwhile, his father died and he had to curtail his studies, as he
had to take care of not just himself but also his stepsiblings. He
managed to secure a job as a teacher in a primary school and rapidly
got promoted to the post of Deputy Inspector of Schools. When Mahatma
Gandhi announced the non-cooperation movement, Premchand quit his job
and devoted his time to writing fully. His first short story was
published in a magazine called Zamana that was circulated in Kanpur.

When it comes to writing Urdu novel and short stories, Premchand
definitely has his own special place. His style of writing novels
began as fantasy tales of kings and queens. But as he became more and
more conscious of what was happening around him, he started to write
on social problems and his novels had the element of evoking the
feeling of social consciousness and responsibility. He wrote about the
realities of life and the various problems faced by the common man in
a turbulent society.

His main focus remained rural India and exploitation faced by a common
villager at the hands of priests, landlords, loan sharks, etc. He also
emphasized on the unity of Hindus and Muslims. Some of his well-known
works are Godaan, Gaban, Karmabhoomi, Pratigya, etc. His famous short
stories include popular names like Atmaram, Udhar Ki Ghadi, Bade Ghar
Ki Beti, etc. Some of his works were also made into films by the noted
filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. This great literary personality of India
breathed his last on October 8th 1936.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/urdu/authors/premchand.html

Rahi Masoom Raza

Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza was a famous author, play writer and novelist of
Independent India. Rahi Masoom Raza was born in Ghazipur district of
Eastern Uttar Pradesh. He completed his early education in and around
Ghazipur from where he went to Aligarh Muslim University to complete
his higher studies. Masoom Raza did his doctorate in Hindustani
Literature and persuaded his career in literature.

Rahi Masoom Raza is known for his intense storylines that are weaved
in easy words. Most of his works are based on the themes related to
village and sub-urban life-style. For example, one of his novel named
' Neem ka Ped' is based on the uneasy relationship of lower caste
serfs with their landlords. This novel has been adapted in to a
television series that became very popular among the masses. Another
famous novel 'Katra Bi Arzoo' is based around Hindu-Muslim sibling
rivalry in the city of Allahabad. In fact, Hindu-Muslim strife has
been a popular theme in the writings of Raza. Another famous novel of
his named ' Topi Sukla' also revolves around the same theme.

In his career spanning 35 years, Rahi Masoom Raza has written lyrics,
dialogues and stories for various movies and television series. His
high came with the telecast of TV series 'Mahabharata' that was based
on the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Masoom Raza, a Muslim, wrote the
screenplay and dialogue of the TV series that went on to become the
most watched TV series in India. At one time, its TRP was staggering
86 %. This was a triumph for Raza as some Hindu zealots had criticized
his inclusion in the team.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/urdu/authors/rahi-masoom-raza.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Saadat Hasan Manto

Saadat Hasan Manto was an acclaimed but a controversial South Asian
literary figure. He was born in Sambrala, in the Ludhiana district of
the Punjab in the year 1912. As a young man, Manto began his literary
career with an Urdu translation of Victor Hugo's "The Last Days of a

Condemned Man". Going through his works it is pretty evident that
during the starting of his career; Manto was deeply influenced by
French and Russian realist writers such as Hugo, Anton Chekhov and
Maxim Gorky. During the 1930s, Manto was also peripherally involved
with the Indian Progressive Writers Association. IPWA was a left-
leaning literary movement that was committed to the ideals of social
uplift and justice through literature.

During his career, Manto wrote more than two hundred stories and a
number of essays, film scripts, and radio plays. However, his greatest
contributions to Indian literature were his mastery of the short story
genre and his use of the Urdu language. Some of his well-known Urdu
short stories include "Bu", "Khol Do", "Thanda Gosht", and "Toba Tek
Singh," that were promptly translated into English after Manto 's
death.

After the partition of India, Manto left his home in Mumbai and
migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, in January 1948. Although Manto 's last
years in Pakistan were filled with financial hardship and failing
health, they were also instrumental in the compilation of some of his
greatest literary achievements. Manto died of excessive drinking that
led to liver cirrhosis, in the year 1955. His death has left a vacuum
in the South Asian Literature genre that is still vacant.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/urdu/authors/saadat-hasan-manto.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Indian English Literature

India has a sizable number of populations that have English as either
primary or secondary language of communication. This is precisely
because India had been a colony of the then British Empire for close
to 200 years. Its association with British and hence English is even
older. Emperor Jahangir granted William Hawkins permission to trade in
India in the year 1608 and that was when English put its first step.

In the due course of history, British concluded their conquest of
India and spread English language along with the empire. English
replaced Persian as the court language in early 19th century and
understanding English became a matter of survival for the urban class
rather that a matter of pride. As a new block of population started to
emerge from the grassroots, English spread its wings.

Most of the early exponents of English Literature in India were
British though. The likes of George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and Jim
Corbett gave the initial push that was later carried on by several
British authors. Rabindra Nath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu who
contributed a lot to the English literature initially represented the
natives but it was only in mid seventies that a new breed of boarding-
school educated, elite brand of English authors started to appear on
the radar. These writers gave a much-needed oxygen to English
literature with their crisp, tongue-in-cheek and realistic fictions
that were read all over the world.

The present condition of Indian English literature is heartening. New
crops of English language writers are replacing the old breed and are
representing India through their unique writings. Some of them have
even won prestigious Booker Award. This has led to a sudden surge in
the number of books published in English every year. New breed of
English writers are trying to break glass ceiling. They are venturing
in to newer genres by refusing to follow dotted lines. With English
language becoming part of curriculum, the number of people knowing
English language is increasing rapidly in every consecutive census.
This is opening newer windows for the Indian English writers to
experiment. In present context, with its all pros and cons, the future
of English Literature in India looks nothing but bright.

History of Indian English
History of English language and literature in India starts with the
advent of East India Company in India. It all started in the summers
of 1608 when Emperor Jahangir, in the courts of Moguls, welcomed
Captain William Hawkins, Commander of British Naval Expedition Hector.
It was India's first tryst with an Englishman and English.

Indian Authors English
There is no dearth of Indian authors who write in English language, as
of today. But it was not same a century ago. English literature and
writing was still in its nascent phase in India and most of the Indian
writers were either used to be Indian born British or Britain educated
Indians.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/index.html

History of Indian English Literature

History of English language and literature in India starts with the
advent of East India Company in India. It all started in the summers
of 1608 when Emperor Jahangir, in the courts of Moguls, welcomed
Captain William Hawkins, Commander of British Naval Expedition Hector.
It was India's first tryst with an Englishman and English. Jahangir
later allowed Britain to open a permanent port and factory on the
special request of King James IV that was conveyed by his ambassador
Sir Thomas Roe. English were here to stay.

As East India Company spread its wing in southern peninsula, English
language started to get newer pockets of influence. But it was still
time for the first English book to capitalize. Late 17th century saw
the coming of printing press in India but the publication were largely
confined to either printing Bible or government decrees. Then came
newspapers. It was in 1779 that the first English Newspaper named
Hickey's Bengal Gazette was published in India. The breakthrough in
Indian English literature came in 1793 A.D. when a person by the name
of Sake Dean Mahomet published a book in London titled Travels of Dean
Mahomet. This was essentially Mahomet's travel narrative that can be
put somewhere between a Non-Fiction and a Travelogue.

In its early stages, the Indian writings in English were heavily
influenced by the Western art form of the novel. It was typical for
the early Indian English language writers to use English unadulterated
by Indian words to convey experiences that were primarily Indian. The
core reason behind this step was the fact that most of the readers
were either British or British educated Indians. In the coming
century, the writings were largely confined to writing history
chronicles and government gazettes.

In the early 20th century, when the British conquest of India was
achieved, a new breed of writers started to emerge on the block. These
writers were essentially British who were born or brought up or both
in India. Their writing consisted of Indian themes and sentiments but
the way of storytelling was primarily western. They had no reservation
in using native words, though, to signify the context. This group
consisted likes of Rudyard Kipling, Jim Corbett and George Orwell
among others. Books such as Kim, The Jungle Book, 1984, Animal Farm
and The man-eaters of Kumaon etc were liked and read all over the
English-speaking world. In fact, some of the writings of that era are
still considered to be the masterpieces of English Literature. In
those periods, natives were represented by the likes of Rabindra Nath
Tagore and Sarojini Naidu. In fact, Geetanjali helped Tagore win Nobel
Prize for Literature in the year 1913.

There was a lull for more than 3 decades when India was passing
through the era of aspiration and reconstruction. Some sporadic works
such as 'A Passage to India' by E M Foster, 'The Wonder that was
India' by E L. Basham and ' Autobiography of an unknown Indian' by
Nirad C Chaudhuri though set the stage on fire but were unsuccessful
in catalyzing and explosion.

It was in late seventies that a new breed of Convent, boarding school
educated and elite class of novelists and writers started to come on
block. The likes of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Amitabh Ghosh and
Dominique Lepierre set the literature world on fire. Rushdie' s '
Midnight Children' won Booker in 1981 and send the message loud and
clear that Indians are here to stay. Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai
repeated the feat when they won Man Booker in the year 1997 and 2006
respectively. In the mean time, a new crop of authors such as Pankaj
Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lahiri, William Dalrymple, Hari Kunzuru
have arrived on the international scene and their writings are being
appreciated round the globe.

India became independent from Britain in 1947, and the English
language was supposed to be phased out by 1965. However, today English
and Hindi are the official languages. Indian English is characterized
by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the "isn't it?"
tag, use of more compounds, and a different use of prepositions. With
its distinct flavor, Indian English writings are there to stay. With
he surge of English speaking population, the future looks anything but
bleak.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/history.html

Indian Authors in English Language

There is no dearth of Indian authors who write in English language, as
of today. But it was not same a century ago. English literature and
writing was still in its nascent phase in India and most of the Indian
writers were either used to be Indian born British or Britain educated
Indians. The list includes exponents such as George Orwell, Rudyard
Kipling, Jim Corbett, Tagore and Sarojini Naidu among others.

The post independence decades were largely dormant with only few names
such as Nirad C Chaudhuri and R K Narayan inciting curiosity if any.
It was as late as early eighties that the new breed of writers such as
Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Amitabh Ghosh and Anita Desai started
popping upon the international literary map. The new breed of authors
and writers who emerged in post reform era carried the initiative
forward. These writers have created a niche for themselves among the
readers across the globe and have given signal loud and clear that
they are here to stay. The list includes the likes of Pankaj Misra,
William Dalrymple, Chetan Bhagat, Anurag Mathur, Kiran Desai, Kamla
Das, Hari Kunzuru, Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy among others.

Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh, a pioneer of English literature in India, was born in
Calcutta (Now Kolkata) in the year 1956. Amitav Ghosh has been raised
and educated at the same time in as different locations as Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, India and the United Kingdom.

George Orwell
Born Eric Arthur Blair to an Anglo-Indian parent in the year 1903,
George Orwell had a deep connection with India. It was in a barn in
some sleepy village of Motihari district of the then Bihar that George
Orwell had first tryst with the human world. His father, a famous
Indigo planter of Champaran, wanted him to sail for England to study.

Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett, a colonel in the British Indian Army, was best known for
being a hunter, conservationist and naturalist. He held the honor of
killing many man-eating tigers and leopards in India, especially the
United Provinces (now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh &
Uttarakhand).

Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 at Bombay to Lockwood Kipling.
His father was then the principal prestigious Jeejabhoy School of
Architecture at Bombay. As customary in those days, Kipling was sent
to England to be educated at the United Services College.

Ruskin Bond
Better perceived as the Indian 'William Wordsworth', Ruskin Bond was
born in Kasauli in the then Punjab Province in the year 1934. Born to
a first generation British migrant, Bond spent most of his childhood
in amidst Himalayas. He was brought up at different places that
included Jamnagar, Dehradun and Shimla.

Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu was born Sarojini Chattopadhyay in Hyderabad on
February 13, 1879. She was the eldest sibling of a comparatively large
family that was educated in England. She passed her matriculation at
the tender age of 12 from the then Madras University. Her early life
was full of struggle. She fell on love with Dr. Govinduraju Naidu who
was not a Brahmin as she was.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/index.html

Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh, a pioneer of English literature in India, was born in
Calcutta (Now Kolkata) in the year 1956. Amitav Ghosh has been raised
and educated at the same time in as different locations as Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt, India and the United Kingdom. He completed his
higher studies in England where he went on to receive his Ph.D. in
social anthropology from Oxford University. After completing his Ph.D.
he decided to pursue his career in writing.

Amitav Ghosh is acclaimed in the literary world for his works on
fiction, travel writing and journalism. His long list of
accomplishment includes books like The Circle of Reason, The Shadow
Lines, In an Antique Land and Dancing in Cambodia. His previous work,
The Glass Palace, was an international bestseller that sold more than
a half-million copies in Britain. Recently published there, The Hungry
Tide has been sold for translation in twelve foreign countries and is
also a bestseller abroad. Among awards, Ghosh has won France's Prix
Medici Etranger, India's prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, the Arthur
C. Clarke Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

The fictions of Amitav Ghosh are marked by extreme themes that go side
by side with post-colonialism. Nevertheless it will be nothing short
of insult, for an author of his repute, to say that his works are
formulaic. It is practically impossible to label his works. It can be
added here that his topics are much more unique and personal. The
appeal of Amitav' s work lies in his ability to weave "Indo-nostalgic"
elements into more serious, heavier themes. The Government of India
conferred Amitav Ghosh with Padma Bhushan. He now divides his time
between Harvard University, where he is a visiting professor, and his
homes in India and Brooklyn, New York. He is planning to shift back to
India.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/amitav-ghosh.html

George Orwell

Born Eric Arthur Blair to an Anglo-Indian parent in the year 1903,
George Orwell had a deep connection with India. It was in a barn in
some sleepy village of Motihari district of the then Bihar that George
Orwell had first tryst with the human world. His father, a famous
Indigo planter of Champaran, wanted him to sail for England to study.
His mother took him to England where he completed his primary
education at Eton. He couldn't afford further studies therefore he
joined the Indian Imperial Police and served in Burma. This was a
phase of his turn around.

He returned from Burma disillusioned from Imperialism and wrote some
of his splendid works such as Down and Out in Paris and London (1933),
Burmese Days (1934), A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), A Hanging (1931)
and Shooting an Elephant (1936) among others. This was the time when
George Orwell felt early moorings for Communism. He even went on to
fight alongside his comrades in Spanish Civil War but it was during
this war that he got disillusioned from the Stalinist brand of
communism. The stage was set for some of his best works. It started
with 'Homage to Catalonia' in the year 1938 and then came the very
famous 'Animal Farm'.

Animal Farm got published in the year 1945 and took the literary world
by storm. In this work, George Orwell criticized the Stalinist brand
of Communism and proved its vulnerability towards corruption and
despotism. With quotes such as "…all men are equal but some are more
equal than others…" Orwell had arrived. In the year 1949 Orwell wrote
his magnum opus 1984. The novel feared the American dominion in coming
centuries and its ultimate transition in to a totalitarian regime
flourishing behind the veil of democracy. It is unbelievable that many
of his predictions stand true as of today.

George Orwell spent last years of his life fighting against Zionism
and the sinister designs of Britain and US in the formation of Israel.
He championed the cause of Arabs and Palestinians and severely
criticized the moves of west in strangulating human rights of
Palestinians. He resigned from 'The Tribune' that was controlled by
Zionist lobby and championed the cause of Israel. All his life, George
Orwell stood against traits like Fascism, Totalitarianism, Zionism,
and most of his works reflected his ethos. This great literary figure
finally closed his eyes in 1949 in London where he was later buried
according to Anglican rites.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/george-orwell.html

Jim Corbett Biography

Jim Corbett, a colonel in the British Indian Army, was best known for
being a hunter, conservationist and naturalist. He held the honor of
killing many man-eating tigers and leopards in India, especially the
United Provinces (now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh &
Uttarakhand). Being a multi-faceted personality, he was also avid
photographer and an author. In fact, after his retirement, Jim wrote a
number of books on wildlife, describing his hunts and experiences, the
most prominent ones being 'Maneaters of Kumaon' and 'Jungle Lore'. He
is also credited for speaking on the need to save wildlife from
extinction. For this very reason, the Corbett National Park in Kumaon
has been named after him.

Childhood & Early Life
Jim Corbett was born as Edward James Corbett, on 25th July 1875, in
Nainital, near the Kumaon foothills of the Himalayas, in the United
Provinces (now in Uttarakhand). He was the eighth child of Christopher
and Mary Jane Corbett, who had an Irish ancestry. They moved to
Nainital in 1862, when Christopher was appointed as its postmaster.
Jim lost his father when he was very young and was brought up by his
mother. Since a very tender age, he developed a love for the forests
and their wildlife, especially those around his home in Kaladhungi.

In his free time, Jim used to make frequent trips to the nearby
forests and gradually, he came to identify most of the animals and
birds present there, by their calls. He developed excellent trekking
as well as hunting skills. In the meantime, Jim attended Oak Openings
School (later renamed Philander Smith College) and Sherwood College,
Nainital. After completing his education, he joined Bengal and North
Western Railway, initially working as a fuel inspector at Manakpur
(Punjab). Later, he worked as a contractor at Mokameh Ghat (Bihar).

Tiger Hunts
Initially, Jim Corbett indulged in regular hunting and fishing.
However, with time, he started shooting the big game with camera,
rather than rifles. As his love for wildlife photography grew, he
vowed never to shoot tigers and leopards unless they turned man-eater
or threatened cattle. In 1911, his hunt for man-eating tigers and
leopards began and came to an end in 1938. During this time, he hunted
at least a dozen man-eaters, who had killed more than 1500 people,
men, women and children combined.

Jim used to hunt alone, taking great personal risk, since he knew that
man-eaters are quite capable of stalking and killing the hunter as
well. His sole companion was a small dog named Robin, about whom we
see much information in his first book 'The Maneaters of Kumaon'.
Jim's most noted kills are the Champawat Tiger, the Leopard of
Rudraprayag, the Tigers of Chowgarh and the Panar Leopard. He has shot
19 Tigers and 14 Leopards i.e. he has a total of 33 recorded and
documented kills.

Conservationist
Apart from being a renowned hunter, Jim Corbett is also known for
being a pioneer conservationist. He was constantly engaged in giving
lectures at local schools and societies, to make people aware of the
necessity to conserve natural beauty, including forests and their
wildlife. He helped create the Association for the Preservation of
Game in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), and the All-India
Conference for the Preservation of Wild Life. Jim also helped create
Hailey National Park, which was later renamed in his honor.

Later Life & Death
After the independence of India, in 1947, Jim Corbett went to Nyeri,
Kenya, where he settled along with his sister Maggie. There, he
continued to write and make people aware of the declining numbers of
jungle cats and other wildlife. He spent the rest of his life in Kenya
only. On 19th April 1955, a few days after writing his sixth book
'Tree Tops', Jim died of a heart attack. He was buried at St. Peter's
Anglican Church in Nyeri. Two years later, the national park that he
had founded in India was renamed, as 'Jim Corbett National Park', in
his honor.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/jim-corbett.html

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 at Bombay to Lockwood Kipling.
His father was then the principal prestigious Jeejabhoy School of
Architecture at Bombay. As customary in those days, Kipling was sent
to England to be educated at the United Services College. After
completing his schooling, Kipling returned to India, as he didn't have
required fund to get enlisted in Oxford. It was 1882 when Rudyard
Kipling joined Civil and Military Gazette at Lahore as a journalist.

This was the phase of his making. His editor by the name of Dr.
Wheelers encouraged him to write articles and poems that first
appeared in the newspaper were later collected and published as
Departmental Ditties (1886), Plain Tales from the Hills (1888),
Soldiers Three (1890) and Wee Willie Winkie (1890).

When he was sure of his popularity in India, Kipling tried to pursue
his career in writing in England. His plans hit a roadblock when his
very first novel, based on his true-life encounters, by the name of '
The Light That Failed (1890)' failed miserably. He was shocked to
death but kept calm. His next ventures such as Barrack-Room Ballads
(1892) and Jungle Book (1894) established Kipling' s reputation
however. Jungle Book went on to become one of the bestsellers in the
history of English literature. However, some people find his work full
of preconceived notions and typecasting. Due to his propagation of
'White Man's Burden' those hostile to imperialism accused Kipling of
jingoism.

On the outbreak of the Boer War, Kipling traveled to South Africa. In
South Africa, Rudyard Kipling worked with civil organizations that
helped wounded soldiers. He even went on to produce a newspaper for
the troops that propagated the infallibility of the British race. By
the time he returned to England, Kipling was being described as the
Laureate of the Empire.

In 1901 Kipling published the best-selling novel, Kim. Riding on the
success of Kim, over the next few years Kipling concentrated on
writing children's books such as Just So Stories (1902), Puck of
Pook's Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910). After the outbreak
of First World War in 1914, the War Propaganda Bureau arranged for
Kipling to tour of Britain's army camps. The visits resulted in the
publication of The New Army (1914). He also visited the Western Front
and wrote about his experiences in France at War (1915).

Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Kipling' s only son,
John attempted to enlist in the British Army. Kipling used his
influence to get his seventeen-year-old son enlisted but he died in
the Battle of Loos. He never really got over from the loss of his son
and for many years suffered from depression. This was reflected in the
somber mood of most of his later writing including his autobiography
by the name 'Something of myself' that was published in 1934. Rudyard
Kipling died of a severe hemorrhage in London on 18th January 1936.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/rudyard-kipling.html

Sarojini Naidu Biography

Sarojini Naidu was born Sarojini Chattopadhyay in Hyderabad on
February 13, 1879. She was the eldest sibling of a comparatively large
family that was educated in England. She passed her matriculation at
the tender age of 12 from the then Madras University. Her early life
was full of struggle. She fell on love with Dr. Govinduraju Naidu who
was not a Brahmin as she was. This led to opposition from both side.
She was thus sent to England for her studies much against her will.
She remained in England till 1898, studying first at King's College,
London and then at Girton. She returned to Hyderabad in September 1898
and married Dr. Naidu.

Though she went England much against her will but it was here that her
poetic soul got liberated. It was here only that she met Arthur
Simons, a poet and critic. The struck chord in the very first meeting
and kept on corresponding even after her return to India. Simons
persuaded her to publish some of her poems. She published her first
collection of poems in 1905 under the title "Golden Threshold". The
book sold like hot cakes both among natives as well as among the
Indian Diasporas. Riding on the success, she published two other
collections of poems namely "The Bird of Time" and "The Broken Wings".
In 1918, " Feast of Youth" was published. Later, "The Magic Tree",
"The Wizard Mask" and "A Treasury of Poems" were published. It is said
that people of such caliber as Rabindra Nath Tagore and Jawaharlal
Nehru were among the thousands of admirers of her work. Her works were
characterized by their contents that were though English in wording,
had an Indian soul.

Then in 1916, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and she totally directed her
energy to the fight for freedom. The independence of India became the
heart and soul of her work and most of her poems that were composed
during that period reflected hope and aspirations of common Indians
who were marred by slavery. She was responsible for awakening the
women of India. She brought them out of the kitchen and was successful
in reestablishing self-esteem, among the women in India. In 1925, she
chaired the summit of Congress in Kanpur. And in 1930, when Gandhi Ji
was arrested for a protest, she took the helms of his movement. In
1931, she participated in the Round Table Summit, along with Gandhi
Ji. In 1942, she was arrested during the "Quit India" protest and
stayed in jail for 21 months. After independence she became the
Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She was the first woman governor. She
passed away on March 2, 1949.

http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/english/authors/sarojini-naidu.html

[Sid Harth]

Kate L. Turabian
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,
Seventh Edition
Chicago Style for Students and Researchers

Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and
University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff

436 pages, 42 line drawings, 11 tables 6 x 9 © 1996, 2007
Series: Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing
Cloth $35.00

ISBN: 9780226823362 Published April 2007

Paper $17.00
ISBN: 9780226823379 Published April 2007

Synopsis
Table of Contents
Bio

Dewey. Bellow. Strauss. Friedman. The University of Chicago has been
the home of some of the most important thinkers of the modern age. But
perhaps no name has been spoken with more respect than Turabian. The
dissertation secretary at Chicago for decades, Kate Turabian literally
wrote the book on the successful completion and submission of the
student paper. Her Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, created from her years of experience with research
projects across all fields, has sold more than seven million copies
since it was first published in 1937.

Now, with this seventh edition, Turabian’s Manual has undergone its
most extensive revision, ensuring that it will remain the most
valuable handbook for writers at every level—from first-year
undergraduates, to dissertation writers apprehensively submitting
final manuscripts, to senior scholars who may be old hands at research
and writing but less familiar with new media citation styles. Gregory
G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the late Wayne C. Booth—the gifted
team behind The Craft of Research—and the University of Chicago Press
Editorial Staff combined their wide-ranging expertise to remake this
classic resource. They preserve Turabian’s clear and practical advice
while fully embracing the new modes of research, writing, and source
citation brought about by the age of the Internet.

Booth, Colomb, and Williams significantly expand the scope of previous
editions by creating a guide, generous in length and tone, to the art
of research and writing. Growing out of the authors’ best-selling
Craft of Research, this new section provides students with an overview
of every step of the research and writing process, from formulating
the right questions to reading critically to building arguments and
revising drafts. This leads naturally to the second part of the Manual
for Writers, which offers an authoritative overview of citation
practices in scholarly writing, as well as detailed information on the
two main citation styles (“notes-bibliography” and “author-date”).
This section has been fully revised to reflect the recommendations of
the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and to present an
expanded array of source types and updated examples, including
guidance on citing electronic sources.

The final section of the book treats issues of style—the details that
go into making a strong paper. Here writers will find advice on a wide
range of topics, including punctuation, table formatting, and use of
quotations. The appendix draws together everything writers need to
know about formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and
preparing them for submission. This material has been thoroughly
vetted by dissertation officials at colleges and universities across
the country.

This seventh edition of Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research
Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a classic reference revised for a
new age. It is tailored to a new generation of writers using tools its
original author could not have imagined—while retaining the clarity
and authority that generations of scholars have come to associate with
the name Turabian.

Wayne Clayson Booth (1921-2005) was the George M. Pullman
Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language and
Literature at the University of Chicago. Gregory G. Colomb is
professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of
Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic. Joseph M.
Williams is professor emeritus in the Department of English Language
and Literature at the University of Chicago and the author of Style:
Toward Clarity and Grace. Together Booth, Colomb, and Williams are the
authors of the bestselling guide The Craft of Research, also published
by the University of Chicago Press.

Part I Research and Writing: From Planning to Production

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory C. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams
Overview of Part I

Chapter 1 What Research Is and How Researchers Think about It

1.1 How Researchers Think about Their Aims
1.2 Three Kinds of Questions That Researchers Ask

Chapter 2 Moving from a Topic to a Question to a Working Hypothesis

2.1 Find a Question in Your Topic
2.2 Propose Some Working Answers
2.3 Build a Storyboard to Plan and Guide Your Work
2.4 Organize a Writing Support Group

Chapter 3 Finding Useful Sources

3.1 Understand the Kinds of Sources Readers Expect You to Use
3.2 Record Your Sources Fully, Accurately, and Appropriately
3.3 Search for Sources Systematically
3.4 Evaluate Sources for Relevance and Reliability
3.5 Look beyond the Usual Kinds of References

Chapter 4 Engaging Sources

4.1 Read Generously to Understand, Then Critically to Engage and
Evaluate
4.2 Take Notes Systematically
4.3 Take Useful Notes
4.4 Write as You read
4.5 Review Your Progress
4.6 Manage Moments of Normal Panic

Chapter 5 Planning Your Argument

5.1 What a Research Argument Is and Is Not
5.2 Build Your Argument around Answers to Readers' Questions
5.3 Turn Your Working Hypothesis into a Claim
5.4 Assemble the Elements of Your Argument
5.5 Distinguish Arguments Based on Evidence from Arguments Based on
Warrants
5.6 Assemble an Argument

Chapter 6 Planning a First Draft

6.1 Avoid Unhelpful Plans
6.2 Create a Plan That Meets Your Readers' Needs
6.3 File Away Leftovers

Chapter 7 Drafting Your Report

7.1 Draft in the Way That Feels Most Comfortable
7.2 Develop Productive Drafting Habits
7.3 Use Your Key Terms to Keep Yourself on Track
7.4 Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize Appropriately
7.5 Integrate Quotations into Your Text
7.6 Use Footnotes and Endnotes Judiciously
7.7 Interpret Complex or Detailed Evidence before You Offer It
7.8 Be Open to Surprises
7.9 Guard against Inadvertent Plagiarism
7.10 Guard against Inappropriate Assistance
7.11 Work through Chronic Procrastination and Writer's Block

Chapter 8 Presenting Evidence in Tables and Figures

8.1 Choose Verbal or Visual Representations
8.2 Choose the Most Effective Graphic
8.3 Design Tables and Figures
8.4 Communicate Data Ethically

Chapter 9 Revising Your Draft

9.1 Check Your Introduction, Conclusion, and Claim
9.2 Make Sure the Body of Your Report Is Coherent
9.3 Check Your Paragraphs
9.4 Let Your Draft Cool, Then Paraphrase It

Chapter 10 Writing Your Final Introduction and Conclusion

10.1 Draft Your Final Introduction
10.2 Draft Your Final Conclusion
10.3 Write Your Title Last

Chapter 11 Revising Sentences

11.1 Focus on the First Seven or Eight Words of a Sentence
11.2 Diagnose What You Read
11.3 Choose the Right Word
11.4 Polish It Off
11.5 Give It Up and Print It Out

Chapter 12 Learning from Your Returned Paper

12.1 Find General Principles in Specific Comments
12.2 Talk to Your Instructor

Chapter 13 Presenting Research in Alternative Forums

13.1 Plan Your Oral Presentation
13.2 Design Your Presentation to Be Listened To
13.3 Plan Your Poster Presentation
13.4 Plan Your Conference Proposal

Chapter 14 On the Spirit of Research

Part II Source Citation

Chapter 15 General Introduction to Citation Practices

15.1 Reasons for Citing Your Sources
15.2 The Requirements of Citation
15.3 Two Citation Styles
15.4 Citation of Electronic Sources
15.5 Preparation of Citations
15.6 A Word on Citation Software

Chapter 16 Notes-Bibliography Style: The Basic Form

16.1 Basic Patterns
16.2 Bibliographies
16.3 Notes
16.4 Short Forms for Notes

Chapter 17 Notes-Bibliography Style: Citing Specific Types of Sources

17.1 Books
17.2 Journal Articles
17.3 Magazine Articles
17.4 Newspaper Articles
17.5 Additional Types of Published Sources
17.6 Unpublished Sources
17.7 Informally Published Electronic Sources
17.8 Sources in the Visual and Performing arts
17.9 Public Documents
17.10 One Source Quoted in Another

Chapter 18 Parenthetical Citations- Reference List Style: The Basic
Form

18.1 Basic Patterns
18.2 Reference Lists
18.3 Parenthetical Citations

Chapter 19 Parenthetical Citations- Reference List Style: Citing
Specific Types of Sources

19.1 Books
19.2 Journal Articles
19.3 Magazine Articles
19.4 Newspaper Articles
19.5 Additional Types of Published Sources
19.6 Unpublished Sources
19.7 Informally Published Electronic Sources
19.8 Sources in the Visual and Performing Arts
19.9 Public Documents
19.10 One Source Quoted in Another

Part III Style

Chapter 20 Spelling

20.1 Plurals
20.2 Possessives
20.3 Compounds and Words Formed with Prefixes
20.4 Line Breaks

Chapter 21 Punctuation

21.1 Period
21.2 Comma
21.3 Semicolon
21.4 Colon
21.5 Question Mark
21.6 Exclamation Point
21.7 Hyphen and Dashes
21.8 Parentheses and Brackets
21.9 Slashes
21.10 Quotation Marks
21.11 Multiple Punctuation Marks

Chapter 22 Names, Special Terms, and Titles of Works

22.1 Names
22.2 Special Terms
22.3 Titles of Works

Chapter 23 Numbers

23.1 Words or Numerals?
23.2 Plurals and Punctuation
23.3 Date Systems
23.4 Numbers Used outside the Text

Chapter 24 Abbreviations

24.1 General Principles
24.2 Names and Titles
24.3 Geographical Terms
24.4 Time and Dates
24.5 Units of Measure
24.6 The Bible and Other Sacred Works
24.7 Abbreviations in Citations and Other Scholarly Contexts

Chapter 25 Quotations

25.1 Quoting Accurately and Avoiding Plagiarism
25.2 Incorporating Quotations into Your Text
25.3 Modifying Quotations

Chapter 26 Tables and Figures

26.1 General Issues
26.2 Tables
26.3 Figures

Chapter Appendix: Paper Format and Submission

A.1 General Format Requirements
A.2 Format Requirements for Specific Elements
A.3 Submission Requirements

Bibliography

Books in Language and Linguistics: Language--Reference
from the University of Chicago Press

Barzun, Jacques: Simple and Direct
Booth, Wayne C.: The Craft of Research, Third Edition
Caws, Mary Ann: Surprised in Translation
Danker, Frederick William: The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament
Gazdar, Gerald: Natural Language Processing in the 1980s
Gingrich, F. Wilbur: Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament
Harmon, Joseph E.: The Craft of Scientific Communication
Levieux, Eleanor: Insiders' French
Levin, Beth: English Verb Classes and Alternations
Logan, Gary: The Eloquent Shakespeare
McCawley, James D.: The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters
Osselton, N.E.: Chosen Words
Pharies, David A.: The University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary, Fifth
Edition, Spanish-English, English-Spanish
Ritchie, Adrian: French For Administration, Business and Commerce
Ritchie, Adrian: Media French
Sacks, Sheldon: On Metaphor
The University of Chicago Press: Chicago Guide to Preparing Electronic
Manuscripts
Turabian, Kate L.: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses,
and Dissertations, Seventh Edition

Books in Reference and Bibliography
from the University of Chicago Press

Amos, Muriel: Cup'ig Eskimo Dictionary
Association of American University Presses: Association of American
University Presses Directory 2009
Association of American University Presses: Association of American
University Presses Directory 2010
Association of American University Presses: One Book/Five Ways
Balay, Robert: Prairies and Plains
Barone, Michael: The Almanac of American Politics 2010
Barrington de Fonblanque, Edward: Niphon and Pe-che-li
Barzun, Jacques: Simple and Direct
Basalla, Susan: "So What Are You Going to Do with That?"
Bauer, Walter: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature
Becker, Howard S.: Telling About Society
Becker, Howard S.: Tricks of the Trade
Bevan, Gareth: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Volume I
Bevan, Gareth: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Volume II
Bevan, Gareth: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Volume III
Bevan, Gareth: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Volume IV
Bielstein, Susan M.: Permissions, A Survival Guide
Biguenet, John: The Craft of Translation
Bloomfield, Victor A.: The Chicago Guide to Your Career in Science
Bodleian Library: The First English Dictionary, 1604
Bonaccorso, Frank J.: Bats of Papua New Guinea
Bonnefoy, Yves: American, African, and Old European Mythologies
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[bademiyansubhanallah]

Mes étoiles noires , De Lucy à Barack Obama
Lilian Thuram

Récit (broché). Paru en 01/2010
En Stock - Expédié sous 24h

Que savons-nous de l’histoire des peuples noirs ?
Dans quel contexte avons-nous entendu parler des grands héros noirs
pour la première fois ?

Que savons-nous de l’histoire des peuples noirs ?
Dans quel contexte avons-nous entendu parler des grands héros noirs
pour la première fois ?

De la Préhistoire – les plus vieux ossements humains ont été
découverts en Afrique – aux temps modernes, le Noir ne vécut pas que
de larmes et d’armes. Qui sait que le Grec Ésope, inspirateur des
fables de La Fontaine, était d’origine africaine ?

Que certains Pharaons d’Égypte étaient noirs ?
Qui connaît l’existence de la Charte du Manden, la première
déclaration des droits de l’homme, théorisée au Mali cinq cent
soixante-sept ans avant la nôtre ?

Qui sait que le grand poète russe Pouchkine était d’origine
camerounaise ?
Que le Noir Matthew Henson fut le premier conquérant du pôle Nord ?

Que de nombreux chercheurs noirs sont à l’origine de ce qui fait notre
quotidien, comme par exemple la transfusion sanguine, les feux de
circulation ou l’antenne parabolique ?

Destiné à tous les publics, cet ouvrage raconte le destin d’environ 40
personnages noirs qui ont aidés Lilian Thuram à forger son estime de
soi, à éviter la victimisation et à déconstruire le racisme. Ces
portraits de femmes et d’hommes de tous les temps sont fondés sur les
lectures et les entretiens de l’auteur avec des spécialistes et des
historiens. Cet ouvrage est écrit en collaboration avec Bernard
Fillaire qui témoigne :

« À travailler à ce livre avec Lilian Thuram, j’ai découvert un homme
qui sait de quoi il parle, et qui parle pour tout le monde. J’ai
débarqué dans un continent où j’ai été très bien accueilli : Toussaint-
Louverture, Césaire, Billie Holiday, Mohammed Ali, Luther King… vous
réconcilient avec vous-même. Un émerveillement. Il me semble que tout
lecteur de ce livre grandira de quelques centimètres. »

Un livre engagé, un exercice d’admiration, au bénéfice de tous.

Lilian Thuram, âgé de 37 ans, a connu une carrière prestigieuse de
footballeur international : champion du monde en 1998, champion
d’Europe en 2000, vice-champion du monde en 2006, ainsi que de
nombreux titres en club. Il détient le record de 142 sélections en
équipe de France. Il a créé en 2008 la

« Fondation Lilian Thuram, éducation contre le racisme ».

thuram.org

Historiquement ridicule
Date : 05/02/2010

le livre de Lilian Thuram est rempli d'affirmations ridicules : outre
une liste étrange d'inventeurs noirs totalement inconnus - c'est
Thomas Edison qui a inventé l'ampoule électrique-, il affirme
qu'Esope, le pharaon Kephren ou Cleopatre étaient Noirs. Esope, s'il a
réellement existé, est seulement décrit comme "ancien esclave d'Asie
mineure, laid, borgne et boiteux". Kephren (vers 2500 avant J-C),
pharaon de l'Ancien Empire, est très mal connu, mais ses rares statues
ne lui donnent pas de traits africains, et pourtant les chroniqueurs
égyptiens connaissaient bien les Nubiens et les noirs du pays de
Koush, ils l'auraient remarqué. Enfin, Cléopatre VII était
Macédonienne, descendante du général Ptolémée, compagnon d'Alexandre
le Grand, et ni ses amis ni ses ennemis ne l'ont jamais décrite comme
Noire. L'origine de toutes les affirmations surprenantes de Lilian
Thuram se trouve en réalité dans les sites communautaristes afro-
américains, passablement fantaisistes, où l'on prétend aussi que
Socrate ou Beethoven étaient Noirs. Ce livre a donc raison de rappeler
l'importance des musiciens de Jazz noirs, mais pour une large part,
ils est historiquement ridicule.

2 sur 8 personnes ont trouvé ce commentaire utile.

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Coups de cœur des vendeurs : 3 avis en ligne

KARINE de FNAC Avignon - Le Pontet
International pas pour rien...

Le footballeur, Lilian thuram créé en 2008 sa propre fondation contre
le racisme. Son parcours d'homme engagé a été inspiré par différentes
personnalités. Il nous les présente ici, telles des étoiles qui ont
guidé sa vie mais aussi éclairé notre socièté afin d'éviter la
victimisation et déconstruire le racisme.

MARYLISE de FNAC Avignon
indispensable

Selon Lilian Thuram, l'enseignement n'évoquait que des blancs dans ses
leçons, les seuls noirs étaient des esclaves. En dressant les
portraits des personnalités noires qui ont marqué l'histoire mondiale
l'auteur lutte contre les préjugés raciaux.

EMILIE de FNAC Saint-Maximin
Une autre image des Noirs

Le portrait de 40 personnalités noires qui ont marqué l'histoire :
Toussaint-Louverture, Aimé Césaire, Alexandre Pouchkine, Billie
Holiday, Mohammed Ali, Martin Luther King, etc. Cet ouvrage permet à
Lilian Thuram de casser certains préjugés raciaux. Le Mot de
l'éditeur : Mes étoiles noires

Que savons-nous de l’histoire des peuples noirs ?
Dans quel contexte avons-nous entendu parler des grands héros noirs
pour la première fois ?

De la Préhistoire – les plus vieux ossements humains ont été
découverts en Afrique – aux temps modernes, le Noir ne vécut pas que
de larmes et d’armes. Qui sait que le Grec Ésope, inspirateur des
fables de La Fontaine, était d’origine africaine ?

Que certains Pharaons d’Égypte étaient noirs ?

Qui connaît l’existence de la Charte du Manden, la première
déclaration des droits de l’homme, théorisée au Mali cinq cent
soixante-sept ans avant la nôtre ?

Qui sait que le grand poète russe Pouchkine était d’origine
camerounaise ? Que le Noir Matthew Henson fut le premier conquérant du
pôle Nord ?

Que de nombreux chercheurs noirs sont à l’origine de ce qui fait notre
quotidien, comme par exemple la transfusion sanguine, les feux de
circulation ou l’antenne parabolique ?

Destiné à tous les publics, cet ouvrage raconte le destin d’environ 40
personnages noirs qui ont aidés Lilian Thuram à forger son estime de
soi, à éviter la victimisation et à déconstruire le racisme. Ces
portraits de femmes et d’hommes de tous les temps sont fondés sur les
lectures et les entretiens de l’auteur avec des spécialistes et des
historiens. Cet ouvrage est écrit en collaboration avec Bernard
Fillaire qui témoigne :

« À travailler à ce livre avec Lilian Thuram, j’ai découvert un homme
qui sait de quoi il parle, et qui parle pour tout le monde. J’ai
débarqué dans un continent où j’ai été très bien accueilli : Toussaint-
Louverture, Césaire, Billie Holiday, Mohammed Ali, Luther King… vous
réconcilient avec vous-même. Un émerveillement. Il me semble que tout
lecteur de ce livre grandira de quelques centimètres. »

Un livre engagé, un exercice d’admiration, au bénéfice de tous.

Lilian Thuram, âgé de 37 ans, a connu une carrière prestigieuse de
footballeur international : champion du monde en 1998, champion
d’Europe en 2000, vice-champion du monde en 2006, ainsi que de
nombreux titres en club. Il détient le record de 142 sélections en
équipe de France. Il a créé en 2008 la

« Fondation Lilian Thuram, éducation contre le racisme ».

thuram.org

http://livre.fnac.com/a2712071/Lilian-Thuram-Mes-etoiles-noires?SID=3773083d%2Da90d%2D73b2%2D3ff8%2D505ba036af48&UID=0a428bc7d%2D5282%2D2477%2D2190%2D8bf7a7ae6ef2&Origin=fnac%5Fyahoo%5Fhome&OrderInSession=1&TTL=140220101705?PID=80651&bl=HGLIpdg4

Chicago-ballade
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Essai (broché). Paru en 04/2009

Expédié sous 2 à 4 jours..

Chicago-Ballade est une plongée au cœur du Chicago des années 20 et
une exploration des dessous de l’un des mythes qui lui est associé, le
gangster. Au lendemain de la promulgation de la loi Volstead qui
instaure la prohibition, le crime organisé fait main basse sur la
ville et fait régner la...

Chicago-Ballade est une plongée au cœur du Chicago des années 20 et
une exploration des dessous de l’un des mythes qui lui est associé, le
gangster. Au lendemain de la promulgation de la loi Volstead qui
instaure la prohibition, le crime organisé fait main basse sur la
ville et fait régner la terreur. Les circonstances permettent à Al
Capone d’accéder à la tête du réseau de contrebandiers qu’il érige
rapidement en véritable empire industriel. A travers cet essai, H.M.
Enzensberger revient sur l’ascension fulgurante de ce grand magnat du
crime et tente de dévoiler les arcanes de la société secrète dans
laquelle il évolue. La figure mythologique du gangster n’est pas née
ex-nihilo. Elle n’a pu voir le jour qu’à cet instant précis de
l’histoire, caractérisé par un marasme politique et une économie
moribonde, portée par l’assentiment et l’inconscient de la société
américaine de l’époque.

Fiche détaillée : Chicago-ballade
Auteur Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Editeur Allia
Date de parution avril 2009
ISBN 2844853056
Illustration Pas d'illustrations

Le Mot de l'éditeur : Chicago-ballade

Chicago-Ballade est une plongée au cœur du Chicago des années 20 et
une exploration des dessous de l’un des mythes qui lui est associé, le
gangster. Au lendemain de la promulgation de la loi Volstead qui
instaure la prohibition, le crime organisé fait main basse sur la
ville et fait régner la terreur. Les circonstances permettent à Al
Capone d’accéder à la tête du réseau de contrebandiers qu’il érige
rapidement en véritable empire industriel. A travers cet essai, H.M.
Enzensberger revient sur l’ascension fulgurante de ce grand magnat du
crime et tente de dévoiler les arcanes de la société secrète dans
laquelle il évolue. La figure mythologique du gangster n’est pas née
ex-nihilo. Elle n’a pu voir le jour qu’à cet instant précis de
l’histoire, caractérisé par un marasme politique et une économie
moribonde, portée par l’assentiment et l’inconscient de la société
américaine de l’époque.

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Primo
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Lieu : Vert le Petit 91, Date : 22/12/2009
Rien de neuf

Date : 22/12/2009
L'ennui, c'est que ceux qui "dénoncent" et ironisent - à bon escient
au demeurant - appartiennent à la même tribu que leurs cibles, ou peu
s'en faut : disons qu'ils aspirent à la même visibilité médiatique
qu'elles. Cela se passe donc en famille et je ne me sens pas concerné
par des affaires de cette sorte. Il est clair que je n'ai pas eu
besoin de ces charges-là pour déceler la suffisance et les
insuffisances de nos "éditocrates" à la petite semaine, mais dans la
France de la médiocrité intellectuelle, il en est tellement d'autres
que les médias ont dûment bâté! Il suffit de les boycotter quand le
grand Mandrake télévisuel les fait apparaître, de ne pas entrer dans
leur clientèle, et c'est tout...

2 sur 2 personnes ont trouvé ce commentaire utile.
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Faites connaître cet avis : Générale : 1 sur 5

NedAllen
(lire tous ses avis)
Lieu : Gagny, Date : 19/12/2009

Dommage le thème était prometteur !
Date : 19/12/2009

Très déçu ! Un simple règlement de compte ...200 pages d'aigreur et de
frustration d'un collectif de journaleux en manque de visibilité. Une
jalousie maladive à l'égard de cette galerie d'éditocrates...le propos
perd finalement en crédibilité. Relent d'un gauchisme sectaire et
totalitaire. Dommage, le thème était pourtant prometteur et aurait
mérité de s'affranchir d'un cadre ultra politisé ! Manque sincèrement
de contenu critique. Finalement ce livre est autant saoulant que la
permanence usante de ces éditocrates...même rengaine, rien de neuf,
que de l'égo à la petite semaine Allez 1/5 pour l'idée

2 sur 4 personnes ont trouvé ce commentaire utile.
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Faites connaître cet avis : Générale : 5 sur 5

Maradona
(lire tous ses avis)
Lieu : Lyon, Date : 12/12/2009 Excellent défouloir!
Date : 12/12/2009

Un livre qui fait beaucoup de bien dans un paysage médiatique
complètement cerné par les incompétents et les professionnels de la
flagornerie!

4 sur 4 personnes ont trouvé ce commentaire utile.

http://livre.fnac.com/a2714090/Mona-Chollet-Les-editocrates?Fr=20&To=0&Ra=-1&from=201&mid=2615887#reviews

Libération de Sartre à Rotschild
Pierre Rimbert
Essai (poche). Paru en 11/2005

Expédié sous 4 à 8 jours

Fondé en 1973 par Jean-Paul Sartre, Libération voulait
« donner la parole au peuple »
et
« lutter contre le journalisme couché ».

Pour accomplir un tel projet, l’équipe du journal s’accordait sur
l’essentiel : pas de publicité, égalité des salaires, le capital aux
salariés. Au début des années 1980, Libération s’est lancé à la
conquête des annonceurs publicitaires et des cadres urbains à haut
revenu. Il a ouvert son capital. Le journal militant s’est transformé
en entreprise de presse, rachetée par le groupe Chargeur en 1996 puis
renflouée en 2005 par le banquier Édouard de Rothschild.

Depuis vingt-cinq ans, le quotidien camoufle son conservatisme
économique par ses « audaces »
culturelles. Car Libération fut aussi le laboratoire d’une
métamorphose. Celle d’une gauche
convertie au libéralisme, aiguillonnée par des médias eux-mêmes acquis
à ce nouveau culte. À
travers l’analyse d’un cas exemplaire, ce livre examine les ressorts
d’une révolution conservatrice
dans la vie intellectuelle française.

http://livre.fnac.com/a1744446/Pierre-Rimbert-Liberation-de-Sartre-a-Rotschild?Fr=20&To=0&Ra=-1&from=201&mid=2714090

L'état prédateur
John Kenneth Galbraith
Essai (broché). Paru en 09/2009

En Stock - Expédié sous 24h

Fiche détaillée : L'état prédateur
Auteur John Kenneth Galbraith
Editeur Seuil
Date de parution septembre 2009
Collection Economie Humaine
ISBN 2020998009
Illustration Pas d'illustrations

• Depuis trente ans, le culte du marché a dominé le discours
politique. Or, à l’aube du XXIe siècle, nous assistons en Amérique à
un drôle de chassé-croisé idéologique. Au moment où la gauche moderne
a presque achevé sa conversion au marché libre, la droite
conservatrice a définitivement abandonné cette idée. Des années Reagan
aux années Bush la droite conservatrice a transformé les États-Unis en
une République corporatiste où l’économie n’est plus régie par les
marchés libres mais par une coalition de puissants lobbies
industriels. Ces derniers sont soutenus par un État prédateur qui ne
cherche pas à limiter l’emprise du gouvernement sur l’économie, mais,
bien au contraire, à l’approfondir pour détourner les fonds publics et
l’action publique au profit d’intérêts privés. Si le discours officiel
est resté libéral, c’est pour masquer cette forme perverse d’étatisme.
La nouvelle gauche libérale s’est laissé contaminer par le culte du
marché libre qui n’a jamais été qu’un mythe instrumentalisé par ses
promoteurs. Elle serait bien inspirée de se désintoxiquer et de
comprendre enfin que les marchés n’apporteront aucune solution, à la
crise contemporaine, qui appelle au contraire la planification, le
contrôle public de la répartition des revenus et du financement de
l’économie.Même si les exemples historiques sont surtout tirés de
l’expérience américaine, l’auteur propose une analyse d’une portée
politique universelle. Il démontre comment un mythe politique peut
être entretenu à dessein par des acteurs qui n’y croient pas, parce
que cela sert leurs intérêts, et ce d’autant plus que leurs
adversaires politiques se mettent à y croire.

• James K. Galbraith est professeur d’économie à Lyndon B. Johnson
School of Public Affairs de l’Université du Texas (à Austin). Il est
aujourd’hui considéré comme l’un des chefs de file de l’économie
hétérodoxe.

http://livre.fnac.com/a2686282/John-Kenneth-Galbraith-L-etat-predateur?Fr=20&To=0&Ra=-1&from=201&mid=2714090

[chhotemianinshallah]

Jay Stevens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jay Stevens is a novelist, historian, and journalist with a special
interest in states of consciousness. He is the author of Storming
Heaven: LSD and the American Dream, and co-author of Drumming at the
Edge of Magic with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and
ethnomusicologist Fredric Lieberman. He lives most of the year on a
farm in Vermont, where he writes and continues the alchemical family
tradition of making maple syrup. At present he is finishing two
companion volumes to Storming Heaven entitled Burning Down the House
and Consciousness Wars.

Books by Jay Stevens

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (Grove Press 1998) ISBN
0-8021-3587-0
Drumming at the Edge of Magic (with Mickey Hart & Fredric Lieberman)
(1990 Harper San Francisco) ISBN 1-888358-18-1

Planet Drum: A Celebration of Percussion and Rhythm (with Mickey Hart
& Fredric Lieberman) (1998 Harper San Francisco) ISBN 1-888358-20-3

External links

Jay Stevens' website

This article about a United States writer of non-fiction is a stub.
You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e
This American novelist article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by
expanding it. v • d • e

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Stevens

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (Paperback)
~ Jay Stevens
Jay Stevens (Author)

(Author) "Had you asked your average hippie about beginnings, you
would have discovered there were as many as there were hippies-
everyone had a favorite chronology..." (more)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews
Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream

Average Customer Review
(34 customer reviews)

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
"Turn On" To This Fascinating Book!

I was born in 1960, so I was a little to young to appreciate the
"Summer Of Love", Haight-Ashbury and the entire late 60's counter-
culture movement. My fascination with that era began with Jimi Hendrix
and other musicians associate with it. Most of the social aspects I
was aware of were written by the "slanted" view of the media,
teachers, politicians and parents; not the...

Published on April 4, 2003 by "The Woj"

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A comfortably mediocre history of the 1960s

I'm at a loss to understand why everyone likes this books so much. One
guess is that that the "five star" rating reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself.
Personally, I find the historical and bibliographic breadth limited,
and the author's analysis and discussion of the events unfortunately
never gets beyond...

Published on July 3, 1999

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
"Turn On" To This Fascinating Book!, April 4, 2003
By "The Woj" (Downers Grove, IL) -

I was born in 1960, so I was a little to young to appreciate the
"Summer Of Love", Haight-Ashbury and the entire late 60's counter-
culture movement. My fascination with that era began with Jimi Hendrix
and other musicians associate with it. Most of the social aspects I
was aware of were written by the "slanted" view of the media,
teachers, politicians and parents; not the most objective of
viewpoints

When I heard about this book I picked it up ... ASAP and was not
disappointed. I will not go into lengthy discussions of this book like
other reviewers (or even spell all the words correctly). While
reading, Jay Stevens was placing me "there", "right there" where is
was all happening from Aldous Huxley, to Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.

The story unfolds "expertly" and the characters involved are so well
described, it feels like I've met them personally.

While much of the information is public knowledge, there are many
fascinating, generally unknown tidbits: from the CIA's LSD involvement
to insights on Leary & Kesey.
Anyone who holds any interest in this subject will not be disappointed
with this book. From someone who grew up on The Brady Bunch, The
Monkees & Happy Days....this book is a definite eye opener into a
cultural wave I wish I had been riding.... so "Turn On, Tune In & Get
This Book".

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
A Fascinating History, March 2, 2001
By nonamespecified -

It seems to me, as others have said, that the discovery of LSD ranks
up there with the top scientific discoveries of the century. The mere
fact alone that there exists a substance, 50 micrograms of which,
would be sufficient to perhaps reorient your entire life and
understanding of the universe, whether or not one ever actually tries
it, is well worth remembering on those occasions when we get a little
too self-preoccupied. This book documents the history of the reactions
of various individuals as they encountered this substance through an
amazingly varied set of contexts, and through an intricately woven web
of connections. I have a mild annoyance with the book in that the
author is relentless in his effort to remain 'above it all' and
regards everything with an amused and detached air. It is a puzzling
attitude in a way. But the stories he tells are all well-crafted and
make compelling reading. His lack of reflection on the ultimate
meaning of LSD for our view of what it is to be 'normal' may be quite
intentional, but it seems to give the book an unnecessarily
superficial orientation which I found a bit strange.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The Politics of Consciousness, January 17, 2006
By Mr Potato Head (Sierra Foothills CA) -

What if you could take a pill or otherwise ingest some substance that
would make you see your whole world totally differently than you have
seen it before? How do you think your life would change, or would you
be any different at all?

As we all know, even if we weren't there...this is a large part of
what the 1960's were about. And this book provides a window into the
web of events and players that emerged during that turbulent time in
our evolution. In my view, it presents an unbiased social history of
consciousness expanding chemistry and it's consequences on the human
mind and by extension, upon the greater society as a whole. The author
uses scenes that are vivid and intimate into the players that had
major roles in this upheaval of the status qou - Tim Leary, Allen
Ginsberg, Richard Alpert(aka. Ram Dass), Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey,
Aldous Huxley, to name just a few. And of course, they all had their
own opinions on how the revolution was to proceed, with frequent
disagreements. There is also considerable light shed on the fact that
LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and other compounds were being used with
considerable effectiveness within parts of the psychoanalytic
community for several years before the powers that be came in and put
them back in the box. But even if they hadn't passed laws against
these tools, it would have eventually come crashing down of it's own
weight. In the end, it was too radical a departure from the societal
norms and the movement itself had no real leaders. Leadership was
anathema to the revolution, the paradox being that authority was what
was being disempowered. The result is that the dream spiraled out of
control and we eventually ended up with Ronald Raygun as President and
we haven't quite been the same since.

The central question posed by this book seems to be: Who is the
ultimate arbiter of what you do with your consciousness? I would
suggest that if your answer involves anyone or anything outside your
self, then you are not truely free.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A very thorough and valuable history of the early years, May 6, 2001
By Martian Bachelor (Feminacentric America) -

This investigative tour de force covers in great detail the years from
1943 (and a little before) up through the LSD hysteria circa 1965-7.
I'm marking it down a star because of its inexplicable lack of an
index, which greatly reduces its value as a research reference --
which it surely deserves to be. There are so many biographies trying
to be told simultaneously here that it sometimes got a bit confusing.
It also tends to go off on occasional tangents, digressing at what to
me seemed like too great a length regarding some of the characters of
the story which (again) to me seemed more like minor ones not worth
the many background pages devoted to them. But those are rather small
quibbles really.
Stevens is pretty good at keeping central issues front and center as
events unfold: eg, how the psychological models evolved over time, and
the socio-political question of whether the power of this amazing
molecule was for the masses or just for the few -- both of which
became more or less moot as events over-ran things.

I liked "Acid Dreams" a microgram or two more than this book, probably
because it emphasizes cultural rather than personal history more, but
still had a difficult time putting "Storming Heaven" down for very
long. It's extremely information-rich and well-written -- it's rather
dispassionately objective while still being interesting. It would
probably only disappoint those looking for simple answers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
It pulls all of the loose ends together, September 28, 2005
By Umberto (Kansas City) -

The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey to visit the
people, places, and cultures of the psychedelic movement. This book
contains interesting inside information about Albert Hoffman, Aldous
Huxley, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg,
Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Owsley, and a myriad of minor players whose
names are fading into history. The story is chronicled from the Swiss
Labs where LSD was first discovered to its legitimate use in the
psychiatric profession to the artistic salons of the 50's to Harvard
to the native villages of Mexico to Leary's temporary home at the
Millbrook mansion to Kesey's Prankster hang-out in La Honda to the
Haight-Ashbury to the streets of America. An enjoyable peek into
diverse cultures from the psychiatric clinicians to world renowned
authors and artisans to the faculty of Harvard and Berkley to pre-
Columbian mushroom cults to the Beat poets to the Hell's Angels to the
Hippies. It is The Doors of Perception, The Psychedelic Experience, On
the Road, Howl, Holy Goof, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Living
with the Dead all rolled into one. Exhaustively researched, a very
entertaining read from front to back. Like the era that it chronicles,
I hated for the book to end.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Five stars plus, January 6, 2007
By Brian P. Akers -

It is no fluke that this book has an average rating of five stars from
amazon.com readers. This is simply one of the most informative,
enjoyable and engaging presentations ever written on the subject of
hallucinogenic drugs in modern history, and how they made their way
from the obscurity of laboratories and clinical research to become a
fixture in the counterculture of the 1960's and beyond. The
complexities of the story make it a formidable challenge for any
narrator, but Stevens proves easily equal to the task. In the pages of
this book, the reader is introduced to the dramatis personae with an
immediacy as though meeting them in person. Many of the facts
discussed herein have been recounted before by many capable others.
But never have they been put into such a vivid and vibrant perspective
as this, so thorough and rich with nuance. That's important because
the depths of this story, stranger as it is than any fiction, are
where its meaning emerges most clearly. Ever since the impact of LSD
and its profound, pervasive influences on our life and times, modern
society will never be the same. And it is impossible to imagine what
popular culture would now be like without the psychedelic revolution
of the 20th century. "Storming Heaven" offers the best single account
of how and why this is so. This is a real page-turner, very difficult
to put down, and is highly recommended for the interested reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Rare Insight into Drugs & Counterculture in the Postwar US, January
6, 1998
By A Customer

This review is from: Storming Heaven: Lsd and the American Dream
(Hardcover)
Stevens transports us to times and places that *should* be alien, and
*should* be unusual, but instead takes us into parlors, labs, music
halls, and jungles to give us what sounds and tastes like the real
poop on how, and more importantly, why a drug culture was so
ferociously and speedily born in postwar America. So real are his
profiles, and so uncharacteristically down to earth compared to the
other well known and more academic studies of the genre, that we, as
readers, can easily see and identify with why Hoffman, the Wassons,
Alpert, Leary, Huxley, et al took to these unique alkaloids in an
ongoing attempt to seek new truths, often to to validate inner
yearnings. Stevens feels like he was there, and so will you. If
nothing else, "Storming Heaven" is a great read simply because Stevens
is so very, very *on*. A must read if you are even remotely interested
in the modern drug phenomenon, with a few bonuses of drugs in history
(and theory) thrown in for good measure. I lent my copy out four years
ago, never got it back, and have since regretted it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The Sixties, Microgram by Microgram, February 21, 2008
By JOHN J. MCGRAW "author of Brain & Belief" (Solana Beach, CA USA)
-

This is the definitive account of the 1960s psychedelic drug scene.
Stevens does a great job of conveying the highs and lows of LSD and
its proponents. His ability to relate endless facts while retaining a
fast-paced narrative structure is amazing. I found this one of the
most "addicting" books out there about the significance of drugs in
American culture. Stevens reviews all the major personalities: Albert
Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the
Grateful Dead, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, and more. If
you're interested in this electric decade, the power of psychedelics
to warp the mind, or any of the poet-prophets who were compelled to
experiment with and sing the praises of acid then this book is sure to
delight.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Quality journalistic-type writing, March 27, 2003
By Ross James Browne (Atlanta, Georgia United States) -

_Storming Heaven_ is a non-ficticious account of the history of the
spread of LSD in America and England during the 50's and 60's. It
gives detailed accounts of all of the major players in the early days
of the synthesization and distribution of this drug. It is not as
thoughtful or philosophical as I hoped, and has little to say about
the implications and nuances of the actual effects of the drug.
However, I came to accept this book for what it is, which is a matter-
of-fact description of how this drug progressed from the university
offices and laboratories to the streets of San Francisco. This book
has much to say about both the east-coast and west-coast acid scenes
of the 50's and 60's. In the east, you have Timothy Leary, Richard
Alpert, and Alan Watts, and their whole gang of weirdos hanging out in
an acid-soaked mansion in Millbrook NY. It is very interesting to read
about the(mis)adventures of these three men, all of whom (especially
Alan Watts) are gifted and accomplished writers. For those who are
fans of their work, _Storming Heaven_ is a must-read if for no other
reason than to get some idea of the formative influences of these
writers.

The west coast scene, in contrast, was less intellectual and more of a
free-for-all. Jay Stevens describes the exploits of Ken Kesey, and the
riders of his magic bus. Of course any discussion of Ken Kesey will
inevitably lead to a discussion of the Grateful Dead, and the
handiwork of their "chemist" mr. Owlsley. Stevens also covers the
involvement of the Hell's Angels in this west coast movement. All of
this makes for very entertaining, albeit light, reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
enthralled, February 5, 2000
By A Customer

Storming Heaven chronicles the advent of LSD (as well as many other
halucinagens) from its early days as a pharmaceutical curio to
indispensable ingredient of sixties social upheaval. In rich detail it
explains how, from the Sandoz pharmaceutical labs in Switzerland it
made its timely way to American shores where it found, in the form of
Timothy Leary, (and before him Aldous Huxley) its high priest.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Battle betwen God's Flesh and Green Money, September 6, 1999
By A Customer

Segue to the end: money wins. Personal greed (or some variant of
Maslow's hierarchy) triumphs over freedom of the mind. How pure these
early pioneers of mind expansion were in their intentions. And how
naive.
What kind of society could sustain a populace of blissed-out fun-
seeking consumer bees more bent on self-discovery than on collecting
and distributing green pollen? The answer to this question posed such
a threat to the established system that what resulted was no less than
a civil war, with one side winning a smashing victory.

Life in the trenches is so boring, we need our legal opiates to blot
out the meaninglessness. How dare a group of outsiders suggest an
alternative marketing channel! What would hapen to G.M., Seagram's,
the Papal seat, and the organized crime syndicates working in the
underground economy? Better to have a bloodless revolution (well,
almost...see Chicago in 1968 and Kent State University in 1970) than
to tolerate such an open threat to income production and distribution.

This book is a fine social study that is a "must" reading for anyone
who would attempt to explain the America we live in today. Going
beneath the headlines without sounding too much like Oliver Stone
opens up other interpretations of what happened and suggests what
could have been.

If you were born between 1945 and 1965 and want to know why you and
your friends are doing this instead of that, read this book. If you
are a student of modern American history, read this book. I have read
it three time since it was first published (just finished it again),
and as a baby-boomer born in 1952, I can appreciate just how close to
the mark the author makes his shot.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
An incredible slice of modern history, November 13, 2009
By J. C. Walker (London, UK) -

Storming Heaven is a book that will forever stay dear to my heart as
it literally changed my life. I can't expect anyone else to have the
same experience I did, and it changed it in a way you probably
wouldn't imagine, but I can definitely recommend you this book and say
it is a fantastic read. Jay Stevens has written a completely non-
sensationalistic, thoroughly researched and extremely compelling
account of a chapter in modern history that has, unfortunately, become
distorted in contemporary consciousness. This book doesn't create a
rose-tinted view of the American 60's cultural revolution, but instead
unearths its roots, explores its good side and bad, and never forgets
to remain dogged in pursuit of the truth. That isn't to say that the
book is dry, far from it, this is a page-turner that will ultimately
break your heart.

The story contained within is fascinating, far broader than mere drug
experiences and filled with unforgettable characters. It is an
incredible history lesson about a recent time you probably thought you
already understood, but after reading this, will realize you didn't.
If you have any interest in modern history, American culture, or
indeed the potent chemical mentioned in the book's title, this is
*essential* reading.

It expanded my perceptions without the use of drugs, I hope it will do
the same for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superb analysis of the causes of the Sixties phenomenon, June 2,
2009
By Morley Chalmers (Toronto, Ontario Canada) -

What a fabulous piece of writing Storming Heaven is! Simply superb. It
helped connect the dots on that incredible decade, the Sixties, like
nothing I've ever seen before. The rise, the cresting, and the fall.
Greatly appreciated

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Superb, August 3, 2008
By Alistair. S. Praties "Buzzardwarrior" (Edinburgh, Scotland) -

This is one of the best books I have read -certainly the best in the
category of social history. Jay Stevens has researched his material
meticulously and has delivered the narrative in a most enthralling
manner. I found it hard to lay the book down. Whether, like me, you
lived through the psychedelic experience of the sixties or you have
but a passive interest, you will be amazed to learn of the full impact
that the psychedelic culture has had on Western society, religion and
philosophy -right through to the chemical hedonism of today.
This is truly a superb read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Gotta throw in my five stars too-, July 1, 1999
By A Customer

Fascinating history of psychedelic drugs that weaves it's way through
pharmacology, psychiatry, academia and ends up in the middle of Haight
Street... Mr. Stevens beautifully summarizes the cultural mindset of
the 50's and 60's. What amazes me is how fast everything soured... I
can't say enough good things about this book. What a trip...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Tune in, turn on, drop out!, March 8, 2008
By Doc Smiley (Studio City, CA USA) -

I bought this on the recommendation of Dr. Stanley Krippner in a
lecture on ayahuasca. It is absolutely the best book I have read on
the history of the psychedelic movement during the past 100 years or
so. Timothy Leary is not dead - he's only outside looking in. :-)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An absolute gem!, July 28, 2000
By Richard J Murphy (London) -

I loved this book. It had me gripped to it from start to finish. It
facinated, humoured and impired me. If you have any interest in this
remarkable substance and the psycho-social revolution it unleased then
buy this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
a missing part of american culture revealed, March 20, 2000
By Tim Shortnacy "followingthepath" (round rock, texas... just north
of austin..) - See all my reviews

if they taught this kind of history in school, I don't think i would
have ever been bored enough to draw stupid comics of stick figures
running about the pages of my notes and classwork.... a truly
inspiring journey into the souls of some truly brave people in their
journey to break on through.....

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
read this now, you are late, March 18, 2000
By A Customer

This book is a fair account of the affects and consequenses of mature
ingestion of the chemical Lysergic acid---please read thids book it is
an eye opener for the skeptic--get it in the library first if you
doubt this quick review.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Once one begins Storming Heaven one can't put it down, March 29,
1999
By A Customer

Storming Heaven is by far the most informative and comprehensive work
I have ever read about the 60's Psychdelic movement! A breathtaking
roller coaster ride down the steep inclines of the human psyche. If
this subject at all perks your interest you won't be able to put it
down!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Real Mind Opener, May 29, 1998
By John Walker (j.c.w...@bigfoot.com) (Sheffield, UK) -

This review is from: Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
(Paperback)
This is a brilliantly researched and executed book. It will change
your view on a lot of things (from religion from politics). There is a
LOT more to this book than just LSD, it is an expose on an incredible
(and misunderstood) time in recent history. This is a brilliant book.
I assure you it is worth your time and effort. Grab a copy if you ever
see it. It WILL open your mind.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Best History of the Psychedelic Movement, May 26, 1996
By A Customer

This review is from: Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
(Paperback)
If you read the literature on the psychedelic movement widely enough,
it can all become a bit of a jumble -- "Hey, haven't I read about this
same party in four different memoirs?" Jay Stevens does a wonderful
service by telling this incredibly complex tale with grace, economy
and clarity. He's fair, compassionate, and unlike a lot of other
people who have written about the counterculture lately, he "gets
it."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
lost history, August 22, 2007
By j0e_x (Canopus) -

This should be required reading in American History. Who knew Canada
had legal LSD centers? And the characters- Nin, Huxley, Kesey, Leary
and Capt.Al Hubbard (??). Will we ever see their like again? Really a
very sad story, and a fascinating one. Nice to see the Chief Boo Hoo,
old Art Kleps in there as well. Sen. Kennedy: "Is your title really
Chief Boo Hoo?" Art Kleps: "I'm afraid so, sir."

An Exceptional Weave of an Interesting History, January 16, 2003
By Norm Zurawski (Millington, NJ United States) -

In the spirit of the subject matter, the best word to describe this
book is...cool. The author appears to have a genuine desire to
objectively explore the history, for better or worse, of LSD and its
role in American culture. Stevens does not approach this work being
for nor against LSD. He just looks. As a result, this book comes out
with flying colors...pun intended.

This book is a diamond in the rough for those who wish to take that
same exploratory approach in reading about LSD and the history of this
potent and controversial drug. It's not geared for people who are
vehemently pro/anti LSD. Preconceived notions should be checked at the
door before embarking on this adventure.

Stevens looks at LSD from its very beginnings, where characters such
as Hoffman, Osmond, and Huxley help pave the way for much of what
comes later in the book. As the narrative moves on, familiar names
such as Ginsberg, Leary, Burroughs, Kerouac, Alpert, Metzner, Kesey,
Cassady, Weil, Watts, and Wolfe, among others, enter and exit the
stage like bit actors in this great showcase. If you've ever been
enamored with the doings of any of those names, this book weaves a
pattern from threads of various legacies in one fascinating tapestry.

As a caveat to the above paragraph, none of those characters is
covered in much detail, with the exception of Timothy Leary. This is
more a result of Leary's intense involvement with the scene than
Stevens' focusing on one extraordinary character. Some of those people
(Burroughs, for instance) make very brief but interesting
appearances.

In addition to those mentioned, many unknown but intriguing characters
fill the pages of this book. More than likely, every one of them will
lead you to read on, until another name segues into the narrative.
Stevens does a great job researching this story and presenting it to
the reader in one piece.

Every time I review a book I do my best to find something which was
lacking, no matter how much I enjoyed it. In this particular case, I
have a hard time pinpointing anything to find fault with. The only
complaint I might have is that it was too short. One imagines that
pages and pages of material never made it to press and it's a shame
this book had to end where it did. I would have kept reading if it
were twice as long.

I do have to cede a point that one other reviewer makes. He comments
that the prevalence of 5 star ratings, "reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself." I do
have to lend some credence to that point and admit that this may be
true. However, as this subject matter is relatively new to me, the
book still rates 5 stars in terms of an introduction to the subject.
As a history on the subject, it's the role of the author to tell the
story, and Stevens does that well.

In all, a great read. A fascinating perspective brought to you by
someone trying to elucidate the ups and downs of LSD and the movement
it helped create. Again, this is not going to be a favorite of the pro-
LSD hippie or the anti-drug conservative. But for those of you who
want a fairly balanced, comprehensive view of the history of LSD and
how it influenced culture in America, I strongly recommend this book.

Very well done.

A trip, October 13, 2000
By Jay Stevens (Missoula, MT) -

Let's get a couple of things straight: No, I am not the author. No,
I'm not related to the author. So despite the name, I think I'm pretty
unbiased, although some might think otherwise after reading the
following glowing review of Jay Stevens' book, "Storming Heaven."
This was a great book.

Mr. Stevens tracks LSD from its inception through San Francisco's "the
Summer of Love" in late 60s. He artfully describes the discovery of
the drug and its effect on the psychologists who first used it on
their patients and on themselves. He introduces Alduous Huxley, Tim
Leary, and Ken Kesey-the pied pipers of LSD-and explains their
fascination for psychedelics. He discusses the drug's decline, its
unpopularity with government officials, its abuse by "untrained"
American kids, and the progressive marginalization of the drug's
"prophets." And all the while, Stevens skillfully gives voice to the
drug's proponents' vision of a "metal frontier" to be crossed using
LSD, pushing human beings along the evolutionary path.

It is clear from Mr. Stevens' book that LSD played a major role in the
fundamental changes wrought in the 1960s. LSD tore down personal
constructs and unveiled egos. LSD gave everyday Americans a chance to
experience mystical visions. LSD gave many new insight into the nature
of being. It was a psychological drug, and explains why most of the
social change that occurred in the 1960s was psychological in nature.

But while Mr. Stevens in his Epilogue seems to laud the continuation
of psychological exploration by a handful of "inner" explorers who use
a series of newly developed designer psychedelics, I think he
misrepresents the importance of these drugs.

First, the assumption that LSD will lead man (and woman) along the
evolutionary path assumes that this path is straight and pointed in a
forward direction. That is, that evolution is a natural process from
simple to complex, from amoebas to man and beyond. Instead, science
now concludes that evolution is more of a willy-nilly process. Species
constantly bloom a number of seemingly useless mutations, and changes
in environment conditions dictate which mutation reigns supreme. After
all, it seems that the next species to inherit the planet is likely to
be the cockroach, for the cockroach has the rigor and hardiness to
withstand the destruction of the planet by humans. And cockroaches are
hardly superior in intelligence or complexity.

Second, is the assumption that LSD can "lead" us anywhere. While LSD
gives visions, reveals fundamental truths about personality, it
doesn't change anything. It's up to the individual in the end to enact
change, to mutate. We only have to look at the example of Tim Leary to
realize this. While Mr. Leary was turned on to the drug and believed
its in therapeutic value, in the text he remained a womanizing,
upperly-mobile egoist; he just traded in his tweed for buckskin, and
academia for psychedelia.

Basically LSD is a shortcut. It's a quick-fix buzz. In that way, it's
the ideal substance for America. "Vision in a can." "Become a mystic
in 12 easy hours." I would've liked to Mr. Stevens explore this facet
of LSD a little more. But he seems to be totally enchanted with the
cosmic possibilities...

In any case, the writing is superb. It's the perfect book to read to
begin exploring the important texts of the 20th century bohemian
movement. Read this alongside "Brave New World," "One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest," "On the Road," "Electric Cool-Aid Acid Test," and
"Howl," among other texts.

Technicolored Masterpiece of a Maelstrom, January 8, 2000
By Ian Hough (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts) -

This is very likely the best book I have ever read. It gave me a taste
for any non-fiction which is written in "story" form. Jay Stevens
leads us down a realistic but picturesque garden path, stopping at
many points along the way to point out the more fascinating
individuals and descriptions of the world, created by this incredible
chemical. He quotes one voyager as saying "I was struck more by its
strangeness than its beauty." Obviously a man with some experience of
that other world, Stevens is slick as well as humane in his treatment
of what it did to a generation, and what happened to them when it was
over. From the moment Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested the stuff
in Basle, to the studious setting of Huxley's awakening, to Tim Leary
and his anti-establishment stance in the bowels of Harvard, to Allen
Ginsberg's being born again, and on into the psychological armageddon
beyond Altamont, Stevens' voice never wavers, but becomes ever
clearer, more colorful and true. I lay on a bed for two days straight
and read this big book. It was a trip, and the volume stands in a very
convenient spot on my bookshelf. It shines.

Superb in every way, May 1, 1999
By A Customer

This is simply one of the greatest works of non-fiction, and I only
stop there because it's so difficult to categorize. History,
biography, science and sociology seamlessly mingle in some of the most
ecstatic -- yet not over-the-top -- prose one is likely to encounter.
This is one of those books that you are truly sad to see end, so rich
is Stevens' portrayal of a time and its remarkable characters, Leary
and Kesey foremost among them. For once a book that deserves the
epithet 'remarkable'.

Excellent Psychedelic History, September 30, 1998
By A Customer

This book is pure information. And I cannot get enough of it.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A comfortably mediocre history of the 1960s, July 3, 1999
By A Customer

I'm at a loss to understand why everyone likes this books so much. One
guess is that that the "five star" rating reflects the weirdness and
coolness of the events portrayed rather than the history itself.
Personally, I find the historical and bibliographic breadth limited,
and the author's analysis and discussion of the events unfortunately
never gets beyond the obvious. A somewhat better bet is Acid Dreams by
Lee and Shlain.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The book itself is mind-expanding!, June 18, 1999
By A Customer

Obviously, the subject of LSD is a touchy one, yet Jay Stevens'
painstaking research gains the trust of the reader early and maintains
it throughout. I am a chemist, and he describes the circumstances
surrounding the discovery of LSD perfectly. My father is a
psychologist, and he was surprised at Jay Stevens' insights into the
state of psychological research in the post-war era. This book is much
more of a social history than it is a history of LSD- I only wish Jay
Stevens would write more books.

of 2 people found the following review helpful:
For those that were there and for those that were not there!, May 18,
1999
By god...@aol.com (Las Vegas, Nevada) -

An amazing compilation of the scene! If you took the psychedelic
drugs, you were blown away by what was happening. If you didn't take
the psychedelic drugs, I hope you were blown away by what was
happening. If you weren't taking the drugs and/or weren't blown away,
then read this book, it is your last chance. War, Karma, Instant
Nirvana, the nature of consciousness and mental illness...It is your
mind; examine it!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Allowing "Generation X " to understand "Generation?", September 30,
1997
By A Customer

This review is from: Storming Heaven: Lsd and the American Dream
(Hardcover)
When generation X looks back on the past, it's easy to get the
picture. Cheech and Chong and Woodstock right? Jay Stevens who
obviously feels this stereotyping is getting out of hand, sends us 19
to 30 range on a magic carpet ride. Storming Heaven distributes the
controversial substance LSD in a form uunlike most non fiction.
Labratories and bordellos, parks and experiments come to life, while
Stevens carefully rations narcotic expertise with historical fact.
This books provides anyone wanting crystal clear perspective about LSD
as well as history in the last half century. Right down to the bicycle
ride home.(I'll let you find out)

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Very good but ignores many facets of certain indivuals, February 10,
2007
By Cwn_Annwn (Copenhagen, Denmark) -

This was a very good book. You get lots of interesting stuff about
Aldous Huxley, the famous beat writers, Owsley, Timothy Leary, Ken
Kesey and the evolution of the so called counterculture as a whole.

The problems that I have with Storming Heaven is not for what was in
it but what was left out. For one Stevens was WAY too easy on Timothy
Leary. The author seemed almost like a school girl with a crush when
he recounts his visit to Learys home for an interview for the book. He
comes off more as a fan than he does an objective writer at times when
he deals with Leary. Why wasn't it mentioned that it has come out that
Leary was a government informant and information he gave led to the
death of two members of the Weather Underground? Its also a known fact
that Leary was surrounded by CIA assets and there is a lot of evidence
that he was a government agent himself, and at the least he was
feeding them information.

There is also a fleeting mention that wasn't elaborated on about Ken
Kesey that he had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy
that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This
really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history
that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole
from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a
mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. Kesey
went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the
1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another
thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains
and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra
programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey
was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA
in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my
mind about Kesey.

They also fleetingly mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who were
major LSD distributors and were known to be full of CIA people and had
a close association with a Jewish man named Ron Starks who was a CIA
spook that also happened to the biggest LSD dealer in the world.
Starks was not even given the first mention in this book!

I mean with all these ivy league, Mkultra and CIA connections to the
elites of the so called counterculture I have to seriously wonder how
much of the hippy movement of the late 60's was an organic rebellion
against what was (and still is) a very repressive society both
socially and politically and how much of it was intentional social
engineering that came from the highest levels of the power structure.
Many people believe that the anti-war movement was flooded with drugs,
in particular LSD, by federal agents. Its well known that the
government tried to subvert and destroy the anti-war movement with the
cointelpro program so why wouldn't they also use drugs to try to
destroy it? While it can't be denied that LSD has enhanced many an
artist, writer and musicians work can you honestly say that sitting
around frying on acid all the time is going to do anything but disable
political activists who in many cases were in a life and death
struggle? Besides that the fact remains that many people became
permanently damaged as result of doing acid.

All that said I would definitely recomend reading or of you can get it
cheap, buying Storming Heaven. I could hardly put it down once I
started reading it. I realize that this book was more geared toward
looking into what psychelic drugs can do with the mind and its
exponents history and theories on the subject than any conspiratorial
maneuverings by the US government involving LSD but it just didn't go
deep enough into the rabbit hole for my tastes.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Entheogens: Professional Listing, April 30, 1999
By A Customer

"Storming Heaven" has been selected for listing in "Religion and
Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy".

http://www.amazon.com/Storming-Heaven-LSD-American-Dream/product-reviews/0802135870/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

http://jaystevens.com/

Rational and Irrational Beliefs: Research, Theory, and Clinical
Practice (Hardcover)
~ Daniel David (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn (Editor), Albert Ellis
(Editor)

Ethical Educational Leadership in Turbulent Times: (Re) Solving Moral
Dilemmas (Paperback)
~ Joan Poliner Shapiro
Joan Poliner Shapiro (Author)

(Author), Steven Jay Gross (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews
Ethical Educational Leadership in Turbulent Times: (Re) Solving Moral
Dilemmas

(1 customer review)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
ethical framework, February 18, 2008
By Jolanta M. Smolen -

Since I'm taking a class that requires this book, it was not a free
choice of book. However, so far it's proving to be an interesting
framework for ethics in education.

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Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence
(Hardcover)
~ Etzel Cardena (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn (Editor), Stanley C.
Krippner (Editor)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews
Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence

(6 customer reviews)

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
This book is a gem., June 19, 2000
By Sharon S. (Bethesda, MD) -

How fortunate we are to now have in one volume a comprehensive and
scholarly review of the scientific evidence for anomalous experiences.
The fascinating subject matter of this book includes such diverse
phenomena as lucid dreaming, out of body experiences, past life
experiences, and alien abduction. What makes this book different from
other treatments of some of these topics is that the authors have no
hidden agenda or viewpoint that they are trying to put forth. They are
not trying to convince you that something does or does not exist.
Instead it is an even-handed look at the available data and various
competing explanations. And even though it is a scholarly review, it
is well written, engaging, and easy-to-read. Varieties of Anomalous
Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence belongs on the bookshelf
of anyone who has an interest in understanding and explaining these
unusual phenomena. You won't be disappointed.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Essential Reading on the Topic, August 7, 2002
By James S. Taylor (Scarborough, Ontario Canada) -

Books surveying anomalous experience have tended to come from the
skeptic side of the fence and have leaned toward the debunking end of
the spectrum. While they have their uses, there's always the nagging
suspicion that they might not be fair to all the evidence. While this
book isn't as easy reading as those of the skeptics, it really shoots
at being a balanced examination of the evidence, pro and con, with
intelligent discussion about where the weight of what we know falls.
Each chapter tackles one anomalous phenomenon and follows a consistant
structure. First, the experience is clearly defined so that we know
what is and is not being addressed. Then, the actual phenomenology of
the phenomenon out in the field is surveyed. Since the book is geared
toward those in the psychological and helping professions, the
emotional, physical, and mental aftereffects of having the experience
are then examined. The range of differences between experients is
presented,then issues involving psychopathology, clinical assessment,
background theories, and methodology of research are shown. Each
chapter is written by an authority on that specific phenomenon and
they provide a summation conclusion at the end where they render their
professional judgment on the topic. If you're looking for a
sensational or spooky handling of the subjects, this isn't your book;
but if you want a very level headed analysis of what is happening in
these fields of research, you need to be familiar with this work. Even
better, each chapter provides pages worth of bibliography, pro and
con, on each subject, that will keep you going for years.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Psychology and parapsychology, February 24, 2007
By Sean K. Sayers Montalvo -

Excellent book. I never thought that it could have been posible to
explain parapsychology and psychology in the light of each other. It
has been a great text book for one of my courses. It has helped to
create a more in depth vision of the relationship between both areas.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Look No Further, Seek No Other;, March 24, 2004
By A Customer

What a delight, I first became interested in the paranormal and this
weird stuff after reading Jerry D. Coleman's "Strange Highways" and
was very glad to see that another book such as "Varieties of Anomalous
Experience" could be on the same tone, meaning, well written,
informative and most important left up to me to decide and draw my own
conclusions! Great book, a wonderful read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Varieties of Anomalous Experience., February 23, 2009
By New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) -

_Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific
Evidence_, first published in 2000 by the American Psychological
Association, and edited by psychologists Etzel Cardena, Steven Jay
Lynn, and Stanley Krippner is a collection of various essays examining
experiences which may be classified as "anomalous" from the
perspective of psychological science. The title for this book is
derived from a similar book written by the famous psychologist and
philosopher William James entitled _The Varieties of Religious
Experience_ which examined varieties of religious experience from the
perspective of a psychologist. This book considers anomalous
experience to be defined as "an uncommon experience (e.g. synesthesia)
or one that, although it may be experienced by a substantial amount of
the population (e.g., experiences interpreted as telepathic), is
believed to deviate from ordinary experience or from the usually
accepted explanations of reality." Anomalous experiences are thus
considered in light of "unusual people", parapsychological phenomena,
altered states of consciousness, and psychopathology or abnormal
psychology, and in terms of various cultural factors. In the current
culture, there is widespread mention of such experiences (through for
example such television programs as _The X-Files_) and in the past
science has frequently taken a hostile view to such experiences,
arguing for skepticism. This book however is unique in that all
viewpoints including non-skeptical ones are given a full hearing.
Also, many of the articles that appear in this book take a sympathetic
approach to non-skeptical interpretations of anomalous experiences.

This first article to appear in this book is entitled "Introduction:
Anomalous Experiences in Perspective" by the editors Etzel Cardena,
Steven Jay Lynn, and Stanley Krippner. This article defines the terms
"anomalous" and "anomalous experience" and provides an understanding
of what is meant by such experiences. It then provides a history of
the study of anomalous experiences and provides some detailed critique
of investigations into such topics as parapsychology. Then appears the
outline for the chapters in the book and finally the purpose of the
book mentioning reasons why one might study anomalous experiences and
concluding that a psychology that takes the challenge of William James
to build a comprehensive study of human experience must also examine
those experiences which may be considered anomalous.

Section I of this book is entitled "Conceptual and Methodological
Issues". The first article in this section is entitled "Anomalous
Experiences, Peculiarity, and Psychopathology" by Howard Berenbaum,
John Kerns, and Chitra Raghavan and considers the role of peculiarity
and psychopathology and their possible relationships to those who have
anomalous experiences. The second article is entitled "Methodological
Issues in the Study of Altered States of Consciousness and Anomalous
Experiences" by Ronald J. Pekala and Etzel Cardena and provides an
examination of some methodological issues in the study of altered
states of consciousness and anomalous experiences including
phenomenological and psychophenomenological approaches to these
issues. The authors conclude this article with some recommendations
for researchers.

Section II of this book is entitled "Anomalous Experiences". Each of
the articles in this section consider a different type of anomalous
experience. They consider these experiences in terms of human
differences, cultural factors, and psychopathology. They also provide
various explanations and theories of these experiences considering
both skeptical and non-skeptical interpretations and offering reasons
that support each of these theories. This section contains several
useful and interesting articles that offer a truly open-minded
approach to anomalous experiences that takes these experiences
seriously (while in the past they may have been taken less than
seriously by prior researchers). The articles included in this section
are:

"Hallucinatory Experiences" by Richard P. Bentall,
"Synesthesia" by Lawrence E. Marks,
"Lucid Dreaming" by Stephen LaBerge and Jayne Gackenbach,
"Out-of-Body Experiences" by Carlos S. Alvarado,
"Psi-Related Experiences" by Elisabeth Targ, Marilyn Schlitz, and
Harvey J. Irwin,
"Alien Abduction Experiences" by Stuart Appelle, Steven Jay Lynn, and
Leonard Newman,
"Past-Life Experiences" by Antonia Mills and Steven Jay Lynn,
"Near-Death Experiences" by Bruce Greyson,
"Anomalous Healing Experiences" by Stanley Krippner and Jeanne
Achterberg,
"Mystical Experience" by David M. Wulff.

These articles provide interesting studies of various anomalous
experiences that may not fit into previous scientific or religious
understandings of reality. In particular, for example psi-related
phenomena challenge current scientific understandings and near-death
experiences offer the possibility of the survival of human personality
after death. As such, these experiences prove highly interesting and
this book offers a truly open-minded approach from the perspective of
psychology that examines such experiences. For too long, modern
science has conveniently ignored or tried to deny such experiences and
it is precisely for this reason that this book serves as such a
valuable contribution. This book offers one of the unique studies on
such experiences from the perspective of mainstream modern psychology
and is published by the APA, the main organ of mainstream psychology.
As such, this book gives some legitimacy to experiences and theories
that have previously been ignored or denied. As the editors maintain
however, if one is to offer a comprehensive psychology as William
James suggested, then one must provide a study of all human experience
including those experiences which are deemed anomalous. This book
offers exactly such a study.

Serious, trustworth writing., February 15, 2010
By Vanessa Corredato (São Paulo, BR) -

This book was written by well-known researchers. It is a recognized
textbook in the field and expresses serious, trustworth opinions.
Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Varieties-Anomalous-Experience-Examining-Scientific/product-reviews/1557986258/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Texts and Contexts (4th Edition) (Paperback)
~ Steven Jay Lynn (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews
Texts and Contexts (4th Edition)

(1 customer review)

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Clever but too simplfied, July 2, 2007
By Lit. Prof. (Lima, Ohio) -

I assigned this book in an undergraduate course that included an
introduction to critical theory. The book is cleverly written and is
intended to be accessible. It features sample analyses for each of the
theoretical approaches, and keeps things light with occasional jokes
and cartoons, which help keep theory from being intimidating. Indeed,
the book is frequently entertaining. It outlines six major schools of
literary criticism (New Criticism, Reader-Response, Deconstruction,
Psychological criticism and gender criticism), and the chapters are
well-organized. The front cover features a useful set of summaries for
each approach: its assumptions, practices, and typical questions. All
this is good. I found, however, that the book is so intent on
summarizing the theories briefly and clearly that it oversimplifies
and leaves out important points. I therefore found myself filling in
the gaps and sending my students to supplementary readings from other
textbooks that I had NOT adopted and had instead put on reserve as
supplementary readings (Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today and Charles
Bressler's Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Literary Theory and
Practice). So I'm back to looking for a text for my class. I would
recommend Lynn's book as a back-up (the way I used Tyson and Bressler)
and as brush-up reading for people who already have some background in
theory.

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Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology (Paperback)
~ Scott O. Lilienfeld Phd (Editor), Steven Jay Lynn Phd (Editor),
Jeffrey M. Lohr Phd (Editor) "As Bob Dylan wrote, "The times they are
a-changin'..." (more)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews
Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology

(7 customer reviews)

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
Well researched, balanced, and provocative, January 31, 2003
By Eric G. Mart (Manchester, NH United States) -

This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
This edited volume contains chapters which provide critical analysis
of a variety of important subjects in clinical psychology. Lillienfeld
et al take a hard look at general issues such as diagnosis and
treatment as well as specific issues including New Age treatments for
psychological disorders and tests and personality measures. It also
examines other subjects such as controversial interventions for ADHD,
trauma and autism. The book will spark a great deal of argument and
some outrage, since there are a lot of oxen and sacred cows being
gored therein. But it is long past time that the yawning chasm between
science and clinical practice was addressed, and this volume does an
admirable job. I recommend this book to all thoughtful clinicans, as
well as general readers with an interest in clinical psychology.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Well written, but may be missing something., December 27, 2006
By Bookworm -

This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
As a psychologist who is aware of some of the questionable research
and clinical practices in psychology I read this book with interest.
Many of the chapters were interesting and the criticisms valid. I was
disappointed, however, that a book that claims to debunk pseudoscience
seemed to have a major blindspot. For example Waschbusch and Hill's
chapter examines treatments for ADHD without reference to the
controversy that exists about the validity of ADHD as a
neurobiological syndrome. There is debate about the unscientific
manner in which groups of nonspecifc behaviours are named as
syndromes, in the absence of any physical evidence. Discussing
treatments for these "disorders" without mentioning this at all seems
a glaring oversight in a book that devotes so much attention to issues
of diagnosis and assessment and claims to expose pseudosicence. It
hardly takes courage or insight to criticise the fringe elements, but
what about blatant pseudoscientific practices carried out by
mainstream psychologists?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Timely exploration of controversial topics, November 1, 2006
By Karen Franklin "Forensic Psychologist" (El Cerrito, CA, USA)
-

Why do clinicians keep practicing forms of therapy that lack
scientific support?

This edited book explores the widening gap between scientists and
practitioners in the field of clinical psychology. It covers many of
the most pressing controversies surrounding diagnosis, treatment
methods, specific disorders, and the self-help movement.

It is well written and exceptionally balanced. I recommend it highly
to my clinical psychology graduate students, but I think it is also
valuable for practicing clinicians and for other people who are
interested in the specific topics covered, including recovered memory
therapy, autism treatment, ADHD, new age therapies, multiple
personality disorder (aka dissociative identity disorder), trauma
treatment, herbal antidepressants, and - one of my favorite chapters -
substance abuse recovery.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Clarity, November 6, 2006
By A. Montgomery (Victoria, Australia) -

Although largely aware of the plethora of pseudoscientific nonsence
that besets the field of mental health, it is very refreshing to have
this collation of information brought together in one volume. As a
clinical psycholgist I am confronted daily by people who have been
referred to purveyors of unscientific, and often damaging,
"interventions". All too frequently, these people have been referred
to such snake-oil sellers by mental health professionals -
psychologists, psychaitrists, medical doctors etc. This book, and
hopefully further editions of it, should be compulsory reading for
everyone seeking to work in the mental health and forensic fields.
Only by truly embracing scientific methodology and an unremitting
scepticism can we hope to move forward in understanding mental health
and criminal problems. Our patients, their families, and the public
deserve no less.

Alex Montgomery
Clinical Psychologist
Victoria, Australia

32 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
A must read, March 15, 2003
By A Customer

This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
I am finishing my Ph.D. in psychology this year, and this is a
definate read for anyone in the field, espececially those who are
considering persuing a career in psych. This book has confimed my long-
standing fears as a graduate student: That there is much non-science
in the field of psych and the profession is openly hostile to those
that say so, while at the same time donning the semantically garb of
"scientist". The truth is there is very little science in psych these
days, and it is psychology's "dirty little secret".

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
A Must Read for People on Both Sides, February 6, 2004
By Monica Pignotti (Tallahassee, FL, United States) -

This review is from: Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology
(Hardcover)
In the preface, the editors noted that this book will make a lot of
people angry, especially proponents of the therapies being critiqued
in this book. While this is undoubtedly true for many such proponents,
I think it would be a serious mistake for such people to dismiss what
is being said in this book. I am one of the top practitioners of
Thought Field Therapy and found this book to be of tremendous value
and feel gratitude, not anger towards its authors. Having explored
many of the controversial, new therapies, I know better than anyone
the pitfalls and hazards of drifting into pseudoscience and quite
frankly, have repeatedly been dismayed at what I have seen in terms of
a complete inability to engage in critical thinking on the part of
many people involved in the endless array of "alternative" therapies.
Much of the problem, I believe, comes from ignorance of the principles
outlined in this book. The list of features of pseudosciences is
especially helpful and should be read and carefully considered by all
proponents of unconventional approaches. In this way, as Carl Sagan
puts it, "deep truths can be winnowed from deep nonsense". This book
should be required reading in graduate schools, as well as courses
that train people in any of these controversial, new approaches and I
intend to incorporate this into what I teach.

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
The "James Randi" of Psychology, April 24, 2005
By S. W. Helms "Professor of Psychology" (San Ramon, CA) -

Lilienfield does a bang-up job debunking some of the long-held myths
in Clinical Psychology. Don't allow that to lead you to conclusion
that this book is about bashing the Science of Psychology, however!
Clinical Psychology is something quite different from the evidence-
based side of the field, and this book illustrated that it is infested
with more pseudo-science than science. That's partly because such a
large percentage of the public has no critical thinking skills, and
cannot see the difference between self-help nonsense and real science.
Lilienfield does a good job helping us start on the road toward
discerning the snake oil from the medicine.

It's almost laughable that one reviewer showers this book with
accolades while also touting herself as a top expert in yet another
pseudo-scientific "therapy," Thought Field Therapy. Lilienfield et al.
actually cover that idiocy in this marvelous book, pointing out that
there's no such thing as "thought fields," and no validity to the
notion that TFT has any effect on mental or physical health! Like the
great Investigator of the Supernatural, James Randi, Scott O.
Lilienfield will be very busy writing new editions of this useful
book.

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Pseudoscience-Clinical-Psychology-Lilienfeld/product-reviews/1593850700/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Classics of Organization Theory (Paperback)
~ Jay M. Shafritz (Author), J. Steven Ott (Author), Yong Suk Jang
(Author)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0495569410/ref=nosim/veryclever-20

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread
Misconceptions about Human Behavior (Paperback)

~ Scott O. Lilienfeld (Author), Steven Jay Lynn (Author), John Ruscio
(Author), Barry L. Beyerstein (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1405131128/ref=nosim/veryclever-20

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1405131128/ref=nosim/veryclever-20#reader_1405131128

Great-Myths-Popular-Psychology-Misconceptions

Customer Reviews

(11 customer reviews)

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
A must-have mythbuster!

After reading the editorial reviews on this book, I decided to
purchase a copy. It is a treasure trove of examples of behavior and
myths that we believe to be true - but are actually false. Written by
psychologists and based on science, this book describes the most
common myths that people hold about a variety of human experiences.
For example, does handwriting reveal...
Published 4 months ago by Reader

28 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
superficial and misleading

Unfortunately this book is a rather sad attempt to "bust" some events
that psychologists and psychiatrists currently disagree about. both
sides can raise literature that supports their viewpoint. Novices
lacking substantial experience can easily be misled by some statements
contained here that are in themselves inaccurate and poorly analyzed.
Take for example hypnosis...

Published 27 days ago by royal see

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
A must-have mythbuster!, October 3, 2009
By Reader "NY" (New York) -

After reading the editorial reviews on this book, I decided to
purchase a copy. It is a treasure trove of examples of behavior and
myths that we believe to be true - but are actually false. Written by
psychologists and based on science, this book describes the most
common myths that people hold about a variety of human experiences.
For example, does handwriting reveal your personality? Does playing
Mozart to infants boost their intelligence? Do opposites attract? Is
the polygraph really an accurate means of detecting dishonesty? If you
think the answer to any of these questions, is "yes," you need to read
this book. I couldn't put it down as I went from myth to myth learning
about the facts based on science versus the myths we have believed for
decades. I agree with the reviewer who says that this is a much-needed
mythbuster for consumers. Easy-to-read and fascinating facts! I
couldn't put it down. Highly recommended, a must-have mythbuster!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Timely publication!, October 12, 2009
By David K. Hogberg (Albion, MI) - Se

Although I have been long retired from teaching (psychology), Scott's
book makes me wish to return to the classroom. There can never be too
much urging to become or remain critical in one's thinking about the
outlandish claims that've been made over the years about what
psychology is not. I recommend 50 Great Myths to people who have read
only little or a lot about what people do when they behave. DKH

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Instant Classic, November 6, 2009
By Jerry Haeffel (Notre Dame, IN) -

There are now two books that every psychology undergraduate (and
graduate) student should be required to read and own -- Stanovich's
"How to Think Straight about Psychology" and this book. This book is a
ray of hope during a (frightening) time when subjective experience is
favored over objective/empirical data. Chalk one up for science.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Psychology 101 Redux, November 30, 2009
By Brandon Schultz -

There are two very impressive aspects of this book: 1) the types of
"myths" that the authors tackle, and 2) the quality of their
literature reviews. On the first point, I was excited to see the
authors make strong evidence-based critiques of the Alcoholics
Anonymous model of addictions treatment, the long-term effects of
childhood sexual abuse, the autism 'epidemic,' and others. It would
have been easy to write another 'skeptics diary' of obvious
psychomythology (e.g., phrenology, ESP, etc), but the authors really
stick their necks out in some instances. On the second point, the
authors' conclusions are well-supported by the research they cite. As
a school psychologist, I was impressed to see a very thoughtful
handling of the research on so-called 'learning styles,' for example.
I've not seen a better handling of this topic in any book meant for
mass consumption, and this section alone was worth the purchase. So
overall, I would describe the book as a very well-written Psychology
101 Redux that debunks a lot of common misconceptions.

However, I would take issues with a few of the "Other Myths to
Explore" at the end of the chapters, which could be easily
misinterpreted. For example, on page 63 the authors claim that
"children with extremely high IQs have much higher levels of creative
accomplishment in adulthood than other children." While this is
generally correct, it ignores research showing that 'extremely' high
IQs do not predict the next Einsteins or Lincolns. In Lewis Terman's
famous study, his high IQ group did very well into adulthood, but not
up to Terman's predictions of greatness--in fact, most turned out to
be very average adults. Such 'nuggets' at the end of the chapters are
a little too concise, and this is why I give the book 4 stars rather
than 5.

And if the authors are reading, I recommend the following myths for
future editions:

Stimulant use in childhood increases the risk of addictions in
adulthood
ADHD is caused by video games and excessive television viewing
It is easy for criminals to fake mental retardation in order to avoid
the death penalty
Boys are more aggressive than girls
"Wilderness Programs" are highly effective for juvenile delinquents
The DARE program is very effective in reducing/preventing drug use
Adolescents with jobs are less likely than their unemployed peers to
engage in risky behavior
Child abuse is much more common now than ever before

I could go on, but I'll stop there. The point is, even though
psychology is a 'soft science,' there are issues around which
consensus has been built. Yet, many misonceptions still exist. Indeed,
many readers unfamiliar with the field may find some of the authors'
conclusions controversial (autism and the MMR vaccine leaps to mind),
but the research evidence to the contrary is very compelling. This
book does a great job explaining how.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
What we might want to believe, February 2, 2010
By Edward M. Freeman "Ioannis Edward M. Freeman" (Miami, Florida)
-

Myths, like memory, can reconstruct events for ceremony and solace. In
its cultural or religious sense, myth can serve as transformer. That
is not the sense of myth utilized in this book.

In this book, a myth is a false and misleading conclusion, which urban
legend supports despite evidence to the contrary. The purpose of this
book is to present evidence to the contrary, still encouraging readers
to decide for themselves. I appreciated an authorial tone of respect
for readers throughout the book. Along the way, however, the book does
more. It also questions the motives of myth extenders--the people who
benefit by keeping the myths alive.

Hapless myth extenders for 50 urban legends have been exposed. Of
course, some of these myth extenders have built empires on charisma
and mumbo-jumbo. However, who among us has never been an unwitting
accomplice to the charade? Not I.

I have participated by having made conjectures contrary with myths
that these esteemed authors collected, analyzed and exposed in this
book. After I had become aware that I should check my sources before I
spoke a next time, I should have identified a questionable conclusion
with more scruple in speech. The value of this book in my opinion is
that it collects 50 prominent myths, and raises sufficient caution in
evidence that the book taught me academic humility again. Evidence
speaks louder than charisma and mumbo-jumbo.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A must read book for all intelligent people, November 25, 2009
By D. Gerzon (Paramus, NJ United States) -

I want to say that this book was like a breath of fresh air in the
ocean of "garbage" that is constantly unleashed on all of us in today.
It seems that almost anybody with access to a computer can write a
book today with dubious claims that takes time and efforts to avoid.
So it was with great pleasure that when I finally got my hands on this
book I felt once again that there are still healthy and sane people
around me who do care for scientific facts. I got recommendation for
this book from newsletter sent by Stephen Barrett, M.D from [...] and
as always I was not disappointed.

You would think that books like that would become a must read not only
for adults but for teens and young adults who just start their lives
and are very receptive to all this popular psychology that flies
around. I would insist that both my children (8 and 13) read this book
and discuss it with us. It's very important for us as parents to teach
our children to be able to distinguish the pop-psychology from
scientific facts. But most importantly I want my children to
understand that some of those myths can be not so innocent and can
create real damage.
So 5 stars for this book are well deserved. Thank you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A dose of science, February 1, 2010
By Max Polun (Hamilton, NJ USA) -

All too often the popular perception of psychology has been clouded by
a great many myths, misconceptions and outright falsehood. This book
give a dose of what the current mainstream scientific views are on a
great number of subjects (the 50 myths are just the ones that are
explained, each chapter has a list of short items that are given 1
sentence answers). The book honestly points out where legitimate
controversy still exists, but most of the myths discussed are not
particularly controversial. The only thing keeping it from perfection
is a somewhat dry style, that may keep it from being the best for the
general audience.

A good read for anyone with an interest in science or psychology, but
not necessarily any formal psychological training.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Required Reading1, December 23, 2009
By D. Flaten -

This book should be required reading for anyone currently or proposing
to go into education. It forces us to take another look at current
misconceptions that may affect our teaching and other educational
services. Every statement is supported by research. The book included
an extensive list of sources. Read it slowly and enjoy.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A fine pick for any psychology collection, January 12, 2010
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) -

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology offers both students of
psychology and consumers a fine book discussing science and everyday
psychology. It offers facts and pinpoints fallacies about psychology,
debunking popular myths and presenting evidence that also explains why
people come to believe in these falsehoods. It's a fine pick for any
psychology collection.

28 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
superficial and misleading, January 26, 2010
By royal see "roman" (missoula) -

Unfortunately this book is a rather sad attempt to "bust" some events
that psychologists and psychiatrists currently disagree about. both
sides can raise literature that supports their viewpoint. Novices
lacking substantial experience can easily be misled by some statements
contained here that are in themselves inaccurate and poorly analyzed.
Take for example hypnosis. While hypnosis does not register as delta
wave sleep or even rem sleep, yet anyone who has deep experience with
the phenomenon knows that it is not alpha nor beta wave wakefulness as
wakefulness is normally defined. in fact deeper hypnotic states
contain more theta waves akin to deep meditative states that are not
sleep yet are not exactly normal wakefulness. hundreds of EEGS have
been conducted on hypnotized and deeply meditating subjects that show
little alpha or beta.this is enough to bust the mythbusters myth. Then
again when hypnosis is properly conducted with the right subject the
bodily physiological changes and heightened susceptibility to
suggestions is unmistakable. While people may snap out of a deep state
if asked to violate a personal value, yet with proper manipulation
people can do rather strange things they would normally never do.

Lets bust another of this silly books myths.The book claims that anger
is not too helpful and it is but a catharsis.It seems that whoever
wrote this does not exactly seem to comprehend that anger is a
biological evolutionary organismic state that serves a function in
most common species.While some individuals use anger as a defense
against deeper hurts in an inappropriate and sometimes unhealthy
manner, i speak of rage-aholics who derive no benefit from raging
other than a "catharsis",...yet for many others expressing anger can
constitute a breakthrough in their healing.The expression needs to be
expressed in a non harmful way perhaps in one's privacy or in session
away from the target of the anger. When expressed genuinely and as a
reaction to some hurt or neglect or other abuse, anger will no longer
be a "catharsis" per se rather it will be a well formed well expressed
affect, emotion or feeling in therapy jargon and it can have a healing
effect especially if connected to the underlying hurt.

Another myth this book creates is the view that memory is only
reconstructive and hence the implication is that it most probably is
tainted by later cognitions perceptions and errors. This smells to me
like the unholy controversy about uncovered or repressed memories.
This controversy is not scientific and never was. Anyone who has
worked deeply with simple and traumatic memories recognizes that BOTH
kinds of memories are available either via visual remembrances or body
movement in addition to the more common verbal thought memories.
Moreover any scientifically disciplined worker with memory research
will tell you that while reconstructive memories may be prone to
interferences and errors yet other deeper memories are almost like
recordings. One of my patients uncovered a conversation with her
deceased dad at age two or so where he tells here about a suitcase
buried under a sofa in the old house that was currently occupied by a
relative. The patient had enough courage to check her revelation, took
permission to look at the recalled location and found a case with
parting letters to her explaining the conditions of her adoption. a
letter to an uncle, a handgun and 2 kilos of gold jewelry belonging to
her deceased at birth mother! The woman had no previous recollection
of any of this at any point in her life. she was in her early forties
when this emerged. I provide this as one of dozens of anecdotes in
only one practice,where the patient rediscovered verbatim previously
unknown things. A male patient in his thirties wailing non verbally in
terror and contorting his body in typical birth movements of the legs
torso head and neck pointed to his temples suggesting pain there
accompanying the deep fear. After working with him for a while ,he
relaxed and reached a closure but was not sure what his body was
reliving. He was asked to have his mother call me. asked about a
complicated delivery , she was stunned affirming that the head would
simply not emerge for painfully excessive stretches of time. She asked
how i had known and and was surprised even further when asked if
forceps extraction had been used extensively.Again she was stunned and
admitted that no one knew this but the forceps had been used very
intensely and the baby had almost died , that he cried constantly for
over a week. To any clinician experienced enough to recognize a body -
expressed memory, this would be a bullet through the heart of this
book's memory myth. We have just busted the busters again. And to nail
the coffin of that myth ,there is EEG work plus SPECT scan imaging
showing unusual and uncommon brainwave and brain activity patterns
when deep accurate memories emerge indicating a special theta -delt-
beta combination of brainwaves when this happens, a highly unusual
mixture in perfectly normal brained people who are actually re living
mind and body an old usually traumatic situation.
I highly recommend the title"pseudoscience in biological psychiatry"
in addition to "the love that wasnt" and "blaming the brain" amongst
other works to allow the layman and the serious and aspiring therapist
not to be mislead by superficial attempts like this reviewed title
sometime making sweeping statements based on one or two measly studies
to attempt to disprove perhaps a hundred years of solid clinical
experience. Rather sad. I will use an example from nutrition to
demonstrate that studies are deceptive and frequently twisted to back
up ones own subjective opinion. In the case of vitamin C, one pathetic
study came out saying that 200 milligrams daily was more than enough
and another said that 500 is the redline for humans. The media ran
this one disparaging study and people started fearing vitamin C. What
the foolish media did not tell everyone was that there were upwards of
13000 (that's correct thirteen thousand ) studies globally
demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of vitamin C for humans
including megadoses of 10-20000mgs per day and even more if given IV.

Interestingly, a sober statistical research of scientific and medical
articles showed that in only a few years after publication and
universal acceptance as scientific truths, approximately 60 percent
prove to be worthless,either outright faked or erroneous in execution
and interpretation.60 percent of what science and medicine believe
today will metamorphose into worthless garbage in a few years.
Shamefully sad. i believe this book is one of these silly superficial
books that may mean good and sounds scientific here and there but in
the end tends to propagate its own myths. I fear the emperor has no
clothes!

To be fair ,my evaluation was based on partial reading of the contents
and thus the book may possibly contain some acceptable material along
with this gibberish that i found myself forced to comment about.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Very interesting, November 14, 2009
By Diana "dazed and confused" (Las Vegas, nv USA) -

This is written in more of a textbook style and not for the pop
psychology reader. It has a lot of very useful information.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Myths-Popular-Psychology-Misconceptions/product-reviews/1405131128/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Classics of Organization Theory (Paperback)
~ J. Steven Ott (Author, Editor), Jay M. Shafritz
Jay M. Shafritz (Author, Editor)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

(8 customer reviews)

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Delivers what it says....

I used this book (actually the 3rd edition) in preparing for my
comprehensive exams for my master's degree. The title is descriptive.
The book is short excerpts of key writings on the organization theory.
The selection of readings is appropriate. The only complaint I have is
that sometimes I wished I had the complete book in question! On the
other hand, some of this stuff...

Published on March 14, 2000 by M. Broderick

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Boring
This is a very boring and dry read. The print is small and the
chapters are long. I had a hard time reading even portions of this.
Get it at the library if you have to read this book for a class.
Published 11 months ago by Rick

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
Delivers what it says...., March 14, 2000
By M. Broderick "mikebinok" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) -

I used this book (actually the 3rd edition) in preparing for my
comprehensive exams for my master's degree. The title is descriptive.
The book is short excerpts of key writings on the organization theory.
The selection of readings is appropriate. The only complaint I have is
that sometimes I wished I had the complete book in question! On the
other hand, some of this stuff is really dry. If you are pursuing the
field in an academic way, this is a valuable book. But I can't imagine
reading it for enjoyment or idle curioisity.

Somewhat Boring, but Necessary, November 20, 2009
By Lakeesha L. Washington "LLW" (CA) -

This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
The first 45 pages of this book were extremely BORING! Once you get
through them, the rest of the book is a pretty good read. Make sure
you read the introduction to each chapter and article.

Org Mgt, November 16, 2009
By S. Wise -

This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
This book is the same book that was suggested on my syllabus for my
graduate Management Theory class, but was a whole lot cheaper online!
It arrived in a very timely mannner - and its soft cover!

The introductons are the best because it overs a clear overview of the
each section - some of the outdated writing of the articles can be a
bit tough to read through - so the intro's help a lot.

Dense, but well worth the read, October 30, 2009
By Wordworm -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
If you want to know what was, and how we got to where we are today,
you'll get that with this book. I've been in public administration for
about 10 years. It's providing me with some great ah-ha's.

great transaction, September 22, 2009
By Robin M. Wagner -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
I received exactly what I was hoping for and it was delivered quickly.
Highly recommend.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Boring, March 23, 2009
By Rick -

This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
This is a very boring and dry read. The print is small and the
chapters are long. I had a hard time reading even portions of this.
Get it at the library if you have to read this book for a class.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good reference book, June 29, 2008
By Gordon J. Brenner -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
I have used this as a required textbook for one class, and referred to
the articles and references numerous times over the years.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
dull, dull, dull, April 16, 2007
By Monica (Campbell, CA, USA) -

This review is from: Classics of Organization Theory (with InfoTrac )
(Paperback)
Had to slog through this book for an OB class, never did see the
relevance. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Classics-Organization-Theory-Steven-Ott/product-reviews/0534504175/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0534504175/ref=nosim/veryclever-20

[chhotemianinshallah]

Published January 2010

Book:

RSS PRIMER
Based on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh documents

by Shamsul Islam

Price: Rs 20 + Regd Postage Rs 18
Pages: 32 / Paperback
ISBN-10: 81-7221-039-6
ISBN-13: 978-81-7221-039-7

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh unveiled in simple questions and answers
What the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is all about?
All that you would ever want to know about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh
A simple guide to the past and present of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
What Sangh Parivar Stands for?

Sixth Edition, 2010
(Earlier editions published as Know the RSS)

PUBLISHERS
Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd
D-84 Abul Fazl Enclave - I
Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110 025, India
Tel. +91-11-26947483
Email: bo...@pharosmedia.com
Website: www.pharosmedia.com

Table of Contents

Introduction

Is it true that the RSS idolizes fascism Hitler?
Is RSS loyal to National Flag?
Is RSS loyal to Constitution of India?
Does RSS have faith in Democracy, Secularism and Federalism?
Why was RSS banned after the murder of Gandhiji?
Did RSS support the Freedom Movement?
Does RSS respect martyrs of the Freedom Movement like Bhagat Singh and
others?
How does non-political RSS manipulate national politics?
Is BJP independent of RSS?
Is RSS helping organizations like ISI?
Does RSS believe in Two-Nation Theory like pre-Partition Muslim
League?

http://www.pharosmedia.com/india-books-bookstore/RSS_PRIMER_Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh.htm

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
About Organisation

{{POV}}

{{Hinduism small}} The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ({{lang-hi|
राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ}}, {{lang-en|National Volunteers' Union}}),
also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu nationalist
organization in India. It was founded in 1925 by K.B. Hedgewar. The
RSS is active throughout India and abroad as the Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh.

Their general philosophical outlook is cultural nationalism known as
integral humanism, aimed at preserving the spiritual and moral
traditions of India.Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu nationalist
Movement in India, Columbia University Press, 1998 The RSS believes
that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life.

http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/Mission_Vision/Why_RSS.jsp

The proclaimed purpose of the organization is "serving the nation and
its people in the form of God - Bharata Mata (Mother India) and
protecting the interests of the Hindus in India".

They have engaged in numerous social, service charity, and relief
works, and engaged in inter-community dialogues, as well as actively
participated in the political process. They are well-organized and
have a heirarchial structure to their organization, with the
sarsanghchalak being the highest rank.

The RSS was banned in India thrice during periods in which the
government of the time considered them a threat to the state: in 1948
after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, during the 1975 Emergency in
India, and after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, in order. The bans
were subsequently lifted after the Supreme Court of India declined to
uphold the bans due to lack of evidence of their involvement in the
alleged activities{{Fact|date=April 2007}}.

The RSS continues to be viewed as controversial due its commitment to
stop conversions of Hindus and to "organise" Hindu society,
allegations of its "Fascist" tendencies and it's alleged involvement
in several communal riots (the latest being the riots in Gujarat in
2002). These allegations are made by various academics, politicians
and commentators, but disputed by other academics.

Its numbers have been bolstered by the rise of its associated Sangh
Parivar members, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party.

History

In 1925, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a Nagpur doctor influenced by
recent Hindu-Muslim riots in his town, formed the Rashtriya
Swayemsevak Sangh aiming to protect Hindus by organizing
together.Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS: Militant Hinduism Far Eastern
Survey, Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950), pp. 93-98. Hedgewar proposed
the Hindu masses must be united to combat the challenges facing them
and protect the freedom and diversity of Indian civilization. In the
1940s the development of the RSS was fueled by a desire of some Hindus
to organize themselves in reaction to the growing mobilization,
sometimes in paramilitary form, of Muslim separatist movements. The
response was strongest in areas where the Hindus were in the minority.
RSS benefited from support from local community leaders. The
"pracharaks" or "full-time workers", who were dispatched on the
recommendation of such patrons, gathered support and coordinated their
efforts from their headquarters in NagpurK R Malkani: The RSS Story.
During the Indian independence movement, the RSS campaigned alongside
the Indian National Congress for national independence at first
keeping its organization separate and core mission different. However
when some Congress leaders tried to subsume RSS into the Congress and
urged the RSS leaders to dismantle the organization, they slowly
diverged away from the Congress.
Partition activities
The Partition of India was a very traumatic event in the young
nation's history. Millions of people, both Hindu and Muslim, attempted
to migrate from India and Pakistan/East-Pakistan through the violence
and the death toll was considerable http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm#India.

The organization gained considerable strength and support because of
its various relief activities organized for the migrating Hindus and
successful protection of Hindus in the Hindu-Muslim riots during the
time of the partition. At the time, its alleged contribution to the
spread of communalism led to allegations of it being anti-Muslim.

Banning and revival

After Mahatma Gandhi's death in 1948, the RSS was accused by the
Government of India for taking part in the plot to assassinate the
Mahatma. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his opposition to the RSS, believed that
the murder of Gandhi was part of a conspiracy on the part of the Hindu
Nationalists to "seize power", and he claimed that the RSS was the
power behind this conspiracy.For Nehru's claim that the RSS was
involved with a conspiracy to seize power and analogy to Europe on the
eve of fascist takeovers, see: Nussbaum, p. 167. Nehru saw the
situation as analogous to that in Europe on the eve of the fascist
takeovers.Quotation from Nehru provided in: Nussbaum, p. 167. .
However, without conclusive evidence on the conspiracy of the
assassination, the government banned the RSS on February 4, 1948.

Following an intervention of the Supreme Court, the government agreed
to lift the ban on the condition that the RSS adopt a constitution.
The second sarsanghchalak, Golwalkar began drafting a constitution for
the RSS which he sent to the national government in March of 1949. In
July of the same year, after many negotiations over the consititution
and its acceptance, the ban on RSS was lifted.

Over the 1950s and 1960s, under Golwalkar (usually called "Guruji" by
members), the RSS regained its following slowly and steadily. It
embraced the Cow Slaughter Ban Movement and the Ram Janmabhoomi in
Ayodhya movement. In 1967, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was founded as an
adjunct body, initially to organise the religious leaders of various
Hindu sects and streamline religious doctrine.

It has a following throughout India.

Organization

The RSS has over 4.5 million members. BBC News, RSS: An in-depth
Analysis. Retrieved 12-May-2007. The RSS organises itself
hierarchically.

Sarsanghchalaks

The Sarsanghchalak is the family head of the RSS organization. The
individuals who have been Sarsanghchalkas are:

•Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (founder), also known as Doctorji
(1925-1940)

•Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, also known as, Guruji (1940-1973)

•Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, also known as, Balasaheb (1973-1993)

•Rajendra Singh, also known as, Rajjubhaiya (1993-2000)

•Kuppahalli Sitaramayya Sudarshan (2000-present)

The position is decided by nomination followed with elections held at
the annual "Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha" meeting. The current
sarsanghachalak of RSS is K.S. Sudarshan.

Shakha

"Shakhas" means "branch" in Sanskrit.

Most of the organisational work of the Sangh is done through the
coordination of shakhas, or branches. These shakhas are run every
morning (prabhat shakha), evening (sayam shakha) or night (atisayam
shakha) for 1 hour in public places and are open to people of all
castes, creeds or social and economic status. Currently more than
50,000 shakhas are run throughout India. Apart from 42,000 daily
gatherings, there are about 5,000 weekly and 2,000 monthly gatherings
conducted throughout the length and breadth of the country{{Fact|
date=April 2007}}.

These shakhas are usually operated in playing grounds without any
offices. At the end of the shakha the prayer "Namaste Sadaa Vatsale
Matrubhoome" (which means "My salutation to you, ever loving
motherland") is recited.

These shakhas are the core building blocks of RSS structure. During a
Shakha, the activities consist of yoga, games, discussions on broad
range of social topics, prayer to Bharat Mata and an inspirational
session (baudhik). The RSS uniform consists of a black cap, white
shirt and khakhi-coloured shorts. On the day of 'Guru Poornima' the
RSS vounteers pay tributes to the 'Bhagwa Dhwaj' - the saffron flag,
which has considerable symbolic importance.

An RSS volunteer who attends shakha is referred to as a "Swayamsevak".
A Swayamsevak is sometimes appointed as a Sanghchalak, meaning group
administrator, and is given the task of leading and organizing the
Shaka's events.

Ideology

The primarily goals of the RSS are a revival of Hindu tradition and to
be an advocacy group for Hindus, whom they feel are being slowly
marginalized due to alleged "negationism" in India and the acts of
appeasement against them from the left-wing political parties and
politicians in favor of extremist elements of other religious
denominations. Their core ideology is based on Integral humanism and
Hindutva, a form of Hindu Nationalism. They describe themselves as an
"antidote to self-oblivion", and their goals as an attempt to
inculcate Indians with the "A burning devotion to the Motherland
(India), a feeling of fraternity among all citizens, intense awareness
of a common national life derived from a common culture and shared
history and heritage", as well as to "activise the dormant Hindu
society (of India), realise its past mistakes, to instil in it a firm
determination to set them right, and finally to make it bestir itself
to reassert its honour and self-respect"Mission & Vision,RSS Web
Page.

Views on other religions

The Sangh has declared publicly that its Hindutva philosophy states
that Hindutva supports the philosophy Ekam Sat Viprah Bahudha Vadanti
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (translated to Truth is One, Sages Call it by
Many Names. The Whole Universe is one Family).BJP Philosophy -
Hindutva However, it feels this society has been threatened by
repeated persecution of Hindus, especially by Muslims. According to
the BJP, a member of the Sangh Parivar:

Thus, the seeds of today's Hindu Jagriti (awakening) were created the
very instance that an invader threatened the fabric of Hindu society
which was religious tolerance. The vibrancy of Hindu society was
noticeable at all times in that despite such barbarism from the
Islamic hordes of central Asia and Turkey, Hindus never played with
the same rules that Muslims did.BJP Philosophy - HindutvaThe RSS
believes that provided better circumstances the a majority of the
Muslim population of India would 'revert' to Hinduism, believing that
most Indian Muslims can trace their ancestry back to those with a
Hindu background. The BJP, the RSS' political wing, has expressed its
beliefs on this matter: bjp.org :

The RSS entirely agrees with Gandhiji's formulations that "There is in
Hinduism room enough for Jesus, as there is for Mohammed, Zoroster and
Moses" and that "majority of the Muslims of India are converts to that
faith from Hinduism through force of circumstances. They are still
Hindu in many essential ways and, in a free, prosperous, progressive
India, they would find it the most natural thing in the world to
revert to their ancient faith and ways of life."

The RSS believes all non-Hindus in India should adopt a stance of
religious tolerance towards the native religions, or otherwise they
should face intolerance in return. This lines up with the RSS's belief
that all religions should have the same rights and responsibilities in
terms of laws. Regarding non-Hindus in India, Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalkar, an RSS leader in the past, had also stated (in the 1940s)
that:

"The non-Hindu peoples in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the
Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of glorification of
Hindu race and culture, i.e., they must not only give up their
attitude intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-
old traditions but must also cultivate the positive attitude of love
and devotion instead-in a word they must cease to be foreigners, or
may stay in this country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation,
claiming nothing, deserving no privilege, far less any preferential
treatment-not even citizens' rights."Craig Baxter, The Jana Sangh: A
Biography of an Indian Political Party (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1969), p. 31.

With regards to claims of having an anti-Muslim stance, RSS
spokesperson Ram Madhav has stated that such claims are a "distortion
of RSS ideology". He asserts that the RSS "believes in the oneness of
our culture and the country", and that "any opposition to this view
could lead to disintegration as it in fact happened with the
Partition. This accent against divisiveness should therefore not be
seen as hatred towards any particular religion.Q&A: Ram Madhav,The
Hindu.

The RSS denies that they are intolerant of any other religion, citing
examples of RSS-dominated communities in India that have lived in
relative peace with adherents of other religions.

Views against the Caste system

Historically, the RSS has had several Dalit and Middle-Caste members
in their fold, several of whom are in key positions along their rank-
and-fileSunday Mail, December 23, 1990.Originally, the RSS was formed
by members of the upper caste Brahmin community. However, that
situation has changed considerably over time. An RSS sarsanghchalak
quotes:"All our best attended shakhas are in the poor areas, not in
the alienated middle class or rich upper caste suburbs or cities or
towns. In simple words, the new Sangh Swayamsevak is mostly a backward
caste or Dalit".
The RSS has recently expressed concern over caste-based political and
social conflicts, they have urged Hindus to "get rid of this evil at
the earliest"India's RSS urges war against 'evil' of
casteism,''Freerepublic archive from the Times of India''.Their
resolution adopted at a national executive meeting said:

"Hindu society should take all necessary measures to ensure entry and
access to every Hindu, irrespective of his caste, to their homes,
temples, religious places, public wells, ponds, and other public
places..Hindu society will have to get rid of this evil at the
earliest."

The organisation further contends that "caste-based untouchability"
and "feelings of high caste and low caste" were the main evils
haunting the Hindu society and aims to eradicate Casteism from Indian
society. To that end, the R.S.S have tried to reach out to prominent
Dalit (traditionally the "Untouchable" Caste) leaders in India, such
as poet and leader of the Dalit activist group "Dalit Panthers" Namdeo
DhasalDalit leader buries the hatchet with RSS,Times of India. The
Dalit Panthers have been traditional adversaries of the R.S.S and
peceived them as an "upper-caste" dominated party. However,
negotiations with RSS chief K.Sudarshan on August 2006 led to
reconciliations, when Sudarshan declared that the R.S.S categorically
rejects all forms of caste discrimination in the organization. He
further said:

The Dalits are our own flesh and blood, but because of some ill
practices and social evils the practice of untouchability has brought
havoc on those who were an integral part and defenders of Dharma. This
has to be corrected through our deeds and actions."

Namadeo Dhasal said at the meeting with the RSS, "Yes, I do feel that
the fight to eradicate caste has to be fought by Dalits and caste
Hindus together carrying forward the tradition of Adi Sankara, which
got broken somewhere in between."
Sudarshan then said, "I fully agree with what you have said here
today".

In addition, the RSS has advocated for training Dalits and other
backward classes to be temple high priests (a position traditionally
reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue
that the social divisiveness of the Caste system is responsible for
the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions and reaching out
to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problemRSS
for Dalit head priests in temples,Times of India.

Appealing for social harmony and Hindu brotherhood, the organisation
warned the community against the political parties, which it said had
been drawing "political benefits" out of casteism and "Inventing caste
based new conflicts in the Hindu society for the sake of political
benefits [which has] has become a trend of many politicians these
days."

Views on votebank politics

The RSS has spoken out against votebank politics of politicians who
encourage caste based rivalries and have urged political parties to
keep away from caste based politics and give an Indian culture to
democracy.

"No religion or sect is inferior to others. The whole society should
be aware that every sect and caste of Bharat has a glorious
history..The entire society should fully realize the essence of 'Na
Hinduh Patito Bhavet' (No Hindu shall ever come to grief)"

Views against Islamic Terrorism

The RSS has spoken out against Islamic Fundamentalism and acts of
Islamist terrorism carried out in various parts of India in recent
years. A Senior RSS leader Madan Das has said that there should be "no
hesitation whatsoever in fighting against those who do not want peace
and added that the world communities should fight terrorism together".
They have labelled Islamists as "anti-national elements" and have
alleged Pakistani involvement in the various terrorist actsBe vigilant
against ‘jehadis’: RSS leader,The Tribune. In addition, the Islamist
terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba is suspected for carrying out an
unsuccessful attack on the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur on June
1,2006Lashkar-e-Toiba,South Asia Terrorism Portal Lashkar attack on
RSS HQ foiled; 3 ultras shot,The Tribune, inviting condemnation of the
outfit from politicians across the spectrumTerror attack on RSS HQ
foiled, 3 Lashkar men shot dead,Times of India.
Position on Israel and Zionism

A recent issue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed weekly
Organiser has gone out of its way to support the Zionist cause,
arguing that the recent violence was the result of Palestinian
intransigence.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1722/17220140.htm.

This follows the rise in support for Israel in India in recent
years.Israel's War and India: Aftershocks. This has invited scathing
attacks on the party from anti-Zionist elements.

http://ghadar.insaf.net/June2004/MainPages/zionism.htm.

In addition. RSS welcomed the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to India in 2003.Sharon's visit was widely condemned by the
left-wing parties and MuslimsPress spotlight on Sharon's India
visit,BBC.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh unilaterally condemned these protests
and statements.RSS slams Left for opposing Sharon's visitGoogle Cache
of above. R.S.S spokesperson Ram Madhav said:

The entire world acknowledges that Israel has effectively and
ruthlessly countered terror in the Middle East. Since India and Israel
are both fighting a proxy war against terrorism, therefore, we should
learn a lesson or two from them. We need to have close cooperation
with them in this field.

The R.S.S newspaper "Panchjanya" dubbed those advocating friendship
with Pakistan as ones responsible for encouraging terrorist activities
in India, and described the visit of Ariel Sharon as an opportunity
for India to get closure to Israel and fight terrorism jointly .

Political influence

{{Hindu politics}} In 1973, Golwalkar passed away and Balasaheb Deoras
took over the leadership, and continued until 1993, when Dr. Rajendra
Singh took over from him. During this period, came the rise of the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political front of the RSS. Between 1975 and
1977, the RSS, along with socialists like Jayprakash Narayan launched
a civil disobedience movement, to reject the national emergency and
postponement of elections by Prime Minister and Congress President
Indira Gandhi. The Jana Sangh was an integral part of the Janata Party
coalition that defeated Indira Gandhi's Congress in a landslide in
1977.
It was in fact the close relationship between the Jan Sangh and the
RSS that proved to be the Janata coalition's undoing, as non-Sangh
constituents of the coalition insisted that all members of the Union
Cabinet distance themselves from the RSS, as they were now members of
the Janata Party. When Vajpayee and Advani in particular refused to do
so, the coalition collapsed over what came to be known as the 'dual
membership' issue.

The RSS saw its stock rise as the BJP thrived upon the disenchantment
of the masses with the Congress-led governments. By 1988, the BJP had
88 seats in the Lok Sabha, lower house of Parliament, and by 1996 it
was the single-largest party. In 1998 it went on to head a coalition
government that survived six years and another election in 1999.

During recent time, people who share RSS's ideology, many of whom have
been swayamsevaks or former swayamsevaks have gone on to achieve the
highest political positions in the Indian Politics. These leaders
include Atal Behari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi,
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Pramod Mahajan, Gopinath Munde and Ram Prakash
Gupta.

Sangh Parivar

{{main|Sangh Parivar}} Organizations which are inspired by the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer themselves as the members
of the Sangh Parivar. In most of the cases Pracharaks (Full time
volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start and manage these
organizations. The largest organizations within the Sangh are the
Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.
Numerous other Hindutva organizations take inspiration from the RSS's
actions.

Social Activity

The RSS has also participated in relief efforts in the Indian State of
Kashmir, which has been besieged by Islamic terrorism (see Terrorism
in Kashmir). An RSS-affiliated NGO, Sewa Bharti, has adopted 100
children, most of them Muslims, from militancy affected areas of the
region to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary
levelJK: RSS adopts militancy hit Muslim children,''oneindia.in''.Sewa
Bharati has also collaborated with several relief groups, such as the
Catholics Bishops Conference of India to conduct relief operations in
the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included
building shelters for the victims, providing food, clothes and medical
necessitiesRelief missions from Delhi,The Hindu. In 2006, RSS
participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as
food, milk and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat who were
affected by massive floods in the regionRSS joins relief operation in
flood-hit Surat,Organiser.org.

Khushwant Singh credits members of the RSS with helping and protecting
Sikhs who were being targeted be members of the Congress(I) political
party during the 1984 Anti-Sikh RiotsK. Singh: “Congress (I) is the
Most Communal Party”, Publik Asia, 16-11-1989. . He said:

"It was the Congress(I) leaders who instigated mobs in 1984 and got
more than 3000 people killed. I must give due credit to RSS and the
BJP for showing courage and protecting helpless Sikhs during those
difficult days”

The RSS also rendered relief work during the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake

http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,430302,00.html
and the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami

http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/29tn3.htm.

Criticism
Allegations of Fascistic tendencies

Some Indians criticize the RSS for its "Hindu supremacist philosophy"
and "campaigns" against other religions in India. In addition,
academic observers have described it as a "reactionary group of Hindu
fanatics with Fascist tendencies."Curran, Jean A. Jr. The RSS:
Militant Hinduism Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 19, No. 10. (May 17, 1950),
pp. 93-98.. Martha Nussbaum wrote in her book on the rise of the Hindu
right that "The RSS is possibly the most successful fascist movement
in any contemporary democracy."{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |
first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |coauthors= |title=The Clash
Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future |year=2007 |
publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |
location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=0-674-02482-6 }} p. 155.

Jawaharlal Nehru attacked the RSS when he compared their efforts to
fascism. In December 1947, following allegations of RSS's involvement
in the Gandhi assassination, he wrote to the provincial governors
saying "We have a great deal of evidence to show that the RSS is an
organization which is in the nature of a private army and which is
definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the
technique of organization....Quotation from Nehru provided in:
Nussbaum, p. 167."

Some academics, such as Ian McDonald of the University of Brighton,
compare the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and it's concept of
"organicism" with 19th century European Nationalism and European
Fascism, calling the "apotheosis of RSS's intellectual and physical
development the physiological patriot, a Hindu homo-fascitus", and
that "the argument of its fascist ideology and methodology" is
"profoundly disturbing"Fascism, Physical Culture and Hindu
Nationalism,by Ian MacDonald, Univ of Brighton, England

In his book Fascism: Theory and Practice, Dave Renton mentions that in
the 1990s RSS has used Communal riots as form of popular politics
against the state. Rention further goes to state that, since RSS has
adopted only adapted "parts" of Fascist ideology and is NOT a full
fledged movement against the state, they cannot be labelled as
"Fascist"

http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0745314708&id=Ojtn0IT6LpgC&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=RSS+fascism&sig=saVQjtJle3dbohaeNlWDwFLnwRI.

Other academics, such as David James Smith, Professor of Indian
Religions at Lancaster University, writes that despite the
organizations past links with fascist ideologies, it's decentralized
nature and lack of emphasis with a supreme leader, and the central
position that it awards to social system (rather than race), means
that describing them as "fascist" is inappropriateSmith, David James,
Hinduism and Modernity P188, Blackwell Publishing ISBN 0-631-20862-3.

Vincent Kundukulam, a Christian priest at St. Joseph Pontifical
Seminary in Aluva, Kerala, has written a Ph.D thesis in Sorbonne
University, Paris, France, that claims RSS to be neither nationalist
nor fascist RSS neither Nationalist nor Fascist, Indian Christian
priest's research concludes,Christian PostGoogle Cache of above RSS
neither nationalist nor fascist, says Christian priest after
research,The Indian ExpressWeb Archive,ibid. He states that that RSS
cannot be considered as a nationalist organisation in the sense in
which the term 'nationalism' is generally interpreted in India. He
points out that Indian nationalism and religion are mutually
exclusive. Since RSS's primary loyalty is to the Hindus, it can't be
called 'nationalist'. He also argues against branding the RSS ideology
as "Fascism", "Nazism", "Fundamentalism" and "Communalism". He said
the terms fascism, Nazism, and fundamentalism are much abused terms in
India. They have a different connotation and meaning in the European
context that don't apply to an Indian sociopolitical context. He
argues that since communalism is not a part of religion, RSS can be
called "communal" only in a limited way.

In addition, accusations of "fascism" have been critiqued by former
political philosopherProfile, Jyotirmaya Sharma and Times of India
commentator Jyotirmaya Sharma as inappropriate: a "simplistic
transference has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu
nationalist politics"Hindu Nationalist Politics,J. Sharma Times of
India.

References

Publications

•{{cite news| url =http://www.panchjanya.com/ | title = Panchajanya |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = Hindi}}
•{{cite news | url =http://www.organiser.org/ | title = Organiser |
publisher = RSS weekly publication| language = English}}
•{{cite book |title= Bunch of Thoughts |year= 1966|publisher= Sahitya
Sindhu Prakashana|location= Banglore, India |id= ISBN 81-86595-19-8}}
- Collection of Speeches by Golwalkar.

Books

•{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Walter K. |coauthors=Damle, Sridhar
D. |title=The Brotherhood in Saffron |year=1987 |publisher=Vistaar
Publishers |location=Delhi, India}}
•{{cite book |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha |authorlink=Martha Nussbaum |
coauthors= |title=The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and
India's Future |year=2007 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |
isbn=0-674-02482-6 }}
See also
{{sangh}}

External links

•RSS - official website•Accusations gone rancid, without remorse-
Criticism of smear campaigns against RSS
Sangh Parivar Hindutva

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh hi:राष्ट्रीय
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The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

Hindu revivalism remains a growing force in India today. It is also a
concern among the millions of displaced Hindus scattered around the
world. Its roots lie in the belief that Hinduism is an endangered
lifestyle. This notion is fuelled by the political assertiveness of
minority groups, efforts to convert Hindus to other faiths, suspicions
that the political authorities are sympathetic to minority groups and
the belief that foreign political and religious ideologies are
destroying the Hindu community. Every morning at sunrise, groups of
men in military-style uniforms gather together before saffron coloured
flags, in all parts of India, to participate in a common set of
rituals, physical exercises and lessons. For one hour each day, they
are taught to think of themselves as a family with a mission to
transform Hindu society. (Andersen and Damle 1) They are the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest and most influential organization
in India committed to Hindu revivalism. The RSS or National Volunteer
Organization, is perhaps the most interesting of any of India's social
movements. The growth of the RSS provides a detailed illustration of
India’s changing face. The purpose of this paper is to provide the
reader with an early twentieth century view of an organization that
emerged out of frustrations among India’s Hindu revivalists. These
revivalists were discontent with the work of nationalists in politics,
and determined to unify the Hindus of India against the “alien”
threats within the nation. The origins of nationalist movements in
nineteenth century India can be traced to the expansion of Western,
English education. Those attracted to the new education came primarily
from high caste Hindu groups. Many of the proponents of social,
political and religious reform among Hindus were drawn from this
English educated class. Until very late in the nineteenth century,
most politically articulate Indians were willing to collaborate with
the colonial administration. However, a shift from collaboration to
criticism began in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Two
broad movements emerged among Hindus seeking to define their national
identity: modernists and revivalists. The modernists adopted models of
social and political change based upon Western patterns; they
appreciated many of the Western philosophies and wanted India to
follow suit. The revivalist view was based on returning to a Hindu
antiquity that was thought to be superior for governing India—a
“Hindu” nation. Many felt that this desire to recreate the age of
Hindu grandeur was also a result of English education; ideas of
patriotism and nationalism crept into these peoples way of thought. It
was the English study of the Indian way of life that added to the
revivalist movement. Revivalism included those who wanted to preserve
the traditional social order as well as those who sought to reform
Hindu society as a way of strengthening Hindu solidarity. The RSS
traces its roots to the revivalist feelings that were present at that
time. The Hindu revivalists sought to recover fundamental truths about
their people. They argued that the loss of national consciousness had
created conditions that facilitated British domination of the land. By
appealing to an idealized past, the revivalists reminded the Hindu
public of the suffering and degradation experienced under British
rule. The call for independence was a logical next-step, for the
degraded present could only be overcome by eliminating the foreign
intruders who had supposedly disrupted the original blissful society.
Muslim rulers and the British were identified as sources of that
disruption and many revivalist spokesmen sought to place limits on
their political power and on their cultural influence. The proposed
changes in Hindu society were justified by the proposition that the
changes were not new at all, but were in fact a revival of older,
purer forms of Hindu culture that had degenerated during foreign rule.
Opposition to British rule increased among both the moderates and the
more extremists, as the contradictions between colonial rule and new
aspirations became obvious. Criticism of India’s colonial status was
supported by observation of British attitudes. The British viewed
Indians and Indian culture as inferior. Educated Indians were
considerably upset when the British began to characterize them as
feminine, cowardly and unrepresentative of the native culture. The
racial arrogance often expressed by European officials, businessmen
and missionaries, made a substantial contribution to the nationalist
sentiment. Constitutional reforms that offered increased Indian
participation in the legislative bodies and bureaucracy did not match
expectations. The Western educated Indians believed that they should
enjoy the same civil liberties as the English. With the development of
new techniques of agitation, the government undermined popular trust
by enforcing regulations that further diminished civil liberties. The
claims that British economic policies caused a drain of wealth from
India, further enforced the view that the British were fundamentally
unconcerned with the country’s well being. (Andersen and Damle 30)
Developments in the late nineteenth century created conditions
conducive to the expansion of revivalism. Nationalism was beginning to
assert itself. The revivalist message, based on traditional Hindu
concepts regarding society, was appealing to many Indian Hindus. In
pre-independent India, the premier nationalist organization was the
Indian National Congress, an umbrella organization that accommodated a
variety of interests including those of the revivalists. However, the
Congress was not entirely successful in adequately satisfying all
groups. Many Muslim leaders felt that Westernized Hindu elite, who
controlled the Congress, did not adequately respond to Muslim
interests. The same sentiments were shared by Hindu revivalist leaders
regarding the Hindu community. The founder of the RSS doubted whether
the Congress, which included Muslims, could bring about the desired
unity of the Hindu community. As the Hindu and Muslim leaders within
these communities continued to feel unfairly represented, they turned
to forming other political organizations claiming to represent their
respective groups. It would be appropriate to note that there was no
cohesive community, either Hindu or Muslim, in India that was united.
These communities were divided by many barriers, and developed in each
region differently, both politically and socially. What these
organizations did represent was a certain aspect of their respective
communities that was very defensive in nature. The RSS was established
in 1925 as a kind of educational body whose objective was to train a
group of Hindu men who would work together to unite the Hindu
community, so that India could once again become an independent
country. The RSS emerged during a wave of Hindu-Muslim riots that had
swept across India at the time. The RSS viewed communal rioting as a
symptom of the weakness and division within the Hindu community, and
argued that independence could be achieved only after the splintered
Hindu community, divided by caste, religion, language, and sect,
united. (Andersen and Damle 32) The formation of the RSS can be
attributed to the defensive nature of the Hindu community at the time.
The deterioration of Hindu-Muslim relations and the continual
frustration with the Indian National Congress led to the rise of the
RSS. During India’s pre-independence period, the two leaders of the
RSS, its founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalker, felt that a fundamental change in social attitudes was a
necessity before any changes occurred in the nation. The creation of a
properly trained force of nationalists would be the first step in
altering such attitudes. Most revivalists argued that Gandhi’s efforts
in the early 1920s to strengthen Hindu-Muslim bonds by lining up the
Congress organization behind the Muslim protest against the
dismemberment of the Turkish Empire encouraged Muslim separatism. When
he launched his first major non-cooperation movement in India on
August 1, 1920, one of the issues was the British unwillingness to
satisfy Muslims on the Turkish issue. Gandhi called for a complete
boycott of government institutions, while simultaneously including the
doctrine of ahimsa as an integral part of the movement. A considerable
number of Congress members, including many revivalists, opposed both
the objectives and tactics of the boycott. Widespread communal rioting
followed the apparent failure of Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement.
(Malkani 5) Hindu revivalists were particularly alarmed by the
widespread communal rioting which took place on the Malabar coast of
southwestern India during August 1921. Events there, emphasized the
revivalist concern about the dangers facing the Hindus of the
subcontinent. Muslim resentment against British rule in the Malabar
area, was coupled with anti-Hindu sentiment, and the rioting grew to
such proportions that the civil administration was unable to contain
the violence in many places. This uprising confirmed the fears of many
Hindus that the violence on the Malabar coast was a covert attempt to
enhance the political influence of Muslims at the expense of the Hindu
community. It was difficult for many to conceive how a country
comprised of 85% Hindus could be unable to defend themselves in that
situation. Many Hindus feared that similar outbreaks would occur
elsewhere, and these apprehensions fuelled revivalist sentiments. The
challenge from Islam in the early 1920s was viewed by many Hindus as a
threat to their self-esteem. The proliferation of Hindu sabhas, and
other “defensive” Hindu associations, were reactions to the growing
communal violence, the increasing political articulation of Muslims,
the cultural “Islamization” of the Muslim community, and the failure
to achieve independence. Thus, this set the stage for the emergence of
the RSS within the historical setting of modern India. The RSS’s
discipline and ideological framework were shaped by Dr. Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar, a medical doctor who had abandoned a potentially lucrative
practice to participate in the struggle against colonialism. As a
youth, Hedgewar was keenly interested in history and politics. During
the early 1920s, Hedgewar became deeply engaged in Congress Party
activities. At the 1920 annual Congress session in Nagpur, Gandhi had
promised freedom within the year through peaceful non-cooperation.
Many including Hedgewar, decided to give the experiment, in non-
violent disobedience, a chance to prove its effectiveness. The year
1921 ended without the promised swaraj. Gandhi called off the much
heralded non-cooperation campaign in early 1922, because a mob had
killed a number of policemen in the United Provinces. Hedgewar felt
Gandhi had made a serious tactical mistake. Hedgewar became
increasingly disenchanted with Gandhi and politics. (Malkani 10) The
outbreak of communal rioting in 1923 caused Hedgewar to question the
previously attempted methods used to rid India of colonial rule. The
riots in his view, were the signs of a deeper social problem—disunity
among Hindus—that would have to be addressed if India were to become
independent. During this period of escalating Hindu-Muslim animosity,
Hedgewar began to develop the intellectual foundations of the RSS. A
major influence on his thinking was Vinayak Damodar Sarvarkar’s
Hindutva, which advances the thesis that the Hindus are a nation.
While Sarvarkar’s work may have provided Hedgewar with an intellectual
justification for the concept of a Hindu nation that embraced all the
peoples of the subcontinent, it did not give him a method for uniting
the Hindu community. From his youth, Hedgewar searched for a reason to
explain India’s inability to ward off foreign domination. He was
disturbed that a small group of colonial administers could rule a vast
country like India with such ease. Hedgewar felt that much of India’s
ancient territory, referring to Tibet and Afghanistan, had been lost
due to a lack of Hindu unity. He believed that independence and
national revitalization could be achieved only when the root cause of
India’s weakness was discovered. Some time between 1924 and 1925,
Hedgewar satisfied himself that he had discovered the cause; the
fundamental problem was psychological and what was required was an
inner transformation to rekindle a sense of national consciousness and
social cohesion. Once having created a regiment of persons committed
to the national reconstruction, he believed there would be little
difficulty in sustaining a movement of revitalization, which of course
would include independence as one of its objectives. In its inception,
the RSS had two basic aims: (1.) to unite and train Hindus to face the
enemy, any alien party that was attempting to subjugate Hinduism; and
(2.) to radicalize the Hindus to hasten the British withdrawal from
India. It was founded on the auspicious day of the Hindu festival
Dusherah. The first recruits were largely Brahmin, although all Hindus
were encouraged to join. Gymnasiums or Akharas, associated with the
Kshatriya life style, proved to be the most successful grounds for
finding recruits. (Jayaprasad 58) These trained recruits would go on
to be the future leaders of the country, and keep with them the
teachings and discipline of the RSS. They would also keep a close
network with the organization. The RSS argued that their strengths lay
in their ability to develop close bonds among their members and to
sustain links when members moved on or joined various RSS affiliate
groups. In the communal riots of September 1927 in Nagpur, RSS took
steps which captured the attention of Hindus far beyond the city.
Eighty-nine RSS members were organized into sixteen squads to protect
various Hindu neighbourhoods. This generated widespread publicity and
captured the attention of Hindus everywhere. The paramilitary nature
of the RSS soon convinced the Central Provincial government that the
RSS could develop into a dangerous revolutionary group. It soon became
the most successful of a class of associations, which specialized in
recruiting young men and adolescents into uniformed militia bands
called Shakhas. The Shakha was the first stage of involvement, where
boys would work and train together and develop a camaraderie. Those
that excelled were moved up into the full-time rank of the organization
—an organization that was extremely effective in managing and
mobilizing many people. These Swayamsevaks belonging to the “Sangh
Brotherhood” were dedicated to the improvement of Hindu society,
culture, religion, and to the eventual creation of a Hindu Rashtra or
Hindu nation. Shakha technique was evolved by Dr. Hedgewar to achieve
these aims. It offered a unifying experience, stressing commitment and
loyalty to the ideologies of the RSS. The uniqueness of the technique
lay in the active participation on national affairs by each and every
member. The physical, intellectual and mental training was designed to
prepare all sections of society for effectively involving themselves
in nation building (i.e. a grass roots philosophy). The membership was
free to all castes of Hindus as equal participants, without prejudice.
The RSS believed in the equality of all castes. They did not accept
the practice of untouchability. All members must participate in common
meals, a controversial practice at the time, but one that was used by
many reformers such as the Arya Samaj, Swami Vivekananda, and Gandhi.
All followers had to conform to the behavioural standards of the RSS,
which appeared to be a mix of Brahmin and Kshatriya standards. Prior
to his death on June 21, 1940, Dr. Hedgewar chose the RSS general
secretary at the time, Golwalker, to succeed him as leader. Under the
new leadership, the RSS continued to expand rapidly during World War
II. With the pressing for an independent Muslim state by the Muslim
League, the period between 1945 to 1948 saw sharp increases in
membership within the RSS, including lower caste Hindus in areas that
are now Pakistan, Punjab and Delhi. RSS membership had previously been
largely, upper caste Hindu’s in Maharastra. The RSS was beginning to
attract, and continues to attract, low income Hindus and small
shopkeepers, who were concerned with their opportunities in a
government that favoured the high class or minorities. The RSS always
kept a certain mystery and secrecy of their membership and their
future plans. It was always under some form of scrutiny or ban from
the political authorities. Under the leadership of Hedgewar, the RSS
remained a cultural and social organization committed to the
advancement of the Hindu people. Although, the RSS trained its
disciples to be aggressive and protective of their culture, Hedgewar
insisted that they not get confrontational or purposely attack other
communities. Hedgewar also insisted that the RSS remain out of
politics totally. Members were allowed to join politics on their own,
but the organization was to remain completely apolitical. Hedgewar
felt that politics was a “dirty” business and he was more concerned
with training the youth, which would have a domino effect on later
politics in India. His successor, Golwalker, respected his wishes and
kept the RSS out of politics. However, with Golwalker the RSS began to
receive an anti-Muslim sentiment directly from the leader. The RSS
membership always seemed to have contempt for the Muslims as well as
the British, but it was now more evident in the writings of their
leader. In his book, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Golwalker made
claims of a Hindustan that was to be the land of the Hindus where they
could practice their all-prevailing religious traditions without
contamination from European or Muslim culture. “Any non-Hindus in
India must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must
entertain no idea but those of glorificationof the Hindu race and
culture, and could only stay in the country wholly subordinated to the
Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any
preferential treatment.” (Brown 347) With the insurgence of new blood
into the RSS from its many student affiliate groups, the RSS began to
grow and expand. The RSS membership began to divide on its future
objectives and goals. The traditionalist of the Sangh wanted to
concentrate on character building within the Shakha and keep out of
the country's politics. The new members of the Sangh, saw the RSS as a
growing force on the subcontinent and wanted to use the influence in a
more aggressive and political way. In the end, the traditionalist of
the RSS won and the RSS stayed out of the pre-independence politics of
India. The RSS came under harsh criticism for this move, as many
supporters felt that the RSS was the only organized and influential
group that could have prevented partition. Lord Mountbatten, the last
British Viceroy, announced the partition of the Indian subcontinent on
a communal basis on June 3, 1947, and termination of colonial rule on
August 15, 1947. The British created a boundary force to keep law and
order during partition but dissolved it in September 1947. Millions of
Hindus and Sikhs were left unprotected in West Punjab, and the same
for Muslims in East Punjab. Violence was everywhere as early as June
1947 and reached its peak in September 1947. It only subsided when the
minority communities of West Pakistan (formerly West Punjab) fled to
India. Golwalker had set an example of fearlessness by moving through
riot torn areas consoling refugees in their flight to India. The East
Punjab government provided assistance, including the issuance of
weapons to the RSS, while they were organizing rescue squads to bring
refugees to India. Armed Swayamsevaks were assigned to guard Hindu and
Sikh homes. They even retaliated against Muslims in Pakistan when
danger was imminent. Their rescue efforts helped bolster confidence
and pride among the demoralized Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab area.
The growing popularity and activism of the RSS proved it an
influential force to be reckoned with. (Andersen and Damle 52) The RSS
‘s humanitarian efforts during the partition had won it respect from
the people of the newly established India. However, the government was
wary that the RSS posed a political threat to the stability of the
country. Many Muslim leaders in India were growing fearful of the anti-
Muslim sentiment that the RSS members characterized. The RSS did
realize that it had to take a more active role in the political
activities of India. During the Kashmir war, when Pakistan sent in
armed raiders, the Indian Armed forces supplied arms to the RSS
volunteers. These Swayamsevaks fought the enemy on the side of the
Indian soldiers. The RSS kept the supply lines moving and carried arms
and ammunition for the soldiers through hazardous areas. (Andersen and
Damle 53) In the closing months of 1947, senior political figures
became increasingly outspoken about the danger of the RSS becoming an
independent political force. The national Herald of Lucknow expressed
this fear in editorials published. It compared the RSS with the
paramilitary form of the German Nazi party. The RSS had been accused
of being a secret society in that what they said or showed was mostly
meant to hide the reality. The daily activities of the RSS were said
to be a means of organizing Hindu society and promoting Hindu culture.
To be political is no crime, and in a democracy every individual and
association has the right to act politically. However, the RSS has
been accused of being an organization that tries to camouflage its
characters and objectives, thus giving many, every reason to be
suspicious of its on goings. Many felt that the RSS had all the
characteristics of a fascist organization. (Goyal 14) Many senior RSS
figures maintained a hesitant attitude regarding party politics in
Independent India. Many felt that this was a corrupt system and the
RSS should have no involvement. Nevertheless, the more activist youths
were demanding some RSS involvement in politics. The main objective
was to gain political protection as the RSS was banned after the
assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; an event many people held the RSS
responsible for. The RSS was reinstated only after presenting a new
constitution to the government which stated that it was a non-
political, cultural organization and would preach religious tolerance.
(Brown 348) But by this time contempt for the RSS had risen to the
most top level of government—Prime Minister Jawarhalal Nehru. Nehru
and his successors would all keep a watchful eye on the RSS with
continuous scrutinizing and banning of many of its activities. The RSS
maintained a strong relation and presence with student groups. These
groups were a pool for new membership for the Sangh. The RSS wanted to
expand its base and get involved with the masses of India. It was very
successful in aligning itself with several labour unions and
agricultural unions. The RSS kept away from the large capitalistic
businesses. Even though the RSS won the support of these unions, the
ideology of the organization never appealed to the common peasant in
India. The Hindu Mahasabha, the Arya Samaj and the RSS were the most
prominent organizations dedicated to Hindu revivalism. There was a lot
of cross membership between these groups. However, the RSS steered
away from the political Hindu Mahasabha, as much of the public also
considered this group responsible for Gandhi’s death. The Mahasabha
became insignificant in Indian politics. The RSS gave its support to
the new Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the Bhartiya Janata Party
(BJP). It was time that the RSS expand its affiliation with other
groups; it was now a reality if the organization was to improve the
country it had to be involved somewhat in politics. Of the religious
organizations, the Arya Samaj in Northern India was a close ally of
the RSS. The Arya Samaj predates the RSS in its Hindu revivalism
movement. They often supported the RSS or its affiliates, but also
kept themselves separate. Other religious organizations came directly
from the RSS family tree, the most prominent of these is the Vishwal
Hindu Parishad (VHP). The VHP was seen as the more extreme religious
arm of the RSS, just as the Jana Sangh (later the BJP) had been seen
as the political arm of the RSS. Many criticize the VHP as an
organization that takes on more extreme projects on behalf of the RSS,
such as the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, December 6,
1992, allowing the RSS to maintain its claim to being purely a
cultural organization. The VHP has also grown to become a large
organization and is at present comparable to the RSS in strength,
numbers and ideals of higher morals. There was lots of cross
membership within the different organizations. The RSS lent its
prominent members to these groups to help serve or organize projects
and campaigns. The RSS’s support of the VHP allowed its members to
participate in more activist projects concerning Hindu revivalism. Its
support of the Jana Sangh and the BJP also allowed its members to get
involved on the Indian political scene in a very large way. Although
these organizations—the RSS, VHP, BJP, Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabha and
others—differ in their ideologies or methods, they all seem to be
connected by a strong network and a commitment to Hindu revivalism. In
recent years, these groups have received a strong nod of popular
support and political importance. India’s current government will most
likely be a coalition formed around the BJP. The new millenium will be
an interesting and trying time for the 1 billion plus of India. Being
the major exponent in spreading Hindu nationalism, the RSS had come
under much attack for their actions, policies and supposed hidden
agendas. They have always maintained themselves as a cultural
organization, despite other allegations. One cannot help but
sympathize with them for the concept they uphold based on valid fears
when one takes a look at Indian history and politics. The RSS have
been credited for much humanitarian efforts during partition and
after, but they have also been a factor in the rising communal
feelings in India. Albeit the RSS is considered by many as a secret
organization, its claims of rather being a silent organization still
remains with its ultimate goal of seeing India realizing Hind Swaraj.
The only thing the RSS must remember is that they are not the only
nationals of India. In a democratic state such as India all voices
must be heard. Mother India has many other children, whether they are
Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Muslim.

Bibliography

Andersen, Walter K., Damle, Shridhar D. The Brotherhood in Saffron:
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. Colorado:
Westview Press, 1987. Brass, Paul R. The Politics of India Since
Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Brown,
Judith M. Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1994. Goyal, D. R. Seminar: Secret Societies—
RSS. New Delhi: Romesh Thapur, 1972. Jayaprasad, K. RSS and Hindu
Nationalism. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1991. Malkani, K.
R. The RSS Story. New Delhi: Impex India, 1980. South Asia: After
Ayodhya: BJP and the Indian Political System. Nedlands: University of
Western Australia Press for the South Asian Studies Association, 1994.
Spitz, Douglas. The RSS and Hindu Militancy in the 1980's. Internet
Article: http://www.monm.edu/academic/Classics/Speel_Festschrift/spitz.htm

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The Rajput Who Was Expelled

Posted on 04 September 2009. Tags: Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaswant
Singh, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajya Sabha, Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh

I have known Jaswant Singh for nearly 30 years — almost all the time
since he had been an important pillar of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
We hit it off from the first day we met and continued meeting each
other on and off in our respective homes. He was not the stereotype of
the image I had nurtured in my mind of other members of his party. He
was not a khaki- knickerwala in white shirt, black cap and gym shoes
wielding a lathi, as ordained by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He
is more conscious of his Rajput lineage than of being a Hindu, more an
English country gentleman than a desi bhai. He enjoys having vintage
Scotch in the evenings and makes no secret of his contempt for
prohibitionists. He is the epitome of a pucca brown sahib.

I had occasion to see him in action as a member of the Opposition in
the Rajya Sabha. He took his job seriously. He had a staff to do
research on topics raised in the question hour and on bills being
debated. I never saw him while away his time in gupshup and coffee in
the Central Hall, as most others members of parliament did and still
do. Jaswant Singh being among the ablest and the most conscientious of
MPs, I was not the least bit surprised when the BJP came to power and
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee chose him as his foreign and
finance minister. He had neither time nor patience to nurture his
constituency. When he lost his Lok Sabha general election, he was
elected to the Rajya Sabha because he was trusted and indisputable.
His crowning moment was exchanging jihadi terrorists with over 150
Indian passengers travelling by Indian Airlines held as hostages by
terrorists at Kandahar airport. Whether or not it was a wise decision
is debatable but at that time it was the unanimous decision of the
cabinet to do so. The only one who undertook to carry out the
dangerous mission was Jaswant Singh. He showed nerves of steel, flying
out with dangerous criminals to hostile territory and bringing back
his countrymen and women safely home. That was the Rajput in him.

Jaswant’s book on Jinnah reflects his personality. He must have known
that it would get many of his party members’ hackles up. He could not
give a khota naya paisa for their reaction. But expelling him without
having read his book was a foolish thing to do. As for Narendra Modi
banning the book in Gujarat, the less said the better. It smacks of
fascism and bigotry. You can be sure there will be more demand for the
book in Gujarat than in other states of India. It is men of the Modi
mentality who have given BJP a bad name. With a friend like him who
needs enemies? I am convinced that by expelling him, the BJP has lost
more than just Jaswant Singh.

Too late in life

I had met Jatin Das at exhibitions of his paintings. Since he was a
good, innovative artist, I assumed he must be Bengali. His first wife,
Varsha, was a colleague of my daughter, Mala. Their daughter, Nandita,
went to the same school as my granddaughter. I had never set my eyes
on her but seen her pictures in the newspapers. She looked like a
beautiful Bengali girl, but I was wrong. Jatin Das is not Bengali but
an Oriya from Baripada. Varsha’s mother is a Gujarati from Mumbai. So
Nandita is half-Oriya, half-Gujarati, but having been born, brought up
and educated in Delhi, is really a Dilliwali.

One evening, the ghazal singer, Deepmala Mohan, brought her over to
meet me. I was bowled over by her looks and unpretentiousness. She was
coy about her private life but eager to tell me about her films,
particularly Firaq, which had earned her worldwide acclaim. It is
about the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002. It was shown in
Pakistani cinemas and audiences were amazed that an Indian could so
boldly expose the country’s soft underbelly to ridicule. Needless to
say, it also brought her a lot of hate mail from Hindu
fundamentalists. She took it as a double victory. I looked through all
the material on her on the internet and invited her for a second
meeting. She came, but was evidently uneasy with the questions I put
to her. I am determined to write a profile on her, though it may not
be to her liking.

Generous party

There is not a greater believer in democracy/ Than the BJP/ How I wish
the Congress and the communists had half as much freedom of
expression/ And do what BJP has done./ Jaswant Singh is the latest
beneficiary/ Of the party’s free-wheeling generosity/ Jinnah is indeed
an anathema to the BJP/ For, he is venomously responsible for the
partition of this country./ But Advani can ‘pay respectful homage to
the great man’/ And praise Mohammad Ali/ And still remain the top
leader of the party/ In spite of this generosity, if the ex major
suffered expulsion/ It is because he did not do what if he were in the
shaakha he would have done.

{Source: The Telegraph}

Posted in Features, OpinionComments (0)
BJP distances itself from key strategist's comments

Posted on 08 June 2009.

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday distanced itself
from the comments of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a key aide of LK Advani,
that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was responsible for the
BJP’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

“The BJP distances itself from the remarks of Sudheendra Kulkarni. It
is his personal analysis as an independent journalist,” the party’s
deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.

“Neither the party nor Advaniji agree with his analysis or his views
on the RSS,” she said.

Writing in the Tehelka newsmagazine, Kulkarni, who was a key poll
strategist of the party, blamed the BJP leadership and the RSS for the
debacle in the elections and said they made Advani “look weak,
helpless and not fully in command”.

While he urged the party to introspect, he said the “the RSS needs it
no less.

Its leaders must ask themselves, and answer the question honestly and
earnestly. Why is the acceptability of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad limited in Hindu society itself?”

He said the party “did nothing” while its allies started moving away
because of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Sushma Swaraj said there were several reasons for the party’s defeat
not just one and “these would all be looked into at a meeting of the
national executive (of the BJP).” It meets June 20 and 21.

Posted in NewsComments (0)
Protest against Advani
Posted on 02 June 2009. Tags:

Murmurs of protest have started in the Bharatiya Janata Party against
LK Advani’s election as leader of Opposition with party vice-president
and Rajya Sabha member Pyarelal Khandelwal complaining about it to BJP
chief Rajnath Singh. In a letter to Singh, Khandelwal, a senior leader
from Madhya Pradesh, took exception to the party deciding on Advani as
unanimous candidate without first calling a meeting of the BJP’s
parliamentary board.

Reliable party sources said Khandelwal wrote that the party should
have followed a procedure and called a meeting of the parliamentary
board, its highest decision-making body, before naming Advani the
opposition leader.

The sources also said this could be the beginning of troubles for
Advani and cited the meeting between senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi
and Khandelwal on Tuesday evening.

Joshi is considered to be in the camp in the party opposing Advani.

“Do you think I am here to hatch some conspiracy?” Joshi retorted when
the waiting reporters outside Khandelwal’s home asked him what
transpired in the meeting.

When pressed further, he said: “No bytes.”

As the reporters requested him to say something, Joshi, who won the
election from Varanasi, snapped: “I don’t bite.”

A meeting of the BJP’s Lok Sabha MPs Sunday elected Advani as the
leader of the legislature party and thus the leader of the opposition
in the lower house.

Advani, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, had offered to resign
from the position – which he held in the last Lok Sabha too – on the
day of the election results May 16.

He agreed not to press with his resignation after the party requested
him, the sources say, at the instance of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) leaders.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s parliamentary board Tuesday kept in abeyance a
possible decision on appointing Sushma Swaraj as deputy leader of the
party in the Lok Sabha.

The sources said this was because the party wanted to consider other
names too.

“There are other senior leaders and we have to ensure there is no
controversy at this juncture,” a BJP strategist told IANS.

http://despardes.com/wp/tag/rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh/

The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Paperback)
~ Christophe Jaffrelot
Christophe Jaffrelot (Author)

(Author) "Hindu nationalism was constructed as an ideology between the
1870s and the 1920s..."http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231103352/
ref=cap_pdp_dp_0#noop

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism... A scholarly tour de
force." -- New York Review of Books

The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism. . . . A scholarly tour
de force. -- New York Review of Books

This is the most systematic study I have seen on the topic of Hindu
nationalism, a movement that has grown rapidly over the past decade
and now poses a challenge to India's secular government. . . . For the
expert on South Asia, this book is an absolute must. -- Walter
Andersen author of The Brotherhood in Saffron: A Study of Hindu
Revivalism
Review
"The most exhaustive book on Hindu nationalism.... A scholarly tour de
force." -- New York Review of Books

Review
"This is the most systematic study I have seen on the topic of Hindu
nationalism, a movement that has grown rapidly over the past decade
and now poses a challenge to India's secular government.... For the
expert on South Asia, this book is an absolute must." -- Walter
Andersen, author of The Brotherhood in Saffron: A Study of Hindu
Revivalism

Product Description

A detailed account of the Hindu nationalist movement in India since
the 1920s arguing that political uneasiness, created by real and
imagined threats of colonialism and the presence of minority groups,
paved the way for militant Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
Christophe Jaffrelot is director of the Centre d'Etudes et Recherches
Internationales (CERI), part of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences
Politiques in Paris. He is the author of India's Silent Revolution.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0231103352/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Product Details
Paperback: 536 pages
Publisher: Columbia University Press (October 15, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0231103352
ISBN-13: 978-0231103350
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8
customer reviews)

(8 customer reviews)

The most helpful favorable review The most helpful critical review

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

An interesting exploration of nationalism in India
This was part of required readings for one of my university courses on
India. It provides a great deal of information for discussion for
scholars and those interested in South Asia. The RSS, BJP, Jana Sangh,
VHP, and Janata Party are all discussed, as well as key issues such as
the temple/mosque contreversy in Ayodhya, and cow protection movement
in Madhya Pradesh...
Published on October 19, 2004 by JHF

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Informational but biased

For the scant amount of literature on the Hindu Nationalist
Movement(BJP and RSS) this book should have filled in many gaps, and
in some ways it does but in its biased, elitist manner it misses the
point. In condemning the destruction of the Babri Masjid this book
doesn't seem to point to any of the reasons for it. Not once is one
given the context of the...

Published on December 26, 2004 by Seth J. Frantzman

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Informational but biased, December 26, 2004
By Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) -

For the scant amount of literature on the Hindu Nationalist
Movement(BJP and RSS) this book should have filled in many gaps, and
in some ways it does but in its biased, elitist manner it misses the
point. In condemning the destruction of the Babri Masjid this book
doesn't seem to point to any of the reasons for it. Not once is one
given the context of the rise of Hindu movements. No one is told that
millions of Hindus were killed in Genocidal operations in Pakistan in
1948, ethnically cleansed from their ancient homes. Not once are we
reminded of the 1000 years of British and Muslim imperial domination
and colonialism of India.

Rather this book assumes the Hindu movements and their chauvinist
nature came from no where and thus the author takes them to task and
skewers them for their militancy. While this book seem to understand
and commiserate with Muslim militancy, it never once excuses the same
violence in communal riots from the other side, although the
statistics are usually shown, giving evidence of the two sided nature
of the rioting, where members of both communities are killed.

The tragedy of this book is that it is very detailed but
overwhelmingly biased. Many times we hear that the Hindu movements are
`elitist, brahmanical' without any correleatons to he reasons why. The
book says the movements harked back to a fake `golden age' but doesn't
think to describe the reasoning for this. Thus anyone interesting in
the BJP and the like will be displeased here unless you are
fanantically anti-hindu.

Seth J. Frantzman

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

An interesting exploration of nationalism in India, October 19, 2004
By JHF -

This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
This was part of required readings for one of my university courses on
India. It provides a great deal of information for discussion for
scholars and those interested in South Asia. The RSS, BJP, Jana Sangh,
VHP, and Janata Party are all discussed, as well as key issues such as
the temple/mosque contreversy in Ayodhya, and cow protection movement
in Madhya Pradesh. Jaffrelot draws upon classic social science
literature, including books by Peter van der Veer, Victor Turner, Paul
Brass, and Benedict Anderson. In all, a good source for understanding
some of the issues surrounding Hindu nationalism in India, but should
be placed into a broader context (read some of the books by the
authors listed above, for example) for complete understanding.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

A Pathetic Choice for Understanding Hindu Nationalism, June 4, 2009
By IndianTwilight (Washington, DC) -

I just finished reading this book. I am surprised that it was used an
academic text for a class! This person has no understanding of the
roots and beginnings of RSS et al. I could not agree more with Seth
Frantzman's remarks. As for R.S. Ali--check you umbilical cord (my
review below will clarify this clearly).

The problem with such authors is their restricted understanding of
Hinduism as a religion before the advent of Islam and Christianity.
Another problem in assessing Hindu Nationalism is in understanding
Hindus in context vis-à-vis their immediate environment and
neighboring countries. Wearing religion, faith and culture are somehow
accepted realities for the adherents of Abrahamic faiths and also the
Buddhists; however, in the name of religion, for instance a show of
faith by Hindus is not acceptable.

The common expectation is, "are you not a submissive and non-violent
group of people who accept and embrace everyone at the expense of your
own identity?" Further, "are you not a group of people who allowed the
freedom to all other religious groups who came in and converted many
of your own people; why do you worry about it now?" Continue to
forsake yourself! Is it not pertinent to examine history in which
thousands of Zoroastrians fled Islamic persecution in Persia and
arrived in India; and, Jews fleeing both Christian and Islamic
persecution arrived in India?

Perhaps, Hindu Nationalism is less about Hindu chauvinism and more
about others in the country still acting as transient takers? It is
less about Hindu intolerance and more about making India a
battleground between Islam and Christianity where both religions,
fearful about losing in numbers, are interested in either multiplying
through progeny or conversion. So, in this globally religiously
charged environment, why is Hindu Nationalism so offensive? Democratic
Muslims want to better their societies by imposing varying forms of
Shariah, identifying it as better than any other socio-political
prescription; Christians can elect George Bush with Evangelical
support, Buddhists can kill Hindus in Sri Lanka and yet in the
original and perhaps only authentic ancient real-estate available to
Hindus, "why should the Hindus not want a socio-political environment
more conducive to their existence?"

It is time perhaps for the non-Hindu Indians to examine carefully and
truthfully where their umbilical cord is connected to and then examine
carefully and truthfully if Indian Hindu accusations against the non-
Indian Hindu communities, by-and-large, are or are not true. This
honest self-examination, without the feeling of proselytizing will be
one adventure for non-Hindus to contend with...some examples to look
at -- no problems between Jews and Hindus and no problems between
Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Hindus. How about it, Muslims and
Christians? Is there something inherently dangerous about
proselytizing?

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Poor taste - Are you paid by a christian organization?, August 23,
2007
By Praseeta Mundayattu "Think Global" (North Carolina, USA) -

Yesterday, I saw God's warriors about christian organization and
Islamic organizations on CNN by Christian Amanpour. Christian
missionaries have converted pooor pooooor people in front of my eyes
in India, there are cheap cheap humans who tell lies that show on
stage that cancer is cured, blind gets eye, people who were
handicapped could walk after the stage drama etc. If it is all legal,
if BJP or RSS opposes and if its illegal, then what is illegal to you
is legal to us, in India.

Shameless guy who wrote this should be part of the same network. Look
at secret mix of religion and politics in legal system, in everything,
in west and in middle eastern countries and then talk about India. No
body is going to buy your piss poor taste book for 28$ for things that
you write are in bad taste and also of things that new generation that
do not even know or want to know. See how hinduism is reviving...

6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
A corrective to bsastry@ucla, November 23, 2000
By A Customer

This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
This work is an instrumental and precise review of the rise of
fascistic movements in the formation of the Indian state. Groups like
the RSS, which can be collectively brought under the umbrella moniker,
"Sangh Combine", continue to operate today with the strength of other
groups like the VHP ever increasing. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
is the current Hindu nationalist party in power in India, and
represents the kinder, gentler, more compromising face of Hindu
nationalism that has fascistic groups like the RSS and VHP controlling
them behind the scenes. The particular danger of supporting bsastry's
views are that they play into the RSS's hands. The RSS has been
particularly effective in states like Maharashtra, and the same
involvement in education he is talking about has to do with the
manipulation of childrens' educations to raise new Hindu nationalists.
These textbooks are particularly instructive in demonstrating how
children are brought up to think of Muslims as "others", with word
problems and demonstrations often comparing productive people with
Hindu names with lazy and slow people with distinctly Muslim names.
Poems children recite in school smack of Nazi-type nationalist
language that picks out images like "Mother India (Bhaarat Maataa)" as
the national goddess (a particularly "Hindu" image). Gandhi has been
wiped out of textbooks in this state completely (an RSS member
assassinated him for "pandering to Muslims"), and the RSS continues to
think that was a good decision. This is a very complicated topic to
deal with in a book review, but Dr. Jaffrelot's dissertation is a
brilliantly written analysis of how this movement has paced along in
the past 75 years. Indeed, Hindu nationalism has been part of the
formation of the Indian state from at least the 1870's, and rests
heavily on colonialist discourse about Hinduism as a unified
tradition, and of "Hindu" scriptures like the Vedas as India's
original religion. The search for origins has much more to do with
'othering' minority groups--in this case Muslims--and putting forth a
nationalist agenda that attempts to 'protect threatened majorities'
from 'unfair' quotas for minorities. Hindutva is not a call to true
'Indian-ness', but rather a particular rhetoric for putting forth
fascistic ideas in a democratic state. I encourage anyone looking into
this topic seriously to read Achin Vanaik's "The Furies of Indian
Communalism" (London: Vasco Inc.(?)), a Marxist critique of the
possibilities of Indian fascism and the resetting of a sane picture of
Indian politics wrested from these nationalists, traditionalists, and
subalternists. Jaffrelot's work is seminal and important for
evaluating the history and current development of post-colonial
formations of religion in politics in India.

17 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
a flawed book, June 3, 1999
By A Customer

This review is from: The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(Hardcover)
I wonder which RSS leaders Jaffelot has talked to, in depth. I have
talked to many RSS people and have understood their ideology to the
best of my ability. Jaffelot's view of hindutva is extremely flawed.
he doesn't seem to realize how important the hindutva movement is. It
is NOT a militant movement like Taliban, and groups that practice rank
terrorism. The amount of schools and social service projects run by
VHP, RSS, etc. is incredible. I saw the statistics in a book titled
"Seva Disha 97" or something like that. I have visited a couple of RSS
run schools and seen a slide show which showed photographs of the
various service projects run by RSS sponsored organizations. It is the
hindutva based organizations like VHP and RSS that have worked
relentlessly to eradicate evils like untouchability and casteism that
creeped into the Indian society. Reformist is a far better term to use
than militant, aggressive, etc in describing the hindutva movement,
but Jaffelot gives that flawed impression. Zakir Hussain, a muslim and
former president of india had praise for the RSS as did Mahatma
Gandhi. India is fortunate to have organizations like the RSS, VHP,
etc. which are revitalising India for the better. Jaffelot has not
done a good job in emphasizing the positive, but rather portrays the
whole hindutva movement as if it is something that is potentially
dangerous. Quite a dissapointing book.

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Very Informative., August 25, 2003
By R. S. Ali "SoOn" (Ontario, Canada) -

As a muslim whose parents come from india i never really had an
interest in my homeland until the late 1990s. I started to pay more
attention to news coming from india, but my love for india was
shortlived. In 2002 a muslim mob set fire to a trainful of indians who
were reportedly holding two muslim girls hostage. I was naturally
upset about reading this and i prayed the indian government would find
the people responsible for the train fire and bring them to justice. I
was not prepared however, for what happened next and the wave of hindu
nationalist violence that followed. I was thinking surely the
government will step in and stop this but then i read a statement from
the BJP leader of Gujarat Narendra Modi, who said he was pleased with
the way hindu nationalists were handling the situation (while reports
were streaming in about gang rapes of women who were then set on
fire). I was genuinely disgusted by those comments. Suffice it to say
the incident encouraged me to learn more about the darker side of
india and this book has helped me learn a great deal. It is very
informative and comprehensive. I also recommend a book called "Saffron
Wave" which was three years after this book.

5 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
A colonialist view, October 14, 2002
By A Customer

This book is a perfect example of the double standards being used in
the narratives on the erstwhile colonies. Indian nationalism is to be
termed fascism whether it flies in the face of facts or not.
Jaffrelot's scholarship is biased and he is not able to rise above the
one-sided Leftist critiques that are to be encountered in the English
press in India. This book fails to show the light.

Comment (1)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231103352/ref=cap_pdp_dp_0#reader_0231103352

Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements
(The Fundamentalism Project) (v. 4) (Paperback)
~ Martin E. Marty
Martin E. Marty (Editor)

(Editor), R. Scott Appleby (Editor), Nancy T. Ammerman (Editor),
Robert Eric Frykenberg (Editor), Samuel C. Heilman (Editor), James
Piscatori (Editor)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226508862/ref=cap_pdp_dp_1#reader_0226508862

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226508862/ref=cap_pdp_dp_1#sipbody

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Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Social-Theory-Religion-James-Beckford/dp/0521774314/ref=sid_av_dp

Religions in Global Society by Peter Beyer
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Religions-Global-Society-Peter-Beyer/dp/0415393191/ref=sid_av_dp

Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines by Jeremy MacClancy
page 144 http://www.amazon.com/Exotic-No-More-Anthropology-Front/dp/0226500136/ref=sid_av_dp

The Primitive Church in the Modern World by Richard T. Hughes
page 32 http://www.amazon.com/Primitive-Church-Modern-World/dp/0252021940/ref=sid_av_dp

Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations by Linda
Woodhead
page 315 http://www.amazon.com/Religions-Modern-World-Traditions-Transformations/dp/0415217830/ref=sid_av_dp

A Nation Divided: Diversity, Inequality, and Community in American
Society (ILR Press Book) by Phyllis Moen
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Nation-Divided-Diversity-Inequality-Community/dp/0801485886/ref=sid_av_dp

Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for
Evangelical Identity by Glenn Shuck
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Marks-Beast-Struggle-Evangelical-Identity/dp/0814740049/ref=sid_av_dp

Fundamentalismo: Una Preocupacion Pastoral (Spanish Edition) by Eugene
Laverdiere
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentalismo-Una-Preocupacion-Pastoral-Spanish/dp/0814629326/ref=sid_av_dp

The Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics. by
Susan Friend Harding
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Book-Jerry-Falwell-Fundamentalist-Politics/dp/0691089582/ref=sid_av_dp

Islam and Democracy in the Middle East (A Journal of Democracy Book)
by Dr. Larry Diamond
page 282 http://www.amazon.com/Islam-Democracy-Middle-East-Journal/dp/0801878470/ref=sid_av_dp

The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy by Daniel Pipes
page 349 http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Hand-Middle-Fears-Conspiracy/dp/0312162545/ref=sid_av_dp

Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society (Oxford Pakistan
Paperbacks) by Riaz Hassan
Back Matter http://www.amazon.com/Faithlines-Conceptions-Society-Pakistan-Paperbacks/dp/0195799305/ref=sid_av_dp

The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, Studies in a Broken Polity by Hugh
Roberts
page 248 http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-Algeria-1988-2002-Studies-Broken/dp/185984684X/ref=sid_av_dp

http://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Fundamentalisms-Character-Movements-Fundamentalism/dp/book-citations/0226508862/ref=sid_dp_av?ie=UTF8&citeType=cited#cited

[Sid Harth]

Eric C. Anderson
Eric C. Anderson is the author of "China Restored"
Posted: February 26, 2010 12:59 PM

Contemplating China: Ignorance Breeds Fear

Contrary to the popular expression, ignorance is not bliss; ignorance
breeds fear. Think about the debate over health care reform that raged
through town hall meetings last summer--I stopped counting the number
of times someone went on a rant about "death panels" or the impending
nationalization of medicine. Neither rumor was true, but the average
American apparently had little interest engaged in fact-finding.
Better to act from ignorance and pitch the baby out with the
bathwater. A similar situation arises when it comes to conversations
involving China. I am routinely dismayed by the visceral response
Americans offer to all things China--with little apparent regard for
the ground truth.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll provides a case in point.
During a survey of 1,004 Americans conducted between 4 and 8 February
2010 respondents were asked the following three questions: (1) As you
may know, some people referred to the 20th Century as the American
Century because of the dominant role the United States played in world
affairs and the world economy. In the 21st Century do you think the
U.S. role will be about the same as in the 20th Century, larger, or
smaller? (2) Just your best guess, in terms of the dominant role do
you think the 21st Century will be more of an American Century, more
of a Chinese Century or what? (3) If the United States does have less
of a role in the 21st Century than it had in the 20th Century, do you
think that would be a good thing for the United States, a bad thing,
or neither good nor bad?

I'm going to pass on judging weather the entire last 100 years should
be characterized as the American Century. Suffice it to say we didn't
really hit our stride until the mid-1940s...and the boys in Moscow
gave us a pretty good run for the money until at least the late 1980s.
What I want to focus on is the response to these questions. According
to the Post-ABC poll, at 53% of Americans believe Washington is going
to have a smaller role in global economic affairs and 46% think we
will have a diminished say in world affairs. On the question of
dominance, 43% thought the coming 100 years will be the Chinese
Century. And 43% thought our declining dominance would be bad on the
economic front...39% came to the same impression when considering
overall world affairs.

Let me see if I can boil this down to a single sentence. A majority of
Americans now believe China will be the coming century's dominant
international actor and a significant number of my fellow citizens
think this bodes ill for our future well-being. This, by the way, is
not the first poll to discover such sentiments. In February 2008, the
Gallup annual world affairs survey found 40% of Americans thought
China was the globe's leading economy. Only 33% of the U.S.
respondents assigned that role to their own nation. Furthermore, when
asked to look 20 years ahead, 44% of the American respondents
predicted China would be the world's leading economic power. While
Gallup did not ask about political might, I suspect the figures would
have been comparable. In America economic clout equals political heft--
and so we can conclude a Chinese domination of international economics
would be accompanied by Beijing's ascendance to the top of the global
political hierarchy....which just has to be bad for America.

Really?

Let's talk facts for a moment. In 2009 the United States' gross
domestic product came to a grand sum total of $14.270 trillion. The
Chinese gross domestic product during the same year was a third--allow
me to repeat--a third of that figure. So much for the perception China
had already become the globe's leading economic power. Now let's
consider the question of political might. Beijing's current leadership
retains its claim to legitimacy by continuing to improve the lot of
1.3 billion constituents. This primarily translates into a requirement
for continuing China's economic development. As the Congressional
Research Service and many other scholars have previously argued, this
mission is best accomplished by maintaining the existing international
order. A regime, I would be quick to note, that largely reflects
Washington's cultural, economic, and political mores.

As best I, and a number of far smarter people, can tell, the Chinese
leadership has no intention of attempting to change that situation--in
the near or distant future. So even if American economic and political
power declines over the coming 20-50 years, it seems highly unlikely
the international environment is going to become unfavorable to our
continued existence. China will continue to seek business
opportunities in the United States and is likely to be more than happy
to share responsibility for ensuring international peace and
stability.

Before I am accused of being an elitist, I should note the average
American is not alone in suffering through ignorance. In June 2009, I
had the opportunity to teach a seminar on China's future for students
enrolled in a master's degree program at the National Defense
Intelligence College. The 15 individuals in the seminar came from a
wide swath of U.S. government agencies and were typically well on
their way to a successful career in Washington. What they all
surprisingly lacked was something more than a cursory understanding of
China. Over the course of two weeks, I heard arguments ranging from
"China doesn't matter," to "Beijing is Washington's coercive
competitor in waiting." In short, it appears as though even well-
educated Americans have ignored developments in China for the last 10
years.

This is a shame, as there is now very real debate over how the West--
and China--should evaluate Beijing's rise to global prominence. Is
China the next great threat to the West? Or is Beijing a responsible
international actor who should be invited to join the Group of 8? Is
the China model a viable alternative to liberal democracy? Or is the
China model simply an ongoing experiment that facilitates the survival
of an authoritarian regime? I would argue that Beijing certainly wants
to be perceived as a responsible international actor--albeit one with
national interests she is willing to defend, diplomatically,
economically, and militarily. This does not mean China intends to go
toe-to-toe with the United States. Rather, Washington can expect
cooperation when it is in Beijing's interest to work with us. And,
Washington can expect belligerence when Beijing believes China's
national security, however defined, is endangered.

In short, the Middle Kingdom of 2020 or 2050 will neither be imperial
nor exclusionist. The Chinese harbor no colonial aspirations and see
little benefit in refusing to establish relations with states that
adhere to a different ideological perspective. This open mind--even if
driven by little more than business concerns--suggests the Middle
Kingdom is not intent on driving the United States out of Asia or in
changing our form of governance. Stated more bluntly, the Middle
Kingdom of 2020 will not be a revival of the former Soviet Union.
Beijing is not seeking a renewal of the Cold War.

So I see little reason to fear China or the Chinese. I am, however,
more worried about how the perceptions of average Americans will shape
our foreign policy. As with health care reform, I suspect Washington's
relationship with Beijing will careen down a path that serves to
highlight political friction rather than serving to foster a greater
social good. A fate that suggests ignorance--on any front--is anything
but bliss. It is, however, a recipe for poor governance...particularly
when our leaders feel compelled to pander to a constituency that finds
slogans and ideology more appealing than old-fashioned learning.

Books & More From Eric C. Anderson

China Restored: The Middle Kingdom...
by Eric C. Anderson, 2010
ISBN 0313385173

In a text that is as thought provoking as it is well-informed, China
Restored: The Middle Kingdom Looks to 2020 and Beyond challenges the
perception of China as an international threat. Eric C. Anderson, a
player in Washington's China policy debates with deep-intelligence
access to Chinese sources, argues that Beijing is, in fact, seeking to
foster a stable global environment conducive to its economic
development and a regional hierarchy based on legitimate political
authority rather than coercion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-c-anderson/contemplating-china-ignor_b_478400.html

Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Professor of History, UC Irvine

Posted: February 6, 2010 10:50
U.S.-China Relations: A Long View, A New Book

While trying to keep up with the latest twists and turns of U.S.-China
relations, something I recently wrote about for Time magazine's Asian
edition and discuss in my forthcoming book on China in the 21st
Century, I learned that a new edition of a major survey of the topic
that I've learned a lot from, and also assigned in a recent
undergraduate class, is about to come out from Columbia University
Press. The book is Warren I. Cohen's America's Response to China: A
History of Sino-American Relations, and this will be its fifth
edition. Given the current interest in interactions and tensions
between Washington and Beijing, I decided to ask Cohen a few questions
about this new edition--and previous incarnations of the volume.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: To begin with a brief history of the book, can
you fill our readers in on when exactly your wrote the first edition
and tell us some things about the state of U.S.-China relations was at
the time?

Warren I. Cohen: I wrote the first edition 1969-70 while on sabbatical
in Japan. It was published just before Kissinger's famous trip to
Beijing. I had anticipated a change in policy because of the
resumption of ambassadorial talks, easing of trade and travel
restrictions, and Nixon's December 1970 remark that we had to have
relations with Communist China, but the book was nonetheless dated
weeks after it appeared.

JW: Looking back at the four times you revised it, what would you say
was the revision that requires the most dramatic updating?

WIC: Two things: 1) most obviously the rise of China to great power
status. The last chapter of the new edition is titled "America in the
Age of Chinese Power." 2) the emergence of democracy in Taiwan. I had
lived there 1964-1966 and grew very hostile to the regime there. I
never expected the political changes that came in the 1980s and had no
qualms about the island reverting to Beijing's rule. I had to change
my approach to the Taiwan issue, especially after the Tiananmen
massacres.

JW: Obviously, if the new edition is about to hit bookstores, you must
have finalized the new material in it some months ago. Do you feel
good about the way you framed the current state of relations between
the two countries, or is there anything you wish you could have known
was going to happen between the time it went to proofs and today?

WIC: Again, I anticipated the direction the Obama administration would
take. I've known Kurt Campbell, Jeff Bader, Derek Mitchell, et.al. for
many years--and had a chance to talk about policy toward China and
Taiwan with Secretary Clinton a couple of years ago. I also
anticipated the stiffening of China's resistance to American
pressures--and indicated my fear there was little we could do about
it--and my concern that human rights issues might not get adequate
attention.

JW: Is there any choice passage from a new part of the latest edition,
whether in a "Preface" or "Epilogue," that you'd be willing to share
with us as a teaser? Or perhaps a section from an earlier edition that
still seems surprisingly up-to-date in light of recent developments?

WIC: Here are the concluding lines of the new edition: "Today, much as
in the time of Theodore Roosevelt, American leaders want--and American
interests require--a peaceful, prosperous, open, responsible, and
cooperative China. The chances of China realizing these hopes are
reasonably good, given the extent of shared interests and what are
likely to be the primarily domestic concerns of both nations in the
near term. Americans who study and work on Chinese-American affairs
would also like to see a democratic and friendly China. They are not
likely to see either in the foreseeable future. And in the early years
of the new millennium most Americans are not so sure that a strong
China is in their nation's interest."

* This interview first ran at "The China Beat" on February 5.

Comments11

View Comments:

Any pretension to moral ascendancy or authority will fall flat on it's
white-boy face.

Posted 02:37 AM on 2/07/2010

- + whitemale08 I'm a Fan of whitemale08 I'm a fan of this user 14
fans permalink
Instead of Hillary advising President Obama to spit in the face of
China by visiting the Dalai Lama, she should be leading the way
towards a 4-Powers agreement between China, Russia, U.S. and India; a
fixed-exchange rate system to stabalize world currencies before E.U.
disintegrates completely.

Posted 07:34 PM on 2/06/2010

- + Dayahka I'm a Fan of Dayahka I'm a fan of this user 35 fans
permalink
A very good idea, but I would add Brazil to the list. The problem,
however, is that even though China and the US are really tied at the
waist and cannot exist without the other, the US is still, Obama
notwithstanding, the arrogant, petulant, oversized ego that cannot
accept equal billing with anyone. So, the likelihood of this happening
before the DOW hits 1,000 and unemployment hits an official 25% (that
is, 50% in reality), such a cooperative venture is very unlikely...But
wait a year or two.

Posted 12:34 AM on 2/07/2010

- + Enliberate I'm a Fan of Enliberate I'm a fan of this user 25 fans
permalink
Excuse me, but, "spit in the face of China" is just plain ignorant of
historical record.

Posted 02:42 AM on 2/07/2010

- + Kache I'm a Fan of Kache I'm a fan of this user 41 fans permalink
The Chinese are meeting with the Dalai Lama. Everybody, Obama and the
Chinese, understand what is at stake here.

The Dalai Lama is getting old. When the Dalai Lama dies he is
reincarnated. Within two years the Panchen Lama has to find him (a 2
year old boy) and announce him to the world. Dalia and Panchen have
known each other since before time, they keep finding each other
everytime they get reincarnated. The problem is, the guy that the
Dalai Lama says is the Panchen Lama says, "Whoa, you got the wrong
guy, I'm not the Panchen Lama". So the Chinese government, and a
dissident faction of Tibetan monks, have appointed a different Panchen
Lama.

So, what's at stake here. If the reincarnated Dalai Lama is not found
in two years the universe ends, we all become sub-atomic particles.
And the wrong Panchen Lama will probably not be able to find the real
Dalia Lama.

Thank Buddha they are all taking this seriously!

Posted 04:04 PM on 2/07/2010

- + altohone I'm a Fan of altohone I'm a fan of this user 39 fans
permalink
"Not so sure about a strong China"?
Strength isn't the issue, and many of us are quite certain we don't
value worker-exploiting fake communist Wall Street emulaters over
stability and profit.

Expertise is relative.

Posted 04:48 PM on 2/06/2010

- + elarb I'm a Fan of elarb I'm a fan of this user permalink
I agree - getting the China debt paid off needs to bedone fast! We
should even have a surtax just for that debt until it is paid. People
will accept the surtax if they really understood how dangerous of a
situation we really have.

Posted 03:40 PM on 2/06/2010

- + den1953 I'm a Fan of den1953 I'm a fan of this user 83 fans
permalink
We should be concerned about the terrorist but the real concern is
how quickly we can get out of debt with China this is the real threat
to this country.

Posted 02:09 PM on 2/06/2010

- + Milrepa I'm a Fan of Milrepa I'm a fan of this user 3 fans
permalink
I wonder why it took Cohen Tianneman Square to recognize the obvious.
I was in Tibet for only two weeks in 1981, and China's callous policy
was blatantly obvious. Flying over the Himalaya and seeing the highway
they were (then) building between Cheng Du and Lhasa was like watching
the Great Wall going up, in all its implications of determination and
perseverance. People have no idea what they're dealing with here. We
in the USA barely remember how to mow our own lawns. Get ready, oh
clueless ones. The Chinese are coming, and they have 10 million extra
unmarried men, all dressed up with no place to go.

Posted 02:01 PM on 2/06/2010

- + Dayahka I'm a Fan of Dayahka I'm a fan of this user 35 fans
permalink
It's 40 million--not 10.

Posted 12:36 AM on 2/07/2010

- + Kache I'm a Fan of Kache I'm a fan of this user 41 fans permalink
And with the change in relative wealth, they will be buying white
brides in Kansas. I predict a blackmarket in runaways....

Posted 04:17 PM on 2/07/2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-wasserstrom/us-china-relations-a-long_b_452159.html

Bloomberg

Google Apologizes to Chinese Authors Over Scanning (Correct)
January 11, 2010, 6:10 PM EST
(Corrects Google’s policy in the first paragraph.)

By Mark Lee

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., responding to complaints from a
Chinese writers’ group about the scanning of books for the company’s
online library, apologized to authors for a lack of communication.

The U.S. Internet operator will “respect the wishes of any Chinese
author who hasn’t authorized their books to be scanned,” it said in a
Jan. 9 letter to the China Writers Association, which was posted on
the group’s Web site. The letter was sent by Erik Hartmann, chief of
Google Books in Asia.

Google, the world’s biggest Internet search engine, is adding Chinese
content as it seeks to catch up with Baidu Inc. in the country, which
has more Internet users than the entire U.S. population. Google should
submit proposals to compensate Chinese authors whose works it included
without approval and immediately stop the practice, the writers’ group
said in November.

“Google doesn’t want to be pulled into litigations over this matter,
and is trying to resolve this situation as fast as possible so that
its business in China isn’t impeded,” said He Fang, a lawyer at Rouse
& Co. International in Shanghai. “The company and the association will
be trying to reach an agreement that is commercially beneficial.”

Consulting Members

China Writers Association will consult its members before providing
further comment on Google’s statement, Lu Jie, an official at the
group, said from Beijing today. Founded in 1949, the association acts
as a go-between for the nation’s authors and the ruling Chinese
Communist Party. It has more than 8,000 members, according to its Web
site.

Google removed content of author Mian Mian from its site after it was
accused by the writer of copyright infringement, her lawyer said on
Dec. 30. A court in Beijing heard her case against the company on Dec.
29. The matter is still before the courts and no date has been set for
the hearing’s resumption.

“We have a long-standing policy of honoring authors’ wishes, and
authors or publishers who wish to exclude their book may do so at any
time,” Google said in a statement today. “Google Books is fully
compliant with U.S. and Chinese law.”

Google was ordered by a court in France on Dec. 18 to stop scanning
French works, after the company was ruled to have violated copyrights
of some local publishers and authors. Google said it will appeal the
decision.

Criticism by the industry and governments in Europe forced Google to
limit its accord to establish a Book Rights Registry to works
published in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.

Google says its online library helps the book industry by making more
publications available and facilitating purchases of copyrighted works
by only displaying excerpts and linking to vendors for readers who
want the full text. Google Books has forged partnerships with more
than 30,000 publishers globally, the company said.

China had 338 million Internet users at the end of June, after adding
40 million in the first half of 2009, according to government data.

--Editors: Mark McCord, Kyung Bok Cho

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at
+852-2977-6909 or wle...@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at
+81-3-3201-3882 or yc...@bloomberg.net

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-11/google-agrees-to-stop-scanning-uploading-china-authors-books.html

Google Books To Stop Scanning Chinese Authors' Books
Posted: 01-11-10 11:25 AM

The U.S. Internet operator will "respect the wishes of any Chinese
author who hasn't authorized their books to be scanned," it said in a
Jan. 9 letter to the China Writers Association and posted on the
group's Web site. It also included an apology for "inadequate
communication" with Chinese authors. Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson
confirmed the contents of the letter sent by Erik Hartmann, chief of
Google Books in Asia.

NEW YORK — Google's effort to create the world's largest library by
scanning millions of books for use on the Internet faces a courtroom
fight...

Google suggests that the worthiness of its pursuit justifies a prompt
settlement in the Book Search case. But in fact, it is the very
enormity of the issue that demands it be deliberated publicly, not
haggled over privately.
Joel Epstein: Stop Yawning and Start Building Trains and Other
Infrastructure

If we want to join the Chinese and other innovators in finding
solutions to our clean energy and infrastructure challenges we need to
wake up before we sleep through the Green Revolution
Alan Kaufman: Google Books And Kindles: A Concentration Camp Of Ideas

The hi-tech campaign to relocate books to Google and replace books
with Kindles is, in its essence, a deportation of the literary culture
to a kind of easily monitored concentration camp of ideas.

Peter Brantley: Google Books and the High Bar for Approval: Why Opt-
In May Sink the Deal

The only way this book digitization effort makes business sense for
Google is if it can amass control over a sizeable swath of rights and
can monetize those rights at will in future business models.

Related News On Huffington Post:

Google Books Gets Its Day In Court
NEW YORK — Google's effort to create the world's largest library by
scanning millions of books for use on the Internet faces a courtroom
fight...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/18/google-books-gets-its-day_n_466904.html

Ursula Le Guin Leads Author Revolt Against Google Books, Launches
Petition
As the deadline of 28 January for writers to opt out of the Google
book settlement approaches, Le Guin has launched a petition, signed
by... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/ursula-le-guin-leads-auth_n_433053.html

France Planning Google Books Rival
PARIS — France's culture minister on Tuesday unveiled a plan for
adapting the country's literary patrimony to the digital age by
developing what he hopes...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/france-planning-google-bo_n_422169.html

Google Books Settlement: Paris Courts Find Google Guilty Of Copyright
Infringement
A French court ruled Friday that Google was guilty of infringing
copyrights by digitizing books and putting extracts online without
authorization, dealing a setback to...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/ursula-le-guin-leads-auth_n_433053.html

Google And The New Digital Future
Robert Darnton The New York Review of Books November 9 is one of those
strange dates haunted by history. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/steinbeck-and-guthrie-fam_n_433028.html

Google Books Settlement: Key Players Comment
It's been three years since the lawsuit was filed that launched the
Google Books Settlement, a long series of back-and-forth negotiations
about the copyright issues... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/google-books-settlement-k_n_361393.html

Steinbeck And Guthrie Families Now Support Google Books
The families of the author John Steinbeck and the musician Woody
Guthrie, which previously opposed the proposed Google Book settlement
that would create a vast...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/steinbeck-and-guthrie-fam_n_433028.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/11/google-books-to-stop-scan_n_418498.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

BOOKS

Society and law
V. VENKATESAN

An elaborate attempt to unravel the complexities of social justice in
India.

The easy way to understand justice is to consider it as a response to
injustice. The idea of justice, in its philosophical sense, is rather
esoteric, and no practical purpose is served by attempting to define
it. The four volumes under review implicitly accept Amartya Sen’s well-
articulated thesis in his recent book The Idea of Justice that the
search for a perfect set of arrangements for society to ensure maximum
justice can distract us from tackl ing real-life, immediate
injustices. The volumes deal with both niti (institutional justice)
and nyaya (realised justice), which Sen has painstakingly
distinguished in his book. While niti aims at perfect justice, even if
the results are extreme, nyaya aims to prevent manifestly severe
injustice.

Sen believes in the efficacy of nyaya compared with niti in addressing
issues of injustice because a consensus on what a perfectly just
society would look like is always elusive. It would appear that the
range of the subjects covered in these volumes suggests that they make
no such distinction between niti and nyaya.

Yet, Sen’s significant recent contribution to the understanding of
justice is likely to influence the way we observe issues of injustice,
some of which are dealt with in these volumes.

In his series introduction, Ranabir Samaddar, director of the
Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), tries to bring some degree
of conceptual clarity, but he is by and large not very successful in
this mission. He claims that the essays throw light on the limits
within which democracy will permit justice, social justice in
particular. Soon, however, he confronts the dilemma of having to
answer the question whether the essays are conflating democracy with
justice.

Other, related questions vie for answers: Are the essays confusing
justice with rights or law or equality? Do they overwhelm the idea of
justice with its notions of social justice, burdening it with too many
ideas, realities and expectations?

Samaddar finds that answers to these questions can be found in the
reality of our time. If the society of the propertied weighs
everything with money and transforms everything with its Midas touch,
the society of the subjects weighs everything with the criterion of
justice. The entire series is, he claims, as if caught in a cleft
stick, between the governmental and popular notions of justice. If we
were to be faithful to the realities of justice, he suggests, we could
not have quarrelled over its definition beyond a point and laboured it
to death.

This observation echoes Sen, but it should be understood with a
caveat. Sen would have rejected governmental notions of justice as
they represent niti and not nyaya.

Cast in an archaeological mode of inquiry, the volumes seek to find
layers in the practices of and discourses on social justice. The
essays thus deal with how time, place, history, perceptions,
arrangements or apparatuses (such as legal, judicial, constitutional
and administrative apparatuses) play significant roles in influencing
the regime of social justice. Conflicting terrain of social justice
appears to make Samaddar unhappy since he thinks it makes conventional
democracy unstable.

One wishes he had elaborated his thesis that the contentious politics
of justice creates deep fissures within democracy’s constitutional
unity and the primacy of the rule of law. But to me, Sen sounds more
accommodative of the plurality of competing principles, which may be
relevant to the assessment of justice in a given situation. Samaddar
claims that these volumes make a more significant point that
conventional democracy has little room for considerations for justice
while it has more room for liberty, fraternity and equality.

The essays point out the possible ways in which democracy can take the
issue of justice as one of its essential parts, which can, as a
consequence, propel democracy towards becoming more democratic. The
method adopted here, Samaddar suggests, can at best be called guerilla
work in philosophy because it subverts many philosophical assumptions
without putting on a philosophical garb. Several unexpected questions
came out of the justice dialogue, he points out.

Samaddar comes to grips with the idea of social justice by suggesting
that some of the issues of our life become social because they raise
the question of marginality, and, therefore, of justness. Likewise,
these issues become issues of justice because they have refused to be
exhausted by governmental, including juridical, ideas and practices
and have become social.

Institutions such as the court, the executive, the legislature and the
bureaucracy are conscious of the limits to ensuring justice and
justify them as they have to be balanced with considerations of
security. Security means taking care of and avoiding risks, which
include inflation, food crisis, weakening of borders, infiltration and
disasters. Governing in risk society means engaging with risks,
reorienting policies and ensuring security so that the risks can be
calculated and mostly avoided.

Governments would answer in the affirmative the question whether a
criminal can be kept long enough in jail to keep society free of
crimes, whereas social justice would demand that she be set free once
she has been indicted for crime, satisfying the requirement of
justice. Minimal justice would mean at least openness of the discourse
for claiming redress for the wrongs done – a recognition of the wrong,
a provision of redress, a guarantee that the wrong will not be
repeated.

The first volume presents four chapters on the state of social justice
in West Bengal. Based on ethnographic studies, they try to demonstrate
that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of workers and
peasants and the rural and urban poor, and this may indeed facilitate
long-denied political justice for them (like rights of unionisation),
this does not ensure social justice per se. This is, of course, a
truism.

Samaddar’s observation here, however, is open to challenge. He finds
it ironic that the champions of political democracy, like the ruling
Left Front in West Bengal, may not even recognise and, therefore,
acknowledge that political democracy does not ensure social justice
automatically. On the contrary, as the many obituaries on Jyoti Basu,
West Bengal’s tallest leader, observed, Basu was acutely conscious of
the limitations of the Left in parliamentary democracy.

Samaddar’s other contention is equally debatable. He suggests that the
Left parties may even say that the struggles and contentions for
social justice are counter-productive for the democracy they guarantee
because these contentions target the hegemony of the political class,
overwhelmingly coming from the upper/middle caste and with liberal,
leftist backgrounds, and this hegemony is essential for the democracy
they have ushered in or have widened.

Contrary to what Samaddar believes, the Left parties do not appear
desperate to halt the struggles for social justice, and his
apprehensions are just that: exaggerated. Samaddar also joins issue
with Sen who found nothing wrong in the West Bengal government’s
forcible acquisition of land in Singur and assured the people whose
lands were taken that industrialisation would solve the basic poverty
there as it had done elsewhere.

The second volume includes a combination of case studies built on the
theme of law and democracy’s engagement with issues of social justice.
The editors, Ashok Agrwaal, a lawyer, and Bharat Bhushan, an eminent
editor, assert that social justice is the process of unsettling the
status quo. While law has played a pivotal role in the betterment of
people’s lives, it has been an inadequate partner of justice, they
say.

One of the chapters in this collection documents nearly 60 years of
Constitution-based social justice policy and programming, examining
the impact of politics and considerations of reality upon the goals of
the Constitution. According to Bharat Bhushan, the author of this
chapter, politics rather than law played the primary role in
determining both the nature and extent of reservation and the timing
and manner of its implementation. The role of law, and the judiciary,
he says, is more in the nature of umpire-cum-police, using the
normative standards given to it to blow the whistle, return the
contending parties to their respective corners, and once the heat of
the moment has passed, allowing them to slug it out again.

A.M. FARUQUI

In a case of people’s struggles to rectify losses, oustees of the
Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dam projects take out a rally under the
banner of the Narmada Bachao Andolan in Bhopal. A file photograph.

Another chapter deconstructs the role played by the Supreme Court in
the failure of the social justice mandate inherent in Article 16 of
the Constitution – reservation for Dalits and Adivasis – in the course
of over 50 years of judicial review litigation. Ashok Agrwaal, author
of this chapter, argues that the Supreme Court has collectively
displayed a singular lack of clarity and will, verging on the
culpable, in delineating its vision of social justice for Dalits. The
court’s quest for balance, he says, helped perpetuate the inequality
and imbalance, negating the purpose of reservation.

The last chapter examines the ways in which the law constructs sexual
minorities as anti-citizens, denying them equality.

The third volume is edited by Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi,
both academics and members of the CRG. This volume discusses the
situation of people living on the margins and their relationship with
communities that enjoy enough material well-being to secure their own
rights. In such a situation, the editors argue, rights empower the
strong at the cost of the weak. When the state uses the rights
argument for not interfering, it means that it is unable or unwilling
to protect the marginalised from the tyranny of the elites. This
volume discusses five such situations and concludes that rights might
not be the best way for accessing justice. According to the editors,
people’s struggle offers an alternative path to justice.

The fourth volume is co-edited by Samaddar with Sanam Roohi, also of
the CRG, and includes much primary material that can be of use to a
researcher on social justice. This volume is divided into five
sections. The first, “Development and Discontent”, includes articles
on ethnicity and land use in the North-east, the case of Kutch in the
Sardar Sarovar Project, the environmental movement spawned by the
Supreme Court’s judgment in the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company case,
Sanhati’s report on the struggle in Nandigram and the impact of
riverbank erosion in West Bengal. All the essays describe the local
people’s struggle to rectify their losses.

The dimensions of Development Induced Displacement and Resettlement
(DIDR) have been explored by different authors. Most of the articles
and material that appear in the remaining sections were published
elsewhere but have been reproduced in this volume in view of their
significance in the literature on social justice. By republishing
them, the editors have not only made them accessible to interested
readers but enabled these individual essays to mesh together,
complementing one another.

Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270507400.htm

BOOKS

The switch to jehad
A.G. NOORANI

An authentic documentation of the process of radicalisation of the
Jamaat-e-Islami.

A Democracy proves its vitality by absorbing in its processes far-out
dissent, and dissent shows its maturity by taking the democratic path.
Indian democracy is a success story. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, no
longer secessionist, is a respected participant in Indian politics as
are the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India
(Marxist). The Calcutta thesis of 1948 has long been discarded. The
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh floated a political front, the Bh aratiya
Janata Party; but, for all their professions, neither sincerely
believes in a secular democracy.

The Indian state has followed a strange policy towards the Jamaat-e-
Islami, equating it with the RSS whenever it took action against the
latter. But the Jamaat has no private army, like the Bajrang Dal; no
record of violence during the riots and no sign of the obscene
affluence of the Sangh Parivar. It has a reactionary, and an utterly
bigoted worldview, abhorrent to most Muslims. Even in Kashmir, it made
a poor showing at the elections. The Jamaat in Pakistan fared poorly
in the 2009 general elections.

Irfan Ahmad is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Politics
at Monash University in Australia, where he helps to lead the Centre
for Islam and the Modern World. This book, his first, is a work of
thorough research and rigorous analysis.

The Jamaat was founded in 1941 by Abdul Ala Maududi, whose gifts in
polemics impressed many to the point that they considered him erudite.
The truly erudite Fazlur Rehman judged him correctly: “Though not an
alim [an erudite man], nonetheless a self-taught man of considerable
intelligence and had sufficient knowledge of Arabic to have access to
the classical Arabic literature of Islam. He was by no means an
accurate or a profound scholar, but he was undoubtedly like a fresh
wind in the stifling Islamic atmosphere created by the traditional
madrassas….

“But Maududi displays nowhere the larger and more profound vision of
Islam’s role in the world… for the faithful, Maududi’s statements
represented the last word on Islam – no matter how much and how
blatantly he contradicted himself from time to time on such basic
issues as economic policy or political theory” (Islam & Modernity;
page 116).

“Newsman & Agitator”

He imparted a comforting certitude and his influence spread. The
famous Egyptian journalist Mohamed Heikal called him “a newsman and
agitator” whose ideas were taken up by Syed Qutb of the Muslim
Brotherhood. He opposed the Muslim League as a Jamaat-e-jahiliyat (a
party of the pagans). Two weeks after Partition, he left for Lahore.

The author traces the Jamaat’s origins and its chequered career in
India, including its breakaway faction, the Students Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI), taking in his stride politics in the Aligarh Muslim
University in Deoband, the role of madrassas and concepts like jehad.
He discusses in context the role of the Sangh Parivar and the
shortcomings of our democratic process. Field work, access to works in
Urdu, tables of statistics and documentation make this a dependable
work of reference. It is by far the best book on the Jamaat-e-Islami;
thorough, courageous and honest.

Saffron wave

It describes how the Jamaat came to accept enthusiastically secularism
and democracy, concepts it had earlier rejected, as it had
participated in elections.

Since Muslims did not respond, the Jamaat was isolated. An Islamic
state was its main objective. It was India’s secular democracy that
brought about the change. “My argument so far that secular democracy
catalysed the moderation of the Jamaat, one may point out, fails to
explain the radicalisation of the SIMI. But far from weakening my
argument, I hold that the SIMI’s radicalisation strengthens my
contention. In Chapter 6, I showed that the SIMI radicalised in
response to the saffron wave; that is, the SIMI began to radicalise
with the rise of Hindutva following the Ayodhya campaign that left a
trail of brutal violence throughout India, costing thousands of lives
(mostly Muslims) and leading to the demolition of the Babri mosque.
P.V. SIVAKUMAR

A protest near Charminar in Hyderabad, in the wake of the demolition
of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

“Until the late 1980s the SIMI’s prime concern was moral and
educational. Neither jehad nor a caliphate were on its agenda (see the
2003 interview of its founding president, Siddiqui). The SIMI’s
radicalisation from the 1990s on – centred around the Babri mosque –
was expressed in three issues; the call for jehad, the declaration of
India as dar al-harb, and the installation of the caliphate. All these
matters were intimately linked to state practices.

“The point is that Hindutva’s agenda of the Hindu state and its fierce
anti-Muslim nature spurred SIMI’s radicalisation. Worth noting is that
over fifteen per cent of its total members came, according to an ansar
(worker) of SIMI, only from the state of Maharashtra where the Shiv
Sena, a constituent of the Sangh Parivar, had been in power and
involved in one of the worst riots ever in Bombay. This also explains
SIMI’s diatribe against polytheism and Hindutva.

“As long as the Nehruvian project of a plural, non-monopolistic,
secular, and democratic India (Khilnani 1997) was hegemonic, Islamist
radicalisation was almost non-existent. Even a party as rigid as the
Jamaat underwent moderation. This is not to say that the Congress was
divinely secular. The state under its dispensation also practised
communal policies, but its communalism was pragmatic. By contrast, the
communalism of the Sangh Parivar was programmatic.”

This thesis is fully established by the author’s authentic
documentation. It should make all secularists sit up and ponder.

Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270508300.htm

BOOKS

1971: Kremlin key
A.G. NOORANI

Jamsheed Marker’s record of his days as Ambassador in Moscow is of
enduring relevance.

“You listen too much to the soldiers …. You should never trust
experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you
believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the
soldiers, nothing is safe.”

– Lord Salisbury’s warning to Lord Lytton (A.L. Kennedy; Salisbury
1830-1903: Portrait of a Statesman; page 106).

Jamsheed Marker has been the world’s longest serving Ambassador, from
1965 to 1995, making a mark in every single country in which he
served. He was a prosperous businessman in Karachi, a bon vivant,
cultured and widely read, noted for his commentary at Test cricket. He
was not a career diplomat but took to diplomacy as an envoy to the
manner born. A gentleman to his fingertips is a praise one hears of
him from one and all. Students of diplomacy mi ght ponder as to why
some non-professionals excel in the craft, as Foreign Ministers or
envoys, while some professionals stumble. Training is important but it
cannot supply qualities essential to success – calm, understanding,
tact and the indefinable quality, personality.

Marker’s memoirs were awaited keenly and for long. The reader is not
disappointed. The book grips his interest by its flashes of humour,
its impeccable language and wise observations. Any of the anecdotes he
records can find a place in the British Ambassador Sir John Ure’s
delightful and well-researched compilation Diplomatic Bag (John
Murray; 1994. Surely a second edition is overdue). Lively accounts of
stewardship of the Embassy in each capital and each chapter with a
brief survey “Meanwhile in Pakistan”. Marker always held an ear to the
ground.

There are some factual errors that are astonishing in a person so well
read and experienced. The “inaugural conference” of the Non-Aligned
Movement was not held “in Bandung” (page 46) but in Belgrade in 1961.
As every schoolboy knows, to borrow Macaulay’s stock phrase, Bandung
hosted an Afro-Asian summit in 1955, at which Mohammed Ali Bogra
represented Pakistan, then a “much-allied ally” of the United States.
It made its debut in NAM at the Havana summit in 1979, where Marker
was present.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Swaran
Singh with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during their visit to Moscow
in July 1966. The Soviet Union held the keys to the fateful events of
1971. It was against a break-up of Pakistan. When that became
inevitable, it did its best to see that the rest of Pakistan was
preserved.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 shocked the world. But it
is an error to speak of a newly christened “Brezhnev Doctrine” (page
258). It was propounded in 1968 in the wake of the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia.

Even more astonishing is the assertion that it was Indira Gandhi who
“uttered the pre-agreed code words for success ‘Larka Lai’ [it is a
boy; page 188]”. Uttered to whom? He does not reveal. As Benazir
Bhutto recorded in her memoir Daughter of the East, that was a code
arranged between father and daughter, which he uttered when he
returned from a successful meeting with Indira Gandhi.

A Norwegian Ambassador claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru had “about eight
or ten of his aides seated behind him at a respectful distance” when
he met the Prime Minister (page 6). If Marker can believe this, he can
believe anything he is told of Nehru or India. For, that envoy is
singular in imagining such a scene. He contrasted this with Ayub
Khan’s simplicity and remarked, “Can you tell me which one of these is
the democracy and which the dictatorship?” The absurdity of the
inference escapes Marker, who adds, “The question has never really
lost its relevance” (page 6).

This, from one who readily and admiringly served every military
dictator though he was not a career diplomat obliged to stay at his
post. He could have resigned. Z.A. Bhutto is justly censured for his
“latent fascist inclinations”. One looks in vain for comparable
censures for the hideous Zia-ul-Haq and for Yahya Khan.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Z.A. Bhutto signing the historic
Shimla Agreement on bilateral relations on July 3, 1972.

It is, perhaps, not without significance that a book which lavishes
praise, on almost every other page, on contemporaries, not one Indian
counterpart at any of the capitals in which he served receives even a
little of his munificence. The three Indians who do were in the employ
of the United Nations. Incidentally, he was born in Hyderabad and
educated at the Doon School.

These flaws are unfortunate in a person like Marker. The reader will
find accounts of his stays in Ghana, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland,
Canada, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, the German Democratic Republic,
Ireland, Japan, Germany, France and the U.S. fascinating, even more so
of his tenure as Permanent Representative at the U.N.

But what is of enduring relevance is the record of his days as
Ambassador in Moscow from 1969 to 1972. The then Foreign Secretary
Sultan Muhammad Khan’s memoirs, Memories and Reflections (1997),
recorded the moves by the Foreign Office. It was Marker’s lot to be
posted to a country that held the key to the fateful events of 1971.
His book is a solid contribution to diplomatic history and a service
to the historical truth. Marker has received high praise; yet, he has
received little recognition for the fight he put up for his country
against all odds. The book belies the glib notion that Ambassadors do
not matter.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Lieutenant General A.A.K. Niazi (right), chief of Pakistan's Eastern
Command, signing the unconditional surrender of Pakistani troops in
Dhaka in December 1971. The Indian side was represented by Lt Gen.
J.S. Aurora (left).

Tashkent was a personal triumph for Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. The
Soviet Union began to speak of “the two countries of Hindustan”. In
1968, Kosygin went so far as to write to Indira Gandhi urging her to
settle Kashmir and the Farakka Barrage disputes. After his highly
successful visit to Pakistan in April, Russia announced in July 1968
its decision to supply arms to Pakistan, an ally of its estranged
neighbour China. Both India and Pakistan vied with each other in
proclaiming their dissociation in the United Nations Security Council,
on August 23, 1968, from Western censures of the Russian invasion of
Czechoslovakia.

V.K. Krishna Menon rushed to Moscow’s defence on the arms deal, on
July 18, 1968, with a remark whose significance was overlooked: “We
are not the Soviet Union’s military ally.” When in February 1969
India’s Ambassador D.P. Dhar expostulated to Kosygin about the supply
of arms to Pakistan, “the idea of a treaty first came up”. It was
formally put forward by Defence Minister Marshal Grechko in his talks
in New Delhi with Defence Minister Swaran Singh. Grechko arrived on
March 2, 1969, the very day armed clashes took place at the Ussuri
between Russian and Chinese forces. He carried a letter by Brezhnev to
Indira Gandhi dated February 28. A formidable delegation of the top
brass of the Army, Navy and the Air Force, along with A.A. Fomin,
Director of the South Asia Department in the Foreign Office, came with
him. Grechko’s draft treaty did not contain Article 9 of the treaty
that India and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) signed
on August 9, 1971, pledging: “In the event of either Party being
subjected to an attack or threat thereof, the High Contracting Parties
shall immediately enter into mutual consultations in order to remove
such threat and to take appropriate effective measures to ensure peace
and the security.”

Grechko left for Pakistan on March 9. India learnt to its chagrin that
its suitor had already sent to Pakistan nearly 40 tanks with adequate
spare parts to equip a new armoured division plus spare parts for the
MiG-19s it had obtained from China. Russia could not have been too
pleased when Indira Gandhi held out an olive branch to China on New
Year’s Day 1969. The mild-mannered Swaran Singh made an angry
statement in Parliament on April 9, 1969, on Moscow’s change of front.

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Alexei Kosygin, then Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR,
addressing Members of Parliament in New Delhi in March 1979.

Between that outburst and Foreign Minister Dinesh Singh’s visit to
Moscow in September 1969, Moscow took two major initiatives. One was
Kosygin’s plan for an overland trade route between India and the USSR,
running through Pakistan and Afghanistan, which he mooted in New Delhi
when he arrived on May 5 to attend the state funeral for President
Zakir Hussain. The other was Brezhnev’s plan of June 7 for “a system
of collective security in Asia”. Pakistan publicly rejected both.
India did so publicly on the first and tacitly on the second.

Whatever be India’s motives, to the Soviet Union bilateral security
treaties were links in the Brezhnev Plan. It signed one with the
United Arab Republic (UAR) on May 27, 1971, Iraq on April 9, 1972, and
Somalia on July 11, 1974. (For the texts, see the writer’s book
Brezhnev Plan for Asian Security, 1975.) By March 1970, Soviet arms
supplies to Pakistan ended.

Marker came to Moscow at a crucial moment. On his advice Yahya Khan
did not raise the arms question during his visit to Moscow in June
1970. Surprisingly, Fomin asked Marker why Yahya had not raised the
issue. The Ambassador advised the President to do so. After his return
to Pakistan, Marker received a message from the Foreign Secretary that
President Nikolai Podgorny and Prime Minister Kosygin had both
“confirmed to the President the Soviet Union’s decision to resume arms
supplies to Pakistan, and that I should take immediate steps with the
relevant Soviet agencies for its implementation”. Yahya jubilantly
informed the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army. But when
Marker pursued the matter, he drew a blank. Kosygin would neither
confirm nor deny his talk with Yahya. “The entire phenomenon has
remained a mystery, and even though nearly forty years have passed it
continues to puzzle me. I can find no clue or explanation for this
bizarre episode.” This is understandable, but he might have guessed
that the change was prompted by progress in possible parleys with
India which had begun in 1969.

Four truths

The year 1970 ended with that impasse. In March 1971 came Yahya’s
brutal crackdown in Dhaka, and the challenges facing Marker mounted.
Four truths must be faced alike by Pakistanis and Indians. First,
Indira Gandhi had decided to break up Pakistan as early as “on 6
April”, A.K. Ray, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Branch
Secretariat in Kolkata from May 1971 to February 1972, authoritatively
disclosed (Indian Express, December 19, 1996). The memoirs of Lt.
General J.F.R. Jacob, Chief of Staff of the Eastern Command, who
oversaw the surrender at Dhaka, confirm this (pages 35-36). The
refugee influx which followed was a false pretext.

Secondly, after the brutal crackdown, East Pakistan was lost. Burke’s
wise words on March 22, 1775, are apposite: “Terror is not always the
effect of force; and an armament is not a victory.” That is, even if
force succeeds. But, “if you do not succeed you are without resource;
for conciliation, failing force remains; but, force failing no further
hope of reconciliation is left.”

Thirdly, the Soviet Union was agains t a break-up of Pakistan. When it
became inevitable, it did its best to see that the rest of Pakistan
was preserved. On December 12, 1971, Brezhnev wrote to Nixon: “Our
contacts with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suggest that Indira Gandhi
does not intend to take any military action against West
Pakistan.” (Anatoly Dobrynin; In Confidence; page 236. Dobrynin was
then Soviet Ambassador to the U.S.) This was a mild version of the
strong demarche Soviet Ambassador Pegov had made to the Prime
Minister. It was not the treaty in August but Indira Gandhi’s visit to
Moscow in September that compelled the USSR to support her fully.
Pakistan’s existence is a vital Great Power interest. Moscow was torn
between losing a growing alliance with India and impairment of that
interest.

Lastly, the U.S. was clueless. Kissinger moved from wooing Awami
Leaguers in Kolkata to instigating China on December 10 to attack
India. China knew better. Its military attache Chao Kuanchih had been
warned off in Kathmandu on December 8 or 9 by Loginov, defence attache
in the USSR Embassy. As early as on June 3, before Indian help and
operations had increased, Kissinger said, “Our judgment is that East
Pakistan will eventually become independent…. The problem is how to
bell the cat. The President has chosen to do it gradually. In all
honesty … the President has a special feeling for President Yahya. One
cannot make policy on that basis, but it is a fact of life” (National
Security Archive’s The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of
1971; edited by Sajit Gandhi; December 16, 2002; Document 13). His
attempts to “bell the cat” failed because he sought to preserve
Pakistan’s unity for some time (“gradually”) when time was fast
running out.

Hostile messages from USSR

These were the harsh realities that Pakistan and its envoy in the key
capital faced. Moscow began early, in March, with “friendly attention”
and polite concern. Marker reproduces the contents of “an Oral message
from Kosygin” to Yahya on March 28, which was delivered to him in
Karachi.

It pleaded for an end to the bloodshed. President Podgorny’s message
to Yahya on April 3 was badly received. “On 17 April Kosygin sent
another message to Yahya. It was somewhat cold and formal in tone and
continued to stress the need for peaceful settlement, but for the
first time made an ominous reference to ‘the lawful wishes of the
parties’ and to ‘the interest of the population of both West and East
Pakistan’. Yahya did not respond to this message but sent instead a
special envoy M. Arshad Husain, a former Foreign Minister of Pakistan
and also former Ambassador in Moscow. He was received by Kosygin on 26
April, and although the meeting was lengthy and frank, it was by no
means friendly …. In my report to the Ministry, at the conclusion of
Arshad Husain’s visit I stated that …. They would, in the overall
interests of peace and stability, prefer a united Pakistan, but they
had doubts about our ability to bring the situation in East Pakistan
under control, and feared that a continuation of instability would
help Chinese interests to prosper in the region.”

It was a sound assessment. “From July onwards Soviet messages became
increasingly hostile, and so did our responses resulting in a mutual
contribution to deteriorating relations.”

The author reproduces texts of the exchanges. On June 22, a desperate
Kosygin, hemmed in between a deaf Yahya and a shrill Indira, told him,
“Please understand me, Mr. Ambassador. The President will be speaking
at an acute moment upon issues which are almost about war and peace.
If the President’s statement does not take into consideration the
Indian attitude there will be a sharp response from the other side. If
both sides make sharp public pronouncements then it would be difficult
to control the situation.” Marker notes that “Kosygin spoke more in
sorrow than in anger”, but he answered back as duty required of him.
He is less than objective in attributing Kosygin’s stance to Swaran
Singh’s eloquence.

The author has done well to set out the record of the long meeting on
June 22 at some length: “Mr. Ambassador, I do not want to turn this
conversation into a debate. You are not a defendant and I am not a
Prosecutor. We are both men of state who are discussing grave issues
in a serious and friendly manner. I want you to know that we are very
anxious for all disputes between Pakistan and India to be settled
peacefully …. We say it to you and we say it to India …. We do not
want to interfere in your internal affairs. This is for you alone to
decide. We think a democratic government should find its legitimate
rights. It will find it, sooner or later.”

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

General Yahya Khan was aware of what was in store as he went into the
1971 war.

Kosygin remarked, “I want to tell you that your mission is not an easy
one.” Marker notes that for quite some time “the Kremlin attempted to
maintain a semblance of balance between India and Pakistan. The
controlled Soviet press was, for example, much less anti-Pakistan than
the free press in the West. All this suddenly changed, however, with
the news of Kissinger’s visit to Peking [now Beijing], and of Nixon’s
forthcoming visit to China.”

D.P. Dhar, former Ambassador to the USSR, dashed to Moscow on August
2, followed by Andrei Gromyko’s equally sudden visit to New Delhi on
August 7. The treaty was signed on August 9. It did not include “a
clause obliging the parties to come to each other’s aid in case of a
military attack”.

Article 9 quoted above was much weaker. The Soviet Ambassador to the
U.S., the legendary Anatoly Dobrynin, held that it was “not the mutual
assistance pact Indira Gandhi was seeking. As long as India stayed
outside the nuclear club, the Soviet leader considered granting it
protection against a nuclear threat by India, but caution
prevailed” (In Confidence; page 236).

The finalised text was received by Dhar in Moscow. He apparently
succeeded in correcting Gromyko’s impression, which had been conveyed
to him by Ambassador Pegov, that the signatures were to take place in
Moscow and by the heads of government and that Foreign Ministers would
only be initialling it in Delhi.

On recognising Bangladesh

It was signed in Delhi by the Foreign Ministers. The Times (London)
correspondent in Moscow, David Bonavia, reported the impression in
Moscow that the Russian Foreign Minister had “doubtless emphasised to
his hosts that the Soviet Union will expect India to behave
responsibly and avoid all possible causes of an armed conflict with
Pakistan” (August 10).

The American impression, also, was that the Soviet Union had by
signing the treaty with India dissuaded it from recognising
Bangladesh, an act which would have provoked a war between India and
Pakistan.

“According to intelligence reports reaching here,” The New York Times
correspondent in Washington, Tad Szulc, said, “the message of India’s
planned Monday (August 9) recognition of Bangladesh was delivered in
Moscow by Durga Prasad Dhar, former Indian Ambassador to the Soviet
Union, apparently acting as a special envoy for Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi. Mr. Dhar flew to Moscow on August 2.” Gromyko was reported to
have warned that recognition of Bangladesh could provoke a war and he
himself proposed to visit New Delhi to use “whatever pressure was
necessary” to dissuade Indira Gandhi from recognising Bangladesh at
this time. Szulc added, “American officials surmised that Gromyko was
successful in persuading India to defer its recognition of Bangladesh
when he agreed to sign a friendship treaty immediately.”

Revealing document

A revealing document of the kind that normally does not find its way
to the press was published shortly thereafter which fully bore out the
impression that Russian policy regarding the recognition of Bangladesh
had not changed much even after the signing of the treaty. It was the
minutes of a meeting of Pakistani Ambassadors, which was held in
Geneva on August 24-25, 1971, and was presided over by Foreign
Secretary Sultan M. Khan. According to the minutes, the Foreign
Secretary mentioned a letter which Kosygin wrote a week after the
signing of the (August 17) treaty “promising Russia’s continued desire
to help Pakistan”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USSR Marker gave his
assessment: “Ambassador Jamsheed Marker believes that the Russians
have no intention of severing ties with Pakistan and that the Indo-
Soviet Treaty was mainly aimed at extending Russian influence in South-
East Asia. He regarded the Treaty as more anti-Chinese than anti-
Pakistan. The Soviet Union has given no indication that economic aid
to Pakistan would be reduced.”

Next, “Ambassador K.M. Kaiser said that China wanted non-intervention.
He stated that China had advised a political settlement maintaining
the integrity of Pakistan. China suspects the Indian motives in
supporting Bangladesh. China is ready to give aid for rehabilitation
of E. Pakistan economy. The Chinese press did not publicise the Indo-
Soviet Treaty and China believed that it is directed against China.
China intends to strengthen her relations with Afghanistan, Ceylon,
Nepal and Burma. China would like to see Pakistan active in the
politics of Indo-China. Ambassador Kaiser was not sure about the
nature of Chinese help in case of a war between India and Pakistan….”

Shortly thereafter Pakistani Foreign Secretary S.M. Khan went to
Moscow where, he claimed, on September 10, his hosts showed “deep
interest in the unity and integrity of Pakistan”.

Marker rightly laments that a Foreign Office that once had such a
galaxy of talent was undermined by Bhutto’s “lateral” entrants, his
political appointees. The minutes were published in full in a Calcutta
weekly edited by Samar Sen, Frontier, of October 30, 1971. Even after
the treaty was signed, Pravda and Izvestia continued to publish
together reports from India and Pakistan. The Russian stand at the
Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference on September 10, which Dileep
Padgaonkar reported, was that they “would have nothing to do with a
text that alluded even remotely to a reprimand of the Yahya Khan
regime” (The Times of India, September 23, 1971).

Indira Gandhi decided to bring matters to a head. She went to Moscow
(September 27-29) and ensured a change. It was the subject of a
brilliant article by Alain Jacob in Le Monde entitled “A puzzling
policy switch”. However, what Kosygin said to Indian correspondents
surprised many of them. “This basic problem must be solved by peaceful
political means and not by military conflict.”

The events were taking place in Pakistani territory, he said, and
remarked, “What pretext can Pakistan use for a military conflict with
India?” India’s sole concern was the return of refugees. The rest was
an “internal matter of Pakistan”. Later, he sought to allay Indian
disquiet by criticising the atrocities committed by Pakistan.

The Russians did not look too kindly on Indira Gandhi’s visit to the
Western countries but she stuck to her plans. A mere 36 hours before
her departure, Nicolai Firyubin, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister,
descended on New Delhi to the embarrassment of his hosts.

He was in New Delhi from October 22 to 25. The joint statement that
was issued on October 27 contained these significant words: “The
consultations took place in keeping with the existing procedure of
annual bilateral consultations and also under the provisions of
Article IX of the Soviet-Indian Treaty of Peace. The consultations
were held in connection with the tense situation in the Indian
subcontinent, a situation which endangers the cause of peace in the
area. The two sides reached full accord in the assessment of the
existing situation.” Three days later, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Soviet Air Force, Air Marshall P.S. Kontakhov, arrived in New Delhi.

At the Cochin Congress of the Communist Party of India in October, the
delegates of the French and the Indian Communist parties characterised
Bangladesh’s struggle as a national liberation movement. In communist
parlance, this meant a lot.

Marker was sceptical. “In my discussions with Firyubin and Fomin I was
given the official party line that the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty
was not directed against any third country and was a device to ensure
peace in the subcontinent. Firyubin added that Soviet objectives in
the treaty ‘were not to encourage India but to restrain her’. Firyubin
did not respond when I said that even he would find it hard to really
believe that.”

Gromyko’s correction

Sultan Khan was sharply told by Gromyko, “Please do not take any
action that would oblige us to fulfil our obligations to a country
with whom we have a Treaty of Friendship. At this point Gromyko
stopped the interpreter, and looking long, hard and directly at Sultan
Khan, he said in English: ‘The interpreter did not interpret me
correctly. I did not use the word ‘please’. I think you understand my
meaning.’”

Marker’s remarks on the Soviet Union’s pursuit of its “hegemonic
interests entirely at the expense of my own country” are as wide of
the mark as his disparagement of “the Polish resolution” which Sultan
Khan also shares (pages 382-385 of his memoirs), and less excusably
Hasan Zaheer in his able work The Separation of East Pakistan (Oxford
University Press, Karachi; pages 413-416).

Mujib’s release

It must be read in the context. In a letter to Nixon on December 3,
Kosygin proposed release of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman from prison and
negotiations with him “to begin at that stage where they were
interrupted in March…. We are addressing ourselves” to both sides.

The Soviet resolution of December 7 in the General Assembly urged “a
political settlement giving immediate expression to the will of the
East Pakistan population as expressed in the elections of December
1970” and a ceasefire once Pakistan took “effective action” to that
end.

On December 14, Poland tabled Resolution S/10453 in the Security
Council calling for the immediate release of Mujib, a ceasefire after
the process of transfer of power had begun, withdrawal of Pakistani
troops and civilian personnel, withdrawal of Indian troops and return
of both sides to their pre-war positions in the west. The next day it
revised the draft in two respects, both in Pakistan’s favour. The
reference to Mujib’s release was dropped and there was a tighter
provision for withdrawal of India’s forces. “The Indian armed forces
will be withdrawn from East Pakistan.” It spelt an orderly transfer of
power, withdrawal of India’s troops in both sectors to pre-war
positions. Not a single Pakistani prisoner of war would have been left
and there would have been no Shimla Pact.

Richard Sisson and Leo Rose write, on the basis of interviews in
India, that it “was the most controversial and potentially
embarrassing of the resolutions … since it was the only resolution
that had a high probability of adoption … [and] aroused considerable
distress in New Delhi” (Pakistan, India, and the creation of
Bangladesh; page 219).

They add, “Indeed, several key figures in India could not understand
why Pakistan did not readily agree to the proposal, since it would
have left India in a most difficult and compromising position
(interviews, India, 1978). In our interviews with him in 1979, Yahya
Khan related a rather curious account of his experience with Bhutto on
the Polish resolution. Yahya had been talking to Bhutto – who was at
the U.N. meetings in New York – by telephone about several matters. At
one point Yahya said that he was far away, of course, but that the
Polish resolution looked good, and ‘we should accept it’. Bhutto
replied, ‘I can’t hear you.’ Yahya repeated himself several times, and
Bhutto kept saying ‘What? What?’ The operator in New York finally
intervened and said, ‘I can hear him fine,’ to which Bhutto replied
‘Shut up’. Yahya seemed still bemused and bewildered by all this in
1979” (page 306).

But the resolution would have left Yahya in power. Bhutto was all set
on his ouster. It matters not whether he tore up the draft or some
other paper. At a breakfast at the Waldorf Towers earlier, on December
11, Kissinger scolded him like a schoolboy for his “mock-tough
rhetoric … we should not waste them [the next 48 hours] in posturing
for history books”. (Nixon, Indira and India by Kalyani Shankar;
Macmillan, 2010; pages 234, 278-279.)

I.H. Burney’s intrepid weekly Outlook (of May 25, 1974), in a detailed
report on “The War Commission and the Surrender”, sharply criticised
Bhutto for rejecting the Polish initiative (page 10). Marker’s point
about the timing is well taken, but even at the late hour it would
have recorded a compact with Soviet endorsement. That terms would have
gone into effect despite the surrender in Dhaka. Was that surrender
preferable to “the formal abdication of national sovereignty” in the
Polish draft as Marker puts it? There is another aspect. The terms
were not new. Active diplomacy could have ensured their acceptance
earlier.

Yahya was well aware of what was in store. Iman Ullah revealed in The
Nation of August 23, 1990, that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
had “placed a copy of the Operational Instructions (of the Indian
Army) on the table of the President of Pakistan General Mohammed Yahya
Khan on 16 September”. It had been signed on August 19, 1971, and
fixed November 21 as D-day. The war began that day when Indian armour
entered East Pakistan, not on December 3 as India has falsely claimed.
Sydney Schanberg of The New York Times reported it but was scolded by
officials. The Prime Minister was angry at “the leak”, the papers
reveal.

Bhutto wisely repaired to Moscow on March 16, 1972, to mend fences. It
was on the next day that Bhutto suggested the phrase “Line of Control”
to replace the “ceasefire line”. Marker is all too right when he avers
that the origins of the Shimla Conference “can clearly be traced to
the Bhutto-Brezhnev meeting in Moscow in March 1972”. Kosygin kept
Indira Gandhi well informed of Bhutto’s overtures preceding the
meeting – so that he could pursue his interests thereafter. His was an
invisible presence at Shimla, a factor few care to notice. Indira
Gandhi snubbed P.N. Dhar, who suggested stalling on the Indian troop
withdrawal. He rightly sensed that Soviet pressure accounted for the
wrath she visited on him (page 209).

Marker’s lament at the misfortune that befell Pakistan would have been
more poignant had he been more critical of Yahya. The quote from
Ghalib is misplaced. The poet lamented the misfortune that befell an
innocent soul. But was Pakistan so innocent of the parleys between the
USSR and India? Did its ally, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
which had a mole in the Indian Cabinet then, not keep it in the know?

India-USSR parleys

The writer is most appreciative of and indebted to the Nehru Memorial
Museum & Library in New Delhi for access to the papers on which this
account is based. After the Grechko visit in March 1969, D.P. Dhar
called on External Affairs Minister Dinesh Singh on April 2, 1969.
Foreign Secretary T.N. Kaul was also present. Dhar “recounted his
recent talks with Grechko and Ambassador Pegov and mentioned, in
particular, that Grechko had assured him that the Soviet Union would
come to India’s assistance in case of aggression from China or
Pakistan. Both Grechko and Pegov had suggested some kind of a Treaty
of Friendship and Co-operation between India and USSR which would be
in consonance with India’s policy of non-alignment. India had signed
such treaties with other non-aligned countries like Iran. Dhar felt if
we agreed to consider this, the Soviet Union would perhaps be inclined
to supply us the more sophisticated weapons, bombers, etc. which we
badly needed. We could also project our needs for accelerating the
processes of self-sufficiency in the field of defence production. It
might also be possible for us, once this was done, to reduce our
foreign exchange expenditure and our total expenditure on defence. He
expected that the Soviet Union would, perhaps, in the altered
circumstances, be willing to give us defence equipment and know-how on
long term credits. He, therefore suggested that we should explore the
possibility of cashing in on this offer and if the Soviet Union was
forthcoming and made certain commitments, then we might agree to enter
into a Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation with them.” Dinesh Singh
suggested a study of the implications of signing the treaty.

Romesh Bhandari, then charge d’Affaires ad interim, had reported to
Dhar on March 27, 1969, his talks with Pegov at a lunch. “One of the
major objectives” of Kosygin was to bring about an India-Pakistan
rapprochement, Pegov said. He brought up the treaty on which Moscow
was extremely keen. It would “be a very good insurance against any
possible aggression by China or Pakistan. Confidentially he mentioned
that Pakistan had been asking the Soviet Union to enter into a treaty
of friendship. The Soviet Union had so far not responded as it was
their desire to enter into such an agreement with India first…. My
impression is that Ambassador Pegov was referring to this treaty of
friendship after clearance of Chairman Kosygin. He kept referring to
this treaty several times and whenever I talked about possibilities of
increased co-operation in different fields he kept suggesting that all
these could be facilitated once the treaty was signed. He further said
that the treaty should not affect our policy of non-alignment. In fact
the USSR had treaties of friendship with countries like Finland, U.K.
etc. We should, therefore, have no hesitation in entering into a
treaty with them. If we were able to achieve this then it would indeed
be a most significant step forward in Indo-Soviet relations. If not,
our relations would of course continue in the way they had been in the
past.”

D.P. Dhar and Dinesh Singh were the treaty enthusiasts, but Kaul did
not lag behind. P.N. Haksar, to be sure, approved of it as did G.
Parthasarathi. The Congress split threw a spanner in the works. Dhar
wrote to Kaul on October 9, 1969: “The document seems to have been put
into cold-storage for the time being. Contrary to what you had told me
and you repeated the instructions on the telephone. FM handed over the
final draft to Gromyko in a formal manner. Though earlier it had been
agreed that for some time more we would continue to handle this draft
informally at my level. If we had wished to play for time, we could
have done that without raising a suspicion of dilatoriness on our part
or again, if we wished to finalise it we could have achieved that
purpose also within a week or so. This is what we had decided to do.
But then suddenly he emerged from his separate talks with Gromkyo and
asked for the draft. He handed it over to him, and in my opinion set
the seal of approval of the Government of India to its contents. How
long can he delay its finalisation without risking to create suspicion
in the Soviet mind? I would suggest, as I had advised earlier, the
finalisation of draft, once again at my level. Then we can buy time by
invoking the assurance of Kosygin to PM about determining the wisdom
of the occasion for concluding the ‘document’ formally in accordance
with her assessment of the objective situation. Fast changes are
taking place in Sino-Soviet relations, Pakistani-Soviet relations, and
if we are wide awake, we can convert the course of these changes to
our advantage.”

Dhar was impatient. He, as well as the other three, were contemptuous
of Dinesh Singh and rightly so. Haksar, to be sure, had his
reservation about the volatile Kaul and the none too able and overly
cautious courtier, Parthasarathi. Dhar was not happy with “the long
list of amendments” that Dinesh Singh had handed over to the Soviets.
Fomin assured Dhar that they would be able to dispose of them to
mutual satisfaction. Fomin had mentioned the treaty even before the
polls. It was always “the Document” to Dhar.

The China factor

Indira Gandhi’s massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections in 1971 and
Pakistan’s crackdown in Dhaka in March that year predictably revived
interest in the treaty. The Soviets had used their good offices to
allay Mujib’s suspicions of Yahya and felt let down. Dhar, now on
transfer to Delhi, wrote to Kaul on June 5 in terms which reflect an
enthusiasm by no means caused only by localities. He enclosed a
memorandum of his conversation with Grechko that day. Dhar’s memcons
were notoriously long, not seldom exaggerating his own contribution,
as the Prime Minister once remarked. Grechko said, “If I were you I
would not be worried by Pakistan. You should take into account the
unpredictable enemy from the North” – China.

It knew that India was militarily weak. “We must be ready to fight the
Chinese aggression very seriously.” He further stated that it would be
of vital importance both to India and the USSR if our friendship was
“fixed” in a treaty of mutual help “of the kind recently concluded by
the USSR with the UAR. He added that such a treaty would demonstrate
to China, Pakistan and any other potential aggressor the solidarity
between the peoples of the two countries. Such a document would deter
anyone from embarking on an adventure against India. He further stated
that he had spoken to Sardar Swaran Singh about three years ago to
have such a treaty and had also shown him the draft of a possible
document. He as Defence Minister had shown that treaty to Sardar
Swaran Singh, who also at that time was the Defence Minister of India,
only because of his friendship for him as he knew that these matters
did not fall within the purview of Defence Ministers….

“The Ambassador stated that he had been fully associated with this
matter. He was working at it for six months and he had been authorised
by his government to discuss the draft of such a Treaty with the
Soviet Foreign Office. As a result of these discussions, an agreement
had been reached in principle at their level on the text and contents
of the proposal document. The job had thus been done at the diplomatic
level and ‘Abede’ (meal) was ready on the place…. The Marshal
reiterated that what he had said was his personal view and he felt
that a treaty between the two countries at this time would be
opportune and appropriate and he would suggest that it should contain
some reference to military cooperation also. The Ambassador said that
in principle we had never been opposed to the suggestion for having
such a treaty. The only question that had to be determined was the
appropriateness of the occasion and also that of the time so that such
a treaty should not cause any harm to the interests of the two
countries … that any mention of military cooperation would have to be
done in a very lukewarm manner in the document itself.

“Perhaps, the same purpose could be achieved by an exchange of letters
or record of the exchange of views on mutual assistance. In any case,
like the Marshal, these were, the Ambassador said, his personal views
…. The Ambassador, however, wanted to ask a question from the Marshal
as to whether in view of the present tensions which existed between
Pakistan and India as a result of the direct action of Pakistan in
East Bengal and on our borders abetted and aided by China, it would be
appropriate at the present moment to conclude such a treaty. The
Marshal was of the categorical view that such a treaty would perhaps
act as a strong deterrent to force Pakistan and China to abandon any
idea of military adventure.”

To Kaul, D.P. reported: “The mention of this document in various forms
from Pegov to Grechko, from our Central Committee contact to a junior
dignitary as Labochev in Foreign Office makes it clear that in spite
of the developing crisis in our relations with Pakistan with the
Chinese intervention as a distinct possibility the Soviet would be
prepared to accept the responsibilities and obligations which would
devolve on them as a result of such a commitment.” He wondered
“whether we are being wise in reacting in a lukewarm manner to the
Soviet offer of unequivocal help to us. The pros and cons of this
proposal and its present and ultimate utility can best be judged in
New Delhi in consultation with the Foreign Minister and other
concerned authorities. It is, however, important that we do have some
sort of an understanding of what we expect the Soviet Union to do for
us in the event of our country being involved in a conflict with
Pakistan singly or alone with her allies. I am not talking merely in
terms of the political requirements of the situation as it will
develop as a consequence of a conflict of this type. I am more
interested in the military aspects of the aid and assistance which we
will need and which we are bound to seek….

“I am not sure whether the conclusion of a treaty in the form in which
it was discussed in the year 1969 would satisfy the needs of the
present situation. Perhaps, an exchange of letters which would set out
the same objectives as were contained in the treaty would be an
equally good substitute for the treaty at the present juncture. Or,
again, we could think in terms of a secret document which could emerge
as a result of the joint consultations between the General Staffs of
the two countries or as a result of consultations which could be held
on purely political level….”

On June 7 and 8, a much abler External Affairs Minister, Swaran Singh,
was in Moscow. By 1971 the situation had changed. Swaran Singh met
Gromyko on both days. Gromyko seized on his hint of “appropriate
steps” by which China’s support to Pakistan can be “counter balanced”
to remind him of earlier talks on “some sort of a Document, some sort
of a Treaty”, adding, “You will kindly recall that sometime ago we
held an exchange of view regarding the desirability of signing some
sort of a Treaty. These discussions had reached a fairly advanced
stage. But then, if I remember correctly, because of the pre-election
events, because of the development of a certain type of political
situation in your country, this exchange of views was discontinued.
What do you think about the feasibility or otherwise of resuming this
exchange of views and ideas regarding the Draft Document?”

Swaran Singh replied, “We can work on this Document and discuss it and
arrive at a suitable agreement. You will recall that this Document was
a subject matter of discussion during the course of several meetings
with our Ambassador and H.E. Mr. Firyubin, and if I remember rightly,
they had produced some sort of a draft…. As far as I can remember, the
main crux of the Treaty was implied in the clause which provided for
immediate consultations in the event of a certain situation
materialising suddenly. That is good as far as it goes. But what do we
do now if a situation develops, an unfortunate situation which will be
neither of our nor of your choosing. What do we do? What would your
country do to the preservation of peace in this region and it may
constitute one great single factor for averting the present threat to
peace.”

Gromyko asked, “In what way do you want us to make this statement? In
what way should we formulate our attitude? You have to be more
concrete.” Swaran Singh remained vague, “There can be various ways.”
Gromyko then said: “As far as the contents of the Treaty are
concerned, it is possible that it may need further exchange of views
in order to amend or alter the contents of the draft …. I wish to say
that perhaps it may need some changes or modifications.”

On June 8, Swaran Singh recalled the text Grechko had brought “some
sort of a text of the Treaty. We accepted the suggestion of the Treaty
in principle and it was on that basis that subsequent talks took place
between our Ambassador and your Foreign Office. During the course of
these discussions a good deal of agreement was arrived at on the
structure and the main contents of the Document…. We should also pick
up the threads as suggested by you or, to be more exact, as mentioned
by you and resume discussions on the text. We feel that such an
agreement will act as a great lever for peace and also as a deterrent
to China and Pakistan against embarking on any military adventure.”

Swaran Singh met Kosygin on June 8 and returned to the theme of a
statement by Moscow to warn off China. Gromyko intervened to say that
they were discussing a treaty. The talks progressed sufficiently for
Kaul to draw up a comprehensive memo on June 15 comparing India’s
draft with the UAR Treaty. He rejected suggestions of a secret
exchange of letters. Two paragraphs bear quotation. Swaran Singh had
told Kaul that “Marshal Grechko had mentioned to him during his last
visit that a Treaty would help in further cooperation between the two
countries in the field of defence, and the Soviet hesitation in
supplying certain items to us was due to the absence of a Treaty.
Marshal Grechko had also indicated this to our Ambassador. Since the
possibility of a war with Pakistan cannot be ruled out, and since
China is giving Pakistan all out military help and assistance, and
Chinese intervention in the event of such a conflict cannot be ruled
out, it is submitted that the conclusion of a Treaty with the Soviet
Union would deter China from embarking on a military intervention in
the event of a conflict between India and Pakistan, and thus safeguard
our national interests. If it is considered desirable we could offer a
similar Treaty to USA and some of our neighbouring countries like
Afghanistan.” He doubted if the U.S. would agree.

The Soviet Union had done all the running, using its arms to Pakistan
and India as tools. Marker is still perplexed why the supplies ended
despite promise of renewal. Obviously, Moscow did not risk its major
project with India.

Years later the treaty met the same fate as did the U.S.’ pact with
Pakistan assuring help against aggression from any country. As de
Gaulle shrewdly remarked, “Treaties, like roses and pretty girls, last
only so long as they last.”

Volume 27 - Issue 05 :: Feb. 27-Mar. 12, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20100312270508500.htm

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1706/17061090.pdf

BOOKS

A Pakistani perspective
A. G. NOORANI

Kashmir Dispute: An International Law Perspective by Ijaz Hussain;
Quaid-i-Azam Chair, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-
Azam University, Islamabad; pages 309; Rs.450.

"THE Kashmir dispute which has bedevilled relations between India and
Pakistan for the last half century has been the subject of a number of
political and historical studies. However, its legal perspective has
been largely ignored. For example, there are some old publications by
Indian writers (Agarwal, H.O., Kashmir Problem: Its Legal Aspects,
1979; Khan, R., Kashmir in the United Nations, 1966; Rao, H.S.G.,
Legal Aspects of Kashmir Problem, 1967) but they are far from adequate
as the treatment, apart from being antiquated, is either polemical or
pseudo-legal or both," writes Ijaz Hussain.

After citing three other books by Western writers which did not focus
on the legal aspect, the author continues with great modesty: "The
result is that no professional systematic and serious study of the
subject from the international law perspective exists in the English
language, and perhaps in any language. The present book attempts to
fill this huge gap by approaching the subject in a professional,
dispassionate and exhaustive manner."

Ijaz Hussain's comments on the three Indian works are justified. They
belong to an era and tradition in which Indian and Pakistani scholars
vied with each other in producing apologias to establish that their
own country's case in any dispute with any other state, particularly a
neighbour, was right and the adversary was wrong. But what Ayesha
Jalal said of South Asian historians who "privilege the gloss of
nationality rather more than the thrust of scholarship" is all too
true of Ijaz Hussain himself.

His book appears incongruously at a time when many thinking Indians
and Pakistanis have begun to pose questions about the morality and
expediency of their countries' policies. Yet his work is one of the
worst specimens of the earlier tradition. This is a great pity. He has
laboured hard on the legal aspect and has served his country as a
member of its delegation to many an international conference.

The book makes pathetic reading. At places it amuses the reader as a
lawyer would amuse the judge by pleading that his client did not
conclude any contract so that the charge of its breach is groundless;
assuming he did, he performed it; in the alternative, the contract was
concluded under coercion; in any event it is void for several reasons.
Now sample this: "Reacting to these massacres (in Jammu) and to those
taking place in East Punjab, on 22 October a large lashkar from
Pakistan's tribal areas poured into Kashmir with the aim of liberating
it from the Dogra forces. By 24 October the lashkar captured the power
house near Srinagar and could have posed a threat to the airport but
for the fact that good part of the forces stayed back as it got
engaged in pillage."

We are next told that "since the Maharaja invited the Patiala troops,
in violation of the relevant rule of international law, Pakistan
retaliated by sending tribesmen to help the Kashmir rebels win the
power struggle in Kashmir." So, it was an officially sponsored
venture; not a spontaneous one by tribesmen.

On page 109 emerges another thesis: "We can say that the counter-
intervention by Pakistan through the tribesmen on behalf of the
Kashmir rebels was justified as it fulfilled the conditions laid down
by the right of collective self-defence... Pakistan has, however,
claimed that she was not involved in the tribesmen's intervention and
that the latter's intervention was spontaneous being in response to
the massacres and atrocities of their co-religionists in the Jammu
region and that in view of the prevailing enraged sentiments, she
could stop the tribesmen only at her own peril." This joke is also
accepted and retailed on page 118: "In our estimation, the present
case is a good candidate for exoneration for mitigating circumstances
that accompanies the tribesmen's incursion into Kashmir."

Only a wrong is "exonerated" or "mitigated"; virtuous conduct calls
for neither. At yet another place (page 114) he suggests that "the
(tribal raid into Kashmir) was private". Which was it - a private
affair or the government of Pakistan's "counter-intervention"?

Of what avail the many legal citations when the author cannot bring
himself to face and state the truth on a matter of such crucial
importance? He writes: "In view of the fact that the Indian troops
were present in Srinagar when the Instrument of Accession was signed
points (sic) to the use of force in obtaining consent of the Maharaja
to the said Instrument. This makes it patently defective." Now, it is
no one's case that the Maharaja felt oppressed by the arrival of
Indian troops. As everyone knows, he felt relieved. He had sought
India's help against the raiders.

There is an attempt to suggest that Jinnah was "completely taken by
surprise." The Governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP),
Sir George Cunningham's diary recorded that Jinnah had heard of the
venture a fortnight earlier but said "Don't tell me anything about it.
My conscience must be clear" (vide R. J. Moore; Making the New
Commonwealth; p. 51).

None in Pakistan contests the fact that it had launched Operation
Gibraltar and Operation Grand Slam in 1965 to settle the Kashmir
question by force. Can Pakistan hope to get by plebiscite what it lost
at its own chosen forum, the battlefield? What is the relevance of
"the U.N. resolutions" when Pakistan violated the U.N. charter? The
resolutions themselves it tore into shreds. Under the resolution of
the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan of August 13,
1948, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir was to be "administered by the local
authorities under the surveillance of the Commission." The Commission
having vanished, Pakistan installed a government there under a
Constitution which bars the cry of plebiscite and debars non-Muslims
from public office. Under "the U.N. resolutions" Pakistan has not a
leg to stand upon. Apologias like Ijaz Hussain's, like narcotics,
constitute nothing but a flight from the reality. Ijaz Hussain has
taken considerable pains to demonstrate with the help of Indian and
U.N. documents that the Kashmir question is very much a "dispute". One
thought that was overdone. Agra makes one think that his labour was
not expended in vain.

Volume 18 - Issue 18, Sep. 01 - 14, 2001
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1818/18180720.htm

ESSAY

Menace to free speech
A.G. NOORANI

Throughout history, free speech has been threatened not only by state
power but also by the mob which stifles dissent. But India has
witnessed in recent years a new menace - the mob in partnership with
the state. The courts have not always protected dissent when it
battles against popular frenzy.

THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

Shiv Sainiks protesting against the screening of Fire at Delhi's Regal
Theatre.

"Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly
logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want
a certain result with all your heart, you naturally express your
wishes in law and sweep away all oppositions. But when men have
realised that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to
believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own
conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade
in ideas, that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to
get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth
is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried
out."

- Justice Oliver Wendell Homes' dissent, with Justice Louis D.
Brandeis, in Abram vs. United States, 250, U.S. 616 (1919).

IN 1927, Brandeis wrote this dissent in which Holmes concurred: "Those
who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was
to make men free to develop their faculties, and that in its
government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary.
They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed
liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of
liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak
as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of
political truth, that without free speech and assembly discussion
would be futile, that with them, discussion affords ordinary adequate
protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine, that the
greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion
is a political duty... . Believing in the power of reason as applied
through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law - the
argument of force in its worst form. Recognising the occasional
tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so
that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed." Whitney vs.
California 274 U.S. 357 at 376-7 2 at 673.

Justice Felix Frankfurter predicted that Holmes' dissent "will live so
long as English prose retains its power to move". Max Lerner ranked it
with Milton and John Stuart Mill. In 1929, Holmes excelled himself in
this immortal dissent: "If there is any principle of the Constitution
that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the
principle of free thought - not free thought for those who agree with
us but freedom for the thought that we hate." U.S. vs Schwimmer 279
U.S. 664 at 653.

These men had drunk deep at Mill's essay On Liberty and remembered his
admonition: "If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only
one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power,
would be justified in silencing mankind."

Throughout history, free speech has been threatened not only by state
power, but also by the mob which stifles dissent. But India has
witnessed in recent years a new menace - the mob in partnership with
the state. To add to the distress, the courts have not always
protected dissent when it battles against popular frenzy.

Actor Shabana Azmi lighting a candle outside Home Minister L.K.
Advani's house in December 1998, protesting against the attack on
actor Dilip Kumar's Mumbai home.

The mob-state entente is a subversion of India's Constitution. Its
framers learnt a lot from British and American constitutional history.
This was particularly true of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. They knew of times
when English judges were the King's men and the jury was the only
protector of the citizen. The Bar has known no greater advocate in the
cause of free speech than Thomas Erskine. Our founding fathers knew
how the executives' excesses were curbed by courts and public opinion
and how, in former years, the British Parliament abused its privileges
to silence criticism. But they could not have dreamt that this country
would one day see a repressive government in cahoots with an
intolerant mob; when men in power would condone, if not instigate,
violent attacks on those who disagreed and judicial help, at most
times, would either be late or inadequate or simply refused.

Dilip Kumar, the veteran film actor, remarked in a press interview
published on December 9, 1998, apropos of the Shiv Sainik's attack on
December 4 on a cinema house screening Fire: "How can you appeal to
the government when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi [a Sainik] is himself
encouraging threats of vio<147,1,7>lence... by congratulating the
miscreants?" On December 12, members of the Shiv Sena, in their
underwear, surrounded his house and hurled abuses at him. How many
public figures denounced the attacks or the abuse?

The creeping menace of violent intolerance has developed a modus
operandi. If a historical figure is criticised, let loose the dogs of
barbarism on the critic, no matter how erudite, reasoned and
distinguished. The state does not protect the scholar. Instead, it
robs him of the rewards of scholarly labour by banning the book;
citing a "threat" to law and order. The arrogant insolence and the
shameless, brazen abuse of power go unchecked in some cases. Because,
in those cases, even judges, otherwise willing to curb executive
wrong, are reluctant to act against "popular sentiment". One is
reminded of Justice Benjamin Cardozo's famous reminder in his classic
The Nature of the Judicial Process: "The great tides and currents
which engulf the rest of men do not turn aside in their course and
pass the judges by."

Neither Macaulay's Indian Penal Code (IPC), enacted finally in 1862,
nor the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1898, re-enacted in 1973
with some illiberal additions, sanctions the abuse. But there lurk in
the edifice of our criminal jurisprudence some crevices, some nooks
and corners on which excrescence has grown over time. They need to be
removed for they pose a danger to free speech. English law has moved
far ahead; especially on libel, contempt of court and parliamentary
privilege. Indian law has stagnated.

RAJEEV BHATT

Dilip Kumar, who had abuses hurled at him for defending the screening
of Fire.

Surely, in a country of continental size, it is preposterous that any
publicity seeker, say, in Guwahati, should be able to drag the editor,
printer and publisher of a journal published in Mumbai or Chennai
before a magistrate by filing a complaint charging him with
"obscenity"; quite regardless of whether the journal has a wide
readership in his city or the offence is grave enough. Reform is
called for, sorely.

Obscenity apart, religion and history provide the busy body with a
fertile opportunity. He complains of "hurt feelings" as a devotee of a
national or regional hero if not, indeed, a direct lineal descendent
of the great man who died over a century or two ago. As was pointed
out earlier by this writer, India's criminal law of libel is
constitutionally void entirely ("A void libel law", Frontline; April
5, 1996).

The Select Committee which vetted the Penal Code in the clime of the
19th century emphasised that it did not prevent rational discourse.
Two important provisions were inserted in the Penal Code. One was
Section 153A, the other was Section 295A. The former underwent many
amendments. In the wake of the Jana Sangh's programme of
Indianisation, precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindutva
plank, the National Integration Council recommended changes. As it now
stands, it penalises promotion of disharmony "between different groups
or communities on grounds of religion, race, place of birth,
residence, language, caste or communities." Section 153B followed, in
train, to penalise imputation of disloyalty to India on any of these
grounds.

VIVEK BENDRE

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
and the Shiv Sena have with ease made a mockery of these provisions
and exposed the hypocrisy of those who enacted them. On November 26,
2005, Bal Thackeray said: "We will pick a prominent Kannadiga settled
here [in Mumbai] and thrash him if there is news of even a single
attack on our people there [in Belgaum]" (Hindustan Times, November
27). (Emphasis added, throughout.)

Section 295A was inserted in the Penal Code in 1927. It penalises
"insults" to "religion or the religious beliefs" of any group if made
"with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging" their
"religious feelings".

The Select Committee in its report stated: "To make it clear that an
attack on a founder is not omitted from the scope of the section, we
have specifically made punishable an insult to the `religious beliefs'
of the followers of any religion." Its companion is Section 298A which
punished words uttered "with the deliberate intention" of wounding the
religious feelings of any person. Two features deserve note. There
must be a deliberate intention to hurt and what is protected is
religious feeling, not devotion to historical figures. Its draftsmen
said: "We wish to allow all fair latitude to religious discussion and
at the same time to prevent... . under the pretext of such discussion
intentional insults."

Mohammed Ali Jinnah struck a fair balance in his speech in the Central
Legislative Assembly on September 5, 1927: "There can be no question
that we in this House wish to make it clear that in future no wanton
vilification or attack on any religion shall be permitted - then let
us proceed with this Bill." He said that "scurrilous writers" should
be punished. But he did not stop at that. He added also: "I thoroughly
endorse the principle, that while this measure should aim at those
undesirable persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attack upon
the religion of any particular class or upon the founders and prophets
of a religion, we must also secure this very important and fundamental
principle that those who are engaged in historical works, those who
are engaged in bonafide and honest criticisms of a religion shall be
protected."

S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

Suhasini Maniratnam.

This brings us to two dark crevices - group libel and criticism of the
dead. Section 499 of the Penal Code defines defamation. Explanations 1
and 2 are relevant. Explanation 1: "It may amount to defamation to
impute anything to a deceased person, if the imputation would harm the
reputation of that person if living, and is intended to be hurtful to
the feelings of his family or other near relatives." Explanation 2:
"It may amount to defamation to make an imputation concerning a
company or an association or collection of persons as such."

How can Explanation 1 apply to one who died decades ago? For, it
cannot possibly "be hurtful to the feelings of his family or other
near relatives". Two other factors are relevant - the gravity of the
imputation and that it must be "intended to be hurtful to the feelings
of his family". The target is not the deceased but his survivors.
Criticism of historical figures cannot possibly fall within
Explanation 1.

The very sweep of Explanation 2 ("collection of persons") suggests a
need for confining it to reasonable dimensions. The Supreme Court's
rulings are unsatisfactory. In Sahib Singh Mehra vs. State of U.P
(1966) 1 SCJ 294, the court had to consider this sweeping charge in a
periodical published in Aligarh: "illicit bribe money... into the
pockets of public prosecutors... " It ruled: "The language of
Explanation 2 is general and any collection of persons would be
covered by it. Of course, that collection of persons must be
identifiable in the sense that one could, with certainty say that this
group of particular people has been defamed, as distinguished from the
rest of the community. The prosecuting staff of Aligarh or, as a
matter of fact, the prosecuting staff in the State of Uttar Pradesh,
is certainly such an identifiable group of collection of persons.

"There is nothing indefinite about it. This group consists of all
members of the prosecuting staff in the service of the Government of
Uttar Pradesh. Within this general group of public prosecution of U.P.
there is again an identifiable group of prosecuting staff, consisting
of Public Prosecutors and Assistant Public Prosecutors, at Aligarh.
This group of persons would be covered by Explanation 2 and could
therefore be the subject of defamation. We have not been referred to
any case relating to Section 499, Indian Penal Code, in support of the
contention for the appellant that the Public Prosecutor and Assistant
Public Prosecutors at Aligarh could not form such a body of persons as
would be covered by Explanation 2 to Section 499, Indian Penal Code."
That was unfortunate. English cases were not considered at all.

G. Narasimhan & Ors. vs. T.V. Chokkappa (1972) 2 SCJ 596 arose out of
a conference organised by the Dravida Kazhagam (D.K.) over which E.V.
Ramaswamy Naicker presided. The Hindu and other papers reported that
it had passed a resolution to ensure that "coveting another man's wife
is not made an offence" under the IPC whereas the resolution had said
that "it should not be made an offence for a person's wife to desire
another man". Its object, avowedly, was "to achieve total emancipation
of women".

The court ruled: "A collection of persons must be an identifiable body
so that it is possible to say with definiteness that a group of
particular persons, as distinguished from the rest of the community,
was defamed. Therefore, in a case where Explanation 2 is resorted to,
the identity of the company or the association or the collection of
persons must be established so as to be relatable to the defamatory
words or imputations. Where a writing inveighs against mankind in
general, or against a particular order of man, e.g. men of gown, it is
no libel. It must descend to particulars and individuals to make it a
libel. In England also, criminal proceedings would lie in the case of
libel against a class provided such a class is not indefinite, e.g.
men of science, but a definite one, such as, the clergy of the diocese
of Durham, the justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex. If a
well-defined class is defamed, every particular member of that class
can file a complaint even if the defamatory imputation in question
does not mention him by name."

REUTERS

Khushboo.

How did the prosecutors of Uttar Pradesh qualify then? The court drew
a distinction between the D.K. as a party and the conference, leaving
open the question whether a political party would fall within
Explanation 2. The prosecution failed, however, in the case against
The Hindu.

On both defamation of the dead and group libel, English law is more
precise and should help us to redefine the law. Neither furnishes
ground for a civil suit. Criminal prosecutions lie; but only on narrow
grounds. The hoary Halsbury's Laws of England requires "intention, or
possibly... a tendency to injure the reputation of his surviving
relatives" and that to this degree - "so that they may be excited to
revenge and to a breach of peace" (Volume 28, fourth edition,
paragraph 6). The Faulks Committee on Defamation (1978) suggested a
time limit of five years after the death and confined the remedy to a
declaration that it was untrue. There must be some time limit on
prosecutions too, surely.

Gatley on Libel and Slander, a legal classic, says: "It is a criminal
offence to write and publish defamatory words of any deceased person
if it be done with intent to injure and bring contempt on his family
and so provoke them to a breach of the peace. A mere vilifying of the
deceased is not enough. There must be a vilifying with a view to
injure his posterity."

In R. vs. Topham, the defendant was indicted for publishing of the
late Earl Cowper a libel which imputed to him unmanly vices and
debaucheries. He was tried and convicted. In his judgment Lord Kenyon
C.J. said: "To say, in general, that the conduct of a dead person can
at no time be canvassed, to hold that, even after ages are passed, the
conduct of bad men cannot be contrasted with good, would be to exclude
the most useful part of history. And therefore it must be allowed that
such publication may be made fairly and honestly. But let this be done
whenever it may, whether soon or late after the death of the party, if
it be done with a malevolent purpose, to vilify the memory of the
deceased, and with a view to injure his posterity, then... it is done
with a design to break the peace, and then it becomes illegal."

Courts owe a clear duty when faced with works of scholarship, to
uphold the right of free speech and summarily dismiss attempts to curb
it at the very outset instead of issuing process to the writer.

A standard Indian work Law of Crimes by Ratanlal and Vakil says: "The
essence of the offence of defamation consists in its tendency to cause
that description of pain which is felt by a person who knows himself
to be the object of the unfavourable sentiments of his fellow
creatures and those inconveniences to which a person who is the object
of such unfavourable sentiments is exposed." Where the complainant did
not claim himself to be a descendant of the deceased person who had
been allegedly defamed, no action would lie since he was not an
aggrieved person. "The mere fact that he was a devotee and an admirer
of the deceased person would not be sufficient to maintain an action
against the accused."

In short, the law on group libel and on libel on the dead furnishes no
ground for legal action of the kind we have seen lately. Pleas of
"hurt feelings", wrath or shame and the like are irrelevant. That is
why the entente is forged. Section 95 of the Criminal Procedure Code,
1973, empowers State governments to ban journals or books if inter
alia they violate Sections 153-A, 153-B, 295-A of the Penal Code. Once
an agitation is whipped up and the agitators take recourse to
violence, State governments have, in cases more than one, stepped in
to invoke Section 95 of the CrPC and ban the book. "State governments"
is a euphemism for politicians in power. The ones in the Opposition do
not hesitate to jump on the bandwagon.

M. VEDHAN

A Dalit Panthers of India demonstration against Kushboo's remarks on
women.

However, Section 96 of the CrPC enables "any person having any
interest" in the publication to challenge the ban in the High Court.
The petition must be heard by a bench of three Judges. Gopal Godse vs.
Union of India (1970) 72 Bombay Law Reporter 871 is an instructive
case. Aspects of Justice Y.V. Chandrachud's judgment are disturbing;
but the fundamental principle of law which he propounded is sound -
the writing must directly incite ill-feeling between two groups. A
book or an article which a group claims insults its "hero" or its
"culture" cannot be banned. The ban on Gopal Godse's book Gandhi
Assassination and I was set aside. Gandhi was killed because the
Godses accused him of "appeasement" of Muslims. The court ruled,
nonetheless: "Its accent is not on the social relationship or the
political association between Hindus and Muslims in India, nor does
the book at all deal with any contemporary problem having communal
ramifications. The setting of the book is the events that led to the
division of the country, the thesis of the writer is that Gandhiji
wrongly pursued the policy of appeasement and his conclusion is that
this policy led to Gandhiji's murder. The book is thus an attempt to
explain what is indisputably a historical fact by marshalling support
from what are said to be clear facts of history."

Justice Chandrachud, who delivered the judgment, found: "The best part
of the book deals with these facts and events, the theme being that
Gandhiji was assassinated for political, not personal, motives by
those who loved their motherland as much as any one else did. The
theme, in other words, is that Gandhiji's life is the price which was
paid for the decision that the country be partitioned and the
subsequent decision to pay the cash-balances to Pakistan in the face
of its aggression on Kashmir."

He added: "The book read as a whole cannot be held to contain matter
which promotes feelings of enmity and hatred between Hindus and
Muslims in India. Frankly, the total effect of the book would not be
to inflame communal passions. It contains no appeal to those passions
- no direct appeal certainly and the supposed veiled meaning is much
too veiled for the common reader. What will linger in his mind after
he keeps down the book is that the integrity of the country should not
have been broken and that Gandhiji's policy of appeasement led to
partition and the untold miseries which it brought in its wake. What
will move the reader is the account of those miseries, and more so the
account of the sufferings of the aged parents, the wife and the
helpless children of the author."

The Judge's assessment of the book is wrong. But his ruling on the law
is sound and this ruling knocks the bans which we have suffered lately
for a six.

S. Rangarajan vs. P. Jagjivan Ram & Ors. (1989) 2 SCC 574 concerned
the film Ore Oru Gramathile, which attacked the policy of reservations
on the basis of caste. The Supreme Court struck down the censors'
orders. Its observations will continue to ring in our ears for a long
time. "In the affidavit filed on behalf of the State government, it is
alleged that some organisations like the Tamil Nadu Scheduled Castes
Scheduled Tribes People's Protection Committee, Dr. Ambedkar People's
Movement, the Republican Party of India have been agitating that the
film should be banned as it hurt the sentiments of people belonging to
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. It is stated that general secretary
of the Republican Party of India has warned that his party would not
hesitate to damage the cinema theatres which screen the film. Some
demonstration made by people in front of The Hindu office on March 16,
1988, and their arrest and release on bail are also referred to. It is
further alleged that there were some group meetings by Republican
Party members and Dr. Ambedkar People's Movement with their demand for
banning the film. With these averments it was contended for the State
that the exhibition of the film will create very serious law and order
problem in the State.

"We are amused yet troubled by the stand taken by the State government
with regard to the film which has received the national award. We want
to put the anguished question, what good is the protection of freedom
of expression if the state does not take care to protect it? If the
film is unobjectionable and cannot constitutionally be restricted
under Article 19(2), freedom of expression cannot be suppressed on
account of threat of demonstration and processions or threats of
violence. That would tantamount to negation of the rule of law and a
surrender to blackmail and intimidation. It is the duty of the state
to protect the freedom of expression since it is a liberty guaranteed
against the state. The state cannot plead its inability to handle the
hostile audience problem. It is its obligatory duty to prevent it and
protect the freedom of expression."

This was said on March 30, 1989. Two years later, the Supreme Court
considered a petition against the serialisation of Sanjay Khan's film
The Sword of Tipu Sultan on Doordarshan. It was based admittedly on
Bhagwan Gidwani's novel, a work of historical fiction. The lapse on
the part of the Supreme Court is saddening. Doordarshan's formulation
was made worse by the court sanctioning the words: (it) "has nothing
to do with either the life or rule of Tipu Sultan". This is manifestly
incorrect and makes a mockery of the very concept of historical
fiction; it is fiction inspired by history. Disposing of a special
leave petition seeking a ban on the airing of the serial, the Supreme
Court directed in February 1991 that the following announcement be
made along with the telecast of each episode: "No claim is made for
the accuracy or authenticity of any episode being depicted in the
serial. This serial is a fiction and has nothing to do either with the
life or rule of Tipu Sultan. The serial is a dramatised presentation
of Bhagwan Gidwani's novel."

By 1991, the BJP had fouled the atmosphere in the country. The Supreme
Court's order was as unfortunate as it was devoid of jurisdiction. It
gave a handle to the bigots. Besides, courts have no right or power to
judge a film except on the anvil of the law. The correctness of
depiction of history or the accuracy of a historical statement is
entirely for the viewers to judge; not for judges to pronounce upon.

It only remains to add that both Khushboo and Suhasini Maniratnam were
entitled to say what they said. The attacks on them, physical and
verbal, were a blot on the great and ancient Tamil culture.

Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2226/stories/20051230001705200.htm

[chhotemianinshallah]

Opinion

America, the fragile empire

Here today, gone tomorrow -- could the United States fall that fast?
By Niall Ferguson

February 28, 2010

For centuries, historians, political theorists, anthropologists and
the public have tended to think about the political process in
seasonal, cyclical terms. From Polybius to Paul Kennedy, from ancient
Rome to imperial Britain, we discern a rhythm to history. Great
powers, like great men, are born, rise, reign and then gradually wane.
No matter whether civilizations decline culturally, economically or
ecologically, their downfalls are protracted.

In the same way, the challenges that face the United States are often
represented as slow-burning. It is the steady march of demographics --
which is driving up the ratio of retirees to workers -- not bad policy
that condemns the public finances of the United States to sink deeper
into the red. It is the inexorable growth of China's economy, not
American stagnation, that will make the gross domestic product of the
People's Republic larger than that of the United States by 2027.

As for climate change, the day of reckoning could be as much as a
century away. These threats seem very remote compared with the time
frame for the deployment of U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan, in which the
unit of account is months, not years, much less decades.

But what if history is not cyclical and slow-moving but arrhythmic --
at times almost stationary but also capable of accelerating suddenly,
like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of
centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night?

Great powers are complex systems, made up of a very large number of
interacting components that are asymmetrically organized, which means
their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian
pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder. Such
systems can appear to operate quite stably for some time; they seem to
be in equilibrium but are, in fact, constantly adapting. But there
comes a moment when complex systems "go critical." A very small
trigger can set off a "phase transition" from a benign equilibrium to
a crisis -- a single grain of sand causes a whole pile to collapse.

Not long after such crises happen, historians arrive on the scene.
They are the scholars who specialize in the study of "fat tail" events
-- the low-frequency, high-impact historical moments, the ones that
are by definition outside the norm and that therefore inhabit the
"tails" of probability distributions -- such as wars, revolutions,
financial crashes and imperial collapses. But historians often
misunderstand complexity in decoding these events. They are trained to
explain calamity in terms of long-term causes, often dating back
decades. This is what Nassim Taleb rightly condemned in "The Black
Swan" as "the narrative fallacy."

In reality, most of the fat-tail phenomena that historians study are
not the climaxes of prolonged and deterministic story lines; instead,
they represent perturbations, and sometimes the complete breakdowns,
of complex systems.

To understand complexity, it is helpful to examine how natural
scientists use the concept. Think of the spontaneous organization of
termites, which allows them to construct complex hills and nests, or
the fractal geometry of water molecules as they form intricate
snowflakes. Human intelligence itself is a complex system, a product
of the interaction of billions of neurons in the central nervous
system.

All these complex systems share certain characteristics. A small input
to such a system can produce huge, often unanticipated changes -- what
scientists call "the amplifier effect." Causal relationships are often
nonlinear, which means that traditional methods of generalizing
through observation are of little use. Thus, when things go wrong in a
complex system, the scale of disruption is nearly impossible to
anticipate.

There is no such thing as a typical or average forest fire, for
example. To use the jargon of modern physics, a forest before a fire
is in a state of "self-organized criticality": It is teetering on the
verge of a breakdown, but the size of the breakdown is unknown. Will
there be a small fire or a huge one? It is nearly impossible to
predict. The key point is that in such systems, a relatively minor
shock can cause a disproportionate disruption.

Any large-scale political unit is a complex system. Most great empires
have a nominal central authority -- either a hereditary emperor or an
elected president -- but in practice the power of any individual ruler
is a function of the network of economic, social and political
relations over which he or she presides. As such, empires exhibit many
of the characteristics of other complex adaptive systems -- including
the tendency to move from stability to instability quite suddenly.

The most recent and familiar example of precipitous decline is the
collapse of the Soviet Union. With the benefit of hindsight,
historians have traced all kinds of rot within the Soviet system back
to the Brezhnev era and beyond. Perhaps, as the historian and
political scientist Stephen Kotkin has argued, it was only the high
oil prices of the 1970s that "averted Armageddon." But this did not
seem to be the case at the time. The Soviet nuclear arsenal was larger
than the U.S. stockpile. And governments in what was then called the
Third World, from Vietnam to Nicaragua, had been tilting in the
Soviets' favor for most of the previous 20 years.

Yet, less than five years after Mikhail Gorbachev took power, the
Soviet imperium in central and Eastern Europe had fallen apart,
followed by the Soviet Union itself in 1991. If ever an empire fell
off a cliff, rather than gently declining, it was the one founded by
Lenin.

If empires are complex systems that sooner or later succumb to sudden
and catastrophic malfunctions, what are the implications for the
United States today? First, debating the stages of decline may be a
waste of time -- it is a precipitous and unexpected fall that should
most concern policymakers and citizens. Second, most imperial falls
are associated with fiscal crises. Alarm bells should therefore be
ringing very loudly indeed as the United States contemplates a deficit
for 2010 of more than $1.5 trillion -- about 11% of GDP, the biggest
since World War II.

These numbers are bad, but in the realm of political entities, the
role of perception is just as crucial. In imperial crises, it is not
the material underpinnings of power that really matter but
expectations about future power. The fiscal numbers cited above cannot
erode U.S. strength on their own, but they can work to weaken a long-
assumed faith in the United States' ability to weather any crisis.

One day, a seemingly random piece of bad news -- perhaps a negative
report by a rating agency -- will make the headlines during an
otherwise quiet news cycle. Suddenly, it will be not just a few policy
wonks who worry about the sustainability of U.S. fiscal policy but the
public at large, not to mention investors abroad. It is this shift
that is crucial: A complex adaptive system is in big trouble when its
component parts lose faith in its viability.

Over the last three years, the complex system of the global economy
flipped from boom to bust -- all because a bunch of Americans started
to default on their subprime mortgages, thereby blowing huge holes in
the business models of thousands of highly leveraged financial
institutions. The next phase of the current crisis may begin when the
public begins to reassess the credibility of the radical monetary and
fiscal steps that were taken in response.

Neither interest rates at zero nor fiscal stimulus can achieve a
sustainable recovery if people in the United States and abroad
collectively decide, overnight, that such measures will ultimately
lead to much higher inflation rates or outright default. Bond yields
can shoot up if expectations change about future government solvency,
intensifying an already bad fiscal crisis by driving up the cost of
interest payments on new debt. Just ask Greece.

Ask Russia too. Fighting a losing battle in the mountains of the Hindu
Kush has long been a harbinger of imperial fall. What happened 20
years ago is a reminder that empires do not in fact appear, rise,
reign, decline and fall according to some recurrent and predictable
life cycle. It is historians who retrospectively portray the process
of imperial dissolution as slow-acting. Rather, empires behave like
all complex adaptive systems. They function in apparent equilibrium
for some unknowable period. And then, quite abruptly, they collapse.

Washington, you have been warned.

Niall Ferguson is a professor at Harvard University and Harvard
Business School, and a fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. His latest
book is "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World." A
longer version of this essay appears in the March/April issue of
Foreign Affairs. foreign.affairs.com

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65987/niall-ferguson/complexity-and-collapse

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ferguson28-2010feb28,0,2697391.story?track=rss

After Iran Gets the Bomb
Containment and Its Complications James M. Lindsay and Ray Takeyh
March/April 2010

Summary: Despite international pressure, Iran appears to be continuing
its march toward getting a nuclear bomb. But Washington can contain
and mitigate the consequences of Tehran's nuclear defiance, keeping an
abhorrent outcome from becoming a catastrophic one.

JAMES M. LINDSAY is Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and
Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. RAY
TAKEYH is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the
author of Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age
of the Ayatollahs.

David G. comments on After Iran Gets the Bomb

8 Comments Join The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to become
the world's tenth nuclear power. It is defying its international
obligations and resisting concerted diplomatic pressure to stop it
from enriching uranium. It has flouted several UN Security Council
resolutions directing it to suspend enrichment and has refused to
fully explain its nuclear activities to the International Atomic
Energy Agency. Even a successful military strike against Iran's
nuclear facilities would delay Iran's program by only a few years, and
it would almost certainly harden Tehran's determination to go nuclear.
The ongoing political unrest in Iran could topple the regime, leading
to fundamental changes in Tehran's foreign policy and ending its
pursuit of nuclear weapons. But that is an outcome that cannot be
assumed. If Iran's nuclear program continues to progress at its
current rate, Tehran could have the nuclear material needed to build a
bomb before U.S. President Barack Obama's current term in office
expires.

The dangers of Iran's entry into the nuclear club are well known:
emboldened by this development, Tehran might multiply its attempts at
subverting its neighbors and encouraging terrorism against the United
States and Israel; the risk of both conventional and nuclear war in
the Middle East would escalate; more states in the region might also
want to become nuclear powers; the geopolitical balance in the Middle
East would be reordered; and broader efforts to stop the spread of
nuclear weapons would be undermined. The advent of a nuclear Iran --
even one that is satisfied with having only the materials and
infrastructure necessary to assemble a bomb on short notice rather
than a nuclear arsenal -- would be seen as a major diplomatic defeat
for the United States. Friends and foes would openly question the U.S.
government's power and resolve to shape events in the Middle East.
Friends would respond by distancing themselves from Washington; foes
would challenge U.S. policies more aggressively.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66032/james-m-lindsay-and-ray-takeyh/after-iran-gets-the-bomb

The End of the Beijing Consensus
Can China's Model of Authoritarian Growth Survive? Yang Yao
February 2, 2010

Beijing's ongoing efforts to promote growth are infringing on people's
economic and political rights. In order to survive, the Chinese
government will have to start allowing ordinary citizens to take part
in the political process.

YANG YAO is Deputy Dean of the National School of Development and the
Director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking
University.

Bruce B. comments on The End of the Beijing Consensus

7 Comments Join Since China began undertaking economic reforms in
1978, its economy has grown at a rate of nearly ten percent a year,
and its per-capita GDP is now twelve times greater than it was three
decades ago. Many analysts attribute the country's economic success to
its unconventional approach to economic policy -- a combination of
mixed ownership, basic property rights, and heavy government
intervention. Time magazine's former foreign editor, Joshua Cooper
Ramo, has even given it a name: the Beijing consensus.

But, in fact, over the last 30 years, the Chinese economy has moved
unmistakably toward the market doctrines of neoclassical economics,
with an emphasis on prudent fiscal policy, economic openness,
privatization, market liberalization, and the protection of private
property. Beijing has been extremely cautious in maintaining a
balanced budget and keeping inflation down. Purely redistributive
programs have been kept to a minimum, and central government transfers
have been primarily limited to infrastructure spending. The overall
tax burden (measured by the ratio of tax revenue to GDP) is in the
range of 20 to 25 percent. The country is the world's second-largest
recipient of foreign direct investment, and domestically, more than 80
percent of its state-owned enterprises have been released to private
hands or transformed into publicly listed companies. Since the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) lacks legitimacy in the classic democratic
sense, it has been forced to seek performance-based legitimacy
instead, by continuously improving the living standards of Chinese
citizens. So far, this strategy has succeeded, but there are signs
that it will not last because of the growing income inequality and the
internal and external imbalances it has created.

The CCP's free-market policies have, predictably, led to major income
disparities in China. The overall Gini coefficient -- a measure of
economic inequality in which zero equals perfect equality and one
absolute inequality -- reached 0.47 in 2008, the same level as in the
United States. More disturbing, Chinese city dwellers are now earning
three and a half times as much as their fellow citizens in the
countryside, the highest urban-rural income gap in the world.

How, then, has the Chinese government been able to adopt the
principles of neoclassical economics while still claiming Marxism as
its ideological anchor? The answer is that China has for three decades
been ruled by a disinterested government -- a detached, unbiased
regime that takes a neutral stance when conflicts of interest arise
among different social and political groups. This does not mean that
Beijing has been devoid of self-interest. On the contrary, the state
is often predatory toward citizens, but its predation is "identity-
blind" in the sense that Beijing does not generally care about the
social and political status of its chosen prey -- unlike many
governments elsewhere that act to protect and enrich specific social
or political groups. As a consequence, the Chinese government has been
more likely than other authoritarian regimes to adopt growth-enhancing
policies.

As the Chinese people demand more than economic gains as their income
increases, it will become increasingly difficult for the CCP to
contain or discourage social discontent by administering the medicine
of economic growth alone. For the last 30 years, the CCP has
intentionally adopted policies favoring specific groups or regions to
promote reform and economic growth. It has helped that the
disinterested CCP government was not permanently beholden to certain
groups or regions. China's integration into the world economy is a
case in point. At the end of the 1970s, the United States was eager to
bring China into its camp as a buffer against Soviet hegemony, and
China quickly grasped the opportunity. Yet that early adoption of an
"open-door" policy gave rise to domestic resistance: special economic
zones, such as Shenzhen, enjoyed an abundance of preferential
treatments that other parts of the country envied. Moreover, the CCP's
export-led growth model required that Beijing embrace an unbalanced
development strategy that encouraged rapid growth on the country's
east coast while neglecting the interior; today, nearly 90 percent of
China's exports still come from the nine coastal provinces.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 was also a
calculated move. Before accession, it was widely believed that China
would have to endure painful structural adjustment policies in many
sectors in order to join the WTO. Even so, the central government
actually accelerated negotiations with the organization's members.
Despite the burdens it placed on the agriculture and retailing
sectors, accession boosted China's exports, proving wrong those who
worried about its effects. Between 2002 and 2007, Chinese exports grew
by an annual rate of 29 percent, double the average rate during the
1990s.

China's astronomic growth has left it in a precarious situation,
however. Other developing countries have suffered from the so-called
middle-income trap -- a situation that often arises when a country's
per-capita GDP reaches the range of $3,000 to $8,000, the economy
stops growing, income inequality increases, and social conflicts
erupt. China has entered this range, and the warning signs of a trap
loom large.

In the last several years, government involvement in the economy has
increased -- most notably with the current four-trillion-yuan ($586
billion) stimulus plan. Government investment helped China reach a GDP
growth rate of nearly nine percent in 2009, which many applaud; but in
the long run, it could suffocate the Chinese economy by reducing
efficiency and crowding out more vibrant private investment.

The End of the Beijing Consensus
Can China's Model of Authoritarian Growth Survive? Yang Yao
February 2, 2010

Bruce B. comments on The End of the Beijing Consensus

The economy currently depends heavily on external demand, creating
friction among major trading partners. Savings account for 52 percent
of GDP, and consumption has dropped to a historic low. Whereas
governments in most advanced democracies spend less than eight percent
of government revenue on capital investment, this figure is close to
50 percent in China. And residential income as a share of national
income is declining, making the average citizen feel poorer while the
economy expands. As the Chinese people demand more than economic gains
as their income increases, it will become increasingly difficult for
the CCP to contain or discourage social discontent by administering
the medicine of economic growth alone.

Despite its absolute power and recent track record of delivering
economic growth, the CCP has still periodically faced resistance from
citizens. The Tiananmen incident of April 5, 1976, the first
spontaneous democratic movement in PRC history, the June 4 movement of
1989, and numerous subsequent protests proved that the Chinese people
are quite willing to stage organized resistance when their needs are
not met by the state. International monitoring of China's domestic
affairs has also played an important role; now that it has emerged as
a major global power, China is suddenly concerned about its legitimacy
on the international stage.

The Chinese government generally tries to manage such popular
discontent by providing various "pain relievers," including programs
that quickly address early signs of unrest in the population, such as
reemployment centers for unemployed workers, migration programs aimed
at lowering regional disparities, and the recent "new countryside
movement" to improve infrastructure, health care, and education in
rural areas.

Those measures, however, may be too weak to discourage the emergence
of powerful interest groups seeking to influence the government.
Although private businesses have long recognized the importance of
cultivating the government for larger profits, they are not alone. The
government itself, its cronies, and state-controlled enterprises are
quickly forming strong and exclusive interest groups. In a sense,
local governments in China behave like corporations: unlike in
advanced democracies, where one of the key mandates of the government
is to redistribute income to improve the average citizen's welfare,
local governments in China simply pursue economic gain.

More important, Beijing's ongoing efforts to promote GDP growth will
inevitably result in infringements on people's economic and political
rights. For example, arbitrary land acquisitions are still prevalent
in some cities, the government closely monitors the Internet, labor
unions are suppressed, and workers have to endure long hours and
unsafe conditions. Chinese citizens will not remain silent in the face
of these infringements, and their discontent will inevitably lead to
periodic resistance. Before long, some form of explicit political
transition that allows ordinary citizens to take part in the political
process will be necessary.

The reforms carried out over the last 30 years have mostly been
responses to imminent crises. Popular resistance and economic
imbalances are now moving China toward another major crisis. Strong
and privileged interest groups and commercialized local governments
are blocking equal distribution of the benefits of economic growth
throughout society, thereby rendering futile the CCP's strategy of
trading economic growth for people's consent to its absolute rule.

An open and inclusive political process has generally checked the
power of interest groups in advanced democracies such as the United
States. Indeed, this is precisely the mandate of a disinterested
government -- to balance the demands of different social groups. A
more open Chinese government could still remain disinterested if the
right democratic institutions were put in place to keep the most
powerful groups at bay. But ultimately, there is no alternative to
greater democratization if the CCP wishes to encourage economic growth
and maintain social stability.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65947/the-end-of-the-beijing-consensus

A Trade War with China?Neil C. Hughes
July/August 2005

Summary: With China's economic clout growing rapidly, Americans are
accusing Beijing of every offense from currency manipulation to
crooked trade policies. None of these charges has much merit, but they
have increased the probability of a U.S.-Chinese trade war that would
do considerable damage to both sides.

Neil C. Hughes is the author of China's Economic Challenge: Smashing
the Iron Rice Bowl. He was Senior Operations Officer in the China and
Mongolia Department of the World Bank from 1992 to 1997 and a
consultant on China to the World Bank until 2004.

THE EAGLE AND THE DRAGON

Americans are increasingly disturbed by the growing economic clout of
China. With Chinese growth rates consistently above nine percent, they
accuse it of stealing U.S. jobs, of keeping the yuan undervalued by
pegging it to the dollar, of exporting deflation by selling its
products abroad at unfair prices, of violating the rights of its
workers to keep labor costs low, and of failing to meet its
commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Most of these
charges have little merit. But the misunderstandings behind them have
opened the way to a trade war between the United States and China --
one that, if it escalates, could do considerable damage to both sides.

China is not stealing U.S. jobs or engaging in unfair trade practices
to undercut U.S. economic might and export its way to global power. In
fact, almost 60 percent of Chinese exports to the United States are
produced by firms owned by foreign companies, many of them American.
These firms have moved operations overseas in response to competitive
pressures to lower production costs and thereby offer better prices to
consumers and higher returns to shareholders. U.S. importers with
dominant positions in China, such as Wal-Mart and Hallmark, have the
power to compel Chinese suppliers to keep their costs as low as
possible. Wal-Mart alone purchased $18 billion worth of Chinese goods
in 2004, making it China's eighth-largest trading partner -- ahead of
Australia, Canada, and Russia.

So who is really "to blame" for China's "exporting deflation" and for
the surge of Chinese exports? American importers, the American
consumers who buy their Chinese goods at very low prices, and their
American shareholders who demand results. A sustained trade war with
China would hurt these groups more than anyone else.

FEELING FOR EACH STONE

One of the principal charges leveled against China in the United
States stems from a misunderstanding of the dollar-yuan relationship.
A chorus of critics -- from government officials to corporate
executives and union leaders -- are charging Beijing with keeping the
yuan undervalued by pegging it to the dollar in order to gain an
unfair export advantage. This unfair advantage, they assert, is the
main cause of the U.S. trade deficit with China, which grew from $124
billion in 2003 to $162 billion in 2004.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/60825/neil-c-hughes/a-trade-war-with-china

China: The Coming PowerBarber B. Conable, Jr., and David M. Lampton
Winter 1992/93

Summary: An economic bnoom is underway in China, and the United States
is in danger of isolating itself from the benefits. A forward-looking
policy would not only offer tremendous opportunity for American
investment,trade and jobs, but it could also be a force for political
moderation in Beijing.

Barber B. Conable, Jr., is a former congressman from New York and
president emeritus of the World Bank; he is chairman of the National
Committee on United States-China Relations. David M. Lampton has
written widely on Chinese foreign and domestic politics and is
president of the National Committee. The views expressed are their
own.

A Troubled Relationship

ONE OF THE FIRST tests of the Clinton administration’s ability to
develop a forward?looking foreign policy will be the troubled U.S.-
China relationship. The successful conclusion of market-access
negotiations with Beijing in October, and the decisions of the
recently concluded 14th Party Congress to promote younger technocratic
leaders and widen economic reform in China, provide an opportunity for
progress.

Within the United States there has been little consensus on an
appropriate China policy. Since the June 1989 Tiananmen tragedy
Congress has tried to use sanctions to prod China to better observe
human rights. Although President Bush imposed some sanctions in the
aftermath of the crackdown, he consistently opposed legislation that
would eliminate or impose conditions on most-favored-nation treatment
for China. In September he vetoed legislation to place conditions on
renewal of China’s MFN trade status, saying it would hurt Chinese
citizens and American companies that sell goods there. For his part
President-elect Clinton has stated that he would be firmer, by linking
continued MFN status for China to improvements in human rights
practices. Beijing categorically rejects such a linkage and promises
retaliation.

China’s political repression, its nuclear technology and weapons sales
to Iran and other volatile regions of the world, along with some
illegal trade practices and a mounting trade surplus with the United
States, have only added to the tensions in a relationship already
strained by the unnecessary and tragic violence of June 1989 and
subsequent repression. China’s strategic value is inaccurately
perceived as having greatly diminished following the collapse of the
Soviet Union. If the current strains in America’s relations with China
deteriorate into a U.S. policy of benign neglect or outright
hostility, the damage could be widespread to the United States’
economic future, its relations with other countries and its hopes for
cooperation on global problems

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48470/barber-b-conable-jr-and-david-m-lampton/china-the-coming-power

A New China Strategy: The ChallengeKenneth Lieberthal
November/December 1995

Summary: China's reform policies have created economic opportunities,
but they have also unleashed political tensions. Some U.S. strategists
advocate a containment strategy, yet such a strategy is both
undesirable and infeasible. America's fortunes in Asia depend on the
evolution of a China that is secure, cohesive, reform-oriented, and
open to the world. Failed reform could easily lead to a nationalistic,
obstructionist China. In recent years, Washington, while trying to
engage the People's Republic, has driven it into a corner over human
rights. America must develop a long-term strategy to integrate China
into the world community and avert serious damage to this crucial
bilateral relationship. And it must begin to do so now.

Kenneth Lieberthal is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Political Science
and William R. Davidson Professor of Business Administration at the
University of Michigan. His most recent book is Governing China: From
Revolution through Reform (W.W. Norton, 1995).

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.The People's
Republic of China has been in the news this year for a number of
disturbing reasons. It has mounted muscular military actions to back
its diplomacy regarding Taiwan and the South China Sea, allegedly
transferred m-11 missile technology to Pakistan, sold nuclear
technology to Iran, conducted nuclear weapons tests, and augmented its
military budget when most other countries have been cutting back in
the wake of the Cold War. It has continued the repression of political
dissidents, displayed gross insensitivity in its handling of the U.N.-
sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women and Nongovernmental
Organization Forum, and become a prickly interlocutor at many
international negotiations. One of the most important issues now
confronting Asia is how an increasingly strong China will act in the
region.

Beijing recognizes the importance of expanding its economic links with
the rest of the world. The People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) has
sustained very rapid economic growth: since 1978, the per capita GDP
of more than one-fifth of the globe's population has roughly
quadrupled. China's foreign trade grew more than 16 percent per year
from 1978 to 1994, with imports exceeding exports for all but six of
those years. Concurrently, it has overseen huge changes in its
economy, social development, and political dynamics.

These domestic changes, generally welcomed abroad, have nurtured many
of the problems that now cause concern. They have vastly reduced the
compliance of the country's officials with Beijing's directives,
making it difficult for China's leaders to implement international
agreements they have signed on such issues as intellectual property
rights, and they have made the military a far stronger domestic
player, with potentially worrisome consequences abroad. They have
undermined faith in communism, and China's leaders have turned to
nationalism to tighten discipline and maintain support. Most
important, these changes have strengthened the P.R.C. to such an
extent that it is becoming a major regional and global actor.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/51600/kenneth-lieberthal/a-new-china-strategy-the-challenge

India's Rise, America's Interest
The Fate of the U.S.-Indian Partnership Evan A. Feigenbaum
March/April 2010

Summary: The future of the U.S.-Indian relationship will depend on
whether India chooses to align with the United States and whether it
sustains its own economic and social changes -- and on what policies
Washington pursues in those areas that bear heavily on Indian
interests.

EVAN A. FEIGENBAUM is Senior Fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign
Relations. He served during the George W. Bush administration as
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.Until the late
1990s, the United States often ignored India, treating it as a
regional power in South Asia with little global weight. India's weak
and protected economy gave it little influence in global markets, and
its nonaligned foreign policy caused periodic tension with Washington.
When the United States did concentrate on India, it too often fixated
on India's military rivalry with Pakistan.

Today, however, India is dynamic and transforming. Starting in 1991,
leaders in New Delhi -- including Manmohan Singh, then India's finance
minister and now its prime minister -- pursued policies of economic
liberalization that opened the country to foreign investment and
yielded rapid growth. India is now an important economic power, on
track (according to Goldman Sachs and others) to become a top-five
global economy by 2030. It is a player in global economic decisions as
part of both the G-20 and the G-8 + 5 (the G-8 plus the five leading
emerging economies) and may ultimately attain a permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council. India's trajectory has diverged
sharply from that of Pakistan.

With economic growth, India acquired the capacity to act on issues of
primary strategic and economic concern to the United States. The
United States, in turn, has developed a growing stake in continued
Indian reform and success -- especially as they contribute to global
growth, promote market-based economic policies, help secure the global
commons, and maintain a mutually favorable balance of power in Asia.
For its part, New Delhi seeks a United States that will help
facilitate India's rise as a major power.

Two successive Indian governments have pursued a strategic partnership
with the United States that would have been unthinkable in the era of
the Cold War and nonalignment. This turnaround in relations culminated
in 2008, when the two countries signed a civil nuclear agreement. That
deal helped end India's nuclear isolation by permitting the conduct of
civil nuclear trade with New Delhi, even though India is not a party
to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Important as the agreement
was, however, the U.S.-Indian relationship remains constrained. For
example, although U.S. officials hold standing dialogues about nearly
every region of the world with their counterparts from Beijing,
Brussels, and Tokyo, no such arrangements exist with New Delhi.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65995/evan-a-feigenbaum/indias-rise-americas-interest

[Sid Harth]

Janet Tavakoli
President, Tavakoli Structured Finance, Inc.
Posted: February 28, 2010 10:00 AM

Washington Abandons Greece: Beware of Geeks Bearing Grifts

The European Union (EU) is shocked--shocked I tell you!--that Greece
used financial engineering to qualify for admission. Exactly how did
they think that weaker countries managed to meet the requirements? Now
the EU is concerned that geeks used their knowledge of Greece's hidden
debt (and bailout negotiations) to manipulate financial markets for
their own profit.

A few years ago, Greece engaged in derivatives transactions which
essentially gave it a disguised loan, a gift from geeks. Greece may or
may not have had plans to invest the money to create national wealth
instead of say, blowing it all on national bling. Either way, Greece
used its national credit card in a futile attempt to keep up with the
EU Joneses.

The National Bank of Greece seems embarrassed. Last week, it removed
the prospectus for Titlos PLC, the financial engineering vehicle
arranged for it by Goldman Sachs International, from its web site.

Now Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is concerned with the way
credit derivatives and other financial instruments are being used
during Greece's current debt crisis. In his semi-annual economic
report to Congress, Benanke said the Fed and the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) would look into the involvement of the banks
they oversee:

"Obviously, using these instruments in a way that intentionally
destabilizes a company or a country is--is counterproductive."

He should question all related Greek and Euro transactions (not just
derivatives). Banks claim their trades aren't risky because they are
doing customer business. One should remember that Goldman Sachs
claimed its destabilizing transactions with AIG were "customer
business." How did that work out?

EU Needs its Own Investigation

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, U.S. financial regulators
occasionally stumble over the truth, but they pick themselves up and
hurry off as if nothing ever happened. In February 2007, I wrote the
SEC about U.S. corporate credit derivatives indexes--similar to the
sovereign indexes that reference Greece's debt. Banks persuaded U.S.
state pension funds to use them as "hedges" to protect their large
fixed income portfolios.*

Next banks served other customers by creating phoney "AAA" rated
products. These fake investments used lots of leverage (borrowing),
and they pushed hard in the opposite direction of the pension funds'
trades. As a result, the pension funds' "hedges" collapsed, and they
lost money. The customers that bought the new "investments" lost
money, too. Within a year, the phoney AAA investments were downgraded
to junk, and customers lost around 90% of their money. (These
financial instruments were unrelated to phoney mortgage
securitizations.) Banks made hefty fees, but the pension funds and
customers they suckered into taking these "gifts" were harmed.

I gave the SEC a map and a flashlight, yet it went nowhere. (My letter
still sits on the SEC's web site.) I'm called the "Cassandra of credit
derivatives," but it's a misnomer. I'm not prescient, I have no
psychic ability, and the geeks at U.S. banks--that claim they are
great risk managers--are capable of the same analysis. Moreover, only
pension funds and banks' customers were the victims of an unholy
rape.

Today, rumors are that crony capitalists are using derivatives to
profit from Greece's misery. There are allegations that investment
banks and hedge funds used their knowledge of Greece's hidden debt to
drive up its borrowing cost and drive down the Euro. Then these
speculators reversed their positions, when they had advance
information of a potential bailout for Greece.

Other rumors suggest customized trades on the sovereign credit
derivatives index also exploited Greece's problems. Still other rumors
point to a campaign to manipulate Greek debt prices and knock down the
Euro.

The European Union and Greece should launch their own investigations.
When U.S. regulators say they'll "investigate," it seems to mean "get
lost."

The U.S. Should Investigate Transactions that Destabilized America

If the U.S.'s "photo-op regulators" are investigating transactions
that destabilize countries, they should start at home. Is it "God's
work" to enrich crony capitalists--Washington and Wall Street's new
chosen people--while siphoning money from hard-working taxpayers?

Geeks used financial technology in a way that destabilized the U.S.
economy while the U.S. is at war. I believe there is a much stronger
word for it than "counterproductive."

*Pension funds shorted corporate credit default swap indexes (bought
credit protection) and took a long position in swap spreads to hedge
their bond portfolio credit risk.

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BANANA HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC

(America the Beautiful)

WilliamBanzai7

O beautiful and spacious lies,
For fraudulent Wall Street gains,
With pinstriped swindling tragedies
Above your 401k!

America! America!
God won't shed this disgrace from thee
And crown those hoods--the banksta brotherhood
From scheme to ponzi scheme!

O beautiful for thievery and political lies
Whose two faced impassioned distress
A thoroughfare of lobbying and greed
Across the populist wilderness!

America! America!
God send thine every corrupt and crony fiend,
Confirm thy soul without self-control,
Their liberties above the law!

O beautiful for heroes screwed
In bungled economic strife.
Those who love themselves above their land
And moral hazard more than life!

America! America!
May God's work Goldman's Blankfein refine
Till all success be Fat Cat nobleness
And bailout gains divine!

O beautiful for patriots reamed
That sees beyond the tears of subprime slime
Thine asset bubble cities gleam
Undimmed by quantitative legerdemain!

America! America!
God won't shed this disgrace from thee
And crown those hoods-- the banksta brotherhood
One big den of Wall Street thieves!

Posted 10:42 AM on 2/28/2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/washington-abadons-greece_b_479848.html

[Sid Harth]

3,000 Banks at Risk of Failure

Posted by Mark Noonan in Economy on February 28th, 2010 at 05:57am
with 4 responses.

Over the massive commercial real estate bust:

…Unlike the largest banks, such as Citigroup and Wachovia, that got
into so much trouble early on, the community banks in general fared
better in the residential mortgage crisis. But their turn is coming:
Not only did community banks issue a higher proportion of commercial
loans, but they also have held on to them rather than sell them to
other investors.

Nearly 3,000 community banks — 40 percent of the banking system — have
a high proportion of commercial real estate loans relative to their
capital, said Warren, whose committee issued a report on commercial
real estate last week. “Every dollar they lose in commercial real
estate is a dollar they can’t use for small businesses,” she said.
Individuals — who saw their home values drop in the residential
mortgage crisis — would not feel that kind of loss, but, Warren said,
a large-scale failure would “throw sand into the gears of economic
recovery.”…

…Nationwide, at least $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt is
expected to roll over during the next three years. Warren said that
half of commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater by the
beginning of 2011. A fifth of residential mortgages are underwater
now, she said.

Unlike residential mortgages, which often can be paid over 30 years,
commercial real estate mortgages typically must be paid off or
refinanced within five years. Commercial properties mortgaged in 2005,
2006 and 2007, at the height of the boom, are reaching their maturity
date. “Do the math on this,” Warren said. “This is a significant
problem.”

Yeah, no kidding. Only a rapid and sustained turn around in the US
economy can soften the blow. Keep that in mind – the crash cannot be
avoided. It can merely be very bad, or it can be catastrophic.

In 2009, there were 140 bank failures – about 1 every 2.6 days. So far
in 2010, we’re slightly slower at 1 failure every 2.7 days. Unless
things start to go astoundingly well, we can expect over the next two
years or so to lose at least 1,000 of the at-risk banks over a couple
year period – about 1 per day, or more. Getting the picture?

Now, Obama and the Fed can try to bail out these banks – but that
would take, probably, something close a trillion dollars, on top of
all the money we’re already spending. Additionally, Bernanke at the
Federal Reserve and Geithner have shown themselves mostly concerned
with keeping the big banks afloat – and Obama simply might not see
this coming. Additionally, if there was a bail out, it would just
delay the inevitable.

A shake out is necessary as we are over loaded with office and strip
mall space. Too much of it was built and some of it will have to come
down, and a lot of banks simply will have to fail (even if Obama and
Co put them on life support to make more “zombie” banks). But a
recovery is possible if we put in place, very quickly, the policies
needed to restore wealth creation in the United States. The bad news
is that Obama and Co don’t understand the phrase “wealth creation”,
let alone any of the policies which will encourage it.

Get ready for a long and bumpy economic ride.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

4 Responses to “3,000 Banks at Risk of Failure”

retiredspook says: February 28, 2010 at 9:16 amI’ve been doing some
research on banks because I’m thinking about moving my personal
checking account from Fifth Third Bank, the 23rd largest U.S. bank
holding company. Back when the whole financial crisis came to head,
Fifth Third was listed on the top twenty list of large, at-risk banks.
What’s I’ve discovered is that the FDIC publishes a list of banks that
have failed since 2000, but does not publish a list of banks that are
at risk.

Having to do research on my own to determine what bank is safe to put
my money in is something I never before contemplated having to do.
Interesting times we live in.
Log in to Reply js02 says: February 28, 2010 at 10:29 ami was of the
mind that the 1.4 trillion we busted out would stop this problem…and
the 700 Billion before that…but it aint so…shoow…bama spent enough to
pay off about every mortgage out there for low income folks…but
somehow…it went other places…no bail out for the poor…no sir…only the
rich banking system gets to take advantage of government handouts the
likes of which the entire world has never seen before…strange how that
works, eh…they take money outta the guys pocket who flips burgers in
miki’d’s and gives it all to those big bankers who dont do anything
for anyone but themselves…and the guys kids…from miki’d’s…well…they
gotta pay off even more than thier dad did…cause soros and bank of
america and citibank can…exploit the american economy…

Log in to Reply sadieannmartin says: February 28, 2010 at 10:38
amPublishing a list of banks considered at risk would erode consumer
confidence in the banking system and in turn cause bank runs. But you
knew that already. ;)

Log in to Reply retiredspook says: February 28, 2010 at 2:03 pmI did
(know that already). In fact, several articles that I read mentioned
that as the reason they don’t. At one time, however, they did, because
such a list was where I read about Fifth Third a couple years ago.

Mark Noonan is co-author (with Matt Margolis) of Caucus of Corruption:
The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Nevada
News and Views. Follow Mark on Twitter.

Caucus of Corruption: The Truth about the New Democratic Majority
(Paperback)
~ Matt Margolis
Matt Margolis (Author)

(Author), Mark Noonan (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977898474/002-1030667-8676006?ie=UTF8&tag=blogsforvictory-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0977898474#reader_0977898474

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When Democrats made "ethics" the centerpiece of their 2006 campaign,
respected bloggers Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan went to work online
chronicling the corruption endemic to the Democratic Party. But there
s so much more to Democratic corruption than can be told online! "In
Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority,"
Margolis and Noonan take dead aim at the "ethical" leaders of today's
ruling party. You'll discover... - Nancy Pelosi s cronyism, campaign
finance and immigration law violations - Harry Reid's questionable
land deals and connections to disgraced lobbyists and billionaire
casino owners - Media darling Barack Obama's cozy relationship with
the indicted fundraiser next door - Clinton foot soldier Rahm Emanuel
s love for dirty money - William Jefferson's refrigerated $80,000 cash
stash and much, much more! The definitive resource on Democratic
corruption, Caucus of Corruption is a must-read for conservatives,
political junkies, and everyone concerned about the dubious ethics and
goals of the new Democratic "ruling class."
About the Author
When Matt Margolis launched Blogs For Bush (www.blogsforbush.com) in
2003, Mark Noonan became a regular contributor. It became one of the
top blogs of the 2004 presidential campaign season. Margolis was among
the first bloggers to receive media credentials to cover the
Republican National Convention. As popular bloggers, Margolis and
Noonan have appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and BBC Radio.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Details
Paperback: 209 pages
Publisher: World Ahead Publishing (May 8, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0977898474
ISBN-13: 978-0977898473
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13
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Caucus of Corruption: The Truth about the New Democratic Majority

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The most helpful favorable review The most helpful critical review

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
the truth

The book is an expose of the current Democrat ilk...unfortunately not
enough will be inspired to read and heed it..
Published on June 9, 2007 by Same

Same Old Bunk
After the past decade of Republican cronyism, secrecy, lies, greed and
mismanagement, these authors attempt to point the finger at the
Democrats and lay our current woes at their doorstep. Fortunately,
most people can see through their chicanery and would not buy this
sophomoric collection of half-truths and supposition posing as actual
fact if it was on sale for free...
Read the full review ›

Published 3 months ago by K. Theis

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
the truth, June 9, 2007
By Same (Portland) -

The book is an expose of the current Democrat ilk...unfortunately not
enough will be inspired to read and heed it..

20 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting read, May 12, 2007
By Family of 4 (Ohio) -

One has to admit that the Democratic Party leaders, who spent every
minute of my TV ads last election telling me how bad Republicans are,
is only talking the ethics talk, not walking the ethics walk, shoot
they are not even moving on ethics. One cannot slam someone with the
left side of their mouth, while doing the EXACT SAME THING, with the
right side. The authors point out various Democrat leaders who are
more than 2-faced, they are 100% viable crooks. One can slam the
writers Blog, one can slam them personally, but one cannot argue about
facts laid out in this book.. I learned more about Democrat corruption
in the few days reading this book, than I did watching TV news in the
past 5 years. It is a must read for anyone who would like to know what
is going on with our current Congress leadership. After you have
completed reading this book, you are not going to like the answer.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Read it before you rank it, August 7, 2007
By Ms Nomer (Live Free or Die) -

Typical hogwash - (oh, not the book, it seems to have some
credibility, it effectively paints the picture it set out to do) - but
the liberal commenters...
These reviewers, who have chosen not to read the book they are
commenting on, form absolute opinions on something they have no
knowledge of - then share it like a cold sore. Kind of like how they
decide to vote. THIS is what gets this country into trouble.
Uninformed voters casting dangerously ignorant ballots. Is it shear
laziness? Or some sort of holier than thou ideal that makes them think
they know everything without lifting a finger? (Well, if Barbra
Streisand said it was so, it must be so!)

It is a shame that educated progressives cheapen themselves with knee
jerk reactions about things they assume, but have no inclination to
know. This is why our political climate is in trouble...along with our
global environment. There is no truth, not even informed choice of
opinion - just vapid hysteria...

Further, the ranking of this book on Amazon is inconsequential. Al
Franken's book about "Lies and the Lying Liars...." that takes on
conservatives and Republicans is ranked at 84,651. "Stupid White
Men.." by Michael Moore is ranked at 1,770,458. It doesn't matter.
These ranks are about personal tastes, and who buys what on
Amazon....
So, keep the following in mind:

Sharing insight means you have to have some. In order to have some, in
this case at least, you need to read the book.

23 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Finally..., May 9, 2007
By Aquaza -

A well written exposé of all the stories about corruption the media
didn't tell you about last year. It's about time that corruption in
the Democratic Party got discussed, and this book is a great resource
of all corrupt activities today's Democrats are guilty of. Hopefully
now Democrats won't be allowed to get away with all their corruption.
This book is a must read for those liberals who think their party is
full of angels.

20 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
A Well-Researched Expose, May 12, 2007
By Butterfly -

This book is a great example of citizen journalists (bloggers) doing
what they do best--reporting on the stories the mainstream media
refuses cover. The book is a well-researched expose of the corruption
that exists in the Democratic party, which came to its majority
position by painting the Republican Party as the party of sleaze and
corruption. This book does not attempt to gloss over ethical lapses in
the Republican party, but rather to show that corruption extends to
both sides of the political aisle. A quick, yet informative read, this
one is definitely worth checking out.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Same Old Bunk, November 2, 2009
By K. Theis "Left Hook" (Chicago, IL USA) -

After the past decade of Republican cronyism, secrecy, lies, greed and
mismanagement, these authors attempt to point the finger at the
Democrats and lay our current woes at their doorstep. Fortunately,
most people can see through their chicanery and would not buy this
sophomoric collection of half-truths and supposition posing as actual
fact if it was on sale for free across the street.

When there is actually something to write about, instead of dealing
with the issues honestly, these authors attempt to inflate minor
indiscretions into huge "scandals" yet ignore the rampant corruption
and moral decline of their own party.

Typical. Sad, but typical.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Easy reading, September 23, 2008
By Ron Wasserman "raw" (Los Angeles) -

All you 'hard working folks' out there who love to hate everything and
anything you don't fully understand will love this book. It's very
easy to read with lots of simple words. You could even hang the funny
cover picture on your locker and just have a great laugh.

19 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Thank God!, May 9, 2007
By J. Stowe "Yes!" (New York, NY) -

Finally we have a quality fictionalized account of corruption in
Washington! Never before has there been such a beautifully-crafted
stitching of unfounded accusations, refuted facts and childlike
characaturing. I bet a 12-year-old could be taught to deny reality
after reading this awesome book.

And better yet, this book ought to refocus attention from Republican
Scooter Libby, Republican Tom Delay, Republican Bill Frist, Republican
Duke Cunningham, Republican Jack Abramoff, Republican Bob Noe,
Republican James Giffen, Republican David Satterfield, etc. all of
which have been investigated, indicted or convicted of crimes in the
real world. Let's not forget Alberto Gonzalez who fired U.S. Attorneys
to help the Republican party, Karl Rove who destroyed a CIA agent's
career in WMD intelligence to help the Republican party, and nepotisim
on such a scale that placed Michael Brown in charge of FEMA during
Katrina.

This book truly shows the party of corruption: the Democrats.

20 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
Noonan Can't Handle Opposing Viewpoints, May 10, 2007
By Jim (Rochester Hills, MI United States) -

Noonan and Margolis have a blog "BlogsforBush" at which they routinely
ban people who make comments which they disagree with. Ask yourself
why Noonan and Margolis are uncomfortable with opposing views--and
what they may be trying to hide--when reading this book.

17 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
World Ahead Publishing, May 22, 2007
By D. R. Martin -

The publisher of this book also publishes, "Help! Mom! There Are
Liberals Under My Bed", "Help!, Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper", Uncle
Teddy, Hands Off My Piggybank!"... books that are written for YOUNG
CHILDREN.

It's just creepy (left or right) when a publisher tries to POLITICALLY
indoctrinate YOUNG CHILDREN... isn't that what they do in North
Korea??

Look at their website, About Us... World Ahead Publishing is run by
right-wing millionaires and political hacks that have ZERO publishing
backgrounds, the chairman (a multi-millionaire) serves on the board of
Vanguard PAC, a far right-wing group (Now what about George Soros and
his millions again?).

Just like a publisher that specializes in white separatist, socialist,
communist, fascist political works, you can pretty much see where this
book is coming from... sight unseen.

Enjoy

21 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
awesome... not, May 9, 2007
By R. J. Anderson "bmf" (Galveston, TX) -

A childish retelling of previously debunked non stories. Only the
Jefferson story has any factual basis. Partisan hackery at its
finest.

1 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Buy this book ...., November 14, 2007
By K. L. Gallaher "sir_ken_g" (Bartlesville, OK USA) -

...if you are a wingnut who likes to read what he wants to be told not
what he needs to be told.
For anybody else flee.

9 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
Laughable..., June 25, 2007
By M. Aves (Mechanicsburg, PA) -

I would like to write of review of the book, but I honestly haven't
read it. Instead I think a summary of the relevance of the subject
matter is perhaps more appropriate, and as such I will compare the
Amazon sales ranking of this, ahem, "book" against other mundane
titles:

If ever there were a symptom that Conservatism is dying a slow and
miserable public death, sales figures like these coming from the
vanguard of "New Media" punditry should affirm the view that, as Bob
Dylan sang so eloquently, "the times - they are a changing"...and none
too soon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977898474/002-1030667-8676006?ie=UTF8&tag=blogsforvictory-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0977898474#noop

http://nevadanewsandviews.com/

http://blogsforvictory.com/2010/02/28/3000-banks-at-risk-of-failure/#postcomment

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Isozaki Ken’ichirô 磯崎憲一郎. Tsui no sumika 『終の住処』. 2009.
Winner of the 141st A-Prize, for early 2009.

The title story is the winner: a novella that could be translated
“Final Dwelling.” Personal hobby-horses first: It’s lacking many of
the markers of A-Prize bait. It’s not a first-person narrative, and it
doesn’t represent a hitherto overlooked subculture. But that doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s innovative. The story examines, broadly
speaking, the travails of the middle-aged salaryman. In this it feels
older than old. So old it’s new? Are oyaji the new gyaru?

None of the characters are named. The story follows kare (”he”) from
the point of his marriage to tsuma (”[his] wife”) to, essentially, his
retirement. They’re both over thirty when they marry, and they seem to
have stumbled into it with no great enthusiasm, because it was time to
get on with their lives. Later we figure out it must have been the
early 1980s when they married, which explains the greater pressure on
over-thirties to marry (it’s still there today, but perhaps not as
strong).

Almost immediately, he begins to feel estranged from his wife. She has
mysterious mood swings. He never tries too hard to figure them out,
and they remain unexplained. He drifts into affairs, and at one point
is ready to leave his wife for his mistress when his wife announces
she’s pregnant. So they stay together. Not that it anything changes.
In fact, at one point they go for eleven years without speaking to
each other. Not to mention, he keeps having affairs. Curiously generic
affairs, though, even the one with the girl in the sunglasses, who he
feels is his perfect woman. She’s his ideal, but this relationship
doesn’t go much of anywhere either.

Meanwhile we also follow his career. He works for a pharmaceutical
company, in sales at first. We follow his challenges at work — long
hours, little success — against a backdrop of the Japanese economy
from the ‘80s to the present. From about halfway through the novella,
the historical markers get pretty specific, and we go through the
Bubble years into the long period of stagnation. The climax of the
novel involves the unnamed man, an executive now, going to the U.S. to
engineer a hostile takeover of an American pharma firm. It takes him
years, but he accomplishes it and finally gets to go home.

The third strain of the novel comes into play now. Before he goes to
the U.S. he had decided to build a house for his family. The narration
goes into uncharacteristic detail on the process. But then he gets
called away. When he comes back, at the end of the novella, he’s
finally ready to settle down and enjoy the new house. But when he
arrives he finds that his daughter, his only child and reason for
living, has grown up and moved away — to America, of all places —
without telling him.

So this is the “final dwelling” of the title: an expensive, well-built
house inhabited only by himself and his wife, who are all but
strangers to each other. Now it’s just them, and as the last paragraph
of the story tells us, it’ll be just them until they die. Which won’t
be long now. The End.

What’s going on here? Two features of the story, I think, point to its
aims.

First, the protagonist’s extreme passivity. The members of the A-Prize
committee who supported this story seem to have been impressed by
this, that the protagonist just kind of meanders through his life,
watching, not participating (that’s how Ikezawa Natsuki put it). You
can see this in his relationship with his wife: his only effort to
understand her is a half-hearted attempt to find out if she’s having
an affair. She’s not, he relaxes, and that’s as far as it goes. He
doesn’t try to, you know, talk to her. That said, I’m not sure I agree
that he’s totally passive. It’s more like he’s on autopilot, taking
action only when it’s demanded of him, like when he has to perform the
hostile takeover, or when he reaches the stage in his life and career
when it’s appropriate for him to build a house. Then he does act. But
never in a way that goes beyond the bounds that have been set for him.
He never jumps the tracks, kicks over the traces, ignores the carnavi.

Second, we have the fact that nobody in the story is named. This
contributes to the somnambulistic air of the story, but it also makes
the protagonist into Generic Salaryman, a stand-in for all the company
men of his generation. His wife is not an individual either, but
Generic Mrs. Salaryman. Same goes for his boss, his daughter, his
mistresses.

To me, the brain-dead pointlessness of the protagonist’s life,
combined with his utter facelessness, suggest that what Isozaki’s
after here is a good old-fashioned poke at the bourgeoisie. Salaryman
= cog in the capitalist machine = alienation from one’s own feelings =
mindless consumption to compensate = lingering dissatisfaction = dying
alone. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that critique, but it’s hardly
a fresh one. It’s been decades since that perspective alone was enough
to make a story worth the reader’s while. If this story had appeared
in, say, 1959, it would have made sense. But in 2009 it just feels,
well, old-fashioned. An oyajiesque critique of oyaji.

What I’m saying is that even the reader most sympathetic to Isozaki’s
message (if he’s doing what I think he’s doing) is probably going to
want more from the story than that. Character, plot, style: some kind
of novelistic pleasure. But this story offers very little in that
regard. By opting for generic characters rather than specific, the
author denies us the opportunity to understand why someone would live
like this, or its effects on a real person; we’re always gazing down
at kare from above. By adopting passivity as the organizing principle,
the author is neutralizing plot as a source of interest. In fact, in
the very first paragraph the narrator tells us that the protagonist
and his wife are going to stay together for decades in an unchanging
relationship, meaning we know the end from the beginning.

And style? This was tricky. By and large, Isozaki’s prose is
undistinguished and occasionally awkward. But now and then he lapses
into some nice description. (I liked his evocation of the Illinois
prairie in winter). And at times he seems to be gesturing toward
parody — he throws in exclamation points here and there that made me
feel he was trying for a laugh at the main character’s expense, at
least.

At those times I found myself wishing he’s gone farther toward humor.
It would have been cruel humor, bourgeoisie-baiting, but at least it
might have made the story entertaining. As it is, I do think there’s a
parodic element here, at least I hope so. The protagonist’s travails —
the eleven years he goes without speaking to his wife, the fact that
he’s totally unaware that his daughter has moved out of the house, the
way his boss tells him to execute the takeover or his life will have
been a failure — are too exaggerated to be taken seriously. They have
to be a parody of the kind of salaryman concerns you see in things
like Shima Kôsaku. But they’re a parody with little humor, in fact
little animating emotion of any kind.

That was my first reaction to the main story “Tsui no sumika.” Now,
here’s why I liked the extra stories.

“Penanto” (“Pennants”) is the name of the one in this volume. The
title refers to an image in the first of the story’s three segments: a
boy sneaks into an older boy’s room and sees the walls covered with
souvenir pennants. The old fashioned kind, with the careful
embroidery. They’re all pointing the same way, and they make him feel
like he’s in the midst of a school of fish or something.

It’s an arresting image. This story has a few of them. But they’re in
the service of something pretty abstract. That first segment
culminates in the boy hearing a noise in the wall, tearing it down
(!), and finding a snake’s sloughed-off skin, glowing silver behind
the wall.

The second segment concerns a middle-aged salaryman who loses a button
from his coat. He finally finds it in a diner he’s never been to
before, where an old woman tells him it’s been waiting for him. The
last segment concerns a boy (probably different from the first one,
but because nobody in this story has names either, we can’t be sure)
taking a walk in the woods, encountering another boy, finding an ant-
lion.

It’s pretty clear that this story is supposed to work on a semi-
abstract level: dream logic or magical realism (Ikezawa invoked Garcia-
Marquez in talking about “Tsui no Sumika”). And it almost works. I
don’t know what they add up to, if anything, but I think I can see the
mood Isozaki’s trying to create.

But in the end, I don’t think this story succeeds. If you’re going to
abandon character and plot in favor of poetic imagery, then your
images themselves have to be pretty powerful. And it helps if your
prose is flawless. Isozaki doesn’t quite have these bases covered yet.
The images here aren’t consistently striking, not like they need to
be, and while there are some nice passages in this story, his writing
doesn’t have the polish and precision this kind of exercise requires.

What’s interesting is that there’s enough commonality of tone with the
first story to make me wonder if he wasn’t trying for a dreamier
effect there, too. That is, maybe the salaryman-existentialism wasn’t
intended to be as overriding as it is. Or maybe I’m making too much of
that aspect of the story.

Sergeant TANUKI
March 1, 2010

http://neojaponisme.com/2010/03/01/tsui_no_sumika/

[chhotemianinshallah]

It will be another golden decade if ...
By Zhu Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-01 08:04

Three decades of nearly double-digit growth have made China into a
unique economic miracle. Will it be able to continue its long-term
growth story into the new decade?

The V-shaped rebound of the Chinese economy last year has seemingly
convinced many observers to give their vote of confidence for the
largest developing economy.

With its beginning as a poor developing country hampered by poverty
and underdeveloped economies, China has ascended to the world's
largest exporter and the third largest economy with a per capita GDP
of about $3,500 by 2009.

There were plenty of bumps along the road. Yet, even the worst global
recession in several decades did not stop the Chinese economy from
expanding by 8.7 percent last year.

It is this resilience that has led people to believe that the
country's catch-up story is far from over, though the size of its
economy has already grown by so much.

Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill forecasted last November that
China will overtake the United States by 2027 - compared to a previous
forecast of 2041 made in 2003.

Lu Feng, an economist of the China Center for Economic Research under
Peking University came up with a bolder prediction. Based on the fact
that the Chinese economy reached about $5 trillion by the end of 2009,
accounting for 35.6 percent of the US economy, he reckoned that it is
highly likely that the size of China's economy will exceed that of the
United States before 2025.

China does seem to have a good chance of maintaining its rapid
economic growth in the new decade.

First, fixed-asset investments will continue to serve as a powerful
boost for economic growth as China presses ahead with urbanization and
industrialization.

Thanks to the government's $586 billion stimulus package and
unprecedented loans support, a 30-percent surge in investment over the
previous year has contributed to more than 90 percent of China's 8.7-
percent GDP growth last year.

The investment binge has given rise to domestic worries about
overcapacity. Yet, since infrastructure construction such as high-
speed railway and roads has taken a large part of the investments,
economists argue that overcapacity will not become a serious problem
anytime soon.

Some Chinese economists further point out that the last boom of
infrastructure construction following the Asian financial crisis in
the late 1990s had actually dismantled some supply-side bottlenecks.
By doing so, it has enabled the Chinese economy to grow rapidly
without triggering runaway inflation in the first decade of the 21st
century.

As China's urbanization ratio remains below 50 percent and
industrialization has yet to see its limits, growth of fixed-asset
investments will more than likely remain healthy.

Second, China's export engine will keep humming as long as the global
trade system is not completely undermined by protectionism.

Though rising protectionism in the West will clog up the wheel of
China's export engine, Chinese economists believe that the huge gap of
labor costs between China and developed economies as well as the
rising productivity of Chinese exporters will help secure domestic
companies' share in the international market.

Third, domestic consumption is rising steadily, much to the surprise
of both Chinese companies and foreign producers.

Two numbers provide enough evidence: China's imports rocketed by a
record 85.5 percent in January, while the Chinese bought 1.66 million
cars, more than any month before.

One should certainly not read too much into these monthly figures. But
they can help explain why auto sales jumped by over 40 percent to make
China the world's largest auto market while refuting the false
assumption that Chinese consumers have spent too little. As their
incomes increase, consumers may have already grown into a critical
source of economic growth more important than it has ever been
acknowledged.

In theory, all the elements for another golden decade are thus ready
for the Chinese economy.

Nevertheless, the magnitude of the challenges that China will face is
not smaller than the opportunities it will enjoy in the new decade.

A metaphor to illustrate its rapid ascension to economic supremacy
might be a high-speed train running at full steam rather than a
bicycle that has to go fast to keep its balance.

On the one hand, it highlights the great impact that China's growing
economic clout has brought about on the world, be it good or bad. And
the challenge for China is whether it can properly adapt to the
changing expectations placed upon it by other nations.

But more importantly, the metaphor sheds light on a key challenge
China must face in the new decade.

For a high-speed train to travel safely and swiftly, all parts must
move in accordance with the locomotive. However, a widening income gap
between the rich and the poor as well as between rural and urban areas
has emerged, undermining efforts to redesign the country's growth
model to a more sustainable trend.

This is the root cause for China's unbalanced growth. How fast can
China fix this will largely determine how far its economy can continue
to advance in the new decade.

E-mail: zhuq...@chinadaily.com.cn

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/01/content_9515485.htm

China $125 Billion Health Spending Spurs GE, Philips Sales Boon
By Frederik Balfour

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Wang Huijuan and her husband braved an
overnight train ride to Beijing from Anhui province to see a doctor
about her ailing intestines. The clinic back home could only take her
temperature and blood pressure.

“They don’t have the equipment or expertise to treat more serious
illnesses,” said Wang, who shivered in the cold as she waited in vain
last week to see a physician at Beijing Xiehe Hospital. “We’ll come
back at 4 a.m. tomorrow.”

The 10,000 yuan ($1,460) in life savings the couple brought to pay
their costs may become an expense of the past after the Chinese
government spends $125 billion to start a national health insurance
system. The benefits will be felt beyond the sick as General Electric
Co. and Philips Electronics NV compete to sell imaging equipment and
household savings are freed up to buy clothes and cars.

More than 300 million Chinese are without health insurance, the World
Bank says, and the remaining 1 billion have only partial coverage. In
part to pay for those costs, Chinese save about one-quarter of their
income each year and have accumulated as much as $5 trillion, said
Stephen Green, chief China economist for Standard Chartered Bank Plc
in Shanghai.

Unlocking those savings is key to China’s plan to shift its economic
drivers from exports and investment to domestic consumption after the
global crisis and a 16 percent export decline in 2009 laid bare the
country’s vulnerability to swings in external demand.

“If they want to broaden out the economy they have got to be serious
about building the social safety net,” said Stephen Roach, Hong Kong-
based Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of “The Next Asia,”
in an interview. “Health care is absolutely critical in accomplishing
that.”

People’s Congress

The Politburo, China’s top decision-making body, called for that
transformation to be sped up this year, the official Xinhua News
Agency reported after a meeting of the group chaired by President Hu
Jintao. The Feb. 22 meeting discussed the report that Premier Wen
Jiabao will deliver March 5 at the National People’s Congress, in
which the government will outline policy initiatives for 2010.

More spending also would appease China’s trading partners, which are
on the receiving end of a trade surplus that reached $196 billion last
year, more than Malaysia’s gross domestic product.

In addition to GE Healthcare China and Philips Healthcare China, the
$41 billion being spent to build 31,000 hospitals and equip them with
diagnostic and imaging equipment may benefit Chinese companies. Among
them: imaging manufacturer Mindray Medical International Ltd. and
vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

Buying Stakes

China’s focus on health care is spurring private deals. Eli Lilly &
Co.’s venture-capital arm paid almost $15 million last year for about
15 percent of privately held CITIC Pharmaceutical Ltd., a drug-
distribution company.

Fidelity Asian Ventures, the Asia venture-capital unit of Bermuda-
based Fidelity International, in 2008 took a stake in Shanghai-based
China NovaMed Pharmaceuticals.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly sees pharmaceutical distribution
opportunities in the interior, where incomes are lower, as well as on
the urban east coast, Darren Carroll, the company’s vice-president for
new ventures, said in a phone interview.

China’s pharmaceuticals market, including nutritional products and
consumer drugs, will more than double to $110 billion by 2015 from $44
billion in 2008, Credit Suisse AG estimated in a November 2009
report.

Device Makers

Vicky Chen, who manages the $80-million closed-end China Healthcare
Partnership Fund under the auspices of Martin Currie Investment Ltd.,
favors equipment and device makers that sell to lower-cost health
providers.

She has held Shenzhen-based Mindray, whose shares have risen 113
percent in the past 12 months, since the fund was launched in July
2008.

Chen on February 2 increased her stake in Beijing-based Sinovac, the
first company to have its H1N1 vaccine approved in China, during a
secondary share sale. Sinovac shares have risen 472 percent in the
past 12 months. It and Mindray are listed in New York.

Chen’s fund was up 81.4 percent in the first 11 months of 2009, the
most recent period available.

“Government initiatives have lent tremendous support to the sector,”
Chen said from Shanghai. “That is really opening up the market for
subsectors, especially medical devices and equipment.”

Stimulus Plan

At the depths of the economic crisis, China’s GDP growth rate fell to
6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the year
earlier, its lowest level in a decade. Growth rebounded to 8.7 percent
for the year, thanks largely to government investment in
infrastructure in a $586-billion stimulus plan unveiled in November
2008.

China overtook Germany as the world’s largest exporter of goods last
year, shipping $1.2 trillion. Its $143.4-billion trade surplus with
the U.S. and $108.5-billion surplus with the European Union, according
to China Customs data, have prompted leaders in those countries to
press Beijing to allow the yuan to appreciate.

The currency has been kept at about 6.83 to the U.S. dollar since July
2008. Already the world’s third-largest economy, China will overtake
Japan this year, the International Monetary Fund says.

Consumer spending accounts for 35 percent of China’s GDP, a percentage
that has barely changed since the government made it a priority in the
2006-10 five-year plan. In the U.S., the world’s largest economy,
consumption represents about two-thirds of GDP.

‘Simply Fragile’

“It’s simply fragile to depend on other countries to have demand,”
said Standard Chartered China economist Jinny Yan in a telephone
interview from Shanghai. “China cannot rely on exports to drive
growth.”

While China accounts for 20 percent of the world’s population of 7
billion people, it is responsible for just 3 percent of global
consumption. The U.S., with about one-fifth of all global consumer
spending, has just 5 percent of the global population, according to
2008 data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Chinese government said in April that it would earmark $125
billion between 2009 and 2012 in additional health-care spending as
part of a plan to offer universal basic health-care coverage by 2020.
Two-thirds will go toward broadening access to health care for migrant
workers, the unemployed and the elderly who aren’t covered by work-
related plans.

U.S. Health Care

The initiative comes as President Barack Obama is trying to extend
health coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans by requiring them to
get insurance and penalizing large employers that don’t offer it.

In China, some progress to help the likes of Wang is under way, thanks
to a government program to keep a lid on the cost of drugs. Last
August the government placed a cap on reimbursement prices for 307
essential drugs used in rural hospitals and community health-care
centers.

In November, it announced another 770 drugs would be included in the
price controls. That could let consumer drug costs fall as much as 12
percent, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Du Wei said in a Dec. 18
report.

China’s leaders have emphasized for years the need to improve the
country’s health system as part of a broad goal of addressing the
divide between urban and rural income levels.

At the National People’s Congress in Beijing in March 2007, at a time
when China’s GDP was growing by almost 12 percent, Premier Wen
described the economy as “unbalanced, unsustainable, uncoordinated and
unsustainable.”

Iron Rice Bowl

The patchwork health system has its roots in the 1990s as China,
embracing a market economy, abandoned what was called the “iron rice
bowl” system of guaranteed lifelong jobs and benefits. State
hospitals, which still account for about 90 percent of medical
services, became self-funding, inducing physicians to overprescribe
drugs and tests.

China trails in health-care delivery: Its spending per person was just
$121 in 2007, according to the Ministry of Health. The U.S. spent
$7,290 and Germany $3,588 in the same year, according to a November
2009 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development.

That spending has been concentrated in urban areas.

“In the big cities there are state-of-the art hospitals that can
handle any complex disease as well as any big hospital in a fully
developed country,” said Marcelo Mosci, CEO of GE Healthcare China,
which expects its China sales to exceed $1 billion in 2010.

Scanner Market

GE Healthcare declined to disclose its 2009 revenue for China, where
GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt visited at least twice in
the past year, according to publicly available information. Fairfield,
Connecticut-based GE doesn’t disclose his schedule.

Shai Dewan, a spokesman for Amsterdam-based Royal Philips Electronics,
said in an e-mail that last year China surpassed North America as the
biggest market for its most advanced CT scanner, which provides three-
dimensional imaging of the brain.

Outside the major urban centers, where 800 million people live, a
different picture emerges.

“Village clinics and township health centers are sometimes not very
inviting,” John Langenbrunner, the World Bank’s lead economist for
health in Beijing said during a phone interview. “You see very elderly
people, stroke victims and people who are clearly vulnerable with no
money.”

The 10,000 yuan that Wang Huijuan, 47, and her husband, Ding Xuejun,
are spending for transport, rent and doctors in Beijing is more than
five times what they earn each year from farming corn, wheat and
soybeans.

“The local clinic is for minor sicknesses like colds,” Wang said,
noting that the doctor in their village of Xidijiu, now 60, began
practicing medicine at the age of 14.

To contact the reporter on this story: Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong
at fbal...@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 28, 2010 11:29 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acxSkkthtQJM&pos=6

Soros “Very Cautious” on China’s Economy
By Rocky Vega

02/27/10 Stockholm, Sweden – With over 10 trillion yuan in Chinese
bank loans disbursed in 2009, and more trillions on the way, George
Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, remains concerned China’s
economy is overheated. In a recent Hong Kong interview he explains how
a hard landing could be in the making.

From MarketWatch:

“Caixin: What is your attitude toward China now? Positive or negative?

“Soros: I’m very cautious, until the economy cools off a little. When
it does, I will be more optimistic again.

“Caixin: In 2009, Chinese banks issued 10 trillion yuan in new loans.
The government has said there will be another 7.5 trillion yuan in
loans this year, although banks loaned more than 1 trillion yuan in
January alone. Do you think this unprecedented credit growth will
eventually lead to overheating, inflation and harsher policy
tightening? Do you worry about the potential risk of non-performing
loans in the medium- to long-term?

“Soros: The overheating, the inflation, the harsh policy tightening is
happening right now and it will continue to happen until the economy
cools off. And with this explosion of credit, there are bound to be
non-performing loans in due course. The extent depends on whether it
is a hard landing or soft landing.”

We’ve seen the consequences of a credit bubble here in the US, and now
we may see just how ugly a Chinese version may look. Soros goes into
more detail on the bubble aspects of the Chinese economy, as well as
how China’s currency revaluation may end up panning out, in
MarketWatch’s coverage of froth in China’s economy.

Rocky Vega

Rocky Vega is a regular contributor to The Daily Reckoning.
Previously, he was founding publisher of UrbanTurf and RFID Update,
which he operated from Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico, and associate
publisher of FierceFinance. He specialized in direct marketing at MBI,
facilitated MIT Sloan School of Management programs, and has been
featured on CBS. Vega graduated with honors from Harvard University,
where he was on the board of Let’s Go Publications and directed
business programs involving McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Harvard
Business School faculty. He is also enrolled at the Stockholm School
of Economics.

http://dailyreckoning.com/soros-%E2%80%9Cvery-cautious%E2%80%9D-on-chinas-economy/

3-01-10
The China We're Stuck With
By Warren I. Cohen

Warren I. Cohen is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the
Department of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,
and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars. This article originally appeared at the website of the
Columbia University Press.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a Chinese emissary of
America’s hope for a strong, stable, and prosperous China. He
professed to believe that such a China would be in the interest of the
United States. Vice President Walter Mondale repeated Roosevelt’s
words when he visited Beijing in 1979. In the early years of the new
millennium, China has become strong, prosperous and reasonably stable—
but many Americans are not so sure that’s good for them or their
country.

Apprehension about the future of Chinese-American relations derives
only marginally from the fact that China remains a nominally communist
country in which the Communist Party monopolizes power. Unlike the
days of the Cold War, when Soviet nuclear power loomed over us, few
Americans fear a Chinese attack on the United States or the spread of
communism. They do fear, however, the possibility of China
outstripping the United States, China as # 1 in economic power and
global influence.

For the United States, China’s recent surge has been a mixed blessing.
For some years, China’s purchase of US debt has kept the American
economy afloat, enabling its people to buy and enjoy cheap Chinese
goods. Similarly, China’s economic growth has been the engine that
drives the economies of its Asian neighbors. The boom years that much
of the world enjoyed in the 1990s were in part a result of Deng
Xiaoping’s economic reforms, of China’s leap into the global
marketplace. And however grudgingly, Beijing has moved toward
acceptance of some international norms of behavior as evidenced by its
role in the United Nations and in the World Trade Organization. But
there are obvious caveats: American (and European) workers have lost
jobs to lower paid Chinese workers and the undervalued Chinese
currency has had a negative impact on the economies of the United
States and the European Union.

Moreover, Chinese leaders share few Western values or priorities and
there is little evidence of mutual trust between Beijing and
Washington. Most recently, China has obstructed efforts to halt Iran’s
march toward becoming a nuclear power. It has done too little to help
the international community in its efforts to end North Korea’s
nuclear threat and it has sustained vicious dictatorships in Burma,
Sudan, and Zimbabwe

At home, its human rights record, much improved over the days of Mao
Zedong, is nonetheless appalling—and trending toward becoming even
worse. Not only dissidents, but lawyers who attempt to defend them and
other victims of Chinese officialdom are subjected to beatings,
torture, long imprisonments—and disappearances. Tibetans and less
familiar minority groups such as the Uighers of Xinjiang are
discriminated against in their own territories and often brutally
repressed.

And then there is the issue of Taiwan. Within the intelligence
community, the Taiwan Strait is frequently referred to as the most
dangerous place in the world, the only spot where two nuclear armed
Great Powers have confronted each other in the past—and might again.
American presidents have interpreted the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979
as a commitment to provide Taiwan with military equipment it requires
for its defense. Each time Washington approves an arms sale to Taiwan,
Beijing roars its disapproval—as it has in recent days. A defenseless
Taiwan, without expectation of American intervention to protect it
from the growing power of the People’s Republic, would presumably be
intimidated into surrendering its de facto independence and submitting
to reunification with the mainland. The United States insists that
reunification can only be achieved when the people of democratic
Taiwan accept it without coercion—an event not likely to occur in the
lifetime of anyone reading this.

Much of Beijing’s current outrage with American policy toward Taiwan,
with American sympathy for the Dalai Lama, is based upon the
conviction that China is a rapidly rising power and the United States
is in steep decline. Chinese leaders, perceiving a change in the
correlation of forces in their favor, expect Washington to behave more
deferentially. They probably don’t expect the koutou, the prostrations
and head-bangings that the emperors demanded of foreign visitors back
in the days when China was on top of the world, but the rough
equivalent—acceptance of Chinese values and priorities—would be
welcome. Of late, American scholars and diplomats have been struck by
the growing arrogance of their Chinese counterparts, lectures on the
superiority of the Chinese model to the American model, the failure of
American democracy, American economic profligacy, even on human rights
in the United States. This will only get worse until we get our house
in order, until we can demonstrate again that democracy works and that
our economic system can provide jobs and a decent standard of living
for all Americans.

The Chinese have been wrong before about America’s decline, their
analysts predicting it on the eve of the great expansion of American
economic and military power in the 1990s. We can only hope to prove
them wrong again—before they do much more harm to the international
system. In the interim, our choices are very limited. China is too
strong, too important to the world economy to be ignored or pressured
into doing what we believe to be right. That leaves us with the
unappealing policy of “engagement,” to which Washington has ultimately
turned under both Democratic and Republican administrations for
decades. It means coexisting with a difficult, unsavory regime,
relying on diplomacy to persuade Beijing that what we want is in its
interest and accepting what little progress can be made.

Historically, China has overreached and self-destructed whenever it
played the role of hegemonic power. The arrogance it currently
exhibits suggests it is headed in that direction again. But it is not
in the interests of the United States for China to collapse. It
remains in our interest to have a strong, stable, and prosperous
China. Optimally it would also be friendly and democratic. Don’t hold
your breath.

America’s Response to China, Fifth Edition: A History of Sino-American
Relations
Warren I. Cohen

Paper, 344 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-15077-4
$27.50 / £19.00

Fifth Edition
February, 2010
Cloth, 344 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-15076-7
$84.50 / £58.50

America's Response to China has long been the standard resource for a
succinct, historically grounded assessment of an increasingly
complicated relationship. Written by one of America's leading
diplomatic historians, this book analyzes the concerns and conceptions
that have shaped U.S.-China policy and examines their far-reaching
outcomes. Warren I. Cohen begins with the mercantile interests of the
newly independent American colonies and discusses subsequent events up
to the Tiananmen Square massacre and the policies of George H. W. Bush
and Bill Clinton. For this fifth edition, Cohen adds a chapter on
America in the age of potential Chinese ascendance, envisioning future
partnerships and the shrinking global influence of the United States.
Trenchant and insightful, America's Response to China is critically
important for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first
century.

About the Author

Warren I. Cohen is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the
Department of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County,
and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars.

http://www.cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15076-7/americas-response-to-china

http://www.hnn.us/articles/123675.html

Why You Should Be Worried About China
By Bryan Rich on February 28, 2010

Toward the end of last year, many market followers were speculating on
a Fed hike as early as the first half of 2010. Global stock markets
had experienced explosive bounces, commodity prices had surged from
the crisis lows, and risk spreads and market volatility had all
subsided.

In short, markets were pricing in a very optimistic outlook for global
economic recovery - a return to normalcy.

But just two short months into 2010, the exuberance about recovery has
deflated. As I’ve explained in many of my Money and Markets columns,
the world is still saddled with problems and vulnerable to lurking
threats …

In the U.S., unemployment is sustaining high levels, the housing
market continues to weigh on consumer balance sheets and confidence
has again taken a dive.

There is more uncertainty, which is likely to impact the prospects for
global growth. People are waking up to what’s likely a long road to
recovery, given the damage from, what Alan Greenspan calls, “the worst
financial crisis ever.”

And for now, the global financial markets are taking cues from three
key themes …

Theme #1:
Sovereign Debt Problems

The saga surrounding Greece’s finances has created tremors in the
European monetary union. And the speculative pressures on countries
surrounding their fiscal challenges will likely find bigger targets in
the coming months, namely the UK, Japan and the U.S.

The impact of this theme on global growth prospects: Negative.

Theme #2:
China Tightening Credit

The bubble alarm for Chinese authorities was the massive surge of new
loans in the first half of January. New bank loans last month
approached levels of last year, when liquidity pumping was in
emergency mode. Now China is tightening up bank reserve ratios and
curtailing easy money programs, fearing a bubble burst of its own.

The impact of this theme on global growth prospects: Negative.

Theme #3:
Fed’s Exit Strategy

The Fed’s move in the discount rate last week was the first active
step it has taken toward reversing its emergency policies. Up to that
point, the Fed had only guided (or allowed) the programs in place to
either expire or mature - indeed, passive steps. And the timing was a
surprise …

The move came only eight days after the text of a Bernanke speech that
said the discount rate would start moving higher “before long.”

To act so soon after making that comment will create loads of
excitement and speculation whenever the Fed chooses to drop the magic
words - “extended period” - from its guidance on keeping the benchmark
Fed Funds rate at current levels.

The impact of this theme on global growth prospects: Positive.

Overall …

A Sentiment Shift Has Taken Place

These three themes are keeping the dollar on solid footing and keeping
pressure on European currencies and those currencies that are
dependent upon sustained growth and demand from China (i.e. the
Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar, Brazilian real).

With all of that said, there is clearly a sentiment shift that has
taken place when it comes to the recovery prospects for global
economies.

Now the growing consensus is shifting away from the theories of a V-
shaped economic recovery and toward the alternative scenarios … most
visibly, a sovereign debt crisis.

But while a sovereign debt crisis is already underway and will likely
continue to spread, I don’t think it’s the biggest threat to the
global economy.

Rather, the biggest threat will likely come from growing trade
tensions between China and the rest of the world.

That’s because …

China’s Currency Is Enemy #1 to Global Recovery

Over the last 14 years, China’s economy has grown a whopping eight-
fold, to $4.9 trillion, and has quickly ascended to become the world’s
third-largest economy.

During the same period, the U.S. economy has only doubled in size.

As far as currencies are concerned, the dramatic outperformance of the
Chinese economy relative to the U.S. economy would normally be
reflected in a much stronger Chinese currency.

But, of course, China controls the value of its currency. They allowed
it to strengthen only 18 percent during those 14 years - a mere drop
in the bucket.

And that’s where tensions are threatening to boil over. It’s not just
with its key export market, the United States, but equally as
tumultuous with its Asian neighbors.

Just how out of line is China’s currency?

Let’s take a look …

In the table below, you can see on a purchasing-power parity basis,
the Yuan (China’s currency) is 40 percent to 50 percent too cheap
relative to the U.S. dollar.

Source: IMF

You can also see how China’s export-centric neighbors are feeling the
pain of China’s artificially cheap currency, too. For example, based
strictly on currency values, it would cost 37 percent more to import
identical goods from South Korea than it would from China.

Threat of Protectionism

In my September 19 column, Protectionism an Enemy of Recovery, I wrote
extensively about the threats that protectionism represents to the
global economy.

And it’s widely believed that the world economy cannot find a path of
sustainable growth until those key countries with lopsided trade
become more balanced.

Consequently, the G-20 has made Chinese currency policy its number one
agenda, under the code word “rebalancing.”

As it becomes increasingly evident that China will not play ball on
allowing its currency to appreciate to a fair value, expect the
geopolitical tensions to rise and expect to see two forms of
protectionism follow: Trade tariffs and currency devaluations against
major currencies, to which the value of the Yuan is primarily linked.

And while a global economic recovery is already beginning to look like
a longer road than many have expected, an outbreak of protectionism
would likely derail recovery all together.

That’s why I continue to think that safety and capital preservation
will re-emerge as the primary driver of capital flows around the world
towards the U.S. dollar.

http://www.dailymarkets.com/economy/2010/02/28/why-you-should-be-worried-about-china/

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Stuck in neutral – what Japan’s rebalancing can teach us
March 2nd, 2010 by Michael Pettis |
Filed under Asian development model, History.

After such a long entry last week I thought I would spare my readers
and do something much briefer. A few days ago I read a good article
(“Stuck on Neutral”) about Japan in the August 18 issue of the
Economist. You can find the article on the Economist website if you
are a premium subscriber, but if not, it has been partly reprinted
elsewhere.

It may seem strange to be reading an August article in March, but in
fact I often find myself a year or more behind in my reading. This
may seem a little perverse, but it does let me see what the smartest
people were thinking at the time while knowing what subsequently
happened. Among other things this makes it clear how often informed
consensus gets bogged down in the minutiae of everyday events while
trying to understand the bigger picture.

In the case of this particular article, however, what triggered my
interest is that it was about Japan’s post-1989 rebalancing, and among
other things discusses why, in spite of every attempt, Japan has not
been able supposedly to rebalance the economy and achieve any real
growth during the two lost decades after 1990. Private consumption
never took off to drive economic growth.

Many of these reasons for low consumption we have heard before, and no
doubt will hear again, but I am not sure how meaningful they are.
According to the article, the Japanese don’t take enough holidays,
they are aging, exporters squirrel away profits to replace households
as a source of savings, small companies are too inefficient,
government supports big business, the Japanese don’t like to borrow,
house prices are too high, and so on. Maybe these really are the
causes of the failure for the surge in consumption, but many sound
like variations on accounting identities, and as such they are as
likely to be consequences as causes of low growth.

But what interested me is that in spite of the fact that Japan’s
economy didn’t grow, and contrary to the article’s claim, some serious
rebalancing actually did take place, at least as I understand it.
Japanese gross national savings declined from around 35% of GDP in
1990 to around 23% last year. The household savings rate dropped too,
from around 10% in the 1990s to around 2%. Neither declined in a
straight line, but decline they undoubtedly did.

Household consumption, according to the article, nonetheless failed to
grow meaningfully – in the past two decades it only grew by 1-2%
annually – and this is much lower, presumably, than consumption growth
in the 1980s.

But it was nonetheless higher than GDP growth, and that is exactly the
point: consumption growth may have been low, but it exceeded GDP
growth. Rebalancing in the context of Japan (and China) does not mean
that consumption growth must surge. It just means that consumption
must grow faster than the economy so as to become a bigger share of
GDP and a bigger driver of total growth. Put another way, it means
that the savings rate must decline. If this is what actually
happened, then in fact Japan did partly rebalance.

But, mysteriously, in spite of the fact that Japan may have
experienced real rebalancing and a real growth in the relative share
of household consumption, the Japanese economy stagnated during the
past two decades. If you had predicted in 1990 that Japanese
household and national savings would have declined so sharply as a
share of GDP, and that consumption would have risen, you probably also
would have predicted that Japan, after a couple of tough years, would
resume rapid growth (or at least growth more in line with other rich
economies) as surging private consumption pulled Japanese growth
forward and away from its over-reliance on net exports.

But you would have been wrong on two counts. First, Japan did not
grow very quickly at all. It stagnated as consumption growth actually
declined. Second, its reliance on net exports did not decline. The
current account surplus remained high as a share of GDP.

Why didn’t Japan grow more quickly? One reason may be obvious from
the very fact that the current account surplus did not decline.
Although Japan certainly rebalanced by some measures, its current
account surplus dropped from its peak of 4.2% of GDP in 1986 to 1.5%
at its trough in 1996, only to turn around and surge, eventually to
reach 4.8% in 2007, dropping to 3.1% in 2008 on the back of the
collapse in international trade (and albeit on a much smaller economy
as a share of global GDP than in 1990).

Since the current account surplus is another name for the excess of
savings over investment, obviously this means that national investment
declined as sharply as did national savings. The article helpfully
provides us with the numbers for both in an accompanying graph, and
this confirms that investment indeed dropped, from a peak of around
32-3% in 1990 to around 22% last year.

With investment such an important part of Japanese growth prior to the
bursting of the bubble, the fact that it declined so dramatically
seems to have had a huge impact on Japan’s subsequent lack of growth.
So although in some important ways Japan “rebalanced”, for two decades
it was nonetheless unable to grow even with a still-very-high and
rising trade surplus, largely because investment declined sharply.

I am not an expert on Japan by any means, even though in the past two
years I have been giving myself a crash course on recent Japanese
economic history, but my Asian-development-model story suggests at
least one explanation of what happened. After many years of excess
investment driving growth, Japan’s rebalancing process, which occurred
after corporate, bank and government debt levels prevented the
investment party from continuing, locked the country into many years
of slow growth because it had to grind through years of debt-fueled
overinvestment.

In fact Japanese investment jumped in the last two years of the 1980s,
after the 1987 stock market crash in the US should have spelled the
end of rapid Japanese export-led growth, from an already-high 28% to
nearly 33% three years later. In other words Tokyo seems to have
responded to the collapse in the US by increasing its already-high
level of investment to counteract the impact on the trade surplus.
This is what happened in China too, after the 2007-08 banking crisis
in the US. This jump in investment seems to have kept Japanese growth
going solidly for another two years after the current account surplus
began its steep nine-year decline.

But growth in investment wasn’t maintained. After 1990, when
investment growth could no longer keep up, perhaps because Japanese
corporate, banking and government debt levels were becoming a serious
constraint, the Japanese economy began a long, slow, painful decline.

The government tried to continue subsidizing growth over the
subsequent decades by keeping both wage growth and interest rates low,
not to mention maintaining the undervalued currency, as we know. This
unfortunately may have slowed the growth of both household income and
household consumption, while maintaining the high trade surplus. This
also may explain why the drop in household savings was partly matched
by the rise in corporate savings – households continued seeing
transfers of income to the corporate sector.

But ultimately in spite of maintaining some of the old trade-related
policies that kept manufacturing growth so strong for so long, there
was nothing Tokyo could do to combat the effects of the decline in
investment. Had they allowed a more rapid rebalancing via higher
wages, interest rates and the currency in the first two or three
years, perhaps they would have had a tougher time early in the 1990s,
and a lot more liquidations, but ultimately they might have pulled out
of the slump a lot sooner because they would have transferred income
to households more rapidly (although of course had they done this too
aggressively, unemployment would have soared and consumption
collapsed).

So where am I going with all this? I am not completely sure, and no
doubt I am oversimplifying the Japanese story. Certainly I am not
smart enough to figure out all the inner workings of Japan’s economy.
Just trying to keep the accounting identities in line and, making sure
that everything that is supposed to balance actually does balance, is
tough enough.

But this macro approach might have some benefit in that it shows how
the overall system can constrain the micro-developments that we all
hope for. At the macro level, in other words, it doesn’t matter what
individual policies we take to boost consumption if these polices
don’t in the aggregate represent a real transfer of income to the
household sector, as they did not in Japan. Rebalancing must occur,
but as an accounting-identify matter it can occur both through good
ways (a surge in consumption) and bad ways (a drop in growth).

In Japan it occurred the latter way. Without a serious attempt to
redistribute income more rapidly back to households, Japan rebalanced,
but not via a surge in consumption. Since it could not maintain
investment levels, on which the economy was too dependent, and in fact
increasingly dependent after 1987, it rebalanced via a sharp slowdown
in growth. Either way achieves rebalancing – which only means that
consumption has to grow as a share of GDP – but of course the former
is much better than the latter.

Japan’s experience suggests one of the risks China faces. It is easy
to talk about rebalancing as a solution to the underlying problem
China faces, but as the Economist article points out, rebalancing can
be “tricky,” and it does not lead automatically to growth – that
depends to a significant extent on how quickly consumption grows, and
can take many years before that happens.

Will China rebalance? Of course it will. It is not a question of if
but rather of how. The same was true of Japan. No economy the size
of China’s can be so heavily dependent on exports to absorb its excess
production, especially once unemployment in the rich countries reaches
significant levels. And no large economy can keep investment rates so
high – and the allocation process so constrained by governance issues
– for very long without running into the problem of capital
misallocation. But there are many ways rebalancing can occur.

Chinese household consumption will undoubtedly rise as a share of
Chinese GDP over the next decade or two, but the process nonetheless
can be disappointing for growth. It depends on lots of other moving
parts, most importantly perhaps the change in investment and the speed
with which income is transferred to households. And the change in
investment might depend on debt capacity constraints and the extent of
earlier overinvestment.

Author

Michael Pettis is a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School
of Management, where he specializes in Chinese financial markets, and
a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

http://mpettis.com/2010/03/stuck-in-neutral-%E2%80%93-what-japan%E2%80%99s-rebalancing-can-teach-us/

BLANKLEY: Placing our faith in economic oraclesRate this story

One of the sadder categories in the history of human misfortunes is
the list of those things that are obvious, but wrong. By definition,
if something is obvious, most people agree with it, and thus, it is
likely to win the day - but lose the verdict of history. The Earth is
flat - obviously. The sun rotates around the Earth - obviously. What
we need is a financial systemic-risk regulator who can spot an
impending systemic financial risk - and stop it. Obviously?

Unfortunately, save for a few Republican senators and outside experts,
it is obvious to most of official Washington that, as Sen. Christopher
J. Dodd's Banking Committee gets ready to mark up the financial
regulation bill, only the form that a financial systemic-risk
regulator should take is seriously in dispute.

What could be more obvious than the lamentable fact that the economic
crisis occurred because our regulatory mechanisms failed in 2007-08 to
spot the impending financial crash? And that the failure occurred
because no one was looking at the entire financial system - only
individual pieces of it? If some regulatory body had been looking at
the entire system, the danger could have been spotted and corrected.
So, obviously we need a systemic-risk regulator.

But what do we mean by systemic? All American banks? All American
financial transactions? All economic activity in America? No, in a
globalized economy, the system in question is the entirety of global
financial activity - and all other economic activity that might affect
financial decisions. In other words, the system is the entire global
economy. My, my, that is a lot even for a building full of Ivy League
economists to fully comprehend. If they could, they would be in
business making trillions of dollars.

For instance, Iceland had a systemic crisis last year because some
loan officers in Florida and elsewhere authorized loans to unqualified
borrowers, and then thousands of such loans were bundled together by
Wall Street investment banks and sold as reliable investments to banks
all over the world - thus starting a process that undermined Icelandic
banks.

The next systemic financial crisis might happen because the Chinese
Communist Party decides - for geopolitical rather than financial
reasons - to order the immediate sale of all China's U.S. Treasury
notes. Or perhaps it will be caused by Britain getting into - and
losing - a war with Argentina over oil in the Falkland Islands that
results in the collapse of the British pound, which reverberates
around the financial world.

Or, to be more prosaic, the next systemic failure may result from a
failure to recognize that what looked like a healthy increase in the
value of information technology stocks, or real estate, or green
technology stocks was really a bubble - which burst.

Or perhaps the next systemic failure will result from American banks
being too cautious in their loan policies, resulting in a slow-motion
collapse of small business - which usually creates about two-thirds of
all new jobs - thus causing so many bankruptcies and skyrocketing
unemployment that most American banks fail also.

Or perhaps hedge funds will be so closely regulated that their
investments yield less than 8 percent - resulting in their primary
clients - pension funds - not being able to deliver the full,
guaranteed value of pensions to 50 million retired people. The
resulting national panic might cause a systemic crisis of confidence
in our economic system, followed by riots and economic collapse.

How likely is it that the 300 statisticians and economists working for
the new systemic-risk regulator would catch any of these - or an
infinite number of other - possible systemic risks? Well, you might
say, we wouldn't be worse off than we are now - so it's worth the
effort.

But the purpose of the proposed systemic-risk regulator is not only to
spot the impending systemic risk - but to intervene to prevent it from
happening. Consider the power such a regulator would have. Consider
that the existence of such a regulator would increase moral hazard -
as it would be assumed that if the systemic regulator isn't warning of
danger, market players would be more likely to assume risk is low. And
consider the consequences of using such power mistakenly.

For example, let's say the regulator spots what he believes is a
dangerous national real estate bubble. He acts quickly to snuff it out
by raising interest rates or requiring minimum 40 percent down
payments or some other intervention. What was a booming economy with 3
percent unemployment turns into a hard recession with 8 percent to 10
percent unemployment.

But later it is determined that it was not a bubble, but rather the
beginning of what would have been a steady, healthy increase in value.
Imagine if such a regulator had existed in 1955 and snuffed out the
great post-World War II expansion that made America a prosperous
middle-class nation of homeowners in suburbia rather than poorer
renters in the city.

It is not given to the smartest people in the world the capacity to
see the future, to discern with sufficient precision the details of
the moment that cause the critical consequences in the future.

But it certainly is the lamentable history of man that we have the
power to screw things up all the time. Remember the vaunted Japanese
industrial policy of the 1970s that was going to permit Japan to
shrewdly dominate the economic world over us hapless free-market
countries with no governmental power to identify the industries of
tomorrow?

In the end, the call for a systemic-risk regulator is yet another
futile expression of faith in the power of government to outthink the
markets. It is another foolish bet on bureaucrats and politicians in a
tightly regulated economy being more likely to bring prosperity than
free businessmen, investors and consumers in a free market. It is the
biggest sucker bet in history: a bet on tyranny over liberty.

Tony Blankley is the author of "American Grit: What It Will Take to
Survive and Win in the 21st Century" (Regnery, 2009) and vice
president of the Edelman public relations firm in Washington.

genwags

What needs to be examined in the financial crisis is Mr George Soros'
involvement and the need for Senator 0bama to have a crisis to solve
for election in 2008 once the issue of the Iraq war went away due to
our victory. The melt down was in their hands.

Lepantzeus

Gentle Readers, There is no need for a systemic -risk regulator, as
there was, and is, no systemic risk outside of government marketplace
intervention. What happened was this: In Sept 2008, the Treasury
observed $500 billion being taken out of money-market funds. They
reacted by freezing the markets. This was a mistake. Markets require
liquidity or their securities lose their value. Stocks and Bonds have
greater value as if someone needs money Monday morning, they can have
it by Monday afternoon. They may have to sell at a loss, but they can
liquidate their securities efficiently. The $500 billion taken out of
the markets was less than 5% of the total market capitalization. In
1987 the markets lost 25% of their value in 1 day, and recovered
without any such intervention. Without the Sept. 2008 intervention,
the markets would have recovered on their own. Furthermore, the $500
billion wasn't being taken out of the markets and buried in peoples
backyards, it was being placed into safer, low-risk, FDIC insured
accounts in Fed. Res. member banks. Investors were simply showing a
preference for lower-risk, lower-return accounts over high-risk, high-
return investments. That money, in Banks, would have been available to
capitalize loans to small businesses and individuals. The stricter
lending standards at the Banks would have stopped the abusive ( NINJA
Loans, for example ) loan practices which had destabilized the
economy. The money would have gone to well qualified borrowers and the
economy would have recovered on its own very quickly.

Lepantzeus

The Sept. 2008 intervention prevented the efficient flow of capital
from high-risk investments into Banks, preventing an efficient
economic recovery, and also reduced the market value of securities by
calling their liquidity into question. Then, the TARP program, which
was supposed to be used to purchase ' toxic ' mortgage backed
securities failed because, as it turned out, nobody wanted to sell
those ' toxic ' securities. They really aren't ' toxic '. Sure, if
someone bought a mortgage backed Bond for $10,000, and it is now worth
only $8,000, the $2000 loss is a disappointment, but that is common in
the securities business. Stocks and Bonds go up and down all the time.
They still have value, and the ability to liquidate them efficiently
in the marketplace enhances that value. So, TARP money has been used
for bailouts: AIG, GM, CHRYSLER, THE GSEs ( FannieMae) and private,
non-bank financial institutions on Wall Street. Tens of billions of
the AIG bailout went to sophisticated investors ( a minimum income of
$250,000 yr and minimum $1,000,000 to invest is the SEC definition of
a sophisticated investor ) from Europe and outside the USA. These
people weren't even Americans. They could have put their money into
safe, FDIC insured accounts in American banks, but they chose high-
yield, high-risk investments, which then lost money. TARP money was
also used for a ' capital injection ' into major US Banks which they
neither needed nor wanted. Most of that money has already been paid
back, with interest, so the Treasury has earned a substantive profit
on the capital injection. Those repaid funds and profits were supposed
to go to reducing the Debt incurred for the TARP program, but the
Pelosi Congress and Obama Administration have simply spent that repaid
money. The capital injection turned into a raid by the Treasury on
banks, taking tens of billions in profits from the banks which reduced
the banks capital and ability to make loans to the productive economy,
thereby prolonging this recession.

Lepantzeus

So, we've had TARP, auto bailouts for auto companys which went
bankrupt anyway, bailouts for rich non-Americans, and repeated
interventions in the economy following the Sept. 2008 market freeze
which started this whole mess, and the most prolonged economic
recession in 50 years, the direct result of government interventions
preventing the economy from making the adjustments required for
recovery. All coupled to irresponsible government spending. We don't
need another government agency intervening in the economy. The
systemic risk is the Federal Government! Just stop the bailouts! Let
the economy recover! Establish a prudent fiscal policy! There would
have been fewer job losses at GM & Chrysler if they had been allowed
to go bankrupt ( fewer dealerships lost ), and had the Wall Street
firms been allowed to fail their assets would have been taken over by
prudent firms, and we would be in recovery now. AIG should have been
split into its core insurance business, which was sound, and its
credit default swap business, which was not sound, so the
policyholders would be protected. A bankruptcy court would have done
that - protecting the secured creditors. If we had let the GSEs
( FannieMae ) go broke, capital going to the GSEs would have flowed to
Banks whose stricter loan criteria would have prevented the bad
mortgage loans from happening in the first place. The systemic risk we
face right now is the repeated, ill-considered, politically motivated
government interventions. There never was any other systemic risk. The
government is the systemic risk. That should stop. We don't need this
new agency, we're better off without it. Kindest Regards to all, I am,
John Lepant Brighton Colorado

movetotheright

Any 2 year old would have been able to spot the problem prior to our
economic failure. In this case they let it happen. To say anything
else is to say that Bernanke and Geithner were deaf, dumb and blind.
The fact that the SEC was spoon fed on Madoff and did nothing just
goes to show that either they were ALL stupid or they didn't care.
There is not one government agency that does its job the way it should
be done. NOT ONE! Now you think that a new regulatory agency will do
the trick. YOU AR E STUPID AND IT'S ALREADY TOO LATE. WE'RE HEADED
DOWN THE DRAIN AS WE SPEAK. EVERY ECONOMIC NUMBER THAT IS RELEASED BY
THE WHITE HOUSE IS A BIG LIE. WE ARE BANKRUPT BUT WE WON'T FIND OUT
THE TRUTH UNTIL AFTER THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS. UNTIL THEN, WE ARE BEING
TREATED LIKE MUSHROOMS, KEPT IN THE DARK AND FED A LOT OF BULLS_ _ _T.

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The Riskiness of Putting Trust in the Best and the Brightest
by Don Boudreaux on March 3, 2010

The Washington Times’s Tony Blankley makes a strong case against Uncle
Sam’s proposed “systemic-risk regulator.” Here are his concluding,
and I think key, paragraphs:

But the purpose of the proposed systemic-risk regulator is not only to
spot the impending systemic risk – but to intervene to prevent it from
happening. Consider the power such a regulator would have. Consider
that the existence of such a regulator would increase moral hazard –
as it would be assumed that if the systemic regulator isn’t warning of
danger, market players would be more likely to assume risk is low. And
consider the consequences of using such power mistakenly.

For example, let’s say the regulator spots what he believes is a
dangerous national real estate bubble. He acts quickly to snuff it out
by raising interest rates or requiring minimum 40 percent down
payments or some other intervention. What was a booming economy with 3
percent unemployment turns into a hard recession with 8 percent to 10
percent unemployment.

But later it is determined that it was not a bubble, but rather the
beginning of what would have been a steady, healthy increase in value.
Imagine if such a regulator had existed in 1955 and snuffed out the
great post-World War II expansion that made America a prosperous
middle-class nation of homeowners in suburbia rather than poorer
renters in the city.

It is not given to the smartest people in the world the capacity to
see the future, to discern with sufficient precision the details of
the moment that cause the critical consequences in the future.

But it certainly is the lamentable history of man that we have the
power to screw things up all the time. Remember the vaunted Japanese
industrial policy of the 1970s that was going to permit Japan to
shrewdly dominate the economic world over us hapless free-market
countries with no governmental power to identify the industries of
tomorrow?

In the end, the call for a systemic-risk regulator is yet another
futile expression of faith in the power of government to outthink the
markets. It is another foolish bet on bureaucrats and politicians in a
tightly regulated economy being more likely to bring prosperity than
free businessmen, investors and consumers in a free market. It is the
biggest sucker bet in history: a bet on tyranny over liberty.

http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/the-riskiness-of-putting-trust-in-the-best-and-the-brightest.html

The Skimmer
Mitt Romney's No Apology
By Alex Altman / Washington Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010

Robert Giroux / Getty

Many of us caught our last glimpse of Mitt Romney in the winter of
2008, when his presidential campaign was sputtering to a close, dogged
by the perception that the former Massachusetts governor was a shape-
shifting candidate with a focus-grouped platform. Since then, as
potential 2012 primary rivals like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee took
Fox News gigs and stayed in the public eye, Romney has quietly receded
from the spotlight. But his new book, No Apology: The Case for
American Greatness, leaves little doubt that he's spent the time away
rebooting his message in preparation for an Oval Office bid. In No
Apology, which hit stores March 2 and dovetails with a two-month
publicity blitz, the former Massachusetts governor drops the social
conservative shtick, preferring to focus on his managerial bona fides
and the Obama Administration's missteps.

The book's title is an allusion to Obama's American Apology Tour,
Romney's catch-all phrase for the president's habit of copping to
perceived (or actual) U.S. shortcomings. "Never before in American
history has its president gone before so many foreign audiences to
apologize for so many American misdeeds, both real and imagined," he
writes. "There are anti-American fires burning all across the globe;
President Obama's words are like kindling to them." It's tempting to
dismiss the section on foreign policy as an attempt to see how many
different formulations Romney can use to profess his belief in
American exceptionalism. But the theme is at the heart of the contrast
Romney draws between himself and the president: while his
prescriptions are designed to preserve American supremacy, Obama
espouses American equivalence. "If the president accepts that America
is in an irreversible state of decline relative to the world, it may
well come to pass under his stewardship," Romney warns.

It's a dangerous perspective, Romney argues, at a time when China's
clout is growing, Russia is resurgent and the U.S. remains mired in a
grinding war with Islamic extremists. "The truth is that we are at war
with a formidable enemy and that nations like Russia and China are
intent on neutralizing our military lead," Romney writes in support of
maintaining healthy defense budgets. "We must pay a large price to
maintain our freedoms, and if we do not pay enough in dollars, we may
be forced to pay the price in blood." He also charges — somewhat
incongruously — that "it is long past time for America to strengthen
and effectively deploy our soft power," which is, of course, partly
what Obama is trying to do by toning down the Bush Administration's
rhetoric.

The Harvard MBA and venture capitalist is sharper when it comes to the
economy, a topic squarely in his wheelhouse. The best way for
government to stimulate the economy, he argues, is to promote a
favorable climate for innovation and then get out of its way. But he's
not an absolutist when it comes to government meddling in the markets.
Though he denounces the bailout of Detroit carmakers, Romney is a
backer of TARP, though he couches his position with a caveat that
protects his right flank. "Secretary Paulson's TARP prevented a
systemic collapse of the national financial system," he writes.
"Secretary Geithner's TARP became an opaque, heavy-handed, expensive
slush fund. It should be shut down."

His support of Wall Street — and his statement that the rise of
populism is an understandable but "worrisome" response to a sagging
economy — is telling. Unlike Palin, whose book Going Rogue was an
anecdote-laced grand tour of her household, Romney has penned a sober,
substantive tome that traces the decline of the Ottoman Empire and
includes graphs of housing prices. With voters consumed with their
checkbooks, he ramps up the wonkishness, offering an Index of Leading
Leading Indicators and closing the book with a 64-point agenda on
issues ranging from tort reform and the construction of nuclear power
plants to hiking teacher pay and appointing strict constitutionalists
to the bench. No Apology is Romney's attempt to position himself as
the business-savvy candidate economic conservatives can coalesce
behind, which isn't a bad tactic. Still, he's now given his opponents,
both known and still unknown, a peek at his campaign playbook. When
you're likely to meet your rivals down the road, that can be a risky
move.

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Top 10 Political Memoirs
Sarah Palin's new memoir is hardly the first to stir controversy

Story All Best and Worst Lists

1. Ulysses S. GrantNEXT 1 of 10

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant — 1885

Completed just five days before succumbing to throat cancer, the
former general's memoirs were the first by a President to achieve
widespread commercial success, helped in no small part by public
interest in his race against the clock to get them finished before his
death. Published by Mark Twain, the writing shows few signs of having
been done in haste; Grant gives thoughtful treatment to the Civil War
and a thorough retelling of such pivotal events as receiving
Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He also
understood that people want to read the exciting stuff: Grant devotes
the majority of his account to his time as a general, spending little
time dwelling on his term as president.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864,00.html

2. Richard A. Clarke

Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror — 2004

A year and two days after the U.S. invaded Iraq, Americans were
treated to a literary shock-and-awe campaign of sorts by George W.
Bush's former counterterrorism adviser. Richard Clarke's 304-page
memoir included detailed and damning accounts of the Bush
Administration's response to 9/11 — including allegations that Bush
ignored warnings of an attack and had planned to invade Iraq all
along. In one passage, Clarke recounts Bush's eagerness to connect
9/11 to Saddam Hussein, writing that after he told the president that
Al-Qaeda was responsible for destroying the Twin Towers, Bush
responded by saying, "I know, I know... but see if Saddam was
involved. Just look. I want to know any shred."

Released just two days before Clarke delivered testimony to the 9/11
commission, the book soared to No. 1 on Amazon's best-seller list —
thanks in large part to the Bush Administration's outraged response,
which only served to fuel more coverage and curiosity. Even before
Clarke appeared on 60 Minutes to promote his insider account, White
House Communications Director Dan Bartlett launched a preemptive media
blitz that included a four-page rebuttal distributed to all Capitol
Hill reporters. But Clarke's credentials made him a difficult target:
he'd served under three previous Presidents: Ronald Reagan, George
H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Clarke's memoir will likely get another
boost in 2010, when the film version, directed by Robert Redford, is
scheduled to hit theaters.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939865,00.html

3. Dean Acheson

Present at the Creation — 1969

Dean Acheson took the helm of the U.S. State Department during one of
the most frenetic times in history, serving as Secretary of State from
the end of World War II in 1949 through 1953. The period saw the birth
of the United States as a world power, the simultaneous rise of the
Soviet Union and the creation of Israel as an independent state.
Acheson's memoir, Present at the Creation, chronicles his experiences
during these pivotal moments in 20th-Century American foreign policy —
a policy he himself helped shape.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939842,00.html

4. James Buchanan

Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion — 1866

While James Buchanan may have largely botched the run-up to the Civil
War, he still has one thing going for him: authorship of the the first
memoir by a U.S. Commander in Chief. The book, Mr. Buchanan's
Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, is largely devoted to
defending his actions as President. Buchanan waited after the war's
conclusion to publish his account, saying he didn't want the memoir to
interfere with Lincoln's leadership during the war. But Buchanan,
unsurprisingly, paints himself as a constant voice against the war,
striving at every turn to warn others of the danger of secession
before being ultimately done in by the inaction of a partisan
Congress. Buchanan said history would be his judge, and indeed it was,
just not in the way he hoped. Buchanan's inaction in the face of the
South's rebellion puts him high on many historians' lists of the all-
time worst presidents.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939821,00.html

5. Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father — 1995

Dreams from My Father is not strictly a political memoir: Obama wrote
it after he had become the first black president of the Harvard Law
Review but before his political career began. But in shaping his
personal narrative — the story of the skinny kid with the funny name
that would become the mainstay of thousands of stump speeches — Dreams
from My Father laid the groundwork for his meteoric rise to the
highest office in the land. In 2008, candidate Obama told the New York
Times he had not written the book with political results in mind, but
he would not be surprised if some people had joined his campaign
"because they feel they know me through my books."(His second, far
wonkier treatise, The Audacity of Hope, was published in 2006.) Dreams
also won praise for remarkable candor and genuine literary merit from
a variety of eminent readers, including Nobel laureate Toni Morrison:
the book is "very, very compelling," she said, adding that Obama
writes "so well. Really well, with really nice big, strong, artful
sentences."

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939845,00.html

6. Dwight Eisenhower

At Ease: Stories I Tell To Friends — 1967

Published two years before his death, Eisenhower's At Ease provides a
remarkably unvarnished look at his transformation from "a rawboned,
gawky Kansas boy from the farm country" into a soldier and a leader.
Told largely through colorful anecdotes, the book is livelier and more
informal than his other memoirs, Crusade in Europe and Waging Peace.
The result, as the New York Times wrote the year it was published, is
"to flesh out and give life to the image of one of the most durable
popular heroes of our time."

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939858,00.html

7. Harry McPherson

A Political Education: A Washington Memoir — 1972

As political counsel and chief speech writer for President Lyndon
Baines Johnson, Harry McPherson was part of a presidential inner
circle that endured the J.F.K. assassination, the Vietnam War and the
tumult of the civil rights era. Needless to say, when McPherson's
memoir was first published in 1972, there was plenty to say and much
to learn about L.B.J.'s time in office. McPherson delivered: his
depiction offered not just a clear window on the administration but a
precise picture of life in Washington and the U.S. as Johnson spiraled
into disfavor. "Vietnam," writes McPherson, "became a second
consciousness ... One thought of friends, and Vietnam; raising a
family, and Vietnam; investing in the market, writing a letter,
visiting a university, watching television, and Vietnam. Like an acid,
it was eating into everything." Still thought of as an essential look
into the Beltway and the mind of a president, The Washington Monthly
in 1990 called it a book "whose congressional vignettes have never
been surpassed and probably never will be."

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939815,00.html

8. George H.W. Bush

Streeter Lecka / Getty

All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings —
1999

In this collection of letters beginning in 1942 when he had just
finished high school, the first President Bush tells his story through
missives penned to family, friends and world leaders (Deng Xiaoping,
King Hussein and Mikhail Gorbachev are all pen pals). Publisher's
Weekly called it an "intriguing picture" into the former president's
"personal character." That's exactly what he seemed to want to get
across, considering he told Larry King in an interview soon after its
publication that he didn't miss decision-making at all. "I'm 75 years
old," he said, "and I don't care about sitting at the head table
anymore."

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939853,00.html

9. John McCain

Joshua Roberts / Reuters / Corbis

Correction Appended: Nov. 19, 2009

Faith of Our Fathers — 1999

Before his first presidential run in 2000, John McCain often told
friends, "I never want to be a professional P.O.W." But he sealed his
reputation as a war hero in 1999 with the publication of his first
memoir, which recounts the five and a half years he spent as a
prisoner of war in North Vietnam's infamous Hanoi Hilton and honors
his family's impressive military tradition (both his father and his
grandfather had been four-star admirals in the Navy). The book,
derided by critics as a transparent attempt to improve his chances for
higher office, spent more than six months on the New York Times Best
Seller list and later became a made-for-TV movie. Still, McCain's
reluctance to let his experience during the Vietnam war define him
shines through in the very book that arguably did just that. "My
public profile is inextricably linked to my P.O.W. experiences,"
McCain writes in Faith of Our Fathers. "Obviously, such recognition
has benefited my political career, and I am grateful for that. But I
have tried to make what use I can of Vietnam and not let the memories
of war encumber the rest of my life's progress. Neither have I been
content to accept that my time in Vietnam would stand as the ultimate
experience of my life." He has since co-written four other volumes
with longtime aide Mark Salter.

The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Faith of
Our Fathers spent two months on the New York Times Best-Seller List.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939880,00.html

10. George Stephanopoulos

Scott Olson / Getty

All Too Human: A Political Education — 1999

It's easy to forget about George Stephanopoulos' first career. Before
taking the host chair on the ABC wonkfest This Week, Stephanopoulos
worked the other side of the desk as a Democratic political operative,
helping Bill Clinton win the presidency in 1992. The political
wunderkind stayed on at the White House through Clinton's 1996 re-
election and wrote about the experience three years later in All Too
Human: A Political Education. The book's 456 pages detail the deep
stress the job placed on the harried staffer while offering an
alternately sympathetic and critical portrait of the President,
praising his idealism while blasting Clinton's "stupid, selfish and
self-destructive" behavior during the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Stephanopoulos faced accusations of disloyalty for releasing the tell-
all while Clinton was still in office, though any hard feelings appear
to be soothed: Clinton and his wife, Hillary — the sitting U.S.
Secretary of State — now count among the ex-staffer's Sunday morning
TV guests.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1939871_1939864_1939886,00.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

Mar 03, 2010

"The Net Fiscal Expenditure Stimulus in the US 2008-2009"

Why has the response to fiscal stimulus been so hard to detect?
Perhaps because, on net, there wasn't much stimulus. According to this
research by Joshua Aizenman and Gurnain Kaur Pasricha, the federal
stimulus filled holes created in state and local budgets, and that was
helpful -- I don't think the article does enough to point out what
would have happened if the federal government had not offset these
cuts. But how much did the stimulus do over and above simply simply
offsetting the negative effects of cuts at the state and local
government levels? Apparently, not much:

The net fiscal expenditure stimulus in the US 2008-2009: Less than
what you might think, by Joshua Aizenman and Gurnain Kaur Pasricha,
Vox EU: Bailout packages have dominated political debate in the US and
elsewhere. The global financial crisis led to a massive bailout of the
US financial system and significant fiscal stimulus efforts by the US
federal government to offset the resulting severe economic downturn.
The sheer size of the federal commitments, at a time when the
unemployment reached two digit figures, has led observers to question
the efficacy of fiscal policy. Moreover, questions were raised with
respect to the size of the fiscal multiplier in the US, as well as
about possible adverse effects of higher future debt overhang (see de
Resende et al. 2010, Barro and Redlick 2009, Spilimbergo et al. 2009
and the references therein).

Given that the counterfactual of the performance of the US economy in
the absence of the fiscal stimulus is hard to ascertain, one may thus
question its effectiveness, and hence the logic of continuing it.
Before taking a position on these vexing issues, it is vital to
ascertain the net size of the fiscal expenditure stimulus of the real
sector. This issue is of key importance in a federal system like the
US, where the fifty states are restrained from borrowing in
recessions, and frequently refrain from raising taxes at times of
collapsing tax bases. While stabilising the financial system is useful
in preventing bank runs, deepening credit constraints facing key
sectors like local government expenditures imply that financial
bailouts would not prevent, in the short-run, a sizable contraction of
aggregate demand.

In order to address these issues, in recent research (Aizenman and
Pasricha 2010) we analyse the patterns of fiscal expenditure of the
federal government, the state and the local governments, and the
consolidated fiscal expenditure. We distinguish between the “pure
fiscal expenditure” and the published total expenditure. The “pure
fiscal expenditure” or simply, fiscal expenditure of the textbook
variety is defined as the sum of government consumption and government
gross investment whereas the published total expenditure equals this
pure fiscal expenditure plus transfers. Excluding transfer payments
(i.e. transfers to financial sector and automatic stabilisers like
higher unemployment benefits that were a consequence of the higher
unemployment levels) allows us to consider the impact of the
discretionary fiscal stimulus.1 That is, “pure fiscal expenditure” is
the government expenditure relevant for computing the Keynesian fiscal
multiplier. While a large literature defines countercyclical fiscal
policy as one with positive correlation between fiscal surplus and
output, we focus on actual government spending. We agree with
Kaminsky, Reinhart and Vegh (2004) that one needs to focus on
government instruments to smooth business cycles, not on outcomes like
fiscal deficit, that are endogenous. For example, the government may
be raising tax rates in the recession and cutting expenditure, yet
running a fiscal deficit because the tax base is smaller.

Figure 1a reports the seasonally adjusted patterns of the pure fiscal
expenditure in the US between 1995 and 2009, at three levels: (a)
consolidated, (b) federal, and (c) state and local (all data are from
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) website). Figure 1b plots the real
expenditures relative to their respective values in the third quarter
of 2008. The Figures reveal that during the crisis, state and local
fiscal expenditures dropped from $1547 billion in real terms in 2008Q3
to $1545.5 billion in 2009Q3 while the federal fiscal expenditures
rose from $991.6 billion to $1043.3 billion over the same period. The
consolidated fiscal expenditures therefore increased by a mere $48.9
billion in real terms between 2008Q3 and 2009Q3. Moreover, all the
three series fell before rising – as the economy was in a tailspin in
the first quarter of 2009, both federal and state fiscal expenditures
were falling with it.

Figure 1a. “Pure” fiscal expenditures (consumption + gross investment)
(Billions of 2005 US dollars, seasonally adjusted)

Figure 1b. Pure fiscal expenditures (2008Q3 = 100)

Figure 2 plots the fiscal expenditures plus transfers for each level
of government. During the crisis, from 2008Q3 to 2009Q4, state and
local fiscal expenditures plus transfers rose by $20.43 billion. The
federal fiscal expenditures plus transfers increased by $415.39
billion, resulting in a net increase of the consolidated expenditure
plus transfers.

Figure 2a. Total expenditures (Pure fiscal expenditures + transfers)
(Billions of 2005 US dollars, seasonally adjusted)

Figure 2b. Total expenditures (pure fiscal expenditures + transfers)
(2008Q3 = 100)

In order to better understand the actual magnitude of the fiscal
stimulus, we proceed by focusing on the patterns of the three
(consolidated, federal, and state and local) fiscal expenditure time
series relative to GDP. Considering policy lags, fiscal expenditure
today may reflect decisions undertaken a period ago, based on GDP at
that time. Figure 3 reports the three fiscal expenditure time series,
normalised by four-quarter lagged GDP (Each chart reports the actual
time series, the predicted series of one-step-ahead forecasts using
the appropriate ARIMA structure, and the 95% confidence interval
around the predicted value). It reveals that the consolidated fiscal
expenditure was well within the confidence interval of prediction for
the entire time period between 2006Q1 and 2009Q3. This was largely
because even as federal expenditures were rising, state and local
government expenditures went into freefall, stabilising only after
2009Q1. In fact, for all of 2008, state and local fiscal expenditures
were significantly below what could be predicted using historical
data. The figures clearly reveal that the fiscal expenditure stimulus
did not expand the consolidated fiscal expenditure above the predicted
level.

Figure 3. Pure fiscal expenditures/lagged GDP; 1995-2009

In Figure 4, we examine the actual and predicted values of fiscal
expenditures plus transfers, along with the confidence intervals
around one-step-ahead predictions. While the consolidated fiscal
expenditure plus transfers was outside the confidence interval in two
of the last five quarters, it exceeded the upper bound by at most 0.6
percentage points, and fell back within the confidence interval in
2009Q3. Thus, even taking into account the transfers to the financial
sector and the automatic stabilisers built into the system, the
federal stimulus did not expand the consolidated fiscal expenditure
significantly above the predicted level. Even this limited impact may
now be over.

Figure 4. (Pure fiscal expenditures+ transfers)/lagged GDP; 2006-2009.

Obstacles for net stimulus

The case for net stimulus in the US is debatable. On the one hand, if
the US is already in a robust recovery, as is presumed by more
optimistic observers, then net fiscal stimulus may be redundant, and
could lead to inflationary pressures down the road. On the other hand,
double digit unemployment, and uncertainty regarding the strength of
the recovery, may suggest the need for a second US federal fiscal
stimulus package. Independently of this debate, understanding the
reasons for the lack of greater net fiscal expenditure stimulus in the
aftermath of the deepest recession of the last fifty years is
essential. One explanation is provided by the moral hazard concerns
associated with common pool challenges of a fiscal union. Another
explanation for the lack of a larger stimulus is that the present
trajectory of the US public debt/GDP, in the absence of concrete plans
for fiscal consolidation, is a cause for concern.

The limits on state borrowings in a federal union may be rationalised
by the concern that the absence of such limits may induce competitive
borrowing by states, with the expectation that the federal government
will bail them out if necessary.2 This is an important concern in a
highly centralised federal union, where most of the tax revenue is
“owned” by the federal government (von Hagen and Eichengreen 1996).
There is also concern that transferring federal resources to states
with deeper tax revenue shortfalls would “reward” states that were
less prudent, and penalise states that have developed a more stable
tax base and accumulated precautionary reserves.

While valid, these considerations need not prevent a deeper federal
stimulus in the unique circumstances of an unanticipated, deep crisis
propagated by financial factors beyond the control of each state.
However, moral hazard concerns call for designing the federal fiscal
stimulus in ways that would not reward states for their past fiscal
mistakes. We suggest two schemes that would mitigate moral hazard. One
scheme would involve channelling funds to states on a per-capita
basis, so that each state gets an allocation proportionate to its
population, as long as the state government is committed to spending
these funds and not using them to repay past debts. One may expect
that the equitable per capita treatment of this scheme would
facilitate greater support for the net fiscal expenditure stimulus by
the Congress. Under this scheme, the federal government borrows for
the states, in a way that equalises the borrowing per-capita,
independently of the quality of the domestic public finance mechanism
of each state. Another scheme would involve making the allocation to
each state proportional to the federal tax revenue from that state, on
average during the few years prior to the crisis.

Another concern restraining public support for greater federal
stimulus may be the long run implications of a net stimulus, i.e. the
resulting increase in future debt overhang. Observers noted that even
before the crisis, the public debt trajectory was unsustainable, and
fiscal reform was needed (Auerbach and Gale 2009). Recognising the
gravity of the recession induced by the financial crisis may call for
coupling any federal fiscal stimulus with outlining a credible medium-
term plan for fiscal consolidation. In fact, independent of the fiscal
stimulus triggered by the great recession, concerns about the future
path of the public debt/GDP remain a serious policy challenge for the
US.

To summarise, so far, the federal fiscal expenditure stimulus has
mostly compensated for the negative state and local stimulus
associated with the collapsing tax revenue and the limited borrowing
capacity of the states. While this is a significant accomplishment,
the net effect is that the consolidated fiscal expenditure stimulus is
small relative to the sharp fall in private aggregate demand.
Consumption plus gross investment expenditures of all levels of the US
government were only $47.6 billion higher in 2009 than in 2008 whereas
total expenditures (which include transfers) were $330 billion higher.
Thus, the fiscal expenditure stimulus did not manage to provide a
viable cushion for the negative stimulus associated with private
sector’s declining demand. This observation is pertinent in explaining
the anaemic reaction of the overall US economy to the alleged “big
federal fiscal stimulus”.

References

Aizenman, Joshua and Gurnain Kaur Pasricha (2010), “On the ease of
overstating the fiscal stimulus in the US, 2008-9”, NBER Working paper
15784.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15784
Auerbach, Alan and William Gale (2009), “An update on the economic and
fiscal crises: 2009 and beyond”, Brookings Papers, October.
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/06_fiscal_crisis_gale.aspx
Barro, Robert and Charles Redlick (2009), “Design and effectiveness of
fiscal stimulus programmes”, VoxEU.org, 30 October.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4144
De Resende, Carlos, René Lalonde, and Stephen Snudden (2010), “The
power of many: assessing the economic impact of the global fiscal
stimulus”, Bank of Canada Discussion Paper No. 2010-1.
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/res/dp/2010/dp10-1.pdf
Kaminsky, Garciela, Carmen Reinhart and Carlos Vegh (2004), “When it
rains, it pours: procyclical capital flows and macroeconomic
policies”, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Mark Gertler and Kenneth Rogoff
(eds.), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
http://www.nber.org/papers/w10780
von Hagen, Jürgen and Barry Eichengreen (1996), “Federalism, fiscal
restraints, and European Monetary Union”, The American Economic
Review, 86(2):134-138.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2118110?cookieSet=1
Spilimbergo, Antonio, Steve Symansky, and Martin Schindler (2009),
“Fiscal multipliers”, IMF Staff Position Note, SPN/09/11.
http://imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2009/spn0911.pdf
The Economist (2010), “Greece and the euro”, 18 February.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15545924

1 This observation does not negate the possible benefit of stabilising
the financial system by means of federal bailouts. Yet, liquidity
transfers to financial institutions do not amount to a net fiscal
stimulus that increases the fiscal expenditures in ways that
compensate for the impact of borrowing constraints on state and local
governments.

2 Examples for gaming a Federal Union by means of “competitive
borrowing” include Argentina, where there have been frequent federal
bailouts of provincial governments, leading ultimately to higher
inflation, and to the ultimate financial meltdown of the early 2000s.
See also the recent concerns regarding the euro zone’s rescue plan for
Greece (The Economist, Feb 18th 2010, Greece and the euro).

Posted by Mark Thoma on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 02:51 AM

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2010/03/the-net-fiscal-expenditure-stimulus-in-the-us-20082009.html

[bademiyansubhanallah]

IBD Editorials

. Perspective

Chinese Can't Dump Our Debt Too Soon
By MIKE COSGROVE
Posted 06:47 PM ET

The Chinese can save both themselves and U.S. taxpayers by selling a
large portion of their U.S. Treasury holdings this year. In fact, this
economic missile may be the only way to save taxpayers in 2010.

Foreigners hold about $3.6 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, and foreign
central banks hold two-thirds of that. The good news is that the
Chinese and Japanese, combined, hold at least $1.5 trillion, or 12% of
Treasury debt outstanding.

The Chinese and Japanese are our friends for two reasons: (1) Their
net purchases help keep bond yields low, and (2) Chinese warnings
about not buying more Treasuries or in fact selling Treasuries can
send shock waves through capital markets.

Congress and the Obama administration don't seem overly concerned with
huge federal deficits. But the administration does understand the
crisis that would be created in capital markets were the Chinese to
become net Treasury sellers, even for a short period of time.

The Chinese can act as a constraint on the reckless federal spending
of Congress and the administration. In fact, the Chinese may be the
only realistic constraint in 2010. The administration seems to have
ignored the voting results from Virginia, New Jersey and
Massachusetts.

Some analysts say the Chinese won't be net sellers of Treasuries. What
is to prevent the Chinese from shorting the U.S. equity market before
they announce they are going to be net sellers of Treasuries?

The Chinese can lecture the administration about excessive federal
outlays, but nothing would be more effective than dumping Treasuries,
even for a short time. Such action would panic investors, and as a
result the administration may well agree to constrain spending to
placate the Chinese.

No one wants havoc in the capital markets, but the Chinese can do U.S.
taxpayers a major favor by dumping Treasuries just as soon as the
Chinese can buy their put options on U.S. equities.

U.S. equities will quickly recover their lost ground and much more if
the administration would agree to constrain federal outlays. Excessive
federal spending and regulatory involvement in the economy are holding
back equity gains.

The sooner the Chinese dump Treasuries, the better. It is a message
that all members of Congress, as well as the Obama administration,
need to hear. The Chinese needed to take such action during the Bush
years, but that is water under the bridge.

The Chinese can see how the Japanese ruined their economy by growing
public debt outstanding to over 225% of GDP in 2010 from 68% in 1991,
according to IMF data. The U.S. outstanding public debt to GDP ratio
was also 68% in 1991. In 2008 it was 70%. At the end of this year it
will be about 94%.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522831

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10694461/1/cramers-mad-money-recap-americas-the-best-place-to-invest-final.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

Bank deposits pose challenge for Beijing
By Geoff Dyer in Beijing

Published: March 3 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 3 2010 02:00

This time last year, when the global economy seemed to be in freefall,
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, described 2009 as the most
"difficult" year China had faced in a decade. This year he says the
conditions are the most "complicated".

Near the top of Mr Wen's list of challenges is how to exit from the
massive monetary stimulus that China engineered last year, which saw
credit expand by 30 per cent while the economy grew 7 per cent in
nominal terms. Mr Wen needs to move soon to prevent inflation from
taking off but not so hastily that the economy slumps again.

The situation is complicated for Chinese policymakers by record levels
of bank deposits. For the past few weeks, global markets have focused
intently on the amount of new credit that Chinese banks are issuing,
looking for signals on potential tightening.

Yet for some observers, high bank deposits are just as important
because they could indicate that the authorities have less control
over monetary policy than many investors think. It is an issue that
has attracted the attention of China's State Council.

"The Chinese economy depends not so much on credit but on deposits and
where they are located in the economy," says Paul Cavey, economist at
Macquarie Research, who adds that household and corporate deposits in
the banking system are now equivalent to a record 150 per cent of
gross domestic product.

China's central bank has more tools than most other countries to
manage credit levels in the economy, including the ability to decide
lending quotas for commercial banks, which it has set at Rmb7,500bn
($1,098bn, €811bn, £735bn) this year, down from Rmb9,600bn in 2009.
But the impact that bank deposits have on the economy depends less on
the government than on the decisions of millions of households and
companies.

On the corporate side, the concern is Chinese companies are sitting on
huge volumes of unused loans. Ha Jiming, an economist at China
International Capital Corporation, has analysed the figures the
central bank releases for long-term corporate loans and the figures
from the National Bureau of Statistics for loans for fixed-asset
investment in the current year. In most years there is a modest gap
between the two but last year the gap was Rmb1,200bn by the end of the
year. That gap, he says, is money companies have borrowed but not yet
used.

The dilemma for the authorities is that if they started to scale back
lending because of inflation worries, the corporate sector could still
be able to invest heavily because of all the unused loans. "The big
risk is that infrastructure spending could actually be stronger this
year even if credit growth slows," says Mr Cavey. However, Mr Ha adds
that the volume of unused loans at the end of last year was down from
a previous high of Rmb1,600bn, so this danger for policymakers could
be diminishing.

With household deposits, the risk to monetary policy lies in consumer
expectations of inflation. Chinese consumers hold a large part of
their savings in bank accounts, in part because there are few other
options. But when they start to fear inflation, which will reduce
their returns to negative rates, they have in the past shifted funds
into equities or property, sending asset prices much higher.

As a result, asset market bubbles can occur even when the central bank
is slowing the amount of new credit in the economy. Rising property
prices also encourage more new investment, even if the official stance
is to slow lending.

So far, however, this risk has not materialised. Although consumer
prices have risen since November and some economists are warning of a
spike in inflation this year, the housing market appears to have
slowed and the stock market has been stable.

There are no signs yet of a flood of household deposits out of the
banking sector into other markets.

Yet Mr Wen will be watching household deposits closely. If it becomes
clear that inflationary expectations are starting to take root,
prompting depositors to propel stock and property prices much higher,
the Chinese authorities will need to take decisive action to nip the
process in the bud.

That would mean some combination of higher interest rates, increased
reserve requirements for banks, a significantly lower quota for
lending and currency appreciation. A "complicated" prospect, indeed.

Editorial Comment, Page 8
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/acbfd2a6-2663-11df-aff3-00144feabdc0.html

Eric C. AndersonEric C. Anderson is the author of "China Restored"
Posted: March 3, 2010 01:13 PM

Controversy can lead to interesting headlines, but also contributes to
public confusion. Such is the case when economists engage in debates
over just how much money China has invested in Washington's mountain
of debt -- and the potential consequences of same. This is exactly
what happened at a 25 February 2010 gathering of the U.S.-China
Economic and Security Review Commission. At a hearing titled "U.S.
Debt to China: Implications and Repercussions," Americans were
essentially told to ignore data provided by Tim Geithner's Treasury,
and instead depend upon the musings of scholarly economists. And to
think we complain about the reliability of Beijing's financial
reports.

A word of warning, a few of the following paragraphs are not user-
friendly for the numerically challenged. According Tim Geithner's
folks, as of 31 December 2009 the Chinese were holding on to $755
billion of our Treasury notes. This figure is reported on a monthly
basis via the Treasury International Capital System. Seems
straightforward, until one realizes the Treasury only records foreign
purchases by known country of origin. So if the Chinese acquire T-
notes through an alternate channel -- say a bank in England --
Treasury credits the purchase to London...not Beijing. The result? An
under reporting of China's actual T-note ownership.

Economists have known about this shortcoming for years, but have done
little more than ruminate on the potential value of forecasting models
that are provided less than perfect data. (Economists like to pretend
they are not social scientists -- where everything is fungible.
Instead of tweed jackets, many practitioners of the "grim science"
would prefer to wear white lab jackets and expound on the "cold, hard
facts" to be found in the world of money.) No more. In his testimony
before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Simon
Johnson -- a former chief economist for the International Monetary
Fund -- declared Beijing probably owns close to $1 trillion of our
Treasury securities. According to Johnson, this figure amounts to
almost half of the T-notes in foreign hands...and just under 1/7th of
all U.S. government securities outstanding.

Now consider the figures offered by Eswar Prasad, a Senior Fellow and
the New Century Chair in International Economics at the Brookings
Institution. In his testimony, Prasad told the Commission we can
assume approximately 70% of China's foreign exchange reserves -- $2.4
trillion and growing -- are in dollar-denominated bonds and thus could
account for $1.32 trillion of the foreign-owned T-notes...or roughly
17% of outstanding U.S. public debt. Prasad goes on to highlight the
fact China has also purchased $405 billion of the debt issued by U.S.
government-sponsored enterprises (think Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and
an additional $7.2 in taxpayer liability). The bottom line, Beijing
has a collection of U.S. IOUs that tally up to $1.725 trillion. A
worrisome figure...until one realizes we are in hock to the tune of
$19.5 trillion. (I arrive at the figure by adding the total Treasury
debt with the promissory notes issued by government-sponsored
enterprises.)

Hmmm...think about what Prasad is really saying. If his figures are
correct, Beijing only owns about 9%...yup nine percent...of
Washington's total indebtedness. This sort of puts China's ability to
exercise a "financial nuclear option" -- threaten to sell all her T-
notes and thereby collapse the value of our currency -- in a different
light. Or does it? A number of economists contend such a move would
have significant negative consequences for Beijing and Washington.
This group likens the current Sino-U.S. financial lash up to a
monetized version of mutually assured destruction. Both sides will
suffer if one of the partners opts to pull the trigger.

Prasad is not so sure this analogy is appropriate. The Brookings
Senior Fellow argues, "Any Chinese threat to move aggressively out of
Treasuries is a reasonably credible threat as the short-term costs to
the Chinese...are not likely to be large." To drive this point home
Prasad succinctly dismisses three popular arguments against Beijing
dumping its dollar holdings:

1. If interest rates in the U.S. spiked as a consequence of Chinese
actions, there would be a capital loss to China on the value of its
Treasury bond holdings. This is correct on a mark-to-market basis but
it is likely that China has a hold-to maturity approach on its bond
portfolio, given that it has such a large stock of reserves and has no
immediate liquidity needs. Hence, the actual capital loss may not be
significant enough to feature in the political calculus.

2. A plunge in the value of the dollar against other major currencies
would reduce the domestic currency value of China's dollar-denominated
holdings. This is indeed accurate. But only if the renminbi
appreciated relative to the dollar. Otherwise, China would lose a
modest amount on the value of its euro and yen holdings and this would
be more than made up for by the benefits of higher trade
competitiveness if the renminbi rode down with the dollar against
other major currencies.

3. Currency appreciation would lead to a big loss on reserve holdings
in local currency terms. If the renminbi appreciated substantially
relative to the dollar, as economists believe it eventually must given
the much higher productivity growth in China relative to the U.S.,
China would certainly take a capital loss. But this is likely to be at
least partially offset by seigniorage revenue that China can get as it
moves forward in tandem on exchange rate flexibility and capital
account liberalization.

So what keeps Beijing from fleeing our very own version of Athens's
current fiscal nightmare? Prasad contends much of the Chinese
investment in T-notes and other U.S. government debt is driven by a
lack of other options. But, he goes on to note, there are signs
Beijing is actively exploring alternatives. More specifically, China--
like a number of other nations--is seeking to diversify by employing
its sovereign wealth funds. You read correctly...in addition to the
publicly identified China Investment Corporation there are increasing
signs the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the designated
manager of Beijing's $2.4 trillion foreign exchange reserves, is now
acting like a hedge fund manager. The money available to these two
entities, approximately $650 billion or a little more than a quarter
of China's foreign exchange reserves.

The logic for such a move should appeal to the capitalist in all of us
-- why settle for the paltry 3-4% offered by thirty year T-notes when
you can diversify into options that offer 8% and higher? Yes, I know,
such a strategy is risky. But if you are a long term investor and can
spread the cash far enough there really is little excuse to tie all
one's assets up in low return options. This is how the Harvard and
Yale endowment funds invest...who says a state can't act in a similar
manner? Certainly not Beijing.

And the consequences for you and I? It's not pretty. As Derek
Scissors, a China scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation,
bluntly informed the Commission. If Scissors is right -- I have done a
lot of work on this topic and have little reason to dispute his
figures -- a Chinese decision to bail on U.S. government debt would
cause our interest rates to increase by up to 3%. You don't need a
degree in economics to understand how such a move would depress the
sale of large-ticket items. Or what it would do to the cost of
financing our current national debt. Washington's inability to ever
balance a budget is set to leave us with a $14 trillion tab by
December 2010. A 3% hike in interest rates means the taxpayers would
have to find an additional $400 billion a year just to keep the bill
collectors at bay. And that figure would continue to balloon with the
climb to $15 trillion slated to occur in 2011 and $16 trillion in
2012.

Still confused? Here's the executive summary. If the economists are
correct, China owns about 9% of our total national debt. Contrary to
popular opinion, Beijing could sell that debt with few long-term
consequences for China's economy...and likely her political
reputation. Such a move would cost you and I a fortune the next time
we considered shopping for a car or a house...and would further expand
an already outrageous national debt. Controversy can breed confusion,
but in this case it should simply generate consternation...in every
American household and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-c-anderson/rethinking-beijings-finan_b_484168.html

“…China is losing a lot of money and its economy is slowly down-
turning.”

Yasheng Huang, a professor of political economy and international
management from the MIT Sloan School of Management came to Suffolk on
Monday to talk about the dynamics and challenges of China’s economy.

The author of 2008’s Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, Huang
talked about China’s consumption decline, their rural economy and
China’s biggest challenge: rebalancing their economy.

Many products in America have “Made in China” engraved on it. This is
because China produces a lot of easy to make items, like shoes and
shirts, and sells it to nations like the United States and countries
in Western Europe.

It’s obvious that the economy in the United States is in a recession,
and that no one wants it to be where it is. Because of this recession,
we are consuming less, which means that we are consuming less products
China produces.

Since the United States is consuming less, China is losing a lot of
money and its economy is slowly down-turning. Huang believes that if
the U.S. continues to not buy as much from China, that “China’s
economy will have a lot more problems.”

Since China decided to make everything it possibly can, it has changed
the nation from a rural economy to an urban economy. People of China
have left the fields and have moved to the coastlines where they can
work in factories.

The income of a coastal migrant compared to the income of a rural
worker is three times greater. If a rural worker has the same
education and the same skills as a coastal worker, the coastal worker
still gets paid 1.5 to 2 times more.

However, there are still disadvantages of a coastal worker. Besides
having to move to the coast, there are also rarely any wage increases.
Huang said that according to a survey, “when asked in 2008, ‘what was
the first year when [the coastal worker] experienced an industrial
wage growth?’ 95 percent of the people asked said 2005.”

Wages are not increasing in China so therefore the consumption in
China is not increasing. The urbanization of China has not increased
income. In the 1980’s, China had fast Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
growth, which “has grown too fast for the good of the country,” said
Huang.

While the GDP was increasing steadily in the 1980’s in China, it
suffered tremendously in the 1990’s. Huang, who also published
“Inflation and Investment Controls in China” in 2006 and “Selling
China” in 2003, believes that China “has a difficult period to come”
and he “hopes they use this opportunity to restructure their economy.”
The most important thing to Huang, however, is that China “rebalances
their economy.”

Many students and faculty showed up for Yasheng Huang’s lecture at 20
Derne Street, who was prepared with a long presentation. However,
everyone who showed up also showed up with many questions, leaving
Huang unable to present 17 of his slides, but he laughed it off and
showed enthusiasm that so many people were interested in China’s
economy.

Ron Suleski, professor and director for the Rosenberg Institute for
East Asian Studies, was the one who asked Huang to come speak. “I’m
really grateful that [Yasheng Huang] could come today, and I think
this was a great talk,” he said as he dismissed his class and ended
the lecture.

The Asian Studies Program will also be presenting “Revisiting the
‘Google in China’ Question” tomorrow at 1:00 in Donahue 403. A
discussion will occur in depth analysis of the issues surrounding
Google in China.

http://suffolkjournal.net/2010/03/03/chinas-economy-needs-help-too/

China announces 7.5 percent increase in defense spending
By: CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press
03/03/10 9:23 PM PST

China announced Thursday a planned 7.5 percent boost in defense
spending this year, a smaller increase than expected and the first
time in more than two decades the jump has been less than double-
digits. (AP file photo)

BEIJING — China announced Thursday a planned 7.5 percent boost in
defense spending this year, a smaller increase than expected and the
first time in more than two decades the jump has been less than double-
digits.

The increase will be used to enhance China's ability "to meet various
threats," National People's Congress spokesman Li Zhaoxing told a
nationally televised news conference.

"China is committed to peaceful development and a military posture
that is defensive in nature," Li said.

He said China's defense budget of 532.11 billion yuan ($77.9 billion)
was relatively low. In recent years, the share of China defense
spending was about 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. He said the
figure in the United States exceeded 4 percent, while Britain, France
and Russia all exceeded 2 percent.

The increase over actual defense spending in 2009 was 37.12 billion
yuan, Li said. Defense spending accounts for 6.3 percent of China's
total budget, a decline from previous years, he said.

Although smaller than expected, the increase comes amid heightened
concerns about China's military plans and questions about the aims of
the armed forces' buildup. Many analysts say the official figure
accounts for only a part of actual military spending, with estimates
on the total figure ranging up to twice or more than Beijing claims.

Figures from the Information Office of the Cabinet show that China's
last single-digit percentage in defense spending was in the 1980s.

Beijing counters its spending remains in line with economic growth and
much smaller than the U.S.', both in absolute terms and as a
percentage of GDP. Officials say about one-third of spending goes to
salaries and improving living conditions for soldiers, with the rest
split between replacing equipment and military research and
development.

The defense spending figure, which is always released on the eve of
the opening of the National People's Congress, follows repeated
protests recently by Beijing over the U.S. sale of weaponry to Taiwan.
These sales are driven by threats from China to use force to bring the
island under its control, backed up by an estimated 1,300 Chinese
ballistic missiles positioned along the Taiwan Strait.

Communist-ruled China split with Taiwan amid civil war in 1949 and
continues to regard the self-governing democracy as part of its
territory. Beijing has warned of a disruption in ties with Washington
if the sale goes ahead, but has not said what specific actions it
would take.

Li said the use of Taiwan as a wedge against China by some countries
was an "unacceptable" interference in China's internal affairs.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/world/security-stepped-up-in-beijing-for-opening-of-legislative-advisory-bodys-annual-session-86148157.html

China's Bubble: No house? No bride.

Editor's note: China's Bubble is a four-part multimedia series on an
emerging threat to China's booming economy — a residential real estate
bubble, particularly in the business and finance hub of Shanghai. The
series also looks at the underlying causes of the bubble, and explores
one of Shanghai's hottest residential developments.

SHANGHAI, China — In what may be the hottest real estate market on the
planet, one fact of life seems extra cruel. In Shanghai, young women
expect their boyfriends to buy a home before proposing.

“There’s a joke that goes Shanghai women can’t find husbands because
they want a house, a car and a RMB1 million [$150,000] income,” said
28-year-old (male) sales rep Su Bei.

In truth, choosier women even go as far as to require that a spouse-to-
be have paid off the mortgage entirely before popping the question.

With prices as high as they are today, young men are under enormous
stress to accumulate enough money to get hitched. An eligible suitor
must present an adequate dowry, in the form of a home, to the bride’s
family as evidence of his suitability and ability to provide.

“I have seen many compatible couples break up because the girl’s
family disapproved of marrying a man who could not afford a house,”
said Ge, a Shanghainese broker whose daughter is in her 20s.

Though the total area of newly constructed homes sold doubled last
year in Shanghai, supply is vastly inadequate to meet the demands of
both investors looking to profit — wealthy Chinese and foreigners
descending upon Shanghai — and the 1980s baby boom generation now of
marrying age, and who would rather not move in with their parents.

Over the last five years, Shanghai’s average property prices have
doubled to a record RMB14,986 ($2,204) per square meter, according to
Shanghai’s Uwin Real Estate Information Services, far outpacing the
rise in middle class income. The average home in the city's center
costs about RMB34,638 ($5,094) per square meter — or the equivalent of
$473,216 for a 1,000 square foot condo.

For about RMB1 million ($150,000), Su Bei purchased a yet-to-be-built
90 square meter (970 square feet), two-bedroom condo last June on the
edge of Jiading District, the outermost suburb of Shanghai. As Su has
only been in the working world for about five years and was earning a
typical salary of RMB45,000 ($6,600) a year, his parents put down
about 80 percent of the down payment.

“If my parents didn’t help me out, I would never even think about
buying a home,” said Su.

Su’s parents ran the year-long home search process as well, going out
nearly every weekend to see new and recently built condos. When they
watched prices jump 20 percent in April alone, they panicked. They
called friends and, through a back door connection, jumped the waiting
line for a condo in this building.

Su’s best friend, 28-year-old Ni Ying Shi, has not bought yet, but is
sweating under the pressure from his parents and girlfriend.

“How can anyone on an average salary afford it when Shanghai housing
goes up by 50 percent every year?” said Ni, glumly.

He says he doesn’t want to be a member of the “keng lao zhu” — a term
that literally translates to “clan gnawing away at the older
generation.” It means those young folks who depend on their parents to
support them.

“I told my girlfriend, we could get a place — a smaller place, maybe
50 to 60 square meters, maybe in a building built in the 90s,” Ni
said. “If we wanted to we could manage it, but the truth is I don’t
really want to buy a house.”

“Most girls want their boyfriends to own a house,” said 24-year-old
KPMG analyst Li Meng Hua. “If he shows no sign of working toward
buying a home, then parents will say that he is not very good to you.”

Li met her boyfriend of four years in college. He is a Ph.D. student
and doesn’t yet have a home to his name, but she says that she
wouldn’t break up with him over it.

“But if we ever separate, and I date again, it would be one of the
first things I would consider before going on a date,” said Li. “This
is reality.”

Paul Schittek contributed to this article.

Read the complete "China's Bubble" series:

China's Bubble: Is real estate about to pop?
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate
China's Bubble Video: StreetLife Shanghai
http://www.globalpost.com/video/commerce/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate
China's Bubble: "Shanghai Dream
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate-development

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate-marriage

Stress on economy as China holds annual meetings
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN (AP) – 15 hours ago

BEIJING — China's top parliamentary adviser says 2010 will be critical
for maintaining growth, creating jobs, and diversifying away from
exports, underscoring the economy's central importance as the annual
legislative session prepares to open.

Beijing declared that China had emerged from the global crisis after
economic growth rebounded to 10.7 percent in the final quarter of
2009. But authorities say the global outlook is still uncertain, amid
worries that a stimulus-driven torrent of lending is adding to
inflation and fueling a dangerous bubble in stock and real estate
prices.

"The year 2010 is a crucial year for China to respond to the impact of
the global financial crisis and maintain steady and rapid economic
development," Jia Qinglin said in a speech at the opening Wednesday of
the annual gathering of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference.

Jia, the Communist Party's No. 4 ranking leader, said policies would
focus on "accelerating the transformation of the pattern of economic
development," citing the need to boost the service sector and develop
low-polluting industries.

The stress on economic measures is expected to be even more pronounced
at the annual session of the legislature, the National People's
Congress, which opens on Friday with a major address by Premier Wen
Jiabao.

This week's consultative conference, of which Jia is chairman, advises
the congress on legislation but has no decision making power.

The overlapping meetings mark the highlight of the Chinese political
calendar, laying out priorities for the rest of the year.

Along with economic policy, this year's session will give a full
airing to hot-button issues such as soaring real estate prices in many
Chinese cities.

The government, which releases a budget and work plan for the year, is
expected to boost spending on education, pensions and medical care,
continuing a push begun over the past decade to strengthen a tattered
social safety net.

While most decisions are handled by a standing committee that meets
year-round, the annual full session this year is expected to pass
legislation on safeguarding state secrets and amend a law on how
deputies are selected, correcting a disparity that gave urban Chinese
greater representation than their more numerous rural neighbors.

The communist government hails the NPC, made up of nearly 3,000 hand-
picked members, as a system of reaching consensus best suited to China
and rejects calls for a Western-style multiparty democracy.

However, many experts question the effectiveness of the NPC and CPPCC
in assuaging discontent and ensuring social stability, citing their
primary roles as backing decisions made by the top leadership.

In his speech, Jia also commented on riots last July in the far-
western Xinjiang region, where clashes between minority Turkic-
speaking Uighurs and majority Han residents in the city of Urumqi left
nearly 200 people dead and 1,600 wounded, in China's worst ethnic
unrest in decades.

"We strongly supported the party and the government in dealing with
the destructive, disruptive, violent, and criminal incidents in Urumqi
in accordance with the law," he said.

In China's other troubled minority area, Tibet, Jia said China planned
to push "leapfrog development and lasting stability." The comments
follow a high-level Communist Party conference in January that
emphasized raising rural livelihoods in Tibet, an apparent
acknowledgment that decades of investment in industry and
infrastructure have failed to endear Chinese rule to the region's
herders and farmers.

Along the sidelines, the congress will focus attention on a national
leadership transition that begins with a key Communist Party congress
in 2012.

Many of the aspirants for top jobs will seek to network among congress
participants and maximize their national media exposure.

Particular attention is being paid this year to Bo Xilai, party boss
of the western city of Chongqing, who is riding a wave of popularity
for an anti-gang crusade in which dozens of law enforcement officials
have been arrested for collusion.

Security was stepped-up in the capital Wednesday, with black-clad SWAT
teams on motorcycles and in armored vans circling Tiananmen Square,
adjacent to the Great Hall of the People where the meetings take
place.

Dissidents and groups working on sensitive social issues came under
increased pressure. AIDS activist Wan Yanhai, founder of the Beijing-
based Aizhixing Institute, said police had ordered him to cancel a
seminar Wednesday marking International Sex Worker Rights Day.

"The seminar is a perfectly normal activity; we're not opposing
anything," Wan said in a telephone interview. "It's a meeting of the
people's government, so they should let the people express
themselves."

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A paramilitary police officer stands guard in front of a portrait of
the late revolutionary leader Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, Wednesday, March. 3, 2010. Beijing is ratcheting up security
for the opening of the national legislature's annual session. (AP
Photo/Vincent Thian)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGQDE0Z2LbFGRirzDQTs81WGjXlAD9E78Q000

China's Annual Box Office Likely to Hit 10 bln yuan in Near Future
2010-03-03 18:20:53 Xinhua Web Editor: Cao

The annual film box office in China is likely to hit 10 billion yuan
(1.46 billion U.S. dollars) in a matter of several years if people in
small and medium-sized cities have easier access to cinemas, said a
cultural official Wednesday.

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The annual film box office in China is likely to hit 10 billion yuan
(1.46 billion U.S. dollars) in a matter of several years if people in
small and medium-sized cities have easier access to cinemas, said a
cultural official Wednesday.

Zhang Jianxin, deputy director of the Cultural Market Department under
the Ministry of Culture, made the remarks on the sidelines of the
annual plenary session of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which started
Wednesday afternoon.

China's record film ticket sales last year, which rose 43 percent from
2008 to exceed 6 billion yuan, mainly came from cinemas in major
cities, while markets in small and medium-sized cities, especially
those in central and western regions, are still sluggish, said Zhang,
also a member of the CPPCC National Committee, the country's top
political advisory body.

Zhang said small and medium-sized cities are where the film industry
can tap market potentials, and as long as people there are given
easier access to cinemas, the annual national box office will top 10
billion yuan.

http://english.cri.cn/6826/2010/03/03/1721s553853.htm

China’s Wen Blocked by Politics From Fixing ‘Unstable’ Economy
By Bloomberg News

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Premier Wen Jiabao calls China’s economic
growth path “unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” This
week’s annual parliament session may prove he is unable to change its
course.

Wen, 67, will give what amounts to China’s State of the Union speech
tomorrow to the National People’s Congress in Beijing. His audience
will include people who, according to analysts, disagree with some
possible measures to fix the imbalance: provincial and municipal
officials and such company heads as Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. Chairman
Zong Qinghou.

Adding to the inertia is the fact that Wen, President Hu Jintao and
other leaders are nearing the end of their tenures, said Jim McGregor,
a senior counselor in Beijing at APCO Worldwide. APCO is a public-
affairs group advising clients including China Cosco Holdings Co.,
Asia’s biggest shipping company.

“China’s in severe election mode,” McGregor said in a Bloomberg
Television interview. “They have 2 1/2 years left in their term.”
There is “a lot of jockeying for position.”

Wen says China’s growth model -- emphasizing investment, manufacturing
and exports over consumption -- is creating economic distortions. He
told an online audience on Feb. 27 that 2010 would be “the most
complicated year for the country’s economy” as the government sought
to control property prices and inflation stoked by $1.4 trillion in
new lending last year.

‘Debt-Fueled Bubble’

Wen’s view is shared by Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rogoff said on Feb. 23 that a
collapse of China’s “debt-fueled bubble” could send growth to as low
as 2 percent from last year’s 8.7 percent.

China is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to surpass Japan
in 2010 as the world’s second-largest economy and will expand 9.5
percent this year, according to the median estimate of 40 economists.
That compares with a 3 percent forecast for U.S. growth.

“Things need to change now,” said Wang Tao, a Beijing- based economist
for UBS AG, in an interview. “Later the costs will become higher and
higher.”

One remedy is an overhaul of the tax system, Wang and other economists
say, to create a dependable stream of revenue for China’s local
governments. A property tax and a sales tax could wean them from
dependence on land sales and production taxes. Land sales helped fuel
real-estate speculation and taxes on industrial production stoked
overcapacity in steel and cement as local governments built factories
regardless of whether they generated a profit.

Against It

Those measures aren’t on this year’s Congress agenda “because there
are so many people against it,” Wang said.

While a property tax isn’t likely to be implemented this year, a
timetable may be set, Hong Kong-based CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said
in a Feb. 22 research note.

Many government officials oppose the tax, fearing it will reduce the
value of their own real-estate holdings, said Arthur Kroeber, managing
director of Beijing-based Dragonomics, an economics-research firm
whose clients include hedge funds and Fortune 500 companies.

“A property tax is not suitable,” said Zong, of Hangzhou- based
Wahaha, in an interview. He is a delegate to the Congress. “There is
no need for it. It will just make houses less affordable.”

Wen is likely instead to announce measures, some of them favored by
Zong, to help ease income disparities. They may include increasing the
minimum wage and spending more on housing for poor people, CLSA said.
Such moves help promote consumption and ease economic distortion, but
they are insufficient, Wang said.

Appliance Aid

Boosting consumer spending through actions such as an expansion of
rural rebates for appliances will be a boon for Beijing-based computer
maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and Hong Kong- based television maker Skyworth
Digital Holdings Ltd., CLSA said.

Property developers including Liao Xiaoqi, a former vice minister of
commerce and the chairman of Beijing-based China World Trade Center
Co., are due to attend the annual meeting as members of China’s
political-advisory body. Leaders of state-run companies that bought
real estate with some of last year’s record $1.4 trillion in new loans
are also among the delegates.

State companies have become an increasingly powerful political force
in China, helped by government policies favorable to the large-scale
construction projects and manufacturing that they dominate. State-run
companies had sales of 22.5 trillion yuan ($3.3 trillion) and profit
of 1.3 trillion yuan last year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

“They have become very very powerful, very cash rich, and very
resistant to various kinds of reform,” Kroeber said.

Needless Factories

The result may be that Wen and Hu, 67, won’t be able to muster the
political support needed to overhaul the tax system and close down
needless factories, Wang and Kroeber say.

Wen and Hu’s 10-year tenures begin to wind down starting in late 2012,
when they step down from their Communist Party posts. Both are due to
retire from their government positions in March 2013.

“The closer that we get to the leadership transition, the more
incentive the top leaders have just to kick all the tough structural
problems down the road and let the next guys handle it,” Kroeber
said.

--Michael Forsythe. With assistance from Stephen Engle and John Liu in
Beijing. Editors: Anne Swardson, Ken Fireman

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in
Beijing at +8610-6649-7580 or mfor...@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 3, 2010 11:52 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aXZH3kF06hsY

High-speed rail spearheads China's efforts to boost economy:
legislator

English.news.cn 2010-03-03 20:42:05 FeedbackPrintRSS

BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese policymakers endeavor to whip
up domestic demand to maintain steady and rapid economic growth, Yu
Zhuomin believes he has found a right path: the high-speed rail.

"Just look at the new Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway," said Zhuo,
a deputy from central China's Hubei Province to the National People's
Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature. "Its effect on boosting
regional economic and cultural exchanges is immeasurable."

The opening of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway has accelerated
the integration of the Pearl River Delta, the country's economic power
house in the south, and the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan by
greatly shortening travel time between the regions.

Before the high-speed railway was put into use in December, it took 11
hours to travel more than 1,000 kilometers between the two cities by
train but now it takes only three hours via the express.

"To the provinces and regions that build high-speed railways, the
network has becomes a vanguard for local economy and social
development," said Yu, who is now in Beijing to attend the NPC annual
session that opens on Friday.

China currently has about 3,300 kilometers of operational high-speed
railways, on which bullet trains gallop at an average speed of 350
kmph and it plans to expand the network to 13,000 kilometers by 2012,
according to the Ministry of Railways.

As part of the 4 trillion-yuan (585.7 billion U.S. dollars) economic
stimulus package, China invested about 600 billion yuan (about 88
billion U.S. dollars) in railway construction last year, an upsurge of
80 percent.

The government has earmarked a record 823.5 billion yuan (120.7
billion U.S. dollars) for 2010 to further expand its railway network.

"The massive investment in railway construction last year fueled the
demand for 20 million tons of steel and 120 million tons of cement
while creating about 6 million jobs," said Yu, also chief of Wuhan
Railway Bureau.

Last year, China completed two long distance high-speed railways, with
one between Wuhan and Guangzhou, and the other between Zhengzhou and
Xi'an. Before that, China had built high-speed railways between
Beijing and Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan, Qingdao and Jinan,
Hefei and Wuhan, and Hefei and Nanjing.

A number of new high-speed railways are under construction or will be
finished in the coming few years, of which the Beijing-Shanghai line
has a length of 1,318 km and a designed travel speed of 350 km/h.

Railway passengers topped a record 1.53 billion last year. Cargo
transportation hit 3.32 billion tons, according to the Ministry of
Railways.

Editor: Anne Tang

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/03/c_13195984.htm

China in talks to help build economic zone in Egypt
Mar 3, 2010 12:29 PM | By Sapa-AFP

A Chinese state-backed entity is in talks to help build an investment
zone in Egypt, as the Asian giant seeks greater access to markets in
Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Cairo is negotiating with the Tianjin Economic-Technological
Development Area (TEDA) to build a similar model near the southern
approaches to the Suez Canal, the Financial Times said, citing Egypt's
investment minister.

Under Egyptian law, the Chinese entity will be allowed to take a 49
percent stake in the 1.5-billion-dollar Suez Economic Zone, it said.

"SEZone is going to be the first of its kind linked to a big
investor," the Egyptian minister, Mahmoud Mohieldin, was quoted as
saying.

"The final negotiations will hopefully be taking place very soon."

Repeated phone calls to TEDA went unanswered.

China's interest in the manufacturing-focused Suez Economic Zone may
be in part due to the large number of preferential trade agreements
that Egypt has with Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

TEDA, which has secured major investments from multinational companies
such as Akzo Nobel, IBM and Toyota, is expected to set up its first
marketing office for the new Egyptian zone in June, it said.

Mohieldin said he expected the area to attract up to 3.5 billion
dollars in investment in the first three years of operation.

In recent years China has been investing heavily in Africa and the
Middle East in return for access to natural resources needed to fuel
its energy-hungry economy.

Tarek Kamel, Egyptian minister for communications and information
technology, said China's involvement in the Suez Economic Zone would
benefit both sides.

"We want (the Chinese) to create jobs for Egyptians," Kamel was quoted
as saying.

"They can use the growth of the market and enjoy the growth but also
help us with our social-economic development."

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article335480.ece

China parliament examines growth, living standards

By Chris BuckleyPosted 2010/03/03 at 8:22 am EST

BEIJING, Mar. 3, 2010 (Reuters) — The Chinese leadership's efforts to
engineer a trouble-free succession and push both economic growth and
improved living standards in coming years move to the national
parliament from Friday.

China's President Hu Jintao (second row, 3rd R), Premier Wen Jiabao
(second row 2nd L) and other delegates sing national anthem during the
opening ceremony of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 3,
2010. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The annual full session of the National People's Congress (NPC) will
open with a report by Premier Wen Jiabao, who with President Hu Jintao
is entering the last stretch of a second five-year term steering the
world's third-biggest economy. They are due to make way to a new
generation of leaders from 2012.

Wen's speech in the Great Hall of the People will be as cautious as
the Communist Party-controlled parliament, whose 3,000-odd delegates -
officials, executives and workers and farmers -- are chosen and
trained to keep their criticisms muted.

Yet Wen's report and the 10 or so days of discussions will also
address strains worrying China, including fast-rising property prices,
income inequality and a skewing of loans and investment to projects
favored by local governments.

The attention and the backstage lobbying will give Hu and Wen, and a
younger generation of aspiring leaders, chances to put their stamp on
policy and consolidate influence, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the
East Asian Institute in Singapore.

"This year and next year are going to be very important for succession
politics and the two meetings are part of that," Zheng said, referring
to the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference,
an advisory body meeting alongside the parliament.

"The NPC is not that powerful, but it allows people to see what the
agenda is and who is setting that agenda," Zheng said. "Who controls
the policy agenda will enjoy a political advantage when it comes to
succession issues."

"YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM GROWTH"

Attention will fall on Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li
Keqiang, the favored successors to Hu and Wen respectively.

Li is leading efforts to improve health care and food safety and his
influence could be boosted by extra attention to - and possible
spending on - those issues.

Provincial leaders hoping for a spot in the next central leadership
could also court attention.

They include Bo Xilai, Party chief of Chongqing, who has orchestrated
publicity by cracking down on mafia-like gangs in the southwest city,
and Wang Yang, Party chief of the booming southern province of
Guangdong. Both have cast themselves as forward-looking leaders with a
popular touch.

Hu and Wen will also be looking to secure their influence by pushing
improvements to welfare, health care and schooling, especially for
China's 700 million-strong farming population.

"The key is that to fund these plans to improve public welfare you
need to keep increasing government revenues, and that requires
continued fast economic growth," said Mao Shoulong of the Renmin
University in Beijing.

"You can't get away from the need for growth."

The parliament may discuss proposals for spending and policy goals in
the next government five-year development plan from 2011.

Since 2003, Hu and Wen have vowed to transform China's economic model,
easing dependence on heavy industry and exports to focus on grassroots
growth and welfare.

"By ensuring those policy priorities are in the five-year plan, they
can consolidate their influence beyond retirement," said Zheng, the
Singapore-based researcher.

Their results have fallen short of ambitions. Many sectors and
officials are committed to a recipe of industrial expansion they
believe has worked and helped China escape a serious slowdown in the
global economic downturn.

"It is very difficult to get change out of a political system that
seems to be succeeding so brilliantly on its own terms," Barry
Naughton of the University of California, San Diego, wrote recently
for the China Leadership Monitor website.

Wen made a plea for his more populist plans last weekend, sympathizing
with complaints about income disparities, rising housing prices,
graduate unemployment, poor health care and registration rules
hindering movement to and between cities.

"I'll spare nothing in exerting myself on my duties until I die," he
told an online question-and-answer session. "When a society's wealth
is concentrated in the hands of a few, then it is certainly unjust,
and that society will be unstable."

State media reports have indicated that all those issues will receive
attention at the session.

But the parliament affirms rather than makes policy, which is left to
elite Party circles. Delegates suggest tweaks to settled decisions and
China watchers expect few big changes to broad economic policy,
currency management or spending priorities.

"We expect no change in the official macro policy stance, but expect
some expenditure shift in the next budget", Tao Wang, an economist
with UBS in Beijing, wrote in a report.

"We expect an increase in budgetary spending on 'livelihood' items,
including cheap rentals, subsidies to the lower-income population, and
social safety net." (Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Ron Popeski)

Copyright Reuters 2008.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre62219l-us-china-parliament/

Bloomberg

China Will Top 2009 Growth Rate This Year, Su Says (Update1)
March 03, 2010, 5:16 AM EST

(Adds 2009 growth rate in first paragraph)

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- China’s economy, the world’s third biggest,
will top last year’s 8.7 percent growth in 2010, said Su Ning, a
central bank deputy governor.

“China’s economy will perform better than last year,” Su said in an
interview outside a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference in Beijing today. He said that he was
referring to the “pace, structure and growth quality.”

Policy makers are seeking to sustain the nation’s economic rebound
while restraining inflation and preventing asset bubbles after a
record 9.59 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of lending last year. Qin
Xiao, the chairman of China Merchants Bank Co., the nation’s fifth-
largest lender by market value, said today that “it’s obvious”
interest rates will rise, and banks’ reserve requirements may also be
adjusted.

The central bank has held the one-year lending rate at 5.31 percent
since cuts in late 2008 to counter the effects of the global financial
crisis. The government has targeted 7.5 trillion yuan of lending this
year and raised lenders reserve requirements twice to cool the fastest-
growing major economy.

M2, the broad measure of money supply, rose 26 percent in January from
a year earlier, consumer prices climbed for a third month, and banks
extended 19 percent of the year’s loan target.

Su and Qin were attending an annual meeting of the body that advises
the Chinese legislature. The National People’s Congress starts its own
meeting on March 5.

--Belinda Cao. Editors: Paul Panckhurst, Joost Akkermans.

To contact the reporter on this story: Belinda Cao in Beijing at lcao4
@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brett Miller at
bmil...@bloomberg.net

More From Businessweek

BoCom to Raise Up to $6.15 Billion in China, Hong Kong Sale
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-23/bocom-to-raise-as-much-as-42-billion-yuan-in-rights-offer.html
China Economic Growth May Slow, Billionaire Zong Says (Update2)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-03/china-will-top-2009-growth-rate-this-year-su-says-update1-.html

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-03/china-will-top-2009-growth-rate-this-year-su-says-update1-.html

Economic Observer Reporters Cover the NPC and CPPCC
By Tang Xiangyang
Published: 2010-03-03 Extracted from the EO's "Two Meetings" Special
Feature
Original Chinese article posted on March 2, 2010
Original: [Chinese]

This year The Economic Observer will send four reporters to cover
China's "Two Sessions" or 两会 (liǎnghuì) in Chinese - the annual
meetings of the full sessions of both the National People's Congress
(NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC), which get under way this week.

The two journalists who will be interviewing representatives and
keeping track of all the proposals being made at the CPPCC which
opened in Beijing today are:

Zhang Xiaohui

Zhang reports for the Economic Observer's News Department and is based
in Chongqing. He joined the EO in 2006 and began by reporting for the
East China Bureau of the newspaer. He's covered major stories such as
the Shanghai social security funds scandal which brought down former
politburo member and the party head of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu. In
addition to many other stories, Zhang also reported on the serious
case of water pollution that affected residents' drinking water supply
in Jiangsu's Wuxi and Leiyang in mid-2007 and also a scandal involving
the production of fake medicine in Anhui's Fuyang.

In September 2007, he was reassigned to the paper's Southwest China
bureau to cover the developement of the reforms that are reshaping
Chengdu and Chongqing. Since arriving there, Zhang has written reports
on local government, financial institutions and listed companies. In
May 2008 he contributed a series of reports about the devastating
Sichuan earthquake.

Sun Jianfang

Sun is a senior journalist for the Economic Observer's News
Department. Sun joined the EO into 2002. During the past few years,
Sun has written many influential reports with a focus on China's
macroeconomy, securities market and property market. Sun has also co-
written a book titled as Heroes of Private Fund 《私募英雄》in 2008.

Aside from Zhang and Sun, another two EO journalists will be providing
constant reports from the National People's Congress (NPC):

Huang Liming

Huang is a senior journalist for the Economic Observer. Born in the
1980s, Huang graduated with a degree in journalism from Nanchang
University in 2003. After graduation, he worked as an intern for the
EO for half a year before landing a position with the newly-
established Beijing News. Huang returned to the EO in July 2005, and
his recent reports have focused on keeping track of listed companies
and covering China's securities market.

Liu Weixun

Liu is also a senior journalist with Economic Observer. After
graduating from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Liu Weixun worked as a journalist and editor for
International Aviation, a magazine under the administration of the
Aviation Industry Corporation of China. He joined the EO team in 2004,
writing for the the Corporation section of the newspaper and with a
focus on developments in the communications and energy fields.

Earlier this week, Zhang Xiaohui and Sun Jianfang put together the
following list of the major issues that are likely to emerge at the
"two meetings" over the coming two weeks.

The list is based on remarks made by He Shaoren, the deputy head of
the news office for the standing committee of the NPC in the lead up
to the opening of the two sessions.

1. Strengthening and improving macro-level adjustment - maintaining
the continuity and stability of China's macroeconomic policies

2. Shifting the development model and adjusting the structure of the
Chinese economy - moving ahead with plans to coordinate the
development of regional economies

3. Expanding domestic demand - strengthen the ability of consumption
to contribute to economic growth

4. Promoting technological innovation

5. Promoting energy saving and the reduction of emissions - developing
a green and low-carbon economy

6. Laying a firm foundation for solving issues related to the welfare
of agricultural workers - promoting the continuous rise of rural
income

7. In relation to the problem of income distribution, increasing the
amount of effort applied to adjusting income distribution among the
Chinese people - solving the exessive income gap problem

8. Addressing the problem of employment and reemployment

9. Improving the quality of education and promoting the balanced
development of education in urban and rural areas

10. Reforming the medical and health system and addressing the
problems raised by major public health emergencies

11. Improving the social security system and addressing the
difficulties of low-income earners

12. Speeding up the construction of government subsidized and low-cost
housing

13. Addressing current problems with production safety, social order
and stability, judicial fairness and corruption.

Links and Sources
Economic Observer: "Two Meetings" Special Feature (Chinese)

http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/homepage/briefs/2010/03/03/164127.shtml

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
How Can China Win Friends and Influence ASEAN?

OK, it's shameless self-promotion time for yours truly. In line with
my duties as a research fellow on Southeast Asia International
Affairs, I had to prepare a piece for our IDEAS newsletter which goes
out to our rather disparate stakeholders. This being more or less a
piece of academic writing, I had to tone down my usual semi-theatrics
somewhat. Yet, the themes I bring to the table in this piece entitled
"How Can China Win Friends and Influence Southeast Asia?" should be
familiar to regular blog readers: Yes, it's in China's best interests
to revalue its currency--more so if it wants to curry favour in
Southeast Asia since countries in the region are also forced to prop
up the (rather useless) greenback insofar as China pegs the yuan at
6.83 to the dollar. And yes, the US has become an also-ran in
Southeast Asia as it's at the back of the bus in terms of establishing
a free trade agreement with ASEAN. China, India, South Korea, and the
antipodean pair of Australia and New Zealand have not only done so but
their agreements are in the process of being implemented already.

I hope you find it interesting and I've actually begun trying to turn
this into a full-fledged journal article [fingers crossed]. Meanwhile,
read about what I believe China should do to improve relations with
ASEAN in...

HOW CAN CHINA WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE SOUTHEAST ASIA?

To the untrained eye, ASEAN resembles any number of other regional
alliances with collective action problems. Not only is economic
integration proceeding at a pace incommensurate with establishing a
single market by 2015, but there are also several ongoing intramural
tussles such as Thailand taking umbrage with Cambodia’s appointment of
ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser.
A closer look at ASEAN, however, reveals that one of its peculiar
strengths has been an ability to function despite the unending
cacophony of such conflicts. In ASEAN’s case, the whole is truly
greater than the sum of the parts for reasons explained here.

With few disagreements, the United States has undoubtedly played the
role of a hegemon in the region by extending a security cordon to
friendly countries and access to a huge consumer market for export
wares. However, the demise of the Cold War and the onslaught of a
subprime crisis emanating from America have caused a reappraisal of
this situation. Perhaps inevitably, the question is asked: Will China
supplant the United States as the most influential presence in
Southeast Asia? Postwar Japan has largely been regarded as a welcome
neighbour by providing generous aid to the region, but it has never
been regarded as the United States’ equal in furnishing public goods.
Although Japan cannot be disregarded altogether, China is arguably
better poised to take up the mantle of regional despite its frequent
disdain for the term “hegemony” in official discourse. That is, its
avowals of diplomatic friendship can coexist with a willingness and
ability to provide public goods to others.

Interestingly, the United States and China’s respective strengths and
weaknesses complement each other: America still controls international
financial institutions that shape economic interactions in the region
and beyond: the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, International
Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization. America’s institutional
richness in setting the rules of the game, however, is no longer
complemented by financial preponderance given the woeful state of
American finances. In addition to structurally ingrained trade
deficits, estimates conservatively place the present value of US
fiscal deficits at $56.4 trillion after including unfunded liabilities
for health care and pensions. By contrast, China’s exporting prowess
and low fiscal debt are more consistent with a country in relative
ascent. Yet, deploying this financial strength to win friends and
influence ASEAN requires that the PRC set up institutions of its own.
In this regard, it pales in comparison with the United States.

The manner in which the United States and China treat Southeast Asian
countries further informs regional dynamics. The Asian financial
crisis which preceded the current one figures large in this respect.
The United States controversially implemented “Washington Consensus”
loan conditionalities involving liberalization, privatization, and
deregulation that were believed to have exacerbated the crisis’ impact
by removing social protections in countries like Indonesia and
Thailand. When faced with its own crisis, however, the United States
has seen it fit to embark on unprecedented deliberalization,
nationalization, and reregulation to limit the fallout stateside. For
obvious reasons, commonplace perception of double standards threatens
America’s institutional standing: why were rules like the “Washington
Consensus” fit for everyone else…except Washington itself?

During the Asian financial crisis, China saw the amount of social
upheaval faulted against following IMF strictures and decided on a
path of concentrated export promotion to ensure that it would not
inherit its neighbours’ plight. China’s refusal to devalue its
currency during the height of the crisis is widely perceived as a
welcome action by Southeast Asian countries insofar as doing so would
have resulted in even more export competition during a time when these
countries were experiencing great difficulties. With China in the
lead, Asian countries have subsequently accumulated massive reserves
to guard against a recurrence of another crisis. However, with current
reserves for many Asian nations (including several in ASEAN) now being
well in excess of standards for reserve adequacy such as cover for
debts coming due within a year, this pattern has arguably become an
unhealthy one. China’s current reluctance to revalue the renminbi
forces the rest to follow suit by also purchasing reserve assets to
buoy the US dollar’s value against their own for maintaining perceived
export competitiveness vis-à-vis China. Public monies that could go
towards more socially productive activities like bolstering health and
education are thus allocated to ever-greater accumulation of reserve
assets of dubious social value.

Understandable mistrust of America stemming from the contrast between
its handling of the Asian financial crisis and the subprime crisis
gives China a golden opportunity in Southeast Asia. In speech, Chinese
leaders alike Premier Hu Jintao have alluded to weaning the PRC off
exports to subprime-hit developed economies and moving towards
domestic consumption consistent with relatively faster income growth
in Asian countries. President Wen Jiabao has even characterized
China’s current growth pattern as “unstable, unbalanced,
uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” Yet, in deed, China has shown
limited signs of moving to a more domestic focus. For example, the
PRC’s recent stimulus package has largely targeted investment for
building export capacity. Although bank lending to export industries
has just been placed under more scrutiny, this pattern is inconsistent
with China’s stated goals of rebalancing its economy. Insofar as
Southeast Asian nations perceive themselves to be threatened by
Chinese export competition, PRC lending that may result in worse
global overcapacity is unwelcome.

What, then, can China do to curry ASEAN’s favour in the economic
realm? It is a truism that the exigencies of the PRC’s political
system allow it to take a longer-term view than America. Overall,
making China more of a consumer market can reverse several undesirable
dynamics set into motion by the Asian financial crisis. A modicum of
renminbi revaluation can ease pressures on Southeast Asian countries
to accumulate large reserve holdings to keep their currencies weak as
well. Although PRC officials disdain American pressure to revalue the
renminbi, Chinese interests can still hold via a large one-off
revaluation or a gradual strengthening consistent with China’s
economic gradualism. While all concerned will likely lose some market
share from higher prices of export wares abroad, the burden will be
shared equitably. In this manner, China can actuate its oft-stated
good-neighbourliness towards fellow developing countries in the realm
of international trade.

By allowing what would have gone into reserves to go into provisioning
health and education, the region can refocus itself from an outmoded
post-Asian financial crisis economic paradigm to one based on
homegrown demand with China in the vanguard. In simple terms, it is
high time that East Asia placed its consumers’ interests ahead those
of others. Also, the resulting revaluation improves the purchasing
power of Chinese consumers, making goods from Southeast Asia more
affordable to them in a way that can help spur intraregional trade.

People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xichuan recently made overtures
towards weaning the world economy off “dollar hegemony” or the fact
that most trade is invoiced in dollars and most reserves are
denominated in the same, giving the United States unparalleled ability
to abuse the system during times of duress by making others bear its
costs of adjustment. Similarly, at a workshop on ASEAN economic
integration hosted by LSE IDEAS, Professor Shaobang Kang of the
Central Party School advised Southeast Asian nations to hasten
processes of financial and monetary integration with China. Here again
China is handicapped by its lack of clout in present institutions.
However, this situation may change given China’s long-term
perspective. Already, China has established pilot programmes enabling
trade clearing and settlement in renminbi with ASEAN countries. The
larger point is that free trade requires a free flow of currencies. At
present, though, the renminbi is not readily traded outside of China.
There are a number of ways China can hasten this eventuality—by
establishing a synthetic currency alike the IMF’s Special Drawing
Rights (SDR) albeit with greater participation; by making the renminbi
the regionally targeted currency instead of the dollar, or by
establishing a currency basket shared by the region’s economies. No
choice is likely to emerge unless China is willing and able to take up
the mantle of providing public goods to the region by expanding the
role of its currency.

To be sure, Uncle Sam may not be down and out of Southeast Asia, but
he is down nonetheless due to largely self-inflicted wounds. Having no
aspirations to regional hegemony itself, ASEAN is an attractive
partner for both the US and China and effectively serves as a
gatekeeper to the region. America’s perceived double standards and
abuse of the international monetary system for its own ends draws
ASEAN closer to China in seeking alternative arrangements for regional
growth and stability. Southeast Asia’s attention shifts to China in
the hope that it can begin to lay the groundwork for lasting growth
and stability the wider region is still searching for in the wake of
the Asian financial crisis all those years ago.

Posted by Emmanuel at 12:28 AM

On the Bookshelf

The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall by Ian
Bremmer

Good Life by Leo Hickman
http://www.librarything.com/work.php?book=55391338
http://www.librarything.com/work.php?book=13740012

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution by Peter
J. Richerson
http://www.librarything.com/work.php?book=12281053
Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang http://www.librarything.com/work.php?book=55391222

Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons
for Global Power by Niall Ferguson
http://www.librarything.com/work.php?book=56172803

powered by LibraryThing

http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-can-china-win-friends-and-influence.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

EVENING READING
3 March 2010 by TPC 0

■Deny, default or deleverage - back9

Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Deny, Default or Deleverage: The Drag of Government Debt $TLT

Dominos and Default

A default was the proximate risk for Greece, where politics makes
fiscal austerity a challenge (Greece has failed to deliver on EU
budget targets for many years), and where technical default through
inflationary money printing isn’t an option due to euro membership. In
terms of near term default risks, the domino theory has historical
precedent. After all, defaults tend to cluster, as was seen in both
Latin America in the early 1980s and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. And
while Greece is a tiny economy, Thailand isn’t exactly huge, and its
Baht plunge marked the start of a larger Asian crisis in the late
1990s.

The threat of contagion in Europe though is still low, both due to
political considerations on the part of the EU as a whole, and the
wide fiscal performance gap between Greece and some of the other so
called “PIIGS” economies (Chart 4). While Greece could plausibly reach
for the default parachute if domestic politics prevents the
implementation of deep spending cuts or tax hikes (as
well as increased enforcement), that isn’t yet a serious risk
elsewhere in the eurozone. Across the channel, or across the Atlantic,
deficits aren’t far from Greek levels in both the US and the UK. But
debt-to-GDP levels are still below where Canada’s stood in the 1990s,
and the debt is owed in domestic currency. There are cases of domestic
currency debt restructurings that amounted to
technical defaults, most recently in Jamaica. But that’s not a
realistic scenario for major economies over the next few years.

http://intelfin.blogspot.com/2010/03/deny-default-or-deleverage-drag-of.html

■MUST READ: Betting on the blind side - Michael Lewis via VF

Excerpt

Betting on the Blind Side

Michael Burry always saw the world differently—due, he believed, to
the childhood loss of one eye. So when the 32-year-old investor
spotted the huge bubble in the subprime-mortgage bond market, in 2004,
then created a way to bet against it, he wasn’t surprised that no one
understood what he was doing. In an excerpt from his new book, The Big
Short, the author charts Burry’s oddball maneuvers, his almost comical
dealings with Goldman Sachs and other banks as the market collapsed,
and the true reason for his visionary obsession.
By Michael Lewis•
Photograph by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson
April 2010

Dr. Michael Burry in his home office, in Silicon Valley. “My nature is
not to have friends,” Burry concluded years ago. “I’m happy in my own
head.”
Excerpted from The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael
Lewis, to be published this month by W. W. Norton; © 2010 by the
author.

In early 2004 a 32-year-old stock-market investor and hedge-fund
manager, Michael Burry, immersed himself for the first time in the
bond market. He learned all he could about how money got borrowed and
lent in America. He didn’t talk to anyone about what became his new
obsession; he just sat alone in his office, in San Jose, California,
and read books and articles and financial filings. He wanted to know,
especially, how subprime-mortgage bonds worked. A giant number of
individual loans got piled up into a tower. The top floors got their
money back first and so got the highest ratings from Moody’s and S&P,
and the lowest interest rate. The low floors got their money back
last, suffered the first losses, and got the lowest ratings from
Moody’s and S&P. Because they were taking on more risk, the investors
in the bottom floors received a higher rate of interest than investors
in the top floors. Investors who bought mortgage bonds had to decide
in which floor of the tower they wanted to invest, but Michael Burry
wasn’t thinking about buying mortgage bonds. He was wondering how he
might short, or bet against, subprime-mortgage bonds.

Every mortgage bond came with its own mind-numbingly tedious 130-page
prospectus. If you read the fine print, you saw that each bond was its
own little corporation. Burry spent the end of 2004 and early 2005
scanning hundreds and actually reading dozens of the prospectuses,
certain he was the only one apart from the lawyers who drafted them to
do so—even though you could get them all for $100 a year from

10kWizard.com.

The subprime-mortgage market had a special talent for obscuring what
needed to be clarified. A bond backed entirely by subprime mortgages,
for example, wasn’t called a subprime-mortgage bond. It was called an
“A.B.S.,” or “asset-backed security.” If you asked Deutsche Bank
exactly what assets secured an asset-backed security, you’d be handed
lists of more acronyms—R.M.B.S., hels, helocs, Alt-A—along with
categories of credit you did not know existed (“midprime”). R.M.B.S.
stood for “residential-mortgage-backed security.” hel stood for “home-
equity loan.” heloc stood for “home-equity line of credit.” Alt-A was
just what they called crappy subprime-mortgage loans for which they
hadn’t even bothered to acquire the proper documents—to, say, verify
the borrower’s income. All of this could more clearly be called
“subprime loans,” but the bond market wasn’t clear. “Midprime” was a
kind of triumph of language over truth. Some crafty bond-market person
had gazed upon the subprime-mortgage sprawl, as an ambitious real-
estate developer might gaze upon Oakland, and found an opportunity to
rebrand some of the turf. Inside Oakland there was a neighborhood,
masquerading as an entirely separate town, called “Rockridge.” Simply
by refusing to be called “Oakland,” “Rockridge” enjoyed higher
property values. Inside the subprime-mortgage market there was now a
similar neighborhood known as “midprime.”

But as early as 2004, if you looked at the numbers, you could clearly
see the decline in lending standards. In Burry’s view, standards had
not just fallen but hit bottom. The bottom even had a name: the
interest-only negative-amortizing adjustable-rate subprime mortgage.
You, the homebuyer, actually were given the option of paying nothing
at all, and rolling whatever interest you owed the bank into a higher
principal balance. It wasn’t hard to see what sort of person might
like to have such a loan: one with no income. What Burry couldn’t
understand was why a person who lent money would want to extend such a
loan. “What you want to watch are the lenders, not the borrowers,” he
said. “The borrowers will always be willing to take a great deal for
themselves. It’s up to the lenders to show restraint, and when they
lose it, watch out.” By 2003 he knew that the borrowers had already
lost it. By early 2005 he saw that lenders had, too.

A lot of hedge-fund managers spent time chitchatting with their
investors and treated their quarterly letters to them as a formality.
Burry disliked talking to people face-to-face and thought of these
letters as the single most important thing he did to let his investors
know what he was up to. In his quarterly letters he coined a phrase to
describe what he thought was happening: “the extension of credit by
instrument.” That is, a lot of people couldn’t actually afford to pay
their mortgages the old-fashioned way, and so the lenders were
dreaming up new financial instruments to justify handing them new
money. “It was a clear sign that lenders had lost it, constantly
degrading their own standards to grow loan volumes,” Burry said. He
could see why they were doing this: they didn’t keep the loans but
sold them to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo and the
rest, which packaged them into bonds and sold them off. The end buyers
of subprime-mortgage bonds, he assumed, were just “dumb money.” He’d
study up on them, too, but later.

He now had a tactical investment problem. The various floors, or
tranches, of subprime-mortgage bonds all had one thing in common: the
bonds were impossible to sell short. To sell a stock or bond short,
you needed to borrow it, and these tranches of mortgage bonds were
tiny and impossible to find. You could buy them or not buy them, but
you couldn’t bet explicitly against them; the market for subprime
mortgages simply had no place for people in it who took a dim view of
them. You might know with certainty that the entire subprime-mortgage-
bond market was doomed, but you could do nothing about it. You
couldn’t short houses. You could short the stocks of homebuilding
companies—Pulte Homes, say, or Toll Brothers—but that was expensive,
indirect, and dangerous. Stock prices could rise for a lot longer than
Burry could stay solvent.

A couple of years earlier, he’d discovered credit-default swaps. A
credit-default swap was confusing mainly because it wasn’t really a
swap at all. It was an insurance policy, typically on a corporate
bond, with periodic premium payments and a fixed term. For instance,
you might pay $200,000 a year to buy a 10-year credit-default swap on
$100 million in General Electric bonds. The most you could lose was $2
million: $200,000 a year for 10 years. The most you could make was
$100 million, if General Electric defaulted on its debt anytime in the
next 10 years and bondholders recovered nothing. It was a zero-sum
bet: if you made $100 million, the guy who had sold you the credit-
default swap lost $100 million. It was also an asymmetric bet, like
laying down money on a number in roulette. The most you could lose
were the chips you put on the table, but if your number came up, you
made 30, 40, even 50 times your money. “Credit-default swaps remedied
the problem of open-ended risk for me,” said Burry. “If I bought a
credit-default swap, my downside was defined and certain, and the
upside was many multiples of it.”

He was already in the market for corporate credit-default swaps. In
2004 he began to buy insurance on companies he thought might suffer in
a real-estate downturn: mortgage lenders, mortgage insurers, and so
on. This wasn’t entirely satisfying. A real-estate-market meltdown
might cause these companies to lose money; there was no guarantee that
they would actually go bankrupt. He wanted a more direct tool for
betting against subprime-mortgage lending. On March 19, 2005, alone in
his office with the door closed and the shades pulled down, reading an
abstruse textbook on credit derivatives, Michael Burry got an idea:
credit-default swaps on subprime-mortgage bonds.

The idea hit him as he read a book about the evolution of the U.S.
bond market and the creation, in the mid-1990s, at J. P. Morgan, of
the first corporate credit-default swaps. He came to a passage
explaining why banks felt they needed credit-default swaps at all. It
wasn’t immediately obvious—after all, the best way to avoid the risk
of General Electric’s defaulting on its debt was not to lend to
General Electric in the first place. In the beginning, credit-default
swaps had been a tool for hedging: some bank had loaned more than they
wanted to to General Electric because G.E. had asked for it, and they
feared alienating a long-standing client; another bank changed its
mind about the wisdom of lending to G.E. at all. Very quickly,
however, the new derivatives became tools for speculation: a lot of
people wanted to make bets on the likelihood of G.E.’s defaulting. It
struck Burry: Wall Street is bound to do the same thing with subprime-
mortgage bonds, too. Given what was happening in the real-estate market
—and given what subprime-mortgage lenders were doing—a lot of smart
people eventually were going to want to make side bets on subprime-
mortgage bonds. And the only way to do it would be to buy a credit-
default swap.

Continued (page 2 of 8)

The credit-default swap would solve the single biggest problem with
Mike Burry’s big idea: timing. The subprime-mortgage loans being made
in early 2005 were, he felt, almost certain to go bad. But, as their
interest rates were set artificially low and didn’t reset for two
years, it would be two years before that happened. Subprime mortgages
almost always bore floating interest rates, but most of them came with
a fixed, two-year “teaser” rate. A mortgage created in early 2005
might have a two-year “fixed” rate of 6 percent that, in 2007, would
jump to 11 percent and provoke a wave of defaults. The faint ticking
sound of these loans would grow louder with time, until eventually a
lot of people would suspect, as he suspected, that they were bombs.
Once that happened, no one would be willing to sell insurance on
subprime-mortgage bonds. He needed to lay his chips on the table now
and wait for the casino to wake up and change the odds of the game. A
credit-default swap on a 30-year subprime-mortgage bond was a bet
designed to last for 30 years, in theory. He figured that it would
take only three to pay off.

The only problem was that there was no such thing as a credit-default
swap on a subprime-mortgage bond, not that he could see. He’d need to
prod the big Wall Street firms to create them. But which firms? If he
was right and the housing market crashed, these firms in the middle of
the market were sure to lose a lot of money. There was no point buying
insurance from a bank that went out of business the minute the
insurance became valuable. He didn’t even bother calling Bear Stearns
and Lehman Brothers, as they were more exposed to the mortgage-bond
market than the other firms. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche
Bank, Bank of America, UBS, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup were, to his
mind, the most likely to survive a crash. He called them all. Five of
them had no idea what he was talking about; two came back and said
that, while the market didn’t exist, it might one day. Inside of three
years, credit-default swaps on subprime-mortgage bonds would become a
trillion-dollar market and precipitate hundreds of billions of losses
inside big Wall Street firms. Yet, when Michael Burry pestered the
firms in the beginning of 2005, only Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs
had any real interest in continuing the conversation. No one on Wall
Street, as far as he could tell, saw what he was seeing.

He sensed that he was different from other people before he understood
why. Before he was two years old he was diagnosed with a rare form of
cancer, and the operation to remove the tumor had cost him his left
eye. A boy with one eye sees the world differently from everyone else,
but it didn’t take long for Mike Burry to see his literal distinction
in more figurative terms. Grown-ups were forever insisting that he
should look other people in the eye, especially when he was talking to
them. “It took all my energy to look someone in the eye,” he said. “If
I am looking at you, that’s the one time I know I won’t be listening
to you.” His left eye didn’t line up with whomever he was trying to
talk to; when he was in social situations, trying to make chitchat,
the person to whom he was speaking would steadily drift left. “I don’t
really know how to stop it,” he said, “so people just keep moving left
until they’re standing way to my left, and I’m trying not to turn my
head anymore. I end up facing right and looking left with my good eye,
through my nose.”

His glass eye, he assumed, was the reason that face-to-face
interaction with other people almost always ended badly for him. He
found it maddeningly difficult to read people’s nonverbal signals, and
their verbal signals he often took more literally than they meant
them. When trying his best, he was often at his worst. “My compliments
tended not to come out right,” he said. “I learned early that if you
compliment somebody it’ll come out wrong. For your size, you look
good. That’s a really nice dress: it looks homemade.” The glass eye
became his private explanation for why he hadn’t really fit in with
groups. The eye oozed and wept and required constant attention. It
wasn’t the sort of thing other kids ever allowed him to be unself-
conscious about. They called him cross-eyed, even though he wasn’t.
Every year they begged him to pop his eye out of its socket—but when
he complied, it became infected and disgusting and a cause of further
ostracism.

In his glass eye he found the explanation for other traits peculiar to
himself. His obsession with fairness, for example. When he noticed
that pro basketball stars were far less likely to be called for
traveling than lesser players, he didn’t just holler at the refs. He
stopped watching basketball altogether; the injustice of it killed his
interest in the sport. Even though he was ferociously competitive,
well built, physically brave, and a good athlete, he didn’t care for
team sports. The eye helped to explain this, as most team sports were
ball sports, and a boy with poor depth perception and limited
peripheral vision couldn’t very well play ball sports. He tried hard
at the less ball-centric positions in football, but his eye popped out
if he hit someone too hard. He preferred swimming, as it required
virtually no social interaction. No teammates. No ambiguity. You just
swam your time and you won or you lost.

After a while even he ceased to find it surprising that he spent most
of his time alone. By his late 20s he thought of himself as the sort
of person who didn’t have friends. He’d gone through Santa Teresa High
School, in San Jose, U.C.L.A., and Vanderbilt University School of
Medicine, and created not a single lasting bond. What friendships he
did have were formed and nurtured in writing, by e mail; the two
people he considered to be true friends he had known for a combined 20
years but had met in person a grand total of eight times. “My nature
is not to have friends,” he said. “I’m happy in my own head.” Somehow
he’d married twice. His first wife was a woman of Korean descent who
wound up living in a different city (“She often complained that I
appeared to like the idea of a relationship more than living the
actual relationship”) and his second, to whom he was still married,
was a Vietnamese-American woman he’d met on Match.com. In his
Match.com profile, he described himself frankly as “a medical resident
with only one eye, an awkward social manner, and $145,000 in student
loans.” His obsession with personal honesty was a cousin to his
obsession with fairness.

Obsessiveness—that was another trait he came to think of as peculiar
to himself. His mind had no temperate zone: he was either possessed by
a subject or not interested in it at all. There was an obvious
downside to this quality—he had more trouble than most faking interest
in other people’s concerns and hobbies, for instance—but an upside,
too. Even as a small child he had a fantastic ability to focus and
learn, with or without teachers. When it synched with his interests,
school came easy for him—so easy that, as an undergraduate at
U.C.L.A., he could flip back and forth between English and economics
and pick up enough pre-medical training on the side to get himself
admitted to the best medical schools in the country. He attributed his
unusual powers of concentration to his lack of interest in human
interaction, and his lack of interest in human interaction … well, he
was able to argue that basically everything that happened was caused,
one way or the other, by his fake left eye.

This ability to work and to focus set him apart even from other
medical students. In 1998, as a resident in neurology at Stanford
Hospital, he mentioned to his superiors that, between 14-hour hospital
shifts, he had stayed up two nights in a row taking apart and putting
back together his personal computer in an attempt to make it run
faster. His superiors sent him to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed Mike
Burry as bipolar. He knew instantly he’d been misdiagnosed: how could
you be bipolar if you were never depressed? Or, rather, if you were
depressed only while doing your rounds and pretending to be interested
in practicing, as opposed to studying, medicine? He’d become a doctor
not because he enjoyed medicine but because he didn’t find medical
school terribly difficult. The actual practice of medicine, on the
other hand, either bored or disgusted him. Of his first brush with
gross anatomy: “one scene with people carrying legs over their
shoulders to the sink to wash out the feces just turned my stomach,
and I was done.” Of his feeling about the patients: “I wanted to help
people—but not really.”

Continued (page 3 of 8)

He was genuinely interested in computers, not for their own sake but
for their service to a lifelong obsession: the inner workings of the
stock market. Ever since grade school, when his father had shown him
the stock tables at the back of the newspaper and told him that the
stock market was a crooked place and never to be trusted, let alone
invested in, the subject had fascinated him. Even as a kid he had
wanted to impose logic on this world of numbers. He began to read
about the market as a hobby. Pretty quickly he saw that there was no
logic at all in the charts and graphs and waves and the endless
chatter of many self-advertised market pros. Then along came the dot-
com bubble and suddenly the entire stock market made no sense at all.
“The late 90s almost forced me to identify myself as a value investor,
because I thought what everybody else was doing was insane,” he said.
Formalized as an approach to financial markets during the Great
Depression by Benjamin Graham, “value investing” required a tireless
search for companies so unfashionable or misunderstood that they could
be bought for less than their liquidation value. In its simplest form,
value investing was a formula, but it had morphed into other things—
one of them was whatever Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham’s student and
the most famous value investor, happened to be doing with his money.

Burry did not think investing could be reduced to a formula or learned
from any one role model. The more he studied Buffett, the less he
thought Buffett could be copied. Indeed, the lesson of Buffett was: To
succeed in a spectacular fashion you had to be spectacularly unusual.
“If you are going to be a great investor, you have to fit the style to
who you are,” Burry said. “At one point I recognized that Warren
Buffett, though he had every advantage in learning from Ben Graham,
did not copy Ben Graham, but rather set out on his own path, and ran
money his way, by his own rules.… I also immediately internalized the
idea that no school could teach someone how to be a great investor. If
it were true, it’d be the most popular school in the world, with an
impossibly high tuition. So it must not be true.”

Investing was something you had to learn how to do on your own, in
your own peculiar way. Burry had no real money to invest, but he
nevertheless dragged his obsession along with him through high school,
college, and medical school. He’d reached Stanford Hospital without
ever taking a class in finance or accounting, let alone working for
any Wall Street firm. He had maybe $40,000 in cash, against $145,000
in student loans. He had spent the previous four years working medical-
student hours. Nevertheless, he had found time to make himself a
financial expert of sorts. “Time is a variable continuum,” he wrote to
one of his e-mail friends one Sunday morning in 1999: “An afternoon
can fly by or it can take 5 hours. Like you probably do, I
productively fill the gaps that most people leave as dead time. My
drive to be productive probably cost me my first marriage and a few
days ago almost cost me my fiancée. Before I went to college the
military had this ‘we do more before 9am than most people do all day’
and I used to think I do more than the military. As you know there are
some select people that just find a drive in certain activities that
supersedes everything else.” Thinking himself different, he didn’t
find what happened to him when he collided with Wall Street nearly as
bizarre as it was.

Late one night in November 1996, while on a cardiology rotation at
Saint Thomas Hospital, in Nashville, Tennessee, he logged on to a
hospital computer and went to a message board called techstocks.com.
There he created a thread called “value investing.” Having read
everything there was to read about investing, he decided to learn a
bit more about “investing in the real world.” A mania for Internet
stocks gripped the market. A site for the Silicon Valley investor,
circa 1996, was not a natural home for a sober-minded value investor.
Still, many came, all with opinions. A few people grumbled about the
very idea of a doctor having anything useful to say about investments,
but over time he came to dominate the discussion. Dr. Mike Burry—as he
always signed himself—sensed that other people on the thread were
taking his advice and making money with it.

Once he figured out he had nothing more to learn from the crowd on his
thread, he quit it to create what later would be called a blog but at
the time was just a weird form of communication. He was working 16-
hour shifts at the hospital, confining his blogging mainly to the
hours between midnight and three in the morning. On his blog he posted
his stock-market trades and his arguments for making the trades.
People found him. As a money manager at a big Philadelphia value fund
said, “The first thing I wondered was: When is he doing this? The guy
was a medical intern. I only saw the nonmedical part of his day, and
it was simply awesome. He’s showing people his trades. And people are
following it in real time. He’s doing value investing—in the middle of
the dot-com bubble. He’s buying value stocks, which is what we’re
doing. But we’re losing money. We’re losing clients. All of a sudden
he goes on this tear. He’s up 50 percent. It’s uncanny. He’s uncanny.
And we’re not the only ones watching it.”

Mike Burry couldn’t see exactly who was following his financial moves,
but he could tell which domains they came from. In the beginning his
readers came from EarthLink and AOL. Just random individuals. Pretty
soon, however, they weren’t. People were coming to his site from
mutual funds like Fidelity and big Wall Street investment banks like
Morgan Stanley. One day he lit into Vanguard’s index funds and almost
instantly received a cease-and-desist letter from Vanguard’s
attorneys. Burry suspected that serious investors might even be acting
on his blog posts, but he had no clear idea who they might be. “The
market found him,” says the Philadelphia mutual-fund manager. “He was
recognizing patterns no one else was seeing.”

By the time Burry moved to Stanford Hospital, in 1998, to take up his
residency in neurology, the work he had done between midnight and
three in the morning had made him a minor but meaningful hub in the
land of value investing. By this time the craze for Internet stocks
was completely out of control and had infected the Stanford University
medical community. “The residents in particular, and some of the
faculty, were captivated by the dot-com bubble,” said Burry. “A decent
minority of them were buying and discussing everything—Polycom, Corel,
Razorfish, Pets.com, TibCo, Microsoft, Dell, Intel are the ones I
specifically remember, but areyoukiddingme.com was how my brain
filtered a lot of it I would just keep my mouth shut, because I didn’t
want anybody there knowing what I was doing on the side. I felt I
could get in big trouble if the doctors there saw I wasn’t 110 percent
committed to medicine.”

People who worry about seeming sufficiently committed to medicine
probably aren’t sufficiently committed to medicine. The deeper he got
into his medical career, the more Burry felt constrained by his
problems with other people in the flesh. He had briefly tried to hide
in pathology, where the people had the decency to be dead, but that
didn’t work. (“Dead people, dead parts. More dead people, more dead
parts. I thought, I want something more cerebral.”)

He’d moved back to San Jose, buried his father, remarried, and been
misdiagnosed as bipolar when he shut down his Web site and announced
he was quitting neurology to become a money manager. The chairman of
the Stanford department of neurology thought he’d lost his mind and
told him to take a year to think it over, but he’d already thought it
over. “I found it fascinating and seemingly true,” he said, “that if I
could run a portfolio well, then I could achieve success in life, and
that it wouldn’t matter what kind of person I was perceived to be,
even though I felt I was a good person deep down.” His $40,000 in
assets against $145,000 in student loans posed the question of exactly
what portfolio he would run. His father had died after another
misdiagnosis: a doctor had failed to spot the cancer on an X-ray, and
the family had received a small settlement. The father disapproved of
the stock market, but the payout from his death funded his son into
it. His mother was able to kick in $20,000 from her settlement, his
three brothers kicked in $10,000 each of theirs. With that, Dr.
Michael Burry opened Scion Capital. (As a teen he’d loved the book The
Scions of Shannara.) He created a grandiose memo to lure people not
related to him by blood. “The minimum net worth for investors should
be $15 million,” it said, which was interesting, as it excluded not
only himself but basically everyone he’d ever known.

Continued (page 4 of 8)

As he scrambled to find office space, buy furniture, and open a
brokerage account, he received a pair of surprising phone calls. The
first came from a big investment fund in New York City, Gotham
Capital. Gotham was founded by a value-investment guru named Joel
Greenblatt. Burry had read Greenblatt’s book You Can Be a Stock Market
Genius. (“I hated the title but liked the book.”) Greenblatt’s people
told him that they had been making money off his ideas for some time
and wanted to continue to do so—might Mike Burry consider allowing
Gotham to invest in his fund? “Joel Greenblatt himself called,” said
Burry, “and said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you to leave medicine.’”
Gotham flew Burry and his wife to New York—and it was the first time
Michael Burry had flown to New York or flown first-class—and put him
up in a suite at the Intercontinental Hotel.

On his way to his meeting with Greenblatt, Burry was racked with the
anxiety that always plagued him before face-to-face encounters with
people. He took some comfort in the fact that the Gotham people seemed
to have read so much of what he had written. “If you read what I wrote
first, and then meet me, the meeting goes fine,” he said. “People who
meet me who haven’t read what I wrote—it almost never goes well. Even
in high school it was like that—even with teachers.” He was a walking
blind taste test: you had to decide if you approved of him before you
laid eyes on him. In this case he was at a serious disadvantage, as he
had no clue how big-time money managers dressed. “He calls me the day
before the meeting,” says one of his e-mail friends, himself a
professional money manager. “And he asks, ‘What should I wear?’ He
didn’t own a tie. He had one blue sports coat, for funerals.” This was
another quirk of Mike Burry’s. In writing, he presented himself
formally, even a bit stuffily, but he dressed for the beach. Walking
to Gotham’s office, he panicked and ducked into a Tie Rack and bought
a tie. He arrived at the big New York money-management firm as
formally attired as he had ever been in his entire life to find its
partners in T-shirts and sweatpants. The exchange went something like
this: “We’d like to give you a million dollars.” “Excuse me?” “We want
to buy a quarter of your new hedge fund. For a million dollars.” “You
do?” “Yes. We’re offering a million dollars.” “After tax!”

Somehow Burry had it in his mind that one day he wanted to be worth a
million dollars, after tax. At any rate, he’d just blurted that last
bit out before he fully understood what they were after. And they gave
it to him! At that moment, on the basis of what he’d written on his
blog, he went from being an indebted medical resident with a net worth
of minus $105,000 to a millionaire with a few outstanding loans. Burry
didn’t know it, but it was the first time Joel Greenblatt had done
such a thing. “He was just obviously this brilliant guy, and there
aren’t that many of them,” says Greenblatt.

Shortly after that odd encounter, he had a call from the insurance
holding company White Mountain. White Mountain was run by Jack Byrne,
a member of Warren Buffett’s inner circle, and they had spoken to
Gotham Capital. “We didn’t know you were selling part of your firm,”
they said—and Burry explained that he hadn’t realized it either until
a few days earlier, when someone offered a million dollars, after tax,
for it. It turned out that White Mountain, too, had been watching
Michael Burry closely. “What intrigued us more than anything was that
he was a neurology resident,” says Kip Oberting, then at White
Mountain. “When the hell was he doing this?” From White Mountain he
extracted $600,000 for another piece of his fund, plus a promise to
send him $10 million to invest. “And yes,” said Oberting, “he was the
only person we found on the Internet and cold-called and gave him
money.”

In Dr. Mike Burry’s first year in business, he grappled briefly with
the social dimension of running money. “Generally you don’t raise any
money unless you have a good meeting with people,” he said, “and
generally I don’t want to be around people. And people who are with me
generally figure that out.” When he spoke to people in the flesh, he
could never tell what had put them off, his message or his person.
Buffett had had trouble with people, too, in his youth. He’d used a
Dale Carnegie course to learn how to interact more profitably with his
fellow human beings. Mike Burry came of age in a different money
culture. The Internet had displaced Dale Carnegie. He didn’t need to
meet people. He could explain himself online and wait for investors to
find him. He could write up his elaborate thoughts and wait for people
to read them and wire him their money to handle. “Buffett was too
popular for me,” said Burry. “I won’t ever be a kindly grandfather
figure.”

This method of attracting funds suited Mike Burry. More to the point,
it worked. He’d started Scion Capital with a bit more than a million
dollars—the money from his mother and brothers and his own million,
after tax. Right from the start, Scion Capital was madly, almost
comically successful. In his first full year, 2001, the S&P 500 fell
11.88 percent. Scion was up 55 percent. The next year, the S&P 500
fell again, by 22.1 percent, and yet Scion was up again: 16 percent.
The next year, 2003, the stock market finally turned around and rose
28.69 percent, but Mike Burry beat it again—his investments rose by 50
percent. By the end of 2004, Mike Burry was managing $600 million and
turning money away. “If he’d run his fund to maximize the amount he
had under management, he’d have been running many, many billions of
dollars,” says a New York hedge-fund manager who watched Burry’s
performance with growing incredulity. “He designed Scion so it was bad
for business but good for investing.”

Thus when Mike Burry went into business he disapproved of the typical
hedge-fund manager’s deal. Taking 2 percent of assets off the top, as
most did, meant the hedge-fund manager got paid simply for amassing
vast amounts of other people’s money. Scion Capital charged investors
only its actual expenses—which typically ran well below 1 percent of
the assets. To make the first nickel for himself, he had to make
investors’ money grow. “Think about the genesis of Scion,” says one of
his early investors. “The guy has no money and he chooses to forgo a
fee that any other hedge fund takes for granted. It was unheard of.”

By the middle of 2005, over a period in which the broad stock-market
index had fallen by 6.84 percent, Burry’s fund was up 242 percent, and
he was turning away investors. To his swelling audience, it didn’t
seem to matter whether the stock market rose or fell; Mike Burry found
places to invest money shrewdly. He used no leverage and avoided
shorting stocks. He was doing nothing more promising than buying
common stocks and nothing more complicated than sitting in a room
reading financial statements. Scion Capital’s decision-making
apparatus consisted of one guy in a room, with the door closed and the
shades down, poring over publicly available information and data on 10-
K Wizard. He went looking for court rulings, deal completions, and
government regulatory changes—anything that might change the value of
a company.

As often as not, he turned up what he called “ick” investments. In
October 2001 he explained the concept in his letter to investors: “Ick
investing means taking a special analytical interest in stocks that
inspire a first reaction of ‘ick.’” A court had accepted a plea from a
software company called the Avanti Corporation. Avanti had been
accused of stealing from a competitor the software code that was the
whole foundation of Avanti’s business. The company had $100 million in
cash in the bank, was still generating $100 million a year in free
cash flow—and had a market value of only $250 million! Michael Burry
started digging; by the time he was done, he knew more about the
Avanti Corporation than any man on earth. He was able to see that even
if the executives went to jail (as five of them did) and the fines
were paid (as they were), Avanti would be worth a lot more than the
market then assumed. To make money on Avanti’s stock, however, he’d
probably have to stomach short-term losses, as investors puked up
shares in horrified response to negative publicity.

Continued (page 5 of 8)

“That was a classic Mike Burry trade,” says one of his investors. “It
goes up by 10 times, but first it goes down by half.” This isn’t the
sort of ride most investors enjoy, but it was, Burry thought, the
essence of value investing. His job was to disagree loudly with
popular sentiment. He couldn’t do this if he was at the mercy of very
short-term market moves, and so he didn’t give his investors the
ability to remove their money on short notice, as most hedge funds
did. If you gave Scion your money to invest, you were stuck for at
least a year.

Investing well was all about being paid the right price for risk.
Increasingly, Burry felt that he wasn’t. The problem wasn’t confined
to individual stocks. The Internet bubble had burst, and yet house
prices in San Jose, the bubble’s epicenter, were still rising. He
investigated the stocks of homebuilders and then the stocks of
companies that insured home mortgages, like PMI. To one of his friends—
a big-time East Coast professional investor—he wrote in May 2003 that
the real-estate bubble was being driven ever higher by the irrational
behavior of mortgage lenders who were extending easy credit. “You just
have to watch for the level at which even nearly unlimited or
unprecedented credit can no longer drive the [housing] market higher,”
he wrote. “I am extremely bearish, and feel the consequences could
very easily be a 50% drop in residential real estate in the U.S.…A
large portion of current [housing] demand at current prices would
disappear if only people became convinced that prices weren’t rising.
The collateral damage is likely to be orders of magnitude worse than
anyone now considers.”

On May 19, 2005, Mike Burry did his first subprime-mortgage deals. He
bought $60 million of credit-default swaps from Deutsche Bank—$10
million each on six different bonds. “The reference securities,” these
were called. You didn’t buy insurance on the entire subprime-mortgage-
bond market but on a particular bond, and Burry had devoted himself to
finding exactly the right ones to bet against. He likely became the
only investor to do the sort of old-fashioned bank credit analysis on
the home loans that should have been done before they were made. He
was the opposite of an old-fashioned banker, however. He was looking
not for the best loans to make but the worst loans—so that he could
bet against them. He analyzed the relative importance of the loan-to-
value ratios of the home loans, of second liens on the homes, of the
location of the homes, of the absence of loan documentation and proof
of income of the borrower, and a dozen or so other factors to
determine the likelihood that a home loan made in America circa 2005
would go bad. Then he went looking for the bonds backed by the worst
of the loans.

It surprised him that Deutsche Bank didn’t seem to care which bonds he
picked to bet against. From their point of view, so far as he could
tell, all subprime-mortgage bonds were the same. The price of
insurance was driven not by any independent analysis but by the
ratings placed on the bond by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. If he
wanted to buy insurance on the supposedly riskless triple-A-rated
tranche, he might pay 20 basis points (0.20 percent); on the riskier,
A-rated tranches, he might pay 50 basis points (0.50 percent); and on
the even less safe, triple-B-rated tranches, 200 basis points—that is,
2 percent. (A basis point is one-hundredth of one percentage point.)
The triple-B-rated tranches—the ones that would be worth zero if the
underlying mortgage pool experienced a loss of just 7 percent—were
what he was after. He felt this to be a very conservative bet, which
he was able, through analysis, to turn into even more of a sure thing.
Anyone who even glanced at the prospectuses could see that there were
many critical differences between one triple-B bond and the next—the
percentage of interest-only loans contained in their underlying pool
of mortgages, for example. He set out to cherry-pick the absolute
worst ones and was a bit worried that the investment banks would catch
on to just how much he knew about specific mortgage bonds, and adjust
their prices.

Once again they shocked and delighted him: Goldman Sachs e-mailed him
a great long list of crappy mortgage bonds to choose from. “This was
shocking to me, actually,” he says. “They were all priced according to
the lowest rating from one of the big-three ratings agencies.” He
could pick from the list without alerting them to the depth of his
knowledge. It was as if you could buy flood insurance on the house in
the valley for the same price as flood insurance on the house on the
mountaintop.

The market made no sense, but that didn’t stop other Wall Street firms
from jumping into it, in part because Mike Burry was pestering them.
For weeks he hounded Bank of America until they agreed to sell him $5
million in credit-default swaps. Twenty minutes after they sent their
e-mail confirming the trade, they received another back from Burry:
“So can we do another?” In a few weeks Mike Burry bought several
hundred million dollars in credit-default swaps from half a dozen
banks, in chunks of $5 million. None of the sellers appeared to care
very much which bonds they were insuring. He found one mortgage pool
that was 100 percent floating-rate negative-amortizing mortgages—where
the borrowers could choose the option of not paying any interest at
all and simply accumulate a bigger and bigger debt until, presumably,
they defaulted on it. Goldman Sachs not only sold him insurance on the
pool but sent him a little note congratulating him on being the first
person, on Wall Street or off, ever to buy insurance on that
particular item. “I’m educating the experts here,” Burry crowed in an
e-mail.

He wasn’t wasting a lot of time worrying about why these supposedly
shrewd investment bankers were willing to sell him insurance so
cheaply. He was worried that others would catch on and the opportunity
would vanish. “I would play dumb quite a bit,” he said, “making it
seem to them like I don’t really know what I’m doing. ‘How do you do
this again?’ ‘Oh, where can I find that information?’ or ‘Really?’—
when they tell me something really obvious.” It was one of the fringe
benefits of living for so many years essentially alienated from the
world around him: he could easily believe that he was right and the
world was wrong.

The more Wall Street firms jumped into the new business, the easier it
became for him to place his bets. For the first few months, he was
able to short, at most, $10 million at a time. Then, in late June
2005, he had a call from someone at Goldman Sachs asking him if he’d
like to increase his trade size to $100 million a pop. “What needs to
be remembered here,” he wrote the next day, after he’d done it, “is
that this is $100 million. That’s an insane amount of money. And it
just gets thrown around like it’s three digits instead of nine.”

By the end of July he owned credit-default swaps on $750 million in
subprime-mortgage bonds and was privately bragging about it. “I
believe no other hedge fund on the planet has this sort of investment,
nowhere near to this degree, relative to the size of the portfolio,”
he wrote to one of his investors, who had caught wind that his hedge-
fund manager had some newfangled strategy. Now he couldn’t help but
wonder who exactly was on the other side of his trades—what madman
would be selling him so much insurance on bonds he had handpicked to
explode? The credit-default swap was a zero-sum game. If Mike Burry
made $100 million when the subprime-mortgage bonds he had handpicked
defaulted, someone else must have lost $100 million. Goldman Sachs
made it clear that the ultimate seller wasn’t Goldman Sachs. Goldman
Sachs was simply standing between insurance buyer and insurance seller
and taking a cut.

The willingness of whoever this person was to sell him such vast
amounts of cheap insurance gave Mike Burry another idea: to start a
fund that did nothing but buy insurance on subprime-mortgage bonds. In
a $600 million fund that was meant to be picking stocks, his bet was
already gargantuan, but if he could raise the money explicitly for
this new purpose, he could do many billions more. In August he wrote a
proposal for a fund he called Milton’s Opus and sent it out to his
investors. (“The first question was always ‘What’s Milton’s Opus?’”
He’d say, “Paradise Lost,” but that usually just raised another
question.) Most of them still had no idea that their champion stock
picker had become so diverted by these esoteric insurance contracts
called credit-default swaps. Many wanted nothing to do with it; a few
wondered if this meant that he was already doing this sort of thing
with their money.

Continued (page 6 of 8)

Instead of raising more money to buy credit-default swaps on subprime-
mortgage bonds, he wound up making it more difficult to keep the ones
he already owned. His investors were happy to let him pick stocks on
their behalf, but they almost universally doubted his ability to
foresee big macro-economic trends. And they certainly didn’t see why
he should have any special insight into the multi-trillion-dollar
subprime-mortgage-bond market. Milton’s Opus died a quick death.

In October 2005, in his letter to investors, Burry finally came
completely clean and let them know that they owned at least a billion
dollars in credit-default swaps on subprime-mortgage bonds. “Sometimes
markets err big time,” he wrote. “Markets erred when they gave America
Online the currency to buy Time Warner. They erred when they bet
against George Soros and for the British pound. And they are erring
right now by continuing to float along as if the most significant
credit bubble history has ever seen does not exist. Opportunities are
rare, and large opportunities on which one can put nearly unlimited
capital to work at tremendous potential returns are even more rare.
Selectively shorting the most problematic mortgage-backed securities
in history today amounts to just such an opportunity.”

In the second quarter of 2005, credit-card delinquencies hit an all-
time high—even though house prices had boomed. That is, even with this
asset to borrow against, Americans were struggling more than ever to
meet their obligations. The Federal Reserve had raised interest rates,
but mortgage rates were still effectively falling—because Wall Street
was finding ever more clever ways to enable people to borrow money.
Burry now had more than a billion-dollar bet on the table and couldn’t
grow it much more unless he attracted a lot more money. So he just
laid it out for his investors: the U.S. mortgage-bond market was huge,
bigger than the market for U.S. Treasury notes and bonds. The entire
economy was premised on its stability, and its stability in turn
depended on house prices continuing to rise. “It is ludicrous to
believe that asset bubbles can only be recognized in hindsight,” he
wrote. “There are specific identifiers that are entirely recognizable
during the bubble’s inflation. One hallmark of mania is the rapid rise
in the incidence and complexity of fraud.… The FBI reports mortgage-
related fraud is up fivefold since 2000.” Bad behavior was no longer
on the fringes of an otherwise sound economy; it was its central
feature. “The salient point about the modern vintage of housing-
related fraud is its integral place within our nation’s institutions,”
he added.

When his investors learned that their money manager had actually put
their money directly where his mouth had long been, they were not
exactly pleased. As one investor put it, “Mike’s the best stock picker
anyone knows. And he’s doing … what?” Some were upset that a guy they
had hired to pick stocks had gone off to pick rotten mortgage bonds
instead; some wondered, if credit-default swaps were such a great
deal, why Goldman Sachs would be selling them; some questioned the
wisdom of trying to call the top of a 70-year housing cycle; some
didn’t really understand exactly what a credit-default swap was, or
how it worked. “It has been my experience that apocalyptic forecasts
on the U.S. financial markets are rarely realized within limited
horizons,” one investor wrote to Burry. “There have been legitimate
apocalyptic cases to be made on U.S. financial markets during most of
my career. They usually have not been realized.” Burry replied that
while it was true that he foresaw Armageddon, he wasn’t betting on it.
That was the beauty of credit-default swaps: they enabled him to make
a fortune if just a tiny fraction of these dubious pools of mortgages
went bad.

Inadvertently, he’d opened up a debate with his own investors, which
he counted among his least favorite activities. “I hated discussing
ideas with investors,” he said, “because I then become a Defender of
the Idea, and that influences your thought process.” Once you became
an idea’s defender, you had a harder time changing your mind about it.
He had no choice: among the people who gave him money there was pretty
obviously a built-in skepticism of so-called macro thinking. “I have
heard that White Mountain would rather I stick to my knitting,” he
wrote, testily, to his original backer, “though it is not clear to me
that White Mountain has historically understood what my knitting
really is.” No one seemed able to see what was so plain to him: these
credit-default swaps were all part of his global search for value. “I
don’t take breaks in my search for value,” he wrote to White Mountain.
“There is no golf or other hobby to distract me. Seeing value is what
I do.”

When he’d started Scion, he told potential investors that, because he
was in the business of making unfashionable bets, they should evaluate
him over the long term—say, five years. Now he was being evaluated
moment to moment. “Early on, people invested in me because of my
letters,” he said. “And then, somehow, after they invested, they
stopped reading them.” His fantastic success attracted lots of new
investors, but they were less interested in the spirit of his
enterprise than in how much money he could make them quickly. Every
quarter, he told them how much he’d made or lost from his stock picks.
Now he had to explain that they had to subtract from that number these
& subprime-mortgage-bond insurance premiums. One of his New York
investors called and said ominously, “You know, a lot of people are
talking about withdrawing funds from you.” As their funds were
contractually stuck inside Scion Capital for some time, the investors’
only recourse was to send him disturbed-sounding e-mails asking him to
justify his new strategy. “People get hung up on the difference
between +5% and -5% for a couple of years,” Burry replied to one
investor who had protested the new strategy. “When the real issue is:
over 10 years who does 10% or better annually? And I firmly believe
that to achieve that advantage on an annual basis, I have to be able
to look out past the next couple of years.… I have to be steadfast in
the face of popular discontent if that’s what the fundamentals tell
me.” In the five years since he had started, the S&P 500, against
which he was measured, was down 6.84 percent. In the same period, he
reminded his investors, Scion Capital was up 242 percent. He assumed
he’d earned the rope to hang himself. He assumed wrong. “I’m building
breathtaking sand castles,” he wrote, “but nothing stops the tide from
coming and coming and coming.”

Oddly, as Mike Burry’s investors grew restive, his Wall Street
counterparties took a new and envious interest in what he was up to.
In late October 2005, a subprime trader at Goldman Sachs called to ask
him why he was buying credit-default swaps on such very specific
tranches of subprime-mortgage bonds. The trader let it slip that a
number of hedge funds had been calling Goldman to ask “how to do the
short housing trade that Scion is doing.” Among those asking about it
were people Burry had solicited for Milton’s Opus—people who had
initially expressed great interest. “These people by and large did not
know anything about how to do the trade and expected Goldman to help
them replicate it,” Burry wrote in an e-mail to his C.F.O. “My
suspicion is Goldman helped them, though they deny it.” If nothing
else, he now understood why he couldn’t raise money for Milton’s Opus.
“If I describe it enough it sounds compelling, and people think they
can do it for themselves,” he wrote to an e-mail confidant. “If I
don’t describe it enough, it sounds scary and binary and I can’t raise
the capital.” He had no talent for selling.

Now the subprime-mortgage-bond market appeared to be unraveling. Out
of the blue, on November 4, Burry had an e-mail from the head subprime
guy at Deutsche Bank, a fellow named Greg Lippmann. As it happened,
Deutsche Bank had broken off relations with Mike Burry back in June,
after Burry had been, in Deutsche Bank’s view, overly aggressive in
his demands for collateral. Now this guy calls and says he’d like to
buy back the original six credit-default swaps Scion had bought in
May. As the $60 million represented a tiny slice of Burry’s portfolio,
and as he didn’t want any more to do with Deutsche Bank than Deutsche
Bank wanted to do with him, he sold them back, at a profit. Greg
Lippmann wrote back hastily and ungrammatically, “Would you like to
give us some other bonds that we can tell you what we will pay you.”

Continued (page 7 of 8)

Greg Lippmann of Deutsche Bank wanted to buy his billion dollars in
credit-default swaps! “Thank you for the look Greg,” Burry replied.
“We’re good for now.” He signed off, thinking, How strange. I haven’t
dealt with Deutsche Bank in five months. How does Greg Lippmann even
know I own this giant pile of credit-default swaps?

Three days later he heard from Goldman Sachs. His saleswoman, Veronica
Grinstein, called him on her cell phone instead of from the office
phone. (Wall Street firms now recorded all calls made from their
trading desks.) “I’d like a special favor,” she asked. She, too,
wanted to buy some of his credit-default swaps. “Management is
concerned,” she said. They thought the traders had sold all this
insurance without having any place they could go to buy it back. Could
Mike Burry sell them $25 million of the stuff, at really generous
prices, on the subprime-mortgage bonds of his choosing? Just to
placate Goldman management, you understand. Hanging up, he pinged Bank
of America, on a hunch, to see if they would sell him more. They
wouldn’t. They, too, were looking to buy. Next came Morgan Stanley—
again out of the blue. He hadn’t done much business with Morgan
Stanley, but evidently Morgan Stanley, too, wanted to buy whatever he
had. He didn’t know exactly why all these banks were suddenly so keen
to buy insurance on subprime-mortgage bonds, but there was one obvious
reason: the loans suddenly were going bad at an alarming rate. Back in
May, Mike Burry was betting on his theory of human behavior: the loans
were structured to go bad. Now, in November, they were actually going
bad.

The next morning, Burry opened The Wall Street Journal to find an
article explaining how alarming numbers of adjustable-rate mortgage
holders were falling behind on their payments, in their first nine
months, at rates never before seen. Lower-middle-class America was
tapped out. There was even a little chart to show readers who didn’t
have time to read the article. He thought, The cat’s out of the bag.
The world’s about to change. Lenders will raise their standards;
rating agencies will take a closer look; and no dealers in their right
mind will sell insurance on subprime-mortgage bonds at anything like
the prices they’ve been selling it. “I’m thinking the lightbulb is
going to pop on and some smart credit officer is going to say, ‘Get
out of these trades,’” he said. Most Wall Street traders were about to
lose a lot of money—with perhaps one exception. Mike Burry had just
received another e-mail, from one of his own investors, that suggested
that Deutsche Bank might have been influenced by his one-eyed view of
the financial markets: “Greg Lippmann, the head [subprime-mortgage]
trader at Deutsche Bank[,] was in here the other day,” it read. “He
told us that he was short 1 billion dollars of this stuff and was
going to make ‘oceans’ of money (or something to that effect.) His
exuberance was a little scary.”

By February 2007, subprime loans were defaulting in record numbers,
financial institutions were less steady every day, and no one but Mike
Burry seemed to recall what he’d said and done. He had told his
investors that they might need to be patient—that the bet might not
pay off until the mortgages issued in 2005 reached the end of their
teaser-rate period. They had not been patient. Many of his investors
mistrusted him, and he in turn felt betrayed by them. At the beginning
he had imagined the end, but none of the parts in between. “I guess I
wanted to just go to sleep and wake up in 2007,” he said. To keep his
bets against subprime-mortgage bonds, he’d been forced to fire half
his small staff, and dump billions of dollars’ worth of bets he had
made against the companies most closely associated with the subprime-
mortgage market. He was now more isolated than he’d ever been. The
only thing that had changed was his explanation for it.

Not long before, his wife had dragged him to the office of a Stanford
psychologist. A pre-school teacher had noted certain worrying
behaviors in their four-year-old son, Nicholas, and suggested he
needed testing. Nicholas didn’t sleep when the other kids slept. He
drifted off when the teacher talked at any length. His mind seemed
“very active.” Michael Burry had to resist his urge to take offense.
He was, after all, a doctor, and he suspected that the teacher was
trying to tell them that he had failed to diagnose attention-deficit
disorder in his own son. “I had worked in an A.D.H.D. clinic during my
residency and had strong feelings that this was overdiagnosed,” he
said. “That it was a ‘savior’ diagnosis for too many kids whose
parents wanted a medical reason to drug their children, or to explain
their kids’ bad behavior.” He suspected his son was a bit different
from the other kids, but different in a good way. “He asked a ton of
questions,” said Burry. “I had encouraged that, because I always had a
ton of questions as a kid, and I was frustrated when I was told to be
quiet.” Now he watched his son more carefully and noted that the
little boy, while smart, had problems with other people. “When he did
try to interact, even though he didn’t do anything mean to the other
kids, he’d somehow tick them off.” He came home and told his wife,
“Don’t worry about it! He’s fine!”

His wife stared at him and asked, “How would you know?”

To which Dr. Michael Burry replied, “Because he’s just like me! That’s
how I was.”

Their son’s application to several kindergartens met with quick
rejections, unaccompanied by explanations. Pressed, one of the schools
told Burry that his son suffered from inadequate gross and fine motor
skills. “He had apparently scored very low on tests involving art and
scissor use,” said Burry. “Big deal, I thought. I still draw like a
four-year-old, and I hate art.” To silence his wife, however, he
agreed to have their son tested. “It would just prove he’s a smart
kid, an ‘absentminded genius.’”

Instead, the tests administered by a child psychologist proved that
their child had Asperger’s syndrome. A classic case, she said, and
recommended that he be pulled from the mainstream and sent to a
special school. And Dr. Michael Burry was dumbstruck: he recalled
Asperger’s from med school, but vaguely. His wife now handed him the
stack of books she had accumulated on autism and related disorders. On
top were The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome, by a clinical
psychologist named Tony Attwood, and Attwood’s Asperger’s Syndrome: A
Guide for Parents and Professionals.

“Marked impairment in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviors such as
eye-to-eye gaze … ” Check. “Failure to develop peer relationships … ”
Check. “A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests,
or achievements with other people … ” Check. “Difficulty reading the
social/emotional messages in someone’s eyes … ” Check. “A faulty
emotion regulation or control mechanism for expressing anger … ”
Check. “One of the reasons why computers are so appealing is not only
that you do not have to talk or socialize with them, but that they are
logical, consistent and not prone to moods. Thus they are an ideal
interest for the person with Asperger’s Syndrome … ” Check. “Many
people have a hobby.… The difference between the normal range and the
eccentricity observed in Asperger’s Syndrome is that these pursuits
are often solitary, idiosyncratic and dominate the person’s time and
conversation.” Check … Check …Check.

After a few pages, Michael Burry realized that he was no longer
reading about his son but about himself. “How many people can pick up
a book and find an instruction manual for their life?” he said. “I
hated reading a book telling me who I was. I thought I was different,
but this was saying I was the same as other people. My wife and I were
a typical Asperger’s couple, and we had an Asperger’s son.” His glass
eye no longer explained anything; the wonder is that it ever had. How
did a glass eye explain, in a competitive swimmer, a pathological fear
of deep water—the terror of not knowing what lurked beneath him? How
did it explain a childhood passion for washing money? He’d take dollar
bills and wash them, dry them off with a towel, press them between the
pages of books, and then stack books on top of those books—all so he
might have money that looked “new.” “All of a sudden I’ve become this
caricature,” said Burry. “I’ve always been able to study up on
something and ace something really fast. I thought it was all
something special about me. Now it’s like ‘Oh, a lot of Asperger’s
people can do that.’ Now I was explained by a disorder.”

He resisted the news. He had a gift for finding and analyzing
information on the subjects that interested him intensely. He always
had been intensely interested in himself. Now, at the age of 35, he’d
been handed this new piece of information about himself—and his first
reaction to it was to wish he hadn’t been given it. “My first thought
was that a lot of people must have this and don’t know it,” he said.
“And I wondered, Is this really a good thing for me to know at this
point? Why is it good for me to know this about myself?”

He went and found his own psychologist to help him sort out the effect
of his syndrome on his wife and children. His work life, however,
remained uninformed by the new information. He didn’t alter the way he
made investment decisions, for instance, or the way he communicated
with his investors. He didn’t let his investors know of his disorder.
“I didn’t feel it was a material fact that had to be disclosed,” he
said. “It wasn’t a change. I wasn’t diagnosed with something new. It’s
something I’d always had.” On the other hand, it explained an awful
lot about what he did for a living, and how he did it: his obsessive
acquisition of hard facts, his insistence on logic, his ability to
plow quickly through reams of tedious financial statements. People
with Asperger’s couldn’t control what they were interested in. It was
a stroke of luck that his special interest was financial markets and
not, say, collecting lawn-mower catalogues. When he thought of it that
way, he realized that complex modern financial markets were as good as
designed to reward a person with Asperger’s who took an interest in
them. “Only someone who has Asperger’s would read a subprime-mortgage-
bond prospectus,” he said.

I the spring of 2007, something changed—though at first it was hard to
see what it was. On June 14, the pair of subprime-mortgage-bond hedge
funds effectively owned by Bear Stearns were in freefall. In the
ensuing two weeks, the publicly traded index of triple-B-rated
subprime-mortgage bonds fell by nearly 20 percent. Just then Goldman
Sachs appeared to Burry to be experiencing a nervous breakdown. His
biggest positions were with Goldman, and Goldman was newly unable, or
unwilling, to determine the value of those positions, and so could not
say how much collateral should be shifted back and forth. On Friday,
June 15, Burry’s Goldman Sachs saleswoman, Veronica Grinstein,
vanished. He called and e-mailed her, but she didn’t respond until
late the following Monday—to tell him that she was “out for the day.”

“This is a recurrent theme whenever the market moves our way,” wrote
Burry. “People get sick, people are off for unspecified reasons.”

On June 20, Grinstein finally returned to tell him that Goldman Sachs
had experienced “systems failure.”

That was funny, Burry replied, because Morgan Stanley had said more or
less the same thing. And his salesman at Bank of America claimed
they’d had a “power outage.”

“I viewed these ‘systems problems’ as excuses for buying time to sort
out a mess behind the scenes,” he said. The Goldman saleswoman made a
weak effort to claim that, even as the index of subprime-mortgage
bonds collapsed, the market for insuring them hadn’t budged. But she
did it from her cell phone, rather than the office line. (Grinstein
didn’t respond to e-mail and phone requests for comment.)

They were caving. All of them. At the end of every month, for nearly
two years, Burry had watched Wall Street traders mark his positions
against him. That is, at the end of every month his bets against
subprime bonds were mysteriously less valuable. The end of every month
also happened to be when Wall Street traders sent their profit-and-
loss statements to their managers and risk managers. On June 29, Burry
received a note from his Morgan Stanley salesman, Art Ringness, saying
that Morgan Stanley now wanted to make sure that “the marks are fair.”
The next day, Goldman followed suit. It was the first time in two
years that Goldman Sachs had not moved the trade against him at the
end of the month. “That was the first time they moved our marks
accurately,” he notes, “because they were getting in on the trade
themselves.” The market was finally accepting the diagnosis of its own
disorder.

It was precisely the moment he had told his investors, back in the
summer of 2005, that they only needed to wait for. Crappy mortgages
worth nearly $400 billion were resetting from their teaser rates to
new, higher rates. By the end of July his marks were moving rapidly in
his favor—and he was reading about the genius of people like John
Paulson, who had come to the trade a year after he had. The Bloomberg
News service ran an article about the few people who appeared to have
seen the catastrophe coming. Only one worked as a bond trader inside a
big Wall Street firm: a formerly obscure asset-backed-bond trader at
Deutsche Bank named Greg Lippmann. The investor most conspicuously
absent from the Bloomberg News article—one who had made $100 million
for himself and $725 million for his investors—sat alone in his
office, in Cupertino, California. By June 30, 2008, any investor who
had stuck with Scion Capital from its beginning, on November 1, 2000,
had a gain, after fees and expenses, of 489.34 percent. (The gross
gain of the fund had been 726 percent.) Over the same period the S&P
500 returned just a bit more than 2 percent.

Michael Burry clipped the Bloomberg article and e-mailed it around the
office with a note: “Lippmann is the guy that essentially took my idea
and ran with it. To his credit.” His own investors, whose money he was
doubling and more, said little. There came no apologies, and no
gratitude. “Nobody came back and said, ‘Yeah, you were right,’” he
said. “It was very quiet. It was extremely quiet.”

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/04/wall-street-excerpt-201004

http://pragcap.com/evening-reading-88

[chhotemianinshallah]

Commentary

7 Reasons the Bulls to Run in March
By Jon Markman 03/03/10 - 06:23 AM EST

Stock quotes in this article: SII , SLB

With all the talk about debt, deficits and value destruction in the
news lately, I figured you could stand to hear something positive for
a change. So with thanks to the analysts at ISI Group in New York,
here are some strengths in the U.S. and global economy to put into
your mix of thoughts:

7. The Recovery Is Just Getting Started: The past nine economic
expansions have lasted 62 months on average. We are probably now in
only the eighth month of the current expansion. (An expansion starts
when a recession ends.) 6. We Have Years of Growth Ahead: The last
expansion, from late 2002 to mid-2007, was 73 months, or slightly
longer than average. Other recent expansions included 120 months
(1991-2000); 1983-1990 (92 months); 1980-81 (12 months); 1975-1979 (58
months); 1971-1973 (36 months); 1961-1969 (106 months). So you can
see, most are multiyear affairs.

5. Yes, the Labor Market Is Improving: Unemployment may be stagnant,
but on a trailing 12-month average basis, it is improving quite a bit,
which is how investors tend to see it. (The one-month snapshots are
deceiving). As the labor market improves, retail sales are turning up,
and as retail sales turn up, the labor market has improved. That's
another one of those virtuous cycles.

To help make sure you are in the stocks that are rising in this
environment, following are my top five stocks for March.

Layoff announcements have declined to a new low. Again, as the labor
market has improved, oil prices have increased, helping to explain the
sharp +89% annualized increase in the rig count and last week's
purchase of Smith International(SII Quote) by Schlumberger(SLB Quote).
As the rig count has risen, layoffs in the oil patch have diminished.
That's another virtuous cycle.

4. Exports Up Even on a Strong Dollar: U.S. goods exports are up 36%
annualized in the last six months. Exports to emerging-market
countries, which account for more than half of U.S. exports, have
surged at a 42% annualized rate, led by Mexico and China. Exports to
developed countries are up 31% annualized, led by Canada and the
United Kingdom. And this is all with the dollar trading strongly
compared to the euro and other currencies. Naturally, a lot of those
exports reflect the global swing higher in inventory after huge
drawdowns in 2009, but they are also powering big recoveries in other
countries besides the U.S., with Russia, Mexico and Korea seeing among
the most prominent rise in exports, at +79%, 55% and 40%,
respectively.

3. China Is Still Red Hot: Although the Chinese stock markets remain
under pressure due to a tightening of money, ISI's survey of Chinese
sales rose last month to the highest level in a year and a half. Last
week saw a surge in Chinese vehicle sales and purchases of U.S.
goods.

2. China Is Not the Only Booming Region: While the global recovery
from the 2008-09 wipeout is solid, some countries are posting much
better results than others as successful sets of actions are
differentiating themselves. This is called an "asynchronous" recovery
by economists. The best real GDP reports in the fourth quarter came
from China, +9.9%; Indonesia, +5.9%; U.S., +5.7%; Japan, +4.6%;
Philippines, +3.8%; France, +1.9%. Among the worst: Latvia, -8.9%;
Greece, -3.9%; Czech Republic, -3.1%; Spain, -0.7%. 1. Attitudes Are
Improving: Optimism is spreading, which is important as confidence is
a huge part of spending by both countries and individuals. USA Today
reported last week that nearly two-thirds of Americans call their
outlook for the United States over the next 20 years optimistic, and
more than six in 10 say today's youth will have a better life than
their parents. Meanwhile, the Business Council reported that top U.S.
executives say their companies are aggressively planning to grow,
according to a Reuters story. And Business Week reported that U.S.
executives are boosting earnings estimates at their fastest pace since
2002.

I love listing this news, as it helps to explain why investors retain
their resilience. But I would be remiss if I did not also point out
that so far bank loan officers don't seem to share in the positive
vibe. Declining bank loans in the U.S. and flat lending in Europe help
explain why money growth is sluggish in both regions, according to ISI
analysis. Weak money growth will pose a big problem for economic
activity, as companies and individuals simply must have more access to
reasonable amounts of credit -- not crazy amounts, just what used to
be considered normal -- to grow.

The strange and unexplained element in all this is that short-term
interest rates have never been essentially zero for the biggest
borrowers as they are now. And when I say never, I mean going back to
at least the 1700s, according to analysts at Grant's Interest Rate
Observer. Pessimists could say that if you can't get an unbelievably
strong recovery when rates are at zero, then how are you going to get
even a modest recovery when rates begin to rise, as they are now.
We'll leave that very good question for another day.

For now we'll just conclude that growth is robust enough to support at
least a modest recovery over the next year, and that well-run
companies facing global demand should continue to attract investors'
interest enough to keep the market chugging forward.

Expectations for that growth will be uneven and exasperating at times,
as in the last month, which means our eyes should remain on the
horizon rather than at our feet. That's what makes this a very tricky
period in which to be successful as an investor, as gains will come in
spurts and will be interspersed with some harrowing declines. Stay
positive and focused, and roll with the punches.

4 Comments

ekaneti

This overly optimistic piece is very light on any real analysis. Even
Brian Westbury (AKA Mr Sunshine) provides hard data to support his V
shaped recovery scenarios.

1. Consumption is 70% of GDP: Problem from WW2 up until the late 1990s
C= 62-65% of GDP. G has grown from 20% to 25% of GDP in just two
years. That doesnt leave much room for Investment (I). A nation that
consumes and spends at the govt level and neglects business I will not
have a long run levle of growth that will be very high

2. Since 1997 all consumption growth has come from consumers borrowing
against rising asset values. That isnt happening any more. To make
matters worse, the savings rate fell to 3% in Feb from 4% in Sep and
7% in May 2009. Where is future consumption going to come from?

3. Debt at the household level has fallen back only to mid 2007
levels. It needs to fall back to 2001 levels in order to have a
lasting recovery.

4. Budget deficit. The author poop poops the deficit but it is 10% of
GDP. Like I mentioned above households are saving only 3% and foreign
borrowing (trade deficit) is about 4%. That isnt enough to cover the
federal budget deficit. The shortfall is being made up by banks buying
treasuries and the Fed conducting OMOs. The Treasury is now totally
dependent on the Fed and banks buying treasuries rather than lending
to businesses.

5. The author maker 0% interest rates seem like a good thing. They
ARENT. What 0% rates will do is completely distort risk taking and
will result in a massive misallocation of capital. Kinda like ultra-
low rates in 2002-06 did for housing. Only this time it is worse.

Even Brian Westbury (AKA Mr Sunshine) says this recovery wont be long
lasting and will likely be inflationary. What we are seeing now is a
cyclical recovery based on artificial stimulus and cheap money. It
isnt sustainable. Structurally, the US economy is in worse shape that
it has ever been as the beginning of an economic expansion.

By ekaneti on 3/3/10 5:42 PM | Neutral

dkdshie

i know the news would like you to believe the stock market will crash
forever but it wont, alot of bad news already baked into the market
and the market has been dropping for three + years already. we are
generally on an upward trend until people really start believing it,
then we will be at the top By dkdshie on 3/3/10 2:09 PM | -2 Votes

jakebarnes

I wish you were right, I also wish I could fly.
For each "upbeat" item you list there is a proviso or a caveat
included. Just the wall of worry or a real tidal wave about to crush
investors? By jakebarnes on 3/3/10 1:29 PM | + 1 Vote

screwedincal

Another person ignoring the debt of cities, states and countries! Oh,
must be in the STOCK MARKET! Lets keep goosing the goose! By
screwedincal on 3/3/10 12:27 PM | + 2 Votes

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10693712/1/7-reasons-the-bulls-to-run-in-march.html?kval=dontmiss

UP AND DOWN WALL STREET | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010 The Case for Bonds
By RANDALL W. FORSYTH

Despite a spate of bad press recently, bonds aren't as risky as their
critics make them out to be.

BONDS HAVE BEEN GETTING worse press than Toyota recently. You can't
pick up a financial publication these days that doesn't ominously warn
of rising interest rates and how they will decimate the fixed-income
investments to which individual investors have been flocking.

"The Big Bond Bubble" is spied in last month's Smart Money magazine
(which, like Barrons.com, is published by Dow Jones, a unit of News
Corp.) "Investors have bought bonds like they've been going out of
style. But things could turn ugly fast," the monthly contends.

Similarly, Smart Money columnist James B. Stewart similarly warns
investors to "Prepare Your Portfolio for Higher Rates," which
"typically ravage the value of fixed-income assets like bonds."

And Monday's Wall Street Journal quotes a money manager that "bonds
could be among the worst-performing investments this year."

But a few bond pros beg to differ.

Rising interest rates remain a forecast and not a certainty. Even if
the Federal Reserve begins to push up its short-term policy rates
from, that doesn't necessarily translate into significantly higher
yields -- and therefore lower prices -- for intermediate- and long-
term bonds.

The bear case for bonds would appear to be obvious. The Fed at some
point will raise its target rate for overnight federal funds from the
current rock-bottom range of 0-0.25%. Even though the central bank has
said it intends to keep the fed-funds target at very low levels "for
an extended period" -- which would extend well into the second half of
the year -- some increase eventually is inevitable. Indeed,
maintaining a near-zero policy rate already risks a rise in inflation.

Moreover, the Fed is due to wind down its purchases of $1.25 trillion
in mortgage-backed securities issued by federal agencies Fannie Mae
(FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) along with buys of $175 billion of direct
agency obligations. Meantime, the massive federal deficit means the
Treasury will be spewing out trillions of dollars of bills, notes and
bonds annually for as far as the eye can see. The quantity of state
and local debt is going up while its quality is deteriorating because
of their well-advertised fiscal problems. And while corporations'
balance sheets are in good shape, their bonds' margin of safety have
shriveled as yields have plunged.

Robert Kessler, who heads the eponymously named Kessler Investment
Advisors of Denver, takes issue with the assertion that big budget
deficits will raise interest rates or that inflation poses a clear and
present threat. Big budget deficits have been empirically associated
with falling bond yields, as during early 1980s.

Indeed, the quarter-century downtrend in the Treasury 10-year yield
remains intact, he continues. Despite the reversal in this benchmark
yield last year, from a low of 2% at the depths of the credit panic to
nearly 4%, a chart shows the downward sloping channel stretching back
to 1985 has not been violated. Moreover, since inflation and interest
rates historically don't bottom until two years or more after the end
of a recession, still lower lows are possible, Kessler concludes.

Even if the Fed were to raise the funds rate, bond-market veteran
James Kochan of Wells Fargo points out that does not necessarily
translate into an equivalent increase in bond yields.

In the past 30 years, there were six instances of Fed tightenings, and
in five of them, the yield curve was quite steep; that is, the graph
of interest rates of increasing maturities had sharply upward slope.
In those cases, the funds rate was increased by 100% (in other words,
doubled), while the yield on the two-year Treasury note was 40%.

For the 10- and 30-year maturities, the yield increased averaged only
8% and 5%, respectively. In three of the cycles -- 1987, 1999 and 2004
-- the 30-year bond yield remained essentially unchanged.

On an absolute basis, Kochan continues, the current yield curve with a
450 basis-point (4.5 percentage point) difference between the three-
month bill and 30-year bond yield. But with short-term rates pinned
nearly at zero, the long bond yields 45 times as much as the bill, a
far cry from 1992, when the bond yielded 2.5 times as much as the
bill. As a result, he contends, the yield curve should flatten at
least as much as in past cycles.

If the two-year note yield were to rise to 3%, from 0.8% currently,
the 10- and 30-year yields might rise 50 and 25 basis points,
respectively, to 4.1% and 4.8%. Over a two-year time frame, the total
return of the two-year note would be 1%, 2.75% for the five-year note,
4% for the 10-year note and 5.75% for the long bond, Kochan estimates.

"To be sure, there is no guarantee that this Fed tightening cycle will
mimic the previous cycles, but history strongly suggests that
investors who now hold only 'safe' positions in cash substitutes will
earn far less over the next year or two than those who own the longer
maturities or funds in both the taxable and municipal markets," says
Kochan.

While the very steep yield curve already incorporates expectations of
higher interest rates, investors needing both current income and
stability of principal face a tradeoff between the two. No longer can
a retiree or a small school or church endowment count on 4% or 5% on a
certificate of deposit to meet those dual goals. Now, to cite Will
Rogers' aphorism, they have to choose between return on capital and
return of capital.

Highly rated funds that juggle those two, often-conflicting goals
include Sit U.S. Government Securities (SNGVX), which carries
Morningstar's highest, four-star rating. The fund has a 4.19% yield
from a portfolio of mainly agency MBS with a duration under two years.
Translation: it has low credit and interest-rate risk. RidgeWorth
Intermediate Bond (SAMIX), which gets four stars from Morningstar, has
lower risk than its peers with high returns.

Investors who sit in cash may think they're passively sitting on the
sidelines. But, as Kessler points out, accepting nil returns on cash
equivalents actually is an active decision to forego current returns
in favor of higher yields and lower bond prices in the future. Given
the near-zero short-term rates and the steep yield curve, the
opportunity cost is steep.

.Comments: randall...@barrons.com

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126756452820554659.html?mod=BOL_hpp_dc

Greece - From Hard Money to Fool's GoldAxel Merk, March 2, 2010

When Greece invented the Olympic Games in 776 BC, the top prize was an
olive wreath, not gold. And in those days, Greece sought out the top
runners, rather than compete for a discipline not approved by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC): governmental financial
engineering.

If we only brought the original Olympic spirit back, maybe we could
solve the world’s challenges. During the ancient Games, Olympic Truce
stopped wars to allow safe travel for athletes. Not long after
inventing the Olympic Games, Greece was the world’s first country to
establish democracy in 508 BC. Not long thereafter, after a series of
finds, precious metals spread throughout Greece in the 5th century BC.
The following centuries represented an era of price stability and
resulting prosperity, not seen before, not since: after. Athens
managed to gain universal acceptance of their silver coins, by taking
every precaution to maintain their integrity: “Even in times of tragic
national disaster, when the treasury was empty and Attica occupied by
an enemy, Athens refused to debase this silver coinage. As a
consequence, the Athenian owl became current in all markets and an
article for export. It remained a most acceptable currency throughout
the Mediterranean for 600 years.” 1Indeed, our firm’s logo is inspired
by the ancient Athenian owl.

While ancient Greece may have had sound money, the “good old days” had
their share of challenges. Athens, just like any modern city, also
spent too much. Stoically, Athens refused to take on debt; direct
taxes were not an option as they were considered servile; however,
Athens imposed a capital levy to fill its coffers. While it was more
common to accumulate treasures as war chests, Greek states outside of
Athens frequently borrowed money, albeit they had a reputation for
being rather arbitrary with creditors. States often relied on wealthy
individuals as guarantors (“foreloaners”) to lower their cost of
borrowing. Some Greek states became creative financial engineers to
raise money, one of them promising 10% interest in perpetuity on loans
from citizens (the first perpetuities).

Let’s fast forward to this century. Like most countries, Greece spent
a great deal of money before and throughout the financial crisis.
Governments have started to realize that financing all this debt costs
money – and they are shocked. Stronger countries, like the U.S., are
borrowing trillions in the market this year, crowding out access to
credit for smaller countries. As of this writing, the U.S. government
pays 3.64% to borrow money for 10 years; in the eurozone, Germany
3.11%; France 3.40%; Spain 3.90%; Italy 4.03%; Greece 6.64%.

Merk Insights provide the Merk Perspective on currencies, global
imbalances, the trade deficit, the socio-economic impact of the U.S.
administration's policies and more.

Read past Merk Insights

Let’s take a step back to understand the dynamics playing out in how
countries cope with the rising debt burden; it should become apparent
that Greece is not the only country striving for gold in financial
engineering. Countries have different constraints on how to spend
money, but the common theme throughout the world – and throughout
history – is that it is far easier to ratchet up than to rein in
spending:

•Keeping spending in check in the U.S. is as difficult as anywhere:
the “pay-as-you-go” rules in place when Robert Rubin was Treasury
Secretary under Clinton were thrown out the window when they were no
longer convenient. The rule stipulated that new spending programs may
only be put in place when other spending programs are cancelled or new
revenue sources created. The recently re-introduced pay-go rule only
has PR appeal, but no substance. More importantly, the U.S. budget has
become increasingly inflexible, as the discretionary portion of the
budget has shrank to just 12% of the total government’s budget these
days. As far as creative accounting is concerned, the U.S. is a clear
leader in creating off balance sheet vehicles. The government
sponsored entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both put into
‘conservatorship’ in the summer of 2008 were well known off balance
sheet vehicles where government debt is shielded from the public; only
after extensive negotiations with the General Accounting Office (GAO)
was the GSE debt formally added to the national deficit.

The most powerful off-balance sheet vehicle is the Federal Reserve;
when the Fed “prints” money, it does not show up as new debt; in Fed
talk, the “resources of the Federal Reserve” are employed to provide
support to the markets. As a percentage of pre-crisis levels, the
U.S., U.K and Sweden were the leaders in printing money. Note that the
European Central Bank did not make it to the winner’s podium in this
contest, but was relatively restrained.

•When faced with a logjam in parliament and an inability to print
money, states become creative. California with its dysfunctional
budgeting process (a two thirds majority is needed to pass the budget)
has in the past issued IOUs; those expecting tax refunds are easy
targets for such maneuvers.

In the current budget negotiations, California is getting even more
creative: governor Schwarzenegger has proposed to replace the sales
tax on gasoline with an excise tax. The reason? Sales tax revenue
flows into California’s General Fund and is subject to minimum
spending requirements on education (52-55 percent of California’s
General Fund is spent on education); by reclassifying the tax, cuts in
education could be implemented without violating state laws. However,
unlike most creative accounting, this maneuver is designed to reduce
rather than expand government spending.

•In the eurozone, member countries have committed themselves, amongst
others, to run budget deficits no larger then 3% of the respective
Gross Domestic Product (GDP); and if they can’t achieve that goal, the
countries need to produce a plan showing the path they intend to take
to return to this level in due course. While the U.S. faces an
unsustainable 11% deficit this year, the eurozone’s deficit is closer
to 6% (Greece’s deficit is about 12%). Germany just announced it had a
3.3% deficit last year.

While everyone has been beating up on Greece, other European countries
– large and small - have also engaged in rather creative accounting.
The most obvious one may be the many privatizations we saw a decade
ago. The sale of government property is counted as revenue and
qualifies to meet the eurozone budget criteria. Of course, these sales
are one off events, but nevertheless, they helped to fill big holes in
government budgets.

Greece is a special case, if only because any published statistics are
highly unreliable (for example, Greece ‘forgot’ to include billions of
debt owed by government owned hospitals in its statistics). Well
publicized by now are Greece’s swap arrangements with a dozen
investment banks; these arrangements allowed Greece to postpone
recognizing expenditures. Goldman Sachs has since said these swap
agreements had only negligible impact on Greece’s deficit statistics;
if they were so insignificant, one has to wonder why Goldman Sachs
alone has been paid hundreds of millions to set up the swaps.

Like California, Greece cannot print its own money; California is
stuck with the U.S. dollar; Greece is stuck with the euro. Except that
Greek officials wouldn’t take no for an answer and found a loophole to
print their own money anyway. To understand what happened, here’s a
crash course on how to print money. In the U.S., it’s quite simple:
the Federal Reserve buys a security – anything, really, – from a bank
and gives them cash in return. That cash is an entry on the balance
sheet of the Fed and the bank – voila, that’s it, money has been
‘virtually’ printed. Often these purchases are not permanent in
nature, but constitute short-term financing operations where cash is
provided by the central bank overnight (these days for longer periods
as well).

The “anything” has to be qualified: the Fed is not in the business of
taking on credit risk. As a result, the Fed traditionally has bought
only government bonds; the credit crisis has watered down the
definition of what the Fed may buy, but it remains committed to the
principle.

In Europe, there is no central government that issues its own debt.
When the European Central Bank (ECB) hands out cash, it is in return
for qualifying collateral. Traditionally, government bonds of eurozone
governments have been accepted. As a result, when the Greek government
would issue debt, a bank that bought the debt could exchange it for
cash. For Greece, this mechanism proved too tempting. While Greece
can’t directly print its own money, it could coerce a local bank to
buy its bonds; this bank can then deposit the bonds with the ECB in
return for a ‘pre-approved’ loan. The overall setup is more complex
and involved – you guessed it – Goldman Sachs and the National Bank of
Greece (NBG), a Greek private bank, were instrumental in the process.
In a complex series of arrangements, a special purpose subsidiary of
NBG, Titlos, facilitated access to €5.1 billion for Greece.

Axel Merk's book, Sustainable Wealth: Achieve Financial Security in a
Volatile World of Debt and Consumption is available now.

While everyone seems to have been calling for the end of the eurozone,
we have been far more optimistic than most. The reason is that while
everyone seems to be cheating left and right, that’s certainly not a
European, but a global characteristic. At least Europe has a process
to encourage fiscal restraint – in the U.S., the federal government
seems only bound by populist support or backlash.

In the eurozone, it is far more difficult to spend or print money than
in the U.S.; as a result, we expect economic growth in the eurozone to
lag, but the currency to be far stronger. Will Greece default? We
don’t have a crystal ball either, but do know that a country is
different from an investment bank: investment banks evaporate;
countries bleed. Greece will never become the poster child of the
European Union, but we believe Greece will ultimately be seen for what
it is: a country comprising 2% of eurozone GDP. That’s because, in our
assessment, in case of Greek default, the ECB would provide unlimited
liquidity to the banking system to avoid a spillover effect. We have
already seen the emergency measures of the ECB in effect and, in our
view, they work to keep institutions afloat. We also know that other
European countries will do everything in their power to prevent any
spillover effect; Germany would, in our assessment, singlehandedly
bail out Greece for the sake of preserving peace. However, don’t
forget Greece hasn’t even asked for a bailout at this stage. That’s
because political reform at home would be impossible to implement if a
bailout were lined up.

Greece must be held accountable

That leads us to the one suggestion Greece has made: Greece would like
to receive “political support” to lower the country’s cost of
borrowing; basically, they would like a guarantee by other European
countries for their debt. While some sort of guarantee may ultimately
be provided to help Greece, we caution that countries should be
extremely careful here: in our view, the higher cost of borrowing for
Greece reflects the fact that the markets have stepped in where policy
makers have failed.

For too many years, countries with irresponsible fiscal policies
enjoyed too low interest rates. It should be apparent by now that
governments will find ways to bend the rules to spend money. Just as
it is impossible in the U.S. to create a watchdog that will prevent
the next crisis, it is impossible to successfully implement a
regulatory mechanism that forces governments to play by the rules. The
only mechanism that works is a market based one: the higher cost of
borrowing for Greece reflects their lack of fiscal discipline.
Germany, in contrast, enjoys a lower cost of borrowing than the U.S.
these days because of credible austerity measures.

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Greece’s audacious maneuver to print its own money – fools’ gold - by
abusing the ECB funding mechanism shows that we must rely on the
markets to help where ethics break down. Note that the ECB was
familiar with the scheme Greece had devised; we can only imagine that
the ECB accepted it because it too believed markets would ultimately
price Greece’s debt and provide the appropriate answer. At the same
time, it is now imperative that the ECB stick by its word to only
accept Greece’s debt as collateral if its credit rating remains
adequate. Greece must be held accountable for its actions. Conversely,
it is not helpful for government officials of other eurozone countries
to try to micro-manage Greece’s fiscal policy. Let Greece manage its
own affairs in context of its obligations as directed by the European
Commission, but let them pay its price for any mismanagement through a
higher cost of borrowing. There are risk friendly investors in the
markets that will be willing to extend loans to Greece – at the right
price. Money managers from the world’s largest institutions are
calling for a bailout – of course they are: they own Greek debt and
would like European taxpayers to make their holdings appreciate in
value.

However, the best incentive for governments to get their house in
order is to have the market reward them with a lower cost of
borrowing. In practice, the world is not black and white. Let’s
monitor how Greece’s Olympic ambitions play out. While not without
risks, we believe the current environment may be a unique buying
opportunity for the euro. Throughout the financial crisis, policy
makers responded with spending and printing money. As growth is
sputtering, we believe the floodgates of cheap money are likely to
remain wide open for a considerable period. In that context, the Fed
has proved far more “efficient” than the ECB in printing money. In
that process, we believe, the U.S. dollar will sooner rather than
later resume its downward trend.

We manage the Merk Absolute Return Currency Fund, the Merk Asian
Currency Fund, and the Merk Hard Currency Fund; transparent no-load
currency mutual funds that do not typically employ leverage. To learn
more about the Funds, please visit www.merkfunds.com.

Axel Merk
Manager of the Merk Hard, Asian and Absolute Return Currency Funds,
www.merkfunds.com

Axel Merk wrote the book on Sustainable Wealth; peak inside or order
your copy today.

Axel Merk, President & CIO of Merk Investments, LLC, is an expert on
hard money, macro trends and international investing. He is considered
an authority on currencies.

The Merk Absolute Return Currency Fund seeks to generate positive
absolute returns by investing in currencies. The Fund is a pure-play
on currencies, aiming to profit regardless of the direction of the
U.S. dollar or traditional asset classes.

The Merk Asian Currency Fund seeks to profit from a rise in Asian
currencies versus the U.S. dollar. The Fund typically invests in a
basket of Asian currencies that may include, but are not limited to,
the currencies of China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Merk Hard Currency Fund seeks to profit from a rise in hard
currencies versus the U.S. dollar. Hard currencies are currencies
backed by sound monetary policy; sound monetary policy focuses on
price stability.

The Funds may be appropriate for you if you are pursuing a long-term
goal with a currency component to your portfolio; are willing to
tolerate the risks associated with investments in foreign currencies;
or are looking for a way to potentially mitigate downside risk in or
profit from a secular bear market. For more information on the Funds
and to download a prospectus, please visit www.merkfunds.com.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks and charges
and expenses of the Merk Funds carefully before investing. This and
other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be
obtained by visiting the Funds' website at www.merkfunds.com or
calling 866-MERK FUND. Please read the prospectus carefully before you
invest.

The Funds primarily invest in foreign currencies and as such, changes
in currency exchange rates will affect the value of what the Funds own
and the price of the Funds' shares. Investing in foreign instruments
bears a greater risk than investing in domestic instruments for
reasons such as volatility of currency exchange rates and, in some
cases, limited geographic focus, political and economic instability,
and relatively illiquid markets. The Funds are subject to interest
rate risk which is the risk that debt securities in the Funds'
portfolio will decline in value because of increases in market
interest rates. The Funds may also invest in derivative securities
which can be volatile and involve various types and degrees of risk.
As a non-diversified fund, the Merk Hard Currency Fund will be subject
to more investment risk and potential for volatility than a
diversified fund because its portfolio may, at times, focus on a
limited number of issuers. For a more complete discussion of these and
other Fund risks please refer to the Funds' prospectuses.

This report was prepared by Merk Investments LLC, and reflects the
current opinion of the authors. It is based upon sources and data
believed to be accurate and reliable. Opinions and forward-looking
statements expressed are subject to change without notice. This
information does not constitute investment advice. Foreside Fund
Services, LLC, distributor.

1Homer & Sylla, A History of Interest Rates, 1996, p. 35

http://www.merkfunds.com/merk-perspective/insights/2010-03-02.html

[chhotemianinshallah]

MARKET WRAP – STOCKS FINISH MARGINALLY HIGHER

3 March 2010 by TPC

Stocks closed a bit higher again today as the markets cheered some
better than expected news on jobs. Fears over a dramatic decline in
February payrolls have been alleviated by positive readings from the
ISM report and the ADP employment report. Investors are likely to
look past the number regardless of the result. A weak figure will be
blamed on the weather.

The market closed well off its highs for the day as investors sell
into strength. This is now the second day running where we have seen
a morning rally evaporate. The 7% move off the recent lows has been
remarkable in many ways. The Russell 2,000 has notched 15 positive
days in the last 18 while the VIX has now fallen an incredible 15 of
the last 16 days. That’s a 94% success rate for those keeping track.
Volume was meager once again as the volume at the NYSE came in well
below 1 billion shares. Breadth was only marginally positive.

From Daily Futures:

U.S. Economy

The Institute of Supply Managements’ index of U.S. services increased
from 50.5 to 53.0 in February, stronger than expected and the highest
since December of 2007. The June 2011 eurodollars were down .01 at
98.51.

ADP Employer Services said that the economy lost 20,000 jobs in
February. They also revised January’s figures from a loss of 22,000 to
a loss of 60,000. The U.S. Labor Department will release its monthly
assessment on Friday morning.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said that its index of mortgage
applications was up 14.6% last week while the fixed rate on a 30-year
mortgage averaged 4.95%.

The March U.S. dollar index dropped .555 to 80.020 while anxieties
eased over Greece’s debt problems. Most commodities ended higher.

This afternoon, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book said that nine of the
twelve Districts showed modest improvement. They also noted that “loan
demand remained weak across the country.”

Grains and Cotton

July wheat finished up 11.75 cents at $5.285, helped by today’s weaker
U.S. dollar. Also, May cotton closed up 1.12 at 82.97.

Livestock

According to Dow Jones Newswires, a USDA official said that Russia is
very close to allowing pork to be shipped in from the U.S. Under the
new rules, exporters will have to prove that their pork does not
contain the antibiotics that Russia has banned. June hogs closed up .
92 at a new contract high of 82.30.

May feeder cattle ended up .0037 at a new contract high of $1.0567,
helped by today’s positive economic news, but tempered by the higher
corn price.

Lumber

Statistics Canada said that lumber production by sawmills totaled
3.436 million cubic meters in December, down almost 1% from a year
ago. May lumber closed up $6.50 at $274.00.

Cocoa

The International Cocoa Organization said that it expects world
production of cocoa to fall short of consumption by 18,000 tons in
2009-2010. May cocoa ended down $6 at $2,823.

Energies

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said that crude oil supplies were
up 4.1 million barrels last week to 341.6 million barrels. Supplies of
gasoline were up 700,000 barrels and heating oil supplies were down
400,000 barrels. May crude oil closed up $1.20 at $81.26, the best
close in six weeks.

The DOE also said that refinery use increased from 81.2% to 81.9% of
capacity last week. Over the past four weeks, gasoline demand was up .
1% from a year ago and distillate demand was down 4.8% from a year
ago.

Currencies

Australia’s Statistics Bureau said that real GDP was up .9% in the
fourth quarter of 2009 and up 2.7% from a year ago, better than
expected and the best quarterly growth in over two years. Australia
was the only major economy to avoid a recession in 2009. The March
Australian dollar finished up .13 at 90.40.

Greece’s government gave its approval to a combination of tax
increases and spending cuts that will reduce its deficit and possibly,
bring in some aid from Europe (see article). The March euro closed up
a penny at $1.3700.

A composite index of manufacturing and services in the Euro zone was
unchanged at 53.7 in February, a sign of steady expansion.

An index of services in the U.K. increased from 54.5 to 58.4 in
February, better than expected.

http://pragcap.com/market-wrap-stocks-finish-marginally-higher

ROSENBERG: THE MARKET LOOKS TOPPY

3 March 2010 by TPC

David Rosenberg isn’t going down without a fight. The staunch bear
believes the market is looking “toppy” and is displaying many of the
characteristics of the 2007 market highs. In a strategy note this
morning, he notes the declining rate of change in the S&P 500:

“The S&P 500 has basically been hovering around the 1,100 threshold
since October 15, getting as low as 1,042 and as high as 1,150 in what
can only be described as a tight 10% band. (As an aside, the 13 week
rate of change for the S&P 500 has swung to negative territory.) It
has split the time above and below the line almost perfectly evenly as
well (52% above, 48% below). We can understand the emotions involved
in such a prolonged sideways band — a down move to 1,080 triggers
calls for a correction, while moves up back to 1,120 prompts calls for
a new high coming around the corner.”

He says today’s market is very similar to 2007 when we hovered near
the highs for several months before tipping over. He claims the
economic data supports a market top here:

“In a secular bull market, a six-month trading range can be viewed as
a pause that refreshes. But in a secular bear market, it more than
likely reflects a classic topping formation, as was the case in the
spring and summer of 2007 when the S&P 500 also flirted with the 1,500
mark for as long a period as it has hovered around the 1,100 threshold
since last fall. Keep in mind that similar to 2007, we are starting to
see some fraying around the edges in the latest set of economic data
releases — jobless claims, housing starts and sales, core goods orders
and shipments, construction, ISM and consumer confidence.”

Source: Gluskin Sheff

http://pragcap.com/rosenberg-the-market-looks-toppy

The best of TPC

JOBS DATA BOOSTS THE MARKET

3 March 2010 by TPC

Positive jobs data is setting the table for an upside surprise for
Friday’s non-farm payrolls report. Investors have been conditioned to
believe that the jobs data will be horrendous primarily due to the
Winter storms, but this morning’s data has investors thinking it might
not be so bad.

The ADP jobs report showed a 20K decline in payrolls for February.
Weather had a smaller impact than expected. Meanwhile, the Challenger
Job-Cut Report showed that employers are laying off fewer employees.
The layoff count fell to 42K which was the lowest level since 2006
when the job market was quite healthy. Both reports imply that
companies are gearing up to begin hiring again.

The ISM non-manufacturing report reflected much of the sentiment seen
in the ISM manufacturing report. The headline figure came in better
than expected at 53 versus expectations of 51. New orders rose to 55,
employment jumped to 48.6 (from 44.6). Comments were a bit mixed:

■“Conditions for our business have substantially improved over the
last three months.” (Information)

■“We are proceeding with caution based upon the current market
conditions.” (Public Administration)

■“Business activity about the same as last month. Perhaps a slight
increase in new orders for material and services — nothing
major.” (Utilities)

■“The overall unemployment and the net effect of housing [instability]
continue to affect our business.” (Retail Trade)

■“Business is okay. Customers are doing a lot of price
shopping.” (Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting)

More on this topic

Market Rallies Despite Disappointing ISM (Daily US Stock Market
Fundamenta..., 3/2/10) http://sharemarketcomments.blogspot.com/2010/03/market-rallies-despite-disappointing.html
Rosenberg: End Of Bear Rally (Short-Term Trading, 2/5/10)
http://short-termtrading.blogspot.com/2010/02/rosenberg-end-of-bear-rally.html
Empire State Index Surprises (Daily US Stock Market Fundamenta...,
2/17/10) http://sharemarketcomments.blogspot.com/2010/02/empire-state-index-surprises.html
Revisions to nonfarm payrolls (The Mess That Greenspan Made, 2/5/10)
http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2010/02/revisions-to-nonfarm-payrolls.html

3 Comments »

Mike said:
FWIW, someone familiar with unemployment related reports (can’t
remember who it was) was on CNBC this morning saying that the ADP
report is such that it wouldn’t accurately reflect the effect of the
recent snows whereas the upcoming report should. IIRC, the explanation
was that ADP reflects people who are on the payroll list and people
usually aren’t taken off the payroll just because of a storm (they
just don’t go to work and get paid). The person went on to say that
the upcoming report should, as past reports did, reflect a significant
extra drop because of the snow storms but that drop would be made up
in the future (creating a future upside surprise).

.# 3 March 2010 at 10:46 AM

Joe said:
Still losing 400,000+ jobs a week. Spin it anyway you want, it doesnt
matter.
Blah, Blah, Blah, heard it all before.. When job losses STOP, meaning
ZERO jobs lost, that is what would be a positive.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, wake me when that happens, otherwise your just
wasting our time with this bs.

.# 3 March 2010 at 1:48 PM

Hao said:

If you actually read the ADP report, it claims that their own figures
are not significantly distorted by the snow. However, it did expect
the weather to “depress the BLS estimate of the monthly change in
employment for February, but boost it for March.”

http://pragcap.com/jobs-data-boosts-the-market

Obama reasserts Volcker rule, Senate bill seen

Posted 2010/03/04 at 5:17 am EST

WASHINGTON, Mar. 4, 2010 (Reuters) — The Obama administration
reasserted its commitment to banning proprietary trading by banks with
draft legislative language on Wednesday, despite signs that Congress
is unlikely to adopt such a rule.

U.S. President Barack Obama looks on during his speech about
healthcare reform in the East Room of the White House in Washington
March 3, 2010. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The rule would apply to banks, with limits slapped on large, non-bank
financial firms, as well. In addition, banks would be barred from
sponsoring or investing in hedge funds and private equity funds, under
the administration's language.

While key details were left up to regulators, the language showed the
White House is determined to push ahead with a rule it first proposed
in January, as the U.S. Senate inched its way toward acting on new
financial reform legislation.

Authored chiefly by White House economic adviser Paul Volcker, the
rule arrived late in a reform debate that has raged for months since
the severe 2008-2009 financial crisis tipped the U.S. economy into a
deep recession.

President Barack Obama in mid-2009 proposed a comprehensive package of
reforms aimed at preventing another crisis. Most of them were embraced
in a bill approved in December by the House of Representatives, but
the Volcker rule was not in the mix.

Amid ferocious lobbying by banks and Wall Street firms opposed to
reforms, Republicans have pushed the Senate toward a narrower,
compromise bill that looks likely to exclude the Volcker rule and
other key Obama proposals.

SHELBY OPEN ON WATCHDOG IN FED-SOURCES

In a potential breakthrough on Capitol Hill, sources said a senior
Republican is open to making a new government watchdog for financial
consumers a division of the Federal Reserve.

Senator Richard Shelby was said to be willing to explore the so-called
"Fed option" being promoted by Dodd as a possible compromise on the
watchdog first proposed last year by Obama.

The sources said Shelby was proposing the idea along with giving less
independence to the consumer watchdog.

For weeks now, the watchdog has been an obstacle to cutting a
bipartisan deal in the Senate on financial reform, one of the White
House's highest domestic policy priorities.

December's House bill included an independent consumer watchdog
agency, as Obama proposed, but Republicans oppose this and their
greater clout in the Senate has been decisive.

Even if Dodd and Shelby, the banking committee's top Republican, agree
to a bill in which the watchdog is relegated to a Fed division, that
aspect of the bill could face intense opposition on the Senate floor
from senior Democrats.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday he would not
accept reforms that failed to protect financial consumers. But his
remarks at a meeting with consumer groups, perhaps in a significant
omission, did not specifically say the watchdog must be a stand-alone
agency.

TOP DEMS HIT PUTTING WATCHDOG IN FED

Senior Democrats in Congress on Tuesday sharply criticized the idea of
putting the watchdog -- designed to shield Americans from abusive
mortgages, deceptive credit cards and other dodgy financial products
-- inside the Fed.

Representative Barney Frank, chief architect of reform in the House,
told Reuters he "thought it was a joke" when he learned about the
approach being eyed in the Senate.

Frank said on Wednesday, however, that he "could, if necessary,"
support putting the watchdog in the Treasury Department, an earlier
Dodd proposal rejected by Republicans.

Billionaire financier George Soros said in New York on Wednesday that
a consumer protection agency is urgently needed, but he called putting
it in the Fed "absolutely unacceptable.

Dodd and Republican Senator Bob Corker, a first-term banking committee
member, on Wednesday were near a final deal on revised legislation,
with Shelby involved in the talks, according to sources familiar with
the talks.

Lobbying groups for large banks sent a letter to lawmakers on
Wednesday saying that the Fed should retain its role as the supervisor
of large bank holding companies, such as Citigroup and Bank of
America.

Despite sharp criticism leveled at the U.S. central bank over its
failures as a bank supervisor before the crisis, the approach backed
by the lobbyists also will likely be included in the Dodd bill, said
lawmakers, aides and lobbyists.

They said another component of the deal calls for forming a "hybrid
resolution fund" for financing the dismantling of large financial
firms that get into trouble.

Some money for the fund would be fronted by large firms, held by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and invested in Treasury securities
that banks could keep on their balance sheets, with insurance
companies partly exempt, they said.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and Karey Wutkowski)

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai and Caren Bohan)

Copyright Reuters 2008.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre62311a-us-financial-regulation/

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1 Local Warehouse Asia- Japan Contemporary 1945 to Present
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New Emerging Japanese Economy: Opportunity and Strategy for World
Business
by Panos Mourdoukoutas

ISBN13: 9780324207125
ISBN10: 0324207123
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $5.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Historically one of the most closed economies in the developed world,
Japan ? still reigning as the third largest national economy ? has
undergone a major cultural shift, resulting in a new economy where
competition and deregulation are king. As Japan regains footing as a
world economic power, companies that want to cash in on its emerging
opportunities must first understand them. In his newest book, widely
respected economist and experienced sinologist Panos Mourdoukoutas
offers invaluable insight into the rise of the old Japanese economy
and its domestic and international effects, the subsequent rapid
decline and its toll, as well as the current economic outlook. As
signs point to Japan?s economic recovery, this book emphasizes the
importance of it. Explaining how recovery will benefit the Japanese
people and Japan?s trading partners worldwide, it fully explores the
new opportunities and challenges for management.

Book News Annotation:

A Greek economist with one foot in academia and the other in business,
Mourdoukoutas reports conclusions from his study of the Japanese
economy since the late 1980s. Over the years he has become less
impressed with the economic growth, electronic gadgets, and management
system, and more impressed with the rise of living standards closer to
those of other industrialized countries. The shift from producer
prosperity to consumer prosperity, he says, is being driven by
competition, deregulation, and corporate and industry restructuring.
Annotation �2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis:

Japan's economy is a global powerhouse. Find out what we can learn
from them in THE NEW EMERGING JAPANESE ECONOMY: OPPORTUNITY AND
STRATEGY FOR WORLD BUSINESS. The textbook examines Japan's Old
Economy, the impact of Japan's New Economy, and the latest strategies
that assist foreign companies in taking advantage of Japan's New
Economy and includes built in study tools.

Synopsis:

The book is in three parts. The first part is a discussion of Japan's
Old Economy, the institutions and policies that contributed to the
country's phenomenal success, the frictions they caused with her
citizens and trade partners; and the contribution of these frictions
to the rise of the New Economy. The second part is a discussion of how
Japan's New Economy has benefited world business; and the current
trends and opportunities. The third part is a discussion of a strategy
that assists foreign companies to take advantage of Japan's New
Economy.

About the Author

Panos Mourdoukoutas is a tenured Professor of Economics at Long Island
University in New York. He has written or co-written 10 previous
books. Dr. Mourdoukoutas teaching experience includes courses in
entrepreneurship, international business strategy, financial markets
and institutions, investment theory and business forecasting,
comparative economic systems, and related courses on Japan, China, and
the economics of Southeast Asia.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction I. THE FADING OLD ECONOMY 2. Economic Dualism 3.
Government Activism 4. Economic Frictions 5. The Bubble and its Burst
II. THE EMERGING NEW ECONOMY 6. Competition and Deregulation 7.
Corporate Restructuring 8. Opportunities for Foreign Business III.
STRATEGIES FOR FOREIGN BUSINESS 9. Adapt to the Japanese Business
Conditions 10. Develop New Products 11. Promote Products Aggressively
12. Summary and Conclusions

Product Details

ISBN:9780324207125
Subtitle:Opportunity and Strategy for World Business
Author:Mourdoukoutas, Panos
Publisher:South Western Educational Publishing
Subject:Consumption (economics)
Subject:Corporations, foreign
Subject:International - General
Subject:International - Economics
Subject:Economics - General
Subject:International
Subject:Business; Economics; International Business
Subject:Japan Economic conditions 1989-
Subject:Japan Economic policy 1989-
Copyright:2005
Publication Date:October 2005
Binding:Hardcover
Grade Level:Professional and scholarly
Language:English
Illustrations:Y
Pages:256
Dimensions:9.32x6.16x.98 in. 1.24 lbs.

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=17-9780324207125-0

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[bademiyansubhanallah]

Complexity and Collapse
Empires on the Edge of Chaos Niall Ferguson
March/April 2010

PrintSend to friendDecrease font sizeTextIncrease font size
Summary: Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many
historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military
overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on
the precipice.

NIALL FERGUSON is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard
University, a Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at
the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His most recent book is

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

If the leadership of an empire refuses to embark on short-term pain to
prevent a long-term massive disaster, then that empire deserves to
collapse.

Servant C. comments on Complexity and Collapse

9 Comments Join There is no better illustration of the life cycle of a
great power than The Course of Empire, a series of five paintings by
Thomas Cole that hang in the New-York Historical Society. Cole was a
founder of the Hudson River School and one of the pioneers of
nineteenth-century American landscape painting; in The Course of
Empire, he beautifully captured a theory of imperial rise and fall to
which most people remain in thrall to this day.

Each of the five imagined scenes depicts the mouth of a great river
beneath a rocky outcrop. In the first, The Savage State, a lush
wilderness is populated by a handful of hunter-gatherers eking out a
primitive existence at the break of a stormy dawn. The second picture,
The Arcadian or Pastoral State, is of an agrarian idyll: the
inhabitants have cleared the trees, planted fields, and built an
elegant Greek temple. The third and largest of the paintings is The
Consummation of Empire. Now, the landscape is covered by a magnificent
marble entrepôt, and the contented farmer-philosophers of the previous
tableau have been replaced by a throng of opulently clad merchants,
proconsuls, and citizen-consumers. It is midday in the life cycle.
Then comes Destruction. The city is ablaze, its citizens fleeing an
invading horde that rapes and pillages beneath a brooding evening sky.
Finally, the moon rises over the fifth painting, Desolation. There is
not a living soul to be seen, only a few decaying columns and
colonnades overgrown by briars and ivy.

Collection of the New-York Historical Society
The Savage State, from Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire (1833-36)

Conceived in the mid-1830s, Cole's great pentaptych has a clear
message: all empires, no matter how magnificent, are condemned to
decline and fall. The implicit suggestion was that the young American
republic of Cole's age would be better served by sticking to its
bucolic first principles and resisting the imperial temptations of
commerce, conquest, and colonization.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65987/niall-ferguson/complexity-and-collapse

What to Read on American Primacy
Peter Liberman
An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus on American primacy.

During the second half of the 1980s, the United States went through
one of its periodic bouts of declinism. Paul Kennedy's 1987 bestseller
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers concluded with a chapter on
Washington's "relative decline," arguing that the United States was a
victim of "imperial overstretch" because "the sum total of [its]
global interests and obligations is nowadays far larger than the
country's power to defend them all simultaneously." This sparked
heated responses and defenses from various quarters until the debate
ended with the collapse of not the American empire, but its Soviet
counterpart. In the two decades since, another intellectual cycle has
run its course, with portraits of U.S. primacy giving way to another
round of declinism. Different takes on this issue lead to different
policy recommendations, so the debate cannot be ignored. But whether
current entries will hold up longer than their predecessors remains an
open question.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-american-primacy

"The Unipolar Moment." By Charles Krauthammer. Foreign Affairs 70, no.
1 (1990/1991): pp. 23-33.

Summary: Thinking about post-Cold War US foreign policy has been led
astray by three conventionally-accepted but mistaken assumptions about
the character of the post-Cold War environment (1) that the world is
now multipolar, whereas it is in fact unipolar, with the USA the sole
superpower, at least for present policy purposes (2) that the US
domestic consensus favours internationalism rather than isolationism
(3) that in consequence of the Soviet collapse, the threat of war has
substantially diminished.

Charles Krauthammer is a syndicated columnist. This article is adapted
from the author's Henry M. Jackson Memorial Lecture delivered in
Washington, D.C., Sept. 18, 1990.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/46271/charles-krauthammer/the-unipolar-moment

"The Stability of a Unipolar World." By William C. Wohlforth.
International Security 24, no. 1 (1999): pp. 5-41.

"The Stability of a Unipolar World"
Journal Article, International Security, volume 24, issue 2, pages
5-41

Summer 1999

Author: William Wohlforth

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Quarterly
Journal: International Security

ABSTRACT

A decade has passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end
of U.S.-Soviet bipolarity. In the ensuing years, many commentators and
scholars have questioned whether the United States can remain the
world's sole superpower. Some have defined U.S. preponderance as "a
unipolar moment"; others have suggested that the current structure is
"uni-multipolar." Regardless of the characterization, the conventional
wisdom maintains that unipolarity is unstable and conflict prone, and
thus unlikely to prevail over the long term. In our lead article,
William Wohlforth of Georgetown University challenges this logic,
arguing that unipolarity is both durable and peaceful. The principal
threat to the current structure, according to Wohlforth, is the
failure of the United States to stay involved in the international
arena.

As the Cold War era came to a close, Charles Krauthammer announced the
arrival of its successor. The United States was the preeminent power
in the world, he wrote, but it needed to exercise global leadership to
maintain its position. The most compelling analysis of unipolarity was
ultimately offered by William Wohlforth, who argued that the United
States possessed a commanding lead in four critical elements of
material power: economic strength, military might, technology, and
geography. The combination meant that the United States was not only
dominant but so strong that other powers had no chance of catching up
anytime soon no matter what they did. As a result, Wohlforth claimed,
U.S. primacy would not fade quickly but last for decades to come.

wohlforthvol24no1.pdf (504K PDF)

For more information about this publication please contact the IS
Editorial Assistant at 617-495-1914.

For Academic Citation:

William C. Wohlforth. "The Stability of a Unipolar World."
International Security 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 5-41.

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/578/stability_of_a_unipolar_world.html

"The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise." By
Christopher Layne. International Security 17, no. 4 (1993): pp. 5-51.

This is the first page of the item you requested.
.The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will RiseChristopher
LayneInternational Security, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Spring, 1993), pp. 5-51
(article consists of 47 pages) Published by: The MIT PressStable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539020

The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise, by Christopher
Layne © 1993 The MIT Press.

Abstract

International relations studies have been unable to determine whether
realist or liberal theories better fit state behavior in various
situations, possibly because these studies have attributed motive and
action to the states rather than to the decision-... .Want the full
article?

.JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the
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ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2539020

"The Unipolar Illusion Revisited: The Coming End of the United States'
Unipolar Moment." By Christopher Layne. International Security 31, no.
2 (2006): pp. 7-41.

Some academic realists, in contrast, expected unipolarity to fade
relatively quickly, as self-interest led other powers to balance
against the United States. Echoing Kennedy's 1987 book, Christopher
Layne's 1993 article focused on the decline of the two most dominant
powers prior to the United States -- France in the late seventeenth
century and the United Kingdom in the nineteenth. Their rivals took
advantage of tectonic economic shifts, adopted administrative and
military innovations to accelerate their ascent, and joined alliances
to check the hegemon. Something similar would happen soon, Layne
argued, predicting that unipolarity would "give way to multipolarity
between 2000-2010." Tackling the subject again near the end of that
time frame, Layne acknowledged that U.S. power still reigned supreme.
But he disputed claims that U.S. hegemony was somehow immune to
realist laws of gravity and concluded that Washington should adopt a
restrained "off-shore balancing" strategy rather than waste its power
on self-defeating efforts to dominate the globe.

"The Unipolar Illusion Revisited: The Coming End of the United States'
Unipolar Moment"
Journal Article, International Security, volume 31, issue 2, pages
7-41

Fall 2006

Author: Christopher Layne, Former Research Fellow, International
Security Program, 1995-1996

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Quarterly
Journal: International Security

ABSTRACT
The conventional wisdom among U.S. grand strategists is that U.S.
hegemony is exceptional—that the United States need not worry about
other states engaging in counterhegemonic balancing against it. The
case for U.S. hegemonic exceptionalism, however, is weak. Contrary to
the predictions of Waltzian balance of power theorists, no new great
powers have emerged since the end of the Cold War to restore
equilibrium to the balance of power by engaging in hard balancing
against the United States—that is, at least, not yet. This has led
primacists to conclude that there has been no balancing against the
United States. Here, however, they conflate the absence of a new
distribution of power in the international political system with the
absence of balancing behavior by the major second-tier powers.
Moreover, the primacists’ focus on the failure of new great powers to
emerge, and the absence of traditional “hard” (i.e., military)
counterbalancing, distracts attention from other forms of counter
balancing—notably “leash-slipping” —by major second-tier states that
ultimately could lead to the same result: the end of unipolarity.
Because unipolarity is the foundation of U.S. hegemony, if it ends, so
too will U.S. primacy.

is3102_pp007-041_layne.pdf (155K PDF)

For more information about this publication please contact the IS
Editorial Assistant at 617-495-1914.

For Academic Citation:

Layne, Christopher. "The Unipolar Illusion Revisited: The Coming End
of the United States' Unipolar Moment." International Security 31, no.
2 (Fall 2006): 7-41.

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/791/unipolar_illusion_revisited.html

"Soft Balancing against the United States." By Robert A. Pape; "Soft
Balancing in the Age of U.S. Primacy." By T. V. Paul; "Hard Times for
Soft Balancing." By Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth; and
"Waiting for Balancing: Why the World Is Not Pushing Back." By Kier A.
Lieber and Gerard Alexander. International Security 30, no. 1 (Summer
2005): pp. 7-139.

Old-school realists predicted that other states would move to counter
U.S. primacy by banding together and expanding their militaries. Such
"hard" balancing is barely noticeable, however. Some scholars,
reluctant to accept that U.S. hegemony is unchallenged, have therefore
come up with the new concept of "soft" balancing -- nonmilitary
efforts by other countries to frustrate American adventurism, such as
refusing active support, denying access to bases or airspace, and
opposing the United States in international institutions. The articles
in this symposium lay out the debate over whether such behavior is
designed to constrain U.S. power and foreshadows more hard balancing
to come or is simply routine politics in a unipolar world.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-american-primacy

The Post-American World. By Fareed Zakaria. W. W. Norton, 2008.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

The United States may indeed be losing ground relative to other
countries, argues Fareed Zakaria in this nuanced and highly readable
book, but that has less to do with its own absolute decline than with
"the rise of the rest." The real story of the age is economic growth
across the developing world, which Americans should welcome rather
than fear -- not least because of its promise for social and political
liberalization abroad. The real challenge for the United States,
Zakaria argues, will be getting its own economic and political house
in order -- dealing with its many domestic problems so that its
strengths in higher education and research and development, along with
its demographic vitality and diversity, can sustain U.S. leadership in
the global economy in the decades to come.

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even better than his last book!
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Posted 05/03/08:

A lot of books have been appearing recently about the rise of China
and India, the decline of the United States, and so forth. This is the
one to read, and the one that will last. Zakaria's last book was about
'The Future of Freedom,' a study of liberalism and democracy. This new
one--which is even better, I think--is about the shape of the emerging
international system. It's called 'The Post-American World,' but a
better title would have been the one he gives his first chapter, 'The
Rise of the Rest.' That's because Zakaria's central thesis is that the
world is changing, but the change is largely for the better and caused
by the benign development of other power centers, not some collapse or
decline of the United States. The biggest challenge for America, he
argues, is not terrorism or nuclear proliferation or a rising China,
but rather our own ability to adapt successfully to the new
environment. He favors confidence and openness rather than insecurity
and barriers, and makes a convincing case. The book has chapters on
each of the major international players, and they're really well done:
amazingly, he manages to paint a full portrait of, say, China or India
that is intelligent, succinct, subtle, and comprehensive all at once.
If you want to get a flavor of what the book has to offer, there's an
article based on it in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, and there
should be another one coming out in Newsweek too, apparently. The man
might be a superachieving bigshot, but he sure can write--each page is
lively and interesting. So forget the angry neocons, the wild-eyed
optimists, the gloom-and-doom pessimists, and the glib amateurs who
don't really know anything. Read this instead, and get insight into
what's actually going in the world and what should be done about it.
Plus, there's just a ton of fun little nuggets you'll be itching to
drop in every conversation you have about anything related.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Negative

Posted October 26, 2009, 11:55 PM EST:

An interesting read and an interesting concept on the readjustment of
world powers. I found it to be repetitive and wordy. Could have been
shorter and still have delivered the same message.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Post-American-World/Fareed-Zakaria/e/9780393062359/?itm=1#TABS

After Iran Gets the Bomb

Containment and Its Complications James M. Lindsay and Ray Takeyh
March/April 2010

Summary: Despite international pressure, Iran appears to be continuing
its march toward getting a nuclear bomb. But Washington can contain
and mitigate the consequences of Tehran's nuclear defiance, keeping an
abhorrent outcome from becoming a catastrophic one.

JAMES M. LINDSAY is Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and
Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. RAY
TAKEYH is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the
author of Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age
of the Ayatollahs.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to become the world's tenth

nuclear power. It is defying its international obligations and
resisting concerted diplomatic pressure to stop it from enriching
uranium. It has flouted several UN Security Council resolutions
directing it to suspend enrichment and has refused to fully explain
its nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Even

a successful military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would

delay Iran's program by only a few years, and it would almost
certainly harden Tehran's determination to go nuclear. The ongoing
political unrest in Iran could topple the regime, leading to
fundamental changes in Tehran's foreign policy and ending its pursuit
of nuclear weapons. But that is an outcome that cannot be assumed. If
Iran's nuclear program continues to progress at its current rate,
Tehran could have the nuclear material needed to build a bomb before
U.S. President Barack Obama's current term in office expires.

The dangers of Iran's entry into the nuclear club are well known:
emboldened by this development, Tehran might multiply its attempts at
subverting its neighbors and encouraging terrorism against the United
States and Israel; the risk of both conventional and nuclear war in
the Middle East would escalate; more states in the region might also
want to become nuclear powers; the geopolitical balance in the Middle
East would be reordered; and broader efforts to stop the spread of
nuclear weapons would be undermined. The advent of a nuclear Iran --
even one that is satisfied with having only the materials and
infrastructure necessary to assemble a bomb on short notice rather
than a nuclear arsenal -- would be seen as a major diplomatic defeat
for the United States. Friends and

Foes would openly question the U.S. government's power and resolve to

shape events in the Middle East. Friends would respond by distancing
themselves from Washington; foes would challenge U.S. policies more
aggressively.

User CommentsToo Many Assumptions: The Case of Syria
Submitted by hahussain on March 3, 2010 - 2:15pm.
The authors argued: "Drawing Syria into a comprehensive Israeli-
Palestinian peace process could not only attenuate Tehran's links with
Damascus but also stem Iran's ability to supply weapons to Hezbollah.
"

In foreign policy, you must always have a Plan B. So what happens if
Syria does not break its alliance with Iran, and keep serving as an
arms supply route to Hezbollah?

So far, while America has been begging Damascus for restoration of
ties, Syria President Bashar Assad has made it a point to receive his
Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah, and hosted a three-way summit. He also hosts Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal. Assad defiantly said his country will not listen to
America and will never break with Iran.

This article seems to be based on a set of variables. If one policy
item fails, the whole containment sketch the authors suggest will
become useless.

For those interested in the US vs Iran-Syria, this might be a good
article arguing why the US should not bet on turning Syria away from
Iran:
http://nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=116235

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to post comments.A Nuclear Iran?
Submitted by Jonathan K. (Mar. 2, 2010) on March 2, 2010 - 5:23pm.
An attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would only set them back a few
years, and they would rebuild deep underground. Iran has a different
vulnerability: refined petroleum products. These are either imported
or domestically refined. Ports and refineries are vulnerable, and
cannot be hidden deep underground. Blockading the ports would be a
major disruption to their society; the military might keep its
supplies, but the civilian sector would be seriously disrupted. If, in
addition, the refineries were destroyed, the entire society would come
to a screeching halt.

In such circumstances, the population would be likely to rebel against
the present government and insist on peace. That is how democracy came
to Argentina and Greece after adventurism in the Falklands and Cyprus
failed.

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to post comments.Stop Overblowing Iran
Submitted by Daniel R D. (Apr. 23, 2009) on March 2, 2010 - 2:58pm.
Believe it or not, I actually wrote about this very issue a few months
ago, when the many options of how to deal with Iran were suddenly
colliding on the Sunday talk shows. And thankfully, I am happy to say
that my recommendation is exactly what most scholars are advocating
(not to pat myself on the back, because heck...what do you know in the
long-run).

The main objective of Iran's rulers is self-preservation. The Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are willing to do anything to stay in power. We
saw this in a pretty brutal fashion this past summer, with Basij
militiamen beating protesters over the head with clubs. We continue to
see this today, with members of the opposition being summarily
executed in show-trials, hoping that the threat of death will deter
future anti-regime protests.

There appears to be nothing that the mullahs (and the IRGC generals)
would do hold onto their positions. Building a nuclear program and
eventually getting nuclear warheads fits right into this calculus.
With a nuclear deterrent, there is no way the United States would be
foolish enough to promote regime-change through the use of force. Self-
preservation is a main reason for the quest for an Iranian bomb.

But if it would be foolish for the U.S. to attack an Iran with a
nuclear capability, it would be downright suicidal for Iran to use
such weapons in the first place.

What could Tehran possibly achieve with a nuclear weapon? Spreading
their influence across the Persian Gulf? Well, this has already been
done. Iran has proxy influence in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan,
and in the Palestinian Territories. Having a nuclear weapon will not
change this fact.

What about the stupid neoconservative argument that Iran would
secretly give nuclear material to a terrorist organization? This too
is unlikely. It has taken Iranian scientists close to a decade to
develop the infrastructure and technology needed for uranium
enrichment. The idea that the Iranians would simply hand-over their
most prized possession (without question) to terrorists is laughable.

And don't even talk about "wiping Israel of the map." This argument is
the most ignorant on the list. Destroying Israel would only invite an
even bigger wrath by the United States, with Iranian cities
annihilated and millions of Iranian citizens killed. Nobody wins.

So let's take some rational advice and stop worrying about things that
are not going to happen. No one wants Iran to become a nuclear power,
but the world won't end if they do cross that threshold.

-Dan DePetris

http://www.depetris.wordpress.com

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to post comments.Iranian Nuclear Capability
Submitted by Doug M. (Mar. 2, 2010) on March 2, 2010 - 12:05pm.
An Iranian nuclear capability is not a threat to the United States. It
might be to Israel but the use by Iran of a nuclear weapon against
Israel would bring massive nuclear retailation from Israel - and
obviously the Iranians know this. So what's the problem?

For Israel, the problem is that it would no longer be the only nuclear
muscleman in the Middle East which allows it to maintain its Jewish
exclusivity and domination of Islamic holy sites and the Palestinian
people. But that is Israel's "problem", not ours. And maybe, in the
long run, that would be a good thing because simple demographics and
internal dissension dictate that Israel will eventually become a
Jewish/Palestinian state anyway. Israel's nuclear capability only
gives it a temporary stay as the only racialist state remaining in the
world.

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to post comments.Iran, Pakistan and The Bomb
Submitted by pauli183 on February 26, 2010 - 6:23am.
Iran, India Israel, Pakistan and The Bomb

I do not support proliferation of nuclear weapons, for Iran or other
countries. However, in the case of Iran, I believe the threat of Iran
ever employing nuclear weapons is overblown. One should look beyond
the Iranian government’s intemperate rhetoric. The government knows
full well that a nuclear attack on any country would bring swift and
catastrophic retaliation that would result in destruction of the
Iranian government and much of the country’s infrastructure.
Blustering rhetoric the Iranians are guilty of, but they are not fools

The hyperbole, threats and scare mongering by the US and Israel are
surely more about protecting Israel’s nuclear exclusivity in the
Middle East. However there is a far more serious issue about nuclear
weaponry at stake.

Instead of worrying about Iran, one should be debating what to do
should Pakistan go critical and fall into the hands of radical
fundamentalists. Such a regime would be far more likely to launch a
nuclear attack on either India or Israel than Iran would on Israel or
the US. Should such a regime change take place in Pakistan, what would
the response be? Bomb the nuclear facilities in Pakistan and initiate
yet another war? Encourage India to invade Pakistan and trigger a
wider regional conflict of frightening proportions?

This same question about nuclear proliferation could put be put with
regard to any other country not considered an ally of the US. North
Korea is far more unstable and less predictable than Iran, yet one
hears little in the way of threats by the US or Europe to bomb or
invade North Korea.

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to post comments.old question & older solutions
Submitted by Amarjyoti A. (Aug. 8, 2009) on February 26, 2010 -
1:50am.
The notion of Iran and the Iranian Revolution - and its aftermath are
not and can not be countered by having a Vaticanian-Revolution or a
Semitic-Revolution or a Hindu-Revolution. That is an old lesson
learnt. The assumption by many in third worlds like India/Pakistan,
etc. (rotten to the core and having criminal political leadership that
aspires to play a tout to global forces - which is different than the
Non-Aligned Movement) and the global uncivil society at play (one has
exotic terrorism with a large dash of religion (christian) thrown in
as the other threat apart from the aftermaths of the Iranian
Revolution - makes the geo-political equations somewhat different.
Their raison d'etre and rationale (brown skin non-christian
denomination unwelcome if not subservient to white christian
supremacists or their brown skin chritistian religious supremacists
and based upon an individual's private life without the above having
any locus standi) is what illnesses are made up of. It is for people
and states to decide where they fall - but illnesses do not counter
other illnesses. The issue of nuclear proliferation is simply a
dimension to the other crucial aspects that I have put in here. The
ideological fringes (exotic terrorism) are the new bubears to watch
out for. The problem with a criminal "tout political class" in third
worlds mean: they can provide the much needed nexus between the
illnesses and non-democratic states with devastating consequences for
global security in the strategic sense. Small scale dirty boms are
what come across from such a nexus. It is that that one should be
looking at more carefully. Without diluting in any sense - the serious
issue of nuclear non-proliferation. And not confusing the Iranaian
Revolution and its aftermaths with any possibilities of legitimized
"exotic" terrorism or "christian-semitic" crusades. Clearing the
cognitive maps of such historical filth (that is what they are) is
what is required from any one serious about the strategic security of
the global community. Delinquent states and its populaces merely
threaten to provide the dreaded logistic support base. But of course,
Franco-German initiatives may look at the EU placed in the moon or
elsewhere. That also comes across as less than interesting - via
specifically such fringe groups as their definitive presences in third
worlds - if South Asia is any example.

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to post comments.Why must a military option fail?
Submitted by andrew s. (Feb. 23, 2010) on February 24, 2010 - 6:54am.
I am not sure I believe all the comments that a military option would
only delay the inevitable. If we only strike the reactors, then yes
Iran will develop bombs eventually.

However the events of the last few years leave me thinking that it is
not just a few people controlling a corrupt system developing a
nuclear bomb that is the threat to America. The threat to America is
the possibility that the nation of Iran will build nukes. Therefore if
we destroy Iran's capability to build nuclear weapons we remove the
threat. But what does it mean to destroy Iran's capability to build
nukes?

It does not entail simply bombing hardened facilities. If we were to
view a society, including Iran, as a pyramid then the military and
nuclear and reactors are merely the tip of the pyramid - knock it off
and a new one can be built on the remaining base.

So nuclear reactors alone do not give Iran the ability to build
nuclear weapons - it is also the power plants that run the facility,
the Iranian oil fields and refineries that give Iran the money to pay
for the project, the bridges that allow for the movement of equipment,
etc.

Therefore, a military option could be effective if it was not on the
order of a tactical raid, but a sustained strategic bombing campaign
like those inflicted on Germany and Japan. First of all let me say
that I do not necessarily support this option, yet no one discusses
it, and I think it should be - if for no other reason than to provide
America with a wider range of options.

I freely admit that many, many civilians will die. However, the fact
remains that destroying the nation of Iran could potentially be the
best way to protect America - that has been the case in the past so it
is possible it could be in the present.

Secondly, I posit that the backlash from such a strategic campaign -
and it will be massive, sustained and violent - is potentially
preferable to letting Iran develop nuclear weapons. This is for a
simple reason -numbers- the sheer number of people that would be
killed, either directly or indirectly through a terrorist acquisition
of Iranian nukes - which would be extraordinarily unlikely - yet is
possible in Iran - would be far greater than the number killed in even
the most violent sustained terror campaign.

Finally the strategic bombing option, by which I mean the destruction
of at least 3/4's of Iran's modern infrastructure, would be a greater
guarantee that Iran would not build nukes since it literally could not
build nukes.

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to post comments.Must be a joke right?
Submitted by Jean-Francois H. (Feb. 27, 2010) on February 27, 2010 -
2:15pm.
If we follow this line of thinking...
The US would have to carpet bomb the whole middle east too and
eradicate most muslims populations to make sure they will not try to
retatiate to one such atrocious massacre right?

One might also follow your line of thinking and conclude that the one
that should be bombed is the United States, because it is the only
country that posesses nuclear weapons and actually ever used them. And
the only way to prevent their use, the US needs to wiped out of the
map?

The denial of industrialisation to another country, because it could
lead someday to means of making military weapons was tried after the
first world war. And it only lead to the second one.

One should look at what triggered the anger of the German people
towards the Versaille treaty (controling the industrial infrastructure
and preventing Germany from developping a strong economy). All it
accomplished is create resentment, that is presicely why one State
needs to use "soft power" instead of "hard power" when trying to get
another country to do something.

Think again Mr. Rumsfeld

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to post comments.Not a joke at all, and I
Submitted by andrew s. (Feb. 23, 2010) on February 27, 2010 -
11:24pm.
Not a joke at all, and I actually consider myself to be a liberal New
Dealer

and your comments about Versailles are true, yet they neglect the fact
that Germany was only able to rebound after the first war because the
allies did not achieve a total victory; i.e. we did not destroy the
economy entirely

second Carpet bombing the entire middle east would probably be cheaper
than extensive ground operations in Iran

third of all - we can hardly breed more resentment in that part of the
world

fourth I do not suggest we tell anyone what to do with their economy,
i'm not even advocating the strategic bombing campaign, merely
suggesting that it could work - think about it, can a nation without
any modern infrastructure develop nuclear bombs? the answer is no - in
Germany and Japan the campaigns ground the economies to a halt

I also believe the US should pay (in part) for Iran to develop
lightwater nuclear reactors that are more efficient at producing
nuclear and much harder to make bombs from

finally as for your comment about the United States having used nukes
and therefore my logic demands the US be bombed i distinguish between
the use of our nukes, which I believe to have been completely
justified, with Iran's threat to develop them, obviously I do this
from the point of view of an American, whether this is philosophically
sound is of little concern to me, what does matter is the destruction
of all threats to my country

Sincerely,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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to post comments.While I do understand what
Submitted by Jean-Francois H. (Feb. 27, 2010) on February 28, 2010 -
2:27pm.
While I do understand what you try to say there, you have to
understand denying modernity to another country that is "said" to be a
threat to the United States would not come without it's price to the
US.

The military option you suggest does not compare to the one in Japan
or Germany for the one reason that Iran has NOT invaded any other
country, nor has it ever done so since the Persian-Ottoman wars. Iran
has only preached rhetoric and tried to assure it's survival in a
world where it is being pressed against the wall mainly by the United
States. In the region, the United States is acting more like Germany
was to the rest of Europe during the 1938-43 period.

My comment about the "ones who should be bombed" being the US was
sarcastic. I am saying that the US saying Iran is a threat has no
connection to reality. It is purely an act of discursive rhetoric. You
cannot in all honestly arrive to the conclusion that Iran is a danger
to the US. It is quite the opposite for the US has military bases all
around Iran, is the only country to have a "projected military on the
ground, in the seas, and in the air" AND posesses nuclear weapons,
chemical weapons, and actually had serious talks about making use of
them in tactical way (the talk about bunker busters at the beginning
of the Irak war).

Now, don't get me wrong. I am just pointing out that going for an even
more agressive foreign policy, the US could step in it's own coffin.
The kind of military option you did say we should consider is like
saying Nazi's were the good guys in the Second World War for if they
had control of Europe, there would be no more conflicts between
european nations.

It simply doesn't make sense on a moral point of view.

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to post comments.Power
Submitted by David G. (Feb. 23, 2010) on February 23, 2010 - 1:15am.
As the author points out, the Mullahs want power. To hold onto power
in a repressive society, one needs an "evil other" to blame and rally
the citizens around. Iran uses Israel and the United States as such;
no differently than Israel and the United States have chosen a litany
of "evil others" to justify their own governments' consolidation of
power and the use of military force for political and economic gain.

For the Mullahs to hold power, at home they need inflammatory rhetoric
against the evil other and demonstrations of their military and
technological prowess to achieve security against this "threat". This
demonstration is sufficient in itself. Actually invading another
country is far too risky to the continuity of State... and their
history shows they do not invade neighbors or hold dreams of
expansion. Nuclear weapons for Iran are first and foremost a proud and
a tangible victory display in securing Iran from U.S. and Israeli
attacks on their soil. The Mullahs, and their supporters who are
actually inspired by the ideals of the Revolution, can then exercise
more ideological power without as great a compromise to political
expediency or reformist divisions.

Ultimately, U.S. power in the region will fail to match the self-
interest generated from the interlocked economies of Iran, China,
Russia and Turkey. Trade, interdependence and mutual protection in the
Caucus region will go up, countering whatever troops, policies and
money we can throw at perpetual war.

China has $2 Trillion in US dollars to spend on buying political
loyalty and industrial minerals "in the ground" to secure their
economy for the next 50 years. They will spend it before our current
monetary collapse erodes it away through devaluation or inflation.
They are on a time sensitive shopping spree that will not skip over
Iran at our request.

The status quo is changing in the region. The United Status must see
the situation with unsentimental eyes and a clear mind. If we can be
friends with Saudi Arabia while fighting the extremist derivatives it
has spawned around the region; perhaps stable diplomacy and economic
ties to Iran are not beyond our reach.

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to post comments.Excellent post.
Submitted by Joost H. (Feb. 16, 2010) on February 22, 2010 - 7:48pm.
Couldn't agree more on all fronts.

As a signatory of the NPT, and a country that has not used chemical
weapons even when fired upon WITH chemical weapons, Iran should know
it's place and bow down to the whims of countries that hesistate not
to: invade, occupy two countries with no declaration of war, use DU
munitions in densely populated area's and sell chemical weapons to
insane dictators.

I mean, the sheer gall of these Iranians. Can you believe it! Maybe we
(I mean seriously overstretched western militaries) should just invade
them and take their oil. That ought to teach them a thing or two about
not groveling.

So say I, king of reasonable discourse!

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/node/65941/talk

What to Read on Iranian Politics
Suzanne Maloney
An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus on Iranian politics.

SUZANNE MALONEY is a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East
Policy at the Brookings Institution.

The agony and ecstasy of Iran’s 1979 revolution, and the Islamic
Republic established in its wake, have inspired a profusion of
literature. In literally thousands of books and articles, academics,
pundits, historical figures, and even cartoonists have dissected Iran,
its convoluted politics, its rich culture, and its troubled
relationship with the rest of the world. This breadth of material
reflects not only the captivating drama of recent Iranian history but
also one of the Islamic Republic’s many paradoxes -- that for a
supposedly closed society, contemporary Iran is surprisingly open to
journalists, researchers, and occasional travelers. Despite this
abundance, understanding Iran presents a perpetual challenge for
external observers, thanks to the layers of complexity and
contradictions beneath Iran’s surface and the country’s proclivity for
unpredictability. The difficulty is magnified in the United States,
where long estrangement has deprived most Americans of direct exposure
to Iran and generated an appetite for sensationalism or sentimentality
in place of serious analysis.

The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. By Roy
Mottahedeh. Simon & Schuster, 1985.

Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution. By Shaul
Bakhash. Basic Books, 1984.

Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Iran scholars are a fractious bunch, but one book commands nearly
universal respect. Roy Mottahedeh’s The Mantle of the Prophet, they
agree, offers an unparalleled perspective on the revolution and its
antecedents as seen through the eyes of an archetypical cleric.
Mottahedeh brilliantly weaves the themes of Iranian history and
culture through his narrative in a way that illuminates their central
influence in shaping the country’s political development. Its brief,
poignant epilogue reads as an elegy for the ideals of the revolution’s
protagonists. Shaul Bakhash, meanwhile, is both a journalist and
historian, and he applies these complementary skills to this classic
account of the revolution and the first decade of the Islamic
Republic. The Reign of the Ayatollahs is a gripping read that is rich
in detailed analysis of the political, ideological, and economic
transformations wrought by the revolution. The book is particularly
compelling on the formative role that the turbulence of the Islamic
Republic’s early years played in shaping a sense of profound
insecurity among its leadership.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. By Marjane Satrapi. Pantheon,
2003.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. By Marjane Satrapi. Pantheon,
2004.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Through austere black-and-white drawings and stark dialogue, these
graphic novels recount the revolution and its aftermath through a tale
of exile from and eventual return to Iran. The Persepolis stories,
which were eventually translated into a film, form a thinly veiled
version of Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography but speak powerfully to the
traumas experienced by a generation of Iranians born in or after the
revolution.

The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic
Republic. By Asghar Schirazi. I. B. Tauris, 1997.

Purchase at Amazon.com

Although ultimate authority in Iran is wielded by an unelected
religious figure, the country’s post-revolutionary political order
incorporates a number of popularly elected institutions. Enshrining
this duality is a written constitution whose initial draft was modeled
on that of the French Fifth Republic. This meticulously researched
book analyzes the fundamental contradictions embedded within the
constitution and their resolution in practice, which has gone largely
in favor of nondemocratic institutions and precepts.

Factional Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran. By Mehdi Moslem. Syracuse
University Press, 2002.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Conservative, reformist, radical, and everything in between: Iran
watchers are all too prone to cataloguing the ideological and
political factions within the Islamic Republic, often to the point of
analytical futility. Mehdi Moslem’s book rises above abstract
terminology to chronicle the evolution and institutionalization of
Iran’s fierce competition for power. The book is most valuable in its
exploration of the internecine internal skirmishing of the early 1990s
that helped lead to the emergence of the reform movement, including
considerable attention to Mir Husayn Musavi, who has recently returned
to political prominence

by contesting the June 2009 presidential election. Unlike many other
authors writing during the reformist heyday, Moslem presciently
anticipates the influence of Iran’s neo-fundamentalists, a faction
that would include current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Youth Exclusion in Iran: The State of Education, Employment, and
Family Formation.” By Djavad Salehi-Isfahani and Daniel Egel. The
Wolfensohn Center for Development and the Dubai School of Government,
September 2007. Read

Nearly every analysis of contemporary Iran refers to its
disproportionately young population, at least two-thirds of which have
been born since the revolution itself. The policy debate often focuses
on the threat that such a significant youth element might pose for the
Islamic regime. In this thoughtful paper, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani and
Daniel Egel examine the mundane challenges facing young Iranians in
obtaining a practical education, achieving steady employment, and
getting married and starting a family. They recommend specific
policies to mitigate the problems and capitalize on what is really as
much a potential boon to Iran’s future as a destabilizing factor.

“The Struggle Against Sultanism.” By Akbar Ganji. The Journal of
Democracy. 16, no. 4: pp. 38–51. Read
“The Latter-Day Sultan.” By Akbar Ganji. Foreign Affairs, November/
December 2008, pp. 45-66.

The Road to Democracy in Iran. By Akbar Ganji. MIT Press, 2008.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Akbar Ganji’s biography itself offers a trenchant commentary on the
ebb and flow of ideological orthodoxy in the Islamic Republic. Having
served during the regime’s early years in the Revolutionary Guards and
the fearsome Intelligence Ministry, Ganji progressively became
disenchanted. By the mid-1990s, he had transformed himself into an
influential political journalist, assailing Iran’s senior leadership
in newspaper columns on the regime’s excesses. Arrested in 2000, he
later spent nearly six years in prison, where his fate attracted
worldwide attention. Today, Ganji remains passionate about realizing a
genuine representative state in Iran, although he effectively lives in
exile. These writings present his erudite denunciation of Iran’s
current system and his effort to chart a path forward.

Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran’s Radical Leader. By Kasra
Naji. University of California Press, 2008.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

The unexpected election in 2005 of a little-known radical populist to
Iran’s presidency, along with his emergence as a figure of worldwide
repute and revile, generated a spate of inquiries into Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and the political conditions that spawned his ascendance.
This biography, by the Iranian journalist Kasra Naji, is the widest-
ranging and most descriptive, and draws on the author’s personal
experiences covering Ahmadinejad as a reporter. The portrait that
emerges -- of a provocative and politically savvy hard-liner -- is
fascinating, although the lack of independent corroboration leaves
doubts about some of the book’s more explosive claims.

Latest from CFR

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Go to cfr.org.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-iranian-politics

What to Read on Nuclear Proliferation
Bradley A. Thayer
An annotated Foreign Affairs syllabus on nuclear proliferation.

BRADLEY A. THAYER is Professor of Political Science at Baylor
University.

Few topics in international relations consistently attract as much
academic and policy interest as nuclear proliferation. The literature
on the subject tends to focus on four central questions: Why do states
seek nuclear weapons? How do they acquire the components necessary to
build them? What are the consequences of proliferation? And how can
nuclear weapons be kept out of the hands of nonstate actors? These
issues will remain salient in the years to come, as the North Korean
and Iranian nuclear programs advance, the threat of nuclear terrorism
persists, and the full implications of the type of nuclear
entrepreneurship practiced by such intermediaries as A. Q. Khan are
revealed. One fact is clear: going nuclear has never been easier.

"A Primer on Fissile Materials and Nuclear Weapons Design." By Owen R.
Coté, Jr. In: Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy: Containing the Threat of Loose
Russian Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material. By Graham T. Allison,
Owen R. Coté, Jr., Richard A. Falkenrath, and Steven E. Miller. MIT
Press, 1996.
Purchase at Amazon.com

Nuclear proliferation is part politics, part science and technology.
This appendix is the single best introduction to the science and
technology part: the principles of fission and fusion, the physical
properties of fissile material, the design for both fission and fusion
nuclear weapons, and the production of fissile materials. Owen Coté
clearly explains the physics behind fission and thermonuclear weapons
and the production of enriched uranium and plutonium. His bottom line
is that simple fission weapons are not a major design challenge for
most states and even some nonstate actors; the only truly significant
barrier to acquiring nuclear weapons is obtaining a sufficient amount
of fissile material, whether by developing the means of their
production or stealing or purchasing the materials themselves.

The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and Its
Proliferation. By Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman. Zenith Press,
2009.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman provide an outstanding history of the
nuclear age, from the discovery of fission in 1938 to the present
troubles that confront the nuclear nonproliferation regime. The
authors succinctly discuss the histories of nuclear states, including
Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and South Africa, while offering
keen insights into their motivation for proliferation and the path
each state took to acquire the bomb. They also evaluate the scope of
the A. Q. Khan network and
Libya's role in helping to end it. Reed and Stillman are pessimistic
about the possibilities of derailing the "nuclear express" as it rolls
on in this century, citing the spread of nuclear technology, major
problems at the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the role
states such as China play in fostering proliferation.

The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed. By Scott D. Sagan and
Kenneth N. Waltz. W. W. Norton, 2002.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

This revised edition is the best source for a succinct analysis of the
causes of nuclear proliferation and its consequences. Kenneth Waltz
and Scott Sagan have sharply contrasting views on the ramifications of
nuclear proliferation. A proponent of rational deterrence theory,
Waltz is guardedly sanguine over the stabilizing impact of secure
second-strike capabilities. He argues that they make wars hard to
start and give leaders great incentive to de-escalate a crisis.
Drawing upon organization theory, Sagan is much more pessimistic about
the stabilizing role of nuclear weapons in all cases. He highlights
the dangers posed by military organizations -- their biases, routines,
and interests -- that are likely to lead to deterrence failures.
Moreover, he maintains that nuclear states may lack adequate civilian
control, which can exacerbate the problems associated with military
organizations.

The Nuclear Tipping Point: Why States Reconsider Their Nuclear
Choices. Edited by Kurt M. Campbell, Robert J. Einhorn, and Mitchell
B. Reiss. Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com
Kurt Campbell, Robert Einhorn, and Mitchell Reiss have assembled a
first-rate collection of authors to consider one crucial question:
When do states reverse their decision to acquire a nuclear weapons
capability? The writers consider the cases of Egypt, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, all of which
eventually abandoned their nuclear weapons programs. The authors find
that the regional security environment is critical. Absent some form
of intervention by the United States, states will likely cross the
tipping point if a neighboring hostile state acquires nuclear weapons.
The implications of this study are particularly helpful in light of
Iran's nuclear pursuit and the ensuing concerns over the start of a
chain of proliferation in the Middle East.

Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats. By Joseph
Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, and Miriam Rajkumar. Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, 2005.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

This is an essential resource on nuclear proliferation,
comprehensively documenting the spread of nuclear, biological, and
chemical weapons as well as their aircraft and missile delivery
systems. In addition to providing detailed descriptions of the
capabilities of various states, it contains valuable analyses of the
technologies necessary to develop nuclear weapons and the strength of
the nonproliferation regime.

Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, A. Q. Khan, and the Rise of
Proliferation Networks -- A Net Assessment. International Institute
for Strategic Studies, 2007.

Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the
Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network. By Gordon Corera. Oxford
University Press, 2006.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has provided
a great service with this analysis of the nuclear network masterminded
by A. Q. Khan, the man former CIA Director George Tenet described as
"at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden." For almost two decades,
Khan's network -- based in Africa, Asia, and Europe -- sold nuclear
enrichment technology, nuclear weapon design information, and
expertise to Iran, Iraq, Libya, and North Korea, while effectively
bypassing the export control regime. Equally valuable is this report's
examination of the efforts to halt the illicit nuclear trade. What
remains worrisome is the degree to which global proliferation networks
and nuclear black markets continue to function as instruments of state
policy or as the new favored business model for nuclear entrepreneurs.
Gordon Corera's book complements the IISS study, offering a detailed
historical context of Pakistan's nuclear program and the central role
A. Q. Khan played in its development. Corera explores how Khan and his
confederates constructed and maintained the network, demonstrates the
immense difficulty the U.S. intelligence community had in detecting
and monitoring it over decades, and illuminates the great problems
involved in mustering the political will necessary to stop Khan's
network when Islamabad was a major ally in the war on terror.

Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad.
By Jeffrey T. Richelson. W. W. Norton, 2009.
Purchase at B&N.com | Purchase at Amazon.com

In this excellent book, Jeffrey Richelson provides the first thorough
history of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support
(formerly Search) Team (NEST), a core component of the United States'
defense against nuclear terrorism. He describes the evolution of NEST
from its origins to its current objective of defending the United
States against a nuclear or radiological attack conducted by
terrorists. The analyses of al Qaeda's efforts to acquire a nuclear
weapon (or device) and how it would be used in the United States are
particularly valuable, as is the discussion of NEST after 9/11.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-nuclear-proliferation-0

Expert Brief

The Weakening of Turkey's Military
Author: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle
Eastern Studies

March 1, 2010

The arrest of forty-nine currently serving and retired Turkish
military officers for an alleged 2003 plot to overthrow the government
is unprecedented and has raised fears about destabilization arising
from a showdown between the moderate Islamist Justice and Development
Party (AKP) and the military.

But none of this should come as a surprise. The current crisis
underscores the changes long underway in Turkish politics. Since 2003,
the ruling AKP has been whittling away at the military's vaunted
autonomy. Yet the oft-cited power of the Turkish General Staff may be
more apparent than real. That perception stems from the fact that the
military has carried out four coups d'état (1960, 1971, 1980, and
1997) and countless less-dramatic interventions in Turkish politics.
Rather than demonstrate the officers' power and influence, however,
these interventions reflect the underlying weakness of Turkey's
military establishment.

Asserting Civilian Control

Since the founding of the Turkish republic, the basic, if unwritten,
rule of politics has been: Politicians and their followers must not
elicit the ire of the General Staff lest they be pushed from office
and banned (at least temporarily) from politics. As a result,
successive Turkish governments have shied from challenging the
military on issues such as personnel, the military budget, and weapons
issues such as personnel, the military budget, and weapons
procurement, as well as areas beyond the officers' professional
competence, including education, broadcasting, and the national
economy. Indeed, the threat of military intervention has so
conditioned Turkish civilian politicians that they have often
campaigned in part on the implicit message that they could maintain
good relations with the General Staff.

[N]one of this should come as a surprise. The current crisis
underscores the changes long underway in Turkish politics.

In 2003, however, the AKP, riding a wave of unprecedented popular
support for European Union-inspired reforms, began bringing the
General Staff under civilian control. The AKP-dominated parliament
granted itself oversight and control over the military's extra-
budgetary funds, strengthened the civilian-controlled Ministry of
National Defense--which is separate from and has no control over the
General Staff--to identify priorities for defense expenditures, and
removed military representatives from the Higher Education and Audio-
Visual Boards. The officers on these boards were charged with ensuring
that threats to the republic, notably Islamism and Kurdish separatism,
did not creep into the educational system or national broadcasting.

The most important changes were made to the National Security Council
(known more commonly by its Turkish acronym, MGK), which had been the
primary channel through which the officers influenced Turkish
politics. First, the number of officers on the council was reduced
from five to one--the chief of staff. Second, the legislation required
that a civilian hold the office of MGK secretary-general, a position
previously reserved for a military officer who reported directly to
the chief of staff. The council was also stripped of its executive
authority and its budget placed under the prime minister's control.

Despite these dramatic changes, the military was forced to accept the
council's downgraded status. Given the enormous public support (as
high as 77 percent) for the EU reforms at the time, the officers could
not oppose the changes to the MGK without risking the military's
popularity among the Turkish public--something the officers hold dear.

Despite periodic reports of grumbling among the officer corps about
the Justice and Development Party's alleged "reactionaryism," there
were no confrontations between the military and the government until
April 2007, when the military tried to prevent then foreign minister
and deputy prime minister Abdullah Gul from becoming Turkey's
president. Although the post is largely ceremonial, the Turkish
president has the power to approve or veto legislation. The officers
feared that a Gul presidency would bring down the last firewall
against the establishment of an Islamic state.

Without naming Gul, the officers posted a message on the General
Staff's website implicitly threatening intervention should the AKP-
dominated parliament elect Gul to be Turkey's eleventh president.
After a tense month of popular protests in Turkey's major cities,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called snap national
elections. The Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory,
capturing 47 percent of the vote, paving the way for Gul to be
elevated to the Cankaya Palace in August. Once again, despite the
military's clear threats, the officers proved that while they could
raise the level of tension in the political arena, they were impotent
to secure their desired outcome.

Although the arrest of the forty-nine officers is big news, the fact
remains that the popular perception of an all-powerful Turkish
military is largely incorrect.
The following March, the public prosecutor filed charges against the
Justice and Development Party for being "a center of anti-secular
activity." Although the military was not directly responsible for the
charges, the General Staff's deep mistrust of AKP created an
environment that made the charges possible. The Constitutional Court
ultimately found the party guilty, but decided against shuttering the
party and banning seventy of its members from politics. The decision,
despite the verdict, was widely regarded as a victory for Justice and
Development and a blow to the secular establishment, which the
military leads.
A string of embarrassing incidents have further eroded the military's
public standing and allowed the AKP to begin subordinating the
officers to civilian authority.

These include the so-called Ergenekon investigation, which implicated
several former senior officers and a number of serving junior officers
in an effort to destabilize the country and provoke a coup. In
addition, the Turkish daily Taraf published alleged documents
demonstrating that the military was aware of planned Kurdistan Worker
Party attacks on Turkish soldiers before they occurred, but chose to
do nothing to undermine support for the AKP. And officers from the
Special Forces command were recently accused of plotting the
assassination of Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. The latter
incident resulted in civilian prosecutors searching Special Forces
headquarters for evidence, an unprecedented development in Turkey.

The Inherent Weakness of Coups

Although the arrest of the forty-nine officers is big news, the fact
remains that the popular perception of an all-powerful Turkish
military is largely incorrect. The officers regard themselves as the
keepers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's principles of secularism and
republicanism. Yet, Kemalism--at least the officers' interpretation of
Ataturk's ideas--demands a drab political conformity that never
accommodated Kurds, pious Muslims, Armenians, the small Greek
community, and, as Turkish society has become more modern and complex,
those who want to live in a more democratic political system.

The fact that the officers have had to intervene four times in five
decades demonstrates their inability to force the military's political
will on society. To be sure, the coups of 1960, 1971, 1980, and the
"blank" or "post-modern" coup of 1997 reflect the awesome firepower at
the General Staff's disposal, but coercion is the least efficient
means of political control. Indeed, in the aftermath of each
intervention, the military sought to ensure that it would not have to
intervene again by writing, rewriting, and amending Turkey's
constitutions to safeguard the Kemalist political order, yet each time
the reengineering of Turkey's political institutions failed to prevent
challenges to the political system.
The U.S. Response

Although the Obama administration has identified Turkey as a strategic
partner in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and South
Asia, Washington must recognize that Turkey's internal political
turmoil could undermine Ankara's capacity to be a useful ally in these
critical areas. A military backlash in the form of a coup, or if the
AKP uses the arrests to engage in a political witch hunt, will
destabilize Turkish politics and markets for the foreseeable future.

Washington must continue to emphasize the importance of the rule of
law and the importance of Turkey's democratic transition to put both
sides--the military and the government--on notice that the stakes in
this situation for both Ankara and Washington are high.

Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.

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See Also
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New Books

In Paradise Beneath Her Feet,

Isobel Coleman shows how Muslim women and men are fighting back with
progressive interpretations of Islam to support women's rights in a
growing movement of Islamic feminism

How Enemies Become Friends

In this compelling book, Charles A. Kupchan explores how adversaries
can transform enmity into amity, and exposes prevalent myths about the
causes of peace.

Start-Up Nation

The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

Authors: Daniel Senor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern
Studies
Saul Singer, Columnist, Jerusalem Post
Publisher: A CFR Book. Twelve Books

Release Date: November 2009

320 pages
ISBN 978-0-446-54146-6
$26.99

Overview

Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that
Israel—a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old,
surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding,
with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies than large,
peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada,
and the United Kingdom? Drawing on examples from the country’s
foremost inventors and investors, geopolitical experts Dan Senor and
Saul Singer describe how Israel’s adversity-driven culture fosters a
unique combination of innovative and entrepreneurial intensity.

“Rich and insightful.”
—Publishers Weekly

As the authors argue, Israel is not just a country but a comprehensive
state of mind. Whereas Americans emphasize decorum and exhaustive
preparation, Israelis put chutzpah first. “When an Israeli
entrepreneur has a business idea, he will start it that week,” one
analyst put it. At the geopolitical level, Senor and Singer dig in
deeper to show why Israel’s policies on immigration, R&D, and military
service have been key factors in the country’s rise—providing insight
into why Israel has more companies on the NASDAQ than those from all
of Europe, Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, and India combined.

“Illuminating.”
—George Stephanopoulos

So much has been written about the Middle East, but surprisingly
little is understood about the story and strategy behind Israel’s
economic growth. As Start-Up Nation shows, there are lessons in
Israel’s example that apply not only to other nations, but also to
individuals seeking to build a thriving organization. As the U.S.
economy seeks to reboot its can-do spirit, there’s never been a better
time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some
impressive, surprising clues.

About This Publication

1.Book Events
2.Reviews & Endorsements
3.The Authors

Book Events

Watch Dan Senor on the 700 Club.

Watch Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netenyahu mention Start-Up
Nation in his speech at the Jewish Federations of North America annual
conference.

Watch Fareed Zakaria discuss the book on Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Watch Dan Senor on Squawk Box.

Watch Dan Senor on Morning Joe.

Watch Dan Senor on Meet the Press.

Watch Dan Senor on Take Two.

Reviews & Endorsements

Read the David Brooks piece in the New York Times.
Read the interview with Dan Senor in the New York Times’
“Freakonomics” blog.
Read the authors’ piece in Newsweek.
Read the Israel National News piece.
Read the “Power Line” piece.
Read the Economist piece.
Read the Bloomberg.com piece.
Read the Growthology.org piece.
Read the Scripps News piece.
Read the National Review piece and interview with Dan Senor.
Read the Atlantic piece.
Read the Larry King Live blog interview with Dan Senor.
Read the Jerusalem Post piece.
Read the Mediaite piece.
Read the Weekly Standard piece.
Read Dan Senor’s piece in the “Daily Beast.”
“Vividly illustrates how Israel has developed a culture where
authority not only can be challenged, but must be ... a compelling and
satisfying work, filled with eye-opening revelations and shot through
with rich examples, explanations, and analysis.”
—Barron's
“Bracing.”
—New Republic
A New York Times “Caucus” blog best seller.
A Washington Post best seller.
“This fine book ... shine[s] a spotlight on [Israel’s] success.”
—Wall Street Journal
“An eye-opening look at a side of Israel that most people never think
about.”
—The Week
“There is a great deal for America to learn from the very impressive
Israeli entrepreneurial model—beginning with a culture of leadership
and risk management. Start-Up Nation is a playbook for every CEO who
wants to develop the next generation of corporate leaders.”
—Tom Brokaw, special correspondent for NBC News, author of The
Greatest Generation
“Senor and Singer’s experience in government, in business, and in
journalism—and especially on the ground in the Middle East—come to
life in their illuminating, timely, and often surprising analysis.”
—George Stephanopoulos, host of This Week, ABC News
“In the midst of the chaos of the Middle East, there’s a remarkable
story of innovation. Start-Up Nation is filled with inspiring insights
into what’s behind Israel’s dynamic economy. It is a timely book and a
much-needed celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit.”
—Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay
“Senor and Singer highlight some important lessons and sound
instruction for countries struggling to enter the 21st century. An
edifying, cogent report, as apolitical as reasonably possible, about
homemade nation building.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The authors ground their analysis in case studies and interviews with
some of Israel's most brilliant innovators to make this a rich and
insightful read not just for business leaders and policymakers but for
anyone curious about contemporary Israeli culture.”
—Publishers Weekly

The Authors

Daniel Senor, adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the
Council on Foreign Relations, has long been on the front lines of
policy, politics, and business in the Middle East. As a senior foreign
policy adviser to the U.S. government, he was one of the longest-
serving civilian officials in Iraq, for which he was awarded the
highest civilian honor by the Pentagon. He also served in Qatar, and
has studied in Israel, where today he invests in a number of Israeli
start-ups. In his business career, he has worked for global private
equity firms—the Carlyle Group and Rosemont Capital, which he
cofounded. Senor’s analytical pieces are frequently published by the
Wall Street Journal; he has also written for the New York Times, the
Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, and Time. In government and
business, he has traveled extensively throughout the Arab world. Mr.
Senor lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.

Saul Singer is a columnist and former editorial page editor at the
Jerusalem Post and the author of Confronting Jihad: Israel’s Struggle
and the World after 9/11. He has written for the Wall Street Journal,
Commentary, Moment, the New Leader, bitterlemons (an Israeli/
Palestinian e-zine), and the Washington Post’s international blog,
PostGlobal. Before moving to Israel, he served as an adviser to the
U.S. Congress. Mr. Singer lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three
daughters.

Visit www.startupnationbook.com for more.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/21548/weakening_of_turkeys_military.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cfr_foreignaffairs+%28CFR.org+-+FA+multi-pub%29

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Israeli Innovation a Model for United States, Say Senor and Singer in
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October 23, 2009

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Israel’s Political System
By Eben Kaplan and Caroline Friedman
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Updated: February 11, 2009

Uncertainty in Israeli Politics
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March 24, 2009

Briefing by Special Envoy for Middle East Peace Mitchell on Obama's
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September 22, 2009

See Also
Israel, Business and Foreign Policy

Essay Reshaping the World Order
Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth
The current architecture of international institutions must be
updated, but skeptics question whether the United States is up to the
task. They need not worry: the United States still possesses enough
power and legitimacy to spearhead reform.

Essay The Future of American Power
Fareed Zakaria
Despite some eerie parallels between the position of the United States
today and that of the British Empire a century ago, there are key
differences. Britain's decline was driven by bad economics. The United
States, in contrast, has the strength and dynamism to continue shaping
the world -- but only if it can overcome its political dysfunction and
reorient U.S. policy for a world defined by the rise of other powers.

Essay The Age of Nonpolarity
Richard N. Haass
In the twenty-first century, power will be diffuse rather than
concentrated, and the influence of nonstate actors will increase. But
the United States can still manage the transition and make the world a
safer place.

Essay Taming American Power
Stephen M. Walt
U.S. policymakers debate how to wield American power; foreigners
debate how to deal with it. Some make their peace with Washington and
try to manipulate it; others try to oppose and undercut U.S.
interests. The challenge for the United States is how to turn its
material dominance into legitimate authority.

Comment Is America Losing Its Edge?
Adam Segal
For 50 years, the United States has maintained its economic edge by
being better and faster than any other country at inventing and
exploiting new technologies. Today, however, its dominance is starting
to slip, as Asian countries pour resources into R&D and challenge
America's traditional role in the global economy.

Comment A Global Power Shift in the Making
James F. Hoge, Jr.
Global power shifts happen rarely and are even less often peaceful.
Washington must take heed: Asia is rising fast, with its growing
economic power translating into political and military strength. The
West must adapt -- or be left behind.

Essay History and the Hyperpower
Eliot A. Cohen
Whether or not the United States today should be called an empire is a
semantic game. The important point is that it resembles previous
empires enough to make the search for lessons of history worthwhile.
Overwhelming dominance has always invited hostility. U.S. leaders thus
must learn the arts of imperial management and diplomacy, exercising
power with a bland smile rather than boastful words.

Essay America's Imperial Dilemma
Dimitri K. Simes
The United States increasingly looks, walks, and talks like an empire.
It should therefore heed the lessons of its predecessors, exercising
strong and determined global leadership. At the same time, it must
avoid the temptation to meddle when American interests are not at
stake. This means, among other things, dropping the doctrine of
universal democracy promotion.

Essay U.S. Power and Strategy After Iraq
Joseph S. Nye Jr.
The Bush administration's new national security strategy gets much
right but may turn out to be myopic. The world has changed in ways
that make it impossible for the most dominant power since Rome to go
it alone. U.S. policymakers must realize that power today lies not
only in the might of one's sword but in the appeal of one's ideas.

Essay Reshaping the World Order
Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth
The current architecture of international institutions must be
updated, but skeptics question whether the United States is up to the
task. They need not worry: the United States still possesses enough
power and legitimacy to spearhead reform.

Review Essay A Hegemon's Coming of Age
Walter Russell Mead
A new book presents the complex and lively history of the evolution of
U.S. power abroad.

Essay The Default Power
Josef Joffe
Since the United States first became a global superpower, it has been
fashionable to speak of its decline. But in today's world, the United
States' economic and military strength, along with the attractiveness
of its ideals, will ensure its power for a long time to come.

Essay Complexity and Collapse
Niall Ferguson
Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians
imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch
suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the
precipice.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-american-primacy

http://www.cfr.org/publication/20356/

[Sid Harth]

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Published on 14-04-2007 In National
Viewed 2935 times | Written by Cho Ramaswamy
Social injustice

Karnataka government's ignoring rulings of the courts' in the Cauvery
tangle is unjust. The Kerala regime's brazen contempt for judgements
in the Mullaperiyar issue is the worst example of chutzpah. But, the
Tamil Nadu has attempted to do something worse against the Supreme
Court by organising a general strike against its interim pronouncement
because it is supposed to be "social justice."

The Apex Court had spoken its mind in the matter of 27 percent
reservation for "Other Backward Castes" in higher education and
ordered an interim stay on the law in this respect. Though the TN
government opposed and decried the ruling as do most political parties
in the length and breadth of the nation, this is the only state that
dovetailed its allies' [and the entire opposition's] support for a
state sponsored "bandh."

Senior counsel Vijayan has pointed out a hitherto unnoticed aspect of
this issue.

"When the case came up for the first time, its plaintiffs – a certain
youths' association was in the process of organising a strike.

The Supreme Court's interim orders, at that point in time, were in
favour of the government which had opposed it. Forced to accept the
call of the courts, the body called off its mass action. Now, the
state government has acted in a manner so as to insult the voice of
the judiciary. Shouldn't the present regime exhibit the same sense of
responsibility shown earlier by a voluntary organisation," Vijayan
demands to know.

The Supreme Court expressed itself explicitly while ordering an
interim stay in the matter of reservation in education.

The court reiterated its earlier orders which had clearly stated that
the reservations cannot exceed 50 percent…This upper limit [aimed to
keep out] the creamy layer within the Backward Castes was an aspect of
the [collective] wisdom expressed in the articles enshrined in The
Constitution. If breached, this would defeat the very purpose of the
assurance of "equal opportunities" which are the bedrock of all our
laws, the court said. Ensuring that reservations do not go beyond the
prescribed 50 percent limit, that all those who have already been
benefited by the statute are kept beyond its purview and prevention of
their indefinite continuance are the duty of the government.
Backwardness cannot be a permanent feature and therefore ought not to
become endless, the court reflected in its interim order.

These above sentiments expressed by the courts have been stressed in
many articles published several times in Thuglak.

This time, the Supreme Court has pointed out that the census of 1931
cannot be the basis to determine OBCs. Further it said that such an
old yardstick cannot be accepted as the justification for 27 percent
reservation in [central] educational institutions.

Those who oppose these averments of the Apex Court naturally point to
the fact that it did not question reservations in government jobs. But
these sections have failed to comprehend a simple facet of the whole
issue. Different articles in the Constitution have dealt with
reservations in jobs and educational institutions separately and have
differentiated between the two.

While tackling the matter of reservations in jobs, the Constitution
clearly says they are applicable only "to those Backward Classes which
do not have adequate representation."

Shorn of legalese, this means that the founding fathers of our
Constitution had accepted the fact that certain sections of the
population weren't represented in government posts.

But the statute doesn't accept this premise while dealing with the
issue of reservations in educational institutions. The article that
deals with this matter clearly says that the special arrangement is
meant for the uplift of "socially and educationally backward sections"
of the population that encompasses "oppressed and scheduled castes
[and] tribes…"

Since this was based on the situation that prevailed in 1931 [when the
last census was conducted] questions are bound to be raised about its
present applicability.

If this distinction between jobs and education is understood, nobody
would say that the two are on an equal plane.

Between the creation of our Constitution and the present day,
different amendments were made to include several sections in the
populace purely to increase political parties' vote banks. This
resulted in those who depended on merit being totally outnumbered in
blatant violation of the tenets of equality stated clearly in the
Constitution.

Every time the courts opposed such moves, political parties assailed
the judiciary as a matter of habit. The present order of the Supreme
Court isn't a final denouement. Yet, several political outfits are
condemning it as such. The Tamil Nadu government simply went a step
further and organised a "bandh."

"On what basis can the ruling party in Tamil Nadu insist on our
obeying the Supreme Court in the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar issues," is
a poser bound to be raised by the ruling [coalitions] in Karnataka and
Kerala respectively.

Naturally the two "K" states can demand the right to be on an equal
footing with Tamil Nadu in ignoring the Supreme Court!

On several occasions, for different reasons, the powers that be in
many states as well as at the centre have accorded short shrifts to
judgements pronounced in courts. At times, they have rendered their
orders meaningless by amending the laws.

It may happen on this occasion as well.

The words of the judiciary have tasted bitter to governments
regardless of their being regional or national because the courts base
their orders on the Constitution while ruling political arrangements
treaded a different measure due to political conveniences.

The latest imbroglio is an attempt on the part of the political
parties to decimate the bulwarks of democracy enshrined in our laws –
equality and justice for all. If the political class succeeds in its
quest, it would be meaningless to call ourselves a democratic state.
The alibi for this – the cause of "social justice" – is its very
antithesis.

(Translated from Thuglak by TSV Hari)

http://indiainteracts.in/columnist/2007/04/14/Social-injustice-/

Social injustice

Social justice in India means many things to most people. It is a coin
that offers the solution on one side, and promises to retain its
premium value if the extent of social injustice is allowed to grow on
the other. The side that pays the most during election-time is not the
one that has the solution. To the authors of the Constitution ushering
in social justice was an honest commitment with an unrealistic time-
limit. It was this error in the original document that allowed the
political class to turn the policy of job reservation into an
opportunity for creating a captive vote-bank. The two-day national
convention of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other backward
communities in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, organised by the Bharatiya Janata
Party is the latest example of the scale of confusion that politicians
are willing to create by making promises that fly in the face of law
and logic. Of course, since every political party is now playing the
Dalit card, why should the BJP not follow the policy? In the highly
competitive political game of appearing to be different from the other
in championing the Dalit cause, parties are constantly inventing new
agendas. The BJP convention in Mhow has promised to introduce job
reservation in the private sector.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh stole the Dalit thunder
last year by organising a conference of Dalit intellectuals that
adopted a charter of action called the Bhopal Declaration. With
assembly elections round the corner, the BJP has decided to offer
everything short of the moon to break the Congress’ grip over the
levers of power in Madhya Pradesh. Real issues becoming “victims” of
narrow and self-defeating politics have slowed down India’s march
towards economic progress. Population control is a real issue, that no
party wants to touch for the odium attached to it because of Sanjay
Gandhi. Social justice was a low-key issue until 1989. After Mr V. P.
Singh implemented the Mandal Commission report on job reservation, no
leader has shown the moral courage to question the rationale of a
policy that has increased the level of general tension without
offering social and economic emancipation to the country’s vast
underclass. Adopting a resolution is not going to make the private
sector offer jobs without applying the test of merit. Creation of
merit will help the Dalits join the expanding mainstream of
professional excellence without having to feel small in the eyes of
their colleagues. How about a policy that allows Dalits admission in
the best schools in the country? That is where the foundations of
academic excellence are laid. Thereafter, merit alone should be the
benchmark for admission to premium professional courses. Creating
social tension by expanding the size of job reservation will some day
cause an explosion that would make the post-Mandal riots in the
country look like a mild tantrum.

Satyameva jayate

The Union Cabinet’s nod to a proposal to make “truth a defence” in
contempt cases where aspersions have been cast against a judge is
laudable, in that it can remove a gross discrepancy. So far, the
contempt law has been an exception to the fundamental right to the
freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution.
Actually, the Contempt of Court Act, 1971, is silent on whether truth
can be a defence. Perhaps the law was taciturn on this issue because
it was considered inconceivable that a judge could be fallible. But
this silence was interpreted in some cases to mean that even if an
aspersion was true, it still constituted a contempt of court because
it lowered the authority and dignity of the court. While attempting to
remove this grey area, the government has rather enhanced the
authority of the judiciary because the judges occupy such an exalted
place in society that fingers should not be pointed at them, not just
because the law says so, but because the people at large actually
consider them to be beyond reproach. If there is foolproof evidence
against any member of the fraternity that he erred, then the person
making the allegation should not be hauled over coals just because the
wrongdoer happened to be a judge. This immunity was liable to be
misused. One black sheep could have brought a bad name to the entire
community. Even if the unthinkable did not happen, there were chances
that people’s faith in the integrity of the judges would not be as
unflinching as it should be.

Many countries like Australia and New Zealand already have truth as
defence in contempt cases. The Cabinet’s decision that can make the
judiciary more accountable without compromising its autonomy is in
line with the proposals of the National Commission to Review the
Working of the Constitution (NCRWC). In fact, many legal luminaries
have been supporting the move strongly. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had
advocated in a signed article last year that “… truth and good faith
must be reinstated as sound defences, so that a judge who has
something to hide may be exposed to the … light of truth”. As he had
concluded in the Mulgaokar case dealing with “unsavoury” allegations
against a senior sitting judge, “a benign neglect, not judicial
intemperance, is the sensible therapy of contempt law”. If a political
consensus develops on the proposal, the contempt law can be changed
without amending the Constitution.

Welcome move on Kashmir
Why peace must be pursued
Praful Bidwai

Whatever one’s reservations about Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s political
style and his party’s ideology, one must heartily and unstintingly
welcome his decision to visit Kashmir and launch an initiative for
reconciliation and peace. His visit was undoubtedly a landmark: on
April 18, he became India’s first Prime Minister to address a public
meeting in the valley since the “azadi” militancy broke out in 1989.
This is itself commendable. It also speaks of a positive change in
ground reality. His visit, coming six months after the largely free
and fair Legislative Assembly elections, has kindled new hopes, If his
overture is followed up with wise and purposive moves, we could see
some real progress in resolving one of the most troubled, complex and
bloody disputes in the world.

In Srinagar, Mr Vajpayee attempted a “double whammy”. He held out the
“hand of friendship” to Pakistan, significantly, from Kashmiri soil.
And he offered a dialogue between the Centre and different currents of
opinion in Jammu and Kashmir. Both offers were soon hedged in with
conditions. And yet, they indicate a welcome softening of New Delhi’s
stance. The change of tone and tenor has outlasted the somewhat
dampering effect of the qualifying statements Mr Vajpayee himself made
the following day, reiterating that the talks leading to peace with
Pakistan would only take place once there is an end to cross-border
terrorism. Yet, the impact of the new tone and tenor is welcome.

Of the two initiatives, on Pakistan, and on domestic arrangements
pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, the first is both more important and
likelier to succeed more quickly than the second — for three reasons.
First, Pakistan has responded remarkably positively to India’s offer
of a dialogue and said it is willing to hold it “any time, at any
place and any level.” It has added that it hopes to work out specific
dates for negotiations “within days”. Second, there is growing
recognition within both governments that they cannot indefinitely
sustain their mutual hostility. They are under increasing pressure
from the major powers to defuse rivalry and reach mutual
accommodation.

Only six months ago, India and Pakistan were all ready to go to war.
The reasons why they didn’t basically continue to hold today. The
global situation emerging after the Iraq war has discomfited both by
highlighting their own vulnerability on account of the Kashmir and
nuclear issues. Washington, in its most aggressively unilateralist and
expansionist phase today, has threatened to extend the Iraq conflict
and also turn its attention to South Asia. On March 31, Secretary of
State Colin Powell told The New York Times that “the whole of the
subcontinent’s problems” were part of the “broad agenda” that the US
plans to address soon. South Asian tensions have figured prominently
in the deliberations of Russia, France and Britain too, who have all
called for an India-Pakistan dialogue.

And third, a certain momentum favouring a short time-frame for an
India-Pakistan meeting has been generated, with the planned visit to
South Asia of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in early
May. Despite the latest suicide attacks by militants, it is likely
that both India and Pakistan will make some positive gestures just
ahead of that visit. Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay
Singh says there is already some clarity on certain “modalities” for a
possible India-Pakistan summit and its agenda. More important, Mr
Armitage will probably mediate informally between the two governments
and “facilitate” a future summit — just as he brokered peace between
them twice last year.

This doesn’t argue that a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting will certainly
happen or succeed. After all, even one terrorist act in India, whether
or not sponsored by Pakistan, can scuttle it altogether. Its success
will depend on how far the two governments are prepared to move away
from their stated “first positions” and explore a new detente or
agenda of peaceful coexistence.

This, in the first place, means they must accept that war is simply
not an option. Neither side can win it. Their nuclear capability has
been a “great leveller”. Nuclear wars cannot be won; they must never
be fought.

To make the summit successful, Islamabad will have to drop its
traditional emphasis on a plebiscite on Kashmir and 50-year-old UN
Security Council resolutions. More important, it will have to
verifiably give up supporting militant violence in Kashmir as an
instrument to coerce India to the negotiating table. It has to
recognise that its support to terrorist militants who kill innocent
civilians at will done nothing to advance the cause of the Kashmiri
people. New Delhi too must do something so that the issue is opened
up. The Kashmiri people must be involved in settling it.

India must take the Shimla Agreement of 1972 seriously. Under it, all
bilateral issues are to be resolved through peaceful discussion. So
far, New Delhi has cited the Shimla accord mainly to oppose a
multilateral dialogue — but never once discussed Kashmir bilaterally
with Pakistan. Changing all this won’t be easy, but if a robust
beginning is made on the basis of some mutually accepted principles,
the process of reconciliation could get rolling. At times like these,
process is everything.

The biggest obstacles here will be the hawks in the two countries who
have a stake in perpetuating a state of mutual hostility. In Pakistan,
they are jehadi Islamists both inside and outside the army. In India,
they are the BJP’s right-wingers who oppose reconciliation with
Pakistan.

This time around, the BJP has supported Mr Vajpayee’s peace gesture,
but somewhat reluctantly. Its first response on April 18 was to oppose
it. Earlier, it enthusiastically welcomed External Affairs Minister
Yashwant Sinha’s diatribe against Pakistan as a “fitter case” than
Iraq for pre-emptive war. Ideological antipathy to Pakistan apart,
this is an important election year for the BJP. In four major Assembly
elections it is pitted against the Congress. Rather than embark on a
new, uncertain, Kashmir and Pakistan policy, it might be tempted to
fall back upon a hawkish line which appeals to its urban elite
constituency.

Piloting a peace process in such a situation will need statesmanship.
Even more difficult will be the domestic Kashmir reconciliation
agenda. Here, the Centre has no clarity whatsoever, although people
like Mr Vajpayee sense that J&K today offers a great opportunity
because of its relatively credible election, and the installation of a
state government which generates hope with its “healing touch”.

However, the Centre is fumbling at the level of strategy. It said it
would talk to all those who abjure violence. Yet, it refused to invite
the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, representing 23 different groups,
to talks. But it should know that there is little political sense in
talking only to “elected representatives”, for most of whom J&K’s
integration with India is unproblematic. It is the others that it must
win over. They include the APHC. The Hurriyat’s influence may have
declined. But it still represents a significant current of opinion in
Kashmir. The Hurriyat would, of course, like the government to apply
the “Nagaland formula” to Kashmir: talks at a high political level;
exclusively with one group; and a ceasefire. In reality, there are too
many differences between Kashmir and Nagaland, and the APHC and the
NSCN. But talking to the Hurriyat on a non-exclusive basis is surely
necessary.

A breakthrough on Kashmir will probably have to wait upon serious
progress in India-Pakistan relations. But the process of
reconciliation must start, both internally and externally. Far too
much is at stake — not least, the lives of millions who could turn
into radioactive dust should war break out. There is simply no
alternative to peace.

MIDDLE

Pathbreaking research!
S. Raghunath

A reader writing to the “letters” column of a national newspaper has
said that the principal reason for the continued brain drain from the
country is that peons in India are paid more and enjoy a better status
than scientists.

The All-India Confederation of Peons (AICP) has taken strong exception
to the tone and tenor of the letter calling it in poor taste and
lacking perspective and smacking of an anti-peon bias.

Talking to mediapersons, a spokespeon said: “We peons have been at the
receiving end of malicious and motivated attacks for far too long and
it’s about time we took a stand. In actual fact, peons are
spearheading pathbreaking research in some of the most esoteric fields
and their work promises to push back the frontiers of knowledge and
pure science. Let me briefly elaborate.”

“Visitors to government offices might have seen surly and ill-tempered
peons sitting motionless for hours on end on rickety wooden stools.
Actually, this is part of an ongoing and well-funded research in three-
dimensional structural analysis and dynamics of lattice bodies whose
object is the development of a one-legged wooden stool for use by
peons in government offices. Just imagine the savings in scarce wood
that will result from the development of one-legged stools!”

Continuing, the spokespeon said: “We peons are heavily involved in
research in greenfield areas of behavioral sciences and reaction of
human psyche under deliberate stress. We let visitors who call at
government offices to transact legitimate business wait for hours on
end, all the while smirking and giving maddeningly vague and evasive
answers to the query, ‘Will I have to wait much longer to see the
sahib?’ and under controlled clinical conditions, we study the stress
caused by our overbearing attitude. I ask you, have Carl Jung or
Sigmund Freud done any work in these fields of human psychology? We
peons are doing it and what do we get in return? Only brickbats and
not bouquets.”

“You’ll be interested to know that peons are also actively pursuing
research in fibre chemistry and textiles. We wear the same khaki
uniform for up to 11 months without washing them even once and we’re
studying the metabolism of sweat glands on khaki cloth. We hope to
soon achieve a breakthru’ in the development of sweat resistant
artificial fibres and textiles.

“No aspect of science and research has escaped our attention and we’re
heavily into medical research, too. Peons of our New Delhi chapter and
working in South Block and Shastri Bhavan are engaged in studying the
effect of caffeine in coffee and tea in cardiac functions of well-
heeled babus and they have observed marked clinical symptoms like
lethargy in disposing of important files and tying the red tape, but
alacrity in demanding higher dearness allowance to neutralise the
rising wholesale price index. They have submitted learned papers to
the Lancet and the British Medical Journal and they are being held
over for publication.”

The spokespeon concluded: “So you can see for yourself that we peons
are working away from the glare of publicity and contributing our
humble mite to the advancement of scientific research and
progress.”

Sanskrit faces uncertain future in Punjab
Jangveer Singh

A part of the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian Languages in
Patiala which has been declared unsafe. — Photo Subhash

Imagine a college with three windowless rooms measuring 12 by 12 feet,
having half-broken small wooden benches-cum tables, half of which have
been placed in the lone verandah of the institution. It is housed in a
building, part of which is unsafe and out of bounds for the students.

This is the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian languages in
Patiala. In 1963 the institute was named the Government Institute of
Oriental and Modern Indian Languages, Patiala. Before that, it was
known as the Sanskrit Vidyala. It is the oldest Sanskrit institution
in the state having been set up as early as 1860.

This institution, which was once the pride of the state, has been
ignored for decades. It now houses another institution - the
Government Sanskrit Mahavidyala of Nabha - which was transferred to
Patiala in October, 2002. This effectively means there are three small
rooms, a verandah which, on many occasions, is used as a classroom,
and a library hall for the staff of the Sanskrit institution, which
now goes by the high-flying name of Institute of Oriental and Indian
Languages.

“The government has changed the name to give the impression that it
was creating a new institution in which it was merging the Nabha
college”, says one of the teachers of the institution. He adds the
government has not given even a single paisa for the new institution,
that shows how concerned it is even about maintaining the lone
Sanskrit teaching institution of its kind. The institution does not
have even a single room which can be rightly called a classroom. There
are some rooms on the first floor which are used by the Government
Primary and Middle School. An order to vacate the rooms was passed by
a former Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir.

The teacher says part of the college has been renovated through a Rs 1
lakh grant given by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during a
Sangat Darshan programme. The amount was used to strengthen the roof
of the library hall and its adjacent verandah, besides renovating two
rooms, now occupied by the office staff. “This has ensured that at
least the roof will not fall on our heads”, remarks the teacher,
adding that part of the building seems to be beyond repairs and has
been sealed off to ensure that no student steps inside.

But the four teachers at the Sanskrit Mahavidyala, Nabha, didn’t have
a safe roof above. Their college was closed and they were told to
report for duty at the Patiala institute in October last year. Three
of the teachers joined duty at Patiala, while the fourth is fighting
it out in court.

The Nabha institution was run by Acharya Sadhu Ram before it was taken
over by Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha. Subsequently, it was taken over
by the Pepsu government and, finally, by the Punjab Government on the
Pepsu state’s merger. A teacher, Basant Lal, now posted at the Patiala
institution, says the institution was upgraded to a college in 1972
and was earlier housed in the Nabha fort from where it was shifted to
a government building. However, when the building was declared unsafe,
it was shifted to a rented building in 1983. In March, 2002 the
college management was asked not to make new admissions on the plea
that the building was unsafe and the students’ strength had also
declined. The college was subsequently merged with the Patiala
institution to form a new institution.

The institutions may have had a tragic history, but sadder still is
the fate of the Sanskrit language in the state. The student strength
in the new institute has come down to an all-time low of 29 against
last year’s 45. Teachers blame this on lack of any reservation for
students going in for the Shastri graduate course, which is taught
only in Sanskrit. They say the students have to compete for jobs with
students with Sanskrit at the graduation level in which it is taught
in the Hindi medium. “If this is the respect given by the government
to an advanced Sanskrit course, there is little hope for Sanskrit, its
teachers or Sanskrit institutions in the state”, add the teachers.

Panjab University’s low priority to top centre
Ravinder Sud

A view of the V.V.B. institute of Sanskrit at Hoshiarpur

The Vishveshvaranand Vishav Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit and
Indological Studies located at Sadhu Ashram, Hoshiarpur, is fast
losing the very purpose for which it was set up about 100 years ago on
account of the indifferent attitude of the authorities of Panjab
University, Chandigarh.

This world-renowned research institute, situated on the outskirts of
Hoshiarpur city on the Una road and run by Panjab University, offers
five-year postgraduation courses in Shastri and Acharya. There are 75
students, including 30 girls and five research scholars. They are
generally from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu and
Kashmir. Stipends are given to the students of oriental studies.

Dr Damodar Jha, a former Chairman of this institution, tells The
Tribune that there are only 14 teachers as against the sanctioned
posts of 32. Four of them are above 60 and four others are going to
retire shortly. None of the posts, which had fallen vacant on the
retirement of any teacher in the past, was filled.

Besides, the university authorities have shifted six posts from here
to Chandigarh. This has not only adversely affected the studies of
students, but also research work in Sanskrit and indological studies,
including Vedic interpretation.

There is no hostel facility for girl students and the hostel for boys
is run in the rented building of Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research
Institute, adds Dr Jha.

This institute has a big library having 73,408 books, 2,676 hand-
written manuscripts, 123 research journals and 3,093 photocopies of
rare books which are out of print now. But this institution has not
been developed further, he complains.

Tracing its genesis, Prof Inder Kumar Uniyal, Director, VVRI, says
that in 1903 Swami Vishveshvaranand and Nityanand started an office in
Shimla for preparing word indices of the four principal Vedic Samhitas
and a dictionary of the texts. The word indices were issued in four
volumes in 1908-10 and considerable basic material was collected for
the dictionary.

In 1924 the office was shifted to Lahore where it was put under the
charge of Acharya Vishva Bandhu. Under him, the scope of the institute
was widened so as to include the study of different branches of
indology. The institute also set up a teaching wing with classes for
MA, Vidyavachaspati and Shastri in Sanskrit and Prabhakar in Hindi.
Panjab University, Lahore, gave a grant of Rs 1,000 in 1936-37 and an
equal amount in 1937-38.

The university accorded recognition to the work done by the institute
by publishing “A Vedic Word Concordance” and a complete etymological
dictionary.

After partition, the institute got uprooted from Lahore. After much
suffering and loss, it was restarted on its present premises at Sadhu
Ashram, Hoshiarpur.

In 1957, at the instance of the institute, Panjab University opened
its Department of Devanagari Transcription of South Indian
Manuscripts.

Earlier in 1950, Panjab University had extended affiliation to the
institute for starting various courses of study in Hindi and Sanskrit
and the University Grants Commission began to give liberal financial
aid to the institute. The same year the institute extended its
academic activity to Chandigarh by setting up a research centre
there.

In the beginning of 1965, Panjab University made a proposal that the
institute, while continuing to function from Hoshiarpur and
maintaining its entity, should integrate itself with the university.
This proposal was accepted. Accordingly, a part of the institute was
taken over by the university under the new name Vishveshvaranand
Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies (VISIS).

At present 12 research projects, including the compilation of a
dictionary of Vedic interpretation, are being pursued. There is a long
list of 49 research works in various fields of indology published by
this institute.

The Manuscript and Text Editing Section has a collection of more than
10,000 ancient manuscripts, of which 8,360 were catalogued
descriptively in the volume and were published in 1959. A
supplementary catalogue dealing with the remaining manuscripts came to
light in 1975. However, with the transfer of the Lal Chand collection
of rare books and manuscripts to DAV College, Chandigarh, the
institute now has about 2,300 ancient manuscripts.

The VVRI has published 16 volumes of Vedic Concordance of more than
1,1000 pages. The compilation of the dictionary of Vedic
interpretation, which was started by the late Acharya Vishav Bandhu in
1965, is yet to be completed.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030429/edit.htm#5

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social problems faced by India. This is an effort to bring to the
social evils of India to the notice of as many people as possible. You
can contribute and share your views, ideas and articles on "Social
Issues" that ail India.

Currently Available Articles on "Social Issues": Leprosy in India 17th-
Feb-2010
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/leprosy-in-india.html
Plight of women in India- Witch branding 8th-Feb-2010
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/plight-of-women-in-india-witch-branding.html
Caesarean Births in India 14th-Jan-2010
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/caesarean-births-in-india.html
Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress 21st-Oct-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/abortion-worldwide-a-decade-of-uneven-progress.html
Infant Mortality in India 21st-Oct-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/infant-mortality-in-india1.html
Khap Panchayat in India 15th-Sep-09
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Smoking among women in India 31st-Aug-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/smoking-among-women-in-india.html
Poverty in India 21st-Aug-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/poverty-in-india.html
Public Health System in India 02nd-Apr-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/public-health-system-in-india.html
Gender Analysis 18th-Feb-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/gender-analysis.html
Problem of Child Abuse 17th-Feb-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-abuse.html
Adolescent Health Programme in India16th-Feb-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/adolescent-health-programme-in-india.html
Status of Education in Delhi27th-Jan-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/status-of-education-in-delhi.html
State of the World’s Children 2009- UNICEF Report21th-Jan-09
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/state_of_the_world.html
Honour Killings in India25th-Nov-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/honour_killings_in_india.html
Universalization of Education in India5th-Nov-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/universalization_of_education_in_india.html
Problems of working women 25th-Oct-08
Malnutrition Deaths in Madhya Pradesh24th-Sept-08
Educational Problems of Women in India27th-August-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/educational-problems-of-women-in-india.html
Female Foeticide in India05th-August-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/female_foeticide.html
World’s Sanitation Report21th-July-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/worlds-sanitation-report.html
Status of Sex Workers in Delhi21th-July-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/status-of-sex-workers-in-delhi.html
Alcoholism10th-July-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/alcoholism.html
Juvenile Delinquency10th-July-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/juveniledelinquency.html
Girls, Women and Poverty12th-June-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/girls-women-and-poverty.html
Untouchability in India12th-June-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/untouchability-in-india.html
Infant Mortality in India12th-May-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/infant-mortality-in-india.html
Water problem in India15th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/water-problem-in-india.html
Child Malnutrition in India11th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-malnutrition-in-india.html
The problem of old age in India11th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/problem-of-old-age-in-india.html
Global Food Stocks Fall7th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/global-food-stocks-fall.html
Millennium Goals India Position7th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/millennium-goals-india-position.html
Population -The trends in India7th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/population-the-trends-in-india.html
Tuberculosis in India7th-Apr-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/tuberculosis-in-india.html
Female Literacy in Kishanganj District18th-Mar-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/female-literacy-in-kishanganj-district.html
Polio in India -Latest Situation07th-Mar-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/polio-in-india-latest%20situation.html
Prostitution in India16th-Feb-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/prostitution-in-india.html
Beggary in India4th-Feb-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/flood-management-in-india.html
Flood Management in India18th-Jan-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/flood-management-in-india.html
Crime against women in India18th-Jan-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/crime-against-women-in-india.html
Decline in number of out of school children in India: A Pratham survey
report17th-Jan-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/decline-of-school-children.html
Polio in India8th-Jan-08
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/polio-in-india.html
Child Soldiers of India3rd-Dec-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-soldiers-of-india.html
Latest Figures on HIV/AIDS-20073rd-Dec-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/latest-figures-on-hiv-2007.html
HIV/AIDS situation in North-East India3rd-Dec-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/hiv-situation-in-north-east-india.html
Literacy Situation in India1st-Dec-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/literacy-situation-in-india.html
Hunger in India - Impact on Children27th-Nov-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/hunger-in-india.html
State of Rural Healthcare in India-NRHM Report23th-Nov-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/rural-healthcare-in-india.html
World HIV/AIDS Figures Low23th-Nov-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/world-hiv-aids-figures-low.html
Gender Gap in India15th-Nov-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/gender-gap-in-india.html
Birth Registration in India12th-Nov-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/birth-registration-in-india.html
Recent trends in employment in India10th-oct-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/recent-trends-in-employment-in-india.html
Elementary Education in India 2005-06 –A Report 10th-oct-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/elementary-education-in-india.html
Corruption in Education system in India – A UNESCO Report 10th-oct-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/education-system-in-india.html
Plight of HIV/AIDS affected children10th-oct-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/plight-of-HIV.html
Rural Sanitation in India10th-oct-07
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/rural-sanitation-in-india.html

Recent Trend of Divorce in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/divorce-in-india.html
Relevance of National Rural Health Mission
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/national-rural-health-mission.html
Reproductive Health Status of Women in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/reproductive-health-status-of-women-in-india.html
Female Infanticide in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/femaleinfanticideinindia.html
The Status Of Education And Vocational Training In India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/thestatusofeducation.html
Plight of Indian Women: Victims of NRI marriages
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/plight-of-indian-women.html
Problem of Child Abuse
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-abuse.html
Sustainable Development
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/sustainable-development.html
Class Struggle
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/class-struggle.html
Women Employment in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Women-Employment.html
Literacy Rate In India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/literacy-in-india.html
Woman Empowerment In India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Women-Empowerment.html
Drug Abuse in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Drug-Abuse-in-India.html
Dowry System in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/dowry-system-in-india.html
HIV/AIDS in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/aids-in-india.html
Poverty in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/poverty-in-india.html
Population of India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/india-population.html
Child labour in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-labour-in-india.html
Rural Girls Education
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/girl-education.html
State of Maternal Health in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Unemployment-in-India.html
Unemployment in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Unemployment-in-India.html
The status of children in India - Findings of UNICEF 2005 report
HIV/AIDS and Women
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/children-of-India.html
Situation of HIV /AIDS in Bihar
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/AIDSinBihar.html
Girl and Women Trafficking in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/WomenTrafficking-in-India.html
Gender Inequality In India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/GenderInequality.html
Domestic Violence Against Women
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/DomesticViolence.html
Development and Environment are not Contradictory Paradigms
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Development-and-Environment.html
Urbanization Is A Blessing In Disguise
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/Urbanization-blessing-disguise.html
NACO covers less than 10% of HIV –infected in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/naco-covers.html
Deadly AIDS numbers rising across the world
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/deadly-aids.html
Status of children in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/status-of-children.html
Status of Dalits in India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/status-of-dalits.html
Crime Against Children
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/crime-against-children.html
Migration In India
http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/migration-in-india.html

http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/index.html

Key Texts on Social Justice in India
Published by Sage Publicatio...

Editors: Roohi, Sanam Samaddar, Ranabir
ISBN: 978 81 321 0064 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1116
List price(s): 150.00 GBP
Publication date: 30 May 2009

Short description

A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out the
relational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of its
existence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, how
violence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice
and how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of
marginal situations.

Full description

Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited by
Pradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in
Social Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor of
Political Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume of
the series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice is
a collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-
day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notion
of enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in West
Bengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. The
articles probe the question: is there a necessary connection between
the politics of communism and attainment of social justice? Social
Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographic
studies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justice
in West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makes
little sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. It
questions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in the
state governance and concludes that the West Bengal experience
demonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of
workers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this may
facilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does not
ensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limits
of the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,
researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of the
Daily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State of
Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tension
that brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how our
legislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of the
making of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law has
created dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. The
authors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gap
between the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.
Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also deals
extensively with the issue of reservation. It has one article
documenting the history of reservations in India, in the background of
political contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The other
article traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courts
and law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice is
closely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another article
measures the success of the legal system in providing justice to those
in the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluable
resource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, social
justice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be useful
for human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.
Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,
Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Science
at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,
Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,
Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice in
India: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in social
spaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with the
situation of people living in the margins of the society and their
relationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being to
secure their rights. It reveals how effective governance
unintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differential
exclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into
'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demand
for justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice may
emanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmental
techniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, may
produce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests the
existence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside the
operations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of social
spaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited by
Sanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,
Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justice
in India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts on
social justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as well
as the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justice
in India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violence
becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how the
dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginal
situations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,
on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuring
justice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchers
working in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve as
supplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives a
comprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.

Table of contents

VOLUME I: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT: WEST BENGAL - Pradip Kumar
Bose and Samir Kumar Das Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar
Series Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Pradip Kumar
Bose and Samir Kumar Das Land Acquisition Act and Social Justice: A
Study on Development and Displacement - Ratan Khasnabis Two Leaves and
a Bud: Tea and Social Justice in Darjeeling - Roshan Rai and Subhas
Ranjan Chakrabarty Deprivation and Social Injustice in a Rural
Context: An Ethnographic Account - Kumar Rana with Amrit Paira and Ila
Paira On the Wrong Side of the Fence: Embankment, People and Social
Justice in the Sundarbans - Amites Mukhopadhyay Prescribed, Tolerated,
& Forbidden Forms of Claim Making - Ranabir Samaddar VOLUME II:
JUSTICE AND LAW: THE LIMITS OF THE DELIVERABLES OF LAW - Ashok Agrwaal
and Bharat Bhushan Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series
Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Ashok Agrwaal and
Bharat Bhushan Justice in the Time of Transition: Select Indian
Experiences - Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury The Founding Moment:
Social Justice in the Constitutional Mirror - Samir Kumar Das Indexing
Social Justice in India-A Story of Commissions, Reports and Popular
Responses - Bharat Bhushan Trivializing Justice: Reservation Under
Rule of Law - Ashok Agrawaal The Fallacy of Equality: 'Anti-Citizens',
Sexual Justice and the Law in India - Oishik Sircar VOLUME III:
MARGINALITIES AND JUSTICE - Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi
Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -
Ranabir Samaddar Introduction - Paula Banertjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi
Gulamiya Ab Hum Nahi Bajeibo: Peoples' Expressions for Justice in
Jehanabad - Manish K Jha Ethnography of Social Justice in Dalit Pattis
(Hamlets) of Rural UP - Badri Narayan Tiwari Rights and Social Justice
for Tribal Population in India - Amit Prakash AIDS, Marginality and
Women - Paula Banerjee Towards Environmental Justice Movement in
India? Spatiality, Hierarchies and Inequalities - Sanjay Chaturvedi
VOLUME IV: KEY TEXTS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE IN INDIA - Sanam Roohi and
Ranabir Samaddar Series Acknowledgement - Ranabir Samaddar Series
Introduction - Ranabir Samaddar PART I. DEVELOPMENT AND DISCONTENT:
THE QUESTION OF INJUSTICE Section Introduction Ethnic Politics and
Land Use: Genesis of Conflicts in India's North-East - Sanjay Barbora
Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity - Lyla Mehta Karnataka:
Kudremukh: Of Mining and Environment - Muzaffar Assadi Report of
Investigation into Nandigram Mass Killing - Sanhati Eroded Lives:
Riverbank Erosion and Displacement of Women in West Bengal - Krishna
Bandyopadhyay, Soma Ghosh and Nilanjan Dutta PART II. SOCIAL JUSTICE:
THE STATE AND ITS PERCEPTIONS Section introduction The Communal
Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) - Bill
The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 The Right to
Information Act, 2005 The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement
Policy, 2007 The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005
PART III. JUSTICE: LAW AND BEYOND Section Introduction Illegality and
Exclusion: Law in the Lives of Slum Dwellers - Usha Ramanathan Illegal
Coal Mining in Eastern India: Rethinking Legitimacy and Limits of
Justice - Kuntala Lahiri Dutt Verdict on an HIV case, Supreme Court of
India Reproduced in Medhina - Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves An
Indian Charter for Minority Rights - Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury
PART IV. WOMEN AND MARGINALITY: An Issue of Gender Justice Section
Introduction Gender: Women and HIV - Medhini, Laya, Dipika Jain and
Colin Gonzalves National Policy for the Empowerment of Women (2001)
Women, Trafficking and Statelessness in South Asia - Paula Banerjee
PART V. JUSTICE: Marginal Positions and Alternative Notions Section
Introduction Voices From Folk School of Dalit Bahujan & Marginalised
to Policy Makers - Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights Social
Assessment of HIV/AIDS among Tribal People in India - NACP III
Planning Team Caste is Dead, Long Live Caste - G P Deshpande Tehelka
Debate: Beyond Caste - Puroshottam Agarwal Report from the Flaming
Fields of Bihar PART VI. FREEDOM AND EQUALITY, RIGHTS AND SOCIAL
SECURITY: BUILDING BLOCKS OF JUSTICE Section Introduction Jungle Book:
Tribal Forest Rights Recognised For First Time - Nandini Sundar
Informal Sector in India: Approaches for Social Security Arguments,
Protests, Strikes and Free Speech: The Career and Prospects of the
Right to Strike in India - Rajeev Dhavan Democracy and Right to Food -
Jean Dreze

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/key-texts-social-justice-india

Retro-modern India. Forging the Low-caste Self
Published by Routledge

Author: Ciotti, Manuela
ISBN: 978 0 415 56311 6
Format: Hardback
Pages: 312
List price(s): 55.00 GBP 95.00 USD
Publication date: 23 February 2010

Short description

Set in the socio-political milieu of the state of Uttar Pradesh in
north India, this book puts forward an original theoretical approach
to analyse subaltern configurations of modernity within the nation
state. It substantiates this approach by weaving the low-caste
Chamars’ core ethical concerns of humanism with ethnographic accounts
of resilient — as well as newly forged — socio-economic hierarchies,
internalised ideologies of betterment and reform, and the social race
for progress where contestants are very often same-nation citizens.

Full description

Firmly situated within the analytics of the political economy of a
north Indian province, this book explores self-fashioning in pursuit
of the modern amongst low-caste Chamars. Challenging existing accounts
of national modernity in the non-West, the book argues that subaltern
classes shape their own ideas about modernity by taking and rejecting
from models of other classes within the same national context. While
displacing the West — in its colonial and non-colonial manifestations
— as the immanent comparative focus, the book puts forward a unique
framework for the analysis of subaltern modernity. This builds on the
entanglements between two main trajectories, both of which are viewed
as the outcome of the generative impetus of modernisation in India:
the first consists of the Chamar appropriation of socio-cultural
distinctions forged by 19th-century Indian middle classes in their
encounter with colonial modernity; the second features the Chamar
subversion of high-caste ideals and practices as a result of low-caste
politics initiated during the 20th century. The author contends that
these conflicting trends give rise to a temporal antinomy within the
Chamar politics of self-making, caught up between compulsions of a
past modern and of a contemporary one. The eclectic outcome is termed
as ‘retro-modernity’. While the book signals a politics of becoming
whose dynamics had previously been overlooked by scholars, it
simultaneously opens up novel avenues for the understanding of non-
elite modern life-forms in postcolonial settings.

The book will interest scholars of anthropology, South Asian studies,
development studies, gender studies, political science and
postcolonial studies.

Table of contents

Orthography and Transliteration.
Glossary of Selected Terms. Foreword. Acknowledgements.

1. Chamar Modernity: Progressing into the Past

2. ‘Today We Can Touch Anything’: Reflections on the Crux of Identity
and Political Economy

3. Ethnohistories behind Local and Global Bazaars: Chronicle of a
Weaving Community and its Disappearance

4. ‘We Used to Live like Animals’: Education as a Self- and Community-
engineering Process

5. Nonrational Modernity? Religious Agency, Science and Spirits

6. Beyond the Vote: Politics as Sociality, Imagination and Identity

7. The Bourgeois Woman and the Half-naked One: Gendering Retro-
modernity

8. The Politics of Indian Modernity. Bibliography. About the Author.
Index.

Biography

Manuela Ciotti is a social anthropologist with a PhD from the London
School of Economics. She is currently Research Associate at the Centre
for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh. She has published
several articles in leading journals on topics ranging from education,
labour ethnohistory, gender and class transformation, and women’s
political activism.

Drawing on research she carried out during the tenure of a Nuffield
Foundation New Career Development Fellowship, Ciotti is completing her
second monograph entitled Political Agency and Gender in India
(forthcoming). An edited volume entitled Femininities and
Masculinities in Indian Politics (forthcoming) develops the different
aspects of the gender and politics nexus. Ciotti’s focus on South
Asian Studies is intertwined with her interests in anthropological
epistemologies and the politics of location and representation;
converging on these, a monograph provisionally entitled 'Producing
Knowledge in Late Modernity: Lessons from India' is under preparation.

Buy here: http://www.routledgepolitics.com/books/Retro-modern-India-isbn9780415563116

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/retro-modern-india-forging-low-caste-self

Jinnah and Tilak: Comrades in the Freedom Struggle
Published by Oxford Universi...

Author: Noorani
ISBN: 978 0 19 547829 7
Format: Hardback
Pages: 350
List price(s): 15.99 GBP
Publication date: 26 August 2010

Short description

The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges his
readers in this incisively argued book to look again at some of the
key events and personalities in the struggle against British colonial
rule in India.

Full description

The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges his
readers in this incisively argued book to look again at some of the
key events and personalities in the struggle against British colonial
rule in India. He begins with 'the forgotten comradeship' between
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Whatever their other differences, both felt passionately about the
cause of Indian freedom. Jinnah defended Tilak in his trial in 1916 on
sedition charges, and ultimately secured his acquittal. The full text
of the legal proceedings, including Jinnah's powerful speeches for the
defence, are included as an appendix. After Tilak's death in 1920,
Jinnah continued to work closely with political leaders of all
persuasions and was regarded by the British as one of their most
formidable opponents. Noorani argues that only in 1937, following the
conflict over the formation of the provincial ministry in the United
Provinces, did Jinnah abandon his hopes of working jointly with
Congress to achieve independence. Noorani is firmly of the view that
Jinnah wanted a loose confederation in which the rights of the Muslim
population were fully guaranteed rather than the separate state of
Pakistan as it eventually emerged in 1947. He discusses Jinnah's
tactics during the crucial months in 1946 when the Cabinet Mission
Plan was on the table, and argues that the Plan offered a viable
possibility of avoiding Partition. In his opinion, the blame for its
failure rests squarely with Congress and with Gandhi in particular,
although trust and imagination were in short supply on all sides. The
book includes three additional essays by the author, on respectively
why the Suhrawardy-Bose plan for a united Bengal failed, the failure
to provide effective safeguards for minorities in the partition
scheme, and the Haroon report of 1940, together with the text of some
key documents.

Table of contents

CONTENTS LIST;

PREFACE;

1. A Forgotten Comradeship;

2. After Tilak: Jinnah and Gandhi's Congress;

3. The Widening Divide;

4. Wrecking India's Unity;

5. The Gandhi-Cripps Pact;

6. Demise of the Cabinet Mission's Plan;

7. An Embittered Separation;

8. The United Bengal Episode;

9. Assessing Jinnah;

APPENDICES;

1. JINNAH'S DEFENCE OF TILAK: THE COURT PROCEEDINGS;

2. JINNAH'S BATTLES FOR PRESS FREEDOM;

3. THE LUCKNOW PACT, 1916;

4. JINNAH'S 14 POINTS, 1929;

5. JINNAH-RAJENDRA PRASAD PACT, 1934;

6. THE LAHORE RESOLUTION, 1940;

7. STAFFORD CRIPPS' OFFER 1942;

8. THE C.R. FORMULA 1944;

9. JINNAH'S OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;

10. THE CONGRESS' OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;

11. THE CABINET MISSION'S PLAN OF 16 MAY 1946;

12. THE MUSLIM LEAGUE WORKING COMMITTEE'S RESOLUTION ON 31 JANUARY
1947 AT KARACHI;

13. THE PARTITION PLAN OF 3 JUNE 1947;

14. JINNAH'S SPEECH TO PAKISTAN'S CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ON 11 AUGUST
1947;

15. SIR CHIMANLAL SETALVAD'S ARTICLE ENTITLED 'INDIA DIVIDED: WHO IS
TO BLAME FOR PARTITION?' THE TIMES OF INDIA; 15 JUNE 1947;

16. MAULANA HASRAT MOHANI'S POEM ON TILAK; AND (A) URDU ORIGINAL (B)
ENGLISH TRANSLATION;

17. JINNAH AND THE MUSLIMS OF INDIA; 18. THE HAROON REPORT

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/jinnah-and-tilak-comrades-freedom-struggle

Key Texts on Social Justice in India
Published by Sage Publicatio...
IndiaSocial issuesLaw & society

Editors: Roohi, Sanam Samaddar, Ranabir
ISBN: 978 81 321 0064 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 1116
List price(s): 150.00 GBP
Publication date: 30 May 2009

Short description

A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out the
relational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of its
existence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, how
violence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice
and how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of
marginal situations.

Full description

Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited by
Pradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies in
Social Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor of
Political Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume of
the series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice is
a collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-
day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notion
of enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in West
Bengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. The
articles probe the question: is there a necessary connection between
the politics of communism and attainment of social justice? Social
Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographic
studies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justice
in West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makes
little sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. It
questions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in the
state governance and concludes that the West Bengal experience
demonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry of
workers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this may
facilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does not
ensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limits
of the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,
researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of the
Daily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State of
Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tension
that brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how our
legislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of the
making of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law has
created dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. The
authors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gap
between the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.
Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also deals
extensively with the issue of reservation. It has one article
documenting the history of reservations in India, in the background of
political contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The other
article traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courts
and law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice is
closely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another article
measures the success of the legal system in providing justice to those
in the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluable
resource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, social
justice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be useful
for human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.
Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,
Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,
University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Science
at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,
Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,
Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice in
India: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in social
spaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with the
situation of people living in the margins of the society and their
relationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being to
secure their rights. It reveals how effective governance
unintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differential
exclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into
'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demand
for justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice may
emanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmental
techniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, may
produce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests the
existence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside the
operations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of social
spaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited by
Sanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,
Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research
Group, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justice
in India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts on
social justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as well
as the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justice
in India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violence
becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how the
dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginal
situations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,
on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuring
justice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchers
working in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve as
supplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives a
comprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.

Table of contents

VOLUME I: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT:

WEST BENGAL - Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das

Series Acknowledgement -

Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -

Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -

Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das Land Acquisition Act and Social
Justice: A Study on Development and Displacement -

Ratan Khasnabis Two Leaves and a Bud: Tea and Social Justice in
Darjeeling -

Roshan Rai and Subhas Ranjan Chakrabarty Deprivation and Social
Injustice in a Rural Context: An Ethnographic Account -

Kumar Rana with Amrit Paira and Ila Paira On the Wrong Side of the
Fence: Embankment, People and Social Justice in the Sundarbans -

Amites Mukhopadhyay Prescribed, Tolerated, & Forbidden Forms of Claim
Making -

Ranabir Samaddar

VOLUME II: JUSTICE AND LAW: THE LIMITS OF THE DELIVERABLES OF LAW -

Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan Series Acknowledgement -

Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -

Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -

Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan Justice in the Time of Transition:
Select Indian Experiences -

Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury The Founding Moment: Social Justice
in the Constitutional Mirror -

Samir Kumar Das Indexing Social Justice in India-A Story of
Commissions, Reports and Popular Responses -

Bharat Bhushan Trivializing Justice: Reservation Under Rule of Law -

Ashok Agrawaal The Fallacy of Equality: 'Anti-Citizens', Sexual
Justice and the Law in India -

Oishik Sircar

VOLUME III: MARGINALITIES AND JUSTICE -

Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi Series Acknowledgement -

Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -

Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -

Paula Banertjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi Gulamiya Ab Hum Nahi Bajeibo:
Peoples' Expressions for Justice in Jehanabad -

Manish K Jha Ethnography of Social Justice in Dalit Pattis (Hamlets)
of Rural UP -

Badri Narayan Tiwari Rights and Social Justice for Tribal Population
in India -

Amit Prakash AIDS, Marginality and Women -

Paula Banerjee Towards Environmental Justice Movement in India?
Spatiality, Hierarchies and Inequalities -

Sanjay Chaturvedi

VOLUME IV: KEY TEXTS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE IN INDIA -

Sanam Roohi and Ranabir Samaddar Series Acknowledgement -

Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -

Ranabir Samaddar

PART I. DEVELOPMENT AND DISCONTENT: THE QUESTION OF INJUSTICE

Section Introduction Ethnic Politics and Land Use: Genesis of
Conflicts in India's North-East -

Sanjay Barbora Contexts and Constructions of Water Scarcity -

Lyla Mehta Karnataka: Kudremukh: Of Mining and Environment -

Muzaffar Assadi Report of Investigation into Nandigram Mass Killing -

Sanhati Eroded Lives: Riverbank Erosion and Displacement of Women in
West Bengal -

Krishna Bandyopadhyay, Soma Ghosh and Nilanjan Dutta

PART II. SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE STATE AND ITS PERCEPTIONS Section
introduction The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and
Rehabilitation of Victims) -

Bill

The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,
Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999

The Right to Information Act, 2005

The National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

PART III. JUSTICE: LAW AND BEYOND

Section Introduction

Illegality and Exclusion: Law in the Lives of Slum Dwellers -

Usha Ramanathan Illegal Coal Mining in Eastern India: Rethinking
Legitimacy and Limits of Justice -

Kuntala Lahiri Dutt Verdict on an HIV case, Supreme Court of India
Reproduced in Medhina -

Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves An Indian Charter for Minority
Rights -

Sabyasachi Basu and Ray Chaudhury

PART IV. WOMEN AND MARGINALITY: An Issue of Gender Justice Section
Introduction Gender: Women and HIV -

Medhini, Laya, Dipika Jain and Colin Gonzalves National Policy for the
Empowerment of Women (2001)

Women, Trafficking and Statelessness in South Asia - Paula Banerjee

PART V. JUSTICE: Marginal Positions and Alternative Notions Section
Introduction Voices From Folk School of Dalit Bahujan & Marginalised
to Policy Makers -

Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights Social Assessment of HIV/
AIDS among Tribal People in India - NACP III Planning Team Caste is
Dead, Long Live Caste -

G P Deshpande Tehelka Debate: Beyond Caste -

Puroshottam Agarwal Report from the Flaming Fields of Bihar

PART VI. FREEDOM AND EQUALITY, RIGHTS AND SOCIAL SECURITY: BUILDING
BLOCKS OF JUSTICE

Section Introduction Jungle Book: Tribal Forest Rights Recognised For
First Time -

Nandini Sundar Informal Sector in India: Approaches for Social
Security Arguments, Protests, Strikes and Free Speech: The Career and
Prospects of the Right to Strike in India -

Rajeev Dhavan Democracy and Right to Food -

Jean Dreze

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/key-texts-social-justice-india

Social Justice: Sunset or Dawn
Published by Eastern Book Co...

Author: Iyer, V.R.Krishna
ISBN: 978 81 7012 144 2
Format: Hardback
Pages: 176
List price(s): 12.00 GBP
Publication date: 23 July 2008

Short description

Contains lectures that make an impassioned plea for social justice for
India's poor millions who the author says have been denied social
justice by the three great wings of the government the Executive, the
Judiciary and the Parliament.

Full description

Justice Krishna Iyer is a great proponent of social justice. In these
lectures he makes an impassioned plea for social justice for India's
poor millions who he says have been denied social justice by the three
great wings of the government the Executive, the Judiciary and the
Parliament. A prolific writer, Justice Krishna Iyer is known for his
hard hitting but eloquent lectures and writings. First published under
the title, Some Half Hidden Aspects of Indian Social Justice , the
book was sold out within a very short period of time. It has now been
enlarged and two new chapters have been added. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy
case has been given wide treatment, as also other current issues.

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-justice-sunset-or-dawn

Politics of Social Exclusion in India, The
Published by Routledge

Editors: Bhattacharyya, Harihar Sarkar, Partha Kar,
Angshuman
ISBN: 978 0 415 55357 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
List price(s): 80.00 GBP 130.00 USD
Publication date: 7 December 2009

Short description

Social exclusion and inclusion are issues of fundamental importance to
democracy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines at
the multidimensional problems of social exclusion and inclusion, and
the long-term issues facing contemporary Indian democracy.

Table of contents

Introduction - Harihar Bhattacharyya, Partha Sarkar, and Angshuman
Kar

1. Some Theoretical Issues Concerning Social Exclusion and Inclusion
in India - Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

2. Social Exclusion and the Strategy of Empowerment - T. K. Oommen

3. Identity Politics and Social Exclusion in India's North-East: The
Case for Redistributive Justice - N. K. Das

4. Inclusion in Nationhood: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay's Concept of
Jatiyabhav - Harihar Bhattacharyya

5. Rabindra Nath Tagore's Concept of Social Exclusion and Inclusion in
India: A Nation without Nationalism - Jyotirmay Bhattacharyya

6. Identity and Social Exclusion-Inclusion: A Muslim Perspective -
Asghar Ali Engineer

7. Inclusive and Exclusive Development in India in the Post-Reform Era
- Provat Kuri

8. Social Exclusion in India: Evidences from the Wage Labour Market -
Rajarshi Majumdar

9. Polavaram Dam Project: A Case Study of Displacement of Marginalized
People - Sudipti Banerjea

10. Purity as Exclusion, Caste as Division: The Ongoing Battle for
Equality - Jasbir Jain

11. Narrating Gender and Power: Literary and Cultural Texts and
Contexts - Sanjukta Das Gupta

12. The Fire and the Rain: A Study in Myths of Power - Anima Biswas

13. Conclusion: Democracy at the Crossroads - Harihar Bhattacharyya,
Partha Sarkar, and Angshuman Kar List of Contributors

Biography

University of Burdwan, India

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/politics-social-exclusion-india

Social Movements I: Issues of Identity
Published by Oxford Universi...

Editor: Oommen
ISBN: 978 0 19 806327 8
Format: Hardback
Pages: 272
List price(s): 24.99 GBP
Publication date: 31 January 2010

Short description

This volume brings together a selection of readings on movements
related to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguistic
and tribal movements in India, examining them with respect to the
construction and perception of identity.

Full description

In the ongoing process of social transformation, new identities are
often constructed, while existing identities may mutate or transform,
and some might even be rendered obsolete. Social Movements I: Issues
of Identity, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and
Social Anthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of social
movements in India with respect to the construction and perception of
identity. It brings together a selection of readings on movements
related to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguistic
and tribal movements in India. It specifically addresses (a) the
abbreviation and even abrogation of identities versus elaboration of
identities; (b) the tensions between group identity and individual
equality believed to be pulling in opposite directions; (c) identity
as the basis of inclusion and exclusion of citizens in the
participatory processes in the polity and economy; and (d) perceiving
identity of minorities as a source of threat for the nation and the
state by the dominant majority, as against invoking identity as the
route to justice by the weak/dominated minorities. These issues are
relevant in situating identitarian movements in the wider context.
This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,
anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studying
Indian society and social movements in particular.

Table of contents

PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: ON THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (T.K.
OOMMEN);

SECTION I - RELIGIOUS AND CASTE MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I;;

1. Socio-religious Movements of the Twentieth Century (Kenneth W.
Jones);;

2. Ethno-religious Mobilization and the Politics of Secularism
(Christophe Jaffrelot);;

3. Caste and Conversion Movements (Walter Fernandes);;

4. Different Shades of Dalit Mobilization (Vivek Kumar);;

5. The Tabhlighi Jama'at: The Making of a Transnational Religious
Movement (Shail Mayaram);;

SECTION II - REGIONAL, LINGUISTIC AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II;;

6. Foundations of the Dravidian Movement (Robert L. Hardgrave);;

7. The Shiv Sena Movement (Dipankar Gupta);;

8. The Assam Movement (Sanjib Baruah);;

9. Tribal Solidarity Movements in India (Surajit Sinha);;

10. Christian Conversion Movements in the North East (Frederick S.
Downs); Notes on Contributors

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-movements-i-issues-identity

Social Movements II: Concerns of Equity and Security
Published by Oxford Universi...

Editor: Oommen
ISBN: 978 0 19 806328 5
Format: Hardback
Pages: 376
List price(s): 26.99 GBP
Publication date: 31 January 2010

Short description

This reader brings together a selection of writings on peasant and
labour movements; women and students youth movements; and ecological
and environmental movements. It discusses contemporary social
movements in India from the perspective of equity and security.

Full description

Inequity manifests in different forms in different contexts - it could
based on income disparity, gender, and class, and impact different
aspects of society. Social Movements II: Concerns of Equity and
Security, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and Social
Anthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of social
movements in India with respect to the concerns of equity and security
as two forces behind contemporary social movements. The issue of
equity is concerned not only with income and class but is also related
to ideas of development and distributive justice for peasantry and
labour. It is also the focus of groups such as women and the youth,
which occasion protests and mobilizations. Moreover, in the current
scenario, booming economies, soaring populations, and choices of
development strategies have a bearing on the rise of social movements
related to ecology and the environment. This reader brings together a
selection of essays that explore the various dimensions of equity, and
also covers issues of environmental and ecological security. These are
imperative in situating related social movements in the wider context.
This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,
anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studying
Indian society and social movements in particular.

Table of contents

PREFACE; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; GENERAL INTRODUCTION: ON THE ANALYSIS OF
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (T.K. OOMMEN);

SECTION I - PEASANT AND LABOUR MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I;;

1. Indian Peasant Uprisings (Kathleen Gough);;

2. Naxalbari Peasant Movement (Partha N. Mukherji);;

3. The Bhoodan Gramdaan Movement (T.K. Oommen);;

4. . The new Farmer's Movement in Maharashtra (D.N. Dhanagare);;

5, The Indian Labour Movement: Growth and Character (S.M. Pandey);;

6, Changing Industrial Relations: India, 1950-2000 (Debashish
Bhattacharjee);;

7. Labour Activism and Women in the Unorganised Sector (Supriya Roy
Chowdhury);;

SECTION II - WOMEN AND STUDENTS YOUTH MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II; ;

8. Changing Terms of Political Discourse: Women's Movement in India,
1970s-1990s (Indu Agnihotri and Vina Mazumdar);;

9. The Anti-dowry Movement in Delhi (Rajni Palriwala);;

10. The Self-Employed Women's Association (Martha A. Chen);;

11. The Transformation of the Indian Students' Movement (Philip G.
Altbach);;

12, Student Power: Mobilization and Protest (T.K. Oommen);

Section III - Ecological and Environmental Movements;

Introduction to Section III;;

13. Ecology Movements in India (Vandana Shiva);;

14. . Parks, People and Protest: The Mediating Role of Environmental
Action Groups (Ranjit Dwivedi);;

15. . Protest against Displacement by Development Projects (T.K.
Oommen);

Notes on Contributors;

Index

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/social-movements-ii-concerns-equity-and-security

Sovereignty and Social Reform in India: British Colonialism and the
Campaign Against Sati

Published by Routledge

Author: Major, Andrea
ISBN: 978 0 415 58050 2
Format: Hardback
Pages: 192
List price(s): 75.00 GBP 125.00 USD
Publication date: 30 June 2010

Short description

Offers an important reinterpretation of major themes of sovereignty,
authority and social reform in colonial South Asian history. Focusing
on the British prohibition of sati in 1829, this book shows how the
debates that preceded this legislation have been instrumental in
setting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati.

Full description

This book offers an important reinterpretation of major themes of
sovereignty, authority and social reform in colonial South Asian
history. Focusing on the British prohibition of sati in 1829, the
author shows how the debates that preceded this legislation have been
instrumental in setting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati,
as well as of defining the terms and parameters of British involvement
in Indian social and religious issues more generally.

Table of contents

1. Introduction 2. Princes, Politics and Pragmatism: British Policy on
Sati in the Indian States 1830-1860 3. Prohibition, Prevention and
Prosecution: The Practicalities of Suppressing Sati 4. Romance, Race
and Rule: Imagining Sati in Rajput Society 5. Victimhood and Volition:
British Encounters with the Satimata 6. Conclusion

Biography

Andrea Major is Lecturer in Wider World History at the University of
Leeds. Her research interests relate to the nature of the colonial
encounter between Britain and India, and in particular their
interaction on social and gender issues.

http://www.newasiabooks.org/publication/sovereignty-and-social-reform-india-british-colonialism-and-campaign-against-sati

[chhotemianinshallah]

Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects:
Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir
Mridu Rai

Paper | 2004 | $28.95
320 pp. | 5 x 8

Paper $20.00

Full Text of this book, thanks to the Google.
http://books.google.com/books/princeton?hl=en&q=Hindu+Rulers%2C+Muslim+Subjects%3A&vid=ISBN9780691116884&btnG.x=15&btnG.y=10#v=snippet&q=Hindu%20Rulers%2C%20Muslim%20Subjects%3A&f=false

Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majority
of Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu and
increasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics become
so enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindu
rule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947
partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year period
before that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by Hindu
Dogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights the
collusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject
Muslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, and
community rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identity
emerged.

Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed as
the East India Company marched into India beginning in the late
eighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation was
abandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporated
into the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues,
scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions about
colonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurred
throughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dogra
kings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interests
of the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting the
seeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiosity
thrust upon it for the past 150 years.

Review:

"Rai's contribution lies in the extremely thorough and painstaking
documentation that she provides when tracing the marginalization of
the native inhabitants of Kahmir, the chicanery of the British, and
the fecklessness of the Dogra rulers. Her account of the growth of
Muslim religio-political consciousness in the early part of the
twentieth century . . . unearths a wealth of detail. . . . Rai's book
is a useful one. Those interested in understanding the background of
the continuing tragedy in Kahmir will find much to consider in her
substantial account of the historical backdrop."--Sumit Ganguly,
Journal of Asian Studies

Endorsements:

"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects is a brilliant work of historical
scholarship that will become indispensable reading for all those
interested in the modern history and politics of the subcontinent. It
a pioneering historical study of rights, religion, and regional
identity in Kashmir that could also inspire future studies on other
regions of the subcontinent."--Sugata Bose, Harvard University

"This is a major contribution to Kashmir studies and should set the
standard for the next generation of publications on Kashmir.
Challenging the existing literature, this work is heady and fresh--and
deserves attention."--Alexander Evans, King's College London and the
Royal Institute of International Affairs

"Mridu Rai's book reminds us powerfully of the crucial importance of
colonial history to the present. She is able to de-essentialize
religion and secularism in the Kashmir conflict, which is very useful
in light of India's secularist claims and the ways in which some
sociologists have theorized those claims. Carefully researched and
lucidly conceptualized and written, this book forwards an important
thesis on an important topic."--Peter van der Veer, University of
Amsterdam

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1: Territorializing Sovereignity: The Dilemmas of Control and
Collaboration 18

CHAPTER 2: The Consolidation of Dogra Legitimacy in Kashmir: Hindu
Rulers and a Hindu State 80

CHAPTER 3: The Obligations of Rulers and the Rights of Subjects 128

CHAPTER 4: Contested Sites: Religious Shrines and the Archaeological
Mapping of Kashmiri Muslim Protest 183

CHAPTER 5: Political Mobilization in Kashmir: Religious and Regional
Identities 224
Conclusion 288

Glossary 298
Bibliography 305
Index 319

Book Review

Mridu Rai. Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the
History of Kashmir. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2004. Pp.
xi, 335. Cloth $65.00, paper $22.50.

Chitralekha Zutshi. Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity,
and the Making of Kashmir. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Pp. xvi, 359. $35.00.

Ever since the India-Pakistan near war of 2001–2002, we have been
subject to an incessant flow of words on the Kashmir conflict. Sadly,
this deluge has done little to enhance our knowledge of the subject.
Bar changing the odd adjectives, adding a little detail, or inserting
the views of the proverbial man on the street, little has been added
to Sumit Ganguly's Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Prospects of
Peace (1997) or Victoria Schofield's Kashmir in Conflict: India,
Pakistan, and the Unending War (2000). Two new histories have been
widely applauded for constituting a happy break with this dismal
tradition. Little attention has been paid, however, to the
considerable theoretical and empirical problems presented by Mridu
Rai's and Chitralekha Zutshi's books. 1
Both Rai and Zutshi deal with a critical period in the history
of Jammu and Kashmir: the century of Dogra monarchical rule that
preceded the independence of India and Pakistan, and the division of
the state between the two powers in the course of the war of 1947. It
was in this period that the welter of territories that constitute
modern Kashmir were welded together under a single power, a
consequence of Britain's handing over of the region to Maharaja Gulab
Singh, a prince who sided with the empire's war of conquest against
the Sikh kingdom of Lahore. Like the other semi-independent states of
princely India, Kashmir witnessed a constant struggle for influence
between the monarchy and the imperial government. It was to become the
site of a number of other contestations: of monarch against democrat;
of empire against nationalist; of Hindu against Muslim; of peasant
against landlord. 2
Rai sees this century as one in which a "Hindu State" was
formed, the consequence of the Dogra monarchy's search for legitimacy.
Lacking any real basis for its sovereignty over the peoples whose
destinies it now controlled, it responded by inventing a history in
which the Dogra dynasty represented both the Hindu faith and Rajput
martial tradition. Rai maps this process by carefully documenting the
Dogra monarchy's growing control of Hindu religious practice in
Kashmir, notably through state-controlled trusts. Since the state was
Hindu in character, Rai concludes, "religion and politics became
inextricably intertwined in defining and expressing the protest of
Kashmiri Muslims against their rulers" (pp. 16–17). 3
Zutshi arrives at similar conclusions, but with considerably
more attention to nuance and detail. Her study of the workings of
Dogra rule suggests the need for a careful examination of what, if
any, meaning the notion of a "Hindu state" may have actually had to
contemporaries. There was, Zutshi's narrative suggests, no unilinear
project of Hinduization under the Dogras; rather, there were complex
and fluid processes of collaboration and conflict among various
categories of elites, both Hindu and Muslim. Kashmir's small Brahmin
community, the Pandits, whom Rai sees as key collaborators of the
Dogra project, emerge at least one point in Zutshi's book as its most
bitter opponents. Notions of a homogeneous Kashmiri Muslim identity,
Zutshi's analysis suggests, need to be tempered by an understanding of
the working of caste, class, and ideology.

http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/br_31.html

Customer Review

The Challenging Natures of Kashmir, May 25, 2007
By T. Dodge

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects" covers the macro historical, social,
religious, and political highlights in Kashmir from about 1840 to
1950. It is a fascinating view into a world far distant but fearfully
close as two modern nuclear armed adversaries seek domination over the
mystical lands of Kashmir. This is a book of essential preliminary
understandings to the current situation in the region and of the
volumes I have encountered is the best. I hope the author contemplates
another book dealing with the post 1947 era. For those seeking recent
political happenings, I suggest "Kashmir" by Sumantra Bose.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1TLIUMBUTBR1D

Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of
Kashmir
by Mridu Rai

maryum's review

excellent book!!! really worthwhile reading and very meticulous
research on the impact of colonialism on kashmir. one of the few books
that looks at the kashmiri conflict from the perspective of the
kashmiris and not as a pawn in an india-pakistan chess match.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/370620

Paper $20.00
31% off regular price

Paper: $28.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-11688-4

File created: 10/18/2009

Questions and comments to: webm...@press.princeton.edu
Princeton University Press

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLV, No 38

Book Review: ’The Hindu-Muslim Divide : A Fresh Look by Amrik Singh’
Sunday 9 September 2007

[(BOOK REVIEW)]

The Hindu-Muslim Divide : A Fresh Look by Amrik Singh; Vitasta
Publishing Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi; 2007; pp. XIV+238; Rs 345.

It is ironic that around the time we are celebrating 60 years of
India’s independence, the subject under discussion here is the Hindu-
Muslim divide, instead of it being harmony between members of
different communities in our free country. But one has to face the
facts and hence this discourse.

The author of the book under review, Dr Amrik Singh, starts it with a
painful note: “As generally recognised, the Hindu-Muslim divide has
existed in India for about thousand years. The partition of India into
India and Pakistan in 1947 was the latest instalment in this
longstanding dispute.” (p. 3) But soon he sounds a note of optimism:
“But one thing is clear that, despite signals to the contrary, the two
warring communities are nearer an understanding with each other than
ever before.” No convincing reason is provided for the optimistic
note, and the author goes further and adds that the situation is
likely to change in about half a century or more (what a satisfying
thought!), even though it is stated: “In these matters, no one can be
precise.”

It is not very easy to agree with the author’s assertion about the
thousand year old Hindu-Muslim divide. For, India is known for its
composite culture, and quite a good part of the last thousand years
have been known to be marked by considerable harmony with some
aberrations. But aberrations are at times unavoidable and even the
intra-community conflicts and divisive trends have been there in the
concerned groups. When the Pakistani leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
during the more fanatic phase of his political life (something the
author makes a reference to) had talked about a thousand year war, his
bravado had the future in mind.

One would, in fact, like to go back to much older times, than the last
thousand years. It may be pointed out that composite culture had been
the feature of India even before the beginning of the first century
AD. The contributing influences all these years had been the teachings
of Gautam Buddha, the Vedic and Vedantic ideals of tolerance and
spiritual values, the disarming qualities of the Sufi value and the
noble sentiments of the Bhakti movement, and, more recently, the
thoughts of personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Maulana Azad, Altaf
Husain Hali and those believing in secular ideals among other factors.

While the commingling of Sufi and Bhakti ideals is an extremely
cherished heritage of the past, the state of confrontation, in recent
times, one has to admit, between the campaign of Tableegh and Shuddhi
(mentioned by the author while stating the effort of Hinduism for
‘semitisation’) (p. 132) is a tragic episode in our saga of composite
culture : like a bad dream one would perhaps like to forget.

EVEN without agreeing fully with the basic statement of the author
with regard to a thousand year old divide one would like to praise him
for covering the subject of Hindu-Muslim divide in a very
comprehensive manner particularly in the recent past. Dr Amrik Singh
has covered the entire ground by recounting how the spirit of mutual
understanding and conciliation gave way to conflict between the
Muslims and Hindus. Much discussion is available about the factors
responsible for this conflict leading to the partition of the country
along with its independence, the roles of leaders of the two
communities during those traumatic years and, indeed, the shape this
conflict has taken in today’s India.

The book is in the form of notes on different subjects relevant to its
theme, probably written at different points of time. But it contains a
wealth of information on the nature and cause of the divide—the
machinations of the British rulers, the folly of partition, the
practice of separate electorates, and even the complexities of adult
franchise and a joint electorate, the polarisation between the two
communities, the present concept of Hindutva and many other factors
that the author has painstakingly gone into. The author has laid great
emphasis on the need for pluralism and for a policy “in the direction
of reducing the Hindu-Muslim divide and work towards what has been
described as pluralism,” as he puts it.

Dr Amrik Singh has given some very perceptive opinions of acknowledged
experts on Hinduism and Islam, some approvingly while others with his
note of critique. Consider the quote from the eminent historian, Prof.
M. Habib (whom he describes as the “tallest historian of medieval
India”):

A Hindu feels it is his duty to dislike those whom he has been taught
to consider the enemies of his religion and his ancestors; the Muslim,
lured into the false belief that he was once a member of a ruling
race, feels insufferably wronged by being relegated to the status of a
minority community. Fools both! Even if the Muslims eight centuries
ago were as bad as they were painted, would there be any sense in
holding the present generation responsible for their deeds? It is but
an imaginative tie that joins the modern Hindu with Harshvardhana or
Asoka, or the modern Muslim with Shahabuddin or Mahmud.

“That these words were written several years after the partition makes
them even more relevant than they would have been otherwise,” says Dr
Amrik Singh and every rightly. (p. 200) Members of both the
communities can gain from introspecting in the light of the late
historians’ observation.

At another place, the author quotes Girilal Jain who, according to
him, “apart from being a leading journalist, was a keen student of
Hinduism”: Unlike the Muslims, the Hindus do not possess a vision of
the future, which is rooted in the past for a variety of reasons, one
of them being that, unlike the Muslims, they have not been able to
invent a golden age which can be located in any kind of history and
that they cannot invent one. While, they would, if challenged, vaguely
own up all Indian history up to the beginning of the Muslim invasions
of north India in the 11th century, they do not identify themselves
with any particular period. Indeed, they have little sense of history.
So how can they have a golden age and how can a people without such a
sense engage in revivalism? What can they seek to revive? Hinduism is
an arbitrary imposition on a highly variegated civilisation, which is
truly oceanic in its range. Such a civilisation cannot be enclosed in
a narrow doctrine. It cannot have a central doctrine because in its
majestic sweep it takes up all that comes its way and adapts it to its
over-widening purpose, rejecting finally what is wholly alien and
cannot be accommodated at all. Attempts have been made to build
embankments around this ocean-like reality to give it a shape and
definition. But these have not succeeded. The spirit of India has
refused to be contained. To put it differently, Hinduism has refused
to be organised. By the same token, it has refused to be communalised.
(p. 135)

Amrik Singh reacts to Jain’s stipulations: “While it is true that
Hinduism has refused to be organised and it has refused to be
communalised, how is it that today we witness what Nehru once
described as ‘non-Muslim aggression among Muslims’?” The author says
that this phrase of Nehru occurs in one of his letters addressed to
the Chief Ministers after the police action in Hyderabad.

IN the context of the Hindutva philosophy, it would be relevant to
consider the following quote from the late K.R. Malkani who became
known as the Editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, and an ideologue
of the Bharatiya Janata Party:

The Muslim Indian should realise that Hinduism is not a religion, but
a culture. That he is Muslim by religion but Hindu by culture. Let
Indonesia with its Muslim religion and native Hindu culture be the
model for the Muslim in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. (p. 138)

Malkani’s prescription is not possible, says Amrik Singh, either in
terms of physical or political considerations or in terms of their
historical evolution. “While Hinduism has a hoary tradition behind it,
the pre-Islamic traditions in Indonesia are not even clearly defined.”

Incidentally, at the time of writing this review a mammoth gathering
of Muslim men and women with hijab (about 100,000) including scholars
and religious leaders from different parts of the world, is
deliberating in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in search of ways to
establish a single Muslim government in the Islamic world (on the
ideals of Khilafat-e-Islamia) largely at the initiative of a group of
Indonesian Muslims. But that is another story that needs to be
considered in its own context.

The author feels that the effort to remove the present divide has
largely to be on the part of the Congress party. The removal of the
divide is linked with economic and political development of the
country. He says, “The Congress—currently in power—owes it to the
Muslims to bring them at par with others and thereafter involve them
in the process of development, both economic and political. The
Congress also has the further obligation to help the Muslims to draw
abreast of others socially.” (p. 191)

The author says that in seeking to separate from India, they (the
Muslims) followed a path which culminated in the partition of India in
1947. In the ultimate analysis that was a mistake, which Jinnah and
those who followed him had made. “Since the kind of Islamic future
that the Muslims of the subcontinent had aspired for themselves is
running into problem, sooner or later the thinking of the Muslim world
will make them learn from experience and come to terms with the
changed reality. But when? It is difficult to answer this question,”
the author says.

The author is of the view that the solution to the Hindu-Muslim divide
is linked, to a great extent, with the normalisation of relations
between India and Pakistan. The problem in India cannot be isolated
from the problem in Pakistan. The triumph of fundamentalism will be
bad for Indian Muslims as well. An end to confrontation would help
remove the divide in India, he says.

What, according to the author, is the prospect of the Hindu-Muslim
divide disappearing?—one may ask. He talks very enthusiastically of an
Indian version of globalisation. This globalisation is the result of a
“new mix of policies”, that are going to help all Indians including
Muslims.

He states: What has made it easier for India to adjust to the changing
world relatively more easily is partly because Hinduism is more
adjustable to the logic of the contemporary idea of development. If
India succeeds in this experiment, as seems to be happening, the
Indian Muslims too can before long, become a part of this experiment.
Currently, they are somewhat estranged from the mainstream. (p. 225)

Dr Amrik Singh would want the Indian Government to push ahead
vigorously with the spread of education and the Indian Muslims to give
evidence of some “political initiative” and “political maturity”.

According to the author, the confrontation with the United States now
“...is partly coming in the way of the Islamic world breaking with her
past”. If the US were not so confrontationist, he says, things in the
Islamic world would to some extent start changing, “sooner than is
happening at the moment”. According to him, India’s role in this
context is “positive, if not also praiseworthy”. And, India’s version
of globalisation can prompt others, even those in the Islamic world,
to move in that direction.

Dr Amrik Singh feels that if what is stated above happens, the “Hindu-
Muslim divide in India will gradually weaken”. More than that, he
says, this would give rise to “a new era in world history in more than
one sense”. What happens in India, according to him, would be of
considerable historical significance. “Indeed, it can also prove to be
a development of a wider economic and cultural significance.” Amen!

The reviewer, a veteran journalist who worked for several years in
Mainstream, currently edits the periodical Alpjan.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article302.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 28

Day One in Calcutta
Monday 30 June 2008, by From NC’s Writings

Ten years ago, in the afternoon of June 27, 1998, Nikhil Chakravartty
breathed his last. Remembering him after 10 years, we are reproducing
some of his finest reports, editorials and articles that appeared in
this journal and elsewhere over the last sixty years. We are also
reproducing the speech that our former President, K.R. Narayanan,
delivered while unveiling N.C.’s portrait at the Press Council of
India (New Delhi, February 28, 1999), and publishing several
reminiscences by those who knew him intimately.

The following report by Nikhil Chakravartty, the Calcutta
correspondent of People’s Age (published from Bombay), appeared in the
weekly’s August 24, 1947 issue (it was wired from Calcutta on August
17, 1947) under the following headlines : ‘End of a Nightmare and
Birth of New Dawn!’; ‘Calcutta Transformed by Spirit Of Independence’;
‘Hindus, Muslims Hug Each Other In Wild Joy—Tears Roll Down Where
Blood Once Soaked The Streets’.

Frenzy has overtaken Calcutta. It is a frenzy which no city in India
has ever felt through the long years of thraldom under the British.

When the clock struck midnight and Union Jacks were hauled down on
August 15, 1947, the city shook to her very foundations for a mad
frenzy overtook her 40 lakh citizens. Nothing like this has ever
happened before.

I have racked my brains for hours; I have looked up all despatches in
the Press; but still I find no adequate words to communicate the
unforgettable experience that has overwhelmed me in the last three
days. It is like a sudden bursting of a mighty dam: you hear a
deafening roar of water sweeping away everything in the flood. It
comes with a crushing suddenness and strikes with the strength of a
thousand giants.

That is how all of us in Calcutta have felt in the last few days—all
of us, old or young, man or woman, Hindu or Muslim, rich or poor. In
this mighty sweep of the flood none was spared. And the floods carried
off a lot of dirt and stigma of our slavery.

Calcutta is Reborn

ONE hundred and ninety years ago, it was from Calcutta that Clive set
out of conquer this land of ours and it was this city which was the
seat of all his vile intrigues that divided our ranks and brought
about our defeat. But today in the sweeping torrent of freedom all
that has been wiped away, and once again this beloved city of ours
stands out clean and full of radiance with the glow of lasting
brotherhood.

Everybody felt nervous about August 15. Weeks ahead authorities were
on tenterhooks; more police and military were being posted to ensure
peace. Ministers would not permit meetings in the open to celebrate
the transfer of power, afraid that the goondas might create trouble.
East Bengal Hindus were nervous that one little spark in Calcutta
might throw the entire province into the flames of a civil war;
Muslims were panicky that they might be finished off in Calcutta and
many had left the city.

Gandhiji had already moved his camp to one of the most affected areas—
Belliaghata—and cancelling his East Bengal trip, had decided to spend
a few days here with Suhrawardy. But even he was disturbed by rowdy
goondas, backed by communal groups, accusing him of being an enemy of
Hindus. News from the Punjab was bad. On the whole an uncanny fear
gripped everybody and the day of independence seemed like a deadline
for disturbances.

But how wrong were our calculations! With all our pretensions of
knowing our people, with all the prophecies and warnings, bans and
precautions, no one really knew how the people—common men and women
among both Hindus and Muslims—would come forward to celebrate August
15. It was this unknown factor, which in every turn of history is the
determining factor, that has made all the difference in our
calculations and the actual happenings on that day.

People’s preparations for the celebrations of the day went on briskly,
though imperceptibly. The demand for Tri-colours knew no bounds;
whatever be the material, whatever the make, every flag was literally
sold out. Even the poorest of the poor, coolie, scavenger or rickshaw-
puller, bought the Jhanda. In paras and mohallas boys and girls were
getting ready practising drills or formations, organising Prabhat
Pheris. Party differences, personal bickerings, etc. were forgotten.

Discordant voices there were, but they did not matter. Mahasabha first
raised the slogan of black flags, but then piped down and declared non-
participation. But all the prestige of Shyamaprosad could not make any
impression on the very people whom he had swayed during the Partition
campaign.

Forward Bloc and Tagorites also opposed the celebration on the ground
that real freedom was yet to be won. But despite the fact that
thousands of Bengali homes paid homage to Netaji that day hardly a
handful abstained from participation. Every school, factory, office,
every home—be it a mansion or a bustee—awaited the great day with
hearts full of jubilation.

As the zero hour approached, the city put on a changed appearance. On
the streets, people were busy putting up flags and decorating
frontage. Gates were set up at important crossings, bearing names of
our past titans like Ashoka or our martyrs in the freedom movement.
The atmosphere was tense; should there be a new round of stabbings or
shootings among brothers, or should there be return to peace and
normalcy?

All Barriers Broken

THE first spontaneous initiative for fraternisation came from Muslim
bustees and was immediately responded to by Hindu bustees. It was
Calcutta’s poor toilers, especially Muslims, who opened the floodgate,
and none could have dreamt of what actually took place.

Muslim boys clambered up at Chowringhee and shouted, “Hindu-Muslim ek
ho” and exhorted the driver to take them to Bhowanipore. But the
driver would not risk that and so they came up to the border only.

But then all of a sudden in the very storm-centres of most gruesome
rioting of the past year—Raja Bazar, Sealdah, Kalabagan, Colootolah,
Burra Bazar—Muslims and Hindus ran across the frontiers and hugged
each other in wild joy. Tears rolled down where once blood had soaked
the pavements. “Jai Hind”, “Vande Mataram”, “Allah-ho-Akbar” and above
all renting the sky “Hindu-Muslim ek ho”.

Curfews were ignored; men rushed out on the streets, danced, clasped
and lifted each other up. It was all like a sudden end of a nightmare,
the birth of a glorious dawn.

As midnight approached, crowds clustered round every radio set and
Jawaharlal’s ringing words sent a thrill round every audience,
“Appointed day has come —the day appointed by destiny..”

With the stroke of midnight, conch-shells blew in thousands, conch-
shells blown by our mothers and sisters from the innermost corners of
our homes—for the call of freedom has reached every nook and corner.
And with the conch-shells were heard the crack of rifles and bursting
of bombs and crackers. The very arms that were stored so long to kill
off brothers were being used to herald the coming of freedom.

A torchlight procession started in North Calcutta. Tram workers, in
all spontaneity, brought out a couple of trams crowded with Hindus to
the Nakhoda mosque and were feted by Muslims with food and drink. In
Burra Bazar, Muslims were treated the same way and all embraced one
another. Hardly anybody slept that night—the night choked with
passionate emotions welling up in so many ways.

As the morning came the city was already full of excitment and
pavements were thronged with people. Prabhat Pheris came out singing
songs of the national struggle. Boys and girls marched through the
streets with bands and bugles—bright and smart, free citizens of
tomorrow.

Flag salutations in every park, in every school and office. Buses
plied free, giving joy rides to thousands. Trams announced that all
their returns would be sent for relief. And they ran till late at
night along all mixed routes which were closed for the past year.

At the Government House, our own Government was to unfurl the
Tricolour, but invitees were confined to Burra Sahibs and officials,
the rich and elite, Ministers and Legislators. They came in big cars,
many with their wives dressed in all their fashionable clothes.

Government House—People’s Property

COMMON people, those that have made freedom possible, they too came in
thousands, but they were kept outside, beyond the huge iron gates. Why
must this be so? Why must this occasion be celebrated in the way the
White Sahibs have done so long?

I watched that crowd growing restless every minute and found among
them the very faces that you come across in the streets every day or
at the market or in your own home: babu, coolie, student, Professor,
young girl and shy wife—all jostling with each other, impatient at
being kept out. Sikh, Muslim, Bhayya and Bhadralok clamoured for the
gates to be opened and when that was not done, they themselves burst
into the spacious grounds and ran up towards the Governor’s stately
mansion.

The burst into the rooms much to the annoyance of the officials and
perhaps also of the marble busts of many of the White rulers that have
never been disturbed in their majesty.

For hours they thronged there, thousands over thousands of them,
shoving out many of the ICS bosses. But it would be a slander to say
that they were unruly. How little did they touch or damage? Had they
been unruly, as somebody had reported to Gandhiji, the whole place
would have been a wreck in no time.

They went there for they felt that it was one of their own leaders who
had been installed as their Governor. And when the annoyed officials
ran up to Rajaji to complain to him about the crowd swarming into the
rooms, C.R., it is reported, replied: “But what can I do? It is their
own property. How can I prevent them from seizing it?”

The sense of triumph, of pride that we have come to our own could be
seen in the faces that entered the portals of the Government House. It
is symptomatic of August 15 no doubt. For though there were
restrictions and curtailments to real freedom in the elaborate plans
the Dominion Status, the people—the common humanity that teems our land
—have taken this day to mean that that have won and no amount of
restrictions will bar the way, just as no policeman could stop the
surging crowd that broke into the Government House.

Outside, all over the city, houses seemed to have emptied out into the
streets, lorries came in hundreds, each packed precariously beyond
capacity; lorries packed with Hindus and Muslims, men and women.
Streets were blocked and the people themselves volunteered to control
traffic.

Rakhi Bandhan Again

LORRY-LOADS of Muslim National Guards crammed with Gandhi-capped young
Hindu boys shouted themselves hoarse “Jai Hind”, “Hindu-Muslim ek ho”.

Somebody in Bhowanipore waved a League flag under a Tri-colour. What a
sight and what a suspense. But the days of hate were over and all
shouted together, “Hindu-Muslim ek ho!”

A batch of Hindu ladies went to Park Circus to participate in the flag
hoisting. They tied rakhi (strings of brotherly solidarity made famous
during Swadeshi days) round the wrists of Muslim National Guards. And
the Muslim boys said, “May we be worthy brothers!”

Hindu families, quiet and timid Bhadralok families, came in hundreds
to visit Park Circus with their wives and children in tikka gharries
piled by Muslims. Muslims, well-to-do and poor, visited Burra Bazar,
and Ballygunge in endless streams. And this was going on all these
three days.

They are all going to paras or mohallas they had to leave or where
they had lost their near and dear ones. Today there is no area more
attractive and more crowded than the very spots where the worst
butcheries had taken place. As if to expiate for the sins of the last
one year, Hindus and Muslims of Calcutta vied with each other to
consecrate their city with a new creed of mighty brotherhood.

On the evening of August 16, one year back, I sent you a despatch
which could describe but inadequately the mad lust for fratricidal
blood that had overtaken Calcutta that day. To mark the anniversary of
that day I visited the crowded parts of Hindu Burra Bazar and the
Muslim Colootola where in this one year hardly anyone passed alive
when spotted by the opposite community. But this evening Muslims were
the guests of honour at Burra Bazar and Hindus, as they visited
Colootola, were drenched with rose-water and attar and greeted with
lusty cheers of “Jai Hind”.

On the very evening, at Park Circus, was held a huge meeting of Hindus
and Muslims. Suhrawardy, J.C. Gupta, MLA, and Bhowani Sen spoke. It
was here that Suhrawardy asked the Muslims to go and implore the
evicted Hindus to come back to Park Circus.

At Belliaghata, Gandhiji’s presence itself has brought back hundreds
of Muslim families who had to leave in terror of their lives only a
few weeks back. And Gandhiji’s prayer meetings are attended by an ever
increasing concourse of Hindus and Muslims—themselves living symbols
of Hindu-Muslim unity.

Reports from Bengal districts also prove that this remarkable upsurge
of solidarity was not confined to Calcutta alone. In Dacca, despite
panic, Hindus and Muslims jointly participated in the celebration of
Pakistan, and Muslim leaders themselves intervened in one case where
the Congress flag was lowered, and the flag was raised again.

Everywhere Hindus showed response by honouring the Pakistan flag.
Joint Hindu-Muslim demonstrations were the marked features of the
occasion.

Reports from Comilla, Kusthia, Dinajpore, Krishnanagore, Munshinganj,
Malda and Jessore, all show that August 15 had passed off in peace and
amity. Only local fracas were reported from Kanchrapara, but the great
and good tidings from Calcutta eased the situation there.

In this mighty flood of freedom and brotherhood there is yet the sense
of suspense, for it came with such an incredible suddenness and
magnitude that many think it is too good to last long. It is like
holding a precious glass dome in your hands while you are in suspense
that it might fall and break at any moment.

Spontaneous assertion of people’s will for freedom and brotherly
solidarity needs to be harnessed in lasting forms and that is where
our leaders will be tested in the coming weeks.

Whatever happens, August 15 will be cherished for Calcutta’s grand
celebration on the eve of the end of the dark night of slavery and the
dawn of freedom. Calcutta yesterday was the symbol of our servitude
and fratricidal hate. Calcutta today is the beacon-light for free
India, asserting that freedom once resurrected can never be curbed or
destroyed, for all our millions of Hindus and Muslims together are
ready to stand together as its proud sentinels.

(People’s Age, August 24, 1947)

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article801.html

Mainstream Weekly

VOL XLV No 21

1857 In Our History
Monday 14 May 2007, by P C Joshi *

[(The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Great Indian Revolt
of 1857 is being observed this month. Though the spark for the Revolt
was lit by Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore earlier the same year, the
Revolt actually began in May at Meerut: on May 6, 85 sepoys of the 3rd
Bengal Cavalry at Meerut refused to use the cartridge, the cause of
the rebellion—all of them were placed under arrest; on May 9 these
sepoys were brought to a general punishment parade at the Meerut
Parade Ground, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and stripped of
their uniforms. When the 11th and 12th Native Cavalry of the Bengal
Army assembled at the Parade Ground on May 10, they broke rank and
turned on the Commanding Officer Colonel Finnis who was shot dead—this
was the first incident of Revolt at Meerut; thereafter the sepoys
liberated the imprisoned sepoys, attacked the European Cantonment and
killed all the Europeans who could be found there. Then in conjunction
with the Roorkee sepoys, called to Meerut following the uprising, they
marched to Delhi where the first major incident took place on May 11
with the killing of Colonel Ripley.

We are carrying here excerpts from a seminal article “1857 In Our
History” by the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of
India, P.C. Joshi, whose birth centenary is being observed this year,
to mark the occasion. This article was presented at a symposium held
to observe the centenary of the 1857 Revolt in 1957; later it was
published alongwith other articles presented at the symposium in book
form (also edited by P.C. Joshi) by the People’s Publishing House, New
Delhi. —Editor)]

The few contemporary Indians who wrote on 1857 did so for the British.
The dominant British attitude is revealed in entitled, “The Bengali
Press, How to Deal with It”, published on August 9, 1896, in Pioneer,
a very influential British organ of the times:

We know how Englishmen within the memory of living men treated their
own newspaper writers… If a gentle and graceful writer forgot himself
so far as to call the Prince Regent ‘an Adonis of forty’ he got two
years’ ‘hard’. If a clergyman praised the French Revolution and
advocated Parliamentary reform and fair representation, he was
condemned to work in iron manacles, to wade in sludge among the vilest
criminals.

The writer advocated the infliction of the same punishment on an
Indian who dared to write on the Indian Mutiny of 1857.1

Indians thus had no say in this controversy but our rebel ancestors
with their heroic deeds and by shedding their warm blood had made
their contribution more eloquent than words....

It is inspiring to recall here what Marx thought of the 1857 national
uprising. As early as July 31, 1857, on the basis of Indian mail
carrying Delhi news up to June 17, he concluded his unsigned
newsletter to the New York Daily Tribune with these words:

By and by there will ooze out other facts able to convince even John
Bull himself that what he considers military mutiny is in truth a
national revolt.2

India’s historians may go on arguing and differing about the character
of the 1857 revolt but the mass of the Indian people have already
accepted it as the source-spring of our national movement. The hold of
the 1857 heritage on national thought is so great that even Dr R. C.
Majumdar concludes his study with the following words:

The outbreak of 1857 would surely go down in history as the first
great and direct challenge to the British rule in India, on an
extensive scale. As such it inspired the genuine national movement for
the freedom of India from British yoke which started half a century
later. The memory of 1857-58 sustained the later movement, infused
courage into the hearts of its fighters, furnished a historical basis
for the grim struggle, and gave it a moral stimulus, the value of
which it is impossible to exaggerate. The memory of the revolt of
1857, distorted but hallowed with sanctity, perhaps did more damage to
the cause of the British rule in India than the Revolt itself.3

The controversy whether the 1857-58 struggle was a sepoy revolt or a
national uprising can be resolved only by squarely posing and
truthfully analysing the character of the contestants on either side
and the nature of the issues—political, economic and ideological—
involved in this struggle. In short, a sound historical evaluation
demands that who was fighting whom and for what be correctly
stated....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE British conquest of India implied not only the imposition of alien
rule but, something worse still, a pitiless destruction of the
traditional Indian social order itself and disruption of its own
normal development towards a new order. Marx was the only thinker of
the period who studied this tragic phenomenon scientifically and
formulated the role of British imperialism in India in such a correct
manner that his conclusions were borne out by the subsequent
researches of Indian scholarship and they helped Indian patriots to
understand Indian reality better and give a progressive orientation to
Indian national thought.

As early as 1853 when the Indian situation was being debated in the
British Parliament on the occasion of the renewal of the East India
Company’s Charter, Marx stated in an article entitled “British Rule in
India”: All the civil wars, invasions, revolutions, conquests,
famines, strangely complex, rapid and destructive as the successive
action in Hindustan may appear, did not go deeper than its surface.
England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society,
without any symptoms of reconstitution yet appearing. This loss of his
old world, with no gain of a new one, imparts a particular kind of
melancholy to the present misery of the Hindu, and separates Hindustan
ruled by Britain, from all its ancient traditions, and from the whole
of its past history… It was the British intruder who broke up the
Indian handloom and destroyed the spinning wheel…British steam and
science uprooted over the whole surface of Hindustan, the union
between agriculture and manufacturing industry.4 ...

After the conquest of Bengal and eventually throughout India, the
method of enforced and unequal trade was used to loot India and this
led to its economic ruination. R. P. Dutt states how the situation
underwent a qualitative change after the British became the ruling
class in India, how methods of power could be increasingly used to
weight the balance of exchange and secure the maximum goods for the
minimum payment.5

By the end of 18th century and much more clearly by 1813-33, a shift
had come over British policy towards India. After a period of
primitive plunder and the systematic ruination of Indian trades and
crafts, the British bourgeoisie, with the completion of their
Industrial Revolution, began to use India as a dumping ground for its
industrial manufactures and, above all, textiles. Marx noted this
sharp shift, and, in one of his articles during 1853, wrote:

The whole character of trade was changed. Till 1813 India had been
chiefly an exporting country while it now became an importing one; and
in such quick progression, that already, in 1823, the rate of
exchange, which had generally been two-sixth per rupee sunk down to
two per rupee. India, the great workshop of cotton manufacture for the
world, since immemorial times, became now inundated with English
twists and cotton stuffs. After its own produce had been excluded from
England, or only accepted on the most cruel terms, British
manufactures were poured into it at a small or merely nominal duty, to
the ruin of native cotton fabric once so celebrated.6

The policy of the East India Company also annihilated the independent
merchant bourgeoisie as well as the artisans and craftsmen. Prof
Ramkrishna Mukherjee describes the process in the following words:

Along with thus turning the Indian artisans ‘out of this ‘temporal’
world’, as Marx remarked caustically, proceeded the liquidation of the
Indian merchant bourgeoisie. Monopolising Indian products for the
English meant that the Indian merchants could no longer survive. Only
those could maintain their profession who acquiesced in becoming
underlings of the Company or of its servants engaged in private inland
trade in India or of the private English merchants residing in India
for the same purpose. Otherwise, they had to find a new source of
livelihood. Not only were the Indian merchants prohibited from buying
commodities directly from the producers which were monopolised by the
English, but the agents of the Company and its servants forced such
goods on the Indian merchants at a price higher than the prevailing
one.7

By annihilating the independent merchant bourgeoisie, which to some
extent also fulfilled the role of the manufacturing bourgeoisie, the
monopolist East India Company destroyed that very important class in
Indian economy which could be their rival.

Another aspect of this phenomenon is noted and analysed by K. M.
Panikkar in the following words:

With the establishment of European trade centres in the main coastal
areas of India, there had developed a powerful Indian capitalist
class, closely associated with the foreign merchants, and deriving
great profits from trade with them… The Marwari millionaires of Bengal
have become the equivalent of the compradore classes of Shanghai of a
later period …The emergence of this powerful class, whose economic
interests were bound up with those of the foreign merchants and who
had an inherited hatred of Muslim rule, was a factor of fundamental
importance to the history of India and of Asia.8

These Indian agents of the Company and of the British merchants were
called gomasthas and bannias and played the role of sub-agents of
foreign capital and a pro-British role in the 1857 uprising.

How did intelligent Indians react to the above economic situation and
policies?

It is useful to quote Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, an eminent
Muslim scholar of the traditional school who took a leading part in
the 1857 revolt and was transported for life:

Having seized power they (the British) decided to bring under their
hold the various sections of the people by controlling eatables, by
taking possession of the ears of corn and grain and giving the
peasants and cultivators cash in lieu of their rights of farming.
Their object was not to allow the poor men and villagers a free hand
in buying and selling grains. By giving preference to their own
people, they wanted to control the cheapening or raising of the rates
so that the people of God might submit to their (Christian) policy of
monopoly, and their dependence on them (Christians) for their
requirements might force them to meet the purpose of the Christians
and their supporters, and their desire and ambitions which they had in
their hearts and the mischiefs and evils which they had concealed in
their minds.9

In the above background, the appeal of the manifesto issued by Bahadur
Shah on behalf of the insurgent centre at Delhi had its own
significance. The manifesto appealed in the following words to the
merchants: It is plain that the infidel and treacherous British
Government have monopolised the trade of all the fine and valuable
merchandise such as indigo, cloth and other articles of shipping,
leaving only the trade of trifles to the people and even in this they
are not allowed their shares of the profits, which they secure by
means of customs and stamp fees, etc., in money suits, so that the
people have merely a trade in name. Besides this, the profit of the
traders are taxed with postages, tolls, and subscriptions for schools,
etc. Notwithstanding all these concessions, the merchants are liable
to imprisonment and disgrace at the instance of complaint of a
worthless man. When the Badshahi Government is established all these
aforesaid fraudulent practices shall be dispensed with and the trade
of every article, without exception, both by land and water shall be
opened to the native merchants of India who will have the benefit of
the Government steam-vessels and steam carriages for the conveyance of
their merchandise gratis; and merchants having no capital of their own
shall be assisted from the public treasury. It is, therefore, the duty
of every merchant to take part in the war, and aid the Badshahi
Government with its men and money, either secretly or openly, as may
be consistent with its position or interest and forswear its
allegiance to the British Government.10...

The economic and political operation of the East India Company in
India led to a systematic squeezing of our national wealth which has
been described by India’s economic historians as the economic drain.
Let us examine this as it existed on the eve of the 1857 revolt.

There was the so-called Indian Debt, which was incurred by the Company
in order to consolidate its position in India and to spread its
influence further through expeditions and wars, and at the same time,
paying high dividends to share-holders in England, tributes to the
British Government since 1769 and bribes to the influential persons in
England.11

R. C. Dutt makes the following comments as regards the genesis and
mechanism of this Indian Debt:

A very popular error prevails in this country (England in 1903) that
the whole Indian Debt represents British capital sunk in the
development of India. It is shown in the body of this volume that this
is not the genesis of the Public Debt of India. When the East India
Company cessed to be the rulers of India in 1858, they had piled up an
Indian Debt of 70 millions. They had in the meantime drawn a tribute
from India, financially an unjust tribute, exceeding 150 million, not
calculating interest. They had also charged India with the cost of
Afghan wars, Chinese wars and other wars outside India. Equitably,
therefore, India owed nothing at the close of the Company’s rule; her
Public Debt was a myth; there was a considerable balance of over 108
millions in her favour out of the money that had been drawn from her.
12

Montgomery Martin, an Englishman with sympathy for the Indian people,
wrote as early as 1838:

This annual drain of £ 3,000,000 on British India amounted in 30 years
at 12 per cent (the usual Indian rate) compound interest to the
enormous sum of £ 723,997,917 sterling; or, at a low rate, as $
2,000,000 for 50 years, to £ 8,400,000,000 sterling! So constant and
accumulating a drain even on England would have soon impoverished her;
how severe then must be its effect on India, where the wages of a
labourer is from 2d. to 3d. a day?13....

Prof Ramkrishna Mukherjee goes even further and states:

A total picture of this tribute from India is seen to be even greater
than the figure mentioned by Martin in 1838. During the 24 years of
the last phase of the Company’s rule, from 1834-35 to 1857-58, even
though the years 1855, ’56 and ’57 showed a total import-surplus of £
6,436,345—(not because the foreign rulers had changed their policy,
but because some British capital flowed into India to build railway in
order to prepare her for exploitation by British industrial capital),—
the total tribute which was drained from India in the form of ‘home
charges’ and ‘excess of Indian exports’ amounted to the colossal
figure of £ 151,830,989. This works out at a yearly average of £
6,325,875, or roughly half the annual land revenue collections in this
period!14

The above was the grim reality, grimmer than any ever witnessed in the
whole course of India’s age-old historic development. As Marx stated,
there cannot, however, remain any doubt but the misery inflicted by
the British on Hindustan is of essentially different and infinitely
more intensive kind than Hindustan had to suffer before.15

The British, under the East India Company’s rule disrupted the whole
economic order of India, they turned the traditional land system topsy
turvy, they smashed the trades and manufactures of the land and
disrupted the relationship between these two sectors of the Indian
economy, systematically drained the wealth of our country to their
own, and destroyed the very springs of production of our economy.
Every class of Indian society suffered at this new spoliator’s hands.
The landlords were dispossessed and the peasants rendered paupers, the
merchant bourgeoisie of India liquidated as an independent class and
the artisans and craftsmen deprived of their productive professions.
Such unprecedented destruction of a whole economic order and of every
class within it could not but produce a great social upheaval and that
was the national uprising of 1857. The all-destructive British policy
produced a broad popular rebellion against its rule.

Within Indian society, however, those productive forces and classes
had not yet grown (in fact early British policy had itself destroyed
their first off-shoots) that could lead this revolution to victory.
The revolt of 1857 as also its failure were both historical
inevitabilities. But it also was a historical necessity, for after it
followed those modern developments..., from which emerged the modern
national liberation movement of the Indian people and those new social
forces which led it to victory.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE religious factor played a big part in the revolt in 1857. The
British statesmen and chroniclers exaggerated and deliberately
misinterpreted the role played by this factor to prove their thesis
that the 1857 uprising was reactionary, revivalist and directed
against the progressive reforms that they were introducing in Indian
society. The early generation of English-educated Indian intellectuals
swallowed this imperialist thesis uncritically because they themselves
had suffered under the old reactionary religious influences. A true
historical outlook demands that we do not forget the historical stage
which Indian society had reached on the eve of 1857, the ideological
values which would be normal to this society and the ideological forms
in which the Indian people could formulate their aspirations....

It is abundantly clear... that the British rulers purely for their
imperialist motives were out for some decades preceding 1857 to
culturally denationalise India by the method of mass conversion to
Christianity. This was seen as a menacing danger by the mass of
Indians, irrespective of their viewpoint whether it was Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan or Bahadur Shah, whether it was the enlightened Bengali
intellectual in Calcutta or the Nana Saheb at Bithoor, by the mass of
sepoys both Hindu and Muslim. Thus when the religious factor played a
big role as it did in the struggle of 1857, it was as a part of the
national factor. The mass of Indians took up arms to defend their own
religions and they were fighting not only in defence of their religion
but to defend their way of life and their nationhood. Of course, there
were several reactionary features within Indian society but then the
only healthy way to change them was through the struggle of the Indian
people themselves.

This is not all. Our rebel ancestors used religion to advance the
revolutionary struggle. They did not let religion stupefy them. But
they used religion to get the strength to fight the Firinghis.

A proclamation was issued at Delhi with royal permission urging upon
the Hindus and Muslims to unite in the struggle in the name of their
respective religions.

To all Hindus and Mussalmans, citizens and servants of Hindustan,
officers of the army now at Delhi and at Meerut send greetings:—it is
well known that in these days all the English have entertained these
evil designs—first, to destroy the religion of the whole Hindustani
army and then to make the people by compulsion Christians. Therefore,
we, solely on account of our religion, have combined with the people
and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-established the
Delhi dynasty on these terms. Hundreds of guns and a large amount of
treasure have fallen into our hands; therefore, it is fitting that
whoever of the soldiers and people dislike turning Christians should
unite with one heart, and, acting courageously, not leave the seed of
these infidels remaining.16

When the struggle in Oudh after the fall of Lucknow was on the
downgrade, and insurgents were heroically fighting defensive and
mostly losing battles, the captured sepoys used to be asked by the
British why they had joined the revolt. Their answer used to be:

The slaughter of the English is required by our religion. The end will
be the destruction of the English and all the sepoys—and then, God
knows!17

The Rajah of the Gond tribes was living as a pensioner of the British
at Nagpur. He had turned a traditional Sanskrit sthotra recited in
worshipping the devi into an anti-British hymn. The London Times of
October 31, 1857 gives the translation of the prayer: Shut the mouth
of the slanderers and Eat up backbiters, trample down the sinners,
You, “Satrusamgharika” (name of Devi, ‘destroyer of enemy’) Kill the
British, exterminate them, Matchundee. Let not the enemy escape, not
the wives and children Of such oh! Samgharika Show favour to Shanker;
support your slaves; Listen to the cry of religion. “Mathalka” eat up
the unclean, Make no delay, Now devour them, And that quickly, Ghor-
Mathalka.

During the siege of Delhi, British agents repeatedly tried to
transform the joint Hindu- Muslim struggle into a fratricidal Hindu-
Muslim civil war. Even as early as May 1857, British agents began
inciting the Muslims against the Hindus in the name of jihad and the
matter was brought before Bahadur Shah.

The king answered that such a jihad was quite impossible, and that
such an idea an act of extreme folly, for the majority of the Purbeah
soldiers were Hindus. Moreover, such an act could create internecine
war, and the result would be deplorable. It was fitting that sympathy
should exist among all classes… A deputation of Hindu officers arrived
to complain of the war against Hindus being preached. The king
replied: ‘The holy war is against the English; I have forbidden it
against the Hindus.’18

Thus did our rebel ancestors use religion to organise and conduct a
united revolutionary struggle against foreign domination. In the
historic conditon of 1857, the ideological form of the struggle could
not but assume religious forms. To expect anything else would be
unrealistic and unscientific.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE British text books on Indian history contained only the story of
the “atrocities of the mutineers,”—dishonouring of women, killing of
children and so on. The reality, however, was the opposite. Again, the
early generation of educated Indians like Savarkar and others began
exposing from British sources themselves the story of unprecedented
British atrocities against the Indian people. During the non-
cooperation movement of the twenties, the British terror during 1857
was related to Jallianwallabagh to rouse the people to struggle more
valiantly and unitedly than our ancestors had done during 1857.
Thereafter came Edward Thompson’s The Other Side of the Medal which
tried to put across the thesis that there were atrocities on both
sides which are best forgotten.

The question of questions is: can the two sides be put on the same
plane? Can the crimes committed by the enslavers of the people be
equated with some mistakes and excesses committed by the fighters for
freedom? The two cases are different....

If tales of Indian “terror” are largely mythical, British brutality
got even Lord Canning worried. On December 24, 1857, the following
Minute appears in the proceedings of the Governor-General-in-Council:

…the indiscriminate hanging, not only of persons of all shades of
guilt, but of those whose guilt was at the least very doubtful, and
the general burning and plunder of villages, whereby the innocent as
well as the guilty, without regard to age or sex, were
indiscriminately punished, and in some cases, sacrificed, had deeply
exasperated large communities not otherwise hostile to the government;
that the cessation of agriculture and consequent famine were
impending; …And lastly, that the proceedings of the officers of the
Government had given colour to the rumour…that the Government
meditated a general bloody persecution of Mohammedans and Hindus.19...

In the History of the Siege of Delhi, written by an officer who served
on active service, it is graphically described what the British
officers did on the way from Ambala to Delhi.

Hundreds of Indians were condemned to be hanged before a court-martial
in a short time, and they were most brutally and inhumanly tortured,
while scaffolds were being erected for them. The hair on their heads
were pulled by bunches, their bodies were pierced by bayonets and then
they were made to do that to avoid which they would think nothing of
death or torture—cows’ flesh was forced by spears and bayonets into
the mouth of the poor and harmless Hindu villagers.20

How the sepoy and the civilian, the guilty and the innocent alike were
butchered by the British victors after the capture of Lucknow is
described below by one of them:

at the time of the capture of Lucknow—a season of indiscriminate
massacre—such distinction was not made and the unfortunate who fell
into the hands of our troops was made short work of—sepoy or Qudh
villager it mattered not—no questions were asked; his skin was black,
and did not that suffice? A piece of rope and the branch of a tree or
a rifle bullet through his brain soon terminated the poor devil’s
existence.21

What happened in the countryside, between Banaras, Allahabad and
Kanpur during General Neill’s march through the area is described by
Kaye and Malleson in the following words:

Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts and amateur
executioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boasted
of the numbers he had finished off quite ‘in an artistic manner’, with
mango trees for gibbets and elephants as drops, the victims of this
wild justice being strung up, as though for past-time in ‘the form of
a figure of 8’.22...

Pandit Nehru has rightly stated the problem of race mania as it faced
our insurgent ancestors and faced us subsequently in the whole course
of our struggle for freedom.

We in India have known racialism in all its forms ever since the
commencement of British rule. The whole ideology of this rule was that
of the Herrenvolk and the master race, and the structure of Government
was based upon it; indeed the idea of a master race is inherent in
imperialism. There was no subterfuge about it; it was proclaimed in
unambiguous language by those in authority. More powerful than words
was the practice that accompanied them, and generation after
generation and year after year, India as a nation and Indians as
individuals were subjected to insult, humiliation, and contemptuous
treatment.23...

Our forefathers suffered and bled during 1857. Subsequent generations
kept up the struggle and went on making the needed sacrifice. If after
independence we forget our past experience and began to consider
British imperialism as our new friend instead of our traditional foe,
we will not be able to safeguard Indian independence nor discharge
India’s duty towards the struggling colonial peoples in Asia and
Africa...

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IN the broad historical perspective of India’s struggle against
British domination what needs being stressed is not the limitation and
narrowness of the 1857 uprising but its sweep, breadth and depth. The
1857 uprising stands sharply demarcated from all the earlier anti-
British wars of resistance fought on Indian soil.

The first is the sheer vastness of the area covered by the 1857
uprising and the still wider sympathy and solidarity it commanded. It
is admitted by all historians and chronicles, British and Indian
alike, that the 1857 national insurrection was the biggest ever anti-
British combine that had so far been massed in armed struggle against
British authority in India.

The second is the qualitative difference between this and all other
anti-British wars. In the earlier wars people of a single kingdom,
which very often coincided with a specific nationality, fought single-
handed. For example, the Bengalis alone fought at Plassey. The same in
the Karnatak and the Mysore and the Maratha, the Sikh and the Sind
wars. Earlier attempts at broader combinations had failed. But during
1857 people of various castes, tribes, nationalities, religions, who
had lived under different kingdoms rose together to end the British
rule. It was an unprecedented unity of the Indian people. Marx, the
most far-sighted thinker of the age, duly noted this new phenomenon.

Before this there had been mutinies in the Indian army but the present
revolt is distinguished by characteristic and fatal features. It is
the first time that the sepoy regiments have murdered their European
officers; that Musalmans and Hindus, renouncing their mutual
antipathies, have combined against the common masters; that
‘disturbances, beginning with the Hindus, have actually ended in
placing on the throne of Delhi a Mohammedan Emperor’; that the mutiny
has not been confined to a few localities.24

As it is important to stress the above positive aspect of the 1857
national uprising, it is equally important to state its negative
aspect and state which decisive areas and sections of the Indian
people did not join the national uprising and how some were even led
to supporting the British side. There were several factors involved
but let us examine the main, the national factor. The Gurkhas and the
Sikhs played a decisive role on the side of the British. The Nepal war
had been fought by the British with the help of the Hindustani Army.
Rana Jung Bahadur, who was centralising Nepal under Ranashahi, was
promised by the British a permanent subsidy and large tracts in Terai
and he brought his Gurkha soldiers down, in the name of revenge, for
subduing Oudh.

The Sikhs had their own historic memories against the Moghuls and
after initial hesitation the British were able to recruit the
unemployed soldiers of the Khalsa Army and the retainers of the Sikh
princes and sardars.

From the Marathas the heir of the Peshwas had risen in revolt but the
Maratha princes had their own rivalries and historic feuds both with
the Nizam in the South and the Moghuls in the North.

The Rajputana princes had their own historic memories of earlier
Moghul and later Maratha domination, besides their being under British
grip now.

These historic memories from the past of our feudal disunity kept the
people of large parts of the country paralysed and moved by their
feudal self-interest the Indian princes helped the British usurpers.
Nehru has put the whole position in very succinct words:

The revolt strained British rule to the utmost and it was ultimately
suppressed with Indian help.25

As it is true that the 1857 revolution was the biggest national
uprising against British rule, so it is equally true that the British
were able to suppress it by using Indians against indians. Divide and
rule was the traditional British policy and they used it with
devastating effect during 1857....

The peasant was anti-British but his outlook was confined within his
village, his political knowledge did not go beyond the affairs of the
kingdom in which he lived under his traditional Raja.

The political-ideological leadership of the country was yet in the
hands of the feudal ruling classes. They shared the general anti-
British sentiment but they feared their feudal rivals more. They were
a decaying class and their historic memories were only of the feudal
past of disunity and civil wars and the vision of a united independent
India could not dawn upon them.

Love of the country in those days meant love of one’s own homeland
ruled by one’s traditional ruler. The conception of India as our
common country had not yet emerged. Not only did the feudal historic
memories come in the way but the material foundations for it, the
railways, telegraph, a uniform system of modern education, etc., had
not yet been laid but had only begun.

The conception of India as common motherland grew later and the great
experience of 1857 rising helped it to grow. The London Times duly
noted the rise of this new phenomenon.

One of the great results that have flowed from the rebellion of
1857-58 has been to make inhabitants of every part of India acquainted
with each other. We have seen the tide of war rolling from Nepal to
the borders of Gujarat, from the deserts of Rajputana to the frontiers
of the Nizam’s territories, the same men over-running the whole land
of India and giving to their resistance, as it were, a national
character. The paltry interests of isolated States, the ignorance
which men of one petty principality have laboured under in considering
the habits and customs of the other principality—all this has
disappeared to make way for a more uniform appreciation of public
events throughout India. We may assume that in the rebellion of 1857,
no national spirit was roused, but we cannot deny that our efforts to
put it down have sown the seeds of a new plant and thus laid the
foundation for more energetic attempts on the part of the people in
the course of future years.26

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHAT was the aim of the insurgents, what sort of a political and
social order did they seek to establish in India? A sound
characterisation of the 1857 struggle depends upon the correct answer
to the above problem. For it will help to decide whether it was
reactionary or progressive.

It is amazing that there is virtual agreement on this question between
not only British and some eminent Indian historians but also some
foremost Indian political leaders.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has stated his opinion thus: Essentially it
was a feudal outburst, headed by feudal chiefs and their followers and
aided by the widespread anti-British sentiment… Not by fighting for a
lost cause, the feudal order, would freedom come.27

Dr Majumdar’s conclusion is: The miseries and bloodshed of 1857-58
were not the birthpangs of a freedom movement in India, but the dying
groans of an obsolete aristocracy and centrifugal feudalism of the
medieval age.28

Dr Sen, the official historian, improves upon and carries forward the
Prime Minister’s characterisation:

The English Government had imperceptibly effected a social revolution.
They had removed some of the disabilities of women, they had tried to
establish the equality of men in the eye of the law, they had
attempted to improve the lot of the peasant and the serf. The Mutiny
leaders would have set the clock back, they would have done away with
the new reforms, with the new order, and gone back to the good old
days when a commoner could not expect equal justice with the noble,
when the tenants were at the mercy of the talukdars, and when theft
was punished with mutilation. In short they wanted a counter-
revolution.29...

One can understand British statesmen and historians advancing the
thesis of the Old Man vs. the New, of their own role being progressive
and the insurgent cause reactionary, in sheer self-defence. But when
Indian leaders and historians repeat the same old British thesis the
least one can say is that they are mistaking the form for the
substance. It is true that the 1857 uprising was led by Indian feudals
(but not them alone!) and they were not the makers of events, nor sole
masters of India’s destiny. There were other social forces of the
common people in action during this struggle and they had brought new
factors and ideas into play. It is a pity Drs Majumdar and Sen and
Pandit Nehru have given no thought nor weight to them. If we study
them carefully and seriously, the conclusion is inescapable that
during the 1857 national uprising, the popular forces were active
enough, healthy in their aspirations and clear-headed enough in their
ideas to prevent a reactionary feudal restoration in India.

One of the great positive achievements of the 1857 uprising acclaimed
with justified pride by the Indian national movement has been the
noble attempt to forge, and sustained efforts to maintain, against
British machinations, Hindu-Muslim unity for the successful conduct of
the struggle.

Playing upon Hindu-Muslim differences had become so much a part of the
flesh and blood of the British representatives in India that Lord
Canning spontaneously began thinking, when the first signs of the
storm burst during May 1857, whether the Hindus or Muslims were behind
it? Kaye states the problem and the significance of the new situation
facing the British rulers: But, before the end of the month of April,
it must have been apparent to Lord Canning, that nothing was to be
hoped from that antagonism of Asiatic races which had even been
regarded as the main element of our strength and safety. Mohammedans
and Hindus were plainly united against us.30

The British officials, however, did not give up but persisted in the
policy of stirring Hindu- Muslim dissensions. “I shall watch for the
differences of feelings between the two communities,” wrote Sir Henry
Lawrence from Lucknow to Lord Canning in May 1857. The communal
antipathy, however, failed to develop; Aitchison ruefully admits:

In this instance, we could not play off the Mohammedaa against the
Hindu.31

The insurgent leaders were fully aware of this disruptive British
tactic. Allamah Fazle Haq, himself a Muslim revivalist, wrote: They
(the British) tried their utmost to break the revolutionary forces by
their tricks and deceptive devices, make ineffective the power of the
Mujahids and uproot them, and scatter and disrupt them…. No stone was
left unturned by them in this respect.32

The insurgent leaders consciously laid great stress on Hindu-Muslim
unity for the success of the struggle. Bahadur Shah, the sepoy
leaders, the learned Ulema and Shastris issued proclamations and
fatwas stressing that Hindu-Muslim unity was the call of the hour and
the duty of all. In all areas liberated from British rule the first
thing the insurgent leaders did was to ban cow-slaughter and enforce
it. In the highest political and military organ of insurgent
leadership Hindus and Muslims were represented in equal numbers.33
When Bahadur Shah found that he could not manage the affairs of state,
he wrote to the Hindu Rajas of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Alwar that if
they would combine for the purpose (of annihilating the British) he
would willingly resign the Imperial power into their hands.34

An insurgent Sikh regiment in Delhi served under a Muslim commander.35
Such instances can be multiplied....

There is another very important aspect of this problem. Hindu-Muslim
unity was one of the important keys in deciding the fate of the issue.
The British side knew it and tried their hardest and best to disrupt
it. The Indian side also knew it and did their utmost to realise and
maintain it. But this by itself would be a static statement of the
problem. The better Hindu-Muslim unity was forged in the insurgent
camp, the longer the struggle could last; the longer the struggle
lasted, the more chances the popular forces got to come to the fore
and the more the ideological-political influence of feudal forces
became weakened; the more the feudal forces weakened the less chances
were left of a feudal restoration. Such is the dialectics of all
popular and national struggles. During the last phase of the struggle
in 1857-58, the feudal forces stood thoroughly exposed and weakened.
The popular forces were not yet powerful, conscious and organised
enough to overwhelm them and carry on the struggle to victory. What
actually took place was British victory and not feudal restoration.
When the modern national movement began in the next generation, the
glorious heritage of Hindu-Muslim unity was taken over from the 1857
struggle and the next two generations gave a more and more democratic
programme to the conception of Hindu-Muslim united front against
British domination.

The British side also learnt its lesson from this historic phenomenon.
Forrest in his Introduction to State Papers, 1857-58, states:

Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian,
none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to
have a revolution in which Brahmins and Sudras, Hindus and Mohammedans
could be united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that
the peace and stability of our dominions, in any great measure,
depends on the continent being inhabited by different religious
systems…. The mutiny reminds us that our dominions rest on a thin
crust ever likely to be rent by titanic forces of social changes and
religious revolutions.36...

Inside the disintegrating feudal order that was India of those days,
new currents of democratic thought and practice were arising; they
were not yet powerful enough to break the old feudal ideological bonds
and overwhelm British authority; they were menacing enough to make the
real Indian feudals seek a new lease of life as a gift from the
British after beseeching due forgiveness for having joined the
insurgent cause.

The destruction of the ancient land system in India and the law on the
alienation of land stirred the whole countryside into action against
the government whose policies had made the old rural classes, from the
zamindars to the peasants, lose their lands to the new section of
merchants, moneylenders and the Company’s own officials, and which had
played havoc with the their life. The large-scale peasant
participation in the 1857 uprising gave it a solid mass basis and the
character of a popular revolt. The Indian peasants fulfilled their
patriotic duty during 1857.

Peasants joined as volunteers with the insurgent forces and, though
without military training, fought so heroically and well as to draw
tributes from the British themselves... At the battle of Miaganj,
between Lucknow and Kanpur, the British had to face an Indian
insurgent forces of 8000, of whom not more than a thousand were sepoys.
37 At Sultanpur, another battle was fought by the insurgents with
25,000 soldiers, 1,100 cavalry and 25 guns and of these only five
thousand were rebel sepoys!38 After the fall of Delhi, the British
concentrated upon Lucknow. As the British massed all their strength
against Lucknow so from the villagers of Oudh came armed, peasant
volunteers for the last ditch defence of their capital city. In the
words of Charles Ball, The whole country was swarming with armed
vagabonds hastening to Lucknow to meet their common doom and die in
the last grand struggle with the Firangis.39

After the fall of Bareilly and Lucknow, the insurgents fought on and
adopted guerilla tactics. Its pattern is contained in Khan Bahadur
Khan‘s General Order:

Do not attempt to meet the regular columns of the infidels because
they are superior to you in discipline, bandobast and have big guns
but watch their movements, guard all the ghats on the rivers,
intercept their communications, stop their supplies, cut their dak and
posts and keep constantly hanging about their camps, give them (the
Firinghis) no rest!40

Commenting on the above, Russell wrote in his Diary:

This general order bears marks of sagacity and points out the most
formidable war we would encounter.41

The heavy responsibility for carrying into practice the above line of
action and aiding the scattered insurgent forces to prolong the anti-
British war of resistance fell on the mass of the peasantry. All
contemporary British chronicles of the story of this war in
Rohilkhand, Bundelkhand, Oudh and Bihar contain numerous stories of
how the Indian peasantry loyally and devotedly carried out the behests
of the insurgent high command. Let us take only one example:

Even when the cause of the mutincers seemed to be failing, they
testified no good will, but withheld the information we wanted and
often misled us.42

In a national uprising that has failed, the role and contribution of
any class can best be estimated by the amount of sacrifice it makes.
Measured in these terms, the peasantry is at the top of the roll of
honour of the 1857 uprising. Holmes states:

The number of armed men, who succumbed in Oudh, was about 150,000, of
whom at least 35,000 were sepoys.43 ...

The rural population as a whole rose against the new land system
imposed over their heads by the British rulers. Secondly, that the
pattern of struggle was to eliminate the new landlords created under
the British regime, destroy their records, hound them out of villages
and seize their lands and attack all the symbols of British authority
especially the kutchery (law-court), the tehsil (revenue office) and
the thana (the police outpost). Thirdly, the base of the struggle was
the mass of the peasantry and the rural poor while the leadership was
in the hands of the landlords dispossessed under the British laws.
Fourthly, this pattern of struggle fitted into the general pattern of
the 1857 national uprising, the class struggle in the countryside was
directed not against the landlords as a whole but only against a
section of them, those who had been newly created by the British under
their laws and acted as their loyal political supporters, that is, it
was subordinated to the broad need of national unity against the
foreign usurper.

Talmiz Khaldun’s thesis that during this uprising “The Indian
peasantry was fighting desperately to free itself of foreign as well
as feudal bondage” and that “the mutiny ended as a peasant war against
indigenous landlordism and foreign imperialism” is thus an
exaggeration. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Indian
peasantry during this struggle decisively burst through the feudal
bonds either politically or economically to transform a broad-based
national uprising into a peasant war. On the other hand all the
evidence that is known is to the contrary....

The Indian peasants made a compromise with the traditional landlords
in the interests of the common struggle but the landlords became
terrified by this alliance when they saw it in the living form of a
revolutionary popular struggle. Gubbins, who had wide personal
experience of Oudh and other Eastern districts, states:

Much allowance should, no doubt, be made in considering the conduct of
the Indian gentry at this crisis, on account of their want of power to
resist the armed and organised enemy which had suddenly risen against
us. The enemy always treated with the utmost severity those among
their countrymen who were esteemed to be friends of the British cause.
Neither their lives nor their property were safe. Fear, therefore, no
doubt entered largely into the natives which induced many to desert us.
44

Narrow class interest and fear of the “armed and organised” masses,
whom the British rightly called “the enemy,” ultimately led the Indian
feudal gentry to desert the revolutionary struggle and seek terms with
the foreign rulers. The situation led to feudal treachery and
suppressoin of the national uprising, and not to the strengthening of
feudalism in the minds and the later movement of the Indian peasantry
and the people.

Dr R.C. Majumdar himself quotes the Supreme Government “Narrative of
Events” issued on September 12, 1857:

In consequence of the general nature of the rebellion and the
impossibility of identifying the majority of the rebels, the
Magistrate recommended the wholesale burning and destruction of all
villages proved to have sent men to take active part in the rebellion.
45

This is how the British understood the peasant contribution to the
1857 uprising. Could there be a restoration for the feudal order in
India on the shoulders of such a peasantry?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 1857 uprising is a historic landmark. It marks the end of a whole
historic phase and the beginning of a new one. On the British side it
finished the Company’s rule and led to direct government under the
British Crown. The period of rule of the merchant monopolists of the
East India Company ended and the dominance of the industrial
bourgeoisie of Britain in the affairs of India began. On the Indian
side, the revolt failed but the Indian people got that experience
which enabled them to build the modern Indian national movement on new
foundations and with new ideas, and the lessons of 1857 proved
inestimable. Both sides drew and applied their lessons from the 1857
experience in the subsequent period. The British were the victors,
they went into action soon; we were the vanquished, we took longer.

From their experience of the 1857 uprising the British rulers sharply
changed their policy towards the Indian feudal elements, and
discarding the old policy of attacking their interests, they adopted a
new policy of reconciling them as the main social base of their rule
in India. The Indian people from their experience of the Indian
feudals drew the lesson for the next phase of their movement that
their anti-British struggle to be successful must also be an anti-
feudal struggle. Those who were so far regarded by the Indian people
as their traditional leaders were now rightly considered as betrayers
of the 1857 uprising and the Indian puppets of the British power.

As regards the Indian princess, the policy of annexations was given
up. Queen Victoria in her Proclamation promised them:

We shall respect the rights, dignity and honour of native pricess as
our own. Very candidly Lord Canning in his Minute of April 30 noted:
The safety of our rule is increased and not diminished by the
maintenance of native chiefs well affected to us.

How the Indian national movement understood the post-1857 British
policy towards the princes is best reflected in Nehru’s Discovery of
India where he states that the retention of the native states was
designed to disrupt the unity of India,46 Indian princes playing the
role of Britain’s fifth column in India.47....

The Army was reorganised after the sepoy mutiny, which had set the
country aflame. The proportion of British troops was increased and
they were primarily used as an “army of occupation” to maintain
internal security while the Indian troops were organised and trained
for service abroad to subjugate Asian and African territories for
British imperialism. The artillery was taken away from the Indian
hands. All higher appointments were reserved for the British, an
Indian could not even get the King’s Commission nor get employment in
the Army headquarters except as a clerk in non-military work. The
Indian regiments were reorganised on the principle of divide and rule
and recruitment confined to the so-called martial races.

But in the long run nothing availed the British. The memory of the
sepoys’ role during 1857 never died not only in the memory of the
Indian people but also of the Indian armed forces. As the modern
national movement grew, it could not leave the Indian Army, however
“reorganised”, untouched. During the 1930 national struggle, the
Garhwali soldiers refused to fire at the Indian demonstrators at
Peshawar. During the post-war national upsurge after a series of
“mutinies” in the Indian Army and Air Force, the Royal Indian Navy
revolted on February 18, 1946 and the next day the British Prime
Minister announced the dispatch of the Cabinet Mission to India and
negotiations for the independence of India began.

The Indian administrative machine was reorganised as a colossal
bureaucratic machine with Indians employed only in subordinate
positions, all real power and responsibility resting in British hands.
The Queen’s Proclamation had promised that there would be no racial
discrimination against the Indians in employment in government
services. The reality, however, was different...

After 1857, politically, even Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had suggested that
Indians should be included in the Legislative Council to keep the
government in touch, with the people. In 1861 the Indian Councils Act
provided for the inclusion for legislative purposes of non-official
members. In 1862, three Indians were so nominated. These legislatures,
in which real power remained with the exclusive British Executive,
were used by patriotic Indian statesmen as tribunes of the Indian
people and to unmask British policies and thus aid the growth of the
national movement. The British tactic of divide and rule, however,
succeeded in another way. The institution of separate electorates for
the Muslims was the first expression of the poisonous two-nation
theory which ultimately resulted in the partition of the country at
the very time of gaining independence.

The British Government, which claimed credit for early social reform
measures like banning of sati, widow remarriage, etc., after the
experience of 1857 and its subsequent alliance with the Indian feudal
reaction became the opponent of all progressive social measures.

Hindu law was largely custom and as customs change, the law also was
applied in a different way. Indeed there was no provision of Hindu Law
which could not be changed by customs. The British replaced this
elastic customary law by judicial decisions based on the old texts and
these decisions became precedents which had to be rigidly followed…
Change could only come by positive legislation but the British
Government, which was the legislating authority, had no wish to
antagonise the conservative elements on whose support it counted. When
later some legislative powers were given to the partially elected
assemblies, every attempt to promote social reform legislation was
frowned upon by the authorities and sternly discouraged.48

The British Government thus became the defender of social reaction in
India, after 1857!

The British overlords had created an English educated Indian middle-
class to get cheap and efficient and denationalised Indian cadres for
the lower essential rungs of their administration.

Educated natives took no part in the sepoy mutiny: despite the charges
to the contrary, they heartily disapproved of the revolt and showed
themselves faithful and loyal to the British authorities throughout
the course of that crisis.49

The above is not wholly true. Dr Sen states: Even this small minority
(of modern educated Indians) were not unanimous in the support of the
Government. An educated Hindu of Bengal complained of ‘a hundred years
of unmitigated active tyranny unrelieved by any trait of generosity’.

“A century and more of intercourse between each other,” he adds, “has
not made the Hindus and the Englishman friends or even peaceful fellow
subjects.”50

Calcutta was the biggest centre of these modern educated Indians. They
were at the time themselves concentrating upon the struggle against
Hindu orthodoxy and the religious terms in which the cause of the
insurgents was clothed repelled them. Because of their historic origin
and the limitations of their political experience they wrongly
identified progress with British rule. They were not, however,
“faithful and loyal” in the sense Earl Granville imagined them to be,
servile to the British rulers. This was proved in the very next year
after the 1857-58 uprising was suppressed when the Bengali
intelligentsia stirred the whole of Bengal in solidarity with the
Indigo Revolt, with the peasants of Bengal and Bihar who were victims
of unimaginable oppression and exploitation of the British planters.
Again it was Surendranath Banerji who took the initiative to run an
all-India campaign against lowering the age for the ICS, which
patently went against the Indian candidates. Then came the campaigns
regarding the IIbert Bill and racial discrimination in courts and the
Vernacular Press Act and so on. As the new intelligentsia saw more and
more of India under the British Crown all their illusions about Queen
Victoria’s 1858 Proclamation being the Magna Carta of Indian liberties
gradually evaporated and they began to agitate for political reforms.
In 1882 the Grand Old Man of Indian nationalism, Dababhai Naoroji,
wrote: Hindus, Mohammedans and Parsees alike are asking whether the
British rule is to be a blessing or a curse...This is no longer a
secret, or a state of things not quite open to those of our rulers who
would see.51...

Even before 1857, From India a policy of imperial expansion was
planned and the British Government of India was set on the perilous
road of conquest and annexation in the East for the benefit of
Britain, but of course at the cost of the Indian tax-payer.52

Thus Malacca and Singapore were occupied, Burma conquered, Nepal and
Afghan wars conducted and the Persian war managed.

The age of the Empire, based on India, began after 1857. India now
became in fact no less than in name a British possession. The Indian
Empire was at this time a continental order, a political structure
based on India, and extending its authority from Aden to Hongkong.53

In this period, Afghanistan and Persia were made virtual British
protectorates, expeditions and missions were sent to Sinkiang and
Tibet in the North and the British position in South-East Asia and
China consolidated.

“The continental involved a subordinate participation of India”54 as
policemen, traders and usurers, and coolies in the plantations of
Britain’s growing colonies. Indian resources and manpower were thus
used not only to conquer but maintain and run Britain’s colonial
Empire.

This, however, was only one side of the picture. As part of winning
foreign support for the Indian uprising Azimullah Khan, Nana’s
representative, is reported to have built contacts with Russia and
Turkey. Rango Bapuji, the Satara representative, is also reported to
have worked with Azimullah. Bahadur Shah’s court claimed Persian
support. All this was in the old principle that Britain’s enemies are
our friends. But Britain was the colossus of that period, and the
feudal ruling circles of these countries could never be in any hurry
to come to the aid of the Indian revolt. They could at best exploit it
and await its outcome.

This was, however, not the attitude of democratic circles in these and
other countries... there was in all democratic circles of the
civilised world great sympathy for the Indian uprising. Great and
historic is the significance of the Chartist leaders’ solidarity with
the Indian national uprising. Modern British labour movement dates its
birth from the Chartists. Modern Indian national movement dates its
birth from the 1857 uprising. What a new fraternal vision emerges from
the memory that the British proletariat and the Indian people have
stood together ever since the beginning of their respective movements.
The Chinese date the birth of their modern anti-imperialist national
movement from the Taiping uprising as we date ours from the 1857
uprising. The Chinese paper (presented at the symposium on the
centenary of the 1857 Revolt) documents the hitherto unknown story
that the Chinese people responded sympathetically to the 1857 uprising
and the Indian sepoys deserted to the Taipings and fought shoulder to
shoulder with them against the common enemy. Marx noted the new
phenomenon that the revolt in the Anglo-Indian army has coincided with
a general disaffection exhibited against supremacy by the Great
Asiatic nations, the revolt of the Bengal Army being, beyond doubt,
intimately connected with the Persian and Chinese wars.55

Thus the great national uprising of 1857 laid the foundation for the
worldwide democratic solidarity with the Indian struggle in its next
phase and our new national movement built itself on healthy
internationalist traditions. For example, in the twenties, the Indian
national movement vigorously opposed the imperialist policies in the
Middle East and expressed solidarity with the Egyptian struggle under
Zaglul Pasha, in the thirties it expressed practical solidarity with
the Chinese people’s struggle against the Japanese invaders and the
worldwide anti-fascist movement and so on. It was thus no accident
that after the achievement of independence India emerged as a great
world power championing the cause of world peace and the liberation of
all subject nations....n

[*NOTES

1. Major B.D. Basn, Rise of The Christian Power in India, (1931), p.
953.

2. Marx, unsigned article, “The Indian Question”, New York Daily
Tribune, August 14, 1857.

3. Quoted by R.C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny and Revolt of 1857, p.
278.

4. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June 25,
1853.

5. R.P. Dutt, India Today, p. 98.

6. Marx, “The East India Company—Its History and Results”, New York
Daily Tribune, July 11, 1853.

7. Ramkrishna Mukherjee, The Rise and Fall of the East India Company,
p. 174.

8. K.M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, p. 99.

9. Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, “The Story of the War of
Independence 1857-58”, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society,
vol. V, pt. 1, January 1957, p. 29.

10. National Herald, May 10, 1957.

11. Mukherjee, op. cit., p. 223.

12. R.C. Dutt, The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age, p.
xv.

13. Montgomeny Martin, Eastern India, Introduction to vol. I.

14. Mukherjee, op. cit., pp. 224-25.

15. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June
25, 1853.

16. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 229.

17. Charles Ball, Indian Mutiny, vol. II. p. 242.

18. Sir T. Metcalfe, Two Narratives of the Mutiny at Delhi, pp. 98-99.

19. Quoted by Edward Thompson, The Other Side of the Medal, pp. 73-74.
20. Quoted by Savarkar, Indian War of Independence, p. 134.

21. Majendie, Up Among the Pandies, pp. 195-96.

22. Kaye & Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny, vol. II, p. 281.

23. Nehru, Discovery of India, p. 281.

24. Marx, unsigned article, New York Daily Tribune, July 15, 1857. 25.
Nehru, op. cit., p. 279.

26. Quoted by Savarkar, op. cit., pp. 534-35.

27. Nehru, op. cit., p. 279.

28. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 241.

29. S.N. Sen, Eighteen Fifty Seven, pp. 412-13.

30. John Williams Kaye, A History of the Sepoy War, vol. I, p. 565.

31. Quoted by Asoka Mehta, The Great Rebellion, p. 42.

32. Fazle Haq, op. cit., p. 33.

33. Vide Talmiz Khaldun’s paper “The Great Rebellion” presented at the
symposium held on the occasion of the centenary of the 1857 Revolt.

34. Metcalfe, op. cit., p. 220.

35. Ibid., Jeewanlal’s Diary, under date 26 August.

36. G.W. Forrest, op. cit., vol. II, p. 150.

37. On October 5, 1858. See Col. G.B. Malleson, Indian Mutiny of 1857,
Vol. III, p. 287.

38. On February 3, 1858. See Ibid., vol. II, p. 334.

39. Ball, op. cit., vol. II, p. 241.

40. Quoted by Asoka Mehta, op. cit., pp. 51-52. Also Savarkar, op.
cit., p. 444.

41. W.H. Russell, My Diary in India in the Year 1858-59, p. 276.

42. M.R. Gubbins, An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh, p. 53.

43. T.R. Holmes, History of the Seopy War, p. 506.

44. Gubbins, op. cit., p. 58.

45. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 217. 46. Nehru, op. cit., p. 284. 47.
Ibid., p. 268. 48. Nehru, op. cit., p. 285. 49. Earl Granville,
February 19, 1858, in the House of Lords in reply to the charges of
the President of the Board of Control, Lord Ellenborough.
Parliamentary Debates, 3rd series, CXL VIII, 1858, pp. 1728-29.

50. Quoted by Sen, op. cit., p. 29.

51. Dadabhai Naoroji, “The Condition of India”. Correspondence with
the Secretary of State for India, Journal of the East India Affairs,
XIV, 1882, pp. 171-172.

52. K. N. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, p. 105.

53. Ibid., pp. 162-163.

54. Ibid., pp. 164-165.

55. Marx, unsigned article, New York Herald Tribune, July 15, 1857. *]

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article107.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 41

Dissecting Anew Hindu-Muslim Ties And Partition
Wednesday 1 October 2008, by Amarendra Nath Banerjee

[(BOOK REVIEW)]

HINDU-MUSLIM RELATIONS IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE BY PANCHANAN SAHA
(FOREWORD BY DR ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER); BISWABIKSHA, KOLKATA; PP.
FORWORD +392; RS 300.

Hindu-Muslim relations are very much complicated—the knottiest problem
in Indian history. Since the advent of Islam in the Indian
subcontinent more than millennium years ago, India faced a powerful
challenge from a militant and vigorous religion with an egalitarian
appeal. India failed to stem the tide of the rapid spread of Islam due
to internal squabbles and degeneration of society. In the caste-ridden
Brahminical society the lower castes were denied proper human rights.
They were not only socially degraded but also economically exploited.
It is no wonder, therefore, that millions of them welcomed Islam as a
religion of deliverance and to gain human dignity. The theory of
social liberation seems to be right for substantial reasons in
Islamisation in India. Swami Vivekananda had rightly said:

The Mohammedan conquest of India came as a salvation to the
downtrodden, to the poor. That is why one-fifth of our people have
become Mohammedan. It was not the sword that did it all. It would be
the height of madness to think that it was all the work of sword and
fire.

But it does not mean force was not at all applied in Islamisation.
However, the major role was played by the Sufi saints and Pirs in it.
Nevertheless, wholesale Islamisation did not take place in India like
Afghanistan, Persia and other countries perhaps due to the inherent
strength of the Hindu philosophy in spite of its many drawbacks.

The advent of Islam produced tremendous reactions in India. Hinduism
wanted to protect itself by going into its inner shells with stricter
caste rules and regulations. But this hardly helped in preventing the
egalitarian influence of Islam on Hindu society. The Bhakti movement
was its product.

But living hundreds of years side by side, eating the same grain from
the common fields, drinking the same water and inhaling the same air,
the Hindu and Muslim societies and religions underwent profound
changes. Islam of India today is not the same as what it was when it
arrived. Hinduism also could not remain the same. Both the religions
had influenced each other. There was some kind of assimilation between
the two in spite of frequent clashes and mutual hostility. But
unfortunately a composite Indian nation has failed to emerge
assimilating the two major religions in India due to various factors
which led ultimately to the partition of the country.

Dr Panchanan Saha’s new book, Hindu-Muslim Relations in a New
Perspective, is projected on a large canvas from the advent of Islam—
gradual Islamisation and its causes, conflict and assimilation,
sprouting of the seeds of separation by the conscious British policy
of divide-and-rule, Hindu-Muslim revivalism and the short-sighted
policy of the Indian political leaders which ultimately led to the
communal carnage and partition of India.

In the chapter, “Conflict and Assimilation”, Saha emphasises the role
played by the Sufi saints, Bhakti movement as well as attempts of the
Mughal Emperor, Akbar, and his great grandson, Dara Shiko, to help the
process of reconciliation between the Hindus and Muslims. But
unfortunately this process was not properly taken forward due to
various factors, particularly the emergence of Wahhabism and Hindu-
Muslim revivalism.

♦

IN his analysis Saha has been seldom swayed by emotion; rather he has
remained mostly faithful to rationalism. He holds that the causes of
spread of separatism among the Muslims of India are to be found in the
refusal of the already matured Hindu bourgeoisie in sharing power with
the newly emerging Muslim bourgeoisie. Muslim bourgeoisie developed
later due to their empathy to British rule and Western education.

Saha has sympathetically discussed the Fourteen Points of M.A. Jinnah
in this direction and the rejection of the Congress to share power
with the Muslim League in Uttar Pradesh after the elections of 1936
and to collaborate with Fazlul Haque in Bengal for forming a secular
Ministry. It seems class interest played a more decisivie role in
making this choice than the greater interest of the country.

There is a simplistic explanation of Hindu-Muslim cleavage by putting
the sole responsibility on the British policy of divide-and-rule. But
Saha appears to be correct when he cites Tagore—“The Satan cannot
enter unless there is a hole to get in.” Tagore believed that division
among Hindus and Muslims existed and the cunning British rulers
utilised it to prolong their rule.

In his last chapter, entitled “Was Partition Inescapable?”, Saha has
not traversed the beaten tracks of numerous scholars of partition. He
has used substantial Pakistani literature on partition to prove his
point.

There is an enigma why Gandhiji, in spite of opposing partition on the
basis of religion tooth and nail, ultimately accepted it as a fait
accompli. The Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lamented that
they were thrown to the wolves. What went on behind-the-scenes is a
mystery to this day.

It seems that the Hindu big bourgeoisie wanted an unchallenged market
even in partitioned India. They seemed to think that a truncated
Pakistan would not be viable. Whatever the reasons, it is evident that
had the Indian leaders shown true sagacity and leadership free of
class or emotional bias, there might have been a Confederation of
India based on the Cabinet Mission’s Plan which the Congress initially
accepted but subsequently refused to do so for reasons that are
unknown. Hence it is not inappropriate to quote The Times of India:

It is legitimate to enquire who is responsible for this debacle. ….
the parties concerned, the Congress, the British Government and the
Muslim League, are all more or less responsible, although on the facts
set forth, the Congress should get the first prize.

One could have expected that such a serious book should have remained
free from printing and editorial errors.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article957.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLVI, No 50

Hindu Terrorism: The Shock of Recognition
Wednesday 3 December 2008, by Badri Raina

Epigraph

“Underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs about how you
treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself
but also for the greater good.”

(Obama in his interview about Religion given to Cathleen Falsani,
March 27, 2004; cf. to his mother’s teaching about the validity of
diverse faiths and the value of tolerance.)

I

So, now, India is home to “Hindu” terrorism. Departing from the more
usual banner-appelation, “Saffron Terror”, I wish the fact to be
registered that saffron is drawn from the stamin of a delicate and
indescribably pretty mauve flower grown exclusively in my home valley
of Kashmir, and exclusively by Muslims. My inherited memories of it
are thereby sweet and secular to the core. Also, saffron when used to
grace milk products, Biryani, or to brew the heavenly kehwa is a thing
of the gods truly.

It is only when it is coerced against the use of nature to colour
politics that it rages against the sin. Then, don’t we know, what
gruesome consequences begin?

I think it proper, therefore, to stick with the more direct and honest
description, “Hindu” terrorism, since, much against their grain, even
India’s premier TV channels are now bringing us news of “Hindu”
terrorism, so compelling the materials gathered by the investigating
agencies thus far. This despite the fact that in my view the term
“Hindu” trerrorism is as erroneous as the term “Muslim” terrorism.
Even though not a religious man myself, I am able to see that being
Hindu or Muslim by accident of birth has no necessary connect with how
one’s politics turns out to be in adult life. A plethora of specific
contexts and shaping histories are here provenly more to the point.

II

It was way back in 1923 that Savarkar, never a practising Hindu
(indeed a self-confessed atheist) had first understood that from this
benign term, “Hindu”, could be drawn the toxic racial concept
Hindutva, and made to serve a forthrightly fascist purpose. That
Brahminism had always been a socially toxic form of Hinduism was of
course an enabling prehistory to the new project.

He it was who established Abhinav Bharat in Pune (1904), that
theoretical hotbed of twice-born Brahminical casteism against which
low-caste social reformers such as Phule, Periyar, and Ambedkar were
to struggle their whole lives long.

Such casteism was made the instrument of communalist politics to serve
two major objectives: one, to overwhelm and negate the specific
cultural and material oppressions of the low-caste within the Hindu
Varna system , and two, to elevate the low-caste as a warrior of a
common “Hindutva” army against the chief common “enemy”, the Muslim.
Such an army has been seen to be needed to salvage the “real” nation
from this so-called common enemy who continues to be represented to
this day by the RSS and its hydra-headed “educational” front
organisations as an “invader” still bent on seeking to convert India
into an Islamic theocratic state.

Aided in these mythical fears and constructions by the British during
the crucial decades leading upto Independence, India’s majoritarian
fascists continue thus to keep at bay all consideration of secular
oppressions based entirely in the brutal social order of Capitalist
expropriation.

Savarkar thus counselled how a resurgent nation could result only if
“Hinduism was militarised, and the military Hinduised”.

Clearly enough, the serving Army Colonel, S.P. Purohit, and the other
retired Major, one Upadhyay, who the Mumbai ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad)
tells us, are at the centre of the Malegaon terrorist blasts of
September 29, 2008, alongwith Sadhvi Pragya and the rogue-sadhu,
Amreetanand—and very possibly complicit in half-a dozen other blasts
as well—seem to have heeded Savarkar’s advice to the hilt.

Indeed, in his narco-test confessions, Colonel Purohit, sources have
told some TV channels (Times Now), admits to his guilt and justifies
his actions as retribution for what he thinks SIMI (Student’s Islamic
Movement of India) have been doing. He is understood to have further
indicated that the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand, nee Dayanand etc., has
been the kingpin and chief coordinator and devisor of several other
blasts carried out by this cell, including the blasts at the revered
Ajmer Dargah (Mausoleum of the 12th century Sufi saint, Chisti, which
to this day draws devotees across faiths the world-over), and at
Kanpur.

The ATS are now busy exploring the routes through which huge sums of
money have been brought into the country for such terrorist activity
as hawala transactions, and whether the RDX, suspected to be used in
the Malegaon blast, was procured by Colonel Purohit through Army
connections. It is to be noted that Purohit has been in Military
Intelligence, and serving in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is thought he
made contact with the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand.

(Indeed, as I write, news comes of the ATS claiming that Purohit
actually stole some 60 kilos of RDX which was in his custody while
doing duty at Deolali, and that in his narco-test confession he admits
to passing it on to one “Bhagwan” for use in the blast on the
Samjhauta Express train in February, 2007.)

Needless to say, that alongwith the courts, we will also require that
the ATS is actually able to obtain convictions rather than merely pile
on evidence which may not be admissible in law.

To return to the argument:

As I suggested in my last column, “Notions of the Nation” (Znet,
November 4), Hindutva militarism since the establishment of the Hindu
Mahasabha and the RSS has been inspired by the desire to emulate and
then better Muslim “aggressiveness” seen as a racial characteristic
that defined “Muslim” rule in India, and rendered Hindus “limp” and
“cowardly”.

Thus, if Savarkar established Abhinav Bharat, Dr Moonje, an avowed
Mussolini admirer who in turn inspired Dr Hedgewar to establish the
RSS on Vijay Dashmi of 1924 (victory day, denoting the liquidation of
the Dravidian Ravana by the Aryan Kshatriya warrior, Ram), established
the Bhondsala Military Academy at Indore (1937). It now transpires
that this academy has been playing host to the Bajrang Dal for
militarist training routines etc., and its Director, one Raikar, has
put in his papers. Unsurprisingly enough, both these institutions are
now under the scanner.

III

Over the last decade, terrorist blasts have occurred in India across a
wide variety of sites and in major cities and towns.

Many of these blasts have taken place outside mosques and known
Muslim- majority locations, as well outside cinema halls that were
thought to be showing movies inimical to Hindu glory.

Briefly, these sites are: cinemas in Thane and Vashi in Maharashtra,
Jalna, Purna, Parbhani, and Malegaon towns, again all in Maharashtra—
and all areas of high Muslim density, in Hyderabad outside a famous
old mosque, and in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat.

Curiously, in the Surat episode, some sixteen odd bombs were found
placed along the main thoroughfare in tree branches, on house-tops, on
electric poles and so forth. Not one of them however exploded. This
was thought to be the result of defective switches. Curious
circumstance that; besides the wonder that Ahmedabad’s Muslims could
find such sprawling access to such strategic locations without Modi
knowing a thing.

Yet, regardless of where the blasts have taken place, almost without
exception the Pavlovian response of state agencies as well as, sad to
say, media channels has been invariably to point fingers of suspicion
and culpability towards one or the other “Islamic” outfit.

Often, young Muslims men have been rounded up in the scores and held
for days of brutal questioning without the least prima facie evidence.
Nearly in all such cases, however reluctantly, they have had to be let
off.

The most recent case is that of some fifteen young Muslims picked up
after the Hyderabad blasts. Tortured with electric shocks, they have
nevertheless been found to be innocent and let go.

Indeed, after the gruesome blasts in the Samjhauta Express—a train
service of reconciliation and confidence-building between India and
Pakistan—in which some 68 people were burnt to cinders, 45 of them
Pakistani citizens, fingers were immediately pointed towards the SIMI.

Yet, the ATS of Mumbai now suspects that this may also be the doing of
the “Hindu” terrorists in custody. These speculations have been raised
by the circumstance that the suitcases that held the bombs had Indore
labels on them.

Just as the ATS now suspects that more than half a dozen blasts (the
two at Malegaon, in 2006 and 2008, at the cinemas in Thane and Vashi,
at Jalna, at Purna, at Parbhani, provenly at Nanded and Kanpur) have
all been the handiwork of “Hindu” terror groups.

IV

For some years, reputed civil and human rights organisations, and
individual members of civil society that have included journalists,
judges, lawyers, writers, artists, teachers, students, and labour
organisations, besides organised Muslim fora and Left parties, have
been cautioning both state agencies and media conglomerates to:

• desist from the Pavlovian haste with which some one or other Muslim
group is immediately named and labelled literally within an hour of
the occurrence of a blast, thus contributing to the maligning of the
entire Muslim community;

• to consider the possibility that groups other than those involving
Muslims could be involved;

• to refrain from covering up prima facie evidence which points to
such possibilities; indeed, where such evidence seems conclusive, as
the complicity of the Bajrang Dal at Nanded and Kanpur;

• to ponder the question as to why Muslims should effect blasts within
their own localities or outside their mosques;

• to weigh the consequences for the Muslim psyche of the failure of
the state to prevent repeated pogroms against them, and to find or
punish the guilty; not to speak of active state connivance in those
pogroms (Moradabad, 198o; Nellie, 1983; Hashimpura, 1987; Bhagalpur,
1989; Mumbai, 1992-93; Gujarat, 2002, to cite just the more recent
ones);

• to permit transparency in the matter of police investigations with
due regard for the Constitutional rights of those held in custody—such
as visitation, access to legal defence, norms of the recording of
confession and other evidence etc.;

• to respect the obligatory presumption of innocence until anyone is
juridically found guilty;

Time and again these cautions and rightful prerogatives have been
trampled under foot.

Aided by the loud biases of the corporate media which have tended to
reflect the predilections both of free-market imperialism and
comprador urban middle class sentiments in India’s metropolitan towns,
India’s state agencies and that “all-knowing” species, the
Intellegence expert, who seems ever present to reinforce anti-Muslim
prejudice, have tended to feed massively into the politics of the
Hindu Right-wing.

For years on end, India’s chief malady has been sought to be seen to
reside in “Islamic” terrorism, and in the complicit refusal of the
secularists to allow draconian preventive laws to be brought back on
the books. Not in poverty, malnutrition, disease, absence of health
care or clean drinking water, or lack of steady work among the urban
poor, or the ousted tribals, disenfranchised farmers, chronic failure
of primary schooling and so forth among some 75 per cent of Indians.
And most of them belonging to the Muslim, Dalit, and Tribal
communities.

And to repeat for the nth time, this three-fourths of Indians able to
spend just or under Rupees Twenty a day, all according to the
governments’ own Arjun Sengupta Committee Report.

Not to speak of the venomous communalisation of the polity, the
alienation and ghettoisation of the minorities, and the state’s
failure or unwillingness to carry through schemes that could redress
these maladies.

As to new terror laws, the government of the day may protest that it
has all the laws it wants, and more; as well as the fact that the
worst terrorist attacks took place when laws like the dreaded POTA
(Prevention of Terrorism Act) was on the books during the tenure of
the NDA regime led by the ultra-”nationalist” BJP. Small dent is made
by any regime of empirically-founded facts, or fair-minded arguments
on the right-wing fascists and their fattened constituency.

V

Now, of course, a radically transformed milieu is unravelling.

Photos and videos are doing the rounds that show the “Hindu”
terrorists currently under investigation in close and intimate
proximity to top leaders of the RSS, the VHP, and the BJP as well.

Had POTA indeed been on the books today, such evidence would have
authorised the police to put them all behind bars on the charge of
associating with those under investigation for “terrorism”. And all
that without any recourse to bail either.

Predictably, nonetheless, after some days of dumbfounded
crestfallenness (remember that the main electoral plank of the BJP in
the elections now under way in several states and in the soon-to-be-
held parliamentary polls is the failure of the Congress to eradicate
“terrorism” because of its “minority appeasement” policies), the Right-
wing fascists are back to brazen form.

Even as the projected Prime Ministerial candidate, Advani (the high-
point of whose career remains the successful demolition of the Babri
mosque) seeks to strike a stance of caution, party hard-liners have
taken to peddling outrageous theories.

As a complement to the well-known Pavlovian hunch that “all terrorists
are Muslims”, we are now told by the likes of Rajnath Singh, the party
President, that “no Hindu can be a terrorist”, that is to say even
when he or she is found to be one.

This for the reason that what the ordinary man calls “terrorism” is in
fact “nationalism” where any Hindu be involved. Live and learn.

Other than that, it is both interesting and laughable that spokesmen
and women of the BJP are today reduced to gurgitating every single
argument that Muslims and civil rights organisations have to this day
voiced:

• presume innocence until found guilty;

• desist from the “political conspiracy” to malign a whole community;

• do not let enemies of the Hindu-right propagate fake evidence
against them, since all evidence against them must be fake in
principle;

• and most outlandishly, do not communalise terrorism; that from
India’s rank communalists who have done nothing but communalise
terrorism ever since we remember!

VI

Even as these new developments point to a potentially mortal combat
among “Hindu” and “Muslim” terror groups, I venture to think that the
situation also offers opportunities of far-reaching redressal for all
three axes that matter: the state and its agencies, the party-
political system, and the polity generally.

First off, if, as has been the case, the Congress’ secular credentials
have consistently been vitiated by, willy nilly, playing second-fiddle
to Hindu-communalist appeasement, the denuding of the Hindu-Right
offers it the opportunity of a lifetime to assert the supremacy of the
constitutional scheme of things, without fear or favour.

It is indeed a circumstance that can now help the Congress and other
secular parties to come down like a ton on communalism of all shades
that underpin the fatal subversion of the secular republic without the
need for apology.

In this endeavour, its greatest inspiration must come from two factors
on the Muslim side of the issue:

one, that over the last year every single major and influential Muslim
cultural and religious organisation has publicly, and repeatedly,
denounced through speech, act, and fatwa “terrorism” as un-Islamic and
a rightful candidate for punishment under law;

and, two, that without exception they have pleaded only and ever for
fair and just treatment at the hands of the authorised instruments of
state, both when victimised by pogroms and suspected as culprits; and
for credible pursuit of those that persecute them.

Not once has any Muslim organisation worth the name suggested that
Muslims have any claims that override the cosntitutional regime of
laws and procedures pertaining to all citizens of the Republic.

All that in stark contrast to the refusal, however camouflaged or
strategised, of the RSS and its affiliates to accept either the
secular Constitution or the notion of secular citizenship.

It is to be recalled that the RSS tactically acquiesced to
acknowledging the primacy of the national flag over its own saffron
one in 1949 as a quid pro quo to its release from the ban imposed on
it after Gandhi’s murder.

To this day it seeks to overthrow the Republic as constituted by law
and to replace it by a theocratic Hindu Rashtra wherein the
prerogatives of citizenship will be determined not by secular,
democratic equality but racial difference among Indians (all that
brutally codified in Golwalker’s two books, We, and Our Ntionhood
Defined; and, the later Bunch of Thoughts which explicitly designates
Muslims as the nations’s “Enemy Number One” in an exclusive chapter).

However Hindu cultural politics may have come to infect sections of
the fattened urbanites, the Congress must show the conviction that
none of these in this day and age would be willing to back what is
explicitly “terrorist” activity, indistinguishable from any other,
once the matter is proven.

This then is a fine moment to release a new energetic politics that
recharges the conviction and inspiration of the non-discriminatory
humanism that informed the leaders of the freedom movement, and thus
to disengage whatever popular base the Hindu-Right has built over the
years since the demolition of the Babri mosque from its fascist
leaderships and cadres.

Just as, in fact, many BJP supporters are busy thinking whether they
are indeed willing to carry their love of Muslim-haters quite to the
point where those other dreams of Indian super-powerdom are seriously
jeopardised by a war of competing terrorisms.

It is also a golden opportunity for the Congress-led UPA, should it
come back to power, to take a hard look at the communalist virus that
has infected law-enforcement agencies over the decades, and to make
bold to effect reforms of a far-reaching character, such as include
the recruitment of Muslims and other “minorities” in due proportion to
the forces, and not just among the lower ranks.

Speaking of the Army, some three per cent Muslims are today among its
ranks—some sixty years after Independence. And I won’t make a guess as
to how abysmal might in fact be its share among the officer core,
colonel and above. And wouldn’t I dearly like to take a peek into what
sort of Indian History is taught India’s future officers at Khada-
kvasla and Dehradun? Truly; and who does the teaching as well.

VII

As to the BJP: it has another opportunity as well, namely, to
reconstitute itself as a secular party on the Right, bearing full
allegiance to the Constitution in letter and spirit (remember now that
among other things on the street-level, the NDA regime led by the BJP
did constitute a Constitution Review Committee—an ominous enough move
that, thankfully, was duly aborted in course), and shunning once and
for all its enslavement to the RSS and its fascist vision of India,
its history, culture and state.

Failing to do so, the BJP may succeed in causing further mayhem; but
it is highly unlikely now to attain the sort of ascendance it seeks
through fair means and foul.

Most of all, the BJP must understand that the Muslims of India, and
Christians as well, have the inalienable right to live and work in the
country on the terms set by the Constitution, not by the RSS or the
Sangh Parivar.

And, conversely, that the BJP itself is as subject to those
constitutional stipulations as any another collective of Indians who
practice their beliefs and politics.

Let the BJP notice the epigraph chosen for this column; it comes from
the new President-elect of the one country that the BJP adores. Or
will it now, with a Black man at the helm?

A different voice floats from there.

Time for the BJP to change its langoti, and say “yes we can” also be
peaceable and law-abiding citizens of the Republic of India. And to
prize and protect its magnificent plurality like all sensible and
humane Indians.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1067.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol. XLVII, No 34, August 8, 2009

Will RSS see the Ground Reality and join to Salve India‘s Core Values?
Sunday 16 August 2009, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

Of late, the RSS has been accusing the BJP of inconsistency and also
of failure to convey the real meaning of Hindutva. The BJP has
certainly been inconsistent. It has been in two minds because like the
Congress, it, too, is preoccupied, not with any principle or any
concern for correct ideation, but with the slogan that can help it
capture power. But on the question of the real meaning of Hindutva, is
the RSS itself clear and consistent? It has a very large and committed
cadre. Why does it depend on the BJP to “convey the real meaning”? To
what extent has the RSS itself succeeded in conveying the supposedly
real meaning?

The RSS has been saying that anybody who regards India as his/her
motherland and a holy land is a Hindu and that the Indian Muslims are
Mohammadi Hindus and the Indian Christians are Isahi Hindus and so on.
Now, there is a large body of people who plainly call themselves
Hindus. They are not the followers of any one Prophet or of any one
Book. They have a large body of sacred books – the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Geeta and Puranas. They venerate many Rishis and adore
some maryada-purushes like Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. How should they
be described? They cannot be called Ramiah Hindus or Krishnaiah
Hindus. They would not like to be called Sakti-ite Hindus, or Shivaite
or Vaishnavaite Hindus. Saktism, shaivism, and vaishnavism have got so
merged in their thinking that they are partly sakta, partly shaiva and
partly vaishnava. They worship all these principles as different
manifestations of the one Supreme Reality in differing circumstances.

If they are to be called “Sanatan dharmis” or in brief, “Sanatanis”,
why did the RSS not launch a movement insisting that the members of
the community, now plainly called Hindus, add a prefix “Sanatani” to
bring consistency? Not to do that would mean they would continue to
describe themselves as Hindus by religion, and again, as Hindus by
nationality. This becomes ridiculous.

Hinduism is no particular religion. It is a philosophy of religions.
The great nationalist leader, late Bipin Chandra Pal, described
Hinduism as a “confederal principle of co-existence of all religions”.
In deference to this spirit, the RSS had composed a verse in which the
names of pious Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Jains were included
as persons to be remembered and revered early every morning, before
beginning the day’s work.

Socio-Cultural Heritage got Degraded

IF this is Hinduism, how does Hindutva differ from it? The RSS’s
cryptic answer is, Hindutva is the concept of “geocultural
nationalism”. Implicitly, it says that long before India’s political
unification, India had achieved cultural unification from Jammu and
Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Arunachal and Meghalaya to Saurashtra
through the medium of two great epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, and the Geeta (which is truly a part of the Mahabharata).
These great works of the ancient Indians, then universally called
Hindus, had imparted values of parental love, filial duties, brotherly
love, unshakeable fidelity to the spouse, the monarch’s obedience to
the people’s wishes, the triumph of dharma over the mightiest wrong-
doer—that is, values to be cherished in perpetuity. Hence Hindutva is
value-orientation, the RSS claims. But can the RSS deny that during
the so-called Hindu period, caste hatred had taken firm roots as a
value? In ancient India, desertion of the wife for no fault of hers
also had become a tradition, as in the case of Sita. Murder of a
shudra for reading the Vedas was sanctioned by the social ethos.

Merit of Religio-Confederal Concept

THE RSS needs to accept that the ancient Hindus had, at a certain
stage, come to indulge in regressive social discrimination. The
obverse side of “geocultral nationalism” was socio-cultural dominance
of the higher castes and of the males among them. In the sphere of
philosophical concepts, however, the ancient Hindus were the most
liberal and the highest in cosmopolitanism (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam).
Hence if the RSS does not want to nurture caste inequality and gender
inequality, it should give up its “geo-cultural nationalism” (read the
socio-cultural concept) of Hindutva. If it seeks to promote the
philosophy of co-existence of all faiths, which is the ideal of
Hinduism, it should opt for the religio-confederal concept of
Hindustaniyat. The Muslims of this country have no problem with this,
because they have been traditionally describing themselves as
Hindustanis. The word Hindustan itself came from the verbiage of the
Iranians.

Four Cardinal Considerations

THE RSS needs to recognise four things. First, the usage of a word in
a restricted sense over centuries changes the original acceptation of
the word. Secondly, the Koran not only teaches the oneness of the
Creator. Its esoteric message is the unity of all of creation. The
bigots fail to see this. Hence, for ages, the raging controversy
within Islam, in the words of the eminent historian, the late Prof
Mohammad Habib, has been “between Wahdat-ul-wujud (God is everything)
and Wahdat-ush-shuhud (everything comes from God)”. Those who believe
in the former become attuned to tolerance, amicable relations between
all religious and racial communities and (Emperor) Akbar’s doctrine of
sulh-I-kul (Universal Religious Peace). The doctrine of Wahdat-ush-
shuhud led to the worship of external shariat (shariat-i-zahiri) and
communal hatred. (Vide Prof Habib’s Foreword to Dr S.A.A.Rizvi’s book
“Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries”)

From the above, it follows that the pious people in other faiths
should help in resolving the worldwide intra-Islamic controversy in
favour of the former. Declaration of the principle of confederal
principle in religion in India would largely help resolve Islam’s
global problem and be a powerful blow against bigotry, for world
peace.

Thirdly, India’s religio-philosophy’s contribution to Sufism in Islam,
and Islam’s contribution to spurring religious reform movements in
India constitute a glorious chapter in the world’s history. Historians
agree that the growth of Sufism in early Islam was inspired as much by
its internal urges as by the influences of Buddhism, the Vedanta and
the Hellenistic religions. Islam’s strident call to equality was
wedded to the Arabian nomadic tribes’ aggressive traits. It needed an
Indian response. This provided the spark for the religious reform
movements led by Ramananda, Kabir, Namdev, Tukaram, Guru Nanak and Sri
Chaitanya. To talk of inequitous socio-cultural Hindutva as the motto
is to belittle the fruitful intermingling of the religio-philosophical
thoughts of early Islam and its contemporary Hinduism.

Sharing is a positive value within Islam. Sharing the means of
sustenance is also an ideal of Hinduism so much so that Swami
Vivekananda had proclaimed that the “Hindu ideal is socialistic”.
Hence there is considerable convergence between the pristine Islamic
and Hindu spirituality.

Fourthly, all the ideals of love and selfless service which the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata had taught are getting eclipsed under the
influence of the now globally dominant commercialism, selfism, and cut-
throat competitivism in the name of efficiency. To restore ancient
India’s sublime values, we need a joint fight of all people against
the West’s consumerist and acquisitive philosophy of life and its
accompanying paradigm of development. The Biblical value of universal
love, the Koranic value of Raham and the Upanishadic teaching “love
others as you do yourself” can join together to beat back the narrow
self-centric modes of thought. For this also, the fascination for the
word “Hindutva” needs to be given up to salve the basic values.

Hinduism’s ideal is synthesis, ever higher synthesis. It requires
reconciliation by dissolving the sources of conflict in every
unfolding situation. Its ideal is integration of the heart and the
head (that is, emotion and intellect) of every individual; integration
of individuals with the society; integration of the communities by
elevation to newer peaks of harmonious existence. Its form of address
must, therefore, be such as has a psychological appeal to all people.
The language of negativism, or a language that has the flavour of bias
against any group is alien to the spirit of Hinduism. We need
inclusivism in letter and spirit.

Inclusivism is not an apologia for overlooking anybody’s hateful,
divisive or separatist trends. But to successfully fight separatism,
we must have a robust faith in the ultimate victory of the cause for
universal good and the preparedness to make sacrifices for it. Success
is assured if the approach is positive. Mere criticism/condemnation of
any trend without a pointer to the workable alternative serves only to
widen the gulf. It defeats the national purpose.

True, the virulent anti-Hindu, anti-Shia mujaddid movement in the 16th
century, the bigoted ulama’s secretive conspiracies against Emperor
Akbar’s policy of religious tolerance in the 16th century, the wave of
Wahabi Jihadism from Arabia in the 18th century, the ani-Hindu tirade
of the later-day incarnate of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the late 19th
century and the mayhem for a separate homeland for the Muslims led by
the later-day incarnate of Mohammad Ali Jinnah were all abominations
and deserved condemnation. But the turning of the usually unruly
Pathans into the volunteers of non-violence led by the Frontier Gandhi
( Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) was an index of the wonder that communal
harmony and national unity could achieve.

Indian Muslims had no Pathological Separatism

IT must not be imagined that the Indian Muslims had always been under
separatist influence. It is well known that in undivided Punjab,
undivided Bengal and in Sind and the NWFP, and Balochistan, that is,
in the Muslim-majority States which were to constitute Pakistan later,
the Muslim League’s influence was meagre. In the elections to the
provincial legislatures and the Central Assembly in 1937, just a
decade before the Partition, the Muslim League had cut a sorry figure.
In Punjab, it contested only seven out of 84 Muslim reserved seats and
won only two. In Bengal, out of 117 Muslim reserved seats, it had won
only 38. In Sind out of 133 Muslim reserved seats, it had secured only
38. In the NWFP, the League was trounced. The League did not get even
a single seat in the Central Assembly. This showed the Muslims could
be mobilised for national purposes if the national leadership could
act wisely and avoid falling into traps.

True, a decade later the results were reversed. The Muslim League won
all the 30 reserved seats for Muslims in the Central Assembly and 428
seats out of 492 reserved seats for Muslims in provincial
legislatures. That happened because the elections were held in an
atmosphere in which no civilised country would ever allow an election
to take place. The ambience was vitiated by the British rulers’
intrigues, the Imams’ fatwas and false propaganda blitz that in the
event of Muslim League’s defeat, the Muslims would not be allowed to
congregate to offer prayers or to bury their dead and that the
madrasas would all be closed. The Indian National Congress, which had
the necessary moral resources and international prestige, could have
asked for postponement of the elections unless there was a stoppage of
the false propaganda and a calming down of the tempers. Moreover, it
should never have agreed to the elections— a virtual referendum —
being held on the basis of restricted franchise in which only 10 per
cent of the population had the right to vote!

Deadly Poison Mix of Ruling Party’s Pseudo-Secularism and RSS’
Hindutva

IN post-independence India, the ruling Congress party, in the name of
secularism, has been following a policy of appeasing the bigoted
Muslim clerics. Thereby it encouraged “minority aggressivism” and
further fuelled the communal fire. But Hindutvavad was no answer to
this. Instead of mitigating the communal fire, it only served to
corroborate Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s and later Jinnah’s thesis that the
Muslims and the Hindus were two separate nations. What was needed
instead was the pointer that concessions to the clerics were only a
cloak for neglect of the Muslim masses’ material, intellectual and
spiritual interests. Only Mahatma Gandhi’s kind of response could have
been effective. During his Noakhali tour, with his ever-present
declaration of Universal Love, he had challenged the communalist
leaders to show him where the Koran had enjoined the killing of people
of other faiths. Could the RSS challenge the communalists the way the
Mahatma did?

One only wishes that the Mahatma had shown the same grit by standing
steadfastly with Maulana Azad and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in resisting
Partition.

Hinduism’s unique teaching is: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”
Hinduism also teaches: “Love others as you do yourself.” “Love has the
power to heal.” The Biblical teaching, too, is Universal Love. The
Koran teaches Khuda’s Raham pervades the universe. Criticism by the
way of pointer to the error is essential. But criticism without
concern for the welfare of the wrong-doer is of no avail.

Half-hearted Compromise is no Solution

IN its latest meet, the BJP’s National Executive has tried to make a
compromise between the RSS’ clamour for Hindutva and many of the BJP
leaders’ belated realisation that the Hindutva slogan alienates not
only the Muslims, Christians and large sections of the Dalits, but
also the secular “caste-Hindus”. L.K. Advani’s middle-path declaration
that the party would not accept “any narrow, bigoted, anti-Muslim
interpretation of Hindutva” indicates it is unable to shed its
fascination for the word it has so long been pledged to. In fact, the
BJP would not be able to shed it until the the RSS realises how, by
sticking to this word, it is hampering national unity and also
defeating its own cherished values. This tightrope walking by the BJP
will not have the healing touch. This will not unify the people.

Clearly discarding Hindutva and accepting Hindustaniyat will not mean
any loss of face. This will rather show the courage to steer a change
propelled by the depth of patriotic fervour.

If the RSS and/or the BJP could drop Hindutva as its motto, it would
be able to challenge the Muslimist bigots more effectively. Like Dr
Rafiq Zakaria and in one voice with all truly secular people, it will
be able to tell the bigoted clerics:

During the British rule, you accepted the replacements of the Koranic
punishments by those which the then rulers had imposed in their civil
and criminal courts. At that time, you acquiesced in the banning of
the stoning of the adulterous to death, though this ban violated the
Koranic injunction. You paid interest on the loans taken from the
banks though it was prohibited by the Koran. Now, you raise a hue and
cry about carrying out some essential reforms in Muslim Personal Law
even though some Muslim countries have already enacted them. In
protest against the Supreme Court’s righteous verdict in the Shah Bano
case, you got enacted a law of maintenance which has thrown many
Muslim women divorcees to the streets. ‘Triple talaq at one go’ is
barbaric and against the spirit of the Koran; still you cling to it.

After it drops the outmoded Hindutva slogan, it would be able to mock
the shariat enthusiasts in the manner of Akbar Allahabadi: “The Shaikh
advised his followers, why do you travel by train when you could
travel on camel’s back?”

Writing on the Wall

MAYBE, all these pleas will fall flat in the RSS leadership’s ears. In
that case, the RSS should read the writing on the wall: the RSS will
break up or become moribund. Despite its claim of being a monolith
with no divergence of views among its members, the RSS will face a
grave existential crisis if it does not change its tune in keeping
with the times. There are already sufficient indications. In the1980s—
I forget the exact year—I was invited by Deendayal Research Institute,
headed by Nanaji Deshmukh, to give a series of lectures on my ideas of
environment and development. Lala Hansraj Gupta was in the chair. When
I came to say “Hinduism is no religion. It is a way of life”, I heard
an exclamation in endorsement: “Exactly. Those who talk of ‘Hindus,
Hindus’ but have no interest in the lives of Muslims are not genuine
Hindus.” The voice was Nanaji’s. I was pleasantly surprised because
Nanaji was a prominent RSS member and I did not expect this from an
RSS leader of his stature. Later I had many discussions with him, in
course of which I asked him: “Why don’t you tell your opinions to
Balasaheb Deoras?” He told me that he was writing down his viewpoints
but these would be published after his death. Presumably, he did not
want to annoy the RSS leadership for fear of their non-cooperation in
his other constructive activities at Gonda or Chitrakut.

I know some senior BJP leaders who would be happy if Hindutva is
dropped as the guiding principle. How long can the RSS keep such
people together under the banner of Hindutva? The slogan of Hindutva
does conjure up fear of “Hindu cultural domination” in the minds of
today’s non-Hindus, even if Hindu Rashtra is ruled out. Rationalising
has its limits.

If the RSS changes its archaic ideas and accepts Hindustaniyat as the
religio-confederal principle, it can play a much larger role on the
national horizon. During invasions by China and by Pakistan, its
volunteers played a very useful role in mobilising the people against
the invaders, and working as service providers to our military and
internal security forces. It also played a significant role in
regulating traffic and maintaining law and order even-handedly. In
recognition of this, the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri,
invited the RSS leadership to be a member of the National Security
Council. In times of violent attacks on the Sikhs following Indira
Gandhi’s assassination, it did laudable work in giving shelter and
succour to the Sikhs. Dr Hedgewar had links with Bengal’s legendary
revolutionary leader, Trailokya Nath Chakrabarty also known as
‘Maharaj’; and therefore, this nation’s hero, Subhas Chandra Bose, had
even thought of utilising the RSS’ organisational skill in raising a
nationalist volunteer force. During Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-
corruption and anti-Emergency movements and Bihar flood relief, the
RSS had earned fulsome praise from JP.

Will the RSS let all this goodwill to be besmirched or lost by its
dogmatism and obsolete ideas? It needs to realise that its Hindutvavad
does stir up, among its unthinking followers—which is by far the
larger part—fanaticism, blind prejudices and hatred against all those
who now refuse to see themselves as “Hindus”. If the RSS did not
suffer from the Nelson’s eye syndrome, it would have seen that a large
section of the Dalits and even the Sikhs, who were once the vanguard
of saving the Hindus from forced conversion, do not now like to be
counted as Hindus.

The author is one of the country’s earliest environ-mentalists and a
social philosopher.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1571.html

Mainstream Weekly

VOL XLV No 01

Sachar Committee Report : A Review
Tuesday 24 April 2007, by Anees Chishti

The report of the High-Level Committee appointed by the Prime Minister
under the chairmanship of Justice Rajindar Sachar, retired Chief
Justice of the Delhi High Court, to study the ‘Social, Economic and
Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India’, has been a
subject of wide discussion in the press, among parliamentarians and
other politicians as well as in other informed sections of the
society.

The seven-member Committee had as its members eminent personalities
like Sayid Hamid, former Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim
University and currently Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, Prof
T.K. Oommen, former Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a
sociologist of world renown, among others. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, Chief
Economist, National Council of Applied Economic Research, who is noted
for his perceptive research on various issues of national concern, was
the Member-Secretary. There was no woman member: surprising, as the
condition of women is very important for any survey of the social
scenario among the Muslims. And, the Committee has tried to look at
the predicament of the Muslim women in as good a manner as it could.

The Committee had several consultants from different disciplines and
had commissioned specialists on various aspects of the subject under
coverage to write papers for its use in its study of the complex
issues.

The Committee collected data from the various Censuses, the National
Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), banks and, of course, from the
Central and State Governments.

The members of the Committee visited different parts of the country to
assess the grassroots situation and grasp the realities by experience
rather than merely with the help of statistics brought to their desks
by investigators. The Committee tried to sift the perception of
members of the Muslim community (as well as of non-Muslims) and
understand the nature and magnitude of the community’s grievances, to
be able to judge the veracity or otherwise of the expressions of
negligence and deprivation.

Most of the grievances of the community are common knowledge and those
who have access to the Urdu press in different parts of the country
are fully aware of the endless stories of ‘woes’ and ‘miseries’ of the
community. But a systematic study of these grievances had to be made
and the Sachar Committee ventured to do that. We shall deal with the
grievances briefly later but, first, a review of the findings of the
Sachar Committee in different areas of its concern.

II

It would be appropriate to begin a survey of the Sachar Committee’s
findings with the fundamental issue of education. The literacy rate
for Muslims in 2001 was, according to the Committee’s findings, far
below the national average. The difference between the two rates was
greater in urban areas than in rural areas. For women, too, the gap
was greater in the urban areas.

When compared to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the growth
in literacy for Muslims was lower than for the former. The female
urban enrolment in literacy ratio for the SCs/STs was 40 per cent in
1965 that rose to 83 per cent in 2001. The equivalent rate for Muslims—
that was considerably higher in 1965 (52 per cent)—recorded a figure
of 80 per cent, lower than the figure for the SCs / STs.

According to the Sachar Committee’s findings, 25 per cent of Muslim
children in the 6-14 age-group either never went to school or else
dropped out at some stage.

The disparity in Graduate Attainment Rates between Muslims and other
categories has been widening since the 1970s in urban and rural areas.
According to the Sachar Committee, only one out of 25 undergraduate
students and one out of 50 post-graduate students in ‘premier
colleges’ are Muslims. The percentage of graduates in poor households
pursuing post-graduate studies is significantly lower for Muslims:
Hindus General (29 per cent); SCs/STs (28 per cent); OBCs (23 per
cent); Muslims (16 per cent). The unemployment rate among Muslim
graduates is the highest among all Socio-Religious Categories (SRCs),
poor as well as non-poor.

In the midst of the widespread discussion about the role of madrasas
in the life of Muslims, it is interesting to note that only three per
cent of Muslim children go to madrasas.

Some figures of the Committee are very revealing, when the situation
of OBCs is considered. In education upto matriculation, graduation and
employment in the formal sector all OBCs lag behind in terms of the
all-India average. Muslim OBCs (that have been defined here a little
later) fall below the Hindu OBCs in all categories. And, General
Muslims fare the worst being behind both Hindu and Muslim OBCs.

An important cause for the low level of attainment of Muslims in
education is the dearth of facilities for teaching Urdu and other
subjects through the medium of Urdu (mother tongue) in lower classes,
the Committee points out. It cites the better examples of Karnataka
and Maharashtra in this context. These two States are much better
equipped with Urdu medium schools at the elementary level. Karnataka
has the additional feature of concurrent facilities for English medium
as well in a good number of schools, the Committee points out.

In an indirect reference to the utility of reservation, the Committee
says that the SCs/STs have reaped advantages of targeted government
and private efforts thereby pinpointing the importance of ‘affirmative
action’.

Employment

According to the findings of the Sachar Committee, Muslims have a
considerably lower representation in jobs in the government including
those in the Public Sector Undertakings compared to other SRCs.
According to these findings, in no State of the country the level of
Muslim employment is proportionate to their percentage in the
population.

It is pointed out that the situation of government jobs is the best in
Andhra Pradesh where a “fairly close” representation (in proportion to
the population) has been achieved. Other States with a better picture
of representation are: Karnataka (8.5 per cent job share in a
population proportion of 12.2 per cent); Gujarat (5.4 per cent against
9.1 per cent); Tamil Nadu (3.2 per cent against 5.6 per cent).

According to an analysis, in all other States, the percentage of
Muslims in government employment is half of their population
proportion. The highest percentage figure of government employment for
Muslims is in Assam (11.2 per cent) even though it is far less than
the State’s Muslim population (30.9 per cent).

The most glaring cases of Muslims’ deprivation in government jobs are
found in the States of West Bengal and Kerala where, according to
common perception, egalitarianism has been the cherished norm in all
walks of life. In West Bengal where almost 25 per cent population
practises the Muslim faith, their share in government jobs is a paltry
4.2 per cent. In Kerala the Muslim representation in government jobs
is 10.4 per cent, a figure that is short of half of their population
percentage. In Bihar and UP the percentages of Muslims in government
jobs are found to be less than a third of their population
percentages. Those governing these States need to monitor their
actions to bring the situation in conformity with their professed
objectives and claims.

There are some factors that need to be considered in view of the low
employment figures for Muslims on an all-India basis. The Sachar
Committee observes that the low aggregate work participation ratios
for Muslims are ‘essentially’ due to the much lower participation in
economic activity by the women of the community. Also, a large number
of Muslim women who are engaged in work do so from their homes rather
than in offices or factories. Their figure in this regard is 70 per
cent compared to the general figure of 51 per cent

There is a high share of Muslim workers in self-employment activity,
especially in urban areas and in the case of women, the Committee
points out. Whether this trend is due to compulsion or their non-
expectation for jobs in the government or non-government formal
sector, or due to their inclination for certain types of work that are
done best under a self-employment scheme, would be an important
subject for study. The fact has to be considered that Muslims in
regular jobs in urban areas are much lower in numbers compared to even
the SCs/STs. And, surprisingly, the Muslim regular workers get lower
daily earnings (salary) in public and private jobs compared to other
socio-religious categories, as the Committee points out.

The point that needs special notice is that, according to the
Committee’s findings, Muslim participation in professional and
management cadres is quite low. Their participation in security-
related activities (for example, in the Police services) is
considerably lower than their population share (four per cent
overall).

In the context of employment of Muslims at the level of the Central
Government, the Committee’s findings are very revealing. In the Civil
Services, Muslims are only three per cent in IAS, 1.8 per cent in IFS
and four per cent in IPS. (While the figures are shockingly low
compared to the population percentage, the fact also needs to be
considered that there were only 4.7 per cent Muslims among the
candidates at the Civil Services examinations in 2003-04. The figure
would be almost identical for other years.)

In the Railways, 4.5 per cent are Muslims and, significantly, ‘almost
all’ (98.7 per cent) are in low level positions. Are you listening,
Laloo Prasad Yadav?

Figures for other Departments are: Education 6.5 per cent, Home 7.3
per cent, Police Constables (for which no special educational
qualifications are required) six per cent.

Also to be considered is the finding that in the recent recruitments
by State Public Service Commissions, the employment of Muslims has
been as low as 2.1 per cent.

Minorities other than Muslims are not placed as delicately as the
Muslims. According to the Committee’s findings, 11 per cent of Group A
jobs are with minorities other than Muslims. Deprivation of Muslims in
the State judical set-up seems to be among the most worrying aspects
of their overall backwardness.

The data collected by the Committee in this sector are about all
levels of the officers and employees: Advocate Generals, District and
Sessions Judges, Additional District and Sessions Judges, Chief
Judicial Magistrates, Principal Judges, Munsifs, Public Prosecutors,
and Group A, B, C and D employees. The overall Muslim presence of 7.8
per cent in the area of judiciary in 12 States with high concentration
of Muslim population is considered very low by experts.

To come back to an old theme, in West Bengal with a Muslim population
of over 25 per cent, the figure of Muslims in ‘key positions’ in the
judiciary is only five per cent. In Assam with a Muslim population of
30.9 per cent, this figure is 9.4 per cent. Surprisingly, in Jammu and
Kashmir (where the Muslim population is 66.97 per cent), the
community’s share in the State judiciary is only 48.3 per cent. Andhra
Pradesh once again scores over other States in terms of equitable and
even more than equitable sharing of jobs: Muslims have a share of 12.4
per cent in the State judiciary against a population share of 9.2 per
cent.

Experts feel that for an inclusive democracy, an equitable share for
all sections of the society in the judiciary is essential: it creates
greater public confidence in the judicial process. It would be useful
to survey the situation in this regard in some other developing and
developed countries to be able to arrive at some remedial measures for
this crucial sector of decision-making.

Health and Population

Along with education and employment, health and population welfare are
the other areas that have to be assessed for estimating attainments of
any society. The Sachar Committee has done this exercise in a
comprehensive manner.

First, the overall population picture: According to the 2001 Census,
the Muslim population of India was 138 million (13.4 per cent of the
total population). This figure is estimated to have crossed the 150
million mark in 2006. According to the estimate cited by the
Committee, the share of the Muslim population would rise ‘somewhat’
and stabilise at just below 19 per cent in the next four decades (320
million Muslims in a total population of 1.7 billion). There are many
areas where the Muslim population is 50 per cent or more; and in nine
out of 593 districts (Lakshadweep and eight districts of Jammu and
Kashmir) the Muslim population is over 75 per cent.

On the positive side, the period 1991-2001 showed a decline in the
growth rate of Muslims in most States. According to the Committee’s
findings, the Muslim population shows an increasingly better sex ratio
compared to other Socio-Religious Categories. Infant mortality among
Muslims is slightly lower than the average. (It is beyond the
Committee’s understanding how Muslims should have a child survival
advantage despite lower levels of female schooling and economic
status.) Life expectancy in the community is slightly higher (by one
year) than the average, and this should again surprise many.

The Committee’s finding is important that the Muslim child has a
significantly greater risk of being underweight or stunted than is the
case with other Socio-Religious Categories: the risk of malnutrition
is also ‘slightly higher’ for Muslim children than for ‘Other Hindu’
children. This again seems to be a contradiction vis-à-vis the
reported child survival rate.

Economy

Related to the existing economic condition of Muslims is the issue of
providing legitimate support by state and private agencies for the
members of the community to improve their position. One would like to
examine the situation with regard to trends in the support system of
existing instruments. Banks have been seen as an important source of
credit to support citizens’ economic and commercial ventures. The
picture regarding bank loans to members of the minority is not bright,
according to the findings of the Sachar Committee. It says that the
share of Muslims in ‘amounts outstanding’ is only 4.7 per cent. This
figure is 6.5 per cent in the case of other minorities. Further, on an
average the amount outstanding per account for Muslims is about half
that of the other minorities and one-third of ‘others’.

The pity is that, according to the report, many areas of Muslim
concentration have been marked by many banks as ‘negative’ or ‘red’
zones where giving loans is not advisable. Something would, indeed,
have to be done to put an end to such blanket bans, particularly in
view of the Committee’s finding that very large numbers of Muslims are
engaged in self-employment ventures.

The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts at banking and credit facilities
under the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for the welfare of
minorities have, according to the Committee’s findings, mainly
benefited minorities other than Muslims, thus “marginalising Muslims”.

Apart from the formal banking sector there are two other institutions
that are meant to extend loans to the disadvantaged for economic
ventures: the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation
(NMDFC) and National Backward Classes Finance and Development
Corporation (NBCFDC). For loans from the NMDFC, one has to obtain a
guarantee from the concerned State Government. According to the
Committee, this is the biggest hurdle in the processing of loan
applications. And members of minority communities are very adversely
affected due to this factor.

Poverty Factor

The Committee has found that substantially large proportion of Muslim
households in urban areas are in the less than Rs 500 expenditure
bracket. According to calculations mentioned in the Committee’s
report, using the Head Count Ratio (HCR), overall 22.7 per cent of
India’s population was poor in 2004-05. In absolute numbers, this
amounts to over 251 million people spread across India. The SCs/STs
together are the most poor with an HCR of 35 per cent followed by
Muslims who record the second highest incidence of poverty with 31 per
cent people below the poverty line. The H(indu)-General is the least
poor category with an HCR of only 8.7 per cent and the OBCs hold the
intermediary level HCR of 21 per cent, which is also close to the all-
India average.

The Committee has observed that the inequality is higher in urban
areas compared to rural areas in most States. It says that poverty
among Muslims is the highest in urban areas with an HCR of 38.4 per
cent. Significantly, the fall in poverty for Muslims, according to the
data provided to the Committee, has been “only modest during the
decade 1993-94 to 2004-05 in urban areas, whereas the decline in rural
areas has been substantial”. Poverty leads to neglect, or the other
way round: the Committee found a “significant inverse association”
between the proportion of Muslim population and educational and other
infrastructure in small villages. Areas of Muslim concentration are,
somehow, not well served with pucca approach roads and local bus
stops.

An analysis by the Committee showed a fall in the availability of
medical facilities with the rise in the proportion of Muslims,
especially in larger villages. A similar but sharper pattern can be
seen with respect to post/telegraph offices.

Affirmative Action

Under the existing constitutional provisions, affirmative action in
the form of reservation cannot be possible for the entire Muslim
community even though, according to the findings of the Sachar
Committee, the entire community has been left behind in terms of
education, employment and economic status. A way can be found to lift
a significant segment of the community’s population if social
stratification is defined and officially accepted within the Muslim
community. It could be done in case of Hindus, and subsequently for
Mazhabi Sikhs and neo-Buddhists in terms of caste demarcation. But it
would not be easy to have official acceptance of the caste principle.
The resistance against acceptance of social stratification on caste
lines among Muslims would come largely from the clerics and other
orthodox sections of the Muslim community itself which would be
adamant in its insistence that caste does not exist within the
community. This, even though the fact is that, whether one likes it or
not, the Muslim community is divided with caste demarcations almost on
the lines of the Hindus. A via media has to be found for a clearly
defined backward class like the OBCs among the majority community.

The Sachar Committee has talked of the issue of social stratification
among Muslims. It points out that the 1901 Census had listed 133
social groups, “wholly or partially Muslim”, in India. This
classification thus recognised the fact of social stratification in
the community. The Committee has identified different groups of
Muslims based on studies by sociologists. The community, according to
these studies, as mentioned by the Committee, is placed into

two broad categories , namely, ashraf and ajlaf. The former, meaning
‘noble’ (emphasis added), includes all Muslims of foreign blood and
converts from higher castes. While ajlaf, meaning ‘degraded’ (emphasis
added) or ‘unholy’, embraces the ‘ritually clean’ occupational groups
and low ranking converts. In Bihar, UP, Bengal, Sayyads, Sheikhs,
Moghuls and Pathans constitute the ashrafs, The ajlafs are carpenters,
artisans, painters, graziers, tanners, milkmen, etc. According to the
Census of 1901, the ajlaf category includes “the various classes of
converts who are known as Nao Muslim in Bihar and Nasya in Bengal. It
also includes various functional groups such as that of Jolaha or
weaver, Dhunia or cotton carder, Kulu or oil presser, Kunjra or
vegetable seller, Hajjam or barber, Darzi or tailor, and the like.”
The 1901 Census also recorded the presence of a third category called
Arzal: “It consists of the very lowest castes, such as Halalkhor,
Lalbegi, Abdal and Bedia.” The Committee has taken note of the fact
that the Presidential Order (1950), officially known as Constitutional
(Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, restricts the Scheduled Caste status
only to Hindu groups having “unclean” occupations. Their non-Hindu
equivalents have been bracketed with the “middle caste converts” and
declared OBCs.

The Committee has noted that at least 82 different social groups among
Muslims were declared OBCs by the Mandal Commission (1980). Owing to
this declaration many Muslim social groups got reservation in
different parts of the country under the Backward Classes category.
Only two States, Kerala and Karnataka, have provided reservation to
the State’s entire Muslim population (minus the creamy layer). The
roots of this policy have to be traced to the colonial days.

In Karnataka (the erstwhile princely state of Mysore), affirmative
action started in 1874 (with 80 per cent posts in the Police
Department having been reserved for non-Brahmins, Muslims and Indian
Christians). In Karnataka today, all Muslims with income of less than
Rs 2 lakhs per annum enjoy four per cent reservation in jobs and
admission to institutions in the category of ‘More Backwards’. In
Kerala Muslims enjoy 12 per cent reservation, with some other
communities and social groups too being provided reservation.

Tamil Nadu, which had a tradition of reservation to Muslims since
1872, withdrew such reservation following independence. Currently even
though there is no reservation in the State on the basis of religion,
nearly 95 per cent Muslims have been provided reservation as Backward
Classes, according to the data provided by the State Government to the
Sachar Committee. Significantly enough, reservations in Tamil Nadu
stand at 69 per cent, much above the limit of 50 per cent fixed by the
Supreme Court. Looking at the state of public employment for OBCs the
Committee found that unemployment rates were the highest among Muslim
OBCs when compared to Hindu OBCs and Muslims General. In the formal
sector (government/PSUs), the share of Muslim OBCs was much lower than
those of Hindu OBCs and Muslims General.

At the workers’ level, the Committee estimated that out of every
hundred workers about eleven were Hindu OBCs, three were Muslims
General and only one was a Muslim OBC.

The Committee had divided public employment into six ‘agencies’ of the
Central Government including PSUs and universities. It found that the
Hindu OBCs were under-represented. But their under-representation was
less than that of Muslim OBCs in five out of the six agencies, less
than that of Muslims General in three out of the six agencies. In the
State services the Committee found that Muslim OBCs had a better share
at the Group A level, but their presence was insignificant at other
levels.

In the context of Muslim OBCs, the Committee concluded that the
abysmally low representation of Muslim OBCs suggests that the benefits
of entitlements meant for the Backward Classes are yet to reach them.
The Committee also concluded that “the conditions of Muslims General
are also lower than the Hindu-OBCs who have the benefits of
reservations”.

III

While the Sachar Committee has done a laudable job of assembling a
huge body of data and presenting it in an easily digestible manner, it
has not been as meticulous in formulating its recommendations. Perhaps
it was due to the fatigue after an enormous amount of legwork on a
national scale and the subsequent analysis of the compiled information
that its members had to do in about 15 months of actual work, coupled
with the desire of submitting its report rather urgently and the fact
that much of the information about its findings had already been
accessed by a section of the press. In view of the mind-boggling
findings and the very sensitive nature of the ground it was traversing
a very comprehensive matrix of recommendations should have been
presented by an able and competent panel blending experience and fresh
thinking. Unfortunately this could not be achieved by the Committee.
The most important recommendations of the Committee can be summarised
as under:

• Creation of a National Data Bank (NDB) where relevant data about
different socio-religious communities could be stored to facilitate
any study and subsequent action.

• Setting up of an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority
(AMA) for a regular audit of the benefits of different programmes of
the government reaching the concerned communities or groups.

• Establishing an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to examine and
analyse the grievances of deprived groups, the inspiration
understandably for it coming from the Race Relations Act, 1976 of the
United Kingdom that finds mention in the Committee’s recommendation.

• Exploring the idea of introducing some incentives to a ‘Diversity
Index’ in the realms of education, government, and private employment
and housing programmes. Special mention has been made of a possible
programme of incentives to colleges and institutions under the
University Grants Commission linked to diversity in the student
population.

• Evolving some sort of a ‘nomination’ procedure for enhancing the
levels of inclusiveness in governance.

• Certain measures like removal of anomalies in Reserved
Constituencies for General Elections against complaints of declaring
Muslim concentration areas as SC/ST reserved seats.

• Institutionalising evaluation procedures for textbooks, alternate
admission criteria in regular universities and autonomous colleges;
cost friendly reasonable hostel facilities for minority students as a
priority; making teacher training oriented to ideals of pluralism;
state-run Urdu medium schools for primary education in mother tongue;
ensuring appointment of experts from minority community on interview
panels and boards; linking madrasas with higher secondary schools
facilitating shift of students who might opt for a mainstream
education system after a few years; recognition of degrees from
madrasas for competitive examinations (a recommendation hard to find
acceptance in any section of concerned quarters); on the economic
front, provision of financial and other support to initiatives built
around occupations where Muslims are concentrated and that have growth
potential.

The above suggestions have given considerable food for thought with
regard to the panacea for deprivation of the Muslim community in
various spheres. But a more comprehensive and concrete programme
should have been suggested by the Committee.

This task could have been performed best by the able members of this
panel who had travelled far and wide and acquainted themselves with
the grassroots realities rather than leaving it for another possible
committee for a start from a scratch. This was essential to get action
initiated on the basis of its findings instead of letting this venture
too meet the fate of the earlier Gopal Singh Committee over two
decades ago that had similar findings (although it had a narrower
coverage than the Sachar Committee). Now it is for the Prime Minister
and his government to decide the future course of action to remedy the
situation regarding the travails of the Muslim community.

IV

Much of the Sachar Committee’s endeavour was in pursuance of the
perception among Muslims of utter neglect and apathy, and even
suspicion, towards the Muslim community on the part of governmental
agencies—right or wrong! An oft-repeated remark by many members of the
community was that Muslims carried a double burden of being labelled
as ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time. Or,
whenever any act of violence or terror occurs Muslim boys are picked
up by the police. “Every bearded man is considered an ISI agent,” the
Committee has quoted someone as saying. It was also pointed out that
“social boycott of Muslims in certain parts of the country have forced
them to migrate from places where they lived for centuries.”

The Committee has also observed that identification of Urdu as a
Muslim language and its politicisation has complicated matters. A
worrying observation is that Muslims do not see education as
necessarily translating into formal employment. And, many a time
madrasas are the only educational option for Muslims.

On the economic front, the Committee observes that liberalisation of
the economy has resulted in displacement of Muslims from their
traditional occupations, thus depriving them of their livelihood.

The Committee has reported that there were many complaints of Muslims’
names missing from electoral rolls. It could not look into the
veracity or otherwise of this complaint. But what the Committee found
in case of complaints that a number of Muslim concentration Assembly
constituencies are declared as ‘reserved’ seats for the SCs
(deliberately?) should certainly worry those involved with the work of
delimitation of constituencies. Its analysis of reserved
constituencies for SCs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal proved
that there was truth in the allegation of the members of the minority
community in this regard.

With the perception of Muslims not being quite favourable to official
agencies, the revelation of the findings of the Sachar Committee with
regard to over-representation of the community in the country’s
prisons, reported (before the submission of its report to the Prime
Minister) by The Indian Express, in its series of reports entitled
‘The Missing Muslim’, created a sensation. The Urdu press was on fire
and questions were asked why prisons were the only place where Muslims
were over-represented compared to all other communities and in some
cases their representation being much higher than their population
proportion.

In Maharashtra, the percentage of Muslim jail inmates in all
categories was found to be way above their share in the population
(share in population: 10.6 per cent; share in prison inmates: 17.5 per
cent). In Gujarat the position was: share in population: 9.06 per
cent; share in jail inmates: over 25 per cent). The situation was on
similar lines in other States too although the jail inmate share might
not be as bad in other States as in the States mentioned above.

Following the submission of the report to the Prime Minister, The
Indian Express reported that the data with regard to prisons were
edited out of the Sachar report, following the concern expressed on
these figures in different quarters. Some observers felt that the
prison figures should not have been omitted, as they would have given
a clear picture of some of the Muslim grievances with regard to the
more sensitive issues.

The remedy for the travails of the Muslim community can be found
largely by the community’s bolder initiatives in the field of
education that would empower them as nothing else would.

The government, on its part, seems to be ready for whatever remedial
measures can be adopted by its different agencies. The recent
initiative taken by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, K. Rehman
Khan, to arrive at a consensus for action on an all-party basis,
through a conclave of Muslim MPs (including some from the Bharatiya
Janata Party, which has been very critical of the very appointment of
the Sachar Committee), seems to be a significant one. One only hopes
that such an initiative would have the support of the government and
some concrete steps would be taken without much delay.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article95.html

[Sid Harth]

Professor G.S. Ghurye
(1893-1983)
by V. Sundaram

No one can dispute the fact that Professor Govind Sadashiv Ghurye is
the founding father of Sociology in India. Even in the last decade of
his life when he was over eighty years old, he continued to make his
intellectual presence felt as an incisive social thinker, highly
innovative and equally at ease with Vedic India and contemporary
India.

One great advantage that Professor Ghurye had in his studies of India
was his thorough grounding in the Sanskrit literature and in the high
traditions of Hindu civilization. In 1921, Professor Ghurye was
awarded a scholarship by the University of Bombay to study Sociology
in England. Ghurye received his sociological training in Cambridge
University from where he earned the degree of Ph.D under the guidance
of Professor W.H.R. Rivers. For a short time after the untimely death
of Rivers in 1922, Ghurye was put under the guidance of Professor A C
Haddon. Rivers was then considered as a leading intellectual of
Britain. He had already become eminent as a psychologist with his own
‘school’. He had established his reputation as an anthropologist with
his study of the Todas of Nilgris in 1906 which at that point of time
was considered as a model of intensive investigation. Professor
Haddon, the other great luminary with whom Ghurye came in close
contact in England, was senior to Professor Rivers and had become
famous as an Anthropologist with his original works like The Races of
Man and The Wanderings of Peoples. This was the kind of academic ethos
and milieu in which Professor Ghurye had the privilege of receiving
his sociological training

On his return from Cambridge, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation
under W.H.R. Rivers and later A.C.Haddon, Ghurye succeeded Sir Patric
Geddes as Head of Department of Sociology in the University of Bombay
in 1924. He continued to head the Department until his retirement in
1959. After retirement, he was designated the first Emeritus Professor
in the University of Bombay. Thus, besides his own outstanding
achievements in the field of sociological and anthropological
research, Ghurye became internationally known with his clear half a
century’s record as a post-graduate teacher. With his inspiring
leadership and guidance, Professor Ghurye produced a generation of
great sociologists some of whom are household names in the field of
sociology today, like M N Srinivas, I P Desai and K P Kapadia.

Thus while developing himself as a sociologist, Ghurye was also
supremely conscious of his role as a teacher, a ‘Guru’ in the best of
Indian tradition. Kindling the research interests of his colleagues
and students was part of his self-chosen and self-imposed duties. Ever
conscious of his ‘pupil coverage’, he attracted brilliant students
from different corners of India. He expected them to work like him and
gradually created an academic milieu in which writing a paper or a
book came to be looked upon as a very natural thing to do for all
research students and staff members. In the concluding paragraph of
his autobiographical account, Professor Ghurye has written ‘So far 80
dissertations have been successfully completed and accepted by the
University for appropriate degrees, 25 for the M A. and 55 for the
Ph.D. Of these 38 have been published as books and one is in press’.
Very often Ghurye helped his students to find out publishers for their
works and this was highly necessary and relevant at a time when
sociology had neither substantial government support nor private
munificence.

Ghurye's contribution to the development of sociology and anthropology
in India was enormous and multi-faceted. A Brilliant scholar in
Sanskrit, Indology, Anthropology and History, his invaluable and
original contributions to the sociological literature on a wide range
of subjects both Indian and foreign, were based on profound
scholarship, painstaking research and lucid analysis. A prolific
writer, Ghurye wrote 32 books and scores of papers, which cover such
wide-ranging themes as kinship and marriage, urbanization, ascetic
traditions, tribal life, demography, architecture and literature. He
has rightly earned a place with world famous social scientists like
Rivers, Morgan and Maine.

Ghurye played a key role in the professionalization of sociology by
founding the Indian Sociological Society and its journal ‘Sociological
Bulletin’. In addition, as noted earlier, he encouraged and trained a
large number of talented students who, in turn, advanced the frontiers
of sociological and anthropological research in the country. With his
own voluminous output and through the researches of his able students
Ghurye embarked on an ambitious project of mapping out the
ethnographic landscape of India.

Let me now turn to the great works of Professor Ghurye. In my view
Professor Ghurye’s greatest work was ‘Caste and Race in India’ which
was published in England as a part of the History of Civilization
Series edited by C.K.Ogden in 1932. For 76 years, this has remained a
basic work for students of Indian sociology and anthropology, and has
been acclaimed by teachers and reviewers as a sociological classic.

The relationship between caste and politics, which he had briefly
dealt with in the 1932 edition, was subsequently developed in a more
detailed manner in the 1969 edition. In this revised edition,
Professor Ghurye came out with a provocative and thorough-going
analysis of caste and politics in Tamil Nadu from early times to the
present day.

In the concluding chapter of this great work, Professor Ghurye gave an
incisive analysis of contemporary India and rightly apprehended in
1969 that India will develop into a plural society and not a casteless
one, which was a dream of the architects of her Constitution.

Closely linked with the study of Caste was Professor Ghurye’s well-
known analysis of the Scheduled Tribe problem. His anthropological
inclinations naturally brought the tribes close to his heart, and a
start was made when one of his pupils studied the tribe of Katkaris in
1930. Other pupils followed it with studies on the Warlis and Agris,
all of them on the Western coast, quite close to Bombay. Inspired by
the work of his students, Professor Ghurye wrote on the grand theme of
‘Integration of Tribals’ in 1943 and it was essentially in reply to
the ‘isolationist’ approach of Verrier Elwin, which formed the basis
of the British colonial policy. Professor Ghurye viewed that the only
solution to the problem was their progressive assimilation with the
farmers and peasants of the adjoining districts. He had the vision to
conclude that the major problems of the tribals were never different
from the problems of poor rural people in general. In the subsequent
editions of the book ‘The Scheduled Tribes’, Professor Ghurye was
critical of independent India’s government policies which sowed the
seeds of disintegration by its internally contradicting steps of
laying down the integrationist approach in the Constitution and on the
other hand promoting fission by giving importance to the idea of
Scheduled Areas. The comprehensive manner in which Ghurye studied the
problem 65 years ago led to a methodological contribution as well. In
the words of Dr. N.Datta-Majumdar, he raised the study of the tribals
from the pure plain of Anthropology to that of Sociology.

Professor Ghurye published a study titled ‘The Mahadev Kolis’ in 1957
based on field data from three districts of Maharashtra. This was the
first major attempt to deal with a problem at the micro level. The
kind of attention he paid to even minor details of the life of the
Mahadev Kolis brings to life the ethnographer in him but he is not
lost in ethnography, for the mould into which he casts his material is
sociological. We can easily see the stamp of this approach in other
studies done under his guidance: the Coorgs, Thakurs, Newars and
Meities at different periods. The study of the Coorgs by M.N.Srinivas,
sub-titled ‘A socio-ethnic study’ became internationally famous.

Ghurye’s basic concern with social process, culture and civilization
led to his writing three books dealing with some aspects of these
themes. The first book, ‘Social Process’ published in 1938 reviewed
the topic in the light of a century of sociology since August Compte
christened it so in the fourth volume of his great work, Philosophie
Positive, published in 1838. Nature, the well-known scientific journal
of London gave an abstract of Ghurye’s book in these words: ‘Social
Process, Ghurye considers, has two aspects: the nature of Cultural
Development as reflected in the trend of thought about man as a living
entity, and the process by which the individual is assimilating into
the cultural flow of the times… Scientifically, proper planning of a
good life must rest on the understanding of life, and the
psychological study of the individual and society should precede the
study of man as a political and moral being’.

The comparative study of ancient civilization and culture Ghurye
thought was a required background for students of sociology, and he
instituted a compulsory paper on it at the M.A. level. His own views
led to the publication of his second connected work Culture and
Society in 1947 in which he discussed the difference between
civilization and culture. He said, ‘Culture is what we are; it is the
individual’s participation or cultural endeavour that makes the
collective enterprise called civilization possible’. In 1949, he
published his third book titled Occidental Civilization.

The birth centenary of Professor Ghurye was celebrated in a befitting
manner by the Department of Sociology in the University of Bombay in
1993-94. A national seminar in commemoration of the centenary year was
organized by the Department on November 22-23, 1994. In 1997 a
landmark book titled Indian Sociology Through Ghurye: A Dictionary was
published. It was authored by S. Devadas Pillai. This volume makes an
academic 'journey' through the themes and thoughts of Prof. Dr.G.S.
Ghurye. This is probably the first time that an Indian thinker has
been honored with a dictionary on the lines of those on Karl Marx,
Emerson and others.

Professor Ghurye often spoke of the dignity of learning: ‘of the need
to keep scholarship pure, to protect it from its three greatest
enemies: amateurism, journalistic prostitution, and obsession with
doctrine’. Yes. He was a great Sociologist.

October 12, 2008

http://www.boloji.com/people/04023.htm

The Legacy of G. S. Ghurye: A Centennial Festschrift
By A. R. Momin

About The Book

Professor G. S. Ghurye (1893-1983) is justifiably considered the doyen
of Indian Sociology. On his return from Cambridge, where he wrote his
doctoral dissertation under W.H.R. Rivers and later A.C. Haddon,
Ghurye succeeded Sir Patric Geddes as Head of Department of Sociology
in the University of Bombay in 1924. He continued to head the
Department until his retirement in 1959. After retirement, he was
designated the first Emeritus Professor in the University of Bombay.

Ghurye's contribution to the development of sociology and anthropology
in India is enormous and multi-faceted. A prolofic writer, Ghurye
wrote 32 books and scores of papers, which cover such wide-ranging
themes as kinship and marriage, urbanization, ascetic traditions,
tribal life, demography, architecture and literature. Ghurye played a
key role in the professionalisation of sociology by founding the
Indian Sociological Society and its journal Sociological Bulletin. In
addition, he encouraged and trained a large number of talented
students who, in turn, advanced the frontiers of sociological and
anthropological research in the country. With his own voluminous
output, and through the researches of his able students Ghurye
embarked on an ambitious project of mapping out the ethnographic
landscape of india.

The birth centenary of Professor Ghurye was celebrated in an befitting
manner by the Department of Sociology in the University of Bombay in
1993-94. A national seminar in commemoration of the centenary year was
organised by the Department on November 22-23, 1994. The present
volume includes the papers presented at the seminar as well as
aditional papers contributed by eminent scholars.

The contributors include M. N. Srinivas, S. C. Dube, K. S. Singh, D.
Narain, S. L. Sharma, K. L. Sharma, B. N. Saraswati, C. N. Venugopal,
P. K. Bose, Pravin J. Patel, P. N. Pimpley, Makhan Jha, R. K. Bhadra,
S. D. Pillai, Sadanand Bhatkal and Devangana Desai.

About The Author(s)

A. R. Momin is Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Head of
Department of Sociology in the University of Bombay. He received his
initial training in Sociology and Anthropology in St. Xavier's College
and later in the Department of Sociology, University of Bombay. His
papers have been published in national and international journals. He
has co-authored a monograph on the Koknis and Malhar Kolis of
Maharashtra. He has co-edited (with J. V. Ferreira) Nemesis: Critical
Perspectives on Modernization (1983) and The Census as a Social
Document. Professor Momin has served on the committees of University
Grants Commission, Indian Council of Social Science Research and
Anthropological Survey of India.

MRP : Rs. 200.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 160.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-831-8
Format : Book

http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=131

Indian Sociology Through Ghurye
By S. D. Pillai

About The Book

This volume makes an academic ‘journey’ through the themes and thought
of Prof. Dr. G. S. Ghurye. This is probably the first time that an
Indian thinker is honoured with a Dictionary on the lines of those on
Karl Marx, Emerson and others.

In this Dictionary, Dr. Devadas Pillai leads the reader through
several lanes and by-lanes in the world of Ghurye, through a series of
'entries’ based on the format used in the Micropaedia of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.

About The Author(s)

S. D. Pillai is essentially a field-oriented Sociologist and has
handled major research assignments in Bombay University, the Tata
Institute of Social Science (Bombay) and in a Dutch research group
stationed in South Gujarat during 1970-72.

MRP : Rs. 495.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 400.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-807-5
Format : Book

http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=87

Caste And Race In India (Out of Stock)
By G. S. Ghurye

About The Book

Caste is the most dominant single aspect of Indian society and no
study of Indian society can be complete without getting into the
ramifications of the Hindu caste system. Caste and Race in India,
since its first publication in History of Civilisation series, edited
by C. K. Ogden in 1932, has remained a basic work for students of
Indian sociology and anthropology, and has been acclaimed by teachers
and reviewers as a sociological classic.

The present edition is an expanded version with five new chapters,
comprehensive enough for a separate volume. Answering his critics, the
author elaborates his arguments on the evolution of sub-castes and
examines caste, sub-caste and kinship in its proper perspective.

The relationship between caste and politics, which he has briefly
dealt with in the 1932 edition, is developed in the present edition,
with a provocative and thorough-going analysis of caste and politics
in Tamil Nadu from early times to the present day.

The concluding chapter is an incisive analysis of contemporary India:
the author apprehends that India will develop into a plural society
and not a casteless one, which was a dream of architects of her
Constitution.

About The Author(s)

Govind Sadashiv Ghurye was professor Emeritus, University of Bombay. A
Brilliant scholar in Sanskrit, Indology, Anthropology and History, his
invaluable and original contributions to the sociological literature
on a wide range of subjects both Indian and foreign, are based on
profound scholarship, painstaking research and lucid analysis. Apart
from his important contributions to Indian sociology he had initiated
and trained a number of front ranking sociologists in India. He has
rightly earned a place with world famous social scientists like
Rivers, Morgan and Maine.

MRP : Rs. 225.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 180.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-205-0
Format : Book

http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=169

Hindu Social Organisation
By Pandharinath H. Prabhu

About The Book

The book has been received with acclaim by a number of very important
social scientists in India as well as in Europe and America. The
presentation helps greatly in a true understanding of the Hindu social
psychology and institutions. It is a comprehensive, systematic and
integrated exposition of a very difficult subject. It is not only a
pioneering attempt but has still remained unsurpassed.

About The Author(s)

Pandharinath H. Prabhu studied at the University of Bombay and later
in the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Columbia in U.S.A.;
in Cambridge University in England; and in the Centre d'Etudes et
Recherches Psychotechniques in Paris, France. He taught at the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay; at Gujarat University where he
was the first Director of its School of Psychology, Education and
Philosophy from 1958-67; as Fulbright Visiting Professor at the
Pennsylvania State University in 1961-62; as Visiting Professor of
Psychology at Transylvania University in Kentucky, 1968-69; and in the
State University of New York at Oswego, N.Y. in 1969-71; as Leverhulme
Visiting Professor of Psychology at the Australian National University
in 1970; and as Senior Professor of Psychology and Head of the
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Bombay (1972-75). He was Visiting Fellow at the Indian
Institute of Advanced Studies, Simla (1975-77). In 1956-57 he was
Senior Research Officer at the UNESCO Research Centre for South and
Southeast Asia. In 1963 he was elected President of the section of
Psychology and Educational Sciences of the Indian Science Congress,
Golden Jubilee Session.

MRP : Rs. 175.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 140.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-206-9
Format : Book

http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=128

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Significance of his Movement
By K. N. Kadam

About The Book

Dr. Babasaheb is one of those whose influence has increased after his
death. Since Ambedkar is still an inspiration and a challenger every
detail of his life retains importance for societies, which are
committed to human advancement.

To highlight the significance of the role played by Ambedkar in
alleviating the conditions of untouchables and the positive and
dominating role that he played in modern India, this chronology of
events is of great help.

Dr. K. N. Kadam has divided this book in two parts: the first
describes the principal events briefly and the second gives the
chronology in outline. The events of over a hundred years have been
grouped under five phases: the first phase deals with the ancestors of
Babasaheb, the second highlights war on Brahmanical pollution. The
Round Table Conferences which Ambedkar attended and his battle for the
constitutional rights of the untouchables covers the third phase. The
fourth concentrates on Ambedkar’s quest for a religion for mankind.
The last phase revolves round the two crowning achievements –
constitution-making for India and his propagation of Dhamma for his
people. To this he has added a genealogical table of the Ambedkar
family and Ambedkar’s educational career, a list of his basic writings
and a bibliography.

This chronology will be most useful as a reference work to all those
interested in Dr. Ambedkar’s contribution to the advancement of the
downtrodden.

About The Author(s)

K. N. Kadam of Pune comes from a family that was closely associated
with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Kadam was educated in St. Vincent’s High
School, and the Nowrosjee Wadia College, at Pune. He is a keen student
of the life and movement of Dr. Ambedkar. During his student days,
Kadam was a founder-member of the ‘Dr. Ambedkar School of Politics,
Poona’, which he and his associates have now revived under the name of
the Buddhist Forum and Research Institute, Pune.

Kadam has to his credit a number of privately circulated articles ad
monographs on Dr. Ambedkar, Buddhism, problems of the Backward
Classes, etc.

Kadam is working on a similar chronology on Mahatma Phooley and is
editing Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Birth Centenary Commemoration Volume
for the Buddhist Forum and Research Institute, Pune.

MRP : Rs. 125.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 100.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-329-4
Format : Book

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Intellectuals and Society: A Study of Teachers in India
By Kameshwar Choudhary

About The Book

There are sharply divided opinion on intellectuals/intelligentsia in
both academics and in common parlance. A highly debated question is
whether they constitute a/the ruling class or a part of the ruling
class coalition/triumvirate/ complex. To go deeper into this, the
three controversial issues examined in the book are: (a) whether
intellectuals in general, and Indian intellectuals/ teachers in
particular constitute a ruling class or a social category/ strata, (b)
whether they are ideologically divided on class lines or have a supra-
class/unattached ideology, (c) whether they form a part of the ruling
class specifically in the case of India.

The book discusses the issues of class structure and ideology of
traditional, modern intellectuals/intelligentsia. The general
conceptual framework discusses on these issues, the views of three
generations of scholarship covering both the Marxist and non-Marxist
thoughts. The major scholars and/or revolutionaries covered include,
on the Marxist side - Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc., and on the non-
Marxist side - Durkheim, Weber, Manheim and Shils. Further, the book
examines the views of both Marxist and non-Marxist scholars, belonging
to different disciplines and activists, on the class structure and
ideology of the post-Independence intellectuals/intelligentsia in
general in India and of the teachers in particular. It applies the
conceptual perspectives on intellectuals with empirical findings
relating to the class structure and ideology of teachers.

The book would be useful to those in social science disciplines and
also activists engaged in the struggle for social transformation.

About The Author(s)

Kameshwar Choudhary has done M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D. from Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi. Previously he was Lecturer in the
Department of Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences, Agra.
Presently he is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Rural
Management, Anand (Gujarat).

A member of several national and international social science and
development bodies, he has many publications to his credit in noted
journals on socio-political, educational and developmental issues. He
also holds associateship of the Indian.

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Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History
By Romila Thapar

About The Book

Over the last couple of decades the study of history has gradually
changed. History is no longer a mere study of the events of the past
but its scope had broadened. Along with discoveries of new
inscriptions and relics, the hitherto neglected areas like socio-
economic, environmental, ecological, linguistic and historical changes
have slowly come into focus in recent writings. This subtle but
identifiable change in perspective has led to history being regarded
as a social science. One development resulting from this is the
adoption of an interdisciplinary approach.

This volume of essays serves as a unique guide to new interpretations
of early Indian history currently being discussed by the historians
and other scholars working on the past of India. This volume is
intended to draw the attention of students of Indian history and will
be of interest to a general reader probing the early history of India.

About The Author(s)

All the contributors are or were associated with the Centre for
Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Shereen Ratnagar specializes in the protohistoric archaeology of India
and the history of ancient Mesopotamia. Her research interests are in
early states, trade and urbanism.

K. Meenakshi works on areal linguistics, and on the ancient Indian
grammatical tradition and Sanskrit syntax.

Romila Thapar has an interest in the social and cultural history of
early India and in historiography.

H. P. Ray works on early historical trade in India and on maritime
contacts with Southeast Asia.

Kunal Chakrabarti is interested in the social history of religion and
mythology.

Rajan Gurukkal specializes in the early history of south India and is
particularly interested in the question of social formations.

R. Champakalakshmi has written on south Indian History and her special
interests are in urbanization, the links between religion and society
and in historical geography.

B. D. Chattopadhyaya is interested in exploring the history of early
medieval India.

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Society At The Time Of The Buddha
By Narendra Wagle

About The Book

Pali Literature has provided mass of data on the life and culture of
ancient India. Modern historical research has, however shown that this
literature was composed during different periods and therefore
reflects varying social conditions. Theravada Pali Cannon especially
Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas formulated in the centuries immediately
succeeding Buddha is the main source for a reliable account of the
social conditions of the age intimately connected with the personality
of Gautama the Buddha.

In this pioneering study, the author has defined the countours of
social, economic and religious structures. He has examined the units
of patterns of settlement such as village-town-city and region,
analysed in the context of people and groups, which inhabited these
units. Through an exhaustive analysis of the terms of address and
reference, he has established the social ranking and social groups.

The Gods in relation to human society studied in the book reveals a
complex pattern of interactive relationships. It shows how the Gods
and their worlds are conceived by various social and religious groups.
The use of money and other economic activities which provide its
material basis are reviewed. The Buddha provided ideological base for
people generating wealth in society.

About The Author(s)

Prof. Narendra K. Wagle is Director of the Centre for South Asian
Studies in the University of Toronto, Canada. He was a post-doctoral
fellow in the University of Chicago, and was teaching at the
University of Virginia and Skidmore College, before joining the
University of Toronto in 1966. His current projects include Eighteenth
Century Social and Legal History of Western India.

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State and Society in India
By A. R. Desai

About The Book

The essays included in this volume have emanated from the author’s
continuous and critical observation of social change after
Independence. It is a critique pointing out the fallacies underlying
the theoretical approaches adopted by the dominant scholarship in
Social Sciences.

About The Author(s)

A. R. Desai's life was a rare and exemplary combination of activism
and scholarship. His was a lifelong commitment and involvement in
socialist and democratic causes: as a pioneer Marxist theoretician,
activist for a time in the revolutionary Socialist Party, major
inspiration for a variety of Marxian Left-and particularly Trotskyian-
groups in Bombay and Gujarat. This went along with dedicated and
rigorous scholarship, as sociologist and historian, author of numerous
highly influential studies on nationalism, rural sociology, and
urbanisation, and editor of two important collections on peasant
struggles in India.

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The Other Gujarat: Social Transformations among weaker sections
By Takashi Shinoda

About The Book

This book focuses on the socio-economic transformation among the
weaker sections in society and examines how their socio-economic
conditions have changed over time, with due attention to the
structural transformation in Gujarat. The contributors to this volume,
N. R. Sheth, Ghanshyam Shah, Sujata Patel, Junko Kiso, Takashi
Shinoda, Mario Rutten, Anil Gumber, to name a few, are all scholars of
international repute and they have done detailed class/ caste/ gender
analyses to put certain deep-rooted practices and issues in
perspective.

The affluence of society is reflected in the position of weaker
sections. In this respect this book provides fresh analytical
framework and knowledge on weaker sections and will interest readers
keen on understanding the real affluence of society vis-à-vis common
features like marginalisation, segregation discrimination, neglect and
invisibility. The three sections in this book deal with different
issues that directly affect the underprivileged. Part I consists of
articles analysing the status of the backward classes; part II
includes papers dealing with the process of polarization and its
effect on the weaker sections in urban and rural Gujarat and part
three deals with the position of women.

The issues tackled in this book will be useful not just for
academicians interested in these issues but also for planners and
social workers who are interested in action and social change.

About The Author(s)

Takashi Shinoda is a Professor of Economics at Daito Bunka University,
Japan. The major areas of his interest are institutional change and
caste mobility, entrepreneurial development among the weaker sections,
slum development programmes and slum dwellers’ organizations,
livestock development and environment and issues on water user’s
associations. He has conducted field surveys on the above themes in
India (particularly Gujarat), Nepal and Pakistan.

He is the author of A Study on the Status of Sweepers in India (1995)
and has edited Entrepreneurial Development in Developing Countries
(1997) and has co-edited A Comparative Study on Irrigation Systems in
Asia (1996).

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Society in India
By David Mandelbaum

About The Book

This analysis of Indian society is the most comprehensive study that
has been done in the recent times. It brings together the results of
modern social research to reveal the regular patterns that underlie
social relations throughout the country; it also outlines some of the
principal social and regional variations. Professor Mandelbaum views
social relations in India as systems and parts of systems and shows
that Indian society has not been static or stagnant, as is often
asserted, but has continually been adapted, mainly on the basis of
certain deep-lying psychological and social themes.

Volume One opens with the concepts of social system and of caste order
and then declines the major components of Indian society. Family and
kinship relations are next discussed, with particular attention to the
relevance of family relations in the larger society. These chapters
note the cultural effects of kinship networks and the psychological
effects of the tensions inherent in the family relations.

Hierarchial ranking is central to relations among people of different
caste groups, or jatis; the next section of this volume explains how
jati rankings are made on the basis of both ritual criteria and
secular criteria. Hierarchy is significant within a jati as well as
among jatis. The chapters on jati organisation describe how the
members of a jati maintain their group and suggest why oppositions
within a jati commonly arise.

About The Author(s)

David G. Mandelbaum is Professor of Anthropology at the University of
California, Berkeley. His first field research in India was in 1937,
and he has returned to do field studies a number of time since then.

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ISBN : 81-7154-103-9
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Of Development Amidst Fragility - A Societal and Environmental
Perspective on Vadhavan Port
By Ritu Dewan, Michelle Chawla

About The Book

This book evaluates the impact of a proposed mega industrial port in
one of the three notified ecologically fragile regions of the country.
The analysis is located within the border context of the prevailing
dominant development paradigm that equates industrialization with
‘progress’, agriculture with ‘backwardness’ and mega-projects with
‘growth’.

The book attempts to construct a new methodology in the context of an
alternative cost-benefit analysis that incorporates resources and
benefits at the social level. The analysis encompasses various
interlinked issues including production patterns and systems, and the
achieved extent of economic viability and self-sufficiency which would
be destroyed by the mega ‘development’ project; the priorities of
infrastructural investment in relation to the primary needs of the
people; an economic evaluation of whether a new port is needed at all
in the context of the level of utilization of existing capacities; an
examination of the various national and multinational agencies
involved in the project; investigation through detailed fieldwork of
the economic, environmental, social, cultural, tribal and gender
impacts of the proposed port at Dahanu.

The debate centers on the translation and manifestation of macro
policies at the micro level in relation to the fulfillment of societal
objectives in a situation of globilisation, as well as the reality of
existence of people and the availability and optimum utilization of
both the national and natural resources within the paradigm of
sustainable development. The issue of debate consequently, is not
development versus environment, but a pattern of development that
centers on the needs of people, the availability of resources and the
optimal utilization of capital in the concrete reality of
underdevelopment.

MRP : Rs. 165.00/-
Webprice : Rs. 132.00/-
ISBN : 81-7154-688-9
Format : Book

http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=273

Rural India In Transition
By A. R. Desai

About The Book

India has an overwhelming rural population. To transform this
underdeveloped and predominantly agrarian society into a highly
developed industrial society, the Government of India has evolved a
specific economic policy, which is founded on the postulates of mixed
economy and capitalist functional planning instead of socialist
structural planning.

This is the second edition of Rural India in Transition by Prof. A. R.
Desai. The significance of this work lies in the fact that the papers
included in this volume on the changes that have been taking place as
a result of the government measures in the agrarian society in India
have an underlying unit of approach. While many village studies have
been conducted on the -a historical Tradition-Modernity Model, the
author emphasizes the need to examine the transformation that has been
taking place in the rural India from the standpoint of historical
materialism. He has pointed out that the various measures adopted by
the Government to improve the lot of rural masses are on the
capitalistic lines and as such will not be effective in their purpose.
He has tried to examine in greater details the social implications of
Land Reforms, Village Panchayats, Bhoodan and Co-operatives. These
studies reveal that rural changes that is generated by the Government
measures has resulted in sharpening the contradictions among the
various classes composing the rural society which is in the context of
the caste and other institutional background is unleashing tensions,
antagonisms and conflicts.

About The Author(s)

Dr. A. R. Desai, former Professor and Head of the Department of
Sociology, University of Bombay, won scholarly recognition with his
very first book Social Background of Indian Nationalism. Subsequently
he wrote a companion volume to it, titled Recent Trends in Indian
Nationalism. His other works are: Indian Feudal State and National
Liberation Struggle, Gandhijis Truth and Non-Violence X-Rayed, Slums
and Urbanization (with S.Devadas Pillai), Essays on Modernization of
Underdeveloped Societies (2 volumes) (Ed.), A Positive Programme for
Indian Revolution (Ed), and State and Society in India: Essays in
Dissent.

Dr. A. R. Desai is a founder member of the Indian Sociology Society.
He was one of the participants in Bombay unit of the UNESCO Group
Tension Studies conducted under the direction of Dr. Gardner Murphy.
In 1964, he was invited to participate in the First World Congress of
Rural Sociology held in France and also to give talks in several
European countries. In 1971,under the Cultural Exchange Programme, he
visited the U.S.S.R for three months as Senior Fellow. He was given
I.C.S.S.R. Senior Fellowship from 1973 to 1975.

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ISBN : 81-7154-016-3
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CASTE,CLASS and OCCUPATION
G. S.GHURYE
Professor Emeritus of sociology,
University of Bombay

POPULAR BOOK DEPOT, BOMBAY 7

Contents

CONTENTS I Features of the Caste System 1 - 29

II Nature of Caste-Groups 30 - 41
III Caste through the Ages 42 - 73
IV Caste through the Ages-II 74 - 111
V Race and Caste 112 - 137
VI Elements of Caste outside India 138 - 158
VII Origins of the Caste System 159 - 177
VIII Caste and British Rule 178 - 212
IX Scheduled Castes 213 - 240
X Occupation and Caste 241 - 281
XI Class and its Role 282 - 304
XII Future of Caste 305 - 326

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABRAM A. Social England in the Fifteenth Century, 1909.

ADAMS G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages, 1910.

ALTEKAR A. S. A History of Village Communities in Western
India, 1927.

APASTAMBA Dharmasutra, (Buhler's trans, in SBE., 1879).

ARTHASASTRA (1) Ed. by R. Shama Sastri, 1919.

(2) Translation by R. Shama Sastri ( 2nd
ed.).

ASHLEY W. G. An Introduction to Economic History, Vol. 1,
Pt. i, 1888.

ATTENBOROUGGH F. L. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, ed.
and trans. by F. L. Attenborough, 1922.

BADEN-POWELL, B. H. The Indian Village Community, 1896.

BAINES, ATHELSTANE Ethnography (Castes and Tribes), 1912.

BASHFORD, J. W. China, an interpretation, 1916.

BAUDHAYANA Dharmasutra, (Buhler's trans. in SBE, 1882).

BENGAL CENSUS, 1921 Census of India, 1921, Bengal Report.
BEYAN, E. History of Egypt, Ptolemaic Dynasty, 1927.
BHATTACHARYA, J. Hindu Castes and Sects, 1896.

BLUNT, E. A. H. The Caste System of Northern India, 1931.
BOSE, P. A History of Hindu Civilization during British
Rule, Vol. II, 1894.

BREASTED, J. H. (1) A History of Egypt, ed. 1916.
(2) Ancient Times, 1917.

BRIGGS, G. W. The Chamars, 1920.

BRINKLEY, Capt. F. (1) Oriental Series, 11 Vols., 1902 ff.
(2) Japan, 3 Vols., China, Vol. I, etc., 1902 ff,

BRISSAUD, J. (1) A History of French Private Law, trans.
by R. Howell, 1912.

(2) A History of French Public Law, trans.
by J. W. Garner, 1915.

BROOKS, B. ALLARD A Contribution to the Study of the Moral
Practices of Certain Social Groups in Ancient Mesopotamia, 1920.

CAMBRIDE HISTORY OF INDIA Vol. 1, Ancient India, edited by E. J.
Rapson,
1922.

CAPLOW, T. The Sociology of Work, 1954.

CENTERS, R. The Psychology of Social Classes, 1949.

CHADWICK, H. M. Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 1905.

-337-

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
(Caste and Class in India)

In this edition of my book I have reinstated the chapter
on Race which I had dropped out from the last edition.
Teachers of the subject represented to me that the deletion
of that chapter was felt by them and their students to be a
great handicap in the study of caste. I have therefore brought
it up-to-date and included it in this edition. In keeping with
the new political and social set-up -- I must point out that at
the time of the last edition, the Constitution of India was not
framed or published -- I have added a much-needed chapter
on Scheduled Castes. In other places I have only added here
and there some of the evidence that I thought to be absolutely
indispensable; otherwise I have kept the book as it was.
I hope readers of my book will find these changes of advan-
tage to them.

G. S. GHURYE

University Department of Sociology,
Bombay
12-12-1956.

-xi-

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
(Caste and Class in India)

In 1921 when studying at Cambridge I chose caste as the
subject of my research. Previously, while living in London
for some time I had thought of combining the study of caste
with that of class. The decision I took at Cambridge was
the result of my preliminary study of the racial aspect of
caste. It was by itself intricate enough to occupy me for the
best part of two years which I could afford at Cambridge.
At that time I could hardly dream of anyone approaching a
similar avenue of study. But subsequent events showed that
Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis was studying Bengal caste from a
similar point of view. The results of my inquiry were
accepted as one of the papers for the Ph.D. degree by the
Cambridge University in the first quarter of 1923. The paper
Ethnic Theory of Caste after some delay was published in
Man in India in 1924. Before I left Cambridge in April 1923
I had signed a contract with Messrs. Kegan Paul and Co. for
a book Caste and Race in India to be included in their series
entitled History of Civilization, edited by C. K. Ogden. I had
already prepared a tentative plan of not only the racial aspect
but also the other aspects of caste and its historical setting.
When at Bombay I sat down to it in 1924 I added to it as a
natural conclusion the plan of analysis of contemporary trends.
The final type-script of the book was despatched to the London
publishers early in 1931 and the book was published by them
in London in the beginning of 1932.

Between the time my type-script of Caste and Race in
India left me and its publication in the book-form a number
of papers and books appeared here in India in quick succes-
sion, demonstrating the fact that the subject of caste was in
the air. The Report on the Indian Census of 1931 was pub-
lished after my book but the anthropometric survey under-
taken in connection with the Census was rather slow to

-xiii-

appear. The Census Report contained Dr. Hutton's contribu-
tion to caste. The anthropometric survey when published,
created a little confusion in the beginning. Later on its grave
defects were pointed out by me.

My book, as extracts of some of the reviews so insistently
printed by the present publishers will show, was almost uni-
versally well received. It went out of print some years back,
when owing to other pre-occupations I could not direct imme-
diate attention to its revision. When I was almost free to do
so I found that Dr. Hutton had forestalled me with his book
Caste in India. Naturally I waited for some time.

During the interval of nearly twenty years from the time
when the manuscript of Caste and Race in India was ready
and the actual revision of it, the subject of caste as an
extreme case of social stratification has assumed a significance
which was realized by me but was not common heritage of
sociologists. The European institution of class, too, has come
in for a more detailed and analytical treatment. A number
of investigations to measure its strength, to unravel its precise
nature, were made, more in the U.S.A. than in the U.K. The
Marxian doctrine of class-war, since the success of the Rus-
sian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Regime,
turned the attention of not only professional students but
wise statesmen to the understanding of class structure. In
the United States the Negro problem worried and worries a
number of sociologists and statesmen. Its apparent affiliation
to caste has naturally turned American attention to the study
of caste. Racial differentiation brought to the forefront by
the Nazis in Germany further oriented the subject. The
result is seen in the much fuller treatment of class and caste
in the recent edition of the best of English text-books of Socio-
logy, Prof. R. M. MacIver Society, which he has brought out
in collaboration with Page. A little earlier Cox wrote a
whole volume, which for the first time brought the three
aspect of social differentiation, caste, class and race, together
under one title.

-xiv-

The importance of the study of social differentiation only
adds its weight to my viewpoint. In the new set-up, national
and international, it was natural that class society should be
more prominently associated with caste society and public
attention should be specifically drawn to the developing trans-
formation and to the dangers to be avoided. To achieve this
end a new chapter entitled "Class, its Role" is added and the
book in named Caste and Class in India. As for the rest, only
slight alterations have been made. They incorporate addi-
tional evidence of the original viewpoint come to hand during
twenty years' reading and thinking.

G. S. GHURYE
Khar,
Bombay 21.
30th June 1950.

-xv-

PREFACE TO
CASTE AND RACE IN INDIA
(Published in 1932 in the History of
Civilization Series)

In the following pages I have made an attempt to give
my views on the history and the origin of the caste-system
as it was in the past and is today among the Hindus of India.
As regards caste in recent and contemporary times, I have
purposely restricted the treatment to the institution as it is
found among the Hindus. Whatever elements of caste happen
to occur among the other communities of India are derivative,
and as such do not serve to illuminate the problem of caste.
While writing about an institution which has been studied
by scholars for over half a century, one receives intellectual
stimulation on its many aspects from various authors. One's
obligations to them are too indirect and indefinite to be men-
tioned in specific references. And when such references are
made, they often do not measure the scope of one's obliga-
tions. In the present book I find myself in this situation with
respect to some writers on the subject of caste, notably J. C.
Nesfield, Professor E. W. Hopkins, E. Senart, Sir H. H. Risley
and Dr. S. V. Ketkar. I have derived great benefit from
their works, for which my sincere thanks are due to them.

Many of my friends have done me the honour of contri-
buting something or other in connection with this work.
Professor A. S. Altekar of Benares has read in manuscript
the third and fourth chapters, and has made some useful
suggestions. Mr. S. R. Deshpande of Bombay has particularly
helped me in reading the proofs and making a few corrections.
Professor D. R. Gadgil of Poona has read the whole manus-
cript, and enabled me to improve it very much by his pene-
trating criticisms. Dr. E. J. Thomas of Cambridge has helped
me to avoid many pitfalls, and to insert the diacritical marks,
so essential for proper pronunciation. To all of them I am
grateful for their ready and generous help.

G. S. GHURYE

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Registered in Bombay in 1951 Under Act XX1 1860

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Gods and men.
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay, Popular Book Depot [1962]
MILLS Bookstacks BL 2001.2 .G5 Checked in

2. Religious consciousness
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1965.
MILLS Bookstacks BL 1210 .G45 Checked in
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3. Caste, class, and occupation. -
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Edition: [4th ed.]. -
Published: Bombay: Popular Book Depot, [1961]
MILLS Bookstacks DS 422 .C3 G5 1961 Checked in

4. The scheduled tribes / G. S. Ghurye. --
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Edition: 3d ed. --
Published: Bombay : Popular Prakashan, 1963.
MILLS Bookstacks DS 430 .G5 1963 Checked in

5. Cities and civilization.
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay, Popular Prakashan [1962]
Storage HT 151 .G42 Retrieve from storage

6. Caste and class in India.
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Edition: [New 3d ed.].
Published: Bombay, Popular Book Depot, 1957.
MILLS Bookstacks DS 422 .C3 G5 Checked in

7. Caste and race in India [by] G. S. Ghurye.
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Edition: [5th ed.]
Published: Bombay, Popular Prakashan [1969]
MILLS Bookstacks DS 422 .C3 G5 1969 Item missing

8. Two Brahmanical institutions: gotra and charana/ [by] G. S.
Ghurye.-
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay: Popular Prakashan, [1972]
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9. Social tensions in India [by] G. S. Ghurye. --
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay : Popular Prakashan, [1968]
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10. Whither India? [by] G. S. Ghurye. --
By: Ghurye, G. S. (Govind Sadashiv), 1893-
Published: Bombay : Popular Prakashan, [1974]
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Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Bibliography

Béteille, André (1969). "The Future of the Backward Classes." In
Castes: Old and New, Essays in Social Structure and Social
Stratification, edited by André Béteille, 103-145. Bombay: Asia
Publishing House.

Ghurye, G. S. (1963). The Scheduled Tribes. 3rd ed. Bombay: Popular
Prakashan.

Mahar, J. Michael, ed. (1972). The Untouchables in Contemporary India.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Scheduled-Castes-and-Scheduled-Tribes-Bibliography.html

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/467/1/MNS-AT.pdf

Indian Business and Nationalist Politics 1931-39: The Indigenous
Capitalist Class and the Rise of the Congress Party
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 3:59:23 PM | shekhar
Type Book
Author Claude Markovits
Publisher Cambridge University Press
ISBN 0521016827
Date 2002-05-16
Library Catalog Amazon.com
Short Title Indian Business and Nationalist Politics 1931-39

I and other explorations
Saturday, July 04, 2009, 11:58:42 AM | shekhar
Type Book
Author G Ghurye
Place Bombay
Publisher Popular Prakashan
Date 1973

Cities and civilization.
Saturday, July 04, 2009, 11:58:31 AM | shekhar
Type Book
Author G Ghurye
Place Bombay
Publisher Popular Prakashan
Date 1962

Professor Ghurye felicitation volume
Saturday, July 04, 2009, 11:58:21 AM | shekhar
Type Book
Author G.S. Ghurye
Author Kanaiylal Motilal Kapadia
Place Bombay
Publisher Popular Book Depot
Date 1954

After a century and a quarter Lonikand then and now.
Saturday, July 04, 2009, 11:56:57 AM | shekhar
Type Book
Author G Ghurye
Place Bombay
Publisher Popular Book Depot
Date 1960

Anthropo-sociological papers.
Saturday, July 04, 2009, 11:56:52 AM | shekhar
Type Book
Author G Ghurye
Place Bombay
Publisher Popular Prakashan
Date 1963

https://api.zotero.org/users/558/collections/2755/items

PREFACE

I am happy to bring this C D version of the Pune District Gazetteer,
which was published in 1954 by the Gazetteers Department . This is the
First effort to bring out the Gazetteers in C.D.

In the series of Gazetteers of the Bombay Presidency, Pune District
Gazetteer was first published in 1885 by the British Government which
was edited by Mr James M. Campbell in three parts. This was reprinted
and published by this Department in 1992. The copies of this second
revised edition (1954) of Pune District Gazetteer are now out of
stock. Hence, taking into consideration the felt utility of this
edition, and to preserve in treasure of knowledge, I have decided to
bring out this edition in C D form with little statistical
supplementary and some photographs. I am sure, scholars and studious
persons will find them this C.D. very useful. It may be pertinent to
state that a revised Marathi edition of the Pune District Gazetteer is
being brought out by this department in shortly.

I am thankful to the hon' ble Ramkrishnaji More (Minister for Cultural
Affairs And Education) , Hon"ble Dr N. P. Hirani (State Minister For
Cultural Affairs) and Hon'ble Shri Govind Swarup (Principal Scretary,
Cultural Affairs ) , Government Of Maharashtra for encouragement of
this project.

MUMBAI
DR. ARUNCHANDRA. S. PATHAK

Date : 19th FEB
2000
Executive, Editor And Secretary.)

PREFACE

THE GAZETTEER of the Bombay Presidency was originally compiled between
1874 and 1884 and this revised edition of it has been prepared under
the orders of the Government of Bombay. The work was entrusted to the
Bombay District Gazetteers (Revisions) Editorial Board which was
specially created for that purpose in 1949. The following members
constituted the Board during the period of the compilation of the
Poona District Gazetteer :—

Chief Secretary to Government : Chairman.

Professor C. N. Vakil, Director, School of Economics and Sociology,
University of Bombay.

Dr. G. S. Ghurye, Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology,
University of Bombay.

Dr. S. M. Katre, Director, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research
Institute, Poona.

Dr. S. C. Nandimath, Principal, Basaveshvar College, Bagalkot.

Director of Archives, Bombay.

Executive Editor and Secretary.

Shri M. D. Bhat, I. C. S., Chief Secretary to Government, was Chairman
of the Board from April 1949 to April 1952 and on his retirement was
succeeded by Shri M. D. Bhansali, I. C. S., Chief Secretary to
Government, who continued to be Chairman till the date of publication
of this volume.

Dr. P. M. Joshi, Director of Archives, was a member throughout the
period.

Prof. D. G. Karve was appointed the first Executive Editor and
Secretary in May 1949 and after his resignation was succeeded by Prof.
M. r. Palande in September 1952. The press copy of this volume was
prepared under the direction of Prof. D. G. Karve.

Diacritical marks to explain the pronunciation of place names and of
words in Indian languages have been used only in two chapters, namely,
chapter 3 —The People and Their Culture and chapter 20—Places of
Interest, and also in the Director of Villages and Towns. In other
chapters the current spellings have been retained. A key to the
diacritical marks used is given at page 689.

BOMBAY,
M. R. PALANDE,
June 1954.

Executive Editor and Secretary.

http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/gazetteer.php?level=2&showFile=1&gazetteerSqlId=20020426074413&gazetteerMainId=&gazetteerFile2Id=&distId=25&gazId=20020426074254&pubYear=&fileExists=&headingSqlName=Preface&chapter=

[Sid Harth]

India

James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, editors. India: A Country Study.
Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1995.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank individuals in various agencies of the
Indian and United States governments and private institutions who gave
their time, research materials, and special knowledge to provide
information and perspective. These individuals include Hardeep Puri,
Joint Secretary (America) of the Ministry of External Affairs;
Madhukar Gupta, Joint Secretary (Kashmir) of the Ministry of Home
Affairs; Bimla Bhalla, Director General of Advertising and Visual
Publications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Amulya Ratna
Nanda, Registrar General of India; Ashok Jain, director of the
National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies; T.
Vishwanthan, director of the Indian National Scientific Documentation
Centre; G.P. Phondke, director of the Publications and Information
Directorate of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; Air
Commander Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute for Defence Studies
and Analyses; G. Madhavan, deputy executive secretary of the Indian
Academy of Sciences; Sivaraj Ramaseshan, distinguished emeritus
professor, Raman Research Institute; H.S. Nagaraja, public relations
officer of the Indian Institute of Science; Virendra Singh, director
of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Bhabani Sen Gupta of
the Centre for Policy Research; Pradeep Mehendiratta, Vice President
and Executive Director, Indian Institute of American Studies; and
Richard J. Crites, Chat Blakeman, Peter L.M. Heydemann, and Marcia
S.B. Bernicat of the United States Embassy in New Delhi. Special
thanks go to Lygia M. Ballantyne, director, and Alice Kniskern, deputy
director, and the staff of the Library of Congress New Delhi Field
Office, particularly Atish Chatterjee, for supplying bounteous amounts
of valuable research materials on India and arranging interviews of
Indian government officials.

Appreciation is also extended to Ralph K. Benesch, who formerly
oversaw the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program for the Department
of the Army, and to the desk officers in the Department of State and
the Department of the Army who reviewed the chapters. Thanks also are
offered to William A. Blanpied, Mavis Bowen, Ainslie T. Embree, Jerome
Jacobson, Suzanne Hanchett, Barbara Leitch LePoer, Owen M. Lynch, and
Sunalini Nayudu, who either assisted with substantive information or
read parts of the manuscript or did both.

The authors also wish to thank those who contributed directly to the
preparation of the manuscript. They include Sandra W. Meditz, who
reviewed all textual and graphic materials, served as liaison with the
Department of the Army, and provided numerous substantive and
technical contributions; Sheila Ross, who edited the chapters; Andrea
T. Merrill, who edited the tables and figures; Marilyn Majeska, who
supervised editing and managed production; Alberta Jones King, who
assisted with research, making wordprocessing corrections to various
versions of the manuscript, and proofreading; Barbara Edgerton and
Izella Watson, who performed the final wordprocessing; Marla D.
Woodson, who assisted with proofreading; and Janie L. Gilchrist, David
P. Cabitto, Barbara Edgerton, and Izella Watson, who prepared the
camera-ready copy. Catherine Schwartzstein performed the final
prepublication editorial review, and Joan C. Cook compiled the index.

Graphics support was provided by David P. Cabitto, who oversaw the
production of maps and graphics and, with the assistance of Wayne
Horne, designed the cover and the illustrations on the chapter title
pages; and Harriet Blood and Maryland Mapping and Graphics, who
assisted in the preparation of the maps and charts. Thanks also go to
Gary L. Fitzpatrick and Christine M. Anderson, of the Library of
Congress Geography and Map Division, for assistance in preparing early
map drafts. A very special thank you goes to Janice L. Hyde, who did
the research on and selection of cover and title-page illustrations
and photographs, translated some of the photograph captions and
textual references, and helped the editors on numerous matters of
substance and analysis. Shantha S. Murthy of the Library of Congress
Serial Record Division provided Indian language assistance. Clarence
Maloney helped identify the subjects of some of the photographs.

Finally the authors acknowledge the generosity of individ-uals and
public and private organizations who allowed their photographs to be
used in this study. They have been acknowledged in the illustration
captions.

http://countrystudies.us/india/1.htm

Preface

This edition supersedes the fourth edition of India: A Country Study ,
published in 1985 under the editorship of Richard F. Nyrop. The new
edition provides updated information on the world's second most
populous and fastest-growing nation. Although much of India's
traditional behavior and organizational dynamics reported in 1985 have
remained the same, internal and regional events have continued to
shape Indian domestic and international policies.

To the extent possible, place-names used in the text conform to the
United States Board on Geographic Names, but equal weight has been
given to spellings provided by the official Survey of India.
Measurements are given in the metric system.

The body of the text reflects information available as of September 1,
1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated.
The Bibliography lists published sources thought to be particularly
helpful to the reader.

http://countrystudies.us/india/2.htm

History

THOSE "WHO WEAR COTTON CLOTHES, use the decimal system, enjoy the
taste of [curried] chicken, play chess, or roll dice, and seek peace
of mind or tranquility through meditation," writes historian Stanley
Wolpert, "are indebted to India." India's deep-rooted civilization may
appear exotic or even inscrutable to casual foreign observers, but a
perceptive individual can see its evolution, shaped by a wide range of
factors: extreme climatic conditions, a bewildering diversity of
people, a host of competing political overlords (both local and
outsiders), enduring religious and philosophical beliefs, and complex
linguistic and literary developments that led to the flowering of
regional and pan-Indian culture during the last three millennia. The
interplay among a variety of political and socioeconomic forces has
created a complex amalgam of cultures that continue amidst conflict,
compromise, and adaptation. "Wherever we turn," says Wolpert, "we
find . . . palaces, temples, mosques, Victorian railroad stations,
Buddhist stupas, Mauryan pillars; each century has its unique
testaments, often standing incongruously close to ruins of another
era, sometimes juxtaposed one atop another, much like the ruins of
Rome, or Bath."

India's "great cycle of history," as Professor Hugh Tinker put it,
entails repeating themes that continue to add complexity and diversity
to the cultural matrix. Throughout its history, India has undergone
innumerable episodes involving military conquests and integration,
cultural infusion and assimilation, political unification and
fragmentation, religious toleration and conflict, and communal harmony
and violence. A few other regions in the world also can claim such a
vast and differentiated historical experience, but Indian civilization
seems to have endured the trials of time the longest. India has proven
its remarkable resilience and its innate ability to reconcile opposing
elements from many indigenous and foreign cultures. Unlike the West,
where modern political developments and industrialization have created
a more secular worldview with redefined roles and values for
individuals and families, India remains largely a traditional society,
in which change seems only superficial. Although India is the world's
largest democracy and the seventh-most industrialized country in the
world, the underpinnings of India's civilization stem primarily from
its own social structure, religious beliefs, philosophical outlook,
and cultural values. The continuity of those time-honed traditional
ways of life has provided unique and fascinating patterns in the
tapestry of contemporary Indian civilization.

http://countrystudies.us/india/3.htm

Harappan Culture
http://countrystudies.us/india/4.htm
Vedic Aryans
http://countrystudies.us/india/5.htm
Kingdoms and Empires
http://countrystudies.us/india/6.htm
The Mauryan Empire
http://countrystudies.us/india/7.htm
The Deccan and the South
http://countrystudies.us/india/8.htm
Gupta and Harsha
http://countrystudies.us/india/9.htm
The Coming of Islam
http://countrystudies.us/india/10.htm
Southern Dynasties
http://countrystudies.us/india/11.htm
The Mughals
http://countrystudies.us/india/12.htm
The Marathas
http://countrystudies.us/india/13.htm
The Sikhs
http://countrystudies.us/india/14.htm
The Coming of the Europeans
http://countrystudies.us/india/15.htm
The British Empire in India
http://countrystudies.us/india/16.htm
Company Rule, 1757-1857
http://countrystudies.us/india/16.htm
The British Raj, 1858-1947
http://countrystudies.us/india/17.htm
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-59
http://countrystudies.us/india/17.htm
After the Sepoy Rebellion
http://countrystudies.us/india/18.htm
The Independence Movement
http://countrystudies.us/india/19.htm
Mahatma Gandhi
http://countrystudies.us/india/20.htm
Political Impasse and Independence
http://countrystudies.us/india/21.htm
Independent India
http://countrystudies.us/india/24.htm
National Integration
http://countrystudies.us/india/22.htm
Jawaharlal Nehru
http://countrystudies.us/india/23.htm
Indira Gandhi
http://countrystudies.us/india/24.htm
Rajiv Gandhi
http://countrystudies.us/india/25.htm

Geography and Demographics

Geography

Coasts and Borders
Rivers
Climate
Earthquakes
Population
Population Projections
Population and Family Planning Policy
Health Conditions
http://countrystudies.us/india/35.htm
Health Care
Education
http://countrystudies.us/india/37.htm

Religion

The Vedas and Polytheism
http://countrystudies.us/india/39.htm
Karma and Liberation
Jainism
http://countrystudies.us/india/41.htm
Buddhism
http://countrystudies.us/india/42.htm
The Worship of Personal Gods
http://countrystudies.us/india/43.htm
Vishnu
Shiva
Brahma and the Hindu Trinity
The Goddess
http://countrystudies.us/india/47.htm
Local Deities
http://countrystudies.us/india/48.htm
The Ceremonies of Hinduism
Domestic Worship
Life-Cycle Rituals
Temples
Pilgrimage
Festivals
Islam
http://countrystudies.us/india/55.htm
Sikhism
http://countrystudies.us/india/56.htm
Tribal Religions
http://countrystudies.us/india/57.htm
Christianity
http://countrystudies.us/india/58.htm
Zoroastrianism
http://countrystudies.us/india/59.htm
Judaism
http://countrystudies.us/india/60.htm
Modern Changes in Religion
http://countrystudies.us/india/61.htm

Language, Ethnicity, and Regionalism

Linguistic Relations
Diversity, Use, and Policy
Languages of India
Hindi and English
Hindi
English
Linguistic States
The Social Context of Language
http://countrystudies.us/india/69.htm
Tribes
http://countrystudies.us/india/70.htm
Jews and Parsis
http://countrystudies.us/india/71.htm
Portuguese
http://countrystudies.us/india/72.htm
Anglo-Indians
http://countrystudies.us/india/73.htm
Africans
http://countrystudies.us/india/74.htm
Regionalism
http://countrystudies.us/india/75.htm
Telangana Movement

Jharkhand Movement
http://countrystudies.us/india/76.htm
Uttarakhand
http://countrystudies.us/india/77.htm
Gorkhaland
http://countrystudies.us/india/78.htm
Ladakh
http://countrystudies.us/india/79.htm
The Northeast
http://countrystudies.us/india/80.htm

Society

Themes in Indian Society
Family
Veiling and the Seclusion of Women
Life Passages
Children and Childhood
Marriage
Adulthood
Death and Beyond
Caste and Class
The Village Community
Urban Life

The Economy

Structure of the Economy
The Role of Government
Labor
Industry
Government Policies
Manufacturing
Energy
Mining and Quarrying
Tourism
Science and Technology
Agriculture
Crops
The Green Revolution
Livestock and Poultry
Forestry
Fishing

Government and Politics

The Constitution
Politics
The Congress
Opposition Parties
Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism
http://countrystudies.us/india/113.htm
Communist Parties
Regional Parties
Caste-Based Parties
http://countrystudies.us/india/116.htm
Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir
http://countrystudies.us/india/117.htm
Hindu-Muslim Tensions
http://countrystudies.us/india/118.htm
Corruption
http://countrystudies.us/india/119.htm
The Media
The Rise of Civil Society

Foreign Relations

Pakistan
http://countrystudies.us/india/123.htm
Bangladesh
http://countrystudies.us/india/124.htm
Sri Lanka
http://countrystudies.us/india/125.htm
Nepal
http://countrystudies.us/india/126.htm
Bhutan
http://countrystudies.us/india/127.htm
Maldives
China
http://countrystudies.us/india/129.htm
Southeast Asia
Middle East
http://countrystudies.us/india/131.htm
Central Asia
Russia
http://countrystudies.us/india/133.htm
United States
http://countrystudies.us/india/134.htm
Britain, Australia, Canada, Western Europe, and Japan
United Nations

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Enter your search terms Submit search form
Web countrystudies.us

http://countrystudies.us/india/137.htm

FOCUS GROUP ASIAN SUBCONTINENT:

Muslim-Hindu Relations in India

Beside being one of the most populous nations in the world, India is
also one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse. Islam and
Hinduism are the main religions in India, however, and the two have
had a very long and sometimes violent coexistence. After the British
left India in 1947, in particular, the continent split into the
nations of the Muslim Pakistan and a majority-Hindu India in a violent
partition which cost the lives of approximately one million people and
dislocation of no fewer than eleven million.

Since 1947 India and Pakistan have fought three wars with each other
since then; and violence between Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims in India
itself have also been bitter and violent. The secular regime in
democratic India that Mahatmas Gandhi help establish in 1947 professes
to be one country for all Indians, no matter their religion; but
enmity between religions continues to plague India. The tide of Hindu
communalism continues to roll across the Indian subcontinent, and with
a literacy rate of just 30% and horrific poverty India's democracy
faces strong challenges in the future. Combine that with the
conflicts in Kashmir with Pakistan and the proliferation of nuclear
weapons in the area, and the situation is particularly dangerous.

Questions to keep in mind: What historical events in history
contribute to present day bad feelings between Muslims and Hindus on
the Asian subcontinent? What are the wars, conflicts, rivalries that
Muslims and Hindus have suffered between them? What was the influence
of the life and death of Mohandas Gandhi? How many Muslims are there
compared to Hindus and Sikhs in present day India? What conflicts
have arisen on sites considered "holy" by both Muslims and Hindus?

RESOURCES:

At Yahoo! check out the following categories: Indian history in
general, India by time period, and Mohandas Gandhi. Also check out
this excellent CNN perspective on India and Pakistan: 50 Years of
Independence. This is also an excellent article about Indian and the
recent elections there.

Check out these links also: Redif India Online, Discover India, India
Express, Hello India!, India Review, Inet India, and India on
Internet.

Check out these official Indian government pages: Indian Parliament
Home Page, and The President of India.

This is a cool link about Hindu vs. Muslim values in India. This is
also good. Read this article about tensions between Indian Muslims
and Hindu nationalists.

Check out the below NPR radio broadcasts to get an in-depth analysis
of events:

India-Pakistan: Tit for Tat
Tensions rise anew with the shooting down of a Pakistani military
plane and a reported retaliatory missile firing (8/23/99)

CNN broadcasts: Pakistan/India Partition, India/Pakistan at 50, India
Acquires Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan Nuclear Weapons, India Hindu-Muslm
Tensions, India Diverse Country (good link!)

http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/India/Arts_and_Humanities/Humanities/History/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/India/Arts_and_Humanities/Humanities/History/By_Time_Period/

INDIA ELECTION '98

March 4 1998
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript

Leaders of a Hindu nationalist party are demanding the right to form
India's next government after nearly complete election returns show
the party winning the most seats in the parliament. But conflicting
claims have led to bitterness and confusion. Fred de Sam Lazaro has
this report on the party's rise to power.

A RealAudio version of this segment is available.

http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/milken/crescent-moon/asian-subcontient/hindu-islam-history/hindu-islam.html

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ramesh Chand Thomar has served in India's
parliament since 1991, representing a semi-rural district in the
Northern, Uttar Pradesh province. He began this campaign day with a
stop at a Hindu temple, part of a routine that emphasizes the central
theme of his BJP or India People's Party. Called Hindutva, the slogan
has few specifics but declares India "a nation of Hindu values." He
insists this does not violate the secular democratic tradition of
Mahatma Gandhi, on which the nation was founded. Thomar says it simply
calls on Indians to be patriotic.

RAMESH CHAND THOMAR: Indian must think first of India, the development
of India, the prosperity of India, we like that. The people are living
here and they are thinking about other countries.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What other countries specifically?

RAMESH CHAND THOMAR: Neighboring countries, whatever they have in
their mind, I cannot say.

BJP strategy: anti-muslim rhetoric?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The BJP's critics say that's code language aimed
at India's Muslim minority. They are often accused of being loyal to
Pakistan, India's Islamic neighbor and adversary in three wars,
according to Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of parliament and
publisher of a journal called Muslim India.

SYED SHAHABUDDIN, Publisher, Muslim India: This is precisely their
method of trying to undo, or rather to do a minority out of its due
share. Point one, look, he's the enemy, he is the other, he is the
enemy, he is the adversary, he's with them; he's the fifth columnist.
He's at the beck and call of Pakistan. And Pakistan, of course, you
know, is always leaving difficult responsibilities against us. And
this is how you create a miasma of fear, and that is how you create
distrust. That is how you inject poison into the body politic of this
country, and that is how you create an atmosphere in which any amount
of violence can take place.

Religious tensions become political issues.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Critics blame the BJP for trying to reignite
religious tensions that date back centuries. In the early 1990's, the
party led a campaign to remove a 16th century mosque, called Babri
Masjid, and replace it with a Hindu temple. They claimed India's
Muslim conquerors built it in a sacred spot; the birthplace of the
Hindu God Rama. Murali Manohar Joshi, a BJP leader, explained the
campaign to foreign reporters.

MURALI MANOHAR JOSHI: If Hitler would have been victorious in the
second world war and there would have been a statue of Hitler in
Trafalgar Square, and in 1990 the Britishers would have been liberated
from Hitler's yoke, what would they have done to that statue of
Hitler?

The ruling party faces voter resentment.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In 1992, rioters stormed the mosque called Babri
Masjid and razed it. The incident sparked violent clashes that claimed
dozens of Hindu and Muslim lives, and for a while, it seemed to
alienate many voters from the BJP, but political observers say it also
hurt the ruling Congress Party government, which was criticized for
not cracking down on the rioters. At the same time, the Congress
government, which had ruled India almost uninterrupted for four
decades, began to face increasing voter resentment for policies that
failed to deliver even basic amenities. It's frustration that's still
very much in evidence.

MAN: (speaking through interpreter) Take a look at the condition of
our village. Do you see any water taps? We have to go two kilometers
to get water, and we still get water from an open well.

TEACHER: (speaking through interpreter) The minister came here, he
promised to expand this school. We're still waiting. We only go to the
fifth grade. I'd love to see kids go to the eighth.

SECOND MAN: (speaking through interpreter) When it comes time for our
votes, they say they'll do this, they'll do that, in the end they
don't do anything.

THIRD MAN: (speaking through interpreter) The Congress Party has been
in power for a long time. They haven't done anything for the poor, the
lower castes.

The Congress Party faces allegations of corruption.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Perhaps the biggest reason for the Congress
Party's fall from grace were allegations of widespread corruption.
It's an issue the BJP has seized. A BJP promise to clean up politics
has struck a responsive chord, even among some Congress Party members,
like Colonel Ram Singh.

COLONEL RAM SINGH: I really got so disgusted. Every minister, barring
four or five of us, there is about 65, every minister was looting the
country literally with both hands, and it was shameful.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Singh, who ran for parliament this time as a BJP
candidate, believes his adopted party is divorcing itself from its
extremist past.

COLONEL RAM SINGH: I think that is gradually being removed. I mean, my
total outlook has always been, and will always be that every religion
should have equal place, equal rights, and they should be no
persecution of anybody on religious grounds.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Singh describes himself as a moderating force in
the BJP and the party has gone out of its way to tone down its
Hindutva rhetoric, according to H. K. Dua, editor of the Times of
India.

H. K. DUA, Editor, The Times of India: They are trying to project more
a centrist party, keen to do the business of the state, taking the
others along, than the kind of image they had tried to project
earlier. Possibly they are seeing it's politically necessary. They
won't be able to come to power if they are taking an extreme position.
So there is a definite attempt to demarcate themselves from the old--
the old Hindu image. But they're doing it softly, lest they may lose
their old constituency.

RAMESH THOMAR: India is a secular country, and it will remain always
secular.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Hard-line BJP candidates, like Ramesh Thomar,
insist they're committed to freedom for all religions, but at the same
time, Thomar says a temple must be built at the site of the demolished
Babri mosque.

RAMESH THOMAR: Construction of the temple is the permanent solution,
and most of the Muslim people also wants that the temple of Rama in
Ayodhya that should be constructed.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So you would like to see a temple constructed
in--

RAMESH THOMAR: Must, must, must.

Which party will control the future of India?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Election results show the BJP won the most seats
in parliament but not the majority needed to form a government. Its
position on the temple and other issues will be the subject of intense
and difficult negotiations as it seeks coalition partners. Kuldi
Nayyar is a columnist and former diplomat.

KULDIP NAYYAR, Columnist: The roots of tolerance, the roots of secular
polity, the roots of sense of accommodation are very deep, because
even last time, they tried their best to get others to join them.
Fourteen, fifteen parties came together to keep them away because
these people represent a philosophy or an ideology which is alien to
this country.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Opposing the BJP in the race to form a coalition
government is the once dominant Congress Party, whose campaign was led
by a woman with India's best-known political name, Sonia Gandhi. It
finished a distant second and will try to team with a group of smaller
parties called the United Front to stop the Hindu Nationalists.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june98/india_3-4.html

http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/milken/crescent-moon/asian-subcontient/hindu-islam-history/hindu-islam.html

[bademiyansubhanallah]

PAKISTAN
OR
THE PARTITION OF INDIA

BY
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

"More brain, O Lord, more brain! or we shall mar,
Utterly this fair garden we might win."
(Quotation from the title page of Thoughts on Pakistan, 1st ed.)

INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY
OF
RAMU
As a token of my appreciation of her goodness of heart, her nobility
of mind and her purity of character
and also for the cool fortitude and readiness to suffer along with me
which she showed
in those friendless days of want and worries which fell to our lot.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[Editor's Introduction]

Preface to the Second Edition

Prologue

Introduction

PART I -- MUSLIM CASE FOR PAKISTAN

CHAPTER I -- What does the League Demand?

Part I [The Muslim League's Resolution of March 1940]
Part II [Unifying the North-West provinces is an age-old project]
Part III [The Congress itself has proposed to create Linguistic
Provinces]
CHAPTER II -- A Nation Calling for a Home
[What is the definition of a "nation," and what "nations" can be found
in India?]
CHAPTER III -- Escape from Degradation
[What grievances do Muslims have against their treatment by the
Congress?]

PART II -- HINDU CASE AGAINST PAKISTAN

CHAPTER IV -- Break-up of Unity

[How substantial, in truth, is the unity between Hindus and Muslims?]
CHAPTER V -- Weakening of the Defences
Part I -- Question of Frontiers
Part II -- Question of Resources
Part III -- Question of Armed Forces
CHAPTER VI -- Pakistan and Communal Peace
Part I [The Communal Question in its "lesser intent"]
Part II [The Communal Question in its "greater intent"]
Part III [The real question is one of demarcation of boundaries]
Part IV [Will Punjabis and Bengalis agree to redraw their boundaries?]

PART III -- WHAT IF NOT PAKISTAN?

CHAPTER VII -- Hindu Alternative to Pakistan

Part I [Lala Hardayal's scheme for conversion in the North-West]
Part II [The stand of Mr. V. D. Savarkar and the Hindu Maha Sabha]
Part III [Mr. Gandhi's tenacious quest for Hindu-Muslim unity]
Part IV [The riot-torn history of Hindu-Muslim relations, 1920-1940]
Part V [Such barbaric mutual violence shows an utter lack of unity]
CHAPTER VIII -- Muslim Alternative to Pakistan
Part I [The proposed Hyderabad scheme of legislative reform is not
promising]
Part II [The "Azad Muslim Conference" thinks along similar lines]
CHAPTER IX -- Lessons from Abroad
Part I [The case of Turkey shows a steady dismemberment and loss of
territory]
Part II [The case of Czechoslovakia, a country which lasted only two
decades]
Part III [Both were brought down by the growth of the spirit of
nationalism]
Part IV [The force of nationalism, once unleashed, almost cannot be
stopped]
Part V [Hindustan and Pakistan would be stronger, more homogeneous
units]

PART IV -- PAKISTAN AND THE MALAISE

CHAPTER X -- Social Stagnation

Part I [Muslim Society is even more full of social evils than Hindu
Society is]
Part II [Why there is no organized movement of social reform among the
Muslims]
Part III [The Hindus emphasize nationalist politics and ignore the
need for social reform]
Part IV [In a "communal malaise," both groups ignore the urgent claims
of social justice]
CHAPTER XI -- Communal Aggression
[British sympathy encourages ever-increasing, politically calculated
Muslim demands]
CHAPTER XII -- National Frustration
Part I [Can Hindus count on Muslims to show national rather than
religious loyalty?]
Part II [Hindus really want Dominion status; Muslims really want
independence]
Part III [The necessary national political loyalty is not present
among Muslims]
Part IV [Muslim leaders' views, once nationalistic, have grown much
less so over time]
Part V [The vision of Pakistan is powerful, and has been implicitly
present for decades]
Part VI [Mutual antipathies have created a virus of dualism in the
body politic]

PART V

CHAPTER XIII -- Must There be Pakistan?

Part I [The burden of proof on the advocates of Pakistan is a heavy
one]
Part II [Is it really necessary to divide what has long been a single
whole?]
Part III [Other nations have survived for long periods despite
communal antagonisms]
Part IV [Cannot legitimate past grievances be redressed in some less
drastic way?]
Part V [Cannot the many things shared between the two groups be
emphasized?]
Part VI ['Hindu Raj' must be prevented at all costs, but is Pakistan
the best means?]
Part VII [If Muslims truly and deeply desire Pakistan, their choice
ought to be accepted]
CHAPTER XIV -- The Problems of Pakistan
Part I [Problems of border delineation and population transfer must be
addressed]
Part II [What might we assume to be the borders of West and East
Pakistan?]
Part III [Both Muslims and Hindus ignore the need for genuine self-
determination]
Part IV [Punjab and Bengal would thus necessarily be subject to
division]
Part V [A demand for regional self-determination must always be a two-
edged sword]
Part VI [The problems of population transfer are solvable and need not
detain us]
CHAPTER XV -- Who Can Decide?
Part I [Partition is a very possible contingency for which it's best
to be prepared]
Part II [I offer this draft of a 'Government of India (Preliminary
Provisions) Act']
Part III [My plan is community-based, and thus more realistic than the
Cripps plan]
Part IV [My solution is borne out by the examination of similar cases
elsewhere]
Epilogue -- [We need better statesmanship than Mr. Gandhi and Mr.
Jinnah have shown]

TABLES

-- 003a -- Revenues raised by Provincial and Central Governments
-- 101a -- The Congress's Proposed Linguistic Provinces
-- 205a -- Resources of Pakistan
-- 205b -- Resources of Hindustan
-- 205c -- Areas of Indian Army Recruitment
-- 205d -- Areas of Recruitment During World War I
-- 205e -- Changes in the Composition of the Indian Infantry
-- 205f -- Changes in the Communal Composition of the Indian Army
-- 205g -- Communal Composition of the Indian Army in 1930
-- 205h -- Communal Percentages in Infantry and Cavalry, 1930
-- 205i -- Provincial Composition of the Indian Army, 1943
-- 205j -- Communal Composition of the Indian Army, 1943
-- 205k -- Contributions to the Central Exchequer from the Pakistan
Area
-- 205l -- Contributions to the Central Exchequer from the Hindustan
Area
-- 206a -- Muslim Population in Pakistan and Hindustan
-- 206b -- Distribution of Seats in the Central Legislature (Numbers)
-- 206c -- Distribution of Seats in the Central Legislature
(Percentages)
-- 307a -- Casualties of the Riots in Sukkur, Sind, November 1939
-- 308a -- Proposed Hyderabad Scheme of Communal Reforms
-- 410a -- Married Females Aged 0-15 per 1000 Females of That Age
-- 411a -- Legislative Councils (Act of 1909): Communal Proportion
between Hindus and Muslims
-- 411b -- Communal Composition of the Legislatures, 1919
-- 411c -- Representation of Muslims According to the Lucknow Pact,
1916
-- 411d -- Actual Weightage of Muslims According to the Lucknow
Pact

APPENDICES

-- 01 -- Appendix I : Population of India by Communities
-- 02 -- Appendix II : Communal distribution of population by
Minorities in the Provinces of British India
-- 03 -- Appendix III : Communal distribution of population by
Minorities in the States
-- 04 -- Appendix IV : Communal distribution of population in the
Punjab by Districts
-- 05 -- Appendix V : Communal distribution of population in Bengal by
Districts
-- 06 -- Appendix VI : Communal distribution of population in Assam by
Districts
-- 07 -- Appendix VII : Proportion of Muslim population in N.-W. F.
Province by Districts
-- 08 -- Appendix VIII : Proportion of Muslim population in N.-W. F.
Province by Towns
-- 09 -- Appendix IX : Proportion of Muslim population in Sind by
Districts
-- 10 -- Appendix X : Proportion of Muslim population in Sind by
Towns
-- 11 -- Appendix XI : Languages spoken by the Muslims of India
-- 12-- Appendix XII : Address by Muslims to Lord Minto, 1906, and
Reply thereto
-- 13 -- Appendix XIII : Allocation of Seats under the Government of
India Act, 1935, for the Lower House in each Provincial Legislature
-- 14 -- Appendix XIV : Allocation of Seats under the Government of
India Act, 1935, for the Upper House in each Provincial Legislature
-- 15 -- Appendix XV : Allocation of Seats under the Government of
India Act, 1935, for the Lower House of the Federal Legislature for
British India by Province and by Community
-- 16 -- Appendix XVI : Allocation of Seats under the Government of
India Act, 1935, for the Upper Chamber of the Federal Legislature for
British India by Province and by Community
-- 17 -- Appendix XVI : Allocation of Seats under the Government of
India Act, 1935, for the Upper Chamber of the Federal Legislature for
British India by Province and by Community
-- 18 -- Appendix XVIII : Communal Award
-- 19 -- Appendix XIX : Supplementary Communal Award
-- 20 -- Appendix XX : The Poona Pact
-- 21 -- Appendix XXI : Comparative Statement of Minority
Representation under the Government of India Act, 1935, in the
Provincial Legislature
-- 22 -- Appendix XXII : Comparative Statement of Minority
Representation under the Government of India Act, 1935, in the Central
Legislature
-- 23 -- Appendix XXIII : Government of India Resolution of 1934 on
Communal Representation of Minorities in the Services
-- 24 -- Appendix XXIV : Government of India Resolution of 1943 on
Representation of the Scheduled Castes in the Services
-- 25-- Appendix XXV : The Cripps Proposals

ERRATA -- [corrections have now been incorporated into the text]

MAPS
-- Punjab -- Bengal & Assam -- India --

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/index.html#contents
Editor's Introduction

The text of this complete online book has been taken from Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 8 (Bombay: Education
Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1990). The work was first
published by Thacker and Co., Bombay, December 1940. Second edition:
February 1945. Third edition: 1946. The Government of Maharashtra's
text is that of the third edition.
This online edition has been edited for research use by most readers
(apart from some academic specialists, who will of course want to
consult the various original print versions). Here is a description of
the editing:

= Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
= All the errors in the book's list of "Errata" have been corrected in
the text.
= A few omissions of section numbers, or misnumberings of sections,
have been corrected.
= Nothing whatsoever has been omitted from the original text.
= All paragraph breaks are those of the original text.
= In a few cases, punctuation has been adjusted for clarity.
= All editorial annotations by FWP have been enclosed in square
brackets.
= All embedded quotations that are not Dr. Ambedkar's own words are in
10-point type.
= Such embedded quotations have been reproduced exactly as in the
printed text.

Needless to say, Dr. Ambedkar's opinions about many matters discussed
in the text were then, and are now, controversial. In addition, some
of the historical accounts on which he relied for factual information
have now been rendered obsolete by later, and better-grounded,
research. (For example, Chapter IV would surely have been quite
different if Dr. Ambedkar had had access to more complex studies like
that of Romila Thapar on Mahmud Ghaznavi, or Richard Eaton on temple
destruction.)

That being said, it's a unique and fascinating work, and well deserves
the new readers it will now be able to find.

-- Fran Pritchett
Columbia University

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/000fwpintro.html

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The problem of Pakistan has given a headache to everyone, more so
to me than to anybody else. I cannot help recalling with regret how
much of my time it has consumed when so much of my other literary work
of greater importance to me than this is held up for want of it. I
therefore hope that this second edition will also be the last. I trust
that before it is exhausted either the question will be settled or
withdrawn.

There are four respects in which this second edition differs from
the first.

/1/The first edition contained many misprints which formed the subject
of complaints from many readers as well as reviewers. In preparing
this edition, I have taken as much care as is possible to leave no
room for complaint on this score. The first edition consisted only of
three parts. Part V is an addition. It contains my own views on the
various issues involved in the problem of Pakistan. It has been added
because of the criticism levelled against the first edition that while
I wrote about Pakistan, I did not state what views I held on the
subject. The present edition differs from the first in another
respect. The maps contained in the first edition are retained but the
number of appendices have been enlarged. In the first edition there
were only eleven appendices. The present edition has twenty-five. To
this edition I have also added an index which did not find a place in
the first edition.

The book appears to have supplied a real want. I have seen how the
thoughts, ideas, and arguments contained in it have been pillaged by
authors, politicians and editors of newspapers to support their sides.
I am sorry they did not observe the decency of acknowledging the
source even when they lifted not merely the argument but also the
language of the book. But that is a matter I do not mind. I am glad
that the book has been of service to Indians who are faced with this
knotty problem of Pakistan. The fact that Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah in
their recent talks cited the book as an authority on the subject which
might be consulted with advantage bespeaks the worth of the book.

The book by its name might appear to deal only with the X.Y.Z. of
Pakistan. It does more than that. It is an analytical presentation of
Indian history and Indian politics in their communal aspects. As such,
it is intended to explain the A.B.C. of Pakistan also. The book is
more than a mere treatise on Pakistan. The material relating to Indian
history and Indian politics contained in this book is so large and so
varied that it might well be called Indian Political What is What.

The book has displeased both Hindus as well as Muslims though the
reasons for the dislike of the Hindus are different from the reasons
for the dislike of the Muslims. I am not sorry for this reception
given to my book. That it is disowned by the Hindus and unowned by the
Muslims is to me the best evidence that it has the vices of neither,
and that from the point of view of independence of thought and
fearless presentation of facts the book is not a party production.

Some people are sore because what I have said has hurt them. I
have not, I confess, allowed myself to be influenced by fears of
wounding either individuals or classes, or shocking opinions however
respectable they may be. I have often felt regret in pursuing this
course, but remorse never. Those whom I may have offended must forgive
me, in consideration of the honesty and disinterestedness of my aim. I
do not claim to have written dispassionately, though I trust I have
written without prejudice. It would be hardly possible--1 was going to
say decent--for an Indian to be calm when he talks of his country and
thinks of the times. In dealing with the question of Pakistan, my
object has been to draw a perfectly accurate, and at the same time, a
suggestive picture of the situation as I see it. Whatever points of
strength and weakness I have discovered on either side, I have brought
them boldly forward. I have taken pains to throw light on the
mischievous effects that are likely to proceed from an obstinate and
impracticable course of action.

The witness of history regarding the conflict between the forces
of the authority of the State and of anti-State nationalism within,
has been uncertain, if not equivocal. As Prof. Friedmann /2/ observes:
—

"There is not a single modem State which has not, at one time or
another, forced a recalcitrant national group to live under its
authority. Scots, Bretons, Catalans, Germans, Poles, Czechs, Finns,
all have, at some time or another, been compelled to accept the
authority of a more powerful State whether they liked it or not.
Often, as in Great Britain or France, force eventually led to co-
operation and a co-ordination of State authority and national
cohesion. But in many cases, such as those of Germany, Poland, Italy
and a host of Central European and Balkan countries, the forces of
Nationalism did not rest until they had thrown off the shackles of
State Power and formed a State of their own. . . ."
In the last edition, I depicted the experience of countries in
which the State engaged itself in senseless suppression of nationalism
and withered away in the attempt. In this edition I have added by way
of contrast the experience of other countries, to show that given the
will to live together it is not impossible for diverse communities and
even for diverse nations to live in the bosom of one State. It might
be said that in tendering advice to both sides, I have used terms more
passionate than they need have been. If I have done so it is because I
felt that the manner of the physician who tries to surprise the vital
principle in each paralyzed organ in order to goad it to action was
best suited to stir up the average Indian who is complacent if not
somnolent, who is unsuspecting if not ill-informed, to realize what is
happening. I hope my effort will have the desired effect.
I cannot close this preface without thanking Prof. Manohar B.
Chitnis of the Khalsa College, Bombay, and Mr. K. V. Chitre for their
untiring labours to remove all printer's and clerical errors that had
crept into the first edition, and to see that this edition is free
from all such blemishes. I am also very grateful to Prof. Chitnis for
the preparation of the Index, which has undoubtedly enhanced the
utility of the book.

B. R. AMBEDKAR

1st January 1945,
22, Prithviraj Road,
New Delhi.

/1/ In the first edition there unfortunately occurred through
oversight in proof correction a discrepancy between the population
figures in the different districts of Bengal and the map showing the
lay-out of Pakistan as applied to Bengal which had resulted in two
districts which should have been included in the Pakistan area being
excluded from it. In this edition, this error has been rectified and
the map and the figures have been brought into conformity.

/2/ The Crisis of the National State (1943), p. 4.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/001pref.html

PROLOGUE

It can rightly be said that the long introduction with which this
treatise opens leaves no excuse for a prologue. But there is an
epilogue which is affixed to the treatise. Having done that, I thought
of prefixing a prologue, firstly, because an epilogue needs to be
balanced by a prologue, and secondly, because the prologue gives me
room to state in a few words the origin of this treatise to those who
may be curious to know it and to impress upon the readers the
importance of the issues raised in it. For the satisfaction of the
curious it may be stated that there exists, at any rate in the Bombay
Presidency, a political organization called the Independent Labour
Party (abbreviated into I.L.P.) for the last three years. It is not an
ancient, hoary organization which can claim to have grown grey in
politics. The I.L.P. is not in its dotage and is not overtaken by
senility, for which second childhood is given as a more agreeable
name. Compared with other political organizations, the I.L.P. is a
young and fairly active body, not subservient to any clique or
interest. Immediately after the passing of the Lahore Resolution on
Pakistan by the Muslim League, the Executive Council of the I.L.P. met
to consider what attitude it should adopt towards this project of
Pakistan. The Executive Council could see that there was underlying
Pakistan an idea to which no objection could be taken. Indeed, the
Council was attracted to the scheme of Pakistan inasmuch as it meant
the creation of ethnic states as a solution of the communal problem.
The Council, however, did not feel competent to pronounce at that
stage a decided opinion on the issue of Pakistan. The Council,
therefore, resolved to appoint a committee to study the question and
make a report on it. The committee consisted of myself as the
Chairman, and Principal M. V. Donde, B.A.; Mr. S. C. Joshi,
M.A.,LL.B., Advocate (O.S.), M.L.C.; Mr.R.R.Bhole, B.Sc., LL.B.,
M.L.A.; Mr. D. G. Jadhav, B.A., LL.B., M.L.A.; and Mr. A. V. Chitre,
B.A., M.L.A., all belonging to the I.L.P., as members of the
committee. Mr. D. V. Pradhan, Member, Bombay Municipal Corporation,
acted as Secretary to the committee. The committee asked me to prepare
a report on Pakistan which I did. The same was submitted to the
Executive Council of the I.L.P., which resolved that the report should
be published. The treatise now published is that report.

The book is intended to assist the student of Pakistan to come to
his own conclusion. With that object in view, I have not only
assembled in this volume all the necessary and relevant data but have
also added 14 appendices and 3 maps, which in my judgement, form an
important accompaniment to the book.

It is not enough for the reader to go over the material collected
in the following pages. He must also reflect over it. Let him take to
heart the warning which Carlyle gave to Englishmen of his generation.
He said:

"The Genius of England no longer soars Sunward, world-defiant, like an
Eagle through the storms, ' mewing her mighty youth,'.... the Genius
of England—much like a greedy Ostrich intent on provender and a whole
skin. . . . ; with its Ostrich-head stuck into....whatever sheltering
Fallacy there may be, and so awaits the issue. The issue has been
slow; but it now seems to have been inevitable. No Ostrich, intent on
gross terrene provender and sticking its head into Fallacies, but will
be awakened one day—in a terrible a posteriori manner if not
otherwise! Awake before it comes to that. Gods and men did us awake!
The Voices of our Fathers, with thousand fold stern monition to one
and all, bid us awake."
This warning, I am convinced, applies to Indians in their present
circumstances as it once did to Englishmen, and Indians, if they pay
no heed to it, will do so at their peril.
Now, a word for those who have helped me in the preparation of
this report. Mr. M. G. Tipnis, D.C.E., (Kalabhuwan, Baroda), and Mr.
Chhaganlal S. Mody have rendered me great assistance, the former in
preparing the maps and the latter in typing the manuscript. I wish to
express my gratitude to both for their work which they have done
purely as a labour of love. Thanks are also due in a special measure
to my friends Mr. B. R. Kadrekar and Mr. K. V. Chitre for their
labours in undertaking the most uninteresting and dull task of
correcting the proof sand supervising the printing.

B.R. AMBEDKAR.

28th December, 1940,
'Rajagrah'
Dadar, Bombay, 14.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/002prolog.html

INTRODUCTION

The Muslim League's Resolution on Pakistan has called forth
different reactions. There are some who look upon it as a case of
political measles to which a people in the infancy of their conscious
unity and power are very liable. Others have taken it as a permanent
frame of the Muslim mind and not merely a passing phase and have in
consequence been greatly perturbed.

The question is undoubtedly controversial. The issue is vital and
there is no argument which has not been used in the controversy by one
side to silence the other. Some argue that this demand for
partitioning India into two political entities under separate national
states staggers their imagination; others are so choked with a sense
of righteous indignation at this wanton attempt to break the unity of
a country, which, it is claimed, has stood as one for centuries, that
their rage prevents them from giving expression to their thoughts.
Others think that it need not be taken seriously. They treat it as a
trifle and try to destroy it by shooting into it similes and
metaphors. "You don't cut your head to cure your headache," "you don't
cut a baby into two because two women are engaged in fighting out a
claim as to who its mother is," are some of the analogies which are
used to prove the absurdity of Pakistan. In a controversy carried on
the plane of pure sentiment, there is nothing surprising if a
dispassionate student finds more stupefaction and less understanding,
more heat and less light, more ridicule and less seriousness.

My position in this behalf is definite, if not singular. I do not
think the demand for Pakistan is the result of mere political
distemper, which will pass away with the efflux of time. As I read the
situation, it seems to me that it is a characteristic in the
biological sense of the term, which the Muslim body politic has
developed in the same manner as an organism develops a characteristic.
Whether it will survive or not, in the process of natural selection,
must depend upon the forces that may become operative in the struggle
for existence between Hindus and Musalmans. I am not staggered by
Pakistan; I am not indignant about it; nor do I believe that it can be
smashed by shooting into it similes and metaphors. Those who believe
in shooting it by similes should remember that nonsense does not cease
to be nonsense because it is put in rhyme, and that a metaphor is no
argument though it be sometimes the gunpowder to drive one home and
imbed it in memory. I believe that it would be neither wise nor
possible to reject summarily a scheme if it has behind it the
sentiment, if not the passionate support, of 90 p.c. Muslims of India.
I have no doubt that the only proper attitude to Pakistan is to study
it in all its aspects, to understand its implications and to form an
intelligent judgement about it.

With all this, a reader is sure to ask: Is this book on Pakistan
seasonable in the sense that one must read it, as one must eat the
fruits of the season to keep oneself in health? If it is seasonable,
is it readable? These are natural queries and an author, whose object
is to attract readers, may well make use of the introduction to meet
them.

As to the seasonableness of the book there can be no doubt. The
way of looking at India by Indians themselves must be admitted to have
undergone a complete change during the last 20 years. Referring to
India Prof. Arnold Toynbee wrote in 1915—

"British statesmanship in the nineteenth century regarded India as a
'Sleeping Beauty,' whom Britain had a prescriptive right to woo when
she awoke; so it hedged with thorns the garden where she lay, to
safeguard her from marauders prowling in the desert without. Now the
princess is awake, and is claiming the right to dispose of her own
hand, while the marauders have transformed themselves into respectable
gentlemen diligently occupied in turning the desert into a garden too,
but grievously impeded by the British thorn-hedge. When they politely
request us to remove it, we shall do well to consent, for they will
not make the demand till they feel themselves strong enough to enforce
it, and in the tussle that will follow if we refuse, the sympathies of
the Indian princess will not be on our side. Now that she is awake,
she wishes to walk abroad among her neighbours; she feels herself
capable of rebuffing without our countenance any blandishments or
threats they may offer her, and she is becoming as weary as they of
the thorn-hedge that confines her to her garden.
"If we treat her with tact, India will never wish to secede from the
spiritual brotherhood of the British Empire, but it is inevitable that
she should lead a more and more independent life of her own, and
follow the example of Anglo-Saxon Commowealths by establishing direct
relations with her neighbours. . . ."

Although the writer is an Englishman, the view expressed by him in
1915 was the view commonly held by all Indians irrespective of caste
or creed. Now that India the "Sleeping Beauty" of Prof. Toynbee is
awake, what is the view of the Indians about her? On this question,
there can be no manner of doubt that those who have observed this
Sleeping Beauty behave in recent years, feel she is a strange being
quite different from the angelic princess that she was supposed to be.
She is a mad maiden having a dual personality, half human, half
animal, always in convulsions because of her two natures in perpetual
conflict. If there is any doubt about her dual personality, it has now
been dispelled by the Resolution of the Muslim League demanding the
cutting up of India into two, Pakistan and Hindustan, so that these
conflicts and convulsions due to a dual personality having been bound
in one may cease forever, and so freed from each other, may dwell in
separate homes congenial to their respective cultures, Hindu and
Muslim.
It is beyond question that Pakistan is a scheme which will have to
be taken into account. The Muslims will insist upon the scheme being
considered. The British will insist upon some kind of settlement being
reached between the Hindus and the Muslims before they consent to any
devolution of political power. There is no use blaming the British for
insisting upon such a settlement as a condition precedent to the
transfer of power. The British cannot consent to settle power upon an
aggressive Hindu majority and make it its heir, leaving it to deal
with the minorities at its sweet pleasure. That would not be ending
imperialism. It would be creating another imperialism. The Hindus,
therefore, cannot avoid coming to grips with Pakistan, much as they
would like to do.

If the scheme of Pakistan has to be considered, and there is no
escape from it, then there are certain points which must be borne in
mind.

The first point to note is that the Hindus and Muslims must decide
the question themselves. They cannot invoke the aid of anyone else.
Certainly, they cannot expect the British to decide it for them. From
the point of view of the Empire, it matters very little to the British
whether India remains one undivided whole, or is partitioned into two
parts, Pakistan and Hindustan, or into twenty linguistic fragments as
planned by the Congress, so long as all of them are content to live
within the Empire. The British need not interfere for the simple
reason that they are not affected by such territorial divisions.

Further, if the Hindus are hoping that the British will use force
to put down Pakistan, that is impossible. In the first place, coercion
is no remedy. The futility of force and resistance was pointed out by
Burke long ago in his speeches relating to the coercion of the
American colonies. His memorable words may be quoted not only for the
benefit of the Hindu Maha Sabha but also for the benefit of all. This
is what he said:

"The use of force alone is temporary. It may endure a moment but it
does not remove the necessity of subduing again: a nation is not
governed which is perpetually to be conquered. The next objection to
force is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force,
and an armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed you are
without resource; for conciliation failing, force remains; but force
failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and
Authority are sometimes bought by kindness, but they can never be
begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence. A further
objection to force is that you impair the object by your very
endeavours to preserve it. The thing you fought for (to wit the
loyalty of the people) is not the thing you recover, but depreciated,
sunk, wasted and consumed in the contest."
Coercion, as an alternative to Pakistan, is therefore
unthinkable.
Again, the Muslims cannot be deprived of the benefit of the
principle of self-determination. The Hindu Nationalists who rely on
self-determination and ask how Britain can refuse India what the
conscience of the world has conceded to the smallest of the European
nations, cannot in the same breath ask the British to deny it to other
minorities. The Hindu Nationalist who hopes that Britain will coerce
the Muslims into abandoning Pakistan, forgets that the right of
nationalism to freedom from an aggressive foreign imperialism and the
right of a minority to freedom from an aggressive majority's
nationalism are not two different things; nor does the former stand on
a more sacred footing than the latter. They are merely two aspects of
the struggle for freedom and as such equal in their moral import.
Nationalists, fighting for freedom from aggressive imperialism, cannot
well ask the help of the British imperialists to thwart the right of a
minority to freedom from the nationalism of an aggressive majority.
The matter must, therefore, be decided upon by the Muslims and the
Hindus alone. The British cannot decide the issue for them. This is
the first important point to note.

The essence of Pakistan is the opposition to the establishment of
one Central Government having supremacy over the whole of India.
Pakistan contemplates two Central Governments, one for Pakistan and
the other for Hindustan. This gives rise to the second important point
which Indians must take note of. That point is that the issue of
Pakistan shall have to be decided upon before the plans for a new
constitution are drawn and its foundations are laid. If there is to be
one Central Government for India, the design of the constitutional
structure would be different from what it would be if there is to be
one Central Government for Hindustan and another for Pakistan. That
being so, it will be most unwise to postpone the decision. Either the
scheme should be abandoned and another substituted by mutual agreement
or it should be decided upon. It will be the greatest folly to suppose
that if Pakistan is buried for the moment, it will never raise its
head again. I am sure, burying Pakistan is not the same thing as
burying the ghost of Pakistan. So long as the hostility to one Central
Government for India, which is the ideology underlying Pakistan,
persists, the ghost of Pakistan will be there, casting its ominous
shadow upon the political future of India. Neither will it be prudent
to make some kind of a make-shift arrangement for the time being,
leaving the permanent solution to some future day. To do so would be
something like curing the symptoms without removing the disease. But,
as often happens in such cases, the disease is driven in, thereby
making certain its recurrence, perhaps in a more virulent form.

I feel certain that whether India should have one Central
Government is not a matter which can betaken as settled; it is a
matter in issue and although it may not be a live issue now, some day
it will be.

The Muslims have openly declared that they do not want to have any
Central Government in India and they have given their reasons in the
most unambiguous terms. They have succeeded in bringing into being
five provinces which are predominantly Muslim in population. In these
provinces, they see the possibility of the Muslims forming a
government and they are anxious to see that the independence of the
Muslim Governments in these provinces is preserved. Actuated by these
considerations, the Central Government is an eyesore to the Muslims of
India. As they visualize the scene, they see their Muslim Provinces
made subject to a Central Government predominantly Hindu and endowed
with powers of supervision over, and even of interference in, the
administration of these Muslim Provinces. The Muslims feel that to
accept one Central Government for the whole of India is to consent to
place the Muslim Provincial Governments under a Hindu Central
Government and to see the gain secured by the creation of Muslim
Provinces lost by subjecting them to a Hindu Government at the Centre.
The Muslim way of escape from this tyranny of a Hindu Centre is to
have no Central Government in India at all./1/

Are the Musalmans alone opposed to the existence of a Central
Government? What about the Hindus? There seems to be a silent premise
underlying all political discussions that are going on among the
Hindus that there will always be in India a Central Government as a
permanent part of her political constitution. How far such a premise
can be taken for granted is more than I can say. I may, however, point
out that there are two factors which are dormant for the present but
which some day may become dominant and turn the Hindus away from the
idea of a Central Government.

The first is the cultural antipathy between the Hindu Provinces.
The Hindu Provinces are by no means a happy family. It cannot be
pretended that the Sikhs have any tenderness for the Bengalees or the
Rajputs or the Madrasis. The Bengalee loves only himself. The Madrasi
is.bound by his own world. As to the Mahratta, who does not recall
that the Mahrattas, who set out to destroy the Muslim Empire in India,
became a menace to the rest of the Hindus whom they harassed and kept
under their yoke for nearly a century. The Hindu Provinces have no
common traditions and no interests to bind them. On the other hand,
the differences of language, race, and the conflicts of the past have
been the most powerful forces tending to divide them. It is true that
the Hindus are getting together and the spirit moving them to become
one united nation is working on them. But it must not be forgotten
that they have not yet become a nation. They are in the process of
becoming a nation and before the process is completed, there may be a
setback which may destroy the work of a whole century.

In the second place, there is the financial factor. It is not
sufficiently known what it costs the people of India to maintain the
Central Government and the proportionate burden each Province has to
bear.

The total revenue of British India comes to Rs. 194,64,17,926 per
annum. Of this sum, the amount raised by the Provincial Governments
from provincial sources, comes annually to Rs. 73,57,50,125 and that
raised by the Central Government from central sources of revenue comes
to Rs. 121,06,67,801. This will show what the Central Government costs
the people of India. When one considers that the Central Government is
concerned only with maintaining peace and does not discharge any
functions which have relation to the progress of the people, it should
cause no surprise if people begin to ask whether it is necessary that
they should pay annually such an enormous price to purchase peace. In
this connection, it must be borne in mind that the people in the
provinces are literally starving and there is no source left to the
provinces to increase their revenue.

This burden of maintaining the Central Government, which the
people of India have to bear, is most unevenly distributed over the
different provinces. The sources of central revenues are (1) Customs,
(2) Excise, (3) Salt, (4) Currency, (5) Posts and Telegraphs, (6)
Income Tax and (7) Railways. It is not possible from the accounts
published by the Government of India to work out the distribution of
the three sources of central revenue, namely Currency, Posts and
Telegraphs, and Railways. Only the revenue raised from other sources
can be worked out province by province. The result is shown in the
following table :—

REVENUE RAISED BY PROVINCIAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS

It will be seen from this table that the burden of maintaining the
Central Government is not only heavy but falls unequally upon the
different provinces. The Bombay Provincial Government raises Rs.
12,44,59,553; as against this, the Central Government raises Rs.
22,53,44,247 from Bombay. The Bengal Government raises Rs.
12,76,60,892; as against this, the Central Government raises Rs.
23,79,01,583 from Bengal. The Sind Government raises Rs. 3,70,29,354;
as against this, the Central Government raises Rs. 5,66,46,915 from
Sind. The Assam Government raises nearly Rs. 2 1/2 crores; but the
Central Government raises nearly Rs. 2 crores from Assam. While such
is the burden of the Central Government on these provinces, the rest
of the provinces contribute next to nothing to the Central Government.
The Punjab raises Rs. 11 crores for itself but contributes only Rs. 1
crore to the Central Government. In the N.W.F.P. the provincial
revenue is Rs. 1,80,83,548; its total contribution to the Central
Government however is only Rs. 9,28,294. U.P. raises Rs. 13 crores but
contributes only Rs. 4 crores to the Centre. Bihar collects Rs. 5
crores for itself; she gives only 1 1/2 crores to the Centre. C.P. and
Berar levy a total of 4 crores and pay to the Centre 31 lakhs.

This financial factor has so far passed without notice. But time
may come when even to the Hindus, who are the strongest supporters of
a Central Government in India, the financial considerations may make a
greater appeal than what purely patriotic considerations do now. So,
it is possible that some day the Muslims, for communal considerations,
and the Hindus, for financial considerations, may join hands to
abolish the Central Government.

If this were to happen, it is better if it happens before the
foundation of a new constitution is laid down. If it happens after the
foundation of the new constitution envisaging one Central Government
were laid down, it would be the greatest disaster. Out of the general
wreck, not only India as an entity will vanish, but it will not be
possible to save even the Hindu unity. As I have pointed out, there is
not much cement even among the Hindu Provinces, and once that little
cement which exists is lost, there will be nothing with which to build
up even the unity of the Hindu Provinces. It is because of this that
Indians must decide, before preparing the plans and laying the
foundations, for whom the constitutional structure is to be raised and
whether it is temporary or permanent. After the structure is built as
one whole, on one single foundation, with girders running through from
one end to the other; if, thereafter, a part is to be severed from the
rest, the knocking out of the rivets will shake the whole building and
produce cracks in other parts of the structure which are intended to
remain as one whole. The danger of cracks is greater, if the cement
which binds them is, as in the case of India, of a poor quality. If
the new constitution is designed for India as one whole and a
structure is raised on that basis, and thereafter the question of
separation of Pakistan from Hindustan is raised and the Hindus have to
yield, the alterations that may become necessary to give effect to
this severance may bring about the collapse of the whole structure.
The desire of the Muslim Provinces may easily infect the Hindu
Provinces and the spirit of disruption generated by the Muslim
Provinces may cause all round disintegration.

History is not wanting in instances of constitutions threatened
with disruption. There is the instance of the Southern States of the
American Union. Natal has always been anxious to get out from the
Union of South Africa and Western Australia recently applied, though
unsuccessfully, to secede from the Australian Commonwealth.

In these cases actual disruption has not taken place and where it
did, it was soon healed. Indians, however, cannot hope to be so
fortunate. Theirs may be the fate of Czechoslovakia. In the first
place, it would be futile to entertain the hope that if a disruption
of the Indian constitution took place by the Muslim Provinces
separating from the Hindu Provinces, it would be possible to win back
the seceding provinces as was done in the U.S.A. after the Civil War.
Secondly, if the new Indian constitution is a Dominion Constitution,
even the British may find themselves powerless to save the
constitution from such a disruption, if it takes place after its
foundations are laid. It seems to be, therefore, imperative that the
issue of Pakistan should be decided upon before the new constitution
is devised.

If there can be no doubt that Pakistan is a scheme which Indians
will have to resolve upon at the next revision of the constitution and
if there is no escape from deciding upon it, then it would be a fatal
mistake for the people to approach it without a proper understanding
of the question. The ignorance of some of the Indian delegates to the
Round Table Conference of constitutional law, I remember, led Mr.
Garvin of the Observer to remark that it would have been much better
if the Simon Commission, instead of writing a report on India, had
made a report on constitutional problems of India and how they were
met by the constitutions of the different countries of the world. Such
a report I know was prepared for the use of the delegates who framed
the constitution of South Africa. This is an attempt to make good that
deficiency and as such I believe it will be welcomed as a seasonable
piece.

So much for the question whether the book is seasonable. As to the
second question, whether the book is readable no writer can forget the
words of Augustine Birrell when he said:

"Cooks, warriors, and authors must be judged by the effects they
produce; toothsome dishes, glorious victories, pleasant books, these
are our demands. We have nothing to do with ingredients, tactics, or
methods. We have no desire to be admitted into the kitchen, the
council, or the study. The cook may use her saucepans how she pleases,
the warrior place his men as he likes, the author handle his material
or weave his plot as best he can; when the dish is served we only ask.
Is it good?; when the battle has been fought, Who won?; when the book
comes out, Does it read?
"Authors ought not to be above being reminded that it is their first
duty to write agreeably. Some very disagreeable men have succeeded in
doing so, and there is, therefore, no need for anyone to despair.
Every author, be he grave or gay, should try to make his book as
ingratiating as possible. Reading is not a duty, and has consequently
no business to be made disagreeable. Nobody is under any obligation to
read any other man's book."

I am fully aware of this. But I am not worried about it. That may
well apply to other books but not to a book on Pakistan. Every Indian
must read a book on Pakistan, if not this, then some other, if he
wants to help his country to steer a clear path.
If the book does not read well, i.e., its taste be not good, the
reader will find two things in it which, I am sure, are good.

The first thing he will find is that the ingredients are good.
There is in the book material which will be helpful and to gain access
to which he will have to labour a great deal. Indeed, the reader will
find that the book contains an epitome of India's political and social
history during the last twenty years, which it is necessary for every
Indian to know.

The second thing he will find is that there is no partisanship.
The aim is to expound the scheme of Pakistan in all its aspects and
not to advocate it. The aim is to explain and not to convert. It
would, however, be a pretence to say that I have no views on Pakistan.
Views I have. Some of them are expressed, others may have to be
gathered. Two things, however, may well be said about my views. In the
first place, wherever they are expressed, they have been reasoned out.
Secondly, whatever the views, they have certainly not the fixity of a
popular prejudice. They are really thoughts and not views. In other
words, I have an open mind, though not an empty mind. A person with an
open mind is always the subject of congratulations. While this may be
so, it must, at the same time, be realized that an open mind may also
be an empty mind and that such an open mind, if it is a happy
condition, is also a very dangerous condition for a man to be in. A
disaster may easily overtake a man with an empty mind. Such a person
is like a ship without ballast and without a rudder. It can have no
direction. It may float but may also suffer a shipwreck against a rock
for want of direction. While aiming to help the reader by placing
before him all the material, relevant and important, the reader will
find that I have not sought to impose my views on him. I have placed
before him both sides of the question and have left him to form his
own opinion.

The reader may complain that I have been provocative in stating
the relevant facts. I am conscious that .such a charge may be levelled
against me. I apologize freely and gladly for the same. My excuse is
that I have no intention to hurt. I had only one purpose, that is, to
force the attention of the indifferent and casual reader to the issue
that is dealt with in the book. I ask the reader to put aside any
irritation that he may feel with me and concentrate his thoughts on
this tremendous issu : Which is to be, Pakistan or no Pakistan?

/1/ This point of view was put forth by Sir Muhammad lqbal at the
Third Round Table Conference.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/003intro.html

EPILOGUE
[We need better statesmanship than Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah have
shown]

Here I propose to stop. For I feel that I have said all that I can
say about the subject. To use legal language, I have drawn the
pleadings. This I may claim to have done at sufficient length. In
doing so, I have adopted that prolix style so dear to the Victorian
lawyers, under which the two sides plied one another with plea and
replication, rejoinder and rebutter [=rebuttal], surrejoinder and
surrebutter, and so on. I have done this deliberately, with the object
that a full statement of the case for and against Pakistan may be
made. The foregoing pages contain the pleadings. The facts contained
therein are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. I have also
given my findings. It is now for Hindus and Muslims to give theirs.

To help them in their task it might be well to set out the issues.
On the pleadings the following issues seem to be necessary issues:

(1) Is Hindu-Muslim unity necessary for India's political
advancement? If necessary, is it still possible of realization,
notwithstanding the new ideology of the Hindus and the Muslims being
two different nations?
(2) If Hindu-Muslim unity is possible, should it be reached by
appeasement or by settlement?

(3) If it is to be achieved by appeasement, what are the new
concessions that can be offered to the Muslims to obtain their willing
co-operation, without prejudice to other interests?

(4) If it is to be achieved by a settlement, what are the terms of
that settlement? If there are only two alternatives, (i) Division of
India into Pakistan and Hindustan, or (ii) Fifty-fifty share in
Legislature, Executive, and the Services, which alternative is
preferable?

(5) Whether India, if she remained [=remains] one integral whole, can
rely upon both Hindus and Musalmans to defend her independence,
assuming it is won from the British?

(6) Having regard to the prevailing antagonism between Hindus and
Musalmans, and having regard to the new ideology demarcating them as
two distinct nations and postulating an opposition in their ultimate
destinies, whether a single constitution for these two nations can be
built, in the hope that they will show an intention to work it and not
to stop it.

(7) On the assumption that the two-nation theory has come to stay,
will not India as one single unit become an incoherent body without
organic unity, incapable of developing into a strong united nation
bound by a common faith in a common destiny, and therefore likely to
remain a feebler and sickly country, easy to be kept in perpetual
subjection either of [=to] the British or of [=to] any other foreign
power?

(8) If India cannot be one united country, is it not better that
Indians should help India in the peaceful dissolution of this
incoherent whole into its natural parts, namely, Pakistan and
Hindustan?

(9) Whether it is not better to provide for the growth of two
independent and separate nations, a Muslim nation inhabiting Pakistan
and a Hindu nation inhabiting Hindustan, than [to] pursue the vain
attempt to keep India as one undivided country in the false hope that
Hindus and Muslims will some day be one and occupy it as the members
of one nation and sons of one motherland?

Nothing can come in the way of an Indian getting to grips with
these issues and reaching his own conclusions with the help of the
material contained in the foregoing pages except three things: (1) A
false sentiment of historical patriotism, (2) a false conception of
the exclusive ownership of territory, and (3) absence of willingness
to think for oneself. Of these obstacles, the last is the most
difficult to get over. Unfortunately thought in India is rare, and
free thought is rarer still. This is particularly true of Hindus. That
is why a large part of the argument of this book has been addressed to
them. The reasons for this are obvious. The Hindus are in a majority.
Being in a majority, their view point must count! There is not much
possibility of [a] peaceful solution if no attempt is made to meet
their objections, rational or sentimental. But there are special
reasons which have led me to address so large a part of the argument
to them, and which may not be quite so obvious to others. I feel that
those Hindus who are guiding the destinies of their fellows have lost
what Carlyle calls "the Seeing Eye" and are walking in the glamour of
certain vain illusions, the consequences of which must, I fear, be
terrible for the Hindus. The Hindus are in the grip of the Congress
and the Congress is in the grip of Mr. Gandhi. It cannot be said that
Mr. Gandhi has given the Congress the right lead. Mr. Gandhi first
sought to avoid facing the issue by taking refuge in two things. He
started by saying that to partition India is a moral wrong and a sin
to which he will never be a party. This is a strange argument. India
is not the only country faced with the issue of partition, or shifting
of frontiers based on natural and historical factors to those based on
the national factors. Poland has been partitioned three time,s and no
one can be sure that there will be no more partition of Poland. There
are very few countries in Europe which have not undergone partition
during the last 150 years. This shows that the partition of a country
is neither moral nor immoral. It is unmoral. It is a social, political
or military question. Sin has no place in it.
As a second refuge Mr. Gandhi started by protesting that the
Muslim League did not represent the Muslims, and that Pakistan was
only a fancy of Mr. Jinnah. It is difficult to understand how Mr.
Gandhi could be so blind as not to see how Mr. Jinnah's influence over
the Muslim masses has been growing day by day, and how he has engaged
himself in mobilizing all his forces for battle. Never before was Mr.
Jinnah a man for the masses. He distrusted them./1/ To exclude them
from political power he was always for a high franchise. Mr. Jinnah
was never known to be a very devout, pious, or a professing Muslim.
Besides kissing the Holy Koran as and when he was sworn in as an
M.L.A., he does not appear to have bothered much about its contents or
its special tenets. It is doubtful if he frequented any mosque either
out of curiosity or religious fervour. Mr. Jinnah was never found in
the midst of Muslim mass congregations, religious or political.

Today one finds a complete change in Mr. Jinnah. He has become a
man of the masses. He is no longer above them. He is among them. Now
they have raised him above themselves and call him their Qaid-e-Azam.
He has not only become a believer in Islam, but is prepared to die for
Islam. Today, he knows more of Islam than mere Kalama. Today, he goes
to the mosque to hear Khutba and takes delight in joining the Id
congregational prayers. Dongri and Null Bazaar once knew Mr. Jinnah by
name. Today they know him by his presence. No Muslim meeting in Bombay
begins or ends without Allah-ho-Akbar and Long Live Qaid-e-Azam. In
this Mr. Jinnah has merely followed King Henry IV of France—the
unhappy father-in-law of the English King Charles I. Henry IV was a
Huguenot by faith. But he did not hesitate to attend mass in a
Catholic Church in Paris. He believed that to change his Huguenot
faith and go to mass was an easy price to pay for the powerful support
of Paris. As Paris became worth a mass to Henry IV, so have Dongri and
Null Bazaar become worth a mass to Mr. Jinnah, and for similar reason.
It is strategy; it is mobilization. But even if it is viewed as the
sinking of Mr. Jinnah from reason to superstition, he is sinking with
his ideology, which by his very sinking is spreading into all the
different strata of Muslim society and is becoming part and parcel of
its mental make-up. This is as clear as anything could be. The only
basis for Mr. Gandhi's extraordinary view is the existence of what are
called Nationalist Musalmans. It is difficult to see any real
difference between the communal Muslims who form the Muslim League and
the Nationalist Muslims. It is extremely doubtful whether the
Nationalist Musalmans have any real community of sentiment, aim, and
policy with the Congress which marks them off from the Muslim League.
Indeed many Congressmen are alleged to hold the view that there is no
different [=difference] between the two, and that the Nationalist
Muslim[s] inside the Congress are only an outpost of the communal
Muslims. This view does not seem to be quite devoid of truth when one
recalls that the late Dr. Ansari, the leader of the Nationalist
Musalmans, refused to oppose the Communal Award although it gave the
Muslims separate electorates in [the] teeth of the resolution passed
by the Congress and the Nationalist Musalmans. Nay, so great has been
the increase in the influence of the League among the Musalmans that
many Musalmans who were opposed to the League have been compelled to
seek for a place in the League or make peace with it. Anyone who takes
account of the turns and twists of the late Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan and
Mr. Fazlul Huq, the late Premier of Bengal, must admit the truth of
this fact. Both Sir Sikandar and Mr. Fazlul Huq were opposed to the
formation of branches of the Muslim League in their Provinces when Mr.
Jinnah tried to revive it in 1937. Notwithstanding their opposition,
when the branches of the League were formed in the Punjab and in
Bengal, within one year both were compelled to join them. It is a case
of those coming to scoff remaining to pray. No more cogent proof seems
to be necessary to prove the victory of the League.

Notwithstanding this Mr. Gandhi, instead of negotiating with Mr.
Jinnah and the Muslim League with a view to a settlement, took a
different turn. He got the Congress to pass the famous Quit India
Resolution on the 8th August 1942. This Quit India Resolution was
primarily a challenge to the British Government. But it was also an
attempt to do away with the intervention of the British Government in
the discussion of the Minority question, and thereby securing
[=secure] for the Congress a free hand to settle it on its own terms
and according to its own lights. It was in effect, if not in
intention, an attempt to win independence by bypassing the Muslims and
the other minorities. The Quit India Campaign turned out to be a
complete failure.

It was a mad venture and took the most diabolical form. It was a
scorch[ed]-earth campaign in which the victims of looting, arson and
murder were Indians, and the perpetrators were Congressmen. Beaten, he
started a fast for twenty-one days in March 1943 while he was in gaol,
with the object of getting out of it. He failed. Thereafter he fell
ill. As he was reported to be sinking, the British Government released
him for fear that he might die on their hand[s] and bring them
ignominy. On coming out of gaol, he found that he and the Congress had
not only missed the bus, but had also lost the road. To retrieve the
position and win for the Congress the respect of the British
Government as a premier party in the country, which it had lost by
reason of the failure of the campaign that followed up the Quit India
Resolution and the violence which accompanied it, he started
negotiating with the Viceroy. Thwarted in that attempt, Mr. Gandhi
turned to Mr. Jinnah. On the 17th July 1944 Mr. Gandhi wrote to Mr.
Jinnah expressing his desire to meet him and discuss with him the
communal question. Mr. Jinnah agreed to receive Mr. Gandhi in his
house in Bombay. They met on the 9th September 1944. It was good that
at long last wisdom dawned on Mr. Gandhi, and he agreed to see the
light which was staring him in the face and which he had so far
refused to see.

The basis of their talks was the offer made by Mr.
Rajagopalachariar to Mr. Jinnah in April 1944 which, according to the
somewhat incredible/2/ story told by Mr. Rajagopalachariar, was
discussed by him with Mr. Gandhi in March 1943 when he (Mr. Gandhi)
was fasting in gaol, and to which Mr. Gandhi had given his full
approval. The following is the text of Mr. Rajagopalachariar's
formula, popularly spoken of as the C. R. Formula:—

(1) Subject to the terms set out below as regards the constitution
for Free India, the Muslim League endorses the Indian demand for
Independence and will co-operate with the Congress in the formation of
a provisional interim government for the transitional period.
(2) After the termination of the war, a commission shall be appointed
for demarcating contiguous districts in the north-west and east of
India, wherein the Muslim population is in absolute majority. In the
areas thus demarcated, a plebiscite of all the inhabitants held on the
basis of adult suffrage or other practicable franchise shall
ultimately decide the issue of separation from Hindustan. If the
majority decide in favour of forming a sovereign State separate from
Hindustan, such decision shall be given effect to, without prejudice
to the right of districts on the border to choose to join either
State.

(3) It will be open to all parties to advocate their points of view
before the plebiscite is held.

(4) In the event of separation, mutual agreements shall be entered
into for safeguarding defence, and commerce and communications and for
other essential purposes.

(5) Any transfer of population shall only be on an absolutely
voluntary basis.

(6) These terms shall be binding only in case of transfer by Britain
of full power and responsibility for the governance of India.

The talks which began on the 9th September were carried on over a
period of 18 days till 27th September, when it was announced that the
talks had failed. The failure of the talks produced different
reactions in the minds of different people. Some were glad, others
were sorry. But as both had been, just previous to the talks, worsted
by their opponents in their struggle for supremacy, Gandhi by the
British and Jinnah by the Unionist Party in the Punjab, and had lost a
good deal of their credit, the majority of people expected that they
would put forth some constructive effort to bring about a solution.
The failure may have been due to the defects of personalities. But it
must however be said that failure was inevitable, having regard to
certain fundamental faults in the C. R. Formula. In the first place,
it tied up the communal question with the political question in an
indissoluble knot. No political settlement, no communal settlement, is
the strategy on which the formula proceeds. The formula did not offer
a solution. It invited Mr. Jinnah to enter into a deal. It was a
bargain—"If you help us in getting independence, we shall be glad to
consider your proposal for Pakistan." I don't know from where Mr.
Rajagopalachariar got the idea that this was the best means of getting
independence. It is possible that he borrowed it from the old Hindu
kings of India who built up alliance for protecting their independence
against foreign enemies by giving their daughters to neighbouring
princes. Mr. Rajagopalachariar forgot that such alliances brought
neither a good husband nor a permanent ally. To make communal
settlement depend upon help rendered in winning freedom is a very
unwise way of proceeding in a matter of this kind. It is a way of one
party drawing another party into its net by offering communal
privileges as a bait. The C. R. Formula made communal settlement an
article for sale.
The second fault in the C. R. Formula relates to the machinery for
giving effect to any agreement that may be arrived at. The agency
suggested in the C. R. Formula is the Provisional Government. In
suggesting this Mr. Rajagopalachariar obviously overlooked two
difficulties. The first thing he overlooked is that once the
Provisional Government was established, the promises of the
contracting parties, to use legal phraseology, did not [=would not]
remain concurrent promises. The case became [=would become] one of the
executed promise against an executory [=yet to be executed] promise.
By consenting to the establishment of a Provisional Government, the
League would have executed its promise to help the Congress to win
independence. But the promise of the Congress to bring about Pakistan
would remain executory. Mr. Jinnah, who insists, and quite rightly,
that the promises should be concurrent, could never be expected to
agree to place himself in such a position. The second difficulty which
Mr. Rajagopalachariar has overlooked is what would happen if the
Provisional Government failed to give effect to the Congress part of
the agreement. Who is to enforce it? The Provisional Government is to
be a sovereign government, not subject to superior authority. If it
was unwilling to give effect to the agreement, the only sanction open
to the Muslims would be rebellion. To make the Provisional Government
the agency for forging a new Constitution, for bringing about
Pakistan, nobody will accept. It is a snare and not a solution.

The only way of bringing about the constitutional changes will be
through an Act of Parliament embodying provisions agreed upon by the
important elements in the national life of British India. There is no
other way.

There is a third fault in the C. R. Formula. It relates to the
provision for a treaty between Pakistan and Hindustan to safeguard
what are called matters of common interests such as Defence, Foreign
Affairs, Customs, etc. Here again Mr. Rajagopalachariar does not seem
to be aware of obvious difficulties. How are matters of common
interest to be safeguarded? I see only two ways. One is to have a
Central Government vested with Executive and Legislative authority in
respect of these matters. This means Pakistan and Hindustan will not
be sovereign States. Will Mr. Jinnah agree to this? Obviously he does
not. The other way is to make Pakistan and Hindustan sovereign States
and to bind them by a treaty relating to matters of common interests.
But what is there to ensure that the terms of the treaty will be
observed? As a sovereign State Pakistan can always repudiate it, even
if it was [=were to be] a Dominion. Mr. Rajagopalachariar obviously
drew his inspiration in drafting this clause from the Anglo-Irish
Treaty of 1922. But he forgot the fact that the treaty lasted so long
as Ireland was not a Dominion, and that as soon as it became a
Dominion it repudiated the treaty, and the British Parliament stood
silent and grinned, for it knew that it could do nothing.

One does not mind very much that the talks failed. What one feels
sorry for is that the talks failed [at] giving us a clear idea of some
of the questions about which Mr. Jinnah has been observing discreet
silence in his public utterances, though he has been quite outspoken
about them in his private talks. These questions are— (1) Is Pakistan
to be conceded because of the Resolution of the Muslim League? (2) Are
the Muslims, as distinguished from the Muslim League, to have no say
in the matter? (3) What will be the boundaries of Pakistan? Whether
the boundaries will be the present administrative boundaries of the
Punjab and Bengal or whether the boundaries of Pakistan will be
ethnological boundaries? (4) What do the words "subject to such
territorial adjustments as may be necessary" which occur in the Lahore
Resolution mean? What were the territorial adjustments the League had
in mind? (5) What does the word "finally" which occurs in the last
part of the Lahore Resolution mean? Did the League contemplate a
transition period in which Pakistan will not be an independent and
sovereign State? (6) If Mr. Jinnah's proposal that the boundaries of
Eastern and Western Pakistan are to be the present administrative
boundaries, will he allow the Scheduled Castes, or, if I may say so,
the non-Muslims in the Punjab and Bengal to determine by a plebiscite
whether they wish to be included in Mr. Jinnah's Pakistan, and whether
Mr. Jinnah would be prepared to abide by the results of the plebiscite
of the non-Muslim elements in the Punjab and Bengal? (7) Does Mr.
Jinnah want a corridor running through U. P. and Bihar to connect up
Eastern Pakistan to Western Pakistan? It would have been a great gain
if straight questions had been put to Mr. Jinnah and unequivocal
answers obtained. But instead of coming to grips with Mr. Jinnah on
these questions, Mr. Gandhi spent his whole time proving that the C.
R. Formula is substantially the same as the League's Lahore Resolution—
which was ingenious if not nonsensical, and thereby lost the best
opportunity he had of having these questions clarified.

After these talks Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah have retired to their
pavilions as players in a cricket match do after their game is over,
as though there is nothing further to be done. There is no indication
whether they will meet again, and if so when. What next? is not a
question which seems to worry them. Yet it is difficult to see how
India can make any political advance without a solution of the
question which one may refuse to discuss. It does not belong to that
class of questions about which people can agree to differ. It is a
question for which solution will have to be found. How? It must be by
agreement or by arbitration. If it is to be by agreement, it must be
the result of negotiations—of give and take, and not of surrender by
one side to the other. That [=surrender] is not agreement. It is
dictation. Good sense may in the end prevail, and parties may come to
an agreement. But agreement may turn out to be a very dilatory way. It
may take long before good sense prevails. How long one cannot say. The
political freedom of India is a most urgent necessity. It cannot be
postponed, and yet without a solution of the communal problem it
cannot be hastened. To make it dependent on agreement is to postpone
its solution indefinitely. Another expeditious method must be found.
It seems to me that arbitration by an International Board is the best
way out. The disputed points in the minorities problem, including that
of Pakistan, should be remitted to such a Board. The Board should be
constituted of persons drawn from countries outside the British
Empire. Each statutory minority in India—Muslims, Scheduled Castes,
Sikhs, Indian Christians—should be asked to select its nominee to this
Board of Arbitration. These minorities, as also the Hindus, should
appear before the Board in support of their demands, and should agree
to abide by the decision given by the Board. The British should give
the following undertakings :—

(1) That they will have nothing to do with the communal settlement.
It will be left to agreement or to a Board of Arbitration.
(2) They will implement the decision of the Board of Arbitration on
the communal question by embodying it in the Government of India Act.

(3) That the award of the International Board of Arbitration would be
regarded by them as a sufficient discharge of their obligations to the
minorities in India, and [they] would agree to give India Dominion
Status.

The procedure has many advantages. It eliminates the fear of
British interference in the communal settlement, which has been
offered by the Congress as an excuse for its not being able to settle
the communal problem. It is alleged that, as there is always the
possibility of the minorities getting from the British something more
than what the Congress thinks it proper to give, the minorities do not
wish to come to terms with the Congress. The proposal has a second
advantage. It removes the objection of the Congress that by making the
constitution subject to the consent of the minorities, the British
Government has placed a veto in the hands of the minorities over the
constitutional progress of India. It is complained that the minorities
can unreasonably withhold their consent, or they can be prevailed upon
by the British Government to withhold their consent, as the minorities
are suspected by the Congress to be mere tools in the hands of the
British Government. international arbitration removes completely every
ground of complaint on this account. There should be no objection on
the part of the minorities. If their demands are fair and just, no
minority need have any fear from a Board of International Arbitration.
There is nothing unfair in the requirement of a submission to
arbitration. It follows the well-known rule of law, namely, that no
man should be allowed to be a judge in his own case. There is no
reason to make any exception in the case of a minority. Like an
individual, it cannot claim to sit in judgement over its own case.
What about the British Government? I cannot see any reason why the
British Government should object to any part of this scheme. The
Communal Award has brought great odium on the British. It has been a
thankless task and the British should be glad to be relieved of it. On
the question of the discharge of their responsibilities for making
adequate provision for the safety and security of certain communities,
in respect of which they have regarded themselves as trustees, before
they relinquish their sovereignty, what more can such communities ask
than the implantation in the constitution of safeguards in terms of
the award of an International Board of Arbitration? There is only one
contingency which may appear to create some difficulty for the British
Government in the matter of enforcing the award of the Board of
Arbitration. Such a contingency can arise if any one of the parties to
the dispute is not prepared to submit its case to arbitration.
In that case the question will be: will the British Government be
justified in enforcing the award against such a party? I see no
difficulty in saying that the British Government can with perfect
justice proceed to enforce the award against such a party. After all,
what is the status of a party which refuses to submit its case to
arbitration? The answer is that such a party is an aggressor. How is
an aggressor dealt with? By subjecting him to sanctions. Implementing
the award of the Board of Arbitration in a constitution against a
party which refuses to go to arbitration is simply another name for
the process of applying sanctions against an aggressor. The British
Government need not feel embarrassed in following this process if the
contingency should arise. For it is a well-recognized process of
dealing with such cases and has the imprimatur of the League of
Nations, which evolved this formula when Mussolini refused to submit
to arbitration his dispute with Abyssinia. What I have proposed may
not be the answer to the question: What next? I don't know what else
can be. All I know is that there will be no freedom for India without
an answer. It must be decisive, it must be prompt, and it must be
satisfactory to the parties concerned.

/1/ Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his autobiography says that Mr. Jinnah
wanted the Congress to restrict its membership to matriculates.

/2/ The formula was discussed with Mr. Gandhi in March 1943, but was
not communicated to Mr. Jinnah till April 1944.

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_partition/600epilog.html

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"A witty documentary satire.... Mehta embraces an enormous variety of
life and death. Her style is light without being flip; her skepticism
never descends to cynicism. [Karma Cola is] a miracle of rationalism
and taste."

-- Time

Sometime in the 1960s, the West adopted India as its newest spiritual
resort. The next anyone knew, the Beatles were squatting at the feet
of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Expatriate hippies were turning on
entire villages to the pleasures of group sex and I.V. drug use. And
Indians who were accustomed to earning enlightenment the old-fashioned
way were finding that the visitors wanted their Nirvana now -- and
that plenty of native gurus were willing to deliver it.

No one has observed the West's invasion of India more astutely than
Gita Mehta. In Karma Cola the acclaimed novelist trains an unblinking
journalistic eye on jaded sadhus and beatific acid burnouts, the
Bhagwan and Allen Ginsberg, guilt-tripping English girls and a guru
who teaches gullible tourists how to view their previous incarnations.
Brilliantly irreverent, hilarious, sobering, and wise, Mehta's book is
the definitive epitaph for the era of spiritual tourism and all its
casualties -- both Eastern and Western.

"Evelyn Waugh would have rejoiced."

-- The New York Times Book Review
Kurzbeschreibung

Beginning in the late '60s, hundreds of thousands of Westerners
descended upon India, disciples of a cultural revolution that
proclaimed that the magic and mystery missing from their lives was to
be found in the East. An Indian writer who has also lived in England
and the United States, Gita Mehta was ideally placed to observe the
spectacle of European and American "pilgrims" interacting with their
hosts. When she finally recorded her razor sharp observations in Karma
Cola, the book became an instant classic for describing, in merciless
detail, what happens when the traditions of an ancient and longlived
society are turned into commodities and sold to those who don't
understand them.

In the dazzling prose that has become her trademark, Mehta skewers the
entire Spectrum of seekers: The Beatles, homeless students, Hollywood
rich kids in detox, British guilt-trippers, and more. In doing so, she
also reveals the devastating byproducts that the Westerners brought to
the villages of rural lndia -- high anxiety and drug addiction among
them.

Brilliantly irreverent, Karma Cola displays Gita Mehta's gift for
weaving old and new, common and bizarre, history and current events
into a seamless and colorful narrative that is at once witty,
shocking, and poignant.
Alle Produktbeschreibungen

http://www.amazon.de/Karma-Cola-Gita-Mehta/dp/0749390697

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Karma Cola

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3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Amazing

Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive!
I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably does
not know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps of
books that get published every year in the US and somehow make it to
the NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a good
book or because it can be made into a tv...

Vollständige Rezension lesen ›
Veröffentlicht am 20. April 2000 von SL

› Weitere Rezensionen anzeigen: 5 Sterne, 4 Sterne

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:

Useful & entertaining
Humorous description of overseas visitors looking to India for
spiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visiting
Pune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made it
even more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive.

The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception of
India.

Veröffentlicht am 29. Januar 2000 von J. G. Heiser

0 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Decent but nothing special, 21. Juni 2000
Von Meredith Billman Mani -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)
While Ms. Metha is an extremely talented writer I find it distracting
to have to wade through her obvious attempts to describe every minute
detail to the reader. It gets to be too much. This is a nice book that
offers (too much) description and a very one sided view of India.
She's writing for an American audience and it's as though she wants
them to laugh at the customs and norms in India. This is not my
favorite book on india or even by the author. This is a middle of the
road book as far as I'm concerned. I don't hate it, but then again I
don't love it either.

0 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
This book is not good., 5. Mai 2000
Von Ein Kunde

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
This book mocks europeans and americans who have earnestly gone to
India to seek out "enlightenment" and an element of spirituality that
they think is lacking in their home cultures. Gita Mehta employs all
sorts of cliches and negative stereotypes to depict this class of
"foreigner" in India. This is not a very challenging literary task.
Her language is as slick and taught as advertising text. Sometimes
clever, but more often simply rank and mean, Mehta indulges in trite
pseudo subaltern "slamming" of hippies and spiritual seekers.

I wonder what Mehta's reaction would be if an American author started
penning stories of the immature, body-stenched, fashion impaired
Indian immigrants who flock to America to shop in outlet malls and
stuff their cheap luggage full of cheaper nick-nacks for the glass
bureaus back in Delhi and Dehra Dun...

Everyone is looking for something: Westerners look for something
spiritual in India / Indians look for something material in the West.

And you are looking for my opinion on this book: dont waste your time
with this one -- go buy a Rushdie novel you don't already have.

3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Amazing, 20. April 2000
Von SL (OakPark, IL) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive!
I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably does
not know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps of
books that get published every year in the US and somehow make it to
the NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a good
book or because it can be made into a tv movie.

This book is a classic. Her use of the language is extra-ordinary. She
touches on the most 'Indian' of values with a great sense of humor and
almost trivialises them. She makes you really think about issues that
matter and drove(still drive) thousands of Westerners to India. She
has also done a great job of contrasting the Eastern and Western view
of life, death and everything spiritual.

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Useful & entertaining, 29. Januar 2000
Von J. G. Heiser (Sunninghill, Berks) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
Humorous description of overseas visitors looking to India for
spiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visiting
Pune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made it
even more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive.
The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception of
India.

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
An Essential Book for Travelers to India, 29. Dezember 1999
Von Peter Theis (Minneapolis, USA) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
This book is a must-read for those travelers bound for India,
especially for those seeking enlightenment. I lived in Varanasi for a
year, and I met many travelers who believed that India was some sort
of textbook Hindu holy land. These people lived in their ideas,
creating a shield around them that kept real India out. Karma Cola
helps show that India isn't a book-ideal made up of gurus and yogis
performing divine-inspired miracles on every street corner. It shows
that India, like any other country, is made up of people: helpful
people and crooks, prude people and perverts. If you go to India,
don't go there to experience some sort of religious miracle. Go there
to see real India and meet real Indians, and read this book before you
go!

0 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
A 'scholarly' (not!) book, 3. August 1999
Von Ein Kunde

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)
Nothing but trash! I can not believe that this stupid book is
recommended reading by Lonely Planet!

Witty at times, cynical at others, 30. Juli 1999
Von Michael Washbrooke (Sydney, Australia) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)
Written so as to remind each of us that there's a sucker (or seeker)
born every minute, Mehta's book shows us how easy it is to fool
gullible Westerners looking for enlightenment, and that there's a big
difference between open-hearted curiosity and gullibility. Westerners
created a market for gurus, and India filled it. But somewhere among
the amusing anecdotes that Mehta relates in a clucking tongue there's
a tale that's really rather sad. On the whole, I enjoyed the book and
found it witty and amusing, but thought it was perhaps a little
satisfied at its own superiority. For anybody thinking about going to
India to "find themselves," it would be a good primer.

Another thought, 13. Juli 1998
Von bali...@aol.com (Washington, DC) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)

In addition to what I've already written, let me also state that the
book is also a criticism of Indians who capitalize on westerners' need
for spiritual fulfillment. On a personal note about the Chapter in
which the illegal route from Pakistan to India is discovered and the
foreigners coming through that route by taking advantage of the
hospitality of the villagers, this is not uncommon even today. I've
had several people stay at my house who basically used me as a cheap
place to stay and without even thanking me for cooking for them or
providing them with a roof over their heads. The ability to take
unashamedly persists. Hospitality is one of the greatest things about
Indian/South Asian culture, but as Mehta demonstrates in the chapter,
it also exposes Indians to a great deal of abuse as anyone who's had
an ungracious house guest can testify.

Not the usual view of India, 7. Februar 1998
Von cat...@gnosys.co.nz (New Zealand) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)
Karma Cola is definitely required reading for any westerner interested
in things Indian or perhaps contemplating hitting the Dharma trail.
Its recognition that misunderstanding goes both ways (eg. the
anecdotes about gurus treatment of their Western students) is a good
reality check for those of us whose spiritual search has taken us
there. Ms Mehta gently reminds us that trying to absorb 5000 years of
experience and living may take a little more than a few weeks of squat
loos, and some Om Mani Padme Hums.

This is the first time I've ever read a book about the move of Eastern
thought into the West which was not written by a Westerner. In some
ways sobering, it is also witty and at times poignant.

By the way, an earlier reviewer lambasted the author for attributing
the wrong language to clerks from Kerala. That mistake has been fixed
in the edition I have (Minerva 1997 paperback).

Sucks!!!, 15. Dezember 1997
Von veni...@zonker.ecs.umass.edu (Amherst, MA) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
Pardon me, but the author's ignorance is showing. The book has very
little to do with reality and panders to every fear and stereotype in
the mind of an Western audience. Here is an instance of the author's
ignorance, a quote from Chapter VI titled Behind the Urine Curtain,
Section 3 (pg 84 in the Vintage paper back edition)-she is talking
about the different people who use the local trains in Mumbai- "There
to the left is a clutch of stiletto-heeled and skirted Goan
secretaries, exchanging office gossip in Portuguese. Close behind them
are the Kerala clerks in white bush shirts and gray trousers,
conversing in (emphasis mine)*KANNADA*". Now anyone with an iota of
knowledge about India and its languages will know that the people of
Kerala speak Malayalam and not Kannada which is the language of the
neighboring Karnataka. Malayalam and Kannada are not obscure tongues
but are each spoken by atleast a few million people. Someone who
doesnt even know this should NOT set out writing a book about India.
Makes one wonder at the autheticity of the other anecdotes in the
book. Throwing in some high sounding philosophical jargon does not
make a book intellectual either (Chapter XIII- Om is Where the Heart
is). In all a very pathetic attempt to make a quick buck out of the
"mystic" of the East. She seems to be the one living up to her book's
title- Karma Cola- Marketing the Mystic East.

A look at the consequences of India's "spiritual draw"., 1. Dezember
1997
Von Ein Kunde

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
An interesting look at what draws "spiritually starved" westerners to
India and the consequential fallout. The author assumes a lot from the
reader, particularly a working knowledge of spoken French and a
rudimentary understanding of Hindu mythology. I'm lacking on both
accounts so a lot of the book went over my head. One particular
passage that sounds to me like it's important but I didn't fully
appreciate, was the one where she is talking about the meaning of
Karma and its perverted meaning by westerners. She relates the story,
from the Bhagavad Gita, of Arjuna asking Krishna why he needs to go to
war when understanding is superior to action in this case. Krishna
answers that one is bound by action and that only by acting can one be
free of the bondage of action. "That is exactly Karma" says the
author. Now, here is where I have a problem, probably because of my
limited understanding of Hinduism. *I* thought that Karma had to do
with the totallity of ones actions and is *the* factor determining
your next level of reincarnation. What the author seems to be implying
is that Karma is, instead, the bondage of action, i.e. fate. That is,
karma is the thing which predefines our actions rather than the
measure of our actions. I am confused ..... On the other hand, her
very pragmatic telling of the western approach to "instant nirvana"
and the "distressed westerner" abdicating to the nearest Guru is
actually quite refreshing and devoid of the mythical. :-) However,not
quite so overtly there is the implication that the invasion of
confused westerners has had a very destructive impact of the lives of
ordinary Indians. When relating the story of the westerners who
figured out a illegal route into India from Pakistan by taking
advantage of the hospitality of Indians, the protaganist of the story
is said to have said "One cannot make an omelet without breaking some
eggs". The author continues by saying, "and from where I stand the
ground is covered with broken egg shells". This I found quite sad ....
the narcissistic westerners completely lacking in self-restraint and
enough appreciation to understand that the path of "enlightenment"
requires endurance and cannot be delivered at will. Mind you that's
what Christianity preaches; just give your faith to god and you will
be saved. Where is the prerequisite toil and self-sacrifice?

An excellent book on the "other" perspective., 1. Dezember 1997
Von Ein Kunde

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East
(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)

This is an excellent book for those who want to know what "sensible"
South Asians think about the appropriation and manipulation of their
culture. I'm sure that it would seem rather acerbic to those who
control the discourse on culture and identity but every once in a
while a book comes along and gives voice to the perspective of the
"other." Those of us who have seen their karma, their food, their
noserings, their clothes and their cultural, religious and national
symbols reinvented, recycled and resignified will appreciate this book
as an attempt to point out the folly of such doings. For westerners,
this is like looking in a mirror that does not lie.

A rather cranky view of westerners in India., 16. August 1997
Von loo...@alaska.net (Girdwood, Alaska) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)
The author has some fun describing the follies and adventures of
westerners in India, but falls into the "more Hindu than thou" mode a
bit. An interesting read.

http://www.amazon.de/product-reviews/0749390697/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Produktinformation

Taschenbuch: 944 Seiten
Verlag: St. Martin's Press; Auflage: Reprint (November 2005)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0312330537
ISBN-13: 978-0312330538
Größe und/oder Gewicht: 20,8 x 13,7 x 4,3 cm
Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.4 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen
anzeigen (21 Kundenrezensionen)

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Amazon.de Verkaufsrang: Nr. 308 in Englische Bücher (Die Bestseller
Englische Bücher)

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Amazon.com

Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are
only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top,
mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr.
Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God's
peace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not
know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an
Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He
served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a
string of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction,
which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his
daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg
Roberts, that's only the beginning.

He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers,
an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets
Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He
takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home
village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to
Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000
people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prison
knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing
trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as
heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat
bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-
American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated
relationship, and Karla’s connections are murky from the outset.

Roberts is not reluctant to wax poetic; in fact, some of his prose is
downright embarrassing. Throughought the novel, however, all 944 pages
of it, every single sentence rings true. He is a tough guy with a
tender heart, one capable of what is judged criminal behavior, but a
basically decent, intelligent man who would never intentionally hurt
anyone, especially anyone he knew. He is a magnet for trouble, a
soldier of fortune, a picaresque hero: the rascal who lives by his
wits in a corrupt society. His story is irresistible. Stay tuned for
the prequel and the sequel. --Valerie Ryan -- Dieser Text bezieht sich
auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this massive, thrillingly undomesticated potboiler, a
young Australian man bearing a false New Zealand passport that gives
his name as "Lindsay" flies to Bombay some time in the early '80s. On
his first day there, Lindsay meets the two people who will largely
influence his fate in the city. One is a young tour guide, Prabaker,
whose gifts include a large smile and an unstoppably joyful heart.
Through Prabaker, Lindsay learns Marathi (a language not often spoken
by gora, or foreigners), gets to know village India and settles, for a
time, in a vast shantytown, operating an illicit free clinic. The
second person he meets is Karla, a beautiful Swiss-American woman with
sea-green eyes and a circle of expatriate friends. Lin's love for Karla
—and her mysterious inability to love in return—gives the book its
central tension. "Linbaba's" life in the slum abruptly ends when he is
arrested without charge and thrown into the hell of Arthur Road
Prison. Upon his release, he moves from the slum and begins laundering
money and forging passports for one of the heads of the Bombay mafia,
guru/sage Abdel Khader Khan. Eventually, he follows Khader as an
improbable guerrilla in the war against the Russians in Afghanistan.
There he learns about Karla's connection to Khader and discovers who
set him up for arrest. Roberts, who wrote the first drafts of the
novel in prison, has poured everything he knows into this book and it
shows. It has a heartfelt, cinemascope feel. If there are occasional
passages that would make the very angels of purple prose weep, there
are also images, plots, characters, philosophical dialogues and
mysteries that more than compensate for the novel's flaws. A
sensational read, it might well reproduce its bestselling success in
Australia here.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere
Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .
From Booklist

A thousand pages is like a thousand pounds--it sounds like too much to
deal with. Nevertheless, Roberts' very long novel sails along at an
amazingly fast clip. Readers in the author's native Australia
apparently finished every page of it, for they handed it considerable
praise. Now U.S. readers can enjoy this rich saga based on Roberts'
own life: escape from a prison in Australia and a subsequent flight to
Bombay, which is exactly what happens to Lindsay, the main character
in the novel; once in Bombay, he joins the city's underground. Roberts
graphically, even beautifully, evokes that milieu--he is as effective
at imparting impressions as any good travel writer--in this complex
but cohesive story about freedom and the lack of it, about survival,
spiritual meaning, love, and sex; in other words, about life in what
has to be one of the most fascinating cities in the world. One's first
impression of this novel is that it is simply a good story, but one
soon comes to realize that Roberts is also a gifted creator of
characters--not only Lindsay but also Prabaker, who becomes Lindsay's
guide, caretaker, and entree into various elements of Bombay society.
Soon, too, one becomes aware and appreciative of Roberts' felicitous
writing style. In all, despite the novel's length, it is difficult not
to be ensnared by it. And, be forewarned, it will be popular. Brad
Hooper

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --
Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

Pressestimmen

"Shantaram is a novel of the first order, a work of extraordinary art,
a thing of exceptional beauty. If someone asked me what the book was
about, I would have to say everything, every thing in the world.
Gregory David Roberts does for Bombay what Lawrence Durrell did for
Alexandria, what Melville did for the South Seas, and what Thoreau did
for Walden Pond: He makes it an eternal player in the literature of
the world."

- Pat Conroy

"Shantaram has provided me with the richest reading experience to date
and I don't expect anybody to unseat its all-round performance for a
long time. It is seductive, powerful, complex, and blessed with a
perfect voice. Like a voodoo ghost snatcher, Gregory David Roberts has
captured the spirits of the likes of Henri Charrière, Rohinton Mistry,
Tom Wolfe, and Mario Vargas Llosa, fused them with his own unique
magic, and built the most gripping monument in print. The land of the
god Ganesh has unchained the elephant, and with the monster running
amok, I tremble for the brave soul dreaming of writing a novel about
India. Gregory David Roberts is a suitable giant, a dazzling guru, and
a genius in full."

- Moses Isegawa, author of Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit

"Shantaram is, quite simply, the 1001 Arabian Nights of the new
century. Anyone who loves to read has been looking for this book all
their reading life. Anyone who walks away from Shantaram untouched is
either heartless or dead or both. I haven't had such a wonderful time
in years."

- Jonathan Carroll, author of White Apples

"Shantaram is dazzling. More importantly, it offers a lesson...that
those we incarcerate are human beings. They deserve to be treated with
dignity. Some of them, after all, may be exceptional. Some may even
possess genius."

- Ayelet Waldman, author of Crossing the Park

“Utterly unique, absolutely audacious, and wonderfully wild, Shantaram
is sure to catch even the most fantastic of imaginations off guard.”

---Elle

“Shantaram had me hooked from the first sentence. [It] is thrilling,
touching, frightening...a glorious wallow of a novel.”

---Detroit Free Press

“[A] sprawling, intelligent novel…full of vibrant characters…the
exuberance of his prose is refreshing…Roberts brings us through
Bombay’s slums and opium houses, its prostitution dens and ex-pat
bars, saying, You come now. And we follow.”

---The Washington Post

"Inspired storytelling."

--People

“Vivid, entertaining. Its visceral, cinematic descriptive beauty truly
impresses.”

--USA Today

“Few stand out quite like Shantaram …nothing if not entertaining.
Sometimes a big story is its own best reward.”

--The New York Times

"...very good...vast of vision and breadth."

--Time Out

“This massive autobiographical novel draws heavily from Roberts’ vida
loca. Don’t let the size scare you away – Shantaram is one of the most
gripping tales of personal redemption you’ll ever read.”

--Giant Magazine

“This reviewer is amazed that Roberts is here to write anything.
Swallowed up by the abyss, somehow he crawled out intact….His love for
other people was his salvation…Powerful books can change our lives.
The potency of Shantaram is the joy of forgiveness. First we must
regret, then forgive. Forgiveness is a beacon in the blackness.”

--Dayton Daily News

" Shantaram is loads of colorful fun, [it] rises to something grand in
its evocations of the pungent chaos of Bombay. "
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Shantaram is a true epic. It is a huge, messy, over-the-top
irresistible shaggy-dog story.”
--The Seattle Times

Kurzbeschreibung

A stunning debut novel based on the author's dramatic and
extraordinary true story. After escaping from a maximum-security
prison, Roberts hid in Bombay, establishing a medical clinic, working
in Bollywood and joining the mafia. A gripping and superbly written
adventure story which will receive review and feature coverage. "A
masterpiece...sure to be a bestseller around the world" "The Age" --
Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare
Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Über den Autor

Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to
nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped
and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay---where he established a
free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter,
smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay
mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a
successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is a now full-
time writer and lives in Bombay.

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Shantaram

I grew up in Bombay in the fifties and early sixties, and have not
visited the city for the past odd 20 years. This amazing book has
basically summed up life in one of the most fascinating cities in the
world. Besides the adventure, which is unique in itself, the author
has managed a description of the city and its unbelievable vibrant
atmosphere and street life to pass...
Vollständige Rezension lesen ›

Veröffentlicht am 21. Januar 2005 von Simon Khosla

› Weitere Rezensionen anzeigen: 5 Sterne, 4 Sterne
8 von 8 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Weniger ist mehr

Shantaram - wärmstens empfohlen nicht nur von Amazon-Usern und deren
Rezensionen, sondern unter anderem auch aufgrund vieler positiver
Berichte in diversen Zeitschriften. Nachdem ich nun die 932 Seiten
"geschafft" habe zu lesen, wusste ich nicht recht ob ich zufrieden war
mit dem Buch oder ob ein wenig die Enttäuschung überwog.

Das Buch ist in 5 Teile...
Vollständige Rezension lesen ›
Vor 8 Monaten von Chevy veröffentlicht

21 von 21 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Shantaram, 21. Januar 2005
Von Simon Khosla (Schaffhausen, Switzerland) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Gebundene Ausgabe)
I grew up in Bombay in the fifties and early sixties, and have not
visited the city for the past odd 20 years. This amazing book has
basically summed up life in one of the most fascinating cities in the
world. Besides the adventure, which is unique in itself, the author
has managed a description of the city and its unbelievable vibrant
atmosphere and street life to pass like a film in front of ones eyes.
It is the best book I have ever read about the city.

8 von 8 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Weniger ist mehr, 1. Juli 2009
Von Chevy -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Shantaram - wärmstens empfohlen nicht nur von Amazon-Usern und deren
Rezensionen, sondern unter anderem auch aufgrund vieler positiver
Berichte in diversen Zeitschriften. Nachdem ich nun die 932 Seiten
"geschafft" habe zu lesen, wusste ich nicht recht ob ich zufrieden war
mit dem Buch oder ob ein wenig die Enttäuschung überwog.

Das Buch ist in 5 Teile untergliedert, zu insgesamt 43 Kapitel. Bis
zum Ende des 3. Teiles war ich schwer begeistert wie Roberts über
seine Flucht, sein Untertauchen, das indische Dorfleben, das Leben im
Slum oder aber auch über die Menschen die er trifft und liebt
schreibt, teilweise auch sehr humorvoll. Er malt viele der Szenen,
teilweise bis ins Detail beschrieben, sehr ausgiebig.

Allerdings hat der Autor ein großes Manko. Respekt davor was der Autor
erlebt haben möchte (da die Rahmengeschichte ja doch irgendwie der
Realität entspricht), allerdings scheint es, vor allem gegen Ende des
Romans, sehr oft, als Lobe sich der Autor selbst. Teilweise kämpft er
alle drei Seiten gegen einen neuen Gegner und beschreibt detailliert
wie er diese zumeist K.O. schlägt. Auch die Storyline nimmt mit den
letzten zwei Kapiteln, der Mafia und Aufghanistan stark ab, der Roman
wird zu sehr in die Länge gezogen. Dies ist natürlich sehr schade, da
es zu Beginn wie gesagt ein Buch war das ich den meisten Leuten blind
empfehlen würde. Philosophisch gesehen birgt der Roman Ansätze über
einen evtl Sinn des Lebens, allerdings motivieren diese aber nicht,
sich weiter damit auseinanderzusetzen.

Alles in allem kann ich das Buch als Urlaubsroman empfehlen, aber auch
nur denjenigen, denen Kampfszenen nichts ausmachen. Wirklich
empfehlenswert meinerseits sind daher eigentlich nur die ersten 3
Teile. Deshalb auch die 3 von 5 Sternen.

19 von 21 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Hail Shantaram!, 15. April 2005
Von "kojanko" -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
This book is simply amazing.
It is a classic adventure book first of all, filled with deep
realizations about life, love and death. It is beautifully crafted,
and Gregory Roberts writing style is gripping, colorful and profoundly
simple (in the best way). It always displays an honesty and
authenticity even in the most outragous moments of this tale - and
there are many of those. Shantaram is everything a reader could ever
want from a book - it is poetic, moving, philosophical and extremely
alive. You'll be very sorry when you get to the last of the 900+
pages.

Very sorry, indeed.

Read it.

11 von 12 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
An epic novel set in India, 21. Juni 2005
Von Philippe Horak (Zug, Switzerland) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Gebundene Ausgabe)
Mr Roberts's voluminous novel tells the story of one narrator who
escaped from prison in Australia and travelled to Bombay on a false
New Zealand passport. He doesn't devote much time talking about his
criminal activities in his home country apart from stating that he
used to rob banks and deal in drugs and then chose to abandon his wife
and children for the life of a fugitive. Upon his arrival in the
Indian capital, he met Prabaker Kharre, a loveable character who
showed him round the city, particularly the areas rarely visited by
mainstream tourists. At Leopold's, a bar where illegal business is
conducted by many Indians and a few foreigners, the narrator was
introduced to Karla Saaranen, a beautiful woman who is often the
object of his thoughts throughout the novel due to the difficulty she
has in feeling love for anyone.

As he settled down in Bombay, he learned to speak Marathi and Hindi
and during the adventurous years he spent in the city he became
acquainted with a whole array of characters and he became to be known
as Lin, Linbaba or Shantaram. The most impressive passages in the
novel are the narrator's visit to Prabaker's native village of Sunder,
his work in the zhopadpatti slum, his experience with the monsoon and
the cholera, his work for Abdel Khader Khan and the Bombay Mafia, his
stays at the Arthur Road Prison and the Colaba lock-up and finally his
fight for the mujaheddin cause in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Mr Roberts wonderfully shows both the generosity and the violence of
the Indian people's character. The spirit of Bombay is rendered in
splendid descriptions so that altogether this novel is thoroughly
enjoyable to read.

10 von 11 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Ein grossartiges Werk!, 13. Mai 2008
Von Don Paesano "retito" -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Ich konnte das Buch für volle vier Tage nicht aus den Händen legen.
Ich las immer und überall, während dem Essen, auf dem Klo, auf dem Weg
zum Klo, auf dem Rückweg vom Klo. Und schliesslich mit einer
Stirnlampe in der Hängematte. Das Buch nimmt einem mit auf eine Reise
mit David Roberts, die durch ein Indien führt wie ich es noch nie
beschrieben bekommen habe. Die Geschichte geht vorwärts wie ein
Güterzug. Seite für Seite etwas Neues, Aufregendes, Spannendes. Die
Sprache ist gut verständlich und wunderschön geschrieben. Ich
schliesse mich meinen Vorrednern nicht an, die die Philosophie zum
Teil als "cheesy" beschreiben. Ich war vielmehr beeindruckt vom Autor,
diesem unglaublichen Typen, der Dinge erlebt und so wunderbar
beschreibt, die weit weit über übliche "Reiseerfahrungen" hinweg
reichen.
Das Buch hat mich zum Lachen gebracht und mich zu Tränen gerührt. Es
war keine Seite (!) langweilig. Im Gegenteil. Fesseln, spannend,
intensiv, fordernd. Das Ende, wie viele Abschnitte zuvor, musste ich
gleich mehrmals lesen...Gänsehaut!

Habe das Buch bereits x-mal verschenkt - uneingeschränkter Lesetip!

3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Biblische Geschichten, 31. Mai 2009
Von Helmut Janus -

Erschöpft bin ich nach 933 Seiten am Ende der englischen Ausgabe von
Shantaram angekommen. Das Buch ist durchgehend gut zu lesen. Es gibt
eine unglaubliche Fülle an spannenden Episoden, gut geschriebenen
Dialogen, interessanten Typen, Milieuschilderungen und
Hintergrundgeschichten. Das alles ist in der Inhaltsangabe schon
ausführlich beschrieben worden. Womit ich allerdings meine
Schwierigkeiten hatte, war das Ego des Autors und seine philosophisch-
religiöse Grundeinstellung. Die ganze abenteuerliche Lebensgeschichte
handelt vom Suchen nach dem Guten im Menschen, von immer neuen
Versuchungen, Fehlschlägen und schließlich doch dem Sieg des Guten,
Gerechten und Liebenden. Es sind nicht einzelne philosophische
Schwafeleien, die die Handlung unterbrechen, sondern alles, was
Roberts erzählt, ordnet sich diesem Muster unter. Wenn er in Kämpfe
verwickelt ist, streicht er seine Fähigkeiten als Messerstecher
heraus, aber im entscheidenden Augenblick sticht er ordentlich ins
Fleisch seines Gegners, bringt ihn aber nicht um. Wenn er nach Monaten
einer unfassbaren Tortur aus dem Gefängnis frei kommt, versäumt er es
nicht, noch ein paar Mitgefangene zu retten. Wenn er aus Verzweiflung
wieder Heroin nimmt, dann auch richtig, indem er drei Monate in einer
Opiumhöhle abtaucht und anschließend durch die Hölle des "cold turkey"
geht.

Es sind biblische Geschichten in modernem Gewand, die Roberts erzählt,
die Läuterung vom Saulus zum Paulus. Aus Neugier habe ich mir seine
Website angesehen, und hier entwickelt er auch seine Philosophie von
der "cosmosophy". Ich bin nicht in die Details eingestiegen und habe
dazu auch keine große Lust, weil ich Bücher lese, um mich unterhalten
und zum Nachdenken anregen zu lassen, nicht aber um mir den großen
Wurf einer Welterklärung anzutun. Shantaram lässt mich etwas ratlos
zurück. Vielleicht muss ein solcher Eifer sein, um ein so gigantisches
Werk zustande zu bringen.

7 von 9 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Amazing, 21. August 2006
Von danyboy "eternalflame2" (Brunnen, Schweiz) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
I have not yet finished reading this book but I already need to
comment on this masterpiece. Shantaram may not be a flawless work and
parts of the book and especially sometimes the imagery and phrases
used appear a bit cheesy. A few comparisons and philosophical thoughts
are either a bit far-fetched or very general and superficial.

This may sound like a book of which one can use the paper to lit a
fire with on a cold winter day. BUT, despite some (undisputable) flaws
I give the book 4 stars because it, nevertheless, has become one of my
favourite books. The amazing and outstanding qualities of the book let
you forget the (minor) flaws mentioned above.

The story is thrilling, funny and never boring. One starts to feel
that what this guy writes is what he really experienced (at least most
of it) and I prefer an honest, true, heart-breaking, interesting story
with a few stylistic flaws to over-intellectual, cold and too perfect
works by some acclaimed literary authors. This is the story of a man's
life, which is far from being a common, everyday one. Let me tell you
one thing: this man has got a lot to tell you. Buy the book, sit down,
make yourself comfortable and dive into the world of Greg David
Roberts. I bet you won't regret it...

4 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
One of the best books ever!!!, 1. Juni 2005
Von "natalie0208" -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Shantaram is one of the best books I ever read, and I read an awful
lot!!! The Author has a great gift of storytelling, the plot is
terrific, his descriptions of the places, the people, their culture is
absolutely gorgeous. So don't hesitate, read this book, it is worth
every cent and you'll not put it down till you reach the last page.

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
A definite MUST-READ!, 23. September 2009
Von S. Gould -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Others have already given this book the raving reviews it deserves. I
won't attempt to add to their comments, except to simply say that you
shouldn't be put-off by the size of this book - once you start reading
it you won't be able to put it down! (and will sadly be through it
faster than you wished!)

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
einfach nur klasse, 23. Juni 2009
Von bücher-wurm "leo3009" -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Ein faszinierendes Buch, das ich nur empfehlen kann. Die plastische
Darstellung des Autors läßt einen in eine komplett fremde Welt
versinken. Extrem gut geschrieben, spannend (zugegebenermaßen hast das
Buch zwischendurch ein paar Längen, die aber die Gesamtheit für mich
nicht beeinträchtigen) und manchmal auch sehr hart, so daß ich bewußt
das Buch zur Seite gelegt habe um die Passagen zu verdauen.
Prinzipiell langweilen mich Kriegsbeschreibungen, aber Gregory Roberts
hat es ausgezeichnet verstanden, auch solche Themen dem Leser nahe zu
bringen. Den Leser erwartet eine große Portion Philosophie, vielleicht
neuer Denkansätze, und das Buch entführt somit in eine (zumindest für
mich) absolut fremde Lebensweise. Wer einmal über den eigenen
Tellerrand hinauschauen möchte, ist genau richtig. Ob man die
Entscheidungen von "Lindsay" verstehen kann oder nicht, auf jeden Fall
ist großer Unterhaltungswert garantiert! Ich freue mich auf die
Verfilmung.

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
The Heart of India, 21. Mai 2009
Von R. Müller-Heinrich "Goldkalb" (Pulheim, Deutschland) -

I have read many books on India and spent time in Bombay and Delhi. No
book, no sojourn has brought me so close to and deeply into the Heart
of India. The simplicity of style, the at times almost brutal honesty
of Gregory Roberts, the expressions of love for the people he met, the
lessons he learned, remind me of Barack Obama's "Dreams from my
Father". Shantaram is an amazing book which lets you feel you are
there. You feel the humid heat of Bombay, you smell all the smells,
good or bad, you see the purple sunset, you are amongst his friends
and could almost touch them. You could find your way into the slum and
feel sure of a welcome, even as a stranger. I felt encompassed by
Prabaker's smile, felt the loyalty of Lin's friends as if they were
mine. I felt the struggles Lin went through to find his way in life,
as if they were my own. I never could condemn him for his "evil"
deeds, as he was giving all the love he had to give at the same time.
As someone already said, I was very sorry when I came to the last
page, because it meant coming back to my own world, like after a
holiday. And my world seems drab and poor, though I don't live in a
slum. And no news report has shown me the futility, the atrocity, the
heart-wrenching sadness of Afghans killing their Afghan brothers,
supported by profit-seeking Americans and Russians for their own
goals. Shantaram. (Abacus)

6 von 8 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Spitze, 26. Juli 2006
Von Frank Bittermann -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Gebundene Ausgabe)
Durch die Meldung von Querelen bei der Produktionsvorbereitung des
Films von und mit Jonny Depp bin ich auf diesen Roman aufmerksam
geworden. Auch muss ich zugeben, dass ich Indien immer noch für heiss,
schmutzig und völlig überbevölkert halte, aber dieses Buch hat mir die
Menschen dort näher gebracht. Ein von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite
spannender, lustige, trauriger und vor allem nachdenkenswerter
Schmöker. Ein durchweg gelungenes Erstlingswerk, bei dem ich auf einen
Nachfolger hoffe, denn der Autor hat offensichtlich soviele Abenteuer
erlebt, da kann man nur mit den Ohren schlackern...

Well-read mix of Bombay life, with mafia-cheese and self-
indulgence, 6. Februar 2010
Von Jakarta_expat (Indonesien) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Audio CD)
Shantaram No doubt about it, from the moment the story teller embarks
from the plane to sticky Bombay, the reader is hooked and will press
on to read about slum dwellers, their modes of survivals, boozy white
expats making a living in Bombay and other exciting stuff. The problem
is: The whole long book is mixed with a sense of self-indulgence by
the author lecturing us on life and philosophy. Which alone is not so
bad would he not to press on to tell the most boring love story ever
put into writing. the book is worth your time if you are interested in
India, slum life, street fighting and wanna-be philosophic
excursions.

I listened to the unabridged audio book, and enjoyed the speaker's
different voices. He catches the Bombay accents very well (as far as I
can tell). The female characters annoying me most in the book are read
with a certain ironic "flat" tone as if the audio book reader would
share my feeling of boredom with them as well. Nice touch.

Book: ***, Unabridged audio production: ****

The Precursor to Slumdog Millionaire, if you like, 27. Dezember
2009
Von Oliver Koehler (Berlin, Germany) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Not the best of stories [in terms of fairly imagery and love "scenes"]
but nevertheless so far a gritty tale of his descent into India's
underworld and his involvement in the Russian-Afghan war - with some
very vivid descriptions of the India that I have come to know and love
and hate over the past years! Nevertheless unputdownable... For a
quick fix if you've ever been to India and want to get past the colour
of the place, an eye-opener at times and a jaw-dropper too. What I did
like - although it has been a point of criticism in other reviews - is
the fact that it sometimes is very loosely constructed. After all, it
is suppoed to be an autobiography - or a memoir? Who knows?

Mind-blowing!, 28. November 2009
Von Stein Claudia Dr "Claudia Stein" (Genf, Schweiz) -

I have lived a couple of years in India in the 1990's (about 800 km
south of Bombay) and can only confirm that the ambience, the life, the
colours and smells of India truly come to life in this book. It is
honest and authentic but what makes this book an amazing piece of
literature is the fantastic story - because it is fantastically told.
I could hardly put the book down, although I would imagine that the
author may have taken some artistic licence in some of his
descriptions. This does not detract from the book which - no doubt -
will one day be a Holly/Bollywood movie. An absolute must-read.

Gripping from start to finish!, 1. Dezember 2008
Von Léonie M. "book fanatic" -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Shantaram is one of that kind of books that calls for a rainy or foggy
November day, for a cosy chair and a good, steaming Indian Darjeeling
cup of tea.
It is a strong and satisfying novel, with a taste that lingers the
memory.
I love it very much because of the first-person narrative and of a
wonderful, admirable writing style as well.

After escaping from an Australian most inhuman prison in the early
80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict was
using the name Lindsay Ford from a false New Zealand passport for
smuggling himself to India to go underground in the slum of Bombay
(Mumbai). Since he escaped, he flew across the world because he was
the most wanted man of his country.

Here he tells his story about his first trip to India. Living in the
land where heart is the king, left everything behind, he was just
running on instinct and pushing his luck. Accordingly to his
experiences the simple and astonishing truth about India and Indian
people is that, when you go there and you deal with them, your heart
always guides you more wisely than your head. It was one of his best
decisions of his life as he trusted the Indian fellow on sight and he
got the chance to know and to love him as friend.

The luck led him to know a mysterious but beautiful woman, he has ever
seen, green-eyed Karla Saaranen, on his very first day on the street
of Bombay. She was reasonably good at being a friend, but at being an
enemy also. In his opinion Karla had that kind of power to make men
shine like the stars, or crash them to dust.
Lindsay learned some Indian languages Hindi, Marathi but himself
became to be well known by the nicknames Lin, Linbaba, Shantaram or
even The Bite of the Tiger.
Using his first-aid kit as the basis, he established in poverty of
Bombay illegal slum a little open-air health clinic. Just trying to do
the right thing, he found often a quantum of solace in his work and by
his friends like Prabaker Kishan Kharre or Abdullah Taheri.

Fate put him into the game of the Bombay mafia. Worked as a gunrunner,
as a smuggler and a counterfeiter. He found some honourable men. Of
course, it is strange and incongrous to hear how he describes
criminals, killers, and mafiosi as men of honour who were amongst
them. Nevertheles, he had some strange experiences and this is the
extremly gripping story of his life, told with all his heart. It was a
real blow to him to be buffeled by fate but he kept on his aim at
writing under the hardest circumstances.

Now, Gregory David Roberts is a fulltime writer. He lives in
Melbourne.
He created the atmosphere of the slum in the suburbs of Bombay and its
events in the richest details. His enthralling debut novel tells an
adventure about love, hate, fight, betrayal and conspiracy. You can
get lost into for days, not just hours.

It is really worth reading!

4 von 6 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
One of the best books I 've ever read, 9. Oktober 2005
Von Mama Orange -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
This book is hard to put out of Your hand - it is intense and
adventurous, it is excellently written and it is full of deep
insight.

1 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Packender Schmöker!, 5. September 2008
Von Tina "Reading Is Great" (Wien) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)
Toller, sehr gut zu lesender Roman!Lustig, gut geschrieben,
farbenreich. Wer in Indien war, wird vieles verstehen und
nachvollziehen können. Für Freunde von Schmökern, die nicht allzu tief
gehen und einfach aber extrem fesselnd zu lesen sind, ist dieses genau
und exakt das Richtige.LESEN!

1 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Always a new surprise, 4. Februar 2008
Von Hans-Curt Flemming "Amano" (Mülheim/Ruhr) -

This is a fascinating book which I could not leave alone - I had to
read it and was intrigued about what would come after the next corner.
And the next...
A completely new perspective of the Bombay slum and of the social
networks. Plus, the bittersweet love story. It is well written and
bears the touch of reality.
Absolutely worthy entertainment. I would be very much interested to
learn how he was captured finally and what he is doing now.

0 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Black Bombay, 9. Dezember 2009
Von N. I. Body -

Bei Shantaram handelt es sich unstrittig um eine der besten
Darstellungen von Bombay, bzw. Indien in den 80er Jahren des vorigen
Jahrhunderts. Es werden das Leben in den Slums, Kriminalität,
Korruption, Krankheiten und Brutalität in allen Details (944 Seiten)
geschildert.

Das Buch basiert mehr oder weniger auf dem bewegten Leben des Autors.
Wie er selbst angibt, hat er nicht alles, was er beschreibt erlebt,
sondern auch Teile der Geschichte frei erfunden. Stellenweise ist die
Story recht langatmig, es wird seitenlang über den Sinn des Lebens,
Sinn des Leidens, Vergebung, Liebe, Hass usw. diskutiert. Auch werden
belanglose Gespräche und Begegnungen der Hauptperson zum Teil wörtlich
wiedergegeben. Das führte dazu, dass ich manchmal die Seiten nur noch
überflog - bis die eigentliche Story wieder weiterging.

Was mich aber doch recht gestört hat, ist die Art, in der sich der
Autor, (zu 19 Jahren verurteilter Bankräuber; Ex-Junkie) selbst
darstellt. Seine Verbrechen rechtfertigt er mit seiner gescheiterten
Beziehung und seiner daraus resultierenden Heroinsucht. Nach seiner
Flucht aus dem Gefängnis (zu Beginn des Buches) wandelt er sich zu
weissem Ritter und Heiligen in einem. Den, ihn aufs übelste
folternden, indischen Gefängniswärtern "vergibt" er. Er ist offenbar
der "guteste Gutmensch" von ganz Bombay (so ekelhaft wie das klingt,
liest es sich stellenweise leider auch). Er hilft jedem - immerzu,
ohne Rücksicht auf sich selbst und ohne zu zögern. Dass er dabei aber
weiterhin kriminellen Machenschaften (Drogenhandel, Mafia, usw.)
nachgeht, ist für ihn offenbar ganz "normal". Diese Art der
Selbstdarstellung/-inszenierung beginnt mit der Zeit zu nerven.

In der unsympathischen Hauptfigur liegt zugleich auch das größte Manko
des Buches, neben der teilweise zu langatmigen Schilderung der
Ereignisse. Tip: Es lohnt sich, die "echte" Biografie des Autors im
Netz nachzulesen.

Anzumerken ist noch, dass in meinem Exemplar ca. 10-15 Seiten
unleserlich (zu Hell; Fehler beim Drucken) waren.

12 von 28 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Räucherstäbchen, 3. Juli 2007
Von agardenchair (Germany) -

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)

Zugegeben, dies ist bestimmt ein ordentlich geschriebener
Abenteuerroman. Und er ist an manchen Stellen auch lustig. Sprachlich
bewegt er sich in etwa auf der Höhe eines Dan Brown, mit dem
Unterschied, daß Gregory D. Roberts eine Vorliebe für komplizierte
Adjektive hat. Sollte man eine weitere Vorliebe dieses Schriftstellers
angeben, so wäre man gezwungen, das Sammeln von Aphorismen anzuführen.
Mit dem Konvolut von unheimlich sinnreichen Sprüche, die in diesem
Buch angehäuft sind, könnte man ganze Abreißkalender ausstaffieren.
Beispiele: "Truth is a bully, you'd like to know", "Es war nicht die
Hölle, aber es gab keinen Himmel", etc. Wieso nicht einfach
weitermachen mit: "Manchmal ist das Leben nicht schwarz oder weiß,
sondern grau" oder "Es gibt Gutes und es gibt Schlechtes, aber
meistens bekommt man beides serviert", etc.?

An allen Ecken und Enden des Romans findet man diese sprachlichen
Räucherstäbchen, die Tiefe suggerieren wollen. Der Roman liest sich
stellenweise wie ein ausgesprochener Jugendroman. Hier wird der Sound
großer gleichnishafter Erzählungen im Stil von Hemingway oder Conrad
imitiert. Ein Nachfolger Hemingways oder Conrads ist der Autor deshalb
nicht.

12 von 28 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Räucherstäbchen, 3. Juli 2007
Von agardenchair

Zugegeben, dies ist bestimmt ein ordentlich geschriebener
Abenteuerroman. Und er ist an manchen Stellen auch lustig. Sprachlich
bewegt er sich in etwa auf der Höhe eines Dan Brown, mit dem
Unterschied, daß Gregory D. Roberts eine Vorliebe für komplizierte
Adjektive hat. Sollte man eine weitere Vorliebe dieses Schriftstellers
angeben, so wäre man gezwungen, das Sammeln von Aphorismen anzuführen.
Mit dem Konvolut von unheimlich sinnreichen Sprüche, die in diesem
Buch angehäuft sind, könnte man ganze Abreißkalender ausstaffieren.
Beispiele: "Truth is a bully, you'd like to know", "Es war nicht die
Hölle, aber es gab keinen Himmel", etc. Wieso nicht einfach
weitermachen mit: "Manchmal ist das Leben nicht schwarz oder weiß,
sondern grau" oder "Es gibt Gutes und es gibt Schlechtes, aber
meistens bekommt man beides serviert", etc.?

An allen Ecken und Enden des Romans findet man diese sprachlichen
Räucherstäbchen, die Tiefe suggerieren wollen. Der Roman liest sich
stellenweise wie ein ausgesprochener Jugendroman. Hier wird der Sound
großer gleichnishafter Erzählungen im Stil von Hemingway oder Conrad
imitiert. Ein Nachfolger Hemingways oder Conrads ist der Autor deshalb
nicht.

Shantaram. (Abacus) 0349117543 Gregory David Roberts Little, Brown
Book Group Shantaram. (Abacus) Alle Produkte Räucherstäbchen
Zugegeben, dies ist bestimmt ein ordentlich geschriebener
Abenteuerroman. Und er ist an manchen Stellen auch lustig. Sprachlich
bewegt er sich in etwa auf der Höhe eines Dan Brown, mit dem
Unterschied, daß Gregory D. Roberts eine Vorliebe für komplizierte
Adjektive hat. Sollte man eine weitere Vorliebe dieses Schriftstellers
angeben, so wäre man gezwungen, das Sammeln von Aphorismen anzuführen.
Mit dem Konvolut von unheimlich sinnreichen Sprüche, die in diesem
Buch angehäuft sind, könnte man ganze Abreißkalender ausstaffieren.
Beispiele: "Truth is a bully, you'd like to know", "Es war nicht die
Hölle, aber es gab keinen Himmel", etc. Wieso nicht einfach
weitermachen mit: "Manchmal ist das Leben nicht schwarz oder weiß,
sondern grau" oder "Es gibt Gutes und es gibt Schlechtes, aber
meistens bekommt man beides serviert", etc.?

An allen Ecken und Enden des Romans findet man diese sprachlichen
Räucherstäbchen, die Tiefe suggerieren wollen. Der Roman liest sich
stellenweise wie ein ausgesprochener Jugendroman. Hier wird der Sound
großer gleichnishafter Erzählungen im Stil von Hemingway oder Conrad
imitiert. Ein Nachfolger Hemingways oder Conrads ist der Autor deshalb
nicht. agardenchair 3. Juli 2007
Insgesamt: 5
Insgesamt: 5

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Diskussionsbeiträgen
Ersteintrag: 16. November 2008 00:10 CET
Edith Juratschski meint:

Warum schreiben Leute über Dinge, von denen sie keine Ahnung haben?
Beurteilungen eines arroganten 18jährigen brauche ich nicht. Das Kind
soll erstmal begreifen, dass es was zu lernen hat. Solange soll es
schweigen. Und erst rumtönen, wenn es jemanden interessiert.

Antwort auf den Eintrag von Edith Juratschski:
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Antwort auf einen früheren Beitrag vom 15. Dezember 2008 17:11 CET
Zuletzt vom Autor geändert am 16. Dezember 2008 22:37 CET
agardenchair meint:

Edith Juratschski braucht keine Beurteilungen eines arroganten
"18jährigen". Dafür weiß sie, was arrogante Achtzehnjährige brauchen -
klare Ansagen: Als Kinder haben sie zu schweigen. Und dürfen erst
rumtönen, wenn das Rumtönen jemanden interessiert. Wie gut, dass wir
nun wissen, wie es die Erwachsenen mit arroganten Kindern zu halten
haben. Danke, Frau J..

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Veröffentlicht am 14. Januar 2009 16:20 CET
Stephan Peischl meint:
[Vom Autor gelöscht am 13. Februar 2010 22:49 CET]

Veröffentlicht am 24. Mai 2009 10:18 MEST
Malenkow meint:

Dem kann ich uneingeschränkt zustimmen. Ich habe den Roman nach der
Hälfte nur noch quer gelesen.

Antwort auf den Eintrag von Malenkow:
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Holy Cow!: An Indian Adventure (Taschenbuch)
von Sarah Macdonald (Autor) "I have a dreadful long-term memory ..."

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Holy Cow!: An Indian Adventure

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Die hilfreichste positive Rezension Die hilfreichste kritische
Rezension

4 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Fantastic and funny

The author is writing about her experiences in the sub-continent in a
vey funny and humorous way. Especially for people like me, who are
living in India as a foreigner or planning a trip to India, the book
is recommendable. She is describing the every-day problems people with
a "wester culture" have to face with because of the cultural
differences between the...
Vollständige Rezension lesen ›
Veröffentlicht am 5. Juli 2004 von Amazon-Kunde

› Weitere Rezensionen anzeigen: 5 Sterne, 4 Sterne
A definite "OK" book

I just finished this book and am disappointed overall. There was too
much religion and personal soul-searching by the author. I wanted more
INDIA. Yet this book did feed my desire to go to India one day, so it
wasn't all that bad. I took some notes on festivals and villages I
would like to see, but I was expecting more after reading the other
reviews.
Veröffentlicht am 20. März 2007 von beegowhite

› Weitere Rezensionen anzeigen: 3 Sterne, 2 Sterne, 1 Sterne

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4 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Fantastic and funny, 5. Juli 2004
Von Amazon-Kunde "Amazon" (Düsseldorf) -

The author is writing about her experiences in the sub-continent in a
vey funny and humorous way. Especially for people like me, who are
living in India as a foreigner or planning a trip to India, the book
is recommendable. She is describing the every-day problems people with
a "wester culture" have to face with because of the cultural
differences between the "Wester world" and India.
I recommend the book for everyone who is planning a long-time or
travel-trip to the beautiful country of india. You can learn about the
indian culture and about "not-understandable" cultural differences in
a funny way...

Great book at all!!!

5 von 7 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Witzig, unterhaltsam und lehrreich!, 10. November 2004
Von Ein Kunde

Ich war 1999 für drei Monate in Indien und habe es geliebt und
gehasst. Sarah Macdonald ruft alle meine Erinnerungen wach und bringt
mich zum Lachen. Sie beschreibt alle Arten von Gefühlen und
Erfahrungen, die man als "western foreigner" in Indien durchlebt. Es
ist sehr empfehlenswert, auch für Leute, die eine Reise nach Indien
planen. Ich habe es sehr gern gelesen.

A definite "OK" book, 20. März 2007
Von beegowhite (Luxembourg) -

I just finished this book and am disappointed overall. There was too
much religion and personal soul-searching by the author. I wanted more
INDIA. Yet this book did feed my desire to go to India one day, so it
wasn't all that bad. I took some notes on festivals and villages I
would like to see, but I was expecting more after reading the other
reviews.

4 von 6 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
oberflächlich und mit Klischees behaftet, 1. Dezember 2006
Von Emma -

Sarah ist unglücklich zum zweiten Mal in Indien gelandet zu sein. Um
sich die Zeit zu vertreiben, begibt sie sich auf eine Art Hopping
durch die verschiedensten Glaubensrichtungen und spirituellen
Strömungen - von Amma bis zu den Sikhs. Leider schafft es die Autorin
in keiner Weise der Realität Indiens gerecht zu werden. Oberflächlich
blickt sie auf Kultur und Menschen und bedient dabei nur die typisch
westlichen Indienklischees.

Ich habe mehr Zeit in Indien verbracht als die Autorin und konnte das
Buch nur noch völlig entnervt zur Seite legen. Miss Mac Donald
interessiert sich nicht für Indien, weder für die Menschen, noch für
die Kultur und auch nicht besonders tiefgründig für die religiösen
Strömungen, die von ihr besucht wurden. Sie möchte lediglich
unterhalten (was ihr nicht sonderlich gut gelingt) und begreift das
Fremde, das ihr begegnet nicht als Chance etwas Neues zu lernen,
sondern beurteilt es mit arrogant westlichem Blick. Besonders
entnervend ist das Fazit, das die Autorin am Ende jedes Kapitels über
ihr Erlebtes zieht. Jedem, der sich wirklich mit Indien, der Kultur
und den Religionen des Landes auseinandersetzen möchte und nicht einen
pseudospirituellen "Fast Food Reisebericht" lesen möchte, kann ich nur
raten: Finger weg!

1 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
very interesting, 21. Juni 2006
Von Bücherwurm "sandrasemails" -

I've never been to India but will go there after I've finished my
studies.
The book takes you on a journey with Sarah MacDonald which is exciting
and funny and sad sometimes.

You can imagine the things she describes even if you've never been to
India. But it definitely will wake the wish in you to go there.

0 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Educating, entertaining and inspiring, 8. August 2007
Von Wombatsbooks -

"Holy Cow" was meant to be a beach read, but proved to be not only
entertaining, but also educating and inspiring:

Macdonald herself calls her second stint in India "a pilgrimage
through India's spiritualistic supermarket" and herself a "karma
chameleon". "Holy Cow" presents the diversity of India's manifold
religions, deals with their differences and similarities. Macdonald
spends several days in an ashram, attends the Kumbh Mela in Benares,
celebrates Pesach with a group of Israelis, visits a church in the
South of India, immerses herself into Bhuddism, Hinduism etc. She
meets lots of people, makes many a friend and addresses different
attitudes, styles, beliefs and traditions. But most of all she
portrays India as the fascinating land of contrasts that it is.

Reading this diary-like account is nearly like being in India: it
assaults all your senses and yet is very lovable. It is written in a
light-hearted yet sensitive manner and probably politically incorrect,
because Macondald speaks her mind;-). But that makes the read all the
more worthwhile!

Result: Not to be missed! In fact her style reminds me a bit of Bill
Bryson's books. So if you are a fan of Bill Bryson's you might like
this one as well!

0 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
Sehr gutes Buch über Indien, 12. Februar 2007
Von Marie Senoner "musikfan4" (Österreich) -

Das Buch fängt schon super an und steigert sich immer mehr. Es ist
wirklich empfehlenswert für alle die mehr über Indien, die Kultur und
die Menschen Indiens erfahren wollen. Manchmal muss man als Europäerin
schon den Kopf schütteln, aber so ist es Indien...
Unbedingt lesen!!!

Produktbeschreibungen

From Publishers Weekly

Australian radio correspondent Macdonald's rollicking memoir recounts
the two years she spent in India when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a TV
news correspondent, was assigned to New Delhi. Leaving behind her own
budding career, she spends her sabbatical traveling around the
country, sampling India's "spiritual smorgasbord": attending a silent
retreat for Vipassana meditation, seeking out a Sikh Ayurvedic
"miracle healer," bathing in the Ganges with Hindus, studying Buddhism
in Dharamsala, dabbling in Judaism with Israeli tourists, dipping into
Parsi practices in Mumbai, visiting an ashram in Kerala, attending a
Christian festival in Velangani and singing with Sufis. Paralleling
Macdonald's spiritual journey is her evolution as a writer; she trades
her sometimes glib remarks ("I've always thought it hilarious that
Indian people chose the most boring, domesticated, compliant and
stupidest animal on earth to adore") and 1980s song title references
(e.g., "Karma Chameleon") for a more sensitive tone and a sober
understanding that neither mocks nor romanticizes Indian culture and
the Western visitors who embrace it. The book ends on a serious note,
when September 11 shakes Macdonald's faith and Jonathan, now her
husband, is sent to cover the war in Afghanistan. Macdonald is less
compelling when writing about herself, her career and her relationship
than when she is describing spiritual centers, New Delhi nightclubs
and Bollywood cinema. Still, she brings a reporter's curiosity,
interviewing skills and eye for detail to everything she encounters,
and winningly captures "[t]he drama, the dharma, the innocent
exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety in
playfulness and the embrace of living day by day..--he drama, the
dharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the
living, the piety in playfulness and the embrace of living day by
day."

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere
Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .
From Booklist

Australian MacDonald didn't fall in love with India her first time
there, at age 21. So when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a reporter for ABC,
is sent there for work, she reluctantly follows after a year of
separation. At first, life in India is as bad as she remembered it--
overcrowded, smoggy, disturbing. A serious bout of pneumonia puts her
in an Indian hospital, but as she recovers, she begins to make friends
in India and to understand the culture. She finds herself attending
lavish Indian weddings and trying to comfort her friend Padma, whose
mother commits suicide after Padma marries without her permission.
MacDonald makes an effort to understand the many diverse religions of
the area, including taking a 10-day sojourn in a Buddhist temple and
discussing religion with Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and even a group of
visiting Israelis. With Jonathan, she takes a trip to war-torn
Kashmir, an area that is at once achingly beautiful and devastatingly
dangerous. A lively, snappy travelogue. Kristine Huntley

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --
Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

Kurzbeschreibung

“India is like Wonderland. In this other universe everyone seems mad
and everything is upside down, back to front and infuriatingly
bizarre . . .”In her twenties Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India
and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution, and
poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she
would return to India -- and for love -- she screamed, “Never!” and
gave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of
Macdonald’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move
to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Macdonald this
seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her,
literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double
pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious
questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I
must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes.
“Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search
of the meaning of life and death. Holy Cow is Sarah Macdonald’s often
hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and
contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis,
Sikhs, Parsis, and Christians, and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis,
and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to
war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman
on a mission to save her soul, her love life -- and her sanity -- can
survive.

Synopsis

After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonald
decided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with a
passion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted she
would come back one day - and for love - she vowed never to return.
But twelve years later the prophecy comes true when her partner, ABC's
South Asia correspondent, is posted to New Delhi, the most polluted
city on earth. Having given up a blossoming radio career in Sydney to
follow her new boyfriend to India, it seems like the ultimate
sacrifice and it almost kills Sarah - literally. After being cursed by
a sadhu smeared in human ashes, she nearly dies from double pheumonia.
It's enough to send a rapidly balding atheist on a wild rollercoaster
ride through India's many religions in search of the meaning of life
and death. From the 'brain enema' of a meditation retreat in
Dharamsala to the biggest Hindu festival on earth on the steps of the
Ganges in Varanasi, and with the help of the Dalai Lama, a goddess of
healing hugs and a couple of Bollywood stars - among many, many others
- Sarah discovers a hell of a lot more.
Über den Autor

Sarah Macdonald is a journalist and radio broadcaster who lives in
Sydney with her husband, ABC journalist Jonathan Harley, and their
baby daughter Georgina. HOLY COW! is her first book.

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APwa 12/15 1455 Rajneesh Conspiracy

By BRIAN S. AKRE Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A lawyer for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
claims the federal government poisoned the Indian guru in 1985 as
part of a conspiracy to force him out of the United States.

Swami Prem Niren, who served as Rajneesh's chief attorney
during the rise and fall of the Rajneeshpuram commune in central
Oregon, said Monday that Rajneesh believes he was poisoned in
late 1985 while he was in an Oklahoma City jail.

Rajneesh, 56, recently has been ill, and doctors concluded his
symptoms were consistent with thallium poisoning, Niren said in a
telephone interview. However, he said tests found no trace of
the rare, poisonous element in Rajneesh.

Veet Mano, director of the Rajneesh Press Services in Los
Angeles, charged in a news release received Monday by The
Associated Press that "the United States government conspired to
murder Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh." Niren said, however, there was
no evidence of that.

"That is an unfortunate phrase," he said. "It's one of those
things. PR people say things different than lawyers do."

Rajneesh now lives in Poona, India, where his movement was
based before he moved to a remote, 64,000-acre Oregon ranch in
1981. He was deported in November 1985 after he pleaded guilty
to immigration fraud in a plea agreement with federal
prosecutors.

Rajneesh has been suffering for the past two months from
nausea, fatigue, pain in his extremities and a lack of resistence
to infection, and was near death for a while, Niren said.

An Indian health official said recently that Rajneesh had
AIDS, but his disciples say a test proved the claim was false.

Rajneesh first experienced poisoning symptoms after a meal in
a jail in Oklahoma City, leading him to believe he was poisoned,
Niren said. Niren said he does not believe jailers in Oklahoma
City were responsible for the alleged poisoning. He speculated
the CIA was involved.

"Of course, years after the event I don't expect anyone in the
government or anywhere else to come forward and say, `I'm
responsible for it,"' Niren said.

Rajneesh, who was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., in October 1985
while allegedly trying to flee the United States, was held
overnight in Oklahoma City while being taken back to Oregon to
face criminal charges.

Niren, who said he is writing a book about his experiences
with the Rajneesh movement and the commune's legal battles, said
the government never had evidence linking Rajneesh to any crimes.

Niren said he recommended Rajneesh accept the plea bargain
that led to his deportation because of concerns over the guru's
health.

"Otherwise the government persecution would continue and he
couldn't take it," he said. "They intended to persecute him until
he left or was broken."

Charles H. Turner, the U.S. attorney who led the prosecution
of Rajneesh and several of his lieutenents, dismissed Niren's
allegations today.

"It's a total and complete fiction and you have to consider
the source," Turner said. "The man has no credibility."

Turner noted that a federal judge determined that Rajneesh had
committed crimes, and the guru was represented by "three
extremely skilled lawyers," including Niren. If Niren had
recommended Rajneesh plead guilty to a crime he did not commit,
the attorney could be disbarred, Turner said.

Rajneesh also had access to any medical care he needed while
he was in jail, Turner added.

"I stood next the man in court and there wasn't anything wrong
with him at all," he said.

The commune disbanded after Rajneesh's departure and the
property remains for sale.

Rajneesh, a self-described "rich man's guru," teaches
meditation as a means to enlightenment.

Niren, also known as Philip J. Toelkes, said he traveled after
the commune broke up and has been practicing law in San
Francisco.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/cultinfo/gurupois.htm

Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truth
by Christopher Calder

When I first met Acharya Rajneesh at his Bombay apartment in December
of 1970, he was only 39 years old. With long beard and large dark
eyes, he looked like a painting of Lao-Tse come to life. Before
meeting Rajneesh I had spent time with a number of Eastern gurus
without being satisfied with their teachings. I wanted an enlightened
guide who could bridge the gap between East and West and reveal the
true esoteric secrets, without what I considered to be the excess
baggage of Indian, Tibetan, or Japanese culture. Rajneesh was the
answer to my quest for those deeper meanings. He described for me in
vivid detail everything I wanted to know about the inner worlds and he
had the power of immense being to back up his words. At 21 years old
I was naive about life and the nature of man and assumed that
everything he said must be true.

Rajneesh spoke on a high level of intelligence and his spiritual
presence emanated from his body like a soft light that healed all
wounds. While sitting close during a small gathering of friends,
Rajneesh took me on a rapidly vertical inner journey that almost
seemed to push me out of my physical body. His vast presence lifted
everyone around him higher without the slightest effort on their
part. The days I spent at his Bombay apartment were like days spent
in heaven. He had it all and he was giving it away for free!

Rajneesh possessed the astounding powers of telepathy and astral
projection, which he used nobly to bring comfort and inspiration to
his disciples. Many phony gurus have claimed to have these mysterious
abilities, but Rajneesh had them for real. The Acharya never bragged
about his powers. Those who came near soon learned of them through
direct contact with the miraculous.

Rajneesh, aka "Osho"
at his arrest in
October 1985

One or two amazing occult adventures was all it took to turn
doubting Western skepticism into awed admiration and devotion.

One year earlier I had meet another enlightened teacher, known
to the world as Jiddu Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti could barely give a
coherent lecture and constantly scolded his audience by referring to
their "shoddy little minds." I loved his frankness and his words were
true, but his subtly cantankerous nature was not very helpful in
transferring his knowledge to others.

Listening to Krishnamurti speak was like eating a sandwich made
of bread and sand. I found the best way to enjoy his talks was to
completely ignore his words and quietly absorb his presence. Using
that technique I would become so expanded after a lecture that I could
barely talk for hours afterwards. J. Krishnamurti, while fully
enlightened and uniquely lovable, will be recorded in history as a
teacher with very poor verbal communication skills. Unlike the highly
eloquent Rajneesh, however, Krishnamurti never committed any crime,
never pretended to be more than he was, and never used other human
beings selfishly.

"Ma Anand Sheela,"
Osho's Top Deputy,
at her arrest in 1985

Life is complex and multilayered and my naive illusions about the
phenomena of perfect enlightenment faded with the years. It became
clear to me that enlightened people are as fallible as anyone. They
are expanded human beings, not perfect human beings, and they live and
breathe with many of the same faults and vulnerabilities we ordinary
humans must endure.

Skeptics ask how I can claim that Rajneesh was enlightened given his
scandals and disastrous public image. I can only say that Rajneesh's
spiritual presence was identical to that of J. Krishnamurti, who was
recognized as enlightened by every high Tibetan Lama and revered Hindu
sage of the day. I do sympathize with the skeptics, however. If I
had not known Rajneesh personally, I would never believe it myself.

Rajneesh pushed the envelope of enlightenment in both positive and
negative directions. He was the best of the best and the worst of the
worst. He was a great teacher in his early years, with innovative
meditation techniques that worked with dramatic power (see explanation
and warning about Osho's Dynamic Meditation technique near the bottom
of the page). Rajneesh lifted thousands of seekers to higher levels
of consciousness and detailed Eastern religions and meditation
techniques with luminous clarity.

When former university professor Acharya Rajneesh suddenly
changed his name to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I was dismayed. The
famous enlightened sage Ramana Maharshi was called Bhagwan by his
disciples as a spontaneous term of endearment. Rajneesh simply
declared that everyone should start calling him Bhagwan, a title which
can mean anything from 'divine one' to God. Rajneesh became irritated
when I would politely correct his mispronunciations of English words
after his lectures, so I felt in no position to tell him that I
thought his new name was inappropriate and dishonest. That change in
name marked a turning point in Rajneesh's level of honesty and was the
first of many big lies to come.

One false move, one grand error.

Rajneesh lived in an ivory tower, rarely leaving his room unless to
give a lecture, his life experience cushioned by throngs of adoring
devotees. As most human beings who are treat as kings, Rajneesh lost
touch with the world of the common man. In his artificial and
insulated existence, Rajneesh made one fundamental error in judgment
which would destroy his teaching.
Rajneesh calculated that the majority of the earth's population
was on such a low level of consciousness that they could not
understand nor tolerate the real truths. He thus decided on a policy
of spreading seemingly useful lies to bring inspiration to his
disciples and, on occasion, to stress his students in unique
situations for their own personal growth. This was his downfall and
the prime reason he will be remembered by most historians as just
another phony guru, which he undoubtedly was not.

Originally Osho gave himself the lofty title "Sri Bhagavan Rajneesh"

Acharya, Bhagwan Shree, Osho...all the empowering names taken by
Rajneesh could not cover up the fact that he was still a human being.
He had ambitions and desires, sexual and material, just like everyone
else. All living enlightened humans have desires. All enlightened men
have had public lives that we know about and all have had private
lives that remained secret. The vast majority of enlightened men do
nothing but good for the world. Only Rajneesh, to my knowledge,
became a criminal in both the legal and ethical sense of the word.

Rajneesh never lost the ultimate existential truth of being. He
only lost the ordinary concept of truth that any normal adult can
easily understand. He rationalized his constant lying as "left-handed
Tantra," but that too was dishonest. Rajneesh lied to save face, to
avoid taking responsibility for his own mistakes, and to gain personal
power. Those lies had nothing to do with Tantra or any selfless acts
of kindness. What is real in this world is fact and Rajneesh
misrepresented fact on a daily basis. Rajneesh was no simple con-man
like so many others. Rajneesh knew everything that Buddha knew and he
was everything that Buddha was. It was his loss of respect for
ordinary truthfulness that destroyed his teaching.

Rajneesh's health collapsed in his early thirties. He suffered from
what Europeans call myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or what Americans
call Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). His classic symptoms included
the obvious fatigue, extreme sensitivity to smells and chemicals (now
called "multiple chemical sensitivity"), allergies, recurrent low
grade fevers, photophobia, and orthostatic intolerance (neurally
mediated hypotension). Rajneesh also had Type II diabetes, asthma,
and severe back pain.

Rajneesh was constantly sick and frail from the time I first met
him in 1970 until his death in 1990. He could not stand on his feet
for long periods of time without becoming lightheaded because he
suffered damage to his autonomic nervous system which controls blood
pressure. This neurally mediated hypotension (low blood pressure
while standing) causes chronic fatigue and can also lower IQ due to a
lack of sufficient blood and oxygen being pumped to the brain (brain
hypoxia). When he was most ill he would complain of becoming
lightheaded as soon as he stood up. He thought he was getting a
different cold or flu every week. In reality he suffered from a
singular chronic illness with flu like symptoms that can last for
decades.

In his last years Rajneesh used prescription drugs, mainly
Valium (diazepam), as an analgesic for his aches and pains. He took
the maximum recommended dose of 60 milligrams per day. He also
inhaled nitrous oxide (N2O) mixed with pure oxygen (O2) which helped
his asthma and brain hypoxia, but which did nothing for the quality of
his judgment. Naive about the powerful effects of Western medications
and overconfident about his own ability to fight off their potentially
negative effects, Rajneesh succumbed to addiction. His downfall and
humiliation followed swiftly.

Rajneesh was a physically ill man who became mentally corrupt.
His drug addiction was a problem of his own making, not a government
conspiracy. Rajneesh died in 1990, with heart failure listed as the
official cause of death. It is probable that the physical decline
Rajneesh experienced during his incarceration in American jails was
due to a combination of withdrawal symptoms from Valium and an
aggravation of his ME/CFS due to stress and exposure to allergens.

There was much speculation in the American media that Osho had
actually committed suicide by taking a drug overdose. As no one has
confessed to giving Osho a lethal injection, there is no hard evidence
to support the suicide theory. A compelling circumstantial case could
be made for such a scenario, however, with suicide provoked by Osho's
constant ill health and disheartenment over the loss of Vivek, his
greatest love. Vivek had taken a fatal overdose of sleeping pills in
a Bombay hotel one month before Osho's passing. Pointedly, Vivek
decided to kill herself just before Osho's final birthday
celebration. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had threatened suicide at the
Oregon commune several times, hanging his death over the heads of his
disciples as a threat unless they obeyed his wishes. On his last day
on earth, Osho's is reported to have said "Let me go. My body has
become a hell for me."

The rumor that Osho was poisoned with thallium by operatives of
the United States Government is entirely fictional and contradicted by
undeniable fact. One of the obvious symptoms of thallium poisoning is
dramatic hair loss within seven days of exposure. Osho died with a
full beard and no exceptional baldness other than ordinary male
pattern baldness at the top of his head. Many of the symptoms which
may have led Osho's doctors to suspect thallium poisoning were in fact
common symptoms of dysautonomia (damage to the autonomic nervous
system) caused by ME/CFS. Those symptoms can include ataxia
(uncoordinated movements), numbness, standing tachycardia (rapid heart
rate upon standing), paresthesia (sensations of prickling and
itching), nausea, and irritable bowel syndrome, which causes
alternating between constipation and diarrhea.

The only proven cases of poisoning related to Osho were carried
out by Rajneesh sannyasins themselves (a sannyasin is an initiated
disciple, one who takes sannyas). The victims included totally
innocent people at an Oregon restaurant, two Wasco County
Commissioners, and members of Rajneesh's own staff who were poisoned
by Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh's personal secretary. Sheela had the
habit of poisoning people who either knew too much or who had simply
fallen out of her favor. Sheela spent two and a half years in a
federal medium security prison for her crimes while Rajneesh pled
guilty to immigration fraud and was given a ten year suspended
sentence, fined $400,000., and deported from the United States of
America.

Rajneesh felt that teaching ethics and morality was unnecessary
because the increased consciousness of meditation would automatically
lead to good behavior. Rajneesh's own actions and the behavior of his
disciples proves that theory to be untrue. There is no direct
connection between meditation and ethics and the dangers and
limitations of teaching ethics are far outweighed by the destructive
anarchy that a lack of teaching creates. Certainly students of
meditation should at least be reminded that lying, cheating, stealing,
and killing are not acceptable behavior. But Osho taught that you
should do as you please and many of his disciples and he himself
committed many ethical crimes. This lapse of judgment was largely due
to the arrogant and downright fascist attitude that one can become so
high and mighty that one is beyond the need for something as old
fashioned as polite and sane ethical behavior.

Those unfamiliar with the Rajneesh story can read the book
Bhagwan: The God That Failed, by Hugh Milne (Shivamurti), a close
disciple of Bhagwan during his Poona and Oregon years. Originally
published by Saint Martin's Press, the book can be found through
Amazon.Com and Amazon.Com.UK. I can verify many of the facts that Mr.
Milne states about the life of Rajneesh in Bombay and Poona though I
have no first hand knowledge of the tragic events at the Oregon
commune. My contacts with people who were there lead me to believe
that most of the facts Mr. Milne presents of the Oregon era are also
highly accurate. Hugh Milne is due great credit for a well written
and entertaining book which is a sincere effort at complete honesty.
On a few occasions, however, I differ from Mr. Milne's interpretations
of what the facts he presents actually mean.

Firstly, Rajneesh did not suffer from "hypochodria," as Mr.
Milne suggested. Rajneesh had a very real neurological disease,
probably inherited, which he mistook for frequent viral infections.
Rajneesh became unusually afraid of germs only due to his very
innocent and understandable medical ignorance. I fully agree with Mr.
Milne that Rajneesh suffered from "megalomania," however, and will add
that Rajneesh had a Napoleonic, obsessive and compulsive personality.

The Void has no ambition whatsoever, a fact which current Osho
disciples keep forgetting. Rajneesh could only speak for his own
personal animal mind, which is the case for all of us. The animal
mind may want its disciples to "take over the whole world," but the
Void does not care because it is beyond any motivation. The Void is
infinity and beyond human desire, so how can that which is beyond the
human mind have human ambitions? The phenomena we called Rajneesh,
Bhagwan, and Osho was only a temporary lens of cosmic energy, not the
full cosmos itself. Personality worship is not spiritual in any way
and self-indulgent attachment to guru is no better than obsessive
clinging to money, power, and social privilege. I am sure Mr. Milne
has learned that fact very well, but many fanatic Osho disciples have
missed the point entirely.

Mr. Milne also suggests that Rajneesh used "hypnosis" to
manipulate his disciples. Rajneesh had a wonderful, melodic, and
naturally hypnotic voice which would be a great asset to any public
speaker. However, in my personal opinion, Rajneesh's power came from
the intense energy field of the universal cosmic consciousness which
he channeled like a lens. Hindus call this universal energy phenomena
the Atman. As a Westerner, I prefer more scientific terms, and
describe the Atman as a highly evolved manifestation of time-energy-
space, the TES (see The TES Hypothesis).

Enlightenment is not something you own. It is something you channel.

Whatever term you use for the phenomena of enlightenment, it is
scientifically accurate to say that no human being has any power of
their own. Even the chemical energy of our metabolism is borrowed
from the sun, which beams light to the earth, which is then converted
by plants through photosynthesis into the food we eat. You may get
your bread from the supermarket but the caloric energy it contains
originated from thermonuclear reactions deep in the center of a nearby
star. Our physical bodies run on star power. Any spiritual energy we
channel also comes from far beyond, from all sides of the universe,
from the complete TES, from beyond the oceans of galaxies and onto
infinity. No human being owns the Atman and no one can speak for the
TES.

Rajneesh, as George Gurdjieff, often used the power of the Atman
for clearly personal gain. Both men used their cosmic consciousness
to overwhelm and seduce women, which was largely a harmless affair in
my opinion. Gurdjieff was ashamed of his own behavior in this regard
and vowed many times during his life to end this practice, which was a
combination of ordinary male sexual lust backed up by the potent
advantage of oceanic spiritual power. Rajneesh went even further and
used his channeled cosmic energy to manipulate masses of people to
gain a kind of quasi-political status and to aggrandize himself far
beyond what was honest or helpful to his disciples. In Oregon he even
declared to the media that "My religion is the only religion."
Diplomacy and modesty were not his strong points.

Gurdjieff, to my knowledge, never reached the extremes of self-
indulgence of Rajneesh and even warned his disciples not to have blind
faith in him. Gurdjieff wanted his students to be free and
independent with the combined abilities of clear mental reasoning and
meditation. Rajneesh, by contrast, seemed to believe that only his
thoughts and ideas were of value because only he was "enlightened."
This was a grand error in judgment and revealed a basic flaw in his
character.

Rajneesh earned his psychic abilities honestly through many
lifetimes of intense inner work. Unfortunately, when he finally
achieved the ability to fully channel the vastness of the Atman, he
failed to apply the needed wisdom of self-restraint. His human mind
so rebelled against Asian asceticism, which he claimed to have
practiced for many lifetimes, that he failed to ensure that his
borrowed power was only used for the good of others.

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." Henry Kissinger

After leaving India, Rajneesh created his Oregon commune from
his own powerful mind. He made himself the ultimate dictator, his
picture placed everywhere as in an Orwellian bad dream. That
totalitarian atmosphere was just one of the many reasons I did not
stay at the Oregon commune beyond several brief visits. I was
interested in meditation, not in a big concentration camp where human
beings were treated like insects with no intelligence of their own.
Rajneesh put such a high emphasis on his disciples following orders
without question that they did just that when Ma Anand Sheela,
Rajneesh's personal secretary, gave absurd orders to commit crimes
which Rajneesh himself would have never approved of.

When you decapitate the intelligence of human beings you create
a situation that is highly dangerous and destructive to the human
spirit. You cannot save people from their egos by demanding "total
surrender." The anti-democratic technique of forcing blind obedience
did not work well for Hitler, Stalin, or for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
Germany, Russia, and the Rajneesh Oregon commune were all destroyed
because of authoritarian imperial rule. A diversity of opinion is
always healthy because it acts as an effective counterbalance to the
myopic arrogance of those who would be king. Bhagwan never understood
this truth of history and referred to democracy scornfully as "mob-
ocracy." Rajneesh was an imperial aristocrat, never a generous and
open minded democrat, and he put his contempt for the democratic
process into highly visible action in Oregon.

In an attempt to subvert local Wasco County elections, Rajneesh
had his sannyasins bus in almost 2,000 homeless people from major
American cities in an effort to unfairly rig the voting process in his
favor. Some of the new voters were mentally ill and were given drug
laced beer to keep them manageable. Credible allegations have been
made that one or more of the imported street people died due to
overdosing on the beer-drug mixture, but to my knowledge that charge
has not been conclusively proven. Rajneesh's voting fraud scheme
failed and the once again homeless were returned to the streets after
the election was over, used and then abandoned. If Rajneesh
sannyasins had only held truth above all instead of obedience to guru
above all, then no crimes would have been committed and the commune
might still be in existence today.

Rajneesh used people, spoke out of both sides of his mouth, and
betrayed the trust of his own disciples. This betrayal caused Vivek,
his longtime girlfriend and companion, to commit suicide. Rajneesh
even lied about her death, slandering his greatest love in her grave
by falsely claiming that she was chronically depressed due to some
intrinsic emotional instability. Vivek was never depressed during the
years I knew her and she was the most radiant women I have ever
known.

Vivek was a highly advanced, literally glowing student of
meditation, but her only meditation method was being with Bhagwan and
absorbing his tremendous spiritual presence. When her one method and
one true love collapsed into insanity, she took her own life out of
overwhelming grief. Rajneesh drove her to suicide because she could
not understand nor tolerate his mental decline and collapse. Rajneesh
lied about her death simply to avoid taking responsibility for his own
bizarre behavior, which was the underlying cause of Vivek's despair.

The very same Western disciple who administered nitrous oxide to
Osho has been spreading negative rumors about Vivek, claiming that she
was not a meditative person (as himself) and that she committed
suicide because of a hormonal imbalance and also because she was
depressed about reaching the age of forty. This same sannyasin denied
to me emphatically that he gave Rajneesh irresponsible levels of
nitrous oxide, but later admitted to others that he gave Rajneesh one
to two hour nitrous oxide "treatments" every day for five months.
That level of exposure is clearly dangerous drug abuse with no
legitimate medical justification.

The young Acharya Rajneesh started his life as a teacher who
condemned false gurus and he ended his life as one of the most
deceitful gurus the world has ever known. The difficult fact to
comprehend is that he was enlightened when he was an anti-guru puritan
and he was still enlightened when he was the ultimate self-indulgent
guru himself. This seemingly irreconcilable contradiction is the real
reason I write this essay. I love to go into uncharted territory
where others fear to tread.

When you combine man's natural tendency for selfishness with an
ivory tower lifestyle, you have a situation where ethical behavior can
appear to be optional. Combine the unhealthy atmosphere of self-
deification with a debilitating progressive illness that lowers IQ,
and on top of that add drug abuse, then you have a cliff that even an
enlightened man could fall from. That fall could happen only if the
enlightened man makes one wrong choice, one false move, from both the
heart and from the mind.

Bhagwan's wrong choice was to disregard truthfulness in favor of
what he thought were useful lies. Once you make that wrong turn, away
from ordinary straightforward truth, you have lost your way. No human
being can disregard fact on a regular basis without finding himself in
a sea of turmoil because by discarding fact you discard the ground
beneath your feet. Little lies grow into big lies and the now hidden
truth becomes your enemy, not your friend and ally.

Rajneesh overestimated himself and underestimated his own
disciples. The real seekers of knowledge around him could have easily
handled the truth and were already motivated without the need for
propaganda. But Rajneesh had been a high guru for such a long time,
not just in this life but in previous lives as well, that he came to
see himself in grandiose terms. He was indeed an historic figure but
he was not the perfect superman he pretended to be. No one is! His
disciples deserved honesty but he fed them fairy tales "to give them
faith."

Jiddu Krishnamurti had been more honest than Rajneesh in
repeating relentlessly that "there is no authority" due to the
intrinsic nature of the cosmos. Ardent Rajneesh disciples didn't heed
Krishnamurti's warnings and put blind faith in a man who claimed to be
all-seeing, to have all the answers, and who once in 1975 brashly
proclaimed that he had never made a single mistake in his entire
life. Clearly Rajneesh made as many mistakes as any human being.
Just as obviously, his basic existential enlightenment was no
guarantee of functional pragmatic wisdom.

While Rajneesh was a brilliant philosopher, he was a lost babe
in the woods when it came to the world of science. Worried about
worldwide overpopulation, Rajneesh pressured his disciples to undergo
medical sterilization procedures. Unfortunately, he did not consider
the demographics of population growth. The current population
expansion is largely a phenomena of poor, third world nations, not a
problem originating in the USA, Canada, and Europe, where birth rates
are actually falling. North America and Europe are only experiencing
population increases due to legal and illegal immigration from third
world nations. Having his European and North American disciples
medically sever their reproductive capabilities only added to this
imbalance and many former disciples now regret they complied without
question to his thoughtless edicts.

Rajneesh also declared that the AIDS epidemic would soon kill
three quarters of the world's population and that a major nuclear war
was just around the corner. He thought he could escape nuclear
holocaust by building underground shelters and slow the spread of AIDS
by having his disciples wash their hands with alcohol before eating
meals. His more reasoned admonition was for his disciples to always
use condoms. To enforce his sexual rules, which also involved
elaborate instructions on the use of rubber gloves during sexual
encounters, Rajneesh encouraged his sannyasins to spy on each other,
reporting the names of those who failed to conform to his orders.

"When it comes to gurus, take the best and leave the rest." Ramamurti
Mishra

The disaster of Rajneesh appointing himself the singular great
brain of the universe was compounded by his lack of real world
reasoning skills, and this was the case even before he started taking
large amounts of Valium. Rajneesh could weave magnificent
philosophical dreams and addict his disciples to imagined worlds of
spiritual adventure, but those dreams did not have to stand any
empirical test of truth. In the world of science you have to prove
what you say is true through testing. In the world of philosophy and
religion you can say anything you desire and throw caution to the
wind. If your words sound good to the masses they will sell, whether
they are fact or fiction.

Rajneesh had no understanding of, or appreciation for, the
scientific method. If he thought something was true, in his own mind,
that made it true. His disciples had to obey his words or be banished
from the mini-nation he created in the Oregon desert. Rajneesh ruled
his empire as a warlord with his own private army and puppet
government. His visions and ideas, faulty or not, were taken without
question as the word of God. His disciples were judged by their
ability to surrender to his will and any opposing views were branded
as negativity and an unspiritual lack of faith.

Rajneesh's poor reasoning became even more apparent during and
after the Oregon commune scandal. After being jailed and then
deported from the USA, Rajneesh angrily declared Americans "subhuman,"
ignoring the fact that it was he, an Indian, who pled guilty to felony
immigration fraud and that it was Sheela, an Indian, who ordered the
most serious crimes which brought his empire to ruin. Even in his
fifties Rajneesh was still lying to get his own way, still demanding
to always be the center of attention, and by 1988, suffering from drug
and illness induced dementia, was pouting that his box of toys, his
expensive car collection and jewel encrusted watches, had been taken
away.

Rajneesh's disciples thought they were following a reliable and
authoritative "enlightened master." In reality they had been mislead
by a highly fallible enlightened human animal who was still a little
boy at heart. Rajneesh had not only misrepresented himself
personally, but he misrepresented the phenomena of enlightenment
itself. The idealized fantasy of perfect enlightenment does not exist
anywhere in the real world and it has never existed. The universe is
far too big and complex for anyone to be its master. We are all
subjects, not "masters," and those who pretend to be infallible and
all-knowing end up looking even more the fool in the end.

The famous sages of old seem perfect to us now only because they
have become larger than life myths. The long passage of time has
allowed their followers to effectively cover up their guru's flaws,
just as Rajneesh disciples are currently rewriting and censoring
history to cover up Rajneesh's great failings. Rajneesh was never
more infallible than any other human being. What we call
enlightenment is not a cure-all for faults and frailties that cling to
human animals even after they achieve maximum possible consciousness,
which is perhaps a more realistic definition of the term
"enlightenment."

The ultimate existential truth is silent and beyond all words.
Rajneesh embodied that truth up to the day he died. Visitors to his
ashram in Poona, India, who are open to meditation, will feel a giant
wave of consciousness there. That wave use to be connected to a human
body we called Rajneesh. The body has been turned to ashes but the
wave can still be felt. In the same way J. Krishnamurti's presence
can still be felt at Arya Vihara, his former home in Ojai,
California.

"What you tell them is true, but what I tell them (the useful lies) is
good for them." Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 1975

The contradiction of corruption and enlightenment can occur
because the brain is never enlightened and enlightenment never says or
does anything. In a way no one ever really becomes enlightened.
Enlightenment happens at the place where you are standing but you
cannot own it or possess it. All the words of so-called enlightened
men come from the human mind and body which interprets the phenomena
of enlightenment like a translator. The words do not come froM the
enlightenment itself. By definition enlightenment cannot speak. It
is absolutely silent and beyond any need to speak.

There are many layers to our beings. Some traditions have
categorized those layers as seven bodies, the first being the physical
body and the seventh the nirvanic, the void from which all is born.
No matter how you count the layers they do exist and the purely mental
layer is always there if you have a physical body. That layer can be
affected by disease and chemical exposure.

Osho died addicted to Valium and he experienced all the negative
symptoms of drug addiction, which included slurred speech, paranoia,
poor judgment, and lowered intelligence. At one point his paranoia
and confusion were so great that he thought a group of German cultists
had cast an evil spell on him. His physical disabilities and drug
abuse were simply more than his mortal brain could take. His biggest
flaw, his disregard for the ordinary concept of truth, was his
ultimate downfall and for that crime he must be held fully responsible
with no excuses.

"Never give a sucker an even break." W.C. Fields

Bhagwan lied when he said he had enlightened disciples. He lied
when he said he never made a mistake. Later he was forced to admit he
was fallible as his list of bungles grew to monstrous proportions. He
lied by pretending that the therapy groups run by his disciples were
not mainly a money making device. Rajneesh broke immigration laws and
lied about it in court. He lied by saying that he was adopted in a
phony scheme to get permanent residence status. Bhagwan Rajneesh was
no murderer or bank robber, but he certainly was a very big liar. The
ridiculous thing is that all of his lies were totally unnecessary and
counterproductive. Honesty really is the best policy.

Sadly, Rajneesh lied when he claimed he was not responsible for
the horrors of the Oregon commune because he hand picked Ma Anand
Sheela and the people who committed the major crimes of conspiracy to
commit murder, poisoning, first-degree assault, burglary, arson, and
wiretapping. The fact that Rajneesh did not order or have pre-
knowledge of the most serious crimes does not mean he was not
ethically responsible for them. If a teacher puts a drunken sailor in
charge of driving a school bus and the children end up dead, then the
teacher is responsible for their deaths. Rajneesh knew what kind of
person Sheela was and he chose her because of her corruption and
arrogance, not in spite of it. In a cowardly attempt to evade his own
failings he changed his name from Bhagwan to Osho, as if a change in
name could wash away his sins.

Some may be horrified that an enlightened soul could become a
convicted felon, but that has not stopped me from seeking the ultimate
existential truth. Rajneesh's life is a lesson for us all to practice
what we preach. Bhagwan gave great advice but he could not heed his
own wise words. He is also a reminder not to take what people say
very seriously. It is better to observe how people live and put less
emphasis on what they speak. Talk is cheap. Actions are more costly
and telling.

Do enlightened men have egos? In my younger idealistic years I
would have said the answer is no. Rajneesh, Gurdjieff, and even J.
Krishnamurti prove to me that they do (see links near the bottom of
the page). I became convinced that Rajneesh had an ego when I saw him
on television in chains being transported from jail to an Oregon
courthouse. In response to a reporter's question he looked into the
television camera and spoke to his disciples saying "Don't worry.
I'll be back." It was not what he said but the look in his eyes that
was positive proof for me. I could see his ego in action, calculating
and manipulating. Once you see something that clearly no
rationalizations can cover up the basic truth. Rajneesh was
magnificently enlightened but he was also profoundly egotistical.

For ordinary humans the ego is the center of awareness and the
Void is perceived only at the periphery. People look at a picture
taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and they see the Void as an
outside object, not as a personal identity. When you become
enlightened, either temporarily in a satori or permanently as a
Buddha, the situation is reversed. Now the Void is your center of
awareness and the ego is at the periphery. Ego does not die, it just
no longer takes the center stage of our attention.

Enlightenment is a functional and desirable disassociation of
identity which is rooted in subtle body development and in physical
brain function. The human brain is a biologically created thinking
machine that has evolved for both personal self-preservation and the
survival of the human species. The ego, which is a selfish motivating
force, is needed to protect our colony of living cells, the physical
body, from danger and to keep our cells replenished with food and
water. If you did not have an ego you would not be able to think,
speak, or find food, shelter, and clothing. The ego function is so
vital for survival that the human brain evolved with two potential ego
mechanisms, one a centralized ego and the second a larger and more
diffuse backup system utilizing less central portions of the brain.

If the body and brain becomes physically ill with high fever and
the centralized ego center is damaged, the backup ego mechanism may
temporarily take over its function. This is ego displacement without
enlightenment. The backup self-maintenance system keeps sleep walkers
out of danger and helps enlightened human animals find food and the
basics of life so they do not physically die as a result of their own
deep meditation.

Enlightened humans do not feel their more diffuse ego and thus
they feel as free as space (the Void) itself. In actuality ego is
still present and working, just as our autonomic nervous system keeps
on working whether we are aware of its function or not. You do not
have to consciously tell your heart to beat 70 times a minute because
it will keep on beating regardless of your awareness. The brain
function that controls heart rate is automatic (autonomic) and does
not need our consciousness to make it work.

Nature has also provided human animals with a strong, virtually
unstoppable sex drive to ensure reproduction of the species. Because
of the overwhelming importance and power of sex, most gurus,
enlightened or not, have maintained active sex lives which are often
kept secret for purely political reasons. In his early years Rajneesh
lied about his strong sexuality, but to be fair this has to be
understood in the context of a rigidly anti-sexual, and highly
hypocritical, Indian social structure. Later on, after his position as
a guru had become solidified, Rajneesh publicly bragged about having
sex "with hundreds of women."

Rajneesh's sex life was of no interest to me and I do not find
any fault with him for having the same sexual desires that all men
have. I do find fault when he was dishonest and cruel for selfish
reasons. While living in Bombay, Rajneesh made one young woman
pregnant through an aggressive and unasked for seduction. The young
woman was highly upset and forced by circumstance to have an
abortion. Rajneesh, protecting his image as a great guru, lied about
his involvement and claimed that she had imagined the whole affair.
In her anger, the young woman told the American Embassy her story.
That incident marked the beginning of Rajneesh's troubles with the
United States Government. Most of Rajneesh's close disciples believed
the young woman, not the much older "enlightened" man. Similarly,
decades later many would believe a young White House intern, not a
much older Presiden Bill Clinton. Being President, or being
"enlightened," does not always ensure good behavior.

All human beings are animals, specifically mammals. It has been
proven that human DNA is at least 98% the same as chimpanzee DNA.
World history, Asian mythology, politics, and the world of alpha male
gurus makes allot more sense if you keep that unavoidable scientific
fact in mind. Our most primal subconscious motivating forces come
from the animal world, which we are still a part of.

Some enlightened human animals have become fooled by the
phenomena of ego displacement and thought they no longer had any
personal selfishness that could cause trouble. Meher Baba spent much
of his life bragging about how great he was yet at his center he felt
perfectly egoless. In truth he was very egoistic and should have
realized that even enlightenment is no excuse for bragging. The same
fundamental misjudgment plagued Acharya Rajneesh. He became fooled
into thinking that he was above arrogance but that was simply not the
case.

Even enlightened humans have to mind their manners and realize
that the Atman is the wondrous phenomena they should promote, not
their own fallible and temporary personalities. Ramana Maharshi had
the right approach in this regard and that is one reason he is still
beloved by all. Ramana Maharshi promoted the Atman, the universal
cosmic consciousness, but never his own mortal body and mind.

Everyone who experienced Acharya Rajneesh's oceanic energy still
loves him, myself included. It is only because I value the truth
above all that I write what I believe are needed criticisms. If we
cannot honestly analyze our mistakes then our suffering was a waste of
time. The ongoing cover-up of Bhagwan's frailties by his
establishment disciples will only destroy the possibility of learning
from his tragedy.

I miss Acharya Rajneesh, never Osho, because he was at his
finest when he had no manipulating political organization surrounding
him. When Acharya Rajneesh was just a man in an apartment with one
old Chevrolet, not dozens of Rolls Royces, he was more honest and
true. When he became his own political establishment things started
to go wrong and that is often the case with men of great power.

How can the ocean go into the drop if the drop has an ego in
it? My answer, as previously stated, is that the ego is an integral
part of the structure of the human brain. It is not simply
psychological but also neurological and hard wired into our neural
pathways (see neurological basis for a sense of 'self'). The self-
survival, self-defense mechanism we call 'ego' cannot be destroyed
unless the body dies.

Huston Smith, the well known author and professor of world
religions, believes that no man attached to this mortal coil can
achieve the ultimate transcendence. You first have to physically die
and when the last coil is broken you are totally free. I believe the
ego steps aside and becomes less of a problem for most enlightened
men, but it is never totally destroyed as long as you have a physical
body.

The Rajneesh scandal exposed the unconscious slavery of Bhakti
Yoga and the underlying fraudulence and corruption of "left-handed
Tantra." What is needed is an honest path, built on self-observation,
self-reliance, and respect for truth. The days of the know-it-all
guru are over. It is time to realize the source of all things
directly.

It would be wonderful to believe that enlightened men were
perfect in every way. That would make life simpler and sweeter, but
it would be fiction, not fact. In a way Bhagwan's tragedy has given
me more hope. If we have to become perfect human beings to become
enlightened then who among us will ever reach that goal? If we
realize that enlightenment is just a gradual progression of expansion
of consciousness then the goal is attainable by all of us, given
enough time. If we work for hundreds of years, through many births
and deaths, with a simple goal of just going a little deeper every
day, then with scientific certainty I believe those who seek
enlightenment will attain it in time. All of the enlightened men I
have known or have read about have made that statement in their own
words. I believe that is a fact that can be trusted.

Addendum - On letters I have received

Any thoughtful person can imagine the range of leters I have
received as a result of posting my Web essay on Acharya - Bhagwan -
Osho - Rajneesh. To date about half of the letters have been from
former Rajneesh disciples who generally agree with my comments and who
thank me for putting them on the Web. Those who agree tell me they
see "compassion for all involved" on my Web page and that I got it
"just about right."

The other letters I receive are from current disciples of the
now deceased Osho, many whom have never actually met the man in
person. Those letters range from death threats from several German
disciples to poorly written and often unsigned insults. The Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance also gets lots of hate mail, but
from many different cults, not just from one. It is interesting to
see how most cults are alike in this regard. The us vs. them
mentality takes over and anyone who does not tow the party line of the
cult is deemed a villain.

Meditation has nothing to do with cults, organizations,
politics, or business, but for many meditation is a secondary issue.
For them it is all about hero worship and blind obedience to the
memory of a now dead guru, which is a silly waste of time in my
opinion. Why not go directly to the source of all gurus and religions
through your own meditation? There is an old Zen saying that "One
should not become attached to anything that can be lost in a
shipwreck." Certainly this admonition applies to gurus as well.

Several Rajneesh sannyasins have written me claiming to be
enlightened and I hear reports that many Rajneesh disciples now make
that claim. One man said that he was "the new Osho" and invited me to
visit his Web page. His page displayed a large heroic picture of
himself, much self-promotion, and an advertisement for prostitutes in
Russia who he claimed were practicing "Tantra." So for him
"enlightenment" and being "the new Osho" literally means to be a
pimp.

Another man, who had never met Osho in person, seemed to claim
that reading Osho's books helped him get over his "mental illness" and
now he was "enlightened" himself. He then forcefully instructed me to
rewrite my Web page to make it "less judgmental" and suggested that
Osho's hypocrisy was just a means to convey his enlightenment to
others. Well, he certainly conveyed his hypocrisy to others! One
young woman, who grew up on the Rajneesh Oregon commune, asked me how
she could make money out of teaching Osho's meditation techniques. I
replied that she should go to an employment agency and get an honest
job. Meditation and business do not mix and there are too many money
hungry gurus out there already.

It shocks me to find that many Osho disciples do not care about
the crimes that were committed and are not bothered by the lies and
hypocrisy of their own movement. They don't seem to comprehend that
as a result of the germ warfare attack committed by Rajneesh
sannyasins on a restaurant in Oregon that meditation groups have
gotten a very bad name around the world.

The unrelated but equally infamous Aum Shinrikyo (a Japanese
cult) nerve gas attack on a subway station in Tokyo worsened this
situation considerably. The attitude of many Osho sannyasins seems to
be that as long as they get their psychic kicks out of a cult that it
does not matter who was hurt or how unethical and disgraceful the
behavior was. In their minds everyone else in the world was
responsible for the Oregon debacle except them. As a result of this
careless attitude many Americans now feel that if a meditation group
starts an ashram nearby it is time to buy a gun and a gas mask.

The amount of historical revisionism and propaganda put out by
some Rajneesh disciples rivals the efforts of Maoists during the 1960s
and their state of mind is similar. If you want to believe in one
perfect man, a Pope of the universe, then anyone who criticizes that
Pope is deemed a devil. Thus all the subtleties of my essay are lost
on these disciples and all they claim to see on my Web page is "hate
and anger." Of course they do not see the hate in themselves directed
at anyone who does not share their own narrow beliefs.

One long time disciple of Rajneesh expressed to me how angry she
was at the Dalai Lama for only visiting the Rajneesh ashram in Poona
once. So for her the Dalai Lama is now a villain just because he did
not want to go back for a second visit. The level of intolerance and
narrow mindedness in the Rajneesh cult is mind boggling to me and I
cannot understand how so many seemingly intelligent people can live in
such a small mental space, barricaded against all those who do not
believe exactly as they do.

The last time I visited the Rajneesh ashram in Poona, India, was
in 1988. It was literally like a loud convention of German Brown
Shirts by that point. Osho was still very popular in Germany, due in
part to his comments in the German magazine Stern which were widely
interpreted to be pro-Hitler. I myself do not believe Osho was a
serious supporter of Adolf Hitler. It seemed to me that he was just
playing with people's minds, but he made his position ambiguous
enough, with enough expressed sympathy for the Axis cause, that many
young Germans were thrilled by his words. Those who lost loved ones
during World War II were justifiably shocked.

At one point Rajneesh stated that "I have fallen in love with
this man (Adolf Hitler). He was crazy, but I am crazier still." I do
not believe Rajneesh meant that statement literally. He was joking,
but he had lost the common sense to know that one does not joke about
loving a man who has killed millions of innocent people. Mel Brooks
can get away with it because he is Jewish and has relatives who were
killed by the Nazis. For a "spiritual" man who portrayed himself as
the world's smartest, highest, and greatest soul, such a remark was
proof that his drug taking was destroying the quality of his
judgment.

At the time of my visit Osho was in silence as he was angry at
his own disciples. He wanted his sannyasins to demonstrate in the
streets of Poona against some Indian officials who had spoken out
against him. Wisely, no one was interested in creating a new
confrontation. This spell of sanity among the flock irritated Osho
who canceled public talks as punishment. I was thus only able to see
him on video tape. On the taped lecture Osho was ranting emotionally,
and factually incorrectly, about how the police in the United States
had stolen his collection of jewel encrusted watches. He said that
they would never be able to wear them in public because his sannyasins
would see the watches on their wrists, at airports etc., and start
screaming out loud that "you stole Bhagwan's watch!" His words and
manner were so childishly irrational that he reminded me of Jim
Jones. This Osho was a far cry from the serene, dignified, and highly
eloquent man I had met years earlier.

Why did Osho own 90 Rolls Royces? Why does Saddam Hussein own
dozens of luxurious palaces? Those desires are products of the base
animal mind of two men who grew up in poverty. Enlightenment does not
care about symbols of power and potency. Looking for hidden esoteric
explanations for obsessive behavior is pointless. Is there an occult
reason that Elton John spends over $400,000. per month on flowers? Is
there a secret spiritual reason that Osho had a collection of dozens
of expensive ladies' watches? The universal cosmic consciousness is
completely neutral and without any need to possess, impress, or
dominate. It also cannot drive or tell time.

Shivamurti's book, Bhagwan: The God That Failed, could have
easily also been entitled The Man Who Became His Own Opposite, or The
Man Who Betrayed Himself. I often tell people that if they could go
back in time and kidnap the Acharya Rajneesh of 1970, then bring him
up through the years to meet the Osho of the late 1980s, that the two
men would be at war with each other. Acharya would have hated Osho's
pompous self-indulgence and Osho would have never tolerated the young
Acharya's brash criticisms. Acharya Rajneesh spoke of freedom and
compassion. Osho once said that he wished someone would
"shoot" (assassinate) former Soviet leader Mikael Gorbachev because he
was leading the Soviet Union to Western style capitalism instead of
his own imagined "spiritual communism." The change in his teaching
was remarkable, to say the least.

I would like to think that the early Acharya Rajneesh would have
approved of my essay, but who can say for sure. For those who suggest
I am not being loyal to Osho, I counter that I am honestly trying to
be loyal to Acharya Rajneesh, the man I took sannyas from, not Osho.
He was a man I still deeply love and respect. But that Acharya
Rajneesh died along time before Osho was even born and the two men
were as different as day and night.

My message to letter writers is to go ahead and write me. You
can vent anger or thank me, but neither will have much effect on me as
I have heard it all before, from both sides. I can only sigh and ask
myself how Acharya Rajneesh, who started out as an anti-guru
extraordinaire, ended up as he did with this current crop of
disciples. Perhaps it shows that power does corrupt and that the
means rarely justifies the ends.

In the end where is meditation in all of this? "Color
Puncture," "Tantric Tarot Readings," encounter groups, and every phony
crackpot scam in the book is being peddled by Osho disciples for large
sums of money. But what about meditation? Then I think back to the
day when the just turned 40 year old Acharya wisely instructed a
friendly Japanese woman, who was starting a new Rajneesh meditation
center in Tokyo, that "Meditation must not be made into a business."
The corrupt means have gotten so far out of hand that the original
intent of the ends, Acharya Rajneesh's original noble vision, has long
been forgotten by many, but not by me.

"No Saint comes to the world with a new teaching or philosophy; he
brings the same
ancient wisdom."

Maharaj Charan Singh, Sikh Guru
From "Divine Light," p. 144

"They [the sages] conduct themselves in the everyday life in
accordance with the time-hallowed rules of conduct..."

"He should be known as the killer of the Brahman, who is a renegade
beyond the pale of all recognized schools of thought."

The Jivan-Mukti-Viveka of Sri Vidyaranya

Translation of Pandit Subrahmanya Sastri, F.T.S., The Theosophical
Publishing House, p. 170, p. 218

"Rajneesh/Osho is the worst thing that ever happened to spirituality
in the west. He rode herd over a mob of naive, idealistic spiritual
seekers, but definitely lacked the traits of an enlightened master.

"Enlightened masters are not drug addicts. They do not turn Dharma on
its head -- like calling "sannyasins" those who adopt a path exactly
opposite of Indian sannyas. They generally don't get arrested and have
their mug shots taken, and ignomiously deported -- especially the
Indian saints. (Christ was one notable historical exception to this
rule.) A true saint, by his spiritual power, is never humiliated or
bested. He has sufficient merit to receive protection and his honored
in his lifetime.

"More to the core, an enlightened master does not encourage his
disciples to abandon time-honored moral norms -- especially the
dharma concerning sex restraint. Osho was basically a kind of pimp who
used the base desires of average people, along with their beautiful
hunger for real spirituality, to build a financial empire and a
following of worshippers who would do whatever he asked.

"When I think back about that 'baby boomer generation' of sincere
spiritual seekers -- all those intelligent, skilled young men and
women of European descent like me -- it makes me so sad. What a
harvest of potential saints that was! How much good might have arisen
if all those young, idealistic westerners could have fallen in with a
legitimate spiritual master -- say, a Vivekananda or a Ramakrishna. We
will never know! I look at them today, and their condition, and they
have missed the boat.

"Thousands of sincere western seekers were misled and harmed by the
novel teachings of Osho. I have seen many of them in the aftermath.
They always lack the satvic glow that comes from yogic sex restraint;
they look like spent rakes aged well beyond their actual years. Even
in their age -- when they might show some spiritual attainment -- many
still crave sex, and all the ordinary base things. Despite Osho's
"indulgence technique," they never got over sex addiction and lust.

"This was one of the Big Lies that Osho told: That by indulging your
sex desire you would transcend it. The great sages of Yoga spoke the
real and opposite truth: You get over sexual lust not by feeding it,
but by restraining it until you encounter the higher thrill of
meditative bliss. Meanwhile, it is only that renunciation -- the
storing of the sexual energy -- that enables one to contact the
transcendental bliss. This has been the message of the sages through
all time, including Lord Buddha, who was frequently ripped off by
"the Bhagwan." Osho's teachings, though sprinkled here and there with
mystical truths, were dead wrong in the most basic ways, and
ultimately spiritually destructive.

"The proof is in the pudding. Christ said that one can know a true
Master by the "fruit" that emerges from him. Through his disciples
Osho gave us moral and family breakdown, drug addiction, a disturbed
childhood for many, and crime -- even terrorism. Osho set Yoga back in
the west perhaps hundreds of years.

"The saddest thing is what happened to all those children of Osho
followers. Osho wanted them to grow up not knowing who their Fathers
were; raised by a mob, with no particular person as Parent. I can't
think of anything much more ignorant, or more cruel. Krishnamurti was
right:
Osho was a criminal."

-- Julian Lee
www.Celibacy.info

Osho/Rajneeshism

Concise summary and history of the Osho/Rajneesh mess

The Rise And Fall of Rajneeshpuram

Sympathetic account of the Osho mess, but with a good accounting of
their criminal activites

"It was later revealed in court testimony that Sheela’s [Rajneeshee
group] had attempted to poison two local communities by dumping
salmonella into salad bars of several local restaurants . . . This
episode has the unfortunate distinction of being the first instance of
modern bioterrorism in the U.S.

"Sheela’s group also allegedly fire-bombed a county records office in
The Dalles. One of the charges most heavily investigated was the
poisoning of Swami Deveraj (later Amrito), Bhagwan’s personal
physician. After the July 6 discourse, Ma Shanti Bhadra hugged
Deveraj and jabbed him with a needle. The syringe contained a still
unidentified poison concocted by Rajneeshpuram nurse Ma Puja. Deveraj
became gravely ill and almost died at the Madras hospital."

"My Life In Orange"

The child of an Osho disciple recounts his crazy life growing up under
the "Rajneesh." Find out how bad it was. Many letters here from other
grown Osho children, or those raised in similar situations.

http://rajneesh.info/

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
An Apologetics Index research resource

Rajneesh founded the Rajneesh Foundation International, and is one of
the most controversial of modern gurus. In 1981 he was deported from
Oregon under a bevy of serious criminal charges associated with his
ashram, or spiritual community. His recent death did little to stem
his influence in Europe or America.
John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs
Harvest House Publishers, Oregon, 1996.

[A]lso called OSHO AND ACHARYA RAJNEESH, original name CHANDRA MOHAN
JAIN, Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of
Eastern mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom while
amassing vast personal wealth.

In 1981 Rajneesh's cult purchased a dilapidated ranch in Oregon, U.S.,
which became the site of Rajneeshpuram, a community of several
thousand orange-robed disciples. Rajneesh was widely criticized by
outsiders for his private security force and his ostentatious display
of wealth. By 1985 many of his most trusted aides had abandoned the
movement, which was under investigation for multiple felonies
including arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in
the nearby town of Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh pleaded guilty to
immigration fraud and was deported from the United States. He was
refused entry by 21 countries before returning to Pune, where his
ashram soon grew to 15,000 members. In later years he took the
Buddhist title Osho and altered his teaching on unrestricted sexual
activity because of his growing concern over AIDS.

Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Encyclopedia Britannica

(...) the only known successful use of biological weapons in the
United States was by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult in 1984. The
group contaminated salad bars in 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Ore.,
with Salmonella Typhimurium, causing several hundred people to become
ill.

Biological and Chemical Warfare Q and A, ABC News, Sep. 24, 2001

Hinduism is not by nature a proselytizing religion, however, in part
because of its inextricable roots in the social system and the land of
India. In recent years, many new gurus, such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
and Satya Sai Baba, have been successful in making converts in Europe
and the United States. The very success of these gurus, however, has
produced material profits that many people regard as incompatible with
the ascetic attitude appropriate to a Hindu spiritual leader; in some
cases, the profits have led to notoriety and even legal prosecution.
Hinduism Outside India Encyclopedia Britannica

Name Change

In 1988 thirty years after taking the title, ''Bhagwan,'' (which means
''the embodiment of God'') Rajneesh admitted the title and his claim
to be God were a ''joke.'' ''I hate the word... I don't want to be
called Bhagwan (God) again. Enough is enough. The joke is over,''
stated Rajneesh saying he was really the reincarnation of Buddha and
claiming for himself the new title of ''Rajneesh Gautaman the
Buddha,'' (Star Telegram, Dec. 29, 1988; Sec.1, p. 3). Later he took
the title, ''Osho Rajneesh,'' a Buddhist term meaning ''on whom the
heavens shower flowers.'' (Ibid, 1/20/90).

Guru Rajneesh Dead at 58, Watchman Expositor, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990

Guru Rajneesh Dead at 58, Watchman Expositor, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990

Old Bhagwan, new bottles ''A 'new' spiritual guru turns out to have a
past that includes lavish spending, orgies and bacterial terrorism.'',
Salon.com, Oct. 20, 1999

Ever wonder what ever happened to the guy whose religious followers
were linked to the only episode of domestic mass bioterrorism in
America? Well, in the case of the late, notorious Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh, old renegade sex gurus never die. He just ''left his body''
somewhere in India in 1990 and later emerged as a thriving, modern-day
publishing machine known as Osho.

Rajneesh's flock caught much of his meditative bon mots on tape, and
now incessantly recycle these ponderings as spiritual wisdom under the
author name of Osho.

Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Entry in Encyclopedia Britannica

Rajneeshpuram: Another Tragedy in the Making? Statement by the
Christian Research Institute

The Story of a Truly Contaminated Election Columbia Journalism
Review, Jan/Feb 2000

The only proven incident of bioterrorism the United States has ever
experienced, we learned, was a bizarre plot by the Rajneeshees, a
religious cult, to steal a county election in Oregon in 1984. The
Rajneeshees, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a self-proclaimed
guru exiled from India, had moved into a ranch in rural Wasco County,
taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, and
changed its name to Rajneesh. Next, the cult sought to run the whole
county by winning the local election in 1984.

The amazing story of the Wasco County election scandal was revealed to
the conference's riveted participants by Leslie L. Zaitz, an
investigative reporter for The Oregonian, and Dr. John Livengood, an
epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control. To win the county
election, the Rajneeshees planned to sicken a good portion of the
population in the town of The Dalles, where most Wasco County voters
live. Their weapon of choice to keep local residents from voting was
salmonella bacteria. Cult members decided to test the use of
salmonella and, if successful, to contaminate the entire water system
of The Dalles on Election Day. First, the Rajneeshees poisoned two
visiting Wasco County commissioners on a hot day by plying them with
refreshing drinks of cold water laced with salmonella. Then, on a
shopping trip to The Dalles, cult members sprinkled salmonella on
produce in grocery stores "just for fun." According to reporter Zaitz,
that experiment didn't get the results they wanted so the Rajneeshees
proceeded to clandestinely sprinkle salmonella at the town's
restaurant salad bars. Ten restaurants were hit and more than 700
people got sick.

Wasco County Sheriffs This history includes a recounting of the
Rajneeshees involvement in this Oregon community

More Information:

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research resources on religious cults, sects, new religious movements,
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565071603/christianministr

also called Osho or Acharya Rajneesh, original name Chandra Mohan
Jain
born Dec. 11, 1931, India died Jan. 19, 1990, Pune, India

Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern
mysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom, while amassing
vast personal wealth.

As a young intellectual, Rajneesh visited with and absorbed insights
from teachers of the various religious traditions active in India. He
studied philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, earning a B.A. in
1955; he began teaching there in 1957, after earning an M.A. from the
University of Saugar. At the age of 21 he had an intense spiritual
awakening, which inspired in him the belief that individual religious
experience is the central fact of spiritual life and that such
experiences cannot be organized into any single belief system.

In 1966 Rajneesh resigned from his university post and became a guru
(spiritual guide) and a teacher of meditation. In the early 1970s he
initiated people into the order of sannyasis, who traditionally
renounced the world and practiced asceticism. Reinterpreting the idea
of being a sannyasi in terms of detachment rather than asceticism,
Rajneesh taught his disciples to live fully in the world without being
attached to it.

The first Westerners came to Rajneesh in the early 1970s, and in 1974
the new headquarters of his movement was established in Pune. The
basic practice taught at the centre was called dynamic meditation, a
process designed to allow people to experience the divine. The centre
also developed a diversified program of New Age healing adopted from
the West. Rajneesh became well-known for his progressive approach to
sexuality, which contrasted with the renunciation of sex advocated by
many other Indian teachers.

Rajneesh moved to the United States in 1981 and, the following year,
incorporated Rajneeshpuram, a new city he planned to build on an
abandoned ranch near Antelope, Ore. During the next few years many of
his most trusted aides abandoned the movement, which came under
investigation for multiple felonies, including arson, attempted
murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh
pleaded guilty to immigration fraud and was deported from the United
States. He was refused entry to 21 countries before returning to Pune,
where his ashram soon grew to 15,000 members.

In 1989 Rajneesh adopted the Buddhist name Osho. After his death his
disciples, convinced that he had been the victim of government
intrigue, voiced their belief in his innocence and vowed to continue
the movement he started. In the early 21st century it had some 750
centres located in more than 60 countries.

John Gordon Melton

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490155/Bhagwan-Shree-Rajneesh

Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990
Articles on the New Age

Guru Rajneesh Dead at 58

Controversial Indian Guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, "who turned a
central Oregon town into a tumultuous commune of free love, hedonism
and murder plots before being deported," died on Jan. 19th of heart
failure in Poona, India. (Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 1/20/90).

Rajneesh captured the nation's attention in 1981 when he moved his
ashram community and 93 Rolls-Royces to Antelope, Oregon and advocated
"enlightenment" through sexual promiscuity. Oregonians were concerned
when Rajneesh's followers, who outnumbered the permanent residents of
Antelope, took over the small town changing its name to "City of
Rajneesh." Critics charged that the Guru later tried to take over the
county by bussing in street people gathered from the nation's inner
cities to out-vote the regular citizens.

Ma Anand Sheela, the Rajneesh's personal secretary, later pled guilty
to a number of charges including, "plotting to kill Mr. Rajneesh's
physician with a poison-filled syringe and orchestrating a food
poisoning outbreak that sickened more than 750 people in The Dalles,
the county seat, as part of a plot to take control of the
county," (Ibid).

The Bhagwan was also arrested and deported on charges of immigration
fraud as part of a plea bargain arrangement with U.S. officials. He
returned to his native India after unsuccessfully attempting to
immigrate to several other countries.

Rajneesh's teachings included, "sex is fun, materialism is good and
Jesus was a madman," and the claim that he was "the world's greatest
lover." His "Bible" called, The Orange Book described a typical yoga
session, "Explode! Go totally mad.... Jump up and down shouting the
mantra `Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!' ...Each time you land on the flats of your
feet, let the sound hammer deep into the sex center," (Ibid).

In 1988 thirty years after taking the title, "Bhagwan," (which means
"the embodiment of God") Rajneesh admitted the title and his claim to
be God were a "joke." "I hate the word... I don't want to be called
Bhagwan (God) again. Enough is enough. The joke is over," stated
Rajneesh saying he was really the reincarnation of Buddha and claiming
for himself the new title of "Rajneesh Gautaman the Buddha," (Star
Telegram, Dec. 29, 1988; Sec.1, p. 3). Later he took the title, "Osho
Rajneesh," a Buddhist term meaning "on whom the heavens shower
flowers." (Ibid, 1/20/90).

Thousands of the Guru's followers welcomed his death as "a liberation
of the soul" and celebrations began in the Poona, India compound as
soon as his death was announced.

http://www.watchman.org/na/rajneesh.htm

WEDnesday, Oct 20, 1999 09:00 EDT
Old Bhagwan, new bottles

A "new" spiritual guru turns out to have a past that includes lavish
spending, orgies and bacterial terrorism.
By Dennis McCafferty

Ever wonder what ever happened to the guy whose religious followers
were linked to the only episode of domestic mass bioterrorism in
America? Well, in the case of the late, notorious Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh, old renegade sex gurus never die. He just "left his body"
somewhere in India in 1990 and later emerged as a thriving, modern-day
publishing machine known as Osho.

Rajneesh's flock caught much of his meditative bon mots on tape, and
now incessantly recycle these ponderings as spiritual wisdom under the
author name of Osho. This Osho has now generated an impressively
diversified empire of books, video tapes, television shows, corporate
seminars (via Osho "trainees") and even a 34-acre luxury spa in Pune,
India. With more than a dozen titles published and still going strong,
his worldwide book and audio book sales now surpass $1 million
annually. Due out in mid-November from the ever-prolific (albeit,
technically dead) Osho: Three new titles from St. Martin's Griffin --
"Creativity," "Courage" and "Maturity," all priced at $11.95 -- to
mark the 10th anniversary of his death in January. And in May 2000, a
new "autobiography" with the working title "Osho: The Autobiography of
the Spiritually Incorrect Mystic."

To date, the published works of Osho have left readers with little
clues as to his former identity. So consumers may not know that
they're actually plunking down their cash for rehashed ramblings from
the late Rajneesh, the controversy-plagued spiritual leader kicked out
of the United States after his legal woes heated up in the mid-1980s.
Rajneesh made headlines with a lifestyle that included a convoy of
more than 90 Rolls-Royces, flashy jewelry and enough hedonistic
pursuits to earn him the title "world's most famous sex guru."

Rajneesh and his followers settled on a 65,000-acre ranch near
Antelope, Ore., wrestled political control from town office holders
and renamed Antelope "Rajneeshpuram." But they were essentially the
sect that couldn't shoot straight. During a conflict with Oregon
authorities, the followers were accused of arson and attempted murder.
In perhaps the most notorious incident, some members of the Rajneesh
crew were linked to a 1984 case in which salmonella bacteria was
sprinkled on the contents of local restaurant salad bars and sickened
750 people. Rajneesh was deported on immigration fraud charges and
died in Pune on Jan. 19, 1990.

However, Rajneesh lives on with an estimated 5,000 of his lectures now
marketed as Osho tapes and books. He'll answer e-mail questions on the
Web and make the occasional remark on current affairs. (Live! From the
Osho Commune International home base in Pune: "Clinton needs Tantra
Sutra, not Kama Sutra.")

The books are less than enlightening about Osho's time spent here on
Earth; their references to Rajneesh are rare and fuzzy. In the
current, uncorrected proofs of the three new St. Martin's titles, for
example, the brief "About the Author" section makes no mention at all
of Osho's prior identity.

Says Klaus Steeg, president of Osho International in New York: "He
changed his name. He was called Bhagwan. But the year before he died,
he dropped that. It's a complete deconstruction of his personality."
And perhaps more importantly, of all the bad P.R. that his former name
brings to mind.

Steeg promises that, while the "autobiography" will tie up some of
these loose connections, the wealth of Osho's heavily marketed inner-
self discourses do not because they're intended as guides. Michael
Denneny, the St. Martin's senior editor currently overseeing Osho
titles, says the publishing company, as is its policy, provides a
picture of Rajneesh in the books. Still, the photos identify him only
as Osho. "If he changed his name to Osho," Denneny reasons, "then it's
like Muhammad Ali and Cassius Clay." As far as how forthcoming the
autobiography will be, that remains to be seen. Osho "distinguishes
between what is true and what is fact," Denneny says. "He prefers the
truth." Jim Fitzgerald, who edited a 1998 St. Martin's-published work
from Osho called "The Book of Secrets," is more blunt: "I'd be
shooting myself in the foot to say that's the guy [whose people]
poisoned salad bars.''

Well, forgive and, most of all, forget, right? At least a few media
types have short memories. Last year, the New York Times featured a
puff piece on Osho International's Lexington Avenue office digs,
describing Osho as a now-deceased Indian mystic and making no
reference to Rajneesh. A 1998 travel piece in Yoga Journal describing
the Pune attraction as a "New Age Xanadu" did connect Osho to the
Rajneesh name, but blithely omitted mention of the salad bars or other
unsavory details.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/10/20/osho/

The Story of a Truly Contaminated Election
BY LAWRENCE K. GROSSMAN

On November 30, when Vice President Gore's vote challenge was making
Florida the epicenter of the universe, I happened to be in St.
Petersburg, Florida, moderating a conference on "Bioterrorism and the
Media." Terrible as the subject of the bioterrorism conference is, it
promised at least to offer a welcome respite from the endless but
irresistible election mess. As it turned out, I was wrong. The
centerpiece of the conference was, of all things, the case study of a
truly contaminated election.

The only proven incident of bioterrorism the United States has ever
experienced, we learned, was a bizarre plot by the Rajneeshees, a
religious cult, to steal a county election in Oregon in 1984. The
Rajneeshees, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a self-proclaimed
guru exiled from India, had moved into a ranch in rural Wasco County,
taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, and
changed its name to Rajneesh. Next, the cult sought to run the whole
county by winning the local election in 1984.

The amazing story of the Wasco County election scandal was revealed to
the conference's riveted participants by Leslie L. Zaitz, an
investigative reporter for The Oregonian, and Dr. John Livengood, an
epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control. To win the county
election, the Rajneeshees planned to sicken a good portion of the
population in the town of The Dalles, where most Wasco County voters
live. Their weapon of choice to keep local residents from voting was
salmonella bacteria. Cult members decided to test the use of
salmonella and, if successful, to contaminate the entire water system
of The Dalles on Election Day. First, the Rajneeshees poisoned two
visiting Wasco County commissioners on a hot day by plying them with
refreshing drinks of cold water laced with salmonella. Then, on a
shopping trip to The Dalles, cult members sprinkled salmonella on
produce in grocery stores "just for fun." According to reporter Zaitz,
that experiment didn't get the results they wanted so the Rajneeshees
proceeded to clandestinely sprinkle salmonella at the town's
restaurant salad bars. Ten restaurants were hit and more than 700
people got sick.

"They apparently didn't expect it to be such a huge success," Zaitz
said. "The attention attracted by the salad bar escapade brought
hordes of health officials and investigators into The Dalles. It
dashed the cult's plan to do worse on Election Day." Health officials
soon pinned down salmonella as the cause of the sudden outbreak, but
put the blame on food handlers. In 1984, who could have imagined
bioterrorism?

The Rajneeshees also bused in homeless people by the hundreds from all
across the country to register in Wasco County so they could vote in
the '84 election. That plan failed when, alerted by the mass
registration of the homeless, the state threatened to conduct
administrative hearings on every new local voter. The cult's
conspiracy to contaminate the election failed and a year later, the
entire Rajneeshee commune collapsed under the weight of an internal
conflict. Cult informers confessed to numerous crimes, including plots
to kill the U.S. attorney, the state attorney general, and the guru's
doctor, as well as the plot to contaminate the election. Vials of
salmonella were found on the Rajneeshees' ranch.

Zaitz and his investigative reporting team produced a twenty-part
series on the Rajneeshees for The Oregonian starting in June 1985.
After the commune collapsed they went back and produced a follow-up
series. Among other things, they learned that the Rajneeshees had
secretly put together a top-ten hit list on which Zaitz's name
appeared as number three.

"If anything, the local news media were restrained and conservative in
their coverage of the salmonella episode," Zaitz told the conference.
"There was nothing alarmist, nothing to trigger a public panic. More
aggressive coverage perhaps would have heated up already tense
community relations with the commune. Yet the benign treatment also
gave the Rajneeshees comfort that they could get away with it . . . .
Fortunately, the commune collapsed before that could happen. But
consider this: If they knew reporters were watching closely, would
they have even tried?"

Something like that might be said of the presidential balloting mess.
If, in the days before the voting, reporters had focused on the
botched job the nation's election districts were doing with voting
procedures for the central political event of our democracy, the
election of a president, would the balloting and ballot-counting have
been quite so off-base?

For epidemiologist Livengood, however, who had been dispatched to
Wasco County to solve the cause of the mysterious outbreak, the story
had a different, simpler moral: "Don't eat at salad bars."

Lawrence K. Grossman, a former president of NBC News and PBS, is a
regular columnist for CJR.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020614093959/http://www.cjr.org/year/01/1/grossman.asp

Ernest D. Mosier followed Harold Sexton and was Sheriff of Wasco
County two different times. He first served from 1953 to September,
1963, when he resigned. He came back to spend six more years as
Sheriff from July 1971 to 1977 when he was appointed to replace the
resigning William L. Bell.

A native of The Dalles, Mosier graduated from The Dalles High School
and later attended Willamette University. Before joining the Sheriffs'
Office, Mosier was an office manager at a number of companies in The
Dalles area.

Sterling Arthur Trent was appointed to take Mosier's place when he
resigned. A native of Gorin, Missouri, Trent served as Sheriff of
Wasco County until June 1968, when he died in office. He moved to
Oregon in 1913 and was a Deputy Sheriff from July 1954 until he was
appointed Sheriff in September 1963.

A graduate of The Dalles High School, Trent worked in the construction
business for a time and also managed a tire shop and was a stock
rancher for a while. When Trent died, Grant Cyphers was appointed to
take his place, but Cyphers served only a month before it was dis-
covered he was of the wrong political party.

William L. Bell was appointed to take Cyphers' place and remained
Sheriff of Wasco County until July 1971, when he resigned to take a
job with the Board on Police Standards and Training. A native of Long
Beach, California, Bell moved to Oregon in 1947.

Bell graduated from Wheeler County High School in Fossil and attended
five terms at the University of Oregon and two terms at Oregon College
of Education. He signed on with The Dalles Police Department in 1957
as an officer but left for two years to serve in the United States
Army from 1958 to 1960. He remained with The Dalles Police Department
until 1968, when he was appointed to take the place of Cyphers.

Ernest Mosier came back to serve as Sheriff when he was appointed to
take Bell's place, remaining this time until 1977, when John B. Magill
was elected. Magill-- whose family was an old ranching family in Wasco
County -- served a four-year term before Robert G. "Bob" Brown was
elected in 1981.

Born in Council Bluff, Iowa, Brown moved to Oregon in 1963 from South
Dakota. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in Omaha in 1962
with degrees in business administration and engineering. He worked for
seven years as a superintendent and engineer for Peter Kiewet & Sons
in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington and
Oregon. From 1967 until 1980, Brown worked for Tenneson Engineering in
The Dalles.

Art Labrousse won the 1984 election and was re-elected in 1988 to
become the first two-term Sheriff in Wasco County since 1968.

Big Muddy-ed Affair

In 1981, Wasco County school children learned a new word:
Rajneeshees. Even before the start of the school year, a few lessons
on this strange East Indian word and what it meant. Followers of the
nomadic Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh purchased the rambling,
64,229 acre Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco and Jefferson counties in July of
1981 as the central commune for the Bhagwan and his devoted
followers.

At first, the residents of nearby Antelope viewed the sudden
appearance of the red-clad Rajneesh disciples, known as Sannyasins but
more commonly referred to as Rashneeshees, as nothing more than a
curiosity. It wasn't long, however, before they realized the
seriousness and full intentions of the Rajneesh movement, or
"invasion,'' as some locals preferred to call it.

While the Bhagwan's chief aide Ma Anand Sheela was declaring the
movement's plan to operate a simple farming commune in the desert, his
other disciples were busy in the background developing grand plans for
a huge resort city for up to 100,000 Rajneeshees.

Within a matter of weeks, construction began on a number of buildings
within the newly-christened Rancho Rajneesh, including a shoppng mall,
restaurant, a resort-like motel and commune service offices. In many
cases, Bhagwan followers moved ahead without securing proper county
building permits.

In the meantime, new recruits continued pouring into the desert
commune -many of them wealthy European and American followers who were
more than willing and able to finance the Bhagwan's movement.

But the Rajneesh movement began to falter in October 1981 when two
months after arriving at Rancho Rajneesh, the Bhagwan applied to the
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for an extension of his
visa. Immigration officials began a full-scale investigation into the
activities of the religious sect, focusing on the guru's intent in
coming to the United States and a pattern of suspect marriages between
the U.S. citizen and foreign followers.

The investigation turned up information that the Bhagwan and his
followers left India in the spring of 1981 owing the Indian government
more than $6 million in unpaid taxes. An Indian tax court voided the
Rajneesh organization's tax-exempt status and assessed millions of
rupees (Indian currency) in back taxes.

But the movement forged ahead in the Oregon desert. In April 1982,
Rajneeshees, voting as a bloc, managed to secure enough votes to take
over the town of Antelope, which was renamed Rajneesh. They also voted
to incorporate Rancho Rajneesh -- the former Big Muddy Ranch as the
town of Rajneeshpuram.

With this newly-acquired power, Rajneesh leaders began making more
demands on county and state leaders. They demanded access to records
and reports by Wasco County officials pertaining to the commune and
its activities. They also demanded state basic school support for the
Rajneeshees' school, even though the state rejected the demand, saying
public tax dollars go to support public schools, not private ones like
the Rajneesh school.

But problems were just beginning for the movement. Over the next three
years, Rajneeshee leaders were accused of the salmonella poisonings of
hundreds of residents of The Dalles and some 500 persons filed suit
against the sect. Sheela, along with two other disciples, were accused
in a 1985 federal grand jury indictment of plotting the unsuccessful
murder of the Bhagwan's private physician.

And the Bhagwan himself broke his own vow of public silence in
September 1985 with a scathing attack on Sheela and a half dozen of
her allies, claiming they had betrayed him and his followers and that
they had stolen $55 million from the commune. An article in The
Oregonian on Sept. 17, 1985, quoted the Bhagwan as saying Sheela "and
her gang had turned my commune into a fascist concentration camp."

The Bhagwan's claims that militant Rajneeshees had been stockpiling
assault weapons and had been engaged in illegal wire-tapping at the
ranch touched off a multi-agency investigation into the alleged
criminal activity which proved to be the beginning of the end for
Rajneeshpuram.

On Oct. 23, 1985, a federal grand jury in Portland secretly indicted
the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Sheela and six other Sannyasins for
immigration crimes. Two days later, a Wasco County grand jury returned
indictments against Sheela and two others, charging them with the
attempted murder of Swami Devaraj, the Bhagwan's personal doctor.

By that time, Sheela and about 25 of her followers had already fled
the ranch to Germany.

But Rajneeshpuram was thrown into turmoil on Oct. 28, 1985 when the
Bhagwan' s loyal followers leared he had been arrested in Charlotte,
N.C., trying to flee immigration authorities on a privately-chartered
jet bound for Bermuda.

At about the same time, word arrived from Germany that Sheela and two
Rajneesh women had been arrested by West German police.

The Bhagwan was returned to Oregon to face a 35-count federal
indictment for immigration-related crimes, although he initially pled
innocent to all 35 counts. But as part of the plea-bargaining
agreement with federal prosecutors, the Bhagwan on Nov. 14, 1985,
agreed to plead guilty to two of the felony counts, to pay the court
costs and to leave the United States.

The Bhagwan returned to India and promptly told reporters gathered at
a New Delhi airport that the United States -the place he called a land
of religious freedom and opportunity four years earlier -- was "just a
wretched country."

Within a week of his departure, thousands of former followers were
leaving Rajneeshpuram in busloads. Within a month of their departure,
residents of the former Antelope reclaimed their town -and its
original name. But legal action against the Rajneeshees would continue
for many years.

Sheela and 20 other disciples later were indicted on federal wire-
tapping charges. Numerous civil suits were filed against the bankrupt
religious sect, some of which still have not been resolved.

On July 22, 1986, Sheela was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and
ordered to pay a $400,000 fine after pleading guilty to state and
federal charges which included masterminding a massive electronic
eavesdropping system at Rancho Rajneesh, plotting the attempted murder
of the Bhagwan's physician and plotting the salmonella poisoning of
about 750 people in The Dalles.

For many Rajneeshees, the dream of carving a utopian Shangri-la out of
the barren, Central Oregon desert ended long before Jan. 18, 1990--
the day Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh died in Ashram in Pune, India, at the
age of 58.

For Wasco County Sheriff Art Labrousse, it was a rare learning
experience -- one he says he will never forget.

"They were well organized," Labrousse recalls. Or at least, better
prepared to take control of the tiny town of Antelope than local
officials were prepared to stop them. Labrousse and his 13-Deputy
force had their hands full trying to maintain law and order with the
sudden invasion of thousands of red-clad Rajneeshees into Wasco
County.

What made it so difficult, says Labreusse, was the cloak of secrecy
which seemed to engulf Rancho Rajneesh.

"Few people actually knew what was going on out there," he said.
Labrousse recalled the telephone call to his office on July 3, 1985,
from someone at the ranch reporting a possible drowning in a lake on
the ranch. Before he could summon the Wasco County medical examiner to
the scene, LaBrousse received another call, this time reporting that a
young man had been pulled from the lake and briefly revived. The man
was taken to the medical center in Jefferson County, but died,
Labrousse was told.

Since the attending physician, who was a Rajneeshee doctor, also was
the assistant medical examiner for Sherman County, Labrousse was told
by the state there was no need to call in the state medical examiner.
No body fluid or any other evidence was obtained by the assistant
medical examiner.

"They had a doctor who was an assistant medical examiner for Jefferson
County -- he ruled the man's death was accidental drowning," Labrousse
said.

Two days later, Labrousse was drinking coffee with an Oregon State
Police officer in Antelope. "We were talking about the Fourth of July
fire in The Dalles, caused by fireworks, when one of the Rajneesh
peace officers from Antelope said, 'Well, we had a great fireworks
show ourselves -- we cremated a boy who just died."

©1998 Roxann Gess Smith
All Rights Reserved

Visit Wasco Co. on The American Local History Network

http://gesswhoto.com/sheriff-wasco2.html

Labrousse cringed, not only because it was too late to do anything if
there had been a criminal deed, but because he had heard of similar
cremations occurring at Rancho Rajneesh in the past.

"We'll never know how many were cremated out there," he says. "But
every time they had a festival or celebration out at the ranch, there
was a death."

Labrousse said he sent a memorandum to the Wasco County Board of
Commissioners, suggesting the county not permit any future festivals
or celebrations at the ranch unless Rajneesh officials agreed in
advance that any deaths which occur during the event would be
investigated by the Wasco County medical examiner.

But the county never had to act on Labrousse's recommendation. Within
two weeks, the Bhagwan himself would expose Sheela and her gang and
Rajneeshpuram would begin to crumble.

The Missing Thumb Killer
Pictured Left: Levi Chrisman

Levi Chrisman was involved in dozens of puzzling murder and criminal
investigations during his 22-year tenure as Wasco County Sheriff. But
few were as complex as the shooting death of Jim Doran, a Bend lumber
mill worker, in early September, 1921.

The only clues to the killer's identity were a missing Dodge touring
car and a missing left thumb.

Doran's body had been found by a young couple, driving a lonely
country road two miles west of The Dalles, late one Saturday night.
Doran had been shot four times -- once in the head and at least three
times in the chest. The body was partially hidden behind some bushes
alongside the country road.

In their initial search of the victim's clothing for some type of
identification, investigators found an expensive gold pocket watch and
a few dollars in change. This led Chrisman and his Deputies to assume
robbery was not the motive behind the murder.

Chrisman's Chief Deputy Guy Elton noticed what appeared to be a trail
of blood leading away from the body into a grove of trees. The Sheriff
followed the trail and found a second gunshot victim with a bullet
wound in his shoulder. The man was rushed to a hospital in The
Dalles.

After undergoing successful surgery to remove the slug, the man agreed
to talk to Chrisman and Elton. He said his name was Bill Ducharme, and
he identified his slain companion as Jim Doran. Ducharme said he and
Doran had left Bend earlier that day with a third man, whose name he
could not recall.

Ducharme told the Sheriff that he and Doran had finished work at the
lumber mill and both were anxious to get to Doran's ranch at
McMinnville. But they didn't have transportation. The man, who
appeared to know Doran, offered to drive them in his car if they paid
his expenses. They agreed.

After having dinner in The Dalles that night, Ducharme said the
stranger offered to take them to a friend's place just outside of town
where they could spend the night. But a short way out of town,
Ducharme said the man pulled his car to a halt and told him they would
have to walk across a field to get to his friend's place.

Ducharme told Chrisman he had started out ahead of the other two when
he heard a shot. He turned and saw Doran tumble to the ground. Then,
Ducharme recalled, the stranger started firing at him so he began
running. One of the shots caught him in the shoulder, Ducharme said,
but he kept running until he collapsed in a grove of trees.

The wounded man could give only a general description of the gunman:
Approximately 40 years of age, medium build, black hair, gray eyes.
His description of the man's car was even more general: A large, black
touring car. He couldn't recall the make and didn't notice the license
number.

Chrisman put out the obligatory dispatches to all police officers and
agencies within a 100-mile radius, telling them to be on the lookout
for a large, black touring car with a dark-haired man in his early 40s
behind the wheel. He didn't hold out much hope, however.

When they received no response to the telegrams, Chrisman and Elton
went back to the murder scene the following morning. They found a
clear set of tire tracks in the soft, dirt shoulder of the road and
had the tracks photographed, hoping they could come up with a match
after searching The Dalles for the missing touring car and its tires.
But the hunch proved both time-consuming and futile.

Next, Chrisman and his men went to the lumber mill in Bend, where
Ducharme and Doran had worked, figuring the killer might also be
employed at the mill. None of the employees could remember seeing a
stranger with Ducharme and Doran at the mill the previous Friday when
the mill closed.

With their search for clues at a standstill, Chrisman suggested
investigators canvass gas stations and restaurants along the road the
three men were traveling Saturday, to see if anyone recalled seeing
the trio. The plan worked. A gas station owner reported three men
drove into his station Saturday afternoon in a nearly-new Dodge
touring car. The observant station owner said when the car's driver
paid for the gas, he noticed the man's left thumb was missing. The
station owner described the other two men in the car and they matched
the descriptions of Ducharme and Doran.

Encouraged at last by some useful leads, lawmen began compiling a list
of all new Dodge touring cars in the county and their owners. If one
of the owners had a left thumb missing and the car's tire tread marks
matched those of the tracks found near the murder scene, Chrisman felt
confident they would have their killer.

Unfortunately, Chrisman discovered, there were about 100 persons in
the county who owned newer Dodge touring cars. But with the help of
Deschutes County Sheriff S.E. Roberts and his Deputies, lawmen were
able to whittle the list of possible prospects to four. The first two
men on the list had two thumbs. The third was a man named Abe Evans,
who lived just outside of Bend.

They didn't find Evans at home, but his wife provided the information
they had been seeking: Her husband was missing his left thumb.

Mrs. Evans said her husband had gone to Salem looking for work. She
was able to provide officers with a license number for her husband's
car.

Lawmen put out an all-points bulletin on Abe Evans, along with the
license number of his car and a complete description of the vehicle.

After hearing the broadcast, Jefferson County Sheriff H.C. Topping and
his men began a wide-scale search of county gas stations, restaurants,
garages and motels for the wanted man and his car. They finally found
a motel owner in Metolius, not far from Madras, who informed them he
had rented a room to a man with a missing left thumb and a Dodge
touring car.

They found Evans, in an obvious state of intoxication, in one of the
motel rooms, trying to sleep off his miseries. They took Evans into
custody and transported him and his car to Deschutes County. Chrisman
checked the Dodge touring car's tire treads with his photographs. They
were a perfect match.

Evans denied shooting Ducharme and Doran, claimed he had left them at
a hotel in The Dalles, that he took off on his own, got drunk and
couldn't remember anything after that. But a search of the suspect
turned up $130 in cash. After two days of questioning, however, Evans
broke down and confessed.

He admitted knowing Doran for some time. He said he met Doran in
downtown Bend on Friday, the day before the shooting, and the two
walked to Doran's bank to cash his $150 paycheck from the mill. Doran
told Evans that he and a friend were going to McMinnville to spend the
winter, and Evans admitted that's where he got the idea to offer them
a ride as a way of getting them out into the country where he could
kill and rob them.

Evans told investigators he believed he had killed Ducharme, too. He
said he took Doran's billfold with most of the cash, but left the gold
watch and the change so it would not look like a robbery. He said he
threw the gun into some bushes, drove back to The Dalles to get some
whiskey, and drove south to the motel in Metolius.

A Wasco County Grand Jury indicted Evans of first-degree murder. Evans
pled not guilty by reason of insanity. A Wasco County Circuit Court
jury, however, convicted Evans of first-degree murder, with no
recommendation for mercy.

On Oct. 8, 1921, Evans was sentenced to hang for the killing of Jim
Doran. His attorney appealed the sentence to the Oregon Supreme Court.
But the high court, after numerous legal delays, upheld the sentence.

Evans never went to the gallows, however. On June 5, 1924 -- the day
before he was to be executed-- Gov. Walter M. Pierce commuted Evans'
sentence to life imprisonment.

http://gesswhoto.com/sheriff-wasco3.html

Apologetics Index News Archive - Search Results

Headline: Anand Sheela tends patients in Switzerland
Source: The Oregonian

Date: 1999/12/26

Description: Former Rajneeshee leader Anand Sheela -- once notorious
in Oregon as the spokeswoman for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh -- now takes
care of frail and elderly patients in two private nursing homes in
Switzerland.

Headline: Indian guru follower Anand Sheela arrested after German TV
show
Source: The Oregonian

Date: 2000/01/22

Description: German police picked up Anand Sheela in a town near
Frankfort, Germany, last week after she appeared on a television show
to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of her former mentor, Indian
guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Sheela was quickly released, however,
because the Interpol warrant for her arrest had been canceled.

Headline: Experts Assess Risk of 'New Terrorism' Threat
Source: Los Angeles Times

Date: 2000/02/07

Description: They called it the ''new terrorism:'' a virulent strain
of anti-American aggression in which enemies without scruples would
use germs and toxic gases, not guns and bombs, to kill tens of
thousands of civilians at a stroke.

Headline: Meditation protected by patent
Source: NZZ Daily Edition

Date: 2000/06/29

Description: Now a dispute has broken out over that in India which
has burst the scintillating soap bubble of the symbiosis of money and
spirit. Professor Jain still likes to talk so beautifully about
dissolving all restricting relationships and he plunders the world's
literature in doing so, but when it comes to bringing his insights of
''One World'' to the people, he pays very close attention to setting
up his own boundary posts in the form of trademarks, patents,
copyrights and license agreements. Even Dynamic Kundalini Meditation
has been reported as a trademark.

Headline: A Sign of Mammon
Source: taz (Germany)

Date: 2000/07/20

Description: Who would be surprised that, in the commune, a bitter
power struggle is raging for control of hundreds of meditation centers
around the world, for the marketing rights of 1,500 book titles, and
of sound cassettes and videotapes of lectures from the Master.

Headline: Expert: US Open To Bioterrorism
Source: AP

Date: 2000/08/22

Description: Advances in technology make the United States more
vulnerable to bioterrorism than to nuclear attack, a leading expert in
defending against biological weapons said Tuesday.

Headline: Former cult camp becomes playground for children
Source: AP

Date: 2000/08/27

Description: The middle schoolers go about their summer camp
activities, unaware that all around them, thousands of followers once
toiled in the service of their leader, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Headline: FDA Designates Bioterrorism Antidote
Source: AP

Date: 2000/08/31

Description: If bioterrorists ever attack the United States with
anthrax, the antibiotic Cipro will be the first line of defense for
civilians who breathe the deadly bacteria, the government decided
Thursday.

Headline: The battle over bio-terror
Source: Salon

Date: 2000/09/12

Description: In short, ''We can conjure up a worse-case scenario,''
says John Parachini, chief of the Washington office of the Monterey
Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies. ''But we can also
conjure up a meteor hitting the Earth.''

Headline: Two Rajneeshee members plead guilty
Source: The Oregonian

Date: 2000/12/16

Description: Two high-ranking officials in Oregon's once notorious
Rajneeshee cult pleaded guilty Friday to 15-year-old federal
wiretapping charges, canceling international warrants that effectively
confined them to Great Britain.
Notes:

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&keyword=rajneesh&mh=10&sb=---&so=descend&view_records=View+Records

Headline: Biological weapons pose threat to Canada, U.S., scientist
says
Source: Edmonton Journal (Canada)

Date: 2001/03/11

Description: That's the view of U.S. scientist Dr. Ronald Atlas who
has been advising the U.S. government on the growing concern that
criminals will target food, water, air and individuals with viruses,
bacteria, fungi and toxins to further their cause.

Headline: Osho, Guru Extraordinaire, Is Long Gone -- But His Books
Live On
Source: Inside

Date: 2001/05/15

Description: Once known for his fleet of Rolls-Royces, the late
motivational thinker Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is now being packaged as
Deepak Chopra minus the Ayurvedic medicine. His sales are in the
millions, and his returns a mere 4 percent.

Headline: Biological and Chemical Warfare Q and A
Source: ABC News

Date: 2001/09/24

Description: Now that terrorists have demonstrated they're capable of
carrying out unthinkable attacks of extreme devastation, some believe
the United States should be on higher alert for a biological or
chemical attack. ABCNEWS.com talked to several experts to learn about
these weapons, the preparedness of the United States for such attacks
and possible defenses against them,

Headline: America's First Bioterrorism Attack
Source: TIME

Date: 2001/10/08

Description: In the fall of 1984, members of the Rajneeshee, a
Buddhist cult devoted to beauty, love and guiltless sex, brewed a
"salsa" of salmonella and sprinkled it on fruits and veggies in the
salad bar at Shakey's Pizza in The Dalles, Ore. They put it in blue-
cheese dressing, table-top coffee creamers and potato salads at 10
local restaurants and a supermarket. They poured it into a glass of
water and handed it to a judge. They fed it to the district attorney,
the doctor, the dentist. Their plan: to seize control of the county
government by packing polling booths with imported homeless people
while making local residents too sick to vote.

Headline: Oregon town has never gotten over its 1984 bioterrorism
scare
Source: AP

Date: 2001/10/19

Description: In 1984, followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh spiked salad bars at 10 restaurants in town with salmonella
and sickened about 750 people.

Headline: Apocalyptic cult methods explain bin Laden
Source: USA Today

Date: 2001/11/05

Description: Hassan observes that many of the techniques that he
encountered with the Moonies are evident in bin Laden's camps: "social
isolation, controlling their sleep, showing them non-stop videos of
Muslims dying, being buddied up, so that they're never alone. ...
Destructive mind control strips away their ability to think for
themselves." The cult framework goes a little way to explaining the
dissonance between who these hijackers were and what they eventually
did on behalf of al-Qa'eda.

Headline: Microbes were mail-ordered : Lax controls let extremists
easily obtain anthrax

Source: Boston Globe

Date: 2001/11/06

Description: Harris's story illustrates some of the challenges US
officials face as they try to determine whether foreign or domestic
terrorists sent the anthrax-laced letters that have killed four
people.

Headline: Cults, terrorist groups share chilling similarities,
experts say
Source: The Oregonian

Date: 2001/11/13

Description: Oregonians were shocked to learn in 1985 that this
outpost of transplanted suburbanites was a launching pad for the first
large-scale biological attack in U.S. history: the poisoning of 751
people in The Dalles with restaurant food sprinkled with salmonella
germs grown in a commune laboratory. But cult psychology experts say
such incidents should come as no great surprise to anyone. They merely
underscore the fact that seemingly normal, well-educated people can be
persuaded to commit unthinkable crimes, including flying airliners
into skyscrapers.

Headline: FDA issues anti-terror food advice
Source: FDA

Date: 2002/01/10

Description: The only known terror attack on U.S. food occurred in
the 1980s, when a cult in Oregon contaminated salad bars with
salmonella bacteria. Experts say fresh produce may be the food most
vulnerable to tampering because it is often eaten raw and is subject
to little government inspection.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&keyword=rajneesh&mh=10&sb=---&so=descend&view_records=View+Records&nh=2

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Three high-yielding European stocks to buy
By Associate Editor David Stevenson
Mar 11, 2010

Head to the continent for better returns

With the pound falling so far, Britain is fast becoming poor value for
money, for its inhabitants at least.

If you live here, you're probably fed up with it. Overseas holidays
are more expensive. Imported goods are more costly. You're seeing
prices being pushed up both in the shops and at the petrol pump.

Even the people who should be cashing in, the exporters, aren't. The
UK's last trade figures were rubbish, as we note below.

So, everyone's a loser? No, not at all - you could gain from the
plunging pound. Not only would you protect your money – you can also
collect a decent income stream while you're doing it.

We spotlighted one way of doing this last week by investing in the US.
Here's another – this time in Europe...

The current outlook for sterling is grim

You won't need reminding that we're not too keen on our nation's
currency right now. We don't want to see the pound drop – we just
reckon that under current government policy (if that's the right word
for it), it will. For our spendthrift politicians it's just a case of
spend and overspend – then getting the Bank of England to print plenty
more money to fuel their habit.

The trouble is that the plunging pound doesn't seem to be doing anyone
in Britain much good. With a few notable exceptions, the country's
exporters – the ones who are meant to save us from perpetual
stagnation – aren't benefiting. Although their goods are now much
cheaper for global customers to buy, they're selling fewer of them.
January export goods volumes dropped by 8%. Excluding some data
distortions three years ago, that was the worst monthly drop since
2002.

Sterling fell yet further on this news. Even against the much-maligned
euro, it's now dropped below €1.10 to its lowest level since last
November. Maybe that's no great surprise.

The countries that have dragged the euro down, such as Ireland, Greece
and Portugal, are now starting to plug the holes in their public
finances. They may well fail to do so, but at least they're showing
the right attitude.

Not so in the UK. Electioneering and austerity don't go well together.
And the longer our government delays before cutting – or being forced
by the markets to slash – our budget deficit, the grimmer the outlook
gets for sterling.

In the meantime, the UK's bank base rate remains at just 0.5%. So
while the pound is falling, the interest rates paid on savings
accounts, which are broadly linked to the base rate, are still
desperately poor.

How to beat the falling pound

However, as long as you're content to take some risk with your capital
– and do understand that investing in the stock market is risky – then
you can beat both negligible interest rates and the falling pound.

That's because there are still some high-yielding shares around that
provide a decent income. Even better, there are four reasons why
buying such shares – in Europe – could, over time, make you good
capital profits as well.

First, if sterling falls further, you could make money on the currency
front as well as in the stock market. Although the reverse is clearly
true, too, so you need more reason to like these stocks than simply
because they trade in euros or another European currency.

Second, a healthy dividend yield means that a share price is low
compared with the level of its payouts to shareholders. That suggests
it's also good value relative to the underlying company's profits and
assets. And in the long run, you'll make more money buying cheap
shares than expensive ones.

Why UK property prices are going to fall 50%
When it will be time to get back in and buy up half price property

Third, and this is a very long-term view, increasing numbers of 'baby
boomers' – those born within 20 years of WWII – will be retiring over
the next two decades. This will mean steadily more investors looking
for better income returns than the bank is currently paying. In turn,
as they buy high-yielding shares, they'll push up prices.

Fourth, as the European equity strategy team at Morgan Stanley points
out, when stock markets are roaring ahead, they don't worry too much
about dividends. Traders are more excited in 'churning and burning' –
buying and then selling out fast for quick profits. But when those
markets become more 'range-bound', i.e. there's much less scope for
big share price rises overall, income becomes a much larger part of
investors' thinking.

Indeed – and this statistic is fascinating – since 1926, European
shares have risen in real, i.e. inflation-adjusted, terms by just 1.3%
a year. But add in dividends which are reinvested in more shares, and
the annual total real return jumps up to 5.6% over that same period.

Three top European stocks to buy now
So what are the top dividend paying stocks in Europe right now?

Well, if you've been reading Money Morning regularly over the last few
months, you'll have seen quite a few high-yield tips appearing. So
I'll stick to three of those we haven't yet mentioned.

Top of Morgan Stanley's list of stocks "with a high and secure
dividend yield" is Italian utility A2A (IM: A2A). It produces and
distributes electricity, sells gas and collects rubbish in the North
of Italy. It's on a p/e of 12 and prospective yield of 7.4%. If
there's a slight caveat for me, it's that the payout is only covered
1.1 times by earnings. But that's probably being picky, as the
company's cash flow is 2.5 times the dividend – so there's plenty of
cash coming in to cover it.

Dividend cover is certainly not an issue at Zurich Financial Services
(VX: ZURN), where the payment is almost twice covered. Yet Zurich is
on a forecast multiple for this year of just 8.6, with a prospective
6% yield. Meanwhile, across the border in Germany, energy supplier RWE
(GY: RWE) looks just as solid. A 2010 forecast p/e of 9.2, and a
prospective yield of 5.8%, mark this stock down as very good value.

We wouldn't advise putting all of your investment money into any one
currency, be it sterling, euros, dollars or yen. But at times like
these in particular, it's not a bad idea to be diversified. And more
to the point, these are solid stocks – so even if the currency moves
against you, you know the underlying asset remains solid. And look on
the bright side. If you buy shares like these, the next time you hear
about another slide in sterling, you'll know at least someone who's
managed to get on to a winner.

• If you're interested in high-yielding, blue-chip stocks, you should
take a look at Stephen Bland's Dividend Letter. Stephen aims to
produce a solid, steadily growing income by investing in large
companies – you can learn more about his strategy here .

Our recommended article for today

Three signals to watch for safer investing

When you've been investing for a while, you come to notice certain
signals that the stock market throws up, says Tom Bulford. Here, he
outlines three that should keep you one step ahead of the market's
movements.

Profit from Canada's cheap telcos
By David Stevenson, Mar 12, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/share-tips-canada-telecoms-47725.aspx

Profit from the global water shortage
By Tim Bennett, Mar 12, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/profit-from-the-global-water-shortage-47709.aspx

Share tip of the week: bargain medical giant
By Paul Hill, Mar 12, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/paul-hill-share-tip-of-the-week-bargain-medical-giant-47710.aspx

Gamble of the week: world leader in electronic security
Mar 12, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/paul-hill-share-tips-gamble-electronic-security-47712.aspx

http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice.aspx

Comments

1. Neil
(11 March 2010, 10:53AM)

Although these shares have a nice yeild attached the article doesn't
point out that you can lose some of this yield to foreign withholding
tax which seems to be a minefield to navigate! I'd appreciate this
topic being covered in a future moneyweek article.

2. Harish Karia
(11 March 2010, 05:14PM)

Every now & than you refer to stocks which are listed somewhere else,
BUT how do I buy them? and what about the tax implications?
I have all of my stocks & shares in self selct ISA, I am not sure if I
will be allowed to buy the recomanded stocks? I am with Alliance &
Trust Savings

3. Roger
(11 March 2010, 06:04PM)

Neil,

The new tax rules on foreign dividends mean that you can claim at
least some UK tax relief on foreign withholding tax. You have to fill
out the foreign section of a UK self assessment return. I just let
taxcalc calculate it for me, and it isn't really a problem.

4. Jeff
(11 March 2010, 09:14PM)

TW Waterhouse offers low cost overseas dealing on a number of
exchanges.

Taxation of dividends does seem to be a complex issue with 20%
witholding taxes & hopeless guidance on how to enter this in tax
returns from the UK tax authorities.

5. Neil
(12 March 2010, 12:37PM)

Thanks Roger, however due to various salary sacrifice schemes I am not
required to complete a self assessement return, like the other posters
I find the rules utterly confusing, and I stick with the mantra of not
investing in something I don't understand (which is very unfortunate
as I would like to invest in single shares outside of the LSE).

6. Neil
(12 March 2010, 12:39PM)

I should add of course investing in US listed shares are easy as I
have completed a W8-BEN form and just renew this every 3 years. It's
the European shares that seem to present the most difficulty

http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/share-tips-high-yielding-eurozone-stocks-01010.aspx

MoneyWeek Roundup: How mad scientists will save the economy By
MoneyWeek Editor John Stepek Mar 13, 2010

This is where we highlight some of the best bits from our free emails,
newsletters, blog and MoneyWeek magazine that we've published in the
past week.

● The markets have had a good week this week. Greece is becoming a
distant memory, the Eurocrats are threatening to exterminate
speculators, and investors even took a surge in Chinese inflation in
their stride.

Sterling is still being battered of course. And as my colleague David
Stevenson pointed out this week, our ever-expanding trade deficit
shows it's still not doing us any good.

Despite the weak pound, "the country's exporters – the ones who are
meant to save us from perpetual stagnation – aren't benefiting.
Although their goods are now much cheaper for global customers to buy,
they're selling fewer of them. January export goods volumes dropped by
8%. Excluding some data distortions three years ago, that was the
worst monthly drop since 2002."

● That puts the whole debate about 'rebalancing' the British economy
into perspective. We've relied too much on financial services, and
unfortunately, we've thrown away what little money we had left on
bailing out the banks. The good news is, the world's more
entrepreneurial scientists aren't waiting for governments to get
behind them.

"Craig Venter said he was going to change medicine – everyone thought
he was a maniac," points out Dr Mike Tubbs in his Research Investments
newsletter.

"But seven years ago the former Vietnam veteran beat an army of
government scientists to the biggest medical advance in decades –
decoding the human genome.

"The state sponsored Human Genome Project had been busy sequencing the
three billion biochemical blocks in our DNA for years... and running
up a $3bn bill in the process.

"But Dr Venter beat them to it. And in an instant, a colossal new
medical sector came of age. By deconstructing the human body cell by
cell, scientists believe they will uncover the genetic roots of the
most complex diseases – from cancer to Alzheimer's.

"That heralds a new age of personalised medicine – allowing doctors to
gauge our risk for conditions such as cancer and diabetes and taking
pre-emptive action.

"And so today a vast industry has sprung up – using the techniques
developed by the likes of Craig Venter in a race to decode these
diseases and use this knowledge to find new treatments. The market for
personalised medicine will reach $42bn by 2015, according to
PriceWaterhouseCoopers."

Mike's Research Investments newsletter is based around buying
companies that put serious investment into research and development in
areas like these. And he's not the only one who believes that
scientific developments provide a ripe hunting ground for investors.

● "Last month I met a man who has been in the business of making money
from science for the last 25 years. Phil Atkin has watched successive
governments downplay the efforts of his kind while applauding the
relentless rise of the financial sector," says Tom Bulford in his
Penny Sleuth free email.

"Finally we have woken up to the realisation that the latter does not
produce any real wealth at all. And this means Atkin's time may
finally have come – especially after a special announcement made last
week…"

Atkins heads up Scientific Digital Imaging (LSE: SDI). As with most
science companies, explaining what it does is complicated, so you can
read Tom's piece if you want to know the details. But basically it
makes various measurement and imaging devices for laboratories.

"SDI is certainly one to keep an eye on," says Tom. "Chairman Harry
Tee was the driving force behind Roxboro, which made plenty of money
for investors in the 1990s. He is also chairman of another fast
growing company, Dialight (DIA).

"Better than our politicians he understands what is required to build
a science-based business. This one is definitely on the Red Hot Penny
Shares radar screen."

● Last week's debate on ethical investing attracted quite a few
thoughtful responses. Most agreed with our view that we should be
presenting readers with money-making opportunities and leaving the
ethical decisions to them.

But I just had to share this reader's take on the ethics of investing
in tobacco firms… "Until a couple of years ago, I too avoided owning
any tobacco company shares, figuring that it would be unethical to
profit from a company that depends for its continued growth on getting
more people addicted to a substance known to directly cause several
serious health issues.

"However, I changed my mind when we returned from a family holiday in
France. Sitting at a table on the ferry (in an open area) two people
sat down at the same table with us and, without asking if it would be
ok and ignoring the fact that we had our young son sitting with us,
proceeded to light up and blow smoke around. The problem was that the
wind blew it straight to us on the other side of the table.

"This inconsiderate behaviour so incensed me that I vowed as soon as
we got home that I would buy some BAT shares, so that I felt I could
at least get my own back in some way by part funding my retirement
thanks to the behaviour of people that ignore all the warnings and
inflict their brand of poison on those around them as well.

"If you can't beat them, profit from them!"

● Riccardo Marzi, the ex-City trader behind the Events Trader
newsletter, knows how to draw a reader's attention. Here's the
headline from his latest issue: "How you could profit from a deadly
virus outbreak in Chile".

I winced as I thought of the complaints that would flood in. Then I
read the piece. The "deadly virus" in question is killing off salmon,
not people. Phew. Still, it's a pretty miserable experience for
Chile's salmon farmers. The country is the world's second-largest
producer of the fish. And with its annual production down about 70%
year-on-year, salmon prices are going up.

And you can guess what that means for the rest of the world's salmon
farmers. A profit bonanza. "Norway is the world's biggest exporter of
salmon. It will take at least 18 months for the Chilean salmon
industry to raise fish to maturity – if they manage to get the disease
under control. In that time Norwegian salmon groups will enjoy a major
boost to their earnings," says Riccardo.

● We're sceptical on China's growth 'miracle'. But that's no reason to
write off the whole of Asia. Cris Sholto Heaton, the man behind the
MoneyWeek Asia free email (if you don't already get it, I advise you
to sign up for it right now) is currently testing out a newsletter in
which he tips individual stocks. The second edition came out earlier
this week. If you'd like to be kept informed of when it goes live,
just give us your email here.

In Cris's latest piece, he looks at one vital piece of infrastructure
that many parts of Asia are entirely lacking right now, and will need
a lot of in the future. It's not roads, or sewage systems, or railways
- it's software. I'll let Cris explain.

"In the West, banks have used computers for processing data and
transactions since the sixties. But these were huge, complex and
costly systems dedicated to specific functions. Picture a huge humming
room of densely packed computers running a bank's data – the kind you
would see in Cold War movies. If you had two different systems
working on a similar task, they couldn't talk to each other and share
data.

"But over that last decade or so, things have become much more
sophisticated. State-of-the-art banking systems are tightly
integrated, with all the key software running in the same framework
and sharing information. And as a result of this, they've become much
more powerful and useful.

"Computers no longer simply store data, but can monitor accounts for
fraud, improve risk management by credit-scoring potential borrowers,
and on top of that, they run schemes such as airmiles and loyalty
cards to gather information about customers and increase usage.

"Systems like this are standard in Europe and North America. But in
the emerging world, it's obviously much more variable. Some countries
and banks are pretty advanced. Others make what a British bank was
using twenty years ago seem sophisticated.

"So most emerging market banks are going to have to invest billions in
better IT over the next couple of decades. Not only do many have a
long way to go to bring their existing systems up to modern standards,
but they're also going to need to expand to cope with hundreds of
millions of new potential customers.

And this means that emerging markets should offer very good growth
prospects for the firms that develop and maintain these highly
specialised systems."

● Last week I wrote a piece about what people could learn from the
plight of the 'king and queen of buy-to-let'. Fergus and Judith Wilson
are two ex-maths teachers who built a portfolio of hundreds of houses
in Kent during the boom times. They ran into some difficulties in the
crunch, but when the Bank of England slashed interest rates, it had
the knock-on effect of cutting their costs.

The piece drew a lot of comment – as most of our property pieces do,
which is as strong an indicator as any that we're still in bubble
territory. But I also got an email from Fergus himself. He described
the piece as a "very fair article", so I gave him a call to get his
take on the market.

The way Fergus sees it, the real problem is with flats, rather than
the houses that he predominately lets out. "These blocks of flats in
northern cities have been a complete disaster. I have 30 flats which I
regret having. They've fallen in value, whereas the houses have seen a
reasonable increase in the last two years."

Now, on the one hand, I'd agree that the epicentre of the housing
market collapse was always going to be in the market for dodgy flats.
And with the bank rate as low as it is, at 0.5%, Fergus is in a sweet
spot – he reckons the typical £180,000 house, with a £140,000
mortgage, is costing him about £300 a month on the mortgage. If it's
let for £700 a month, with £100 going to the letting agent, then he
clears £300.

But with the market stagnant, it can't be easy to offload all those
properties to first-time buyers – they can't afford it. And what
happens if interest rates rise?

Fergus, who's nearly 62, reckons we'll be lucky to see a 2.5% bank
rate again in his lifetime. "The government won't be that stupid.
Every time rates go up, more people will become homeless."

I can't say I'm convinced. The Bank of England needs to take far more
into account when it sets the bank rate than just its impact on the
property market. The only way that interest rates can remain that low
for that long, is if Britain goes the way of Japan. And in Japan,
house prices are still 60% lower than they were at the start of the
bust.

I certainly don't wish the Wilsons any ill. But our chat just
confirmed in my mind that the current rebound is a temporary blip
before the market starts heading down again.

● And it's not just the property market that's set for harder times
ahead. Tim Price of PFP Wealth Management tells readers of The Price
Report to watch out. "Last week I was invited to present at the
Private Wealth Management Conference in Smithfield. There I listened
to a lot of people I've known and respected for most of my career. And
there were two very clear concerns coming through.

"First, how do I avoid getting burned by stocks again? After the
gyrations in the market over the last two years, there was a lot of
talk of not placing too much faith in equities – because it's
unwarranted. The question everyone wanted to ask was – how long could
this bear market in stocks go on for?

"The second real concern among private wealth managers is inflation.
I'm not the only one worried about governments printing their way out
of this crisis, as it turns out. If there is a dangerous bout of
inflation on the way, how do we protect our wealth?"

I'm running out of space to go into the details here, but suffice to
say, Tim reckons that there's another down-leg to come in the bear
market. As for inflation, he doesn't see it taking off just yet, but
there are some assets you should be holding for when it does. Find out
more about The Price Report here.

Related articles

Recovery hopes fade as trade gap widens
Mar 12, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/recovery-hopes-fade-as-trade-gap-widens-47702.aspx

The crisis isn't over yet
http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/merryn-somerset-webb-the-crisis-isnt-over-yet-47701.aspx
By Merryn Somerset Webb, Mar 12, 2010

Money is pouring out of the UK - here's how to protect yourself
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/money-morning-sterling-crisis-bank-liabilities-01002.aspx
By David Stevenson, Mar 08, 2010

MoneyWeek Roundup: Profit from sterling's woes
By John Stepek, Mar 06, 2010
http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/moneyweek-roundup-sat-06-march-00913.aspx

Useful links

• Tom Bulford's newsletter Red Hot Penny Shares
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End of Keynesian Blood Sucking Parasitic Economic System
Economics / Economic Theory
Mar 13, 2010 - 06:04 AM

By: Gary_North

On March 11, I spoke at the annual Austrian Scholars Conference,
sponsored by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It was gratifying to see
so many attendees that they could not fit into one room.

The Mises Institute is a high-tech outfit. They set up a video camera,
and the speech appeared on monitors in other rooms. It will also go on-
line within a few days. This will be free. Anyone in the world with
Web access can see it from now on. This is a great model for
communication and education.

My topic was "Keynes and His Influence." My goal is to recruit half a
dozen bright young scholars to begin a joint project in refuting
Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936) line
by line. I have set up a department on my Website to this end.

I tried to make four main points in my speech.

1. Keynes' influence has been indirect (mediated).
2. His legacy will soon be uniquely vulnerable.
3. Only the Austrians called the 2008 recession.
4. It is time for a comprehensive refutation of Keynes

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL MODERN ECONOMIST

There is no question that John Maynard Keynes was the most influential
economist in the 20th century. Yet his influence has been different
from what economists and the intelligentsia have believed.

In a filmed interview of Keynes' main rival in 1935, but not in 1965,
F. A. Hayek, an Austrian School economist, made an important point.
Keynes was influential in 1946, the year of his death, but his
influence was not yet overwhelming. That came later. Hayek did not say
how much later. It came within five years. You can see the video here.

The key to Keynes' influence was the 1948 textbook written by Paul
Samuelson, Economics. It became the most widely assigned college
textbook in economics. It had no major competition for at least three
decades, and its competitors were also Keynesian in outlook.

Samuelson promoted Keynes' ideas, but he used a very different format.
He did not quote Keynes at length. He presented what has since been
called the neo-Keynesian synthesis. He applied Keynes' fundamental
principle of deficit spending in the Great Depression to the overall
economy in a post-depression world. He really did try to make general
the General Theory, which the book had not been.

The General Theory was highly specific. It was a program designed to
counteract falling spending and a falling money supply in an era in
which there was no government insurance for failed banks or their
depositors. It was a program to offset widespread hoarding of
currency. From the day that the FDIC was created in 1934, American
banks stopped failing, and the money supply started to rise. Keynes
wrote his book after this transition in the United States. The book
was a theoretical defense of policies that had already been adopted in
the United States and Western Europe, and which World War II would
escalate: deficit spending, mass inflation, and a vast expansion of
the government's share of the economy. This is not how the Keynesians
have told the story. It is how the story ought to be told. I am trying
to recruit economists and historians who will commit several years of
research to telling it.

Keynes' "General Theory" has long been an unread book that sits on the
shelves of economics graduate students and professors. No one actually
has read it except specialists in the history of economic thought. The
book is close to unreadable. Compared to his earlier books and essays,
it is uniquely unreadable. We do not see its formulas quoted as proof
of contemporary policies or recommended policies. The literature cited
in economists' footnotes is what we can legitimately call Keynesian,
but this literature is an extension of Keynes' work, not Keynes'
actual work.

Whether Keynes would approve of what is recommended in his name is
moot. Hayek spoke to Keynes a few weeks before he died. According to
Hayek, Keynes was not happy with developments being offered in his
name.

Keynes had always been an opponent of inflation. His earlier works
repeatedly warned against the threat of inflation. Yet, by 1945,
inflation was a way of life in the West.

We should compare The General Theory to Charles Darwin's Origin of
Species. Darwinists rarely quote Darwin to support their latest
papers. They cite him as the originator of the idea of evolution
through natural selection. Attacks on Darwin's actual exposition are
shrugged off by his followers as irrelevant. We find an entire school
of Darwinists who preach an idea that is opposed to what Darwin
taught: the "punctuated evolutionism." Darwin believed in tiny changes
over long periods of time. They believe in huge changes in brief
periods of time. Still, they call themselves Darwinists. Why? Because
they believe in his Big Idea: purposeless, random causation prior to
man.

The same is true of Keynes' General Theory. It was Keynes' primary
idea that dominates the thinking of economists: government budget
deficits as the means of overcoming economic slumps. As to simple
formulas and concepts in the book, modern economists rarely cite them
in professional journals. If one or more specifics of the book are
refuted, his supporters shrug it off. Keynes' influence relates to the
one big idea, just as Darwin's influence does.

The specifics in the book are forgotten today, such as his statement
that the government could plant bottles full of money, bury them, and
let workers dig them up for a living. He also said that building the
equivalent of Egypt's pyramids would help restore prosperity. He
really believed this. His disciples do not refer to these passages.
When pressured by critics, they dismiss them as merely rhetorical.
They were rhetorical, but not merely rhetorical.

A VULNERABLE LEGACY

Today, Keynesians insist that their man was right. They take credit
for the recovery since late 2009, such as it is. This assertion is
widely accepted. It is so widely accepted that Wikipedia has an
article on it: "Keynesian Resurgence."

Yet the reality is far different from the perception. Keynes' solution
in 1936 was a program of fiscal deficits, coupled with mild monetary
expansion in a time of monetary contraction. These government deficits
were supposed to stimulate consumer spending.

Yet the heart of the U.S. government's program in 2008 was not the
$787 billion spending program. Rather, it was the prior doubling of
the Federal Reserve's monetary base, the FED's face-value swaps of its
marketable Treasury debt for unmarketable toxic assets owned by the
biggest banks, the AIG bailout, and the subsequent $1.25 trillion
pumped into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, after their nationalization by
Henry Paulson in September 2008. None of this was Keynesian. All of it
was ad hoc monetary inflation and central bank subsidies to large
banks.

Keynes recommended government spending and employment by government.
He did not recommend central bank bailouts of large banks. He focused
on fiscal policy, not monetary policy.

The biggest banks were saved by these interventions. Small banks
continue to go under, Friday afternoon after Friday afternoon. The
banking industry as a whole has contracted its loans to commercial and
industrial firms. Banks have added over $1 trillion to their excess
reserves at the FED, thereby sterilizing money. This is anti-
Keynesian: a restriction of spending, meaning a reduction in aggregate
demand compared to what would otherwise have been the case.

Keynesianism as an idea has received a shot in the arm – mainly with
fiat money, not Federal deficits. Yes, the deficits have been
enormous, just not by comparison to central banks' money creation. The
deficits are unprecedented, all over the world. Yet the economic
recovery is universally criticized as weak.

If enormous deficits are not serving as stimuli for widespread
recovery, then what credit should Keynes get? Keynesians are saying
that government policies kept the world economy from collapse. But
this is not the same as saying that the policies have restored
prosperity. They haven't.

There have been some protests by economists. Several hundred academic
economists, mostly in obscure universities, publicly protested the
stimulus package.

But no group of economists, other than the Austrians, said in 2008
that the FED should do nothing, that Fannie and Freddie should be
allowed to go under, and that the stimulus bill should be voted down.
With only this exception, the entire academic community of economists
became cheerleaders for the FED's bailouts of 2008. They sold their
non-Keynesian birthrights for a mess of Federal Reserve pottage.

The silence of the profession in 2008 and after has boxed them in.
They are defenders of moral hazard, despite their timid warnings to
the contrary.

If one person has summarized the alternative economic scenarios facing
us, it is Merle Hazard. Merle is not his real name. He is a financial
planner in Nashville. He began performing on YouTube in 2009. He and
his partner, Bretton Wood, sang the question: "Will it be Zimbabwe or
Japan?" So far, it's Japan.

The governments of the West have made one thing inescapably clear.
They do not intend to enforce high bank capital ratios established by
the Bank for International Settlements. The European Union and the
European Central Bank have also made it clear that they will not
enforce EU rules on the deficit-to-GDP ratio. There is only one rule
today: "Tax and tax, spend and spend, inflate and inflate."

The looming bankruptcies of Western governments and Japan are now
becoming clearer to the literate public. Observers are becoming more
Austrian in their perception. Investors do not accept this scenario
emotionally, but the numbers are clear. There will have to be a
cutting back of Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment benefits,
either sooner or later.

It is also clear that unemployment will not be significantly reduced
by the present recovery. The Keynesian tools are not working. They
have not worked in Europe for a generation, where life on the dole is
permanent for 10% of the work force.

When the bust comes, the Keynesians will take the blame. They have
demanded credit for the recovery, and they have received it. They are
consuming public favor today. They will pay for it later.

"WE TOLD THEM SO!"

The Austrian School's representatives predicted the recession. The
defining moment was Peter Schiff's debate with Art Laffer in 2006.
Schiff said a crash was coming. Laffer ridiculed him. Because of
YouTube, this story will not go away.

It never does any good to go to the losers and say, "I told you so."
It does a great deal of good to go to the general public, which is
always in search of leadership, and say, "We told them so." You don't
convert true believers and spokesmen very often, but you can undermine
their leadership.

The Austrian theory of the business cycle was the tool that enabled
Schiff and others, such as me, to predict in 2006 that a recession
would hit in 2007. It did – in December 2007. We told them so. This
establishes our credentials, but more to the point, it establishes
Ludwig von Mises' credentials. He thought that economic logic alone
was necessary to defend a position. But in political debate, having
the numbers demonstrate that you were right is also necessary.

When the USSR went bust economically in 1988, then lost the Afghan war
in 1989, and finally committed suicide in 1991, Marxism died. All the
footnotes in the Marxist books no longer mattered in academia. All the
post-1991 wailing by Marxists that the Soviet Union really had never
been truly Marxist has been ignored. Why? Because the Marxists took
credit for the USSR for 74 years. They praised the Soviet Union's
central planning. So, in 1991, they could not get off the sinking
Soviet ship in time to justify the Marxist system.

By 1991, China's economy was booming because of Deng's abandonment of
Marxist economics in 1978. That left only Albania, Cuba, and North
Korea. The Marxists had nowhere to turn to that offered evidence of
economic success. Overnight, they became a laughing stock on campus.

This will be the fate of Keynesians when the governments of the West
finally go bust or else abandon the deficits and the fiat money.

Who will still be standing to pick up the intellectual pieces? The
Chicago School economists did not predict 2008. They did not defiantly
protest the FED's bailouts of September and October. Neither did
public choice economists, rational expectations economists, or
behavioral economists. They all climbed aboard the Good Ship Keynes,
which was in fact the Good Ship Bernanke. The Austrians did not.

The Austrians, few in number, are the last men standing to challenge
the Keynesians. This is their great opportunity. They have waited a
long time.

GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE OFFENSIVELY

As W. C. Fields said so long ago, "Never give a sucker an even break."
This also applies to bloodsuckers. The Keynesians are apologists for
the bloodsucking class: tax collectors, deficit-expanders, and
boondogglers of all shapes and sizes.

I have set up www.KeynesProject.com to help mobilize the guerrilla
troops in a comprehensive assault on Fort Keynes. This is a supplement
to the vast collection of free books and materials found on www.Mises.org,
especially the books in the Literature section of the home page.

There has to be a full-scale assault on the General Theory that shows
how it is illogical, line by line. This has been done sporadically in
the past, but not systematically. To oppose Keynes' overall system was
to commit academic suicide.

When the decks are cleared, then there must be a systematic critique
of the post-Keynes literature. But this is too large a job for a
handful of scholars. It will take at least a decade to produce the
basic critique of Keynes. My hope is that this project will be
complete in time for the crisis produced by today's policies.

To persuade the next generation of economists and talking heads that
Keynes was wrong, and therefore his apologists are wrong and have been
wrong, we need two things: (1) a body of material in all the media
that shows that The General Theory was a con job from day one; (2) an
economy universally suffering from the effects of the policies that
have been justified in the name of Keynes. Since we are going to get
the second, why not work on the first?

CONCLUSION

We have lived in the shadow of Keynes since 1936. That shadow has
darkened academia for over 70 years. Keynes justified what politicians
and salaried academic bureaucrats always wanted: more power for
politicians and tenured bureaucrats.

Keynes justified this system of parasitic bloodsucking. The bills are
now coming due. The voters are going to join a tax revolt against
these bills. They will seek justification. Austrian School economics
is best positioned today to offer that justification. To become even
better positioned, a younger generation of Austrian School economists
must publicly gut The General Theory.

Gary North [send him mail ] is the author of Mises on Money . Visit
http://www.garynorth.com . He is also the author of a free 20-volume
series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible .

http://www.lewrockwell.com

© 2010 Copyright Gary North / LewRockwell.com - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general
information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice.
Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising
methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility
for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals
should consult with their personal financial advisors.

© 2005-2010 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a
FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17857.html

Video: Hayek Explains Why He Did Not Challenge Keynes After 1935 -- A
Catastrophic Decision
Gary North

March 9, 2010

In this interview, Hayek recounts the events leading to The General
Theory. He spent a year going through Keynes' Treatise on Money.
Although he did not mention this, he published a critique on the
Economic Journal. Keynes replied in print. Then, just before the
second volume appeared, Keynes dismissed the debate. He told Hayek
that he no longer believed all that.

Hayek said he decided not to challenge The General Theory. The problem
was that he was widely regarded as Keynes' #1 opponent. When he
remained mute, he surrendered the field to Keynes.

Hayek also said that Keynes' theory did not receive universal acclaim
until after his death in 1946. This is no doubt true, but irrelevant.
The book persuaded a generation of young economists before the War
ended. Then Sanuelson's 1948 textbook conquered the academic
discipline in the name of Keynes.

For more information, come here:

www.KeynesProject.com

http://www.garynorth.com/public/6198.cfm

Economics (Hardcover)
~ Paul Samuelson (Author), William Nordhaus (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0073511293/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Customer Reviews
Economics

2 Reviews
5 star: (1)
4 star: (0)
3 star: (1)
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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
EXCELLENT A++
One of the greatest books of its era. Very easy to understand and
study with. Great choice!!

Published 3 months ago by George and Marcus Retail Group

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Extraordinary price????

How can this book possibly cost $169.90?? It's been in print for
decades and has sold well. My old college copy has a price of $7.95
stamped in it! What is going on???

Published 3 months ago by Little Teacher on the Prarie

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
EXCELLENT A++, November 30, 2009
By George and Marcus Retail Group (N. Florida, USA) -

One of the greatest books of its era. Very easy to understand and
study with. Great choice!!

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Extraordinary price????, December 13, 2009
By Little Teacher on the Prarie (Iowa) -

How can this book possibly cost $169.90?? It's been in print for
decades and has sold well. My old college copy has a price of $7.95
stamped in it! What is going on???

Comments (3)

Comments

Initial post: Dec. 24, 2009 12:52 PM PST

E. P. O'shaughnessy says:
Free market forces, supply and demand perhaps? :)

In reply to an earlier post on Jan. 14, 2010 2:24 PM PST
Stevan Radanovic says:
More probably because it's 19th edition, from 2009. :)

Posted on Mar. 13, 2010 10:54 AM PST
From_Plano_TX says:
You are right. The price is scandalous. College students are being
robbed! The colleges should not permit this to go on.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1RUMX54711VIY/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0073511293&nodeID=#wasThisHelpful

http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Paul-Samuelson/product-reviews/0073511293/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft Excel, Revised (with
CD-ROM and Decision Tools and Statistic Tools Suite) (Hardcover)
~ S. Christian Albright
S. Christian Albright (Author)

(Author), Wayne Winston (Author), Christopher Zappe (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Decision-Microsoft-Revised-Statistic/dp/0324662440/ref=pd_sim_b_2#reader_0324662440

Customer Reviews
Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft Excel, Revised (with
CD-ROM and Decision Tools and Statistic Tools Suite)

18 Reviews
5 star: (10)
4 star: (5)
3 star: (1)
2 star: (1)
1 star: (1)

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Strong Software Addition:

This book was put together in the same 'spirit' as previous other
Winston books; good examples, well thought out attack approaches; as
well as a good summary of all the types of problems encountered in the
text! I have several other of Winston books, so I'm reasonably happy
with his work! I am growing a little frustrated with winston et al.
over the fact that they...
Read the full review ›
Published on August 20, 1999 by Kirk S. Johnson

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

Better Title: Intro to Statistics using Excel Add-ins
On the positive side, this book has many excellent case studies and
examples. It is well written and interesting. However, I was
disappointed, as I was expecting use of Excel to rigorously solve
decision making and data analysis problems. The focus of the book is
mostly traditional statistics solved using a group of commercial add-
ins for Excel. If this is what you want,...

Published on June 3, 2001 by char...@aol.com

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
Better Title: Intro to Statistics using Excel Add-ins, June 3, 2001
By char...@aol.com (Gainesveille, FL) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

On the positive side, this book has many excellent case studies and
examples. It is well written and interesting. However, I was
disappointed, as I was expecting use of Excel to rigorously solve
decision making and data analysis problems. The focus of the book is
mostly traditional statistics solved using a group of commercial add-
ins for Excel. If this is what you want, then the book would get five
stars. However, for data analysis and decision making, I think a more
thorough treatment using Excel without relying so much on the add-ins
would have been appropriate.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Strong Software Addition:, August 20, 1999
By Kirk S. Johnson (Batavia, IL USA) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

This book was put together in the same 'spirit' as previous other
Winston books; good examples, well thought out attack approaches; as
well as a good summary of all the types of problems encountered in the
text! I have several other of Winston books, so I'm reasonably happy
with his work! I am growing a little frustrated with winston et al.
over the fact that they offer no solutions or answers to the many
exercise problems contained throughout the text. I don't think Winston
realizes that professionals outside of the classroom are buying these
books and don't have the luxury of a professor sharing answers to the
problems. This is where I think he can improve. The software addition,
from palisades was an excellent addition to the text! I had already
owned many of the commercial versions but have found that the suite,
provided with the text, was just as robust as my retail versions.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent MBA - level textbook and software., September 2, 1999
By Serguei Netessine (Wynnewood, PA United States) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

Finally MBA probability/statistics course and MS Excel have been
unified in one textbook. The accompanying software is great,
especially Decision Tree (probably the only Excel-based software for
decision making). Students like business-oriented excersises in the
book. Highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Very good book but software is a source of troubles, July 20, 1999
By A Customer

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

The book itself is an exteremely good source of theory and problems.
However, accompanying software is a reason for many disappointments.
There are undocumented bugs and compatibility issues. Some supporting
material for the book is still not available and customer support
could have been better.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
MS Office 2000 compatability problems!!, August 11, 2000
By Courtney Turner (Chicago, IL USA) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

Just purchased the book as a tool for MBA classes. However, after
installing the accompanying CD ROM add-ons I had problems accessing MS
Office programs. A critical .DLL file was modified by the program
during my installation. I think the program was made to run with MS
Excel 97. Another suggestion for the author is to include an answers
CD ROM for the problems contained in the text so that students and
professionals can check their work.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Serious Excel 2000 Problem, April 11, 2001
By Jal Singh "junkmail_12345" (NYC) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

The text book is great. I have many of Winston's other books and they
are all great. The Palisade stuff works just fine. However, the
StatPro Addin that accompanies this text does not work with MS Excel
2000. I contacted the IT guy that the authors directed me to--he was
stumped. He just gave up and suggested I return my book for a refund
because he could not figure out it out. Again, the book is great but
the StatPro Addin sucks!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Great Buy, February 3, 2009
By Samantha J. Foster "Student4Life" (Cincinnati) -

I was required to buy this text for a class but it has actually been
very helpful. Some textbooks are diffucult to follow but this one has
great examples. If I don't understand something in class, I just have
to read over the chapter and it usually helps.

Amazon is THE place to buy, October 11, 2009
By Venkata V. Sagar Sambata (College Park, MD, USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

I had an extremely positive experience with Amazon and would recommend
you buy from them even with your eyes closed.

Impossible to decipher, but useful computer tools, October 7,
2009
By Robin Weber -

I have totally given up on doing reading assigned in this textbook.
It's dense, hard to understand, and takes more time than I have just
to understand a fraction of it. The only reason I'm giving 2 stars
instead of 1 is that the Excel add-on tools included on the CD with
the book are somewhat useful.

Missing Password and Key, September 20, 2009
By Tomaz V. Silva Neto "Thothmez" (CANADA) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

I am a Reliability Engineer trying to learn more about Risk analysis.

The written part of the book seems fantastic, a lot of practical
examples that we can use in real world, sure we all know that excel is
limited and the use of Add-ins seems to be a very good way to manage
that.

I bought a used copy of the book which came with 2 Cds but without the
password and key to install the DecisionTools.
Does anybody know who should I contact to get that information ? Any
help is very much appreciated...

Regards,
to All.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
No trouble with Excel, January 31, 2001
By steve_from_spokane (Everett, Wa United States) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

I find the text and software a useful set of tools. It assumes
familiarity with basic statistics and Excel, and builds on them to
develop a powerfull ability to analize data and make decisions from
it. I experienced no trouble with the software install or operation.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Statistical Purchase, October 8, 2009
By Student -

I purchased this product with the description stating it included the
Stats Tools CD. When I received the product the CD was not included,
which made the text useless to me. I did receive a prompt refund from
Amazon and the Seller. I think that transparency is key to buying
online. . .

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Thank you!, October 2, 2009
By AL "AL" (US) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft
Excel (with CD-ROM, InfoTrac , and Decision Tools and Statistic Tools
Suite) (Hardcover)
Thank you! The book was in the perfect condition and shipping was in
time. The seller was very responsive with emails/questions.
Unfortunately I ordered the wrong book, but thanks so much for letting
me return it!!!!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Great used book, February 6, 2009
By Ohannes Mangoyan -

The book and cd's were in great shape as described (like new)! I will
buy used books again in the future.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Perfect condition - good deal., September 30, 2008
By K. Nash "research girl" (Cincinnati, OH USA) -

The textbook was brand new and I saved about $40. I received it on
time and the transaction was easy.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Sanjay Chheda, October 5, 2006
By Sanjay Chheda -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft
Excel (with CD-ROM, InfoTrac , and Decision Tools and Statistic Tools
Suite) (Hardcover)
The book is very good with really good explanations and examples on
descriptive analysis and inferential analysis.

0 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Managerial Statistics Text book, November 3, 2006
By Sang Woo Kim (Gainesville, FL) -

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft
Excel (with CD-ROM, InfoTrac , and Decision Tools and Statistic Tools
Suite) (Hardcover)
It was the text book the professor wanted me to buy.
It was good.

6 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
Weighs more than the one we used in Grad School, July 16, 1999
By A Customer

This review is from: Data Analysis and Decision Making With Microsoft
Excel (Hardcover)

As a past student of Dr. Zappe's at the University of Florida who used
a Dr. Winston book in 1992, I would have to say that it weighs more
thus increasing the strenths and size of my left bicep and foreman
forcing poor alignment of my spine.

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Decision-Microsoft-Revised-Statistic/product-reviews/0324662440/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

http://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Decision-Microsoft-Revised-Statistic/dp/0324662440/ref=pd_sim_b_2#noop

International Economics: Theory and Policy (Paperback)
~ Paul R. Krugman (Author), Maurice Obstfeld
Maurice Obstfeld (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Maurice Obstfeld Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
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Customer Reviews
International Economics: Theory and Policy

19 Reviews
5 star: (8)
4 star: (5)
3 star: (1)
2 star: (2)
1 star: (3)

The most helpful favorable review The most helpful critical review

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
The book to start with in International Economics

For anybody - but especially students - interested in exploring the
subject of international economics, this is the book to start with. It
is illuminating (as it is always the case with Krugman's writings) on
otherwise technical concepts as comparative advantage, trade policy
and exchange rate determinants, but it is also entertaining, with its
"reality...

Published on May 4, 1999 by L. Battaglini

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

Not What I've Come to Expect from Krugman

First off, even if you totally discount the rest of my review, buy the
low price international version of this book. On the March 10, 2005
episode of the daily show Krugman elucidated his feelings quite
clearly. "The real money is in textbooks. With other books, people
need to decide whether to buy them or not. Students have to buy
textbooks." Thanks Paul. I think I'm...

Published on April 3, 2005 by TitaniumDreads

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
Not What I've Come to Expect from Krugman, April 3, 2005
By TitaniumDreads "http://blog.titaniumdreads.com" (Cambridge, MA
United States) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

First off, even if you totally discount the rest of my review, buy the
low price international version of this book. On the March 10, 2005
episode of the daily show Krugman elucidated his feelings quite
clearly. "The real money is in textbooks. With other books, people
need to decide whether to buy them or not. Students have to buy
textbooks." Thanks Paul. I think I'm being charitable when I say that
at $125 this book is a ripoff. It isn't even full color.

Anyway, on to the actual content of the book. I have to say that I was
excited when I found out that my International economics course at
Stanford was going to be using Paul Krugman's book. I've enjoyed his
articles for the New York Times because they manage to cut right to
the core of issues with an unusual amount of punch. Yet, time and time
again I was disappointed with the frequently inpenatrable language and
obtuse, unrealistic examples in this book. Unfortunately, the only
part of Krugman's characteristic writing style that came through was a
feeling of overwrought vitriol, which makes sense in an op-ed but has
little place in a textbook. Furthermore, this book occupies a strange
niche in the world of econ texts, it is not mathematically rigorous,
nor is it well written. Usually we see one or the other but rarely
both. Initially, I thought these observations were mine alone, but
other students began openly voicing pointed criticisms of the book
during class (and I am perhaps being too kind here in not repeating
them). I've been in school nearly as long as I can remember and I have
never seen such discontent with a text.

During the second half of the course even my econ prof became fed up
and abandoned the book altogether. Given that, I find all of the
positive reviews for this book rather astounding. My suspicion is that
there might have been open rebellion amongst my classmates had not the
professor decided to leave this text by the wayside. I also found that
it is brimming with misplaced, one-sided arguments that come across as
Krugman blatantly strawmanning arguments opposed to his own. One of
many examples of this comes out of nowhere near the end of chapter 2.
Krugman implies that anyone who doesn't believe in unmitigated free
trade is intellectually irresponsible!?! This book pushes for
unrestrained market fundamentalism throughout, primarily by
misrepresenting any arguments that would effectively challenge it's
simplistic and seemingly outdated dogma. This book, in particular,
feeds into the same system of self serving scientism so prevalent in
economics for the last 60 years.

Please don't mistake this review as the bile of a jilted student, I
did quite well in the course. However, this is almost certainly the
result of looking for alternative explanations of virtually every
topic covered. The reason this book gets one star instead of two is
because it lacks a lot of the modern learning tools prevalent in
almost every other textbook. Things like quality questions, keywords,
vocabulary and historical context all get short shrift in this this
volume. If you're into learning about incomplete models that only
represent a theoretical version of the world, this book is for you.
Unfortunately, just like Krugman said on The Daily Show, if you are a
student there is probably little chance that you have a choice on the
matter. Buy the cheap international edition for 20 bucks. I would
recommend that you use to the difference to buy William Easterly's
Elusive Quest for Growth...and a beer.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
The book to start with in International Economics, May 4, 1999
By L. Battaglini "mauouo" (IT) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
For anybody - but especially students - interested in exploring the
subject of international economics, this is the book to start with. It
is illuminating (as it is always the case with Krugman's writings) on
otherwise technical concepts as comparative advantage, trade policy
and exchange rate determinants, but it is also entertaining, with its
"reality checks". The first part of the book deals with the "real"
economy, the second part with monetary international economics. It
will save you a lot of time to begin your study of the field with this
book. If you have had previous experiences with international
economics but either forgot most about it or had trouble making sense
of the whole thing you will probably get a good grasp of the subject
after reading this manual. The bibliography is accurate and rich, the
exercises won't give you an headache. Readers with some background in
economics are most likely to take full advantage from the book. For
the others, well, some introductory economics will be necessary. Once
you've read this book, you can continue more safely your studies/
readings on international economics.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
international economics, January 16, 2000
By Soeren Puerschel (Tuebingen, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
This book describes in a very detailed way all the general theories of
economics concerning trade. It is very well done as there are many
examples and it is optically inspiring. Your eyes won't get tired too
quickly, as the layout is done fine. The content of the book is fine,
a good book for students of economics, even though it is advisable to
read more down the line. But for the overview of a topic it serves
allright.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
An important and useful text for understanding trade theory, April
12, 1998
By A Customer

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
Krugman and Obstfeld provide a full detailed analysis and examples for
the basis of trade among nations. It is relatively straightforward to
comprehend for both economists and noneconomists.

International trade is an important component of economic policy for
the growth and development of countries. This book examines various
theoretical trade models and provides real world examples of policy
formulation and their impact. The authors do not take any political
positions, thus making their analysis a purely objective, or positive
study.

I would highly recommend this book to students interested in doing
research in international trade and development. It is a must read for
prospective international economists. Noneconomists might also find it
as a useful reference.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
An important and useful text for understanding trade theory.,
December 31, 1999
By A Customer

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (5th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Krugman and Obstfeld provide a full detailed analysis and examples for
the basis of trade among nations. It is relatively straightforward to
comprehend for both economists and noneconomists. International trade
is an important component of economic policy for the growth and
development of countries. This book examines various theoretical trade
models and provides real world examples of policy formulation and
their impact. The authors do not take any political positions, thus
making their analysis a purely objective, or positive study.(p)

I would highly recommend this book to students interested in doing
research in international trade and development. It is a must read for
prospective international economists. Noneconomists might also find it
as a useful reference.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Not a bad book.... Too bad its a bit baby, June 12, 2004
By A Customer

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Having taken a class on Commodity Flow Theory (Micro) and a seperate
class on Int'l Finances (Macro), I can say that I enjoyed the former
much more then the latter. I used Krugman's latest edition for the
former and thought it was adequatly written for the scope of the
class.

I really wish they would make undergraduate Economics more rigirous as
I believe many undergrads who have taken 2 or 3 university math
courses (up to the linear algebra level) could easily understand most
of the mathematics found in "high brow" Economics theory.

Seeing I've only had the pleasure of reading two textbooks on the
subject (and different sections of each respective book), I am not in
a position where I can make a relative judgment on the quality of the
material.

I felt Krugman's writing (I am assuming the majority of the micro
section is his writing) was mostly neutral. I found, from my reading,
the only section that could have been biased was the section on
political economy, but since I am unfamiliar with that field in
general I cannot make a more descriptive comment.
Overall, I liked the fact that their was some mathematical indexes at
the end of the chapter (something my other int'l economics textbook
lacked). I've come to expect the option of a more quantiative
treatment in most modern textbooks (both my intermediate macro/micro
and econometrics text were layed out in this fashion).
So in conclusion, the text was easy to understand, well organized, and
perhaps abit biased.... However, if you are just being introduced to
the matter, I doubt you will notice much of the bias since the
majority of what he covers in the book are well established models and
theories.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A clear introduction into trade theory and macroeconomics, July 31,
1999
By A Customer

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
A clear book which gives a good introduction into trade theory. While
the authors sometimes take their time (space) or engage in a
conversation with the reader, it gives a good account of trade theory.
Slightly more advanced and requiring a bit more background is the
other half about open macroeconomics. But this too is quite clear and
gives a good acocunt of the field.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Best econ book I've ever used, May 6, 2009
By D. J. Nardi "TurtleDom" (Washington, DC) -

This is easily the best economics textbook I have ever used (and after
getting an MA in economics, I've used several). It has clear, colorful
graphs with notes right next to the graphs explaining the movements.
The main text is very accessible for the lay reader, but each chapter
also includes boxes and appendices going into greater depth. It also
addresses the policy challenges and political economy, both of which
are crucial to understanding international economics. Highly
recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Your first lesson in International Economics, December 28, 2009
By another opinion - See all my reviews

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (8th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Your first lesson in International Economics is to get the
international version of this book. It will be softcover, also the 8th
edition, and half the price. It will be the same, page for page.

Then take the person of your choice out for a nice dinner. You'll be
glad you did.

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
international economics, June 4, 2000
By K. KATO "in...@phnx-jp.com" (Tokyo, Japan) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (5th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Have those reviewers really read the book? As I started reading, I
found that Figure 2-3 in Part ONE is misprinted, that the definitions
of the key terms are not clearly mentioned where they are indicated,
and that it is hard to find the key point in each section with too
long verbal explanations on mathematical points. The authors are
famous, I know. BUT do they really try to let us understand the
subject?

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
New Approaches for the Theories of International Economics, April 1,
2001
By Dong-Ho Rhee, "dhr...@uoscc.uos.ac.kr" (the University of Seoul,
Seoul Korea) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (5th
Edition) (Hardcover)

This textbook is unique and special in many respects. it explores new
front line for the international economics. The author may be the
first economist who asserts the Recardian model is a specific factor
model. He also explaines how trade occurs in the monopolistic
competition markets by applying the Salop's equation. His theories on
trade policies under monoplistic competition also expanded the
boundary of the traditional trade theories. His criticism on Brander-
Spencer is remarkable. His model on the international finace is
creative, and his explanation on AA-DD plane make us understood all
the main features in the international financial markets, for which
even IS-LM model (Hicks-Hansen paradigm) could not explain well. Some
minor printing mistakes may be negligible. He made really great
contributions for the relevant theories of international economics. I
appreciate this book as it opend us a new and creative frontline of
international economics. Dong-Ho Rhee University of Seoul, Korea

9 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
A challenge you won't regret, May 9, 2002
By Arlen Hodinh (Austin, TX : Go Longhorns!) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (5th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Krugman's book is not perfect, I know, but if you stick with the
reading the book will prove a valuable resource. One thing I like is
that the authors don't baby their audience. They present difficult
material as simple as it will let them, which is not simple enough for
stupid people. But, in the end the text is great, you will learn about
probably the most important subject in economics today from one if not
two of the most important economists alive.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Received Wrong Edition of Book, February 19, 2009
By Willis Chipango "Willis" (Williamstown, MA) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
I ordered and paid for a 6th edition of this book (recommeded by my
professor). I received a 3rd edition, which I already own. Big
disappointment!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
An important and useful text for understanding trade theory, February
27, 2006
By Srinidhi Anantharamiah (Melbourne, Florida) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Krugman and Obstfeld, two world renowned international economists,
provide a full detailed analysis and examples for the basis of trade
among nations. It is relatively straightforward to comprehend for both
economists and noneconomists. International trade is an important
component of economic policy for the growth and development of
countries. This book examines various theoretical trade models and
provides real world examples of policy formulation and their impact.
The authors do not take any political positions, thus making their
analysis a purely objective, or positive study.

I would highly recommend this book to students interested in doing
research in international trade and development. It is a must read for
prospective international economists. Noneconomists might also find it
as a useful reference. I found the book to be invaluable in my
graduate research and dissertation.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Krugman, February 24, 2006
By Alberto Ruiz Ortiz "Alberto" (Puerto Rico) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Some complicated theories explained in a way that can be understood.

Esay flow from a concept to the next.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The Undergraduate International Economics Standard, June 28, 2004
By thisismyname "myname" (nowheresville, USA) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Well, I will start off by saying that the book really probably only
deserves somewhere between 4-4.5 stars, but I'll give it 5 to offset
some of the questionable reviews below.

No, the book is not perfect. However, it is an academic standard at
pretty much any major college or university for teaching undergraduate
International Econ/Trade theory, and for good reason. The book makes a
clear a concise presentation of basic theory and policy, perhaps in
points it is a little too simple. As pointed out, while I'm not sure
about the 6th edition, there were some diagrammatical mistakes in the
5th...I bet, however, these were done by a graduate student. A quick
bit of reasoning and a second of thought should yield the appropriate
picture, however. And yes, I think a bit of Krugman's bias comes
through, though its not terribly off-putting.

The book could use a bit more math I think. The real equations and
difficult problems are few and far between, and are, for the most
part, pretty straight forward. At the very most it would take a basic
understanding of calculus, but the majority of the problems and
equations can be explained and done without it. I have read a number
of undergraduate economics books with far more intensive math. Despite
this lack, however, the intentions come across pretty well.

No, this book is not for beginners to economics. At least an
undergraduate course or reading in both micro and macro are needed,
and really and truly, an intermediate level in each is probably better
if one wants to get the most out of the book.

If you find the subject matter within to be terribly math intensive
and you cannot get motivated to read the subject matter because it
doesn't use "pizza and beer" (and um...I don't think I'd want an
imported pizza anyway, but thanks), well I guess the subject and this
book are not for you. However, if you are trying to enrich your
understanding of economics at a very basic level, this book provides a
good way to do so.

And, if you want graduate level book, and like Obstfeld, I recommend
he and Rogoff's book.

10 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
Save your Money--Get the Caves, Jones, et al World Trade..., January
28, 2004
By Sunil Khanna (Cambridge, MA) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (6th
Edition) (Hardcover)

Krugman et al constantly contradicts earlier statements throughout the
text in the international trade section, it will give you a headache.
The finance side is better. If you really want to learn international
trade and finance (for undergrad), get the Caves, Jones, Frankel
text.... I learned the hard way and had to pay restocking fees (etc)
when I wanted to exhange it for Caves et al. Krugman should stick to
writing editorials for the NY Times b/c this text needs some serious
help!!!

1 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent theory and plausible assertations., October 21, 1998
By A Customer

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy
(Hardcover)
Extremely interesting book.

7 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Worst economic book, October 17, 2001
By "khonsu7" (RSM, CA USA) -

This review is from: International Economics: Theory and Policy (5th
Edition) (Hardcover)

It is true that the authors of this book know what they are talking
about. It is not true, however, that they can relay that information
to others in an easy to understand manner. Important terms and
concepts are lost in numerous mathematical functions. The functions
themselves would be somewhat self-explanatory if they had included
numerical examples;however, they did not include enough to make the
concepts crystal clear. Besides, how many college students can really
get into products such as wine and cheese which the author's uses to
illustrate a concept in the second chapter. They could have
illustrated it much better with the use of beer and pizza. Agreeably,
this has to be one of the worst economic textbooks I have read.

http://www.amazon.com/International-Economics-Paul-R-Krugman/product-reviews/1408208075/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

http://www.amazon.com/International-Economics-Paul-R-Krugman/dp/1408208075/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Macroeconomics (6th Edition) (Hardcover)
~ Andrew B. Abel
Andrew B. Abel (Author)

(Author), Ben S. Bernanke (Author), Dean Croushore (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/032141554X/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Customer Reviews
Macroeconomics (6th Edition)

2 Reviews
5 star: (1)
4 star: (0)
3 star: (1)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (0)

Average Customer Review
(2 customer reviews)

The most helpful favorable review The most helpful critical review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent

I bought this text for self study. This book is clearly written so
that a self-learner can learn intermediate macroeconomics. I
particularly like the appendix that follows the chapter on IS-LM. The
problems in both the workbook and the textbook allow me to think
deeply about the concepts.

The text does not have any answers at the back of the text...
Published 1 month ago by Michael C. Fladlien

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

too many highlihgs

Book was not in a good shape as described on Amazon when I bough it.
For that price it was not a good deal. Too expensive.
Published 5 months ago by Diana C. Hernandez

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent, February 10, 2010

By Michael C. Fladlien "dogbreath" (muscatine, ia United States) -
See all my reviews

I bought this text for self study. This book is clearly written so
that a self-learner can learn intermediate macroeconomics. I
particularly like the appendix that follows the chapter on IS-LM. The
problems in both the workbook and the textbook allow me to think
deeply about the concepts.

The text does not have any answers at the back of the text.

Every morning for the past semester, I have worked my way through this
text. I find the text easy reading and enjoyable.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
too many highlihgs, October 9, 2009
By Diana C. Hernandez -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

Book was not in a good shape as described on Amazon when I bough it.
For that price it was not a good deal. Too expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-6th-Andrew-B-Abel/product-reviews/032141554X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

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[Sid Harth]

Volume 26 - Issue 26 :: Dec. 19, 2009-Jan. 01, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS
Circular reasoning
T. JAYARAMAN

The author loses sight of the possibility that the decline of religion
is indeed the long-term trend in modern industrial societies.

Meera Nanda’s writing occupies a distinctive intellectual niche in the
academic and media discourse on the nature and practice of secularism
in India. In a major book, Prophets Facing Backward, and in a number
of academic papers, essays and media articles (and two short
collections of essays), she has brought to bear a perspective on this
question that distinguishes her work from a wide variety of other
writers and scholars engaged with this theme.

Her work so far has been marked by the special attention she has paid
to the relationship between science and secularism in the Indian
context. Going beyond the limitations of the arguments over the
Nehruvian vision of the link between secularism and scientific temper,
she has drawn attention to the much larger role of science in the
debate between secularists on the one hand and Hindu communalism on
the other. In Meera Nanda’s account, the ideological machinery of
Hindu communalism in the 20th century has drawn sustenance from a more
pervasive and widespread neo-Hinduism, central to whose world view is
the idea that Hinduism provides a uniquely “scientific” perspective in
the spiritual quest. While all fundamentalisms have some form of
exceptionalism as part of their ideological foundations, Hindutva’s
particular brand arises from this allegedly unique “scientific” nature
of Hinduism as compared with all other religions.

Meera Nanda has argued convincingly that it is the widespread
acceptance, overtly or otherwise, of this brand of Hindu
exceptionalism, even by those who were in many other respects in the
secular camp, that rendered Indian secularism vulnerable to attack
even before a full-scale attack was mounted on it by a resurgent
Hindutva in the late 1980s. Meera Nanda has argued, again
convincingly, that all modern trends in Hinduism, given their tendency
for an uncritical acceptance of this notion of Hindu exceptionalism,
render themselves vulnerable to being co-opted into the ranks of
Hindutva. She has provided an engaging account in Prophets Facing
Backward of the different stratagems that neo-Hinduism adopts in the
pursuit of the “scientificity” of Hinduism, often on the basis of
loose pseudo-scientific analogies between the language of science and
the vocabulary of Hinduism. The contemporary brand of Indian pseudo-
science that is actively championed by Hindutva, an Indian parallel as
it were to the well-known link between evangelical Christianity and
the American brand of pseudo-science, is in Meera Nanda’s view rooted
in this aspect of neo-Hinduism. In her short book titled The
Ecological Wrongs of the Religious Right, she has explored the
particular case of the neo-Hindu and Hindutva version of religion-
inspired pseudo-science in the realms of biology and ecology.

In her latest work, The God Market, Meera Nanda turns to explore a
somewhat different aspect of this link between contemporary Hinduism,
the professed secular nature of the Indian state, and Hindutva. The
focus here, in her own words, is on the “changing trends in popular
Hinduism”, and the overall aim is to describe how “modern Hindus are
taking their gods with them into the brave new world and how Hindu
institutions are making use of the new opportunities opened up by
neoliberalism and globalisation”.

The crux of the argument in the book is that there is a causal
connection between economic reforms and the rise of popular Hindu
religiosity. Meera Nanda argues that economic reform, while
encouraging a “neoliberal market economy [sic]”, is also “boosting the
demand and supply for religious services in India’s God market”, and
the progressively greater embedding of a new Hindu religiosity in
everyday life, in both public and private spheres, is aided by the new
political economy. With the withdrawal of the Nehruvian state from the
social sector, a new state-temple-corporate complex is emerging to
fill the space as a consequence of the state actively seeking
partnership with the private sector and the Hindu establishment. The
rising tide of popular religiosity among the Hindu middle classes in
the era of liberalisation is a consequence of this religiosity being
deliberately cultivated by an “emerging state-temple-corporate complex
that is replacing the more secular public institutions of the
Nehruvian era”. This rising tide of popular Hindu religiosity
continues to feed the forces of Hindutva, assisting among other things
in the routine conflation of the domain of the national with the
domain of Hinduism.

The idea that globalisation is in some way intimately connected with,
or is even perhaps one of the drivers of, the many fundamentalisms
that we see in the world today is an idea that has respectable
patronage, including, among others, the eminent historian Romila
Thapar. In the Indian context, it has been widely noted that the
challenge to the Nehruvian vision of secularism and scientific temper
has risen in the same era as the era of economic reform and the right-
ward shift in Indian foreign policy, away from the vision of India as
the leader of the non-aligned world towards a vision of India as a
global player aligned strategically with the United States and the
developed world. In opposition to the view that the Sangh Parivar is
somehow anti-globalisation and that self-reliance is somehow equally a
Parivar slogan (a view aided by the activities and attitudes of the
Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a Parivar outfit), commentators on the Left
have argued that Hindutva is no less pro-economic reform and that it
is equally at home with liberalisation and globalisation.
Nevertheless, few have argued for a causal nexus between globalisation
and the rise of popular Hindu religiosity as closely as Meera Nanda,
or shown the two to be as directly knit as she portrays in this new
book.

OBVIOUS PROPOSITION

Much of the book appears to be actually devoted to arguing the much
weaker proposition that contemporary Hindu institutions are actively
utilising the opportunities provided by the modern world to further
their cause. One may argue that this is a somewhat obvious proposition
with a wealth of examples, which can be picked even from casual
observation, to back it up. Religious preaching or fundamentalist
propaganda can reach out much further in the era of instant
communication. Cable or satellite television broadcasts provide many
opportunities that are utilised by all manner of religious or
fundamentalist organisations. A wide variety of Hindu institutions and
neo-Hindu cults, ranging from the religious trust and administration
associated with the temples at Tirupati and Tirumala to the
organisations associated with religious personalities such as Sai Baba
or Mata Amritanandamayi, run educational institutions and even modern,
officially recognised universities. Hindu organisations and cults
administer a range of charities and organisations dealing with health
and medicine. Hindu organisations have proliferated around the world
and have struck especially strong roots where there is a numerically
significant and well-heeled Indian diaspora. The diaspora followers of
Hindu organisations are also an important source of funds, as well as
prestige and visibility, for Hindu and Hindutva organisations. After
all, what credibility or oomph would a guru or swamiji possess without
at least a small retinue of non-resident Indians and preferably
foreigners?

Meera Nanda covers much of this kind of ground with many apt
illustrations in the second, third and fourth chapters of her book.
One may certainly agree with her in the characterisation that she
offers of the three significant dimensions of contemporary popular
Hindu religiosity, namely the invention of new rituals, the
gentrification of the gods and the booming guru culture. Indeed, much
of the characterisation is based on scholarly work available on the
subject. The existence of a booming guru culture and its links to
Hindutva is of course somewhat obvious.

However, it is arguable whether these examples really lay a basis for
her claims of the emergence of a state-temple-corporate complex. It is
certainly true that the Indian state has increasingly weakened secular
credentials after the rise of Hindutva and the success of Hindutva-
related political forces in being elected to govern both at the Centre
and in the States. Much has been written, including by Meera Nanda
herself, regarding the attempted de-secularisation of government
consequent to the electoral victories of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), especially at the Centre. The Sangh Parivar penetration of the
government was a major issue in the period of BJP rule, but a timid
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government refused resolutely to
“detoxify” (to use the late Harkishen Singh Surjeet’s fine phrase)
government institutions, especially in the educational sector, which
was a prime Parivar target.

It is also true that corporate India, despite some initial misgivings,
has learnt to live peaceably with Hindutva. BJP-ruled States have been
no less eager to roll out the red carpet for the captains of industry
both from home and abroad. Several major corporate houses also have a
long record of involvement in charitable work relating to religious
institutions. Corporate houses have demonstrated their willingness to
put secularism on the back burner and prioritise their short-term
economic and financial interests (as with the house of Tatas and the
Modi government).

What is unconvincing is the overarching claim that these examples
point to the emergence of something that merits the rather grand
appellation of a “state-temple-corporate” complex. Indeed, corporate
houses are uncomfortable with a militant Hindutva that disturbs law
and order and stable governance and were certainly more than satisfied
with the return of the UPA to power. Many institutions of the Indian
state are willing to act and do act to protect secular values at
critical moments. The critical issue here is to recognise the
ambivalence of the state and the corporate sector in relation to
secularism and not to one-sidedly use as evidence only their non-
secular or anti-secular actions. Regrettably, in the author’s “take no
prisoners” style of argument, there is little room to understand or
explore this ambivalence. Either the state is secular in full measure
in the classical sense of the term or it must necessarily be
considered entirely anti-secular.

In the event, the author herself can identify only two areas where
this complex [sic] is significant, the first being education and the
second, tourism. Even in these two sectors, the claim that the state
and the private sector are working together to promote Hinduism seems
less than credible. It is certainly true that the increasing
privatisation of education is also utilised by Hindutva-related
organisations to set up their own institutions, like numerous others.
However, Meera Nanda’s claim that what the BJP government could not
establish by way of Hindu-centrism of education is being accomplished
by privatisation requires more evidence than is presented in the
book.

Many would agree with Meera Nanda’s view that secular education is a
public good that the state ought to provide to all its citizens
without throwing them at the mercy of faith-based or cult-based
institutions. But to proceed from the relative absence of state-run
educational institutions and the ideological space that this affords
Hindutva to the claim that “economic globalisation and neoliberal
reforms have created the material and ideological conditions in which
a popular and ritualistic Hindu religiosity is growing” is a leap that
seems unwarranted.

SANDEEP SAXENA

Birla Mandir in New Delhi, illuminated on the occasion of Janmashtami
on August 14.

The argument is even thinner in the case of tourism, where the
author’s argument is based on the state’s, and occasionally corporate
houses’, support for religious tourism. Even this reviewer, who is no
votary of religious pilgrimages, is constrained to point out that
tourism in India, untouched by the religious inclination, is a modern
construct. For the newly rich as well as those of the poor and middle
classes who have small disposable surpluses, religious pilgrimage is
likely to be the first form of tourism. In another direction,
occasions for the mass display of popular religiosity such as the
Kumbh Mela certainly call for the intervention of the government in
the interest of common safety and security. To take all instances of
government regulation of religious tourism uncritically together and
to read into it the emergence of a state-temple-corporate complex does
not seem to aid a critical understanding of the link between popular
religiosity and secularism. It is of course true that religious
pilgrimage sites are happy hunting grounds for Hindutva groups to
further their ideological campaign, and specific issues relating to
some popular pilgrimage sites such as the Amarnath caves can certainly
provide grist to the Hindutva mill.

Popular religiosity is a complex phenomenon, especially in the
presence of many ideological forces and undercurrents in a society in
a state of transition, even if not rapid transformation. It is a
phenomenon that has many layers to it, as activists and scholars on
the issue of communalism have come to recognise across the country.
The book unfortunately displays little inclination to engage carefully
with this literature. Perhaps in the author’s perception such theories
do not belong to the class of “the most cutting-edge social theories
about globalisation and the resurgence of religion” that she promises
the reader in the introductory chapter.

Given the thinness of the author’s evidence relative to the weight of
the theoretical conclusions that she wishes to draw, it is
unsurprising that the theoretical considerations in the book are among
its weakest and most unconvincing sections. The first chapter on
globalisation covers ground that would be quite familiar to most of
the author’s likely audience in India. It is a chapter that leaves one
with the impression that the book is really meant for a non-Indian
audience. But it is in the last chapter that the insufficiency of the
theoretical perspective that Meera Nanda brings to bear on the problem
is most evident as the author showers a series of “cutting-edge social
theories” on an unwary reader.

In substance, the author is in sympathy with the perspective, most
notably espoused by the sociologist Peter L. Berger in his later work,
that the secular project has essentially failed. Berger famously
recanted in 1999 his earlier vision of the inevitable decline of
religion, arguing that the supernatural has not lost its plausibility
in the modern world. While Meera Nanda believes that this is
applicable to India, she disagrees with Berger’s argument that this
persistence of religion lies in the economic fact of the undermining
of life’s certainties for the majority of the population and the
appropriation of secular values by the rich. She, quite correctly,
points to the fact that contrary to what Berger suggests, popular
religiosity in India has also significantly risen among those who have
benefited enormously from economic reform and that popular religiosity
grips both the well-to-do and the poor.

Of course, in transposing Berger’s argument to India, Meera Nanda
(along with Berger) loses sight of the possibility that this
resurgence of religion could well be a short-lived phenomenon and that
the decline of religion is indeed the long-term trend in modern
industrial societies.

NEOLIBERAL PERSPECTIVE

For the subsequent part of her argument the author moves on,
approvingly, to what she calls the “neoliberal” perspective on
religion, the next in her shopping list of theories. This is indeed
curious because while she has always been dismissive of the Marxist
view of religion, labelling it as reductionist, she turns now to a
view that fully merits the label. In this demand-supply view of
religion, espoused by Rodney Stark and his academic collaborators,
there is indeed no room for the notion of secularisation. Religion
always exists, so the argument runs, because there is a need, or a
“demand”, for it. Whether it will be satisfied or not is a question of
the “supply” of appropriate religions that are efficacious in
responding to it. In this view, secularisation is an illusion created
by the lack of appropriate supply to meet the demand for religion over
brief historical periods. Social facts such as the fall of church
attendance and overt religious observance do not mean the progress of
secularisation as the persistence of personal belief points to a
“potential demand” that is not being met by existing religious
institutions.

UNCLEAR RATIONALE

It is from this perspective that the author formulates the proposition
mentioned at the outset of this article, namely, that it is the
neoliberal market economy following globalisation that is boosting the
demand and supply for religious services in India’s God market. The
rationale for this proposition is completely unclear as she appears to
conflate the application of a demand-supply or market perspective on
religion with the nature of religiosity in an era where economic
policy is dominated by the market perspective.

But what is even stranger about the turn that her argument takes is
that, in this demand-supply perspective, the weakly secular character
of the Indian state is indeed a virtue that has led to greater
religious plurality, as evidenced by the wide variety of cults and
sects and religions in India. How then does the author square the
circle, reconciling her use of the neoliberal perspective on religion
after having railed against Hindutva and upbraided the Indian state
for having forsaken secularism? There is indeed no direct answer that
the author provides. All she can offer the curious reader is the
somewhat feeble response that indeed a pure market for religion would
not be problematic, but it is the unfortunate extension of sacrality
to the realm of non-sacral entitites like the nation that is the
source of the problem. The circularity of her reasoning and argument
appears entirely to escape the notice of the author.

The book ends with an appeal for the creation in India of meaningful
secular spaces, where people may interact with each other without
reference to religious identities. Praiseworthy as this statement
undoubtedly is, it is small consolation for the interested reader who,
having followed the author into the blind alley of the demise of
secularisation and its abolition in the neoliberal perspective, is
left wondering where Indian society would find the resources for such
a transformation.

Meera Nanda’s work, as we have remarked earlier, is marked by a strong
tendency to ignore the multi-sided and often contradictory character
of social phenomena. While her perspective has helped shed light on
the social, intellectual and cultural resources that Hindutva can
mobilise, she has rarely been able to throw similar light on the
impulses for secularism in Indian society. One reason for this,
undoubtedly, lies in her resolute unwillingness to consider atheism as
an ally of secularism. She has always been insistent that movements
that are atheist miss the point about the need of the masses for
“meaning” in their lives, which can be met only by religion. That this
“meaning” could also be provided by the advance of a secular
imagination and the retreat of religion is not a prospect that she is
willing to consider.

Another reason lies in her view of ideological transformation purely
as an act of the mind without reference to any social and economic
preconditions for such a transformation. More fundamentally, Meera
Nanda has never reckoned with the possibility that any understanding
of religion in contemporary India needs to grasp the reality of the
incomplete modernisation of Indian society, rooted in the development
of capitalism in an era when it has essentially lost its critical
ideological impulse.

Meera Nanda’s passion for secularism will undoubtedly be shared by
many readers in India and elsewhere, and the many observations that
she has provided on various aspects of the Hindutva communal project
in Indian society are useful and important. Yet, regrettably, she has
little to offer in terms of a way forward from the current scenario
towards a more secular social order except rhetorical calls for a
meaningful, limited secularisation of society.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2626/stories/20100101262607900.htm

Volume 18 - Issue 01, Jan. 06 - 19, 2001

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

ANALYSIS
Outsider as enemy
The politics of rewriting history in India.
K.N. PANIKKAR

This is the text of a presentation made at a round table on the topic
of 'The Rewriting of History: Intellectual Freedom and Contemporary
Politics in South Asia', organised as a part of the International
Conference of North African and Asian Scholars (ICANAS) in Montreal
held from August 27 to September 1.

REWRITING of history is a continuous process into which the historian
brings to bear new methodological or ideological insights or employs a
new analytical frame drawn upon hitherto unknown facts. The
historians' craft, the French historian, Marc Bloch, whose work on
feudal society is considered a classic, has reminded us, is rooted in
a method specific to history as a discipline, most of which has
evolved through philosophical engagements and empirical investigations
during the last several centuries. No methodology which the historian
invokes in pursuit of the knowledge of the past is really valid unless
it respects the method of the discipline. Even when methodologies
fundamentally differ, they share certain common grounds, which
constitute the fiel d of the historian's craft. Notwithstanding the
present scepticism about the possible engagement with history, a
strict adherence to the method of the discipline is observed in all
generally accepted forms of reconstruction of the past. A departure
from such norms of the discipline tends to erase the distinction
between myth and history, which the forces of the Hindu rightwing,
actively supported by the present government, are seeking to achieve.

K. PICHUMANI
The makeshift temple that was erected at Ayodhya after the demolition
of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. The organising principle of
the politics of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple was not only the
privileging of faith over reason, but also the ident ification of an
enemy who acted against the religious interests of Hindus.

The distinction is important, despite the undeniable connection
between history and myth. Although elements which constitute myth are
not verifiable like historical facts, myths do represent reality even
if symbolically and metaphorically. Myths are esse ntially illusory
representations of phenomena and as such do not help discover the
historicity of events and by the very nature of representation they
tend to mask the reality. Yet, there are no myths in which reality is
not embedded in some form, be the y origin, explanatory or
legitimatory myths.1 This integral connection between myth and history
facilitates the transmutation of the latter into the former and
through that change, the existing historical consciousness in society.
The rewritin g of history the Sangh Parivar has undertaken with the
connivance and collaboration of the government is essentially an
attempt at communal mythification, which lends ideological support and
legitimacy to the politics of cultural nationalism.

History as communal ideology

The communal interpretation of history has a fairly long tradition, at
least going back to the colonial times. The history of the subjected
that the colonial administrators and ideologues wrote, either as a
part of their intellectual curiosity or as a po litical mission,
essentially took a religious view of the past. Although James Mill's
periodisation of Indian history into Hindu and Muslim periods is
generally pointed out as an example of this colonial view, almost
every aspect of the social, cultural and political life was
incorporated into this religious schema. This view has had an abiding
influence on Indian historiography, with a large number of Indian
historians of vastly different ideological persuasions rather
uncritically internalising this i nterpretation. Thus the history of
India is seen through a series of stereotypes rooted in religious
identity. No aspect of society or polity has escaped this religious
view, be it social tensions, political battles or cultural
differences. Such an inter pretation of history has been a part of the
textbooks, both of school and college, for a long time, moulding the
historical consciousness of society and in turn the social
perspectives and behaviour of several generations. This divisive
notion of history was one of the several ideological weapons that
colonialism invoked to construct its legitimacy.

In the Hindu communal worldview and politics, the religious
interpretation of history has an entirely different import, even if it
shares much of the colonial assumptions. Unlike the colonial history
which mainly emphasises social divisions, despite invo king the
tyranny of the Yavanas and the Muslims, its focus is more on social
antagonism and political hostility, which differentiates the Hindu
communal from the colonial communal. The antagonism and hostility
encoded in the interpretative structure of t he former, which
identifies the 'outsider' as enemy, turn history into an ideology of
communalism. The politics of Ramjanmabhoomi temple is a good example
of the mediation of such history in the making of popular historical
consciousness. The organising principle of this politics was not only
the privileging of faith over reason, but also the identification of
an enemy who acted against the religious interests of the Hindus.

Among the variety of factors that define the relationship between
communalism and revivalism in India, history plays a central role. The
revivalist ideas were inherent in the social and religious reform
movements of the 19th century, circumscribed as the y were within the
boundaries of caste and religious communities. Yet, revivalism as an
influential tendency emerged only during the second half of the 19th
century. Bankim Chandra Chatterji, Dayananda Saraswathi and Swami
Vivekananda are generally consid ered the early protagonists of this
tendency. Inward looking in their intellectual orientation and engaged
in revitalising Hinduism and Hindu community, they tried to privilege
many ideas and institutions from the ancient past. However, their
perspective was communitarian rather than communal. Antagonism against
other religions and communities was not a part of their perspective.
Even when they were critical of other religions as in the case of
Dayanand, their attempt was to explore religious truth thro ugh a
comparative understanding of different religions. Dayanand after all
was as trenchant a critique of the practices of Sanatani Hinduism as
of other religions. So were Bankim and Vivekananda. These early
articulations of revivalist tendencies were no t rooted in relation to
the 'other' in terms of a community within society.2 It was more in
the nature of internal revitalisation and consolidation in the context
of colonial domination. Communalism, on the other hand, though it
subsumed several elements of revivalism, is firmly anchored on a
hatred of the 'outsider' who, it is held, is mainly responsible for
the distortions and eventual loss of the indigenous civilisational
achievements. Notwithstanding this distinction, revivalism transformed
itself into communalism which, among other things, was made possible
by the m ediation of communal history, which cast the 'outsider' in
the role of the enemy. The inward looking communitarian perspective,
which mainly characterised revivalism, merged with a suspicion
andhostility of 'the other'. This process is facilitated by a r
eligious interpretation of history which by locating the 'outsider' as
the cause of the decline in the fortunes of the community forms the
ideology of communalism.

The concept of the 'outsider', variously described as the Mleccha,
Yavana and Turuska, has been part of the social consciousness for a
long time. They were communities from both within and outside India
and their defining elements were primarily social a nd cultural. The
language, food habits, dress and a variety of other practices
underlined the otherness. The Aryans considered the indigenous
population as Mleccha and at a later stage those who came from
outside, like the Huns and the Muslims, were inco rporated into this
category. Although the otherness was often a source of conflict, both
inter and intra-community, the relationship with the other was not
characterised by continuous hostility and conflict.3 That the
relationship with the out sider in the past was based on
irreconcilable political interests is a construction of communalism
influenced more by political interests rather than by social reality.

Outsider as enemy

The demographic composition of India which reflects the coming
together of a variety of groups - racial, linguistic and ethnic -
during the course of the last two millennia raises the question who
the 'outsider' is in Indian society. According to the Ant hropological
Survey of India there are 4,635 identifiable communities, diverse in
biological traits, dress, language, forms of worship, occupation, food
habits and kinship patterns. Most of these communities have a mixed
ancestry and it is now almost imp ossible to identify their roots.
They could be traced to Proto-Austroloid, Palio-Mediterranean,
Caucasian, Negroid and Mongoloid. The racial component is also quite
varied, drawing from almost every stock in the world. This plurality
is also reflected in the number of languages in use. Apart from
thousands of dialects there are as many as 325 languages and 25
scripts derived from various linguistic families - Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-
Burman, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Andamese, Semitic, Indo-Iranian,
Sino-Tib etan, Indo-European and so on. The Indian society, as a
consequence, is a social and cultural amalgam with many of its
constitutive elements loosing their specific identity, at any rate
none existing in its initial pure form.4

The Hindu communal view of history strives to negate this historical
process by making a distinction between the original inhabitants of
the land and those who settled later. According to this view, all
those who migrated to India and their descendants a re foreigners and
therefore not part of the nation. Thus the Muslims, Christians and
Parsis, who are not indigenous to India and hence outsiders should
either 'Indianise' themselves or live like 'second class citizens
without any rights or privileges'.5 This naturally raises the question
who the original inhabitants were. Were the Aryans, to whom the upper
caste Hindus trace their lineage, indigenous to India? The opinion of
scholars of ancient history, based on archaeological and linguistic
evid ence, has been that Aryans had migrated to India, in all
probability in small groups, over a period of time.6 If this view is
correct, the assumption that the non-Hindu is the only 'outsider'
becomes untenable and the historical rationale for the Hindu nation
basedon Vedic lineage also becomes suspect. The present attempt to
invent the indigenous origins of Aryans, which is supported more by
speculation rather than tangible evidence, is rooted in an anxiety to
overcome this paradox. That the Hindutva historians are not hesitant
to fabricate evidence to prove their contention has been ably
demonstrated by Professor Michael Witzel and Professor Steve Farmer in
their recent article on the Harappan seal.7

The distinction between the indigenous and the 'outsider' is also
sought on the basis of the pure and the impure. The claim to purity,
traced to the idyllic past uncontaminated by the intrusion of the
'outsider', is an essential ideology of religious fun damentalism. One
among the various indicators of this distinction is food habit: those
who ate flesh and those who did not. It is now claimed by the
ideologues of the Sangh Parivar that the Aryans did not partake of
beef, although copious evidence exists , both literary and
archaeological, to the contrary. After a survey of the evidence from
various excavations since 1921, the doyen of Indian archaeologists,
H.D. Sankalia, has opined that "the attitude towards cow slaughter
shows that until the beginning of the Christian era the cow/ox were
regularly slaughtered for food and for the sacrifice etc., in spite of
the preaching of Ahimsa by Mahavira and the Buddha. Beef eating,
however, did decrease owing to these preachings, but never died out
completely". 8 The literary evidence from the Vedic and later periods
are also plenty. Panini, for instance, calls a guest a Goghna, which
means one for whom a cow is killed.9 Even Vivekananda refers to
instances of Rama and Krishna drinking wine and eating meat and Sita
offering meat, rice and wine to the river goddess Ganga in Ramayana
and Mahabharata. In fact, he considered the meat-eating habits of the
Aryans a virtue and attributed the decline of the Hindus in modern
times to the departure from it!10 Yet, the slaughter of cow and eating
beef are now invoked as signs of otherness in a bid to distinguish the
indigenous from the 'outsider'.

Apart from defiling the sacredness and purity of indigenous life, the
communal history also attributes to the 'outsider' a politically
disruptive role. The political history of India, in the account given
by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the progenitor of th e concept of
Hindutva, is a story of foreign invasions and Hindu resistance.
According to him, there were six major invasions of India, which were
successfully met by the Hindus. He characterises them as six 'glorious
epochs' in which the valour and brav ery of the Hindus overcame the
external threat. These 'glorious epochs' are the periods of
Chandragupta and Pushyamitra when the Greek invasions were repelled,
followed by those of Vikramaditya and Yashodharma who defeated the
Shakas and the Huns respect ively. In imagining the Hindu nation as a
historically constituted political entity, this religious view of the
conflict with the 'outsider' is a major factor.11

The consolidation and mobilisation of the Hindus are the main
objectives of the communal construction of history of which Savarkar
set a worthy example. Towards this political end, a systematic
attempt, embracing both the academic and popular histories, has been
on the anvil for quite some time, particularly during the last two
decades. The main thrust of this effort has been to further the
communal consciousness of history. Whenever the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) or its earlier incarnation, the Jan S angh, was able to gain
access to power they have not spared any effort to promote Hinduised
history at the expense of secular history. In 1977, at the instance of
the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) the government of the Janata
Party, of which the Jan S angh was a partner, tried to withdraw the
history books published by the National Council for Educational
Research and Training (NCERT) on the ground that they were not
sufficiently Hindu in their orientation. In more recent times, the BJP
governments in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have
revised their textbooks to introduce a communal view of the past,
highlighting the achievements and contribution of the Hindus and
undermining or misrepresenting the role of others. The present gov
ernment at the Centre, led by the BJP, has tried to lend support to
this effort by saffronising research institutions such as the Indian
Council for Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council for Social
Science Research (ICSSR), Centre for Advanced Studi es (CAS) and so
on. Given the tradition of secular historical writing, these state
interventions to further the influence of communal history have
elicited strong resistance from the fraternity of professional
historians, as they have realised the danger the communal
mythification poses to the discipline of history.

Simultaneously, several initiatives have been taken to transform the
popular historical consciousness in favour of the communal. Among them
the setting up of Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Samiti, with four hundred
branches all over the country, is particular ly significant. Its brief
is to prepare the history of all districts keeping as the ideal the
history written by P.N. Oak, whose main contribution is the
identification of every medieval monument as a Hindu structure.
Incidentally, Oak recently approache d the Supreme Court of India with
a request to declare the Taj Mahal a Hindu building. The Supreme Court
has indeed dismissed the plea stating that Oak seems to have 'a bee in
his bonnet'. But it has not deterred the Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI), under the influence of the Sangh Parivar, to look for a
Hindu temple under every medieval monument! The latest excavation is
at Fatehpur Sikri, a monument constructed by the Mughal Emperor Akbar,
from the vicinity of which Jain idols have been unearthed and promptly
identified as disfigured by Akbar. The present chairman of the ICHR,
B.R. Grover, who has distinguished himself by the statement that the
Babri Masjid had collapsed and not destroyed, saw even the hand of
Auragazeb in this disfigurement! Th e archaeologists of the Sangh
Parivar who are eager to excavate the site of every medieval monument
are totally indifferent to the danger the excavations might spell to
these heritage sites.

The Sangh Parivar, with the support of the government if possible and
without it if necessary, has been engaged in the construction and
dissemination of mythified histories which would help further its
religious politics. Among the innumerable examples o f such
mythification, the 'histories' of Ayodhya circulated during the
Ramjanmabhoomi campaign through political and religious networks,
using audio, video and print materials, are the most instructive. In
fact, mythified histories of Ayodhya considerabl y helped to propel
the campaign. The mythification mainly served two objectives. Firstly,
to prove the deliberate and hostile acts of the 'outsider' and
secondly, to invoke the tradition of resistance and struggle the
Hindus had waged since the 16th cent ury in defence of their faith.
These histories foregrounded many a myth as established 'facts' of
history which later found their way into the textbooks in schools in
BJP-ruled States and those run by the RSS.

In these 'histories' the desecration and demolition of temples by the
medieval Muslim rulers form a central theme, substantiating thereby
the iconoclastic beliefs as well as the religious fanaticism of the
followers of Islam. Such an interpretation, howe ver, overlooks two
significant facts of medieval history. First, as Richard Eaton has
shown in a recent essay, well before the coming of the Muslims to
India temples had been the sites for the contestation of kingly
authority. The early medieval history abounds in instances of
desecration and destruction of temples of their political adversaries
by Hindu rulers. The Cholas, the Pallavas, the Chalukyas, the Palas
and many others had indulged in this 'irreligious' act.12 Secondly,
most of the desecration and destruction took place when "Indo-Muslim
States expanded into the domains of non-Muslim rulers". Once the
territory was conquered and integrated into the kingdom, such
expression of 'fanaticism' rarely occurred. Tipu Sultan, for instance,
desecrated temples during his invasion of Malabar, but after the
conquest he gave generous land grants to several of them. Also he is
not known to have desecrated temples in his own kingdom. On the
contrary, when a Hindu religious institution like the Sringeri Mat was
plundered and destroyed by a Maratha chieftain, Tipu Sultan had met
the expenses for its reconstruction. Similarly the Mughal rulers
generally 'treated the temples lying within their sovereign domain as
state propert y' and 'undertook to protect both the physical
structures and their Brahmin functionaries'.13 Such an attitude
informs even the policy of Aurangazeb, as evident from his orders to
his officials to protect the Brahmins of Benares. The departure from
this general policy, however, occurred either at the time of war or
rebellion as in the case of th e desecration of temples in Orcha by
Shajahan and in Mathura and Benares by Aurangazeb. Thus political
exigencies rather than a 'theology of iconoclasm' were the driving
force behind the destruction and desecration of temples. Yet, the
communal interpret ation of history adopts a purely religious view to
stigmatise the present-day Muslims - described as Baber ke Santan
(children of Baber) - as enemy.

The stigmatisation of the 'outsider' as enemy is not an end in itself.
Its purpose is mainly political: to recall to memory a heroic
tradition of resistance against the 'outsider' and thus to stir the
Hindus out of their lethargy and, in the provocative words of Sadhvi
Ritambara, from their impotence, so that they consolidate and realise
their power. The communal 'histories' of Ayodhya have, therefore,
invented the myth of the heroic resistance to the demolition of the
temple in the birth place of Shri Ramachandra and the later efforts to
reclaim it. A pamphlet entitled, "Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Ka Rakt Ranjit
Itihas" (The Blood Stained History of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi), published
by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) claimed that at the time of the de
molition of the temple, 1,74,000 Hindus sacrificed their lives
fighting against the Muslims. The pamphlet then goes on to record the
77 battles fought thereafter to reclaim the temple in which 3,50,000
Hindus had laid down their lives. The reference to t he exact numbers
involved gives certain historical veracity, which though imaginary
facilitates the social acceptance of myth as history.14

This is not to argue that myths, though lacking historicity, are
'hollow tales' without any element of historical truth.15 The origin
of the myth of 77 battles, for instance, can be traced to an actual
historical incident, even if it was not l inked with the
Ramjanmabhoomi temple: a fight between the Muslims and the Hindus in
1855 over a temple located near the Babri Masjid and dedicated to
Hanuman.16 Interestingly, this battle was waged by a Muslim faqir who
claimed the existence o f a mosque below this temple. During the
course of the inquiry into this incident, conducted by an official of
the Nawab of Awad and the British Resident, the local inhabitants did
not refer either to the existence of the Ramjanmabhoomi temple or
conflic ts in the past between the Hindus and the Muslims over the
possession of the mosque.17 The myths about the Mandir was therefore a
later construction, in all probability an outcome of property disputes
and political interests.

Larger Context

The rewriting of history in which the Sangh Parivar is currently
engaged is not internal to the movements within the discipline of
history. It is integral to a larger and long-term project aimed at
reordering the secular character that informed the educa tional and
cultural policies of independent India. Towards this end, the Sangh
Parivar has already undertaken several initiatives. Prominent among
them are the changes in the content of education, the organisation of
a parallel school system and the cont rol over cultural institutions.

In the field of education the University Grants Commission (UGC) and
the NCERT appear to be pursuing a communal agenda. The UGC is
reportedly working on a uniform syllabus for the country and as a part
of it is preparing to introduce courses on Vedic stu dies, astrology,
palmistry and Hindu rituals. A band of Hindu pandits armed with
university certificates will soon be available, particularly to non-
resident Indians, to conduct the rituals at the time of birth,
marriage and death! The only consolation i s that the Chairman of the
UGC promises to provide such academic service to non-Hindus also. It
appears that the concept of university is undergoing revolutionary
changes inspired by the swadeshi ideas advocated by the Minister for
Human Resource Development. The UGC also insists that all universities
and institutions under them be subjected to the recognition of the
National Accreditation Council. It is feared that such a
standardisation will undermine the autonomy of universities and thus
facil itate the introduction of a 'national' curriculum.

The preparation of a 'national' curriculum framework for school
education is also the urgent task undertaken by the NCERT. The
discussion document released by the NCERT clearly underlines a change
from secular to religious education. Most of the suggesti ons in this
report have a revivalist and chauvinistic ring about them. It
advocates an indigenous curriculum which would 'celebrate the ideas of
native thinkers' among whom non-Hindus are conspicuous by absence. One
of the aims of the new curriculum is ' to inculcate and maintain a
sense of pride in being an Indian through a conscious understanding of
the growth of Indian civilisation and also contributions of India to
the world civilisations in its thoughts, actions and deeds'. The
external influences o n the shaping of the Indian civilisation are
completely overlooked. The concept of secularism itself is sought to
be given a religious meaning by suggesting that sarvadharma samabhava
would facilitate 'the view that religion in its basic form (dev oid of
dogma, myth and ritual) would draw younger generations to basic moral
and spiritual values'.18

Both the UGC and the NCERT appear to draw inspiration from the scheme
prepared by an RSS education outfit, Vidhya Bharati, and presented by
the Human Resource Development Minister to the conference of State
Ministers of Education in 1998. In the name of 'Indianising,
nationalising and spiritualising' education, the attempt then was to
replace secular education with an indigenous system rooted in Hindu
knowledge. To achieve that end, Sanskrit was proposed as a compulsory
subject in schools and the induct ion of the valuable heritage of the
Vedas and Upanishads in the curriculum from the primary to the higher
level, including the vocational stream. Besides these, Indian culture,
conceived in Hindu religious terms, was to form an integral part of
all cours es.19 The incorporation of Sanskrit and Indian culture into
the curriculum is in itself not an undesirable step, but that it
privileged the Hindu system of knowledge to the exclusion of others
amounts to an infringement of the tenets of a secular state. Althou gh
this scheme had to be abandoned due to secular opposition, it gave a
foretaste of the future, if and when the Sangh Parivar gained
sufficient political clout.

The attempt to Hinduise the system of education had, however, begun
much before the BJP gained access to government power. As early as
1942 the RSS had initiated steps to organise its own educational
network. Since then the number of schools run by the P arivar has
steadily increased. It is estimated that now there are about 70,000
schools under its management. And the VHP has recently announced its
intention to further expand its educational activities, particularly
in tribal areas. With the financial a nd administrative assistance
proffered by the present government, a parallel system of Hindu
education is being brought into existence, under the guidance of an
all-India organisation called the Vidya Bharati Shiksha Sanstan, set
up in 1978. It was to he lp this system that the Minister for Human
Resource Development recently mooted the idea of extending the
educational privileges so far enjoyed by the minorities under the
Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution to all others.20 The rather
well-organised attacks on Christians, who own a fairly large number of
educational institutions, are also rooted, at least partially, in this
interest, as it is not possible to capture the educational sector
without eliminating the Christians.

The curriculum of these schools is unambiguously Hindu and militantly
communal, be it related to history, politics or literature. The
textbooks, particularly of history, prescribed in these schools are so
oriented to lend legitimacy to communal politics by stigmatising the
'outsider' and valorising the Hindu. In the process, history is turned
into myth which tends to inculcate in the young minds a false sense of
religious pride and hostility to the members of other denominations.
Not only the entire cul tural tradition is appropriated as Hindu, the
past is represented as a saga of Hindu valour and bravery. In fact,
the defeat of almost every Hindu ruler at the hands of an 'outsider'
is reinterpreted as a victory. A good example of such mythification is
an account of the war between Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan.
In the second battle of Tarain, which Prithviraj lost, he was captured
and executed by Ghori. This historical event is described in one of
the textbooks as follows: "Muhammad Ghori kill ed lakhs of people and
converted Vishwnath temple and Bhagawan Krishna's birthplace into
mosques. He took Prithviraj to Gazni, but Prithviraj killed him there
with one arrow and Muhammad Ghori's corpse lay on the feet of
Prithviraj as if narrating the ta le of his sins."21

The main objective of the rewriting of history is to impart certain
historical legitimacy to communal politics. The way the Indian
national movement is represented in the textbooks used in RSS-
administered schools and the desperate attempt of the ICHR to suppress
the volumes of Towards Freedom are among the several ongoing efforts
in this direction. It is common knowledge that the RSS hardly had any
role in the national movement, except as active collaborators of
colonialism. Yet, the Sangh Pariv ar is keen on appropriating its
legacy, as it would give a much-needed national legitimacy. The
history of the national movement is therefore being rewritten to
establish that the RSS had indeed played a positive role in the anti-
colonial struggle. This requires the projection of its leaders as
freedom fighters on the one hand and the suppression of their actual
role, on the other. In such rewritten history incorporated in all
textbooks of Vidhya Bharati, the founder of the RSS, Keshav Baliram
Hedgewar, figures as a great leader of the anti-colonial struggle,
much ahead of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.22 In a textbook
prescribed by the Uttar Pradesh government, out of about 20 pages
devoted to the Freedom movement, three pages take up the contribution
of Hedgewar, who is credited with the leadership of the agitation
against the partition of Bengal.23

The successful projection of such a positive image of the RSS and its
leaders would depend upon the suppression or elimination of counter
factual evidence. That appears to be the brief of the ICHR, as evident
from the attempt to withdraw the volumes of < I>Towards Freedom. The
published volumes of Towards Freedom do not credit the RSS with any
role in the anti-colonial struggle. Instead there is evidence in them,
in the form of letters and speeches of its leaders, about its active
collaboratio n with the British colonial rule. The ICHR, now firmly
under the control of the RSS, is understandably eager to prevent the
publication of further volumes and withdraw the existing ones, as
they, being documentary histories, would expose the claims of th e
RSS. The knowledge about the role of the RSS, to which the public will
have access through these volumes, is likely to undermine the
nationalist credentials of the Sangh Parivar. It is this fear of
history, which has prompted the ICHR to make the rathe r desperate
move to withdraw the volumes from the Press. In the process all
institutional procedures have been violated and the academic freedom
of the authors has been infringed.

What the ICHR has tried to do rather clumsily and secretly - the
authors who were commissioned to edit the volumes were not even
informed, let alone consulted - is not an isolated incident, but part
of an anti-secular, anti-democratic rightwing agenda wh ich the
present government with the active participation of various arms of
the Sangh Parivar has been pursuing. Towards this end, secular opinion
has been systematically eliminated from all research institutions and
cultural organisations funded by the government and replaced by the
activists or loyalists of the RSS. There is also well-planned and
systematic vilification of secular intelligentsia, as evident from the
false and malicious accusations recently levelled against historians
by Arun Shourie, an RSS ideologue and a Minister in the present
government.

The freedom of expression is particularly under surveillance in the
cultural field. No effort is spared to suppress the long cherished and
historically evolved plural and secular traditions. The artists and
cultural activists who follow such traditions h ave been under severe
strain, often faced with threats and even physical attacks. Some time
back a panel on Ramayana, based on Jataka tales, displayed in an
exhibition on Ayodhya mounted by a cultural organisation, SAHMAT, was
destroyed by the members of the Sangh Parivar. M.F. Husain's paintings
and Deepa Mehta's films have also aroused the ire of the Sangh Parivar
for alleged disrespect to Indian tradition. On the whole, there is a
tendency to control the intellectual and cultural life in conformity w
ith a fundamentalist view. In the way such a view is implemented,
irrationally and aggressively, there are unmistakable signs of fascist
tendencies.

The instrumentalist role of the rewriting of history currently being
promoted by the government and the Sangh Parivar for defining and
demarcating the nation as Hindu, imparts to it an essentially
political character. The stigmatisation of the 'outsider' as enemy
validated by historical experience lends the rationale for the
communal programme of marginalising, if not externalising, the members
of other denominations. Derivatively, it also legitimises the claim of
the 'indigenous' to the nation. The oth erness of 'outsider' therefore
serves as a signifier for internal consolidation and homogenisation.
To the early ideologues of communalism, such as V.D. Savarkar and M.S.
Golwalkar, the religious interpretation of history was the necessary
ideological gr oundwork for recovering the Hindu nation. The present
engagement of the communal forces with history is with no other intent
which, if succeeds, would unsettle the secular character of the
nation. Therefore the current debate about history in India is as much
about the integrity of the discipline as about the future well-being
of the country.

K.N. Panikkar is Professor of Modern History at the Centre for
Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

1. Maurice Godellier, Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology, Cambridge,
1977, pp.207-09.

2. Tapan Roy Choudhry, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities, New
Delhi, 1999 and John Zavos, The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in
India, New Delhi, 2000.

3. Romila Thapar, 'The Image of the Barbarian in Early India' in
Ancient Indian Social History, New Delhi, 1998, pp.152-192; Aloka
Parasher, Mlecchas in Early India, New Delhi,1991 and Brajadulal
Chattopadhyaya, Representing the Other? Sanskrit Sources and the
Muslims, New Delhi, 1998.

4. K.S.Singh, People of India: An Introduction, New Delhi, 1995.

5. M.S.Golwalkar, We or our Nationhood Defined, Nagpur, 1947.

6. Romila Thapar, 'The Rgveda: Encapsulating Social Change' in
K.N.Panikkar et.al. (ed) The Making of History, New Delhi, 2000, pp.
11-40; R.S. Sharma, Advent of the Aryans in India, New Delhi, 1999
Shereen Ratnagar, End of the Great Har appan Tradition, New Delhi,
2000.

7. An advocate of this theory is a computer scientist based in North
America, N.S. Rajaram, who has authored two books, Aryan Invasion of
India (1993) and The Politics of History (1995). The arguments and
interpretations in these two books are found to be fictional and
historically unfounded. See Shereen Ratnagar, Revisionist at work: A
chauvinistic Inversion of the Aryan Invasion Theory, Frontline,
February 9,1996. More grievously Rajaram has been found faking
evidence by Michael Witzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard
University. For his findings and criticism see website,
http://www.Safarmer.com/horseseal/update.html (The authoritative
version of Witzel and Farmer's collaborative work on Rajaram's
supposed findings has b een published as a cover story in Frontline,
October 13, 2000.)

8. H.D. Sankalia, 'In History', Seminar, No. 93, May 1967, pp.12-16.
Also see Alan Heston, 'An Approach to the Sacred Cow of India',
Current Anthropology, Vol.12, No.2, April 1971 and Marvin Harris, 'The
Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle', Cultural Anthropology, Vol.
7, No. 1, February 1966.

9. P.V.Kane, History of the Dharma Shastras, Pune, 1975, Vol.ii, pp.
772-76.

10. Complete Works of Vivekananda, Vol.V, Calcutta, 1966, pp.477-498.

11. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History,
Bombay, 1966.

12. Richard M. Eaton, 'Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States' in
Essays on Islam and Indian History, New Delhi, 2000.

13. Ibid.

14. K.N. Panikkar (ed.), The Concerned Indian's Guide to Communalism,
'Introduction', New Delhi, 1999, p.xiii.

15. Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in the Myth?, Chicago,1983.

16. K.N. Panikkar, 'An Overview' in S. Gopal (ed.) Anatomy of a
Confrontation: Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi Issue, New Delhi, 1991.

17. The details of this incident and the report of the enquiry are
available in Foreign Political Consultation, No.34, 28 December 1855,
National Archives of India, New Delhi.

18. National Curriculum Framework for School Education - A Discussion
Document, NCERT, New Delhi, 2000, p.24.

19. 'Conference of State Education Ministers and Education
Secretaries, October 22-24, Agenda Papers, Annexure.

20. Ibid.

21. National Steering Committee on Textbook Evaluation:
Recommendations and Report, NCERT, p. 6, New Delhi, 1998.

22. See Sanskar Saurab Series published by the Bharatiya Shiksha
Samiti, Rajasthan.

23. National Steering Committee on Textbook Evaluation:
Recommendations and Report, NCERT, p.14

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1801/18010730.htm

Volume 23 - Issue 01, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COMMUNALISM
A saffron assault abroad
NALINI TANEJA

The Hindu Right's attempts to rewrite school textbooks on India and
Hinduism in California meet with stiff resistance from renowned
historians and scholars in the U.S. and abroad.

THE connections between communalist political strategies and textbook
revisions were explored in detail in the media when the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) went about changing the syllabus of the National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and getting
school history textbooks rewritten while in government. But few would
imagine that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)-linked
organisations were in a position to put their stamp on school
textbooks in California in the United States. The partial success of
the "education" wings of the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh in getting many
of their revisions approved by the Curriculum Commission (CC) of the
California State Board of Education has caused a virtual
"international scandal".

The State Board of Education, California, is currently engaged in
approving the history/social science textbooks for grades six to eight
in schools, an exercise undertaken periodically. The Hindu Education
Foundation and the Vedic Foundation (based in the U.S.) have used the
occasion to push through "corrections" in the textbooks approved.
Shiva Bajpai, who constituted the one-member ad hoc committee set up
by the Board, succeeded in getting virtually all the changes requested
by these organisations incorporated into the textbooks. Professor
Emeritus at California State University, Northridge, and a Hindutva-
leaning adviser to the Board, Bajpai was proposed as expert by the
Vedic Foundation. That the Hindutva groups have not had a walkover is
thanks to the vigilance and commitment of the many academics involved
in Indian studies all over the world. Intervention by Professors
Michael Witzel and Steve Farmer in the form of a letter, signed by 50
other scholars, presented at a public hearing on November 9, resulted
in the Board reversing its initial approval of the pro-Hindutva
changes. Prof. Witzel is a well-known Indologist and has often taken
up the cudgels against Hindutva ideologues such as David Frawley, N.S.
Rajaram and Konrad Elst in the West.

Witzel's letter, endorsed among others by renowned Indian historians
Romila Thapar, D.N. Jha and Shereen Ratnagar, to Ruth Green,
President, State Board of Education, California, on behalf of "world
specialists on ancient India", voicing "mainstream academic opinion in
India, Pakistan, the United States, Europe, Australia, Taiwan and
Japan" on the issue, is now part of a concerted campaign encompassing
well-known scholars and hundreds of teachers and parents in
California.

These scholars make the important point that the "corrections"
proposed by the Hindu Right in the U.S. reflect political agendas
discriminatory to millions of people in India, especially the
minorities, `lower' castes, and women; and that such revisions have
already been debated thoroughly and rejected by academics and
progressive political opinion in India. Besides, they "do not reflect
the views of majority of the specialists on ancient Indian history,
nor of majority of the Hindus".

Asserting that "the proposed revisions are not of a scholarly, but of
a religious-political nature and are primarily promoted by Hindutva
supporters and non-specialist academics writing about issues far
outside their areas of expertise", the scholars have called on the
Board to "reject the demands by nationalist Hindu (Hindutva) groups".
From India, 12 historians have written to the CC to reject the changes
proposed by the RSS-linked organisations in the U.S.

Signatures opposing the sectarian changes have been pouring in by the
day and the Board, now alert to the issue, has constituted a new
Content Review Committee (among its members are Professors Witzel,
James Heitzman and Stanley Wolpert), which has put together a list of
recommendations that "allow for only such changes as meet the
standards of objective scholarship".

On the other side, the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic
Foundation protested the constitution of the Content Review Committee
and the inclusion of Witzel on it. They launched a campaign that the
"corrections" were incorporated through a proper procedure and claimed
that Witzel knew little about Hinduism and ancient Indian history.
They also asserted their right to represent Hindus in the U.S. and
their authority to decide what is the `authentic' depiction of
Hinduism and ancient Indian history.

Frantic mobilisation by Pranawa C. Deshmukh, a professor of physics at
the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, in support of the changes
suggested by the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation,
and the pressure of a host of organisations that constitute the
`parivar' in the U.S. resulted in many of the proposed changes in
textbooks getting the approval despite scholarly opinion being heavily
weighted against it.

The details of how this was achieved remind one of the way in which
RSS-sponsored revisions of textbooks were pushed through during the
BJP's tenure in power at the Centre. During the meeting for the
adoption of the recommendations of the Board by the CC in the course
of a public hearing on December 1 and 2, 2005, the members of the
Commission actually flouted the mandate of the Education Board. Of the
total 156 edits requested, the CC accepted 97 that conformed to what
the Hindutva organisations had proposed.

According to Witzel, "the proceedings of the CC meetings were highly
skewed, irregular and contravened the mandate given by the Board". The
Board had directed that the Commission approve only edits that
"improve the factual accuracy of materials". Instead, matters were so
arranged that several Commissioners had already left in the afternoon
of December 2, by the time this was voted on. Others abstained as they
did not know about the matter at hand (but with stacks of related
papers in front of them which they apparently had not read, including
the letter by more than 100 U.S. professors of Indian background and
others by groups of concerned Indian Americans). All were tired, and
one Commissioner, Stan Metzenberg, Professor of Biology at California
State University, Northridge, took the chance to push through
aggressively the Vedic Foundation's agenda. "The CC redefined their
mandate repeatedly, contravening the mandate of the Board that the
Commission should approve only edits that `improve the factual
accuracy of materials'; they allowed additional changes made from the
floor by Hindutvavadins to be inserted; they pushed through a
sectarian agenda that redefines Indian history and Hinduism," Witzel
said.

The Hindu Education Foundation appreciatively quotes Metzenburg as
saying: "I've read the DNA research and there was no Aryan migration.
I believe the hard evidence of DNA more than I believe historians."
However, finally it had to be agreed as: "Some historians believe in
the theory of an Aryan migration." He insisted that "Hindus should at
least be able to recognise their own religion when they read these
textbooks". In short, the textbooks must reflect popular common sense
rather than strive to mould/challenge popular common sense on the
basis of objective historical facts or the gains of scientific
enquiry.

Witzel puts it thus: "California has been hijacked by a saffron
agenda, worse by a sectarian saffron agenda. In this case, a strident
Vaishnava one that excludes Shaiva, Devi, Tantric, Lingayat and other
forms of Hindu worship and Darshana... The new CA [California] history
textbooks will reflect that."

Going by the "corrections" approved, the word "murti" means "God" (the
CC agreed to the Hindu request to change "statue" to "deity"), the
translation of "brahman" is "God", and all Hindus believe in God whose
name is Bhagwan.

The "corrections" demanded by the Hindutva organisations are integral
to the Sangh Parivar's political agenda in India, and similar to what
the BJP government was trying to do with the NCERT syllabus and
textbooks in social sciences, particularly history.

For example, among the "corrections" suggested is a clear attempt to
deny the integrality of the caste system in ancient India; it was
proposed to delete the reference altogether in one textbook. In
another, it was proposed that the picture of an untouchable be
removed. In yet another book, a reference to caste system as part of
Aryan society was replaced by: "During Vedic times, people were
divided into different social groups (varnas) based on their capacity
to undertake a particular profession." Another reference to caste is
to read as: "A late hymn of the Rg Veda describes the
interrelationship and interdependence of the four social classes."

On women, it was suggested that the references to gender bias in
ancient India were incorrect and insulting to Hindu society. Therefore
the line, "Men had many more rights than women" was to be replaced by,
"Men had different duties (dharma) and rights than women. Many women
were among the sages to whom the Vedas were revealed."

In another textbook, the changes included a specific addition that
"the recent archaeological proofs are negating the Aryan invasion
theory. The new theory suggests that Aryans were not the outsiders".
Elsewhere: "They [Aryans] were part of a larger group of people
historians refer to as the Indo-Europeans" is replaced with the
statement: "Some historians believe the Aryans were part of a larger
group of people known as the Indo-Europeans." "The Vedas came to form
the major beliefs of the religion called Brahmanism" is replaced with:
"The Vedas constitute the source of Hinduism." Early Aryan religion is
to be replaced with references to early Hindu religion.

Still other corrections follow the familiar pattern of ante-dating the
Rg Veda, confusing dates of Indus and Harappa city-based civilisations
with the Vedic civilisation, conflating Brahmanical practices with
Hinduism, describing the Vedas as the source and basic texts of
Hinduism, denying the plurality of gods worshipped through history in
favour of one God in different forms, depicting sudras as "serving all
classes" and doing "labour-intensive work" rather than serving `upper'
castes and so on. The current Hindutva preoccupations such as
asserting the sacredness of cows, vegetarianism and the Saraswati
civilisation myth have also found their way into the textbooks.

Tolerance is shown as "usual" for the time of Asoka in ancient India;
the references to technology, science and mathematics in ancient India
have been modified to enable suitable glorification; and negative
aspects of society are either deleted or presented as cultural
specificities rather than as oppressive ones.

THE moves by the Hindu Right in the U.S. are no flash in the pan. The
web sites of two of the organisations spearheading the Hindutva
campaign - the Hindu Education Foundation and the Vedic Foundation -
expressly state the revision of school textbooks in the U.S. as part
of their political agenda. They regularly "interact" with State
Education Committees that define school curriculum, conduct seminars
and training programmes for teachers and "create resources" for
parents who "wish to provide such opportunities for educators in their
own areas". There are fora of all kinds offering entertainment,
educational services and social support to youth. Alternative social
networks through bhajan mandalis, yoga centres, discussion groups,
special programmes and publications devoted to children, answer the
yearnings for roots and culture among immigrants. The RSS-linked
organisations have penetrated all these and are creating new ones all
the time. The entire effort is part of the RSS' larger goal to
"educate" Hindu children brought up in the U.S. to be "good Hindus"
and to "learn the truth about Indian history and culture", and
ultimately to finance their "social work" in India.

Not long ago, citizens' groups in India and North America exposed the
nexus between funding of charities in the West and the hate campaigns
and the expansion of communal networks of the Sangh Parivar in India.
Infusing hatred directly or through the educational set-up is not as
easy in the U.S. as it is through the Vidya Bharati schools and the
Ekal Vidyalayas in India. The strategy of the Hindu Right is different
in the U.S. It does the next best thing: it creates innumerable social
networks where prejudices are nurtured and fascist solutions to
problems legitimised, and glories of ancient India and Hinduism rule
the roost.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2301/stories/20060127000807700.htm

Volume 16 - Issue 9, Apr. 24 - May. 07, 1999

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COVER STORY
The DMK's turnabout

The circumstances surrounding the fall of the Vajpayee Government may
lead to a realignment of political forces in Tamil Nadu, where the
ruling DMK finds itself politically isolated.

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
in Chennai

EVEN as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary
Jayalalitha helped push Vajpayee Government out of power, her
principal political rival in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi, stood politically isolated
from his erstwhile allies. Karunanidhi's gamble in deciding to support
the BJP-led Government in the vote of confidence, breaking ranks with
four allies - the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), the Communist Party of
India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Janata Dal
- failed.

Indeed, no party in Tamil Nadu has emerged with a creditable image
from the latest political battle. Clearly, it was not "national
security", as Jayalalitha claimed, but her personal agenda to get the
DMK Government dismissed and extricate herself from the corruption
cases she faces that in the end drove her to desert the BJP-led
Government. On the other hand, the DMK's volte-face and its voting
alongside the BJP made a mockery of its claims to upholding the
Dravidian legacy of combating communalism; Karunanidhi sought to
justify his decision by saying that "Jayalalitha's corruption is more
dangerous than communalism."

The TMC seems to have emerged relatively unscathed; the party made
known its stand opposing in equal measure the BJP's communalism and
the AIADMK's corruption. TMC president G.K. Moopanar did not yield to
pressure from the DMK, some other parties and film actor Rajnikant to
bail out the Vajpayee Government by voting in support of the
confidence motion or abstaining during the vote. Moopanar also
reportedly told Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi and other
Congress(I) leaders that his party would not support a Congress(I)-led
Government in which the AIADMK was a partner.

Soon after the Vajpayee Government was voted out, Moopanar, in a clear
reference to the AIADMK, said: "Corrupt elements cannot be allowed to
go out of one door and re-enter the government through another door...
The TMC hopes that the Congress(I) will adhere to the principles
contained in the (Pachmarhi) declaration and that the new formation
will fight the twin evils of communalism and corruption."

Sources in the Left parties said that the DMK had placed "personal
interests above national interests" and had lost out eventually.
Informed sources in the TMC and the Left parties said that the DMK had
stood on prestige and that its actions were motivated by a desire to
see that Jayalalitha did not get the "credit" for toppling the
Vajpayee Government. A Left leader said: "If the DMK had joined us,
the credit would not have gone to Jayalalitha. She has accomplished
what she set out to do."

Karunanidhi shrugged off the defeat of the BJP-led Government, saying:
"In a democracy, victories and defeats are common... I do not want to
pretend that I do not feel sad about the defeat." He said the reason
for the defeat was the "magnanimity" of Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C.
Balayogi in allowing Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang to vote on
the motion.

THE fall of the Vajpayee Government and the circumstances that led up
to it may lead to a realignment of political parties in Tamil Nadu.
The TMC, the CPI(M) and the CPI may part company with the DMK and
forge a new front, and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(MDMK) led by Vaiko, which was a constituent of the BJP-led coalition,
may join it. The Congress(I) and the AIADMK may formalise an alliance
and may be joined by the PMK led by Dr. S. Ramadoss.

When it became clear that the AIADMK was preparing to withdraw support
to the Vajpayee Government, the BJP set in motion efforts to win the
DMK's support. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani and Vajpayee spoke to
Karunanidhi on the phone on April 9 and 10 respectively and sought his
party's support. Informed sources in the BJP and the DMK said that
Karunanidhi told them that the DMK's ideology was opposed to that of
the BJP's Hindutva, and that in any case only the party executive
could take a decision.

The first indication that the DMK might strike out on its own came on
April 11, when newspersons asked Karunanidhi what strategy the DMK
would adopt in the light of the political developments in New Delhi.
Karunanidhi asked: "How can we be in a front in which Jayalalitha is a
part?" The DMK also came under pressure from the BJP, which pointed
out that over the past year the Prime Minister had not yielded to the
AIADMK's repeated demands for the dismissal of the Karunanidhi
Government. Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthi of the Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress
too spoke to Karunanidhi and told him that even if the DMK did not
support the BJP, it should do nothing that would assist Jayalalitha in
her efforts to topple the Government.

Even after the DMK indicated that it would go with the BJP, Moopanar
stuck to his stand. "We will always work against corruption and
communalism," he said. When Moopanar met Congress(I) leaders in the
first week of April, he put forward only one condition: a Congress(I)
government should not include the AIADMK.

DMK leaders Murasoli Maran, MP, and Health Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy
met Moopanar on April 12 in order to explain their party's stand. But
Moopanar made it clear that the TMC would have nothing to do with
either the AIADMK or the BJP and that it expected the DMK to take a
similar stand. No such assurance came from Maran and Veerasamy.

S. THANTHONI
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi. His
gamble in deciding to spport the BJP-led Government in the vote of
confidence, breaking ranks with his party's allies in the State,
failed.

Jayalalitha left for New Delhi on April 12, ruling out the possibility
of a rapprochement with the BJP because Vajpayee and Advani had spoken
to Karunanidhi.

On April 13 the DMK executive met and passed a resolution which said
that since Jayalalitha posed "the biggest threat to the State and the
nation, the DMK will not support any formation in which Jayalalitha
found a place directly or indirectly." Karunanidhi summed up his
party's intention when he said: "Jayalalitha's corruption is a bigger
threat than communalism." The resolution added that Jayalalitha was
bent on toppling the Government not because she opposed communalism
but because she wanted to extricate herself from the corruption cases
she was facing. Besides, the "one and only item on her agenda" was to
get the DMK Government dismissed, it said.

The DMK's stand shocked the Left parties. State CPI secretary R.
Nallakannu and State CPI(M) secretary N. Sankariah issued a joint
statement asking the DMK to reconsider its stand and take "a political
position which will be firmly against the BJP Government."

When Frontline met Nallakannu and Sankariah separately, they assailed
the DMK line that "Jayalalitha's corruption is more dangerous than
communalism." They agreed that Jayalalitha was monumentally corrupt
and that she had tried to extricate herself from the corruption cases
against her and that the BJP had aided her in this. But, they noted,
the five parties in the DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu had fought this.
However, when the AIADMK had withdrawn its support to the Vajpayee
Government because of "internal contradictions" and the Government was
about to fall, the five parties should back that move, they said.
Jayalalitha's corruption could be tackled later, after the Government
fell, they reasoned.

N. BALAJI
TMC president G.K. Moopanar. The TMC seemed to have emerged
relatively unscathed from the latest round; the party made known its
stand opposing in equal measure the BJP's communalism and the AIADMK's
corruption.

Sankariah said: "We will not protect anybody who is corrupt. The law
will take its own course."

Both Nallakannu and Sankariah squelched the DMK's fears that if the
Congress(I) formed a coalition government with the AIADMK as a
partner, the DMK Government would again be dismissed. Nallakannu said
that in the absence of a majority, the Congress(I) would not be able
to dismiss the DMK Government, and that in any case the Communist
parties would firmly oppose any such move. Nallakannu said that the
DMK's decision to support the BJP at this juncture "does not behove
Tamil Nadu's political background because the legacy of the Dravidian
parties is to oppose sectarian politics."

Informed sources said that Karunanidhi felt "insulted" that CPI(M)
general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet met Jayalalitha in Delhi on
April 14. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan too met her the next
day.

Karunanidhi accused the CPI(M) and the CPI of initiating steps that
"certainly fragmented" the Third Front. He said: "I do not know what
prompted Mr. Surjeet to ignore the DMK and talk to Jayalalitha." He
wondered what had become of the assurances from West Bengal Chief
Minister Jyoti Basu and Surjeet that the DMK and the TMC were very
much a part of the Third Front and that a collective decision would be
taken. He accused the CPI(M) and the CPI of not consulting the DMK on
the fast-moving developments in New Delhi. He said he was sure that
the political parties which had lined up behind Jayalalitha now would
see her in her true colours at the appropriate time.

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Jayalalitha with CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan at Ajoy Bhavan,
the CPI headquarters, in New Delhi on April 15. The circumstances that
led up to the fall of the Vajpayee Government may lead to a
realignment of political parties in Tamil Nadu.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury refuted Karunanidhi's
allegation that he had not been consulted by the Left parties. He said
the Central and State leadership of the CPI(M) had been in constant
touch with the DMK. If the DMK wanted to change its position, the Left
should "not be used as an excuse," he said.

With the defeat of the Vajpayee Government, the DMK, which is without
friends, may face tough days ahead in the political arena. Karunanidhi
admitted as much when he said that the DMK had been isolated from the
Left parties. "But we will not be isolated from the people," he
added.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1609/16090210.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

CONTROVERSY
Artist’s alienation
V. VENKATESAN

Harassment by Hindutva fanatics and law enforcers made M.F. Husain
accept Qatari nationality.

V. GANESAN

THAT India’s pre-eminent artist, Maqbool Fida Husain, 94, had to
accept the citizenship of another country may well be the tragedy of
Indian secularism. On February 25, the Government of Qatar conferred
on him Qatari nationality, without his applying for the same.

Husain’s acquisition of Qatar’s citizenship will, in all probability,
raise questions about whether he can retain his Indian citizenship.
Under Section 9 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, any citizen of India who
voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country shall, upon
such acquisition, cease to be a citizen of India. The key word here is
“voluntarily”. Therefore, when the Central government seeks to
determine whether he “voluntarily” acquired the citizenship of Qatar,
it may well consider the circumstances that left him with no choice,
apart from the obvious facts.

The story of Husain’s struggle for justice has to be traced to 1996,
when Hindutva forces were on the ascendant following their success in
electoral politics. In September 1996, an article by one Om Nagpal,
titled “Is he [Husain] an artist or a butcher?” appeared in Vichar
Mimansa, a monthly magazine in Hindi published from Bhopal. In the
article Husain’s depiction of the goddess Saraswati in the nude was
reproduced. The magazine’s editor, V.S. Vajpayee, had come across it
in the book Husain - Riding the Lightning by Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni.
Husain had drawn this in 1970.

Maharashtra’s then Minister for Culture and Shiv Sena leader Pramod
Navalkar, who came across newspaper reports of the article, and then
read the article, wrote to the Mumbai Police Commissioner informing
him of the material referred to in the article. The Mumbai Police
treated the letter as a complaint and registered a case on October 8,
1996, against Husain under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between
different groups on account of religion, etc.) and 295A (deliberate
and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any
class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

These are provisions that cannot be invoked without the sanction of
the State government. The non-application of mind by the State
government, before granting sanction, thus sowed the seeds of bigotry.
Soon after, Bajrang Dal activists barged into the Herwitz gallery in
Ahmedabad’s famous Husain-Doshi Gufa art complex to destroy Husain’s
paintings. They ransacked the place and the damage was estimated at Rs.
1.5 crore. Damage was inflicted on all of Husain’s paintings,
including his depictions of the Buddha, Hanuman and Ganesha. The State
government’s reluctance to apprehend those responsible for the attack
encouraged a culture of impunity.

Artists in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad came out in a public expression
of solidarity with Husain. Husain, then in London, issued a statement
in which he said it was not his intention to hurt people’s feelings
with his art, but if he had, he regretted it.

Metaphoric art

Husain was born in a working class family of some means in Pandharpur,
Maharashtra. He intermittently attended the local college of arts in
Indore. At 17, he was apprenticed to a tailor; he also trained to
become a prayer leader. He moved to Mumbai in 1937 and lived for many
years in a slum. There he worked as an assistant to a billboard
painter, and then became a painter of signs himself. He also worked as
a furniture designer and as a toy maker. He painted determinedly
through all these phases.

His references to Indian culture are metaphoric. In fact, the
Saraswati sketch was really skeletal, an outline showing a woman as a
muse. It revealed Husain’s deft strokes. There was nothing in it that
could be called grotesque. As Rajeev Dhavan records in his book
Publish and be Damned: Censorship and Intolerance in India (Tulika
Books, 2008), it was the Vichar Mimansa headline calling Husain a
butcher that built up hatred against the painter and his works. In
fact, the publication should have been indicted for hate speech.

Since Vichar Mimansa was published from Madhya Pradesh, the
prosecutions should have been launched in that State. But there is no
legal bar to prosecute from any State where the publication was
distributed. This legal labyrinth prompted Hindutva forces to choose
Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party was in power,
rather than Madhya Pradesh, which was then ruled by a Congress
government led by Digvijay Singh.

Artists and historians had then sought to expose the vacuousness of
the protests by the Hindutva fringe groups. They pointed out that the
walls of the Hoysala temples depict a variety of Saraswati images, all
nude. Nudity was never questioned in Indian art. Experiments of early
Indian artists were much more daring than Husain’s.

Hate-mongers

On May 1, 1998, Bajrang Dal activists forced their way into Husain’s
South Mumbai home and created mayhem. They were ostensibly provoked by
one of his works exhibited in New Delhi. They interpreted that the
painting depicted Sita perched on the tail of a flying Hanuman, both
in the nude. Husain had never given a caption to this painting, and
the Hindutvavadis gave a free rein to their imagination.

This time, as in 1996, Husain suggested setting up a three-member
committee – an art critic, a lawyer and a representative of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) – that could go through his entire collection. He
said he was prepared to destroy immediately any work that the
committee found objectionable.

But the VHP-Bajrang Dal combine could not be pacified by these
concessions which, to many of Husain’s admirers, seemed unwarranted.

In 2006, Husain was accused of painting a ‘Naked Bharat Mata’ (nude
Mother India). The painting was put up for auction by Apparao
Galleries of Chennai. The title Bharat Mata was given by the
auctioneer without reference to Husain. Husain again apologised and
withdrew the painting from the charity auction.

SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP

M.F. Husain at the inauguration of his exhibition "...and not only 88
of Husain" at the National Art Gallery in Mumbai in Janary 2004.

Although Husain apologised to stop the hate campaign, he was innocent
and had no intention of painting something profane.

The hate-mongers remained dissatisfied. It was then that Home Minister
Shivraj Patil instructed the police chiefs of Delhi and Mumbai to take
“appropriate action” against Husain on the basis of an intelligence
input that Husain’s Bharat Mata and other controversial paintings of
Hindu goddesses could spark communal trouble. Newspaper reports about
the May 2006 advisory shocked the artistic community.

The advisory was based on the Law Ministry’s review of about six
paintings by Husain. The Law Ministry had concluded that a sound case
had been made for the prosecution of Husain. The United Progressive
Alliance government, which now swears by its resolve to give
protection to Husain if he returns to India, has no explanation why it
responded the way it did in 2006.

Artists such as Vivan Sundaram, Ram Rahman, Shubha Mudgal, Arjun Dev,
K. Bikram Singh, S. Kalidas, Krishen Khanna and Rajen Prasad wrote to
Shivraj Patil on May 8, 2006, to withdraw immediately the advisory, if
it had been issued, as such an action had never been taken earlier
against a visual artist. “The implications of such a step are very
serious and strike at the very foundations of our democratic polity,”
they wrote. They pointed out to Patil that Husain’s work is a
celebration of the multi-cultural and multi-religious life of
independent India. Though a Muslim, Husain has done a series of
paintings celebrating the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the
mythological traditions of other religions that have taken root in
India – such as Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism as well as
Islam. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha on this acclaim.

Meanwhile, death threats were issued, putting a price on Husain’s
head. Ashok Pandey, who claimed to be the president of the Hindu Law
Board, offered a Minister from Uttar Pradesh Rs.101 crore to kill
Husain in response to the Minister’s offer of Rs.51 crore to any
person who assassinated the Danish cartoonist who had insulted the
Prophet.

In Gujarat, Jashubhai Patel, who was earlier president of the BJP unit
in Mehsana district, announced that he would pay one kilogram of gold
to anyone who gouged out the eyes of Husain and cut off his right
thumb so that he would never be able to make paintings of Hindu gods
and goddesses. The Congress Minority Cell in Madhya Pradesh offered Rs.
11 lakh to any patriot who would chop off Husain’s hands because he
had hurt Hindu sentiments. The call was issued by Akhtar Baig, who was
vice-president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee in Indore.

If these threats dissuaded Husain from returning to India, he could
not be blamed for it. The police in these States did not take any
action against those who issued the threats despite their identity
having been revealed in the media. Such threats are covered under
Section 503 of the IPC (criminal intimidation), and punishment for
this offence under Section 506 is imprisonment up to seven years.

The same month, there was an exhibition of Husain’s paintings at Asia
House in London. A protest was organised by Arjun Malik of the Hindu
Human Rights Campaign against the exhibition and against the Japanese
firm Hitachi that had supplied plasma screens to the gallery for
better viewing. Asia House gallery succumbed to the pressure by
concluding the exhibition much before the scheduled date.

The controversy over the Bharat Mata painting was an invitation to
bigots to use legal means to harass Husain. In a sense, the legal
process itself was a punishment. A social worker filed a complaint
before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, in Indore, who summoned
Husain. Husain feared that his life would be in danger in Indore if he
appeared before the magistrate. A bailable warrant was then issued
against Husain. Soon other complaints followed.

Typical of these complaints was that neither the complaint nor the
summoning order referred to any sanction granted by the Central or
State governments – a mandatory requirement under Section 196 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). In a complaint registered in
Pandharpur, a non-existent provision, Section 501B IPC, was invoked on
the basis of which a non-bailable warrant of arrest was issued against
him by a lower court. The court directed the Kerala government to
present him in the Pandharpur court as and when he arrived in Kerala
to receive the Raja Ravi Varma Award for 2007. The basis of the
complaint was that Husain had hurt the sentiments of Hindus through
his painting of Bharat Mata. These multiple proceedings had the
chilling effect of distracting him from his obsession and love for
art. It also dissuaded him from returning to India from his self-
imposed exile in Dubai.

Landmark judgment

In December 2006, the Supreme Court directed transfer of all the
pending cases against him in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar to
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi. When the ACMM issued
a summons to Husain in three such cases, he filed a revision petition
in the Delhi High Court to quash the same.

Despite the ruling of the Delhi High Court on May 8, 2008, quashing
the summons, three cases are pending against him in the Sessions Court
at Patiala House in Delhi on virtually identical charges.

Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul delivered the landmark High Court judgment
in 2008. The essence of the judgment was that Husain’s Bharat Mata
painting is not obscene, as it is not lascivious and nor does it
appeal to prurient interests. The painting depicts India in a human
form, and the naked portrayal of a concept which has no particular
face does not qualify the as obscene, Justice Kaul reasoned. By way of
an abstract expression, Husain tried to elucidate the concept of a
nation in the form of a distressed woman; the aesthetic touch to the
painting dwarfs the so-called obscenity in the form of nudity, he
explained. He also disagreed with the view that the painting could
offend religious feelings.

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against this judgment. But three
more cases are yet to be disposed of at the Patiala House District
Court, New Delhi. In one case, a first information report (FIR) was
registered against Husain, and the court ordered a police
investigation, which has not yet been concluded. The remaining two
cases have been transferred from other States to Delhi. It is clear
that after Justice Kaul’s judgment, these cases too needed to be
quashed by the District Court. The Delhi High Court quashed one such
case in 2009. The pendency of these cases made the prospect of his
arrest and harassment real if he returned to India.

Even though Home Minister P. Chidambaram promises full security to
Husain if he returns to India, the threat of vandalism against his
paintings still looms large. Organisers of any exhibition of modern
art, let alone art summits, now tend to exclude Husain’s paintings
from it.

Akhil Sibal, Husain’s advocate in Delhi, said: “The Government of
India has been a silent spectator to his harassment for 15 years. It
has taken neither any clear position nor any unequivocal step to
secure him, and those who support him, a harassment-free environment.
Let the government not be held hostage and paralysed by the shrill
voices of extremists.”

In the case decided by Justice Kaul, the Additional Solicitor General
while assisting the Court promised that he would advise the Central
government to take steps by way of appropriate legislative amendments
to prevent harassment of artists, sculptors, authors, film-makers and
so on in different creative fields. Justice Kaul hoped that this
aspect would get the attention it deserves and the legislature in its
wisdom would examine the feasibility of possible changes in law.

Justice Kaul had made it clear that the criminal justice system should
not be invoked as a convenient recourse to ventilate any and all
objections to an artistic work. The system, he warned, can cause
serious violations of the rights of people in the creative fields, and
this represents a growing intolerance and divisiveness within society
and poses a threat to the democratic fabric of the nation. Therefore,
he said, the magistrates must scrutinise each case in order to prevent
vexatious and frivolous cases from being filed and ensure that it is
not used as a tool to harass the accused. Rather than make empty
promises to Husain to guarantee his security if he returns to India,
the government may well initiate concrete action on the reforms
suggested by Justice Kaul.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270611500.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

CONTROVERSY
Shock and shame
S. ARNEJA

Artist Vivan Sundaram.

IN a recent interview to NDTV, Maqbool Fida Husain, the first global
modernist painter from India, made his decision to accept Qatari
citizenship sound like a practical imperative. He said since he had
found sponsors in London (United Kingdom) and Qatar to complete his
three projects on ancient civilisations, he would have to become a non-
resident Indian (NRI) because of the excessive tax structure
prevailing in India. He justified the decision by saying that even
film directors such as Roman Polanski and Ingmar Bergman had to leave
their countries.

He said: “Had I been 40, I would have fought them [attackers of his
art] tooth and nail but here I want to focus only on my work. I don’t
want any disturbance. I need all comforts and facilities to the
maximum.” He added: “These boundaries are only political boundaries.
The visual arts especially is a universal language; you can be
anywhere in the world but the work that you do has a strong link to
5,000 years of our great Indian culture.”

However, most artists in India expressed shame, sadness and shock at
Husain being pushed to the edge. They recalled Husain’s life and the
implications of his enforced exile.

The renowned Hindustani classical singer Shubha Mudgal says: “It is
tragic that we allowed this to happen. Having gone through what M.F.
Husain has, we are no one to tell him where to go or not. The
government is talking of disaster management now but where was it all
these years? Unfortunately, art does not transcend all boundaries of
prejudices and that prevents the artistic community from taking a
stand together. To top it all, there is no space for artists to get
together to discuss Husain and other issues such as censorship. If
this can happen to Husain, what can happen to many lesser-known
artists?”

The photographer Ram Rahman hesitates to use the word “controversial”
to describe Husain’s paintings. “We have to ask who made these
paintings controversial? Why use a discourse that has been defined by
right-wing militants? And how can we talk of Qatar’s freedom of
expression if Husain and other artists are being attacked in India?”
He is sceptical about the Indian government’s promise of security to
Husain. he said: “He is not a corporate honcho or a political leader.
He is a free bird. Would he be able to work in an environment he knows
is not conducive to work? All because you are letting the RSS
[Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] and national politics, and not the
Constitution, define citizenry.”

In her recent essay “Modernist Myths and the Exile of Maqbool Fida
Husain”, the art historian Geeta Kapur profiles his exile in its
tragic, political and discursive meanings. She says that Husain faces
multiple exiles. According to her, “if an exiled artist is seen to
radiate a sense of self, an emanation of solitude, crucial to the
creative soul”, it was also crucial for Husain, facing so much apathy,
to impose on himself an exile in order to exercise uncompromised
understanding of ethical issues.

She goes on to write: “Husain is stereotypically a postcolonial artist
and his exile carries the entire burden of the citizenship/community
discourse in India… In post-Independence India, Husain’s visible
identity as a Muslim figured emblematically but was not overplayed,
since the secular was simply a taken-for-granted for all modern
artists. Now, 60 years hence, even as he (so admirably) refuses to
play the opposite role of an embittered Muslim or a national martyr,
he must rely on the modern artist’s sense of singularity to salvage
himself.”

The Husain issue has many political implications. Branding is a
contemporary political reality: someone who is a human rights activist
can be branded as a Maoist or someone speaking for minority rights can
be seen as a terrorist in a security-driven system. All these trends
recoil into suppression of free speech, the most important pillar of a
democratic society.

SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Film director Shyam Benegal.

In a liberal space, none of the artists discount the right of the
groups protesting against Husain but are critical of violent methods
to assert their point. The film-maker Shyam Benegal, known for his
socially sensitive cinema, says: “There is a convergence of the
politics of intimidation and the politics of identity in these times,
which creates the ‘other’ very easily. How can we just blame the right-
wing groups? It is an organised attitude. The Bhandarkar Oriental
Research Institute in Pune was ransacked in 2004 by the Sambhaji
Brigade, a cultural group of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Similarly, what happened with Shah Rukh Khan is absurd. There are ways
to protest because in a country that guarantees free speech,
sentiments can get hurt. We all have our ways to protest, but to say
you have no right to exist is a matter of concern.”

An important reading of Husain’s ostracism was done by Vivan Sundaram,
painter, sculptor and installation artist: “Visual images can have
many readings, and inbuilt into them are greater ambiguities. But
interpretation in a way that could make way for an attack is being
done by organised right-wing groups and not individuals.” When asked
whether Husain is trying to make a statement by accepting Qatar’s
citizenship, he said, “In a way, he is making some kind of a statement
that if you are insisting I should live in exile, then I will get rid
of this. Vigilance in the public domain is keeping India away from
many progressive thoughts. The government cannot just provide security
but it has to act consistently against fundamentalists. It is a
process, but the political leadership must stand up to it.”

In this polemic, what remains conspicuous is the government’s
emergence as a protector only when the issue of foreign nationality
surfaced. Geeta Kapur gives an explanation. She traces the transition
of an artist from a citizen to an interlocutor in the changed public
discourse. While, she says, the space for artists as citizens began to
be suppressed during the naxalite era of the 1960s and 1970s and then
during the Emergency, it became starker in the 1990s.

“The right-wing swing in Indian politics during the 1990s made the
‘othering’ process at work in the polity fully visible to the more
radical intelligentsia, as it also made visible the alienation of the
minorities and Dalits whose political struggles echoed through and
beyond the public sphere. The artist-interlocutor now undertook to
investigate the fault lines within civil society structures, as well
as to address the conditions of life that fall outside the protocols
of governances,” she writes.

By accepting Qatar’s citizenship, Husain precisely does this. For the
first time, perhaps, with Husain’s issue, citizenry engages with
minority rights and victimisation. These are issues of social
exclusion in terms of caste, gender and religion, which get lost in an
overarching identity of a ‘citizen’. It is in this context that Geeta
Kapur writes: “Husain’s exile is a personal tragedy and a national
shame. It is the exile of a modern artist, of a secular artist and,
more explicitly, a Muslim citizen-artist from secular India. Relayed
into each other, these aspects condense into a logic whereby it is
precisely as a secularist that Husain is accused.”

She goes on to say: “How ironic that antagonists as well as
protagonists should make it mandatory for Husain to publicly embrace
Islam and its metaphysics, endorse a sectarian identity, valorise the
Islamicate legacy, and interpret his present engagement with Arab
civilisation as an endorsement of his ‘originary/ethnic’ identity!
More ironical, that he must thereby shun not only the secular but also
the sovereign status he sought in the embrace of modernity.”

Faced with the empathy within the artistic community for Husain, the
Indian government has woken up to the need to bring Husain back to
India to salvage whatever little goodwill it may have among the
artists and liberal ideologues. But it needs to do more to convince
them about its sincerity.

By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270611800.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

SOCIAL ISSUES
Khap terror
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
in Rohtak

Haryana’s caste panchayats continue to punish couples, practically
unchecked, for breaking “brotherhood norms”.

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Azad Singh and Lakshmi, parents of Satish Berwal. The family has been
given police protection.

ON February 12, Meham town in Rohtak district, Haryana, saw a
citizens’ convention that was unusual in more than one sense. First,
it was being held from the ramparts of the Meham Chaubisi Chabootara,
a platform reserved for members of the Meham panchayat (a
conglomeration of 24 villages, better known as the Meham Chaubisi).
Second, the meeting was not dominated by any one caste. Third, it was
a congregation of secular and democratic groups, and a good number of
women participated in it. (Women had never attended meetings at that
venue since all caste and khap panchayats are male-dominated.) Fourth,
it was a meeting where caste and khap panchayats and their
undemocratic ways were roundly criticised. People from neighbouring
villages also attended the meeting and expressed their opposition to
the illegal acts of the panchayats.

The meeting reflected a growing anger against the actions of self-
styled khap panchayats. In early February itself, there were at least
three reported cases of panchayats ordering the expulsion of married
couples for having allegedly violated one community norm or the other.
Meham shot into notoriety 20 years ago following complaints of poll-
rigging and booth-capturing in an Assembly byelection. The election
had to be countermanded twice because of large-scale violence and the
murder of an independent candidate. The Meham Chaubisi has
historically played a crucial role in elections.

Bhaichaara victims

On January 31, Kavita and Satish, a young couple from Kheri Meham with
a nine-month-old child, were told by the khap panchayat that their
marriage three years ago was in violation of the gotra norm of
bhaichaara, or brotherhood. Kavita belongs to the Beniwal gotra and
Satish to the Berwal gotra, and their marriage had seemingly not
violated any caste or gotra norm. However, according to the bhaichaara
norm, girls belonging to a village’s dominant gotra could be accepted
in that village only as sisters, and not as wives. Of late, this has
been used to harass couples who either married out of their own choice
or whose marriages were arranged by their families.

Twenty-one members of the Beniwal gotra convened a meeting and decided
to expel Kavita and Satish from the village. Kavita could not stay in
the village as the wife of Satish, but the child could live with
Satish’s father, Azad Singh, the meeting decreed.

As a punishment for allowing the marriage to take place, the 65-year-
old Azad Singh was paraded around the village with a shoe shoved into
his mouth. Azad Singh’s family is among the poorer ones in the village
and belongs to a minority gotra. “We were told that we could stay on
in the village if we donated whatever land we possessed to the village
dera (a village shelter used by mendicants). As per the ruling, Satish
would become his own child’s uncle while I have to pay Rs.3 lakh for
the upkeep of my grandchild. How will I procure all the money for this
after giving away my land?” said Azad Singh.

Anil Rao, Senior Superintendent of Police, Rohtak, told Frontline that
the couple was now staying in Bhiwani district and that he had sent
word to the police authorities there to provide them security.

Kavita had, with support from her parents, who live in Bhiwani
district, approached the SSP with a detailed complaint, naming the
people who had convened the panchayat and humiliated her father-in-
law. She demanded action against the 21 gotra members involved in the
act. But the police registered a first information report (FIR)
without mentioning any names – reportedly owing to pressure from
influential people. Frontline learnt that at least two revenue
department employees and one panchayat samiti member were involved in
the humiliation of Azad Singh and in the decision to expel the
couple.

The SSP said that the police were doing everything possible to help
the couple and claimed that police intervention had forced the Meham
Chaubisi to reverse its judgment. A joint meeting of the Berwal and
Beniwal khaps resolved that the couple could live as man and wife but
outside their village. The Chaubisi also condemned the humiliation of
Azad Singh.

At Azad Singh’s house, emotions run high. “They have done their worst.
What more can they do?” said Azad Singh, referring to his humiliation.
While he and his wife Lakshmi are relieved to have police protection
against further assaults by members of the dominant gotra, they are
scared to say openly that they will bring their daughter-in-law home.
“What would you do if you are surrounded by the village toughs? But
how can a man and his wife reconvert as brother and sister?” wondered
an elderly relative of Azad Singh. However, she said that the
panchayat was right in its decision but others had influenced it
wrongly. Lakshmi wondered what would be the nature of her relationship
with her grandson, Raunaq, if her son and daughter-in-law were to see
each other as brother and sister.

It was shocking that none of the influential Berwal gotra members was
ready to stand by the family. Dharamraj, a former sarpanch of Kheri
village, said that the khaps’ decision, taken at a joint meeting of
the two khaps, was final. The role of an elected sarpanch, as has been
seen in most cases relating to such issues, is marginal. An older
citizen of the village told Frontline that an elected sarpanch was of
use only if he was influential and “strong”.

The police maintained a studious silence regarding the couple’s desire
to live together in their own village of Kheri. “Mindsets have to
change, and then there is the issue of bhaichaara that cannot be
disturbed,” said a police officer.

It is significant that the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu
notice of the issue and asked the Haryana government to file a reply.
The Director-General of Police told the court that the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, does not cover the activities of
khap panchayats. Equally significant is the fact that apart from the
Left parties and the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA),
which took up the cudgels on Kavita’s behalf, several individuals,
including veteran Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala, and
organisations such as the All India Lawyers’ Union, the All India
Kisan Sabha and a few youth organisations, denounced the undemocratic
diktats of the caste panchayat.

Apart from the Kheri incident, three other cases of caste panchayat
atrocities were reported in the recent past. A couple in Jind district
came under immense pressure to call off their engagement after a
section of residents of the boy’s village, Budalkhera, claimed that
the gotras of the groom and the bride had brotherly relations. The
Budalkhera panchayat declared that the marriage could not take place
in the village. The families of the couple resisted and finally, on
February 6, the panchayat reversed its order. But it ensured that the
wedding took place outside the village.

Similarly, on November 1 last year, a joint panchayat of the Garhi
Ballam and Sundana villages ordered a couple to leave the village for
violating gotra norms. The couple quietly left. No complaint was
lodged.

Curiously, on February 3, in a village in Hisar district, members of
the Scheduled Caste Dhanak community objected to a wedding and
banished the boy from the village, alleging gotra violations. That was
perhaps the first time that the Dhanak community had targeted one of
its own. Until then, only a section of the Jat community was found
raising vocal and violent objections on the grounds of gotra
violations. It was because of the intervention of some Left and
democratic organisations and the determination of the boy’s mother, a
widow who threatened to commit suicide, that the panchayat finally
relented.

The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government’s record in taking on illegal
actions of caste groups is less than satisfactory. Such incidents are
as common as they were before, but many of them go unreported.

“There are so many more important issues – such as dowry, domestic
violence and livelihood issues. But we spend most of our energy and
time fighting the unconstitutional fiats of these self-styled
panchayats,” said Jagmati Sangwan, president of the State unit of
AIDWA.

She pointed out that though the government had promised to set up
shelters for couples who were being targeted by khap panchayats, to
date not a single one had come up.

The Rohtak SSP told Frontline that harassed couples could stay in the
police lines, sharing accommodation with other families until the
government shelters came up. “We can’t provide independent
accommodation for 2,000 couples overnight,” he said.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270604400.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

THE STATES
Facing flak
S. DORAIRAJ
in Chennai

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes criticises Tamil Nadu for
poor implementation of Dalit welfare measures.

E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN

A Dalit woman staging a dharna outside the Office of the Special
Tahsildar (Adi Dravidar Welfare) in Salem on June 16, 2008, demanding
a patta for the site of her house.

THE sharp criticism of the State administration by the National
Commission for Scheduled Castes for perceived inadequacies in
enforcing the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989, and in implementing various welfare measures
aimed at empowering Dalits has put the Tamil Nadu government in a
tight spot. Despite denials by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who is
also a top leader of the United Progressive Alliance which is in power
at the Centre, NCSC Vice-Chairman N.M. Kamble’s remarks after a review
meeting in Chennai on February 18 have triggered a fresh debate on a
wide range of Dalit-related issues. These include different forms of
discrimination against Dalits, the lacunae in enforcing the S.Cs and
S.Ts (POA) Act, non-distribution of adequate cultivable land and house
sites to the oppressed sections, non-clearance of the backlog of
promotions, introduction of 3 per cent internal reservation for the
Arunthathiar community, and the lack of political will to end manual
scavenging.

The Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF), led by
functionaries of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and several
Dalit organisations, which participated in the review meeting, made
their submissions to the commission. The NCSC dropped a bombshell by
pointing to the large number of pending cases and the low rate of
conviction in the State under the S.Cs and S.Ts (POA) Act. It did not
take lightly the failure on the part of the police to complete the
investigations in time in many cases. The commission also pointed out
that the details pertaining to the grounds for acquittal in many cases
were not made available to it. It substantiated its claims with a year-
wise break-up of pending cases, disposals and convictions.

The commission pulled up the government for not furnishing district-
wise and ward-wise information regarding the implementation of welfare
schemes for Dalits. The non-appointment of a liaison officer to take
care of the interests of Scheduled Caste government employees
particularly earned the NCSC’s ire. The commission also expressed
anguish over the lack of initiative on the part of the authorities to
retrieve lands that were assigned to the Scheduled Castes but were
still in the possession of non-Dalits. There are as many as 8,000 such
cases.

Top officials of the State government who attended the meeting assured
the NCSC of submitting the information required by it in a month. But
Karunanidhi took issue with the criticism the next day by announcing
that he would apprise the Centre, particularly Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, of his government’s performance in promoting the welfare of
Dalits.

Refuting the NCSC’s “barbed comments”, Karunanidhi came out with a
detailed statement highlighting the various welfare measures
implemented by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government after he
assumed office as Chief Minister for the first time in 1969. These
include decisions to raise the quantum of reservation for the S.Cs and
the S.Ts from 16 per cent to 18 per cent in 1971 and to earmark a
quota of 1 per cent exclusively for the S.Ts in 1990.

He said the State government had allocated more funds under the
Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) than the earmarked 19 per cent. He
further said the allocations for divisible expenditure out of the
State Plan funds had grown from Rs.567 crore in 2005-2006 to Rs.2,615
crore in 2009-2010. It was his government that named the Law
University in the State after B.R. Ambedkar, he recalled. On the
commission’s contention with regard to the low conviction rate in
cases registered under the S.Cs and S.Ts (POA) Act, Karunanidhi said
just blaming the government counsel and the courts appeared to be the
motive behind the criticism.

Several Dalit organisations in the State, however, do not seem to be
convinced by the Chief Minister’s claims. Addressing a joint press
conference, Dalit leaders including Puthiya Tamizhagam president K.
Krishnasamy and Republican Party of India’s State general secretary
S.K. Tamilarasan accused the DMK government of attempting to find
fault with the NCSC.

They urged the government to come out with a White Paper in three
months giving district-wise and block-wise details on reservation in
jobs and education, distribution of land, and retrieval of ‘panchami’
land to promote the socio-economic conditions of Dalits in the State.
They also wanted the data on the allocation of funds under the SCSP
and development projects executed for Dalits in villages to be
released without delay.

P. Sampath, State convener of the TNUEF, said there was nothing wrong
in the NCSC Vice-Chairman’s observations regarding the manner in which
S.Cs and S.Ts (POA) Act cases were handled in the State. He said
compromises were reached in many cases at the intervention of the
police, who register counter-complaints from the dominant communities
against the Dalit victims. The bail applications of offenders are
seldom objected to by the police, he alleged.

He said State and district panels set up by the government to monitor
the implementation of the Act had become dysfunctional. In many cases,
investigations were not done by deputy superintendents of police as
laid down by the rules, he alleged.

Official data show that the rate of conviction in cases of atrocities
against Dalits is very low. According to information provided by the
Inspector-General of Police (Social Justice and Human Rights), there
were 18,752 cases – 4,445 fresh cases and 14,307 “brought forward”
cases – involving S.Cs before special courts between 2003 and 2009. Of
these, only 412 ended in conviction, whereas there were 3,354
acquittals. In 2009 alone, there were 420 acquittals against 29
convictions; 2,656 cases were pending at the close of the year.

Official sources acknowledged the prevalence of injustices such as
denial of rights to Dalits to worship in temples, bury or burn their
dead in common burial or cremation grounds; denial of passage to
graveyards; and denial of land, water and promotions.

V. GANESAN

N.M. Kamble, Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes,
addressing the media after a review meeting in Chennai.

An issue that has come to the fore now is the 3 per cent special
reservation in the State for Arunthathiars in education and
employment. Replying to a query at the press conference held after the
review meeting, Kamble held that the sub-quota announced without
consulting the commission was “unconstitutional” and could be
challenged in a court.

However, Karunanidhi strongly defended the internal reservation for
Arunthathiars, who “are still at the lowest rung in terms of socio-
economic and educational status”. Recalling the Chief Secretary’s
letter to NCSC Chairman Buta Singh in this regard on November 25,
2008, he said that though, according to rules, any such proposal
should be brought to the notice of the commission, it was not
mandatory to get its consent. The Tamil Nadu Arunthathiars (Special
Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions including Private
Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in Services
under the State within the Reservation for the Scheduled Castes) Act,
2009, was enacted after consulting a one-man panel, he pointed out.

The TNUEF has welcomed the Tamil Nadu government’s stand on this issue
though some Dalit organisations have threatened to challenge the Act
in court. Referring to the High Court’s direction that the Act must be
implemented with effect from April 29, 2009, when it came into force,
the TNUEF has urged the NCSC to ensure that it is carried out in tune
with Clause (5) of Article 338 of the Constitution. It also wants a
State Commission for S.Cs to be formed. The front has stressed the
need for raising the quota for Dalits by 1 per cent as the Scheduled
Castes constitute 19 per cent of the State’s total population of
624.06 lakhs as per the 2001 Census.

Sampath said the most contentious issue was the redistribution of
surplus land and wastelands to Dalits as land had become a status
symbol and was an important factor in solving livelihood issues.
Official sources say the government is keen to provide house site
pattas to roofless Dalit families.

According to them, 1,74,952 Dalit families were given house site
pattas from April 1, 2006, to May 31, 2009, under the one-time special
scheme to regularise encroachments on government poramboke lands. And
44,522 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) was distributed to 41,064 Dalit
families in five phases, from September 17, 2006, as part of
implementing the Chief Minister’s pet scheme of distribution of two
acres of wasteland to families of the landless poor. The government
has also announced that 11,660 house site pattas will be issued during
2009-2010. But Sampath said all these were only on paper and in many
places Dalits found it difficult to take possession of the lands which
were in the hands of dominant communities.

The NCSC’s review in the State has also paved the way for the revival
of the demand for retrieval of several thousands of ‘panchami’ lands
gifted to Dalits during British rule in the 1890s. According to
informed sources, only 1.26 lakh acres of the 12 lakh acres of
panchami lands were available now and most of these were occupied by
non-Dalits and industrial houses.

Significantly, the TNUEF and leaders of some Dalit organisations have
demanded that the Tamil Nadu government give serious consideration to
the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan and other special assistance provided by
the Centre. They say that only by doing so will the government be able
to reduce the gap between Dalits and the rest of society and speed up
the process of integrating them with the mainstream.

The government has been claiming that the allocations are made under
the SCSP as per guidelines. Official data show there has been a steady
rise in the allocations from the earmarked 19 per cent in the last
four financial years. For instance, it was 20.87 per cent in
2008-2009, up from 19.09 per cent in 2005-2006, it says.

However, the TNUEF and the Dalit organisations have been accusing the
government of not allocating funds adequately under the scheme besides
diverting them to other schemes. The Chief Minister time and again has
attempted to allay the apprehensions of the Dalit organisations by
promising them that he would take the responsibility to see that not
even a small portion of the funds allotted for improving the status of
the S.Cs was diverted to other schemes.

But the TNUEF feels that Dalit organisations and political parties
should be vigilant as funds earmarked for Adi Dravidar welfare have
been diverted in the past. They allege that, for example, the
construction of quarters 10 years ago for 44 legislators representing
reserved constituencies was done with funds so earmarked.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270603800.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COVER STORY
Less for the poor
PRAVEEN JHA

The UPA government seems to have grown complacent about its budgetary
allocations for the social sectors.

WITH clear indications of the economy reviving fast, the Union
government should have taken an expansionary fiscal stance not only to
accelerate growth but also to finance adequately the interventions
that promote social sector development. However, it has chosen to
revert to the path of fiscal conservatism, albeit gradually, with
Budget 2010-11.

A “calibrated exit strategy from the expansionary fiscal stance of
2008-09 and 2009-10”, which the 13th Finance Commission has
recommended strongly, seems to have been given shape to as the
government’s total expenditure is projected to fall from 16.6 per cent
of GDP (gross domestic product) in 2009-10 (Revised Estimates) to 16
per cent of GDP in 2010-11 (Budget Estimates). In tandem with the
compression of public expenditure, the fiscal deficit is projected to
fall from 6.7 per cent of GDP in 2009-10 (R.E.) to 5.5 per cent of GDP
in 2010-11 (B.E.), and the revenue deficit is estimated at 4.0 per
cent of GDP in 2010-11 (B.E.), significantly lower than the 5.3 per
cent figure for 2009-10 (R.E.).

As regards the policy direction suggested by the 13th Finance
Commission, both the Report of the Commission (tabled in Parliament on
February 25) and Budget 2010-11 indicate clearly that the next five
years will witness growing efforts by the government towards
elimination/reduction of deficits through compression of public
expenditure. Consequently, any significant boost to public expenditure
in the social sectors in the last two years of the 11th Five-Year Plan
(2010-11 and 2011-12) seems unlikely.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government seems to
have grown complacent about its budgetary policies for the social
sectors. While Budget 2010-11 does pay some attention to a few of the
important sectors/issues such as women and child development,
development of minorities, rural housing and technical education, its
overall allocations and proposals for the social sectors (which
include education, health and family welfare and water and sanitation)
seem to fall far short of expectations.

As shown in Table 1, the allocation for social services (which in the
jargon of budgets in our country refers to social sectors such as
education, health and family welfare, water and sanitation, nutrition,
welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward
Classes, and social security and welfare, among others) in the total
expenditure in the Union Budget has been stepped up from 8.9 per cent
in 2007-08 to 10.4 per cent in 2008-09. However, it remains at 10.4
per cent in the B.E. for 2010-11. As a proportion of GDP, the
government’s total expenditure on social services showed a somewhat
noticeable increase from 1.3 per cent in 2007-08 to 1.6 per cent in
2008-09; but it has been stagnant in the last two Budgets.

State governments continue to bear a significant share of the
country’s total public expenditure on social sectors – as per the
Reserve Bank of India’s document ‘State Finances: A Study of Budgets
2009-10’, the total expenditure from Budgets of all States on social
services and rural development stood at 5.4 per cent of GDP in
2007-08, which increased to 5.8 per cent in 2008-09 (R.E.) and 6 per
cent in 2009-10 (B.E.). If we deduct the expenditure on rural
development from these figures and also exclude the double counting of
the Centre’s grants-in-aid to States in social services (which appear
both in the Union Budget and in the Budgets of States), the total
public expenditure in our country on social services could well be
around 6 per cent of GDP even in 2009-10.

Thus, despite the somewhat noticeable increases in the Union
government’s expenditure on social services, mainly during the UPA-1
regime, the country’s overall public expenditure on social services
continues to be very low. Before one jumps to the conclusion that
State governments are primarily responsible for this, one has to keep
in mind that over the past two decades the federal fiscal architecture
has been altered consistently in favour of the Union government.

The analysis of Budget 2010-11 by the Centre for Budget and Governance
Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi, shows that despite the increase in
the States’ share in Central taxes and duties to 32 per cent (from
30.5 per cent) and a number of specific-purpose grants recommended by
the 13th Finance Commission, the Gross Devolutions and Transfers (GDT)
from the Centre to the States would be 5.4 per cent of GDP in 2010-11,
which is almost the same as that in 2007-08 and 2008-09. This is
unlikely to reverse the disturbing trend of a decline in the share of
GDT in aggregate expenditure in State budgets. Hence, the primary
responsibility for the persistence of low public spending on social
sectors lies with the Union government.

The Union Finance Minister has claimed that his government has adopted
a number of budgetary policies to create entitlements for the poor
(over the past six years). However, it may be argued that the National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is the only Plan scheme of
the Union government rooted in an entitlements-based approach. In
contrast, most of the social sector Plan schemes of the Union
government continue to follow a welfarist approach and provide low-
cost, ad hoc interventions. An entitlements-based approach towards
public provisioning in the social sectors would require a significant
strengthening of the regular and sustained government interventions in
these sectors, which does not yet seem to be on the government’s
policy agenda.

Spending on education

In 1966 the D.S. Kothari Commission had recommended that the total
public spending on education should be raised to the level of 6 per
cent of GNP (gross national product) by 1986. Subsequently, many
political parties reiterated this as a commitment in their election
manifestos; the UPA, too, promised it in the National Common Minimum
Programme (NCMP) in 2004. However, the overall public spending on
education continues to be way below 6 per cent of GDP; even in 2007-08
(B.E.), it was only 3.67 per cent of GDP (including the spending by
Central and State education departments as well as other departments.

The Union government’s total allocation for education in 2010-11
(B.E.) stands at 0.71 per cent of GDP, which is slightly better than
the 0.64 per cent recorded for 2009-10 (R.E.). However, such gradual
and small increases in the Budget outlays for education cannot result
in any visible increase in overall public spending on education in the
country.

In addition to the 0.71 per cent of GDP allocated in Budget 2010-11
for the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), States will be
given access to Rs.3,675 crore for elementary education under the 13th
Finance Commission grants for 2010-11. There has been a significant
stepping up in the outlay for the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
from Rs.550 crore in 2009-10 (R.E.) to Rs.1,700 crore in 2010-11.
Other areas showing increased outlays in Budget 2010-11 include the
adult education and skill development scheme, educational loan
interest subsidy in university and higher education, scholarship for
college and university students and the upgradation of existing
polytechnics and setting up of new ones.

In the current discourse on planning and government budgeting in the
country, there are very few benchmarks to assess the adequacy of
public spending on development schemes. In this context, the outlays
recommended by the Planning Commission for the 11th Five-Year Plan
period (2007-08 to 2011-12) could be treated as benchmarks, even
though the quality parameters underlying these benchmarks would hardly
be satisfactory. With just one more Union Budget left in the 11th Plan
period, at least 80 per cent of the outlays recommended by the
Planning Commission should have been made for Plan schemes during
2007-08 to 2010-11. However, the analysis by the CBGA (“Union Budget
2010-11: Which Way Now?”, available at www.cbgaindia.org) shows that
the total provisioning in the four Budgets during 2007-08 to 2010-11
has been only 12 per cent of the recommended outlay for the Rashtriya
Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, 36 per cent for teacher training and 46 per
cent for the UGC; the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the midday meal
scheme have fared better with 76 per cent and 65 per cent
respectively.

However, in the context of education, what is most disconcerting about
Budget 2010-11 is its complete silence on the financing of the Right
to Education Act, which the Union government is reportedly planning to
notify from April 1. There have been reports in the media about the
Union government’s initiative to modify the norms and unit costs under
the SSA so as to make the provisioning under this flagship programme
in line with the Right to Education Act. However, the allocation for
the SSA has been increased only by 14.5 per cent from Rs.13,100 crore
in 2009-10 (R.E.) to Rs.15,000 crore in 2010-11 (B.E.).

Meagre amount for health

The UPA made a commitment in the National Common Minimum Programme
(NCMP) in 2004 that the total public spending on health would be
raised to the level of 2 to 3 per cent of GDP, which was also
reiterated in the 11th Five-Year Plan. However, the combined budgetary
allocation (that is, the total outlays from both Union Budget and
State budgets) for health stands at a meagre 1.06 per cent of GDP in
2009-10 (B.E.). The Union government’s allocation for health (that is,
the budget for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) shows a
negligible increase from 0.35 per cent of GDP in 2009-10 (R.E.) to
0.36 per cent of GDP in 2010-11 (B.E.). Thus, even after Budget
2010-11, the government is far short of the NCMP target of raising the
total public spending on health to 2 to 3 per cent of GDP.

In his Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed
to include in the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana all those NREGS
beneficiaries who have worked (in the scheme) for at least 15 days in
the last fiscal year. While this is a welcome development, there are
several concerns pertaining to the implementation of the RSBY
(relating mainly to the role of private health insurance companies and
the private health care institutions), which need to be addressed. The
Budget allocation for the National Rural Heath Mission (NRHM) has been
increased only by 10.8 per cent, from Rs.14,002 crore in 2009-10
(R.E.) to Rs.15,514 crore in 2010-11 (B.E.). Given the huge
infrastructural gaps and the human resource crunch in the health
sector across the country, the budget for the NRHM should have been
increased significantly.

The allocation for the national disease control programmes has gone
down from Rs.1,063 crore in 2009-10 (B.E.) to Rs.1,050 crore in
2010-11 (B.E.), which is disturbing given that a number of diseases
covered under the scheme have witnessed increased prevalence in the
recent past.

The overall allocation for medical education and training has gone
down from Rs.3,256 crore in 2009-10 (B.E.) to Rs.2,679 crore in
2010-11 (B.E.). Within this, the most evident is the fall in
allocation for the establishment of AIIMS-type super specialty
hospitals, where the allocation has declined to the tune of Rs.700
crore. This is happening at a time when the budget allocation for
postgraduate medical education needs to be stepped up significantly to
fulfil the requirement of specialist doctors in the country. The
Finance Minister’s proposal for an annual health survey to prepare a
district health profile for all districts is a welcome step; but the
government would need to allocate adequate funds for this purpose. It
may be noted here that no allocation towards this has been made in
Budget 2010-11.

The persistence of low public spending in the country on social
sectors is also rooted in the small public resource base of the
country. In this context, it is disconcerting to note that with the
latest Budget the tax-GDP ratio for the Centre shows a small increase
from 10.3 per cent in 2009-10 (R.E.) to 10.8 per cent in 2010-11
(B.E.). Moreover, a liberal estimate of the amount of additional tax
revenue the government could have collected in 2009-10 if all
exemptions/incentives/deductions (both in direct and indirect taxes)
had been eliminated stands at a staggering 8.1 per cent of GDP. It is
ironical that exemptions of this magnitude, in fact, do not fit even
with the neoliberal rhetoric of fiscal consolidation, not to speak of
it being out of sync with the oft-repeated mantra of an “inclusive
growth by a caring and enabling government”.

Praveen Jha is on the faculty of the Centre for Economic Studies and
Planning, JNU. He is also the Honorary Economic Adviser to the Centre
for Budget and Governance Accountability, New Delhi. The article draws
substantially on the CBGA’s analysis of Union Budget 2010-11.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270602400.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

EDITORIAL
Not for ‘aam aadmi’

IN the course of his presentation of the Union Budget for 2010-11 to
Parliament, the Finance Minister made a passing reference to his
having presented the Union Budget way back in 1984. One is indeed
inclined to admire the longevity of Pranab Mukherjee’s occupation of
some Cabinet berth or the other through the last 25-plus years (with
some years in the Opposition and a brief period in political
wilderness). However, the ordinary people of our country are unlikely
to admire the Budget he has presented for 2010-11.

Consider the context in which the Budget has been presented. The
Economic Survey 2009-10, while providing a generally self-
congratulatory assessment of the government’s management of the
economy during 2009-10, reminds us that the agricultural economy has
done very poorly. Agricultural output is estimated to decline by 0.2
per cent over the current financial year in comparison with 2008-09.
This is even as industry in general and manufacturing in particular
are estimated to have done exceptionally well in recovering from the
impact of the global economic slowdown. The other disturbing feature
of the current economic context is, of course, the nearly 20 per cent
rise in food prices over the recent period. In fact, the Finance
Minister, in his Budget speech, said: “Since December 2009, there have
been indications of these high food prices, together with the gradual
hardening of the fuel product prices, getting transmitted to other non-
food items as well. The inflation data for January seems to have
confirmed this trend.”

The response of the Budget to these two key concerns, both of which
receive mention in it, has not merely been extremely inadequate. It is
likely to accelerate inflation and do little for agriculture. This is
evident from a look at the Budget proposals on indirect taxes. The
Budget proposes a partial rollback of the rate reduction in Central
Excise duties from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem on all non-
petroleum products. It restores the basic duty of 5 per cent on crude
petroleum. It also slaps a 7.5 per cent duty on diesel and petrol and
10 per cent on other refined products. In addition, the Budget
proposes enhancement of the Central Excise duty on petrol and diesel
by one rupee a litre each. This is a massive dose of indirect taxation
that will certainly be both highly inflationary and extremely
regressive in its impact, especially considering that incomes of most
working people in India are completely unprotected against inflation.
Besides stoking inflationary fires further, these moves will impact
negatively on agricultural output. Keeping in mind the likelihood that
the move to a “nutrient-based” regime of fertilizer subsidy that has
been announced by the government will result in significant increases
in the prices of fertilizers, one is appalled by the nonchalance with
which these measures have been proposed and defended vigorously
afterwards in and outside Parliament.

There is a certain asymmetry when it comes to the impact that a change
in indirect taxes has on prices in the Indian economy. When they are
raised, the additional burdens are almost invariably passed on to the
consumer. When they are reduced, there is no guarantee that the
benefits are passed on. Thus, while the reduction in excise and
customs duties last year represented a huge tax giveaway in the name
of a fiscal stimulus to the corporate sector, it is far from obvious
that ordinary people benefited by way of moderation in prices. This,
too, needs to be borne in mind in assessing the justifiability of the
reductions made last year and the increases being proposed now.

The regressive character of the Budget is also evident in the doling
out of tax concessions to the well-to-do. The proposals in respect of
direct taxes include the lowering of rates of personal income tax over
certain income slabs, a reduction in surcharge on corporate income tax
from 10 per cent to 7 per cent, and concessions for corporate business
entities in various forms. All these taken together are estimated by
the Finance Minister to result in a revenue loss of Rs.26,000 crore,
while his indirect tax proposals are estimated to bring in additional
revenues of Rs.46,000 crore in the net, taking into account some
concessions in indirect taxes as well.

What can one say about the expenditure proposals in the Budget? First
of all, the overall expenditure of the Union government proposed for
2010-11 constitutes an increase of 8.6 per cent over the corresponding
figure for 2009-10. Given the rate of inflation, this signifies little
increase in real terms, and may even imply a reduction. The proposed
increase in Plan expenditure is 15 per cent, which again would be a
rather modest increase in real terms. The non-Plan expenditure is
slated to decline in real terms, its increase over Budget Estimates
(B.E.) 2009-10 being only 6 per cent.

In terms of sectoral allocations, the rhetoric about agriculture and
rural development, as also the social sector, in the Budget speech is
not reflected in the allocations. The Central Plan outlay for rural
development in 2010-11 is Rs.55,190 crore as against the B.E. of Rs.
51,769 crore in 2009-10. The outlay for agriculture, irrigation and
flood control taken together has been enhanced from Rs.11,068 crore in
B.E. 2009-10 to Rs.12,834 crore in 2010-11, a modest increase in real
terms. Considering the persistence of an agrarian crisis across the
country for over a decade now (though the intensity varies across
States and regions and different social classes in the agrarian
population), this is a very inadequate response.

As for the much-hyped focus on the social sector, the Plan outlay for
all social services does increase by more than 22 per cent, but this
has to be seen against the present abysmal state of health and
education and the low base from which increases in recent years have
occurred. Moreover, if one takes into account the squeeze on the
finances of State governments, which account for the bulk of social
sector expenditures, the picture that emerges is hardly reassuring. In
fact, in education, the combined expenditures of the Central and State
governments still fall far short of the figure of 6 per cent of GDP
promised in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the UPA
government of 2004-09. The same is the case for the health sector. The
current Budget does not even begin to address these concerns.

After having budgeted for a mere Rs.1,120 crore from “other capital
receipts” (read “disinvestment”) in B.E. 2009-10, the government has
gone ahead and disinvested public sector equity to an amount of Rs.
25,958 crore as per the Revised Estimates (R.E.), exceeding even the
proposal in the Economic Survey of 2008-09 that annually Rs.25,000
crore should be the disinvestment target. The B.E. for receipts from
disinvestment for 2010-11 is Rs.40,000 crore. Considering that market
capitalisation of listed Central public sector undertakings (PSUs) has
taken a beating in the stock market, the Finance Minister’s argument
that disinvestment is all about unlocking the values of PSUs hardly
holds water. The other misleading phraseology about “inviting people
to own shares in PSUs”, is, to say the least, disingenuous. Moreover,
the sale of shares of profitable PSUs contradicts the promise made in
the NCMP of the earlier UPA government.

Overall, Budget 2010-11 reflects two important aspects of the current
political context: Parliamentary elections are four years away and the
present UPA government does not need the support of the Left parties
to stay in power.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270600800.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COVER STORY
The march of neoliberalism
PRABHAT PATNAIK

Union Budget 2010-11 has given a forward thrust to the neoliberal
agenda in all the crucial sectors where "reforms" had been stalled.

KAMAL NARANG

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressing the media after the
Economic Survey 2009-10 was tabled in Parliament on February 25.

THE strategy underlying Budget 2010-11 is eerily reminiscent of that
of Margaret Thatcher. In pushing her “market-fundamentalist” agenda
against the working class and the trade unions, Thatcher had enlisted
the support of the affluent middle class. She had wooed the yuppies
and the city slickers of London’s financial district, and to this end
given direct tax concessions to the middle class, even while jacking
up indirect taxes on the poor and the working people in the midst of a
raging inflation.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has done almost exactly the same.
For pushing the neoliberal agenda, he has enlisted the support of the
affluent middle class by giving it direct tax concessions even as he
has jacked up regressive indirect taxes. Until now, neoliberalism in
India had been covered by a patina of concern for the aam aadmi. With
this Budget it has come of age; the patina is off.

The government claims that this Budget, too, is for the aam aadmi; but
that is unsustainable. The suggestion that persons earning in excess
of three lakhs of rupees a year, who are the beneficiaries of direct
tax concessions, constitute the aam aadmi, while the fisherman who
risks his life daily by venturing out to the sea for an annual income
of less than Rs.20,000, and who will be hit hard by the diesel price
hike, does not, can only be ironical.

There was a time when even as the government increased petrol prices,
it would spare diesel prices, since diesel and kerosene prices were
linked for technical reasons, and raising the former would necessarily
raise the latter, to the detriment of the poor. But such restraint no
longer prevails. Diesel prices have been raised and kerosene prices
will follow. Indeed, a whole lot of petro-product prices are going to
be raised as a consequence of the increase in import duty, that is, a
new round of price increases on top of what Pranab Mukherjee has
announced is in the offing. And if the Kirit Parikh Committee’s
recommendations for linking domestic petro-product prices to world
prices are accepted, which is likely, then these prices will be jacked
up even further in the coming months.

Any such linking of domestic petro-prices to world prices makes little
sense, since it would mean importing speculation-induced world oil
price fluctuations, which can be quite massive, into the domestic
economy, and hence making the domestic price-level as a whole a
plaything in the hands of international speculators. But the
government’s commitment to neoliberalism appears to outweigh any
concern over this.

Specious argument

This lack of concern is manifest even in Mukherjee’s argument for
raising the import duty on petroleum and the Central excise duty on
petrol and diesel, which is quite specious. Since domestic petrol
prices had not been raised adequately even when world crude prices had
crossed $130 a barrel, the government, he argues, has earned the right
to raise prices now, that is, the current price hike is a reward for
the government’s earlier abstinence. This is untenable since it is not
as if petrol prices had been lowered earlier and are now being
restored to pre-lowering levels. Besides, the biggest component of
petrol and diesel prices in the country consists of government taxes;
there is no logical compulsion therefore about raising taxes on this
commodity any further.

The “cascading effect” of the higher taxes on petrol and diesel, which
would raise the prices of these commodities by close to Rs.3 a litre,
has been much discussed. The government’s lack of concern, however, is
not just about the inflationary implications of this move but about
inflation in general. Since the food price rise, by the government’s
own admission, is because of supply shortages (even if these shortages
are artificially compounded by hoarding and speculation), the strategy
must be to throw government-owned surplus foodgrain stocks (that is,
actual stocks minus the minimum buffer stocks), which exceed 27
million tonnes as on January 2010, on the market. These stocks cannot
obviously be thrown on the open market, since speculators would then
buy them up gleefully, as had happened in 1972-73, and blunt their
anti-inflationary impact; they have to be released through the public
distribution system. But, going by the Budget figures, the government
has no intention of doing so.

The fact that the food subsidy is lower than that for 2009-10 by over
Rs.400 crore, suggests that the government does not intend to sell
these stocks through the PDS or merely hold on to them (for either of
these options would have raised the food subsidy, the latter because
of higher interest payments). It intends to do precisely what it
should not do, namely, sell them in the open market, which means that
it is not too concerned about inflation.

In fact, Mukherjee said as much in his post-Budget television
interview. He claimed that his way of combating inflation was by
augmenting supplies in the long run, for which he had taken steps in
the Budget, such as earmarking Rs.300 crore for 60,000 “pulses and
oilseeds villages”, Rs.400 crore for extending the “Green Revolution”
to the eastern region of the country, and Rs.200 crore for sustaining
the gains made in Green Revolution areas through “conservative
farming”. As for short-run measures, these, according to him, were
unnecessary since the inflation rate was coming down anyway.

Self-limiting phenomenon

The fallacy behind the argument about inflation coming down is often
not appreciated. Inflation, precisely when it hurts the people, is a
self-limiting phenomenon. It can be categorised into two kinds: one
caused by excess demand and the other by “cost-push”. Cost-push
inflation arises when some input cost (or excise duty as in the
present case) rises, which is “passed on” in the form of higher
prices; in response to this initial price rise, money wages rise,
which, in turn, is passed on in the form of still higher prices, and
so on. As long as each component of price keeps rising with the rise
in the price, to ensure that its share in total value does not
decline, the price rise continues ad infinitum. But if some cost
element, typically the wage cost, does not rise in tandem with the
price, then inflation eventually comes to a halt. But this also means
that the real wage rate comes down because of a cost-push inflation,
and this coming down is the reason for the end of cost-push inflation.

Much the same can be said of excess-demand-caused inflation. Such
inflation gets eliminated when someone’s demand is curtailed, and
typically the demand curtailed is of that group whose money income
does not go up as prices rise, that is, whose money income is not
indexed to prices. This is typically true of the working people,
especially of the vast mass of unorganised workers. Precisely because
their incomes are not indexed to prices, inflation hurts them, and
eventually comes to an end by squeezing them.

S. THANTHONI

The suggestion that persons earning in excess of Rs.3 lakh a year
constitute the `aam aadmi', while fishermen who risk their lives daily
by venturing out to sea (in the picture, a group of them in Chennai)
for an average annual income of less than Rs.20,000 and who will be
hit hard by the diesel price hike do not, can only be ironical.

In Latin American countries where inflation rates in the past have
quite often been quite phenomenal, the reason lies in the fact that
wages in such cases have been indexed to prices. In India, by
contrast, where wages are not indexed, inflation will necessarily
always come down, but it will do so precisely by hurting the poor. The
whole purpose of government action should be to prevent the
elimination of inflation through this odious mechanism, by attempting
its elimination in some other way, for example, by de-hoarding (which
adds to supply), imports (which do the same), and using the PDS (which
insulates the poor against a squeeze on their demand). But if none of
these things is done, inflation will still come down, but by squeezing
the consumption of the poor.

An example will make this last point clear. Let us start from a
situation where the supply of foodgrains is, say, 100 units and equals
the demand at a price of Re.1 a unit. The wage bill in the economy is
Rs.80, all of which is spent on foodgrains. Now, suppose supply falls
to 95, so that there is an excess demand of 5 units at the old price.
The price will rise, that is, inflation will set in. If all incomes
are indexed to the price-level, then this excess demand will never get
eliminated and hence inflation will continue ad infinitum. But if
wages are not indexed but other incomes are, then inflation will come
to an end when the price has climbed up to Rs.16/15 (or Rs.1.07), for,
at that price, the workers can buy only 75 units of foodgrains from
their total wage bill of Rs.80, which means five units fewer than
before; and this eliminates excess demand. So, inflation is self-
limiting precisely because the poor get squeezed by it.

Hence, when Mukherjee derives satisfaction from the fact that
inflation is coming down, even without the government’s doing anything
about it, that satisfaction is totally misplaced; the inflation coming
down in this way shows precisely that the people are being squeezed by
it. Likewise, when Mukherjee claims that the effect of petrol and
diesel price increases “will get absorbed” over time, he omits to
mention that this absorption can occur only by squeezing the poor (as
in the above example of cost-push inflation). Inflation’s coming down
does not mean that the world returns to its pristine state of
happiness. This coming down itself, far from being a source of
satisfaction, should rather be a cause for concern, because it is
necessarily at the expense of the poor.

Coming to Mukherjee’s “long term measures” for raising food supplies,
what exactly these are becomes an intriguing question. The proposed
expenditures on the “pulses and oilseeds villages” and the extension
of the Green Revolution are too trivial to matter. The reduction in
fertilizer subsidy, which will raise fertilizer prices, will, if
anything, have a negative effect on output. The thing he must be
pinning his hopes on, therefore, is the opening up of retail trade,
which allegedly will help in “bringing down the considerable
difference between farm-gate, wholesale and retail prices”. This view
is attributed to the Prime Minister, who believes that opening up
retail trade will increase competition.

“Opening up” retail trade necessarily means the induction of corporate
capital, including multinational corporations (MNCs), into this
sector, for which they have been clamouring for some time. We are,
therefore, being asked to swallow the argument that bringing in
monopolists to drive out myriad petty traders will increase
competition! Anyone who believes that bringing in monopolies reduces
the gap between farm-gate and retail prices should ask the coffee
producers of Kerala: they get a pittance for their crop even when
retail coffee prices are soaring. If the government genuinely wants
the gap between retail and farm-gate prices to close, it should get
the public sector to take on a larger role in the marketing of crops,
as the various commodity boards used to do before neoliberalism
prevented them from doing so.

Corporate hegemony

SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Since the food price rise is because of supply shortages, the strategy
must be to throw government-owned surplus foodgrain stocks, which now
exceed 27 million tonnes, on the market through the PDS. But the
Budget figures indicate that the government has no intention of doing
so. Here, at the mandi at Najafgarh, New Delhi, a file picture.

Besides opening up retail business, Budget 2010-11 announced a number
of other steps, such as private participation in storage, setting up
of private cold storage and cold room facility for agricultural and
marine products and meat, and the accessing of external commercial
borrowing for this latter purpose, all of which entail corporate
hegemony over peasant and petty production. And since finance for
setting up godowns and cold storage will be counted as agricultural
credit, and hence come under priority sector lending, much of the
ambitious target for credit support to “farmers” will actually go to
large corporate houses, and even to MNCs.

This Budget gives a thrust to the neoliberal agenda in other ways as
well. Disinvestment is to proceed apace, and is a major contributor to
the so-called “Miscellaneous Capital receipts” of Rs.40,000 crore,
even though there is no valid argument for it. Disinvestment is
theoretically no different from a fiscal deficit: the latter puts
government bonds into non-government hands, while the former puts
government equity into non-government hands; they are only different
forms of raising finance but with identical macroeconomic effects.

A Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission is to be set up to
“rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws to bring them in line
with the requirements of the sector”, a euphemism for “financial
sector liberalisation”. And there is an additional instrument for this
particular purpose: a Financial Stability and Development Council,
which is to be set up “to strengthen and institutionalise the
mechanism for maintaining financial stability”. Add to all this the
allocation of coal blocks for captive mining, and you find that in all
the crucial sectors where the “reforms” had been stalled, that is,
public sector, financial liberalisation and retail trade, this Budget
has given a forward thrust to the neoliberal agenda. But then what
about the increase in social sector and rural development outlays that
the Budget promises? This is a chimera. Central plan outlay on rural
development (all comparisons are Budget Estimate to Budget Estimate)
is slated to increase by a mere 6.6 per cent over 2009-10, which means
a real absolute decline; and the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (NREGS) outlay is to rise by only 2.5 per cent.

As for Central Plan outlay on social services, the increase provided
under the Plan is significantly counterbalanced by a decline in non-
Plan expenditure in this sector. If we take the sum of Central Plan
outlay and non-Plan expenditure on social services, then the nominal
increase in 2010-11 over 2009-10 is only 12.5 per cent, which in real
terms means very little.

This is hardly surprising. After all, the total expenditure of the
Central government is expected to rise in nominal terms by a mere 8.6
per cent, which means stagnation in real terms. Within this overall
stagnation, large apparent increases on specific items are more likely
to be results of statistical jugglery or reallocation, rather than
matters of any substance.

The pushing of the neoliberal agenda requires inter alia a
neutralisation of opposition from State governments, and this can be
ensured only if their mendicant status is perpetuated. The 13th
Finance Commission, by keeping States’ share of taxes under Article
270 at 32 per cent (up marginally from the 30.5 per cent under the
previous Commission), compared with the 50 per cent demanded by most
State governments, has not helped matters. And the Central government
can be relied upon to compress its loans and grants to States, to
offset even such increases in revenue transfers that it is statutorily
required to make. In Budget 2010-11, for instance, while its statutory
transfers increase by 26 per cent over the current year, its loans and
advances rise by a mere 8.9 per cent. With such compression, one can
be sure that the States will continue to retain their mendicant
status.

Neoliberalism is clearly resuming its stalled march, adopting a
Thatcherite strategy for doing so. But the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government miscalculates by ignoring the fact that, unlike in
Thatcher’s Britain, the affluent middle class it is wooing is a
minuscule segment of our society, while those squeezed by
neoliberalism, the workers, peasants, agricultural labourers, and
petty producers, constitute its overwhelming majority.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270600400.htm

Volume 27 - Issue 06 :: Mar. 13-26, 2010
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

COVER STORY
Enabling whom?
JAYATI GHOSH

In keeping with the overall approach of an “enabling” state, the
Economic Survey has proposed to do away with food procurement and
distribution.

R. RAGU

At a fair price shop in Chennai. States with successful public
distribution systems are those that have such large numbers of BPL
households that their lists are close to being universal. But the
Economic Survey seeks to replace this system with food coupons for
targeted households.

THIS year’s Economic Survey contains a new and unusual chapter
entitled “Microfoundations of inclusive growth”. It is unusual because
it is largely theoretical, thereby providing an addition to the
generally descriptive review of the Indian economy over the past year
according to the government’s own perception. It also contains,
possibly for the first time in an Economic Survey, an explicit
statement of what might be described as the present government’s
economic philosophy and its approach to certain crucial questions of
economic policy. The fact that some statements in it found an echo in
the Finance Minister’s Budget speech confirmed that this was indeed
the case.

It is certainly welcome that the basic goal of economic policy is
identified as inclusive growth, recognising that “growth must not be
treated as an end in itself but as an instrument for spreading
prosperity to all” (page 22). Inclusive growth in turn is given a more
precise definition than is usual, as growth that improves the incomes
and other measures of conditions of life of the bottom 20 per cent of
the population.

This inclusive growth is to be delivered by a change in focus to
enabling government, which is seen as “a government that does not try
to directly deliver to its citizens everything that they need. Instead
it (1) creates an enabling ethos for the market so that individual
enterprise can flourish and citizens can, for the most part, provide
for the needs of one another, and (2) steps in to help those who do
not manage to do well for themselves”, for example by “directly
helping the poor by ensuring that they get basic education and health
services and receive adequate nutrition and food” (page 23).

It is immediately clear that this is a vision of the economy in which
it is taken for granted that the market mechanism generally delivers
the economically desired outcomes for most citizens, and the role of
the government is therefore mainly to ensure that such markets
function smoothly and to take care of the stragglers, “for there will
always be individuals, no matter what the system, who need support and
help”. This vision excludes the possibility of the process of market-
driven economic growth itself generating greater material insecurity
and impoverishment for a significant section. Trickle-down is seen to
operate for most of the population; for the bottom fifth, the
government has to step in.

Obviously, in such a framework, public delivery of essential goods and
services will necessarily be targeted to those that are defined as
poor. The chapter contains an eloquent argument in favour of
redefining the nature of public delivery to minimise direct
involvement of the state in favour of market-based mechanisms such as
coupons and vouchers targeted to the poor. This is what allows for the
claim that more can be achieved with less fiscal resources, by
eliminating the administrative costs of running large public schemes.

This would be a major departure from the current practice, with
potentially far-reaching implications in a very wide range of goods
and services that are seen to constitute essential socio-economic
rights. It is impossible to discuss all the different implications
here, so I shall briefly consider only the interventions proposed for
the food economy. The arguments have wide applicability with reference
to other sectors as well.

Managing the food economy

There is an extended discussion on how to manage the food economy,
which is only to be expected given that food price inflation is
clearly the most significant economic problem in the country at
present. Yet the discussion presents several different arguments which
turn out to be mutually inconsistent. In keeping with the overall
approach of an “enabling” state rather than an actively
interventionist one, it is proposed to do away with the existing
system of government food procurement and distribution. It is argued
that this is prone to corruption, adulteration and similar flaws, and
that it is necessary to craft policy that takes into account that
people are the way they are (not always ethically sound) and craft
incentive-compatible policies accordingly. So this is to be replaced
with a system of food coupons (of a certain value of money) given
directly to targeted households and which can be exchanged for wheat
or rice at market prices, giving the freedom of choice to households
about the shop from which to purchase.

This proposal betrays some ignorance about the background of the
current food subsidy and the purposes of the public system of food
procurement and distribution in India. These were (and fundamentally
remain) to provide farmers with a minimum price that covers their
costs, to ensure that basic foodgrain is transported from surplus to
deficit areas of the country, and to build up a system of buffer
stocks that protects the country from international price volatility
and external dependence. It is because the market mechanism was found
wanting in achieving any of these goals that such measures were deemed
necessary – and the persistence of such measures not only in India but
in many countries across the world (including most developed ones)
suggests that this is still the case. Food security within a nation as
large as India is not possible without ensuring the viability of food
production by domestic farmers and the existence of a national
distribution system that tries to reach deficit areas quickly. There
is no way that replacing this with a system of food coupons to
selected households can achieve these basic aims.

There is of course the further question of how to ensure that the
public at large – and the poor in particular - get access to
affordable food. This too is a current function of the public
distribution system (PDS), but it has been less than successful in
meeting it for a variety of reasons. The Economic Survey correctly
recognises the many problems in the existing system but tends to treat
the entire system as homogenous across the country.

There are States in the country (such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and to
a lesser extent Andhra Pradesh) where the PDS is a strong, functioning
and largely non-corrupt system, and there are other States where the
opposite is true. Surely, policymakers need to study and understand
these differences if they actually want to make the system work.

What is clear is that targeting tends to add to the problems, not only
because of the significant administrative costs associated with
identifying the poor and monitoring them but because of well-known
errors such as unfair exclusion from and unjustified inclusion in the
list of poor households. That is why the States with more successful
public distribution systems are those that have such large numbers of
declared below-poverty-line (BPL) households that their lists are
close to being universal. The Survey argues that the Unique
Identification System (UID) will solve that problem, but that is
believing that there can be a technological fix to what is essentially
a socio-economic problem. The UID card only identifies a person; the
description of that person as belonging to a poor or non-poor
household remains as cumbersome, problematic, politically charged and
administratively challenging as ever.

The Survey does provide some useful and interesting proposals with
respect to managing the foodgrain stocks and correctly argues for a
more flexible approach in releasing stocks that not only is responsive
to market pressures but also anticipates them. Indeed, the need to
prevent foodgrain allocation from becoming a political tool in the
hands of the Centre vis-a-vis the State governments is all the more
pressing in the light of recent experience. However, it should be
obvious that such a proactive role of the state in preventing food
price increases will not be possible at all if the entire system is
replaced with a system of food coupons!

There is another comment with direct relevance to the food economy
that deserves to be noted. In keeping with the overall perspective
that markets generally know best, the Survey argues for erring on the
side of less control whenever there is some doubt on the matter. This
is then used to suggest that a ban on futures trading in essential
commodities is unwarranted. “An enabling government takes the view
that if we cannot establish a connection between the existence of
futures trading and inflation in spot prices, we should allow futures
trade” (page 24). Yet there are at least two flaws in this argument.

First, as any econometrician would know, it is generally possible to
question any link between two economic phenomena, and so the argument
about whether future trading has been associated with significant spot
price changes will definitely continue well after all the cows have
come home. Yet globally, the existence of contango in commodity
markets (when prices in the futures markets are higher than the spot
prices, instead of lower as they would be if the market was only for
hedging against risk) has been seen as a sign that speculation has
driven changes even in spot prices. It is next to impossible to
provide a clear and explicit link that will satisfy those determined
not to see it.

Second, and perhaps more significantly, there are important conceptual
reasons to be wary of allowing futures trading in any commodity in
which there is significant public intervention in the form of minimum
support prices and so on because these provide an easy floor for
speculators. So this is not a case of allowing something because we do
not have enough information on either side of the argument, but
preventing speculative activity that can cause great harm even as its
possible benefits are minimal.

Enabling markets and empowering the citizenry

There are several other issues that are discussed for which similar
arguments could be made. But it is the broader perspective underlying
this chapter which deserves more careful consideration. The goal is
clearly benevolent: improving the economic conditions of the bottom
quintile of the population. Yet the means that have been proposed
suggest a lack of awareness of the political economy of both markets
and government in India and the social and economic context within
which policies are implemented. This is somewhat surprising because
within the chapter there is a discussion of the need to recognise
extant social realities even though it is more concerned with culture
and social norms.

The point is essentially this: both markets and government policies do
not function in a socio-political vacuum but within complex social
realities in which power relations are deeply entrenched. So it is not
that there are individuals all operating on level-playing fields, with
some having a few disadvantages such as lower income and assets and
less education. Rather, the processes of striving for power, and
keeping it, unfold through the medium of markets. The impact of
government policies depends upon the extent to which they enable
different sets of actors with different power positions to fight for
their rights or advance their own positions.

That is why “free” market functioning tends to accentuate existing
inequalities, both social and economic. To the extent that government
policies are aware of this and are designed to reduce this effect,
they are more successful. All economic policies therefore have
distributive implications, whether or not these are officially
recognised. A government that is genuinely enabling for the citizenry
as a whole and for the poorest citizens has to act decisively in their
favour, and also has to provide good quality public services that the
poor are not excluded from.

In such a context, it is worth stepping back and examining how much of
the declared goal of inclusive growth in the Economic Survey actually
informs the most recent policy statement of the government, the Union
Budget. Surprisingly, the most important initiatives constitute direct
attacks on the incomes of the bottom quintile of the population: the
hike in fuel prices and indirect taxes, which will definitely increase
the price of necessities; the reduction in food subsidy; the
embarrassingly small increases in funds for agricultural schemes,
especially in the most devastated regions; the paltry amounts
allocated to education and health, which cannot possibly ensure good
quality public provision that reaches the poorest. Conversely, the
enabling aspect of government is very clearly evident with respect to
big business, in the form of tax breaks, subsidies for agribusiness
and the like.

The problem is that enabling markets does not always translate into
empowering people: often the reverse is the case. Clearly, whatever be
the more sensitive statements made in the Economic Survey, the basic
philosophy of the government has not changed from an obsessive focus
on growth at any cost.

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100326270603000.htm

[bademiyansubhanallah]

Book Review

Perry Anderson on the Specter of China
Posted on Mar 19, 2010
By Perry Anderson

The following review originally appeared in the London Review of
Books, whose website is www.lrb.co.uk, and is reposted with
permission.

These days Orientalism has a bad name. Edward Said depicted it as a
deadly mixture of fantasy and hostility brewed in the West about
societies and cultures of the East. He based his portrait on Anglo-
French writing about the Near East, where Islam and Christendom
battled with each other for centuries before the region fell to
Western imperialism in modern times. But the Far East was always
another matter. Too far away to be a military or religious threat to
Europe, it generated tales not of fear or loathing, but wonder. Marco
Polo’s reports of China, now judged mostly hearsay, fixed fabulous
images that lasted down to Columbus setting sail for the marvels of
Cathay. But when real information about the country arrived in the
17th and 18th centuries, European attitudes towards China tended to
remain an awed admiration, rather than fear or condescension. From
Bayle and Leibniz to Voltaire and Quesnay, philosophers hailed it as
an empire more civilised than Europe itself: not only richer and more
populous, but more tolerant and peaceful, a land where there were no
priests to practise persecution and offices of the state were filled
according to merit, not birth. Even those sceptical of the more
extravagant claims for the Middle Kingdom – Montesquieu or Adam Smith
– remained puzzled and impressed by its wealth and order.

A drastic change of opinion came in the 19th century, when Western
predators became increasingly aware of the relative military weakness
and economic backwardness of the Qing empire. China was certainly
teeming, but it was also primitive, cruel and superstitious. Respect
gave way to contempt, mingled with racist alarm – Sinomania capsizing
into Sinophobia. By the early 20th century, after eight foreign forces
had stormed their way to Pekin to crush the Boxer Uprising, the
‘yellow peril’ was being widely bandied about among press and
politicians, as writers like Jack London or J.H. Hobson conjured up a
future Chinese takeover of the world. Within another few decades, the
pendulum swung back, as Pearl Buck and Madame Chiang won popular
sympathy for China’s gallant struggle against Japan. After 1948, in a
further rapid reversal, Red China became the focus of still greater
fear and anxiety, a totalitarian nightmare more sinister even than
Russia. Today, the high-speed growth of the People’s Republic is
transforming Western attitudes once again, attracting excitement and
enthusiasm in business and media alike, with a wave of fashion and
fascination recalling the chinoiserie of rococo Europe. Sinophobia has
by no means disappeared. But another round of Sinomania is in the
making.

The title of Martin Jacques’s When China Rules the World belongs to
the scare literature of the first. But its function is little more
than a commercial come-on, designed to clear the purchased display-
table and the airport stall. The book itself is a sweeping
contribution to the second. Its message consists of two parts. The
first is the now well-known projection that – at present growth rates
– the Chinese economy will be the largest in the world, overtaking the
American, within about 15 years. With four times the population of the
US, China already has the biggest foreign reserves, is the leading
exporter, posts the most spectacular stock-market gains, and contains
the largest car market on earth. So massive is the transformation its
rise to economic supremacy will bring that – so Jacques – history can
henceforward simply be divided into BC and AC: Before China and After
China. This part of the argument is a straightforward quantitative
extrapolation. Jacques hammers the impending figures home, without
adding a great deal to what anyone with a certain economic literacy
would know already.

Beyond altering international league tables, what will China’s
emergence as an economic superpower signify? The second part of
Jacques’s message is not about size, but difference. China is not like
other nations, indeed is not really a nation-state at all. It is
something vaster and deeper, a ‘civilisation-state’, inheritor of the
oldest continuous history in the world, whose underlying cultural
unity and self-confidence are without equal. Long before the West, its
rulers created the first modern bureaucracy, imbued with a Confucian
outlook at once authoritarian and democratic, controlling domestic
subjects more by moral education than force, and organising adjacent
regions into a consensual tributary system. By absorbing feudal
aristocrats into impersonal state service, they freed market forces
from customary constraints to develop a commercial society of
unparalleled dynamism and sophistication. Only the accident of more
readily available coal at home, and ruthless colonial pillage of
resources overseas, allowed 19th-century Europe to overtake this great
proto-modern economy, as industrialised in its way as the West, and
much larger. But this Western predominance will prove a brief
interval. Today, China is returning once more to its historic position
as the dynamic centre of the global economy.

What are going to be the consequences for the rest of the world?
Traumatically for the United States, China will fairly soon replace it
as hegemon, not only in traditional areas of Chinese influence in East
and South-East Asia, but across former Third and First Worlds alike.
The soft power of its sporting prowess, its martial arts, its costly
painters, its multitudinous language, its ancient medicine, and not
least the delights of its cuisine, will spread China’s radiance far
and wide, as Hollywood, English and McDonald’s do America’s today.
Above all, its spectacular economic success will not only inspire
imitation wherever poor nations strive for betterment. It will reorder
the entire international system, by holding out the prospect, not of
democracy within nation-states, which the West vainly seeks to
promote, but of ‘democracy between nation-states’. For we are entering
a time in which the political and ideological conflicts that marked
the Cold War are giving way to an ‘overarching cultural contest’, in
which ‘alternative modernities’ will end the dominance of the West. In
that emancipation a distinctively Chinese modernity, rooted in the
Confucian values of devotion to the family and respect for the state,
will lead the way.

How should this construction be judged? Enthusiasm, however well-
meaning, is no substitute for discrimination. Chinese antiquity
stretches back to 1500 BCE or beyond. But this no more makes today’s
People’s Republic a special genus of ‘civilisation-state’ than
comparable claims for la civilisation française make one of the Third
or Fourth Republic. Talk of ‘civilisations’ is notoriously self-
serving, and delimitations of them arbitrary: Samuel Huntington
arrived, rather desperately, at eight or nine – including an African,
Latin American and Eastern Orthodox civilisation. Nothing is gained by
affixing this embellishment to the PRC. Like France in the 1930s or
1950s, contemporary China is an integrist nation-state, cast in an
imperial mould, if with a much longer past and on a much larger scale.
Nor are inflated claims for the age-old economic centrality or social
wisdom of pre-modern China much help in understanding the present or
future of the country. If, up through the Song, China was
technologically and commercially far in advance of Europe, by the end
of the Ming its science lagged well behind, and even at the height of
Qing prosperity in the 18th century, agrarian productivity and average
wage levels, let alone intellectual progress in a broader sense, were
nowhere near vanguard developments in Europe. Nor are idyllic images
of sage concern for the welfare of the masses much closer to the
realities of rule by successive dynasties, which in the words of one
of China’s finest historians, He Bingdi, were always ‘ornamentally
Confucian and functionally Legalist’ – repression wrapped in
moralising rhetoric.

It would be unfair to judge any of this side of When China Rules the
World, a popular work, by scholarly standards. None of it matters very
much to the main thrust of the book, where it serves only as
preliminary folklore to adjust readers in advance to the idea of pre-
eminence to come. China could perfectly well be about to dominate the
world without having nearly always represented the summit of universal
development in the past. More serious is the incoherence of the book’s
central message. For the most part, When China Rules the World is an
unabashed exercise in boosterism, hailing the PRC not only as the
paramount power of the future, but as the liberating ice-breaker that
will, in the book’s American subtitle, bring about ‘The End of the
Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order’. Sightings of this
sort seem to have become a late British speciality: Jacques’s version
is only a little less absurd than Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century
by Mark Leonard, a fellow seer of the Demos think tank Jacques helped
to found. But there is another side to When China Rules the World at
odds with its generally upbeat story. Internationally, China has
‘embraced multilateralism’, attracts its neighbours and partners by
‘soft power’, and promotes ‘democracy between nations’. Yet we also
need to be aware that ‘the Chinese regard themselves as superior to
the rest of the human race,’ inheriting a Middle Kingdom mentality
that has always been more or less racist, and traditions of tributary
statecraft that may have been conducive to stability, but were always
based on hierarchy and inequality. Might this heritage compromise the
fair prospect of a democratic inter-state system? Not necessarily,
since while ‘the Western world is over, the new world, at least for
the next century, will not be Chinese in the way that the previous one
was Western’. The book, in other words, disowns its own title,
confected purely to increase sales. China is not going to rule the
world. All that is happening is that ‘we are entering an era of
competing modernity’ in which China will ‘increasingly be in the
ascendant and eventually dominant’.

But the idea of a distinctively ‘Chinese modernity’ winning a global
competition for hegemony is no more coherent than that of high-speed
Chinese growth ushering in ‘democracy between nation-states’. Its role
in the book is to be understood in the light of the author’s cursus
vitae. Once the editor of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s
monthly, Marxism Today, after his party and journal gave up the ghost
in the early 1990s Jacques moved into mainstream journalism, shedding
the language, if not altogether the reflexes, of his past. The Cold
War over and the Soviet Union gone, the opposition between socialism
and capitalism was now a back number. How then should the open-door
policies of the PRC – its welcome to the world market – be related to
it? This is not a matter on which When China Rules the World cares to
dwell. Such questions belong to a vocabulary the book goes out of its
way to avoid. Over five hundred pages, the word ‘capitalism’ scarcely
ever appears. But there is still a global contest, in which the more
sympathetic side can nonetheless win. Simply, it is now between not
the outdated political and ideological categories of socialism and
capitalism, but alternative ‘modernities’, as so many different
cultural ways of being up to the minute. The function of this change
of lexicon is not hard to see. What it offers is the chance of a
consolation prize for the left. Capitalism may have won worldwide, so
why bother to go on talking about it? Instead, why not look ahead to
the welcome prospect of a non-Western variant of what is now our
common destiny overtopping all others, in a country where the ruling
party at least still describes itself as Communist?

Alas, there is a logical difficulty in this wistful hope, which is
insuperable. Alternative modernities, so conceived, are cultural, not
structural: they differentiate not social systems, but sets of values
– typically, a distinctive combination of morality and sensibility,
making up a certain national ‘style’ of life. But just because this is
what is most specific to any given culture, it is typically what is
least transferable to any other – that is, impossible to universalise.
Other recent works highlighting cultural differences in a post-
ideological world – Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations or Fukuyama’s
Trust come to mind – have grasped this intransitivity, making no
claims that any one complex could tend towards predominance over all
others, in the way that a modal economic order can. Moreover,
projections of a Chinese modernity that will eventually become
hegemonic not only forget the inherently self-limiting character of
any strongly defined national culture, they further ignore the
especially intense Chinese insistence, familiar to anyone who has been
in the country, on the uniqueness of China. Few contemporary cultures,
save perhaps Japan, are so self-consciously resistant to international
comparison, so convinced of the inimitability of their own forms and
traditions. In his way, Jacques is aware of this, at times even
exaggerating it as an inveterate sense of superiority close to racism,
of which there is less evidence than he assumes. But he fails to see
how thoroughly the cult of Zhonghuaxing – ‘Chineseness’ – undoes his
own imaginings of a future Han modernity spreading triumphantly, as a
universal attractor, across the globe.

The rise of the PRC as a great economic, political and military power
is a central fact of the age. But it gains no illumination from a
vacant notion of modernity, which remains as nebulous at the end of
When China Rules the World as it was at the beginning. It would not be
too unfair to say that what the book at bottom represents is a belated
meeting of Yesterday’s Marxism with Asian Values. For beyond a general
insistence on the ethical continuities of Confucianism, of which
Chinese Communism is viewed as a lineal heir, it says remarkably
little about contemporary Chinese society itself. A few cursory lines
noting that inequality has been growing, but the government is now
acting to redress it; a bit more on the shortage of natural resources
and environmental problems; a clipped paragraph on the Party; some
prudent reflections on trouble in the border regions; and a firm
assurance that the country is not ready for democracy, so it would be
best if the CCP could rule undisturbed for another 30 years: this is
more or less all the reader curious to learn about the actual social
landscape of the PRC could gather from it. Certainly there is nothing
to upset the authorities in Beijing, where reception should be
excellent. In 1935, the Webbs entitled their book on the USSR Soviet
Communism: A New Civilisation?, dropping the question mark in
subsequent editions. Today’s ‘civilisation-state’ has been approached
in something of the same spirit.

Serious understanding of contemporary China lies elsewhere. Two works
of outstanding scholarship, from opposite ends of the political and
intellectual spectrum, can be taken as current benchmarks. From the
liberal right, Yasheng Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese
Characteristics is a tour de force of empirical inquiry, conceptual
clarity and independence of mind. Anyone wanting to know what kind of
economy, and what sort of growth, can be found in the PRC should now
start here. Huang’s premises could not be more rigidly neoclassical:
sound development is delivered by private ownership, secure property
rights, financial liberalisation and the systemic deregulation of
economic transactions – and these alone. His conclusions, however, are
a clear illustration of the truth of Carlo Ginzburg’s observation that
a misguided ideology can be a precondition of original research, as
well – perhaps as often – as an obstacle to it. By meticulous scrutiny
of primary evidence, above all a huge mass of bank documentation
tracking loans and their recipients, rather than simply relying on
aggregated second-hand statistics, Huang has cut through the clouds of
obscurity and confusion that have tended to surround the performance
of the Chinese economy in the Reform Era which followed the passing of
Mao.

His central finding is that the apparently unbroken rates of high-
speed growth have rested on two quite different models of development.
In the 1980s, a general liberalisation of financial policy allowed
private businesses to flourish in the countryside, many under the
misleading sobriquet of ‘township and village enterprises’, as credits
flowed to peasant start-ups and rural poverty fell dramatically. Then
came the shock of 1989. Thereafter, the state abruptly changed course,
choking off credits to rural entrepreneurs, switching loan capital
instead into large, rebuilt state-owned enterprises and urban
infrastructures, and – not least – granting massive advantages to
foreign capital drawn to the big cities. The social consequences of
this change, Huang argues, were dramatic. Inequality – not only
between village and city-dwellers, but within the urban population
itself – soared, as labour’s share of GDP fell, while peasants lost
land, rural healthcare and schooling were dismantled, and illiteracy
in the countryside actually grew. In a blistering chapter on Shanghai,
the showcase of Chinese ‘hyper-modernity’, Huang demonstrates how
little average households in the city benefited from its glittering
towers and streamlined infrastructures. Amid a ‘forest of grand
theft’, officials, developers and foreign executives prospered while
private firms were stunted and ordinary families struggled to get by,
in ‘the world’s most successful Potemkin metropolis’. Nationwide, in
20 years, officialdom – raking in four successive, double-digit
increases in its salaries between 1998 and 2001 alone – has more than
doubled in size.

Cautiously, Huang expresses some optimism about the direction of the
current Hu-Wen government, as a correction of the worst excesses of
the Jiang-Zhu regime of the 1990s, while remarking that its reforms
may prove too late to redress the ruin of peasant enterprise, in
villages now often emptied by labour migration. But he ends by
contrasting the sky-high Gini coefficient of today’s PRC with the
relative equity that marked the high-speed growth in the rest of East
Asia – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – and the far greater role in
China of foreign and state enterprises, and the lesser weight of the
domestic private sector, in the country’s growth model. One
consequence, he maintains, is that productivity gains have been
declining since the mid-1990s. For Huang, the lesson is
straightforward: efficiency and equity always depend on free markets,
which in China remain half-strangled. Capitalism there certainly is,
but a variety deformed by a corrupt and self-aggrandising state, which
in denying its people liberty to manage their own economic affairs has
failed to create reasonable conditions of fairness or welfare. The
prescription is simplistic, as a glance at the United States could
have told any scholar at MIT like Huang. Since the 1980s, financial
liberalisation and cast-iron property rights have not delivered much
social equity to Americans. But the indictment, set out with exemplary
care and lucidity, is unnegotiable. So too is the anger behind it, at
callousness and injustice. Not many economists would think to dedicate
their work, as Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics does, to a
couple of imprisoned villagers and an executed housewife.

Huang’s central concern is with the fate of rural China, where, as he
rightly insists, the majority of the population still lives and dies.
The fate of urban labour is the subject of Ching Kwan Lee’s Against
the Law. Studies of the working class anywhere in the world, once a
staple of history and sociology, have declined along with labour
movements as a political force; in recent years, perhaps only in
France has writing of real distinction appeared. Lee’s book, written
from a standpoint on the radical left, transforms this scene. Although
quite different in mode and scale, in power nothing like it has
appeared since E.P. Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class.
In fact, it could well have been called The Unmaking and Remaking of
the Chinese Working Class. The product of seven years’ research and
interview work on the ground, it is an ethnographic and analytic
masterpiece.

The book is a diptych, one part devoted to the rustbelt of Manchuria,
the other to the sunbelt of Guangdong. Its first half is a study of
the destruction of the proletariat that built China’s principal
industrial base after Liberation, as the great state-owned enterprises
of the north-east were scrapped or sold off, leaving their workers
jobless and often near-penniless, while officials and profiteers lined
their pockets with what was left of all they had created. By
coincidence, we have an unforgettable fresco of the wreckage of this
old working class and its universe in Wang Bing’s nine-hour
documentary West of the Tracks (2003), a landmark of world cinema in
this century and a fitting pendant to Against the Law, made in
Shenyang while Lee was conducting her research in the same city. The
second part of Lee’s book explores the emergence of a new working
class of young migrant labourers from the countryside, about half of
them women, without collective identity or political memory, in the
coastal export zones of the south-east. They have low-wage jobs, but
no security, toiling up to 70 or 80 hours a week in often atrocious
working conditions, with widespread exposure to abuse and injury.
Dereliction in the rustbelt, super-exploitation in the sunbelt: the
treatment of labour is pitiless in either zone.

How do workers react to it? In a system where they have no freedom of
industrial or political organisation, and the social contract that
once gave them a modest security and dignity in exchange for
subordination has been jettisoned, the law – however authoritarian –
becomes the only resource to which they can appeal. Any direct action
risking police repression, protests typically find their way to the
courts, in the hope that blatant violations of legality by employers
or local officials will find some redress there – and in the belief
that the central government, if it knew its laws were being broken,
would take action to see them enforced. Such popular faith in the good
intentions of the Party leadership might be seen as a Chinese version
of the traditional Russian belief in the tsar as ‘Little Father’,
unaware of the misdeeds of his bureaucrats and landlords. The central
authorities naturally foster the illusion that they are not
responsible for illegalities lower down, giving them leeway to step in
with last minute concessions when protests look like getting out of
hand.

In fact, as Lee makes clear, the law can only function as an effective
system of control and mystification if the courts do not invariably
act as rubber stamps for criminality or oppression. In general, that
is just how they do behave. But in a minority of cases, labour
disputes are decided – more often partially than wholly – in favour of
workers, keeping alive the belief that the law remains a protection
even where it is being brazenly flouted by those with state power
behind them. In ways reminiscent of the 18th-century England depicted
by Thompson in Whigs and Hunters, notions of ‘the rule of law’ become
a battleground, in which the anger of those below seeks to wrest
verdicts from the cynicism of those on high, as the only potential
weapons of the weak to hand. The reason regular failure in this
unequal contest does not lead to more explosive forms of protest, Lee
shows, is material rather than ideological. In the rustbelt, workers
dispossessed of everything else typically retain their own housing,
privatised to them at low prices, as a safety net. In the sunbelt,
migrant labourers still have rights to a plot of earth back in their
villages, where land has not yet been privatised, as a fall-back. For
all the wretchedness of their respective lots, neither is quite
destitute: each has something to lose.

The sobriety and realism of these conclusions diminishes nothing of
the tragedy of betrayed hopes and ruined lives that fills the pages of
Against the Law. Lee’s capture of the voices of those caught in the
relentless industrial mechanisms of the Reform Era, in one poignant
interview after another, is among the finest accomplishments of her
book. The stories are often heartbreaking, but the accents with which
they are told speak of courage, indignation, stoicism, even humour, as
much as bitterness, resignation or despair. Few sociological studies
have combined structural and existential, objective and subjective
truths so memorably as this one. Without taking stock of it, no sense
of contemporary China is clear-eyed. In the 19th century, Europe
looked to America as the future, if one still quite some way off. In
the 21st century, the West looks towards China in something of the
same way. So far, certainly, no Tocqueville of the East has appeared.
Is what he once achieved repeatable? There is plenty of time yet. But
it is unlikely that Democracy in America will find its successor,
wherever else it might, in any Modernity in China.

http://www.amazon.com/When-China-Rules-World-Western/dp/1594201854%3FSubscriptionId%3D1XWTFJ60BR6QZ1PW9FR2%26tag%3Dtruthdig-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1594201854

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the
State
By Yasheng Huang

Cambridge University Press, 366 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Chinese-Characteristics-Entrepreneurship-State/dp/0521898102%3FSubscriptionId%3D1XWTFJ60BR6QZ1PW9FR2%26tag%3Dtruthdig-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0521898102

Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt
By Ching Kwan Lee

University of California Press, 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Against-Law-Protests-Rustbelt-Sunbelt/dp/0520250974%3FSubscriptionId%3D1XWTFJ60BR6QZ1PW9FR2%26tag%3Dtruthdig-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0520250974

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/perry_anderson_on_the_specter_of_china_20100319/

Free PDF Ebooks Files @AcrobatPlanet.Com ..Home

Submitted by wulan on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 06:31 Business & Economics

In the 12 years from 1978 to 1990, China‘s reform and opening up
achieved remarkable progress, with its GDP growing 9.0% annually and
trade volume growing at 15.4%. During this period, urban per capita
income grew 5.9% annually, but that of rural areas grew at a
spectacular rate of 9.9% annually (NBS, 2002 pp.17, 94,148). People‘s
living standards and incomes increased significantly and urban-rural
disparities fell.

The achievement of China‘s reform can be called a miracle in economic
history. However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, international
economic research community did not understand much about China‘s
reform, and many economists were far from optimistic. Most economists
believed that a market economy should be based on private property, a
feature that the Chinese economy apparently lacked at that time.
China‘s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were not privatized; a dual-
track resource allocation system was prevalent with state planning
still playing a very important role. They thought that although
China‘s economic transition was blessed with beneficial initial
conditions such as high proportions of cheap rural labor, low social
security subsidies, a large population of overseas Chinese, and a
relatively decentralized economy that helped to achieve some short-
term progress, the dual-track system would soon lead to efficiency
loss, rent-seeking, and institutionalized state-opportunism, which
constituted an inferior institutional arrangement. (Balcerowicz, 1994;
Woo, 1993; Sachs and Woo, 1994 and 1997; Qian and Xu, 1993.). Some
economists even claimed that China‘s transition would finally fail due
to incomplete reform (Murphy, Schleifer, and Vishny, 1992; Sachs, Woo,
and Yang, 2000).

At that time, most economists were optimistic about reform in the
Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (FSUEE hereafter) due to the
fact that these countries reformed their economies according to the
fundamental principles of neo-classical economics. The most
representative of these principles was the —shock therapy“ implemented
in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia, which consisted of three
main components: price liberalization, rapid privatization, and
macroeconomic stabilization by removing fiscal deficits. (Lipton and
Sachs, 1990; Blanchard, Dornbusch, Krugman, Layard, and Summers, 1991;
Boycko, Shleifer, and Vishiny, 1995.) These components are considered
the base of an efficient economic system in neoclassical economic
theory.

Economists recommending shock therapy also knew that it took time to
make the transition from one economic system to another and that it
was costly to cast aside previously vested interests. But they
optimistically assumed that the national economy would grow after six
months or a year following an initial downturn stemming from the
introduction of shock therapy (Brada and King, 1991; Kornai, 1990;
Lipton and Sachs, 1990; Wiles, 1995). According to their beliefs, the
FSUEE would overtake China through their reform, though the former
started their reforms much later, and China‘s difficulties would loom
larger due to inconsistencies inside the economic system brought about
by incomplete reforms.

Ten years have elapsed since the predictions of many renowned
economists were put forth in the early 1990s. Contrary to these
predictions, China‘s economy has grown in the past decade while those
countries that implemented the shock therapy experienced serious
inflation and economic decline. Russia‘s inflation reached 8414% in
1993, and that of Ukraine reached 10155%. In 1995, Russia‘s GDP was
only half of what it had been in 1990, and Ukraine‘s situation was
worse with a 60% decline during the same period. With significant
declines in per capita income and extreme exacerbation of income
disparities, all social indicators slid–male life expectancy in Russia
decreased from 64 years in 1990 to 58 in 1994 (Gregory and Stuart,
2001, p. 470). Overall, the countries that implemented shock therapy
experienced great difficulties in reform, in contrast to the
optimistic expectation of most economists. In eastern European
countries, Poland scored best in economic transition with only a 20%
decline in its GDP. Poland did not really implement reform based on
shock therapy, however. Although prices in Poland were liberalized,
most of its large SOEs have yet to be privatized (World Bank, 1996;
Dabrowski, 2001).

In the 1990s, the Chinese economy did suffer from a myriad of
problems. For example, the SOE reforms initiated in the early 1980s
have yet to be completed; inter-regional and urbanœrural disparities
have enlarged; and there are still many serious problems in financial
system awaiting solution. However, the national economy grew 10.1%
annually in the 1990s, 1.1% higher than that of the previous 12 years.
International trade grew also at a rate of 15.2% in the last decade
(NBS, 2002, pp. 17,94),. Moreover, people‘s living standards improved
rapidly, especially in urban areas. Economic development in China not
only promoted the welfare of the Chinese people, but also contributed
greatly to the world economy. During the Asian Financial Crisis, the
Chinese currency (RMB) did not depreciate, which played an important
role in Southeast Asian economies‘ quick recovery and growth.

Download
PDF Ebook Viability, Economic Transition and Reflections on Neo-
classical Economics

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March 19, 2010 1:52 PM
Is China Building the Next Bubble?
Posted by MoneyWatch.com

This post by Carla Fried originally appeared on CBS' MoneyWatch.com.

Will the next pop you hear be the sound of the China bubble bursting?
A few of the world's savvier financial minds think so.

Jim Chanos has made a fortune betting against investments he believes
are ripe for a fall. Among his most illustrious short trades was
pegging high-flying Enron as a disaster in waiting. Today the hedge
fund manager is taking aim at China. "Without a modicum of doubt we
have a credit-driven property bubble right now," Chanos recently
declared in a talk he gave at the London School of Economics. That was
a toned-down version of his quip to the New York Times that China is
"Dubai times 1,000 -- or worse," a comment the manager of the $6
billion Kynikos fund now half-heartedly describes as tongue-in-cheek.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/business/global/08chanos.html

Chanos is adding his respected voice to a growing rumble that China's
economy is nearing 212°F. In a recent survey of investment pros who
subscribe to Bloomberg's news and data service, 62 percent said they
believed China is brewing a bubble. Also singing in the China bubble
chorus: Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff, Gloom and Doom
report publisher Marc Faber, and, most recently, James Rickards, a
Virginia-based consultant who knows a thing or two about financial
calamity -- he was the general counsel for Long-Term Capital
Management. To be clear, the China bubble talk is mostly focused on
the country's real estate sector, where property sales jumped 76
percent in 2009 and prices in some markets have recently been rising 8
to 10 percent a month. But the fear is that a meltdown in the real
estate market could take down the rest of the Chinese economy with it,
as has happened in the U.S. and Japan. And with China expected to
account for about a third of global growth in 2010, the consequences
could well be global.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=aNZe4JWeV1aw

The Mother of All Stimulus Projects

The roots of the problem lie in China's aggressive response to the
financial crisis. To make up for reduced exports, the government
ramped up domestic spending and what ensued was the "mother of all
stimulus projects," says Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the
Peterson Institute for International Economics. The roughly $575
billion in direct stimulus doled out by China's central government
represented 15 percent of its GDP. (Consider that if the U.S. stimulus
program had clocked in at 15 percent of GDP we would be debating the
merits of a $2 trillion program, not the $787 billion Congress settled
on.)

China's banks also followed the stimulus script, doling out $1.4
trillion in loans last year, a 30 percent increase from 2008. All that
liquidity did the job. According to China's official data (which are
notorious for their lack of transparency) the domestic economy
expanded 12.6 percent in 2009, offsetting a three percentage point
decline in GDP from exports. Overall, China's economy grew 8.7 percent
in 2009, up from 2008's anemic -- at least by China's standards -- GDP
growth of 6.8 percent.

However, much of the stimulus spending and lending has found its way
into real estate, creating ominous imbalances and the potential for
huge amounts of bad loans that the Chinese government would then have
to cover. Commercial developers who were all too happy to take the
stimulus money and build on spec are now often hard-pressed to find
tenants; entire office buildings and shopping malls stand empty in
many large cities that have attracted the most development. In the
residential market, the problem is flipped: too much demand and not
enough supply. Homes are the default investment choice for an
increasingly flush populace that has limited access to other
investment vehicles. And the prevailing sentiment is that if you don't
buy today you are going to be priced out of the market tomorrow.

In response to concerns that it's inflating a bubble in real estate,
the central government has begun taking steps to cool things off, but
to date it's more talk than action. Bank reserve requirements and a
key lending rate have been increased only slightly, and official 2010
lending targets, while lower than last year, will still surpass credit
outlays from 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/business/economy/19fed.html

Bubble Dynamics

A torrent of commercial development, a residential market convinced
that if you don't get in today you're toast, and a wan government
response to overheating ... Sound familiar? But there are several key
structural differences between our real estate mess and China's
situation, which suggest it is simplistic to assume China's bubble
must end in a U.S.-style meltdown.

1. Leverage is muted. About 25 percent of Chinese buy their homes
outright with cash. Among borrowers, a 50 percent down payment is
typical; you can't get a mortgage with less than 20 percent down and
if you are looking to buy a second (or third) property the down
payment is 40 percent. China also has yet to develop a HELOC market.
Lardy, of the PIIE, notes that China's household debt as a share of
household income runs about 40 percent. In 2007, U.S. household debt
to income was 130 percent. Nor has China fallen into the grasp of Wall
Street alchemists concocting toxic real estate derivatives.

2. It's not a blanket bubble. Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai are
China's Florida, Nevada, and California: speculation and overbuilding
have clearly fed bubble valuations. But Nicholas Consonery, China
analyst at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm, says
there's still plenty of unmet demand in China's second-, third-, and
fourth-tier cities.

3. The ubiquitous demand argument. Consonery also articulates the most
oft-heard reason for why the bubble doesn't have to burst: China
actually needs more construction, not less, to accommodate the mass
migration of Chinese from their rural past to their urban future.

While China's real estate picture doesn't necessarily stack up as
Dubai times 1,000, or even the United States circa 2006, similarities
to Japan's property bubble could be more salient. Rather than a quick
burst, Japan is still working through a long slow deflation from its
epic property bubble that peaked in the late 1980s. Patrick Chovanec,
professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management
in Beijing, who has advised private equity funds on China investments,
says that's the danger facing China. "Never underestimate the ability
of the Chinese to brush things under the rug, rather than
acknowledging losses and poor investments," Chovanec cautions. "That
can create a long-term drag on the economy."

Koyo Ozeki, head of Pimco's Asian credit analysis team, acknowledges
the Japan corollary (his comparison of China, Japan, and U.S. real
estate bubbles is below), but he believes a crucial difference is that
China has the ability to grow its way out of trouble. His worst case
scenario is that there's a two- or three-year cooling off period for
property values, but not a meltdown. "I think that it [would be] a
'correction,' as opposed to a 'burst of a bubble' similar to those
seen in the developed countries, because of China's structural demand
for modern houses," says Ozeki.

Source: Pimco estimates

The 437,000 Renminbi Question

What does this mean for your portfolio? When you have sharp minds on
both sides of the argument that should be a tip that making a big bet
on either is probably unwise. Moreover, China presents a few extra
challenges. Despite its large footprint -- China is expected to take
over Japan as the second largest economy in 2010 -- keep in mind we're
still talking about an emerging market.

Volatility and surprises (both upside and downside) are the norm. Add
in the fact that China's financial system and data reporting aren't
exactly open source code and you have another layer of complexity. And
even the China bears are careful to point out that they have no clue
when the bubble will burst. "We are not calling for an impending
crash," Chanos reminded the LSE crowd. Rogoff, former chief economist
of the IMF and co-author of This Time is Different, which chronicles
the long history of global financial calamities, recently told
Business Week he believes the liquidity deluge in China will
eventually culminate in enough bad debt to cause China's economic
growth to slow to just 2 percent to 3 percent a year. But as for when,
well, Rogoff would only pin it down to some time in the next 10 years,
and added that the setback would be short-term, not a Japanese-style
slow bleed.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/video/whats-wrong-with-the-recovery/356913/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-24/rogoff-says-china-crisis-may-trigger-regional-slump-update1-.html

Given all that uncertainty, it seems wise to channel Pascal's Wager:
Acknowledge you might be wrong and adjust your portfolio accordingly.
In this instance, that's an argument for taking a look at what might
happen if in fact China's bubble blows so explosively that it sends
the economy into a severe downturn. Here's how your portfolio could be
affected:

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/article/economic-outlook-could-things-go-too-well/353298/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Stocks: China is the third largest economy behind the U.S. and Japan,
and it is expected to push its way to number two this year. The IMF
forecasts that China will grow 10 percent, more than double the
overall world rate. If the bubble does in fact burst, growth will slow
and we could be in for round two of a global recession. That's an
argument for being cautious with equities and making sure your
emergency cash fund stays stuffed.

U.S. Treasuries: China holds about 10 percent of outstanding Treasury
debt; it jockeys with Japan from month-to-month for the top spot among
foreign investors. If China's economy hit the skids, one theory is
that it might choose to sell off Treasuries to raise capital for
spending back home. But dumping Treasuries is far from an easy call
for China, as it would depress the value of its Treasury portfolio and
cause the renminbi to rise in value (and the dollar to fall), which is
not ideal for its exports. Questions about how China will handle its
cache of U.S. Treasuries will likely keep the bond market on edge.
That's just another risk factor to add to why Treasuries aren't
exactly the safest investment right now.
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/retirement-planning/blog/financial-independence/would-you-lend-to-tim-geithner-on-these-terms/745/?tag=content;col1

Emerging market funds and ETFs: These are the most obvious losers if
China falters. It's not just that China represents 17 percent of the
MSCI Emerging Market Index -- the single largest country weight -- but
that so many of the other emerging markets, especially those rich in
resources such as Brazil and Russia, need China to remain a hungry
consumer. Overweighting emerging markets seems especially dicey right
now, despite the sector's recent strong performance. But even beyond
the implications of a China bubble, it's also wise to understand that
the fastest-growing economies don't always produce the highest
investment returns.
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/wise-investing/growth-in-china-india-and-brazil-might-not-mean-great-investment-returns/1002/?tag=content;col1

Bubble or not, one thing is clear: China is teeing itself up for
plenty of volatility in the coming years. And it will affect the whole
world. "Even with the strong long-term fundamentals, any market that
has experienced such rapid growth creates its own fragility," says
investment banker Euan Rellie, senior managing director of Business
Development Asia LLC. "That makes it certain there will be declines
and corrections."

More on MoneyWatch:

China's Growth Threatened by Inflation, Or Is It Deflation?
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/against-grain/chinas-growth-threatened-by-inflation-or-is-it-deflation/481/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Video: Why You Should Worry About China
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/video/why-you-should-worry-about-china/385526/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

The China Boom: A Sure Thing NOT to Bet on in 2010
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/retirement-planning/blog/financial-independence/china-the-sure-thing-not-to-bet-on-in-2010/677/?tag=content;col1

Video: Why You Need Emerging Markets in Your Portfolio
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/video/investors-why-you-need-china-and-brazil/388541/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503983_162-20000790-503983.html

China : Shifting Concentration Of Real Wealth
By: Indranil Sen Gupta Friday, March 19, 2010 9:56 AM

In my last column I discussed about the immense potentiality of china
towards creation of wealthy citizens. I have tried to depict the true
picture of the Chinese government, which helps to increase and develop
the citizens of china. It clearly points out those Chinese economic
policies are helping to reduce the gap of rich and poor. The proof of
the pudding is that China ranks No 2 on Forbes billionaires list.
Moreover 27 of them have made into the list for the first time and
that also at a point of time when the world economy is fighting
enormously with the recession nights.

I ended the report with a prelude to this topic where I will again try
my level best to bring forth the policy behind making Chinese citizen
and economy so surprising to the world economy. But before that we all
need to have a quick look towards the covered up journey of China.

If we look into the historic position of Chinese economy it will very
hard for any one to believe about the turn around been formalized in
to shape of today's Chinese economy.

• China's industries developed and grew from 1927 to 1931. Though
badly hit by the Great Depression from 1931 to 1935 and Japan's
occupation of Manchuria in 1931, industrial output recovered by 1936.

• By 1936, industrial output had recovered and surpassed its previous
peak in 1931 prior to the Great Depression's effects on China.

• This is best shown by the trends in Chinese GDP. In 1932, China's
GDP peaked at 28.8 billion, before falling to 21.3 billion by 1934 and
recovering to 23.7 billion by 1935.

• In 1978, China was to witness one of the most rapid periods of
change in her 5,000 year history.

• 30 years later, China had developed from an economically desolate
and ideological-driven country into an industrial powerhouse, rapidly
overtaking developed western nations in recession.

• In the 1990s, many state enterprises were privatized and private
individuals were allowed to create companies. In 1990, the Shanghai
Stock Exchange was reopened after Mao first closed it 41 years
earlier.

• It also established a series of "special economic zones" in which
foreigners could invest in China taking advantage of lower labor
costs.

This investment helped the Chinese economy boom. In addition, the
Chinese government established a series of joint ventures with foreign
capital to establish companies in industries hitherto unknown in
China.

• By 2001, China became a member of the World Trade Organization,
which has boosted its overall trade in exports/imports—estimated at
$851 billion in 2003—by an additional $170 billion a year.

• In 2006, an estimated $699.5 billion of foreign investment was
present in China. A great deal of this investment came from Chinese-
speaking regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, who was the first to
invest in China. Japanese and Western investment followed.

So now its well clear to my readers about the encapsulated journey of
today's Chinese economy from the era of 1930.But all these were in the
initial days were only plans or policies. How did they materialize is
the point to be analyzed.

They have been materialized due to one single factor that is the
education. Education not only in schools and college levels, but also
to create the huge untapped potentiality of skilled and semi skilled
education and educated mass of population. We all know that china
posses one of the largest population. The world at times used to
critics this huge mounting population of china. But china and its
government's decades after decade have converted their biggest weak
point in to their biggest strength. Today china enjoys the huge
potentiality of its consumers and consumption.

It have created the largest pool of skilled and semi skilled workers
and employees .What we say in corporate term Blue Collard Jobs. China
has used its cheap commodity resources to create world best products
and cheap products. Educations particularly in science field have
helped china to become the supreme power of technology. China have
created the world finest products through its massive and continuous
never ending technological innovations. It have created scientist and
researchers equivalent to the western world. All these have been
created on the wheel of proper and improvised education system
provided by Chinese governments.

We have discussed many times a about the Chinese economic growth
models and the huge reserves and its stock gold piles. But among all
these the real growth model is the development of education system in
china. Its real wealthy citizens are the ones who gets education and
take the future responsibility of Chinese economy. China is making a
shift of its wealth. Its busy in shaping up the fortune of the
citizens of china.

If china have become the No.2 in Forbes billionaires list it ca be
clearly declared without any second thought that China deserves to be
crowned with No.2

Very recently china is going to bring a change in the education
system.

• China plans to revamp its university admissions system, allowing
students to take subject-specific tests.

• Currently access to university is entirely dependent on the score
students gets on a two-day test on a wide range of subjects.

• A little more than 10.2 million students take the exam each year,
and only about 25% of them get in. The vast majority of those who
don't make the cut go straight into the work force. China is trying to
bring change into its education system so that the vast majority can
reap the benefits of education. Moreover this will also increase the
talent pool of Chinese new generation. More White Collard Jobs will be
created resulting free dependence of the economy.

The schools and colleges have been asked to develop and promote
create thinking minds within the students. This will enable the future
growth of china. Just imagine when many countries in the west are busy
to resolve the post war situation and busy in exercising images of
super power, China is creating and shaping its future. China is
thinking way ahead of another 30years from now. Where as many
countries in the west who are busy to come out of the bad sins
committed through speculative economic and business growth modules
adopted by them.

China is thinking to develop the nation where ideas will be sold and
other economies will buy them paying hefty amount Products will be
replaced by ideas. A time might come when the Chinese economy will
increase the taxation for selling only innovative ideas. It might
sound funny but juts imagine the growth model and the future strategy
adopted and being implemented by china towards developing its economy.

It can be said that China is SHIFTING CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. Western
economies will become 2nd rank economies and China will come under
developed economies rank.

Today after so many years US and other economies have identified that
the real growth of any economy lies in the hands of education system.
It can created speculative gains and growth for shorter time frame but
if its looks within the thin line of economic growth the results are
beyond speculation. Today the US government is buying in shaping up
the education system. It asks its citizens to create scientist doctors
and researchers. Since it feels very well that the in the coming
decade other economies will take over the super power crown.

Today US have realized the mistakes it have committed and now bringing
radical changes in the education system to shape up the future. Very
recently US is emphasizing to improve students and teachers instead of
punishing under performing schools. US have 33% under performing
schools. Unfortunately the list is increasing each day without
rewinding back. US is also going spend four-billion dollar more on
education system.

At the end I would like to conclude the series with this note that all
these analysis of the education system was not to criticize but to
bring forth the true portrait being painted by the world and China
alone in the coming decades. We must understand the growth of any
economy never lies in numbers. It lies among all of us who are juts
like you reading this article. It is we who will bring the economic
growth GDP to 20% in the next 3 decades from now. Its not the business
profit figures or the fiscal balance which will bring this growth.
Education is the foundation of economic growth of any nation on this
planet.

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A Slow Boat From China
Posted: March 19, 2010 at 5:08 am

China said it will send an envoy to Washington to discuss the friction
between the two countries over the value of the yuan. It will not
matter. Too many members of Congress, CEOs of major exporters, and
union presidents who use China’s trade practices as a target for their
plans to save millions of jobs need to get the yuan’s value to “float”
in the free market. That should, they reason, give America the chance
to compete with China’s exports based on price.

America can increase exports by two times what they are now, as the
President says will happen. China’s economy will be damaged because
the cost of its manufactured goods will rise. The day when China’s GDP
catches America’s will be pushed well beyond the horizon.
China’s leaders are clearly in the midst of trying to fashion some
compromise. The Emperor has had no clothes for too long. China has
protected its currency in an unseemly way, at least economically. The
world’s most populous nation can act on its own, or have the other
major world powers label it a currency manipulator. That will probably
lead to a series of large tariffs against Chinese goods which could
knock down its export traffic enough to put its economy into a funk.

China still has more leverage than the developed nations. They cannot
run their economies without cheap Chinese goods. It would hurt
consumer spending and damage the already hobbled retail industry.
China cannot be replaced as the “low-cost” provider of imports. It
does not need to mention that fact. It is easier for China to say it
cannot re-value the yuan because the action would ruin China’s cost
advantage and push Chinese workers out of jobs.

China’s envoy may seem to come to Washington hat in hand. He may
suggest some modest compromises on the yuan’s value. He will, however,
say in private and not in public, that the US would not want to see
Walmart go out of business because it cannot make a profit on goods
made in America.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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http://247wallst.com/2010/03/19/a-slow-boat-from-china/

March 19, 2010, 3:23 a.m. EDT
Currency stress tests indicate Beijing 'readying' yuan move

SocGen says one-off 5%-10% appreciation coming in April or May
By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Additional evidence that China is preparing
to allow its currency to appreciate is accumulating, with various
government bureaus reportedly conducting their own "stress tests" on
the effect a stronger currency would have on the nation's industry.

Chinese media reported earlier in the week that the Ministry of
Finance would send researchers to study the impact of currency gains
on exporters and processing manufacturers. Meanwhile, findings from a
similar study, conducted by the Ministry of Commerce, are due to be
released by April 27, according to a report Friday in China Business
News.

ViewPoints: China, the New Dominant Economy?

Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, predicts
that China will surpass the U.S. as the dominant economy by the year
2035, in a ViewPoints interview with Deputy Managing Editor Alan
Murray.

The Commerce Ministry is also readying a six-point study on measures
that would boost Chinese imports and foster more balanced foreign
trade, according to broker Société Générale.

"China is not abandoning plans for yuan appreciation/revaluation,
despite what many are interpreting as a political environment that is
growing hostile to such a development," wrote SocGen economist Glenn
Maguire in Hong Kong.

The developments, Maguire said, indicate China is preparing to shift
its policy stance in a manner that will be "more substantial" than a
mere gradual yuan appreciation.

Instead, SocGen is forecast a one-off revaluation of 5% to 10% in
either April or May.

"A move of this magnitude will negate the risk of the protectionist
card being played in the U.S. midterm elections," Maguire wrote.

However, Standard Chartered analysts said Friday markets were now
expecting a lower rate of annual yuan appreciation this week, likely
as a result of contradictory signals emanating from Beijing on its
currency.

The futures markets were pricing in 2.2% to 2.8% of annual yuan
appreciation against the dollar, down from the 3% rise indicated last
week.

Standard Chartered said it was advisable for companies that trade with
China to begin hedging currency risk.

State firms' profits up

In a related development Friday, the Finance Ministry said profit
among state-owned enterprises rose 89% in the first two months of the
year.

SocGen's Maguire said the finding was yet more evidence China's of a
coming move on the currency.

Profits were healthy, except among companies that would benefit from a
stronger yuan, Maguire said, adding that some state companies such as
power producers and steel makers would see input cost fall under a
revaluation scenario.

Steel mills in particular are likely to face price pressures, as major
iron-ore miners are seeking to raise prices significantly in this
year's contracts.

"The impressive increase in profits over the past year suggests a
greater ability of the Chinese industrial complex to withstand a yuan
appreciation than many analysts are crediting," Maguire said.

Chris Oliver is MarketWatch's Asia bureau chief, based in Hong Kong.

Comments (60)

Temporalist 6 hours ago+3 Votes (4 Up / 1 Dn)

Agreed Continent. The Chinese people will benefit from the increased
Yuan. They will start to buy their own goods and they will no longer
need to export as much.

This is just a red herring to distract people from the real problem
that most major countries around the world are broke and going more
broke; promising citizens more crazy entitlements and caving into
unions and labor forces while increasing debt and deficit spending to
all time highs.Reply Link Track Replies Report Abuse therosierside 3
hours ago+1 Vote (1 Up / 0 Dn) Request sentAgree and Disagree. China
on the whole cannot afford their own products, and export of the
manufacturing of goods is their primary resource. I say call their
bluff. When push comes to shove, pull. However, I do agree, this is a
'red herring'. The irony drips in your statement.

Go ahead threaten away on the rise of the yuan. Ha, it's funny though.
It's like the U.S.S.R. all over again, and China got a taste for
capitalism, and the wealth from manufacturing. Their people will riot
if this happens, and their government is more scared of their own
people than the US. Power to the people!

The U.S. and the U.K. can make out on this the most, if they team up,
and remember their roots. It's amazing though, how we can easily shoot
straight, but might shoot ourselves in the foot instead. Let's also
not forget our arabic AND israeli allies. Power to the people!Reply
Link Track Replies Report Abuse iewgnem 2 hours ago0 Votes Request
sentA strong currency will enable Chinese consumers to buy more, but
if the US is any indication, what they buy might not be their own
goods.Reply

1REAGAN 6 hours ago-1 Vote (4 Up / 5 Dn)

The dollar is in free fall. If China were to continue pegging the
yuan, the result would be catastrophic. China must float the yuan.
Maybe it will help Americans to see that hussein is ruining the
American economy.

heisamazing 5 hours ago+1 Vote (3 Up / 2 Dn)

Yeah, don't let facts get in the way of an opinion. The dollar is not
in a free fall.

See 2 year graph: http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=dxy&sid=0&o_symb=dxy&freq=1&time=9

Its obvious where your bias lies.

1REAGAN 5 hours ago+1 Vote (4 Up / 3 Dn)

The dollar lost 30% versus the euro in 2009. The Keynesian huessy
policies will continue to weaken the dollar. The dollar is in free
fall.

The pound is also weakening because of the Keynesian policies of the
"British Labour Party."

Countries who implement socialist, Keynesian policies will have
weakening currencies. Countries who move toward free enterprise will
have strengthening currencies.

tjbrew 5 hours ago-1 Vote (3 Up / 4 Dn)

With a screen name like "1REAGAN", it's not hard to see your bias.
Yes, Reagan, the originator of large fiscal deficits and Reagonomics,
the start of the vast transfer of wealth to a few elite with "trickle
down" economics. If we just cut corporate taxes to zero that would fix
everything!

And the guy you're call "hussein" who in your opinion is "ruining the
American economy" ... yeah, the guy before him left the economy in
such great shape it's really hard to see why it hasn't all been fixed
by now! Sheesh ...

LBX 6 hours ago-1 Vote (1 Up / 2 Dn) Req

The RMB is likely to be floated in April.

Once it is floated, it will immediately DROP about 3 to 5%.

AmeriWho 5 hours agoEven (2 Up / 2 Dn)
RMB?

aiiiyo 2 hours ago+1 Vote (1 Up / 0 Dn)
same as Yuan
bull 6 hours ago+3 Votes (5 Up / 2 Dn)

China will not let the Yuan move more than 5% vs. the dollar per year
- forget about anything else as it will kill their export machine and
their grander plans......They do not care about the well being of
their people......they are just cheap labor in the Govt's mind.....

NO-FOMC 2 hours ago0 Votes Request senttrue maybe 10 years ago, and
yes i know that for a fact...but the bottom line is which is the
better of two evils....@#$%&! your reserves away by buying worthless
US assets (treasury debt) or help your domestic economy?

China realizes they are soooo done with eating table scraps from the
floor ...

iewgnem 2 hours ago0 Votes

I think a lot of Americans right now will rather see their welbeing
improve from getting employed as "cheap labor" making things for
exports than being able to buy more stuff from abroad with
unemployment checks. But then the US government cares too much for its
own people to let that happen.

UPJONES 5 hours ago+3 Votes (4 Up / 1 Dn)

The profit of the enterprise working on export processing business is
razor thin, at just about 2-5%. They will file bankruptcy right after
a 5% appreciation, and millions of Dagong Mei/Zai (Hunting girl/boys)
will lose their jobs.

China is buying time to do three things:

1. Build its domestic consumer market by increasing incomes/salaries

2. Perfecting the social secuity networks-Pension, Medicare and
apartments(Mostly for homeless)

3. Industrial transformation from manufacturing to innovation and
value added (Look at the neo-energy, nano, Aero, and especially bullet
trains, very competitve given the gov incentives and lots of "Cheap
and Good" engineers)

LBX 5 hours ago-1 Vote (1 Up / 2 Dn)

Many of them are actually getting negative gross margins. not to
mention net.

rojt88 4 hours ago+2 Votes (2 Up / 0 Dn)
LBX

The differences between Chinese and American accounting is caused by
pay differentials between the two cultures. Historically and
culturally, even dating back centuries, Mandarin officials and Chinese
executive pay is always held low. Much of this is due to Confucian
ethics and morality that wealth is not an indicator of success in
life. This is much different from the western ideal. Chinese
traditionally always hide income while American flaunt it.

Chinese businesses whose bosses serve for decades, like Hong Kong's Li
and Tung dynasties, always hide profits and exaggerate losses vs the
Western fashion of hiding loses and boosting profits so that rotating
CEOs can get their annual bonuses.

I estimate that the Chinese have 10-15% of their assets in hidden
accounts...or US$500billion (for PRC, HK, Taiwan). A lot of Chinese
inflation has been due to the sudden repatriation of much of this
offshore moneys into China due to financial instability in the west.

In a recent Chinese survey of foreign funds pouring into China over
the past decade, Hong Kong ranked first, then some islands in the
Caribbean ranked second and third. USA and Europe were last on the
list.

NO-FOMC 4 hours ago+1 Vote (2 Up / 1 Dn)

Funny how at the start of the century and after depression, USA had
the same characteristics...so where would you see china in 20+ years?
and where would you see USA in 20 years? remember..the world was
pegged to dollar gold before nixon. So last 20 years, our growth was
real or inflated?

NO-FOMC 2 hours ago+1 Vote (1 Up / 0 Dn)

US is buying time to avoid three things:

1. Financing a ever growing trade and acct deficit by depreciating the
USD to avoid default

2. Insure our world dominance by going to war so we wont lose our
world reserve currency title

3. the failure to realize a over leverage and underfunded US economy
will not be sustainable

Bastiat 5 hours ago+2 Votes (4 Up / 2 Dn)

Obama wants to run China. He found out that he could't run the US so
now he wants to run China. Obama, your problem is the US$, not the
yuan. You kept Bernanke, now deal with the imbecile.

RayO 5 hours agoEven (1 Up / 1 Dn)

Look out Walmart here comes a big Wave.

iewgnem 34 minutes ago0 Votes Request sentWhat if they simply
increase prices to maintain their margins? Considering in some
industries China consists of >90% of global output, it will still cost
importers less to absorb the cost than to spend billions in new
capital investments and time for production to ramp up. At the same
time re-exporters will see their material prices come down which will
also help to balance their margins.

All the talk about higher exchange rate driving Chinese exporters out
of business are assuming they don't have the power to pass the cost to
consumers on the other side. I suspect part of the stress test is to
see just how much they can raise the costs without losing their
business.Reply Link Track Replies Report Abuse « « ‹ ‹

Temporalist 6 hours ago+3 Votes (4 Up / 1 Dn)

Agreed Continent. The Chinese people will benefit from the increased
Yuan. They will start to buy their own goods and they will no longer
need to export as much.

This is just a red herring to distract people from the real problem
that most major countries around the world are broke and going more
broke; promising citizens more crazy entitlements and caving into
unions and labor forces while increasing debt and deficit spending to
all time highs.

therosierside 3 hours ago+1 Vote (1 Up / 0 Dn)

Agree and Disagree. China on the whole cannot afford their own
products, and export of the manufacturing of goods is their primary
resource. I say call their bluff. When push comes to shove, pull.
However, I do agree, this is a 'red herring'. The irony drips in your
statement.

Go ahead threaten away on the rise of the yuan. Ha, it's funny though.
It's like the U.S.S.R. all over again, and China got a taste for
capitalism, and the wealth from manufacturing. Their people will riot
if this happens, and their government is more scared of their own
people than the US. Power to the people!

The U.S. and the U.K. can make out on this the most, if they team up,
and remember their roots. It's amazing though, how we can easily shoot
straight, but might shoot ourselves in the foot instead. Let's also
not forget our arabic AND israeli allies. Power to the people!

iewgnem 2 hours ago0 Votes

A strong currency will enable Chinese consumers to buy more, but if
the US is any indication, what they buy might not be their own goods.

1REAGAN 6 hours ago-1 Vote (4 Up / 5 Dn)

The dollar is in free fall. If China were to continue pegging the
yuan, the result would be catastrophic. China must float the yuan.
Maybe it will help Americans to see that hussein is ruining the
American economy.

heisamazing 5 hours ago+1 Vote (3 Up / 2 Dn)

Yeah, don't let facts get in the way of an opinion. The dollar is not
in a free fall.

See 2 year graph: http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=dxy&sid=0&o_symb=dxy&freq=1&time=9

Its obvious where your bias lies.

1REAGAN 5 hours ago+1 Vote (4 Up / 3 Dn)

The dollar lost 30% versus the euro in 2009. The Keynesian huessy
policies will continue to weaken the dollar. The dollar is in free
fall.

The pound is also weakening because of the Keynesian policies of the
"British Labour Party."

Countries who implement socialist, Keynesian policies will have
weakening currencies. Countries who move toward free enterprise will
have strengthening currencies.Link Report Abuse tjbrew 5 hours ago-1
Vote (3 Up / 4 Dn) Request sentWith a screen name like "1REAGAN",
it's not hard to see your bias. Yes, Reagan, the originator of large
fiscal deficits and Reagonomics, the start of the vast transfer of
wealth to a few elite with "trickle down" economics. If we just cut
corporate taxes to zero that would fix everything!
And the guy you're call "hussein" who in your opinion is "ruining the
American economy" ... yeah, the guy before him left the economy in
such great shape it's really hard to see why it hasn't all been fixed
by now! Sheesh ...

LBX 6 hours ago-1 Vote (1 Up / 2 Dn)

The RMB is likely to be floated in April.

Once it is floated, it will immediately DROP about 3 to 5%.

AmeriWho 5 hours ago

Even (2 Up / 2 Dn)

aiiiyo 2 hours ago+1

same as Yuan

bullrunisbull 6 hours ago+3

China will not let the Yuan move more than 5% vs. the dollar per year
- forget about anything else as it will kill their export machine and
their grander plans......They do not care about the well being of
their people......they are just cheap labor in the Govt's mind.....

NO-FOMC 2 hours ago

true maybe 10 years ago, and yes i know that for a fact...but the
bottom line is which is the better of two evils....@#$%&! your
reserves away by buying worthless US assets (treasury debt) or help
your domestic economy?

China realizes they are soooo done with eating table scraps from the
floor ...R

I think a lot of Americans right now will rather see their welbeing
improve from getting employed as "cheap labor" making things for
exports than being able to buy more stuff from abroad with
unemployment checks. But then the US government cares too much for its
own people to let that happen.

UPJONES 5 hours ago+3 Votes (4 Up / 1 Dn)

The profit of the enterprise working on export processing business is
razor thin, at just about 2-5%. They will file bankruptcy right after
a 5% appreciation, and millions of Dagong Mei/Zai (Hunting girl/boys)
will lose their jobs.

China is buying time to do three things:

1. Build its domestic consumer market by increasing incomes/salaries

2. Perfecting the social secuity networks-Pension, Medicare and
apartments(Mostly for homeless)

3. Industrial transformation from manufacturing to innovation and
value added (Look at the neo-energy, nano, Aero, and especially bullet
trains, very competitve given the gov incentives and lots of "Cheap
and Good" engineers)

LBX 5 hours ago-1 Vote (1 Up / 2 Dn)

Many of them are actually getting negative gross margins. not to
mention net.

rojt88 4 hours ago+2 Votes (2 Up / 0 Dn)

LBX

The differences between Chinese and American accounting is caused by
pay differentials between the two cultures. Historically and
culturally, even dating back centuries, Mandarin officials and Chinese
executive pay is always held low. Much of this is due to Confucian
ethics and morality that wealth is not an indicator of success in
life. This is much different from the western ideal. Chinese
traditionally always hide income while American flaunt it.

Chinese businesses whose bosses serve for decades, like Hong Kong's Li
and Tung dynasties, always hide profits and exaggerate losses vs the
Western fashion of hiding loses and boosting profits so that rotating
CEOs can get their annual bonuses.

I estimate that the Chinese have 10-15% of their assets in hidden
accounts...or US$500billion (for PRC, HK, Taiwan). A lot of Chinese
inflation has been due to the sudden repatriation of much of this
offshore moneys into China due to financial instability in the west.

In a recent Chinese survey of foreign funds pouring into China over
the past decade, Hong Kong ranked first, then some islands in the
Caribbean ranked second and third. USA and Europe were last on the
list.

NO-FOMC 4 hours ago+1 Vote (2 Up / 1 Dn)

Funny how at the start of the century and after depression, USA had
the same characteristics...so where would you see china in 20+ years?
and where would you see USA in 20 years? remember..the world was
pegged to dollar gold before nixon. So last 20 years, our growth was
real or inflated?

NO-FOMC 2 hours ago+1 Vote (1 Up / 0 Dn)

US is buying time to avoid three things:

1. Financing a ever growing trade and acct deficit by depreciating the
USD to avoid default

2. Insure our world dominance by going to war so we wont lose our
world reserve currency title

3. the failure to realize a over leverage and underfunded US economy
will not be sustainable

Bastiat 5 hours ago+2 Votes (4 Up / 2 Dn)

Obama wants to run China. He found out that he could't run the US so
now he wants to run China. Obama, your problem is the US$, not the
yuan. You kept Bernanke, now deal with the imbecile.

RayO 5 hours agoEven (1 Up / 1 Dn) Re

Look out Walmart here comes a big Wave.

iewgnem 34 minutes ago

What if they simply increase prices to maintain their margins?
Considering in some industries China consists of >90% of global
output, it will still cost importers less to absorb the cost than to
spend billions in new capital investments and time for production to
ramp up. At the same time re-exporters will see their material prices
come down which will also help to balance their margins.

All the talk about higher exchange rate driving Chinese exporters out
of business are assuming they don't have the power to pass the cost to
consumers on the other side. I suspect part of the stress test is to
see just how much they can raise the costs without losing their
business.Reply Link Track Replies Report Abuse

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-stress-tests-suggest-yuan-rise-coming-2010-03-19?reflink=MW_news_stmp

March 19, 2010, 3:31 p.m. EDT

U.S. stocks break win streak on jitters over Greece, India, oil

By Donna Kardos Yesalavich, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A retreat in energy stocks weighed on the
broader market Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average stalling
in its attempt to set its longest winning streak in more than 13
years.

The energy sector was the weakest category in a broad-based sell-off
as oil prices retreated near $80 a barrel. Worries about key overseas
economies also weighed on the market, which some said was due for a
pause after a solid run lately.

TODAY'S TOP MARKET STORIES

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55637

The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
(INDU 10,742, -37.41, -0.35%) fell 47 points, or 0.4%, to 10,731.93,
on pace to snap an eight-day winning streak, the first such run since
late August. A nine-day gain, if the Dow can manage a late-day
rebound, would represent the Dow's longest rally since November 1996.

A dive in energy prices fueled by an uptick in the dollar has made
that rosy outcome seem less likely as the session has played out. Oil
futures were recently off $1.75 at $80.45 a barrel after retreating
near $79 earlier in the session at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX
1,160, -5.92, -0.51%) , which slipped Thursday, recently was off 0.6%,
led by a 1.2% decline in its energy sector. Baker Hughes /quotes/
comstock/13*!bhi/quotes/nls/bhi (BHI 47.53, -1.84, -3.73%) slid 3.6%,
while Consol Energy /quotes/comstock/13*!cnx/quotes/nls/cnx (CNX
45.59, +0.04, +0.10%) and Massey Energy /quotes/comstock/13*!mee/
quotes/nls/mee (MEE 49.91, -1.74, -3.37%) were off more than 2% each.
Exxon Mobil /quotes/comstock/13*!xom/quotes/nls/xom (XOM 66.56, -0.48,
-0.72%) fell 1%, and Chevron /quotes/comstock/13*!cvx/quotes/nls/cvx
(CVX 74.17, -0.81, -1.08%) was down 0.6%.

"The commodities, like other risky assets, are taking a little bit of
a breather," said Russ Koesterich, managing director of BlackRock's
scientific active equity business. But he said it was encouraging that
both stocks and raw materials weren't declining even more.

"The market has had a big run-up, it's continuing to defy some of the
pessimists, and this happened on a bunch of factors," including benign
inflation readings and a decision by the Federal Reserve to keep its
rate target near zero, said Koesterich. "This is helping to keep a
floor under stocks."

Other central banks around the world, however, have become more wary
of inflation. On Friday, investors were spooked by the Reserve Bank of
India's move to increase its key lending rate to 5% and its borrowing
rate to 3.5%.

Uncertainty over possible financial aid for Greece also lingered,
hurting the euro. The U.S. dollar index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY 80.75, +0.52, +0.65%) , which heavily weights the euro in a
basket of currencies versus the greenback, was recently up 0.6%. See
more in Currencies.

Indexes tracking higher-risk corners of the stock market fared worse
than the Dow and S&P. The Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/comstock/10y!
i:comp (COMP 2,374, -16.87, -0.71%) was off 0.8%, while the Russell
2000 fell 1.2%.

Digits: Palm's Future in DoubtThe latest forecast and smart-phone
sales data from Palm is raising serious concerns about the company's
viability. Dow Jones Newswires' Roger Cheng joins Stacey Delo on
Digits to discuss. Plus, an unprecedented look at the finances behind
YouTube, the world's most successful video site, as well as the
growing number of vehicles offering a self-parking option.

The S&P's health-care sector was flat ahead of an expected weekend
vote on federal reforms.

"We've been significantly overweight in health care for many months
now with the expectation that when it passes -- good, bad or ugly --
that that certainty will allow the health-care stocks to breathe a
sigh of relief," said Harry Rady, chief executive and portfolio
manager of Rady Asset Management.

Among the sector's winners on Friday were UnitedHealth Group /quotes/
comstock/13*!unh/quotes/nls/unh (UNH 34.54, +0.15, +0.44%) and
WellPoint /quotes/comstock/13*!wlp/quotes/nls/wlp (WLP 65.19, +0.12,
+0.19%) , up more than 2% each. But Merck /quotes/comstock/13*!mrk/
quotes/nls/mrk (MRK 38.05, -0.01, -0.02%) slipped 1% after the Food
and Drug Administration warned about the increased risk of muscle
injury for patients taking an 80-milligram dose of its cholesterol
drug Zocor.

Among stocks to watch in other sectors, Boeing /quotes/comstock/13*!ba/
quotes/nls/ba (BA 71.34, +0.62, +0.87%) rose 0.9% after announcing
plans to increase production of its 777 and 747 aircraft earlier than
anticipated amid increasing demand. See more on Boeing.

Among stocks in focus, Palm /quotes/comstock/15*!palm/quotes/nls/palm
(PALM 4.02, +0.02, +0.44%) plunged 27%. The company reported a
narrower quarterly loss but warned of significantly lower revenue in
the current quarter amid disappointing sales of its latest
smartphones. Read more on Palm.

Trading volume was higher, with about 3.8 billion shares having
changed hands in New York Stock Exchange Composite volume recently,
compared with the recent full-day average of about 4.8 billion. The
increase came on so-called quadruple witching day, when contracts for
stock-index futures, stock-index options, stock options and single-
stock futures expire.

Treasury prices slipped. The 10-year note /quotes/comstock/31*!ust10y
(UST10Y 3.69, +0.01, +0.27%) fell 1/32 to yield 3.678%.

More Market Snapshot

March 18, 2010 U.S. stocks' uneven session extends Dow win streak
http://store.marketwatch.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PremiumNewsletters_CampaignTheTechnicalIndicator?dist=IYMLMSB1T
March 17, 2010 Dow win streak longest since August 2009
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-post-gains-in-early-trading-2010-03-17
March 16, 2010 U.S. stocks finish higher in cheering Fed
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-hold-near-flat-ahead-of-fed-2010-03-16
March 15, 2010 U.S. stocks make late-day rise, helped by Wal-Mart
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-mostly-lower-google-dips-wal-mart-up-2010-03-15
March 13, 2010 U.S. stock investors to use data as a road map
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-investors-to-use-data-as-a-road-map-2010-03-13

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-open-higher-led-by-boeing-2010-03-19

[chhotemianinshallah]

Kali (demon)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Hindu demon. For other uses, see Kali
(disambiguation).
Not to be confused with the goddess Kali.

Kali

In Hinduism, Kali (IAST: káli; Devnāgari: कलि; from a root kad
"suffer, grieve, hurt; confound, confuse") is the reigning lord of
Kali Yuga and nemesis of Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of the Hindu
god Vishnu. According to the Vishnu Purana, he is a negative
manifestation of Vishnu, who along with his extended evil family,
perpetually operates as a cause of the destruction of this world.[1]
In the Kalki Purana, he is portrayed as a demon and the source of all
evil. In the Mahabharata, he was a gandharva who possessed Nala,
forcing him to lose his Kingdom in a game of dice to his brother
Pushkara. His most famous incarnation is the Kaurava King Duryodhana.
Kali is the prototype for the demon Kroni and his incarnation Kaliyan
of Ayyavazhi mythology.

Mahabharata

See also: The Gandharvas mentioned in Mahabharata

Damayanti speaking with a celestial swan.According to the Mahabharata,
the gandharva Kali became jealous when he was late to Princess
Damayanti's marriage ceremony and discovered she had overlooked the
deities Indra, Agni, Varun, and Yama (and ultimately himself) to
choose Nala as her husband. In anger, Kali spoke to his companion
Dvapara, the personification of Dwapara Yuga:

"I am ill able, O Dwapara, to suppress my anger. I shall possess Nala,
deprive him of his kingdom, and he shall no more sport with Bhima's
daughter. Entering the dice, it behoveth thee to help me." [2]

Kali traveled to Nala’s kingdom of Nishadhas and waited twelve long
years for the right moment to strike. Because Nala had rendered
himself impure by not washing his feet before his prayers, Kali was
able to bewitch his soul. Kali then appeared before Pushkara and
invited him to play a game of dice with his brother, guaranteeing
Nala’s downfall. Dwarpa took the form of the Vrisha die that would be
used in the fixed game. Kali forced Nala to lose and, each time, he
would raise the stakes higher despite the protest of his advisors and
wife. Finally, Nala lost his kingdom to Pushkara. Both he and
Damayanti were exiled to the forest.

Duryodhana as depicted in Yakshagana popular drama from
KarnatakaDuring their exile, Kali drove Nala to abandon Damayanti, who
later enacted a curse against everyone that had caused the downfall of
her husband. She eventually returned home after a short time as a hand-
maiden to the Princess of Chedi. Nala, meanwhile, saved the Naga
Karkotaka from fire (where he was cursed to suffer by sage Narada).
Intending to exorcize the devil within him, the serpent bit Nala,
injecting him with deadly poisons that forever tortured Kali. The
venom also changed Nala into an ugly dwarf named Bahuka. He later
became the charioteer of the Ayodhya King Rituparna, who was a master
mathematician and dice player.

Years later, King Rituparna revealed to Bahuka the supreme skill of
controlling the dice in exchange for horsemanship lessons. This skill
awakened Nala from Kali’s control and allowed him (with the help of
Damayanti’s curse and Karkotaka's venom) to exorcise the demon;
vomiting him in the form of poison from his mouth. Nala forced the
Kali’s trembling spirit into a Vibhitaka tree. He then counted the
fruits of the tree and left in search of his wife and later regained
his true form. Kali returned to his abode as well.

Kali was later incarnated as king Duryodhana, eldest of the one
hundred Kaurava brothers. His companion Dvapara became his uncle
Sakuni. The day Duryodhana was born, he unleashed a donkey-like scream
which the donkeys outside the home replied to. Despite the advise from
Vidura to discard the evil baby, Duryodhana's father Dhritarashtra
kept the child because demons had received a boon from Shiva that the
future king would be invincible.[3][4]

Puranic accounts

The Kalki Purana describes him as a huge being, the color of “soot,”
with a large tongue, and a terrible stench. From his birth, he carried
an Upaasthi (worship) bone. The Kalki Purana says this demon "chose
gambling, liquor, women and gold as his permanent abodes."[5] The
Sanskrit-English Dictionary states Kali is "of a class of mythic
beings (related to the Gandharvas, and supposed by some to be fond of
gambling)".[6] The Bhagavata Purana describes him as a sudra wearing
the garments of a king.[7] An early 20th century anti-beef eating
pamphlet protesting the slaughter of the sacred cow in India portrays
Kali as a brownish-skinned demon with a dog-like face, protruding
fangs, pointed ears, long green bushy hair and wearing a red loin
cloth and golden jewelry. (See Religion and politics)

The names of the four yugas of time—Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali—are
named after “dice throws” from a game of dice popular during the Vedic
period. Their order coincides with the favorability of each throw:
Satya is the best throw, whereas Kali is considered the worst.[8][9]
During the Mahabharata, king Nala exorcises the disembodied spirit of
Kali to a vibhitaka tree,[10] the nuts of which were used to create
the dice for the vedic dice game.[11] Therefore, not only Kali’s name,
but his penchant for gambling and reputation as being evil comes from
this dice game.

The churning of the ocean of milk

According to a lesser known Madhva version of the legend, during the
churning of the ocean of milk, a great poison known as halahala was
produced, which Vayu, the god of wind, rubbed in his hands to reduce
its potency. Then a small portion was given to god Shiva, turning his
throat blue. The rest was collected in a golden vessel and digested by
Vayu. (One source states he drank the Kalakuta poison of Vasuki nāga.
[12] Still others more commonly state that Shiva drank alone.[13]) A
little portion of poison that wasn't swallowed by Shiva became the
body of Kali. From this poison also came, "cruel objects like snakes,
wolves, and tigers."[3]

Later, when the asura Rahu was decapitated by Vishnu's Mohini avatar,
the demon’s allies attacked her and all except Kali were killed.
Having the power to possess the bodies of immortal and mortal beings,
he entered the hearts of man and escaped death.[14] He occasionally
entered Shiva and caused him to write evil scriptures, which created
great confusion and misconceptions. Because Kali was “invisible,
unimaginable, and present in all” the only way to correct the chaos
born from the miswritten texts was to completely renew the sacred
scriptures entirely. Thus Vishnu descended to earth as Vedavyasa, the
compiler of the sacred scriptures Vedas and the writer of the Puranas.
[3]

Markandeya Purana

According to Markandeya Purana, the Brahmin Pravara was given a
magical ointment that allowed him to fly. But when he flew to the
Himalayas, the ointment was washed away from the bottoms of his feet
keeping him from returning home to his wife. During this time, the
nymph Varuthini fell madly in love with him and begged the Brahmin to
stay with her forever. But eventually, he rejected her. He prayed to
Agni who returned him home safely.

The gandharva Kali was in love with Varuthini and had been rejected by
her in the past. He saw how she hungered for the Brahmin, so he took
on the appearance of Pravara and came before the courtesan. He led her
into the bedchamber and told her to close her eyes during their shared
pleasure [sambhoga]. (Another version of this tale explains the reason
he told her to shut her eyes was because gods revert to their true
forms whenever they do the basest of things, such as eating, sleeping,
and making love (including dying for demons).) As they made love,
Varuthini noticed that his body became flaming hot and believed it was
because his Brahmin spirit was infused with the sacrificial fire.
After climax, Kali, still-as-Pravara, left the apsara and returned to
his abode. Varuthini soon became pregnant and nine months later gave
birth to a human child that not only looked like the Brahmin but
possessed his soul as well.[15] The authors of the book Science in
Culture comment this was an example of the Sanskrit phrase "from his
semen and from her thinking," meaning the child was indeed Pravara's
child because she believed it was his.[16]

In another version, Kali stipulates he will only marry the apsara if
she keeps her eyes closed while they are in the forest (presumably
making love). However, Kali leaves after their marriage and the birth
of their son Svarocisa. Svarocisa grows up to become a very learned
scholar of the Vedas and learns to speak the languages of all
creatures from one of his three wives. He later marries a goddess and
fathers Svarocisa Manu, one of the progenitors of mankind.[17] (See
Progeny)

Bhagavata Purana

The Bhagavata Purana states the very day and moment god Krishna left
this earth, Kali, "who promotes all kinds of irreligious activities,
came into this world.”[18] Thus, Kali simply came into being because
the prosperity brought by Krishna left after his death.

After setting off to wage war against the evils of the world with his
armies, Emperor Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, came across a Sudra
dressed as a king who was beating a cow and an ox with a club.
Parikshit immediately lead his chariot over to the scene and angrily
berated the sudra for abusing the sacred cow and her mate. However,
this was no ordinary sudra and these were no ordinary bovine, for the
sudra was Kali and the cow and ox were embodiments of the earth
goddess and Dharma. The Emperor noticed the ox was standing on one of
his legs because the other three had been broken by Kali. Dharma
explained his four legs represented "austerity, cleanliness, mercy and
truthfulness", but he had only the leg of “truth” to stand on since
the other three had been broken by kali over the preceding yugas.[7]
Kali was intent on breaking all the legs that supported the reign of
dharma so he could effect the expansion of his own dark reign on
earth. The earth goddess cried for she had once been plentiful, but
when Krishna died and ascended to heaven, she was forsaken and all of
the prosperity left from the world. She feared evil kings like Kali
would continue to lay waste to the earth.

When Parikshit raised his sword to kill Kali, the sudra stripped
himself of his royal garments and prostrated himself at the emperor’s
feet. The emperor knew Kali tainted the world with his evil and so had
no place in it and raised his sword once more. But Kali interceded
again and begged the emperor to spare his life and allow him a place
to live within his empire. Parikshit decided that Kali would live in
“gambling houses, in taverns, in women of unchaste lives, in
slaughtering places and in gold”.[19] And as long as Parikshit ruled
India, Kali stayed within the confines of these five places. This act
allowed Dharma to regain his legs and the earth to be relieved of much
burden. However, Parikshit was later cursed to die by snake bite after
hunting in the forest and throwing a dead snake on an unresponsive
sage practicing austerities. Upon the emperor’s death, “Kali made his
way to other places like wild fire and established his power
throughout the length and breadth of the whole world.”[19][20]

In another version of the tale, Kali enters into the Emperor’s crown
when Parikshit gives him permission to reside wherever there is gold.
Upon returning home after offending the sage, Parikshit says to
himself, "Kali-yug’s abode is in gold; this was on my head; hence I
had so evil a thought that, having taken a dead snake cast it on the
sage’s neck. Therefore, I now understand that Kali-yug has taken his
revenge on me. How shall I escape this grievous sin?"[21][22]

Kalki Purana

KalkiMain article: Kalki Purana

The beginning of the Kalki Purana describes Kali’s lineage starting
with the creator-god Brahma, his great-great grandfather, and ending
with the birth of his children’s children. Instead of being born of
poison from the churning of the ocean of milk, he is the product of a
long line of incestuous monsters born from Brahma's back. (See Family
Lineage below) Kali and his family were created by Brahma to hurry the
dissolution of the cosmos after the pralaya period was over. When his
family takes human form on earth, they further taint the hearts and
minds of mankind to bring about the end of Dvapara Yuga and the
beginning of Kali Yuga. During the first stage of Kali-Yuga, the
Indian caste system breaks down and god-worship is forsaken by man.
All through the second, third, and fourth stages, man forgets the name
of god and no longer offers Yagya (offerings) to the Devas. It is at
this point when god Vishnu reincarnates as Kalki in the name of the
Devas and all of mankind to rid the cosmos of Kali's dark influence.

The remainder of the tale describes Kalki's childhood, military
training under the immortal Parashurama, his marriage, his preparation
for war against Kali, and the decisive war between the two. Kalki
kicks off his campaign by performing the Ashvamedha sacrifice and
leading his armies behind the horse as it runs freely from kingdom to
kingdom. If any evil king tries to stop the horse, Kalki engages them
in combat. After defeating them, he continues to follow the horse
until all evil kingdoms are vanquished. When Kali finally faces
Kalki's forces, his entire family blood line is wiped out by the
avatar's generals and he presumably dies from wounds inflicted by
Dharma and Satya Yuga personified. Kalki, meanwhile, battles and
simultaneously kills the demon's most powerful generals, Koka and
Vikoka, twin devils adept in the dark arts.[5]

Death

Kali dies one-third of the way through the Kalki Purana. During the
decisive battle between Kali and Kalki’s armies, Kali tried to face
both Dharma and Satya Yuga personified, but was overwhelmed and fled
on his donkey because his chariot had been destroyed, leaving his owl-
crested war flag to be trampled on the battlefield. Kali retreated to
the citadel of his capital city of Vishasha where he discovered his
body had been mortally stabbed and burned during his battle with the
two devas. The stench of his blood billowed out and filled the
atmosphere with a foul odor. When Dharma and Satya burst into the
city, Kali tried to run away, but, knowing his family had been
destroyed, coupled with his grevious wounds, he "entered his
unmanifested years".[5] This might lead some to believe he died, but
one version of the Kalki Purana in the book The Origins of Evil in
Hindu Mythology states Kali does not die but, instead, escapes through
time and space to live in the Kali Yuga of the next Kalpa. The author
comments, "Unlike most battles between gods and demons, however, this
apparent victory is immediately undercut, for Kali escapes to reappear
in 'another age'—in our age, or the next Kali Age."[23] Since he had
the power to manifest himself in human form on earth, he was able to
forsake his dying corporal form to escape in spirit.

Family lineage

Kali is the great-great grandson of Lord Brahma. He is the son of
Krodha (Anger) and his sister-turned-wife Himsa (Violence). He is the
grandson of Dambha (Vanity) and his sister-turned-wife, Maya
(Illusion). He is the great-grandson of Adharma (Impropriety) and his
wife, Mithya (Falsehood). Adharma was originally created from Lord
Brahma's back as a Maleen Pataka (a very dark and deadly sinful
object).

B.K. Chaturvedi, a modern translator of the Kalki Purana, states in a
foot note that the growth of this dark sinful object into Adharma
seems to, "convey the growth of Kaliyuga and its obnoxious
offshoots."[5]

Vishnu Purana

Kali's family lineage is told differently in the Vishnu Purana, which
is a father purana to the Kalki Purana:

The wife of Adharma (vice) was Himsá (violence), on whom he begot a
son Anrita (falsehood), and a daughter Nikriti (immorality): they
intermarried, and had two sons, Bhaya (fear) and Naraka (hell); and
twins to them, two daughters, Maya (deceit) and Vedaná (torture), who
became their wives. The son of Bhaya and Máyá was the destroyer of
living creatures, or Mrityu (death); and Dukha (pain) was the
offspring of Naraka and Vedaná. The children of Mrityu were Vyádhi
(disease), Jará (decay), Soka (sorrow), Trishńa (greediness), and
Krodha (wrath). These are all called the inflictors of misery, and are
characterised as the progeny of Vice (Adharma). They are all without
wives, without posterity, without the faculty to procreate; they are
the terrific forms of Vishńu, and perpetually operate as causes of the
destruction of this world. On the contrary, Daksha and the other
Rishis, the elders of mankind, tend perpetually to influence its
renovation: whilst the Manus and their sons, the heroes endowed with
mighty power, and treading in the path of truth, as constantly
contribute to its preservation.

In this version, Himsa is Adharma's wife instead of his granddaughter.
[1]

Bhagavata Purana

According to the Bhagavata Purana, Adharma is the husband of Mrishá
(falsehood), and the father of Dambha (hypocrisy) and Máyá (deceit),
who were adopted by Nirritti (Hindu god/dess of misery). The series of
their descendants is also somewhat varied from our text; being in each
descent, however, twins which intermarry, or Lobha (covetousness) and
Nikriti, who produce Krodha (wrath) and Hinsá: their children are,
Kali (wickedness) and Durukti (evil speech): their progeny are, Mrityu
and Bhí (fear); whose offspring are, Niraya (hell) and Yátaná
(torment).[24]

In this version, Mrisha is the wife of Adharma and not Himsa or
Mithya.

Linga Purana

The Linga Purana enumerates Adharma among the Prajapatis (Lords of
Creatures).[24]

Dharma Personified

Since Dharma is one of the major antagonists of Kali, it is important
to note this personified deity has his own line of offspring that work
against the demon and his family to bring balance to the world. The
following comes from the Vishnu Purana:

The progeny of Dharma by the daughters of Daksha were as follows: by
Sraddha he had Kama (desire); by Lakshmi, Darpa (pride); by Dhriti,
Niyama (precept); by Tushti, Santosha (content); by Pushti, Lobha
(cupidity); by Medhá, Sruta (sacred tradition); by Kriya, Danda, Naya,
and Vinaya (correction, polity, and prudence); by Buddhi, Bodha
(understanding); by Lajj, Vinaya (good behaviour); by Vapu, Vyavasaya
(perseverance). Santi gave birth to Kshema (prosperity); Siddhi to
Sukha (enjoyment); and Kírtti to Yasas. These were the sons of Dharma;
one of whom, Kama, had Hersha (joy) by his wife Nandi (delight).

Again, the Bhagavata Purana gives a different account of his
children's names.[25]

Progeny

Kali’s sister-turned-wife, Durukti (Calumny), gave him two offspring:
a son named Bhayanak (Fear) and a daughter named Mrityu (Death). His
son and daughter gave him two grandchildren: a boy named Naraka (Hell)
and a girl named Yatana (Torture).[5] Again, there are some
discrepancies here. The Vishnu Purana says Mrityu and Bhayanak are his
brother and sister. Mrityu is even represented as male instead of
female.[5]

Kali is the grandfather of Svarocisa Manu, one of the progenitors of
mankind.[17] As previously mentioned, Kali had a son named Svarocisa
with the Apsara Varuthini. Svarocisa once traveld to Mt. Mandara and
was met by Manorama, a cursed-woman being chased by a demon. In the
past, she had made fun of a sage practicing Tapasya austerities on Mt.
Kailas and was cursed to be captured by a demon. When her friends
Vibhavari and Kalavati berated the sage for enacting a curse for such
a minor offence, he cursed one to be a leper and the other a carrier
of diseases. Manorama had knowledge of a powerful spiritual weapon,
but did not know how to wield it, so she taught it to Svarocisa. When
the demon leaped out of the forest and grabbed a hold of the woman,
Svarocis called forth the weapon. But the demon stayed his hand and
explained he was actually Manorama’s father, Indivara. He had also
been cursed to become a demon by the sage Brahmamitra because he tried
to covertly obtain the secrets of Ayurveda medicine without the sage’s
knowledge. The sage told him that the curse would end when he was
about to eat his own daughter. Once he regained his true form,
Indivara taught Svarocisa the Ayurveda medication, which he used to
cure Manorama’s friends. He later married the three and had three sons
with them. He learned the languages of all creatures from Vibhavari
and the Padmini vidya from Kalavati.

Despite his prosperity, Svarocis was unhappy in his life and could
hear the ducks and deer talking about him behind his back. One day he
went hunting and took aim at a boar, but a deer came through the
clearing and asked to be shot in its place. When he enquired why, the
deer told him that she was really the goddess of the forest and wished
to marry Svarocisa. So he embraced the deer and she turned into a
beautiful woman. Together, they had a son named Dyutiman, who later
became the Svarocisa Manu.[17]

One source states, "Kali's wife Alakshmi and her sons who supervise
evil also came from Kshirasagara [the ocean of milk]."[3] Alakshmi is
the elder sister of the goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu.[26]
Since the Kalki Purana states his wife Durukti is his sister, Alakshmi
would be a second wife because she is not directly related to him.

There are a number of connections and similarities between Kali and
Alakshmi. First and foremost, Alakshmi’s sister is the consort of Lord
Vishnu, who sent his Kalki avatar to earth to defeat Kali.[26] Second,
legends say she was born either from the churning of the ocean of
milk, the poison from Vasuki (who helped churn the ocean) or the back
of Prajapati.[26][27] As previously mentioned, Kali is said to have
been born from the halahala poison created from churning the ocean or
from a lineage created from Lord Brahma’s back.[3][5] Third, Alakshmi
takes the form of an owl.[26] Kali's emblem on his war flag is of an
owl.[5] Fourth, whenever Alakshmi enters a house, families fight and
turn on one another.[28] The presence of Kali and his family on earth
causes mankind to fight and turn on one another. Finally, Alakshmi is
said to ride a donkey.[26] Kali also rides a donkey in the Kalki
Purana.[5]

Role in modern communalism

Further information: Communalism (South Asia) and Religious violence
in India

Anti-beef eating pamphlet (1890 CE) showing Kali (far right)
attempting to slaughter a sacred cow.
The color version ran by the Ravi Varma Press (c. 1912).Kali’s image
was used in several pamphlets circulated by various Agorakshanasabh
(“cow protection leagues”) and “wandering ascetics” as a protest
against the Muslim practice of beef-eating during the British raj.[29]
[30] These pamphlets were produced in a time when Hindu-Muslim riots
over cow slaughter occurred in several areas of India; including
Azamgarh district (1893), when a total of 100 people died in similar
conflagrations throughout the empire; Ayodhya (1912-1913); and
Shahabad (1917).[31] One such pamphlet entitled “The Present State”
showed a cow being slaughtered by a trio of "Muhammadan" butchers.[29]
[30] Another portrayed Kali raising a sword above the head of a sacred
cow, whose body was illustrated to be a microcosmic paradise in which
all the Hindu gods resided. There were many different editions of this
version. For instance, one showed a woman labeled "The Hindu" waiting
with bowl-in-hand for the cow's calf to finish suckling before she
could get milk. A form of Krishna labeled Darmaraj ("Ruler of Dharma")
stood behind the cow and Kali was, again, harassing her with his
sword. Still, a different one deleted the woman and calf and instead
portrayed Dharmaraj in front of the cow pleading mat maro gay sarv ka
jivan hai ("don’t kill the cow, everyone is dependent on it"), while
Kali rebuts he manusyaho! Kaliyugi Mansahari jivom ko dekho ("mankind,
look at the meat-eating souls of the kaligyug").[29]

Some Hindus considered Kali’s presence in the picture to be a
representation of the Muslim community.[29][30] When one of the
versions of these pamphlets came into the possession of a state
official in 1893, he commented that the image “contained a
representation of a Musalman [Muslim] advancing to slay the cow ...”.
[29] One book states, “The Magistrate [at Deoria] found Muhammadans
excited because they heard a picture was in circulation representing a
Muhammadan with a sword drawn sacrificing a cow, and this they
considered an insult.”[29] In 1915, a color version of this picture
ran by the Ravi Varma Press[32] caught the attention of the colonial
censors and was presumably censored in some way.[29]

In popular culture

Nala Damayanti (1921): This big-budget film depicts a famous episode
from the Mahabharata, starting with Narada's ascent of Mount Meru. It
shows Swarga, the Heaven of Indra, the Transformation in the Clouds of
the Four Gods into impersonations of King Nala, Swan Messengers of
Love, the Transformation of Kali into a Serpent, the Meeting of Kali
and Dwarpa and the Four Gods amidst the Blue Air.[33]

Notes

^ a b CHAP. VII http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm#fr_212
^ SECTION LVIII http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/index.htm
^ a b c d e Chapter X Samudra mathana
^ SECTION XXXI
^ a b c d e f g h i Chaturvedi, B.K. Kalki Purana. New Delhi: Diamond
Books, 2004 (ISBN 81-288-0588-6)
^ Monier-Williams, Monier, Sir.Sanskrit-English Dictionary ISBN
0-19-864308-X
^ a b Canto 1: Creation, Chapter 17 http://vedabase.net/sb/1/17/en1
^ CYCLICAL TIME AND ASTRONOMY IN HINDUISM (See page. 3)
http://www.achaloza.com/docs/AchalOza_CyclicalTime.pdf
^ Glass, Marty. YUGA: An Anatomy of Our Fate. Sophia Perennis, 2004
(ISBN 0900588292)
^ "Terminalia belerica (Combretaceae) is a large deciduous tree
growing to a height of 25 – 30 meters, occurring throughout India up
to 1000 meters elevation, except in the dry regions of western
India ..." [1]
^ Smith, Frederick M. The Self Possessed: Deity And Spirit Possession
in South Asian Literature And Civilization. Columbia University Press,
2006 (ISBN 0231137486)
^ Mutalik, Keshav M. Jagannath Dasa’s Harikathamrutasara (Quintessence
of Hari’s Saga). Bombay: Focus (ISBN 81-7154-787-7)
^ In another version given by Shaivites, Shiva alone drank the deadly
poison, but his consort Parvati squeezed his neck to keep it from
reaching his stomach.[2] Still, some traditions state Vayu drank first
and Shiva last and that Vayu himself is an aspect of Shiva.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaivites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati

http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/series/11_names_of_shiva/11_names_of_shiva_bhagawan-1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vayu

^ The same source says Kali can never enter the bodies of Vishnu, his
consort Lakshmi, or Vayu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi
^ Doniger, Wendy. The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade.
University Of Chicago Press, 2000 (ISBN 0226156427)
^ Graubard, Stephen R. and Everett Mendelsohn. Science in Culture. Ed.
Peter Galison and Stephen Graubard. Transaction Publishers, 2001 (ISBN
0765806738)
^ a b c Prasad, Ramanuj. Know The Puranas. Pustak Mahal, 2005 (ISBN
81-223-0912-7)
^ Canto 1: Creation, Chapter 18 http://vedabase.net/sb/1/18/en1
^ a b Sastri, Natesa S. M. Hindu Feasts: Fasts And Ceremonies: Fasts
and Ceremonies. Laurier Books Ltd., 2003 (ISBN 8120604024)
^ See chapters 16, 17, and 18
^ The Prema-Sagara: Or the Ocean of Love (PDF ONLY)
^ Bahadur, S.P. Gitavali: Complete Works of Goswami Tulsidas (Volume
III). India: Prachya Prakashan, 1979 (ISBN 8121506697)
^ O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology.
University of California Press, 1980 (ISBN 0520040988)
^ a b See 55:14 http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm#fn_212
^ See 55:13 http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp041.htm#fn_211
^ a b c d e Pattanaik, Devdutt. Lakshmi: The Goddess of Wealth and
Fortune-An Introduction. Vakils Feffer & Simons Ltd, 2003 (ISBN
8187111585)
^ Krishna, Nanditha. The Book of Vishnu. Penguin Global, 2001 (ISBN
0670049077)
^ Chakrabarty, Dipesh. Provincializing Europe. Princeton University
Press, 2000 (ISBN 0691049092)

^ a b c d e f g Pinney, Christopher. Photos of the Gods: The Printed
Image and Political Struggle in India. Reaktion Books, 2004 (ISBN
1861891849)
^ a b c Gupta, Charu. Sexuality, Obscenity, And Community: Women,
Muslims, and the Hindu Public in Colonial India. Palgrave Macmillan,
2006 (ISBN 0312295855)
^ Paradox of the Indian Cow: Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India
http://www.indowindow.net/sad/article.php?child=17&article=11
^ A lithograph press founded by Indian artist Ravi Varma in 1894.[3]
^ Plot Summary for Nala Damayanti (1921)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154931/plotsummary

External links

Look up Kali in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Places of Kali – Podcast of Kali’s tale from the Bhagavata Purana.
કલિયુગનાં ચાર આશ્રયસ્થાન (Kaliyuga's mainstay) – The tale of Kali and
Parikshit in Gujarati.
http://www.swargarohan.org/Bhagavata/Chapter01/09.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavata_Purana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujar%C4%81ti_script

Srimad Bhagavatam: Cant 1 – See chapters 16 and 17.
http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto1/c1-contents.html
A very large detailed painting of King Parikshit about to kill Kali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_(demon)

/ History / Myths of Origins /

Paradox of the Indian Cow:
Attitudes to Beef Eating in Early India

By DN Jha
Renowned historian writes on beef eating in ancient India and
associated issues

An average Indian of today rooted in what appears to him as his
traditional Hindu religious heritage carries the load of the
misconception that his ancestors, especially the Vedic Aryans,
attached great importance to the cow on account of its inherent
sacredness. The ‘sacred’ cow has come to be considered a symbol of
community identity of the Hindus whose cultural tradition is often
imagined as threatened by the Muslims who are thought of as
beefeaters. The sanctity of the cow has, therefore, been announced
with the flourish of trumpets and has been wrongly traced back to the
Vedas, which are supposedly of divine origin and fountainhead of all
knowledge and wisdom. In other words, some sections of Indian society
have traced back the concept of sacred cow to the very period when it
was sacrificed and its flesh was eaten.

More importantly, the cow has tended to become a political instrument
at the hand of rulers over time. The Mughal emperors (e.g. Babar,
Akbar, Jahangir and Aurangzeb etc) are said to have imposed a
restricted ban on cow slaughter to accommodate the Jaina or
Brahmanical feeling of respect and veneration of the cow[1].
Similarly Shivaji, sometimes viewed as an incarnation of God who
descended on earth for the deliverance of the cow and brahmin, is
described as proclaiming: “We are Hindus and the rightful lords of the
realm. It is not proper for us to witness cow slaughter and the
oppression of brahmanas”[2].

But the cow became a tool of mass political mobilization when the
organized Hindu cow protection movement, beginning with the Sikh Kuka
(or Namdhari) sect in the Punjab around 1870 and later strengthened by
the foundation of the first Gorakshini Sabha in 1882 by Dayanananda
Saraswati, made this animal a symbol to unite a wide ranging people,
challenged the Muslim practice of its slaughter and provoked a series
of serious communal riots in the 1880s and 1890s. Although attitudes
to cow killing had been hardening even earlier, there was undoubtedly
a ‘dramatic intensification’ of the cow protection movement when in
1888 the North-Western Provinces High Court decreed that a cow was not
a sacred object.[3] Not surprisingly cow slaughter very often became
the pretext of many Hindu-Muslim riots, especially those in Azamgarh
district in the year 1893 when more than one hundred people were
killed in different parts of the country. Similarly in 1912-1913
violence rocked Ayodhya and a few years later, in 1917, Shahabad
witnessed a disastrous communal conflagration.[4]

The killing of the kine seems to have emerged again and again as a
troublesome issue on the Indian political scene even in independent
India despite legislation by several state legislatures prohibiting
cow slaughter and the Directive Principles of State Policy in the
Indian Constitution which directs the Indian state to “…to take steps
for… prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and
draught cattle”. For instance, in 1966, nearly two decades after
Indian independence, almost all the Indian communal political parties
and organizations joined hands in masterminding a massive
demonstration by several hundred thousand people in favour of a
national ban on cow slaughter which culminated in a violent rioting in
front of the Indian Parliament resulting in the death of at least
eight persons and injury to many more. In April 1979, Acharya Vinoba
Bhave, often supposed to be a spiritual heir to Mahatma Gandhi, went
on a hunger strike to pressurize the central government to prohibit
cow slaughter throughout the country and ended it after five days when
he succeeded in getting the Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s vague
assurance that his government would expedite anti-slaughter
legislation. Since then the cow ceased to remain much of an issue in
the Indian political arena for many years, though the management of
cattle resources has been a matter of academic debate among
sociologists, anthropologists, economists and different categories of
policy framers.

The veneration of cow has been, however, converted into a symbol of
communal identity of the Hindus and the obscurantist and
fundamentalist forces obdurately refuse to appreciate that the
‘sacred’ cow was not always all that sacred in the Vedic and
subsequent Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical traditions and that its
flesh, along with other varieties of meat, was quite often a part of
the haute cuisine in early India. Although the Shin, Muslims of
Dardistan in Pakistan, look on the cow as other Muslims do the pig,
avoid direct contact with cows, refuse to drink cow’s milk or use cow
dung as fuel and reject beef as food,[5] the self-styled custodians of
non-existent ‘monolithic’ Hinduism assert that the practice of beef
eating was first introduced in India by the followers of Islam who
came from outside and are foreigners in this country, little realising
that their Vedic ancestors were also foreigners who ate the flesh of
the cow and various other animals. Fanaticism getting precedence over
fact, it is not surprising that the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangha
(RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and their numerous
outfits have a national ban on cow slaughter on their agenda and the
Chief Minister of Gujarat (Keshubhai Patel) announced some time ago,
as a pre-election gimmick, the setting up of a separate department to
preserve cow breeds and manage Hindu temples.[6] More recently, a
Bajrang Dal leader has threatened to enroll 30 lakh volunteers to
agitate against cow slaughter during the month of Bakrid in 2002.[7]
So high-geared has been the propaganda about abstention from beef
eating as a characteristic trait of ‘Hinduism’ that when the RSS
tried to claim Sikhs as Hindus, it led to vehement opposition from
them and one of the Sikh youth leaders proposed, ”Why not slaughter a
cow and serve beef in a gurudwara langar?”[8]

The communalists who have been raising a hullabaloo over the cow in
the political arena do not realise that beef eating remained a fairly
common practice for a long time in India and that the arguments for
its prevalence are based on the evidence drawn from our own scriptures
and religious texts. The response of historical scholarship to the
communal perception of Indian food culture, however, has been sober
and scholars have drawn attention to the textual evidence of beef
eating which, in fact, begins to be available from the oldest Indian
religious text Rgveda, supposedly of divine origin. H.H. Wilson,
writing in the first half of the nineteenth century, had asserted:
“the sacrifice of the horse or of the cow, the gomedha or asvamedha,
appears to have been common in the earliest periods of the Hindu
ritual”. The view that the practice of killing of cattle at sacrifices
and eating their flesh prevailed among the Indo-Aryans was put forth
most convincingly by Rajendra Lal Mitra in an article which first
appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and
subsequently formed a chapter of his book The Indo-Aryans published in
1891. In 1894 William Crooke, a British civil servant, collected an
impressive amount of ethnographic data on popular religious beliefs
and practices in his two-volume book and devoted one whole chapter to
the respect shown to animals including the cow[9]. Later in 1912, he
published an informative piece on the sanctity of cow in India. But he
also drew attention to the old practice of eating beef and its
survival in his own times.[10] In 1927, L. L. Sundara Ram made a
strong case for cow protection for which he sought justification from
the scriptures of different religions including Hinduism. However he
did not deny that the Vedic people ate beef, [11] though he blamed the
Muslims for cow slaughter. Later in the early forties P. V. Kane in
his monumental work History of Dharmasastra referred to some Vedic and
early Dharmasastric passages which speak of cow killing and beef
eating. H.D. Sankalia drew attention to literary as well as
archaeological evidence of eating cattle flesh in ancient India.[12]
Similarly, Laxman Shastri Joshi, a Sanskritist of unquestionable
scholarship, drew attention to the Dharmasastra works, which
unequivocally support the prevalence of the practice of flesh eating
including beef eating in early India.[13]

Needless to say that the scholarship of all of the scholars mentioned
above was unimpeachable, and that none of them seems to have anything
to do with any anti- Hindu ideology. H.H. Wilson, for example, was the
first occupant of the Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1832 and was not
as avowedly anti-Indian as many other imperialist scholars. Rajendra
Lal Mitra, a product of the Bengal renaissance and a close associate
of Rabindranath’s elder brother Jyotindranath Tagore, made significant
contribution to India’s intellectual life, and was described by Max
Mueller as the ‘best living Indologist’ of his time and by
Rabindranath Tagore as “the most beloved child of the muse”.[14]
William Crooke was a well-known colonial ethnograher who wrote
extensively on peasant life and popular religion without any marked
prejudice against Hinduism.[15] L. L. Sundara Ram, despite his
somewhat anti-Muslim feeling, was inspired by humanitarian
considerations. Mahamahopadhyaya P.V. Kane was a conservative Marathi
brahmin and the only Sanskritist to be honoured with the title of
Bharatratna. H.D. Sankalia combined his unrivalled archaeological
activity with a profound knowledge of Sanskrit. Besides these scholars
several other Indian Sanskritists and Indologists, not to mention a
number of western scholars, have repeatedly drawn our attention to the
textual evidence of eating beef and other types of animal flesh in
early India. Curious though it may seem, the Sangh Parivar, which
carries a heavy burden of “civilisational illiteracy”, has never
turned its guns towards them but against historians who have mostly
relied on the researches of the above-mentioned distinguished
scholars.

While the contribution of the scholars mentioned above cannot be
minimised, the limitation of their work lies in the fact that they
have referred to isolated bits of information on beef eating
concentrating mainly on the Vedic texts without treating it as part of
the flesh eating tradition prevalent in India. Unlike their works,
therefore, the present paper seeks to draw attention to the Indian
textual evidence of cattle killing and beef eating widely dispersed
over time so as to indicate its continuity for a long time in the
Brahmanical society and to suggest that the idea of cow’s supposed
holiness does not tie up with practices current in Indian society.

II

The early Aryans, who migrated to India from outside,
brought along with them their earlier cultural traits. Therefore, even
after their migration into the Indian subcontinent, for several
centuries, pastoralism, nomadism and animal sacrifice remained
characteristic features of their life till sedentary field agriculture
became the mainstay of their livelihood. Animal sacrifices were very
common, and in the agnadheya, which was a preparatory rite preceding
all public sacrifices, a cow was required to be killed.[16] In the
asvamedha, the most important of public sacrifices, first mentioned in
the Rgveda and discussed in the Brahmanas, more than 600 animals
(including wild ones like boars) and birds were killed and its finale
was marked by the sacrifice of 21 cows, which, according to the
dominant opinion were sterile ones.[17] In the gosava, an important
component of the public sacrifices like the rajasuya and vajapeya, a
sterile spotted cow was offered to Maruts and seventeen ‘dwarf heifers
under three’ were done to death in the pancasaradiyasava.[18] The
killing of animals including the cattle figures in several other
yajnas including caturmasya, sautramani and independent animal
sacrifice called pasubandha or nirudhapasubandha.[19] These and
several other major sacrifices involved killing of animals including
the cattle, which constituted the chief form of the wealth of the
early Aryans. They, not surprisingly, prayed for cattle and sacrificed
them to propitiate their gods.

The Vedic gods, for whom the various sacrifices were performed, had no
fixed menu of food. Milk, butter, barley, oxen, goats and sheep were
offered to them and these were their usual food, though some of them
seem to have had their special preferences. Indra had a special liking
for bulls (RV, V.29.7ab; VI.17.11b; VIII.12.8ab X.27.2c; X. 28. 3c;X.
86.14ab). Agni was not a tippler like Indra, but was fond of animal
food including the flesh of horses, bulls and cows (RV, VIII. 43.11;
X. 91.14ab). The toothless Pusan, the guardian of the roads, ate mush
as a Hobson’s choice. Soma was the name of a heady drink but, equally
importantly, of a god and killing of animals including cattle for him
(RV, X.91.14ab) was basic to most of the Rgvedic yajnas. The Maruts
and the Asvins were also offered cows. The Vedas mention about 250
animals out of which at least 50 were deemed fit for sacrifice and by
implication for divine as well as human consumption. The animal food
occupied a place of importance in the Vedic sacrifices and dietetics
and the general preference for the flesh of the cow is undeniable. The
Taittiriya Brahmana (III.9.8) categorically tells us: “Verily the cow
is food” (atho annam vai gauh) and the Satapatha Brahmana (III.1.2.21)
refers to Yajnavalkya’s stubborn insistence on eating the tender
(amsala) flesh of the cow.

According to the subsequent Brahmanical texts (e.g. Grhyasutras and
Dharmasutras) the killing of animals and eating of beef was very much
de rigeur. The ceremony of guest-reception (known as arghya in the
Rgveda but generally as madhuparka in subsequent texts) consisted not
only of a meal of a mixture of curds and honey but also of the flesh
of a cow or bull. Early lawgivers go to the extent of making flesh
food mandatory in madhuparka --- an injunction more or less dittoed
by several later legal texts (AsGS, I.24.33; KathaGS, 24,20; SankhGS,
II.15.2; ParGS, I.3.29). A guest therefore came to be described by
Panini as a goghna (one for whom the cow is slain). The sacred thread
ceremony was not all that sacred; for it was necessary for a snataka
to wear an upper garment of the cowhide (ParGS, II.5.17-20).

The slaughter of animals formed an important component of the cult of
the dead in the Vedic texts as well as in later Dharmasastra works.
The thick fat of the cow was used to cover the dead body (RV, X.14-18)
and a bull was burnt along with the corpse to enable the departed to
ride with in the nether world. The funerary rites included feeding of
the brahmins after the prescribed period and quite often the flesh of
the cow/ ox was offered to the dead (AV, XII.2, 48). The textual
prescriptions indicate the degree of satisfaction obtained by the
Manes depending upon the animal offered---- the cow’s flesh could keep
them contented for at least a year! The Vedic and the post-Vedic
texts also often mention the killing of animals including the kine in
several other ritual contexts. The gavamayana, a sessional sacrifice
performed by the brahmins was, for example, marked by animal slaughter
culminating in an extravagant bacchanalian communal festival
(mahavrata) in which cattle were slaughtered. There was, therefore, a
relationship between the sacrifice and sustenance. But this need not
necessarily mean that different meat types were eaten only if offered
in a sacrifice. Thus in the grhamedha, which has been discussed in
several Srautasutras, an unspecified number of cows were slain not in
the strict ritual manner but in the crude and profane manner.[20]
Archaeological evidence also suggests non-ritual killing of cattle.
This is indicative of the fact that beef and other animal flesh formed
part of the dietary habits of the people and that the edible flesh was
not always ritually consecrated, though some scholars have argued to
the contrary.[21] Despite the overwhelming evidence of cattle killing,
several scholars have obdurately held that the Vedic cow was sacred
and inviolable on the basis of the occurrence of the word aghnya/
aghnya in the Atharvaveda and the use of words for cow as epithet or
in simile and metaphor with reference to entities of highest religious
significance. But it has been convincingly proved that if the Vedic
cow was at all inviolable, it was so only when it belonged to a
brahmin who received cows as sacrificial fee (daksina).[22] But this
cannot be taken to be an index of the animal’s inherent sanctity and
inviolability in the Vedic period or even later.

Nor can one make too much of the doctrine of non-killing (ahimsa) in
relation to the cow. Gautama Buddha and Mahavira emphasized the idea
of non-violence, which seems to have made its first appearance in the
Upanisadic thought and literature. But despite their vehement
opposition of the Vedic animal sacrifice, neither they nor their
followers were averse to eating of meat. The Buddha is known to have
eaten beef and pork and the texts amply indicate that flesh meat very
well suited the Buddhist palate. Asoka, whose compassion for animals
is undeniable, allowed certain specified animals to be killed for his
kitchen. In fact, neither Asoka’s list of animals exempted from
slaughter nor the Arthasastra of Kautilya specifically mentions cow as
unslayable. The cattle were killed for food throughout the Mauryan
period.

Like Buddhism, Jainism also enthusiastically took up cudgels for non-
violence. But meat eating was so common in Vedic and post-Vedic times
that even Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is said to have eaten the
meat of a cockerel. Perhaps the early Jainas were not strict
vegetarians. A great Jaina logician of the eighth century,
Haribhadrasuri, tells us that the monks did not have objection to
eating flesh and fish, which were given to them by householders,
though there is irrefutable textual evidence to show that meat eating
became a strong taboo among the followers of Jainism. The
inflexibility of the Jaina attitude to meat eating is deeply rooted in
the basic tenets of Jaina philosophy, which, at least in theory, is
impartial in its respect for all forms of life without according any
special status to the cow. Thus, although both Buddhism, and, to a
greater extent, Jainism contributed to the growth of ahimsa doctrine,
neither seems to have developed the sacred cow concept
independently.

III

Despite the Upanisadic, Buddhist and Jaina advocacy of ahimsa, the
practice of ritual and random of killing animals including the cattle
continued in the post-Mauryan centuries. The law book of Manu (200 BC-
AD 200), which is the most representative of the legal texts and has
much to say on the lawful and forbidden food, contains several
passages on flesh eating, which have much in common with earlier and
later Brahmanical juridical works. Like the earlier law books, it
mentions the animals whose flesh could be eaten. Manu’s list includes
the porcupine, hedgehog, iguana, rhinoceros, tortoise and the hare and
all those domestic animals having teeth in one jaw only, the only
exception being the camel (V.18); and, it is significant that the cow
is not excluded from the list of edible animals. Eating meat on
sacrificial occasions, Manu tells us, is a divine rule (daivo vidhih
smrtah), but doing so on other occasions is a demoniac practice (V.
31). Accordingly one does not do any wrong by eating meat while
honouring the gods, the Manes and guests (madhuparka ca yajne ca
pitrdaivatakarmani), irrespective of the way in which the meat was
procured (V.32, 41). Manu asserts that animals were created for the
sake of sacrifice, that killing on ritual occasions is non-killing (V.
39) and injury (himsa) as enjoined by the Veda (vedavihitahimsa) is
known to be non-injury (V.44). In the section dealing with rules for
times of distress, Manu recalls the legendary examples of the most
virtuous brahmins of the days of yore who ate ox-meat and dog-meat to
escape death from starvation (X.105-9). Manu’s latitudinarian attitude
is clear from his recognition of the natural human tendency of eating
meat, drinking spirituous liquor and indulging in sexual intercourse,
even if abstention brings great rewards (V.56). He further breaks
loose the constraints when he says: “the Lord of creatures (Prajapati)
created this whole world to be the sustenance of the vital spirit;
both the immovable and the movable (creation is) the food of the vital
spirit. What is destitute of motion is the food of those endowed with
locomotion; (animals) without fangs (are the food) of those with
fangs, those without hands of those who possess hands, and the timid
of the bold. The eater who daily even devours those destined to be his
food, commits no sin; for the creator himself created both the eaters
and those who are to be eaten” (V.28-30). This injunction removes all
restrictions on flesh eating and gives an unlimited freedom to all
desiring to eat animal flesh and since Manu does not mention beef
eating as taboo one can infer that he did not treat cow as sacrosanct.
Manu contradicts his own statements by extolling ahimsa (X.63), but
there is no doubt that he permitted meat eating at least on ritual
occasions (madhuparka, sraddha etc) when the killing of the cow and
other cattle, according to his commentator Medhatithi (9th century),
was in keeping with the Vedic and post- Vedic practice
(govyajamamsamaproksitambhaksyed… madhuparkovyakhyatah tatra
govadhovihitah).[23]

Yajnavalkya (AD 100-300), like Manu, discusses the rules regarding
lawful and forbidden food. Although his treatment of the subject is
less detailed, he does not differ radically from him. Yajnavalkya
mentions the specific animals (deer, sheep, goat, boar, rhinoceros
etc) and birds (e.g. partridge) whose flesh could satisfy the Manes (I.
258-61). According to him a student, teacher, king, close friend and
son-in-law should be offered arghya every year and a priest should be
offered madhuparka on all ritual occasions (I.110). He further enjoins
that a learned brahmin (srotriya) should be welcomed with a big ox or
goat (mahoksam va mahajam va srotriyayopakalpayet) delicious food and
sweet words. This indicates his endorsement of the earlier practice of
killing cattle at the reception of illustrious guests. Yajnavalkya,
like Manu, permits eating of meat when life is in danger, or when it
is offered in sacrifices and funerary rites (i.179). But unconsecrated
meat (vrthamamsam, anupakrtamamsani), according to him, is a taboo (I.
167, 171) and any one killing animals solely for his own food and not
in accordance with the Vedic practice is doomed to go to hell for as
many days as the number of hair on the body of the victim (I.180).
Similarly Brhaspati (AD 300-500), like Manu, recommends abstention
from liquor (madya), flesh (mamsa) and sexual intercourse only if they
are not lawfully ordained[24] which implies that whatever was lawful
was permitted. The lawgivers generally accept as lawful all those
sacrifices, which, according to them, have Vedic sanction. The
sacrificial slaughter of animals and domesticated bovines, as we have
seen, was a Vedic practice and therefore may have been fairly common
among the Brahmanical circles during the early Christian centuries and
even well into the later half of the first millennium AD. It would be,
however, unrealistic to assume that the dharmic precept of restricting
animal slaughter to ritual occasions was always taken seriously either
by brahmins for whom the legal injunctions were meant or by other
sections of society.[25] It is not surprising, therefore, that
Brhaspati, while discussing the importance of local customs, says that
in Madhyadesa the artisans eat cows (madhyadese karmakarah silpinasca
gavasinah).[26]

The evidence from the epics is quite eloquent. Most of the characters
in the Mahabharata are meat eaters and it makes a laudatory reference
to the king Rantideva in whose kitchen two thousand cows were
butchered everyday, their flesh, along with grains, being distributed
among the brahmins (III.208.8-9)[27]. Similarly the Ramayana of
Valmiki makes frequent reference to the killing of animals including
the cow for sacrifice as well as food. Rama was born after his father
Dasaratha performed a big sacrifice involving the slaughter of a large
number of animals declared edible by the Dharmasastras, which, as we
have seen, sanction ritual killing of the kine. Sita, while crossing
the Yamuna, assures her that she would worship her with thousand cows
and a hundred jars of wine when Rama accomplishes his vow. Her
fondness for deer meat drives her husband crazy enough to kill Marici,
a deer in disguise. Bharadvaja welcomes Rama by slaughtering a fatted
calf in his honour.[28]

The non-vegetarian dietary practices find an important place in the
early Indian medical treatises, whose chronology broadly coincides
with that of the law books of Manu and Yajnavalkya, and the two epics.
Caraka (1st-2nd century), Susruta (3rd –4th century) and Vagbhata (7th
century) provide an impressive list of the variety of fish and flesh
and all three of them speak of the therapeutic uses of beef[29]. The
continuity of the tradition of eating flesh including that of the
cattle is also echoed in early Indian secular literature till late
times. In the Gupta period, Kalidasa alludes to the story of Rantideva
who killed numerous cows every day in his kitchen.[30] More than two
centuries later, Bhavabhuti (AD 700) refers to two instances of guest
reception, which included the killing of a heifer[31]. In the 10th
century Rajasekhara mentions the practice of killing an ox or a goat
in honour of a guest[32]. In the 12th century Sriharsa mentions a
variety of non-vegetarian delicacies served at a dazzling marriage
feast and refers to two interesting instances of cow killing[33],
though, in the same century Somesvara shows clear preference for pig
flesh over other meat types and does not mention beef at all.

IV

While the above references, albeit limited in number, indicate that
the ancient practice of killing the kine for food continued till about
the 12th century, there is considerable evidence in the commentaries
on the kavya literature and the earlier Dharmasastra texts to show
that the Brahmanical writers retained its memory till very late times.
Among the commentators on the secular literature, Candupandita (late
13th century) from Gujarat, Narahari[34] (14th century) from Telengana
in Andhra Pradesh, and Mallinatha[35] (14th-15th century), who is
associated with the king Devaraya II of Vidyanagara (Vijayanagara),
clearly indicate that, in earlier times, the cow was done to death for
rituals and hence for food. As late as the 18th century Ghanasyama, a
minister of a Tanjore ruler, states that the killing of cow in honour
of a guest was the ancient rule.[36]

Similarly the authors of Dharmasastra commentaries and religious
digests from the 9th century onwards keep alive the memory of the
archaic practice of beef eating and some of them even go so far as to
permit eating beef in specific circumstances. For example, Medhatithi
(9th century), probably a Kashmirian brahmin, says that a bull or ox
was killed in honour of a ruler or any one deserving to be honoured
and unambiguously allows eating the flesh of cow (govyajamamsam) on
ritual occasions[37]. Several other writers of exegetical works seem
to lend support to this view, though some times indirectly.
Visvarupa[38] (9th century), a brahmin from Malwa and probably a pupil
of Sankara, Vijnanesvara[39] (11th century), who may have lived not
far from Kalyana in modern Karnataka, Haradatta[40] (12th century),
also a southerner (daksinatya), Laksmidhara[41] (12th century), a
minister of the Gahadwala king, Hemadri[42] (late 13th century), a
minister of the Yadavas of Devagiri, Narasimha/ Nrsimha[43] (14th
century), possibly from southern India, and Mitra Misra[44] (17th
century) from Gopacala (Gwalior) support the practice of killing a cow
on occasions like guest-reception and sraddha in ancient times. As
recently as the early 20th century, Madana Upadhyaya from Mithila
refers to the ritual slaughter of milch cattle in the days of yore.
[45] Thus even when the Dharmasastra commentators view cow killing
with disfavour, they generally admit that it was an ancient practice
and that it was to be avoided in the kali age.

V

While the above evidence is indicative of the continuity of the
practice of beef eating, the lawgivers had already begun to discourage
it around the middle of the first millennium when the Indian society
began to be gradually feudalized leading to major socio-cultural
transformation. This phase of transition, first described in the epic
and Puranic passages as kaliyuga, saw many changes and modification in
social norms and customs. The Brahmanical religious texts now begin to
speak of many earlier practices as forbidden in the kaliyuga –
practices which came to be known as kalivarjyas. While the number of
kalivarjyas swelled up over time, most of the relevant texts mention
cow killing as forbidden in the kali. According to some early medieval
lawgivers a cow killer was an untouchable and one incurred sin even by
talking to him. They increasingly associated cow slaughter and beef
eating with the proliferating number of untouchable castes. It is,
however, interesting that some of them consider these acts as no more
than minor behavioural aberrations like cleaning one’s teeth with
one’s fingers and eating only salt or soil.[46]

Equally interesting is the fact that almost all the prescriptive texts
enumerate cow killing as a minor sin (upapataka) and none of them
describe it as a major offence (mahapataka). Moreover the Smrti texts
provide easy escape routes by laying down expiatory procedures for
intentional as well as inadvertent killing of the cow. This may imply
that that cattle killing may not have been uncommon in society and the
atonements were prescribed merely to discourage eating of cattle
flesh. To what extent the Dharmasastric injunctions were effective,
however, remains a matter of speculation; for the possibility of at
least some members eating beef on the sly cannot be ruled out. As
recently as the late 19th century Swami Vivekananda was alleged to
have eaten beef during his stay in America, though he vehemently
defended his action.[47] Similarly in early twentieth century Mahatma
Gandhi spoke of the hypocrisy of the orthodox Hindus who “do not so
much as hesitate or inquire when during illness the doctor …
prescribes them beef tea.”[48] Even today 72 communities in Kerala--
not all of them untouchable perhaps--- prefer beef to the expensive
mutton and the Hindutva forces are persuading them to go easy on it.
[49]

VI

Although cow killing and beef eating gradually came to be viewed as a
sin and a source of pollution from the early medieval period, the cow
and its products (milk, curds, clarified butter, dung and urine) or
their mixture called pancagavya had been assuming a purificatory role
from much earlier times. The Vedic texts attest to the ritual use of
cow’s milk and milk products, but the term pancagavya occurs for the
first time in the Baudhayana Dharmasutra. The law books of Manu,
Visnu, Vasistha, Yajnavalkya and those of several later lawgivers like
Atri, Devala and Parasara mention the use of the mixture of the five
products of the cow for both purification and expiation. The
commentaries and religious digests, most of which belong to the
medieval period, abound in references to the purificatory role of the
pancagavya. The underlying assumption in all these cases is that the
pancagavya is pure. But several Dharmasastra texts forbid its use by
women and the lower castes. If a sudra drinks pancagavya, we are told,
he goes to hell.[50]

It is curious that the prescriptive texts, which repeatedly refer to
the purificatory role of the cow, also provide much evidence of the
notion of pollution and impurity associated with this animal.
According to Manu (V.125) the food smelt by the cow has to be
purified. Other early lawgivers like Visnu (XXIII.38) and Yajnavalkya
(I.189) also express similar views. The latter in fact says that while
the mouth of the goat and horse is pure that of the cow is not. Among
the later juridical texts, those of Angirasa, Parasara, Vyasa and so
on, support the idea of the cow’s mouth being impure. The lawgiver
Sankha categorically states that all limbs of the cow are pure except
her mouth. The commentaries on different Dharmasastra texts reinforce
the notion of impurity of the cow’s mouth. All this runs counter to
the ideas about the purificatory role of the cow.

Needless to say, then, that the image of the cow projected by Indian
textual traditions, especially the Brahmanical- Dharmasastric works,
over the centuries is polymorphic. Its story through the millennia is
full of inconsistencies and has not always been in conformity with
dietary practices prevalent in society. It was killed and yet the
killing was not killing. When it was not slain, mere remembering the
old practice of butchery satisfied the brahmins. Its five products
including faeces and urine have been pure but its mouth has not been
so. Yet through these incongruous attitudes and puzzling paradoxes the
Indian cow has struggled its way to sanctity. But its holiness is
elusive. For, there is no cow- goddess, nor any temple in her honour.
[51] Nevertheless the veneration of this animal has come to be viewed
as a characteristic trait of modern day non-existent monolithic
‘Hinduism’ bandied about by the Hindutva forces.

[1] L.L. Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, The South Indian
Humanitarian League, George Town, Madras, 1027, pp.122-123, 179-190.

[2] Siva Digvijaya quoted in Sundara Ram, op. cit. p.191.

[3] Sandria B. Freitag, “Contesting in Public: Colonial Legacies and
Contemporary Communalism”, in David Ludden, ed., Making India Hindu,
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.217.

[4] Idem, Collective Action and Community: Public Arena and the
Emergence of Communalism in North India, Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1990, Chapter 6; Gyan Pandey, ‘Rallying round the Cow’, in
Subaltern Studies, Vol.. II, Ranajit Guha, (ed.), Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1983, pp. 60- 129.

[5] Frederick J. Simoons, “Questions in the Sacred-Cow Controversy”,
Current Anthropology, 20(3), September 1979, p.468.

[6] The Times of India, 28 May 1999, p.12.

[7] Frontline, 13 April 2001.

[8] Rajesh Ramachandran, “A Crisis of Identity”, The Hindustan Times,
7 May 2000.

[9] W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, 2
Vols, Delhi: 4th reprint, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978.

[10] W. Crooke, ‘The Veneration of the Cow in India’, Folklore, 13
(1912), pp.275-306.

[11] Sundara Ram, Cow Protection in India, Madras: The South Indian
Humanitarian League, 1927, p.8, passim.

[12] H.D. Sankalia, “ (The Cow) In History”, Seminar No. 93, May 1967.

[13] “Was the Cow Killed in Ancient India?” Quest, (75), March-
April 1972, pp. 83-87.

[16] J.C. Heesterman translates a passage of the Kathaka Samhita
(8.7:90.10) relating to the agnadheya as: ‘they kill a cow, they play
a dice for [shares in] her, they serve her up to those seated in the
assembly hall’: Broken World of Sacrifice, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993, p.283, note 33.

[17] Louis Renou, Vedic India, Varanasi, reprint, Indological Book
House, 1971 p.109.

[18] R.L. Mitra, Indo-Aryans: Contributions to the Elucidation of
Ancient and Medieval History, 2 Vols, Varanasi: reprint, Indological
Book House, 1969, p.363.

[19] A.B. Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanisads,
Delhi: Indian reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, 1970, p.324; P.V. Kane,
History of Dharmasastra, II, pt.2, Chapter
XXXII.

[20] J. C. Heesterman, op.cit., pp. 190-93, 200-02.

[21] For different views see Hanns-Peter Schmidt, ‘Ahimsa and
Rebirth’ in Inside The Texts Beyond The Texts: New Approaches to the
Study of the Vedas, M. Witzel (ed.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997,
pp. 209-10; Cf. J.C. Heesterman, ‘Vratya and Sacrifice’, Indo-Iranian
Journal, 6 (1962), pp. 1-37.

[22] William Norman Brown, ‘The Sanctity of Cow in Hinduism’, Madras
University Journal, 27.2 (1957), pp. 29-49.

[23] Medhatithi on Manu, V.27, 41 see Manava-Dharma-Sastra, ed., V.N.
Mandalik, Bombay, 1886, pp.604, 613.

[24] Brhaspatismrti cited in Krtyakalpataru of Laksmidhara,
trtiyabhaga, ed., K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Baroda Oriental Institute,
Baroda,1950, p.326

[25] Contra Francis Zimmermann (The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, p.180ff) asserts that
only consecrated meat was eaten and Hanns Peter Schmidt seems to be in
agreement with him

(‘Ahimsa and Rebirth’, op.cit., p.209). But the evidence from the
Buddhist Jatakas, Kautilya’s Arthasastra, and Asokan inscriptions etc
does not support this view.

[26] Brhaspatismrti, 128b, Gaekwad Oriental Series, Baroda, 1941.

[27] For further references see S. Sorensen, An Index to the Names in
the Mahabharata, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1963, pp.593-94.

[28] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., vol.I, p. 396.

[29] Caraka Samhita: Sutrasthanam, II.31, XXVII.79: Susruta Samhita:
Sarirasthanam, III.25; Astanga Hrdayam: Sutrasthanam, VI.65.

[30] Meghaduta, with the commentary of Mallinatha, ed. and tr., M. R.
Kale (ed. & tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979, I.48.

[31] Mahaviracarita, Rampratap Tripathi Shastri (ed. with Hindi tr.),
Allahabad: Lok Bharati Prakashan, 1973. III.2. Uttararamacarita, with
notes and the commentary of Ghanasyama, P.V. Kane and C. N. Joshi (ed.
and tr.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1962, Act IV.

[32] Balaramayana, of Rajasekhara, Ganagasagar Rai (ed.) Varanasi:
Chowkhamba, 1984. I.38a

[33] Naisadhamahakavyam, with the commentary of Mallinatha, Haragovind
Shastri (ed.) Varanasi, Chowkhamba, 1981 XVII.173, 197.

[34] Naisadhacarita of Sri Harsa, K.K. Handiqui (tr. with
commentaries), Poona, Deccan College, 1965, p.472.

[35] Naisadhamahakavyam, p. 1137.

[36] Meghaduta, Kale’s edn, p.83.

[37] Medhatithi on Manu, V.26-7,41. See Manava-Dharma-Sastra (with the
commentaries of Medhatithi, Sarvajnanarayana, Kulluka, Nandana and
Ramacandra), V. N. Mandalika (ed.), Bombay: Ganpat Krishnaji’s Press,
1886, pp.604, 613.

[38] Visvarupa on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti (with
the commentary Balakrida of Visvarupacarya), Mahamahopadhyaya T.
Ganapati Sastri (ed.), Delhi: 2nd edn, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, p.
97.

[39] Mitaksara on Yajnavalkya, I. 108. See Yajnavalkyasmrti with
Vijnanesvara’s Mitaksara, Gangasagar Rai (ed.), Delhi; Chowkhamba
Sanskrit Pratisthan, 1998, p.54.

[40] Haradatta on Gautama, XVII.30.

[41] Krtyakalpataru, Niyatakalakandam, trtiyabhagam, K.V. Rangaswami
Aiyangar (ed.), Baroda: Oriental Research Institute, 1950, p.190

[42] P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, III, Poona: Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute, 1973, p.929.

[43] R. L. Mitra, op.cit., p.384.

[44] Mitra Misra on Yajnavalkya, I. 108.

[45] Palapiyusalata Gourisayantralaya, Darbhanga, Samvat 1951.

[46] Atrismrti, verse 314 in Astadasasmrtyah (with Hindi tr by
Sundarlal Tripathi, Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, Venkateshwar Steam Press,
Bombay, Saka 1846.

[47] Romain Rolland, The Life of Vivekanada and the Universal Gospel,
Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, Eleventh Impression, August 1988, p.44 fn.
3.

[48] M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments
with Truth, Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad, 1927, reprint 2000, p.324.
Gandhi saw a five-footed “miraculous” cow at the Kumbha Mela at
Allahabad in 1915, the fifth foot being nothing but “a foot cut off
from a live calf and grafted upon the shoulder of the cow” which
attracted the lavish charity of the ignorant Hindu (ibid., p.325).

[49] India Today, 15 April 1993, p.72.

[50] Visnusmrti, LIV.7; Atrismriti, verse 297, etc.

[51] A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Delhi, Rupa & Co., 27th
Impression, 1996, p.319.

http://www.indowindow.net/sad/article.php?child=17&article=11

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with
Bhadrakali. (Discuss)

For other uses, see Kali (disambiguation).

"Kalika" redirects here. For other uses, see Kalika (disambiguation).
"The black one" redirects here. For the 2005 drone metal album, see
Black One. For the male choral group, see The Black Ones.
Kali

Kali (Sanskrit: काली, Bengali: কালী, both Kālī), also known as Kalika
(Bengali: কালিকা, Kālikā), is the Hindu goddess associated with
eternal energy. The name Kali comes from Kāla which means black, time,
death, lord of death, shiva etc. kAli means "the black one". Since
Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal Time, Kālī, his consort, also means
"the Time" or "Death" (as in time has come). Hence, Kali is considered
the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark
and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation
still has some influence. More complex Tantric beliefs sometimes
extend her role so far as to be the "ultimate reality" or Brahman. She
is also revered as Bhavatarini (literally "redeemer of the universe").
Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kali as a
benevolent mother goddess.

Kali is represented as the consort of god Shiva, on whose body she is
often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses
like Durga, Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is
the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.
[1]

Etymology

Kālī is the feminine of kāla "black, dark coloured" (per Pāṇini
4.1.42). In the Mundaka Upanishad Kali is mentioned as one of the
seven tongues of Agni, the Rigvedic God of Fire (Mundaka Upanishad
2:4), thus giving rise to Kali's tongue, seen in images. It appears as
the name of a form of Durga in the Mahabharata 4.195, and as the name
of an evil female spirit in Harivamsa 11552.

Kāla means black and also time, death, lord of death, shiva etc. kAli
means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal Time,
Kālī, his consort also means "the Time" or "Death" (as in time has
come). "कालः शिवः । तस्य पत्नीति - काली । kālaḥ śivaḥ । tasya patnīti
- kālī" - [from Shabdakalpadrum]. The association is seen in a passage
from the Mahābhārata, depicting a female figure who carries away the
spirits of slain warriors and animals. She is called kālarātri (which
Thomas Coburn, a historian of Sanskrit Goddess literature, translates
as "night of death") and also kālī (which, as Coburn notes, can be
read here either as a proper name or as a description "the black one").
[2]

Kali's association with blackness stands in contrast to her consort,
Shiva, whose body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation
ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) in which he meditates, and with which Kali
is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī.

Origins

According to David Kinsley, Kali is first mentioned in Hinduism as a
distinct goddess, related to war, around 600 CE. Scriptures like Agni
Purana and Garuda Purana describe her terrible appearance and
associate her with corpses and war. The oldest mention of Kali dates
back to Rigvedic age. The 'Ratri Sookta' in Rigveda actually calls her
as Goddess 'Ratri' and regards Ratri as the Supreme force in the
universe. In the Tantras, she is regarded as the Shakti (Power) of The
Great Mahākāla (a form of Lord Shiva). Her portrayal on dead bodies in
crematorium symbolizes her presence in the hearts of devotees who have
killed their Earthly desires and want Supreme Consciousness in the lap
of the Ultimate Mother, Kali. In another form, she is regarded as the
destroyer, the Mahakali as Kali Tantra says-"kāli kālanāt" meaning
Kali is the one who finishes. Kalika Purana depicts her as the "Adi
Shakti" (Fundamental Power) and "Para Prakriti" or beyond nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni_Purana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Purana

In Tantra

Kali Yantra

Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra
Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of
reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be
the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it
is Kali who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts,
and rituals.[3] In many sources Kali is praised as the highest reality
or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea,
ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source
unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of
Kali's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-
tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kali vidyas
(manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her
to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra

In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kali is one of the epithets for the
primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:

At the dissolution of things, it is Kala [Time] Who will devour all,
and by reason of this He is called Mahakala [an epithet of Lord
Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahakala Himself, it is Thou who art
the Supreme Primordial Kalika. Because Thou devourest Kala, Thou art
Kali, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin
of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [primordial
Kali]. Resuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless,
Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having
a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning,
multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all,
Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.[3]
The figure of Kali conveys death, destruction, and the consuming
aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even
death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to
confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a
vehicle of salvation.[5] This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-
stotra[6], a short praise to Kali describing the Pancatattva ritual
unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)

He, O Mahakali who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with
dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra,
and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda
flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. 0
Kali, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes
offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Sakti
[his female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet,
a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.[5]
The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kali is more than a
terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here,
she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated
with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, who is said to be
her spouse, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes
a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object
of meditation.[7] In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on
hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and
beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right
hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features
exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of
salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a
symbol of triumph over death.[8]

[edit] In Bengali tradition

Kali Puja festivalKali is also a central figure in late medieval
Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen
(1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as
Shiva's consort, Kali is rarely pictured in Hindu mythology and
iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in
the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengali tradition her appearance
and habits change little, if at all.[9]

The Tantric approach to Kali is to display courage by confronting her
on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible
appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kali's
teachings, adopting the attitude of a child. In both cases, the goal
of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn
acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are well addressed
in Ramprasad's work.[10]

Ramprasad comments in many of his other songs that Kali is indifferent
to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to
nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does
not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:

Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a
reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]
Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?
Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.
You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you
wear as a garland around your neck.
It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but
you will not listen.[11]
To be a child of Kali, Ramprasad asserts, is to be denied of earthly
delights and pleasures. Kali is said to not give what is expected. To
the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her
devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go
beyond the material world.[11][12]

A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kali as its
central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet. Mostly sung by male
vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of
the finest singers of Shyama Sangeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.

In Bengal, Kali is venerated in the festival Kali Puja - the new moon
day of Ashwin month which coincides with Diwali festival.

Mythology

Slayer of Raktabija

In Kali's most famous myth, Durga and her assistants, Matrikas, wound
the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons, in
an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the
situation, as for every drop of blood that is spilt from Raktabija,
the demon reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes
increasingly filled with his duplicates.[13] Durga, in dire need of
help, summons Kali to combat the demons. It is also said that Goddess
Durga takes the form of Goddess Kali at this time.

The Devi Mahatmyam describes:

Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown,
issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and
noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated
with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing
to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue
lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky
with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great
asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the
devas.[14]

Kali destroys Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body and putting
the many Raktabija duplicates in her gaping mouth. Pleased with her
victory, Kali then dances on the field of battle, stepping on the
corpses of the slain. Her consort Shiva lies among the dead beneath
her feet, a representation of Kali commonly seen in her iconography as
Daksinakali.[15]

In the Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as
a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet
Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda.
[16] Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like
her in appearance and habit.[17]

Daksinakali

Bhadrakali (A gentle form of Kali), circa 1675.
Painting; made in India, Himachal Pradesh, Basohli,

now placed in LACMA.In her most famous pose as Daksinakali, it is said
that Kali, becoming drunk on the blood of her victims on the
battlefield, dances with destructive frenzy. In her fury she fails to
see the body of her husband, Shiva, who lies among the corpses on the
battlefield.[18] Ultimately the cries of Shiva attract Kali's
attention, calming her fury. As a sign of her shame at having
disrespected her husband in such a fashion, Kali sticks out her
tongue. However, some sources state that this interpretation is a
later version of the symbolism of the tongue: in tantric contexts, the
tongue is seen to denote the element (guna) of rajas (energy and
action) controlled by sattva, spiritual and godly creatures who served
as assassins.[19]

One South Indian tradition tells of a dance contest between Shiva and
Kali. After defeating the two demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Kali takes
up residence in a forest. With fierce companions she terrorizes the
surrounding area. One of Shiva's devotees becomes distracted while
performing austerities, and asks Shiva to rid the forest of the
destructive goddess. When Shiva arrives, Kali threatens him, claiming
the territory as her own. Shiva challenges Kali to a dance contest,
and defeats her when she is unable to perform the energetic Tandava
dance. Although in this case Kali is defeated, and is forced to
control her disruptive habits, there are very few other images or
other myths depicting her in such a manner.[20]

Maternal Kali

Another myth depicts the infant Shiva calming Kali. In this similar
story, Kali again defeated her enemies on the battlefield and began to
dance out of control, drunk on the blood of the slain. To calm her
down and to protect the stability of the world, Shiva is sent to the
battlefield, as an infant, crying aloud. Seeing the child's distress,
Kali ceases dancing to take care of the helpless infant. She picks him
up, kisses his head, and proceeds to breast feed the infant Shiva.[21]
This myth depicts Kali in her benevolent, maternal aspect; something
that is revered in Hinduism, but not often recognized in the West.

Ekamukhi or "One-Faced" Murti of Mahakali displaying ten hands holding
the signifiers of various Devas

Mahakali

Main article: Mahakali

Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally
translated as Great Kali, is sometimes considered as a greater form of
Kali, identified with the Ultimate reality of Brahman. It can also
simply be used as an honorific of the Goddess Kali,[22] signifying her
greatness by the prefix "Mahā-". Mahakali, in Sanskrit, is
etymologically the feminized variant of Mahakala or Great Time (which
is interpreted also as Death), an epithet of the God Shiva in
Hinduism. Mahakali is the presiding Goddess of the first episode of
the Devi Mahatmya. Here she is depicted as Devi in her universal form
as Shakti. Here Devi serves as the agent who allows the cosmic order
to be restored.

Iconography

Statue from Dakshineswar Kali Temple, West Bengal, India; along with
her Yantra.Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-
armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she
is described as being black in color but is most often depicted as
blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with
intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled,
small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is
lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of
human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by
serpents and a jackal while standing on a seemingly dead Shiva,
usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga
or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and
transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.[23]

In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a
blue stone. She has ten faces and ten feet and three eyes. She has
ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.
[24]

The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark
complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding
a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and
youthful.[25]

In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali Ma is often considered
the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is
regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And,
because of her terrible form she is also often seen as a great
protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why
one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically
replied, "Maharaj, when they are in trouble your devotees come running
to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?"[26]

According to Ramakrishna, darkness is the Ultimate Mother, or Kali:

My Mother is the principle of consciousness. She is Akhanda
Satchidananda; indivisible Reality, Awareness, and Bliss. The night
sky between the stars is perfectly black. The waters of the ocean
depths are the same; The infinite is always mysteriously dark. This
inebriating darkness is my beloved Kali.

-Sri Ramakrishna

Throughout her history artists the world over have portrayed Kali in
myriad poses and settings, some of which stray far from the popular
description, and are sometimes even graphically sexual in nature.
Given the popularity of this Goddess, artists everywhere will continue
to explore the magnificence of Kali's iconography. This is clear in
the work of such contemporary artists as Charles Wish, and Tyeb Mehta,
who sometimes take great liberties with the traditional, accepted
symbolism, but still demonstrate a true reverence for the Shakta sect.

Popular form

Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows:

Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand
carrying variously a sword, a trishul (trident), a severed head and a
bowl or skull-cup (kapala) catching the blood of the severed head.

Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a
severed head. The Sword signifies Divine Knowledge and the Human Head
signifies human Ego which must be slain by Divine Knowledge in order
to attain Moksha. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the
abhaya (fearlessness) and varada (blessing) mudras, which means her
initiated devotees (or anyone worshiping her with a true heart) will
be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.[27]

She has a garland consisting of human heads, variously enumerated at
108 (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable
beads on a Japa Mala or rosary for repetition of Mantras) or 51, which
represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit
alphabet, Devanagari. Hindus believe Sanskrit is a language of
dynamism, and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a
form of Kali. Therefore she is generally seen as the mother of
language, and all mantras.[28]

She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the
covering of Maya since she is pure (nirguna) being-consciousness-bliss
and far above prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is brahman in
its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities — she
will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore
believed that the concepts of color, light, good, bad do not apply to
her — she is the pure, un-manifested energy, the Adi-shakti.[29]

[edit] Mahakali form

The Dasamukhi MahakaliKali is depicted in the Mahakali form as having
ten heads, ten arms, and ten legs. Each of her ten hands is carrying a
various implement which vary in different accounts, but each of these
represent the power of one of the Devas or Hindu Gods and are often
the identifying weapon or ritual item of a given Deva. The implication
is that Mahakali subsumes and is responsible for the powers that these
deities possess and this is in line with the interpretation that
Mahakali is identical with Brahman. While not displaying ten heads, an
"ekamukhi" or one headed image may be displayed with ten arms,
signifying the same concept: the powers of the various Gods come only
through Her grace.

Shiva in Kali iconography

In both these images she is shown standing on the prone, inert or dead
body of Shiva. There is a mythological story for the reason behind her
standing on what appears to be Shiva's corpse, which translates as
follows:

Once Kali had destroyed all the demons in battle, she began a terrific
dance out of the sheer joy of victory. All the worlds or lokas began
to tremble and sway under the impact of her dance. So, at the request
of all the Gods, Shiva himself asked her to desist from this behavior.
However, she was too intoxicated to listen. Hence, Shiva lay like a
corpse among the slain demons in order to absorb the shock of the
dance into himself. When Kali eventually stepped upon her husband she
realized her mistake and bit her tongue in shame.[30]

The Tantric interpretation of Kali standing on top of her husband is
as follows:

The Shiv tattava (Divine Consciousness as Shiva) is inactive, while
the Shakti tattava (Divine Energy as Kali) is active. Shiva, or
Mahadeva represents Brahman, the Absolute pure consciousness which is
beyond all names, forms and activities. Kali, on the other hand,
represents the potential (and manifested) energy responsible for all
names, forms and activities. She is his Shakti, or creative power, and
is seen as the substance behind the entire content of all
consciousness. She can never exist apart from Shiva or act
independently of him, i.e., Shakti, all the matter/energy of the
universe, is not distinct from Shiva, or Brahman, but is rather the
dynamic power of Brahman.[31]

Kali in Traditional Form, standing on Shiva's chest.While this is an
advanced concept in monistic Shaktism, it also agrees with the Nondual
Trika philosophy of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmir Shaivism and
associated most famously with Abhinavagupta. There is a colloquial
saying that "Shiva without Shakti is Shava" which means that without
the power of action (Shakti) that is Mahakali (represented as the
short "i" in Devanagari) Shiva (or consciousness itself) is inactive;
Shava means corpse in Sanskrit and the play on words is that all
Sanskrit consonants are assumed to be followed by a short letter "a"
unless otherwise noted. The short letter "i" represents the female
power or Shakti that activates Creation. This is often the explanation
for why She is standing on Shiva, who is either Her husband and
complement in Shaktism or the Supreme Godhead in Shaivism.

To properly understand this complex Tantric symbolism it is important
to remember that the meaning behind Shiva and Kali does not stray from
the non-dualistic parlance of Shankara or the Upanisads. According to
both the Mahanirvana and Kularnava Tantras, there are two distinct
ways of perceiving the same absolute reality. The first is a
transcendental plane which is often described as static, yet infinite.
It is here that there is no matter, there is no universe and only
consciousness exists. This form of reality is known as Shiva, the
absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda — existence, knowledge and bliss. The second
is an active plane, an immanent plane, the plane of matter, of Maya,
i.e., where the illusion of space-time and the appearance of an actual
universe does exist. This form of reality is known as Kali or Shakti,
and (in its entirety) is still specified as the same Absolute Sat-Chit-
Ananda. It is here in this second plane that the universe (as we
commonly know it) is experienced and is described by the Tantric seer
as the play of Shakti, or God as Mother Kali.[32]

Kali and Bhairava (the terrible form of Shiva) in Union, 18th century,
NepalFrom a Tantric perspective, when one meditates on reality at
rest, as absolute pure consciousness (without the activities of
creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to this as Shiva or
Brahman. When one meditates on reality as dynamic and creative, as the
Absolute content of pure consciousness (with all the activities of
creation, preservation or dissolution) one refers to it as Kali or
Shakti. However, in either case the yogini or yogi is interested in
one and the same reality — the only difference being in name and
fluctuating aspects of appearance. It is this which is generally
accepted as the meaning of Kali standing on the chest of Shiva.[31]

Although there is often controversy surrounding the images of divine
copulation, the general consensus is benign and free from any carnal
impurities in its substance. In Tantra the human body is a symbol for
the microcosm of the universe; therefore sexual process is responsible
for the creation of the world. Although theoretically Shiva and Kali
(or Shakti) are inseparable, like fire and its power to burn, in the
case of creation they are often seen as having separate roles. With
Shiva as male and Kali as female it is only by their union that
creation may transpire. This reminds us of the prakrti and purusa
doctrine of Samkhya wherein prakāśa- vimarśa has no practical value,
just as without prakrti, purusa is quite inactive. This (once again)
stresses the interdependencies of Shiva and Shakti and the vitality of
their union.[33]

Gopi Krishna proposed that Kali standing on the dead Shiva or Shava
(Sanskrit for dead body) symbolised the helplessness of a person
undergoing the changing process (psychologically and physiologically)
in the body conducted by the Kundalini Shakti.[34]

Development

In the later traditions, Kali has become inextricably linked with
Shiva. The unleashed form of Kali often becomes wild and
uncontrollable, and only Shiva is able to tame her. This is both
because she is often a transformed version of one of his consorts and
because he is able to match her wildness. The ancient text of Kali
Kautuvam describes her competition with Shiva in dance, from which the
sacred 108 Karanas appeared. Shiva won the competition by acting the
urdva tandava, one of the Karanas, by raising his feet to his head.
Other texts describe Shiva appearing as a crying infant and appealing
to her maternal instincts. While Shiva is said to be able to tame her,
the iconography often presents her dancing on his fallen body, and
there are accounts of the two of them dancing together, and driving
each other to such wildness that the world comes close to unravelling.

Shiva's involvement with Tantra and Kali's dark nature have led to her
becoming an important Tantric figure. To the Tantric worshippers, it
was essential to face her Curse, the terror of death, as willingly as
they accepted Blessings from her beautiful, nurturing, maternal
aspect. For them, wisdom meant learning that no coin has only one
side: as death cannot exist without life, so life cannot exist without
death. Kali's role sometimes grew beyond that of a chaos — which could
be confronted — to that of one who could bring wisdom, and she is
given great metaphysical significance by some Tantric texts. The
Nirvāna-tantra clearly presents her uncontrolled nature as the
Ultimate Reality, claiming that the trimurti of Brahma, Visnu and
Rudra arise and disappear from her like bubbles from the sea. Although
this is an extreme case, the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the
Niruttara-tantra declare her the svarupa (own-being) of the Mahadevi
(the great Goddess, who is in this case seen as the combination of all
devis).

The final stage of development is the worshipping of Kali as the Great
Mother, devoid of her usual violence. This practice is a break from
the more traditional depictions. The pioneers of this tradition are
the 18th century Shakta poets such as Ramprasad Sen, who show an
awareness of Kali's ambivalent nature. Ramakrishna, the 19th century
Bengali saint, was also a great devotee of Kali; the western
popularity of whom may have contributed to the more modern, equivocal
interpretations of this Goddess. Rachel McDermott's work, however,
suggests that for the common, modern worshipper, Kali is not seen as
fearful, and only those educated in old traditions see her as having a
wrathful component. Some credit to the development of Devi must also
be given to Samkhya. Commonly referred to as the Devi of delusion,
Mahamaya, acting in the confines of (but not being bound by) the
nature of the three gunas, takes three forms: Maha-Kali, Maha-Lakshmi
and Maha-Saraswati, being her tamas-ika, rajas-ika and sattva-ika
forms. In this sense, Kali is simply part of a larger whole.

1947 TIME Magazine cover by Boris Artzybasheff depicting a self-
hurting Kālī as a symbol of the partition of IndiaLike Sir John
Woodroffe and Georg Feuerstein, many Tantric scholars (as well as
sincere practitioners) agree that, no matter how propitious or
appalling you describe them, Shiva and Devi are simply recognizable
symbols for everyday, abstract (yet tangible) concepts such as
perception, knowledge, space-time, causation and the process of
liberating oneself from the confines of such things. Shiva,
symbolizing pure, absolute consciousness, and Devi, symbolizing the
entire content of that consciousness, are ultimately one and the same
— totality incarnate, a micro-macro-cosmic amalgamation of all
subjects, all objects and all phenomenal relations between the "two."
Like man and woman who both share many common, human traits yet at the
same time they are still different and, therefore, may also be seen as
complementary.[35]

Worshippers prescribe various benign and horrific qualities to Devi
simply out of practicality. They do this so they may have a variety of
symbols to choose from, symbols which they can identify and relate
with from the perspective of their own, ever-changing time, place and
personal level of unfolding. Just like modern chemists or physicists
use a variety of molecular and atomic models to describe what is
unperceivable through rudimentary, sensory input, the scientists of
ontology and epistemology must do the same. One of the underlying
distinctions of Tantra, in comparison to other religions, is that it
allows the devotee the liberty to choose from a vast array of
complementary symbols and rhetoric that which suits one's evolving
needs and tastes. From an aesthetic standpoint, nothing is interdict
and nothing is orthodox. In this sense, the projection of some of
Devi's more gentle qualities onto Kali is not sacrilege and the
development of Kali really lies in the practitioner, not the murthi.

A TIME magazine article of October 27, 1947, used Kālī as a symbol and
metaphor for the human suffering in British India during its partition
that year.[36]

In New Age and Neopaganism

An academic study of Western Kali enthusiasts noted that, "as shown in
the histories of all cross-cultural religious transplants, Kali
devotionalism in the West must take on its own indigenous forms if it
is to adapt to its new environment."[37] The adoption of Kali by the
West has raised accusations of cultural misappropriation:

"A variety of writers and thinkers [...] have found Kali an exciting
figure for reflection and exploration, notably feminists and
participants in New Age spirituality who are attracted to goddess
worship. [For them], Kali is a symbol of wholeness and healing,
associated especially with repressed female power and sexuality.
[However, such interpretations often exhibit] confusion and
misrepresentation, stemming from a lack of knowledge of Hindu history
among these authors, [who only rarely] draw upon materials written by
scholars of the Hindu religious tradition. The majority instead rely
chiefly on other popular feminist sources, almost none of which base
their interpretations on a close reading of Kali's Indian background.
[...] The most important issue arising from this discussion – even
more important than the question of 'correct' interpretation –
concerns the adoption of other people's religious symbols. [...] It is
hard to import the worship of a goddess from another culture:
religious associations and connotations have to be learned, imagined
or intuited when the deep symbolic meanings embedded in the native
culture are not available."[38]

Gerald Gardner was reportedly particularly interested in Kali whilst
he was in the far east, before returning to England to write his
seminal works on Wicca[citation needed].

References

^ Encyclopedia International, by Grolier Incorporated Copyright in
Canada 1974. AE5.E447 1974 031 73-11206 ISBN 0-7172-0705-6 page 95
^ Mahābhārata 10.8.64-69, cited in Coburn, Thomas; Devī-Māhātmya —
Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition; Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi,
1984; ISBN 81-208-0557-7 pages 111–112.
^ a b D. Kinsley p. 122.
^ D. Kinsley p. 122–123.
^ a b D. Kinsley p. 124.
^ Karpuradi Stotra, Tantrik Texts Vol IX, Arthur Avalon (Sir John
Woodroffe), Calcutta Agamanusandhana Samiti, 1922.
^ D. Kinsley p. 124–125.
^ D. Kinsley p. 125.
^ D. Kinsley p. 126.
^ D. Kinsley p.125–126.
^ a b D. Kinsley p. 128.
^ MantraOnNet.com:Text & Images of Kali
^ D. Kinsley p. 118.
^ Devi Mahatmyam, Swami Jagadiswarananda, Ramakrishna Math, 1953.
^ D. Kinsley p. 118–119.
^ Wangu p. 72.
^ Kinsley p. 241 Footnotes.
^ D. Kinsley pp. 119, 130.
^ McDermott 2003.
^ D. Kinsley p. 119.
^ D. Kinsley p. 131.
^ Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls By June McDaniel p.257
^ The Art of Tantra, Philip Rawson, Thames & Hudson, 1973.
^ Sankaranarayanan. S. Devi Mahatmya. p 127.
^ David Gordon White (ed.), Tantra in Practice, ISBN 81-208-1778-8
p466.
^ Sri Ramakrishna (The Great Master), Swami Saradananda, Ramakrishna
Math, 1952, page 624, Sri Ramakrishna: The Spiritual Glow, Kamalpada
Hati, P.K. Pramanik, Orient Book Co., 1985, pages 17–18.
^ Tantra in Practice, David Gordon White, Princeton Press, 2000, page
477.
^ Tantra in Practice, David Gordon White, Princeton Press, 2000, page
475.
^ Tantra in Practice, David Gordon White, Princeton Press, 2000, page
463–488.
^ Hindu Gods & Goddesses, Swami Harshananda, Ramakrishna Math, 1981,
pages 116–117.
^ a b Tantra (The Path of Ecstasy), Georg Feuerstein, Shambhala, 1998,
pages 70–84, Shakti and Shâkta, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe),
Oxford Press/Ganesha & Co., 1918.
^ Tantra in Practice, David Gordon White, Princeton Press, 2000, page
463–488, Shakti and Shâkta, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), Oxford
Press/Ganesha & Co., 1918.
^ Impact of Tantra on Religion & Art, T. N. Mishra, D.K. Print World,
1997, V.
^ Krishna, Gopi (1993)Living with Kundalini: (Shambhala, 1993 ISBN
0877739471).
^ Tantra (The Path of Ecstasy), Georg Feuerstein, Shambhala, 1998,
Shakti and Shâkta, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), Oxford Press/
Ganesha & Co., 1918.
^ The Trial of Kali, TIME Magazine, October 27, 1947.
^ McDermott, Rachel Fell, "The Western Kali", in Hawley, John Stratton
& Wulff, Donna M., Devi: The Goddess in India, p. 305.
^ McDermott, Rachel Fell, "The Western Kali", in Hawley, John Stratton
& Wulff, Donna M., Devi: The Goddess in India, pp. 281–305.
Shakti and Shâkta, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), Oxford Press/
Ganesha & Co., 1918
Sri Ramakrishna (The Great Master), Swami Saradananda, Ramakrishna
Math,1952
Devi Mahatmyam, Swami Jagadiswarananda, Ramakrishna Math, 1953
The Art of Tantra, Philip Rawson, Thames & Hudson, 1973
Hindu Gods & Goddesses, Swami Harshananda, Ramakrishna Math, 1981
Sri Ramakrishna: The Spiritual Glow, Kamalpada Hati, P.K. Pramanik,
Orient Book Co., 1985
Hindu Goddesses, David R. Kinsley, University of California Press,
1988
Kali (The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar) Elizabeth U. Harding, Nicolas
Hays, 1993
Impact of Tantra on Religion & Art, T. N. Mishra, D.K. Print World,
1997
Indian Art (revised), Roy C. Craven, Thames & Hudson, 1997
A Dictionary of Buddhist & Hindu Iconography (Illustrated), Frederick
W. Bunce, D.K. Print World, 1997
Tantra (The Path of Ecstasy), Georg Feuerstein, Shambhala, 1998
Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions, John Bowker, Oxford
Press, 2000
Tantra in Practice, David Gordon White, Princeton Press, 2000
Encountering Kali (In the margins, at the center, in the west), Rachel
Fell McDermott, Berkeley : University of California Press, 2003
[edit] Further reading
Shanmukha Anantha Natha and Shri Ma Kristina Baird, Divine Initiation
Shri Kali Publications (2001) ISBN 0-9582324-0-7 - Has a chapter on
Mahadevi with a commentary on the Devi Mahatmyam from the Markandeya
Purana.
Swami Jagadiswarananda, tr., Devi Mahatmyam Chennai, Ramakrishna Math.
ISBN 81-7120-139-3
Elizabeth Usha Harding, Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar ISBN
0-89254-025-7
Devadatta Kali, In Praise of The Goddess, The Devimahatmyam and Its
Meaning ISBN 0-89254-080-X
David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the
Hindu Religious Traditions ISBN 81-208-0379-5
Rachel Fell McDermott, Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the
Center, in the West (ISBN 0-520-23240-2)
Ajit Mookerjee, Kali: The Feminine Force ISBN 0-89281-212-5
Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Kali Puja ISBN 1-887472-64-9
Ramprasad Sen, Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair: Selected Poems to the
Mother Goddess ISBN 0-934252-94-7
Sir John Woodroffe (aka Arthur Avalon)Hymns to the Goddess and Hymn to
Kali ISBN 81-85988-16-1
Robert E. Svoboda, Aghora, at the left hand of God ISBN 0-914732-21-8
Dimitri Kitsikis, L'Orocc, dans l'âge de Kali ISBN 2-89040-359-9
Lex Hixon, Mother of the Universe: Visions of the Goddess and Tantric
Hymns of Enlightenment ISBN 0-8356-0702-X
Neela Bhattacharya Saxena, In the Beginning is Desire: Tracing Kali's
Footprints in Indian Literature ISBN 818798161X
The Goddess Kali of Kolkata (ISBN 81-7476-514-X) by Shoma A.
Chatterji
Encountering The Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya and a
Study of Its Interpretation (ISBN 0-7914-0446-3) by Thomas B. Coburn
Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend (ISBN 0-500-51088-1) by Anna
Dallapiccola
Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar (ISBN 0-89254-025-7) by
Elizabeth Usha Harding
In Praise of The Goddess: The Devimahatmyam and Its Meaning (ISBN
0-89254-080-X) by Devadatta Kali
Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious
Traditions (ISBN 81-208-0379-5) by David Kinsley
Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine (ISBN 0-520-20499-9) by David
Kinsley
Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West
Bengal (ISBN 0-195-16791-0) by June McDaniel
Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West (ISBN
0-520-23240-2) by Rachel Fell McDermott
Mother of My Heart, Daughter of My Dreams: Kali and Uma in the
Devotional Poetry of Bengal (ISBN 0-19-513435-4) by Rachel Fell
McDermott
Kali: The Feminine Force (ISBN 0-89281-212-5) by Ajit Mookerjee
Seeking Mahadevi: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great
Goddess (ISBN 0-791-45008-2) Edited by Tracy Pintchman
The Rise of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition (ISBN 0-7914-2112-0) by
Tracy Pintchman

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Goddess as Kali - The Feminine Force in Indian Art
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Share this Page with a friend The worship of a mother goddess as the
source of life and fertility has prehistoric roots, but the
transformation of that deity into a Great goddess of cosmic powers was
achieved with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the
goddess), a text of the fifth to sixth century, when worship of the
female principle took on dramatic new dimensions. The goddess is not
only the mysterious source of life, she is the very soil, all-creating
and all consuming.

Kali makes her 'official' debut in the Devi-Mahatmya, where she is
said to have emanated from the brow of Goddess Durga (slayer of
demons) during one of the battles between the divine and anti-divine
forces. Etymologically Durga's name means "Beyond Reach". She is thus
an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal autonomy. In this
context Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess
Durga.

Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she
has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the
other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two
dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a
girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue protrudes from her
mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with
blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the
breast of her husband.

Kali's fierce appearances have been the subject of extensive
descriptions in several earlier and modern works. Though her fierce
form is filled with awe- inspiring symbols, their real meaning is not
what it first appears- they have equivocal significance:

Kali's blackness symbolizes her all-embracing, comprehensive nature,
because black is the color in which all other colors merge; black
absorbs and dissolves them. 'Just as all colors disappear in black, so
all names and forms disappear in her' (Mahanirvana Tantra). Or black
is said to represent the total absence of color, again signifying the
nature of Kali as ultimate reality. This in Sanskrit is named as
nirguna (beyond all quality and form). Either way, Kali's black color
symbolizes her transcendence of all form.

A devotee poet says:

"Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?
She appears black because She is viewed from a distance;
but when intimately known She is no longer so.
The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by
and you will find that it has no colour.
The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,
but when you go near and take it in your hand,
you find that it is colourless."

... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)

Kali's nudity has a similar meaning. In many instances she is
described as garbed in space or sky clad. In her absolute, primordial
nakedness she is free from all covering of illusion. She is Nature
(Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It symbolizes that she
is completely beyond name and form, completely beyond the illusory
effects of maya (false consciousness). Her nudity is said to represent
totally illumined consciousness, unaffected by maya. Kali is the
bright fire of truth, which cannot be hidden by the clothes of
ignorance. Such truth simply burns them away.

She is full-breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her
disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space -
time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea of quantum-foam.
Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty
letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of
knowledge and wisdom. She wears a girdle of severed human hands- hands
that are the principal instruments of work and so signify the action
of karma. Thus the binding effects of this karma have been overcome,
severed, as it were, by devotion to Kali. She has blessed the devotee
by cutting him free from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth are
symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva), and her lolling tongue which is red
dramatically depicts the fact that she consumes all things and denotes
the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, i.e.
her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's "flavors".

Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and
destruction, which is contained within her. She represents the
inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos. Her right
hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, represent
the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied
sword and a severed head represent her destructive aspect. The
bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the destruction of ignorance
and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of knowledge,
that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness (the
severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this sword, having
cut the eight bonds that bind human beings. Finally her three eyes
represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which she is able to observe
the three modes of time: past, present and future. This attribute is
also the origin of the name Kali, which is the feminine form of
'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time.

Another symbolic but controversial aspect of Kali is her proximity to
the cremation ground:

O Kali, Thou art fond of cremation grounds;
so I have turned my heart into one
That thou, a resident of cremation grounds,
may dance there unceasingly.
O Mother! I have no other fond desire in my heart;
fire of a funeral pyre is burning there;
O Mother! I have preserved the ashes of dead bodies all around
that Thou may come.
O Mother! Keeping Shiva, conqueror of Death, under Thy feet,
Come, dancing to the tune of music;
Prasada waits With his eyes closed

... Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the
five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells
where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this
denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding
emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this
burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The
devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns
away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner
cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit:
gyanagni), which Kali bestows.

The image of a recumbent Shiva lying under the feet of Kali represents
Shiva as the passive potential of creation and Kali as his Shakti. The
generic term Shakti denotes the Universal feminine creative principle
and the energizing force behind all male divinity including Shiva.
Shakti is known by the general name Devi, from the root 'div', meaning
to shine. She is the Shining One, who is given different names in
different places and in different appearances, as the symbol of the
life-giving powers of the Universe. It is she that powers him. This
Shakti is expressed as the i in Shiva's name. Without this i, Shiva
becomes Shva, which in Sanskrit means a corpse. Thus suggesting that
without his Shakti, Shiva is powerless or inert.

Kali is a particularly appropriate image for conveying the idea of the
world as the play of the gods. The spontaneous, effortless, dizzying
creativity of the divine reflex is conveyed in her wild appearance.
Insofar as kali is identified with the phenomenal world, she presents
a picture of that world that underlies its ephemeral and unpredictable
nature. In her mad dancing, disheveled hair, and eerie howl there is
made present the hint of a world reeling, careening out of control.
The world is created and destroyed in Kali's wild dancing, and the
truth of redemption lies in man's awareness that he is invited to take
part in that dance, to yield to the frenzied beat of the Mother's
dance of life and death.

O Kali, my Mother full of Bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Shiva!
In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!
Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys

...Ramakrishna Paramhans

Kali and her attendants dance to rhythms pounded out by Shiva (Lord of
destruction) and his animal-headed attendants who dwell in the
Himalayas. Associated with chaos and uncontrollable destruction,
Kali's own retinue brandishes swords and holds aloft skull cups from
which they drink the blood that intoxicates them. Kali, like Shiva,
has a third eye, but in all other respects the two are distinguished
from one another. In contrast to Shiva's sweet expression, plump body,
and ash white complexion, dark kali's emaciated limbs, angular
gestures, and fierce grimace convey a wild intensity. Her loose hair,
skull garland, and tiger wrap whip around her body as she stomps and
claps to the rhythm of the dance.

Many stories describe Kali's dance with Shiva as one that "threatens
to destroy the world" by its savage power. Art historian Stella
Kramrisch has noted that the image of kali dancing with Shiva follows
closely the myth of the demon Daruka. When Shiva asks his wife Parvati
to destroy this demon, she enters Shiva's body and transforms herself
from the poison that is stored in his throat. She emerges from Shiva
as Kali, ferocious in appearance, and with the help of her flesh
eating retinue attacks and defeats the demon. Kali however became so
intoxicated by the blood lust of battle that her aroused fury and wild
hunger threatened to destroy the whole world. She continued her
ferocious rampage until Shiva manifested himself as an infant and lay
crying in the midst of the corpse-strewn field. Kali, deceived by
Shiva's power of illusion, became calm as she suckled the baby. When
evening approached, Shiva performed the dance of creation (tandava) to
please the goddess. Delighted with the dance, Kali and her attendants
joined in.

This terrific and poignant imagery starkly reveals the nature of Kali
as the Divine Mother. Ramaprasad expresses his feelings thus:

Behold my Mother playing with Shiva,
lost in an ecstasy of joy!
Drunk with a draught of celestial wine,
She reels, and yet does not fall.
Erect She stands on Shiva's bosom,
and the earth Trembles under Her tread;
She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy,
casting Aside all fear and shame.

... Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's human and maternal qualities continue to define the goddess for
most of her devotees to this day. In human relationships, the love
between mother and child is usually considered the purest and
strongest. In the same way, the love between the Mother Goddess and
her human children is considered the closest and tenderest
relationship with divinity. Accordingly, Kali's devotees form a
particularly intimate and loving bond with her. But the devotee never
forgets Kali's demonic, frightening aspects. He does not distort
Kali's nature and the truths she reveals; he does not refuse to
meditate on her terrifying features. He mentions these repeatedly in
his songs but is never put off or repelled by them. Kali may be
frightening, the mad, forgetful mistress of a world spinning out of
control, but she is, after all, the Mother of all. As such, she must
be accepted by her children- accepted in wonder and awe, perhaps, but
accepted nevertheless. The poet in an intimate and lighter tone
addresses the Mother thus:

O Kali! Why dost Thou roam about nude?
Art Thou not ashamed, Mother!
Garb and ornaments Thou hast none;
yet Thou Pridest in being King's daughter.
O Mother! Is it a virtue of Thy family that Thou
Placest thy feet on Thy husband?
Thou art nude; Thy husband is nude; you both roam cremation grounds.
O Mother! We are all ashamed of you; do put on thy garb.
Thou hast cast away Thy necklace of jewels, Mother,
And worn a garland of human heads.
Prasada says, "Mother! Thy fierce beauty has frightened
Thy nude consort.

... Ramaprasad

The soul that worships becomes always a little child: the soul that
becomes a child finds God oftenest as mother. In a meditation before
the Blessed Sacrament, some pen has written the exquisite assurance:
"My child, you need not know much in order to please Me. Only Love Me
dearly. Speak to me, as you would talk to your mother, if she had
taken you in her arms."

Kali's boon is won when man confronts or accepts her and the realities
she dramatically conveys to him. The image of Kali, in a variety of
ways, teaches man that pain, sorrow, decay, death, and destruction are
not to be overcome or conquered by denying them or explaining them
away. Pain and sorrow are woven into the texture of man's life so
thoroughly that to deny them is ultimately futile. For man to realize
the fullness of his being, for man to exploit his potential as a human
being, he must finally accept this dimension of existence. Kali's boon
is freedom, the freedom of the child to revel in the moment, and it is
won only after confrontation or acceptance of death. To ignore death,
to pretend that one is physically immortal, to pretend that one's ego
is the center of things, is to provoke Kali's mocking laughter. To
confront or accept death, on the contrary, is to realize a mode of
being that can delight and revel in the play of the gods. To accept
one's mortality is to be able to let go, to be able to sing, dance,
and shout. Kali is Mother to her devotees not because she protects
them from the way things really are but because she reveals to them
their mortality and thus releases them to act fully and freely,
releases them from the incredible, binding web of "adult" pretense,
practicality, and rationality.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the article. Any comments or feedback
that you may have will be greatly appreciated. Please send your
feedback to feed...@exoticindia.com.

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[Sid Harth]

Religious conversion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or
discuss these issues on the talk page.

The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by Italian artist
Caravaggio (1571–1610).Part of a series on the

Religious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that
differ from the convert's previous beliefs. It involves a new
religious identity, or a change from one religious identity to
another. Conversion requires internalization of the new belief system.
It implies a new reference point for one's self identity and is a
matter of belief and social structure—of both faith and affiliation.
[1] This typically entails the sincere avowal of a new belief system,
but may also present itself in other ways, such as adoption into an
identity group or spiritual lineage. Conversion refers to changes from
one religion to another, not to be confused with religious
reaffiliation which refers to changes from one denomination to another
within the same faith.[2] Examples of religious reaffiliation include
switching from being Southern Baptist to Methodist (within
Christianity) or from Sunni to Shiite (within Islam).

There are different types of religion conversion which include, active
conversion which is the free agency, volitional choice to acquire new
beliefs and religious identity,[3] marital conversion, Secondary
conversion, Deathbed conversion, and Forced conversion.

Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert another individual
from a specific religion or belief system. (See proselyte).

Apostate (n.) is a term with pejorative connotations used by members
of one church or religion to refer to someone who has left that church
or religion.

Christianity

Main articles: Conversion to Christianity and Christianization

Main article: List of converts to Christianity

Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously
non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. The exact
understanding of what it means to attain salvation varies somewhat
among churches and denominations. It primarily involves confession and
repentance of sin and a decision to live a life that is holy and
acceptable to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Converts are almost
always expected to be baptized.

Baptism

Main article: Baptism

Catholics, Orthodox and many Protestant denominations encourage infant
baptism, welcoming children into the Christian faith before they are
aware of their status. Baptized children are expected to participate
in confirmation classes as pre-teens and affirm their faith by
personal choice.

The method of baptism varies among immersion, sprinkling (aspersion)
and pouring (affusion).[4] Baptism received by adults or younger
people who have reached the age of accountability where they can make
a personal religious decision is referred to as believer's baptism
among conservative or evangelical Protestant groups. It is intended as
a public confession of one's prior decision to become a believer in
and follower of Jesus Christ.[5] Some Christian groups such as
Catholics, Churches of Christ, and Christadelphians believe baptism is
essential to salvation.

[edit] Accepting Christ and renouncing sin

The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is
contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the
knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or
of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven,
comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."[6]Conversion
involves more than a simple change in religious identity. It is a
change in nature (regeneration), evidenced by a change in values. In
fact, the Latin word conversio, translating the Greek metanoia,
literally means "going the other way" or "changing one's mind". A
convert, therefore, is one who renounces sin as worthless and
treasures instead the supreme worth of Jesus Christ. The convert sees
the worth of Christ in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection and
believes that sin is utterly unsatisfying and that Christ is
everything he or she needs.[7]

In contrast to other religions that seek God's acceptance through good
deeds and living a moral life, the Christian convert acknowledges that
his or her unrighteousness cannot be removed by good deeds and accepts
the death of Jesus Christ in his or her place as the grounds for the
forgiveness of sins and the righteousness of Jesus Christ as the basis
for God's acceptance and delight in the convert.[8] Because conversion
is a change in values that embraces God and rejects sin, it includes a
personal commitment to a life of righteousness as described by Paul of
Tarsus and exemplified by Jesus. In some Protestant traditions, this
is called "accepting Christ as one's Savior and following him as
Lord."[9]

In another variation, the 1910 Catholic Dictionary defines
"conversion" as "One who turns or changes from a state of sin to
repentance, from a lax to a more earnest and serious way of life, from
unbelief to faith, from heresy to the true faith."[10]

Responsibilities

According to most branches of Christianity, sharing the message or
good news of Jesus Christ and his gospel is a responsibility of all
followers of Jesus. According to the New Testament, Jesus commanded
his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations," [Matthew
28:19] generally known as the Great Commission. Evangelism, or
"spreading the good news," has been a central part of the life of
Christians since that time.

Transfers

Transferring from one Christian denomination to another may consist of
a relatively simple transfer of membership, especially if moving from
one Trinitarian denomination to another, and if the person has
received water baptism in the name of the Trinity. If not, then the
person may need to be baptized or rebaptized to become incorporated
into the new church. Some denominations, such as those in the
Anabaptist tradition, require previously-baptized Christians to be re-
baptized before being accepted into their respective religious
community.

The process of conversion to Christianity varies somewhat among
Christian denominations. Most Protestants believe in conversion by
faith to attain salvation. According to this understanding, the person
professes faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. While an individual may
make such a decision privately, usually it entails being baptized and
becoming a member of a denomination or church. In these traditions,
one is considered to become a Christian by publicly acknowledging the
reality of the death, burial and resurrection Jesus for the remission
of sins, and thereby receiving Jesus as their personal Savior.

Comparison among Protestants

This table summarizes the classical views of three different
Protestant beliefs.[11]

Topic Lutheranism Calvinism Arminianism

Conversion Through the means of grace, resistible Without means,
irresistible Involves free will and is resistible

Hinduism

See also: List of converts to Hinduism

Labels of distinct religions would imply division of identity, which
is in contradiction to the Vedas and Upanishads, that conceives whole
world as a single family that deifies the one truth.[12][13] Revival
of faith in Hinduism began way back in the 8th century in the times of
Shankaracharya. In more recent times, due to the conversion of Hindus
to other religions, it was found necessary by some Hindu thinkers such
as Dayananda Saraswati to bring back people into the Hindu fold,
practices such as "Shuddhi" (purification) were introduced. This is
not to be confused with "Diksha" or initiation which was given to
serious seekers, as initiation into a yogic life (life of ascetism and
pranayama).

The modern view of conversions into Hinduism is influenced by the
demise of caste system combined with the persistence of age old ideas
of Sanatana Dharma. Hindus today continue to be influenced by
historical ideas of acceptability of conversion. Hence, many Hindus
continue to believe that Hinduism is an identity that can only be had
from birth, while many others continue to believe that anyone who
follows Hindu beliefs and practices is a Hindu, and many believe in
some form of both theories. However, as a reaction to the threat of
evangelization, proselytism, and conversion activities of other major
religions many modern Hindus are opposed to the idea of conversion
from their religion to (any) other.[14]

Reconversion among people who were formerly Hindus or whose ancestors
were formerly Hindus has picked up pace with the growth of Hindu
revivalist movements.[15] National organizations such as Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (India) and Parisada Hindu Dharma (Indonesia)
actively facilitate such reconversions. Reconversions, in general, are
well accepted within Hindu society since conversion out of Hinduism is
not considered valid in the first place. Conversion through marriage
is well accepted within Hinduism and often expected in order to enable
the non-Hindu partner to fully participate in their spiritual,
religious, and cultural roles within the larger Hindu family and
society.

Conversion by Hindus have taken place as well, in Southeast Asia the
merchant, sailor, and priestly class accounted for much of the spread
of the religion.[16] Many foreign groups including Gujjars, Ahoms, and
Hunas converted to Hinduism after generations of Sanskritization.[17]
In the 18th century, Manipur was evanglelized by Hindu priests. In
India and Indonesia today many groups still convert to Hinduism on a
large basis.[18]

American-born Hindu guru, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami wrote a book
entitled How to Become a Hindu - A Guide for Seekers and Born Hindus.
In it, Subramuniyaswami offers a systematical approach to, what he
calls, "ethical conversion to Hinduism," testimonials of converts to
Hinduism, ques and clues of Hinduism, definitions of Hindu authorities
on what a Hindu truly is, etc.

Islam

Further information: Spread of Islam, List of converts to Islam,
Hanif, and Islamic Missionary Activity
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A newly-converted Muslim is called a Muallaf. There are five pillars,
or foundations, of Islam but the primary, and most important is by
believing that there is only one God and creator, referred to as Allah
(the word for the name of God in Arabic) and that the Islamic prophet,
Muhammad, is his messenger. A person is considered to have converted
to Islam from the moment he or she sincerely makes this declaration of
faith, called the shahadah.[19]

It is common belief among Muslims that everyone is Muslim at
birth[citation needed] [derived from a single source and brought into
being by the single entity] but sometimes chooses to take steps to
revert back to their origins. While conversion to Islam is among its
most supported tenets, conversion from Islam to another religion,
apostasy, is considered to be a sin.

According to Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar
at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Canada, it is highly recommended
that one's conversion be documented. New converts should obtain a
certificate of conversion from a reputable Islamic centre,
organization or mosque, which has been registered for this purpose.
Sheikh Kutty writes that such a certificate might be absolutely
necessary for the purposes of pilgrimage, marriage, etc.[citation
needed]

In Islam, circumcision is a Sunnah custom not mentioned in the Qur'an.
The primary opinion is that it is not obligatory and is not a
condition for entering into Islam. The Shafi`i and Hanbali schools
regard it as wajib or fard, while the Maliki and Hanafi schools regard
it as only recommended. However, it is not a precondition for the
acceptance of one's Islamic practices nor does one sin if choosing to
forego circumcision. It is neither one of the Five Pillars of Islam
nor the Six Fundamentals of Belief.

A new Muslim is expected to become familiar with the practices of
Islam. It is a personal process; acceptance of all of that is taken to
follow from the original statement, since all of Islam is considered
to derive from either divine inspiration, in the form of the Qur'an,
or for prophetic example, in the form of the hadith and sunnah of
Muhammad.[citation needed]

"Al Mu'allafun kulubuhum" means those whose hearts need company or
affection. So they receive a part of the zakat (due religious alms)
and friendship from already and well established Muslims. The aim was
to help these new converts to restart a new life as they were banned
from their families and tribes, not only in the early times of Islam,
but also in contemporary times.[citation needed]

Judaism

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Main article: Conversion to Judaism

Procedure

Jewish law guidelines for accepting new converts to Judaism are called
"giyur." Potential converts should desire conversion to Judaism for
its own sake, and for no other motives. A male convert needs to
undergo a ritual circumcision conducted according to Jewish law (if
already circumcised, a needle is used to draw a symbolic drop of blood
while the appropriate blessings are said), and there has to be a
commitment to observe the 613 mitzvot and Jewish law. A convert must
join the Jewish community, and reject the previous theology he or she
had prior to the conversion. Ritual immersion in a small pool of water
known as a mikvah is required.

The Reform and Conservative movements are lenient in their acceptance
of converts[citation needed]. Many of their members are married to
gentiles and these movements make an effort to welcome spouses who
seek conversion[citation needed]. This issue is contentious in modern
Israel as many immigrants from the former Soviet Union are not
considered Jewish.

Orthodox Jews tend to discourage conversion,[citation needed] urging
the person to find their path to God through being a righteous Gentile
and observing the Noahide laws and living a life of kindness, but they
will accept conversion if they insist. Controversially, some Syrian
Jewish communities are reluctant to accept the validity of new
conversions.

History

Main article: List of converts to Judaism

In Hellenistic and Roman times, some Pharisees were eager
proselytizers, and had at least some success throughout the empire.

Some Jews are also descended from converts to Judaism outside the
Mediterranean world. It is known that some Khazars, Edomites, and
Ethiopians, as well as many Arabs, particularly in Yemen before,
converted to Judaism in the past; today people all over the world
convert to Judaism. In fact, there is a greater tradition of
conversion to Judaism than many people realize. The word "proselyte"
originally meant a Greek who had converted to Judaism. As late as the
6th century the Eastern Roman empire (i.e., the Byzantine empire) was
issuing decrees against conversion to Judaism, implying that
conversion to Judaism was still occurring.

In recent times, members of the Reform Judaism movement began a
program to convert to Judaism the non-Jewish spouses of its
intermarried members and non-Jews who have an interest in Judaism.
Their rationale is that so many Jews were lost during the Holocaust
that newcomers must be sought out and welcomed. This approach has been
repudiated by Orthodox and Conservative Jews as unrealistic and posing
a danger. They say that these efforts make Judaism seem an easy
religion to join and observe when in reality being Jewish entails many
difficulties and sacrifices.

Dharmic religions

Sikhism

Sikhism is not known to openly proselytize, but accepts converts.

Jainism

Jainism accepts anyone who wants to embrace the religion. Any person
who wants to convert to Jainism must be a strict vegetarian and accept
Arhats and Siddhas as their deities. According to Indian law one has
the right to become a follower of Jainism.

Buddhism

Buddhism rarely engages in proselytism. The current Dalai Lama
discourages conversion without ruling it out altogether.[20][21] New
Buddhists traditionally "take Refuge" (express faith in the Three
Jewels — Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) before a monk, nun, or similar
representative. Buddhists often hold multiple religious identities,
combining the religion with Shinto (in Japan) or Taoism and
Confucianism (in China; cf. Chinese traditional religion). Some
Himalayan groups are ambiguous as to their status as Hindus or
Buddhists.

According to Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation, taking refuge in
the Buddha precludes one from worshiping gods and nature spirits.
Other traditions take the position that a lay Buddhist can pay
respects to, and give gifts to, gods or spirits, but should not regard
them as a refuge. This position is generally practiced in the
Theravada Buddhist tradition.

Bahá'í Faith

Though it actively seeks converts, the Bahá'í Faith prohibits
proselytism and does not pursue "missionary" work. In sharing their
faith with others, Bahá'ís are cautioned to "obtain a hearing" –
meaning to make sure the person they're proposing to teach is open to
hearing what they have to say. "Bahá'í pioneers," rather than
attempting to supplant the cultural underpinnings of the people in
their adopted communities, are encouraged to integrate into the
society and apply Bahá'í principles in living and working with their
neighbors.

Bahá'ís recognize the divine origins of all revealed religion, and
believe that these religions occurred sequentially as part of a Divine
plan (see Progressive revelation), with each new revelation
superseding and fulfilling that of its predecessors. Bahá'ís regard
their own faith as the most recent (but not the last), and believe its
teachings – which are centered around the principle of the oneness of
humanity – are most suited to meeting the needs of a global community.

In most countries conversion is a simple matter of filling out a card
stating a declaration of belief. This includes acknowledgement of
Bahá'u'llah – the Founder of the Faith – as the Messenger of God for
this age, awareness and acceptance of His teachings, and intention to
be obedient to the institutions and laws He established.

Conversion to the Bahá'í Faith carries with it an explicit belief in
the common foundation of all revealed religion, a commitment to the
unity of mankind, and active service to the community at large,
especially in areas that will foster unity and concord. Since the
Bahá'í Faith has no clergy, converts to this Faith are encouraged to
be active in all aspects of community life. Indeed, even a recent
convert may be elected to serve on a Local Spiritual Assembly – the
guiding Bahá'í institution at the community level.[22][23]

Other religions and sects

Conversion to new religious movements (NRMs) is riddled with
controversies. The anti-cult movement sometimes uses the term thought
reform or even brainwashing. Often they will call certain NRMs cults.
There are many different definitions for the word cult. NRMs are very
diverse and it is not clear whether conversion to NRMs differs from
conversion to mainstream religions. See also Brainwashing controversy
in new religious movements

Research both in the USA and the Netherlands has shown there is a
positive correlation between lack of involvement in mainstream
churches in certain areas and provinces and the percentage of people
who are a member of a new religious movement. This applies also for
the presence of New Age centres.[24][25] The Dutch research included
Jehovah's Witnesses(Though most JW's were previously Religious
including a number of former Ministers,Deacons,Priests and Nuns) and
the Latter Day Saint movement/Mormonism to the NRMs ( Which was more
indicative of the research).

The Church of Scientology attempts to gain converts by offering "free
stress tests" (see picture at auditing). In contrast to other
religions, which ask everyone to sign a card or membership book (e.g.
Unitarian Universalism) or be baptised (e.g. Roman Catholic Church),
Scientology requires converts to sign contracts before attending
church.

On the other end of the scale are religions that do not accept any
converts, or do so only very rarely. Often these are relatively small,
closely-knit minority religions, like the Yazidis, Druze, and
Mandaeans.

Chinese traditional religion lacks clear criteria for membership, and
hence for conversion. Several ethnic religions — including the
Yazidis, Druze, and Mandaeans — appear to refuse all applicants for
conversion. The Shakers and some Indian eunuch brotherhoods do not
allow procreation, so that every member is a convert.

International law

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines
religious conversion as a human right: "Everyone has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief...." (Article 18). Though
this is controversial because some groups either forbid or restrict
religious conversion (see below).

Based on the declaration the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
(UNCHR) drafted the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, a legally binding treaty. It states that "Everyone shall have
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right
shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his
choice..." (Article 18.1). "No one shall be subject to coercion which
would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of
his choice" (Article 18.2).

The UNCHR issued a General Comment on this Article in 1993: "The
Committee observes that the freedom to 'have or to adopt' a religion
or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or
belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or
belief with another or to adopt atheistic views [...] Article 18.2
bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion
or belief, including the use of threat of physical force or penal
sanctions to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their
religious beliefs and congregations, to recant their religion or
belief or to convert." (CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, General Comment No.
22.; emphasis added)

Some countries distinguish voluntary, motivated conversion from
organized proselytism, attempting to restrict the latter. The boundary
between them is not easily defined. What one person considers
legitimate evangelizing, or witness bearing, another may consider
intrusive and improper. Illustrating the problems that can arise from
such subjective viewpoints is this extract from an article by Dr. C.
Davis, published in Cleveland State University's 'Journal of Law and
Health': "According to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
Jews for Jesus and Hebrew Christians constitute two of the most
dangerous cults, and its members are appropriate candidates for
deprogramming. Anti-cult evangelicals ... protest that 'aggressiveness
and proselytizing ... are basic to authentic Christianity,' and that
Jews for Jesus and Campus Crusade for Christ are not to be labeled as
cults. Furthermore, certain Hassidic groups who physically attacked a
meeting of the Hebrew Christian 'cult' have themselves been labeled a
'cult' and equated with the followers of Reverend Moon, by none other
than the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis."[26]

Views on the propriety of proselytism, or even evangelism, differ
radically. Some feel that freedom of speech should have no limits and
that virtually anyone, anywhere should have the right to talk about
anything they see fit. Others see all sorts of evangelism as a
nuisance and an intrusion and would like to see them proscribed. Thus,
Natan Lerner observes that the issue is one of a clash of rights — the
right of a person to express his views versus the right of a person
not to be exposed to views that he does not wish to hear.

From a legal standpoint, certain criteria are often mentioned in
distinguishing legitimate evangelization from illicit proselytism:

All humans have the right to have religious beliefs, and to change
these beliefs, even repeatedly, if they so wish. (Freedom of
Religion)

They have the right to form religious organizations for the purpose of
worship, as well as for promoting their cause (Freedom of
Association)
They have the right to speak to others about their convictions, with
the purpose of influencing the others. (Freedom of Speech).
By the same token, these very rights exercise a limiting influence on
the freedoms of others. For instance, the right to have one's
religious beliefs presumably includes the right not to be coerced into
changing these beliefs by threats, discrimination, or similar
inducements.

Hence a category of improper proselytizing can be discerned:

It would not be proper to use coercion, threats, the weight of
authority of the educational system, access to health care or similar
facilities in order to induce people to change their religion.

It would be improper to try to impose one's beliefs on a 'captive
audience', where the listeners have no choice but to be present. This
would presumably require restraint in the exercise of their right to
free speech, by teachers in the classroom, army officers to their
inferiors, prison officers in prison, medical staff in hospitals, so
as to avoid impinging on the rights of others.

It would not be proper to offer money, work, housing or other material
inducements as a means of persuading people to adopt another religion.

Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the rise of
democracy in the Eastern Bloc, the Russian Orthodox Church has enjoyed
a revival. However, it takes exception to what it considers
illegitimate proselytizing by the Roman Catholic Church, the Salvation
Army, Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious movements[27] in what it
refers to as its canonical territory.

Greece has a long history of conflict, mostly with Jehovah's Witnesses
but also with some Pentecostals over its laws on proselytism. This
situation stems from a law passed in the 1930s by the dictator Ioannis
Metaxas. A Jehovah's Witness, Minos Kokkinakis, won the equivalent of
US $14,400 in damages from the Greek state after being arrested for
trying to preach his faith from door to door. In another case,
Larissis vs. Greece, a member of the Pentecostal church also won a
case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Some Islamic countries with Islamic law outlaw and carry strict
sentences for proselytizing. Several Islamic countries under Islamic
law, Saudi Arabia,[28][29] Yemen,[30] Afghanistan and Pakistan,[31]
Egypt,[32] Iran,[33][34] and Maldives[35] outlaw apostasy and carry
imprisonment or the death penalty for those leaving Islam and those
enticing Muslims to leave Islam.

See also

Apostasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy
Deathbed conversion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathbed_conversion
Forced conversion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_conversion
Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid_conversion_of_Iran_from_Sunnism_to_Shiism
List of converts to Christianity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Christianity
List of converts to Hinduism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Hinduism
List of converts to Judaism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Judaism
Missionary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_Christian_Initiation_for_Adults
Secondary conversion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_conversion

Islam:

Conversion to Islam in prisons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Islam_in_prisons
Islamic Missionary Activity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Missionary_Activity
List of converts to Islam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam
Love Jihad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Jihad

References

^ Hefner, Robert W. Conversion to Christianity."
University of California Press, 1993. ISBN 0520078365
^ Stark, Rodney and Roger Finke. "Acts of Faith: Explaning the Human
Side of Religion." University of California Press, 2000. ISBN
9780520222021
^ Falkenberg, Steve. "Psychological Explanations of Religious
Socialization." Religious Conversion. Eastern Kentucky University.
August 31, 2009.
^ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. "Baptism." The International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia: A-D (p. 419). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. ISBN
0802837816
^ "The Purpose of Baptism." http://gospelway.com/salvation/baptism_purpose.php
^ Augsburg Confession, Article XII: Of Repentance
^ Conversion to Christ: The Making of a Christian Hedonist[unreliable
source?]
^ What is the GOSPEL Journey?[unreliable source?]
^ BibleGateway.com- Commentaries » Matthew 16 » The Cost of the
Kingdom
^ New Catholic Dictionary: conversion
http://saints.sqpn.com/conversion/
^ Table drawn from, though not copied, from Lange, Lyle W. God So
Loved the Word: A Study of Christian Doctrine. Milwaukee: Northwestern
Publishing House, 2006. p. 448.
^ (Rigveda 1:164:46) “Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti” - Truth is one;
sages call it many names
^ (Maha Upanishad: Chapter 6, Verse 72) "Vasudhaiva kutumbakam" - The
entire world is a one big family
^ Omar, Rashid (August 2006) (PDF). The Right to Religious Conversion:
Between Apostasy and Proselytization. Kroc Institute, University of
Notre Dame. pp. 3. http://kroc.nd.edu/ocpapers/op_27_1.pdf.
http://kroc.nd.edu/ocpapers/op_27_1.pdf
^ Java's Hinduism Revivial.
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1308
^ Curtin 101
^ Rawat 106
^ Ramstedt 275
^ Converts to Islam
http://www.convertstoislam.org/
^ http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/2001/1/26_2.html
^ Dalai Lama opposed to practice of conversion
http://www.cephas-library.com/na/buddhism_dalai_lama_against_prosylitizing.html
^ Smith, P. (1999). A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith.
Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1851681841.
^ Momen, M. (1997). A Short Introduction to the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford,
UK: One World Publications. ISBN 1851682090.
http://bahai-library.com/?file=momen_short_introduction_bahais.
^ Schepens, T. (Dutch) Religieuze bewegingen in Nederland volume 29,
Sekten Ontkerkelijking en religieuze vitaliteit: nieuwe religieuze
bewegingen en New Age-centra in Nederland (1994) VU uitgeverij ISBN 90–
5383–341–2
^ Stark, R & W.S. Bainbridge The future of religion: secularization,
revival and cult formation (1985) Berkeley/Los Angeles/London:
University of California press
^ Joining a Cult: Religious Choice or Psychological Aberration?
http://www.religioustolerance.org/cult_art.htm
^ http://www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru:83/ne207011.htm
^ Saudi Arabia-Christian Persecution in Saudi Arabia
http://www.persecution.org/suffering//countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=23
^ Currently undergoing maintenance Amnesty International
^ Yemen: Torture/prisoner of conscience/death penalty: Mohamed Omar
Haji Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE31/005/2000
^ Document Information Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA33/008/1994
^ Document Information Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE12/009/1997
^ http://www.mcjonline.com/news/04a/20040811b.shtml/
^ http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Dec/27–622911.html/
^ http://www.leaderu.com/common/maldives.html/

Further reading

Barker, Eileen The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_a_Moonie:_Choice_or_Brainwashing%3F

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Barker

Barrett, D. V. The New Believers — A survey of sects, cults and
alternative religions (2001) UK, Cassell & Co ISBN 0-304-35592-5
Cooper, Richard S. "The Assessment and Collection of Kharaj Tax in
Medieval Egypt" (Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 96,
No. 3. (Jul – Sep., 1976), pp. 365–382.
Curtin, Phillip D. Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge
University Press, 1984.
Hoiberg, Dale, and Indu Ramachandran. Students' Britannica India.
Popular Prakashan, 2000.
Ramstedt, Martin. Hinduism in Modern Indonesia: A Minority Religion
Between Local, National, and Global Interests. Routledge, 2004.
Rawat, Ajay S. StudentMan and Forests: The Khatta and Gujjar
Settlements of Sub-Himalayan Tarai. Indus Publishing, 1993.

External links

Testimony of a Hindu Convert to Christianity - Br. Ram Babu
http://www.loudio.com/Podcasts/Society/Religion/Br-Ram-Babu---Testimony-of-a-Hindu-Convert-to-Christianity.388591
Islamic Information Centre: Site aimed at those interested in Islam or
converting to Islam.
http://www15.redstation.co.uk/masj174242/iic/index.asp
Religious Conversions in India – Right or Wrong
http://sniffindia.com/religious-conversions-in-india-right-or-wrong/
Online Book on conversion to Hinduism
http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/hbh/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_conversion

Volume 4 Number 2 : July - Dec 2001

Contents

Carlos Barros The Humanization of Nature in the Middle Age
Mischa Meier Perceptions and Interpretations of Natural Disasters
during the Transition from the East Roman to the Byzantine Empire
Monica Juneja On the Margins of Utopia - One more Look at Mughal
Painting
Stephen Morillo Cultures of Death: Warrior Suicide in Medieval Europe
and Japan
Paul Freedman Georges Duby and the Medieval Peasantry

Book Reviews

Andr Vauchez (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, by Harald
Kleinschmidt
Shama Mitra Chenoy Shahjabanabad.- A City of Delhi, 1638 - 1857, by
Urvashi Dalal
Rattan Lai Hangloo The State in Medieval Kashmir, by Mohamad Ishaq
Khan
Denis Renevey and Christiania Whitehead (eds) Writing Religious Women:
Female Spiritual and Textual Practices in Late Medieval England, by
E. Ann Matter
Muzaffar Alam, Francolse 'Nalini' Delvoye, Marc Gaborieau (eds) The
Making of Indo-Persian Culture - Indian and French Studies, by Meena
Bhargava

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol4no2.html

Volume 4 Number 1 : Jan - June 2001

Contents

Gabrielle M. Spiegel Foucault and the Problem of Genealogy
Maurizio Peleggi Shifting Alterity :The Mongol in the Visual and
Litterary Culture of the Late Middle ages
Noburu Karashima The Family of Mallapa Nayaka:Transferalability of
vijayanagar Nayakas in Tamil Nadu
Ruby Lal The Domestic world of Peripatetic Kings : Babur and Humayun,
c 1494-1556
Heike Uffmann Inside and Outside the Convent Walls The Norms and
Practice of Enclosure in the Reformed Nunneries of Late Medieval
Germany
Edward Peters Omnia permixta sunt: Where's the Border?

Book Reviews

Richard H Davis Lives of Indian Images by Monica Juneja
Romila Thapar Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories by Philippe
Benot
D N Marshall Mughals in India: A Bibliographical Survey
Mansura Haidar Mukatabat-i-Allami by Harbans Mukhia
Rajat Datta Society, Economy and the Market by Richard M Eaton

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol4no1.html

Volume 2 Number 2 : July - December 1999

Contents

Ross Bazaretti Theodelinda: 'Most Glorious Queen' Gender and Power in
Lombard Italy
Simona Slanicka Male Markings: Uniforms in the Parisian Civil War as a
Blurring of the Gender Order (A.D.1410- 1420)
Mohamad Tarvakoli Targhi Contested Memories of Pre-Islamic Iran

Urvashi Dalal Women's Time in the Havelis of North India
Najaf Haider The Quantity Theory and Mughal Monetary History

André Vauchez
Between Virginity and Spiritual Espousals: Models of Feminine
Sainthood in the Christian West in the Middle Ages
Eugenia Vanina Russian Studies in Medieval Indian History and
Society: an Insiders View
Discussion

Peter O'Brien
Islamic Civilisation's role in the Waning of the European Middle
Ages
Book Reviews

Susan W Friedman Marc Bloch, Sociology and Geography: Encountering
Changing Disciplines by Jacques Le Goff
Dina Rizk Khoury

State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire : Mosul 1540-1834
by Sunil Kumar
Francois Piponnier and Perrine Mane Dress in the Middle Ages by Thomas
Lttenberg
Anirudha Ray Adventurers, Landowners and Rebels, Bengal. 1575 c 1775
by Rajat Datta
K.K. Trivedi Agra: Economic and Political Profile of a Mughal Suba,
1580-1707 by Stephen P. Blake

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol2no2.html

Muslim History : Reflections on Preordination and Categorisation

Iris Grtecke Representing the Last Judgement: Social Hierarchy,Gender
and Sin
Yogesh Sharma A Life of Many Parts : Kasi Viranna A Seventeenth
Century South Indian Merchant Magnate
Ivo Smits Poets in Their Place: Reflections on Poetic Salons in
Early Medieval Japan

Guy Bois
On the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages
Book Reviews

Marius B. Jansen (ed.)
Warrior Rule in Japan by Brij Tanaka
Shaun Marmon
Enunuchs and Sacred Boundaries in Islamic Society, by Meenakshi
Khanna
Vijaya Ramaswamy
Walking Naked: Woman Society, Spiritualty in South India Ranu
Bhattacharya
Bhairabi Prasad Sahu (ed)
Land System and Rural Society in Early India by Meena Bhargava
Gary Michael Tartakov The Durga Temple at Aihole ; A Historigraphical
Study by Nayanjot Lahiri

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol1no2.html

Volume 11 Number 1 : January-June 2008

Contents

• Introduction •

António João Cruz and Luís Urbano Afonso On the Date and Contents of a
Portugese Medieval Technical Book on Illumination: O livro de como se
fazem as cores 1
Samira Sheikh Alliance, Genealogy and Political Power: The Cudasamas
of Junagadh and the Sultans of Gujarat Page 29
R.L. Hangloo Agricuitural Technology in Kashmir (A.D. 1600 to 1900)
Page 63
Chun-chieh Huang On the Relationship between Interpretations of the
Confucian Classics and Political Power in East Asia: An Inquiry
Focusing upon the Analects and Mencius
Page 101

• Book Reviews •

Ronald Inden Text and Practice, Essays on South Asian History, by
Romila Thapar
Page 123
Scott C. Levi (ed.) India and Central Asia: Commerce and Culture,
1500-1800, by G.D. Gulati
Page 128
Pashaura Singh Life and Work of Guru Arjan: History, Memory and
Biography in the Sikh Tradition, by Himadri BaneIjee
Page 138
William Jackson Vijayanagara Visions: Religious Experience and
Cultural Creativity in a South Indian Empire, by Vijaya Ramaswamy
Page 141
R.S. Sangwan Jodhpur and the Later Mughals, AD 1707-1752, by Nandita
Prasad Sahai
Page 146
J.B. Owens 'By My Absolute Royal Authority', Justice and the Castilian
Commonwealth at the Beginnings of the First Global Age, by Rila
Mukherjee
Page 150
Vijaya Ramaswamy Textiles and Weavers in South India, 2nd Edn., by
Eugenia Vanina Page 153
A.R. Kulkarni Explorations in Deccan History, by Sumit Guha Page 158

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol11no1.html

Aims and Scope

The Medieval History Journal was launched at the turn of the twenty-
first century when the world of history was in a ferment, radically
seeking a redefinition of the discipline. The MHJ derives its
distinctive profile from encompassing the entire medieval world in
scope and its multi-disciplinary foci. For the MHJ, 'Medieval History'
signifies open chronological and thematic boundaries to honour
historical plurality. Its frequent special issue investigating a
particular theme across regions have provided a space for comparative
and transcultural conversations within scholarship

Publishing frequency: Bi-annual: April, October © Medieval History
Society, New Delhi

Published By Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol12no2.html

Volume 11 Number 2 : July-December 2008

Contents

• Introduction •

Anne Gerritsen The Tale of Lady Tan: Negotiating Place between Central
and Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China Page 161
B. Arunachalam Technology of Indian Sea Navigation (c. 1200—c. 1800)
Page 187
Ranabir Chakravarti Agricultural Technology in Early Medieval India
(c. A.D. 500—1300) Page 189
Sabine Müller Asceticism, Gallantry, or Polygamy? Alexander’s
Relationship with Women as a Topos in Medieval Romance Traditions
Page 259

• Book Reviews •

Michael C. Brose Subjects and Masters: Uygurs
in the Mongol Empire, by D.O. Morgan
Page 289
Tansen Sen Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade:
The Realignment of Sino—Indian Relations,
600—1400, by Ranabir Chakravarti
Page 292
Maria Hayward Dress at the Court of Henry VIII,
by Ulinka Rublack
Page 298
Raziuddin Aquil Sufism, Culture, and Politics: Afghans
and Islam in Medieval North India, by Najaf Haider
Page 300

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol11no2.html

Introduction

Monica Juneja
Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, University of
Heidelberg, Germany. E-mail: jun...@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

Kim Siebenhüner

Historisches Seminar, University of Basel, Switzerland. E-mail:
kim.sieb...@unibas.ch

Research on religious conversion has grown into an extraordinarily
dynamic field in the course of the past decade. While the subject was
never absent from the agenda of an earlier historiography, the
mid-1990s witnessed a fresh resurgence of interest across the world in
the phenomenon of conversion. The explanation for this might lie in
the fact that recent approaches to conversion intersect with the
concerns of a culturally-oriented historiography, thereby affording
fresh perspectives and modes of coming to grips with the centrality of
religion as an analytical category of pre-modern history. Religious
faith is indeed an important constitutive factor that shapes our
understanding of pre-modern societies within and beyond Europe.
Investigating the process of a change of faith can provide new entry
points into the domain of religious transformation and can help map
the shifting boundaries of religious communities and identities. Such
identities are a site of contention in most modern multi-cultural
societies, where a dominant community wields overwhelming power.
Historiography in young post-colonial nations tends to either project
present-day conflicts on to a pre-colonial past or else, seeks
resolution of these tangled issues through suggesting an overweening
cultural commonality that transcends religious difference.
Historicising the study of religious conversion then becomes an
important exercise that might help to find a way of accommodating
conflict and rupture within the process of negotiating religious
plurality.

The Medieval History Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 169-189 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/097194580901200201

http://intl-mhj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/169

Shrines, Cultivators, and Muslim ‘Conversion’ in Punjab and Bengal,
1300–1700
Richard M. Eaton
Department of History, University of Arizona, Tucson. E-mail:
rea...@u.arizoona.edu

This article discusses the growth of predominantly Muslim populations
in two regions of South Asia—western Punjab and eastern Bengal. No
evidence supports conventional understandings that Islamisation in
these areas resulted from a desire for social liberation on the part
of the lower orders of the Hindu caste system. Nor should Islamisation
in these regions be characterised as instances of ‘conversion’, a term
embedded in the nineteenth century Protestant missionary movement and
thus, inappropriate for reconstructing religious processes in medieval
Bengal and Punjab. Rather, transformations of religious identity in
these two regions appear to have been gradual and unselfconscious in
nature. They also appear to have been part of larger socio-political
and economic changes that were occurring in the regions, in particular
the diffusion of settled peasant agriculture.

The Medieval History Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 191-220 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/097194580901200202

http://intl-mhj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/191

Conversion Historiography in South Asia
Alternative Indian Christian Counter-histories in Eighteenth Century
Goa
Ines G. upanov

CNRS/CEIAS, 54 Boulevard Raspail, Paris, France. E-mail:
zup...@ehess.fr

Conversion as a historical process is discussed in South Asian post-
independence historiography mostly following the demands of the
political present. In the present article, I first try to trace a
fragmentary and in-complete history of what I will call conversion
historiography in and about South Asia, referring mostly to conversion
to Christianity from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Then, I
discuss a particular case of religious and cultural conversion, in
which the descendants of the early converts to Christianity in Goa re-
appropriated conversion histories as an analytical and
historiographical tool in order to reconfigure their relation with the
past and the present and thus, shore up their cultural authority. In
the process, they created their own communal history and
historiography that fed directly into Portuguese and Catholic
Orientalism. This particular historical example should help us see to
what extent the act of conversion is a self-transforming work in
progress, a communicational project without teleological guarantees,
capable of empowering alternative historical readings.

The Medieval History Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 303-325 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/097194580901200206

http://mhj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/2/303?rss=1

Volume 5 Number 1 : Jan - Jun 2002

Contents

Peter Raedts Representations of the Middle Ages in Enlightenment
Historiography
Manuel Alejandro Rodrguez de la Pena Rex scholaribus impendebant.- The
King's Image as Patron of Learning in Thirteenth Century French and
Spanish Chronicles : A Comparative Approach
Devika Rangachari Kalhana's Rjataragin : A Gender Perspective
Nandita Prasad Sahai Collaboration and Conflict : Artisanal Jati
Panchayats and the Eighteenth Century Jodhpur State
Stphane Mund Travel Accounts as Early Sources of Knowledge about
Russia in Medieval Western Europe from the mid - thirteeenth to the
early Fifteenth Centuries
Shalini Shah In the Business of Kama : Prostitution in Classical
Sanskrit Literature from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Centuries

Book Reviews

R.S. Sharma Early Medieval Indian Society. A Study in Feudalisation,
by Hermann Kulke
D.N. Jha (ed.) The Feudal Order - State, Society and Ideology
in Early Medieval India, by Ranabir Chakravarti
Catherine Weinberger-Thomas Ashes of lmmortality ; Widow-Burning in
India, by Monika Horstmann
Hugh Kennedy The Armies of the Caliphs. Military and Society in the
Early Islamic State, by Aziz Al-Azmeh
Ebba Koch Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology - Collected Essays, by
Catherine Asher

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol5no1.html

Volume 7 Number 1: Jan - June 2004

Contents

Sally K. Church The Giraffe of Bengal: A Medieval Encounter in Ming
China
Bernd Roeck The Enchantment of the Alien: Metaphysics and Marginality
in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
N.R. Farooqi Diplomacy and Diplomatic Procedure under the Mughals
Ramya Sreenivasan The 'Marriage' of 'Hindu' and 'Turak': Medieval
Rajput Histories of Jalor
Sarah Khan Ave Eva-- Views of Women: Social and Gendered Instruction
in Medieval and Early Modern European Preaching

Book Review

Aziz Al-Azmeh Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in Reinterpretation, by Paul M.
Cobb
Arvind Sinha The Politics of Trade: Anglo-French Commerce on the
Coromandel Coast 1763-1793, by Prasannan Parthasarathi
Christian W. Troll (ed.) Muslim Shrines in India, by Denis Matringe
Indira Viswanathan Peterson Design and Rhetoric in a Sanskrit Court
Epic: The Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi, by Kumkum Roy
Jean-Marie Lafont Indika: Essays in Indo-French Relations 1630-1976,
by Yogesh Sharma
Syed Ejaz Hussain The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins
(AD 1205-1576), by Aniruddha Ray
Satish Chandra Essays on Medieval Indian History, by Michael H.
Fisher

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol7no1.html

Volume 8 Number 2: July - December 2005

Contents

Jörn Rüsen A Comment on Professor Chun-chieh Huang's 'Salient Features
of Chinese Historical Thinking' Page 267
Enrique Rodríguez-Picavea The Frontier and Royal Power in Medieval
Spain: A Developmental Hypothesis Page 273
Reva Berman Brown and Sean McCartney The Exchequer of the Jews
Revisited: The Operation and Effect of the Scaccarium Judeorum Page
303
Mehrdad Shokoohy and Natalie H. Shokoohy A History of Bayana Part II:
From the Rise of the Auhadis to the Early Mughal Period (Fifteenth -
Seventeenth Centuries) Page 323

Book Reviews

Rodney H. Hilton Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and
the English Rising of 1381, by Guy Bois Page 401
Sarah Ferber Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France,
by Thomas A. Fudge Page 404
Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui (ed.) and Thomas William Beale An Eighteenth
Century History of North India: An Account of the Rise and Fall of the
Rohilla Chiefs in Janbhasha, by Rustam Ali Bijnori, and Thomas William
Beale, An Oriental Biographical Dictionary, by Shaukatullah Khan Page
410
Madhu Tandon Sethia Rajput Polity: Warriors, Peasants and Merchants
(1700-1800), by Dirk H.A. Kolff Page 414
Eugenia Vanina Ideas and Society. India between the Sixteenth and
Eighteenth Centuries, by Najaf Haider Page 416
Guy Halsall Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900, by
Peter Hoppenbrouwers Page 420
Conor McCarthy (ed.) Love, sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages. A
Sourcebook, by Perter Hoppenbrouwers Page 426
Laura Napran and Elizabeth van Houts (eds) Exile in the Middle Ages -
Selected Proceedings from the International Medieval Congress,
University of Leeds, 8-11 July 2002, by Reva Berman Brown Page429
Pashaura Singh The Bhagats of the Guru Granth Sahib: Sikh Self -
Definition and the Bhagat Bani, by Himadri Banerjee Page 433

http://www.medievalhistory.org.in/vol8no2.html

Horseplay in Harappa: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/f9b738e079fef9fb/29e89ff9c3ac525d
Troubled Tribal: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/e728acc31e0d52d7#
Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/ec479835613abd41#
Hindus'Tantrum: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/8a1efe054a3bf157#
I Write, Therefore I am: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/4cb1ce65c9d8f4c5#
Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/37334fb34fbe6d7c#
Sex and CD Scandal: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/3f5e2a3be4798e7d#
Not Required Indian, NRI: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/672c3ae8cc9b567c#
Why 'Marathi'?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/4be9d2a2e20ab43f#
Telangana Tempest: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/b7da74ebd932a5fa#
Of States and Statesmanship: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/73c89074ecfe9966#
Sa for Sanskrit Pop: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/9f6d369c7793990f#
Black Money Monster: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/109aa8a66442ca6d#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/85f8a222fd275c15#
Indian Power-Pow-Wow, Wow!: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/54cba427083f4e4f#
26/11 Saga Continues: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/20d42cd9546b852b#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/008ed3e81dbcd9cc#
Of Justice and Injustice: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/dc3ba7935f641e60#
Sangh Parivar Pageant: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/a91a817395e54639#
Stop this terroristic activities of Shiv Sena
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/93908482518b9228#
BJP RIP: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/20def0d930fc511f#
Superpower Syndrome: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/b6aa5a8a1b675046#
Sangh Parivar Pageant: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/9c4ff65e38c4b924#
Sudharma, Sanskrit Newspaper: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/51f22c78acbc72b1#
Hindu Worldview: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/c8a515cc34f18a5a#
Shimla Shenanigans: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/64bddaf4fb04bac5#

[Sid Harth]

Peshwa
Sunday, October 21, 2001 Books

The rise and stagnation of Marathas
Review by Harbans Singh

Baji Rao: The Warrior Peshwa
by E. Jaiwant Paul. Roli Books, New Delhi. Pages 184. Rs 275.

JAIWANT PAUL's "Baji Rao: The Warrior Peshwa" is not just an account
of the life of a general of the Marathas; it goes much beyond the
biographical loyalty of an author for, it vividly recreates an era
which saw the juxtaposition of the decadent forces of the Mughals and
the daring and innovative ways of the Marathas. It deals with an age
when competent and willing warriors were scarce in the Mughal army,
while they were abundant among the Marathas.

"It is a book about Hindustan whose emperor cannot think beyond the
skirts of his concubines and (whose) blood is sluggish with opium,"
and a people whose leaders dared to dream of planting the Maratha flag
on the banks of the Indus. It is amazing to note that the ambition and
the struggle launched by Shivaji had such an irresistible force that
the adversities that befell the Marathas could not stop three
generations from spreading the power of the descendants of Shivaji and
also the Maratha people.

The book ostensibly is the story of Baji Rao, the Peshwa of Shahuji,
but in truth it is a chronicle of the times when in a burst of
creative energy the Marathas established their authority over what was
Mughal India. Credit must be given not only to the Maratha king who
had the wisdom to choose the right persons but also to Baji Rao who in
a short span of life created outstanding generals out of ordinary men
and soldiers. It speaks volumes of the leadership qualities he must
have possessed, since it is no mean task in a caste-ridden society to
recognise and encourage the talent of a cowherd Holkar and Ranoji
Scindia who took care of the slippers of the Peshwa. And, in between
he had time enough to weave a near tragic romance with Mastani as
well!

The rise of the Marathas is as much due to individual leaders as the
collective will of the people, and this is evident from the fact that
there are the most unlikely heroes at different times. If Ranoji Angre
was emerging as the menace to be contended with at seas, then Balaji,
a Chitpavan Brahmin, was successfully implementing a system which was
aimed at strengthening the Maratha power. At no point of time did
Angre dream of establishing an independent kingdom. His loyalty was
firmly first for Sambhaji, the younger branch of Shivaji, and then
inalienably for Shahuji, Balaji Rao had correctly assessed that
Shahuji did not have the vigour of his grandfather to run an
autocracy, and therefore it would be different for him to run an army
whose officers were salaried. He introduced the system of offering
land to the officers instead of a salary. Thus sowing the seeds of the
Maratha confederacy at an early stage of their history.

Balaji and then his illustrious son Baji Rao had also accurately
analysed that the traditional armies of the Mughals and those who were
associated with the Mughal court, could be easily outwitted and
defeated if confronted with fast moving soldiers and unorthodox
tactics. Steeped in convention and devoid of imagination, the Mughals
were easily baffled and beaten by the fast moving and ingenuous
Marathas. Baji Rao also ensured that there was no complacency in the
discipline of his soldiers, and two incidents mentioned in the book
speak volumes of their fighting qualities. When asked to draw a
picture of Baji Rao by the Mughal emperor, the painter drew a soldier
on a horseback in the dress of a trooper with reins loose on the
horse's neck and the lance resting on his shoulder. But as he rode he
rubbed both hands on the ear of the corn which he ate after removing
the husk. Aghast at the sight, Emperor Mohammad Shah exclaimed in
great alarm, "The man must be the very devil himself!"

On another occasion, outwitting and outmarching Sadat Khan and Khan
Dauran, Baji Rao reached Delhi to the utter disbelief of the Mughal
emperor who sent a spy disguised as a beggar to confirm the entry.
When the spy returned and appeared before the emperor, he produced the
alms he had received, some grain, dry gram, pieces of baked bread and
pods of red pepper, which confirmed the presence of the Maratha
forces. It is instructive to compare these forces of Baji Rao with the
Mughal paraphernalia some two decades after this incident at the
battle of Panipat!

Though the author has not gone into detail, two aspects of the Maratha
rise are also mentioned by him, one fascinating in its scope and the
other a matter of regret. Throughout history, the Marathas had waged a
ceaseless war against the Mughals, treating them as aliens in this
land. And yet, they had a strange sense of loyalty which forbade them
from annihilating the Mughals or even allowing others to do the same.
Twice during his lifetime. Baji Rao had the opportunity of destroying
the most potent symbol of the Mughals, the Nizam, first at Palkhed and
then at Bhopal. The presence of the Nizam in close proximity to the
Marathas could only bode ill, and yet on both occasions he was spared.
It is said that this was done because the Maratha king Shahuji, who
was brought up in Mughal captivity, had a soft corner for them to
deliver the coup de grace.

Similarly, Baji Rao had Delhi at his mercy. In fact he had gone there
with the explicit intention of destroying it, and yet he spared it.

On another occasion, when he was in a position to clear the western
coast of the Portugese presence, he gave up the task when the news
broke of a grave threat to Hindustan from the northern frontiers in
the form of Nadir Shah. He lost no time in getting in touch with other
princes to meet the challenge, and in fact according to the author, he
even forged a new alliance wherein the Maharana of Mewar was to be
crowned the Emperor of Hindustan.

While his obsession and fascination with Delhi can perhaps be
attributed to many factors, the inability of the Marathas to assess
the long-term threat that the British colonialists posed is
regrettable indeed. The native wisdom that no stranger should be
allowed to settle down in your courtyard was inexplicably forgotten
when they failed to clear the vicinity of the obsequious traders. In
their obsession with Delhi, the Marathas failed to see the progress
the British were making in the east of the country. The truth is that
when the Marathas were making inroads into Malwa and Agra, the British
were tightening their stranglehold on the Bengal suba of the Mughals,
and yet they were not perceived as a threat. This oversight would
remain not only a regret but also a blot on an otherwise brilliant and
systematic rise of the Marathas in general and Baji Rao in particular.

The reader will also notice that the interlude of the Mastani episode
is based on folklore and hearsay than on documentay evidence. This is
strange since the events belong to an era when much of it is
documented. In fact the historians are not even sure if Masatni was
the daughter of the redoubtable Chhatrasal or the wily Nizam!
Fortunately everyone agrees that she was a Muslim, but again one
cannot be certain if she died on the funeral pyre away from Pune or
committed suicide in Pune on hearing the news of Baji Rao's death and
where her tomb is said to be. What, however, is acknowledged is that
her and Baji Rao's son had to be brought up as a Muslim because the
Brahmins exerted pressure on Baji Rao and his family.

It is a refreshing book, coming as it does from a person whose
perspective and style is not bound by the formal approach of an
academician. Easy to read, it is a fast paced story of an astonishing
era of Indian history. The canvas is wide, yet the author has
skillfully kept the focus on the life and works of his subject.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20011021/spectrum/book2.htm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Maratha Empire at its peak in 1760The Peshwa (Marathi: पेशवे) were
Brahmin Prime Ministers to the Maratha Chattrapatis (Kings), who began
commanding Maratha armies and later became the hereditary rulers of
the Maratha empire of central India from 1749 to 1818. During their
rein, the Maratha empire reached its zenith ruling most of the Indian
Subcontinent. Prior to 1700 one Peshwa received the status of king for
eight or nine years. They oversaw the greatest expansion of the
Maratha Empire around 1760 with the help of Sardars (Generals) like
Holkar, Shinde, Bhosale, Pantprainidhi, Gaekwad, Panse, Vinchurkar,
Pethe, Raste, Phadke, Patwardhan, Pawar, Pandit and Purandare, and
also its eventual annexation by the British East India Company in
1818.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathi_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Ministers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company

Title

The word Peshwa may have originated in Persian, meaning "foremost",
and was introduced in Deccan by the Muslim rulers. After his
coronation as a Maratha Chhatrapati in 1674, the founder of the
Maratha Empire, Shivaji appointed Moropant Trimbak Pingle as the first
Peshwa. However, the first Peshwa was Sonopant Dabir, appointed by
Shahaji to assist Shivaji. Duties and authorities of a Peshwa were
equal to that of a Prime Minister. Shivaji renamed this designation as
"Pantpradhan" in 1674 but this name was less frequently used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moropant_Peshwe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonopant_Dabir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahaji

Moropant Pingle

Moropant Trimbak Pingle was the first Peshwa (Prime Minister) in the
court of Shivaji, the founder king of the Maratha empire in western
India. He joined the service of Shivaji in 1647. He was one of the
warriors in the famous 1659 war against Afzal Khan. Later he also won
the battle of Trimbakeshwar fort, and assisted Netaji Palkar in the
battle of Wani-Dindori against Mughals and in Surat's war of 1665.

He can be credited for appropriate revenue administration techniques.
He also played a role in planning the fort's resources.

When Shivaji died in 1680, he was busy at development activity Salher-
Mulher in Baglan-Nashik District. He died in 1683.

Ramchandra Pant Amatya (Bawadekar)

Ramchandra Amatya received King status from Chatrapti Rajaram as
"Hukumatpanha" during 1689-1699. He was a basically good administrator
who rose from the level of Local Kulkarni to the ranks of Ashtapradhan
due to guidance and support from Shivaji Maharaj, one of the prominent
Peshwas earlier from 1700.

He recaptured many forts from Moguls during 1690-1694. Some forts he
captured personally using guerilla war techniques. When Chatrapati
Rajaram fled to Jinji in 1689 then before leaving from Maharastra, he
gave "Hukumat panha" (King Status) to Pant. Ramchandra Pant managed
the entire state under many challenges like influx of Moguls, betrayal
of Vatandars, and scarcity of food. With the help of Pantpratindhi,
Sachiv kept the economic condition of Maratha State in a proper way.
He got tremendous military help from Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji
Jadhav the great Maratha warriors. Many times he directly participated
in war, especially during 1689-1695; he personally re-captured many
forts in south Maharastra from the Moguls and played a role of shadow
king in the absence of Chatrapati Rajaram.

In 1698, he happily stepped down from the post of "Hukumatpanha" and
Rajaram offered this post to his wife Tarabai. Tarabai gave an
important position to Pant in senior administration of Maratha State.
He wrote a book called Adnyapatra मराठी: आज्ञापत्र which explained
different techniques of war, maintenance of forts and administration
etc.

The concepts in Adnyapatra and the wisdom and leadership of Tararani
(Tarabai) greatly helped the Maratha empire in building the foundation
of state. As he was more loyal to Tararani than Shahu, he was
sidelined after the arrival of Shahu. Later the Peshwa post was given
to Balaji Vishwanath in 1713. Ramchandra Pant died in 1716 on Panhala
fort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulkarni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santaji_Ghorpade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanaji_Jadhav
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarabai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnyapatra

Bhat Family

The position moved to the Bhat family of Shrivardhan in the Konkan
region, upon appointment of Balaji Vishwanath Bhat as Peshwa by the
fourth Chattrapati Shahu in 1713. The appointment of his son, Baji Rao
I as Peshwa in 1719 by Shahu made the position hereditary in the Bhat
family, and also led to a rebellion by General Trimbak Rao Dabhade,
the senapati (commander in chief), over Chauthai (revenue collection)
of Gujarat. The followers of Baji and Trimbak clashed at the Battle of
Bilhapur on April 1, 1731, and Trimbak was killed, giving the peshwas
and the Bhat family unchallenged control over Maratha.[1] Shahu, who
also appointed Baji Rao's son as Peshwa in 1740, gave considerable
authority to the Peshwas to command the Maratha armies, and they
responded well during his reigns.

At the time of his death in 1749, Shahu made the Peshwas his
successors under such conditions. Shivaji's descendants, who remained
as the titular Raja of Satara, were called Swami (Marathi for The real
Owner) by the Peshwas who reported to them, and they were to seek
guidance from the Raja. However, the Peshwa also became a ceremonial
head of state after the battle of Panipat and the death of Madhavrao.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrivardhan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaji_Vishwanath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahuji
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajirao
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhavrao_II_Ballal

Legacy

Maratha Emperors (1674-1818)
Shivaji (1674 - 1680)
Sambhaji (1680 - 1689)
Rajaram (1689 - 1700)
Queen Tarabai (1700 - 1707)
Shahu (1707 - 1749)
Ramaraja (1749 - 1777)
Peshwas (Prime Ministers) (1712-1818)
Balaji Vishwanath
(1712-1719)
Bajirao
(1719-1740)
Balaji Bajirao
(1740-1761)
Madhavrao Ballal
(1761-1772)
Narayanrao
(1772-1773)
Raghunathrao
(1773-1774)
Sawai Madhavrao
(1774-1795)
Bajirao II
(1795-1851)
Nana Sahib
(1851-1857)
The first Peshwa to receive the status of a king was Ramchandra Pant
Amatya Bawdekar in 1689 by Chatrapati Rajaram.The first Bhat family
Peshwa was Balaji Vishwanath Bhat, a chitpavan Brahmin. He was
succeeded as Peshwa by his son Baji Rao I, who never lost a battle.
Baji Rao and his son, Balaji Baji Rao, oversaw the period of greatest
Maratha expansion (see map at right), brought to an end by the
Maratha's defeat by an Afghan army at the Third Battle of Panipat in
1761. The last Peshwa, Baji Rao II, was defeated by the British East
India Company in the Battle of Khadki which was a part of Third Anglo-
Maratha War (1817–1818). The Peshwa's territory in central Maharashtra
was annexed to the British East India Company's Bombay province, and
he was pensioned off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baji_Rao_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Panipat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baji_Rao_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khadki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Anglo-Maratha_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_state

Peshwas

Sonopant Dabir Period 1640-1652
Shyampant Kulkarni-Ranzekar Period 1652-1657
Moropant Peshwe(Pingale) Period 1657-1683
Moreshwar Pingale 1683-1689 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moropant_Peshwe
RamchandraPant Amatya 1689-1708
Bahiroji Pingale 1708-1711
Parshuram Tribak Kulkarni 1711-1713
Balaji Vishwanath (1713 - 2 April 1720) (b.1660, d. 2 April 1720)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaji_Vishwanath
Peshwa Bajirao I (17 April 1720 - 28 April 1740) (b.18 August 1700, d.
28 April 1740)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajirao
From 1749 ,after death of Shahu, Peshawa became head of Maratha
empire, reporting to Chatrapati.
Balaji Bajirao (4 July 1740 - 23 June 1761) (b.8 December 1721, d. 23
June 1761)
Madhavrao Peshwa (1761 - 18 November 1772) (b.16 February 1745, d. 18
November 1772)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhavrao_Peshwa

Hereafter they remained titular

Narayanrao Bajirao (13 December4 1772 - 30 August 1773) (b.10 August
1755, d. 30 August 1773)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narayanrao_Bajirao
Raghunathrao (5 December 1773 - 1774) (b.18 August 1734, d. 11
December 1783) self -claimed not accepted by Chatrapati
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghunathrao
Sawai Madhava Rao II Narayan (1774 - 27 October 1795) (b.18 April
1774, d. 27 October 1795)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawai_Madhava_Rao_II_Narayan
Chimnajee Madhavarao (26 May 1796 - 3 Dec 1796) (brother of Bajirao
II, adopted by Madhavrao II's wife)
Baji Rao II (4 December 1796-3 June 1818) (d. 28 January 1851)
Amritrao (brother of Bajirao II), Peshwa for a short period during
Yashwantrao Holkar's siege of Pune. Bajirao was later reinstated by
the British.
Nana Sahib (1 July 1857 - 1858) (b.19 May 1825, d. 24 September 1859)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanasaheb_Peshwa

Generals and diplomats of Peshwas (1720 to 1795)

Ranoji Scindia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranoji_Scindia
Malharrao Holkar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malharrao_Holkar
Udaji Pawar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawar
Govind Pant Bundele
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govind_Pant_Bundele
Pilaji Jadhav
Pilaji Gaekwad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilaji_Gaekwad
Visaji Krushna Biniwale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visaji_Krushna_Biniwale
Nana Phadnis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Phadnis
Mahadji Shinde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahadji_Shinde

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article
Peshwa.
Nana Phadnawis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Fadnavis
Kharda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharda

References

^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Micropædia Vol. II, p17
from theEncyclopædia Britannicathe office of chief minister among the
Maratha people of India. The peshwa, also known as the mukhya pradhan,
originally headed the advisory council of the raja Shivaji (reigned c.
1659–80). After Shivaji’s death the council broke up and the office
lost its primacy, but it was revived when Shivaji’s grandson Shahu
appointed Balaji Vishvanath Bhat, a Chitpavan Brahman, as peshwa in
1714. Balaji’s son Baji Rao I secured the hereditary succession to the
peshwa-ship.

From Shahu’s death, in 1749, the peshwa Balaji Baji Rao was the
virtual ruler of Maharashtra. He hoped to succeed the Mughals in
Delhi, but, after a disastrous defeat of his army at Panipat (1761),
he became the head of a confederacy comprising himself and four
northern chiefs. Succession disputes from 1772 weakened the peshwa’s
authority. Defeat by Holkars—the Maratha rulers of Indore—led Baji Rao
II to seek British protection by the Treaty of Bassein (1802). Baji
Rao was deposed after attacking the British in 1818; he died in 1853.

Related Articles

Aspects of the topic peshwa are discussed in the following places at
Britannica.

Assorted References

British colonial policy (in India: Relations with the Marathas and
Mysore; in India: The government of Lord Hastings )
place in Ashta Pradhan (in Ashta Pradhan (Marathi council))

history of India (in India: Rise of the peshwas)
Maratha confederacy (in Maratha confederacy (Indian history))

Other

The following is a selection of items (artistic styles or groups,
constructions, events, fictional characters, organizations,
publications) associated with "peshwa"
office (government)

Citations

MLA Style:

"peshwa." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica
Online. 27 Mar. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453390/
peshwa>.
APA Style:

peshwa. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 27, 2010,
from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453390/peshwa

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453390/peshwa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshwa

Selections from the Peshwa Daftar.

Related Subjects

Maratha (Indic people) — History — Sources

Selections from the Peshwa Daftar FormatBook
Publication Date1930
LocationIvy Stacks
Call NumberDS485.M349 S4 1930 (13 volumes)

Title:
2.Illustrative Modi documents AuthorMaharashtra (India). Dept. of
Archives
FormatBook
Publication Date1978
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
Call NumberDS485.M349 M33 1978

Title:
3.Source book of Maratha history AuthorPatwardhan, R. P.
FormatBook
Publication Date1978
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
Call NumberDS485.M349 P38 1978

Title:
4.An account of the last Battle of Panipat : and of the events leading
to it : written in Persian AuthorKasi Rai
FormatBook
Publication Date1926
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Call NumberDS461.8.K3813

Title:
5.Records of the Shivaji period FormatBook
Publication Date1974
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Call NumberDS485.M34 R4

Title:
6.Revival of Maratha power, 1761-1772 AuthorJoshi, P. M., 1904-
FormatBook
Publication Date1962
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Call NumberDS432.M2 J62

Title:
7.French records, relating to the history of the Marathas FormatBook
Publication Date1980
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Call NumberDS485.M349 F74 1980 V.7, V.8

Title:
8.Source book of Maratha history AuthorRawlinson, H. G. (Hugh George),
1880- ed
FormatBook
Publication Date1929
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Call NumberDS461.R3

Title:
9.Vaidya-daptarāntūna nivaḍalele kāgada AuthorVaidya, Shankar
Lakshman, comp
FormatBook
Publication Daten/a
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Title:
10.Aitihāsika patrabodha AuthorSardesai, Govind Sakharam, 1865-1959
ed
FormatBook
Publication Date1963
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Title:
11.The Decade of Panipat, 1751-61 FormatBook
Publication Date1984
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Call NumberDS485.M349 D43 1984

Title:
12.Marāṭhākālīna aitihāsika dastāveja : Baneṛā saṅgraha
1805-1818 Ī. FormatBook
Publication Date1989
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Call NumberDS485.U3 M38 1989

Title:
13.The Marathas on the west coast of India AuthorMaharashtra (India).
Dept. of Archives
FormatBook
Publication Date1990
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
Call NumberDS485.M349 M33 1990

Title:
14.A forgotten literature : foundations of Marathi chronicles
AuthorHerwadkar, Raghunath Vinayak, 1915-
FormatBook
Publication Date1994
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
Call NumberDS485.M349 H46 1994

Title:
15.Trade, politics, and plunder : the Marathas at Cambay, c.AD
1725-1825 AuthorRay, Aniruddha
FormatBook
Publication Date2006
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Call NumberDS485.C2 R39 2006

Title:
16.Records of the Shivaji period FormatOnline; eBook; Book
Publication Date1974
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Online Versions Access online

Title:
17.Letters from a Mahratta camp during the year 1809 : descriptive of
the character, manners, domestic habits, and religious ceremonies of
the Mahrattas AuthorBroughton, Thomas Duer, 1778-1835
FormatBook
Publication Date1977
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
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http://blacklight.betech.virginia.edu/?f%5Bsubject_facet%5D%5B%5D=Maratha+%28Indic+people%29+--+History+--+Sources&id=u50104

Maharashtra (India) — History — Sources

Related Name(s)

Sardesai, Govind Sakharam, 1865-1959.

Aitihāsika patrabodha AuthorSardesai, Govind Sakharam, 1865-1959 ed
FormatBook
Publication Date1963
LocationIvy Stacks
Call NumberDS403.S2

Title:
2.Aitihāsika gharāṇyā %neyā vāśāvalī AuthorSardesai, Govind
Sakharam, 1865-1959
FormatBook
Publication Date1957
LocationIvy Stacks
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Title:
3.The main currents of Maratha history : originally Patna University
readership lectures 1926, now greatly enlarged, rewritten, and brought
up to date AuthorSardesai, Govind Sakharam, rao bahadur, 1865-1959
FormatBook
Publication Date1949
LocationIvy Stacks
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Title:
4.New history of the Marathas AuthorSardesai, Govind Sakharam, rao
bahadur, 1865-1959
FormatBook
Publication Date1948
LocationAlderman Library Stacks
Call NumberDS432.M2 S38 1948 V.1, V.2, V.3

Title:
5.On historiography : a study of methods of historical research and
narration of J. N. Sarkar, G. S. Sardesai and P. K. Gode
AuthorTikekar, Shripad Ramchandra, 1900-1979
FormatBook
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LocationIvy Stacks
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Title:
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Publication Date1930
LocationIvy Stacks
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http://blacklight.betech.virginia.edu/catalog?q=Sardesai%2C+Govind+Sakharam%2C+1865-1959.

Balaji Vishwanath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Balaji Vishwanath Bhat (1680 – April 2, 1719), better known as Peshwa
Balaji Vishwanath, was the first of a series of hereditary Peshwas
(Marathi for Prime Minister) hailing from the Brahmin family who
gained effective control of the Maratha Empire during the eighteenth
century. Balaji Vishwanath assisted a young Shahu to consolidate his
grip on an empire that had been racked by civil war and persistent
attack by the Mughals under Aurangzeb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangzeb

Biography

Balaji Vishwanath Rao was born into a Marathi Smartha Brahmin family
belonging to the Chitpavan subcaste. The community hailed from the
coastal shrivardhan Konkan region of present-day Maharashtra. He was
named "Balaji," which is another name for Venkateshwara, a
manifestation of Vishnu. His family was of modest means, and Balaji
began his career as an accountant for the Maratha general, Dhanaji
Jadhav, at Chiplun. Between 1699 and 1703, he served as the Sar-
subhedar or head-administrator at Pune. By the time Dhanaji died,
Balaji had proven himself as an honest and able officer. Chhatrapati
Shahu, ruler of the Marathas, took note of his abilities and appointed
Balaji as his assistant (c.1708).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan

Ascent to Peshwa

In the next few years, Balaji by his tactful negotiations became a
prominent personality. He is recorded as having participated in the
invasion (1708) of the then Mughal city of Ahmedabad[1] Again, during
the Maratha civil war (1707-13) which followed the release of Shahu
from Mughal captivity, the maratha general Chandrasen Jadhav, a
prominent partisan of the Tarabai faction, (opposed to Shahu), ravaged
the southern districts of the state. He was defeated by Balaji after a
prolonged engagement. In 1713, Shahu faced personal danger when he was
attacked at Khed near Satara by forces loyal to Tarabai. At this
critical juncture, Shahuji turned to Balaji, appointed him Senakarta
(army commander) and gave him full authority to wage the battle that
had become unavoidable.

This increased the confidence that Shahu had in him. Balaji was
appointed as Shahu's plenipotentiary to negotiate with Kanhoji Angre,
admiral of the Maratha navy, who was allied with Tarabai. Before
Balaji took up this assignment,[citation needed] he requested Shahu to
appoint him Peshwa or prime minister. Shahu conceded this request, and
on November 16, 1713, Balaji became the Shahu's first Peshwa. Kanhoji
agreed to become the Sarkhel (admiral) of Shahu's navy.

Attack on the Mughal empire

There existed a power vacuum in the Mughal empire, caused by the death
of Aurangzeb in 1707, subsequent intenecine conflict within the
imperial family and civil war. Farrukhsiyar came to the throne in 1713
with the help of the Sayyid brothers, who had turned king-makers in
the anarchy following the death of Aurangzeb. Differences soon arose
between them and the Emperor.

In 1716, Shahuji's army chief Dabhaji Thorat arrested Balaji. The
reason for this two-year imprisonment is unknown. After his release as
directed by Shahu, in 1718 Balaji negotiated a treaty with the Sayyid
brothers, which the Mughal emperor later refused to ratify. With the
help of Maratha troops commanded by the gallant Parsoji Bhosale,
Husain Ali (one of the Sayyid brothers) marched on Delhi, dethroned
Farrukhsiyar, and substituted in his place a more pliable puppet, Rafi-
ul-darjat in February 1719. The Marathas also supplied a 15,000 strong
army to enforce the Mughal Empire's authority in the Deccan. In
exchange for the help thus rendered to Husain Ali, Balaji extracted a
formal recognition of the autonomy of the Marathas in the territories
held by them and the right to collect chauth (literally: "one-fourth,"
a basic tax) in the six Deccan provinces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrukhsiyar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafi_Ul-Darjat

Personal life

Balaji married Radhabai (1700 – 1752) and had two sons, Bajirao and
Chimnaji Appa.He had two daughters. Balaji's health suffered
considerably as a result of the campaign against the mughals, and he
died on April 2, 1719. He was succeeded by his elder son, the
celebrated Balaji Bajirao I, who was anointed Peshwa by Chattrapati
Shahu.A statue of Balaji Vishwanath stands at his ancestral village of
Shrivardhan near Raigad in coastal Maharashtra.

Preceded by
Bahiroji Pingale Peshwa
1714 - 1719 Succeeded by
Baji Rao I

Notes

^ Invasion of Ahmedabad
http://www.cityofahmedabad.com/milestone1.htm

References

Imperial Gazeteer of India, v.2, Pg 441
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gazetteer/pager.html?objectid=DS405.1.I34_V02_476.gif
Cox, Linda. The Chitpavans, Illustrated Weekly of India, February 22,
1970

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaji_Vishwanath

[chhotemianinshallah]

Monday, June 05, 2006
Concept of Copyright in Ancient India

We received many inquiries about tradition of Copyrights in India (I
believe due to some of the recent controversies involving Indians and
People of Indian origin), and one of the researchers requested my
opinion on the concept of Copyright in ancient India.
The concept of proprietary right of an author over his work did not
exist in ancient India. All knowledge was meant for public utility and
not for any gain to the individual.

The reason is simple. Writing was believed to be the result of, Dhee
Sakti or intellectual power obtained only through God's grace. Naham
Karta, Harirkarta, I am not the doer, Hari or God is the Doer was the
humble belief of a scholar. Hence no commercial gain was attached to
the work of an author. Every book was the result of long standing
painful efforts which could not be counted in terms of money.

Nor did the great writers aspire for personal publicity or propaganda;
they cared for popularity of their subject. The book was a dedication
to God first and last. Hence most of the books in ancient times,
literary or non-literary, start with invocation to God or their
favorite deity and end with a colophon and benedictory prayer.

For centuries, palm-leaf books formed treasure of learning. They were
few and rare, before paper and printing made their appearance in
India. Access to books was rare. Hand-copying was in vogue. To get the
copies of books made and distributing them free was considered a
meritorious act. Even copyists thought their duty was a sacred one.

Merit of a book was established in the assembly of scholars in the
presence of a king or nobleman, who himself would be a well-versed
scholar. Once approved by the learned, the works were available to the
public.

Oral system of learning prevailed and books were read to a attentive
listeners. Repeating, memorising and reproducing were more important;
book reading and writing were considered secondary. Books were not on
sale. Hence the question of copyright did not bother our past
authors.

Well known writers and poets got all the encouragement from the
rulers. A distinguished writer was invariably a court poet. He was
publicly felicitated from time to time after his bona-fides were
established. He used to get good remuneration in terms of land and
money.

Works on poetics profusely quoted the original authors, with courtesy.
Popularity of his work was the greatest aspiration for a writer. The
reach and not the reward being their aim, the selfish idea of making
name or money by establishing authorship never struck the ancient
writers. Only books of universal appeal and eternal values have
survived in Sanskrit or regional languages. Proprietary rights have no
meaning to works of Vyasa, Valmiki, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti and hundreds
of other writers.

If there were instances of plagiarism, there is no record of them.
Many court poets and writers lent their patron's name to their valued
works, willingly or through sheer obedience. It was left to critics of
later centuries, to establish the authentic authorship.

Amma's Column by Jyotsna Kamat

http://www.kamat.com/jyotsna/blog/blog.php?BlogID=977

Brahmanism Controlled Masses Through Language

Dr. K. Jamanadas,

National Language of India

A lecturer friend of mine, who was trying to convince me that learning
becomes easy in student's mother tongue, was taken aback to hear from
me that India does not have a mother tongue, it has mother tongues.
Does India have a national language? Presumably, it does, and it is
Hindi. How it came to become a national language is described by Dr.
Ambedkar who was present in the Congress Party meeting as Chairman of
the Drafting Committee when the Draft Constitution of India was being
considered, on the issue of adopting Hindi as the National language:

"...There was no article which proved more controversial than Article
115 which deals with the question. No article produced more
opposition. No article more heat. After a prolonged discussion when
the question was put, the vote was 78 against 78. The tie could not be
resolved. After a long time when the question was put to the party
meeting the result was 77 against 78 for Hindi. Hindi won its place as
a national language by one vote. I am stating these facts from my
personal knowledge. ..." [Ambedkar B. R., Thoughts on Linguistic
States, Writings & Speeches, Maharashtra Govt., 1989, vol. 1, p. 148]

It is not known, whether the member had gone out in the mean time and
was absent during voting the second time, but surely it does not speak
highly of a language to have been declared as "National" under such
circumstances. This is specially so, when in practice, whole of India
thinks in English, may be it is Law, Medicine, Sports, Commerce,
Accounting, Cinema, Literature, Poetry or any other field of life. In
the homes of elites, English is not only spoken by children and
servants but also their pets like cats and dogs.

Language Problem of India

The question of language is a tricky problem in India. India is a vast
country. True. It was much vaster in ancient times. Now it has been
divided into three countries. In India itself, there are numerous
languages. Some of them are official languages and some are struggling
to become official. The country is divided into provinces on the basis
of language. Gandhiji had promised to do that before independence. So
it was done. The strangest thing is that the people fight among
themselves on the basis of language, as if the linguistic provinces
are two different nations. Dr. Ambedkar had warned that there is a
very thin line between linguistic provinces and linguistic nations and
he had suggested some safeguards and remedies to prevent the calamity
of converting the linguistic provinces into linguistic nations.
Unfortunately no heed was paid to his wise advice. We have to consider
whether India was always having multiple languages, and why there are
so many languages in India and why does the speech differ every few
miles.

Origin of language

Itihasacharya V. K. Rajwade explained that Language originated from
sound, script originated from pictures, expression from natural body
movements and utensils from the figures seen. All this was invented by
the wisdom of man himself by hard work of trial and error, and not due
to any imaginary gods or asuras in imaginary heaven or hell. That
voice originated from damaru of Shankara, Gandhaba-kanya taught the
art of drawing pictures, acting was taught by some kinnara, and making
of utensils was taught by some imaginary vishwakarma are all myth,
fantasy and a pack of lies, nothing is divine, all these arts are
acquired by man by efforts and by learning from trial and error.
[Rajwade V. K., bharatiya vivah sansthe cha itihas, marathi, p. 106]

Language of masses was different

Mr. Nair explains quoting authorities, that language of the masses is
different from that of the "classes". This difference is calculated by
the elites for establishing and maintaining their supremacy. As Nair
quotes Lapier:

"A language is a system of cultural definition whereby meanings are
assigned to a great variety of specific sound combinations thereof and
among a literate people, graphic representations thereof. But the
members of the society seldom speak or even write in terms of the
culturally designated definitions. They speak and write in some
special vernacular which differs both quantitatively and qualitatively
from the official language i.e. from the language as embodied among a
literate people in dictionaries, manuals of grammar and the like".
[`Theory of social control' p. 261, quoted by Nair B. N., "The Dynamic
Brahmin", p.68]

Was Sanskrit a spoken language?

Contrary to the recent hindutwavadi propaganda, it is a well
established fact that Sanskrit was never a spoken language:

"Let us remember that Sanskrit as its meaning indicates was never a
spoken language and that it was only a purified version of the
language that was in popular usage such as Prakrit, and that its
refinement and the codification of grammar in an unalterable form was
the work of grammarians like Panini." [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic
Brahmin", p.67]

Even strong protagonists like Pandit Mishra aver that it was a spoken
language but the "spoken" means, it was spoken by "shishtas" i.e.
elite (meaning Brahmins) alone. Rest of the masses were speaking
Prakrit. [Mishra, p.376] Even in late Sanskrit drammas, as is well
known, the charectors of higher castes speak Sanskrit, and the others
speak Prakrit. So speech depended on the caste.

Views of Prof. Rhys Davids

His opinion is perhaps the consensus opinion and based upon deep study
of scriptures, sculptures and epigraphs both Brahmanical as well as
Buddhistic. He observes:

"... Priests have preserved for us, not so much the opinions the
people actually held, as the opinions the priests wished them to
hold. ... What had happened with respect to religious belief is on a
par with what had happened with respect to language. From Takkasila
all the way down to Champa no one spoke Sanskrit. The living language,
everywhere, was a sort of Pali. Many of the old Vedic words were
retained in more easily pronounceable forms. Many new words had been
formed, on analogy, from the existing stock of roots. Many other new
word had been adopted from non- Aryan form of speech. Many Aryan
words, which do not happen to occur in the Vedic texts, had
nevertheless survived in popular use. And mean while, in the schools
of the priests, and there only, a knowledge of the Vedic language
(which we often call Sanskrit) was kept up. But even this Sanskrit of
the schools had progressed, as some would say, or had degenerated, as
others would say, from the Vedic standard. And the Sanskrit in actual
use in the as it is from the so- called classical Sanskrit of the post
Buddhistic poems and plays." [Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 211 ff.,
emphasis ours]

He avers that, outside the schools of the priests, the curious and
interesting beliefs recorded in the Rig Veda had practically little
effect, and Vedic theosophy was never a popular faith. Vedic rituals
are not of simpler faith, and are advanced. The gods of the older
system - the dread Mother Earth, the dryads and the dragons, the dog-
star, even the moon the sun have been cast into the shade by the new
gods of the fire, the exciting drink, and the thunderstorm. The
mystery and the magic of the ritual of the sacrifice had complications
and expense. [Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 211 ff.]

Max Muller, who believed that thoughts in Rigveda were primitive, as
these thoughts are so bizarre and absurd that they cannot be
considered as advanced, and one is so accustomed to consider the
priesthood as the great obstacle to any way of reform in India, he
averred, that it is difficult to believe that the Brahmins could ever,
as a class have championed the newer views. Rhys Davids, disagreeing
with Max Muller, believed that the beliefs recorded in the Rig Veda
are not primitive or original, as proved by comparison with evolution
of religious beliefs elsewhere. These beliefs were in the view of the
men who formulated them, a kind of advance on the previous ideas. And
when the Rig Veda was finally closed there were many other beliefs,
commonly held among the Aryans in India, but not represented in that
Veda. [Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 211 ff.]

Social Control through language

The so called "purity" of Sanskrit makes it a dead language, may be
true, but that was the intention of the users, to safeguard their own
supremacy over the masses. Nair exclaims:

"... The maintenance of the purity of Sanskrit language since the days
of Panini until the present day is wonder of wonders that is largely
to be explained by the tenacity of the Brahmin to preserve it as such,
as the sacred language of status group even though their spoken
language was, by and large, the local languages or a mixture of the
two. This is not to admit that early Sanskrit before it reification
did not borrow words from Dravidian languages and made them its own.
As a matter of fact detailed research in the linguistic prehistory
India is bound to reveal many instances for such a fusion of Tamil
words into Sanskrit, especially that style of Sanskrit which came to
be used for limited secular purposes." [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic
Brahmin", p.68]

Sanskrit is static language

Ancient Tamil grammar Tolkapium, Nair says, was a "scientific treatise
on grammar" created to "safeguard the system of cultural definitions".
Brahmins maintained purity of their language because of the fear of
local language of masses. Why did the Brahmins try to keep their
language different than that of the masses? The reason is that they
wanted to maintain their supremacy through it. The process is
continuing even now. When elites speak of it a "pure" they actually
mean "static", and anything becomes static then it merits the title of
"dead". Mr. Nair explains the tendency:

"The purity of Sanskrit since the days it assumed its present
grammatical shape is to be explained by it static state, as the
restricted and sole vehicle of a sacerdotal class who jealously
preserved it from the corroding influence of non-Brahmin languages.
This they did out of fear as experience had already taught them that
in the mutual impact it was Sanskrit that stood the chance of loosing
its integrity and getting assimilated with the "Paisachi" language
which was widely prevalent in the subcontinent of India at the time of
their arrival. So then true to the spirit and apostolic motivation of
cultural conquerors they set about to conquer the speakers of the
language but also the latter's language itself. There is a hymn in the
Rig Veda which expresses this wish most solemnly and which may have
been recited by countless generations of Brahmins,"May we conquer the
ill-speaking man" [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.69]

Panini was ignorant about history: Rajwade

Itihasacharya Rajwade had done a lot of work not only in history but
also in linguistic field. He explained the code language of
Mahanubhavas as well as he explained origin of Sanskrit. He declared
that Panini had no knowledge of amalgamation and mixture of primitive
societies. He explained how the use of neuter gender in Sanskrit
originated from the mixture of two societies, one having a nasal twang
and other without it. While explaining grammar, Rajwade scientifically
uses the sociological concepts, and clarifies what Panini could not.
He declares boldly that Panini had no historical perspective and that
Panini's belief, that Sanskrit is the language of the devas and hence
anaadi, (having no beginning), as "eccentric". He avers that there is
not a single word or a phrase in whole of ashtadhyai of Panini, which
could suggest that Sanskrit originated from Vedic language. Panini
could not ever think that Sanskrit is the corrupt or hybrid form of
Vedic language. Because of this disregard of history, Panini thought
there was no world before Vedas, and no time before it. His thoughts
are thus opposed to progress and because of his ignorance, the society
became dejected about the future. There were many pre-vedic languages,
then Vedic, then Panini's Sanskrit, then Prakrit, and regional
languages like Marathi etc. is the progressive evolution, but because
of Panini's thoughts this was considered as degeneration. Panini's
ashtadhyai is the well known example of how the unhistorical attitude
causes the gross damage, he observes. [Rajwade V. K., bharatiya vivah
0sansthe cha itihas, marathi, introduction by S.A.Dange p. 21]

Ancient language of whole of India was Tamil

Rajwade acknowledges the Aryans have come from outside India and the
original indigenous residents were the Naagas. They were expert in
drawing pictures, they later married Vedic Aryans and it is customary
to include Naaga vamsha into the Aryan fold. He also acknowledges the
presence of non-Aryan languages like Asur bhasha, Dravida bhasha,
Chinese and Red Indian and African languages. [Rajwade V. K.,
bharatiya vivah sansthe cha itihas, marathi, p. 100]

Paishachi language was Tamil is the experts' view. Having made it
clear that Paishachi language was a very rich language, and very
widely spoken, let us see the experts' views on what was this
language. Before Aryans could influence things here, the language of
India was "Paishachi", which meant Tamil, and it was spoken from
Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Nair observes:

"According to Mr. Oldham there are ample evidences to show that the so-
call "Paisachi" language was spoken throughout India. He says "It is
evident that the old Sanskrit Grammarians considered the language of
the Dravidian countries to be connected with the vernaculars of
Northern India; and that in their opinion it was especially related to
the speech of those who as we have seen, were apparently descended
from the Asura tribes. Thus in the Shahasha Chandrika Lakshmidhara
says that the Paisachi language is spoken in the Paisachi countries of
Pandya, Kekaya Vahlika, Sahya, Nepala, Kuntala, Sudarsha, Bota,
Gandhara, Haiva and Kangana and there are Paisachi countries. Of all
the vernaculars the Paisachi is said to have contained the smallest
infusion of Sanskrit". [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.70]

Dr. K. M. Panikar has something equally interesting to say; "The
distribution of the indigenous races even today in the uplands of
South Bihar and in the eastern areas of Madhya Pradesh and the
persistence of the Bhils in the Aravalli and Vindhya ranges show that
as a population momentum the Aryan invasion ceased to have any
momentum after it reached the Gangetic valley. The gradual spread of
Hinduism all over India and with it the Aryan speech should not blind
us to the fact that even in North India outside the Punjab the Aryans
contributed only a racial strain. In Gujrat and in Maharashtra the neo-
Aryans were able to improve their language but in the Deccan and in
the South the Dravidian speech not only held its own but was able to
drive out the Austric and other linguistic elements. The spread of
Aryanism and Sanskrit, originally associated with Agastiyas' crossing
of the Vindhyas became, an accomplished fact only in the first
centuries of the Christian era as may be seen from the earlier
Paisachi tradition of the Satavahana Emperors of Pratishtan" [K. M.
Panikker, Geographical Factors in Indian History, 1955, quoted by Nair
B. N., "The Dynamic 0Brahmin", p.70]

Paisachi was Tamil

Nair confirms that Paishachi was Tamil.

"Now we may ask: what could have been this Paisachi language other
than the Tamil of pre-Tholkappian epoch? Indeed, the author of
Tholkappiyam (who is considered to be a Brahmin himself) felt as much
nervous about the vigour of Sanskrit or more possibly Prakrit as the
Brahmin Aryans felt consternation about the richness of this
"Paishachi" language. In spite of this, it is evident that the two
languages could not continue side by side in certain regions without
influencing one another for their mutual benefit. Hence it is that we
find that rules have been laid down in Tholkappiyam for the adoption
of Sanskrit words under certain conditions and subject to certain
rules while Prakrit itself normally absorbed certain Dravidian
0features." [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.70]

Ashokan India was speaking Prakrit and not Sanskrit Hindutwavadis like
to project that the main stream of Indian thought flows through
Sanskrit. This is totally false, as can be seen by historical
evidences of epigraphs. Original inscriptions were not Sanskrit. Apart
from Ashoka's edicts, the most ancient inscriptions of Arekmedu, which
talk of Buddha's teachings, were not in Sanskrit but in Prakrit.
Another European authority Dr. J. Filliozat is worth quoting in this
respect:

"Even much later, in the first half of the first century of Christian
era when appeared the first dated Tamil inscriptions, those of
Virapatnam - Arikamedu near Pondicherry, Sanskrit was not yet current
in Tamilanad as the inscriptions in an Indo-Aryan language found along
with the Tamil inscriptions are in Prakrit. These inscriptions are no
doubt very short and very few but we can at least be sure that they
are exactly comparable with those of Ceylon at the same epoch; here
also middle-Indian was employed and not Sanskrit. The characters of
these inscriptions around the beginning of the Christian era the same
and very similar in their shapes to the ancient Brahmi of Ashoka,
giving supplementary evidence of the importance of the contribution of
Ashoka's empire to the culture in the South. [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic
Brahmin", p.71]

As late as Pallava times, the earlier Pallava inscriptions were in
Prakrit and not Sanskrit.

Sangam literature

Not only the inscriptions, but even the classical Tamil literature of
second or third century was not Sanskrit, but Tamil. The same author
observes:

"If we now consider the ancient Tamil works, we find in almost all
some allusion to vedic or Brahmanic rites and the use of some Sanskrit
words though very few. When Indo Aryan words are adopted in Tamil in
Sangam literature they are more frequently borrowed form Prakrit forms
or with Prakritic features. Surely Sanskrit and Prakrit cultures were
known to some extent in Tamilanad but rather through Prakrit than
through Sanskrit. Massive influence of Sanskrit in Tamil literature
took place much later". [Dr. J. Filliozat on Tamil and Sanskrit in
South India, in Tamil Culture, vol. IV, No. 4, Oct. 1955 quoted by
Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.71]

Sanskrit gained ground because it was sonorous Nair explains why
Sanskrit could catch up:

"Now going back to the base of our theoretical structure viz. local
Hinduism we find that Sanskrit language spread through ritualistic
practices introduced by the Brahmins in the "Gramakshetra" or village
temple. Ritualistic Sanskrit was mostly poetry and it was poetry in
the form of Manthras and stotras that first caught the profane ears of
the non- Brahmin temple worshipper. These Manthras and Stotras were
resonant with sonorous words and phrases and so replete which imagery
that when recited aloud they seldom failed to evoke strong feelings of
devotion in the minds of the hearer who knew the mythology behind this
majestic poetry. Here lies the beginnings of the social control of the
Brahmin through a language which was reified and strengthened to suit
their purposes." [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.72]

Nair further explains:

"As was pointed out earlier the spread of Sanskrit began with the
recital of Sanskrit poetry rich in resonant poetic forms and phrases,
e.g. Vedic hymns, strotras such as that by Shankaracharya. These
verses with their suggestive and powerful words were so much in
contrast with the soft and liquid sounds of the non-Aryan speeches
that as compared to the former, the equivalents in the latter failed
to evoke any feeling in the crowd. [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin",
p.74]

Hindi was retaining Sanskrit Influence

At a time, when Brahmins decided to divide the country on the basis of
language at the time of fall of Buddhism, they were careful enough to
maintain superiority of Sanskrit influence. As Nair quotes:

"In fact historically also the growth of Hindi, despite its
variations, has taken place in the Gangetic valley in such a way as to
retain the purity of sense and meaning of Sanskrit words. This will be
further seen by a study of the semantic changes that have taken places
in Sanskrit words after their absorption in other regional languages.
Viewed in this way, it is also clear why many orthodox Hindus are not
willing to accept Hindustani as the national language because it
contains a large strata of words from Persian, Arabic and Turkish
which were spoken by former cultural conquerors. The adoption of
Hindustani as the official language in place of Hindi would not be in
keeping with the Brahmanical revival that is making itself prominently
felt in India during the post-Independence period." [Nair B. N., "The
Dynamic Brahmin", p.75]

Trick of trigger phrases

Nair explains how Sanskrit has been the effective vehicle for the
spread of trigger phrases in Indian thought. The average educated
Indian, especially a Hindu, cannot easily recognise these artificial
trigger phrases and words in his speech, as he is unconsciously
habituated for centuries to use these as a matter of second nature for
him. In fact without these trigger words and phrases, he cannot find
the correct word or a substitute word or phrase which is free from
Sanskritic influence." [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.76]

Spread of Sanskrit

Nair explains, in the initial period, how Sanskrit spread so rapidly
and influenced the thought processes of the masses while it started
only as the language of ritual.:

"...The answer is simple enough. With the growth in power of Brahmin
priests in their temples there was also the growth the growth in their
importance and influence in the courts of kings and chieftains. The
Dharma Shastras were incorporated in the puranas at a time (about the
middle of the 4th century A.D.) when the Brahmins acquired the
position of a status-group within the caste hierarchy. ... The gradual
stages by which Sanskrit became powerful in the South is best
described by Dr. Filliozat. [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.77]

Dr. Filliozat's views are summarized below. Sanskrit words were
borrowed but Tamil scholars continued the use their own grammar. Most
known Sanskrit texts were Ayurveda and Jotishya, apart from Gita.
Tamil saints, who were non-brahmins, used ordinary Tamil words without
technical meaning, though Sanskrit ideas are alluded to. Their
compositions were devotional and not philosophical. Tamil was used
more till Shankara wrote on upanishadas etc. in c. 800 A.D. Thus Tamil
received double dose of Sanskrit words from north and south. Tamil
works of religious import were reinterpreted as Vedantic, and awarded
status of Vedas. [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.78]

Non-brahmin dignitaries were coopted

Tamil saint poets attained great fame at a later stage, but though men
like Nammalwar were denied the status of Kulapati of Vaishnavas only
because he was a non-brahmin, these saints were made use of to further
the cause of chaturvana, by declaring them as their own. Nair explains
the tendency:

"However, every time a non-Brahmin attained remarkable stature in the
assimilation of Brahmanical culture and produced some work of
intrinsic merit in his own language for the use of his fellowmen, the
Brahmins lost no time in giving the work a Sanskritic interpretation
as to disallow it an independent existence of its own and continued
esteem in popular mind. It is clearly due to the insecurity in the
Brahmin mind that leads them to adopt this strategy as is evident from
many modern instances. In fact it is not quite a well-known fact that
the orthodox Brahmins had at one time offered to Mahatma Gandhi the
choice of the acceptance of Brahminhood which he characteristically
refused. The fact that he was finally assassinated by a fanatic
Chitpavan Brahmin of Poona is more than significant of the suppressed
hostility of those caste-conscious Brahmins all over India who could
not share the enlightened views of that great soul." [Nair B. N., "The
Dynamic Brahmin", p.78]

Brahmanism flourished due to British rule

Nair explains how the British helped spread of Brahmanism throughout
India, and exclaims that the Brahmin succeeded in utilising the
Britishers as an unconscious tool for the strengthening of his social
control over masses by four streams of activity by the British
administration which directly contributed to the strength of all-India
Hinduism under Brahmin leadership. Dr. M. N. Srinivas classified them
as follows.

(a)systematic reconstruction of Indian history
(b)development of mass communication media, films of mythological
themes and Brahmanical control over press. To this could now be added
electronic media and mythological serials.
(c)growth of movements against defects in Brahmanical religion like
untouchability, child marriage etc.
(d)study of Sanskrit literature and philosophy

Nair exclaims that, thus the Brahmin discovered his soul and saw with
clear eyes the beauty and ugliness of his own handiwork in India, and
the regrouping of social forces that took place under the British
regime. [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p. 80]

Christians not influenced by the sanskritisation

Concluding, Nair mentions another weakness of Sanskrit: "And this
concerns its failure to leave the psychological impress on the
Christian community in India. Christianity of the real proselytising
variety came to India and drew it strength only during the British
occupation so that it must be considered intrinsically as the religion
of a cultural and political conqueror. The conversions of Christianity
were mostly from people who were outside the pale of Brahmanical
Hinduism so that the cultural influences of Sanskrit were not felt by
these people to any extent before conversion or after it." [Nair B.
N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.81]

Sanskrit has no relevance with daily life

With rapid Sanskritisation, Nair feels, it lost relevance in daily
life of people, specially the non-Brahmins:

"... The 'weltanschauung' [i.e. outlook of world] of the South Indian
(non-Brahmin) was rendered highly unreal and abstract infusion of
Sanskrit words created a disjunction between the symbol and the
phenomenon. It was not merely the haphazard spread of Sanskrit or its
deliberate and principal use for sacerdotal purposes that brought
about this mental situation but also to a large extent the esotericism
that was imported in the use of the language, the word-meanings, etc.
And above all it was a leisure class (only) that used Sanskrit. As
Prof. Kosambi so aptly puts it "The language suffered from its long
monopolistic association with a class that had no direct interest in
technique, manual operations, trade agreements, contracts or surveys.
The class did have leisure enough to write their tenuous ideas in a
tortuous manner above the reach of the common herd and to unravel them
from such writings. Prose virtually disappeared from high literary
Sanskrit. Words that survived in literary usage took on so many
supplementary meanings that a good Sanskrit text cannot be interpreted
without a commentary. The glosses are often demonstrably wrong and
succeed in only confusing the text which has to be restored by
critical methods first developed in Europe. The older terms used in
administration (e.g. in Arathashastra and Copperplate charters) were
forgotten. In some cases, where obscurity was deliberately imposed
(i.e. the Tantric mysticism) cult and meaning of the text vanished
together. There were astounding mnenomic developments but they too
contributed to the same end by over-specialization and particular
jargons for every discipline". (An Introduction to the Study of Indian
History pp.225-266) [Nair B. N., "The Dynamic Brahmin", p.85]

Sanskrit has nothing to do with Computer

Some people, whose forefathers themselves were the sufferers of this
language, try to take pride and seek solace in believing that Sanskrit
is a good language for computer. The inventor of this myth seems to be
a person, not only with perverted sense of egotism about his heritage
and ignorance of his ancestral history, but also an urge to befool the
gullible masses of India. The minimum expectation from such scholars
would be to pause and think how a language which was not allowed to be
learned by a scholar like Dr. Ambedkar can ever be considered a good
language worth learning by masses. It is language of control by a few
over multitude. It is a language of oppression.

It has nothing to do with computer language, which is a binary
language, a language of 1s and 0s, a language of ON and OFF. After all
a computer is nothing but a collection of millions of fast acting
switches. It is by creating computer codes like EBCDIC and ASCII,
various alphabets can be assigned numbers, and these numbers
representing alphabets are converted into binary for computer
processing. Any language on the earth is equally good or equally bad
for the computer purpose. Those who claim that Sanskrit is a useful
language for computer have got a cruel and malevolent intention of
projecting the misdeeds of their forefathers. A scholar in them is
dead, only a caste superiority prejudice is seen in their such
statements.

Most unfortunate thing is that so called scholars from among the
sufferers of tyranny of this language, seem to have a liking of this
language through misconceived ideas about it. Their multiple degrees
are worth throwing away in a dust bin. Just by becoming learned in
Sanskrit does not qualify anybody to receive respect, you have to be
born. Read Dasbodh of Ramdas, if you have doubts. The language which
ruined this country, is respected by these so called scholars. It was
Ramdas himself, a Brahmanical social activist, who coined a phrase for
such people in Marathi- "padhat murkh", the nearest English rendering
of it should a learned fool.

What did the propagators of this language give to the people of this
country apart from disintegration and slavery of centuries. What kind
of society they have produced? A society full of discriminations where
more than half of people are unfit even for a touch, another one third
driven to forests and another group whose occupation is crime, a
society where prostitution is practiced in the name of God and
religion, a society where suicide is sacrosanct, a society where
uttering obscene abuses is a part of religion, a society where
daughters are murdered immediately after birth, a society where widows
are burnt on the funeral pyre of their husbands, a society where a
vast section of people are deprived from holding any property, holding
any arms, getting any education, a society where taking a marriage
procession on a public road brings atrocities, murder, rape and arson,
a society where nearly the whole country uses the public roads as a
toilet. And one expects these very people the sufferers of this
extreme exploitation to regard this language as holy and sacrosanct.
One only has to remember the words of Theludesus: It may be your
interest to be our masters, how can it be ours to be your slaves.
Still this is probably the only country in the world where the slaves
are enjoying their slavery and prisoners guard the prison gates and
display their fetters as ornaments.

There are people who try to propagate that the Sanskrit language is
the original language which was gifted by God (to Brahmins of India).
Despite all other languages in the world, to consider one particular
language as "god given" is the worst form of imprudence and arrogance,
to say the least; and is not only derogatory to the inventor of the
idea, but also marks the god with partiality to a caste.

Importance of Pali

After obtaining Buddhahood, the Buddha preached orally for the rest of
His life of 45 years, and these preachings were learned by heart by
the disciples. They were compiled into Tripitakas in various sangitis,
the first being 3 months after Mahaparinirvana, second 100 years
later, third in the reign of Ashoka, after which Bhikkus were sent to
various places. Mahinda and Sanghmitra went to Simhala. All these
years, all the preachings were preserved by oral tradition. It was
after this that they were reduced in writings, in Simhala during the
reign of Vattagamini (29 B.C.). This was fourth sangiti. The Buddha
did not insist for any particular language, and everybody learned them
in their own language. As a matter of fact, Tripitaka was preserved in
many languages. According to one famous Tibetan tradition, the
scriptures of Sarvasti-vadis' are in Sanskrit, those of Mahasanghikas
in Prakrit, those of Mahasammaitis in Apbhramsha and those of
Sthaviras in Paishachi. Today we know the word Pali as a name of
language. It contains whole of Tripitaka and Anupitaka of Thervada.
Originally, this word meant Original Teachings of the Buddha or
Tripitaka. Later it denoted the language of them. Thus the use of term
Pali as a name of language is rather new, and more in vogue since 19th
century. The language, we call today Pali is actually known
traditionally as Magadhi. It is well known that the Buddha had refused
permission to use Sanskrit as the vehicle of teachings, and declared
it as a minor crime. [Rahul Sankrutyayana, "pali sahitya ka itihas",
(hindi), 3rd ed., 1992, Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, Lukhnow, p.5]

Dr. Bhagchandra Jain also mentions that, Pali literature is rendered
in writing in Srilanka in First Century B.C., in the reign of
Vattagamini. Before that it was prevalent by oral recitation. This is
the reason why we find the compilation of many references could not be
made in chronological order in Pali literature. Some references are
twisted to suit them, some are omitted and some are added. Even then,
the available material is historically and culturally important. The
valuation from this angle is still not done. ["Chatushatakam"
Translator Editor : Dr. Bhagchandra Jain, Alok Parakashan Nagpur 1971
(Hindi), p.4] The study of Aryan languages in the middle age is
complete only after scientific study of Pali Language. Pali has
affected not only the modern Indian Languages but it has enough
contribution in the development of modern languages in countries like
Sinhala, Burma, Thailand, China, Japan, Tibet, Magnolia etc. and Pali
literature has proved to be a greatest help in fixing the dates of
ancient history. [Jain, p.6] L. M. Joshi also describes the influence
of Buddhist language and script as follows:

"... Indian paleography and epigraphy owe a great deal to the original
and pioneer inspiration of Buddhism and its lithic records. The
earliest historical inscriptions of India are the Buddhist
inscriptions. The dhammalipi of Ashoka became the mother of all
subsequent varieties of Brahmi and its derivative Indian scripts." [L.
M. Joshi, Aspects of Buddhism in Indian History, p.32]

Study of Sanskrit

Rigveda is said to be the most ancient book. Study of language started
in west after William Jones translated Shakuntalam into English. In
India, modern study of languages started after Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
opined through "Wilson philological lectures" that Sanskrit is the
original language and all the Indian as well as foreign languages
originated from it. [Mishra, p.351] Greek Helenic language also has
some similarities with Sanskrit. ["Vangmay Vimarsha" by Pundit
Vishwanath Prasad Mishra, Hindi Sahitya Kutir, Varanasi - 1, v.samvat
2023, p.358]

Some relate the Dravidian languages with Australian languages. After
Mohonjodaro excavation, now they are being related with Sumerian
languages. [Mishra, p.355] Word "mund" is used in Vayu Purana and in
Mahabharata it is used for a caste. The word "shabar" is still
ancient, which is found in Ateriya Brahman. Their language is called
Munda, Kol, or Shabar. There is a great influence of these languages
over several Indian languages, various examples are quoted by the
author of this influence on Bihari, Gujarathi and Madhyapradesh
language. [Mishra, p. 363]

Dravidian languages

Kumaril Bhatt made only two divisions Dravida and Andhra, But the
modern scholars have made following classification of Dravidian
languages:

1. Dravida- with (a) Tamil (b) Kannada (c) Tulu (d) Kodagu (e) Tod
2. Andhra- (a) Telugu
3. Central- with (a) Gondi (b) Kurukha (c) Kui (d) Kolami Tamil has
two forms. A poetic language called "shen", the other is called
"kodun", Malayalam is supposed to be elder daughter of Tamil.
Influence of Sanskrit is less on Tamil contrarily Malayalam has great
influence. [Mishra, p.365]

Languages of Indian Branch

There are two views. The scholars of ancient school believe that
original language is Sanskrit, form which all Aryan languages
originated, Prakrit from Sanskrit, Apbhransha from Prakrit and
regional languages from Apbhransha. New linguistic scholars believe
that Vedic Sanskrit itself originated from some original Aryan
language. On one side Vedic language, modified or Sanskrit was used
and on the other hand, unmodified or Prakrit was being used as a
language of common speech. Both these originated from some common
root. Sanskrit, the spoken language of elite (shistas - meaning
Brahmins), and Prakrit, the spoken language of the masses are sisters
of each other. That Prakrit is termed by them as "Aadim Prakrit"
meaning original Prakrit. From this evolved all other Prakrit
languages. Some people believe that, from original Prakrit the
classical Sanskrit, i.e Sanskrit of literature, evolved. But some
believe that classical Sanskrit evolved from Vedic Sanskrit through
stages of Brahmanas, Upanishadas, Kavyas, and Gathas. The divisions of
Indian languages made in "pratisakhyas" are considered by them as
regional forms of the original Prakrit - "Oudichya" (Northern),
"Pratichya" (western), "Dakshinatya" (southern) "Madhya
Deshiya" (bichali) and "Prachya" (eastern). Late Dr. Bhandarkar
believed in Evolution of Prakrit from Sanskrit. He thought Classical
and Vedic Sanskrit together as the original source of Prakrits. But
scholars have discarded this old view and they now believe Original
Prakrit as the source. [Pandit Vishanath Prasad Mishra, "Vangamay
Vimarsha", (hindi), published by Hindi Sahitya Kutir, Varanasi - 1,
5th edition, Vikram Samat 2023, p.371]

Prakrit

Prakrit can be divided into three stages if we consider Apbhransha as
a late Prakrit. There were three periods in its evolution. They are
ancient, middle are late Prakrit. [Mishra, p.376] Why it is called
Prakrit? 1. Prakriti means nature, so Prakrit a language of more
people. 2. Comparing Sanskrit and Prakrit, Sanskrit is refined and
Prakrit is unrefined. 3. Jains have defined Prakrit as the most
ancient language. They divide the word into 'Prak' and 'krit', and
they believe all other languages originated from Prakrit
(Ardhamagadhi).

Some people term all the languages placed under ancient Prakrit as
Pali, but we find there are many ancient Prakrits other than Pali.
Edicts of Ashoka, Hinayani Tripitakas, Mahavamsha, Jatakas etc.,
ancient Jain Sutras, and Prakrits of ancient dramas are grouped under
this language. [Mishra, p.377]

The language of Ashoka's edicts and Hinayana Scriptures has come to be
known as Pali. The language of scriptures is considered by Buddhists
as "Magadhi". [Mishra, p.377]

Ashoka Edicts

The language of Ashoka's Edicts differs in different areas. At least
two different types can be discerned. As the Buddha was from Magadha,
and he preached in people's language, it should be Magadhi, but after
due consideration, it seems that it was not Magadhi but general
Prakrit, because later Buddhist scriptures do not show the traits seen
in Magadhi Prakrit. [Mishra, p.377] Therefore, His preachings were in
"Pacchahi" language from which was originated Shouriseni Prakrit of
the middle lands and Maharashtri Prakrit of the whole country. Ashoka
also considered it the main language. The language of Jain sutras is
considered Ardha Magadhi, which should mean that it has got traits of
both Shourseni and Magadhi thus it is clear that the language of
middle country was the basis of evolution of Prakrit. [Mishra, p.378]

Middle Prakrit consists of Maharashtri Prakrit, Prakrit used in
dramas, Prakrit of later Jain scriptures and Paishyachi i.e language
of Brihat Katha.

Maharashtri had more respect among the Prakrits. The Maharashtri name
could be because of region like Shourseni or Magadhi but, it should be
considered as Maha as vast and Maharashtri means language of the
greater part of the country as becomes clear from a verse of Dandin.
[Mishra, p.379]

Apabhransha

Apbhramsha originated from Prakrit. Grammarians consider two forms of
it, "Nagar" and "Brachad". Sindhi evolved from Brached and Gujarathi,
Rajasthani, Braji etc. evolved from Nagar. There are two types
according to time. Early and late. Avahatha can be considered a late
type. The Apbhramsha more nearer to modern regional languages can be
placed in late type of Apbhramsha. [Mishra, p.382]

Modern Regional Languages of India

They originated after Apbhramsha. It can not be said definitely when
the poetry in regional languages started. But looking at the late
Apbhramsha, it is clear that the words of modern regional languages
are seen in them. Therefore, the time of the origin of regional
languages must be placed in Tenth or Eleventh centuries of Vikram Era.
[Mishra, p.383]

Hindi

Hindi was the first regional language to originate. Its ancient roots
are in Shourseni and also Magadhi or Ardha Magadhi. Name Hindi
originated from Hindu. Others do not agree with this. Hindu is a name
given by Muslims.

There are four types, Khadiboli, Rekhata, Nagari, and high Hindi.
[Mishra, p.389] Urdu evolved from language soldiers spoke in the
market, and thus it is basically hindi only. [Mishra, p.391] After
Britishers came Hindi got mixed with words from all languages and was
called "Hindusthani". [Mishra, p.393]

Classification of Hindi

1. Western (paschimi) (a) Khadi boli -

(i) Urdu - of three types of Northern (Uttari) - Rekhati; Dehalvi; and
Lakhanavi. And one Southern (Dakhani)
(ii) Mixed
(iii)High Hindi (uccha hindi)

(b)Bangaru (c) Central (Madyavarti) with

(i) Braji (ii) Kanauji and (iii) Bundeli

2. Eastern (Purvi) : - (a) Avadhi - with (i) Western (Pashimi) and
(ii) Eastern (Purvi) (b) Bagheli (c) Chattisgadhi

Scripts of India

Only two scripts were in vogue at the time of Ashoka, Brahmi and
Kharoshti. On the basis of available Brahmi inscriptions, the time of
Brahmi script is considered to be from 500 B.C. to 350 A.D. Two styles
were visible in Brahmi in 4th century A.D. which are called Northern
and Southern. The scripts evolved from Northern are, Gupta, Kutil,
Nagari, Sharda and Bangala, and from Southern are Western, Madhya
Pradeshi, Telugu Kannad, Grantha, Kalinga and Tamil. [Mishra, p.454]

Script of Gupta kings is termed as "Gupta", from which evolved in
sixth to nineth century, a script called "Kutil". From tenth century
onwards, we find traces of "Nagari" in North India. In South, it was
called "Nanda Nagari" and appeared around 8th century. From Nagari
evolved the Bangala, Kaithi, Gujarathi, Marathi languages. Sharda of
Kashmir evolved from Kutil. From Sharada evolved, Takkari and
Gurumukhi. From early Bangala script originated, present Bangala,
Maithili and Udiya. [Mishra, p.454] Out of Southern Styles, script
found in Kathiyavad, Gujarath, Nashik, Khandesh, Satara etc. is termed
Western. That found in Madhya Pradesh, North Hyderabad and Bundelkhand
is called Madhya Pradeshi, and Telgu-Kannad script was precursor of
present Telgu and Kannad scripts. A different script called "Grantha"
was being used to write Sanskrit works, from it evolved Malayalam and
Tulu. Kalinga script was in Kalinga. [Mishra, p.455]

About origin of word Nagari, there are different views. One view is it
was Urban (meaning Nagari) script. Some connect it with Nagar
Brahmins. There are others who consider that, previous to image
worship, devas were worshiped in the form of Yantras, the symbols of
which were called "Devnagar" giving the name to the script. [Mishra, p.
455]

How India got divided into numerous linguistic areas

The picture of diversity of languages and scripts in India - past and
present. How India, which, during Buddhist period, had only one main
language and one or two main scripts, got divided into various groups
with their intrinsic rivalries? This is the main problem, which nobody
bothers to refer to. After the fall of Buddhism, Brahmanism not only
divided the people into numerous castes with graded inequality and
numerous tiny dynasties with rivalries due to sense of high and low,
but also divided the whole country into small segments. It taught that
each kingdom, though small, is a different country. The result was
that the feeling of oneness was never present among the Hindus. There
never arose a feeling on one India among them. In scriptures, we find
definitions of 'foreign' lands at many places. They denote the
mischief caused. [Surendra Kumar Adnyat - "hindu dharm ne bachaya ya
pitavaya", Sarita Mukta Reprint vol. 7, p. 24]

Brahspati says that if there is a big river or a big mountain in
between, or if the language differs, then the countries on either side
should be treated as foreign lands of each other. Some say after 60
yojanas, new country starts, some say 40 and some say 30 yojanas. (One
yojana equals 8 miles). Brahaspati mentions another opinion using the
word 'videsh' in place of 'deshantara', that the videsh is that where
one can not get messages within one day. [Surendra Kumar Adnyat -
"hindu dharm ne bachaya ya pitavaya", Sarita Mukta Reprint vol. 7, p.
24]

Dharmasindhu defines 'deshantara' or 'videsh' on the basis of caste.
For a brahmin distance of 20 yojanas from his residence, is
'deshantara', for ksatriya it is 24 yojanas, for a vaishya it is 30
yojanas and for a sudra it is 60 yojanas. If a big mountain or river
comes in way or if there is difference of language, then it is a
different country, as said by some people. It only means, in such an
event, even though the distance is less than 20, 24, 30 or 60 yojanas,
even then it is 'deshantara' for brahmins, ksatriyas, vaishyas and
sudras respectively. [Surendra Kumar Adnyat - "hindu dharm ne bachaya
ya pitavaya", Sarita Mukta Reprint vol. 7, p. 24]

Thus as per scriptures, at the most 480 miles is the limit of your
country, every thing beyond is a foreign land. Even today, we use the
word 'pardeshi' meaning a foreigner for a resident of a town, some
distance away. When the sastras declare all areas except in immediate
vicinity are alien lands, how can one expect the rajas and subjects
consider other fellow Indians as their own in this vast land.

Kalivarjya was the method of control

That the kalivarj is the method of Brahmins to tackle with the
Buddhist influence over the masses and impose their supremacy. They
changed their laws without actually condemning them. All laws and
rules, were amended including Civil, Criminal, Revenue and personal
laws. It is not properly realized by the masses, that King was not the
Law maker; he had no legislative powers, contrary to the popular
belief. He was only the executive head and had a responsibility to
implement the laws made by the Brahmins. At the most he could only
legislate on revenue matters, that too, as per the rules already laid
down. He had some judicial powers, but that too, he could not pass
judgment against the law given by the Brahmins.

Who suffered in Kalivarjya

In Kalivarjya, main law was against sea voyage. That is how the sea
worthy races of Pallava and Chola countries suffered. All the trade
that was being conducted through the sea stopped. Who suffered? Not
the Brahmins, surely. It will be clear, if we take a look at the
products of export. Most of the products of export were based on the
agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and forest economy. Even
the textile industry which had reached a high acclaim in foreign
lands, was based on cotton, silk and wool. All these occupations were
in the hands of working classes, who were all doomed to be shudras.
All these industries suffered. All these castes in the village economy
suffered. All these occupational groups, which were prosperous during
the Buddhist rule, were degraded into castes, due to rigid caste rules
imposed.

The mobility of the professions was stopped. Telis, who extracted oil
from oil seeds, Malis, who grew the vegetables, the Dhangars, who
reared the goats and lambs, Sutars, who made and repaired the farmers'
implements, Kumar, who suppled earthen pots to villagers and Mahars
and Mangs who protected the villages from strangers, all were
segregated. All these professions became hereditary and social
intercourse among them stopped. Not only this caused multiplicity of
castes, and regional variations in languages but also a different
language for various castes. This ultimately lead to present situation
of confusion, distrust and hostility among the people destroying
social fabric of country, for which we have only to thank the fall of
Buddhism and rise of Brahmanism.

Send e-mail to dal...@ambedkar.org with questions or comments about
this web site.
No Copyright © 2000 dalit e-forum Last modified: March 28, 2000

http://www.ambedkar.org/brahmanism/BRAHMANISM_CONTROLLED_MASSES_THROUGH_LANGUAGE.htm

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade

Born 1863

Died 1926

Influenced

Datto Vaman Potdar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datto_Vaman_Potdar

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade (Marathi: विश्वनाथ काशिनाथ राजवाडे) (24th
June,1863-31st December,1926), popularly known as Itihasacharya
Rajwade was an eminent historian, scholar, writer, commentator and
orator from Maharashtra. He is considered to be the first in real
sense to undertake an immense research of Maratha History by visiting
hundreds of villages and historical places allover India and gathering
thousands of genuine historical papers. He is also known to be the
notable commentator on the various aspects of world history. He was
the founder member of Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune. His disciples
include historians like Datto Vaman Potdar and G.H.Khare.

Eminent Historian, R.S. Sharma writes of him as, "With his
unadulterated passion for research, V.K.Rajwade went from village to
village in Maharashtra in search of Sanskrit manuscripts and sources
of Maratha history; which were published in twenty-two volumes."[1]

Historian Rajwade should not be confused with 'Ahitagni' Shankar
Ramchandra Rajwade; Ahitaagni Rajwade was a vedic scholar.

The Indian History Congress has constituted Vishwanath Kashinath
Rajwade Award for life-long service and contribution to Indian
history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itihas_Sanshodhak_Mandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_History_Congress

Early life

Rajwade’s grandfather was the Killedar of fort Lohagad in the province
of Pune. He was Born in the village Varsai situated in Raigad district
of Maharashtra state. Since his father died in his childhood, he was
brought up by his uncle at Vadgaon near Pune. He did his matriculation
in January 1882 and graduation in 1890 from Deccan College, Pune.
During his graduation he came in close contact of the well known
scholar Dr. Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar who was then a professor in
Deccan College (Pune). Sooner or Later he was also impressed with the
works by Vishnushastri Krushnashastri Chiplunkar, Parshuram Tatya
Godbole and Kavyeitihas sangrahakar Sane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pune
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raigad_district
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramkrishna_Gopal_Bhandarkar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_College_(Pune)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnushastri_Krushnashastri_Chiplunkar

Later Life & Contribution

After his graduation Rajwade got married but subsequently lost his
wife in early young age. Thereafter he chose to dedicate his life to
history and research. In 1895 he started a Marathi magazine called
‘Bhashantar’ (meaning ‘translation’) through which he brought works of
western historians and scholars like Plato, Aristotle, Edward Gibbon
and Indian scholars like Shankaracharya etc. in Marathi.
Simultaneously, by writing articles and delivering speeches he also
started educating Marathi people on several subjects like history of
Marathas, history of world, history of Marathi literature, grammar of
Marathi and Sanskrit languages. In 1910, he founded Bharat Itihas
Sanshodhak Mandal at Pune and kept all his works and historical papers
gathered by him in the custody of the Mandal. After his sudden death
in 1926, ‘Rajwade Sanshodhak Mandal’ was founded at Dhule and his
works and collection of his later life was kept there. Both the
institutions have been contributing in the field of history and
culture of India till the date.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankaracharya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhule

His works in Marathi as a Researcher / Historian / Editor

Marathyanchya Itihasachi Sadhane (History of Marathas) – 22 Volumes
Radha Madhav Vilas Champu (Biodgraphy of Shahaji)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahaji
Aitihasik Prastavana (Historical Prefaces)
Rajwade Lekhsangraha (Collection of essays) - 3 Volumes
Bharatiya Vivah Sansthecha Itihas (History of Indian matrimony)
Dnyaneshwari (Editor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnyaneshwari

References

^ Sharma, R.S. (2009). Rethinking India's Past. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0195697872.
‘Rajwade Lekhsangraha’ (Marathi) published by Sahitya Akademi

External links

Historian V K Rajawade's works to hit the stands at
www.indianexpress.com

Commentary on some of Rajwade's work

http://blogsearch.google.co.in/blogsearch?as_q=Rajwade&num=10&hl=en&ctz=&c2coff=1&btnG=Search+Blogs&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&bl_pt=&bl_bt=&bl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fsearchingforlaugh.blogspot.com&bl_auth=&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=a&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=2000&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=1&as_maxy=2008&lr=&safe=active
Dr.Jyotsna Kamat on V.K. Rajwade
http://www.kamat.com/jyotsna/blog/blog.php?BlogID=1181

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishwanath_Kashinath_Rajwade

Historian V K Rajawade's works to hit the stands
Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre

MUMBAI, DEC 31: A multi-layered look at the social, cultural and
intellectual making of Maharashtra will be on the stands soon. A 13
volume compilation of the writings of Itihasacharya V K Rajwade
(1863-1926), parts of which have been published as individual books,
has been put together by the Dhule-based Rajwade Sanshodhan Mandal,
comprising intellectuals, scholars and followers of Rajwade.
This was recently announced at a function held at Y B Chavan
auditorium here. Although the Mandal started work on the compilation
almost six years ago. the project languished due to lack of funds.
However, the editorial board, led by Dr M B Shah, persevered and
managed the task minus a government grant.

Each year, the Mandal commemorates Rajwade's death anniversary on
December 31. Originally from Pune, Rajwade spent the last years of his
life in Dhule. He is reputed for his 27 volumes on source material of
Maratha history. Rajwade's book on the history of the institution of
marriage is also considered a milestone. Hedied before realising his
dream of penning the history of the Aryas.

Rajwade's writings encompassed several themes, including a study of
the Marathi language, saint literature of Maharashtra as well as
different types of dictionaries. The Mandal chose specialists from 13
disciplines like Y D Phadke, Ram Shevalkar, Bhaskar Bhole and Kalyan
Kale from all over the state to pen the prefaces.

Rajwade's study of the Marathi language is considered a classic. In
the process of studying the colonial past of the state, he prepared an
exhaustive list of village names, surnames and caste names. The
Sanskrit origin of each name throws light on the sociological pattern
of the time. For instance, the origin of Vaishyagram and Yesgaon can
be traced to the Vaishya caste. He also recorded that several village
names originated from the Sanskrit terms for animals: Jalgaon from
Jaluka and Khanapur from Khanak (rat). He also prepared a list of
1,500 names of villages which originated from names of medicinal
herbs, like Erandolfrom Erand.

Rajwade also showed that the evolution of names was a benchmark of
social status. Bhishma graduated to Bhikham, Bhikhamsheth and even
Vikramsheth. Similarly, Bhikshu became Bhikkhu, then Bhiku.

Rajwade's vast scholarship even extended to a dictionary of verbal
roots (dhatu), tracing the origin of words. He also prepared a list of
150 key intellectuals of Maharashtra living in the period between 1898
and 1913. He shortlisted 45 persons from this list and compared them
to their contemporaries in Britain. It is recorded that he felt that
Indian `achievers' compared poorly in comparison!

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990101/0015060.html

Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune
Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, popularly known as Itihas Sanshodhak
Mandal or just ‘Mandal’, is an Indian institute providing resources
and training for historical researchers. It is located at Pune in
Maharashtra state. The institute was founded in 1910 by the veteran
Indian historian V.K. Rajwade and Sardar K.C. Mehendale.

Objective

The main objective behind setting up the Mandal was to provide ready
resources to the historians and researchers, to save their time and to
motivate them. Rajwade conceived this idea long back but could not
fulfill it until Sardar Mehendale met him and on his own expressed his
readiness to support him for anything that he wished to do for the
betterment of history.

History

The Mandal was founded on 7th July 1910 by the veteran Indian
historian Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade and Sardar Khanderao Chintaman
Mehendale at Sardar Mehendale’s palace at Appa Balwant Chowk in Pune.
To commence the activity Rajwade read an essay in the presence of the
only listener Sardar Mehendale. Later on, the Mandal moved to it’s
present building located in Sadashiv Peth area in the heart of the
city. In March 1926 the short tempered Rajwade left Pune due to
differences with the then Administrators of the Mandal and shifted to
Dhule to form another institute which was named after him as ‘Rajwade
Sanshodhan Mandir’. The Mandal at Pune, however, continued following
on it’s mission to help researchers and contribute to the progress of
historical study. It has since then been highly supported by the
people and scholars by way of donations and bequests of books and
papers. Rajwade’s disciples Datto Vaman Potdar and Ganesh Hari Khare
are believed to have played major role in prospering the Mandal and
it’s activities.

Resources

Founder of the Mandal : V.K.RajwadePresently, the Mandal maintains
more than 1500000 historical papers and 30000 scripts mainly in
Marathi, Modi, Persian, Portuguese and English language. Moreover, it
has also preserved over 4000 coins, 1000 paintings and a few
sculptures and inscriptions in it’s well equipped museum. The Mandal’s
library keeps a more than 27000 books written mainly in Marathi and
English which can be available to the researchers for free reading or
for a nominal fee on ‘Take Home’ basis. These resources hold sizable
volumes on the history of Maratha Empire, Maratha culture and Marathi
literature. They also contain a large collection of the material on
British Rule as well as Mughal Rule over India. The Mandal issues a
Quarterly Journal called ‘Trai-Masik’ wherein essays and articles on
new discoveries are presented. It has also published books written and
edited by veteran historians and reports of annual conferences and
historians' meets. The Mandal periodically organizes lectures,
workshops, training, seminars and study tours for the young
researchers and historians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modi_script
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire

[edit] Funding
It was reported in 2004 that the Mandal was insufficiently funded to
micro-film or digitise its collection.[1] In 2009, as it entered its
100th year, it plans to create a permanent fund of Ten Million Rupees
and use the interest from this fund to pay its expenses.[2]

Past Presidents

1910-1913 Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi
1913-1926 Kashinath Narayan Sane
1926-1935 Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya
1935-1942 Narsinha Chintaman Kelkar
1942-1950 Malojirao Naik Nimbalkar
1950-1974 Datto Vaman Potdar
1974-1981 Ganesh Hari Khare
1981-1983 Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankaliya
1984-1986 Ramchandra Shankar Walimbe
1988-1991 V.T.Shete

Select Publications

Annual Research Reports
Proceedings of the Annual Conferences
Sources of Maratha History by V.K.Rajwade
Persian Sources of Indian History by G.H.Khare
Miscellaneous Sources of Indian History
Miscellaneous Articles on Indian History
Proceedings on Researches on Pune
Records of the Shivaji’s Period
Sources of the Medieval History of the Deccan
Vijayanagar Commemoration Volume
Album of Paintings
Bibliography and Index of Mandal’s Publications
Quarterly Journals

References

Quarterly Journal, January 1991 published by Bharat Itihas Sabshodhak
Mandal, Pune.
‘Rajwade Lekhsangraha’ (Marathi) published by Sahitya Akademi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahitya_Akademi

External Links

Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//Cities/250-ayurveda-related-manuscripts-digitised/articleshow/4549108.cms?
Sakaal Times

^ Damle, Manjiri; Neil Pate (23 January 2004). "Libraries struggle to
preserve books". The Times of India (Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd).
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Libraries-struggle-to-preserve-books/articleshow/440420.cms.
Retrieved 2009-10-29.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Libraries-struggle-to-preserve-books/articleshow/440420.cms
^ Deshpande, Devidas (October 25, 2009). "History in the making
money". Pune Mirror (Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd).
http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=2009102520091025234719934ab5176a&sectxslt=.
Retrieved 2009-10-29.
http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=2009102520091025234719934ab5176a&sectxslt=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharat_Itihas_Sanshodhak_Mandal

Monday, February 04, 2008

Viswanath Kashinath Rajwade

Viswanath Kashinath Rajwade -(1863 –1921 CE)

Mr. V.K. Rajwade was a rare combination of a researcher, history
grammarian, social scientist and etymologist. Born in an orthodox
family, he lost his father at the age of three. His mother with two
children-both boys, came and stayed with her father at Warsai
Maharashtra. For schooling the brothers went to Pune. Viswanth passed
matriculation examination in 1882. He could not pursue college
studies, due to poverty. He became a trainer for second division
clerks in Public Service Department. After earning some money, he
joined Deccan College, and became a graduate in 1997. Though he was
greatly influenced by scholarly teachers like R.G. Bhandarkar, he came
to know the futility of higher education in India, which did not help
original thinking or research. He did not seek government employment,
which was indirect slavery according to him.

As was the practice, he was married at 15, and when his wife died
after giving birth two children, he did not remarry, though he was
only 30. He started translating world classics in Marathi and started
a Monthly called "Bhashantar". He brought out 15 translations
including Plato's "Republic".

He was unhappy with Maratha history books written by Grant Duff and
others, which try to establish conquerors' view of subjugated people,
and wanted to present unbiased point of view. A student’s letter
informing about discovery of a trunk full of old records at Wai
(Satara District. Maharashtra) made him rush to the spot. The dormant
researcher in him came out with full vigor.

There were 202 records pertaining to battle of Panipat in that trunk.
1st volume of these edited records came out in no time (1896). 22
books on ‘Sources of Maratha History’ followed.

He now started touring the whole of Maharashtra region. No item
pertaining to art, architecture, iconography, social life, language,
literature, customs, folk traditions escaped his inquisitive eye. As
soon as news about the possibility of getting fresh material reached,
he would dash off to the place by any available transport or on foot,
taking with him minimum clothing and cooking utensils. In those days
no eateries existed in remote areas for orthodox Brahmins. Self-
cooking was the only way, to survive.
He got the oldest commentary on Jnaneswari and brought out its
earliest grammatical form. He edited "Radha Madhav Vilas Champu" of
Jayaram Pindye of Shahaji’s (father of Shivaji) time, which has
special bearing on the history of contemporary Karnataka. Another book
of original source he edited was Mahikavatichi Bakhar. He explored one
more important source of history i.e etymology (study of origion of
words), led to several archaic rituals & practices of man-kind and he
proved it on the basis of ancient texts. His incomplete work on the
"History of Indian Marriage - Institution" shows his sound knowledge
of Sanskrit (including archaic and Vedic Sanskrit) as also vast
reading of world literature in English of the period. His unbiased
interpretation of hoary mantras, and Mahabharata and Puranic episodes
regarding man-woman relation & evolution of marriage custom led to
storm of protests. He was far ahead in rational approach towards study
of history.
A sage like scholar, known for austere habits and long hours of work
and incessant traveling, he died of high-blood pressure on 31st of
December 1921.

Amma's Column by Jyotsna Kamat

http://www.kamat.com/jyotsna/blog/blog.php?BlogID=1181

20th June, 2003
Ministry of Communications

COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP ON V.K. RAJWADE

The Department of Posts (DoP) will be bringing out a commemorative
postage stamp on V.K. Rajwade on 23rd June, 2003. The stamp is in the
denomination of Rs.5/-

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade (1863-1926), one among the pioneering
historians of India. He was a multifaceted personality who left his
imprint in many other disciplines like Linguistics, Literature,
Geography, Oleography and Sociology also. Meticulous in his research
and prodigious in output, he is remembered most for his path breaking
work in historiography. His writings inspired many research scholars
in Maharashtra and other parts of India to pursue the subject at a
time when works of European historians dominated the academic
discourses in Indian history. It is no exaggeration to say that his
work revolutionised the way the subject of history was perceived in
India and helped to advance an Indian view of history.

By founding the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal at Pune in 1910, he
institutionalised his research procedures. He had stressed five
aspects in his research methodology, viz., collection of original
historical records, preservation of records, examination and
classification of records, editing and publication of records and
interpretation of sources and writing of histories.

The First Day Cover alongwith the information sheet will be available
on sale at all Philatelic Bureaux/Counters and at selected Post
Offices.

http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rjun2003/20062003/r2006200311.html

[Sid Harth]

Full text of "Vinaya texts"
THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE .EAST
[45]

Bonbon HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.G.

MACMILLAN & CO., 66 FIFTH AVENUE

THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST
TRANSLATED

BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY
F. MAX MtFLLER

VOL. XLV

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1895 \_All rights reserved}
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

I.Y HORACE HART. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

GAINA SCTRAS
TRANSLATED FROM PRAKtf/T

BY
HERMANN JACOBI

PART II

THE UTTARADHYAYANA SUTRA
THE St)TRAK^/TANGA SUTRA

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1895

[All rights reserved ]

INTRODUCTION . ... . xiii

UTTARADHYAYANA.

LECTURE 1. On discipline (especially for pupils) . i

2. On troubles. (About the twenty-two things

that cause trouble to monks) ... 8

,, 3. The four requisites (for the attainment of

beatitude) 15

4. Impurity. (Carefulness required for obtaining

the end) 1 8

5. Death against (and with) one s will . . 20

6. The false ascetic. (Wrong conduct leads to

perdition, right conduct to salvation) . 24

7. The parable of the ram, &c. (illustrative of
the folly of the sinner who misses his
chance of reaching a more exalted state
of existence) 27

,, 8. Kapila s verses (in praise of good conduct) . 31

9. The Pravra^ya of king Nami. (A dialogue
between him and Indra who advised him
to retain the royalty) . . . . 35

10. The leaf of the tree. (A sermon by Mahavira
on the punishment of the sinner and the
reward of the righteous) . . . . 41

11. The very learned (monk; his virtues and his

superiority) 46

12. Harike^a, (a A a^ala, turned monk ; his victory

over a Brahman, whom he converts) . 50

13. ^Titra and Sambhuta. (A dialogue on the

vanity of worldly pleasures) . . . 56

,, 14. Ishukara. (A legend, illustrating the ex
cellence of a monastic life) . . . 61

Vlll CONTENTS.

LECTURE 15. The true monk; (how he should conduct

himself) ....... 69

,, 16. The ten conditions of perfect chastity . . 73
, , 1 7 . The bad *Sramaa; (what a monk should avoid) 7 7
,, 18. Sa^aya. (King S. turned monk ; he preaches
that the state of a monk is preferable to that
of a king; illustrations from (^aina history) . 80
19. The son of Mrz ga. (On the punishment in

the hells) 88

20. The great duty of the Nirgranthas. (A dia
logue between king *SYe#ika and a monk
on the happiness obtained by righteous
ness. The bad monk is lost) . . .100

21. Samudrapala, (turned monk. On the duties

of a monk) 1 08

22. Rathanemi. (The renunciation of Arish/anSmi;

his wife Rag-imati exhorts Rathanemi) . 112

23. Ke^-i and Gautama. (The followers of Par^va

are brought over to the church of
Mahavira) ny

24. The Samitis (and the Guptis) . . .129
,. 25. The true sacrifice. (ayagh6sha, the monk,

converts Vi^ayaghosha, the Brahman) . 136

26. The correct behaviour (of monks during the

several parts of day and night) . . 142

27. The bad bullocks (compared to bad pupils

by Garga) . . . . .149

28. The road to final deliverance. (On the

fundamental principles of (^ainism) . 152

29. The exertion in righteousness. (On the

seventy-three articles necessary for reach
ing perfection) ^8

30. The road of penance. (On external and

internal austerities) 174

31. Mode of life. (A list of articles of the aina

faith according to the number of their sub
divisions) . . . . . .180

32. The causes of carelessness ; (what excites the

passions and produces Karman) . . 184

CONTENTS. IX

LECTURE 33. The nature of Karman, (and the subdivisions

of it) 192

34. On Le\s-ya 196

35. The houseless monk. (The chief duties of

a monk) ...... 203

., 36. On living beings and things without life.
(The contents of this Lecture are detailed
in note 2, pp. 206, 207) .... 206

SUTRAK^/TANGA.

FIRST BOOK.

LECTURE!. The doctrine. (On some heretical doctrines) 235-248

Chapter 1. (Materialists, v. 8 ; Vedantins, v. 9 ;
other materialists, vv. n, 12; Akriyavadins,
v. 13; forerunners of the Vai-reshikas, v. 15;
Bauddhas, v. 17 ; G&wayas, v. 18) . . 235

Chapter 2. (Fatalists, vv. 1-3 ; Agnostics,
v. 17; Kriyavadins, v. 24; Buddhists,
vv. 25-28, cf. p. 414) . . 239

Chapter 3. (Pauramkas, vv. 6-8; the followers

of Go-yala, vv. n, 12 ; Vainayikas, v. 14) . 243

Chapter 4. (Some popular beliefs, vv. 6, 7.

Conclusion) . . . . . .246

2. The destruction of Karman; (how to lead a

holy life) 249-261

Chapter 1 ... . .249

Chapter 2 253

Chapter 3 -257

,, 3. The knowledge of troubles . . . 261-271

Chapter 1. (A monk encounters many diffi
culties) 261

Chapter 2. (He is tempted back to domestic

life) .263

Chapter 3. (He easily desponds. The opinion
refuted that a monk should not provide a
sick brother with food) . . . . 265

CONTENTS.

PAGE

LECTURE 3. Chapter 4. (Several objections removed) . 268

4. Knowledge of women .... 271-278
Chapter 1. (How women tempt a monk) . 271
Chapter 2. (How they treat him afterwards) . 275

5. Description of the hells . . . . 279-286

Chapter 1 279

Chapter 2 283

6. Praise of Mahavira 287

7. Description of the wicked. (No living beings
should be destroyed ; no merit in ablutions
and tending the sacrificial fire. A monk
should not be selfish) . . . . 292

., 8. On exertion. (Exertion not leading to works

recommended) . . . . .297

,, 9. The Law. (What a monk should abstain

from) 301

10. Carefulness. (Some more injunctions and

prohibitions) ...... 306

11. The Path. (The same subject continued and

concluded) . . . . . .310

12. The creed. (On the four heresies: Agnos
ticism, v. 2 ; Vinayavada, v. 3 ; Akriyavada,
vv. 4-10; Kriyavada, v. nff.) . . 315

13. The real truth. (Some duties of a pious

monk) 320

,, 14. The Nirgrantha. (The same subject con
tinued) 324

15. The Yamakas. (Miscellaneous topics treated

in artificial verses) 329

16. The song. (On the virtues of a true monk) . 333

SECOND BOOK.

LECTURE 1. The Lotus. (The parable of the Lotus. The
Materialists, 14 if. Another school of
Materialists and the forerunners of the
Vaweshikas, 2off. The Vedantins, 25ff.
The fatalists, 30 ff. Exhortation to follow
the true Law, 35 ff.) . . . 335

CONTENTS. xi

LECTURE 2. On activity. (The twelve kinds of committing
sin, and sinless actions. Some wicked
practices described, 25 ff. Some more
wicked practices, 60 ff. Right conduct
of monks, 69 ff. ; of laymen, 75 ff. Re
futation of the 363 heretical philosophical
schools, 79 ff. Conclusion) . . . 355

3. Knowledge of food. (On the generation of

living beings) 388

,, 4. Renunciation of activity. (An action is sinful

though it be done unconsciously) . . 398

., 5. Freedom from error; (what should be main
tained and what not) .... 405

,, 6. Ardraka; (his dispute with Go^ala, a Bud
dhist, a Vedic priest, a Vedantin, and a

Hastitapasa) 409

7. Nalanda. (Udaka, a follower of Pdrjva, is

converted by Gautama) . . . .419

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS . . . . .437
INDEX OF SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT WORDS . . . 443

Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the

Translations of the Sacred Books of the East . 453

INTRODUCTION

TEN years have elapsed since the first part of my
translation of Gaina Sutras appeared. During that decen-
nium many and very important additions to our knowledge
of Gainism and its history have been made by a small
number of excellent scholars. The text of the canonical
books, together with good commentaries in Sanskrit and
Guzerati, has been made accessible in fair editions pub
lished by native scholars in India. Critical editions of two
of them have been published by Professors Leumann x and
Hoernle 2 ; and the latter scholar has added a careful
translation and ample illustrations to his edition of the
text. A general survey of the whole Ga ma literature has
been given by Professor Weber in his catalogue of the
Berlin Manuscripts 3 and in his learned treatise 4 on the
sacred literature of the ainas. The development of Gaina
learning and science has been studied by Professor Leumann,
and some Gaina legends and their relations to those of the
Brahmans and Buddhists have been investigated by the
same scholar 5 . An important document for our knowledge
of the old history of the 5vetambara sect has been edited

1 Das Aupapatika Sutra, in the Abhandlungen fiir die Kunde des
Morgen-
landes, vol. viii ; and Da^avaikalika Sutra nnd Niryukti, in the
Journal of the
German Oriental Society, vol, xlvi.

2 The Uvasaga Dasao: (in the Bibliotheca Indica), vol. i. Text and
Com
mentary, Calcutta, 1890 ; vol. ii. Translation, 1888.

3 Berlin, 1888 and 1892.

In the Indische Studien, vol. xvi, p. 211 ff., and xvii, p. i ff. ;
translated
in the Indian Antiquary and edited separately, Bombay, 1893.

5 In the Actes du VI Congres International des Orientalistes, section
Arienne,
p. 469 ff., in the 5th and 6th vols. of the Wiener Zeitschrift fiir
die Kunde des
Morgenlandes, and in the 48th vol. of the Journal of the German
Oriental
Societv.

XIV GAINA SUTRAS.

by myself 1 , and the history of some of their Ga^/^as has
been made known from their lists of teachers by Hoernle
and Klatt The last-named scholar, whom we have all but
lost by this time, has prepared a biographical dictionary of
all aina writers and historical persons, and he has issued
specimens of this great Onomasticon, while Hofrat Buhler
has written a detailed biography of the famous encyclo
paedist Hema/^andra 2 . The same scholar has deciphered
the ancient inscriptions, and discussed the sculptures
excavated by Dr. Fiihrer at Mathura 3 , and the important
inscriptions at Srava/ia. Be/go/a have been edited by
Mr. Lewis Rice 4 ; M. A. Earth has reviewed our know
ledge of ainism 5 , and likewise Buhler in a short paper 6 .
Lastly Bhandarkar has given a most valuable sketch of the
whole of Gaimsm 7 . All these additions to our knowledge
of Gamism (and I have but mentioned the most remarkable
ones) have shed so much clear light on the whole subject
that little room is left now for mere guesswork, and the true
historical and philological method can be applied to all its
parts. Still some of the principal problems require elucida
tion, while the proffered solution of others is not accepted
by all scholars. I, therefore, gladly avail myself of this
opportunity to discuss some of the disputed points, for the
settling of which the works translated in this volume offer
valuable materials.

It is now admitted by all that Nataputta (;?atrzputra),
who is commonly called Mahavira or Vardhamana, was
a contemporary of Buddha ; and that the Niga;z//2as 8

1 The Paruish/aparvan by Hema&andra, Bibliotheca Indica.

2 Denkschriften der philos.-histor. Classe der kaiserl. Akademie der
Wissen-
schaften, vol. xxxvii, p. 171 ff.

3 Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vols. ii and
iii.
Epigraphia Indica, vols. i and ii.

* Bangalore, 1889.

5 The Religions of India. Bulletin des Religions de 1 Inde, 1889-94.

6 tiber die indische Secte der Jaina. Wien, 1887.

7 Report for 1883-84.

8 Niga;zMa is apparently the original form of the word, since it is
thus
spelled in the A^oka inscription, in Pali, and occasionally by the
6"ainas,
though the phonetic laws of all three idioms would have given
preference to
the form niggantha, the more frequent spelling in (Paina works.

INTRODUCTION. XV

(Nirgranthas), now better known under the name of ainas
or Arhatas, already existed as an important sect at the
time when the Buddhist church was being founded. But
it is still open to doubt whether the religion of the early
Nirgranthas was essentially the same as that taught in
the canonical and other books of the present ainas, or
underwent a great change up to the time of the composition
of the Siddhanta. In order to come nearer the solution of
this question, it may be desirable to collect from the pub
lished Buddhist works, as the oldest witnesses we can
summon, all available information about the Niga/^as,
their doctrines and religious practices.

In the Anguttara Nikaya, III, 74, a learned prince of the
Li^Mavis of Vauali, Abhaya T , gives the following account
of some Niga;;//za doctrines : The Niga;z///a Nataputta,
sir, who knows and sees all things, who claims perfect
knowledge and faith (in the following terms) : " walking
and standing, sleeping or waking, I am always possessed of
perfect knowledge and faith ;" teaches the annihilation by
austerities of the old Karman, and the prevention by in
activity of new Karman. When Karman ceases, misery
ceases ; when misery ceases, perception ceases ; when per
ception ceases, every misery will come to an end. In this
way a man is saved by pure annihilation of sin (nig^ara)
which is really effective.

The aina counterpart to these tenets can be collected
from the Uttar^dhyayana XXIX. By austerities he cuts
off Karman, 27. By renouncing activity he obtains
inactivity; by ceasing to act he acquires no new Karman,
and destroys the Karman he had acquired before, 37.
The last stages in this process are fully described in 71,

1 There are apparently two persons of this name. The other Abhaya, a
son
of king Srewika, was a patron of the G*ainas, and is frequently
mentioned in
their legends and in the canonical books. In the Maxima Nikaya 58
(Abhayakumara Sutta) it is related that the NigawMa Nataputta made
him
engage in a disputation with Buddha. The question was so adroitly
framed
that whether the answer was Yes or No, it involved Buddha in self-
contradiction.
But the plan did not succeed, and Abhaya was converted by Buddha.
There
is nothing in this account to elucidate the doctrines of Nataputta.

GAINA SfjTRAS.

72. And again, in XXXII, v. 7, we read : Karman is the
root of birth and death, and birth and death they call
misery. The nearly identical verses 34, 47, 60, 73, 86, 99
may be thus condensed : But a man who is indifferent to
the object of the senses, and to the feelings of the mind
[this comes nearest to the Buddhist ve dan a ; perception], is
free from sorrows ; though still in the Sa;#sara, he is not
afflicted by that long succession of pains, just as the leaf of
the Lotus (is not moistened) by water.

The above assertion thatNataputta claimed the possession
of perfect knowledge and faith, requires no further proof;
for it is one of the fundamental dogmas of the ainas.

Another piece of information about Niga/^a doctrines
may be gathered from the Mahavagga VI, 31 (S. B. E.,
vol. xvii. p. 1 08 ff.) There a story is told of Siha l , the
general of the Li^Mavis, who was a lay disciple of Nata-
putta. He wanted to pay the Buddha a visit, but Nata-
putta tried to dissuade him from it, because the Niga;^//as
held the Kriyavada, while the Buddha taught the Akriya-
vada. Siha. however, setting his master s prohibition at
nought, went to the Buddha on his own account, and was,
of course, converted by him. Now the statement that the
Niga;z///as embraced the Kriyavada is borne out by our
texts ; for in the Sutrakrztanga I, 12, 21, below, p. 319, it
is said that a perfect ascetic is entitled to expound the
Kriyavada ; and this doctrine is thus expressed in the
A^arariga Sutra I, i, I, 4 (part i, p. 2): He believes
in soul, believes in the world, believes in reward, believes in
action (believed to be our own doing in such judgments
as these) : " I did it ; " "I shall cause another to do it ; "
" I shall allow another to do it."

Another lay disciple of Mahavira, converted by the
Buddha, was Upali. As narrated in the Ma^X/ima Nikaya
56, he ventured upon a dispute with him whether the sins
of the mind are heaviest, as the Buddha teaches, or the

1 The name Siha occurs in the Bhagavati (Calcutta edition, p. 1267,
see
Hoernle, Uvasaga Dasao Appendix, p. 10) as that of a disciple of
Mahavira ; but
as he was a monk, he cannot be identified with his namesake in the
Mahavagga.

INTRODUCTION. XVII

sins of the body, as the Niga;///za Nataputta contends. In
the beginning of the discourse Upali states that his master
uses the term da;/^a, punishment, for what is commonly
called kamma, deed, act. This is true, though not quite
to the letter; for the word kamma occurs also in the
aina Sutras in that sense. The term dan da, however, is
at least as frequently used. Thus, in the Sutrakrztanga II,
2, p. 357 ff., the thirteen kinds of committing sins are
treated of, and in the first five cases the word which I have
translated committing sins is in the original danda-
samada^e, and in the remaining cases kiriyaMa;/e, i.e.
kriyasthana.

The Niga?///za Upali goes on to explain that there are
three dan das, the dan da of body, that of speech, and that
of mind. This agrees with the aina doctrine expressed
in nearly the same words in the Sthanahga Sutra, 3rd
udde^aka (see Indian Antiquary, IX, p. 159).

The second statement of Upali, that the Niga;^//as con
sider sins of the body more important than sins of the
mind, is in perfect harmony with Gaina views. For in the
Sutrakrz tanga II, 4, p. 398 ff., the question is discussed
whether sins may be committed unconsciously, and it is
boldly answered in the affirmative (compare note 6, p. 399) ;
and in the Sixth Lecture of the same book (p. 414) the
Buddhists are severely ridiculed for maintaining that it
depends on the intention of the man whether a deed of his
be a sin or not.

In the Ahguttara Nikaya III, 70, 3, some practices of
Niga///a laymen are discussed. I translate the passage
thus : O Visakha, there is a class of Samaras who are
called Niga/z//&lt;!as. They exhort a Savaka thus : " Well,
sir, you must desist from doing injury to beings in the East
beyond a yq^ana from here, or to those in the West, North,
South, always beyond a yq^ana from here. 1 In this way
they enjoin tenderness by making him spare some living
beings ; in this way they enjoin cruelty by making him not
spare other living beings. It is not difficult to recognise
under these words the Digvirati vow of the (^ainas, which
[45] b

GAINA SUTRAS.

consists in laying down the limits beyond which one shall
not travel nor do business in the different directions. A
man who keeps this vow cannot, of course, do any harm to
beings beyond the limits within which he is obliged to keep.
This is so distorted by the hostile sect as to lay the rule
under discussion open to blame. We cannot expect one
sect to give a fair and honest exposition of the tenets
of their opponents; it is but natural that they should put
them in such a form as to make the objections to be raised
against them all the better applicable. The ainas were
not a whit better in this respect than the Bauddhas, and
they have retorted upon them in the same way ; witness
their misrepresentation of the Buddhist idea that a deed
becomes a sin only through the sinful intention of the doer,
in a passage in the present volume, p. 414, v. 26 ff., where
the sound principle of the Buddhists is ridiculed by applying
it to a fictitious and almost absurd case.

The passage in the Anguttara Nikaya, which we have
just discussed, goes on as follows : On the Uposatha day
they exhort a Savaka thus : " Well, sir, take off all your
clothes and declare : I belong to nobody, and nobody belongs
to me." Now his parents know him to be their son, and
he knows them to be his parents. His son or wife know
him to be their father or husband, and he knows them to
be his son or wife. His slaves and servants know him to
be their master, and he knows them to be his slaves and
servants. Therefore (the Niga^^as) make him use lying
speech at the time when he makes the above declarations.
On this account I charge him with lying speech. After the
lapse of that night he enjoys pleasures (by means of things)
that were not freely given. On this account I charge him
with taking of what is not freely given.

According to this statement, the duties of a Niga;z///a
layman became, during the Uposatha days, equal to those
of a monk ; it was on common days only that the difference
between layman and monk was realised. This description,
however, does not quite agree with the Posaha rules of the
(7ainas. Bhandarkar gives the following definition of Posaha

INTRODUCTION. XIX

according to the Tattvarthasaradipika, which agrees with
what we know about it from other sources: Posaha, i.e.
to observe a fast or eat once only or one dish only on the
two holy days (the eighth and the fourteenth of each fort
night), after having given up bathing, unguents, ornaments,
company of women, odours, incense, lights, &c., and assumed
renunciation as an ornament. Though the Posaha obser
vances of the present ainas are apparently more severe
than those of the Buddhists, still they fall short of the above
description of the Niga;z///a rules ; for a Gaina layman
does not. to my knowledge, take off his clothes during the
Posaha days, though he discards all ornaments and every
kind of luxury; nor must he pronounce any formula of
renunciation similar to that which the monks utter on
entering the order. Therefore, unless the Buddhist account
contains some mistake or a gross misstatement, it would
appear that the ainas have abated somewhat in their
rigidity with regard to the duties of laymen.

Buddhaghosa, in his commentary on the Brahma^ala
Sutta, Digha Nikaya I, 2, 38 1 , mentions the Niga;^//as as
holding the opinion, discussed in the text, that the soul has
no colour, in contradistinction to the A^ivikas, who divide
mankind into six classes according to the colour of the
Atman ; both Niga;////as and A^ivikas, however, agree in
maintaining that the soul continues to exist after death
and is free from ailments (arogo). Whatever may be the
exact meaning of the last expression, it is clear that the
above description squares with the opinions of the ainas
about the nature of the soul, as described below, p. 172 f.

In another passage (I.e. p. 168) Buddhaghosa says that
Niga;///a Nataputta considers cold water to be possessed of
life (so kira sitodake sattasa#/H hoti), for which reason he
does not use it. This doctrine of the ainas is so generally
known that I need not bring forward any quotation from
the Sutras in support of its genuineness.

This is nearly all the information on the doctrines of the

1 Sumangala Vilasini, p. 119 of the Pali Text Society edition.
b 2

XX GAINA SUTRAS.

ancient Niga^/^as which I have been able to gather from
the Pali texts. Though it is less than we desire, its value
is not to be underrated. For with one exception all the
doctrines and usages of the ancient Niga;///;as mentioned
agree with those of the present ainas, and they comprise
some of the fundamental ideas of Gaimsm. It is therefore
not probable that the doctrines of the Ga mas have under
gone a great change in the interval between the quoted
Buddhist records and the composition of the aina canon.
I have purposely deferred the discussion of the classical
passage on the doctrines of Niga;////a Nataputta, because it
leads us to a new line of inquiry. The passage in question
occurs in the Sama;Haphala Sutta of the Digha Nikaya x .
I translate it in accordance with Buddhaghosa s com
ment in the Sumahgala Vilasini. * Here, great king, a
Nigaw^a is protected by restraint in four directions (Mtu-
yamasa^varasa^vuto). How, great king, is aNiga;^//a
protected by restraint in four directions ? Here, great king,
a Niga/z/^a abstains from all (cold) water, he abstains from
all bad deeds, by abstinence from all bad deeds he is
free from sins, he realises abstinence from all bad deeds.
In this way, great king, a Niga;///a is protected by restraint
in four directions. And, great king, because he is thus
protected, the Niga/^/za Nataputta s soul is exalted, is
restrained, is well settled 2 . This is, certainly, not an accu
rate nor an exhaustive description of the (7aina creed,
though it contains nothing alien from it, and successfully
imitates the language of the aina Sutras. As I have
already explained elsewhere 3 , 1 think the term atuyama-
saravarasawvuto has been misunderstood not only by
the commentator, but also by the author of the text. For

1 Page 57 of the edition in the Pali Text Society.

2 The translations of Gogerly and of Burnouf in Grimblot, Sept Suttas
Palis,
were made without the help of a commentary, and may, therefore, be
passed
by. It is, however, open to doubt whether Buddhaghosa has drawn his
in
formation from genuine tradition, or had to rely on conjectures of his
own.

3 See my paper, On Mahavira and his Predecessors, in the Indian
Antiquary, IX, 158 ff., where some of the above problems have been
treated.

INTRODUCTION. XXI

the Pali atuyama is equivalent to the Prakrzt
^ama, a well-known aina term which denotes the four
vows of Panyva in contradistinction to the five vows (pa#/a
mahavvaya) of Mahavira. Here, then, the Buddhists, I
suppose, have made a mistake in ascribing to Nataputta
Mahavira a doctrine which properly belonged to his prede
cessor Par^va. This is a significant mistake; for the
Buddhists could not have used the above term as descrip
tive of the Nigaw/^a creed unless they had heard it from
followers of Parjva, and they would not have used it if the
reforms of Mahavira had already been generally adopted
by the Niga^as at the time of the Buddha. I, therefore,
look on this blunder of the Buddhists as a proof for the
correctness of the aina tradition, that followers of Parjva
actually existed at the time of Mahavira.

Before following up this line of inquiry, I have to call
attention to another significant blunder of the Buddhists :
they call Nataputta an Aggivesana, i.e. AgnivaLsyayana ;
according to the ainas, however, he was a Ka^yapa, and
we may credit them in such particulars about their own
Tirthakara. But Sudharman, his chief disciple, who in the
Sutras is made the expounder of his creed, was an Agni-
vauyayana, and as he played a prominent part in the pro
pagation of the Gaina. religion, the disciple may often have
been confounded by outsiders with the master, so that the
Gotra of the former was erroneously assigned to the latter.
Thus by a double blunder the Buddhists attest the exis
tence of Mahavira s predecessor Panva and of his chief
disciple Sudharman.

That Panva was a historical person, is now admitted by
all as very probable ; indeed, his followers, especially Ke\ri \
who seems to have been the leader of the sect at the time
of Mahavira, are frequently mentioned in 6aina Sutras in
such a matter-of-fact way, as to give us no reason for
doubting the authenticity of those records. The legend in

1 In the Ra^aprami Panrva has a discussion with king Paesi and
converts
him, see Actes du VI Congres International des O.ientalistes, vol.
iii,
p. 490 ff.

XXli GAINA SUTRAS.

the Uttaradhyayana, Lecture XXIII, how the union of the
old and the new church was effected, is of much interest in
this respect. Kesi and Gautama, the representatives and
leaders of the two branches of the aina church, both at
the head of their pupils, meet in a park near vSravasti ; the
differences in their creed concerning the number of great
vows, and the use or disuse of clothes are explained away
without further discussion, and full harmony with regard to
the fundamental ethical ideas is satisfactorily established by
the readiness with which allegorical expressions of the one
speaker are understood and explained by the other. There
seems to have been some estrangement, but no hostility
between the two branches of the church ; and though the
members of the older branch invariably are made to adopt
the Law of Mahavira, which enjoins five vows, it may be
imagined that they continued in some of their old practices,
especially with regard to the use of clothes, which Mahavira
had abandoned. On this assumption we can account for
the division of the church in vSVetambaras and Digambaras,
about the origin of which both sects have contradictory
legends 1 . There was apparently no sudden rupture ; but
an original diversity (such as e.g. subsists now between the
several Gzkkh&s of the vSvetambaras) ripened into division,
and in the end brought about the great schism.

The records in the Buddhist Canon are not repugnant to
our views about the existence of the Niga;////as before
Nataputta; for the Niga;////as must have been an important
sect at the time when Buddhism took its rise. This may be
inferred from the fact that they are so frequently mentioned
in the Pi/akas as opponents or converts of Buddha and his
disciples ; and as it is nowhere said or even merely implied
that the Nigaw//2as were a newly-founded sect, we may
conclude that they had already existed a considerable time
before the advent of the Buddha. This conclusion is sup
ported by another fact. Makkhali Gosala, a contemporary

1 See my paper on the origin of the ^vetambara and Digambara sects in
the
Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xxxviii, p. i ff.

INTRODUCTION. XX111

of Buddha and Mahavira, divided mankind into six classes L .
Of these, according to Buddhaghosa 2 , the third class con
tains the Niga?///zas. Gosala probably would not have
ranked them as a separate, i. e. fundamental subdivision of
mankind, if they had only recently come into existence.
He must have looked upon them as a very important, and
at the same time, an old sect, in the same way in which, in
my opinion, the early Buddhists looked upon them. As
a last argument in favour of my theory I may mention
that in the Mag7zima Nikaya 35, a disputation between
the Buddha and Sa/aka, the son of a Niga/z^/za, is narrated.
Sa^aka is not a Niga;z//za himself, as he boasts of having
vanquished Nataputta in disputation 3 , and, moreover, the
tenets he defends are not those of the (^ainas. Now when
a famous controversialist, whose father was a Niga7//7/a, was
a contemporary of the Buddha, the Niga;z//zas can scarcely
have been a sect founded during Buddha s life.

Let us now confront the records of the ainas about the
philosophical doctrines of heretics, which they had to combat,
with such as the Buddhists describe. In the Sutrakr/tanga
II, i, 15 (p. 339 f.) and 21 f. (p. 343) two materialistic
theories which have much in common are spoken of. The
first passage treats of the opinion of those who contend
that the body and the soul are one and the same thing ; the
second passage is concerned with the doctrine that the five
elements are eternal and constitute everything. The ad
herents of either philosophy maintain that it is no sin to
kill living beings. Similar opinions are, in the Sama;Ha-
phala Sutta, ascribed to Pura^a Kassapa and A^ita Kesa-
kambali. The former denies that there is such a thing as
sin or merit. A^ita Kesakambali holds that nothing real

1 Samatfflaphala Sutta, Digha Nikaya II, 20.

2 Sumahgala Vilasini, p. 162. Buddhaghosa expressly states that
Gosala
reckoned the Nigaw/^as lower than his own lay disciples, who form the
fourth
class. As Buddhaghosa does not take umbrage at Gosala s reckoning the
Bhikkhus still lower, it is clear that he did not identify the
Bhikkhus with
the Buddhist monks.

3 See p. 250 of the Pali Text Society edition.

XXIV GAINA SUTRAS.

corresponds to the current transcendental ideas. He more
over maintains: Man (puriso) consists of the four ele
ments ; when he dies, earth returns to earth, water to
water, fire to fire, wind to wind, and the organs of sense
merge into air (or space) 1 . Four bearers with the hearse
carry the corpse to the place of cremation (or, while it is
burned) they make lamentations ; the dove-coloured bones
remain, the offerings are reduced to ashes. The last
passage recurs with few alterations in the Sutrakn tanga,
p. 340 : * Other men carry the corpse away to burn it.
When it has been consumed by fire, only dove-coloured
bones remain, and the four bearers return with the hearse to
their village 2 .

In connection with the second materialistic system (p. 343,
22, and p. 237 f., vv. 15, 16) a variety of it is mentioned,
which adds the permanent Atman or soul as a sixth to the
five permanent elements. This seems to have been a pri
mitive or a popular form of the philosophy which we now
know under the name of Vaueshika. To this school of
philosophy we must perhaps assign Pakudha Ka//ayana
of Buddhist record. He maintained 3 that there are seven
eternal, unchangeable, mutually independent things : the
four elements, pleasure, pain, and the soul. As they have
no influence upon one another, it is impossible to do any
real harm to anybody. I confess that to maintain the
eternal existence of pleasure and pain (sukha and dukkha)
and to deny their influence on the soul, seems to me
absurd ; but the Buddhists have perhaps misstated the
original tenets. At any rate, the views of Pakudha Ka^ayana

1 Aka^a ; it is not reckoned as a fifth element in the Buddhist
account, but it
is so in that of the &lt;7ainas, see below, p. 343, and p. 237, verse
15. This is a
verbal, rather than a material difference.

2 I put here the original texts side by side so that their likeness
may be
more obvious :

asandipawama purisa mataw adahawae parehi mgga\, agawi^-

adaya gaManti yava a/ah an a ^amite sarire kavotavawwaim

padani pa?wapenti, kapotakani a.tth\n\ asandipaw^ama purisa

&tth\n\ bhavanti, bhassanta*hutiyo. gama;;z

3 Loc. cit., p. 56.

INTRODUCTION. XXV

come under the denomination of Akriyavada ; and in this
they differ from the VaLreshika proper, which is a Kriyavada
system. As these two terms are frequently used both by
Buddhists and ainas, it will not be amiss to define them
more accurately. Kriyavada is the doctrine which teaches
that the soul acts or is affected by acts. Under this head
comes Gainism, and of Brahmanical philosophies Vai^eshika
and Nyaya (which, however, are not expressly quoted in the
canonical books of either Buddhists or Gainas), and appa
rently a great many systems of which the names have not
been preserved, but the existence of which is implied in our
texts. Akriyavada is the doctrine which teaches either
that a soul does not exist, or that it does not act or is not
affected by acts. Under this subdivision fall the different
schools of materialists : of Brahmanical philosophies the
Vedanta, Sarikhya, and Yoga ; and the Buddhists. Of the
latter the doctrines of the Kshamkavadins and the Sunya-
vadins are alluded to in Sutrakrztanga I, 14, verses 4 and 7.
It may be mentioned here that the Vedantists or their
opinions are frequently mentioned in the Siddhanta; in the
Sutrakrztanga the Vedanta is the third heresy described in
the First Lecture of the Second Book, p. 344 ; it is also
adverted to in the Sixth Lecture, p. 417. But as no pro
fessor of it was among the six heretical teachers (titthiya)
of the Buddhists, we may pass them over here l .

The fourth heresy discussed in the First Lecture of the
Second Book of the Sutrakrz tanga 2 is Fatalism. In the
Samawzaphala Sutta this system is expounded by Makkhali
Gosala in the following words 3 : Great king, there is no
cause, nor any previously existing principle productive of
the pollution of sentient beings ; their defilement is un
caused and unproduced by anything previously existing.
There is no cause nor any previously existing principle

1 It is worthy of remark that the Vedantists play no conspicuous part,
if
any, among Buddha s opponents. As they were, however, the foremost of
Brahmanical philosophers, we must conclude that Brahmans of learning
held
aloof from the classes of society to which the new religion appealed.

2 Page 345 f., see also p. 239. 3 Grimblot, Sept Suttas Palis, p.
170.

XXVI GAINA SUTRAS.

productive of the purity of sentient beings : their purity is
uncaused and unproduced by anything previously existing.
For their production there is nothing that results from the
conduct of the individuals, nothing from the actions of
others, nothing from human effort : they result neither
from power nor effort, neither from manly fortitude nor
manly energy. Every sentient being, every insect, every
living thing, whether animal or vegetable 1 , is destitute of
intrinsic force, power, or energy, but, being held by the
necessity of its nature, experiences happiness or misery
in the six forms of existence, &c. The explanation of
these doctrines in the Sutrakrztanga (1. c.), though less
wordy, comes to the same ; it does not, however, expressly
ascribe them to Gosala, the son of Makkhali.

The Gainas enumerate four principal schools of philo
sophy 2 : Kriyavada, Akriyavada, A^anavada, and Vaina-
yikavada. The views of the A^anikas, or Agnostics, are
not clearly stated in the texts, and the explanation of the
commentators of all these philosophies which I have given
in note 2, p. 83, is vague and misleading. But from Buddhist
writings we may form a pretty correct idea of what Agnos
ticism was like. It is, according to the Sama/Haphala
Sutta, the doctrine of Sa/z^aya Bela^iputta, and is there
stated in the following way 3 : If you inquire of me whether
there be a future state of being, I answer : If I experience
a future state of existence, I will then explain the nature of
that state. If they inquire, Is it after this manner ? that is

1 In the original: sabbe satta, sabbe pa;/a, sabbe bhuta, sabbe
^iva. The same enumeration frequently occurs in (7aina Sutras, and
has, in my
translation, been abbreviated in all classes of living beings.
Buddhaghosa s
explanation has been thus rendered by Hoernle, Uvasaga Dasao, Appendix
II,
p. 16: In the term all beings (sabbe satta) he comprises camels,
oxen,
asses, and other animals without exception. The term all sensive
beings
(sabbe paw a) he uses to denote those with one sense, those with two
senses,
and so forth. The term all generated beings (sabbe bhuta) he uses
with
reference to those that are generated or produced from an egg or from
the
womb. The term all living beings (sabbe "iva) he uses with reference
to
rice, barley, wheat, and so forth ; in these he conceives that there
is life,
because it is their nature to grow.

2 See pp. 83, 291, 316, 385. 3 Grimblot, 1. c., p. 174.

INTRODUCTION. XXvii

not my concern. Is it after that fashion? that is not my
concern. Is it different from these ? that is not my con
cern. Is it not ? that is not my concern. No, is it not ?
It is no concern of mine. In the same way he e. g. refuses
a definite answer to the questions whether the Tathagata is
after death, or is not; is and is not at the same time, is not
nor is not at the same time. It is evident that the Agnostics
examined all modes of expression of the existence or non-
existence of a thing, and if it were anything transcendental
or beyond human experience, they negatived all those
modes of expression.

The records of the Buddhists and ainas about the
philosophical ideas current at the time of the Buddha and
Mahavira, meagre though they be, are of the greatest im
portance to the historian of that epoch. For they show us
the ground on which, and the materials with which, a reli
gious reformer had to build his system. The similarity
between some of those heretical doctrines on the one
side, and Gaina. or Buddhist ideas on the other, is very
suggestive, and favours the assumption that the Bucldha, as
well as Mahavira, owed some of his conceptions to these
very heretics, and formulated others under the influence of
the controversies which were continually going on with
them. Thus, I think, that in opposition to the Agnosticism
of Saw^aya, Mahavira has established the Syadvada. For
as the A^Vzanavada declares that of a thing beyond our
experience the existence, or non-existence or simultaneous
existence and non-existence, can neither be affirmed nor
denied, so in a similar way, but one leading to contrary
results, the Syadvada declares that you can affirm the
existence of a thing from one point of view (syad asti),
deny it from another (syad nasti) ; and affirm both exis
tence and non-existence with reference to it at different
times (syad asti nasti). If you should think of affirming
existence and non-existence at the same time from the
same point of view, you must say that the thing cannot be
spoken of (syad avaktavya/^). Similarly, under certain
circumstances, the affirmation of existence is not possible

XXVlii GAINA SUTRAS.

(syad asti avaktavya^); of non-existence (syan nasti
avaktavya/z) ; and also of both (syad asti nasti
avaktavya^) 1 .

This is the famous Saptabhanginaya of the ainas.
Would any philosopher have enunciated such truisms,
unless they served to silence some dangerous opponents ?
The subtle discussions of the Agnostics had probably
bewildered and misled many of their contemporaries. Con
sequently the Syadvada must have appeared to them as
a happy way leading out of the maze of the A^anavada.
It was the weapon with which the Agnostics assailed the
enemy, turned against themselves. Who knows how many
of their followers went over to Mahavira s creed convinced
by the truth of the Saptabhanginaya !

We can trace, I imagine, the influence of Agnosticism
also in the doctrine of the Buddha about the Nirva/^a, as it
is stated in Pali books. Professor Oldenberg was the first
to draw attention to the decisive passages which prove
beyond the possibility of doubt that the Buddha declined
answering the question whether the Tathagata (i.e. the
liberated soul, or rather principle of individuality) is after
death or not. If the public of his time had not been
accustomed to be told that some things, and those of the
greatest interest, were beyond the ken of the human mind,
and had not acquiesced in such answers, it certainly would
not have lent a willing ear to a religious reformer who
declined to speak out on what in Brahmanical philosophy
is considered the end and goal of all speculations. As it
is, Agnosticism seems to have prepared the way for the
Buddhist doctrine of the Nirvana 2 . It is worthy of note

1 Bhandarkar, Report for 1883-4, p. 95 f.

2 The reticence of Buddha on the nature of the Nirvana may have been
wise at his time ; but it was fraught with very important results for
the
development of the church. For his followers, having to hold their
own
against such split-hair dialecticians as the Brahmanical philosophers,
were
almost driven to enunciate more explicit ideas about the great problem
which
the founder of the church had left unsolved. The tendency to supply
the
crowning stone to an edifice which appeared to have been left
unfinished by
the hand of the master, led to the division of the community into
numerous

INTRODUCTION. XXIX

that in a dialogue between king Pasenadi and the nun
Khema, told in the Sawyutta Nikaya, and translated by
Oldenberg, the king puts his questions about the existence
or non-existence of the Tathagata after death in the same
formulas which Sangaya is made to use in the passage
translated above from the Sama/Haphala Sutta.

In support of my assumption that the Buddha was
influenced by contemporary Agnosticism, I may adduce
a tradition incorporated in the Mahavagga I, 23 and 24.
There we are told that the most distinguished pair of his
disciples, Sariputta and Moggalana, had, previously to their
conversion, been adherents of Sa%"aya, and had brought
over to Buddha 250 disciples of their former teacher. This
happened not long after Buddha s reaching Bodhi, i. e.
at the very beginning of the new sect, when its founder
must have been willing, in order to win pupils, to treat
prevalent opinions with all due consideration.

The greatest influence on the development of Mahavira s
doctrines must, I believe, be ascribed to Gosala, the son of
Makkhali. A history of his life, contained in the Bhaga-
vati XV, i, has been briefly translated by Hoernle in the
Appendix to his translation of the Uvasaga Dasao. It is
there recorded that Gosala lived six years together with
Mahavira as his disciple, practising asceticism, but afterwards
separated from him, started a Law of his own, and set up as
a ina, the leader of the A^ivikas. The Buddhist records,
however, speak of him as the successor of Nanda Vakkha
and Kisa Samkikka,and of his sect, the a^elakaparibba-
^akas, as a long-established order of monks. We have
no reason to doubt the statement of the Ga mas. that
Mahavira and Gosala for some time practised austerities
together ; but the relation between them probably was
different from what the ainas would have us believe.
I suppose, and shall now bring forward some arguments
in favour of my opinion, that Mahavira and Gosala asso-

sects soon after the Nirvawa of Buddha. We need not wonder therefore
that
in Ceylon, which is at such a distance from the centre of Brahmanical
learning,
Buddhists could retain the doctrine of the Nirvawa in its original
form.

XXX GAINA SUTRAS.

ciated with the intention of combining their sects and fusing
them into one. The fact that these two teachers lived
together for a long period, presupposes, it would appear,
some similarity between their opinions. I have already
pointed out above, in the note on p. xxvi, that the ex
pression sabbe satta sabbe pa;za sabbe bhuta sabbe
^iva is common to both Gosala and the ainas, and from
the commentary we learn that the division of animals into
e k e n d r i y a s, d v i n d r iy a s, &c. . which is so common in C
aina
texts, was also used by Gosala. The curious and almost para
doxical aina doctrine of the six Le\syas closely resembles,
as Professor Leumann was the first to perceive, Gosala s
division of mankind into six classes ; but in this particular
I am inclined to believe that the ainas borrowed the idea
from the A^ivikas and altered it so as to bring it into
harmony with the rest of their own doctrines. With regard
to the rules of conduct the collective evidence obtainable is
such as to amount nearly to proof that Mahavira borrowed
the more rigid rules from Gosala. For as stated in the
Uttaradhyayana XXIII, 13, p. 121, the Law of Panrva
allowed monks to wear an under and upper garment, but
the Law of Vardhamana forbade clothes. A term 1 for
naked friar, frequently met with in the aina Sutras, is
a^elaka, literally unclothed. Now the Buddhists dis
tinguish between AMakas and Niga;///zas ; e. g. in Buddha-
ghosa s commentary on the Dhammapadam 2 it is said of
some Bhikkhus that they gave the preference to the
Niga;///zas before the AMakas, because the latter are stark
naked (sabbaso apa/i//zanna), while the Niga/^as
use some sort of cover 3 for the sake of decency/ as was
wrongly assumed by those Bhikkhus. The Buddhists de-

1 Another term is inakalpika, which may be rendered : adopting the
standard of the Ginas. The .Svetambaras say that the Glnakalpa was
early
replaced by the Sthavirakalpa, which allows the use of clothes.

2 Fausboll s edition, p. 398.

3 The words sesakam purimasamappita va pa/i/fc^adenti are not
quite clear, but the contrast leaves no doubt about what is meant.
Sesaka
is, I believe, the Pali for .mnaka. If this is right, the above words
may be
translated : they cover the pudenda wearing (a cloth) about the
forepart (of
their body).

INTRODUCTION. XXxi

note by A^elaka the followers of Makkhali Gosala and his
two predecessors Kisa Sa/;dd//a and Nanda Va^/^a, and
have preserved an account of their religious practices in
the Ma^/nma Nikaya 36. There Sa//aka, the son of
a Niga;z///a, whom we are already acquainted with, explains
the meaning of kayabhavana, bodily purity, by referring
to the conduct of the A/elakas. Some details of Sa^aka s
account are unintelligible in the absence of a commentary,
but many are quite clear, and bear a close resemblance to
well-known aina usages. Thus the A^elakas, like the
Gains, monks, may not accept an invitation for dinner ;
they are forbidden food that is abhiha/a or uddissaka^a,
which terms are, in all likelihood, identical with aclhya-
hrzta and audde^ika of the ainas (see p. 132, note) ;
they are not allowed to eat meat or to drink liquor. Some
beg only in one house and accept but one morsel of food,
some in more up to seven ; some live upon one donation of
food, some on more up to seven. Similar to these are
some practices of aina monks described in the Kalpa
Sutra, Rules for Yatis, 26, part i, p. 300, and below,
p. 176 f., verses 15 and 19. The following practice of the
A/elakas is identically the same as that observed by the
ainas : some eat but one meal every day, or every second
day 1 , &c., up to every half month. All the rules of the
AMakas are either identical with those of the ainas or
extremely like them, and dictated, so to say, by the same
spirit. And still Sa/aka does not quote the Niga;///^as as
a standard of bodily purity, though he was the son of
a Niga^/^a, and therefore must have known their religious
practices. This curious fact may most easily be accounted
for by our assuming that the original Niga;///^as, of
whom the Buddhist records usually speak, were not the
section of the church, which submitted to the more rigid
rules of Mahavira, but those followers of Par^va, who,

1 These fasts are called by the 6"ainas /autthabhatta,
&c. (see e. g. Aupapatika Sutra, ed. Leumann, 30 1 A) ; and monks
observing
them, ^autthabhattiya, &/za///jabhattiya, &c. (see e.g. Kalpa Sutra,
Rules for Yatis, 21 ff.)

XXXli GAINA SUTRAS.

without forming a hostile party, yet continued, I imagine,
to retain within the united church some particular usages
of the old one 1 . As those rigid rules formed no part of
the ancient creed, and Mahavira, therefore, must have intro
duced them, it is probable that he borrowed them from the
A/elakas or A^ivikas, the followers of Gosala, with whom he
is said to have lived in close companionship for six years
practising austerities. We may regard Mahavira s adoption
of some religious ideas and practices of the A^ivikas as
concessions made to them in order to win over Gosala and
his disciples. This plan seems to have succeeded for some
time ; but at last the allied teachers quarrelled, it may be
supposed, on the question who was to be the leader of the
united sects. Mahavira s position apparently was strength
ened by his temporary association with Gosala, but the
latter seems to have lost by it, if we are to believe the
account of the ^ainas, and his tragic end must have been
a severe blow to the prospects of his sect.

Mahavira probably borrowed much more from other
sects than we shall ever be able to prove. It must have
been easy to add new doctrines to the Gaina. creed, as
it scarcely forms a system in the true sense of the word.
Each sect, or fraction of a sect, which was united with the
aina church by the successful policy of Mahavira 2 , may
have brought with it some of its favourite speculations, and
most probably its favourite saints too, who were recog
nised as ATakravartins or Tirthakaras. This is, of course,
a mere conjecture of mine ; but it would account for the
strange hagiology of the ainas, and in the absence of any
trace of direct evidence we are driven to rely upon guesses,
and those deserve the preference which are the most

1 As I have said above and in note 2. p. 119, this difference has
probably
given rise to the division of the church into &lt;5Vetmbaras and
Digambaras. But
these two branches have not directly grown out of the party of Parjva
and
that of Mahavira ; for both recognise Mahavira as a Tirthakara.

2 Mahavira must have been a great man in his way, and an eminent
leader
among his contemporaries ; he owed the position of a Tirthakara
probably
not so much to the sanctity of his life, as to his success in
propagating his
creed.

INTRODUCTION. XXX111

plausible. For the rest, however, of the hypotheses
which I have tried to establish in the preceding pages.
I claim a higher degree of probability. For on the one
hand I do no violence to the tradition of the C ainas,
which in the absence of documents deserves most careful
attention, and on the other, I assume but what under the
given circumstances would have been most likely to happen.
The cardinal feature in my construction of the early history
of the aina church consists in my turning to account
the alleged existence of followers of Panrva in the time
of Mahavira, a tradition which seems to be almost unani
mously accepted by modern scholars.

If ainism dates from an early period, and is older than
Buddha and Mahavira, we may expect to find marks of its
antiquity in the character of Gaina. philosophy. Such a
mark is the animistic belief that nearly everything is
possessed of a soul ; not only have plants their own souls,
but particles of earth, cold water, fire, and wind also. Now
ethnology teaches us that the animistic theory forms the
basis of many beliefs that have been called the philosophy
of savages ; that it is more and more relinquished or
changed into purer anthropomorphism as civilisation ad
vances. If, therefore, aina ethics are for their greater
part based on primitive animism, it must have extensively
existed in large classes of Indian society when Gaimsrn was
first originated. This must have happened at a very early
time, when higher forms of religious beliefs and cults had
not yet, more generally, taken hold of the Indian mind.

Another mark of antiquity Gainism has in common with
the oldest Brahmanical philosophies, Vedanta and Sankhya.
For at this early epoch in the development of metaphysics,
the Category of Quality is not yet clearly and distinctly
conceived, but it is just evolving, as it were, out of the
Category of Substance : things which we recognise as
qualities are constantly mistaken for and mixed up with
substances. Thus in the Vedanta the highest Brahman is
not possessed of pure existence, intellect, and joy as quali
ties of his nature, but Brahman is existence, intellect, and
[45] c

XXX iv GAIN A SUTRAS.

joy itself. In the Sankhya the nature ofpurusha or soul
is similarly defined as being intelligence or light ; and
the three gu/zas are described as goodness, energy, and
delusion, or light, colour, and darkness; yet these gu;&lt;?as
are not qualities in our sense of the word, but, as Professor
Garbe adequately calls them, constituents of primitive
matter. It is quite in accordance with this way of thinking
that the ancient aina texts usually speak only of sub
stances, dravyas, and their development or modifications,
paryayas; and when they mention gu;/as, qualities,
besides, which however is done but rarely in the Sutras
and regularly in comparatively modern books only, this
seems to be a later innovation due to the influence which
the philosophy and terminology of Nyaya-VaLreshika
gradually gained over the scientific thoughts of the Hindus.
For at the side of paryaya, development or modification,
there seems to be no room for an independent category
quality, since paryaya is the state in which a thing,
dravya, is at any moment of its existence, and this must,
therefore, include qualities, as seems to be actually the
view embodied in the oldest text. Another instance of
the ainas applying the category substance to things
which are beyond its sphere, and come rather under that
of f quality, is seen in their treating merit and demerit,
d harm a and adharma, as kinds of substances with which
the soul comes into contact l ; for they are regarded as co
extensive with the world, not unlike space, which even the
VaLreshikas count as a substance. If the categories of
substance and quality had already been clearly distinguished
from one another, and had been recognised as correlative
terms, as they are in VaLreshika philosophy (which defines
substance as the substratum of qualities, and quality as
that which is inherent in substance), ainism would almost
certainly not have adopted such confused ideas as those
just expounded.

1 That this was the primitive conception of the Vedic Hindus has been
noted by Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, p. 317 f.

INTRODUCTION. XXXV

From the preceding remarks it will be evident that I do
not agree with Bhandarkar 1 , who claims a late origin for
Gainism, because, on some points, it entertains the same
views as the VaLyeshika. The Vai^eshika philosophy may
be briefly described as a philosophical treatment and syste
matical arrangement of those general concepts and ideas
which were incorporated in the language, and formed
therefore the mental property common to all who spoke or
knew Sanskrit. The first attempts to arrive at such a natural
philosophy may have been made at an early epoch ; but
the perfection of the system, as taught in the aphorisms of
Kaftada, could not be reached till after many centuries of
patient mental labour and continuous philosophical dis
cussion. In the interval between the origin and the final
establishment of the system those borrowings may have
taken place of which, rightly or wrongly, the ainas may
be accused. I must, however, remark that Bhandarkar
believes the 6rainas to hold, on the points presently to be
discussed, a view * which is of the nature of a compromise
between the Sankhyas and the Vedantins on the one hand
and the Vaureshika on the other/ But for our discussion it
makes no difference whether direct borrowing or a compro
mise between two conflicting views be assumed. The points
in question are the following : (i) both Ga mism and Vaije-
shika embrace the Kriyavada, i. e. they maintain that the
soul is directly affected by actions, passions, &c. ; (2) both
advocate the doctrine of asatkarya, i.e. that the product
is different from its material cause, while the Vedanta and
Sankhya hold that they are the same (satkary a) ; (3) that
they distinguish qualities from their substratum (dravya).
The latter item has been discussed above ; we have to deal,
therefore, with the first two only. It will be seen that the
opinions under (i) and (2) are the common-sense views ;
for that we are directly affected by passions, and that the
product is different from its cause,, e. g. the tree from the
seed, will always and everywhere be the prima facie con-

1 See his Report for 1883-84, p. 101 f.
C 2

XXXvi GAINA SUTRAS.

elusion of an unbiassed mind, or rather will appear as the
simple statement of what common experience teaches.
Such opinions cannot be regarded as characteristic marks
of a certain philosophy, and their occurrence in another
system need not be explained by the assumption of borrow
ing. The case would be different if a paradoxical opinion
were found in two different schools ; for a paradoxical
opinion is most likely the product of but one school, and,
when once established, it may be adopted by another. But
such opinions of the Vaueshika, as are the result of a
peculiar train of reasoning, e.g. that space (dis) and air
(aka^a) are two separate substances, do not recur in
ainism. For in it, as well as in the older Brahmanical
systems, Vedanta and Saiikhya, space and air are not
yet distinguished from one another, but aka^a is made to
serve for both.

Some other instances of difference in fundamental doc
trines between Vaueshikas and (9ainas are, that according
to the former the souls are infinite and all-pervading, while
to the latter they are of limited dimensions, and that the
Vaueshikas make dharma and adharma qualities of the
soul, while, as has been said above, the Gainas look on
them as a sort of substances. In one point, however, there
is some resemblance between a paradoxical Vaueshika
opinion and a distinct aina doctrine. According to the
VaLyeshika there are four kinds of bodies : bodies of earth,
as those of men, animals, &c. ; bodies of water in the world
of Varu;za ; bodies of fire in the world of Agni ; and bodies
of wind in the world of Vayu. This curious opinion has its
counterpart in ainism ; for the ainas, too, assume Earth-
bodies, Water-bodies, Fire-bodies, and Wind-bodies. How
ever, these elementary bodies are the elements or the most
minute particles of them, inhabited by particular souls.
This hylozoistic doctrine is, as I have said above, the out
come of primitive animism, while the Vaueshika opinion,
though probably derived from the same current of thought,
is an adaptation of it to popular mythology. I make no
doubt that the aina opinion is much more primitive and

INTRODUCTION. XXXV11

belongs to an older stage in the development of philo
sophical thought than the Vaueshika assumption of four
kinds of bodies.

Though I am of opinion that between Vai^eshika and
{^ainism no such connection existed as could be proved by
borrowings of the one system from the other, still I am ready
to admit that they are related to each other by a kind
of affinity of ideas. For the fundamental ideas of the
Vedntins and Sarikhyas go directly counter to those of
the ainas, and the latter could not adopt them without
breaking with their religion. But they could go a part of
their way together with the VaLreshika, and still retain
their religious persuasion. We need, therefore, not wonder
that among the writers on the Nyaya-Vai^eshika some
names of 6airias occur. The ^ainas themselves go still
farther, and maintain that the Vaueshika philosophy was
established by a schismatical teacher of theirs, AT/^aluya
Rohagutta of the Kau^ika Gotra, with whom originated
the sixth schism of the ainas, the Trairajika-matam, in
544 A. V. 1 (18 A.D.) The details of this system given in
the Ava^yaka, vv. 77-83, are apparently reproduced from
Ka^ada s Vai^eshika Dar^ana ; for they consist in the
enumeration of the six (not seven) categories with their
subdivisions, among which that of qualities contains but
seventeen items (not twenty-four), and those identical with
VaLreshika Dan-ana I, i, 6.

I believe that in this case, as in many others, the ainas
claim more honour than is their due in connecting every
Indian celebrity with the history of their creed. My reason
for doubting the correctness of the above Gams, legend is
the following. The Vaireshika philosophy is reckoned as
one of the orthodox Brahmanical philosophies, and it has
chiefly, though not exclusively, been cultivated by orthodox
Hindus. We have, therefore, no reason for doubting that
they have misstated the name and Gotra of the author of
the Sutras, viz. Ka^ada of the Klryapa Gotra. No trace

1 See Indische Studien, vol. xvii, p. u6ff.

c 3

XXXviii GAINA SUTRAS.

has been found in Brahmanical literature that the name of
the real author of the Vaijeshika was Rohagupta, and his
Gotra the Kau^ika Gotra ; nor can Rohagupta and Ka/zada
be taken as different names of the same person, because
their Gotras also differ. Ka^ada, follower of Ka/zada,
means etymologically crow-eater, owl ; hence his system
has been nicknamed Aulukya Dan-ana, owl-philosophy 1 .
In Rohagupta s second name, .Ouluya, which stands for
Sha^uluka 2 , allusion is made to the c owl, probably to the
Ka/zadas; but the ainas refer uluka to the G6tra of the
Rohagupta, viz. Kaimka 3 , which word also means owl.
As the unanimous tradition of the Brahmans deserves the
preference before that of the Gainas, we can most easily
account for the latter by assuming that Rohagupta did not
invent, but only adopted the Vaueshika philosophy to
support his schismatical views.

About the two works translated in this volume, the
Uttaradhyayana and Sutrakrztanga, I have little to add to
the remarks of Professor Weber in the Indische Studien,
vol. xvi, p. 259 ff., and vol. xvii, p. 43 ff. The Sutrakrztanga
is probably the older of the two, as it is the second Anga,
and the Angas obtain the foremost rank among the canonical
books of the Cainas, while the Uttaradhyayana, the first
Mulasutra, belongs to the last section of the Siddhanta.
According to the summary in the fourth Anga the object
of the Sutrakrztanga is to fortify young monks against the
heretical opinions of alien teachers, to confirm them in the
right faith, and to lead them to the highest good. This
description is correct on the whole, but not exhaustive, as
will be seen by going over our table of contents. The
work opens with the refutation of heretical doctrines, and
the same object is again treated at greater length in the

1 See my edition of the Kalpa Sutra, p. 119.

8 Literally Six-owl. The number six refers to the six categories of
the
Vaueshika.

3 Part i, p. 290. But in the legend translated by Professor Leumann,
1. c., p. 121, his Gotra is called A^aulu.

INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

First Lecture of the Second Book. It is followed in the
First Book by Lectures on a holy life in general, on the
difficulties a monk has to overcome, especially the tempta
tions thrown in his way, the punishment of the unholy, and
the praise of Mahavira as the standard of righteousness.
Then come some Lectures on cognate subjects. The Second
Book, which is almost entirely in prose, treats of similar
subjects, but without any apparent connection of its parts.
It may therefore be considered as supplementary, and as
a later addition to the First Book. The latter was appa
rently intended as a guide for young monks 1 . Its form,
too, seems adapted to this purpose ; for it lays some claim
to poetical art in the variety of the metres employed, and
in the artificial character of some verses. It may, therefore,
be considered as the composition of one author, while the
Second Book is a collection of tracts which treat on the
subjects discussed in the first.

The Uttaradhyayana resembles the Sutrakrztanga with
regard to its object and part of the subjects treated ; but it
is of greater extent than the original part of the Sutra-
krztanga, and the plan of the work is carried out with more
skill. Its intention is to instruct a young monk in his
principal duties, to commend an ascetic life by precepts
and examples, to warn him against the dangers in his
spiritual career, and to give some theoretical information.
The heretical doctrines are only occasionally alluded to,
not fully discussed ; apparently the dangers expected from
that quarter grew less in the same measure as time advanced
and the institutions of the sect were more firmly established.
Of more importance to a young monk seems to have been
an accurate knowledge of animate and inanimate things, as
a rather long treatise on this subject has been added at the
end of the book. Though there is an apparent plan in the
selection and arrangement of the single Lectures, still it is
open to doubt whether they were all composed by one

1 According to an old tradition (see Indische Studien, vol. xvi, p.
223)
the SutrakrMnga is studied in the fourth year after the ordination of
a monk.

xl GAINA SUTRAS.

author, or only selected from the traditional literature,
written or oral, which among the ainas, as everywhere
else, must have preceded the formation of a canon. I am
inclined to adopt the latter alternative, because there is
a greater variety of treatment and style in the different
parts than seems compatible with the supposition of one
author, and because a similar origin must be assumed for
many works of the present canon.

At what time the works under discussion were composed
or brought into their present shape is a problem which
cannot be satisfactorily solved. As, however, the reader of
the present volume will naturally expect the translator to
give expression to his personal conviction on this point,
I give my opinion with all reserve, viz. that most parts,
tracts, or treatises of which the canonical books consist,
are old ; that the redaction of the Ahgas took place at an
early period (tradition places it under Bhadrabahu) ; that
the other works of the Siddhanta were collected in course
of time, probably in the first centuries before our era, and
that additions or alterations may have been made in the
canonical works till the time of their first edition under
Devardhiga/zin (980 A.V. 454 A.D.)

I have based my translation of the Uttaradhyayana
and Sutrakrztanga on the text adopted by the oldest com
mentators I could consult. This text differs little from that
of the MSS. and the printed editions. I had prepared
a text of my own from some MSS. at my disposal, and
this has served to check the printed text.

The Calcutta edition of the Uttaradhyayana (Sa;;/vat 1936
= 1879 A.D.) contains, besides a Guzerati gloss, the Sutra-
dipika of Lakshmivallabha, pupil of Lakshmikirtiga;/in of
the Kharatara Ga////a. Older than this commentary is
the Tika of Devendra, which I have made my principal
guide. It was composed in Samvat 1179 or 1123 A - E&gt;.,
and is confessedly an abstract from 5antyaarya s Vrztti,
which I have not used. But I have had at my disposal
an illuminated old MS. of the Ava^uri, belonging to the

INTRODUCTION. xli

Strassburg University Library. This work is apparently
an abstract from the VWtti of 5antya/^arya, as in a great
many passages it almost verbally agrees with Devendra s
work.

The Bombay edition of the Sutrakrztanga (Sa7vat 1936
or 1880 A. D.) contains three commentaries: (i) 5ilarika s
Tika., in which is incorporated Bhadrabahu s Niryukti.
This is the oldest commentary extant ; but it was not with
out predecessors, as Silanka occasionally alludes to old
commentators. vSilahka lived in the second half of the
ninth century A. D., as he is said to have finished his com
mentary on the A/aranga Sutra in the 5aka year 798 or
876 A. D. (2) The Dipika, an abstract from the last by
Harshakula, which was composed in Sa;;^vat 1583 or 1517
A. D. I have also used a MS. of the Dipika in my possession.
(3) Pa^a/^andra s Balavabodha, a Guzerati gloss. My prin
cipal guide was, of course, vSilanka ; when he and Harsha
kula agree, I refer to them in my notes as the commen
tators; I name 5ilanka when his remark in question has
been omitted by Harshakula, and I quote the latter when
he gives some original matter of interest. I may add that
one of my MSS. is covered with marginal and interlinear
glosses which have now and then given me some help in
ascertaining the meaning of the text.

H. JACOBI.
BONN :
November, 1894.

ADDITIONAL NOTE.

I may here add a remark on the Parable of the Three Merchants,
see p. 29 f., which agrees with Matthew xxv. 14 and Luke xix. n.
It seems, however, to have had a still greater resemblance to the
version of the parable in The Gospel according to the Hebrews,
as will appear from the following passage from Eusebius Theo-
phania (ed. Migne s Patrologia Graeca, iv. 155), translated by
Nicholson, The Gospel according to the Hebrews (London, 1879) :
The Gospel, which comes to us in Hebrew characters, has
directed the threat not against the hider, but against the abandoned
liver. For it has included three servants, one which devoured the
substance with harlots and flute-women, one which multiplied, and
one which hid the talent : one was accepted, one only blamed,
and one shut up in prison. I owe this quotation to my colleague
Arnold Meyer.

Taking into consideration (i) that the Gaina version contains
only the essential elements of the parable, which in the Gospels
are developed into a full story ; and (2) that it is expressly stated
in the Uttaradhyayana VII, 15 that this parable is taken from
common life/ I think it probable that the Parable of the Three
Merchants was invented in India, and not in Palestine.

H.J.

UTTARADHYAYANA.

UTTARADHYAYANA.

FIRST LECTURE.

ON DISCIPLINE.

I shall explain in due order the discipline of a
houseless monk, who has got rid of all worldly ties.
Listen to me. (i)

A monk who, on receiving an order 1 from his
superior 2 , walks up to him, watching his nods and
motions, is called well-behaved. (2)

But a monk who, on receiving an order from his
superior, does not walk up to him, being insubor
dinate and inattentive, is called ill-behaved. (3)

As a bitch with sore ears is driven away every-

1 Arca-niddesa-kare. A^#a is the order itself; nirde.ra, the
assent to it.

2 The original has the plural instead of the singular. It takes
great liberties in this respect, and the commentators constantly
call to help a va^anavyatyaya or lihgavyatyaya, exchange of
number or gender, as the case may be. It is impossible in the
translation to follow the original in this respect, and useless to
note
all such grammatical blunders. The conclusion we may draw from
them is that in the spoken language many grammatical forms which
in the literary language continued to be used, were on the point of
dying out or had already actually become obsolete. I am almost
sure that the vernacular of the time when the Sutras were composed
began to drop the distinction between the singular and plural in
the verb. It was, however, artificially revived in the literary Maha-
rash/ri of later days.

[45] B

UTTARADHYAYANA.

where, thus a bad, insubordinate, and talkative
(pupil) is turned out. (4)

As a pig leaves a trough filled with grain to feed
on faeces, so a brute (of a man) turns away from
virtue, and takes to evil ways. (5)

Hearing a man thus compared to a dog and a pig,
he who desires his own welfare, should adhere to
good conduct. (6)

Therefore be eager for discipline, that you may
acquire righteousness ; a son of the wise *, who
desires liberation 2 , will not be turned away from
anywhere. (7)

One should always be meek, and not be talkative
in the presence of the wise ; one should acquire
valuable knowledge, and avoid what is worthless. (8)

When reprimanded a wise man should not be
angry, but he should be of a forbearing mood ; he
should not associate, laugh, and play with mean
men. (9)

He should do nothing mean 3 , nor talk much;
but after having learned his lesson, he should
meditate by himself. (10)

1 Buddhaputta. Buddha is here and in the sequel explained
by a/fcarya, teacher. The word is in the crude form, not in the
inflected form, as the nominative would not suit the metre.
Liberties of this kind are frequently met with in our text.

2 Nioga///$i = niyogarthin. It is always explained and
usually means moksharthin. But here and in verse 20 niyoga
has perhaps its common meaning: appointment, order. In that
case we must translate : he who waits for an order.

3 Kan Saliva, literally, he should not demean himself like
a K&nd&la.. The commentators, however, divide the word in
Jkanda, violent, hot, and alika, untrue, false. This explanation is
too artificial to be accepted, though the meaning comes to the
same thing.

LECTURE I.

If he by chance does anything mean, he should
never deny it, but if he has done it, he should say :
I have done it ; if he has not done it, * I have not
done it/ (n)

He should not, in every case, wait for the express
command (of the teacher) like an unbroken horse
for the whip (of the rider), but like a broken horse
which sees the whip (of the rider) he should commit
no evil act. (12)

Disobedient, rough speaking, ill-behaved pupils
will exasperate even a gentle teacher; but those
will soon win even a hot-tempered teacher who
humour him and are polite. (13)

He should not speak unasked, and asked he
should not tell a lie ; he should not give way to his
anger, and bear with indifference pleasant and un
pleasant occurrences. (14)

Subdue your Self, for the Self is difficult to sub
due ; if your Self is subdued, you will be happy
in this world and in the next. (15)

Better it is that I should subdue my Self by self-
control and penance, than be subdued by others
with fetters and corporal punishment. (16)

He should never do anything disagreeable to the
wise 1 , neither in words nor deeds, neither openly
nor secretly. (17)

He should not (sit) by the side of the teacher,
nor before him, nor behind him ; he should not
touch (the teacher s) thigh with his own, nor answer
his call from the couch. (18)

A well-behaved monk should not sit on his hams 2 ,

1 Buddhawaw, i. e. the superiors.

2 Palhatthiya = paryastika: so that his clothes cover his
knees and shanks.

B 2

UTTARADHYAYANA.

nor cross his arms 1 , nor stretch out his legs, nor
stand (too) close to his teacher. (19)

If spoken to by the superior, he should never
remain silent, but should consider it as a favour;
asking for his command 2 , he should always politely
approach his teacher. (20)

If the teacher speaks little or much, he should
never grow impatient; but an intelligent pupil
should rise from his seat and answer (the teacher s)
call modestly and attentively. (2 1 )

He should never ask a question when sitting
on his stool or his bed, but rising from his seat 3
and coming near, he should ask him with folded
hands. (22)

When a pupil who observes the above rules of
conduct, questions the teacher about the sacred text,
its meaning, or both, he should deliver it according
to tradition. (23)

A monk should avoid untruth, nor should he
speak positively (about future things, his plans, &c.) ;
he should avoid sinful speech, and always keep free
from deceit. (24)

He should not tell anything sinful or meaningless 4

2 Niyaga//y$i or nioga///i. The commentator explains it, as
in verse 7, by desiring liberation/

3 Ukku^uo. The commentator explains it by muktasana^,
kara^ata^ padapuw^anadigata^.

4 In illustration of this the commentator (De"vendra) quotes the
following verse: esha bandhyasuto yati khapushpakr/taj-ekhara^ i
mrzgatrzsrmambhasi snata/ .ma.srmgadhanurdhara^ II There goes
the son of a barren woman, bearing a chaplet of sky-flowers,
having bathed in the water of a fata morgana, and carrying a bow
made of a hare s horn.

LECTURE I. 5

or hurtful, neither for his own sake nor for anybody
else s, nor without such a motive. (25).

In barbers shops 1 or houses, on the ground separat
ing two houses, or on the highway a single monk
should not stand with a single woman, nor should
he converse with her. (26)

Any instruction the wise ones 2 may give me in
a kind or a rough way, I shall devotedly accept,
thinking that it is for my benefit. (27)

(The teacher s) instruction, his manner of giving
it, and his blaming evil acts are considered blissful
by the intelligent, but hateful by the bad monk. (28)

Wise, fearless monks consider even a rough
instruction as a benefit, but the fools hate it, though
it produces patience and purity of mind. (29)

He should occupy a low, firm seat, which does not
rock ; seldom rising and never without a cause, he
should sit motionless. (30)

At the right time a monk should sally forth, and
he should return at the right time ; avoiding to do
anything out of time, he should do what is appro
priate for each period of the day. (31)

A monk should not approach (dining people)
sitting in a row, but should collect alms that are
freely given ; having begged according to the sanc
tioned rules, he should eat a moderate portion at
the proper time. (32)

A monk should wait (for his alms) alone, not too
far from other monks, nor too near them, but so
that he is not seen by another party ; another monk
should not pass him to get the start of him. (33)

1 Samara, explained by the commentator barbers shop or
smithy, with the addition that it includes all places of low people.

2 Buddha/^.

UTTARADHYAYANA.

Neither boldly erect nor humbly bowing down,
standing neither too close by nor too far off, a monk
should accept permitted l food that was prepared for
somebody else 2 . (34)

In a place that is covered above and sheltered on
all sides, where there are no living beings nor seeds,
a monk should eat in company, restrained and
undressed. (35)

A monk should avoid as unallowed such food
as is well dressed, or well cooked, or well cut, or
such in which is much seasoning, or which is very
rich, or very much flavoured, or much sweet
ened 3 . (36)

(The teacher) takes delight in instructing a clever
(pupil), just as the rider (in managing) a well-broken
horse ; but he tires to instruct a foolish (pupil), just
as the rider (tires to manage) an unbroken horse. (37)

(A bad pupil thinks :) I get but knocks and boxes
on the ear, hard words and blows ; and he believes
a teacher who instructs him well, to be a malevolent
man. (38)

A good pupil has the best opinion (of his teacher),
thinking that he treats him like his son or brother
or a near relation 4 ; but a malevolent pupil imagines
himself treated like a slave. (39)

He should not provoke his teacher s anger, nor

1 Phasuya, translated prasuka, and explained : free from living
beings.

2 Paraka^a, prepared for the householder or some other
person, but not for the monk himself.

! The translation of the terms in this verse is rather conjectural,
notwithstanding the explanations in the commentary.

4 I translate according to the interpretation of the commentator,
which is probably right ; but the text sets all rules of grammar
at defiance.

LECTURE I.

should he himself grow angry ; he should not offend
the teacher nor irritate him by proclaiming his
faults 1 . (40)

Perceiving the teacher s anger one should pacify
him by kindness, appease him with folded hands,
and promise not to do wrong again. (41)

He who adopts the conduct which the wise ones 2
have attained by their virtues and always practised,
will not incur blame. (42)

Guessing the teacher s thoughts and the purport
of his words, one should express one s assent, and
execute (what he desires to be done). (43)

An excellent pupil needs no express directions,
or he is (at least) quickly directed ; he always carries
out his duties as he is told. (44)

An intelligent man who has learned (the sacred
texts) takes his duties upon himself 3 , and he be
comes renowned in the world ; as the earth is the
dwelling of all beings, so he will be a dwelling of
all duties. (45)

When the worthy teachers, who are thoroughly
enlightened and from early times well versed in
conduct 4 , are satisfied (with a pupil), they will make
over to him their extensive and weighty 5 knowledge
of the sacred texts. (46)

His knowledge will be honoured, his doubts will
be removed, he will gladden the heart of his teacher

1 Literally, search for the goad.

2 Buddha.

3 Namati, literally, bows down.

Puvvasawthuya = purvasawstuta. Besides the meaning
rendered in my translation the commentator proposes another:
already famous.

5 A///Hya = arthika, having an object or purpose, viz. moksha;
it is therefore frequently rendered : leading to liberation.

8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

by his good acts ; kept in safety by the performance
of austerities and by meditation, being as it were
a great light, he will keep the five vows. (47)

Honoured by gods, Gandharvas, and men, he will,
on leaving this body which consists of dirt and
impurities, become either an eternal Siddha 1 , or a
god of great power and small imperfections. (48)

Thus I say 2 .

SECOND LECTURE.

ON TROUBLES 3 .

long-lived (Gambusvamin) ! I (Sudharman) have
heard the following Discourse 4 from the Venerable
(Mahavira) :

Here 5 , forsooth, the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira
of the Ka^yapa Gotra has declared twenty-two
troubles which a monk must learn and know, bear
and conquer, in order not to be vanquished by them
when he lives the life of a wandering mendicant.

1 I. e. a liberated or perfected soul.

2 Tibmi = itibravimi. These words serve to mark the end
of every chapter in all canonical books; compare the Latin dixi.

3 Parisaha, that which may cause trouble to an ascetic, and
which must be cheerfully borne.

4 The commentator (Devendra) says that when Mahavira spoke,
he was understood by all creatures, whatever was their language.
He quotes the following verse : dva d&vim nara nariw ^abara^
&lt;&api .rabari/w I tirya#&gt;o pi a taira^iw menire bhagavadgiraw II
The
gods, men, -Sabaras, and animals took the language of the Lord
for their own. Cf. Acts ii. n.

5 I. e. in our creed or religion. This is generally the meaning
of the word iha, here, opening a sentence.

LECTURE IT.

These, then, are the twenty-two troubles declared
by the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira, which a monk
must learn and know, bear and conquer, in order
not to be vanquished by them when he lives the
life of a wandering mendicant :

1. diga#/M (^ugupsa)-parisaha, hunger;

2. pivasa (pipasa)-p., thirst;

3. siya (sita)-p., cold;

4. usi^a (ush^a)-p., heat;

5. dawsamasaya (da^^ama5aka)-p., gad-flies,
and gnats l ;

6. a/ela-p., nakedness 2 ;

7. arati-p., to be discontented with the objects of
control.

8. itthi (stri)-p., women;

9. /ariya (/arya)-p., erratic life;

10. nisihiya (naishedhiki)-p., place for study;

11. se^-a (^ayya)-p., lodging;

12. akkosa (akro5a)-p., abuse;

13. vaha (vadha)-p., corporal punishment;

14. ^aya?za (ya/^ana)-p., to ask for something;

15. alabha-p., to be refused;

1 6. roga-p., illness ;

17. ta^a-phasa (trmaspar^a), pricking of grass;

1 8. ^alla-p., dirt;

19. sakkarapurakkara (satkarapura^kara)-p.,
kind and respectful treatment;

20. panna (pra^a)-p., understanding;

21. anna^a (a^ana)-p., ignorance;

22. sammatta (samyaktva)-p., righteousness.

1 This is to include all biting or stinging insects, as lice, &c.

2 This is binding on the Ginakalpikas only, not on common
monks.

I O UTTARADHYAYANA.

J The enumeration of the troubles has been de
livered by the Kasyapa 2 , I shall explain them to
you in due order. Listen to me. (i)

1. Though his body be weakened by hunger, a
monk who is strong (in self-control) and does penance,
should not cut or cause another to cut (anything to
be eaten), nor cook it or cause another to cook it. (2)

Though emaciated like the joint of a crow s (leg)
and covered with a network of veins, he should
know the permitted measure of food and drink,
and wander about with a cheerful mind. (3)

2. Though overcome by thirst, he should drink
no cold water, restrained by shame and aversion
(from forbidden things) ; he should try to get dis
tilled 3 water. (4)

Wandering about on deserted ways, in pain,
thirsty, with dry throat, and distressed, he should
bear this trouble (of thirst). (5)

3. If a restrained, austere ascetic occasionally
suffers from cold on his wanderings, he should not
walk beyond the (prescribed) time, remembering the
teaching of the &lt;9ina. (6)

I have no shelter and nothing to cover my
skin, therefore I shall make a fire to warm myself;
such a thought should not be entertained by a
monk. (7)

1 The preceding part of this lecture is in prose, the rest is in
jloka. The numbers placed before the verses refer to the above
enumeration of the troubles. It will be seen that two stanzas
are allotted to each of them.

2 I. e. Mahavira, who belonged to the Gotra of Kasyapa.

3 Viga&lt;/a = vikrz ta. It means water which by boiling or
some other process has become so changed that it may be regarded
as lifeless.

LECTURE II. 1 1

4. If he suffers from the heat of hot things, or
from the heat of his body, or from the heat of
summer, he should not lament the loss of com
fort. (8)

A wise man, suffering from heat, should not long
for a bath, or pour water over his body, or fan
himself. (9)

5. Suffering from insects a great sage remains
undisturbed. As an elephant at the head of the
battle kills the enemy, so does a hero (in self-
control conquer the internal foe). (10)

He should not scare away (insects), nor keep
them off, nor be in the least provoked to passion by
them. Tolerate living beings, do not kill them,
though they eat your flesh and blood, (n)

6. My clothes being torn, I shall (soon) go naked/
or I shall get a new suit ; such thoughts should
not be entertained by a monk. (12)

At one time he will have no clothes, at another he
will have some ; knowing this to be a salutary rule,
a wise (monk) should not complain about it. (13)

7. A houseless and poor monk who wanders
from village to village may become tired of ascetic
life : he should bear this trouble. (14)

A sage should turn away from this discontent ;
he should wander about free from sins, guarded in
himself, a tabernacle (as it were) of the Law, doing
no actions, and perfectly passionless. (15)

8. In this world men have a natural liking for
women ; he who knows (and renounces) them, will
easily perform his duties as a Srama/za. (16)

A wise man who knows that women are a slough,
as it were, will get no harm from them, but will
wander about searching for the Self. (17)

1 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

9. Alone, living on allowed food 1 , he should
wander about, bearing all troubles, in a village or
a town or a market-place or a capital. (18)

Different (from other men) a monk should wander
about, he should acquire no property ; but not being
attached to householders, he should live without
a fixed residence. (19)

10. In a burial-place, or a deserted house, or
below a tree he should sit down, alone, without
moving, and he should not drive away any one. (20)

Sitting there he should brave all dangers ; when
seized with fear, he should not rise and go to some
other place. (21)

11. A monk who does penance and is strong
(in self-control), will not be affected beyond measure
by good or bad lodgings, but an evil-minded monk
will. (22)

Having obtained a good or bad lodging in an
empty house 2 , he should stay there thinking: What
does it matter for one night ? (23)

12. If a layman abuses a monk, he should not
grow angry against him ; because he would be like
a child 3 , a monk should not grow angry. (24)

If a monk hears bad words, cruel and rankling
ones, he should silently overlook them, and not take
them to heart. (25)

13. A monk should not be angry if beaten, nor
should he therefore entertain sinful thoughts; know
ing patience to be the highest good, a monk should
meditate on the Law. (26)

; see also note on XVII, 2.

2 I. e. in which there are no women.

3 Or like an ignorant man, bala.

LECTURE II. 13

If somebody strikes a restrained, resigned 6rama;za
somewhere, he should think : * I have not lost my
life. (27)

14. It will always cause difficulties to a houseless
monk to get everything by begging, and nothing
without begging. (28)

The hand (of the giver) is not always kindly
stretched out to a monk when he is on his begging
tour ; but he should not think that it would be
better to live as a householder. (29)

15. He should beg food from the householder
when his dinner is ready ; a wise man should not
care whether he gets alms or not. (30)

I get nothing to-day, perhaps I shall get some
thing to-morrow ; a monk who thinks thus, will not
be grieved by his want of success. (31)

16. If any misfortune 1 happens and he suffers
pain, he should cheerfully steady his mind, and bear
the ills that attack him. (32)

He should not long for medical treatment, but
he should continue to search for the welfare of his
soul ; thus he will be a true ^rama^a by neither
acting himself nor causing others to act. (33)

17. When a naked, rough, restrained ascetic lies
on the grass, his body will be hurt. (34)

In the sun his pain will grow insupportable ;
still a monk, though hurt by the grass, will not
use clothes 2 . (35)

1 8. When by the heat of summer his body sweats
and is covered with dirt and dust, a wise monk
should not lament his loss of comfort. (36)

1 Viz. if he falls sick.

2 Tantu^a, what is manufactured from threads.

I 4 UTTARADHYAYANA.

He should bear (all this), waiting for the destruc
tion of his Karman *, (and practising) the noble,
excellent Law ; he should carry the filth on his
body till he expires. (37)

19. It may be that a gentleman salutes a monk,
or rises from his seat on his approach, or invites
him (to accept alms in his house) : a monk should
evince no predilection for men of this sort, who
show him such marks of respect. (38)

Not resentful, having few wants, begging from
strangers, and not being dainty, a wise man should
not long for pleasant things, nor be sorry afterwards
(for not having got them). (39)

20. * Forsooth, in bygone times I have done
actions productive of ignorance, for I do not
remember them when asked by anybody any
where 2 . (40)

Afterwards, however, actions productive of ignor
ance take effect/ Therefore comfort yourself, know
ing the consequences of actions. (41)

21. It was of no use to turn away from the lust
of the senses and to live restrainedly, for I do not
properly recognise good and bad things. (42)

1 Though in practising austerities and religious
observances I live according to strict rules, still
the hindrances to knowledge will not go off. (43)

22. A monk should not think : There is, indeed,
no life to come, nor an exalted state to be acquired
by penances ; in short, I have been deceived. (44)

A monk should not think : Those lied who said
that there were, are, and will be G mas. (45)

1 Nirg-ara.

2 The commentators refer the word anywhere to the place
or object of the former actions.

LECTURE III. 15

All these troubles have been declared by the
Kasyapa. A monk should not be vanquished
by them, when attacked by any anywhere.

Thus I say.

THIRD LECTURE.

THE FOUR REQUISITES.

Four things of paramount value are difficult to
obtain here by a living being : human birth, in
struction in the Law, belief in it, and energy in
self-control, (i)

I. The universe is peopled by manifold creatures,
who are, in this Sawsara, born in different families
and castes for having done various actions. (2)

Sometimes they go to the world of the gods,
sometimes to the hells, sometimes they become
Asuras in accordance with their actions. (3)

Sometimes they become Kshattriyas, or Aaaa&las
and Bukkasas, or worms and moths, or (insects called)
Kunthu 1 and ants. (4)

Thus living beings of sinful actions, who are born
again and again in ever-recurring births, are not
disgusted with the Sawsara, but they are like
warriors (never tired of the battle of life). (5)

Living beings bewildered through the influence
of their actions, distressed and suffering pains,
undergo misery in non-human births. (6)

But by the cessation of Karman, perchance, living

1 About the Kunthu see below, Thirty-sixth Lecture, v. 138
and note.

1 6 UTTARADHYAYANA.

beings will reach in due time a pure state and be
born as men. (7)

II. And though they be born with a human body,
it will be difficult for them to hear the Law, having
heard which they will do penances, combat their
passions and abstain from killing living beings. (8)

III. And though, by chance, they may hear the
Law, it will be difficult for them to believe in it ; many
who are shown the right way, stray from it. (9)

IV. And though they have heard the Law and
believe in it, it is difficult for them to fulfill it
strenuously ; many who approve of the religion,
do not adopt it. (10)

Having been born as a man, having heard the Law,
believing in it, and fulfilling it strenuously, an ascetic
should restrain himself and shake off sinfulness. (n)

The pious obtain purity, and the pure stand firmly
in the Law : (the soul afterwards) reaches the highest
Nirvana, being like unto a fire fed with ghee. (12)

Leave off the causes of sin, acquire fame through
patience ! (A man who acts up to this) will rise to the
upper regions after having left this body of clay. (13)

The Yakshas who are gifted with various virtues,
(live in the heavenly regions, situated) one above
the other, shining forth like the great luminaries,
and hoping never to descend thence. (14)

Intent on enjoying divine pleasures and changing
their form at will, they live in the upper Kalpa
heavens many centuries of former 1 years. (15)

1 One former (purva) year consists of 7,560 millions of
common years. The idea that years were longer when the world
was still young, is apparently suggested by the experience which
everybody will have made, that a year seemed to us an enormously
long time when we were young, and the same space of time

LECTURE III. 17

The Yakshas, having remained there according to
their merit, descend thence at the expiration of their
life and are born as men.

Men are often kinds. (16)

Fields and houses, gold, cattle, slaves and servants :
where these four goods, the causes of pleasure, are
present, in such families he is born 1 . (17)

He will have friends and relations, be of good
family, of fine complexion, healthy, wise, noble,
famous, and powerful. (18)

After having enjoyed, at their proper time, the
unrivalled pleasures of human life, he will obtain true
knowledge by his pure religious merit acquired in
a former life. (19)

appears to us shorter and shorter as we advance in life. A similar
analogy with our life has probably caused the belief in the four
ages of the world, shared by the Hindus and the ancients. For
does not childhood to most of us appear the happiest period of our
life, and youth better still than the time of full-grown manhood ?
As in retrospect our life appears to us, so primitive man imagines
the life of the world to have been : the first age was the best and
the longest, and the following ages grew worse and worse, and
became shorter at the same time. This primitive conceit was by
the ancients combined with the conceit of the year, so that the four
ages were compared with the four seasons of the year. Something
similar seems to have happened in India, where, however, there
are three or six seasons. For the ainas seem to have originally
divided one Eon into six minor periods. Now the year was
frequently compared to a wheel, and this second metaphor was
worked out by the (rainas. They named the six minor periods
aras, literally spokes of a wheel, and divided the whole Eon into
one descending part (of the wheel), avasarpi^i, and one rising
part, utsarpiwi. These Avasarpmis and Utsarpiwis are probably
a later improvement, and the Eon originally contained but six Aras.
But if there were indeed twelve Aras from the beginning, they must
have been suggested by the twelve months of the year.

1 This is the first of the ten kinds of men mentioned above ; the
remaining nine are enumerated in the following verse.
[45] C

1 8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Perceiving that the four requisites are difficult to
obtain, he will apply himself to self-control, and
when by penances he has shaken off the remnant of
Karman, he will become an eternal Siddha. (20)

Thus I say.

FOURTH LECTURE.

IMPURITY.

You cannot prolong your life 1 , therefore be not
careless ; you are past help when old age approaches.
Consider this : what (protection) will careless people
get, who kill living beings and do not exert them
selves ? (i)

Men who adhering to wrong principles acquire
wealth by evil deeds, will lose it, falling into the
snares (of their passions) and being held captive by
their hatred. (2)

As the burglar 2 caught in the breach of the wall
perishes by the work the sinner himself had executed,
thus people in this life and the next cannot escape
the effect of their own actions. (3)

If a man living in the Sa^sara does an action for
the sake of somebody else, or one by which he him-

1 A similar expression is used in Sutrakrztanga I, 2, 2, 21.

z Devendra relates two stories of burglars, one of which is
supposed to be hinted at in the text. It comes to this. A burglar
is caught, in the breach he had excavated, by the owner of the
house, who takes hold of his feet protruding from the breach. But
the burglar s companion tries to drag him out from the other
side of the wall. In this position he is smashed by the upper part
of the wall coming down.

LECTURE IV. 19

self also profits, then, at the time of reaping the fruit
of his actions, his relations will not act as true
relations (i.e. will not come to his help). (4)

Wealth will not protect a careless man in this
world and the next. Though he had seen the right
way, he does not see it, even as one in the dark
whose lamp has suddenly been put out. (5)

Though others sleep, be thou awake ! Like a wise
man, trust nobody, but be always on the alert ; for
dangerous is the time and weak the body. Be
always watchful like a Bharu^a 1 bird ! (6)

A monk should step carefully in his walk (i. e. in
his life), supposing everything to be a snare for him.
First he must bestow care on his life till he wins
the stake (viz. enlightenment), and afterwards he
should despise it, annihilating his sins. (7)

By conquering his will, (a monk) reaches libera
tion, as a well-broken horse which is clad in harness
(goes to battle). Be watchful in your young years ;
for thereby a monk quickly obtains liberation. (8)

If he does not get (victory over his will) early,
he will get it afterwards ; such reasoning 2 pre
supposes the eternity of human life. But such
a man despairs when his life draws to its close, and
the dissolution of his body approaches. (9)

One cannot quickly arrive at discernment ; there
fore one should exert one s self, abstain from
pleasures, understand the world, be impartial like

1 Each of these birds has two necks and three legs.

2 Up a ma. Literally translated : this is the comparison of those
who contend that life is eternal/ The comrnentalor gives a forced
interpretation of the first part of the verse to bring about a com
parison. But the meaning comparison will not suit the context,
the word must here mean : conclusion, reasoning.

C 2

2O UTTARADHYAYANA.

a sage, and guard one s self : (thus) never be care
less. (10)

A Srama^a who again and again suppresses the
effects of delusion, and controls himself, will be
affected in a rough way by external things ; but a
monk should not hate them in his mind, (i i)

External things weaken the intellect and allure
many ; therefore keep them out of your mind.
Keep off delusion, remove pride, do not practise
deceit, leave off greed. ( 1 2)

Heretics who are impure and vain, are always
subject to love and hate, and are wholly under the in
fluence (of their passions). Despising them as unholy
men, desire virtues till the end of your life. (13)

Thus I say.

FIFTH LECTURE.

DEATH AGAINST ONE S WILL.

In this ocean (of life) with its currents (viz. births)
difficult to cross, one man has reached the opposite
shore ; one wise man has given an answer to the
following question, (i)

These two ways of life ending with death have
been declared : death with one s will, and death
against one s will. (2)

Death against one s will is that of ignorant men,
and it happens (to the same individual) many times.
Death with one s will is that of wise men, and at
best l it happens but once. (3)

1 Viz. in the case of a Kevalin. Other sages die this death
seven or eight times before reaching mukti.

LECTURE V. 21

Mahavira has (thus) described the first kind in
which an ignorant man, being attached to pleasures,
does very cruel actions. (4)

A man attached to pleasures and amusements
will be caught in the trap (of deceit). (He thinks) :
* I never saw the next world, but I have seen
with my own eyes the pleasures of this life/ (5)

The pleasures of this life are (as it were)
in your hand, but the future ones are uncertain l .
Who knows whether there is a next world or
not? (6)

The fool boasts : * I shall have the company of
(most) men 2 / But by his love of pleasures and
amusements he will come to grief. (7)

Then he begins to act cruelly against movable
and immovable beings, and he kills living beings
with a purpose or without. (8)

An ignorant man kills, lies, deceives, calumniates,
dissembles, drinks liquor, and eats meat, thinking
that this is the right thing to do. (9)

Overbearing in acts and words, desirous for wealth
and women, he accumulates sins in two ways 3 , just
as a young snake gathers dust (both on and in its
body). (10)

Then he suffers ill and is attacked by disease;
and he is in dread of the next world when he
reflects on his deeds, (n)

I have heard of the places in hell, and of the
destination of the sinner, where the fools who do
cruel deeds will suffer violently. ( 1 2)

Kalika, doubtful as regards the time when they will be enjoyed.
I. e. I shall do as people generally do, viz. enjoy pleasures.
Viz. By his acts and thoughts.

2 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Then going to the place where he is to be born
again according to his deeds, he feels remorse, as I
have heard (from my teacher). (13)

As a charioteer, who against his better judgment
leaves the smooth highway and gets on a rugged
road, repents when the axle breaks ; so the fool, who
transgresses the Law and embraces unrighteousness,
repents in the hour of death, like (the charioteer)
over the broken axle. (14, 15)

Then when death comes at last, the fool trembles
in fear ; he dies the death against one s will/
(having lost his chance) like a gambler vanquished
by Kali. (16)

Thus has been explained the fools death against
one s will ; now hear from me the wise men s
death with one s will ! (17)

Full of peace and without injury to any one is, as
I have heard (from my teachers), the death of the
virtuous who control themselves and subdue their
senses 1 . (18)

(Such a death) does not fall to the lot of every
monk, nor of every householder; for the morality
of householders is of various character, and that of
monks is not always good throughout. (19)

Some householders are superior to some monks
in self-control ; but the saints are superior to all
householders in self-control. (20)

Bark and skin (of a goat), nakedness, twisted

vusimao sawyatanaw va^yavataw.
Vusimao is gen. sing., it is here used in juxtaposition with a word
in gen. plur. Such an irregularity would of course be impossible
in classical Prakrz t, but the authors of metrical Gaina Sutras take
such liberties with grammar that we must put up with any faulty
expression, though it would be easy to correct it by a conjecture.

LECTURE V. 23

hair, baldness these (outward tokens) will not save
a sinful ascetic. (21)

A sinner, though he be a mendicant (friar), will
not escape hell ; but a pious man, whether monk or
householder, ascends to heaven. (22)

A faithful man should practise 1 the rules of con
duct for householders ; he should never neglect the
Posaha fast 2 in both fortnights, not even for a single
night. (23)

When under such discipline he lives piously even
as a householder, he will, on quitting flesh and
bones 3 , share the world of the Yakshas. (24)

Now a restrained monk will become one of the
two : either one free from all misery or a god of
great power. (25)

To the highest regions, in due order, to those
where there is no delusion, and to those which are
full of light, where the glorious (gods dwell) who
have long life, great power, great lustre, who can
change their shape at will, who are beautiful as on
their first day, and have the brilliancy of many suns
to such places go those who are trained in self-con
trol and penance, monks or householders, who have
obtained liberation by absence of passion. (26-28)

Having heard (this) from the venerable men who
control themselves and subdue their senses, the
virtuous and the learned do not tremble in the
hour of death. (29)

1 Kaewa phasae=kay 6na sprz\yt, literally, touch with his body.

2 The Posaha of the Gainas corresponds to the Uposatha of the
Buddhists. Hoernle in note 87 of his translation of the Uvasaga
Dasao (Bibliotheca Indica) says of the Posaha : it is distinguished
by the four abstinences (uvavasa) from food (ahara), bodily
attentions
(jarirasatkara), sexual intercourse (abrahma) and daily work
(vyapara).

3 Literally, skin and joints.

24 UTTARADHYAYANA.

A wise man having weighed (both kinds of death)
and chosen the better one (taught in) the Law of
Compassion, will become calm through patience, with
an undisturbed mind (at the time of death). (30)

When the right time (to prepare for death) has
arrived, a faithful (monk) should in the presence
(of his teacher) suppress all emotions (of fear or
joy) and wait for the dissolution of his body. (31)

When the time for quitting the body has come,
a sage dies the death with one s will/ according to
one of the three methods 1 . (32)

Thus I say.

SIXTH LECTURE.

THE FALSE ASCETIC 2 .

All men who are ignorant of the Truth are
subject to pain ; in the endless Sa^sara they surfer
in many ways, (i)

Therefore a wise man, who considers well the
ways that lead to bondage 3 and birth, should

1 These three methods are (i) bhaktapratyakhyana, (2) ihgi-
tamarawa, (3) padapopagamana. They are fully described in
the Aaranga Sutra I, 7, 8, 7 ff., see part i, p. 75 f.

2 Khud^aganiyaTz/^i^aztf = Kshullakanirgranthiyam.
Kshullaka originally means small, young/ but I do not see that
the contents of this lecture support this translation, though the
commentators would seem to favour it.

3 Devendra here quotes the following Sanskrit verse : Kalatrani-
ga&lt;/a*rc dattva na sawtush/a^ pra^apati^ I bhuyo^py apatyarupewa
dadati gala^rmkhalam. The creator was not satisfied when he
had given (to man) the wife as a fetter, he added a chain round his
neck in the form of children.

LECTURE VI. 25

himself search for the truth, and be kind towards
all creatures. (2)

Mother, father, daughter-in-law, brother, wife,
and sons will not be able to help me, when I suffer
for my own deeds V (3)

This truth should be taken to heart 2 by a man
of pure faith ; he should (therefore) cut off greed
and love, and not hanker after his former con
nections. (4)

Cows and horses, jewels and earrings, cattle,
slaves and servants : all these (possessions) you
must give up in order to obtain the power of
changing your form at will. (5) 3

Everything that happens to somebody, affects him
personally ; therefore, knowing the creatures love of
their own self, do not deprive them of their life, but
cease from endangering and combating them. (6)

Seeing that to accept (presents) leads to hell, one
should not accept even a blade of grass ; only to
preserve one s life 4 one should eat the food that is
put in one s own alms-bowl. (7)

Here some are of opinion that they will be
delivered from all misery by merely attending the
teacher 5 , without abstaining from sins. (8)

1 This verse recurs in Sutrakr/tahga I, 9, 5.

2 Sapehae pase = svaprekshaya pajyet, he should look at
it with his mind or reflectively. However sapehaeis usually the
absolute participle samprekshya. The meaning is the same in
both cases.

3 Some MSS. insert here the following verse : Movables and
immovables, corn, and furniture can not deliver a man from pain,
who is suffering for his deeds/

4 This is according to the commentators the meaning of the
word dogun&hi = ^ugupsin.

5 Ayariyaw vidittawaw. The commentator makes this out

26 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Acknowledging the truth about bondage and
liberation, but talking only, not acting (in accor
dance with these tenets), they seek comfort for
themselves in mighty words. (9)

Clever talking will not work salvation; how
should philosophical instruction do it ? Fools,
though sinking lower and lower through their sins,
believe themselves to be wise men. (10)

They are (going) a long way in the endless Sam-
sara ; therefore looking out carefully one should
wander about carefully 1 , (n)

Choosing what is beyond and above (this world,
viz. liberation), one should never desire (worldly
objects), but sustain one s body only to be able to
annihilate one s Karman. (12)

Those will reap pains who, in thoughts, words, or
acts, are attached to their body, to colours, and to
forms. (13)

Recognising the cause of Karman, one should
wander about waiting for one s death ; (knowing)
the permitted quantity of food and drink, one should
eat (such food as has been) prepared (by the house
holders for their own consumption). (14)

An ascetic should not lay by any store, not even
so little as the grease (sticking to his alms-bowl) ;
but as a bird with its plumage 2 , so he with his
alms-bowl should wander about without desires. (15)

to mean: by learning only what right conduct (a/arikam) is,
without living up to it. But it is obvious that the author intends
a censure upon the GMnamarga.

1 As usual this phrase means : one should conduct one s self so
as to commit no sin.

2 There is a pun in the original on the word patta, which
means plumes (patra) and alms-bowl (patra).

LECTURE VII. 27

Receiving alms in a manner to avoid faults l , and
controlling one s self, one should wander about in
a village (&c.) without a fixed residence ; careful
among the careless one should beg one s food. (16)

Thus has spoken the Arhat (9/zatrzputra, the
venerable native of VaLrali 2 , who possesses the
highest knowledge and who possesses the highest
faith, who possesses (at the same time) the highest
knowledge and the highest faith. (17)

Thus I say.

SEVENTH LECTURE.

THE PARABLE OF THE RAM, ETC.

As somebody, to provide for (the arrival of)
a guest, brings up a young ram, gives it rice and
gram 3 , and brings it up in his yard ; (i)

Then when it is grown up and big, fat and of
a large belly, fattened and of a plump body, it is
ready for the guest. (2)

As long as no guest comes, the poor (animal)
lives ; but as soon as a guest arrives, its head is cut
off, and it is eaten. (3)

As this ram is well treated for the sake of

1 This is the eshawasamiti. On the samitis see below, Twelfth
Lecture, 2.

2 Vesalie = Vaualika. See my remarks on this statement in
part i, introduction, p. xi, and Hoernle s notes in his translation
of the Uvasaga Dasao, p. 3 ff.

3 Yavasa, explained by mudgamashadi. Mutton of gram-
fed sheep is greatly appreciated in India.

28 UTTARADHYAYANA.

a guest, even so an ignorant, great sinner longs
(as it were) for life in hell. (4)

An ignorant man kills, tells lies, robs on the high
way, steals foreign goods, deceives, (always thinking
of some one) whom he could plunder, the villain. (5)

He is desirous of women and pleasures, he enters
on undertakings and business, drinks liquor, eats
meat, becomes strong, a subduer of foes. (6)

He eats crisp goats meat, his belly grows, and
his veins swell with blood but he gains nothing
but life in hell, just as the ram is only fed to be
killed for the sake of a guest. (7)

After having enjoyed pleasant seats, beds, car
riages, riches, and pleasures, after having squan
dered his wealth which he had so much trouble in
gaining, and after having committed many sins, he
will, under the burden of his Karman, and believing
only in the visible world, be grieved in the hour of
death like the ram 1 at the arrival of a guest. (8, 9)

Then the sinner who has been killing living
beings, at the end of his life falls from his state 2 ,
and against his will he goes to the world of the
Asuras, to the dark place. (10)

As a man for the sake of one Kakini 3 (risks and)
loses a thousand (Karshapa/zas), or as the king lost
his kingdom (and life) by eating a mango-fruit which
he was strictly forbidden (by his physician) 4 : (i i)

1 Ay a = a^-a, literally goat.

2 ^Tuya = kyuta is said of one who is born after his death in
a lower sphere than that in which he lived before.

3 According to the commentators the eightieth part of a rupee.

4 The commentators relate old stories to explain allusions
in the text; they will, however, be intelligible without further
comment, though I do not contend that those stories were not
really old and known to the author of the Sutra.

LECTURE VII. 29

Even so are human pleasures compared with the
pleasures of the gods : divine life and pleasures sur
pass (the former) a thousand times and more. (12)

Those endowed with excellent knowledge live
many nayutas 1 of years; so great a loss suffer the
fools in a life of less than a hundred years ! (13)

Three merchants set out on their travels, each
with his capital ; one of them gained there much,
the second returned with his capital, and the third
merchant came home after having lost his capital.
This parable 2 is taken from common life ; learn (to
apply it) to the Law. (14, 15)

The capital is human life, the gain is heaven ;
through the loss of that capital man must be born
as a denizen of hell or a brute animal. (16)

These are the two courses open to the sinner;
they consist in misery, as corporal punishment, &c.;
for the slave to his lusts 3 has forfeited human life
and divine life. (17)

Having once forfeited them, he will have to
endure these two states of misery ; it will be

1 A nayuta or niyuta is equal to

49,78^, 1 36,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
It is derived in the following way :

i purvanga = 8,400,000

i purva = 8,400,000 purvangas.

i nayutanga = 8,400,000 purvas.

i nayuta = 8,400,000 nayutangas.

2 This parable closely corresponds to Matth.xxv. 14, Luke xix. 1 1.
I need not here discuss the problems raised by this coincidence
since they will, as I hear, be fully treated by Herr Hiittemann,
a pupil of Professor Leumann of Strassburg.

3 Lolayasa^e = lolatsUaMa. The commentator takes
161 at a* for 16 la and makes the word a karmadharaya. I think
that the word jaMa which originally means one who deceives
others is used here in the sense one who deceives himself/

UTTARADHYAYANA.

difficult for him to attain an upward course 1 for
a long time to come. (18)

Considering what is at stake, one should weigh
(the chances of) the sinner and of the virtuous man
(in one s mind).

He who brings back his capital, is (to be com
pared to) one who is born again as a man. (19)

Those men who through the exercise of various
virtues 2 become pious householders, will be born
again as men ; for all beings will reap the fruit
of their actions. (20)

But he who increases his capital, is (to be com
pared to) one who practises eminent virtues ; the
virtuous, excellent man cheerfully attains the state
of gods 3 . (21)

When one thus knows that a (virtuous) monk or
householder will be gladdened (by his gain), how,
then, should a man, whilst he is losing (his chance),
not be conscious of his losing it? (22)

As a drop of water at the top of a blade of Kusa-
grass dwindles down to naught when compared
with the ocean, so do human pleasures when com
pared with divine pleasures. (23)

The pleasures in this very limited life of men are
like (the water at) the top of a blade of Kara-grass;
for the sake of what will a man not care to gain and

1 I. e. birth as a man or a god.

2 Siksha. The commentator quotes the following passage
in Prakrz t : Souls gain human birth through four causes : (i) a kind
disposition (prakrz tibhadrata), (2) love of discipline (prakrz-
tivinitata), (3) compassion (sanukro-ranata), and (4) want of
envy (amatsarita).

3 For a higher rank than that of a god, e. g. that of a K6valin,
cannot, in the present state of the world, be attained.

LECTURE VIII. 31

to keep (so precious a good which he risks to
lose)? (24)

He who has not renounced pleasure, will miss
his aim (i.e. the true end of his soul); for though he
has been taught the right way, he will go astray
again and again. (25)

But he who has renounced pleasure, will not miss
his aim; (he will think): I have learned that, by
getting rid of this vile body, I shall become
a god. (26)

He will be born among men where there is
wealth, beauty, glory, fame, long life, and eminent
happiness. (27)

See the folly of the sinner who practises un
righteousness : turning away from the Law, the
great sinner will be born in hell. (28)

See the wisdom of the wise man who follows
the true Law : turning away from unrighteousness,
the virtuous man will be born as a god. (29)

A wise man weighs in his mind the state of
the sinner and that of the virtuous man; quitting
the state of the sinner, a sage realises that of the
virtuous. (30)

Thus I say.

EIGHTH LECTURE.

KAPILA S VERSES 1 .

By what acts can I escape a sorrowful lot in
this unstable ineternal Sawsara, which is full of
misery? (i)

1 This lecture is ascribed to Kapila. According to an old story,
told in the commentary, he was the son of Kajyapa, a Brahman

32 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Quitting your former connections place your
affection on nothing ; a monk who loves not even
those who love him, will be freed from sin and
hatred. (2)

Then the best of sages, who is exempt from

of Kaujambi, and his wife Yaja. When Kajyapa died, his place

was given to another man. His wife then sent her boy to

.Sravasti to study under Indradatta, a friend of his father s. That

man was willing to instruct the boy, and procured him board and

lodging in a rich merchant s house. Kapila, however, soon fell in

love with the servant-girl who was appointed to his service. Once,

at a festival kept by her caste, the girl in tears told him that she

could not take part in the festivity as she had no money to buy

ornaments. To get some she asked him to go to Dhana,

a merchant, who used to give two pieces of gold to the man

who saluted him first in the morning. Accordingly Kapila set

out in the night, but was taken up by the police and brought

before the king, Prasena^it. The student made a clear breast

before the king, who was so pleased with him that he promised to

give him whatever he should ask. Kapila went in the garden

to consider what he should ask ; and the more he thought about it,

the more he raised the sum which he believed he wanted, till it came

to be ten thousand millions. But then, all of a sudden, the light

came upon him ; he began to repent of the sinful life he had led up

to that time, and tearing out his hair he became a Svayawsawbuddha.

Returning to the king, he pronounced verse 17: The more you

get, &c., and giving him the Dharmalabha, he went his way. He

practised austerities and acquired superior knowledge, by dint

of which he came to know that in a wood, eighteen leagues from

Ra^agfYha, lived a gang of five hundred robbers, under a chief Bala-

bhadra. These men, he knew, would become converts to the right

faith ; accordingly he went to the wood where they lived. He was

made prisoner, and brought before the leader of the robbers. To

have some fun out of him they ordered him to dance, and on his

objecting that there was none to play up, they all clapped their

hands to beat the time. He then sang the first stanza of this

lecture, by which some robbers were converted, and he continued

to sing, repeating this stanza after each following verse (as
dhruva),

till at last all the robbers were converted.

LECTURE VIII. 33

delusion and possesses perfect knowledge and faith,
speaks for the benefit and eternal welfare, and for
the final liberation of all beings. (3)

All fetters (of the soul), and all hatred, every
thing of this kind, should a monk cast aside; he
should not be attached to any pleasures, examining
them well and taking care of himself. (4)

A stupid, ignorant sinner who never fixes his
thoughts on the soul s benefit and eternal welfare,
but sinks down through hatred and the temptation
of lust, will be ensnared as a fly is caught on
g^e. (s)

It is difficult to cast aside the pleasures of life,
weak men will not easily give them up ; but there
are pious ascetics (sadhu) who get over the im
passable (Sawsara) as merchants cross the sea. (6)

Some there are who call themselves ^rama^as,
though they are like the beasts ignorant of (the
prohibition of) killing living beings ; the stupid
sinners go to hell through their superstitious
beliefs 1 . (7)

One should not permit (or consent to) the killing
of living beings ; then he will perhaps be delivered
from all misery ; thus have spoken the preceptors
who have proclaimed the Law of ascetics. (8)

A careful man who does not injure living beings,
is called circumspect (samita). The sinful Kar-
man will quit him as water quits raised ground. (9)

In thoughts, words, and acts he should do

1 The commentator quotes the following words: brahma6
brahma/zam alabheta, indraya kshattram, marudbhyo vaijyaw,
tapase judram, and explains them : he who kills a Brahmawa will
acquire Brahma knowledge.

[45] D

34 UTTARADHYAYANA.

nothing injurious to beings who people the world,
whether they move or not. (10)

He should know what alms may be accepted,
and should strictly keep these rules ; a monk should
beg food only for the sustenance of life, and should
not be dainty, (n)

He should eat what tastes badly, cold food, old
beans, Vakkasa Pulaga, and for the sustenance
of his life he should eat Manghu (ground ba-
dara). (12)

Those who interpret the marks of the body, and
dreams, and who know the foreboding changes in
the body (angavidya) l , are not to be called 6rama-
^as; thus the preceptors have declared. (13)

Those who do not take their life under discipline,
who cease from meditation and ascetic practices 2 ,
and who are desirous of pleasures, amusements, and
good fare, will be born again as Asuras. (14)

And when they rise (in another birth) from the
world of the Asuras, they err about, for a long time,
in the Sa^sara ; those whose souls are sullied by
many sins, will hardly ever attain Bodhi. (15)

And if somebody should give the whole earth to
one man, he would not have enough ; so difficult
is it to satisfy anybody. (16)

The more you get, the more you want ; your
desires increase with your means. Though two
mas has would do to supply your want, still you
would scarcely think ten millions sufficient. (17)

1 See the note on verse 17 of the Fifteenth Lecture.

2 Samadhiyoga^. Samadhi is concentration of the mind,
and the yogas are, in this connection, the operations (vyapara)
of mind, speech, and body conducive to it.

LECTURE IX. 35

Do not desire (women), those female demons *,
on whose breasts grow two lumps of flesh, who
continually change their mind, who entice men, and
then make a sport of them as of slaves. (18)

A houseless (monk) should not desire women,
he should turn away from females ; learning
thoroughly the Law, a monk should strictly keep
its rules. (19)

This Law has been taught by Kapila of pure
knowledge ; those who follow it, will be saved and
will gain both worlds. (20)

Thus I say.

NINTH LECTURE.

THE PRAVRAGYA OF KING NAMI 2 .

After (Nami) had descended from the world of
the gods, and had been born as a man, he put an
end to the influence of delusion, and remembered
his former birth, (i)

Remembering his former birth, king Nami

1 Rakshasis in the original.

2 The Life of king Nami and his Bodhi is told in the com
mentary. The Prakrz t text of this romance is printed in my
Ausgewahlte Erzahlungen in Maharash/ri, Leipzig, 1886, p. 41 ff.
Nami is one of the four simultaneous Pratyekabuddhas, i.e. one of
those saints who reach the highest stage of knowledge by an
effort of their own, not through regular instruction and religious
discipline. The Pratyekabuddhas or Svayawsawbuddhas (Sahasam-
buddha in Prakrz t) do not, however, propagate the true Law, as
the Tirthakaras do. As the legend of Nami is not materially
connected with our text, I need not give an abstract of it here.

D 2

36 UTTARADHYAYANA.

became a Svaya^sa^buddha in the true Law, and
placing his son on the throne he retired from the
world. (2)

After having enjoyed, in the company of the
beautiful ladies of his seraglio, excellent pleasures
which match those of the heavens, king Nami
became enlightened and gave up his pleasures. (3)

Having given up the town and country of Mithila,
his army, seraglio, and all his retinue, the venerable
man retired from the world and resorted to a lonely
place. (4)

When the royal Seer Nami retired from the
world, at the occasion of his Pravra^ya there was an
uproar in Mithila. (5)

To the royal Seer who had reached the excellent
stage of Pravra^ya, -Sakra in the guise of a Brahma^a
addressed the following words : (6)

1 Why is now Mithila l full of uproar ? Dreadful
noises are heard from palaces and houses. (7)

On hearing this, the royal Seer Nami, pursuing
his reasons and arguments, answered the king of the
gods thus : (8)

In Mithila is the sacred 2 tree Manorama, full of
leaves, flowers, and fruits, which sheds a cool
shadow ; this tree is always a favourite resort of
many (birds). (9)

1 The text has Mahila, which is against the metre. The
locative makes the construction needlessly involved.

2 ^eie, /aitya. The commentator interprets it as meaning
udyana, park; but to make good his interpretation he takes
vzkkh& for an instrumental plural instead of a nominative
singular. The context itself seems to militate against this
interpretation ; for it is natural to say of a tree that it has many
leaves, but it is rather strained to say the same of a park.

LECTURE IX. 37

Now, as this sacred tree Manorama is shaken by
the storm, the birds, suffering, destitute of refuge,
and miserable, scream aloud. (10)

On hearing this, the king of gods, pursuing his
reasons and arguments, answered the royal Seer
Nami thus : (n)

" This is fire and storm, your palace is on fire !
Reverend sir, why do you not look after your
seraglio?" (12)

Nami answered (see verse 8) : (13)

* Happy are we, happy live we who call nothing
our own ; when Mithila is on fire, nothing is burned
that belongs to me. (14)

To a monk who has left his sons and wives, and
who has ceased to act, nothing pleasant can occur,
nor anything unpleasant. (15)

1 There is much happiness for the sage, for the
houseless monk, who is free from all ties, and knows
himself to be single and unconnected (with the rest
of the world). (16)

Indra answered (see verse n) : (17)

" Erect a wall, gates, and battlements ; dig a
moat; construct sataghnis 1 : then you will be 2
a Kshattriya." (18)

Nami answered (see verse 8) : (19)

4 Making Faith his fortress, Penance and Self-control
the bolt (of its gate), Patience its strong wall, so
that guarded in three ways 3 it is impregnable;
making Zeal his bow, its string Carefulness in
walking (iriya), and its top (where the string is

1 An instrument for defending a town.

2 Ga//$asi. The commentator explains this as an imperative,
but there is no necessity for it.

3 Tigutta, this is a pun on the three guptis.

38 UTTARADHYAYANA.

fastened) Content, he should bend (this bow) with
Truth, piercing with the arrow, Penance, (the foe s)
mail, Karman (in this way) a sage will be the victor
in battle and get rid of the Sawsara. (20-22)

Indra answered (see verse n) : (23)

" Build palaces, excellent houses l , and turrets ;
thus you will be a Kshattriya." (24)

Nami answered (see verse 8) : (25)

He who builds his house on the road, will
certainly get into trouble ; wherever he wants to
go, there he may take up his lodgings/ (26)

Indra answered (see verse n) : (27)

" Punishing thieves and robbers, cut-purses and
burglars, you should establish public safety; thus
you will be a Kshattriya." (28)

Nami answered (see verse 8) : (29)

1 Men frequently apply punishment wrongly : the
innocent are put in prison, and the perpetrator of
the crime is set at liberty. (30)

Indra answered (see verse n) : (31)

" O king, bring into subjection all princes who do
not acknowledge you ; thus you will be a true
Kshattriya." (32)

Nami answered (see verse 8) : (33)

Though a man should conquer thousands and
thousands of valiant (foes), greater will be his
victory if he conquers nobody but himself. (34)

* Fight with your Self; why fight with external
foes ? He who conquers himself through himself,
will obtain happiness. (35)

* The five senses, anger, pride, delusion, and greed

1 Vardhamanagrz ha; the houses which are so called, belong
to the best kind, see Varaha Mihira, Br/ hat Sawhita 53, 36.

LECTURE IX. 39

difficult to conquer is one s self; but when that is
conquered, everything is conquered 1 . (36)

Indra answered (see verse n): (37)

" Offer great sacrifices, feed .Srama/zas and Brah-
ma^as, give alms, enjoy yourself, and offer sacrifices :
thus you will be a true Kshattriya." (38)

Nami answered : (39)

1 Though a man should give, every month, thou
sands and thousands of cows, better will be he who
controls himself, though he give no alms. (40)

Indra answered : (41)

"You have left the dreadful asrama (that of the
householder) 2 and are wanting to enter another;
(remain what you were), O king, and be content with
observing the Posaha-days." (42)

Nami answered : (43)

4 If an ignorant man should eat but a blade of
Kusa-grass every month, (the merit of his penance)
will not equal the sixteenth part of his who possesses
the Law as it has been taught. (44)

Indra answered : (45)

" Multiply your gold and silver, your jewels and

1 The first line of this verse is in the Aryd-metre, the second in
Anush/ubh ; the whole will not construe, but the meaning is clear.
There are numerous instances in which the metre changes in the
same stanza from Arya to Anush/ubh, and vice versa, so frequent
they are that we are forced to admit the fact that the authors of
these metrical texts did not shrink from taking such liberties.

2 Ghorasama. A aina author cannot forbear to name
things from his religious point of looking at them. Thus only can
it be explained that here Indra is made to apply to the a j ram a of
the householder an attribute which not he but his opponent could
have used. Our verse is, however, probably only a later addition,
as it has not the burden of the verses put into the mouth of
Indra.

4O UTTARADHYAYANA.

pearls, your copper, fine robes, and carriages, and
your treasury ; then you will be a true Kshat-
triya." (46)

Nami answered : (47)

If there were numberless mountains of gold
and silver, as big as Kailasa, they would not satisfy
a greedy man ; for his avidity is boundless like
space. (48)

Knowing that the earth with its crops of rice and
barley, with its gold and cattle, that all this put
together will not satisfy one single man, one should
practise austerities. (49)

Indra answered : (50)

" A miracle ! O king, you give up those wonderful
pleasures, in search of imaginary objects ; your very
hope will cause your ruin." (51)

Nami answered : (52)

4 Pleasures are the thorn that rankles, pleasures
are poison, pleasures are like a venomous snake ;
he who is desirous of pleasures will not get them,
and will come to a bad end at last. (53)

He will sink through anger; he will go down
through pride ; delusion will block up his path ;
through greed he will incur dangers in both
worlds/ (54)

Throwing off the guise of a Brahma^a, and making
visible his true form, 6akra saluted him respectfully
and praised him with these sweet words : (55)

" Bravo ! you have conquered anger ; bravo ! you
have vanquished pride ; bravo ! you have banished
delusion ; bravo ! you have subdued greed. (56)

" Bravo for your simplicity, O saint ! bravo for
your humility, O saint! bravo for your perfect
patience ! bravo for your perfect liberation ! (57)

LECTURE X. 41

" H ere (on earth) you are the highest man, Reverend
sir, and hereafter you will be the highest ; exempt
from all blemishes you will reach Perfection, a
higher state than which there is none in this
world." (58)

Thus praising the royal Seer, 6akra in perfect
faith kept his right side towards him and paid
reverence to him, again and again. (59)

After having adored the best sage s feet marked
by the ^Takra and the Arikusa 1 , he flew up
through the air, with his crown and his earrings
prettily trembling. (60)

Nami humbled himself; enjoined by .Sakra in
person, the king of Videha left the house, and took
upon him .Srama^ahood. (61)

Thus act the enlightened, the wise, the clever
ones ; they turn away from pleasures, as did
Nami, the royal Seer. (62)

Thus I say.

TENTH LECTURE 2 .

THE LEAF OF THE TREE.

As the fallow leaf of the tree falls to the ground,
when its days are gone, even so the life of men (will

1 The wheel and the hook.

2 This is a sermon delivered by Mahavira to his disciple Indra-
bhuti, who belonged to the Gotama G6tra. In the commentary
a lengthy legend is given how Gautama came to want this in
struction. As it is not necessary for understanding the contents
of this lecture, I may pass it over.

4 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

come to its close); Gautama, be careful all the
while! (i)

As a dew-drop dangling on the top of a blade of
Ku^a-grass lasts but a short time, even so the life
of men ; Gautama, be careful all the while ! (2)

As life is so fleet and existence so precarious,
wipe off the sins you ever committed; Gautama,
&c. (3)

A rare chance, in the long course of time, is
human birth for a living being ; hard are the con
sequences of actions ; Gautama, &c. (4)

When the soul has once got into an earth-body \
it may remain in the same state as long as an
Asa^khya 2 ; Gautama, &c. (5)

When the soul has once got into a water-body,
&c. (all as in verse 5). (6)

When a soul has once got into a fire-body, &c.
(all as in verse 5). (7)

When the soul has once got into a wind-body, &c.
(all as in verse 5). (8)

When the soul has once got into a vegetable-
body, it remains long in that state, for an endless
time, after which its lot is not much bettered 3 ;
Gautama, &c. (9)

When the soul has once got into a body of a
Dvindriya (i.e. a being possessing two organs of

1 Verses 5-9 treat of the 6k6ndriyas or beings which possess
but one organ of sense, that of touch. A full description of them
as well as of the dvindriyas, &c. is given in the last lecture.

2 The periods called asawkhya are measured by u tsar pi nis
and avasarpiwis which correspond to the kalpas of the Hindus,
but greatly exaggerated. An asawkhya is the longest time
(ukkosa/ra = utkarsha/rc) which a soul may be doomed to live
in earth-bodies ; see below, XXXVI, 8 1 ff.

3 This is, according to the commentary, the meaning of duranta.

LECTURE X. 43

sense), it may remain in the same state as long as
a period called sawkhyeya 1 ; Gautama, &c. (10)

When the soul has once got into a body of a
Trindriya (i.e. a being possessing three organs of
sense), it, &c. (all as in verse 10). (i i)

When the soul has once got into a body of a
A aturindriya (i.e. a being possessing four organs
of sense), it, &c. (all as in verse 10). (12)

When the soul has once got into a body of a
Pa/Z/e-endriya (i.e. a being possessing five organs of
sense), it may remain in the same state as long as
seven or eight births; Gautama, &c. (13)

When the soul has once got into the body of a
god or of a denizen of hell, it may remain in that
state one whole life; Gautama, &c. (14)

Thus the soul which suffers for its carelessness, is
driven about in the Sawsara by its good and bad
Karman ; Gautama, &c. (15)

Though one be born as a man, it is a rare chance
to become an Arya ; for many are the Dasyus and
Mle/^^as; Gautama, &c. (16)

Though one be born as an Arya, it is a rare
chance to possess all five organs of sense; for we
see many who lack one organ or other ; Gautama,
&c. ( I7 )

Though he may possess all five organs of sense,
still it is a rare chance to be instructed in the best
Law ; for people follow heretical teachers ; Gautama,
&c. (18)

Though he may have been instructed in the right
Law, still it is a rare chance to believe in it; for
many people are heretics ; Gautama, &c. (19)

1 A sa/rckhi^a, i.e. sawkhyeya, is a period which can be
measured by thousands of years.

44 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Though one believe in the Law, he will rarely
practise it ; for people are engrossed by pleasures ;
Gautama, &c. (20)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, the power of your ears decreases ; Gautama,
&c. (21)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, the power of your eyes decreases ; Gautama,
&c. (22)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, the power of your nose decreases. (23)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, the power of your tongue decreases. (24)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, the power of your touch decreases. (25)

When your body grows old, and your hair turns
white, all your powers decrease. (26)

Despondency, the king s evil, cholera, mortal
diseases of many kinds befall you ; your body wastes
and decays; Gautama, &c. (27)

Cast aside from you all attachments, as the
(leaves of) a lotus let drop off the autumnal 1 water,
exempt from every attachment, Gautama, be care
ful all the while ! (28)

Give up your wealth and your wife ; you have
entered the state of the houseless ; do not, as it
were, return to your vomit ; Gautama, &c. (29)

Leave your friends and relations, the large for
tune you have amassed ; do not desire them a
second time ; Gautama, &c. (30)

1 This attribute is here given to * water/ because in autumn the
water becomes pure, and even the purest water has no hold upon
the leaves of a lotus ; thus a saint should give up even the best and
dearest attachment.

LECTURE X. 45

There is now no Gina 1 , but there is a highly
esteemed guide to show the way ; now being
on the right path, Gautama, be careful all the
while! (31)

Now you have entered on the path from which
the thorns have been cleared, the great path ; walk
in the right path ; Gautama, &c. (32)

Do not get into an uneven road like a weak
burden-bearer ; for you will repent of it afterwards ;
Gautama, &c. (33)

You have crossed the great ocean ; why do you
halt so near the shore ? make haste to get on the
other side ; Gautama, &c. (34)

Going through the same religious practices as
perfected saints 2 , you will reach the world of per
fection, Gautama, where there is safety and perfect
happiness ; Gautama, &c. (35)

The enlightened 3 and liberated monk should con
trol himself, whether he be in a village or a town,
and he should preach to all 4 the road of peace;
Gautama, &c. (36)

Having heard the Buddha s 5 well-delivered

1 As this assertion cannot be put in the mouth of Mahavira, this
verse must be set down as a later addition or perhaps as a blunder
of the poet similar to that noted before, in IX, 42.

2 This seems, according to the commentary, to be the meaning
of the phrase akalevarase^im usiya. Akalevarasre^i is said
to mean as much as kshapakajrewi.

3 Buddha.

4 Buhae = vrz whayet; literally, propagate.

5 Here the word buddha is used as a title; but its use is very
restricted, scarcely going beyond that of a common epithet. This
is just what we otherwise should have to assume in order to explain
the use by the Bauddhas of that word to denote the founder of
their sect. In the Sutrakrz tahga II, 6, 28 Buddha, in the plural,
actually denotes the prophets of the Buddhists.

46 UTTARADHYAYANA.

sermon, adorned by illustrations, Gautama cut off
love and hatred and reached perfection. (37)
Thus I say.

ELEVENTH LECTURE.

THE VERY LEARNED.

I shall explain, in due order, the right discipline of
a houseless monk who has got rid of all worldly ties.
Listen to me. (i)

He who is ignorant of the truth, egoistical,
greedy, without self-discipline, and who talks loosely,
is called ill-behaved and void of learning. (2)

There are five causes which render wholesome
discipline impossible : egoism, delusion, carelessness,
illness, and idleness : (3)

For eight causes discipline is called virtue, viz. :
not to be fond of mirth, to control one s self, not to
speak evil of others, not to be without discipline, not
to be of wrong discipline, not to be covetous, not
to be choleric, to love the truth ; for their influence
discipline is called virtue. (4, 5)

A monk who is liable to the following fourteen
charges, is called ill-behaved, and does not reach
Nirvana: (6)

If he is frequently angry; if he perseveres in his
wrath ; if he spurns friendly advice ; if he is proud
of his learning ; if he finds fault with others ; if he is
angry even with friends ; if he speaks evil even of
a good friend behind his back ; if he is positive in
his assertions ; if he is malicious, egoistical, greedy,

LECTURE XI. 47

without self-discipline ; if he does not share with
others ; if he is always unkind : then he is called
ill-behaved. (7-9)

But for the following fifteen good qualities he is
called well-behaved : if he is always humble, steady,
free from deceit and curiosity; if he abuses nobody;
if he does not persevere in his wrath ; if he listens to
friendly advice ; if he is not proud of his learning ;
if he does not find fault with others ; if he is not
angry with friends ; if he speaks well even of a bad
friend behind his back ; if he abstains from quarrels
and rows ; if he is enlightened, polite, decent, and

quiet: then he is called well-behaved. (10-13)
He who always acknowledges his allegiance to

his teacher 1 , who has religious zeal and ardour for

study, who is kind in words and actions, deserves to

be instructed. (14)

As water put into a shell shines with a doubled

brilliancy, so do the piety, fame, and knowledge of

a very learned monk. (15)

As a trained Kambq^a-steed, whom no noise

frightens 2 , exceeds all other horses in speed, so

a very learned monk is superior to all others 3 . (16)
As a valiant hero bestriding a trained horse, with

heralds singing out to his right and left, (has no

equal) 4 , neither has a very learned monk. (17)

1 Literally, who always remains in his teacher s kula.

2 Kanthaka. The horse of Buddha is called Kanthaka ; our
passage shows that the word is not a proper noun, but an ap
pellative.

8 This is the burden of all verses down to verse 30.

4 I have supplied these words here and in the following verses.
The commentators try to do without them, and labour to point out
qualities of the monk, which correspond to the attributes of the
subject of the comparison.

48 UTTARADHYAYANA.

As a strong and irresistible elephant of sixty
years, surrounded by his females, (has no equal),
neither has a very learned monk. (18)

As a sharp-horned, strong-necked bullock, the
leader of the herd, is a fine sight, so is a very
learned monk. (19)

As a proud lion with sharp fangs, who brooks
no assault, is superior to all animals, so is a very
learned monk (superior to all men). (20)

As Vasudeva, the god with the conch, discus, and
club, who fights with an irresistible strength, (has
no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (21)

As a universal monarch with his fourfold army
and great power, the possessor of the fourteen
attributes of a king, (has no equal), neither has a very
learned monk. (22)

As 6akra the thousand-eyed, the wielder of the
thunderbolt, the fortress-destroyer, the king of gods,
(has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (23)

As the rising sun, the dispeller of darkness, who
burns as it were with light, (has no equal), neither
has a very learned monk. (24)

As the moon, the queen of the stars, surrounded
by the asterisms, when she is full at full-moon, (has
no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (25)

As a well-guarded storehouse of merchants,
which is filled with grain of many kinds, (has no
equal), neither has a very learned monk. (26)

As the best of ^ambu 1 trees, called Sudanrana,

1 Eugenia Jambu. According to the commentators the very
tree is meant from which (^ambudvipa took its name. They make
of the presiding (awa^iya) deity, the god Anadn ta. I am not
prepared to say that there is such a god as Anadrz ta. The name
looks suspicious. I think awa^iya is equal to a^Msthita.

LECTURE XI. 49

which is the abode of the presiding deity, (has no
equal), neither has a very learned monk. (27)

As the best of rivers, the ocean-flowing stream
Sita 1 with its dark waters, (has no equal), neither
has a very learned monk. (28)

As the best of hills, high mount Mandara, on
which various plants shed a bright lustre, (has no
equal), neither has a very learned monk. (29)

As the ocean of inexhaustible water, the delight
of Svayambhu 2 , which is full of precious things
of many kinds, (has no equal), neither has a very
learned monk. (30)

Monks who equal the ocean in depth, who are
difficult to overcome, are frightened by nobody
(or nothing), and are not easily assailed, who are full
of extensive learning and take care of themselves,
will go to the highest place, after their Karman has
been annihilated. (31)

Therefore, seeker after the highest truth, study
the sacred lore, in order to cause yourself and
others to attain perfection. (32)

Thus I say.

1 According to the cosmography of the &lt;2ainas the 6 ita is
a river which takes its rise in the Nila range and falls into the
Eastern ocean. The Nila is the fourth of the six parallel
mountain-barriers, the southernmost of which is the Himalaya.
(Trailokya Dipika, Umasvatis Tattvarthadhigama Sutra, &c.)

2 This epithet apparently refers to Visrmu s sleeping on the
ocean.

[45]

50 UTTARADHYAYANA.

TWELFTH LECTURE 1 .

HARIKE^A.

Harikesa-Bala was born in a family of ^vapakas
(A a^alas) ; he became a monk and a sage, pos
sessed of the highest virtues, who had subdued his
senses, (i)

He observed the rules with regard to walking,
begging, speaking, easing nature, and receiving and
keeping (of things necessary for a monk) 2 , controlled
himself, and was always attentive (to his duty). (2)

He protected from sin his thoughts, speech, and
body 3 , and subdued his senses.

1 The commentators relate a legend of the principal figure in
the following lecture. We may skip his former births and begin
with his last. Near the Ganges lived Balak6sh/#a, chief of
a A Wala tribe, called Harike^a (the yellow-haired). With his
wife Gauri he had a son Bala, who in the course of time became
a Gaina monk and a great /?zshi. On his wanderings he once
stayed in the Tinduga-grove near Benares, the presiding deity of
which, a Yaksha, became his most fervent follower. One day
Bhadra, king Kausalika s daughter, came to the Yaksha s shrine
and paid homage to the idol. But seeing the dirty monk, she
did not conceal her aversion. The Yaksha, however, to punish
her for her want of respect for the holy man, possessed her. As no
physician or conjurer could cure her madness, the Yaksha, by
whom she was possessed, said she would recover only if she were
offered as bride to Bala, the monk. The king agreeing, Bhadra
became sound as before and went to the monk to choose him for
her husband. Bala of course refused her. She was then married
by the king to his Purohita, Rudradeva, whose sacrifice-enclosure
is the scene of the occurrences related in the Twelfth Lecture.

2 These are the five Samitis. Compare Bhandarkar, Report on
the Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts for 1883-84, p. 98, note t.

3 These are the three Guptis. Compare Bhandarkar, loc. cit.
p. 100, note *.

LECTURE XII. 51

Once on his begging tour, he approached the
enclosure of a Brahmanical sacrifice. (3)

When (the priests) saw him coming up, emaciated
by austerities, in a miserable condition, and with
the poorest outfit, they laughed at him, the ruf
fians. (4)

Stuck up by pride of birth, those killers of
animals, who did not subdue their senses, the
unchaste sinners, made the following speech : (5)

Who is that dandy coming there ? he is swarthy,
dreadful, with a turned-up nose, miserably clad, a very
devil 1 of a dirty man, with a filthy cloth put on his
neck ? (6)

* Who are you, you monster ? or for what
purpose have you come here ? you miserably clad
devil of a dirty man ! go, get away ! why stand you
there? (7)

At this turn the Yaksha, who lived in the
Tinduka-tree, had compassion on the great sage,
and making his own body invisible spoke the fol
lowing words : (8)

"I am a chaste .Srama^a, controlling myself;
I have no property, nothing belonging to me, and
do not cook my food ; I have come for food which
is dressed for somebody else at the time when
I call. (9)

" You give away, eat, and consume plenty of food;
know that I subsist by begging ; let the mendicant
get what is left of the rest." (10)

4 The dinner has been prepared for Brahma^as, it
has been got ready especially for ourselves and for

1 Pija/a. A full description of a Pisa/fa is given in the
Uvasaga Dasao, 94 of Hoernle s edition.

E 2

5 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

us exclusively; we shall not give you such food and
drink ; why stand you there ? (i i)

" The husbandmen throw the corn on high ground
and on low ground 1 , hoping (for a return). For
the like motive give unto me ; I may be the field
which may produce merit (as the return for your
benevolence)." (12)

All the world knows that we are (as it were) the
field on which gifts sown grow up as merit ;
Brahma^as of pure birth and knowledge are the
blessed fields. (13)

" Those who are full of anger and pride, who kill,
lie, steal, and own property, are Brahmawas without
pure birth and knowledge; they are very bad
fields. (14)

" You are only the bearer of words as it were,
you do not understand their meaning, though you
have learned the Vedas. The saints call at high and
lowly (houses); they are the blessed fields." (15)

Detractor of the learned doctors, how dare you
speak thus in our presence ! This food and drink
should rather rot, than we should give it you,
NirgranthaV (16)

" If you do not give me what I ask for, I who
observe the Samitis, who am protected by the
Guptis 3 , who subdue my senses, what benefit, then,
will you gain by your sacrifices ? " (17)

Are here no Kshattriyas, no priests who tend
the fire, no teachers with their disciples, who will

1 This reminds one of the biblical parable of the sower.

2 The word Nirgrantha has here, besides its common meaning,
Gaina monk, another derived from its etymological meaning,
1 without any tie, without restraint/ i. e. shameless.

3 For Samiti and Gupti see notes 2 and 3 on p. 50.

LECTURE XII. 53

beat him with a stick, or pelt him with a nut, take
him by the neck, and drive him off? (18)

On these words of the teachers, many young
fellows rushed forward, and they all beat the sage
with sticks, canes, and whips. (19)

At that turn king Kausalika s daughter, Bhadra,
of faultless body, saw that the monk was beaten,
and appeased the angry youngsters. (20)

1 He is the very man to whom the king, impelled
by the devil (who possessed me), had given me,
but who would not think of me ; he is the sage
whom princes and gods adore, who has refused
me. (21)

1 He is that austere ascetic, of noble nature, who
subdues his senses and controls himself; the chaste
man, who would not accept me when my own father,
king Kausalika, gave me to him. (22)

4 He is the man of great fame and might, of
awful piety and power ; do not injure him who
cannot be injured, lest he consume you all by the
fire (of his virtue). (23)

When the Yakshas heard these well-spoken
words of (the Purohita s) wife Bhadra, they came to
the assistance of the sage, and kept the young men
off. (24)

Appearing in the air with hideous shapes, the
Asuras beat the people. When Bhadra saw them
with rent bodies spitting blood, she spoke again
thus: (25)

* You may as well dig rocks with your nails, or
eat iron with your teeth, or kick fire with your feet,
as treat contemptuously a monk. (26)

1 Like a poisonous snake is a great sage of severe
austerities, of tremendous piety and power ; like

54 UTTARADHYAYANA.

a swarm of moths you will rush into a fire, if you
beat a monk on his begging tour. (27)

* Prostrate yourself before him for protection, you
together with all of them, if you want to save your
life and your property ; for in his wrath he might
reduce the world to ashes. (28)

When the Brahma/za saw the disciples bowing
their back and head, and holding out their hands,
not minding their occupation ; with streaming eyes,
spitting blood, looking upwards, their eyes and
tongues protruding, like as many logs of wood, he
became heartbroken and dejected, and together
with his wife he appeased the sage : Forgive us
our injury and abuse, sir ! (29, 30)

Forgive, sir, these ignorant, stupid boys, that
they injured you ; sages are exceedingly gracious,
nor are the saints inclined to wrath. (31)

" There is not the least hatred in me, neither now,
nor before, nor in future. The Yakshas attend upon
me, therefore they have beaten the boys." (32)

* You know the truth and the Law ; you are not
angry, compassionate sage ; we take refuge at your
feet, we together with all of them. (33)

4 We worship you, mighty sir ; there is nothing in
you that we do not worship ; eat this dish of boiled
rice seasoned with many condiments. (34)

* I have got plenty of food ; eat it to do us a
favour ! The noble (monk) said yes, and took food
and drink after having fasted a whole month. (35)

At that moment the gods caused a rain of per
fumed water and flowers, and showered down
heavenly treasures ; they struck the drums, and in
the air they praised the gift. (36)

The value of penance has become visible, birth

LECTURE XII. 55

appears of no value ! Look at the holy Harike^a, the
son of a 6vapaka, whose power is so great/ (37)

" O Brahma?zas, why do you tend the fire, and
seek external purity by water ? The clever ones
say that external purity which you seek for, is not
the right thing. (38)

" You (use) Ku^a-grass, sacrificial poles, straw
and wood, you touch water in the evening and in
the morning ; thereby you injure living beings, and
in your ignorance you commit sins again and
again." (39)

1 How should we sacrifice, O monk, and how
avoid sinful actions ? Tell us, ascetic, whom the
Yakshas hold in honour, what do the clever ones
declare to be the right method of sacrificing ? (40)

" Doing no injury to living beings of the six
orders, abstaining from lying and from taking what
is not freely given, renouncing property, women,
pride, and deceit, men should live under self-
restraint. (41)

" He who is well protected by the five Sa;^varas ]
and is not attached to this life, who abandons his
body 2 , who is pure and does not care for his body,
wins the great victory, the best of offerings." (42)

Where is your fire, your fireplace, your sacri
ficial ladle ? where the dried cowdung (used as
fuel) ? Without these things, what kind of priests
can the monks be ? What oblations do you offer to
the fire? (43)

1 Samvara is preventing, by means of the Samitis and Guptis, the
asrava, or flowing in of the Karman upon the soul. Bhandarkar,
loc. cit. p. 106.

2 This is the Kayotsarga, the posture of a man standing with all
his limbs immovable, by which he fortifies himself against sins, &c.

56 UTTARADHYAYANA.

" Penance is my fire ; life my fireplace ; right
exertion is my sacrificial ladle ; the body the dried
cowdung ; Karman is my fuel ; self-control, right
exertion, and tranquillity are the oblations, praised
by the sages, which I offer." (44)

* Where is your pond, and where the holy bathing-
place ? how do you make your ablutions or get rid
of impurity ? Tell us, O restrained monk whom the
Yakshas hold in honour ; we desire to learn it from

yu. (45)

" The Law is my pond, celibacy my holy bathing-
place, which is not turbid, and throughout clear
for the soul 1 ; there I make ablutions; pure, clean,
and thoroughly cooled I get rid of hatred 2 (or
impurity). (46)

" The clever ones have discovered such bathing,
it is the great bath praised by the seers, in which
the great seers bathe, and, pure and clean, they
obtain the highest place." (47)

Thus I say.

THIRTEENTH LECTURE.

iTITRA AND SAMBHIJTA 3 .

Being contemptuously treated for the sake of his
birth (as a A a/ztfala) Sambhuta took, in Hastinapura,

1 Attapasannalesa = atmaprasannalejya, in which the
Le,?ya is favourable for the soul/ The Lejya is comparable to
the subtile body of the orthodox philosophy. The theory of the
Le\yya forms the subject of the Thirty-fourth Lecture.

2 Dosa, which means hatred (dvesha) and impurity (dosha).

3 The stories about -ATitra and Sambhuta and the fate they

LECTURE XIII. 57

the sinful resolution (to become a universal monarch
in some later birth) ; descending from the heavenly
region Padmagulma, he was born of A ulani in
Kampilya as Brahmadatta ; ATitra, however, was
born in the town Purimatala in the great family of
a merchant ; when he had heard the Law, he entered
the order, (i, 2)

In the town Kampilya, both Sambhuta and A"itra
(as they were called in a former birth) met again
and told each other the reward they had realised
for their good and bad actions. (3)

The universal monarch Brahmadatta, the power
ful and glorious king, respectfully addressed the
following words to him (who had been) his brother
(in a former birth) : (4)

We were brothers once, kind to each other,
loving each other, wishing well to each other. (5)

We were slaves in the country of the Da^ar^as,
then antelopes on mount Kala^ara, then geese on
the shore of Mrztaganga, and 6vapakas in the land
ofKlsi. (6)

1 And we were gods having great power, in the
regions of the gods. This is our sixth birth, in
which we are separated from each other/ (7)

" Karman is produced by sinful thoughts, and you
have entertained them, O king ; it is by the influ
ence of this Karman that we were separated." (8)

underwent in many births are common to Brahmans, (^ainas, and
Buddhists. The whole subject has been exhaustively dealt with
by Prof. Leumann in two learned papers in the Wiener Zeitschrift
fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. v, pp. i ff., 1 1 1 ff., where
an
analysis of the various documents which relate this legend is given,
and the Prak/Yt text of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Lectures
together with a German translation is published. For all details,
therefore, the reader is referred to Prof. Leumann s papers.

58 UTTARADHYAYANA.

1 had done actions derived from truth and
purity, and now I enjoy their effect ; is this also
true in your case, A itra ? (9)

" Every good deed will bear its fruit to men ;
there is no escape from the effect of one s actions.
Through riches and the highest pleasures my soul
has got the reward for its virtues. (10)

" Know, Sambhuta, that you have got the reward
of your virtues in the shape of great wealth and
prosperity ; but know, O king, that is just so
with A^itra ; he also obtained prosperity and splen
dour, (u)

" A song of deep meaning condensed in words
has been repeated in the midst of a crowd of men,
(having heard) which monks of piety and virtues
exert themselves in this (religion) : I have become
a Sra.ma.na." (12)

Renowned are my beautiful palaces U//a,
Udaya, Madhu, Karka, and Brahman : this house,
full of treasures and containing the finest products
of the Pa^alas, O Altra 1 , regard it as your
own! (13)

1 Surround yourself with women who dance, and
sing, and make music ; enjoy these pleasures,
O monk; I deem renunciation a hard thing. (14)

As the virtuous Altra, for old friendship s sake,
loved the king who was attached to sensual
pleasures, and as he had at heart his welfare, he
spoke to him the following words : (15)

" All singing is but prattle, all dancing is but

1 The commentator constructs ATitra with dhawappabhuya :
full of manifold treasures; but Prof. Leumann is probably right
in taking it as a vocative.

LECTURE XIII. 59

mocking, all ornaments are but a burden, all
pleasures produce but pains. (16)

" O king, pleasures which the ignorant like, but
which produce pains, do not delight pious monks
who care not for pleasure, but are intent on the
virtues of right conduct. (17)

" Excellent king, the lowest caste of men is that
of the .5vapakas, to which we twice belonged ; as
such we were loathed by all people, and we lived in
the hamlets of .SVapakas. ( 1 8)

" In that miserable birth we lived in the hamlets
of 6vapakas, detested by all people ; then we
acquired the Karman (the fruit of which we now
enjoy). (19)

" You are now a king of great power and pros
perity, enjoying the reward of your good actions ;
put from you the transitory pleasures, and enter the
order for the sake of the highest good l ! (20)

"He who in this life has done no good actions
and has not practised the Law, repents of it in
the next world when he has become a prey to
Death. (21)

" As a lion takes hold of an antelope, so Death
leads off a man in his last hour ; neither mother, nor
father, nor brother will, at that time, save a particle
(of his life). (22)

" Neither his kinsmen, nor his friends, nor his
sons, nor his relations will share his suffering, he
alone has to bear it ; for the Karman follows the
doer. (23)

" Leaving behind bipeds and quadrupeds, his
fields, his house, his wealth, his corn, and everything;

1 Adana, explained /fcaritradharma.

6O UTTARADHYAYANA.

against his will, and accompanied only by his
Karman 1 , he enters a new existence, either a good
or a bad one. (24)

" When they have burned with fire on the funeral
pile his forlorn, helpless corpse, his wife and sons
and kinsfolk will choose another man to provide for
them. (25)

"Life drags on (towards death) continuously 2 ;
old age carries off the vigour of man. King of
the Pa^alas, mark my words : do no fearful
actions." (26)

* I, too, know just as well as you, O saint, what
you have told me in your speech : pleasures will
get a hold on men and are not easily abandoned by
such as we are, sir. (27)

O A itra, in Hastinapura 3 I saw the powerful
king (Sanatkumara), and I took that sinful resolution
in my desire for sensual pleasures. (28)

f And since I did not repent of it, this has come
of it, that I still long for sensual pleasures, though
I know the Law. (29)

* As an elephant, sinking down in a quagmire,

1 This might be translated, as Professor Leumann suggests:
possessing Karman as the germ (of his future destiny) ; still
I prefer the meaning vouched for by the commentators, because
karmabi^-a generally means the germ, i.e. cause of Karman,
see below, Thirty-second Lecture, verse 7.

2 See Professor Leumann s remarks on this verse, I.e., p. i37f.

3 When Sunanda, wife of Sanatkumara, paid homage to Sam-
bhuta, then a aina monk, and touched his feet with the curls of
her soft hair, he was possessed by the desire to become a universal
monarch in reward for his penances. This is the nidana of
which the text speaks, and what I render in this connection by
taking a resolution. For the story itself, see my Ausgewahlte
Erzahlungen in Maharash/ri, p. 5 f.

LECTURE XIV. 6 1

sees the raised ground but does not get to the
shore, so do we who long for sensual pleasures, not
follow the path of monks. (30)

Time elapses and quickly pass the days ; the
pleasures of men are not permanent ; they come to
a man and leave him just as a bird leaves a tree void
of fruit. (31)

" If you are unable to abandon pleasure, then do
noble actions, O king ; following the Law, have
compassion on all creatures : then you will become
a god on entering a new existence. (32)

" If you have no intention of abandoning plea
sure, and still long for undertakings and property,
my long talk has been to no purpose. I go, king,
farewell." (33)

And Brahmadatta, king of the Paalas, did not
act on the counsel of the saint; he enjoyed the
highest pleasure, and (afterwards) sank into the
deepest hell. (34)

But Altra the great sage, of excellent conduct
and penance, was indifferent to pleasure ; after he
had practised the highest self-control, he reached
the highest place of perfection. (35)

Thus I say.

FOURTEENTH LECTURE.

ISHUKARA.

Having been gods in a former existence and
lived in the same heavenly region, some were born
(here below) in the ancient, wealthy, and famous

62 UTTARADHYAYANA.

town called Ishukara 1 , which is beautiful like
heaven, (i)

By a remnant of the merit they had acquired in
their former life, they were born in noble families.
Disgusted with the world and afraid of the Sa^sara,
they abandoned (pleasures, &c.) and took refuge in
the path of the rinas. (2)

Two males remained bachelors, (the third became)
the Purohita (Bhrzgu), (the fourth) his wife Yasa,
(the fifth) the widely-famed king Ishukara, and
(the sixth) his wife Kamalavati. (3)

Overcome by fear of birth, old age, and death,
their mind intent on pilgrimage, and hoping to escape
the Wheel of Births, they examined pleasures and
abandoned them. (4)

Both dear sons of the Brahmanical Purohita,
who was intent on works, remembered their former
birth, and the penance and self-control they had then
practised. (5)

Averse to human and heavenly pleasures, desiring
liberation, and full of faith, they went to their father
and spoke thus : (6)

Seeing that the lot of man is transitory and
precarious, and that his life lasts not long, we take
no delight in domestic life ; we bid you farewell :
we shall turn monks/ (7)

In order to dissuade them from a life of aus
terities, the father replied to those (would-be)
monks : Those versed in the Vedas say that there
will be no better world for men without sons. (8)

My sons, after you have studied the Vedas, and
fed the priests, after you have placed your own sons

1 In Prakrz t Usuyara (or Isuyara). According to the Prakrz t
legend given in the commentary it was in the Kuril country.

LECTURE XIV. 63

at the head of your house, and after you have
enjoyed life together with your wives, then you may
depart to the woods as praiseworthy sages. (9)

The young men perceiving that the Purohita was
wholly consumed, as it were, by the fire of grief,
which was fed by his individual inclinations and
blown into a huge flame by the wind of delusion ;
that he suffered much and talked a great deal in
many ways ; that he tried to persuade them by
degrees, and that he would even bribe them with
money and with objects of desire, (spoke) these
words : (10, 1 1)

" The study of the Vedas will not save you ; the
feeding of Brahma^as will lead you from darkness
to darkness, and the birth of sons will not save you.
Who will assent to what you said ? (12)

" Pleasures bring only a moment s happiness, but
suffering for a very long time, intense suffering, but
slight happiness ; they are an obstacle to the
liberation from existence, and are a very mine of
evils. (13)

" While a man walks about without abandoning
pleasures, and grieves day and night, while he is
anxious about other people, and seeks for wealth,
he comes to old age and death. (14)

" I have this, and I have not that ; I must do
this, and I should not do that ! While he talks in
this strain, the robbers (viz. time) drag him away.
What foolishness is this!" (15)

Great wealth and women, a family and exquisite
pleasures : for such things people practise austerities.
All this you may have for your asking. (16)

"What avail riches for the practice of religion,
what a family, what pleasures ? We shall become

64 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Srama/zas, possessed of many virtues, and wander
about collecting alms." (17)

As fire is produced in the Aram-wood, as butter
in milk, and oil in sesamum seed, so, my sons, is the
soul l produced in the body ; (all these things) did
not exist before, they came into existence, and then
they perish ; but they are not permanent. (18)

" (The soul) cannot be apprehended by the senses,
because it possesses no corporeal form 2 , and since it
possesses no corporeal form it is eternal. The fetter
of the soul has been ascertained to be caused by its
bad qualities, and this fetter is called the cause of
worldly existence. (19)

" Thus being ignorant of the Law, we formerly
did sinful actions, and through our wrong-minded-
ness we were kept back and retained (from entering
the order). We shall not again act in the same
way. (20)

" As mankind is harassed (by the one), and taken
hold of (by the other), and as the unfailing ones
go by, we take no delight in the life of a house
holder." (21)

* Who harasses the world ? who takes hold of it ?

1 Satta in the original; it is rendered sattva by the commen
tators. Perhaps satta is the Prakrz t for s vat ma; at any rate,
the context of the next verse proves that soul is intended.

* Amurta. In later philosophy murtatva is defined as the
possessing of definite and limited form (pari/^innaparima-
avattvam)or the possessing of action (kriyavattvam or vega-
vattvam). Amurta dravya are with the VaLreshikas : the air
(aka-ra), time, space, and Atman. These are also called
nityadravya. Amurta is here apparently synonymous with
arupin, formless, compare XXXVI, 4, where dharma, adharma,
aka^a, and kala are enumerated as the formless things without
life.

LECTURE XIV. 65

whom do you call unfailing ? My sons, I am
anxious to learn this. (22)

" Mankind is harassed by Death ; it is taken hold
of by Old Age ; the days 1 are called unfailing : know
this, Father! (23)

" The day that goes by will never return ; the
days elapse without profit to him who acts contrary
to the Law. (24)

" The day that goes by will never return ; the
days elapse with much profit to him who acts up to
the Law." (25)

Having lived together in one place, and both
parties 2 having acquired righteousness, we shall,
O my sons, afterwards go forth (as monks) and beg
alms from house to house. (26)

"He who can call Death his friend, or who can
escape him, or who knows that he will not die,
might perhaps decide : this shall be done to
morrow. (27)

" We will even now adopt the Law, after the
adoption of which we shall not be born again. The
future has nothing in store for us (which we have not
experienced already). Faith will enable us to put
aside attachment." (28)

(Bhrz gu speaks to his wife Vasish///i.) Domestic

1 Literally, the nights. It seems to have been the custom at
the time when the Sutras were composed, to reckon the time by
nights, though the reckoning by days is not quite uninstanced
in the Sutras.

2 This is the explanation of duhao by the commentators, who
apparently think that the parents and the sons are meant. The
word in question is originally an adverb, but it is also (cf.
Thirteenth Lecture, verse 18) taken by the commentator as
a numeral, and rendered dvayo& A genitive of the dual occurs
in XIX, 90.

[45] F

66 UTTARADHYAYANA.

life ceases (to have attraction) for one who has lost
his sons ; Vasish/^i, the time has arrived for me to
turn mendicant friar. As long as a tree retains its
branches, it is really a tree ; when they are lopped
off, it is called a trunk. (29)

As a bird without its wings, as a king in battle
without his followers, as a merchant on a boat with
out his goods, even so am I without my sons. (30)

" You have brought together all these objects
of desire, and have collected many exquisitely
pleasant things. Let us, therefore, fully enjoy the
pleasures ; afterwards we shall go forth on the road
of salvation." (31)

We have finished enjoying pleasures, my dear ;
our life is drawing to its close. I do not abandon
pleasures for the sake of an unholy life ; but looking
with indifference on gain and loss, on happiness and
suffering, I shall lead the life of a monk. (32)

" May you not remember your brothers (when it
is too late) like an old goose swimming against the
current. Enjoy the pleasures together with me.
A mendicant s life is misery." (33)

My dear, as a snake casts off the slough of its
body and goes along free and easy, even so have my
sons abandoned pleasure. Why should I, being left
alone, not follow them ? (34)

As the fish Rohita 1 breaks through a weak net,
even so wise men of exemplary character and famous
for their austerities abandon pleasure and live as
mendicants. (35)

" As the herons fly through the air and the geese
too, who had rent the net, even so my sons and

1 Cyprinus Rohita.

LECTURE XIV. 67

my husband depart. Why should I, being left alone,
not follow them ?" (36)

When the queen had heard that the Purohita with
his wife and sons had entered the order, abandoning
pleasures and all his large property, she spoke to the
king: (37)

A man who returns, as it were, to the vomit, is
not praised ; but you want to confiscate 1 the property
left by the Brahma^a. (38)

4 If the whole world and all treasures were yours,
you would still not be satisfied, nor would all this be
able to save you. (39)

4 Whenever you die, O king, and leave all pleasant
things behind, the Law alone, and nothing else in
this world, will save you, O monarch. (40)

4 As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I (dislike the
world). I shall live as a nun, without offspring, poor,
upright, without desire, without love of gain, and
without hatred. (41)

4 As when by a conflagration of a forest animals
are burned, other beasts greatly rejoice, being under
the influence of love and hate ; even so we, fools that
we are, being attached to pleasure, do not perceive
that the world is consumed by the fire of love and
hatred. (42, 43)

4 Those who have enjoyed pleasures, and have
renounced them, move about like the wind, and go
wherever they please, like the birds unchecked in
their flight. (44)

4 When they 2 are caught, and held by my hand,

1 It was considered a privilege of the king to confiscate the
property of a man who had no heir ; compare Gautama XXVIII, 42,
VasishMa XVII, 83-86, &c.

2 This apparently refers to the birds mentioned in the last verse.

F 2

68 UTTARADHYAYANA.

sir, they struggle ; we shall be like them, if we are
attached to pleasures. (45)

As an unbaited (bird) 1 sees a baited one caught
in the snare, even so shall we avoid every bait and
walk about, not baited by. anything. (46)

Being aware that pleasures are causes for the
continuance of worldly existence, as illustrated in
(the above) similes of the greedy man, one should
be cautious and stir as little as possible, like a snake
in the presence of Supar/za. (47)

Like an elephant who has broken his fetters, go
to your proper destination. O great king Ishukari ;
this is the wholesome truth I have learned. (48)

Leave your large kingdom and the pleasures
which are so dear to all ; abandon what pleases the
senses, and what attracts ; be without attachment
and property ; learn thoroughly the Law and give up
all amusements ; then practise famous and severe
penance, being of firm energy V (49, 50)

The commentators labour to interpret them as pleasures/ but that
will not make good sense.

1 Kulala in the original. Ku la la in Sanskrit denotes the wild
cock, Phasianus Callus. The word seems to be derived from
ku lay a by assimilation of the y to the preceding consonant, compare
salila for saliya = sarita = sarit. In the sense of bird the
word kulala seems to be used in the well-known stanza of
Bhartr/hari : brahma yena kulalavan niyamito brahma^abha^o-
dare, unless here kulala is an early corruption for kulayin.

2 The commentators assign these verses to the two sons of Bhr/gu;
but then the verses do not construe. Besides the mention of
the ( large kingdom in the first line seems to prove that the king,
and not the Brahmans, is to be understood as the person addressed.
In the last line I separate pagi^g-^aha kkhayaw (scil. tavaw),
instead of pagiggk* ariakkhaya/w. It is, however, just possible
that the next verse is to be connected with the preceding ones ; in
that case, we must read pagi^/^* and interpret it in conformity
with the scholiast as a gerund.

LECTURE XV. 69

In this way all (these) professors of the Law
gradually obtained enlightenment, being frightened
by birth and death, and seeking for the end of
misery. (51)

Their doubts about the true doctrine were
dispersed, and they realised the Bhavanas l ; in
a short time they reached the end of misery. (52)

The king and the queen, the Brahmanical Puro-
hita, his wife, and his sons, they all reached per
fection. (53)

Thus I say.

FIFTEENTH LECTURE.

THE TRUE MONK 2 .

He who adopts the Law in the intention to live
as a monk, should live in company (with other
monks), upright, and free from desire ; he should
abandon his former connections, and not longing for
pleasures, he should wander about as an unknown
beggar : then he is a true monk, (i)

Free from love he should live, a model of

1 The bhavanas are certain meditations which are conducive
to the purity of the soul. They are treated at length in a work by
Hema&mdra, called Bhavabhavana, which seems to be rather
popular with the Svetambaras. The Digambaras seem to call
them Anuprekshas. A work in Prakrz t by Subha/Sandra, called
Karttikeyanupreksha, is epitomised in Bhandarkar s Report for
1883-84, p. u 3 ff.

2 The name of this lecture, sa bhikkhu, is denved from the
burden which runs through the whole of it and winds up every
verse.

7O UTTARADHYAYANA.

righteousness *, abstaining from sins, versed in the
sacred lore, protecting his soul (from every wrong),
wise, hardy, observing everything; he who is attached
to nothing, is a true monk. (2)

Ignorant of abuse and injury, a steadfast monk
should be a model of righteousness, always pro
tecting his soul (from sins), neither rash nor pas
sionate ; when he endures everything, then he is a
true monk. (3)

He who is content with lowly beds and lodgings,
bears heat and cold, flies and gnats, is neither rash
nor passionate, and endures everything, he is a true
monk. (4)

He does not expect respectful treatment, nor
hospitality, nor reverence, nor, indeed, praises ;
he controls himself, keeps the vows, practises
austerities, lives together with other monks, medi
tates on his soul ; this is a true monk. (5)

If he does not care for his life, or abandons
every delusion, if he avoids men and women, always
practises austerities, and does not betray any curiosity,
then he is a true monk. (6)

He who does not profess and live on divination
from cuts and shreds 2 , from sounds on the earth or
in the air, from dreams, from diagrams, sticks, and

, explained sadawush/Mnataya pradhana^.
is also the name of a country in western Bengal, inhabited, at
Mahavira s time, by uncivilised tribes, see part i, p. 84, note i.
The etymology of both words is doubtful.

2 Compare the note on p. 161 of part i. The fist chapter of
Varaha Mihira s Erihat Sawhita treats ofvastra/^^eda, rents, &c.
of clothes; the 5ist, of ahgavidya, forebodings from the body;
and the 53rd, of vastuvidya, property of buildings ; chapters 88,
90, and 95 are devoted to the forebodings from the cries of birds,
female jackals, and crows.

http://www.archive.org/stream/sacredbookseast17mulluoft/sacredbookseast17mulluoft_djvu.txt

[Sid Harth]

LECTURE XV. 71

properties of buildings, from changes in the body,
from the meaning 1 of the cries (of animals) he is
a true monk. (7)

Spells, roots, every kind of medical treatment,
emetics, purgatives, fumigation, anointing of the
eye, and bathing, the patient s lamentation, and his
consolation he who abstains from all these things,
is a true monk. (8)

He who does not praise, or pay attention to, the
warriors, Ugras 2 , princes, Brahma//as, Bhogas, and
artists of all sorts, who abstains from this, he is a
true monk. (9)

He who does not, for earthly gain, improve his
acquaintance with householders, with whom he fell
in as a monk, or was in friendly relation before that
time, he is a true monk. (10)

A Nirgrantha is forbidden to take from house
holders, if they do not give it themselves, bed, lodging,

1 A conjectural rendering of vi^aya, which cannot be taken in
its ordinary meaning victory/ The commentary explains it su-
bhajubhanirupawabhyasa/^. Notice the absence of astrology
from the above list of prophetical arts practised by strolling friars
apparently to insinuate themselves into the good graces of laymen
and women. If Greek nativity had already risen to importance, it
certainly would have been mentioned. For it has ever since held
a firm hold on the Hindu mind. This remark also applies to
XX, 45. But in Sutrakrz tahga I, 12, 9, astrology (sawvaK /ara)
is mentioned ; it is, however, the ancient astrology of the Hindus,
not the Greek one.

2 The Ugras and Bhogas were Kshattriyas. The former were,
according to the Gainas, descendants of those whom Jfr shabha, the
first Tirthakara, appointed to the office of ko/wals or prefects
of towns, while the Bhogas were descendants from those whom
^z shabha acknowledged as persons deserving of honour. Comp.
Hoernle, Uvasaga Dasao, Appendix, p. 58, and my edition of the
Kalpa Sutra, p. 103, note on 18.

72 UTTARADHYAYANA.

drink, food, or any dainties and spices ; he who is
not angry at such occasions, he is a true monk, (i i)

If a monk gets any food and drink, or dainties
and spices, and does not feel compassion (on a
sick fellow-monk) in thoughts, words, and deeds,
(then he is not a true monk) 1 ; but if he has his
thoughts, words, and acts under strict discipline,
then he is a true monk. (12)

Dish-water 2 , barley-pap, cold sour gruel 3 , water
in which barley has been washed : such loathsome
food and drink he should not despise, but call at
the lowliest houses (for alms) ; then he is a true
monk. (13)

There are many voices on the earth, of gods, of
men, and of beasts, dreadful, frightful, and awful
noises ; if he hears them without trembling, then he
is a true monk. (14)

He who understands all religious disputations,
[who lives together with fellow-monks] 4 , who prac
tises self-discipline 5 , who meditates on his soul,
who is wise, hardy, and observes everything, who

1 The commentators supply these words; something to that
purport is wanted to make out a consistent meaning, but there is
not so much as a hint of it in the text itself. As it stands now,
the meaning would be just the opposite of that given in the
translation, which is in better accordance with the established
custom.

2 Ayamaga, it is rendered aMmaka in Sanskrit, and explained
avajravawa, i.e. avasravawa. See also Leumann, Aupapatika
Sutra, Glossar s.v.

3 Sauvira, explained ka/z^ika, the water of boiled rice in
a state of spontaneous fermentation.

4 This is a later addition, proved to be such by the metre,
though the commentators comment upon it.

5 Kheya^ugae. The commentators explain kh6da by
sawyama.

LECTURE XVI. 73

is calm, and does not hurt anybody, he is a true
monk. (15)

He who, not living by any art, without house,
without friends, subduing his senses, free from all
ties, sinless, and eating but little, leaves the house
and lives single, he is a true monk. (16)

Thus I say.

SIXTEENTH LECTURE.

THE TEN CONDITIONS OF PERFECT CHASTITY.

long-lived (ambusvamin)! I (Sudharman) have
heard the following Discourse from the Venerable
(Mahavlra) :

Here 1 , indeed, the venerable Sthaviras have
declared ten conditions for the realisation of celibacy,
by hearing and understanding which the monks will
reach a high degree of self-discipline, of Sa^vara 2 ,
and of contemplation, will be well protected, (by the
three Guptis), will guard their senses, guard their
chastity, and will thus never be remiss (in the
attendance on their religious duties).

What, then, are those ten conditions for the
realisation of celibacy as declared by the venerable
Sthaviras, by hearing and understanding which the
monks will reach a high degree of self-discipline, of

1 The word * here is explained as meaning in this religion
of the Gainas. See p. 8, note 5.

2 Sawvara is the stopping of the asravas by means of the
Samitis and Guptis, see above, p. 55, note i.

74 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Sa^vara, and of contemplation, will be well pro
tected (by the three Guptis), will guard their senses,
guard their chastity, and will thus never be remiss
(in the attendance on their religious duties) ?

These, then, are the ten conditions for the
realisation of celibacy, &c. (all down to) duties.

1. A Nirgrantha may occupy various places for
sleep or rest 1 ; but a Nirgrantha should not occupy
places, for sleep or rest, frequented by women,
cattle, or eunuchs. The preceptor has explained
the reason for this. If a Nirgrantha occupies places
for sleep or rest, frequented by women, cattle, or
eunuchs, then, though he be chaste, there may arise
a doubt with regard to his chastity, or a sensual
desire, or a feeling of remorse, or he will break the
rules, or he will become a slave to passion, or he
will acquire a dangerous illness of long duration, or
he will desert the faith which the Kevalin has
proclaimed. Therefore a Nirgrantha should not
occupy places, for sleep or rest, frequented by women,
cattle, or eunuchs.

2. A Nirgrantha should not converse with
women 2 . The preceptor has explained the reason
for this. If a Nirgrantha converses with women,
&c. (all as above).

3. A Nirgrantha should not sit together with
women on the same seat. The preceptor has
explained the reason for this. If a Nirgrantha
sits on the same seat with women, &c. (all as
above).

Literally, beds and seats.
2 This might also be rendered: he should not talk about

women.

LECTURE XVI.

75

4. A Nirgrantha should not look at, or contem
plate, the charms and beauties of women. (The rest
similar as above.)

5. A Nirgrantha should not, behind a screen,
or curtain, or wall, listen to the screeching or scream
ing or singing or laughing or giggling or crying
of women. (The rest similar as above.)

6. A Nirgrantha should not recall to his memory
the pleasure and amusements which in the past
he enjoyed together with women. (The rest similar
as above.)

7. A Nirgrantha should not eat well-dressed food.
(The rest similar as above.)

8. A Nirgrantha should not eat or drink to excess.
(The rest similar as above.)

9. A Nirgrantha should not wear ornaments.
The preceptor has explained the reason for this.
If he wears ornaments, or adorns his body, he might
become an object of desire to women. When he is
an object of desire to women, then, &c. (the rest
as in i).

10. A Nirgrantha should not care for sounds,
colours, tastes, smells, and feelings. (The rest
similar as above.)

Here are some verses (to the same effect) 1 :
A monk should take up a detached lodging, free

from, and not frequented by women, to preserve his

chastity, (i)

A chaste monk should avoid talking with women,

which delights the mind and foments love and

passion. (2)

1 The preceding part of this lecture is in prose.

76 UTTARADHYAYANA.

A chaste monk should always avoid the company
of, and frequent conversation with women. (3)

A chaste monk should avoid observing the body,
limbs, and figure of women, their pleasant prattle
and oglings. (4)

A chaste monk should avoid listening to the
screeching, screaming, singing, laughing, giggling,
and crying of women. (5)

A chaste monk should never recall to his mind
how he had laughed and played with women, and
had enjoyed them, how they became jealous, and
what tricks he played to frighten them. (6)

A chaste monk should always avoid well-dressed
food and drink which will soon raise his sensuality. (7)

A chaste monk should always eat his food, col
lected according to the rules, for the sustenance
of life, in the prescribed quantity, and at the right
time; concentrated in his thoughts he should not
eat to excess. (8)

A chaste monk should abstain from ornaments,
he should not adorn his body after the fashion of
amorous people. (9)

He should always abstain from the five orders of
pleasant things : sounds, colours, smells, tastes, and
feelings of touch. (10)

A lodging frequented by women, their pleasant
talk, their company, and looking at their charms; (i i)

Their screeching, screaming, singing, and laugh
ing, eating and sleeping together with them ; well-
dressed food and drink, or partaking of them to
excess ; (12)

And ornaments and finery 1 : these pleasant things,

J \tth^m a, i. e. ish/aw ^a. The commentators connect the

LECTURE XVII. 77

which are hard to leave, are like the poison Tala-
pu/a 1 , for a man who seeks after the true Self. ( 1 3)

He should, once for all, abandon pleasant things
which are hard to leave ; and concentrated in his
thoughts he should avoid whatever casts a doubt
on his chastity. (14)

A monk should be the steadfast charioteer, as it
were, of the Law in the park of the Law 2 , a vessel
of righteousness, content, restrained, attentive to
the duties of a chaste monk. (15)

The gods, Danavas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Ra-
kshasas, and Kinnaras pay homage to a chaste monk
who performs his difficult duties. (16)

This unchangeable, permanent, and eternal Law
has been proclaimed by the G mas ; through it the
Siddhas have reached perfection, and others will
reach it. (17)

Thus I say.

SEVENTEENTH LECTURE.

THE BAD SRAM AN A.

A Nirgrantha who has entered the order, who
has learned the Law, who has received religious

words with the second part of the sentence. By giving to a the
meaning of api they interpret the two words in question as
meaning though very pleasant/

1 Talaui/a. According to the Dipika it is a poison which kills
by merely touching the palate (talukaspar^anamatrad eva);
but this is a mere guess prompted by a wrong etymology.
Talau^a stands perhaps for talaku/a, which may have been
a variant of kalaku/a, the deadly poison swallowed by Siva.

2 Here we have twice the same word dhammarame, which

78 UTTARADHYAYANA.

discipline, and who has obtained the benefit of
Bodhi which is difficult to obtain, may perhaps
afterwards begin to live as he likes, (i)

(He will say :) I have a good bed and wherewithal
to cover me ; I obtain food and drink ; I know
everything that comes to pass, friend ; why then
should I study, sir ? (2)

He who, after entering the order, always sleeps,
eats, and drinks as much as he likes, and lives com
fortably, is called a bad ,Srama;/a. (3)

The sinner who despises the learning and dis
cipline which his preceptor and teachers have taught
him, is called a bad vSrama^a. (4)

He who does not, as he should, strive to please
his preceptor and teachers, and does not, in his
arrogance, treat them with respect, is called a bad
Sra.ma.na.. (5)

He who hurts living beings, seeds, and sprouts,
who does not control himself, though he be
lieves himself well-controlled, is called a bad
Sra.ma.ua.. (6)

He who uses a bed, a plank, a chair, a seat, or
his duster 1 , without having well wiped these things,
is called a bad Sra.ma.na. (7)

He who walks with great haste and without care,
being overbearing and fierce, is called a bad
Srama^a. (8)

I have once translated park of the Law/ and then vessel of
righteousness. It is obvious that a play on this word is intended,
though I may have failed to hit the meaning of the author.

1 Padakambala, usually called ra^ohara^a. One com
mentator suggests, as a possible rendering, patrakambala
a cloth to cover his almsbowl.

LECTURE XVII. 79

He who carelessly inspects things 1 , throwing down
his duster at random, not being attentive to the
inspection of things, is called a bad Sra.ma.na. (9)

He who carelessly inspects things, his attention
being absorbed by what he hears, who always
slights his teachers, is called a bad Sra.ma.na.. (10)

He who is deceitful, talkative, arrogant, greedy,
who does not control himself, nor share (his food,
&c. with those who are in want), and is not of an
amiable disposition, is called a bad Srama/za. (i i)

He who is a controversialist, and ill-behaved,
who perverts the truth, and delights in quarrels
and contentions, is called a bad ^rama^a. (12)

He who sits down on a weak, shaking seat
wherever he lists, and is not careful in sitting down,
is called a bad Sra.ma.na.. (13)

He who sleeps with dusty feet and does not
inspect his couch, being careless about his bed, is
called a bad Sra.ma.na.. (14)

He who eats milk, curds, and other things pro
duced from milk, and does not practise austerities,
is called a bad Sra.ma.na.. (15)

He who eats after sunset, and when ad
monished, makes an angry reply, is called a bad
Sra.ma.na.. (16)

He who leaves his own teacher, and follows
heretical ones, who continuously changes his school 2 ,
being of a bad disposition, is called a bad
ma.na.. (17)

1 It is a monk s duty closely to inspect everything that he uses
or comes in contact with, in order to avoid hurting inadvertently
anything considered to possess life. This is called pafi?il6ha.

2 Gawawgawika, according to the commentators one who
attaches himself to another gaa every half-year.

8O UTTARADHYAYANA.

He who has left his own house, and busies
himself in another s house, who lives by fortune-
telling, is called a bad 6rama;^a. (18)

He who eats the food of his relations, and does
not like living by alms *, who reposes on the seat of
the householder, is called a bad ^rama^a. (19)

Such a monk, who, like the heretics 2 , does not
protect himself from sins, who though having the
appearance (of a monk) is the lowest among his
worthy brethren, is despised in this world like
poison ; he is nobody in this world and in that
beyond. (20)

But he who always avoids these sins, and is pious
amongst his brethren, is welcomed in this world like
nectar; he conquers this world and the next 3 . (21)

Thus I say.

EIGHTEENTH LECTURE.

SAN GAY A 4 .

In the town of Kampilya there was a king, named
Sa^aya, who possessed numerous troops and war-
chariots ; once he went a-hunting. (i)

1 Samudawiya, explained bhaiksham.

2 Pa#/aku.nla, literally, those who practise the five wrong
si las, whereby probably those are denoted who do not keep the
five great vows of the ainas. Note that the Buddhists too
have their pa#/a.nla. They could therefore have been called
paw^akujila by the Gainas.

3 The text is not settled in the last line ; but there can be no
doubt about the meaning.

* The commentators Sanskritise this name in Sa/^yata. 1 But
however appropriate it may be to a Gaina, it certainly does not

LECTURE XVIII.

He was surrounded on all sides by a large host of
horses, elephants, chariots, and footmen. (2)

He chased the deer on horseback in the Kesara-
park of Kampilya ; and intent on his sport he killed
there the frightened deer, (3)

Now in the Kesara-park there was a houseless
ascetic intent on sacred study and meditating on the
Law. (4)

Annihilating sinful inclinations l , he meditated in
the Asphota-bower 2 . But the king killed the deer
that fled to him. (5)

Now the king on horseback came quickly there ;
he saw the killed deer and saw the monk there. (6)

The king in his consternation (thought) I had
nearly hurt the monk ; ill-fated and cruel me that is
mad for the sport. (7)

Having dismissed his horse, the king bowed
respectfully to the monk s feet (saying), &lt; Forgive me
this, Reverend sir. (8)

But the venerable monk, being plunged in silent
meditation, made no reply to the king, who, therefore,
was seized with fear. (9)

* I am Sa^aya ; answer me, Reverend sir ; a
monk might by the fire of his wrath reduce millions
of men to ashes. (10)

Be without fear, O king ; but grant safety to
others also ; in this transient world of living beings,
why are you addicted to cruelty ? (TI)

look like a king s name. The Sanskrit form of the name was
probably Sa%-aya or Srwa^aya, both of which frequently occur in
Sanskrit literature.

1 To render asrava.

2 Apphova in the original; there are several plants which are
called asphota.

[45] G

84 UTTARADHYAYANA.

" I know all these heresies to be contemptible ;
I know that there will be a life hereafter, and I
know my Self. (27)

" I was an illustrious god in the Mahapra^a
heaven, and reached old age as we here would say
of a man who is a hundred years old ; but in heaven,
hundred years consist of as many Mahapalis of
Palls 1 . (28)

" Descending from the Brahmaloka, I was born as
a man. I know exactly the length of my life as
well as that of other men. (29)

" A monk should abandon the manifold doctrines
(of heretics), and his own fancies, and such deeds as
are productive of evil everywhere. One should
live up to this wisdom 2 . (30)

" I keep clear of the (superstitious) questions and
the spells of laymen, exerting myself day and night
(in the true religion). Thinking thus, one should
practise austerities. (31)

" And what you of a pure mind asked me just
now, that has been revealed by the enlightened
one 3 ; such knowledge makes part of the creed of
the 6rinas. (32)

" A wise man believes in the existence of the soul 4 ,

1 According to the commentary a pali seems to be what
is commonly called palyopama, and mahapali a sagaropama.
However the longest life of a god in Brahmaloka is but ten
Sgar6pamas, see below, XXXVI, 225. The construction of the
verse is very involved, but the drift of it cannot be mistaken.

2 ii vigg&m a#usaw/are. I believe that vi^am here stands
for vidvan, as in the following verse. The meaning would then
be, knowing this one should live as a monk.

8 Buddha.

4 The (-rainas do not deny the existence of the soul, but the un
alterable character of the soul. Hence they object to the kriyavada.

LECTURE XVIII. 85

he avoids the heresy of the non-existence of the
soul ; possessing true faith one should practise the
very difficult Law according to the faith. (33)

" Having learned this pure creed, which is adorned
by truth and righteousness, Bharata l gave up
Bharatavarsha and all pleasures, and entered the
order. (34)

" King Sagara 2 also gave up the ocean-girt Bha
ratavarsha and his unrivalled kingly power, and
reached perfection through his compassion. (35)

" After having given up Bharatavarsha, the famous
universal monarch of great power, called Maghavan 3 ,
entered the order. (36)

" King Sanatkumara 4 , a universal monarch of
great power, placed his son on the throne, and then
practised austerities. (37)

"Santi \ a universal monarch of great power, the

1 Bharata was the eldest son of AYshabha, the first Tirthakara.
He became the first -ffakravartin, or universal monarch, and
resided in Ayodhya. At his renunciation he was ordered by
Indra himself to pluck out five handfuls of his hair as is the
custom of Gaina monks on entering the order.

2 Sagara, king of Ayodhya, was, according to the legend
contained in the commentary (see R. Fick, Eine jainistische
Bearbeitung der Sagara-Sage, Kiel, 1889), the younger brother
of A^ita, the second Tirthakara. He became the second Aakra-
vartin, and, in the end, he was ordained by A^ita. The Gaina
legend seems to be but a strangely distorted version of the story
of Sagara told in the first book of the Ramayawa.

3 Maghavan, son of king Samudravi^aya of Sravasti, and his
wife Bhadra, became the third A r akravartin.

4 Sanatkumara, son of king Ajvasena of Hastinapura, and his
wife Sahadevi, became the fourth Aakravartin. The adventures
of Sanatkumara are told in a Prakrrt legend, which I have
published in my Ausgewahlte Erzahlungen in Maharash/ri, Leipzig,
1886, p. 20 ff.

8 -Santi was the sixteenth Tirthakara, Kunthu the seventeenth, and

84 UTTARADHYAYANA.

" I know all these heresies to be contemptible ;
I know that there will be a life hereafter, and I
know my Self. (27)

" I was an illustrious god in the Mahapra^a
heaven, and reached old age as we here would say
of a man who is a hundred years old ; but in heaven,
hundred years consist of as many Mahapalis of
Palls 1 . (28)

" Descending from the Brahmaloka, I was born as
a man. I know exactly the length of my life as
well as that of other men. (29)

" A monk should abandon the manifold doctrines
(of heretics), and his own fancies, and such deeds as
are productive of evil everywhere. One should
live up to this wisdom 2 . (30)

" I keep clear of the (superstitious) questions and
the spells of laymen, exerting myself day and night
(in the true religion). Thinking thus, one should
practise austerities. (31)

" And what you of a pure mind asked me just
now, that has been revealed by the enlightened
one 3 ; such knowledge makes part of the creed of
the ^inas. (32)

" A wise man believes in the existence of the soul 4 ,

1 According to the commentary a pali seems to be what
is commonly called palyopama, and mahapali a sagaropama.
However the longest life of a god in Brahmaloka is but ten
Sdgaropamas, see below, XXXVI, 225. The construction of the
verse is very involved, but the drift of it cannot be mistaken.

2 ii vigg&m ausa/ra/fcare\ I believe that vi^am here stands
for vidvan, as in the following verse. The meaning would then
be, * knowing this one should live as a monk/

8 Buddha.

4 The (rainas do not deny the existence of the soul, but the un
alterable character of the soul. Hence they object to the kriyavada.

LECTURE XVIII. 85

he avoids the heresy of the non-existence of the
soul ; possessing true faith one should practise the
very difficult Law according to the faith. (33)

" Having learned this pure creed, which is adorned
by truth and righteousness, Bharata l gave up
Bharatavarsha and all pleasures, and entered the
order. (34)

" King Sagara 2 also gave up the ocean-girt Bha
ratavarsha and his unrivalled kingly power, and
reached perfection through his compassion. (35)

" After having given up Bharatavarsha, the famous
universal monarch of great power, called Maghavan 3 ,
entered the order. (36)

"King Sanatkumara 4 , a universal monarch of
great power, placed his son on the throne, and then
practised austerities. (37)

"Santi 5 , a universal monarch of great power, the

1 Bharata was the eldest son of Tfoshabha, the first Tirthakara.
He became the first -A^akravartin, or universal monarch, and
resided in Ayodhya. At his renunciation he was ordered by
Indra himself to pluck out five handfuls of his hair as is the
custom of (-raina monks on entering the order.

2 Sagara, king of Ayodhya, was, according to the legend
contained in the commentary (see R. Fick, Eine jainistische
Bearbeitung der Sagara-Sage, Kiel, 1889), the younger brother
of A^ita, the second Tirthakara. He became the second A^akra-
vartin, and, in the end, he was ordained by A^ita. The Gaina
legend seems to be but a strangely distorted version of the story
of Sagara told in the first book of the Ramayawa.

3 Maghavan, son of king Samudravi^aya of Sravasti, and his
wife Bhadra, became the third .ffakravartin.

4 Sanatkumara, son of king Ajvasena of Hasdnapura, and his
wife Sahadevi, became the fourth A akravartin. The adventures
of Sanatkumara are told in a Prakrz t legend, which I have
published in my Ausgewahlte Erzahlungen in Maharash/n, Leipzig,
1886, p. 20 ff.

6 Santi was the sixteenth Tirthakara, Kunthu the seventeenth, and

86 UTTARADHYAVANA.

bringer of peace to the world, gave up Bharatavarsha
and reached perfection. (38)

" King Kunthu, the bull of the Aikshvaka race,
the widely famed lord, reached perfection. (39)

" King Ara, after he had given up the sea-girt
Bharatavarsha, reached perfection on becoming
exempt from defilement. (40)

" After having given up his large kingdom, his
army and war-chariots, his exquisite pleasures, Maha-
padma 1 practised austerities. (41)

" Having brought the (whole) earth under his
sceptre, king Harishe/za 2 , who humbled the pride
(of other kings), reached perfection. (42)

" Gaya 3 , together with thousands of kings, re
nouncing the world, practised self-restraint. He

Ara the eighteenth Tirthakara. Kunthu sounds strange for a proper
name. I think it just possible that it is a popular or Prakr/t
corruption
of Kakutstha, who was an Aikshvaka. As is well known, Rama
is frequently called after him Kakutstha, and so are other kings of
the same line, in which he stands as the twenty-fifth according
to the list in the Ramaya/za I, 70.

1 Mahapadma was the ninth ATakravartin. His elder brother
was Vish/mkumara, who was ordained by Suvrata, a disciple of
Munisuvrata, the twentieth Tirthakara. He wrenched the
sovereignty of the world from Namu^i, minister of his father
Padmottara, who had ascended the throne, by making him
promise as much of his territory as he could cover with three
strides. This is the Brahmanical story of Vishnu and Bali, for
whom the Gainas have substituted Namu/i. According to them
the minister Namu/fci was, in a disputation, defeated by the G aina
monks, and to revenge himself on them, he ordered them to quit
his kingdom as soon as he got it. Mahapadma s residence was
Hastinapura.

2 Harishe^a, son of king Mahahari of Kampilya, became the
tenth Aakravartin.

3 aya, son of king Samudravi^aya of Ra^agr/ha, became the
eleventh ATakravartin.

LECTURE XVIII. 87

reached perfection which has been taught by the
G mas. (43)

" Dasar/zabhadra 1 , giving up his nourishing king
dom of Dasama, turned monk ; he renounced the
world, being directed to do so by .Sakra himself. (44)

" Karaka^u was king of Kalinga ; Dvimukha, of
Paw^ala ; Nami, of Videha ; Naggati (or rather
Nagna^it), of Gandhara 2 . (45)

" Nami humbled himself, being directed to do so
by .Sakra himself; the king of Videha left the house
and became a 5rama^a. (46)

" These bulls of kings have adopted the faith of
the inas; after having placed their sons on the
throne, they exerted themselves as .Srama/zas. (47)

"Udayaa 3 , the bull of the kings of Sauvira,
renounced the world and turned monk ; he entered
the order and reached perfection. (48)

" And thus the king of Ka^i 4 , exerting himself for
the best truth, abandoned all pleasures, and hewed
down, as it were, his Karman like a forest. (49)

"And thus king Vi^aya 5 , whose sins were not
quite annihilated G , turned monk after he, the famous
man, had quitted his excellent kingdom. (50)

1 King Dajarwabhadra was a contemporary of Mahavira.

2 These are the four Pratyekabuddhas ; see p. 35, note 2.

3 The story of Udayawa (or perhaps Uddayana) will be found
in my Ausgewahlte Erzahlungen in Maharash/ri, p. 28 ff. He
was contemporary with Mahavira.

4 He was Nandana, the seventh Baladeva, son of king Agnmkha
of Benares.

5 He was the son of king Brahmara^a of Dvarakavati, and
eldest brother of the Vasudeva Dviprz sh/a or Dvipush/i.

6 To render aa//Mkitti, of which the commentators offer
several explanations, rendering it anarttakirti and anash/akirtj.
A various reading aa/Makitti is mentioned, and explained

88 UTTARADHYAYANA.

"And thus the royal seer Mahabala 1 practised
severe penance with an imdistracted mind, and took
upon himself the glory (of self-control). (5 1)

" Why should a wise man, for bad reasons, live on
earth like a madman, since those persons (mentioned
above) who reached eminence, exerted themselves
strongly? (52)

" I have spoken true words able to promote virtue ;
some have been saved, some are being saved, and
some will be saved. (53)

" Why should a wise man, for bad reasons, bring
affliction upon himself? He who has become free
from all ties and sins, will reach perfection." (54)

Thus I say.

NINETEENTH LECTURE.

THE SON OF MRIGA.

In the pleasant town of Sugriva, which is adorned
with parks and gardens, there was the king Bala-
bhadra and Mrz ga, the principal queen, (i)

Their son Balasri, also known as Mrzgdputra
(i. e. son of Mrzga), the darling of his father
and mother, was crown-prince, a (future) lord of
ascetics. (2)

In his palace Nandana he dallied with his wives,
like the god Dogundaga 2 , always happy in his
mind. (3)

1 Mahabala was the son of king Bala of Hastinapura. He lived
at the time of Vimala, the thirteenth Tirthakara.

2 According to the commentators the Dogundaka gods are the
trayastriwja gods. The Sanskrit of dogundaga would be
dvikundaka.

LECTURE XIX. 89

Standing at a window of his palace l , the floor of
which was inlaid with precious stones and jewels,
he looked down on the squares, places, and roads of
the town. (4)

Once he saw pass there a restrained .SramaTza,
who practised penance, self-restraint, and self-control,
who was full of virtues, and a very mine of good
qualities. (5)

Mr/gaputra regarded him with fixed eyes, trying
to remember where he had seen the same man
before. (6)

While he looked at the saint, and his mind
became pure, the remembrance of his former birth
came upon him as he was plunged in doubt. (7)

When the remembrance of his former birth came
upon the illustrious M^gaputra, he remembered
his previous birth and his having been then a
Sra.ma.na. (8)

Being not delighted with pleasures, but devoted
to self-control, he went to his father and mother,
and spoke as follows : (9)

4 1 have learned the five great vows ; (I know)
the suffering (that awaits the sinner) in hell or in
an existence as a brute ; I have ceased to take
delight in the large ocean (of the Sa^sara) ; there
fore, O mother, allow me to enter the order. (10)

O mother, O father, I have enjoyed pleasures
which are like poisonous fruit : their consequences
are painful, as they entail continuous suffering, (n)

This body is not permanent, it is impure and of

1 I separate the words pasay*al6yaa///i6. The com
mentators take them for a compound; but then the preceding
part of the sentence would not construe. It is an irregular sandhi,
instances of which, however, are not unfrequent.

9O UTTARADHYAVANA.

impure origin ; it is but a transitory residence (of the
soul) and a miserable vessel of suffering. (12)

I take no delight in this transitory body which
one must leave sooner or later, and which is like
foam or a bubble. (13)

And this vain human life, an abode of illness
and disease, which is swallowed up by old age and
death, does not please me even for a moment. (14)

Birth is misery, old age is misery, and so are
disease and death, and ah, nothing but misery is the
Sawsara, in which men suffer distress. (15)

* Leaving behind my fields, house, and gold, my
son and wife, and my relations, leaving my body
I needs must, one day, depart. (16)

As the effect of Kimpaka-fruit 1 is anything but
good, so the effect of pleasures enjoyed is anything
but good. (17)

He who starts on a long journey with no
provisions, will come to grief on his way there,
suffering from hunger and thirst. (18)

Thus he who without having followed the Law,
starts for the next world, will come to grief on his
way there, suffering from illness and disease. (19)

1 He who starts on a long journey with provisions,
will be happy on his way there, not suffering from
hunger and thirst. (20)

Thus he who after having followed the Law,
starts for the next world, will be happy on his
journey there, being exempt from Karman and
suffering. (21)

As when a house is on fire, the landlord carries
away valuable things and leaves behind those of

Cucumis Colocynthus.

LECTURE XIX. 91

no value ; so when the whole world is on fire, as it
were, by old age and death, I shall save my Self,
if you will permit me/ (22, 23)

To him his parents said : "Son, difficult to perform
are the duties of a 6Yama;za ; a monk must possess
thousands of virtues. (24)

" Impartiality towards all beings in the world,
whether friends or enemies, and abstention from
injury to living beings throughout the whole life :
this is a difficult duty. (25)

" To be never careless in abstaining from false
hood, and to be always careful to speak wholesome
truth : this is a difficult duty. (26)

u To abstain from taking of what is not given,
even of a toothpick, &c. ; and to accept only alms
free from faults : this is a difficult duty. (27)

" To abstain from unchastity after one has tasted
sensual pleasures, and to keep the severe vow of
chastity: this is a very difficult duty. (28)

" To give up all claims on wealth, corn, and
servants, to abstain from all undertakings, and not
to own anything : this is a very difficult duty. (29)

" Not to eat at night any food of the four
kinds 1 , not to put away for later use or to keep
a store (of things one wants) : this is a very difficult
duty. (30)

" Hunger and thirst, heat and cold, molestation by
flies and gnats, insults, miserable lodgings, pricking
grass, and uncleanliness, blows and threats, corporal
punishment and imprisonment, the mendicant s life
and fruitless begging : all this is misery. (31, 32)

" Such a life is like that of pigeons (always afraid of

1 I.e. food, drink, dainties, and spices.

Q2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

dangers) ; painful is the plucking out of one s hair ;
difficult is the vow of chastity and hard to keep
(even) for a noble man. (33)

" My son, you are accustomed to comfort, you
are tender and cleanly 1 ; you are not able, my son,
to live as a Sramzna. (34)

" No repose as long as life lasts ; the great burden
of duty is heavy like a load of iron, which is difficult
to be carried, O son. (35)

11 As it is difficult to cross the heavenly Ganges,
or to swim against the current, or to swim with
one s arms over the sea, so it is difficult to get over
the ocean of duties. (36)

" Self-control is untasteful like a mouthful of sand,
and to practise penance is as difficult as to walk
on the edge of a sword. (37)

"It is difficult (always to observe the rules of)
right conduct with one s eyes for ever open like
(those of) a snake 2 , O son ; it is difficult to eat iron
grains, as it were. (38)

" As it is very difficult to swallow burning fire,
so is it difficult for a young man to live as a .Sra-
ma/za. (39)

"As it is difficult to fill a bag 3 with wind,

1 Literally, well washed or bathed.

2 This appears to be the meaning of the words ahiv*8ganta-
di/Mi. We might perhaps take ahfv* for ahivazra = ahivat,
in which case the construction of the sentence would be gram
matically correct. An alternative rendering would be : (A monk)
like a snake must have his eyes always open on the difficult
conduct, O son. It is a well-known fact that snakes cannot
shut their eyes as other animals.

3 Kotthala, a D&ri-word for ku.rula, granary, see Hema^andra,
De\n Kosha 2, 48. The commentators render it by cloth/

LECTURE XIX. 93

so is it difficult for a weak man to live as a 6ra-
ma;za. (40)

" As it is difficult to weigh Mount Mandara in
a balance, so it is difficult to live as a 6rama;za with
a steady and fearless mind. (41)

" As it is difficult to swim over the sea with one s
arms, so it is difficult for one whose mind is not
pacified, (to cross) the ocean of restraint. (42)

" Enjoy the fivefold 1 human pleasures. After
you have done enjoying pleasures, O son, you may
adopt the Law." (43)

He answered : * O father and mother, it is even thus
as you have plainly told ; but in this world nothing
is difficult for one who is free from desire. (44)

An infinite number of times have I suffered
dreadful pains of body and mind, repeatedly misery
and dangers. (45)

* In the Sawsara, which is a mine of dangers and
a wilderness of old age and death, I have undergone
dreadful births and deaths. (46)

Though fire be hot here, it is infinitely more so
there (viz. in hell) 2 ; in hell I have undergone suffer
ing from heat. (47)

Though there may be cold here, it is of infinitely
greater intensity there; in hell I have undergone
suffering from cold. (48)

1 Viz. those of the five senses.

2 The description of hell is a favourite theme with the monks of
all ages and all religions ; and the Gaina monks are not behind
others in the treatment of this gruesome subject. A detailed
description of the different hells will be found in the fifth lecture
of the first book of the SutrakrMhga. I remember a yati
showing me, with much complacency, a manuscript of the latter
work adorned with lively illustrations of the most exquisite
tortures.

94 UTTARADHYAYANA.

An infinite number of times have I been roasted
over a blazing fire in an oven, screaming loud, head
down and feet aloft. (49)

In the desert which is like a forest on fire, on
the Va^ravaluka and the Kadambavaluka l rivers,
I have been roasted an infinite number of times. (50)

Being suspended upside down over a boiler,
shrieking, with no relation to help me, I was cut
to pieces with various saws 2 , an infinite number of
times. (51)

I have suffered agonies when I was fastened
with fetters on the huge 6almali tree, bristling
with very sharp thorns, and then pushed up and
down. (52)

An infinite number of times have I been crushed
like sugar-cane in presses, shrieking horribly, to
atone for my sins, great sinner that I was. (53)

By black and spotted wild dogs 3 I have, ever so
many times, been thrown down, torn to pieces, and
lacerated, screaming and writhing. (54)

* When I was born in hell for my sins, I was
cut, pierced, and hacked to pieces with swords and
daggers, with darts and javelins. (55)

I have been forcibly yoked to a car of red-hot
iron full of fuel 4 , I have been driven on with a goad

1 "I hese are two rivers in hell ; the sand of the one consists of
va^ra (either steel-filings or diamonds), and that of the other,
of turmeric.

2 Karavattakarakayaihi/tt = karapattrakraka&dibhi.

3 Kolasuwaya, explained by jukar a s van, hog-dog, which may
be a kind of hog or dog, probably the latter.

4 S a mi la gue. The commentators render ^uebyyuga and
yuta, and do not explain s ami la, which they treat as a Sanskrit
word. I think it is the Prakrzt of samidh, compare vi^ula =
vidyut, salila = sarit.

LECTURE XIX. 95

and thongs, and have been knocked down like an
antelope 1 . (56)

* On piles, in a blazing fire, I have forcibly been
burnt and roasted like a buffalo, in atonement for my
sins. (57)

An infinite number of times have I violently
been lacerated by birds whose bills were of iron
and shaped like tongs, by devilish vultures 2 . (58)

Suffering from thirst I ran towards the river
Vaitara^i to drink its water, but in it I was killed
(as it were) by blades of razors". (59)

When suffering from the heat, I went into
the forest in which the trees have a foliage of
daggers ; I have, ever so many times, been cut to
pieces by the dropping dagger-leaves. (60)

An infinite number of times have I suffered
hopelessly from mallets and knives, forks and maces,
which broke my limbs. (61)

Ever so many times have I been slit, cut,
mangled, and skinned with keen- edged razors,
knives, and shears. (62)

1 As 4 an antelope I have, against my will, been

1 RoggAo = rz sya,, see Hema/( andra, De\yi Kosha 7, 12.

2 Z^ankagrz dhra. The commentators offer no explanation of
e/^ahka, but only say that they are not real vultures as there are
no animals in hell. Therefore they must be vaikrh a, i. e., in our
case, demons who have adopted the shape of vultures.

3 The water of the river Vaitaram consists of a very caustic acid.

4 Here and in the following verses the suffering of Mrzgaputra
as an animal and a plant seems to be described. But in verse 68
the scene is again laid in hell. The first word in verse 63, &c.,
as/ would literally be like (viva in the original text), but in
rendering it by like, we have to assume that as a denizen of
hell he is treated in the manner described, which seems rather
strained.

96 UTTARADHYAYANA.

caught, bound, and fastened in snares and traps, and
frequently I have been killed. (63)

As a fish I have, against my will, been caught
with hooks and in bow-nets; I have therein been
scraped, slit, and killed, an infinite number of
times. (64)

As a bird I have been caught by hawks, trapped
in nets, and bound with bird-lime, and I have been
killed, an infinite number of times. (65)

As a tree I have been felled, slit, sawn into
planks, and stripped of the bark by carpenters
with axes 1 , hatchets, &c., an infinite number of
times. (66)

4 As iron I have been malleated, cut, torn, and
filed by blacksmiths 2 , an infinite number of
times. (67)

1 have been made to drink hissing molten copper,
iron, tin, and lead under horrid shrieks, an infinite
number of times. (68)

* You like meat minced or roasted ; I have been
made to eat, ever so many times, poisoned meat, and
red-hot to boot. (69)

You like wine, liquor, spirits, and honey 3 ; I have
been made to drink burning fat and blood. (70)

Always frightened, trembling, distressed, and
suffering, I have experienced the most exquisite
pain and misery. (71)

* I have experienced in hell sharp, acute and

1 Kuhad a = ku/Mra; comp. piha^a = pi//ara. The form
kuhara occurs in Guzerati, Sindhi, andPanjabi.

2 Kumara; this is obviously the modern kamar blacksmith
(derived from karmakara); and it is of interest to find this form
in an old text like the Uttaradhyayana.

3 To render sura, sidhu, maireya, and madhu.

LECTURE XIX. 97

severe, horrible, intolerable, dreadful, and formidable
pain. (72)

* O father, infinitely more painful is the suffering
in hell than any suffering in the world of men. (73)

In every kind of existence I have undergone
suffering which was not interrupted by a moment s
reprieve/ (74)

To him his parents said : " Son, a man is free to
enter the order, but it causes misery to a .Srama^a
that he may not remedy any ailings." (75)

He answered : * O father and mother, it is even
thus as you have plainly told ; but who takes care
of beasts and birds in the woods ? (76)

As a wild animal 1 by itself roams about in the
woods, thus I shall practise the Law by controlling
myself and doing penance. (77)

When in a large forest a wild animal falls
very sick at the foot of a tree, who is there to
cure it? (78)

Or who will give it medicine ? or who will
inquire after its health ? or who will get food and
drink for it, and feed it ? (79)

1 When it is in perfect health, it will roam about
in woods and on (the shores of) lakes in search of
food and drink. (80)

When it has eaten and drunk in woods and
lakes, it will walk about and go to rest according to
the habits of wild animals. (81)

In the same way a pious monk goes to many
places and walks about just as the animals, but
afterwards he goes to the upper regions. (82)

1 Miga = mrz ga. literally antelope ; but here as frequently the
word has apparently the more general meaning wild animal.
[45] H

98 UTTARADHYAYANA.

* As a wild animal goes by itself to many places,
lives in many places, and always gets its food ; thus
a monk on his begging-tour should not despise nor
blame (the food he gets). (83)

I shall imitate this life of animals/ " Well, my
son, as you please." With his parents permission
he gave up all his property. (84)

I shall imitate this life of animals, which makes
one free from all misery, if you will permit me.
" Go, my son, as you please." (85)

When he had thus made his parents repeat their
permission, he gave up for ever his claims in any
property, just as the snake casts off its slough. (86)

His power and wealth, his friends, wives, sons,
and relations he gave up as if he shook off the dust
from his feet, and then he went forth. (87)

He observed the five great vows, practised the
five Samitis, and was protected by the three Guptis 1 ;
he exerted himself to do mental as well as bodily
penance. (88)

He was without property, without egoism, with
out attachment, without conceit 2 , impartial towards
all beings, whether they move or not. (89)

He was indifferent to success or failure (in
begging), to happiness and misery, to life and death,
to blame and praise, to honour and insult. (90)

He turned away from conceit and passions, from
injurious, hurtful, and dangerous actions 3 , from
gaiety and sadness ; he was free from sins and
fetters. (91)

1 See notes 2 and 3 on p. 50.

2 Garava = gaurava or garva. Dipika : rz ddhigarava-
rasagarava-satagarava ili garvatrayarahita^.

8 To render da;/&lt;/asallabhaesu.

LECTURE XIX. 99

He had no interest in this world and no interest
in the next world ; he was indifferent to unpleasant
and pleasant things l , to eating and fasting. (92)

He prevented the influx of Karman (asrava)
through all bad channels 2 ; by meditating upon him
self he obtained praiseworthy self-purification and
sacred knowledge. (93)

Thus he thoroughly purified himself by knowledge,
right conduct, faith, penance, and pure meditations,
and after having lived many years as a Srama/za,
he reached perfection after breaking his fast once
only every month. (94, 95)

Thus act the enlightened ones, the learned, the
clever ; like Mrzgaputra they turn away from
pleasures. (96)

When you have heard the words of the illustrious
and famous son of Mr/ga, his perfect practise of
austerities, and his liberation, famous in the three
worlds, you will despise wealth, the cause of misery,
and the fetter of egoism, the cause of many dangers,
and you will bear the excellent and pleasant yoke
of the Law that leads to the great happiness of
Nirvana. (97, 98)

Thus I say.

1 Vasi/andaakapp6. The author of the Ava^ uri explains
this phrase thus : he did not like more a man who anoints himself
with sandal than a mason. Apparently he gives to vasa the
meaning dwelling; but I think that the juxtaposition of bandana
calls for a word denoting a bad-smelling substance, perhaps
ordure.

2 Literally door. The meaning of the line will be fully rendered
and the simile at least partially be preserved by the following less
literal translation : he shut the door, as it were, to evil
influences.
For the asrava, see above, p. 55, note i.

H 2

IOO UTTARADHYAYANA.

TWENTIETH LECTURE.

THE GREAT DUTY OF THE NIRGRANTHAS.

Piously adoring the perfected and the restrained
saints, listen to my true instruction which (teaches
the real) profit (of men), religion, and liberation 1 , (i)

King 6Ye;2ika 2 , the ruler of Magadha, who pos
sessed many precious things, once made a pleasure-
excursion to the Ma;^ikukshi ^aitya 3 . (2)

It was a park like Nandana 4 , with trees and
creepers of many kinds, peopled by various birds,
and full of various flowers. (3)

There he saw a restrained and concentrated saint
sitting below a tree, who looked delicate and
accustomed to comfort. (4)

When the king saw his figure, his astonishment
at that ascetic s figure was very great and un
equalled. (5)

O his colour, O his figure, O the loveliness of
the noble man, O his tranquillity, O his perfection,
O his disregard for pleasures! (6)

1 Atthadhammagaiw = arthadharmagati. I think this
equal toartha dharma moksha, though the commentators offer
a different explanation by making gati mean ^wana. The phrase
is derived from the typical expression kamarthadharmamoksha
by leaving out kama, which of course could not be admitted by
ascetics.

2 He is identical with Bimbisara of the Buddhists; see my
edition of the Kalpa Sutra, introduction, p. 2.

3 The following verses prove that X aitya denotes park here
as the word is explained by the scholiast in IX, 9.

4 Nandana is Indra s park.

LECTURE XX. IOI

Adoring his feet and keeping him on his right
side (he sat down), neither too far off nor too close
by, and asked him with his hands clasped : (7)

* Though a young nobleman, you have entered
the order ; in an age fit for pleasure you exert
yourself as a .Sramawa, O ascetic ; I want to hear
you explain this. (8)

" I am without a protector, O great king ; there is
nobody to protect me, I know no friend nor any one
to have sympathy with me." (9)

Then king .SYemka, the ruler of Magadha,
laughed : How should there be nobody to protect
one so accomplished as you ? (10)

I am the protector of religious men l ; O monk ;
enjoy pleasures together with your friends and
relations ; for it is a rare chance to be born as
a human being. (u)

" You yourself are without a protector, .5r#ika,
ruler of Magadha ; and as you are without a pro
tector, how can you protect anybody else ?" (12)

When the saint had addressed this unpre
cedented speech to the king, who was greatly
moved and astonished, and struck with astonish
ment, (he answered) 2 : (13)

I have horses, elephants, and subjects, a town
and a seraglio, power and command : enjoy human
pleasures. (14)

* In possession of so great means, which permit
the owner to enjoy all pleasures, how could he be

1 Bhadantawaw.

2 The verb is wanting in this verse, and there is an apparent
tautology in the words as they now stand. This is an obvious
mark of a corruption in the text, which, however, I do not know
how to remove by a plausible conjecture.

I O 2 U TTARAD H YAY AN A.

without protection ? Reverend sir, you speak
untruth/ (15)

" O king, you do not know the meaning and
origin l of (the word) without protection, nor how
one comes to be without protection or with pro
tection, O ruler of men. (16)

" Hear, O great king, with an undistracted mind in
what way a man can be said to be * without pro
tection/ and with what purpose I have said all
this. (17)

" There is a town Kau^ambi by name, which is
among towns what Indra 2 is (among the gods); there
lived my father, who possessed great wealth. (18)

" In my childhood, O great king, I caught a very
bad eye-disease and a severe burning fever in all my
limbs, O ruler of men. (19)

" My eyes ached as if a cruel enemy thrust a sharp
tool in the hollow of my body. (20)

" In the back, the heart 3 , and the head, I suffered

1 Pot thaw or Tpokkh&m. The commentators are at a loss to
give an etymology of this word, or rather have a choice of them to
offer, which comes to the same thing, and proves that nothing certain
was known. If pottha is the correct form, it may be derived
from pra + ut + stha, and mean origin; if pokftha. or pu^a
is the right spelling it is prikkh&, and may mean etymology.

2 Purawa purabhedawi. As usual the commentators give
a purely etymological explanation. But it is obvious that
purabhedana must have a similar meaning as purandara =
Indra, or purabhid -Siva. The latter word occurs in later
literature only, and, besides, /Siva does not yet seem to have been
generally acknowledged as the supreme god, when and where the
Gaina Sutras were composed. The Vedic word purbhid,
destroyer of castles, also presents itself as an analogy; though
it is not yet the exclusive epithet of a god, it is frequently
applied
to Indra.

3 To render antari///$a or antarittha. The Guzeraty
translation renders it hrzdaya.

LECTURE XX. 1 03

dreadful and very keen pains equal to a stroke of
lightning. (21)

" Then the best physicians came to my help, who
cure by their medical art and by spells, who were
versed in their science, and well knew spells and
roots. (22)

" They tried to cure me according to the fourfold
science l which they had been taught ; but they could
not rid me of my pains : hence I say that I am
without protection. (23)

" My father would have spent all he possessed, for
my sake ; but he could not rid me of my pains,
hence I say that I am without protection. (24)

" My mother, O great king, was agonized with
grief about her son ; but she could not, &c. (25)

" O great king, my own brothers, the elder and
younger ones, could not rid me of my pains,
&c. (26)

" O great king, my own sisters, the elder and
younger ones, could not, &c. (27)

" O great king, my loving and faithful wife
moistened my breast with the tears of her
eyes. (28)

" The poor lady did not eat, nor drink, nor
bathe, nor use perfumes, wreaths, and anointment,
with my knowledge or without it. (29)

11 O great king, she did not leave 2 my side even
for a moment; but she could not rid me of my
pains, hence I say that I am without protection. (30)

" Then I said : It is very hard to bear pains again
and again in the endless Circle of Births. (31)

1 A"a uppaya=^atu/*pada. Four branches of medical science
are intended.

- Phi//ai=bhra$yati, Hema&mdra s Prakrit Grammar, iv. 177.

IO4 UTTARADHYAYANA.

" If I, for once, shall get rid of these great pains,
I shall become a houseless monk, calm, restrained,
and ceasing to act. (32)

" While I thought so, I fell asleep, O ruler
of men ; and after that night my pains had
vanished. (33)

" Then in the morning of the next day I took
leave of my relations and became a houseless monk,
calm, restrained, and ceasing to act. (34)

" Thus I became the protector of myself and of
others besides, of all living beings, whether they
move or not. (35)

" My own Self is the river Vaitarawi, my own Self
the 6almali tree l ; my own Self is the miraculous
cow Kamaduh, my own Self the park Nandana. (36)

" My own Self is the doer and undoer of misery
and happiness ; my own Self, friend and foe, accord
ing as I act well or badly. (37)

" But there is still another want of protection,
O king ; hear, therefore, O king, attentively with
concentrated thoughts, how some easily discouraged
men go astray after having adopted the Law of the
Nirgranthas 2 . (38)

" If an ordained monk, through carelessness, does
not strictly keep the great vows, if he does not
restrain himself, but desires pleasure, then his
fetters will not be completely cut off. (39)

" One who does not pay constant attention to his
walking, his speaking, his begging, his receiving and
keeping (of things necessary for a monk), and his

1 See above, p. 94.

2 The verses 38-53 are apparently a later addition because
(i) the subject treated in them is not connected with that of the
foregoing part, and (2) they are composed in a different metre.

LECTURE XX. 105

easing nature ] , does not follow the road trod by the
Lord. (40)

" One who for a long time wears a shaven crown
and mortifies himself, but who is careless with
regard to the vows, and neglects penance and
self-control, will not be a winner in the battle
(of life). (41)

" He is empty like a clenched 2 fist, (of no value)
like an uncoined 3 false Karshapa/za or like a piece
of glass resembling turquoise, he is held lightly by
men of discernment. (42)

" He who has the character of a sinner, though
he lays great stress on the outward signs of his
calling 4 as a means of living ; he who does not control
himself, though he pretends to do so ; will come to
grief for a long time. (43)

" As the poison Kalaku/a kills him who drinks it ;
as a weapon cuts him who awkwardly handles it ; as
a Vetala kills him who does not lay him ; so the
Law harms him who mixes it up with sensuality. (44)

"He who practises divination from bodily marks
and dreams, who is well versed in augury and
superstitious rites, who gains a sinful living by
practising magic tricks 5 , will have no refuge at the
time (of retribution). (45)

" The sinner, always wretched, goes from darkness

1 These are the five Samitis, see above, p. 50.

2 Polla or pulla, explained anta^-sushira hollow in the
middle/

3 Ayantita = ayantrita. My translation is but conjectural.
Perhaps the regular coins are not meant, but stamped lumps of
metal, which were current long before coins were introduced.

4 Literally, the flag of the seers ; the broom &c. are meant.

IO6 UTTARADHYAYANA.

to darkness, to utter misery ; the unholy man who
breaks the rules of monks, rushes, as it were, to hell,
and to be born again as a brute. (46)

" He who accepts forbidden alms, viz. such food
as he himself asks for, as has been bought for his
sake, or as he gets regularly (as by right and
custom), who like fire devours everything, will go
to hell from here, after having sinned. (47)

" A cut-throat enemy will not do him such harm
as his own perversity will do him; the man without
pity will feel repentance in the hour of death. (48)

"In vain he adopts nakedness, who errs about
matters of paramount interest ; neither this world
nor the next will be his ; he is a loser in both
respects in the world. (49)

" Thus the self-willed sinner who leaves the road
of the highest inas, who with the appetite of an
osprey is desirous of pleasure, will grieve in useless
sorrow. (50)

" A wise man who hears this discourse, an
instruction full of precious wisdom, and who deserts
every path of the wicked, should walk the road of
the great Nirgranthas. (51)

" He who possesses virtuous conduct and life,
who has practised the best self-control, who keeps
from sinful influences 1 J and who has destroyed his
Karman, will reach (in the end) the greatest, best,
and permanent place (viz. mukti)." (52)

Thus the austere and calm, great ascetic and great
sage who kept great vows and possessed great fame,
preached at great length this great sermon : the
great duty of the Nirgranthas. (53)

1 Nirasava = nirasrava. For the asravas, see p. 55,
note i.

LECTURE XX. IO7

And king Sr&uika, pleased, spoke thus: You
have truly shown what it is to be without pro
tection. (54)

1 You have made the best use of human birth,
you have made a true gain, O great sage, you are
a protector (of mankind at large) and of your
relations, for you have entered the path of the best

inas. (55)

You are the protector of all unprotected beings,
O ascetic ; I ask you to forgive me : I desire you to
put me right. (56)

That by asking you I have disturbed your
meditation, and that I invited you to enjoy pleasures,
all this you must forgive me. (57)

When the lion of kings had thus, with the greatest
devotion, praised the lion of houseless monks, he,
together with his wives, servants, and relations,
became a staunch believer in the Law, with a pure
mind. (58)

The ruler of men, with the hair on his body
joyfully erected, bowed his head (to the monk),
keeping him on his right side, and departed. (59)

And the other, rich in virtues, protected by the
three Guptis, and abstaining from injuring (living
beings) in the three ways (viz. by thought, words, and
acts), travelled about on the earth, free like a bird,
and exempt from delusion. (60)

Thus I say.

IO8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

TWENTY-FIRST LECTURE.

SAMUDRAPALA.

In A^ampa there lived a .Sravaka, the merchant
Palita, who was a disciple of the noble and venerable
Mahavira. (i)

As a 6Yavaka he was well versed in the doctrines
of the Nirgranthas. Once he went by boat to the
town of Pihuwdfo. on business. (2)

A merchant gave him his daughter while he was
doing business in Pihu;z^a. When she was big
with child, he took her with him on his returning
home. (3)

Now the wife of Palita was delivered of a child
at sea; as the boy was born at sea (samudra), he
was named Samudrapala. (4)

Our merchant, the .Sravaka, went leisurely to
ATampa, to his house ; in his house the boy grew up
surrounded by comfort. (5)

He studied the seventy-two arts, and acquired
knowledge of the world 1 ; he was in the bloom of
youth, and had a fine figure and good looks. (6)

His father procured him a beautiful wife, Rupmi,
with whom he amused himself in his pleasant palace,
like a Dogundaga god 2 . (7)

Once upon a time he saw from the window of
his palace a man sentenced to death, dressed
for execution, on his way to the place of execu
tion. (8)

1 To render nitikovida.

2 For Dogundaga, see above, p. 88, note 2.

LECTURE XXI. IOQ

Agitated by what he saw, Samudrapala spoke
thus : Of wicked actions this is the bad result. (9)

He became enlightened at once, the venerable
man, and he was immensely agitated ; he took
leave of his parents, and entered the state of
houselessness. (10)

Abandoning the great distress to which the
worldly 1 are liable, the great delusion, and what
ever causes fear, one should adopt the Law of
monks 2 , the vows, the virtues, and the (endurance
of) calamities, (i i)

One should keep the five great vows, viz. not to
kill, to speak the truth, not to steal, to be chaste, to
have no property whatever ; a wise man should
follow the Law taught by the inas. (12)

A monk should have compassion on all beings,
should be of a forbearing character, should be
restrained and chaste, and abstaining from every
thing sinful ; he should live with his senses under
control. (13)

Now and then 3 he should travel in one country,

1 Saggantha = sagrantha, which is obviously the opposite
of nirgrantha. The commentators correct sawgawtha in sazrc-
gaw fa. The original reading is in MS. B. A. has sa;ga/0tha,
and so had C. originally, but it corrects the tha into /( a. Accord
ing to the commentators we should translate : abandoning
worldly attachment which causes great distress, great delusion,
black (Lejya), and dangers, one should, &c.

2 Paryaya-dharma. Paryaya means a state under which
a substance presents itself. Here is meant the state of the soul
in pravra^ya, i.e. .rramawya-paryaya; compare the expressions
/fc^admastha-paryaya and kevali-paryaya. Paryaya-dharma
is here equal to pravra^ya-dharma, Law of the monks.

3 Kalewa kalaw, the commentators supply kurvan, and
explain the passage as follows : kalena, i.e. in a paurushi (four

1IO UTTARADHYAYAXA.

taking into consideration its resources and his own
ability; like a lion he should not be frightened by
any noise ; and whatever words he hears, he should
not make an improper reply. (14)

In utter indifference he should walk about, and
bear everything, be it pleasant or unpleasant ; he
should not approve of everything everywhere, nor
care for 1 respectful treatment or blame. (15)

There are many opinions here among men, which
a monk places in their true light ; there will rise
many dangerous and dreadful calamities, caused by
gods, men, or animals, which are difficult to be borne
and cause easily-discouraged men to sink under
them ; but a monk who comes in contact with them
will not be afraid, like a stately elephant at the head
of the battle. (16, 17)

Cold and heat, flies and gnats, unpleasant
feelings, and many diseases attack the body ; with
out flinching 2 he should bear them, and should

hours) less one quarter of it, kalam, i.e. what is proper for
the time. The meaning would be doing at every time what
is proper or prescribed to do at it/ But this explanation looks
very artificial; I think that the expression kale;za kala;;z is an
adverb of the same type as mzgghum m&ggh&na. and many
others.

1 Sawz^ae. This word may be sawyata in this place; but
in verse 20, w r here the same line occurs again, it cannot be so
interpreted, because there the word saff^ae occurs twice; once
it has the meaning of sa/w^ata, but in the passage under dis
cussion it must be a verb, and it is rendered there sa# r ayet=
sangaflz kuryat by the commentators.

2 Akukkuo, translated akuku^a, derived from the root kug to
warble, to groan; it would therefore mean without complaint/
But in I, 30 we have appakukku6, derived from the root
ku to bend, to be crooked/ and it is rendered alpaspandana.
The same meaning applies in the present case.

LECTURE XXT. I I I

not recall to his memory the pleasures he once
enjoyed. (18)

Giving up love, hatred, and delusion, a monk who
is always careful and who is steadfast even as Mount
Meru cannot be shaken by the storm, should bear
calamities, guarding himself. (19)

A great sage should be neither too elevated by
pride nor too humble, he should not care for
respectful treatment nor blame ; an ascetic who has
ceased (to act\ will by means of his simplicity enter
the path of Nirvana. (20)

He is neither grieved nor pleased (by anything) 1 ,
he abandons his relations with men, he ceases (to
act), is intent on the benefit of his soul, he strives
for the highest good (viz. mukti), and uses the
means to reach it, free from sorrow, egoism, and
any kind of property. (21)

A merciful (monk) should use beds distant from
others, which are not got ready for his sake 2 nor
strewn (with leaves or things considered to be pos
sessed of life) ; he should sustain such hardships as
the sages are accustomed to. (22)

The great sage (Samudrapala), understanding the
sacred lore and practising completely the best Law,
shone forth like the sun in the sky, being possessed
of the highest knowledge and glory. (23)

Having annihilated his Karman both meritorious

1 This is the meaning commonly given to the frequently occur
ring phrase arairaisahe. Another interpretation is : sa/wyama-
saffzyamavishay, tabhyaw na badhate.

2 Nirovalevai = nirupalipta. By upalepa may be meant
1 dirt/ but the author of the Ava/uri explains upalepa as consisting
in abhishvanga affection. It is almost impossible to render
satisfactorily so vague an expression.

112 UTTARADHYAYANA.

and sinful, being steadfast l , and free from all fetters,
Samudrapala crossed the ocean-like Flood of worldly
existence and obtained exemption from transmi
gration. (24)
Thus I say.

TWENTY-SECOND LECTURE.

RATHANEMI.

In the town of 6auryapura 2 there was a powerful
king, Vasudeva by name, who possessed the char
acteristic marks of a king, (i)

He had two wives, Rohi^i and Devakt ; each of
them had a beloved son, Rama and Ke^ava. (2)

In the town of vSauryapura there was (another)
powerful king, Samudravyfaya by name, who
possessed the characteristic marks of a king. (3)

His wife was .Siva by name ; and her famous son
was the venerable Arish/anemi, the saviour of the
world and the lord of ascetics. (4)

This Arish/anemi, who was gifted with an excel
lent voice and possessed the thousand and eight
lucky marks of the body, was a Gautama, and his
skin was black. (5)

His body was strong like that of a bull, and hard

1 Nirangawa = sawyame nij^ala, immovable with regard
to self-control.

- According to the Brahmanical account Vasudeva lived in
Mathura. The name given to the town by the Gainas is
apparently derived from -Sauri, an epithet of Kn srma, whose
grandfather was -Sura. Soriyapura may be -Saurikapura or
-Sauryapura. The latter rendering adopted by our commentators
is based on a wrong etymology.

LECTURE XXII. 113

like steel ; he was well proportioned, and had a
belly like that of a fish.

Ke-sava asked the girl Ra^imatl l in marriage for
him. (6)

Now this daughter of an excellent king 2 was
virtuous and well looking ; she possessed all lucky
marks of the body, and shone forth like the lightning
Saudamani. (7)

Her father said to the powerful Vasudeva : Let
the prince come here that I may give him my
daughter/ (8)

He had taken a bath containing all (lucky) herbs,
and had performed the customary ceremonies ; he
wore a suit of heavenly clothes and was decked
out with ornaments. (9)

Riding on the best mast elephant 3 of Vasudeva he
looked beautiful, like a jewel worn on the head. (10)

He sat under a raised umbrella, fanned by two
chowries, and he was surrounded on all sides by
a host of Da^arhas 4 and by a complete army drawn

1 Raimai, Raimai, and Rayamati are the forms of her name in
Prakrz t ; the spellings Ragimati and Rayamati are also met with
in Sanskrit.

2 Viz. Ugrasena. He was placed on the throne by Kr/shwa on
the death of Ka/sa, cf. Vishmi Purawa V, 21. He and Devaka
were the sons of Ahuka, Ka/^sa was a son of Ugrasena, and
Devaki a daughter of Devaka, loc. cit. IV, 14. According to the
legend of Krzshwa, as told by the Brahmans and Gainas, ara-
sandha afterwards repeatedly attacked Mathura. Kr/ sha there
fore built Dvaraka on the shore of the western ocean, and sent
thither the Yadava tribe, loc. cit. V, 22 and 23. The events
narrated in the text must be understood to have occurred in
Dvaraka, as is evident from verse 21.

3 Gandhahastin, an elephant of the best class, whose very
smell is sufficient, as is believed, to frighten common elephants,
see verse 15.

4 Dasara in Prakr/t. They are a clan descended from Yadu.

[45] I

I 1 4 UTTARADHYAYANA .

up in rank and file, while the heavenly sound of
musical instruments reached the sky. (n, 12)

With such pomp and splendour the hero of the
Vrtshnis started from his own palace. (13)

On his way he saw animals, kept in cages
and enclosures, overcome by fear and looking
miserable. (14)

Seeing them on the point of being killed for the
sake of their flesh, and to be eaten afterwards, the
great sage spoke to his charioteer l thus : (15)

Why are 2 all these animals, which desire to be
happy, kept in cages and enclosures ? (16)

Then the charioteer answered : Lucky are these
animals because at thy wedding they will furnish
food for many people. (17)

Having heard these words, which announced the
slaughter of many animals, the great sage, full of
compassion and kindness to living beings, meditated
thus: (18)

If for my sake many living beings are killed,
I shall not obtain happiness in the next world. (19)

Then the famous man presented the charioteer
with his pair of earrings, his neck-chain, and all his
ornaments. (20)

When he had formed his resolution, the gods

1 In verse 10 Arish/anemi rides on an elephant, but in the
sequel he is supposed to travel in a car. Unless the poet can
be charged with having made this blunder, which I think just
possible, verse 10 must be considered a later addition.

2 The form of the verb aH ^ahiw for akkhznti is worthy
of note, because him as ending of the third person plural belongs
to Apabhra/ftja. It is interesting to find a true Apabhrama form
in a text so old as ours, for it seems to prove that at all times
Apabhrama went along with the common Prakrzt, a vulgar or low
with a high middle-Indian language.

LECTURE XXII.

descended (from heaven), according to the established
custom, to celebrate, with great pomp together with
their retinue, the event of his renunciation. (21)

Surrounded by gods and men, and sitting on an
excellent palankin, the Venerable One left Dvaraka
and ascended mount Raivataka 1 . (22)

On arriving at the park he descended from his
excellent palankin, surrounded by a crowd of thou
sands, and then his renunciation took place, while
the moon was in conjunction with A^itra 2 . (23)

Then he himself plucked out his delightfully-
perfumed, soft, and curled hair in five hand-
fuls. (24)

And Vasudeva said to that subduer of the senses,
who had plucked out his hair : * O lord of ascetics,
may you soon obtain what you wish and desire. (25)

1 Increase in knowledge, faith, and right conduct,
in forbearance and perfection ! (26)

In this manner Rama and Kesava, the Da^arhas,
and many people paid homage to Arish/anemi and
then returned to the town of Dvaraka. (27)

When the daughter of the king heard of the
ordination of the ^ina, laughter and gaiety forsook
her, and she was overwhelmed with affliction 3 . (28)

1 Raivataka is mount Girnar in Ka//iawu The hill is one of
the most sacred places of the ^ainas, and is covered with temples
of the Ginas. It is also sacred to the Hindus on account of its
connection with the history of Krishna. The poetical description
of mount Raivataka forms the subject of the fourth sarga of the
Sijupalavadha by Magha.

2 The lunar mansion, the chief star of which is Spica or
a Virginis.

3 The lamentation of Rag-imati on her husband s becoming an
ascetic forms the subject of a curious Sanskrit poem called Nemi-
dutakavya, by Vikrama, son of Sanghawa, which has been edited in

I 2

I I 6 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Ra^imati thought : * Shame upon my life, that
I have been forsaken by him ! it is better I should
turn nun. (29)

Firm and decided she cut off her tresses which
were black like bees and dressed with a brush and
comb 1 . (30)

And Vasudeva said to her who had cut off her
hair, and subdued her senses: Lady, cross the
dreadful ocean of the Sawsara without difficulty! (31)

When she had entered the order, the virtuous
and very learned lady induced there many people,
her relations and servants, to enter the order
too. (32)

On her way to mount Raivataka it began to rain ;
her clothes being wet, she entered a cave and waited
there in the darkness while it was raining. (33)

She took off her clothes and was naked as she
was born, thus she was seen by Rathanemi 2 , whose

the Kavyamala of 1886. It is what is technically called a sama-
syapurawa or gloss. The last line of each stanza is taken from
the Meghaduta of Kalidasa, and the first three lines are added by
the poet to make the whole fit the circumstances of his tale.

1 KuH apharcaga, in Sanskrit kur/fraphanaka. According
to the scholiasts phanaka is a comb made of bamboo. I have
translated, cut off her tresses/ but literally it is : plucked out
her
hair. However, I do not think that women also are to pluck out
their hair.

2 Rathanemi was her husband s elder brother. According to
a legend told in Haribhadra s 7 ika of the Da^avaikalika Sutra
(see Leumann in the Journal of the German Oriental Society,
vol. 46, p. 597), Rathanemi fell in love with Ra^imati. But that
lady in order to make him see his wrong, vomited a sweet
beverage she had drunk, in a cup and offered it him. On his
turning away with disgust she explained to him her meaning : she
too had been vomited, as it were, by Arish/anemi, notwithstanding
which he wanted to have her. She then taught him the Gaina
creed, and he became a monk.

LECTURE XXIT. 117

(peace of) mind became (thereby) disturbed ; and
afterwards she saw him. (34)

She was frightened when she discovered herself
alone with the monk ; folding her arms over her
breast she sank down trembling. (35)

When the prince, Samudravifaya s son, saw her
frightened and trembling, he spoke the following
words: (36)

* I am Rathanemi, O dear, beautiful, sweetly-
speaking lady ! Do accept me for your lover, O
slender one J , you shall have no cause to com
plain. (37)

( Come, let us enjoy pleasures, for it is a rare
chance to be born a human being ; after we have
enjoyed pleasures, we shall enter on the path of the

Ginas. (38)

When Ra^imati perceived that Rathanemi s strength
of will was broken, and temptation had got the
better of him, she did not lose her presence of mind
and defended her Self on that occasion. (39)

The daughter of the best king, true to self-control
and her vows, maintained the honour of her clan
and family, and her virtue, and spoke to him : (40)

If you owned the beauty of Vaisramawa 2 , the
pleasing manners of Nalakubara 3 , if you were like
Purandara 4 himself, I should have no desire for
you. (41)

Suyau = sutanu. This may, however, be a proper
name, a synonym of Ra^imati, for according to the Hariva#wa
2029 and the Vishwu Purawa IV, 14, Sutanu was a daughter of
Ugrasena.

2 Vaijramawa is a Prakrz t spelling for Vauravawa = Kub6ra.

3 Nalakubara is Vairramana s son.

4 Indra.

I I 8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

1 Fie upon you, famous knight, who want to quaff
the vomited drink for the sake of this life ; it would
be better for you to die 1 . (42)

I am the daughter of the Bhoga-king 2 , and you
are an Andhakavrzshm ; being born in a noble family
let us not become like Gandhana-snakes 3 ; firmly
practise self-control ! (43)

If you fall in love with every woman you see, you
will be without hold like the HaMa-plant 4 , driven
before the wind. (44)

As a herdsman or a keeper of goods does not
own the things (he has the care of), so you will not
truly own KSrama/zahood. (45)

Having heard these well-spoken words of the
virtuous lady, he returned to the Law like an elephant
driven by the hook 5 . (46)

Protected in thoughts, words, and acts, subduing
his senses and keeping the vows, he practised true
Srama/zahood throughout life. (47)

1 The verses 42, 43, 44, 46 have been received in the Daravai-
kalika Sutra II, 7-10, see Leumann s edition of that Sutra quoted
in the note, p. 116. A metrical German translation will be found
in the same place.

2 On the Bh6gas see p. 71, note 2. It is perhaps here misspelt
for Bhqg-a. In the Vishnu Pura/za, Kawsa, Ugrasna s son, is twice
called Bhog-arag-a (see Wilson s translation, ed. Hall, vol. iv, pp.
260,
271), in contradiction to the common tradition which makes him
an Andhaka, compare Pataw^ali on Pawini IV, i, 114.

3 There are said to be two kinds of snakes, the gandhana and
the agandhana. The former can be made to suck the poison
from the \vound they have inflicted ; the other will rather die than
do so. Cf. Leumann, loc. cit., p. 597, note *.

4 Pistia Stratiotes, an aquatic plant.

5 Dvendra here refers to the story of the Ntipurapawdita,
of which he gives a small portion in Prakrz t. The whole story is
related in the Parmsh/aparvan of H6ma^andra, see the introduction
to my edition of that work in the Bibliotheca Indica.

LECTURE XXIII.

After practising severe austerities both of them
became Kevalins, and having completely annihi
lated their Karman, they reached the highest
perfection. (48)

Thus act the enlightened, the wise, the clever

ones ; they turn from pleasures as did this best of
men 1 . (49)

Thus I say.

TWENTY-THIRD LECTURE 2 .

KESl AND GAUTAMA.

There was a G ma, Panrva 3 by name, an Arhat,
worshipped by the people, who was thoroughly
enlightened and omniscient, a prophet of the Law,
and a ina. (i)

And there was a famous disciple of this Light of

1 Compare the last verse of the Ninth Lecture.

2 In this lecture we have a very interesting legend about the
way in which the union of the old church of Parjva and the new
church of Mahavira was brought about. A revival of this ancient
difference seems to have caused the united church afterwards to
divide again into the present -Svetambara and Digambara sects.
They do not continue the two primitive churches, but seem to
have grown out of the united church.

3 Pars-va is the last but one Tirthakara, his Nirvawa took place
250 years before that of Mahavira. This statement, which has
been generally accepted, is, however, in seeming contradiction to
the account of our text, according to which a disciple of Parjva, who
is called a young monk kumara-jramawa, met Gautama,
i.e. Sudharman, the disciple of Mahavira. We therefore must
take the word disciple, sise, asparamparajishya, that is not in
its literal sense. See note 3, p. 122.

1 2O UTTARADHYAYANA.

the World, the young 6rama;za Ke\n, who had
completely mastered the sciences and right con
duct. (2)

He possessed the light of ,5ruta and Avadhi
knowledge 1 , and was surrounded by a crowd of
disciples ; wandering from village to village he
arrived in the town of ^ravasti. (3)

In the district of that town there is a park, called
Tinduka ; there he took up his abode in a pure
place to live and sleep in. (4)

Now at that time there lived the Prophet of the
Law, the ina, who in the whole world is known as
the venerable Vardhamana. (5)

And there was a famous disciple of this Light
of the World, the venerable Gautama by name, who
had completely mastered the sciences and right
conduct. (6)

He knew the twelve Afigas, was enlightened, and
was surrounded by a crowd of disciples ; wandering
from village to village he too arrived in .Sravasti. (7)

In the district of that town there is a park
KoshMaka ; there he took up his abode in a pure
place to live and sleep in. (8)

The young .5rama;za Ken and the famous
Gautama, both lived there, protecting themselves
(by the Guptis) and being careful. (9)

The pupils of both, who controlled themselves,
who practised austerities, who possessed virtues,
and who protected their Self, made the following
reflection : (10)

1 These are the second and third kinds of knowledge according
to the (jaina classification. -SVuta is the knowledge derived from
the sacred books, and avadhi is limited or conditioned knowledge.
See Bhandarkar, Report, p. 106.

LECTURE XXIII. 121

Is our Law the right one, or is the other Law 1
the right one ? are our conduct and doctrines right,
or the other ? (i i)

The Law as taught by the great sage Parrva,
which recognises but four vows 2 , or the Law taught
by Vardhamana, which enjoins five vows ? (12)

The Law which forbids clothes (for a monk), or
that which (allows) an under and upper garment ?
Both pursuing the same end, what has caused their
difference ? (13)

Knowing the thoughts of their pupils, both Ke\ri
and Gautama made up their minds to meet each
other. (14)

Gautama, knowing what is proper and what is due
to the older section (of the church), went to the Tin-
duka park, accompanied by the crowd, his pupils. (15)

When Ke\n, the young monk, saw Gautama
approach, he received him with all becoming atten
tion. (16)

He at once offered Gautama the four pure kinds
of straw and hay 3 to sit upon. (17)

Ke\ri, the young .5rama;/a,and the famous Gautama,
sitting together, shone forth with a lustre like that
of sun and moon. (18)

There assembled many heretics out of curiosity,
and many thousands of laymen ; (19)

Gods, Danavas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, Rakshasas,

1 Viz. the Law of Panrva or the Law of Mahavira.

2 Hence it is called kau^ama ^aturyama. Chastity (mai-
thunaviramawa) was not explicitly enumerated, but it was
understood to be contained in the fourth commandment : to have
no property (aparigraha).

3 The four kinds of straw are: salt vihi koddava ralaga,
to which is added hay: rawwe tawawi.

122 UTTARADHYAYANA.

and Kinnaras (assembled there), and there came
together invisible ghosts 1 too. (20)

Ke\n said to Gautama, I want to ask you some
thing, holy man. Then to these words of Ken
Gautama made the following reply : " Sir, ask what
ever you like." Then with his permission Kesi
spoke to Gautama: (21, 22)

The Law taught by the great sage Pan?va, recog
nises but four vows, whilst that of Vardhamana
enjoins five. (23)

Both Laws pursuing the same end, what has
caused this difference ? Have you no misgivings
about this twofold Law, O wise man ? (24)

Then to these words of Ke\si Gautama made the
following reply : " Wisdom recognises the truth of
the Law and the ascertainment of true things. (25)

" The first 2 saints were simple but slow of under
standing, the last saints prevaricating and slow
of understanding, those between the two simple
and wise ; hence there are two forms of the Law 3 . (26)

1 Bhuya = bhuta, explained Vyantara. The vantara or
vanamantara are a class of ghosts. The second part of the
word apparently is tara crossing, and the first seems to contain
an accusative vam or vawamaw which may be connected with
viha or vyoman air/

2 Those under the first Tirthakaras.

3 The meaning of this explanation is as follows. As the vow
of chastity is not explicitly mentioned among Par^va s four vows,
but was understood to be implicitly enjoined by them, it follows
that only such men as were of an upright disposition and quick
understanding would not go astray by observing the four vows
literally, i. e. by not abstaining from sexual intercourse, as it was
not expressly forbidden. The argumentation in the text pre
supposes a decay of the morals of the monastic order to have
occurred between Par^va and Mahavira, and this is possible
only on the assumption of a sufficient interval of time having

LECTURE XXIII. 123

" The first could but with difficulty understand the
precepts of the Law, and the last could only with
difficulty observe them, but those between them
easily understood and observed them." (27)

Well, Gautama, you possess wisdom, you have
destroyed my doubt ; but I have another doubt
which you must explain to me, Gautama. (28)

The Law taught by Vardhamana forbids clothes,
but that of the great sage Pars-va allows an under
and upper garment. (29)

4 Both Laws pursuing the same end, what has
caused this difference ? Have you no misgivings
about this twofold Law, O wise man ? (30)

To these words of Ken Gautama made the follow
ing reply : " Deciding the matter by their superior
knowledge, (the Tirthakaras) have fixed what is
necessary for carrying out the Law. (31)

" The various outward marks (of religious men)
have been introduced in order that people might
recognise them as such ; the reason for the character
istic marks is their usefulness for religious life and
their distinguishing character. (32)

" Now the opinion (of the Tirthakaras) is that
knowledge, faith, and right conduct are the true
causes of final liberation, (and not the outward
marks)." (33)

Well, Gautama, you possess wisdom, you have
destroyed my doubt ; but I have another doubt,
which you must explain to me, Gautama. (34)

1 Gautama, you stand in the midst of many

elapsed between the last two Tirthakaras. And this perfectly agrees
with the common tradition that Mahavira came 250 years after
Par^va.

124 UTTARADHYAYANA.

thousand (foes) who make an attack on you ; how
have you vanquished them l ? (35)

" By vanquishing one, five are vanquished ; by
vanquishing five, ten are vanquished ; by this tenfold
victory, I vanquish all foes." (36)

Kesi said to Gautama : Whom do you call a
foe ? To these words of Ke&lt;ri Gautama made the
following reply : (37)

" Self is the one invincible foe, (together with
the four) cardinal passions 2 , (viz. anger, pride,
deceit, and greed, they are five) and the (five) senses
(make ten). These (foes), O great sage, I have
regularly vanquished." (38)

Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (-9)

We see many beings in this world who are bound
by fetters ; how have you got rid of your fetters
and are set free, O sage ? (40)

" Having cut off all fetters, and having destroyed
them by the right means, I have got rid of my
fetters and am set free, O sage." (41)

Kesi said to Gautama : What do you call fetters?

1 This question does not refer to the difference in doctrines
between Pan-va and Mahavira, but is discussed here, as the
commentator states, for the benefit of the pupils of both sages
who are engaged in conversation. I think, however, that this and
the following questions are asked and answered here by the
disciples of the two Tirthakaras for a better reason than that
given by the scholiast. For in them the leading topics of raimsm
are treated in a symbolical way. Gautama at once understands
the true meaning of the similes and interprets them to the
satisfaction of K&ri. In this way the unity in doctrine subsisting
between the Law of Parjva and that of Mahavira is demonstrated
to the hearers of the dispute, after the differences had been
explained away.

2 Kashaya.

LECTURE XXIII. 125

To these words of Ke^i Gautama made the following
reply: (42)

" Love, hatred, &c., are heavy fetters, attachment
is a dangerous one ; having regularly destroyed
them, I live up to the rules of conduct." (43)

1 Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (44)

O Gautama, in the innermost heart there grows
a plant which brings forth poisonous fruit ; how
have you torn it out ? (45)

" I have thoroughly clipped that plant, and torn it
out altogether with its roots ; thus I have got rid
of the poisonous fruit." (46)

Ke\si said to Gautama, What do you call that
plant ? To these words of Ke\n Gautama made
the following reply : (47)

" Love of existence is that dreadful plant which
brings forth dreadful fruit ; having regularly torn it
out, I live pleasantly." (48)

Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (49)

Gautama, there is blazing up a frightful fire
which burns * the embodied beings ; how have you
put it out ? (50)

" Taking water, excellent water, from (the river)
produced by the great cloud, I always pour it over
my body; thus sprinkled the fire does not burn
me." (51)

Ke\ri said to Gautama, * What do you call the
fire ? To these words of Ke\?i Gautama made the
following reply : (52)

" The passions are the fire ; knowledge, a vir
tuous life, and penances are the water; sprinkled

1 In the original fire is put in the plural because the four
kasha y as or cardinal passions are denoted by it.

126 UTTARADHYAYANA.

with the drops of knowledge the fire of the passions
is extinguished and does not burn me." (53)

* Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (54)

The unruly, dreadful, bad horse, on which you
sit, runs about, Gautama ! how comes it to pass that
it does not run off with you ? (55)

" I govern it well in its course by the bridle of
knowledge ; it does not go astray with me, it keeps
to the right path." (56)

Ke\si said to Gautama, What do you call this
horse ? To these words of Ke\si Gautama made the
following reply : (5 7)

" The mind is that unruly, dreadful, bad horse ;
I govern it by the discipline of the Law (so that it
becomes a well-) trained Kambq^a-steed V (58)

Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (59)

* There are many bad roads in this world, which
lead men astray ; how do you avoid, Gautama, going
astray as you are on the road ? (60)

" They all are known to me, those who are in the
right path and those who have chosen a wrong
path ; therefore I do not go astray, O sage ! " (61)

Ke\n said to Gautama, What do you call the
path ? To these words of Ke\ri Gautama made the
following reply : (62)

" The heterodox and the heretics have all chosen
a wrong path ; the right path is that taught by the
6inas ; it is the most excellent path." (63)

1 Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (64)

Is there a shelter, a refuge, a firm ground for the
beings carried away by the great flood of water ?
do you know the island, O Gautama ? (65)

1 Kanthaka, see above, p. 47, note 2.

LECTURE XXIII. 127

" There is a large, great island in the midst of
water, which is not inundated by the great flood
of water." (66)

Ke\ri said to Gautama, * What do you call this
island ? To these words of Ke\ri Gautama made
the following reply : (67)

" The flood is old age and death, which
carry away living beings ; Law is the island,
the firm ground, the refuge, the most excellent
shelter." (68)

Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (69)

On the ocean with its many currents there drifts
a boat ; how will you, Gautama, on board of it reach
the opposite shore ? (70)

" A boat that leaks will not reach the opposite
shore ; but a boat that does not leak, will reach

it.- ( 7 i)

Ke\ri said to Gautama, What do you call this
boat? To these words of Kesi Gautama made
the following reply : (72)

" The body is the boat, life is the sailor, and the
Circle of Births is the ocean which is crossed by
the great sages." (73)

* Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (74)

In this dreadfully dark gloom there live many
beings ; who will bring light into the whole world of
living beings ? (75)

" The spotless sun has risen which illuminates the
whole world ; he will bring light into the whole world
of living beings." (76)

Ke\ri said to Gautama, W 7 hat do you call this
sun ? To these words of Ke\si Gautama made the
following reply : (77)

"Risen has he who put an end to the Circle of

128 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Births, the omniscient ina, the luminary, who brings
light into the whole world of living beings." (78)

Well, Gautama, &c. (as in verse 28). (79)

Do you, O sage, know a safe, happy, and quiet
place for living beings which suffer from pains : of
body and mind ? (80)

" There is a safe place in view of all, but difficult
of approach, where there is no old age nor death, no
pain nor disease." (81)

Ken said to Gautama, What is this place
called ? To these words of Ken Gautama made the
following reply : (82)

"It is what is called Nirvana, or freedom from
pain, or perfection, which is in view of all ; it is the
safe, happy, and quiet place which the great sages
reach. (83)

" That is the eternal place, in view of all, but
difficult of approach. Those sages who reach it are
free from sorrows, they have put an end to the
stream of existence." (84)

Well, Gautama, you possess wisdom, you have
destroyed my doubt ; obeisance to you, who are not
troubled by doubts, who are the ocean, as it were,
of all Sutras/ (85)

After his doubt had been solved, Keri, of enormous
sanctity, bowed his head to the famous Gau
tama. (86)

And in the pleasant (Tinduka park) he sincerely
adopted the Law of the five vows, which was
proclaimed by the first Tirthakara, according to the
teaching of the last Tirthakara. (87)

1 Mawase dukkhe stands for maasehiw dukkhehiw. It
is an interesting instance of the dropping of case affixes, which
probably was more frequent in the vernacular.

LECTURE XXIV. 129

In that meeting of Ke\ri and Gautama, knowledge
and virtuous conduct were for ever brought to
eminence, and subjects of the greatest importance
were settled. (88)

The whole assembly was greatly pleased and
fixed their thoughts on the right way. They
praised Ken and Gautama: ( May the venerable
ones show us favour! (89)

Thus I say.

TWENTY-FOURTH LECTURE.

THE SAMITIS.

The eight articles I of the creed are the Samitis
and the Guptis ; there are five Samitis and three
Guptis. (i)

The Samitis 2 are: i. irya-samiti (going by
paths trodden by men, beasts, carts, &c., and looking
carefully so as not to occasion the death of any
living creature); 2. bhasha-samiti (gentle, salu
tary, sweet, righteous speech); 3. esha^a-samiti
(receiving alms in a manner to avoid the forty-two
faults that are laid down); 4. adana-samiti (re
ceiving and keeping of the things necessary for

1 The word I have rendered article is maya, the Sanskrit form
of which may be mata or matra. The word is derived from
the root ma to find room in/ and denotes that which includes
in itself other things, see verse 3. The word may also mean
matr/ mother/ as Weber understands it. But this is an obviously
intentional double meaning.

1 The definitions placed in parentheses in the text are taken
from Bhandarkar s Report for 1883-1884, p. 98, note t, p. 100,
note *.

[45] K

UTTARADHYAYANA.

religious exercises, after having carefully examined
them); 5. u/^ara-samiti (performing the opera
tions of nature in an unfrequented place). The
three Guptis (which are here included in the term
Samiti in its wider application) are : i. mano-gupti
(preventing the mind from wandering in the forest
of sensual pleasures by employing it in contemplation,
study, &c.); 2. vag-gupti (preventing the tongue
from saying bad things by a vow of silence, &c.) ;
3. kaya-gupti (putting the body in an immovable
posture as in the case of Kayotsarga). (2)

The eight Samitis are thus briefly enumerated, in
which the whole creed taught by the G mas and set
forth in the twelve Angas, is comprehended. (3)

i. The walking of a well-disciplined monk should
be pure in four respects : in respect to i. the cause 1 ;
2. the time ; 3. the road ; 4. the effort 2 . (4)

The cause is: knowledge, faith, and right con
duct; the time is day-time; the road excludes bad
ways. (5)

The effort is fourfold, viz. as regards: i. sub
stance, 2. place, 3. time, and 4. condition of mind.
Hear me explain them. (6)

With regard to substance: the (walking monk)
should look with his eyes ; with regard to place :
the space of a yuga (i.e. four hastas or cubits);
with regard to time : as long as he walks ; and with
regard to condition of mind : carefully 3 . (7)

He walks carefully who pays attention only to

1 A lamb an a, literally support : explained: supported by which
the mind becomes pure.

2 Gayarca = yatna; it consists chiefly in compassion with
living creatures (^ivadaya).

3 Upayukta.

LECTURE XXIV. 131

his walk and his body (executing it), whilst he avoids
attending to the objects of sense, but (minds) his
study, the latter in all five ways l . (8)

2. To give way to : anger, pride, deceit and greed,
laughter, fear, loquacity and slander 2 ; these eight
faults should a well-disciplined monk avoid ; he
should use blameless and concise speech at the
proper time. (9, 10)

3. As regards begging 3 , a monk should avoid the
faults in the search 4 , in the receiving 5 , and in the
use 6 of the three kinds of objects, viz. food, articles
of use, and lodging, (i i)

A zealous monk should avoid in the first (i.e. in
the search for alms) the faults occasioned either by
the giver (udgama) or by the receiver (utpadana) ;
in the second (i.e. in the receiving of alms) the faults
inherent in the receiving ; and in the use of the
articles received, the four faults 7 . (12)

1 The five ways are va^ana, &c., as explained in the Twenty-
ninth Lecture, 19-23, below, p. 165 f. The commentators supply
kuryat he should carry on his study/

2 Vikaha = vikatha, which does not occur in common
Sanskrit. Perhaps it stands for vikattha boasting/

3 Esharaa. 4 Gaveshawa. 5 Grahawaisharca.
Paribhogaisharca.

7 There are altogether forty-six faults to be avoided. As they
are frequently alluded to in the sacred texts, a systematical
enumeration and description of them according to the Dipika
will be useful.

There are sixteen udgama-doshas by which food, &c. becomes
unfit for a Gaina monk :

1. Adhakarmika, the fault inherent in food, &c., which a lay
man has prepared especially for religious mendicants of whatever
sect.

2. Audde^ika, is food, &c., which a layman has prepared for
a particular monk.

K 2

132 UTTARADHYAYANA.

4. If a monk takes up or lays down the two kinds
of things belonging to his general and supple-

3. Putika, is food, &c., which is pure on the whole, but
contains particles impure on account of the first fault.

4. Unmijra, is food, &c., of which a part only had been
especially prepared for the monk in question.

5. Sthapanakarmika, is food, &c., which has been reserved
for the monk.

6. Prabhrz tika, is food, &c., which has been prepared for
some festivity.

7. Pradu/^karawa, when the layman has to light a lamp in
order to fetch the alms for the monk.

8. Krita, when he has to buy the things.

9. Pramitya, when he has to fetch a ladle (? uddharaka) in
order to draw out the food, &c.

10. Paravrz tti, when he replaces bad particles of the food by
good ones, and vice versa.

n. Adhyahr/ta, when he has to fetch the food, &c., from
some distance.

12. Udbhinna, when he has to open locks before he gets at
the food, &c.

13. Malahrz ta, when he has to take the food, &c., from some
raised or underground place.

14. A^Midya, when the food, &c., was taken by force from
somebody.

15. Anisrz sh/a, when a man gives from a store he possesses
in common with other men, without asking their permission.

1 6. Adhyavapura, when the mendicant calls while the dinner
is being cooked, and for his sake more food is put in the pot on
the fire.

(Some of these faults are enumerated in the Aupapatika Sutra,
96, III.)

There are sixteen utpadana-doshas; or such faults as are
occasioned by the monk s using some means to make the layman
give him alms :

1. Dhatrikarman, when the monk plays with the layman s
children.

2. Dutakarman, when he gives him information about what
his people are doing.

3. Nimitta, when he speaks in praise of almsgiving.

4. A^-ivika, when he makes his birth and family known to him.

LECTURE XXIV. 133

mentary l outfit, he should proceed in the following
way. (13)

5. Vapanika, when he expatiates upon his misery.

6. j^ikitsa, when he cures sick people.

7. Krodhapi/^a, when he extorts alms by threats.

8. Manapiw^a, when he tells the layman that he has laid
a wager with other monks that he would get alms from him.

9. Mayapiwt/a, when he employs tricks or buffoonery in
order to procure alms.

10. Lobhapiw^a, when he goes begging from a desire of
good fare.

11. Sawstava-piw^a, when he flatters the layman.

12. Vidyapid/a, when he makes a show of his learning; or
when he conjures a god from whom to get alms.

13. Mantradosha, when he obliges the layman in some way
or other.

14. ^uray6ga, when he makes himself invisible and then
takes away the food, &c.

15. Yogapiw^a, when he teaches people spells, tricks, &c.

16. Mulakarman, when he teaches them how to obviate evils
by roots, charms, &c.

There are ten faults of grahawaishawa :

1. Sank it a, when a monk accepts alms from a frightened
layman.

2. Mrakshita, when the food is soiled (kharaw/ita) by
animate or inanimate matter.

3. Nikshipta, when the food is placed among animate things.

4. Pi hit a, when animate food is covered with inanimate matter,
and vice versa.

5. Sa/rchrz ta, when the layman has to take out the thing to be
given from one vessel and puts it into another.

6. Dayaka, when the condition or occupation of the giver
forbids accepting alms from him.

7. Unmijrita, when the layman mixes up pure with impure
food.

8. Aparita (?), when one joint possessor gives away from the
store against the other s will.

9. Lipta, when the layman gives food, &c., with a ladle or his
hand, soiled with milk, butter, &c.

10. .Oardita, when in giving alms he spills milk, &c.

1 See next page.

1 34 UTTARADHYAYANA.

A zealous monk should wipe the thing after having
inspected it with his eyes, and then he should take
it up or put it down, having the Samiti in both
respects 2 . (14)

5. Excrements, urine, saliva, mucus, uncleanliness
of the body, offals of food, waste things, his own body
(when he is about to die), and everything of this
description (is to be disposed of in the way to be
described). (15)

[A place may be not frequented and not seen (by
people), or not frequented but seen, or frequented
and not seen, or frequented and seen. (i6)] 3

In a place neither frequented nor seen by other
people, which offers no obstacles to self-control, which
is even, not covered with grass or leaves 4 , and has

There are four faults of paribhogaishawa :

1. Sa/rayo^-ana, when the monk puts together the ingredients
for a good meal.

2. Apramawa, when he accepts a greater than the prescribed
quantity of food.

3. Irigala, when he praises a rich man for his good fare, or
dhuma, when he blames a poor man for his bad fare.

4. Akara/za, when he eats choice food on other occasions than
those laid down in the sacred texts.

1 Aughika and aupagrahika. The former is explained
samudayika, the other denotes such things as are wanted
occasionally only, as a stick. I cannot make out with certainty
from the commentaries whether the broom is reckoned among
the former or the latter.

* This means, according to the commentator, either in taking up
or putting down, or with respect to the ogha and aupagrahika
outfit, or with respect to substance and condition of mind.

! This verse, which is in a different metre (Arya), is apparently
a later addition, and has probably been taken from an old
commentary, the Krnni or the Bhashya.

4 A^/^usire = asushirS, not perforated, not having holes.
I translate according to the author of the Ava/uri. The literal

LECTURE XXIV. 135

been brought into its present condition 1 not long ago,
which is spacious, has an inanimate surface-layer 2 ,
not too near (the village, &c.), not perforated by holes,
and is exempt from insects and seeds in such
a place he should leave his excrements, &c. (17, 18)
The five Samitis are thus briefly enumerated,
I shall now explain in due order the three
Guptis 3 . (19)

1. There is, i. truth; 2. untruth; 3. a mixture of
truth and untruth ; 4. a mixture of what is not true,
and what is not untrue. The Gupti of mind refers
to all four 4 . (20)

A zealous monk should prevent his mind from
desires for the misfortune of somebody else 5 , from
thoughts on acts which cause misery to living
beings 6 , and from thoughts on acts which cause
their destruction 7 . (21)

2. The Gupti of speech is also of four kinds
(referring to the four divisions as in verse 20). (22)

A zealous monk should prevent his speech from
(expressing) desires, &c. (as in verse 21). (23)

3. In standing, sitting, lying down, jumping, going,
and in the use of his organs, a zealous monk should
prevent his body from intimating obnoxious desires,

translation would give a wrong idea, as it would come to the same
as the word bilavar^ita in the next verse.

1 I. e. where the ground has been cleared not long ago by
burning the grass, &c.

2 Oga^e, where the animate ground is covered by at least
five digits of inanimate matter.

3 Viz. of mind (20, 21), of speech (22, 23), and of the body

(24, 25).

4 See part i, p. 150, note 2. 5 Sawrambha.
6 Samarambha. 7 Arambha.

136 UTTARADHYAYANA.

from doing acts which cause misery to living beings,
or which cause their destruction. (24, 25)

These are the five Samitis for the practice of the
religious life, and the Guptis for the prevention of
everything sinful. (26)

This is the essence of the creed, which a sage
should thoroughly put into practice; such a wise
man will soon get beyond the Circle of Births. (27)

Thus I say.

More to follow...

[Sid Harth]

136 UTTARADHYAYANA.

from doing acts which cause misery to living beings,
or which cause their destruction. (24, 25)

These are the five Samitis for the practice of the
religious life, and the Guptis for the prevention of
everything sinful. (26)

This is the essence of the creed, which a sage
should thoroughly put into practice; such a wise
man will soon get beyond the Circle of Births. (27)

Thus I say.

TWENTY-FIFTH LECTURE.

TPIE TRUE SACRIFICE.

There was a famous Brahma/za, ^ayaghosha by
name, who was born in a Brahmanical family, but who
was pledged to the performing of the yamas l . (i)

This great sage, who subdued all his senses,
and who walked on the right road, came, on his
wandering from village to village, to the town of
Benares. (2)

There outside of Benares he took up his lodgings
in a pleasant park ; there he took up his abode in
a pure place to live and sleep in. (3)

At the same time a Brahma/za, versed in the
Vedas, Vi^ayaghosha by name, offered a sacrifice in
that town. (4)

Now this houseless (monk) at the end of a fast of
a month s duration, went to the sacrifice of Vifaya-
ghosha to beg alms. (5)

1 Yama etymologically means restraint ; here it denotes the
great vows of the Chinas ; cf. XXIII, 12, p. 121 and note 2.

LECTURE XXV. 137

The priest wanted to turn the approaching monk
off: I shall not give you alms, mendicant, beg
somewhere else. (6)

Priests who are versed in the Vedas and are chaste
as behoves offerers, who are versed in the Gyoti-
shaiiga 1 and are well grounded in the sacrificial
science, who are able to save themselves and others,
such priests ought to be presented with food and all
they desire. (7, 8)

When the great sage was thus refused by the
priest, he was neither angry nor pleased, as he
always strove for the highest good. (9)

Not to obtain food, or drink, or whatever else he
wanted, but to save these people he spoke the
following words : (10)

" You do not know what is most essential 2 in the
Vedas, nor in sacrifices, nor in the heavenly bodies a ,
nor in duties 4 . (i i)

" Nor do you know those who are able to save
themselves and others ; but if you do, then speak
out!" (12)

The priest did not make a reply to defend himself
against his insinuation ; but he and all there assem
bled joined their hands and questioned the great
sage: (13)

Tell us the most essential subject in the Vedas,
and tell us what is most essential in the sacrifice ;

1 It is worthy of note that, according to the opinion of our
author, the knowledge of astronomy, as taught in the (ryotisha, was
one of the principal accomplishments of a priest. This quality
of a priest must therefore have been more conspicuous to an
outsider than Brahmanical books would make us believe.

2 To render muha = mukha.

3 Nakshatra. 4 Dharma.

138 UTTARADHYAYANA.

tell us the first of the heavenly bodies, and tell us
the best of dharmas. (14)

Who are able to save themselves and others
(viz. tell me). I ask you to solve this my doubt,
O saint/ (15)

" The most essential subject in the Vedas is the
agnihotra, and that of the sacrifice is the purpose of
the sacrifice J ; the first of the heavenly bodies is the
moon, and the best of dharmas is that of Ka^yapa
(i.e. /fc shabha). (16)

" The beautiful (gods) with joined hands praise
and worship the highest Lord (i. e. the Tirthakara)
as the planets, &c., (praise) the moon. (17)

" The ignorant (priests) pretend to know the
sacrifice, those whose Brahmanical excellence con
sists in (false) science ; they shroud themselves in
study and penance, being like fire covered by
ashes. (18)

"He who is called by people a Brahma^a and is
worshipped like fire (is no true Brahma^a). But him
we call a true Brahma^a, whom the wise point out as
such. (19)

"He who has no worldly attachment after entering
the order, who does not repent of having become
a monk 2 , and who takes delight in the noble words,
him we call a Brahma^a. (20)

" He who is exempt from love, hatred, and fear,

1 (ranna///$i veyasa muham = ya^warthi vedasam mu-
kham. According to the Dipika sacrifice here means the ten
virtues : truth, penance, content, patience, right conduct,
simplicity,
faith, constancy, not injuring anything, and Sawvara.

2 According to the commentators we should translate : He who
does not embrace (his people) on meeting them, and is not sorry on
leaving them.

LECTURE XXV. 139

(and who shines forth) like burnished gold, purified
in fire 1 , him we call a Brahma^a. (21)

" A lean, self-subduing ascetic, who reduces his
flesh and blood, who is pious and has reached
Nirvana, him we call a Brahma/za. (22)

"He who thoroughly knows living beings, whether
they move or not, and does not injure them in any
of the three ways 2 , him we call a Brahma/za. (23)

" He who does not speak untruth from anger or
for fun, from greed or from fear, him we call a
Brahma/za. (24)

" He who does not take anything that is not
given him, be it sentient or not sentient, small or
large, him we call a Brahma^a. (25)

" He who does not carnally love divine, human,
or animal beings, in thoughts, words, or acts, him
we call a Brahma^a. (26)

"He who is not defiled by pleasures as a lotus
growing in the water is not wetted by it, him we
call a Brahma^a. (27)

" He who is not greedy, who lives unknown,
who has no house and no property, and who
has no friendship with householders, him we call
a Brahma/za. (28)

"He who has given up his former connections
(with his parents, &c.), with his kinsmen and relations,
and who is not given to pleasure, him we call a
Brahma?/a. (29)

1 Niddhantamalapavagaw. The commentator assumes a
transposition of the members in this compound. Such irregular
compounds are not unfrequent in our Prakrz t. If, however,
pavaga stands for papaka, the compound would be regular, and
would refer not to gold/ but to the person described. In that case
we must translate : whose impurities and sins had been annihilated.

2 I. e. by thoughts, words, and acts.

I 40 UTTAR ADHYAYANA .

" The binding of animals (to the sacrificial pole),
all the Vedas, and sacrifices, being causes of sin,
cannot save the sinner ; for his works (or Karman)
are very powerful. (30)

" One does not become a 6Yama;za by the tonsure,
nor a Brahma^a by the sacred syllable 6m, nor
a Muni by living in the woods, nor a Tap as a by
wearing (clothes of) Kusa-grass and bark. (31)

"One becomes a .Sramawa by equanimity, a Brah-
ma^a by chastity, a Muni by knowledge, and a
Tapasa by penance. (32)

" By one s actions one becomes a Brahma/za, or
a Kshattriya, or a Vaisya, or a .Sudra. (33)

" The Enlightened One has declared these (good
qualities) through which one becomes a (true)
Snataka 1 ; him who is exempt from all Karman, we
call a Brahma;/a. (34)

" The most excellent twice-born men 2 who possess
these good qualities, are able to save themselves
and others." (35)

When thus his doubt had been solved, Vi^aya-
ghosha, the Brahma^a, assented 3 to the great sage
^ayaghosha and to his (speech). (36)

Vi^ayaghosha, pleased, folded his hands and spoke

1 Snataka denotes a Brahman who has finished his studies; it
here means as much as a perfect sage.

2 A various reading in one MS. adds, (rinas and Brahmawas
before dvi^-as.

3 Samudaya taya/Tz i&m tu. The text is evidently corrupted.
Samudaya stands, according to the commentators, for sama-
daya, but there is no finite verb with which to construe the
absolute participle, either expressed or easily supplied. Perhaps
we must read samuvaya vayaw = samuva^a va/as; for the
perfect is retained in some cases. However, if this conjecture
be right, the next line would be superfluous.

LECTURE XXV. 141

as follows : You have well declared to me what
true Brahma^ahood consists in. (37)

You are a sacrificer of sacrifices, you are the
most learned of those who know the Vedas, you
know the ^yotishanga, you know perfectly the
Law. (38)

You are able to save yourself and others ;
therefore do us the honour to accept our alms,
O best of monks. (39)

" I do not want any alms ; but, O Brahma^a, enter
the order at once, lest you should be drifted about
on the dreadful ocean of the Sawsara, whose eddies
are dangers. (40)

" There is glue (as it were) in pleasure : those who
are not given to pleasure, are not soiled by it ;
those who love pleasures, must wander about in
the Sa^sara; those who do not, will be libe
rated. (41)

" If you take two clods of clay, one wet, the
other dry, and fling them against the wall, the wet
one will stick to it. (42)

" Thus foolish men, who love pleasure, will be
fastened (to Karman), but the passionless will not,
even as the dry clod of clay (does not stick to the
wall)." (43)

When Vi^-ayaghosha had learned the excellent
Law from the houseless ^ayaghosha, he entered the
order. (44)

^ayaghosha and Vyfayaghosha both annihilated
their Karman by self-control and penance, and
reached the highest perfection. (45)

Thus I say.

142 UTTARADHYAYANA.

TWENTY-SIXTH LECTURE.

THE CORRECT BEHAVIOUR.

I shall declare the correct behaviour (sama/ari)
which causes freedom from all misery ; by prac
tising it the Nirgranthas have crossed the ocean of
Sawsara. (i)

The correct behaviour of monks consists of (the
following) ten parts: i. avasyika; 2. naishedhiki;
3. ap^z ///zana; 4. pratiprz ///ana ; 5. //zan-
dana; 6. i//Mkara; 7. mithyakara; 8. tatha-
kara; 9. abhyutthana ; 10. upasampad. (2-4)

The avas y ika is required when he leaves a room
(or the presence of other monks on some necessary
business); the naishedhiki, on entering a place;
aprz///ana, (or asking the superior s permission)
for what he is to do himself; pratiprz///ana, for
what somebody else is to do ; kh an dan a, (or placing
at the disposal of other monks) the things one
has got; i//Mkara, in the execution (of one s inten
tion by oneself or somebody else) ; mithyakara, in
the blaming oneself (for sins committed); tathakara,
(assent) in making a promise; abhyutthana, in
serving those who deserve respect; and upasampad,
in placing oneself under another teacher. Thus the
twice fivefold behaviour has been declared. (5-7)

After sunrise during the first quarter (of the first
Paurushi) l he should inspect (and clean) his things
and pay his respects to the superior. (8)

Then, with his hands joined, he should ask him :

1 The southern half of the sky or horizon, between east and
west, is divided into four quarters, each of which corresponds in
time to a paurushi, the fourth part of a day or a night.

LECTURE XXVI. 143

What shall I do now ? I want to be employed, sir,
in doing some work or in studying. (9)

If he is ordered to do some work, he should do
it without tiring ; if he is ordered to study, he
should do it without allowing himself to be affected
by any pains. (10)

A clever monk should divide the day into four
(equal) parts (called paurushi), and fulfil his duties
(uttaragu^a) in all four parts, (n)

In the first Paurushi he should study, in the
second he should meditate, in the third he should
go on his begging-tour, and in the fourth he should
study again. (12)

In the month Asha^a the Paurushi (of the night)
contains two feet (pada) 1 ; in the month Pausha,
four ; in the months A^aitra and A^vayu^a,
three. (13)

(The Paurushi) increases or decreases a digit 2
(angula) every week, two digits every fortnight,
four digits every month. (14)

The dark fortnight of Asha^a, Bhadrapada,
Karttika, Pausha, Phalguna, and VaLrakha are
known as avamaratras 3 . (15)

1 A paurushi is the fourth part of a day or a night ; about the
time of the equinoxes, when the day as well as the night contains
twelve hours, the paurushi contains three hours. At the same
time, in the months A aitra and Ajvina, as we learn from our
verse, the paurushi has three feet, padas. The pada therefore
is equal to one hour exactly. The duration of the night at the
summer solstice was therefore estimated at eight hours and at the
winter solstice at sixteen, just as in the Vedic (ryotisha.

2 A digit, angula, is apparently the twelfth part of a foot,
pada = one hour. The digit is therefore equal to five minutes.

3 The fortnights, mentioned in the text, consist of fourteen
days only, the remaining ones of fifteen days. In this way the
lunar year is made to consist of 354 days.

144 UTTARADHYAYANA.

In the quarter of the year comprising the three
months ^yesh/^amula, Asha^a, and .Srava^a, the
(morning-) inspection is to last six digits (beyond
i Paurushi) ; in the second quarter, eight ; in the
third, ten ; in the fourth, eight 1 . (16)

A clever monk should divide the night too into
four parts, and fulfil his duties (uttaragu^a) in all
four parts. (17)

In the first Paurushi he should study, in the
second he should meditate, in the third he should
leave off sleep, and in the fourth he should study
again. (18)

When the nakshatra which leads the night 2 has
reached the first quarter of the heaven, at dawn he
should cease to study. (19)

When a small part of the quarter is left 3 , in
which the (leading) nakshatra stands, during that
space of time, being considered intermediate 4 (be
tween two) days, a monk should watch. (20)

In the first quarter (of the first Paurushi) he
should inspect (and clean) his things, pay his respects
to his superior, and then begin to study, not allowing
himself to be affected by any pains 5 . (21)

1 Or thirty, forty, fifty, forty minutes respectively.

2 I.e. the nakshatra which is in opposition to the sun, and
accordingly rises at the same time with the setting sun, and sets
with the rising sun, compare Ramayawa III, 16, 12.

3 I. e. is about to set.

4 V6rattiya, translated vairatrika; but there is no such
word in Sanskrit. It apparently stands for dvairatrika, belonging
to two days. As the Hindus reckon the day from sunrise, the
time immediately preceding it may be considered to belong to
two days.

5 Compare verse 8.

LECTURE XXVI. 145

In the (last) quarter of the first Paurushi, after
paying his respect to the Guru, a monk should
inspect his almsbowl, without, however, performing
the Kala-pratikrama^a 1 . (22)

He should first inspect his mouth-cloth 2 , then
his broom 3 , and taking the broom in his hand he
should inspect his cloth. (23)

Standing upright he holds his cloth firmly and
inspects it first leisurely, then he spreads it, and
at last he wipes it. (24)

(He should spread the cloth) without shaking
or crushing it, in such a way as to make the folds
disappear, and to avoid friction of its parts against
each other ; he should fold it up six times in length,
and nine times in breadth, and then he should
remove living beings with his hand (spreading the
cloth on the palm of his hand) 4 . (25)

He must avoid want of attention : i. in beginning
his work; 2. in taking up the corners of the cloth;
3. in folding it up; 4. in shaking out the dust; 5. in
putting it down (on some other piece of cloth); 6. in
sitting upon the haunches 5 . (26)

1 I.e. expiation of sins concerning time, cf. Bhandarkar s
Report, p. 98, note J. It seems to consist in Kayotsarga.

2 This is a piece of muslin which the raina monks place before
their mouth in speaking, in order to prevent insects being drawn
in the mouth by the breath.

3 It is here called go//^aga = gu^aka, originally a bunch of
peacocks feathers, it is so still, if I am not mistaken, with the
Digambaras, whilst the -SVetambaras use other materials, especially
cotton threads.

4 Much in my translation is conjectural. There are some
technicalities in these verses which I fail to understand clearly,
notwithstanding the explanations of the scholiasts.

5 VSdika.

[45] L

I 46 UTTARADHYAYANA.

(One must further avoid) to hold the cloth loosely,
or at one corner, or so as to let it flap, or so as to
subject it to friction, or so as to shake it in different
ways, or if one has made a mistake in the number
of foldings (see verse 25) to count (aloud or with
the help of the fingers, &C.) 1 (27)

There should be neither too little nor too much
of inspection, nor an exchange (of the things to be
inspected) ; this is the right way to do (the inspec
tion), all other methods are wrong: (28)

(This is) if one engaged in inspecting his things
converses or gossips (with anybody), renounces
something 2 , teaches another his lesson, or receives
his own lesson from another, (he neglects his in
spection). (29)

He who is careful in the inspection, protects the
six kinds of living beings, viz. the earth-bodies,
water-bodies, fire-bodies, wind-bodies, plants, and
animals. (30)

He who is careless in the inspection, injures the
six kinds of living beings (just enumerated) 3 . (31)

In the third Paurusht he should beg food and
drink, (he may do so) for any of the following six
reasons : (32)

1 I am not sure of having hit the true meaning. The com
mentators reckon this counting as a fault, while the text itself
seems to enjoin it.

2 Deipa/fc/akkhanaw. The meaning is, I believe, that during
the time of inspection one should not make up one s mind to
abstain from this or that because one is to devote one s whole
attention to the inspection of one s things.

3 The Dipika places this verse before the last and construes it
with verse 29, making out the following meaning: if one, engaged
in inspecting his things, converses or gossips, &c., then, being
careless in the inspection, he injures, &c.

LECTURE XXVI. 147

i. To prevent an illness; 2. to serve the Guru;
3. to be able to comply with the rules about
walking 1 ; 4. to be able to comply with the rules
of self-control 2 ; 5. to save one s life ; 6. to be able
to meditate on the Law. (33)

A zealous Nirgrantha or Nirgranthi may omit to
beg food for the following six reasons, when it will not
be considered a transgression of his duties : (34)

i. In case of illness ; 2. in case of a disaster ; 3. to
preserve one s chastity and the Guptis ; 4. out of
compassion for living beings ; 5. in the interest of
penance; 6. to make an end of one s life 3 . (35)

Taking his whole outfit a monk should inspect
it with his eye ; he then may walk about, but not
beyond half a Yq^ana. (36)

In the fourth Paurushi he should put away his
almsbowl (after having eaten his meal), and then
begins his study which reveals all existent things. (37)

In the last quarter of the fourth Paurushi he
should pay his reverence to the Guru, and after
having performed Kala-pratikrama^a 4 , he should
inspect his lodging. (38)

A zealous monk should also inspect the place
where to discharge his excrements and urine, and
then (till the sun sets) he should go through Kayot-
sarga without allowing himself to be affected by
any pains. (39)

1 Iriya//Me; for one will not be careful about walking (irya-
samiti) if too hungry or thirsty.

2 For one might eat forbidden food if too hungry.

3 It may be remarked here that the verses 15, 16, 19, 20, 24, 26,
2 7&gt; 2 9&gt; 33&gt; 34, 35 are in the Arya-metre while the rest of
the lecture
is in Sloka.

* Compare note i, p. 145.

L 2

UTTARADHYAYANA.

Then he should, in due order, reflect on all trans
gressions he has committed during the day, with
regard to knowledge, faith, and conduct. (40)

Having finished Kayotsarga, and paid his rever
ence to the Guru, he should, in due order, confess
his transgressions committed during the day. (41)

Then having recited the Pratikrama^a Sutra 1 , and
having annihilated his sins, he should pay his
reverence to the Guru (asking absolution) 2 , and go
through Kayotsarga without allowing himself to
be affected by any pains. (42)

Having finished Kayotsarga, and paid his rever
ence to the Guru, he should pronounce the cus
tomary (three) praises, and then wait for the proper
time. (43)

In the first Paurushl (of the night) he should
study ; in the second he should meditate ; in the
third he should leave off sleep ; and in the fourth
he should study again 3 . (44)

In the fourth Paurushi he should wait for the
proper time and then begin to study without waking
the householders. (45)

In the last quarter of the fourth Paurushl he
should pay his reverence to the Guru, and perform
ing Kala-pratikrama^a 4 he should wait for the
proper time. (46)

When the (time for) Kayotsarga has arrived, he

1 Pad/ikamittu = pratikramya, explained pratikramawa-
sfttram uktva.

2 According to the Dipika : having repeated the three Gathas
beginning ariyauva^Mya.

3 This verse is the same as verse 18, except a verbal difference
in the last line.

4 Pa^/ikamittu kalassa, see p. 145, note i. The Dipika
here explains this phrase by : doing acts proper for that time.

LECTURE XXVII. 149

should go through it, without allowing himself to be
affected by any pains. (47)

Then he should, in due order, reflect on all trans
gressions he has committed during the night with
regard to knowledge, faith, and conduct. (48)

Having finished Kayotsarga and paid his reverence
to the Guru, he should, in due order, confess his
transgressions committed during the night. (49)

Then having recited the Pratikrama^a Sutra
&c. (see verse 41). (50)

He should consider what kind of austerities he
will undertake. Having finished his Kayotsarga,
he pays his reverence to the Guru. (51)

Having finished Kayotsarga and paid his reverence
to the Guru, he should practise those austerities
which he has decided upon, and praise the per
fected saints. (52)

Thus has been summarily declared the correct
behaviour, by practising which many souls have
crossed the ocean of Sawsara. (53)

Thus I say.

TWENTY-SEVENTH LECTURE.

THE BAD BULLOCKS.

There was a Sthavira and Ga^adhara 1 , the learned
sage Garga. This leader of the Ga^a once made
the following reflections : (i)

He who rides in a car, crosses a wilderness ; he

1 Gawa seems to correspond to the modern Ga/&#a ; see part i,
p. 288, note 2. Ga^adhara, therefore, does not denote here, as
usual, a disciple of Tirthakara.

1 50 UTTARADHYAYANA.

who rides, as it were, in (the car of) religious
exercise, crosses the Sa^sara. (2)

But he who puts bad bullocks 1 before his car,
will be tired out with beating them ; he will feel
vexation, and his goad will be broken (at last). (3)

(A bad bullock) will bite its mate in the tail ; it
will wound the other 2 ; it will break the pin of the
yoke 3 , or it will leave the road. (4)

It will fall down on its side, or sit down, or lie
down ; it will jump up or caper, or it will obstinately
make for a young cow. (5)

It will furiously advance with its head lowered
for an attack, or angrily go backward ; it will stand
still as if dead, or run at full speed. (6)

The cursed beast 4 will rend asunder the rope,
or in its unruliness break the yoke ; and roaring
it will break loose and run off. (7)

Just as bad bullocks are when put before a car,
so are bad pupils when yoked, as it were, to the
car of the Law ; they break down through want
of zeal. (8)

Some attach great importance 5 to their success;

1 Khalu/ftka = galivrz shabha. Gali is explained in the
dictionaries: a strong but lazy bull. In verse 16 we meet with
galigaddaha = galigardabha, as synonymous with khalu/ftka.

2 The commentator understands the first line of this verse as
having reference to the angry driver. But though an angry driver
will perhaps, for all I know, put his bullock s tail to his teeth,
still
it is harder to supply another subject in the first line than in the
second, and in the following verses.

3 Samilai=yugarandhrakilaka, AvaKiri.

4 .Oimala =^ara, see Hema/fcandra, De\ri Kosha 3, 27. It is
a coarse term, which I replace by another, though probably the
language of our coach-drivers might supply us with a more
idiomatic rendering.

5 Garava, cf." p. 98, note 2.

LECTURE XXVII.

some to their good fare ; some to their comfort ;
some nurse their anger. (9)

Some are averse to begging ; some are afraid
of insults and are stuck up ; (how can) I convince
them by reasons and arguments 1 (?) (10)

1 (A bad pupil) makes objections, and points out
(imagined) difficulties ; he frequently acts in opposi
tion to the words of the superiors, (i i)

(He will say if sent to a lady): "She does not
know me, she will give me nothing ; I suppose she
will be gone out ; send some other monk there." (12)

If sent on an errand, they do not do what they
were bidden 2 , but stroll about wherever they like ;
or deporting themselves like servants of the king 3 ,
they knit their brows (when speaking to other
people). (13)

After they have been instructed, admitted into
the order, and nourished with food and drink, they
disperse in all directions like geese whose wings
have grown. (14)

Now this driver (viz. Garga), who had to deal
with bad bullocks, thought : What have I to do
with bad pupils ? I am disheartened. (15)

As are bad pupils, so are bad bullocks ; I shall
leave these lazy donkeys, and shall practise severe
austerities. (16)

1 The metre of this verse seems to have originally been Arya,
but an attempt has been made to change it into Anush/ubh.
We meet here with the interesting form awusasammi (read
awusasammi) = anu^asmi.

2 This seems to be the meaning of the word paliu#z/anti.
The commentators say, after other explanations, that they pretend
not to have met the person to whom they were sent.

va mannanta; ve/Mi=vish/i, hire.

I 5 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

That noble man, who was full of kindness, grave,
and always meditating, wandered about on the
earth, leading a virtuous life. (17)

Thus I say.

TWENTY-EIGHTH LECTURE.

THE ROAD TO FINAL DELIVERANCE.

Learn the true road leading to final deliverance,
which the inas have taught ; it depends on four
causes and is characterised by right knowledge and
faith, (i)

I. Right knowledge; II. Faith; III. Conduct;
and IV. Austerities ; this is the road taught by the
rinas who possess the best knowledge. (2)

Right knowledge, faith, conduct, and austerities ;
beings who follow this road, will obtain beatitude. (3)

I. Knowledge is fivefold: i. 6Yuta, knowledge
derived from the sacred books; 2. Abhinibodhika,
perception 1 ; 3. Avadhi, supernatural knowledge;
4. Mana^paryaya 2 , knowledge of the thoughts of
other people; 5. Kevala, the highest, unlimited
knowledge. (4)

1 This is usually called mati, and is placed before jruta. The
same enumeration recurs in XXXIII, 4, p. 193. Umasvati in
Moksha Sutra 1, 14, gives the following synonyms of mati : smrz ti,
inta, abhinibodha.

2 Mawanawaw.

LECTURE XXVIII. 153

This is the fivefold knowledge. The wise ones
have taught the knowledge of substances, qualities,
and all developments 1 . (5)

Substance is the substrate of qualities ; the quali
ties are inherent in one substance ; but the charac
teristic of developments is that they inhere in
either (viz. substances or qualities). (6)

Dharma, Adharma, space, time, matter, and souls
(are the six kinds of substances 2 ) ; they make up
this world, as has been taught by the ^inas who
possess the best knowledge. (7)

Dharma, Adharma, and space are each one
substance only ; but time, matter, and souls are an
infinite number of substances. (8)

The characteristic of Dharma is motion, that of
Adharma immobility, and that of space 3 , which
contains all other substances, is to make room (for
everything) 4 . (9)

The characteristic of time is duration 5 , that of
soul the realisation 6 of knowledge, faith, happiness,
and misery. (10)

The characteristic of Soul is knowledge, faith,
conduct, austerities, energy, and realisation (of its
developments), (n)

The characteristic of matter is sound, darkness,

1 Dravya, gua, paryaya (pa^ava in Gaina Prakrzt).
Guwa, quality, is generally not admitted by the (rainas as a separate
category, see -Silahka s refutation of the VaLreshika doctrines at
the
end of his comments on Sutrakrz tanga I, 12 (Bombay edition,
p. 482).

2 They are frequently called astikayas, or realities.

3 It is here called nabhas instead of akaja.

4 Avagaha. 5 Vartana.
6 Upayoga.

I 54 UTTARADIiYAYANA.

lustre (of jewels, &c.), light, shade, sunshine ; colour,
taste, smell, and touch. (12)

The characteristic of development is singleness,
separateness 1 , number, form, conjunction, and dis
junction. (13)

i. ^iva, Soul; 2. a^iva, the inanimate things;

3. bandha, the binding of the soul by Karman ;

4. pu^ya, merit; 5. papa, demerit; 6. asrava, that
which causes the soul to be affected by sins ; 7.
sawvara, the prevention of asrava by watchfulness;
8. the annihilation of Karman ; 9. final deliverance :
these are the nine truths (or categories). (14)

He who verily believes the true teaching of
the (above nine) fundamental truths, possesses
righteousness. (15)

II. Faith is produced by i. nisarga, nature;
2. upade^a, instruction; 3. a^a, command; 4.
sutra, study of the sutras ; 5. bi^a, suggestion;
6. abhigama, comprehension of the meaning of the
sacred lore; 7. vistara, complete course of study;
8. kriya, religious exercise; 9. sa;;^kshepa, brief
exposition; 10. d harm a, the Law. (16)

i. He who truly comprehends, by a spontaneous
effort of his mind 2 , (the nature of) soul, inanimate
things, merit, and demerit, and who puts an end to
sinful influences 3 , (believes by) nature. (17)

He who spontaneously believes the four truths
(explicitly mentioned in the last verse), which the

1 Singleness (Skatva) makes a thing appear as one thing,
separateness (prz thaktva) as different from others.

2 Sahasamuiya = svaya^samudita. It is usually rendered
sahasammati.

3 Asravasawvara, see above, verse 14, 6 and 7.

LECTURE XXVIII. 155

inas have taught, (thinking) they are of this and
not of a different nature, believes by nature. (18)

2. But he who believes these truths, having learned
them from somebody else, either a AVzadmastha l or
a 6ana, believes by instruction. (19)

3. He who has got rid of love, hate, delusion, and
ignorance, and believes because he is told to do so,
believes by command. (20)

4. He who obtains righteousness by (the study of)
the Sutras, either Angas or other works 2 , believes
by the study of Sutras. (21)

5. He who by correctly comprehending one truth
arrives at the comprehension of more just as
a drop of oil expands on the surface of water-
believes by suggestion. (22)

6. He who truly knows the sacred lore, viz. the
eleven Aiigas, the Prakir/zas 3 , and the Drzsh/ivada,
believes by the comprehension of the sacred
lore. (23)

7. He who understands the true nature of all sub
stances by means of all proofs (pr a ma^a) and nay as 4 ,
believes by a complete course of study. (24)

8. He who sincerely performs (all duties implied)

1 A /^^admastha is one who has not yet obtained Kevala, or
the highest knowledge; he is in the two guwasthanas (the
fourteen stages in the development of the soul from the lowest to
the highest) characterised as i. upa^antamoha, and 2. kshiwa-
moha; viz. i. that in which delusion is only temporarily separated
from the soul, and 2. that in which delusion is finally destroyed.

2 Bahira; apparently the same works are intended which are
elsewhere called anahgapravish/a.

3 The original has the singular.

4 The seven nayas are * points of view or principles with
reference to which certain judgments are arrived at or arrange
ments made. Bhandarkar, Report, p. 112.

1 56 UTTARADHYAYANA.

by right knowledge, faith, and conduct, by asceticism
and discipline, and by all Samitis and Guptis, be
lieves by religious exercise. (25)

9. He who though not versed in the sacred doc
trines 1 nor acquainted with other systems 2 , holds no
wrong doctrines, believes by brief exposition. (26)

10. He who believes in the truth 3 of the realities 4 ,
the Sutras, and conduct, as it has been explained by
the (^inas, believes by the Law. (27)

Right belief depends on the acquaintance with
truth 5 , on the devotion to those who know the
truth, and on the avoiding of schismatical and
heretical tenets. (28)

There is no (right) conduct without right belief 6 ,
and it must be cultivated (for obtaining) right faith ;
righteousness and conduct originate together, or
righteousness precedes (conduct). (29)

Without (right) faith there is no (right) knowledge,
without (right) knowledge there is no virtuous
conduct 7 , without virtues there is no deliverance 8 ,
and without deliverance there is no perfection. (30)

(The excellence of faith depends on the following)
eight points: i. that one has no doubts (about the
truth of the tenets) ; 2. that one has no preference
(for heterodox tenets) ; 3. that one does not doubt

1 Prava/fcana. 2 E. g. that of Kapila, &c., Comm.

3 Dharma. 4 Astikaya; see note on verse 7.

6 I. e. true things as soul, &c.

6 Sawyaktva righteousness/

7 -ATarawagUTza. The commentators make this a dvandva
compound, and interpret Tarawa as vratadi, and guwa as
pindavisuddhi, &c.

8 By deliverance I have rendered moksha, and by final per
fection nirvana. Moksha denotes freedom from Karman, a con
dition which in Brahmanical philosophy is called ^ivanmukti.

LECTURE XXVIII. 157

its saving qualities 1 ; 4. that one is not shaken in
the right belief (because heretical sects are more
prosperous) ; 5. that one praises (the pious) ; 6. that
one encourages (weak brethren) ; 7. that one sup
ports or loves the confessors of the Law; 8. that
one endeavours to exalt it. (31)

III. Conduct, which produces the destruction
of all Karman, is i. samayika 2 , the avoidance of
everything sinful ; 2. /^edopasthapana, the initia
tion of a novice; 3. pariharavisuddhika, purity
produced by peculiar austerities 3 ; 4. sukshma
samparaya, reduction of desire ; 5. akashaya
yathakhyata, annihilation of sinfulness according
to the precepts of the Arhats, as well in the case
of a .AT^admastha as of a (7ina. (32, 33)

IV. Austerities are twofold: external and internal ;
both external and internal austerities are sixfold. (34)

By knowledge one knows things, by faith one
believes in them, by conduct one gets (freedom
from Karman), and by austerities one reaches
purity. (35)

Having by control and austerities destroyed their
Karman, great sages, whose purpose is to get rid of
all misery, proceed to (perfection).

Thus I say.

1 Nivvitigi/fc/M=nirvi&gt;ikitsa. According to the commentary
it may stand for nir-vid-^ugupsa without loathing the saints/

2 See Bhandarkar, Report, p. 98, note I.

3 The Dipika contains the following details. Nine monks
resolve to live together for eighteen months. They make one of
their number their superior, kalpasthita, four become pari-
harikas, and the remaining four serve them (anupariharikas).
After six months the pariharikas become anupariharikas and
vice versa. After another six months the kalpasthita does
penance and all the other monks serve him as anupariharikas.

I 58 UTTARADHYAYANA.

TWENTY-NINTH LECTURE.

THE EXERTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

long-lived ( Iambus vam in) ! I (Sudharman) have
heard the following discourse from the venerable
(Mahavira).

Here, forsooth, the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira,
of the Ka^yapa Gotra, has delivered this lecture
called the exertion in righteousness. Many crea
tures, who truly believe in the subject (taught in
this lecture), put their faith in it, give credence to
it, accept it, practise it, comply with it, study it,
understand it, learn it, and act up to it according to
the precept (of the G mas) 1 have obtained perfec
tion, enlightenment, deliverance, final beatitude, and
have put an end to all misery.

This lecture treats of the following subjects :

1. sa^vega, longing for liberation ;

2. nirveda, disregard of worldly objects;

3. dharma^raddha, desire of the Law;

4. gurusadharmika^u.s rusha^a, obedience to
co-religionists and to the Guru.

5. alo^ana, confession of sins before the Guru ;

6. ninda, repenting of one s sins to oneself;

7. garha, repenting of one s sins before the Guru ;

1 Here we have no less than ten verbs, many of which are
synonyms, with probably no well-defined difference in their
meaning. This heaping of synonymous words is a peculiarity of
the archaic style. The commentators always labour hard to assign
to each word an appropriate meaning, but by sometimes offering
different sets of explanations they show that their ingenuity of
interpretation was not backed by tradition.

LECTURE XXIX. 159

8. samayika, moral and intellectual purity of the
soul ;

9. ^aturvi^satistava, adoration of the twenty-
four Gmas ;

10. vandana, paying reverence to the Guru ;

11. pratikrama/za, expiation of sins ;

12. kayotsarga, a particular position of the
body ;

13. pratyakhyana, self-denial ;

14. stavastutimangala, praises and hymns ;

15. kalasya pratyupeksha^a, keeping the right
time ;

16. praya^ittakara/za, practising penance;

17. kshamapa^a, begging forgiveness ;

18. svadhyaya, study;

19. va/ana, recital of the sacred texts;

20. pariprz/^/zana, questioning (the teacher) ;

21. paravartana, repetition ;

22. anupreksha, pondering ;

23. dharmakatha, religious discourse;

24. ^rutasyaradhana, acquisition of sacred
knowledge ;

25. ekagramana^sannive^ana, concentration
of thoughts ;

26. sawyama, control ;

27. tapas, austerities ;

28. vyavadana, cutting off the Karman ;

29. sukha^ata, renouncing pleasure ;

30. apratibaddhata, mental independence ;

31. vi/Htrasayanasanasevana, using unfre
quented lodgings and beds ;

32. vinivartana, turning from the world ;

33. sambhogapratyakhyana, renouncing col
lection of alms in one district only ;

[Sid Harth]

I6O UTTARADHYAYANA.

34. upadhipratyakhyana, renouncing articles
of use ;

35. aharapratyakhyana, renouncing food ;

36. kashayapratyakhyana, conquering the
passions ;

37- yogapratyakhyana, renouncing activity;

38. 5-arirapratyakhyana, renouncing the body;

39. sahayapratyakhyana, renouncing com
pany;

40. bhaktapratyakhyana, renouncing all food ;

41. sadbhavapratyakhyana, perfect renun
ciation ;

42. pratirupata, conforming to the standard;

43. vaiyavrz tya, doing service;

44. sarvagu^asampur^ata, fulfilling all vir
tues ;

45. vitaragata, freedom from passion ;

46. kshanti, patience ;

47. mukti, freedom from greed;

48. ar^ava, simplicity ;

49. mardava, humility ;

50. bhavasatya, sincerity of mind ;

51. kara^asatya, sincerity of religious practice;

52. yogasatya, sincerity of acting ;

53. manoguptata, watchfulness of the mind ;

54. vag-guptata, watchfulness of the speech ;

55. kayaguptata, watchfulness of the body;

56. mana/^samadhara^a, discipline of the mind;

57. vaksamadhara^a, discipline of the speech;

58. kayasamadhara^a, discipline of the body ;

59. ^anasampannata, possession of know
ledge ;

60. darsanasampannata, possession of faith ;

61. Mritrasampannata, possession of conduct ;

LECTURE XXIX. i6l

62. ^rotrendriyanigraha, subduing the ear;

63. /akshurindriyanigraha, subduing the eye;

64. ghra^endriyanigraha, subduing the organ
of smell ;

65. ^ihvendriyanigraha, subduing the tongue ;

66. spar^anendriyanigraha,subduingthe organ
of touch ;

67. krodhavi^aya, conquering anger ;

68. manavi^aya, conquering pride ;

69. mayavi^aya, conquering deceit;

70. lobhavi^aya, conquering greed ;

71. premadveshamithyadar^a^avi^aya, con
quering love, hate, and wrong belief ;

72. sailed, stability ;

73. akarmata, freedom from Karman.

1. Sir, what does the soul obtain by the longing
for liberation? By the longing for liberation the
soul obtains an intense desire of the Law ; by an
intense desire of the Law he quickly arrives at an
(increased) longing for liberation ; he destroys anger,
pride, deceit, and greed, which reproduce themselves
infinitely; he acquires no (bad) Karman, and ridding
himself of wrong belief which is the consequence
of the latter, he becomes possessed of right faith ;
by the purity of faith some will reach perfection
after one birth ; nobody, however, who has got this
purity, will be born more than thrice before he
reaches perfection, (i)

2. Sir, what does the soul obtain by disregard of
worldly objects 1 ? By disregard of worldly objects
the soul quickly feels disgust for pleasures enjoyed
by gods, men, and animals; he becomes indifferent to

1 Or aversion to the Circle of Births.
[45] M

l62 UTTARADHYAYANA.

all objects ; thereby he ceases to engage in any under
takings, in consequence of which he leaves the road
of Sa^sara and enters the road to perfection. (2)

3. Sir 1 , what does the soul obtain by the desire of
the Law? Bythe desire of the Law thesoul becomes
indifferent to pleasures and happiness to which he
was attached ; he abandons the life of householders,
and as a houseless monk he puts an end to all pains
of body and mind, which consist in (the suffering of)
cutting, piercing, union (with unpleasant things), &c. ;
and he obtains unchecked happiness. (3)

4. By obedience to co-religionists and to
the Guru the soul obtains discipline (vinaya). By
discipline and avoidance of misconduct (towards
the teacher 2 ) he avoids being reborn as a denizen of
hell,an animal, a (low) man, or a (bad) god; by zealous
praise of, devotion to, and respect for (the Guru) he
obtains birth as a (good) man or god, gains per
fection and beatitude, does all praiseworthy actions
prescribed by discipline, and prevails upon others
to adopt discipline. (4)

5. By confession of sins (before the Guru) the
soul gets rid of the thorns, as it were, of deceit, mis
applied austerities 3 , and wrong belief, which obstruct
the way to final liberation and cause an endless
migration of the soul ; he obtains simplicity, whereby
the soul which is free from deceit does not acquire
that Karman which results in his having a carnal
desire for a woman or eunuch 4 , and annihilates such
Karman as he had acquired before. (5)

1 In this way all paragraphs up to 72 open with a question
of always the same form. I drop the question in the sequel.

2 Atya^atana. 3 Nidana, cf. p. 60, n. 2.

4 This is the meaning of the words itthiveya napuwsaga-

LECTURE XXIX. 163

6. By repenting of one s sins to oneself the
soul obtains repentance, and becoming indifferent
by repentance he prepares for himself an (ascending)
scale of virtues *, by which he destroys the Karman
resulting from delusion. (6)

7. By repenting, of one s sins before the
Guru the soul obtains humiliation; feeling humili
ated, he will leave off all blameable occupations 2 , and
apply himself to praiseworthy occupations, whereby
a houseless monk will stop infinite disabling 3 develop
ments. (7)

8. By moral and intellectual purity (literally, equi
librium) the soul ceases from sinful occupations. (8)

9. By the adoration of the twenty-four inas
the soul arrives at purity of faith. (9)

10. By paying reverence (to the Guru) the soul
destroys such Karman as leads to birth in low
families, and acquires such Karman as leads to birth
in noble families; he wins the affection of people,
which results in his being looked upon as an authority,
and he brings about general goodwill. (10)

11. By expiation of sins he obviates trans
gressions of the vows ; thereby he stops the Asravas,
preserves a pure conduct, practises the eight articles 4 ,
does not neglect (the practice of control), and pays
great attention to it. (n)

veyaw striveda, napuwsakaveda, as explained by the
commentators on XXXII, 102.

1 Karaaguajredhim pratipadyate. It is difficult to
render this phrase adequately ; the meaning is that by succes
sively destroying moral impurities one arrives at higher and higher
virtues.

2 Yoga, i.e. the cause of the production of Karman.

3 Ghati, compare Bhandarkar, Report, p. 93, note *.

4 See Twenty-fourth Lecture, p. 129 ff.

M 2

I 64 UTTARADL1YAYANA.

12. By Kayotsarga he gets rid of past and present
(transgressions which require) Praya^itta 1 ; thereby
his mind is set at ease like a porter who is eased of
his burden ; and engaging in praiseworthy contem
plation he enjoys happiness. (12)

13. By self-denial he shuts, as it were, the
doors of the Asravas ; by self-denial he prevents
desires rising in him ; by prevention of desires he
becomes, as it were, indifferent and cool towards all
objects. (13)

14. By praises and hymns he obtains the
wisdom consisting in knowledge, faith, and conduct ;
thereby he gains such improvement, that he will
put an end to his worldly existence 2 , (or) be born
afterwards in one of the Kalpas and Vimanas 3 . (14)

15. By keeping the right time he destroys the
Karman which obstructs right knowledge. (15)

16. By practising Prayas/Htta 1 he gets rid of
sins, and commits no transgressions ; he who cor
rectly practises Praya^itta, gains the road and the
reward of the road 4 , he wins the reward of good
conduct. (16)

17. By begging forgiveness he obtains hap
piness of mind ; thereby he acquires a kind dis
position towards all kinds of living beings 5 ; by this

1 Expiatory rites, a 16^ ana, &c.

2 Antakriya, explained by mukti.

3 The Kalpas and the Vimanas are the heavens of the Vaimanika
gods, see below, p. 226.

4 By road is meant the means of acquiring right knowledge,
and by the reward of the road, right knowledge. The reward
of good conduct is mukti.

6 Savvapawabhuya^-ivasatta. The praraas possess from
two to four organs of sense, the g-ivas five, the bhutas are plants,
and the sattvas are all remaining beings.

LECTURE XXIX. 165

kind disposition he obtains purity of character and
freedom from fear. (17)

1 8. By study he destroys the Karman which
obstructs right knowledge. (18)

19. By the recital of the sacred texts he
obtains destruction of Karman, and contributes to
preserve the sacred lore, whereby he acquires the
Law of the Tirtha J , which again leads him to the
complete destruction of Karman, and to the final
annihilation of worldly existence. (19)

20. By questioning (the teacher) he arrives at
a correct comprehension of the Sutra and its meaning,
and he puts an end to the Karman which produces
doubts and delusion. (20)

21. By repetition he reproduces the sounds (i.e.
syllables) and commits them to memory. (21)

22. By pondering (on what he has learned) he
loosens the firm hold which the seven kinds of
Karman, except the Ayushka 2 (have upon the soul) ;
he shortens their duration when it was to be a long
one ; he mitigates their power when it was intense ;
(he reduces their sphere of action when it was a wide
one) 3 ; he may either acquire Ayushka-karman or
not, but he no more accumulates Karman which

1 According to the commentaries, by Tirtha are meant the
Gawadharas.

2 Concerning the eight kinds of Karman, see XXXIII, 2 and 3,
p. 192. Ayushka is that Karman which determines the length
of time which one is to live. A somewhat different explanation of
this Karman is given by Bhandarkar, loc. cit., p. 97, note.

3 The passage in question is an addition in some MSS., as the
commentators tell us. The meaning seems to be that the Karman
which was attached to many parts of the soul is restricted to fewer
places by the influence of the purity superinduced on the soul by
pondering.

1 66 UTTARAD HYAYANA.

produces unpleasant feelings, and he quickly crosses
the very large forest of the fourfold Sawsara, which
is without beginning and end. (22)

23. By religious discourses he obtains de
struction of the Karman ; by religious discourses he
exalts the creed, and by exalting the creed he
acquires Karman, which secures, for the future,
permanent bliss. (23)

24. By acquisition of sacred knowledge he
destroys ignorance, and will not be corrupted by
worldliness. (24)

25. By concentration of his thoughts he
obtains stability of the mind. (25)

26. By control he obtains freedom from sins. (26)

27. By austerities he cuts off the Karman 1 . (27)

28. By cutting off the Karman he obtains (the
fourth stage of pure meditation characterised by)
freedom from actions, by doing no actions he will
obtain perfection, enlightenment, deliverance, and
final beatitude, and will put an end to all misery. (28)

29. By renouncing pleasures he obtains
freedom from false longing, whereby he becomes
compassionate, humble, free from sorrow, and
destroys the Karman produced by delusion regarding
conduct. (29)

30. By mental independence he gets rid of
attachment, whereby he will concentrate his thoughts
(on the Law), and will for ever be without attach
ment and fondness (for worldly things). (30)

31. By using unfrequented lodgings and beds
he obtains the Gupti of conduct, whereby he will use

1 Vyavadana is the cutting off of the Karman and the sub
sequent purity of the soul.

LECTURE XXIX. 167

allowed food, be steady in his conduct, be exclusively
delighted with (control), obtain a yearning for deliver
ance, and cut off the tie of the eightfold Karman. (31)

32. By turning from the world he will strive to
do no bad actions, and will eliminate his already
acquired Karman by its destruction ; then he will
cross the forest of the fourfold Sa^sara. (32)

33. By renouncing collection of alms in one
district only 1 he overcomes obstacles 2 ; unchecked
by them he exerts himself to attain liberation ; he is
content with the alms he gets, and does not hope for,
care for, wish, desire, or covet those of a fellow-monk ;
not envying other monks he takes up a separate,
agreeable lodging 3 . (33)

34. By renouncing articles of use 4 he obtains
successful study ; without articles of use he becomes
exempt from desires, and does not suffer misery. (34)

35. By renouncing (forbidden) food he ceases
to act for the sustenance of his life ; ceasing to
act for the sustenance of his life he does not suffer
misery when without food. (35)

36. By conquering his passions he becomes
free from passions ; thereby he becomes indifferent
to happiness and pains. (36)

37. By renouncing activity he obtains inactivity,

by ceasing to act he acquires no new Karman, and

destroys the Karman he had acquired before. (37)

38. By renouncing his body he acquires the
pre-eminent virtues of the Siddhas, by the possession

1 Sambhoga = ekamaw^alyam aharakarawam.

2 Alambana, glanatadi.

3 D\ikka.m suhase^aw uvasa/wpa^ittawaw viharai.

4 Except such as are obligatory, e.g. his broom, the mukha-
vastrika, &c.

1 68 UTTARADHYAYANA.

of which he goes to the highest region of the
universe, and becomes absolutely happy. (38)

39. By renouncing company he obtains single
ness ; being single and concentrating his mind, he
avoids disputes, quarrels, passions, and censorious-
ness, and he acquires a high degree of control, of
Sa^vara, and of carefulness 1 . (39)

40. By renouncing all food he prevents his
being born again many hundreds of times. (40)

41. By perfect renunciation 2 he enters the
final (fourth stage of pure meditation), whence there
is no return ; a monk who is in that state, destroys
the four remnants of Karman which even a Kevalin
possesses, viz. vedaniya, ayushka, naman, and
gotra 3 ; and then he will put an end to all misery. (41)

42. By conforming to the standard of monks 4
he obtains ease, thereby he will be careful, wear
openly the excellent badges of the order, be of
perfect righteousness, possess firmness and the
Samitis, inspire all beings with confidence, mind but
few things 5 , subdue his senses, and practise, in
a high degree, the Samitis and austerities. (42)

43. By doing service he acquires the Karman

1 Samahie = samahita or samadhiman.

2 Sadbhava pratyakhyana. The Dipika gives the following
explanation : he makes the renunciation in such a way that he
need not make it a second time.

3 Vedaniya is that Karman which produces effects that must
be experienced, as pleasure or pain; ayushka is the Karman that
determines the length of life; naman and gotra cause him to be
born as such or such an individual in this or that family; see
Thirty-third Lecture, verses 2 and 3, p. 192 f.

4 Explained : sthavirakalpasadhuveshadharitvam.

5 Appa&lt;/ileha = alpapratyupeksha; he has to inspect few
things, because he uses only few.

LECTURE XXIX. 169

which brings about for him the niman and gotra
of a Tirthakara. (43)

44. By fulfilling all virtues he secures that he
will not be born again ; thereby he will become
exempt from pains of the body and mind. (44)

45. By freedom from passion he cuts off the
ties of attachment and desire ; thereby he becomes
indifferent to all agreeable and disagreeable sounds,
touches, colours, and smells. (45)

46. By patience he overcomes troubles. (46)

47. By freedom from greed he obtains voluntary
poverty, whereby he will become inaccessible to
desire for property. (47)

48. By simplicity he will become upright in
actions, thoughts, and speech, and he will become vera
cious ; thereby he will truly practise the Law. (48)

49. By humility he will acquire freedom from self-
conceit ; thereby he will become of a kind and meek
disposition, and avoid the eight kinds of pride. (49)

50. By sincerity of mind he obtains purity of
mind, which will cause him to exert himself for the
fulfilment of the Law which the G mas have pro
claimed ; and he will practise the Law in the next
world too. (50)

51. By sincerity in religious practice he
obtains proficiency in it ; being proficient in it he
will act up to his words. (51)

52. By sincerity of acting he will become pure
in his actions. (52)

53. By watchfulness 1 of the mind he concen
trates his thoughts ; thereby he truly practises con
trol. (53)

1 Gupti.

1 70 UTTARADHYAYANA.

54. By watchfulness of speech he keeps free
from prevarication ; thereby he enables his mind to
act properly. (54)

55. By watchfulness of the body he obtains
Sa^vara 1 ; thereby he prevents sinful Asravas. (55)

56. By discipline of the mind he obtains con
centration of his thoughts; thereby he obtains
development of knowledge, which produces right
eousness and annihilates wrong belief. (56)

57. By discipline of the speech he obtains
development of faith, whereby he acquires facility
of becoming enlightened, and destroys preventing
causes. (57)

58. By discipline of the body he obtains
development of conduct, which causes him to con
duct himself according to the regulation ; thereby
he destroys the four remnants of Karman which
even a Kevalin possesses 2 ; after that he obtains
perfection, enlightenment, deliverance, and final
beatitude, and he puts an end to all misery. (58)

59. By possession of knowledge he acquires
an understanding of words and their meaning;
thereby he will not perish in the forest of the
fourfold Sawsara; as a needle with its thread will
not be lost, thus the soul possessing the sacred
lore 3 will not be lost in the Sa^sara ; he performs
all prescribed actions relating to knowledge, disci
pline, austerities, and conduct, and well versed in his

1 For Sawvara and Asrava, see above, p. 55, note i, and p. 73,
note 2.

2 See above, 41.

3 Here is a pun on the word sutta=sutra, which means thread
and Sutra, sacred lore, or knowledge acquired by the study of the
Sutras.

LECTURE XXIX. 171

own and in heterodox creeds he will become
invincible. (59)

60. By possession of faith he annihilates wrong
belief which is the cause of worldly existence, and
he will not lose his inner light ; but he endues his
Self with the highest knowledge and faith, and
purifies it 1 . (60)

61. By possession of conduct he obtains
a stability like that of the king of mountains 2 (viz.
Meru), whereby a houseless monk destroys the
four remnants of Karman which even a Kevalin
possesses ; after that he obtains perfection, en
lightenment, deliverance, and final beatitude, and
puts an end to all misery. (61)

62. By subduing the organ of hearing he
overcomes his delight with or aversion to all pleasant
or unpleasant sounds, he acquires no Karman pro
duced thereby, and destroys the Karman he had
acquired before. (62)

63-66. (All this applies also to his) subduing the
organs of sight, of smelling, of tasting, and of touch
(with regard to) pleasant colours, smells, tastes, and
touches. (63-66)

67. By conquering anger he obtains patience;
he acquires no Karman productive of anger 3 , and
destroys the Karman he had acquired before. (67)

68. By conquering pride he obtains simplicity,
&c. (as in 67, substituting pride for anger). (68)

69. By conquering deceit he obtains humility,
&c. (as in 67, substituting deceit for anger). (69)

1 I.e. makes it contain nothing foreign to its own nature.

2 Selesi = jaileji; jaile^a is Meru, and its avastha, or con
dition, is jaileji.

3 Or, perhaps, which results in experiencing anger.

172 UTTARADHYAYANA.

70. By conquering greed he obtains content,
&c. (as in 67, substituting greed for anger). (70)

71. By conquering love, hate, -and wrong
belief he exerts himself for right knowledge, faith,
and conduct, then he will cut off the fetters of the
eightfold Karman ; he will first destroy the twenty-
eight kinds l of Karman, which are productive of
delusion; (then) the five kinds of obstruction to right
knowledge 2 , the nine kinds of obstruction to right
faith 3 , and the five kinds of obstacles (called Anta-
raya): the last three remnants of Karman he destroys
simultaneously ; afterwards he obtains absolute
knowledge and faith, which is supreme, full, complete,
unchecked, clear, faultless, and giving light (or
penetrating) the whole universe ; and while he still
acts 4 , he acquires but such Karman as is inseparable
from religious acts 5 ; the pleasant feelings (produced
by it) last but two moments : in the first moment
it is acquired, in the second it is experienced, and in
the third it is destroyed ; this Karman is produced,
comes into contact (with the soul), takes rise, is
experienced, and is destroyed ; for all time to come
he is exempt from Karman. (71)

72. Then 6 when his life is spent up to less than

1 There are sixteen kashayas, nine no-kashayas, and three
mohaniyas.

2 These are the obstacles to the five kinds of knowledge : mati,
jruta, avadhi, mana^paryaya, k6vala.

3 They are: the obstacles to /fcakshurdar^ana, to a/akshur-
dar^ana, to avadhidarsana, and to kevaladarsana, and five
kinds of sleep (nidra). Concerning Antaraya, see p. 193.

4 Say 6 gin, i.e. while he has not yet reached the fourteenth
guwasthana, the state of a KSvalin.

5 Airyapathika.

6 I.e. when he has become a K6valin, as described in the
preceding paragraph.

LECTURE XXIX. 173

half a muhurta, he discontinues to act, and enters
upon the (third degree of) pure meditation \ from
which there is no relapse (to lower degrees), and
which requires most subtile functions only (of his
Organs) ; he first stops the functions of his mind,
then the functions of speech, then those of the
body, at last he ceases to breathe. During the
time required for pronouncing five short syllables,
he is engaged in the final pure meditation, in which
all functions (of his organs) have ceased, and he
simultaneously annihilates the four remnants of
Karman, viz. vedaniya, ayushka, naman, and
gotra 2 . (72)

73. Then having, by all methods, got rid of his
audarika, karma^a (and tai^asa) bodies, the soul
takes the form of a straight line, goes in one moment,
without touching anything and taking up no space,
(upwards to the highest Akasa), and there develops
into its natural form, obtains perfection, enlighten
ment, deliverance, and final beatitude, and puts an
end to all misery. (73)

This indeed is the subject of the lecture called
exertion in righteousness, which the Venerable
Ascetic Mahavira has told, declared, explained,
demonstrated. (74)

Thus I say.

1 -Sukladhyana. 2 See note on 41.

1 74 UTTARADHYAYANA.

THIRTIETH LECTURE.

THE ROAD OF PENANCE.

Now hear with concentrated mind, how a monk
destroys by austerities the bad Karman which he
had acquired by love and hatred, (i)

By abstaining i. from destroying life; 2. from
lying ; 3. from taking anything which is not given ;
4. from all sexual indulgence ; 5. from having any
property ; and 6. from eating at night, the soul
becomes free from Asravas l . (2)

By possessing the five Samitis and the three
Guptis, by freedom from passions, by subduing the
senses, by vanquishing conceit 2 , and by avoiding
delusions, the soul becomes free from Asravas. (3)

Hear attentively how a monk destroys (the
Karman) acquired by love and hatred in the absence
of the above-mentioned (virtues). (4)

As a large tank, when its supply of water has
been stopped, gradually dries up by the consumption
of the water and by evaporation, so the Karman of
a monk, which he acquired in millions 3 of births, is
annihilated by austerities, if there is no influx of bad
Karman. (5, 6)

Austerities are of two kinds : external and internal ;

1 KarmopadanahStavas, that through which the soul be
comes affected by Karman.

2 Agarava = agaurava; but it is here explained, free from
garva, cf. p. 98, note 2.

8 Literally krores, i.e. ten millions.

LECTURE XXX. 175

external austerities are of six kinds, and internal are
of six kinds l . (7)

External austerities are :

i. anasana, fasting; 2. avamodarika, absti
nence 2 ; 3. bhiksha/arya, collecting alms ; 4. rasa-
parityaga, abstention from dainty food; 5. kdya-
kle^a, mortification of the flesh; 6. sa^linata,
taking care of one s limbs 3 . (8)

i. Fasting is of two kinds : a. itvara, temporary,
and b. mara^akala, fasting which precedes, and
ends with death. Temporary fasting is either such
in which a desire (for food) is present, or such in
which no such desire exists. (9)

a. The temporary fasting is briefly of six kinds :
i. in the form of a line 4 ; 2. in the form of a square ;
3. in the form of a cube ; 4. of a sixth power ; 5. of
a twelfth power ; 6. of any arrangement. Temporary
fasting (can be practised) for different objects which
one has in mind. (10, n)

1 Comp. Aupapatika Sutra, ed. Leumann, p. 38 ff. The general
division is the same, but the subdivision differs in many details.

2 Gradual reduction of food, from a full meal of thirty-two
morsels to one of one morsel.

3 Angopahgadikam sawvrz tya pravartanam, Tikz.

4 The meaning of this singular statement is as follows. If
four fasts of two. three, four, and five days are performed in this
order, they form a line. If this set of fasts is four times repeated,
each time beginning with a different number, we get sixteen fasts ;
they form a square, viz. :

1.2.3.4

2.3.4.1

3.4.1.2

4.1.2.3

The next class contains 64 fasts, the fourth 4,096, the fifth
16,777,216 fasts. Fasts of the last class require 700,000 years at
least, and must be assumed to be restricted to former Tirthakaras,
whose lives lasted enormous periods of time.

I 76 UTTARADHYAYANA.

b. Fasting which is to precede death, is of two
kinds with regard to the motions of the body :
with change (of position) and without change. (12)

And again it is twofold : admitting of relief 1 , or
not ; one may either leave the place (which one has
chosen to die in), or not leave it ; in both cases one
may not take any food. (13)

2. Abstinence is briefly of five kinds : with regard
to a. substance ; b. place ; c. time ; d. state of mind ;
e. development. (14)

a. He who takes less food than he usually does 2 , in
the extreme case but one mouthful, performs absti
nence with regard to substance. (15)

b. (Place means) a village, a scotfree town 3 ,
a capital, a camp of merchants 4 , a mine, a settlement
of a wild tribe 5 , a place with an earth wall 6 , a poor
town 7 , a town with a harbour 8 , a large town 9 , an
isolated town 10 , and an open town 11 . (16)

1 Saparikarma = vaiyavrz tyasahita. This leads to ihgini-
marawa and bhaktapratyakhyana; the aparikarma to pada-
popagamana (i.e. prayopagamana) ; comp. part i, p. 72.

2 Thirty-two mouthfuls is the usual quantity of food of men,
twenty-eight that of women. A mouthful is of the size of an egg.

3 Nagara, where no taxes (na kara) are levied, while villages
pay eighteen taxes.

4 Nigama, or a place where many merchants dwell.

5 Palli. 6 Kh/a.

7 Karva/a. According to the dictionary, it means market-
town; but the commentators render it by kunagara, or say that
it is karva/a^-anavasa, the dwelling-place of the Karva/a people.

8 Drorcamukha, a town to which there is access by water and
land, like Bhrz guka/^^a or Tamralipti.

9 Pa//ana.

10 M a/amba, a town which is more than three and a half yog-anas
distant from the next village.

11 Sambadha, prabhutaMturvarwyanivasa.

LECTURE XXX.

177

In a hermitage, a vihara \ a halting-place for
procession 2 , a resting-place for travellers 3 , a station
of herdsmen, a camp on high ground, a caravan s
camp, a fortified place of refuge, (i 7)

In gardens, on roads, in houses all this is meant
by place. In these and similar places he may
(wander about). In this way he performs abstinence
with regard to place. (18)

i. pe/a, 2. ardhapeYa, 3. gomutrika, 4. patanga-
vithika, 5. ^ambukavartta, 6. ayata;^-gatva-pratya-
gata 4 . (19)

c. Abstinence with reference to time (is observed
by him) who goes about in that time of the four
Paurushis of the day (which he selects for that
purpose). (20)

Or if he collects alms in a part of the third
Paurushi, or in its last quarter, then he observes
abstinence with reference to time. (21)

d. Abstinence with reference to state of mind (is
observed by him) who accepts alms from a woman
or man, from an adorned or unadorned person, from
one of any age or dress, of any temper or colour :
if that person does not change his disposition or
condition 5 . (22, 23)

1 A dwelling-place of Bhikshus, or a devagrz ha.

2 Sannive.ra. 3 Samara.

1 These are terms for different kinds of collecting alms ; it is
called pe/a (box), when one begs successively at four houses
forming the corners of an imaginary square; gomutrika, when
he takes the houses in a zigzag line; patahgavtthika (cricket s
walk), when he goes to houses at a great distance from one another ;
j-ambukavartta (the windings of a conch), when he goes in
a spiral line, either toward the centre (abhyantara) or from the
centre outward (bahis) ; ayataw-gatva-pratyagata, when he
first goes straight on and then returns.

5 I give the traditional explanation of the verses, as handed
[45] N

1 78 UTTARADHYAYANA.

e. A monk who observes abstinence according to the
particulars which have been enumerated with regard
to substance, place, time, and state of mind, observes
abstinence with regard to development 1 too. (24)

3. With regard to collecting alms there are the
eight principal ways 2 how to collect them; the seven
esha^as (or modes of begging) and other self-
imposed restrictions. (25)

4. Abstention from dainty food means
abstention from such highly nourishing 3 food and
drink as milk, curds, ghee, &c. (26)

5. Mortification of the flesh consists in the dif
ferent postures as Virasana, &c., which benefit the
soul, and which are difficult to perform. (27)

6. Using unfrequented lodgings and beds
consists in living and sleeping in separate and

down in the commentaries. If we might set it aside, I should
translate : abstinence with reference to disposition is observed by
him who in collecting alms preserves the same disposition, whether
he has to do with a woman or man, &c.

1 For development (pa^ava^paryaya) denotes any form
or phase of existence which anything can assume. Therefore
all particulars of place, e.g. are developments of Place. As all
restrictions of place, &c., indirectly diminish the food obtainable
by
a monk, they also come under the head Abstinence.

2 According to the commentator, these are the six kinds
enumerated in verse 19. -Sambukavartta is of two kinds, as
explained in the note; the eighth kind is n gvi, or the common
way of begging. These eight ways have reference to the houses
in which they collect alms. The seven eshawas refer to the
quality or quantity of the food ; their names are given in the T^ka,
partly in Prakrz t, partly in Sanskrit : i. sawsa//M ; 2. asawsa//M;
3. uddha&lt;^a; 4. alpalepika; 5. udgrz hita; 6. pragrz hita ; 7.
uggM-
tadharma. According to another passage : i. is sawsprj sh/a,
3. uddhrita, 5. avagrz hita.

3 Praita, explained push/ikara.

LECTURE XXX. 179

unfrequented places where there are neither women
nor cattle. (28)

Thus external austerities have been briefly ex
plained ; I shall now explain internal austerities in
due order. (29)

Internal austerities are :

1. pray a^itta, expiation of sins;

2. vircaya, politeness;

3. vaiyavrztya, serving the Guru;

4. svadhyaya, study;

5. dhyana, meditation;

6. vyutsarga 1 , abandoning of the body. (30)

1. Expiation of sins is tenfold, what must be
confessed 2 , &c. ; this is to be strictly observed by
a monk; this is called expiation of sins. (31)

2. Politeness consists in rising (from one s seat),
folding of the hands, offering of a seat, loving the
Guru, and cordial obedience. (32)

3. There are ten 3 kinds of service, as serving the
A/arya, &c. 4 ; doing service consists in giving
one s assistance as well as one is able. (33)

4. Study is fivefold : i. saying or learning one s
lesson ; 2. (questioning the teacher about it) ; 3. repe
tition ; 4. pondering; 5. religious discourse. (34)

Viosagga, viussaga, viusagga. It is usually rendered
vyutsarga, but the Sanskrit prototype is vyavasarga, as Leu-
mann has pointed out, I.e., p. 152.

2 Compare Aupapatika Sutra, ed. Leumann, p. 40.

3 Ibidem, p. 42.

4 They are enumerated in the following Gatha : ayariya-uva&^ae
thera-tavassi-gilaa-sehawaisahammiya-kula-gaa-sahgha-sawgayaw
tarn iha kayavvaw. The ten persons or body of persons entitled
to service are: i. a/arya; 2.upadhyaya; 3. sthavira; 4. tapas-
vin; 5. glana; 6. jaiksha; 7. sadharmika; 8. kula; 9. gawa ;
10. sangha.

N 2

I 8O UTTARADHYAYANA.

5. Abstaining to meditate on painful and sinful
things *, one should, with a collected mind, engage
in pure meditations on the Law ; this the wise call
meditation. (35)

6. If a monk remains motionless when lying down,
sitting, or standing upright, this is called abandoning
of the body, which is the sixth kind (of internal
austerities). (36)

If a sage truly performs these two kinds of
austerities, he will soon be thoroughly released from
the Circle of Births. (37)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-FIRST LECTURE.

MODE OF LIFE 2 .

I shall declare the mode of life that benefits the
soul ; by practising it many souls have crossed the
ocean of Sa^sara. (i)

One should desist from one thing, and practise
another : desist from neglect of self-control, and
practise self-control. (2)

Love and hatred are two evils which produce bad

1 This is the artaraudradhyana.

2 This lecture offers many difficulties to the translator, as it
contains scarcely more than a dry list of articles of the (raina
faith.
To fully understand or interpret it would require an accurate know
ledge of the complete religious system of the (rainas, to which we
can lay no claim at present. The order in which the articles are
given follows the number of their subdivisions. In some cases
the number is not given in the Sutra, but is supplied by the com
mentary.

LECTURE XXXI. l8l

Karman ; if a monk always avoids them, he will not
stand within the circle (of transmigration). (3)

A monk who always avoids the thrice threefold
hurtful, conceited, and delusive acts T , will not stand
in the circle (of transmigration). (4)

A monk who well bears calamities produced by
gods, animals, or men, will not stand, &c. (5)

A monk who always avoids the (four) different
kinds of praises 2 , passions, expressions (of the
emotions) 3 , and (of the four) meditations the two
sinful ones, will not stand, &c. (6)

A monk who always exerts himself 4 with regard to
the (five) vows, the (five) objects of sense, the (five)
Samitis, and (five) actions 5 , will not stand, &c. (7)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the six le^yas G , the six kinds of bodies, and the six
(regular functions as) eating 7 , will not stand, &c. (8)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the (seven) rules of accepting alms 8 , and the seven
causes of clanger (to other men) will not stand,
&c. (9)

1 Compare XIX, 91, and XXX, 3. Hurtful acts (da&lt;/a) are
threefold, as referring to thoughts, words, and acts ; conceited acts
(garava), as pride of riches, of taste (rasa), and of pleasure or
fashion (sata); delusive acts (jalya), as maya, nidana, and
mithyadar,rana.

2 Vikattha. 3 Suing %&.

4 Yatate exerts himself; supply to avoid, to know, or to do/
as the case may require.

Kriya; they are: i. kayiki; 2. adhikarawiki ; 3. pradveshiki ;
4. paritapaniki, and 5. prawatipatiki.

6 On the le^yas see Thirty-fourth Lecture, p. 196 ff.

7 From the commentaries I learn two more of these six
karawas: vedana and vaiyavrz tya. I cannot say which are the
remaining three.

8 They are enumerated in note 2 on XXX, 25, p. 178.

I 82 UTTARADHYAYANA.

A monk who always exerts himself with regard
to the (eight) objects of pride l , to that which pro
tects his chastity 2 , and to the tenfold Law of the
monks 3 . (10)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard
to the (eleven) duties of the upasakas, and the
(twelve) duties of the bhikshus 4 , will not stand,

&C. (II)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the (thirteen) actions (productive of Karman), to the
various (fourteen) kinds of living beings, and the
(fifteen) places of punishment of the wicked 5 , will not
stand, &c. (12)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the sixteen Gathas G , and to the (seventeen kinds of)
neglect of self-control, will not stand, &c. (13)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard
to the (eighteen kinds of) continence, to the (nine
teen) ^Vzatadhyayanas 7 , and the (twenty) cases for
not concentrating one s thoughts, will not, &c. (14)

1 Viz. caste, family, beauty, &c. ; see Sutrakrzt. II, 2, 17.

2 Brahmagupti. This is of nine kinds.

3 Bhikshudharma. It consists of Nos. 46-49, 26, 27, of
Lecture XXIX, truth, purity, poverty, and chastity.

4 The details given in the commentary (Devendra) partly differ
from the description of the twelve duties of -Sravakas, and the ten
duties of Bhikshus given by Bhandarkar from the Karttikeyanu-
preksha, see his Report, p. 1 1 4 ff.

5 Paramadharmika. My translation is based on the enume
ration of fifteen words, among which the names of some well-known
hells occur.

6 The sixteen lectures of the first part of the Sutrakn tanga, the
last of which is called Gatha, are meant by the sixteen Gathas. The
whole book contains twenty-three lectures as stated in verse 16.

7 The first jrutaskandha of the G^atadharmakatha, which
contains nineteen adhyayanas, is intended by ^Mtadhyayana.

LECTURE XXXI. 1 8.

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the twenty-one forbidden l actions, and the twenty-
two troubles 2 , will not stand, &c. (15)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the twenty-three (lectures of the) Sutrakrztanga, and
to the gods whose number exceeds by an unit 3 (the
number of the lectures of the Sutrakr/tanga), will
not stand, &c. (16)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the twenty-five clauses 4 , and (to the recitation of the
twenty-six) chapters of the Dasas, &c. 5 , will not
stand, &c. (17)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the (twenty-seven) virtues of the laity, and the
(twenty-eight lectures of the) Prakalpa 6 , will not
stand, &c. (18)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard
to the (twenty-nine) causes of wrong knowledge,
and the (thirty) causes of delusion, will not stand,

&c. (19)

A monk who always exerts himself with regard to
the (thirty-one) qualities of Siddhas, &c., the (thirty-

1 Cabala, because they variegate the conduct. The actions
meant are sitting on an unwiped seat, &c.

2 Parisaha, see above, p. 9 ff.

3 Rupa. The twenty-four gods are: ten Bhavanapatis, eight
Vyantaras, five Gyotishkas, one Vaimanika ; or the 24 prophets.

4 Bhavana, the subdivisions of the five great vows, see part i,

p. 189 ff.

5 The Dajimitaskandha, Brz hat Kalpa, and Vyavahara Sutras
are meant, which together contain twenty-six uddesas.

6 I.e. the AHrahga Sutra; it now contains but twenty-four
lectures, but is said to have originally contained four more, see
part i, introduction, p. xlix f. These four lectures were : Maha-
parinna, Ugghaya, Awugghdya, Ar6vaa.

184 UTTARADHYAYANA.

two) Yogas T , and thirty-three A^atanas 2 , will not
stand, &c. (20)

A clever monk who always exerts himself with
regard to the above-mentioned points, will soon be
thoroughly released from the Circle of Births (21)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-SECOND LECTURE.

THE CAUSES OF CARELESSNESS.

With attentive mind hear me explain for your
benefit the deliverance from the beginningless time,
together with its causes 3 , and from all misery : a truly
wholesome subject, (i)

By the teaching of true 4 knowledge, by the avoid
ance of ignorance and delusion, and by the destruction
of love and hatred, one arrives at final deliverance
which is nothing but bliss. (2)

This is the road to it : to serve the Gurus and the
old (teachers), to avoid throughout foolish people, to

1 The pure operations of mind, speech, and body.

2 As far as I can make out from the enumeration in the com
mentary, they are articles regulating the intercourse between monks,
especially pupils and teacher.

3 By beginningless time the Sawsara is meant ; its causes are the
k a shay as or cardinal passions, and avirati.

4 Sa^^assa = satyasya. This is a various reading; the
received text has savvassa. The commentators give the fol
lowing explanation : by the property of knowledge to make every
thing known this indicates that knowledge is the cause of
moksha.

LECTURE XXXII. I 8^

apply oneself earnestly to study, and to ponder
zealously on the meaning of the Sutras. (3)

A ,5rama72a engaged in austerities, who longs for
righteousness 1 , should eat the proper quantity of
allowed food, should select a companion of right
understanding, and should live in a place suited to
seclusion. (4)

If he does not meet with a clever companion who
surpasses or equals him in virtue, he should live by
himself, abstaining from sins and not devoted to
pleasures. (5)

As the crane 2 is produced from an egg, and the
egg is produced from a crane, so they call desire 3
the origin of delusion, and delusion the origin of
desire. (6)

Love and hatred are caused by Karman, and they
say that Karman has its origin in delusion ; Karman

is the root of birth and death, and birth and death

they call misery. (7)

Misery ceases on the absence of delusion, delusion
ceases on the absence of desire, desire ceases on the
absence of greed, greed ceases on the absence of
property. (8)

I shall explain in due order the means which must
be adopted by him who wants to thoroughly uproot
love, hatred, and delusion. (9)

Pleasant food 4 should not be enjoyed with pre
ference, for it generally makes men over-strong 5 ; and
desires rush upon the strong, like birds upon a tree
with sweet fruits. (10)

1 Samadhi; the Dipika explains it by ^
tralabha.

2 Balaka. 3 Trzshwa. 4 Rasa. 5 Dr/ptikara.

1 86 UTTARADHYAYANA.

As in a forest, full of fuel, a fire fanned by the
wind cannot be extinguished, so the fire (as it were)
of the senses of him who eats as he lists ; it does
not benefit any chaste man. (i i)

The mind of those who always live in unfrequented
lodgings, who eat low food, and who subdue their
senses, will not be attacked by the foe, Love, who
is vanquished as disease is by medicine. (12)

As it is not safe for mice to live near the dwelling
of a cat, so a chaste (monk) cannot stay in a house
inhabited by women. (13)

A ^rama^a, engaged in penance, should not allow
himself to watch the shape, beauty, coquetry, laughter,
prattle, gestures, and glances of women, nor retain
a recollection of them in his mind. (14)

Not to look at, nor to long for, not to think of,
nor to praise, womankind : this is becoming the
meditation of the noble ones, and it is always whole
some to those who delight in chastity. (15)

Though those who possess the three Guptis,
cannot be disturbed even by well-adorned goddesses,
still it is recommended to monks to live by them
selves, as this is wholesome in every way. (16)

To a man who longs for liberation, who is afraid
of the Sawsara, and lives according to the Law,
nothing in the world offers so many difficulties l as
women who delight the mind of the ignorant. (17)

To those who have overcome the attachment (to
women), all others will offer no difficulties 2 ; even as
to those who have crossed the great ocean, no river,
though big like the Ganges, (will offer any dif
ficulty). (18)

1 Duttara. 2 Suuttara.

LECTURE XXXII. 187

From desire of pleasure arises the misery of the
whole world, the gods included ; whatever misery of
body and mind there is, the dispassionate will put
an end to it. (19)

As the fruit of the Kimpaka 1 is beautiful in taste
and colour, when eaten ; but destroys the life when
digested, (being) poison ; similar in their effect are
pleasures. (20)

A 6rama^a, engaged in austerities, who longs
for righteousness 2 , should not fix his thoughts on
the pleasant objects of the senses, nor turn his mind
from them, if they be unpleasant. (21)

Colour attracts the eye ; it is the pleasant cause
of Love, but the unpleasant cause of Hatred 3 ; he
who is indifferent to them (viz. colours), is called
dispassionate. (22)

The eye perceives colour, and colour attracts the
eye ; the cause of Love is pleasant, and the cause of
Hatred is unpleasant. (23)

He who is passionately fond of colours, will
come to untimely ruin ; just as an impassioned
moth which is attracted by the light rushes into
death. (24)

He who passionately hates (a colour), will at the
same moment suffer pain. It is the fault of an
undisciplined man that he is annoyed (by a colour) ;
it is not the colour itself that annoys him. (25)

1 Trichosanthes Palmata, or Cucumis Colocynthus.

2 Compare verse 4.

3 Love and Hatred must of course be understood in their widest
meaning. The same remark applies to the term * colour/ which
according to Hindu terminology denotes everything that is perceived
by the eye. The first three sentences are, in the original, dependent
on verbs as vadanti, ahus. I have, here and elsewhere, dropped
them in the translation.

1 88 UTTARADHYAYANA.

He who is very fond of a lovely colour/ hates all
others ; hence a fool will suffer misery, but a dis
passionate sage is not affected by it. (26)

He who has a passion for colours 1 / will kill many
movable and immovable beings ; a passionate fool,
intent on his personal interest, pains and torments
those beings in many ways. (27)

How can a man who passionately desires colours 2 /
be happy while he gets, keeps, uses, loses, and
misses (those things). Even when he enjoys them,
he is never satisfied. (28)

When he is not satisfied with those colours/ and
his craving for them grows stronger and stronger,
he will become discontented, and unhappy by dint of
his discontent; misled by greed he will take another s
property. (29)

When he is overcome by violent desire, takes
another s property, and is not satisfied with those
colours and their possession, then his deceit and
falsehood increase on account of his greed ; yet he
will not get rid of his misery. (30)

After and before he has lied 3 , and when he is on
the point of lying, he feels infinitely unhappy.
Thus when he takes another s property, and is
(after all) not satisfied by the colours (he has

= rupa-anuga-aja-anuga. This divi
sion of the compound looks artificial ; I should prefer to divide
ruva-arcugasa-arauga = rupa-anukarsha-anuga ; literally,
possessed of attraction by colours.

2 Ruvawuva6a pariggahS^a. Parigraha is explained as
the desire to possess them.

3 Instead of lying/ we can also adopt the rendering stealing/
as the word in the original mosa may stand either for mr/sha,
or for mosha.

LECTURE XXXII. 189

obtained), he becomes unhappy, and nobody will
protect him 1 . (31)

How, then, can a man who is devoted to * colours/
ever derive any happiness from anything ? He
suffers pain at the time of their enjoyment to procure
which he had suffered misery. (32)

In the same way he who hates colours/ incurs
a long succession of pains ; when his mind is filled
with hatred, he accumulates Karman which in the
end again produces misery. (33)

But a man who is indifferent to l colours/ is free
from sorrows ; though still in the Sa^sara, he is not
affected by that long succession of pains, just as the
leaf of the Lotus (is not moistened) by water. (34)

[The whole set of verses 2234 is, with few
alterations, five times repeated in the original in
order to apply to the other organs of sense.

Verses 35-47 treat of sounds; sound is to be
substituted for colour/ ear for eye.

The last line of verse 37, which corresponds to
verse 24, runs thus :

As an impassioned deer allured (by a song) rushes
into death, without being satisfied with the sound.

In the same way verses 48-60 apply to smells ;
substitute smell and organ of smell.

Verses 61-73 apply to tastes; substitute tastes
and * tongue.

Verses 74-86 apply to touches ; substitute touches
and body.

Verses 87-99 apply to feelings; substitute feel
ings and mind/

1 A?nssa = armra. Ni^ra does not occur in common San
skrit ; it is rendered avash/ambha by the commentators.

I 9O UTTARADHYAYANA.

The lines corresponding to the comparison in
verse 24, run as follows :

Just as an impassioned snake which is allured
by the smell of a drug, when it comes out of its
hole. (50)

Just as an impassioned fish which is eager to
swallow the bait, has its body transfixed by a
hook. (63)

Just as an impassioned buffalo who dives in cold
water, is taken hold of by a crocodile and dies. (76)

Just as an impassioned elephant who is inflamed
by carnal desires, is turned from his way by a female
elephant (and is captured and at last killed in
battle). (89)]

Thus the objects of the senses and of the mind
cause pain to passionate men, but they never in the
least cause any pain to the dispassionate. (100)

Pleasant things (by themselves) do not cause
indifference nor emotions (as anger, &c.) ; but by
either hating or loving them, a man undergoes
such a change through delusion. (101)

Anger, pride, deceit, greed ; disgust, aversion to
self-control and delight in sensual things l ; mirth, fear,
sorrow, carnal desire for women, men, or both ; all
these manifold passions arise in him who is attached
to pleasures ; and so do other emotions produced
by those (before mentioned) arise in him who is
to be pitied, who (ought to be) ashamed of himself,
and who is hateful. (102, 103)

1 Arati and rati. Compare note on XXI, 21, where I have
adopted another translation suited to the context. The first four
numbers contain the cardinal passions; the rest the emotions
which are called no-kashaya.

LECTURE XXXII. IQI

A monk should not desire a companion, not (even)
one who is able to perform his religious duties ; nor,
if he regrets having taken the vows, (should he
desire for) a worldly reward of his austerities l .
Such emotions of an infinite variety arise in one
who is the slave of his senses. (104)

Desiring happiness and being submerged in
the ocean of delusion, he forms many plans for
warding off misery ; and for their sake an im
passioned man exerts himself. (105)

But all kinds of objects of the senses, sounds, &c.,
will cause to the indifferent neither a pleasant nor
an unpleasant feeling. (106)

He who endeavours to recognise the vanity of
all desires 2 , will arrive at perfect indifference.
When he ceases to desire the objects (of the senses),
his desire for pleasures will become extinct. (107)

The dispassionate man who has performed all
duties will quickly remove the obstructions to right
knowledge and to right faith, and whatever Karman
produces obstruction (to righteousness). (108)

Then he knows and sees all things, he is free from
delusion and hindrances, his Asravas have gone,

1 My translation follows the interpretation of the commentators.
The original runs thus: Kappa/a na ikkhigga. sahayali//fc/$u
pa/fc/Mutave;*a tavappabhavaw. The meaning they have
made out is very unsatisfactory. There is a remarkable various
reading in MS. C not noticed by the scholiasts : sahayala/fr/^i/ra
= svabhdvalakshmfj7*. If this was the original reading, the
meaning of the line, in which however I must leave the word
kappam untranslated, would come to this : a monk who regrets
having taken the vows should not desire personal power as the
reward for his penance. Kalpa, according to the commentators,
is one who is able to perform his religious duties; a kalpa is
contrasted with a jishya, novice.

2 Sa/kalpavikalpanasu upasthitasya.

I 9 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

and he is proficient in meditation and concentration
of thoughts, and being pure he will arrive at
beatitude when his life is spent. (109)

He will get rid of all misery which always afflicts
mankind ; recovered from the long illness, as it
were, and glorious, he becomes infinitely happy, and
obtains the (final) aim. (no)

We have taught the way how to become exempt
from all misery which arises since time without
beginning ; those beings who follow it will in their
time become infinitely happy, (in)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-THIRD LECTURE.

THE NATURE OF KARMAN.

I shall now in due order explain the eight kinds
of Karman, bound by which the soul turns round
and round in the Circle of Births, (i)

The eight kinds of Karman are briefly the
following :

1. 6^anavara;dya (which acts as an obstruction
to right knowledge) ;

2. Darsanavara/dya (which acts as an obstruc
tion to right faith) ;

3. Veclaniya (which leads to experiencing pain
or pleasure) ;

4. Mohaniya (which leads to delusion) ;

5. Ayu//karman (which determines the length
of life) ;

LECTURE XXXIII. 193

6. Naman (which determines the name or in
dividuality of the embodied soul) ;

7. Gotra (which determines his Gotra) ;

8. Antaraya (which prevents one s entrance on
the path that leads to eternal bliss ] ). (2, 3)

1. Obstruction of knowledge is fivefold (viz.
obstruction to) :

a. 6Yuta, knowledge derived from the sacred
books ;

b. Abhinibodhika, perception ;

c. Avadhlf#ana, supernatural knowledge;

d. Mana^paryaya, .knowledge of the thoughts
of other people ;

e. Kevala, the highest, unlimited knowledge. (4)

2. The nine kinds of obstruction to right faith are :
I. sleep ; 2. activity ; 3. very deep sleep ; 4. a high
degree of activity 2 ; 5. a state of deep-rooted greed ;
6-9 refer to faith in the objects of the first three
and the last kinds of knowledge. (5, 6)

3. Vedaniya is twofold, pleasure and pain; there
are many subdivisions of pleasure and so there are
of pain also. (7)

4. Mohaniya is twofold as referring to faith and to
conduct ; the first is threefold, the second twofold. (8)

The three kinds of Mohaniya referring to faith
are : i. right faith ; 2. wrong faith ; 3. faith partly
right and partly wrong. (9)

1 Compare Bhandarkar, Report, p. 93, note *.

2 Nos. 1-4 are nidra, pra^aia, nidranidra, pra/fcalapra/Sala;
I render the etymological meaning of these words. According to
the Dipika, however, they have a different meaning : nidra means
the state of agreeable waking; pra^ala, the slumber of a standing
or sitting person; nidranidra, deep sleep; pra/fcalapra/aia,
sleep of a person in motion. Nos. 6 and 7 are here called /fcakkhu
and a/akkhu, instead of abhinibodhika and jruta.

[45] O

194 UTTARADHYAYANA.

The two kinds of Mohaniya referring to conduct
are : i. what is experienced in the form of the four
cardinal passions ; 2. what is experienced in the
form of feelings different from them. (10)

The first kind of this Karman is sixteenfold, the
second sevenfold or ninefold l . (i i)

5. Ayushka is fourfold as referring to i. denizens
of hell; 2. brute creation ; 3. men ; 4. gods. (12)

6. Naman is twofold, good and bad; there are
many subdivisions of the good variety, and so there
are of the bad one also 2 . (13)

7. Gotra is twofold, high and low; the first is
eightfold, and so is the second also. (14)

8. Antaraya is fivefold as preventing : i. gifts;
2. profit; 3. momentary enjoyment; 4. continuous
enjoyment 3 ; and 5. power. (15)

Thus the division of Karman and the subdivisions
have been told.

Now hear their number of atoms 4 , place, time, and
development. (16)

1 The divisions of the second Karman are the feelings or emo
tions enumerated in the iO2nd verse of the last lecture, from
disgust onward. There are seven of them, if desire for women,
men, or both, is reckoned as one item, but nine, if it is reckoned as
three. The sixteen divisions of the Karman produced by the
cardinal passions are arrived at by subdividing each of the four
passions with reference to i. anantanubandha; 2. pratya-
khyana; 3. apratyakhyana ; 4. sa/w^valana.

2 In the Dipika 103 subdivisions are enumerated; they corre
spond to our genera.

3 3. Bhoga, 4. upabhoga; bhoga is enjoyment of flowers,
food, &c. ; upabhoga, that of one s house, wife, &c. The Karman
in question brings about an obstruction to the enjoyment, &c.,
though all other circumstances be favourable.

4 The Karman is considered to consist, like other substances, of
atoms, here called pradS^a point. The word I have translated

LECTURE XXXIII. 195

The number of atoms of every Karman is infinite;
it is (infinitely) greater than (the number) of fettered 1
souls, but less than that of the perfected ones. (17)

The Karman in the six directions of space 2 binds
all souls, and it binds the whole soul in all its parts
in every possible way. (18)

The longest duration (of Karman) is thirty Krores
of Krores of Sagaropamas 3 , and the shortest a part
of a muhurta. (19)

This holds good with both Avara^iyas, with
Vedaniya and Antaraya. (20)

The longest duration of Mohaniya is seventy
Krores of Krores of Sagaropamas, and the shortest
a part of a muhurta. (21)

The longest duration of Ayushka is thirty-three
Krores of Krores of Sagaropamas, and the shortest
a part of a muhurta. (22)

The longest duration of Naman and Gotra is
twenty Krores of Krores of Sagaropamas, and the
shortest eight muhurtas. (23)

The number of perfected souls is infinite, and that

number of atoms is paesagga7/z = pradejagram, which is
rendered paramawuparimaa.

1 Gaw/^iyasatta = granthigasattva.

! The six directions of space are the four cardinal points, zenith
and nadir. The commentators quote scripture that ekendriyas,
or beings with one organ of sense, are bound by Karman in three
and more directions. The true meaning of this statement is
beyond my grasp. The Dipika explains how Karman acts on the
soul. The soul absorbs all material particles of a suitable nature
(especially the karmapudgalas) with which it comes into contact,
i.e. all that are in the same space with the soul, and assimilates
them in the form of 7/anavaramya, &c., just as fire consumes every
thing within its reach, but nothing beyond it.

3 I.e. 3,000,000,000,000,000 Sagaropamas,

O 2

] 96 UTTARADHYAYANA.

of the subdivisions of Karman 1 is also (infinite) ;
the number of atoms in all these (subdivisions)
exceeds (the number) of all souls. (24)

Therefore a wise man should know the different
subdivisions of these Karmans, and should exert
himself to prevent and to destroy them. (25)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-FOURTH LECTURE.

ON LESYA 2 .

I shall deliver in due order the Lecture on Lesya ;
hear the nature of the six Lesyas (produced by)
Karman. (i)

1 Anubhaga, explained karmarasavi^sha.

2 The le.ryas(adhyavasaya vijesha/$) are different conditions
produced in the soul by the influence of different Karman; they are
therefore not dependent on the nature of the soul, but on the
Karman which accompanies the soul, and are, as it were, the
reflection of the Karman on the soul, as stated in the following
verse from the Ava/uri: krzsh;zadidravyasa/ivyat pariwamo ya
atmana/^ i spa/ikasyeva tatrayaw le.rya.rabda/2 pravartate n The
alteration produced on the soul, just as on a crystal by the presence
of black things, &c., is denoted by the word le^ya/ The Le^ya,
or, according to the above explanation, what produces L^^ya, is
a subtile substance accompanying the soul ; to it are attributed the
qualities described in this lecture. The word lesa is derived
from kle^a; this etymology appears rather fanciful, but I think
it may be right. For the Le^yas seem to be the Kle^as, which
affect the soul, conceived as a kind of substance. The Sanskrit
term L^jya is of course a hybrid word. It must, however, be
stated that lesa occurs also in the meaning colour/ e.g. Sutrakrz t.
I, 6, 13, and that the Prakrz t of klesa is kilej-a.

LECTURE XXXIV. 1 97

Hear i. the names, 2. colours, 3. tastes, 4. smells,
5. touches, 6. degrees, 7. character, 8. variety, 9.
duration, 10. result, and n. life of the Le^yas. (2)

1. They are named in the following order : black,
blue, grey, red, yellow, and white. (3)

2. The black Lesyd has the colour of a rain-cloud,
a buffalo s horn, (the fruit of) Rish/aka 1 , or the eye
of the wagtail. (4)

The blue Le\sya has the colour of the blue Asoka 2 ,
the tail of the A asha 3 , or of lapis lazuli. (5)

The grey Lesya has the colour of the flower of
Atasi 4 , the feathers of the Kokila, or the collar
of pigeons. (6)

The red Lesya has the colour of vermilion, the
rising sun, or the bill of a parrot. (7)

The yellow Lesya has the colour of orpiment,
turmeric, or the flowers of Sana. 5 and Asana 6 . (8)

The white Le\yya has the colour of a conch-
shell, the ahka-stone 7 , Kunda-flowers 8 , flowing milk,
silver, or a necklace of pearls. (9)

3. The taste of the black Lesya is infinitely more
bitter than that of Tumbaka 9 , (the fruit of the)
Nimb-tree 10 , or of Rohki. (10)

1 Sapindus Detergens.

2 It is not the common Asoka, Jonesia Asoka, which has red
flowers.

3 Corarias Indica, blue jay ; according to some, a kingfisher.

4 Linum Usitatissimum, whose flowers are blue. The word for
grey is kau = kapota; in the comm., however, it is described as
\i\mk\\. krz shwa, kimkil lohita, which would be rather brown.
But the description given in our verse leaves no doubt that grey
colour is intended.

5 Crotolaria Juncea. Terminalia Tomentosa.
7 Ahka, mamvuesha. 8 Jasminum Multiflorum.
9 The gourd Lagenaria Vulgaris. 10 Azadirachta Indica.

1 98 UTTARADHYAYANA.

The taste of the blue Le^ya is infinitely more
pungent than TrikaAika T and Hastipippali. (i i)

The taste of grey Le^ya is infinitely sourer than
that of unripe Mango and Kapittha 2 . (12)

The taste of red Lesya is infinitely more pleasant
than that of ripe Mango and Kapittha. (13)

The taste of yellow Lesya is infinitely better than
that of excellent wine and various liquors, honey
and Maireyaka 3 . (14)

The taste of white Lesya is infinitely better than
that of dates, grapes, milk, candied and pounded
sugar. (15)

The smell of the bad Lesyas (viz. the three first)
is infinitely worse than that of the corpse of a cow,
clog, or snake. (16)

The smell of the three good Lesyas is infinitely
more pleasant than that of fragrant flowers and
of perfumes when they are pounded. (17)

5. The touch of the bad Le^yas is infinitely worse
than that of a saw, the tongue of a cow, or leaf
of the Teak tree. (18)

The touch of the three good Le^yas is infinitely
more pleasant than that of cotton, butter, or 6msha-
flowers 4 . (19)

6. The degrees 5 of the Le\syas are three, or nine,

1 The aggregate of three spices, &c., black and long pepper and
dry ginger.

2 Feronia Elephantum.

3 A kind of intoxicating drink, extracted from the blossoms of
L} thrum Fructicosum, with sugar, &c.

4 Acacia Sirisa.

5 The Lejyas may possess their qualities in a low, middle, or
high degree; each of these degrees is again threefold, viz. low,
middle, and high. In this way the subdivision is carried on up
to 243.

LECTURE XXXIV. 199

or twenty-seven, or eighty-one, or two hundred and
forty-three. (20)

7. A man who acts on the impulse of the five
Asravas 1 , does not possess the three Guptis, has
not ceased to injure the six (kinds of living beings),
commits cruel acts, is wicked and violent, is afraid
of no consequences 2 , is mischievous and does not
subdue his senses a man of such habits develops
the black Le^ya. (21, 22)

A man of the following qualities : envy, anger, want
of self-control, ignorance, deceit, want of modesty,
greed, hatred, wickedness, carelessness, love of
enjoyment ; a man who pursues pleasures and does
not abstain from sinful undertakings, who is wicked
and violent a man of such habits develops the
blue Lesya. (23, 24)

A man who is dishonest in words and acts, who
is base, not upright, a dissembler and deceiver 3 ,
a heretic, a vile man, a talker of hurtful and sinful
things, a thief, and full of jealousy a man of such
habits develops the grey Lesya. (25, 26)

A man who is humble, steadfast, free from deceit
and inquisitiveness, well disciplined, restrained,
attentive to his study and duties 4 , who loves the
Law and keeps it, who is afraid of forbidden things
and strives after the highest good a man of such
habits develops the red Lesya. (27, 28)

A man who has but little anger, pride, deceit, and
greed, whose mind is at ease, who controls himself,

1 I.e. commits the five great sins. The following verses give the
character lakshawa of the Le\ryas.

2 This is, according to the comm., the meaning of the word
niddhawdhasapariwamo.

3 Paliu#aga-uvahiya = pratiku#/aka-upadhika.

4 Yogavan upa&lt;fMnavan.

[Sid Harth]

2OO UTTARADHYAYANA.

who is attentive to his study and duties, who speaks
but little, is calm, and subdues his senses a man of
such habits develops the yellow Lesya. (29, 30)

A man who abstains from constant thinking about
his misery and about sinful deeds, but engages in
meditation on the Law and truth only 1 , whose mind
is at ease, who controls himself, who practises the
Samitis and Guptis, whether he be still subject to
passion or free from passion, is calm, and subdues

his senses a man of such habits develops the

white Lesya. (31, 32)

8. There are as many varieties 2 of Lesyas as there
are Samayas 3 in the innumerable Avasarpims and
Utsarpims, and as there are countless worlds. (33)

9. Half a muhurta is the shortest, and thirty- three
Sagaropamas plus one muhurta is the longest dura
tion of the black Le^ya. (34)

Haifa muhurta is the shortest, and ten Sagaro
pamas plus one Palyopama and a part of an Asa;^-
khyeya is the longest duration of the blue Le\sya. (35)

Haifa muhurta is the shortest, and three Sagaro
pamas plus one Palyopama and a part of an Asaw-
khyeya is the longest duration of the grey Le^ya. (36)

Half a muhurta is the shortest, and two Sagaro
pamas plus one Palyopama and a part of an Asam-
khyeya is the longest duration of the red Le^ya. (37)

Half a muhurta is the shortest, and ten Sagaro
pamas plus one muhurta is the longest duration of
the yellow Le^ya. (38)

1 Literally: who avoids the arta and raudra dhyanas, and
practises the dharma and j-ukla dhyanas. These terms cannot
be adequately translated ; the reader may therefore be referred for
details to Bhandarkar s Report, p. noff.

2 Th.nd,\m sthanani.

3 Samaya is the smallest division of time instant, moment.

LECTURE XXXIV. 2OI

Half a muhurta is the shortest, and thirty-three
Sagaropamas plus one muhurta is the longest dura
tion of the white Le^ya. (39)

I have described above the duration of the Le\syas
generally ; I shall now detail their duration in the
four walks of mundane existence 1 . (40)

The shortest duration of the grey Le^yd (of
a denizen of hell) is ten thousand years, the longest
three Sagaropamas plus one Palyopama and part of
an Asawkhyeya. (41)

The shortest duration of the blue Lesya (of a
denizen of hell) is three Sagaropamas plus one
Palyopama and a part of an Asa^khyeya, the
longest ten Sagaropamas plus one Palyopama and
a part of an Asa^khyeya. (42)

The shortest duration of the black Le\sya (of a
denizen of hell) is ten Sagaropamas plus one Palyo
pama and a part of an Asa;^khyeya, the longest
thirty-three Sagaropamas. (43)

I have described the duration of the Le^yas of
denizens of hell ; I shall now describe that of
animals, men, and gods. (44)

The duration of any of the Le^yds except the
best (viz. white one) is less than a muhurta for (the
lowest organisms), animals, and men 2 . (45)

Half a muhurta is the shortest duration of the
white Le^ya (of animals and men), and the longest
a Krore of former years 3 less nine years. (46)

1 Viz. as denizens of hell, brutes, men, and gods. Only the
three first Lejyas lead to being born in hell.

2 The consequence of this statement appears to be that at the
expiration of the Lejya a new one is produced. The commen
tators, however, are not explicit on this head.

3 About the former years, see above, p. 16, note i.

202 UTTARADHYAYANA.

I have described the duration of the Lesyas of
animals and men, I shall now describe that of the
gods. (47)

The shortest duration of the black Lesya is ten
thousand years, the longest a Palyopama and (a
part of) an Asa^khyeya. (48)

The shortest duration of the blue Lesya is equal
to the longest of the black one plus one Samaya;
the longest is one Palyopama plus a (greater part
of) an Asa;/zkhyeya. (49)

The shortest duration of the grey Le^ya is equal
to the longest of the blue one plus one Samaya;
the longest is one Palyopama plus (a still greater
part of) an Asa;;zkhyeya. (50)

I shall now describe the red Le^ya as it is with
gods, Bhavanapatis, Vyantaras, Gyotishkas, and
Vaimanikas. (51)

The shortest duration of the red Lesya is one
Palyopama, the longest two Sagaropamas plus one
Palyopama and a part of an Asa^khyeya 1 . (52)

The shortest duration of the red Le^ya is ten
thousand years, the longest two Sagaropamas plus
one Palyopama and a part of an Asa^khyeya. (53)

The longest duration of the red Lesya plus one
Samaya is equal to the shortest of the yellow Le\9ya ;
its longest, however, is ten muhurtas longer. (54)

The longest duration of the yellow Le\9ya plus
one Samaya is equal to the shortest of the white
Le^ya ; the longest, however, is thirty-three muhurtas
longer. (55)

10. The black, blue, and grey Le\syas are the

1 This verse seems to lay down the duration of the Le\rya in the
case of common gods, while the next one applies to Bhavanapatis, &c.

LECTURE XXXV. 203

lowest Lesyas; through them the soul is brought
into miserable courses of life. (56)

The red, yellow, and white Lesyas are the good
Le\syas ; through them the soul is brought into
happy courses of life. (57)

ii. In the first moment of these Lesyas when
they are joined (with the soul), the latter is not
born into a new existence 1 . (58)

In the last moment of all these Lesyas when they
are joined (with the soul), the latter is not born into
a new existence. (59)

While the last muhurta is running and a part
of it is still to come, the souls with their Le^yas
developed, go to a new birth. (60)

A wise man should, therefore, know the nature of
these Leryas ; he should avoid the bad ones and
obtain the good ones. (61)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-FIFTH LECTURE.

THE HOUSELESS MONK.

Learn from me, with attentive minds, the road
shown by the wise ones 2 , which leads a monk who
follows it, to the end of all misery, (i)

1 The question treated rather darkly in the next three verses is,
according to the comm., the following : Every individual dies in
the same Le\?ya in which he is born. When his Le^ya ends with
his life, then the soul must get a new L6jya. Our verses state at
which time the new LeVya comes into existence or is joined with
the soul.

2 Buddhehi.

2O4 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Giving up the life in a house, and taking Pra-
vra^ya, a sage should know and renounce those
attachments which take hold of men. (2)

A restrained monk should abstain from killing,
lying, stealing, carnal intercourse, from desire, love,
and greed. (3)

Even in his thoughts a monk should not long for
a pleasant painted house filled with the fragrance
of garlands and frankincense, secured by doors, and
decorated with a white ceiling-cloth l . (4)

For in such a dwelling a monk will find it difficult
to prevent his senses from increased desire and
passion. (5)

He should be content to live on a burial-place,
in a deserted house, below a tree, in solitude, or in
a place which had been prepared for the sake of
somebody else 2 . (6)

A well-controlled monk should live in a pure
place, which is not too much crowded, and where
no women live. (7)

He should not build a house, nor cause
others to erect one ; for many living beings both
movable and immovable, both subtile and gross,
are seen to be killed when a house is being built ;
therefore a monk should abstain from building a
house. (8, 9)

The same holds good with the cooking of food
and drink, or with one s causing them to be cooked.
Out of compassion for living beings one should not
cook nor cause another to cook. (10)

Beings which live in water, corn, or in earth and

= parakrz ta 3 explained parair atmarthaw kn ta.

LECTURE XXXV. 205

wood, are destroyed in food and drink ; therefore
a monk should cause nobody to cook, (i i)

There is nothing so dangerous as fire, for it spreads
in all directions and is able to destroy many beings ;
one should therefore not light a fire. (12)

Even in his thoughts a monk should not long for
gold and silver ; indifferent alike to dirt and gold he
abstains from buying and selling. (13)

If he buys, he becomes a buyer; if he sells, he
becomes a merchant ; a monk is not to engage in
buying and selling. (14)

A monk who is to live on alms, should beg and
not buy; buying and selling is a great sin ; but to
live on alms is benefitting. (15)

He should collect his alms in small parts according
to the Sutras and so as to avoid faults ; a monk
should contentedly go on his begging-tour, whether
he get alms or not. (16)

A great sage should not eat for the sake of the
pleasant taste (of the food) but for the sustenance of
life, being not dainty nor eager for good fare,
restraining his tongue, and being without cupi
dity. (17)

Even in his thoughts he should not desire to be
presented with flowers, to be offered a seat, to be
eloquently greeted, or to be offered presents, or to
get a magnificent welcome and treatment. (18)

He should meditate on true things only 1 , com
mitting no sins and having no property ; he
should walk about careless of his body till his end
arrives. (19)

Rejecting food when the time of his death arrives,

1 ukla dhyana, see note i, p. 200.

206 UTTARADHYAYANA.

and leaving the human body, he becomes his own
master \ and is liberated from misery. (20)

Without property, without egoism, free from
passions and the Asravas, he obtains absolute
knowledge, and reaches eternal beatitude. (21)

Thus I say.

THIRTY-SIXTH LECTURE.

ON LIVING BEINGS AND THINGS WITHOUT LIFE 2 .

Now learn from me with attentive minds the
division of Living Beings and Things without life 3 ,
which a monk must know who is to exert himself in
self-control, (i)

1 By the destruction of the viryantaraya.

2 It will perhaps not be amiss to give a systematic list of the
subjects treated in this lecture. The numbers refer to the verses.

A. Things without life, 3-48.

(1) Without form, 5-9.

(2) With form, 10-48.

B. Living Beings, 48-246.

(1) Perfected souls, 50-68.

(2) Mundane Beings, 69-246.

a. Immovable Beings, 71-106.
a. Earth Lives, 71-84.

j8. Water Lives, 85-92.
y. Plants, 93-106.

b. Movable Beings, 108-246.
a. Fire Lives, 109-117.

/3. Wind Lives, 118-126.

y. Beings with an organic body, 127-246.

3 See next page.

LECTURE XXXVI. 207

The Living Beings and the Things without life
make up this world (Loka) ; but the space where
only Things without life are found is called the
Non-world (Aloka). (2)

The Living Beings and the Things without life
will be described with reference to i. substance,
2. place, 3. time, and 4. development. (3)
A. Things without life.

Things without life are i. possessing form, 2.
formless ; the formless things are of ten kinds, those
possessing form are of four kinds. (4)

(i) The ten kinds of formless things : i. Dharma,
2. its divisions, 3. its indivisible parts ; 4. Adharma,
5. its divisions, 6. its indivisible parts ; 7. space,

i. With two organs of sense, 128-136.
ii. With three organs of sense, 137-145.
iii. With four organs of sense, 146-155.
iv. With five organs of sense, 156-246,

a. Denizens of hell, 157-170.

b. Animals (vertebratae), 171-193.

1. Aquatic, 171-178.

2. Terrestrial, 179-186.

3. Aerial, 187-193.

c. Men, 194-202.

d. Gods, 203-246.

1. Bhavanavasin, 205, 218.

2. Vyantara, 206, 219.

3. Gyotishka, 207, 220.

4. Vaimanika, 208, 221-246.

a. Living in Kalpas, 209, 210, 221-232.
b . Living above the Kalpas, 211.
a . Graiveyakas, 212, 213, 233-241.
/3 . Anuttaras, 214-217, 242, 243.
Appendix, 247-267.

3 Giva and a^iva. The former is defined in the Dipika as
upayogavan in accordance with our text, XXVIII, 10; the latter
is also called pud gal a.

2O8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

8. its divisions, 9. its indivisible parts, and 10.
time l . (5, 6)

Dharma and Adharma are co-extensive with the
World (Loka) ; space fills the World and the Non-
world (Aloka) ; time exists in what is called the
place of time 2 . (7)

Dharma, Adharma, and Space are ever without
beginning and end. (8)

And time also, if regarded as a continuous flow 3 ,
is called so (i. e. without beginning and end) ; but
with regard to an individual thing it has a beginning
and an end. (9)

(2) The four kinds of things possessing form are
I. compound things, 2. their divisions, 3. their
indivisible parts, and 4. atoms 4 . (10)

Compound things and atoms occur as individual
things and apart (or different from others) 5 , in the
whole world and in parts of the world ; this is their
distribution with regard to place, (n)

Subtile things occur all over the world, gross
things only in a part of it.

1 It is here called addha-samaya, which may be translated
real-time. It has no divisions or parts as the other things, because
of time only the present moment is existent. And a moment can
not be divided.

2 Time is only present in the two and a half continents inhabited
by men, and the oceans belonging to them; beyond this sphere
there is no time or, as the Dipika correctly remarks, no divisions of
time.

3 Sa.mta.tim pappa = sawtatim prapya.

4 According to the Dipika, we should have but two divisions,
viz.: i. compound things (skandha, aggregates of atoms), and
2. not aggregated atoms; for Nos. 2 and 3 of our text are but
subdivisions of No. i.

5 Egattewa puhutte^a = 6katvena prz thaktvena.

LECTURE XXXVI. 209

I shall now give their fourfold division with
regard to time. (12)

With regard to the continuous flow (or develop
ment of a thing) it is without beginning and without
end; but with regard to its existence (as an in
dividual thing) it has both a beginning- and an
end 1 . (13)

The longest duration of Things without life
possessing form is an immeasurable 2 period; the
shortest one Samaya. (14)

The longest interruption 3 in the existence of
Things without life possessing form is an endless
time; the shortest one Samaya. (15)

Their development is fivefold : with regard to

1. colour, 2. smell, 3. taste, 4. touch, and 5.
figure. (16)

Those which develop with regard to colour are
of five kinds: i. black, 2. blue, 3. red, 4. yellow,
5. white. (17)

Those which develop with regard to smell are
of two kinds : i. sweet-smelling substances, and

2. of bad smell. (18)

Those which develop with regard to taste are
of five kinds: i. bitter, 2. pungent, 3. astringent,

4. sour, and 5. sweet. (19)

Those which develop with regard to touch are
of eight kinds: i. hard, 2. soft, 3. heavy, 4. light,

5. cold, 6. hot, 7. smooth, and 8. rough.

1 The meaning of this verse is that a thing, as far as its material
cause is concerned, has always existed, and will ever exist under
one form or other, but that the individual thing in its present form
has but a limited existence.

2 Asawkhakalam. See above, p. 42, note 2.

3 A n tar am ; the interval between the thing being removed from
its proper scene and reaching it again (Ava/turi and Dipikd).

[45] P

2 i o TJTTARADHYAYANA.

In this way the substances have been declared,
which develop with regard to touch. (20, 21)

Those which develop with regard to figure are
of five kinds : i. globular, 2. circular, 3. triangular,
4. square, and 5. long. (22)

Things of black colour are subdivided with re
gard to smell, taste, touch, and figure. (23)

The same subdivision holds good with blue, red,
yellow, and white things. (24-27 J )

Things of sweet smell are subdivided with regard
to colour, taste, touch, and figure ; things of bad
smell are similarly subdivided. (28, 29)

Things of bitter taste are subdivided with regard
to colour, smell, touch, and figure. (30)

The same subdivision holds good with pungent,
astringent, sour, and sweet things. (3 I ~34)

Things of hard touch are subdivided with regard
to colour, smell, taste, and figure. (35)

The same subdivision holds good with soft, heavy,
light, cold, hot, smooth, and rough things. ^(36-42)

Things of globular figure are subdivided with
regard to colour, smell, taste, and touch. (43)

The same subdivision holds good with circular,
triangular, square, and long things. (44~47)

Thus the division of Things without life has briefly

been told.

B. Living Beings.

I shall now, in due order, deliver the division of
living beings. (48)

Living beings are of two kinds: i. those still

1 Each verse has the same form as 23, only that another colour
is substituted for black. In the same way the subdivisions of
smells, &c., are given. I give the first verse of each class and
abbreviate the rest.

LECTURE XXXVI. 2 I I

belonging to the Sawsara, and 2. the perfected souls
(siddhas). The latter are of many kinds ; hear me
explain them. (49)

(i) The perfected souls are those of women,
men, hermaphrodites, of orthodox, heterodox, and
householders. (50)

Perfection is reached by people of the greatest,
smallest, and middle size J , on high places, under
ground, on the surface of the earth, in the ocean, and
in water (of rivers, &c.). (51)

Ten hermaphrodites reach, at the same time, per
fection, twenty women, one hundred and eight men ;
four householders, ten heterodox, and one hundred
and eight orthodox monks. (52, 53)

Two individuals of the greatest size reach
perfection (simultaneously), four of the smallest
size, and one hundred and eight of the middle
size. (54)

Four individuals reach perfection (simultaneously)
on high places, two in the ocean, three in water,
twenty underground, and one hundred and eight on
the surface of the earth. (55)

From where are the perfected souls debarred ?
Where do the perfected souls reside ? Where do
they leave their bodies, and where do they go, on
reaching perfection ? (56)

Perfected souls are debarred from the non-world
(Aloka) ; they reside on the top of the world ; they
leave their bodies here (below), and go there, on
reaching perfection. (57)

Twelve Yq^anas above the (Vimana) Sarvartha is

1 The greatest size (ogahawa) of men is 500 dhanus, or 2,000
cubits, the smallest one cubit.

P 2

2 I 2 UTTARADHYAYANA.

the place called tshatpragbhara 1 , which has the form
of an umbrella; (there the perfected souls go). (58)

It is forty-five hundred thousand Yq^anas long,
and as many broad, and it is somewhat more than
three times as many in circumference. (59)

Its thickness is eight Yq^anas, it is greatest in
the middle, and decreases 2 toward the margin, till
it is thinner than the wing of a fly. (60)

This place, by nature pure, consisting of white
gold, resembles in form an open umbrella, as has
been said by the best of inas. (61)

(Above it) is a pure blessed place (called .9ita),
which is white like a conch-shell, the aiika-stone 3 ,
and Kunda-flowers ; a Yo/ana thence is the end of
the world. (62)

The perfected souls penetrate the sixth part 4 of
the uppermost Krosa. of the (above-mentioned)
Y of ana. (63)

There at the top of the world reside the blessed
perfected souls, rid of all transmigration, and arrived
at the excellent state of perfection. (64)

The dimension of a perfected soul is two-thirds
of the height which the individual had in his last
existence. (65)

The perfected souls, considered singly, (as in
dividuals) have a beginning but no end ; considered

1 Similar details are given in the Aupapatika Sutra (ed. Leumann,

i6 3 r.).

2 According to the commentator, who quotes scripture, it
decreases an ahgula every Yog-ana.

3 Compare XXXIV. 9 and note. The commentators here treat
a iik a as a separate substance without offering any explanation.
The Dipika writes sita instead of jit a.

4 Or 333^ dhanus.

LECTURE XXXVI. 213

collectively l (as a class) they have neither a begin
ning nor an end. (66)

They have no (visible) form, they consist of Life
throughout, they are developed into knowledge and
faith, and they possess paramount happiness which
admits of no comparison. (67)

They all dwell in one part of the world, and have
developed into knowledge and faith, they have
crossed the boundary of the Sa^sara, and reached
the excellent state of perfection. (68)

(2) Living beings which still belong to the Sa;;z-
sara, are of two kinds : a. movable, and b. immovable
ones : the immovable ones are of three kinds : (69)

a. Earth Lives, /3. Water Lives, and 7. plants ;
these are the three kinds of immovable living
beings ; now learn from me their subdivision. (70)

a. The Earth Lives are of two kinds: subtile
and gross ; and both of them are either fully
developed or undeveloped. (71)

The gross and fully developed are of two kinds :
viz. smooth or rough. The smooth ones are of
seven kinds : (72)

Black, blue, red, yellow, white, pale dust, and
clay.

The rough ones are of thirty-six kinds : (73)

Earth, gravel, sand, stones, rocks, rock-salt 2 , iron,
copper, tin, lead, silver, gold, and diamond ; (74)

Orpiment, vermilion, realgar, Sasaka 3 , antimony,

1 The words translated, considered singly and considered
collectively/ are egatte^a and puhutte#a = 6katvena and prz-
thaktvena. Their usual meaning has been given in verse u.

2 Lavaas6?

3 Not in our dictionaries ; the commentators only say that it is
a kind of mineral, dhatuvijesha. I give the Sanskrit names of

214 UTTARADHYAYANA.

coral, Abhrapa/ala, Abhravaluka ; these are varieties
of gross (Earth-) bodies and kinds of precious
stones. (75)

Hyacinth, natron, Ahka, crystal, Lohitaksha,
emerald, Masaragalla, Bhu^amo/^aka, and sap
phire ; (76)

A"andana, red chalk, Hawsagarbha, Pulaka 1 ,
and sulphur ; ^fandraprabha, lapis lazuli, alakanta,
and Suryakanta 2 . (77)

These thirty-six kinds of rough earth have been
enumerated. The subtile earth is but of one
kind, as there is no variety. (78)

The subtile species is distributed all over the
world, but the gross one (is found) in a part of the
world only.

I shall now give their fourfold division with
regard to time. (79)

With regard to the continuous flow (or develop
ment of an earth-body) it is without a begin
ning and end ; but with regard to its existence
in its present form it has both a beginning and
end. (80)

Twenty-two thousand years is the longest dura
tion of the Earth Lives ; its shortest is less than
a muhurta. (81)

The longest duration of the body of Earth Lives,
if they do not leave that (kind of) body 3 , is an

the stones, which cannot be identified with certainty, or are not
contained in the index of R. Garbe s work on the Indian minerals,
Leipzig, 1882.

1 A medicinal earth, commonly called Karikush//fe.

2 The enumeration contains thirty-nine, instead of thirty-six
items, as stated in verses 73 and 76.

3 The meaning seems to be that souls of earth-bodies live in

LECTURE XXXVI. 215

immeasurable time; the shortest is less than one
muhurta. (82)

The longest interval between an Earth Life s
leaving its body (till its return to it), is an endless
time ; the shortest less than one Muhurta. (83)

Their varieties, caused by (difference of) colour,
smell, taste, touch, figure, and place, are (counted) by
thousands. (84)

/3. The Water Lives are of two kinds: subtile
and gross ones ; and both of them are either fully
developed or undeveloped. (85)

The gross and fully developed ones are of
five kinds : pure water, dew, exudations, fog, and
ice. (86)

The subtile water is of one kind, as there is no
variety. The subtile species is distributed all over
the world, but the gross one (is found) in a part of
the world only. (87)

With regard to the continuous flow, &c. (as in

verse 80).

Seven thousand years is the longest duration of
the life of Water Lives, &c. (as in verse 81). (All
that has been said of Earth Lives in verses 82-84 is
verbally repeated here of Water Lives. ) (88-92)

7. Plants are of two kinds : subtile and gross
ones ; and both of them are either fully developed
or undeveloped. (93)

The gross and fully developed plants are of two
kinds : either many have one body in common, or
each has its own body. (94)

Those who severally have their own body are of

earth-bodies, the time stated in verse 82, while the length of each
separate existence is determined in verse 81.

2 I 6 UTTARlDHYAYANA.

many kinds : trees, shrubby plants J , shrubs 2 , big
plants 3 , creeping plants 4 , grass 5 ; (95)

Palms 6 , plants of knotty stems or stalks 7 , mush
rooms 8 , water-plants, annual plants 9 , and herbs 10 .
These are called plants possessing severally their
own body. (96)

Those plants of which many have one body in
common are of many kinds 11 : Aluya 12 , Mulaya 13 ,
ginger; (97)

Harili, Sirili, Sassirili, ^avai, Keyakandali 11 , onion,
garlic, plantain-tree, Ku^uvvaya 15 ; (98)

; it is explained to denote such plants from the single
root or bulb of which come forth many stalks, e.g. Vrz ntaka,
Solanum Melongena.

2 Gulma, similar to the preceding class, but bringing forth
twigs or stems, instead of stalks, e.g. Navamalika, Jasminum
Sambac, Ka/zavira, &c.

3 Lata, as Lotus, Pandanus, &c.

4 Vail i, as gourds, Piper Betel, &c.

5 TrzVza, grass. But of the two examples given in the com
mentary, gunguka is not in our dictionaries, and Ar^una denotes
usually a tree, Terminalia Arjuna.

6 Valaya ; so called from their foliation.

7 Parvaga, as sugar-cane.

Kuha;za, plants which cause the earth to burst, as sarpa/-
, mushroom (toad-stool).

9 O shad hi, such plants as die after having brought forth seed,
as rice, &c.

10 Haritakaya, as ta#&lt;/uleya, &c.

The plants in the following list are, according to the com
mentary, mostly bulbs, well known in the countries where they
grow. Many of them are not in our dictionaries. I give the
Prakr/t form of their names, and note the Sanskrit equivalent when
it can be identified.

2 Aluka,AmorphophallusCampanulatus. 13 MM aka, radish.

4 A various reading has for the last two words (which might be
differently divided), apaikkeikandali. The Kandali, the
plantain-tree, occurs in the next line again.

15 A various reading is Ku^/ambaya.

LECTURE XXXVI. 217

Lohimhuya, Thihuya, Tuhaga, Ka^ha l ,
kanda 2 , Stira;zaya 3 ; (99)

Assaka;mi 4 , Sihakafttti, MusundM, turmeric, and
many others besides. (100)

The subtile plants are of one kind, as there is no
variety. Subtile plants are distributed all over the
world, gross plants (are found) in a part of the
world only. (101)

With regard to the continuous flow, &c. (as in
verse 80). (102)

Ten thousand years is the longest duration of the
life of plants, &c. (All as in verses 81-84. Substitute
plants, which are here called vanaspati andpanaka,
for Earth-bodies.) (103-106)

Thus the three kinds of immovable living beings
have briefly been told. I shall now explain in
due order the three kinds of movable living-
beings. (107)

b. The movable beings are a. the Fire Lives,
/3. the Wind Lives, and 7. those with an organic
body ; these are the three kinds of movable beings.
Learn from me their subdivision. (108)

a. The Fire Lives are of two kinds : subtile and
gross ones ; and both of them are either fully
developed or undeveloped. (109)

The gross and fully developed ones are of many
kinds : coal, burning chaff, fire, and flame of
fire; (no)

Meteors, and lightning, and many other kinds
besides.

1 Krz shTzakanda, Nymphaea Rubra.

2 Va^rakanda of the Sanskrit Koshas.

3 .Surawa, Arum Campanulatum.

4 A^vakarwa. Ajvakanza is a tree, Vatika Robusta.

2 I 8 UTTARADHYAYANA.

The subtile Fire Lives are but of one kind, as
there is no variety, (in)

The subtile species, &c. (see verses 79-84. Sub
stitute Fire Lives for Earth Lives. In verses i I4f.,
corresponding to verses 81, 89, and 103, read : the
longest duration of the life of Fire Lives is three
days, &c. ; the rest as above). (112-117)

f3. The Wind Lives are of two kinds, &c. (as in
verse 109). (i 18)

The gross and fully developed ones are of five
kinds : squalls \ whirlwinds 2 , thick winds 3 , high
winds, low winds ; (119)

And the Sa;^vartaka 4 wind, &c. ; thus they are of
many kinds 5 .

The subtile Wind Lives are but of one kind, as
there is no variety. (120)

The subtile species, &c. (as above 79-84. Substi
tute Wind Lives for Earth Lives. In verse 123,
corresponding to 114, read: the longest duration
of the life of Wind Lives is three thousand years ;
the rest as above). (121-126)

1 Utkalik a, intermittent winds. 2 Ma#&lt;alik =

3 According to the comm. these winds blow on the oceans
which are situated below the Ratnaprabha-hell, or which support
the heavenly Vimanas, and have the density of snow. Perhaps
the notion is similar to that of the Hindu astronomers, who fancied
that the heavenly bodies were set in motion by cords of wind
called pravaha. See Surya Siddhanta II, 3.

4 This seems to be the hurricane which causes the periodical
destruction of the world. But Devendra says: Sawvartaka is
a wind which carries grass, &c., from the outside into a particular
place/

5 Though in the preceding verse it was said that there are
five kinds of wind, six are enumerated, and more are implied
by the &c/

LECTURE XXXVI. 2IQ

7. Movable beings with organic bodies (i.e.
animals) are of four kinds : i. those possessing two
organs of sense, ii. those with three organs, iii. those
with four organs, iv. those with five organs. (127)

i. Beings with two organs of sense are of two
kinds : subtile and gross ones. Both are either
fully developed or undeveloped. Learn from me
their subdivision \ (128)

Worms, Somangala, Alasa 2 , Maivahaya 3 .. Vasi-
muha 4 , shells, conches, Sankha/zaga 5 ; (129)

Palloya, A^ullaya, cowries, leeches, Malaga, and
-/sfanda^a 6 . ( 1 30)

These and others are the many kinds of beings
with two organs of sense. All of them live in
a part of the world only, they do not live every
where. (131)

With regard to the continuous flow, &c. (as in
verse 80). (132)

1 As many of these lower animals are not known to us, I give
the Prakr/t names of those which I cannot identify. Devendra
says : Some of them are well known, the remaining ones are to
be explained according to tradition/ The explanation of this
passage in the Ava/uri is fuller.

2 A small poisonous animal. Petersburg Dictionary, s. v.
According to the GivaviMra Vrz tti V, 16, they are earth-snakes
(bhunaga), which originate in the rainy season when the sun is in
A-rlesha, i.e. about the beginning of July.

3 Matrz vahaka. According to the description of the Ava/fcuri,
the larvae of Phryganeae seem intended. According to the Givavi-
ara VWtti, they are called /fcu^eli in Guzeratt

4 Vasimukha, explained: Whose mouth is like a chisel or
adze. There are many insects, e.g. the Curculionidae, which suit
this description.

5 Sarikhanaka, very small, conch-like animals/

6 A^andaa = Akavrz ksha (?). According to the GivaviHra
Vn tti V, 1 6, they are animals living in water and on land, and are
called Aksha in the vernacular (samayabhasha).

22O UTTARADHYAYANA.

The duration of the life of beings with two organs
of sense is twelve years at the utmost ; the shortest
is less than a muhurta. (133)

The longest duration of the body of beings with
two organs of sense is a Sawkhyeya (or measurable
time) if they do not leave that (kind of) body ; the
shortest is less than one muhurta. (134)

135, 136 = 83, 84. Substitute beings with two
organs of sense for Earth Lives.

ii. Beings with three organs of sense are of
two kinds : subtile and gross ones. Both are either
fully developed or undeveloped. Learn from me
their subdivision. (137)

Kunthu 1 , ants, bugs, Ukkala, white ants, Ta;za-
hara, Ka^ahara, Maluga 2 , Pattaharaga ; (138)

Duga shining like lead, which originate in the
kernel of the cotton-seed, Sadavari, centipedes,
Indagaiya; (139)

Cochineal, &c. Thus they are of many kinds.

All of them live in a part of the world only, they
do not live everywhere. (140)

141-145 = 132-136. (Substitute beings with
three organs of sense. The longest duration, &c.,
is forty-nine days, verse 142 = 133.)

iii. Beings with four organs of sense are of
two kinds : subtile and gross ones. Both are either

1 Kunthu or animalcules are also called Amiddhari, see con
cerning them, Kalpa Sutra, Rules for Yatis, 44, part i, p. 304.
I give in the text the Prakr/t form of the words I cannot identify.

2 Maluka is the name of a plant, Ocimum Sanctum. It must,
of course, here denote some animal. The &lt;7ivavi/fcara enumerates
many other animals, lice, bugs, different kinds of larvae living
in dung, corn, &c. The trzVzahara, kash/^ahara, and patra-
hara seem to denote different kinds of ants.

LECTURE XXXVI. 221

developed or undeveloped. Learn from me their
subdivision. (146)

Andhiya, Pottiya, flies, mosquitoes, bees, moths,
Dhinka^a and Kanka^a ; (147)

Kukkuda 1 , Singiri^i, Nandavatta 2 , scorpions, Z?61a,
crickets, Virali, A/Mivehaya; (148)

A^^ila, Sahaya A///&ir6&lt;^aya, VLitta, Vi/ittapat-
taya 3 , Uhiw^aliya, alakari, Niya, and Tantava-
gaiya. (149)

These and others are the beings with four organs
of sense. All of them, &c. (the rest as in verses 131-
136. Substitute beings with four organs of sense/
The longest duration, &c., is six months, verse

152 = 133} (150-155)
iv. Beings with five organs of sense are of

four kinds : denizens of hell, animals 4 , men, and
gods. (156).

a. Denizensofhell are of seven kinds accord ing
to the seven hells ; they are called Ratnabha,
Sarkarabha, Valukabha; (157)

Pankabha, Dhumabha, Tama, and Tamatama.
Thus the seven kinds of denizens of hell have been
enumerated. (158)

All the (denizens of hell) live in a part of the

1 Kukku/a is given in the dictionaries as the name of a small
lizard.

2 Nandyavarta occurs elsewhere as the name of a particular
fish, and of a shell. It can be neither of these in our passage, as
both animals belong to other classes than the ^aturindriyas.

3 Etymologically : with many-coloured wings. Probably butter
flies are intended.

4 Tirikkha = tiryak. Apparently only the higher animals are
intended by this term, the lower animals, from the insects down
wards, being enumerated in the preceding classes of beings.

222 UTTARADHYAYANA.

world only ; they do not live everywhere, &c. (as
in verses 79 and 80). (159, 160)

In the first hell the longest duration of their life
is one Sagaropama ; the shortest is ten thousand
years. ( 1 6 1 )

In the second hell the longest duration of their
life is three Sagaropamas; the shortest is one
Sagaropama 1 . (162)

In the third hell the longest duration of their life
is seven Sagaropamas ; the shortest is three Saga
ropamas. (163)

In the fourth hell the longest duration of their
life is ten Sagaropamds ; the shortest is seven
Sagaropamas. (164)

In the fifth hell the longest duration of their life
is seventeen Sagaropamas ; the shortest is ten
Sagaropamas. (165)

In the sixth hell the longest duration of their life
is twenty-two Sagaropamas; the shortest is seventeen
Sagaropamas. (166)

In the seventh hell the longest duration of their
life is thirty-three Sagaropamas ; the shortest is
twenty- two Sagaropamds. (167)

The length of the life of denizens of hell is also
that of their continuance in the same kind of body,
with regard both to the longest and shortest duration
of it. (168)

Verses 169, 170 = 83, 84. (Substitute, denizens of
hell.)

b. The animals which possess five organs of sense
are of two kinds, those which originate by gene-

1 It will be seen that the longest duration of life in each hell is
always equal to the shortest in the preceding one.

LECTURE XXXVI. 223

ratio aequivoca 1 , and those which are born from
the womb. (171)

Either of them are again of three kinds: i. aquatic,
2. terrestrial, and 3. aerial animals. Learn from me
their subdivision. (172)

1. Fishes, tortoises, crocodiles, Makaras, and
Gangetic porpoises are the five kinds of aquatic
animals. (173)

174, 175 = 159, 160.

The longest duration of the life of aquatic animals
is one Krore of former years 2 ; the shortest is less
than one muhurta. (176)

The longest duration of the aquatic animals
continuance in the (same kind of body) is from two
to nine 3 Krores of former years. (177)

178 = 83.

2. Quadrupeds and reptiles are the two kinds of
terrestrial animals. The quadrupeds are of four
kinds; listen to my description of them : (179)

(1) Solidungular animals, as horses, &c. ;

(2) Biungular animals, as cows, &c.;

(3) Multiungular animals, as elephants, &c.;

(4) Animals having toes with nails, as lions,
&c. (180)

The reptiles are of two kinds : i. those which
walk on their arms, as lizards, &c., and 2. those
which move on their breast, as snakes, &c. Both
are again of many kinds. (181)

1 SammurMima. They grow by assimilating the materials
in their surrounding. According to a second explanation, their
internal organ does not fully develop.

2 See page 16, note i.

3 This is, according to the Ava/uri, the meaning of puhuttaw
prz thaktvam.

224 UTTARADHYAYANA.

182, 183=159, 1 60.

The longest duration of the life of terrestrial
animals is three Palyopamas ; the shortest is less
than one muhurta. (184)

The longest duration of the terrestrial animals
continuance in the (same kind of) body is three
Palyopamas plus from two to nine Krores of former
years; the shortest is less than one muhurta. (185)

186 = 83.

3. Winged animals are of four kinds: those
with membranous wings l , those with feathered
wings, those with wings in the shape of a box 2 , and
those (which sit on) outspread wings 3 . (187)

188, 189 = 159, 160.

The longest duration of the life of aerial animals
is an Asa^khyeya-part of a Palyopama 4 ; the short
est is less than one muhurta. (190)

The longest duration (of the aerial animals
continuance in the same kind of body) is an
Asa;^khyeya-part of a Palyopama plus from two
to nine Krores of former years ; the shortest is less
than one muhtirta. (191)

192, 193 = 159, 160.

c. Men are of two kinds ; listen to my description
of them: men originating by generatio aequivoca 5 ,
and men born from the womb. (194)

Those who are born from the womb are of three

1 E.g. the /fcarma/a/akas or bats.

2 Samudga. These interesting birds are said to live outside
the Manush6ttara, or world inhabited by men.

3 The comm. do not tell us what kind of birds is intended.

4 The comm. do not explain this expression ; the meaning,
therefore, is doubtful. I give a literal translation of it in this
and
the next verse.

5 See page 223, note i, on verse 171.

LECTURE XXXVI. 225

kinds : those living in the Karmabhumi \ those
living in the Akarmabhumi, and those living on the
minor continents 2 . (195)

They have, in the same order, fifteen 3 , thirty 4 ,
and twenty-eight subdivisions. These are the
numbers handed down. (196)

Men originating by generatio aequivoca are
of as many kinds. They all live but in a part of
the world. (197)

Verses 198-202 = 183-186. (Substitute, men
for terrestrial animals. )

d. Gods are of four kinds ; listen to my descrip
tion of them: i. Bhaumeyikas ; 2. Vyantaras ;
3. 6yotishkas ; 4. Vaimanikas. (203)

There are ten kinds of Bhavanavasins ( = Bhau
meyikas), eight of those who live in woods ( = Vyan
taras), five of ^yotishkas, and two of Vaimani
kas. (204)

1. The Bhavanavasins are : the Asura-, Ndga-,
Suvama-, Vidyut-, Agni-, Dvipa-, Udadhi-, Vata-,
and Ghamka-(Kumaras 5 ). (205)

2. The eight kinds of Vyantaras are:

1 Concerning Karmabhumi, see part i, p. 195, note i. The Ava-
uri places the Akarmabhumi first, but the next verse proves that
it originally stood in the second place.

2 These are seven groups of islands situated off the eastern and
western ends of the Himalaya, which are inhabited by fabulous
races.

3 According to the Ava/uri, there are five kinds in Bharata, five
in Airavata, and five in Videha.

4 Viz. five in each of the six Akarmabhumis : Haimavata, Hari-
varsha, Hairawyavata, Devakuru, and Uttarakuru.

5 According to the commentaries the word kumara is to be
supplied after each of the ten names.

[45] Q

226 UTTARADHYAYANA.

Bhutas, Yakshas, Rakshasas,Kinnaras, Kimpurushas,
Mahoragas, and Gandharvas. (206)

3. The moons, the suns, the Nakshatras, the planets,
and the hosts of stars are the fivefold dwellings of
the (^yotishkas. (207)

4. The Vaimanika gods are of two kinds :
a , those who are born in the heavenly Kalpas, and
b f . those who are born in the regions above
them 1 . (208)

a. The former are of twelve kinds : those who
live in (the following Kalpas, after which they are
named) : Saudharma, 1 ^ana, Sanatkumara, Mahendra,
Brahmaloka, and Lantaka ; (209)

Maha^ukla, Sahasrara, Anata, Pra/zata 2 , Ara^a,
and A/yuta. These are the gods who are born in
Kalpas. (210)

6&gt; f . The gods who are born in the regions above
the Kalpas are of two kinds : a , the Graiveyakas 3 ,
and ft . the Anuttaras 4 . The Graiveyakas are of
nine kinds. (21 1)

a . The lowest of the lowest, the middle of the
lowest, the highest of the lowest, the lowest of
the middle ; (212)

The middle of the middle, the highest of the
middle, the lowest of the highest, the middle of
the highest; (213)

The highest of the highest. These are the Grai-
veyaka gods.

1 They are termed Kalpopaga and Kalpatita.

2 I am not sure that these are the correct Sanskrit forms of the
two last Kalpas ; the original has Aaya and Pa/zaya.

3 I.e. those who live on the neck (griva), i.e. on the upper part
of the universe.

4 I.e. those above whom there dwell no other gods.

LECTURE XXXVI. 227

P . The Vi^ayas, the Vai^ayantas, the G-ayantas,
the Apara^itas (214)

And the Sarvarthasiddhas : these are the five
kinds of Anuttara gods.

These and others besides are the many kinds of
Vaimanika gods. (2 1 5-2 1 7 = 1 59-1 60)

The longest duration of the life of the Bhau-
meyika gods is somewhat more than a Sagaropama,
the smallest ten thousand years. (218)

The longest duration of the life of the Vyantaras
is one Palyopama, the shortest is ten thousand
years. (219)

The longest duration of the life of the Gyotishkas
is one Palyopama plus one hundred thousand years,
the shortest is the eighth part of a Palyopama. (220)

The longest duration of life in the Saudharma-
kalpa is two Sagaropamas, the shortest is one
Palyopama. (221)

(In the same way (a) the longest, and (6) the
shortest duration of life in the remaining Kalpas
and heavenly regions is given in the original. I give
in the sequel the substance only of each verse.)

In l^ana Kalpa (a) is somewhat more than a
Sagaropama, (b) somewhat more than a Palyo
pama. (222)

In Sanatkumara Kalpa (a) is seven, ($) two
Sagaropamas. (223)

In Mahendra Kalpa (a) is somewhat more than
seven Sagaropamas, ($) somewhat more than
two. (224)

In Brahmaloka Kalpa (a) is ten Sagaropamas,
(S) seven. (225)

In Lantaka Kalpa (a) is fourteen Sagaropamas,
(S) ten. (226)

Q 2

228 UTTARADHYAYANA.

In Mahasukla Kalpa (#) is seventeen Sagaropamas,
(6) fourteen 1 . (227)

In Sahasrara Kalpa (a) is eighteen Sagaropamas,
(6) seventeen. (228)

In Anata Kalpa (a) is nineteen Sagaropamas,
(6) eighteen. (229)

In Pra^ata Kalpa (a) is twenty Sagaropamas,
(8) nineteen. (230)

In Ara^a Kalpa (a) is twenty-one Sagaropamas,

(5) twenty. (231)

In A/yuta Kalpa (a) is twenty- two Sagaropamas,

(6) twenty-one. (232)

In the first (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-three
Sagaropamas, (6) twenty- two. (233)

In the second (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-
four Sagaropamas, (6) twenty-three. (234)

In the third (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-five
Sagaropamas, (S) twenty-four. (235)

In the fourth (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-six
Sagaropamas, (S) twenty-five. (236)

In the fifth (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-seven
Sagaropamas, (S) twenty-six. (237)

In the sixth (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-
eight Sagaropamas, (S) twenty-seven. (238)

In the seventh (Graiveyika region) (a) is twenty-
nine Sagaropamas, (6) twenty-eight. (239)

In the eighth (Graiveyika region) (a) is thirty
Sagaropamas, (&lt;$) twenty-nine. (240)

In the ninth (Graiveyika region) (a) is thirty-one
Sagaropamas, (S) thirty. (241)

In the four heavens (of the Anuttara gods), be-

1 From this verse to verse 241 the length of life increases by
one Sagaropama in each following class of gods.

LECTURE XXXVI. 22Q

ginning with Vi^aya 1 , (a) is thirty-three Sagaro-
pamas, (&lt;5) thirty-one. (242)

In the great Vimana Sarvartha(siddha) there is
no difference between the longest and shortest
duration of life, but it is always thirty-three Sagaro-
pamas. (243)

The longest and shortest duration of the gods
(continuance in the same kind of) body is equal to
that which has been given for their life. (244, 245 2 ,
246=159, 1 60)

We have described the Living Beings, the worldly
and the perfected ones, and we have described the
Lifeless Things, those possessing form and those
without form. (247)

Having thus learned (the nature of) living beings
and lifeless things which is in accordance with the
principles of reasoning 3 , and believing in it, a sage
should delight in self-control. (248)

After having lived as a .Sramawa many years,
a sage should mortify himself 4 by the following
religious exercises. (249)

The longest duration of the mortification is twelve
years ; the middle, one year ; and the shortest, six
months. (250)

1 Viz. Vi^-aya, Vai^ayanta, (rayanta, and Apara^-ita.

2 Two MSS. (A and D) insert after verses 245 the following two
verses : The longest interval between a GraivSyika s leaving his
rank in Anata, &c., and being again born to it, is an endless time,
the shortest is from two to nine years. In the case of Anuttara
gods the longest interval is a Sagaropama plus one Sawkhyeya, the
shortest is from two to nine years.

3 Naya.

4 The last self-mortification, sawlekhana, which is to end
with death, is intended here. Some details about it will be found
in part i, p. 74 ff.

UTTARADHYAYANA.

In the first four years he should abstain from
dressed food 1 , in the second four years he should
keep various fasts. (251)

During two years he should eat AMmla 2 at the
end of every second fast ; in the following half year
he should keep not too long fasts. (252)

In the second half of the year he should keep
long fasts. During the whole year he should eat
but small portions of A/amla 2 . (253)

During the (last) year a sage should make the
ends of two consecutive fasts meet 3 , and should
break his fast after half a month or a whole month,
(till he dies). (254)

The following (Bhavanas), Kandarpa-, Abhiyo-
gika-, Kilvisha-, M6ha- 3 and Asuratva-(Bhavanas 4 ),
will lead to evil ways (i. e. bad births) ; they are
obnoxious at the time of death. (255)

Those souls who cherish heretical opinions, commit
sins, and kill living beings, will not reach Bodhi at
the time of death. (256)

Those souls who cherish orthodox opinions, do
not commit sins, and are enveloped in white Le\sya,
will reach Bodhi at the time of death. (257)

1 Vigai-ni^uhawa. The meaning is that at the end of his
fasts a monk should eat aMmla, nirvikrz tika, &c. In the AvaX uri
a verse from the Nmtha/urni is quoted, which gives the same rule
for the second four years.

2 Ayama = aMmla. Is this the same thing as the ayamaga
= aMmaka mentioned XV, 13? See above, p. 72, note 2.

3 Ko^isahiyam ayamam = ko/isahitam a^amlam. The
commentators give two explanations of this phrase : (i) Having
fasted one day, one should take a/amla on the next day ; (2) one
should on the second day continue to abstain from aMmla.

4 The definition of these technical terms is given below, verses
262 ff.

LECTURE XXXVI. 231

Those souls who cherish heretical opinions, com
mit sins, and are enveloped in black Le\$ya, will not
reach Bodhi at the time of death. (258)

Those who love the creed of the &lt;9inas and
piously practise it, will be pure and free from the
soil (of passions), and will (in due time) get out of
the Circle of Births. (259)

The miserable men who do not know the creed
of the G mas, will many times commit unholy suicide
and die against their will. (260)

Those who are well versed in the sacred lore and
possess much knowledge, who awaken piety (in
others) and appreciate their good qualities, are for
this very reason worthy to hear the doctrine of
salvation 1 . (261)

He who by ribaldry and buffoonery, by his comical
habits and appearance, by jests and words amuses
other people, realises the Kandarpa-Bhavana. (262)

Those who practise spells and besmear their body
with ashes for the sake of pleasure, amusement,
or power, realise the Abhiyogika-Bhavana 2 . (263)

The deceitful man who reviles the sacred lore, the
Kevalins, the teacher of the Law, the Sarigha, and
the monks, realises the Kilvishika-Bhavana. (264)

He who is continuously angry, and who puts his
faith in prognostics, realises the Asuratva-Bha-
vana. (265)

Those who use weapons, eat poison, throw them-

1 A16kana = jramawaphalam. The Ava^uri renders the last
phrase: They are able to bring about the salvation of others.
The original, however, has soum, to hear/

2 The Abhiyogidevas are genii who serve the gods. This
Bhavana leads to being born as an Abhiyogideva ; the next two
Bhavanas, as a Kilvishadeva and an Asura.

UTTARADHYAYANA.

selves into fire or water, and use things not pre
scribed by the rules of good conduct, are liable to
be born and to die again and again. (Such persons
realise the Moha-Bhavana.) (266)

The enlightened and liberated 6^atrz (putra) has
thus delivered Thirty-six Lectures of the Uttara-
dhyayana 1 , which the pious 2 approve of. (267)

in the original. The commentators give uttara
here the meaning pradhana/best, prominent/ The same explana
tion is given by the scholiast on the Nandi (Weber, Sacred Litera
ture of the Jains, p. 124). Perhaps the name refers to the tradition
that Mahavira recited at the time of his death the thirty-six
apu/Ma-vagaraaiw, which are identified by one commentator
of the Kalpa Sutra (Lives of the (rinas, 147) with the Uttara -
dhyayana ; for uttara also means last/

2 Bhavasiddhiya bhavasiddhika, explained by bhavya.

SUTRAK7?/TANGA.

SUTRAK^/TANCzA.

FIRST BOOK 1 .
FIRST LECTURE,

CALLED

THE DOCTRINE 2 .

FIRST CHAPTER.

One should know what causes the bondage of
Soul, and knowing (it) one should remove 3 it.

(^ambusvamin asked Sudharman):

What causes the bondage (of Soul) according to
Mahavira ? and what must one know in order to
remove it ? (i)

(Sudharman answered) :

He who owns even a small property in living or
lifeless things 4 , or consents to others holding it, will
not be delivered from misery. (2)

1 Srutaskandha. Its Sanskrit title mentioned by Silanka is
Gathasho^ajaka, i.e. the book whose Sixteenth Lecture is
called Gatha. It is mentioned in the Uttaradhyayana XXXI, 13
by the name of the sixteen Gathas; see above, p. 182.

2 Samaya. This title is not found in MSS. at the end of the
lecture, but it is given by the author of the Niryukti (verse 29).
The subject of this lecture is more fully treated in 15-33 of the
First Lecture of the Second Book.

! Tiu//i--a. The commentators translate this word tro/aye t,
but the true Sanskrit original is ativarteta, as is evident from the
form atiu//anti in I, 2, 22.

4 Living and lifeless things as we understand these words, not

236 SUTRAKK/TANGA.

If a man kills living beings, or causes other men
to kill them, or consents to their killing them, his
iniquity will go on increasing. (3)

A sinner who makes the interests of his kinsmen 1
and companions his own, will suffer much; for the
number of those whose interest he takes to heart
constantly increases. (4)

All this, his wealth and his nearest relations,
cannot protect him (from future misery) ; knowing
(this) and (the value of) life, he will get rid of
Karman. (5)

Some men 2 , Sra.ma.nas and Brahma^as, who ignore
and deny these true words 3 , adhere (to their own
tenets), and are given to pleasures. (6)

Some 4 profess (the exclusive belief in) the five
gross elements : earth, water, fire, wind, and air. (7)

These five gross elements (are the original causes
of things), from them arises another (thing, viz.
atman) 5 ; for on the dissolution of the (five elements)
living beings cease to exist. (8)

as the (rainas do. The original has: /fcittamantaw a^ittaw va,
beings possessed of intellect, and things without intellect. The
latter are, according to (^aina notions, living beings ^iva as well
as inanimate matter.

1 Literally, those in whose family he is born. -Stlanka, the
author of the oldest Tika on the Sutrakrnahga, names the
Rash/raku/as or Razors in order to illustrate what is meant by
family.

2 According to -Sllarika the Bauddhas, Barhaspatyas, and others
are intended.

3 Grantha, passage in a book. The verses 2-5 are intended.

4 They are the Nastikas or .ATarvakas.

5 In other words : the Atman is produced by the elements.
But there is, it would seem, but one Atman, for in verses 1 1, 12, we
have another heretical philosophy which acknowledged a plurality
of transient atmans.

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER I. 237

* And as the Earth, though it is but one pile, pre
sents many forms, so the intelligent (principle, viz.
the at man) appears under various forms as the
universe 1 . (9)

Thus say some fools. (But how can they explain
on their theory that) the man engaging in under
takings, who has committed a sin, will himself suffer
severe pain 2 ? (10)

Everybody, fool or sage, has an individual soul.
These souls exist (as long as the body), but after
death they are no more ; there are no souls which
are born again, (u)

There is neither virtue nor vice, there is no world
beyond ; on the dissolution of the body the individual
ceases to be. (12)

When a man acts or causes another to act, it is
not his soul (atman) which acts or causes to act 3 .
Thus they (viz. the adherents of the Sankhya philo
sophy) boldly proclaim. (13)

How can those who hold such opinions explain
(the variety of existence in) the world ? They go
from darkness to utter darkness, being fools and
engaged in works. (14)

Some 4 say that there are five elements and that

1 This is the doctrine of the Vedantins.

2 If there were but one atman common to all men, the fruit
of works done by one man might accrue to another. For the
atman is the substratum of merit and demerit.

3 Though there is no doubt about the meaning of this passage,
still the construction is so elliptic that I may have failed to
understand the connection of the parts of the sentence.

* This is the opinion expressed by .Saraka and in the early
law-books, see Professor Jolly s paper in the Transactions of the
Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. i, p. 456. -
Silahka
ascribes it to the Sankhyas and -Saivadhikarins.

238

the soul is a sixth (substance), but they contend that
the soul and the world (i.e. the five elements) are
eternal. (15)

These (six substances) do not perish neither (with
out nor with a cause); the non-existent does not come
into existence, but all things are eternal by their
very nature V (16)

Some fools 2 say that there are five skandhas of
momentary existence. They do not admit that (the
soul) is different from, nor identical 3 with (the
elements), that it is produced from a cause (i.e.
the elements), nor that it is without a cause (i. e. that
it is eternal). (17)

The a/zayas 4 say that there are four elements :
earth, water, fire, and wind, which combined form
the body (or soul?). (18)

(All these heretics say) : Those who dwell in
houses, in woods, or on hills, will be delivered from
all misery if they adopt our creed. (19)

1 Niyatibhavam agaya. Niyati is explained by nityabhava.

2 Viz. the Bauddhas. The five skandhas are explained in the
commentary as follows: i. rupaskandha, or substances and
their qualities; 2. vedanaskandha, feelings, as pleasure and pain;

3. vi^-Mnaskandha, perceptions of the qualities of things;

4. sawg-/zaskandha, perception and knowledge of things; 5. saw-
skaraskandha, merit and demerit.

3 Identical, i.e. a product of the elements as the j^arvakas
maintain.

4 (7a^aya, which is explained in the Dipika by ^wanaka =
paw^itawmanya, denotes the Bauddhas. I think that the word
may be derived from yana vehicle/ which the Buddhist used
to designate the two sections of the church, viz. the Hinayana
and Mahayana schools. The commentator quotes a various
reading: avare for^awaya, and explains it as referring to another
sect of Bauddhas than those spoken of in the preceding verse.
-Silarika comments on the reading aware first, and then on

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER 2. 239

But they do not cross the Flood of Life, who,
ignoring the true relation of things, and not
versed in the true Law, hold the above heretical
opinions. (20)

They do not reach the end of the Sa^sara, who,
ignoring, &c. (21)

They clo not reach the end of transmigration,
who, &c. (22)

They do not put an end to birth, who, &c. (23)
They do not put an end to misery, who, &c. (24)
They do not put an end to death, who, &c. (25)
They will again and again experience manifold
pains in this ring 1 of the earth, which is full of death,
disease, and old age. (26)

The highest 67ina, Mahavira the Gnatriputra, has
said that they will undergo births without number,
being placed in all sorts of existences. (27)
Thus I say.

SECOND CHAPTER.

Again some 2 say: * It is proved that there are
individual souls ; they experience pleasure and pain;
and (on dying) they lose their state of life, (i)

But misery (and pleasure) is not caused by (the
souls) themselves ; how could it be caused by other
(agents, as time, &c.) ? Pleasure and misery, final
beatitude 3 and temporal (pleasure and pain) are not

1 A^akravala.

1 They are the fatalists whose peculiar opinions are stated
in verses 2 and 3.

* Sehiya^z = saiddhikam, i.e. mokshe bhavaw sukham.
Another explanation of the commentator makes saiddhika those
pleasures which depend on external causes, as wreaths, sandal, &c.,
and asaiddhika the pleasures of the mind.

240

caused by (the souls) themselves, nor by others ;
but the individual souls experience them ; it is the
lot assigned them by destiny. This is what they
(i.e. the fatalists) say. (2, 3)

Those who proclaim these opinions, are fools who
fancy themselves learned ; they have no knowledge,
and do not understand that things depend partly on
fate, and partly on human exertion l . (4)

Thus (say) some heretics 2 ; they are very bold
men ; if they act up to their principles, they will
never be delivered from misery. (5)

As the swift deer who are destitute of protection,
are frightened where there is no danger, and not
frightened where there is danger ; (6)

(As) they dread safe places, but do not dread
traps ; they are bewildered by ignorance and fear,
and run hither and thither ; (7)

If they did jump over the noose or pass under it,
they would escape from the snare ; but the stupid
animal does not notice 3 it ; (8)

The unhappy animal, being of a weak intellect,
runs into the dangerous (place), is caught in the
snare, &c., and is killed there; (9)

So some unworthy Sramanas who hold wrong
doctrines are afraid of what is free from danger,
and are not afraid of real dangers. (10)

The fools dread the preaching of the Law, but

1 To render niyataniyata/w.

2 P a s a 1 1 h a, usually translated par.rvastha&lt; outsider, those
who
do not acknowledge true arguments; another rendering ispa^astha
held in bondage.

5 Dehati = pasyati. The form dekkhati occurs in the
Prak/Yt of plays.

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER 2. 241

they do not dread works, being without discernment
and knowledge, (n)

Shaking off greed \ pride 2 , deceit 3 , and wrath 4 ,
one becomes free from Karman. This is a subject
(which an ignorant man, like) a brute animal, does
not attend to. (12)

The unworthy heretics who do not acknowledge
this, will incur death an endless -number of times,
like deer caught in a snare. (13)

All Brahma/zas and .5rama;/as contend that they
possess the knowledge (of the truth), but the creatures
in the whole world do not know anything. (14)

As a Mle///za 5 repeats what an Arya has said, but
does not understand the meaning, merely repeating
his words, so the ignorant, though pretending to
possess knowledge, do not know the truth, just as
an uninstructed Mle//va. (15, 16)

The speculations of the Agnostics cannot lead
to knowledge ; they cannot reach the truth by
themselves, still less teach it to other men. (17)

As when a man in a wood who does not know it,
follows a guide who also does not know it, both
being unacquainted (with the place), come to great
trouble ; (18)

As when one blind man is the guide of another, the
man walks a great distance, loses his way, or follows
a wrong way; (19)

Thus some who search after salvation and pretend

1 Savvappaga = sarvatmaka, lobha.

2 Viukkassa = vyutkarsha, mana.

8 Numa = maya. 4 Appattiya = krodha.

5 It is worthy of note that the Mle/W^as here are represented
as not understanding the language of the Aryas.
[45] R

242 SfjTRAKtf/TANGA.

to practise the (true) Law, follow the false Law and
do not arrive at the thoroughly right (thing, viz.
self-control). (20)

Thus some (wrong philosophers) do not apply to
others for arguments, but they continue to err because
they believe their own arguments to be right 1 . (21)

Thus arguing according to their light, and ignorant
about what is right and wrong, they do not get out
of misery as birds do not get out of their cage. (22)

They praise their own creed and blame that of
their opponents, but those who act in this respect
the part of philosophers, will be kept confined in the
Circle of Births 2 . (23)

There is the doctrine of the Kriyavadins 3 , which
has been previously explained ; it augments the
misery of worldly existence of those who do not
well consider the nature of acts. (24)

He who intends (to kill) a living being but does
not do it by (an act of) his body, and he who un
knowingly kills one, both are affected by that act
through a slight contact (with it) only, but the demerit
(in their case) is not fully developed 4 . (25)

1 The last part of the verse might also be translated : because
these fools believe the subject to be cleared up (ma/zg-u) by their
own arguments/

; There is a play on the words viussanti and viussiya, in
the last line of this verse viussanti is a denominative verb from
viusa = vidvan, and is translated vidvan iva /arati. Viussiya

3 See above, p. 83. -Silarika defines the Kriyavadins here as
men who contend that the principal means of reaching Moksha
is / aityakarma, the construction of sanctuaries.

4 An intentional killing of a living being must actually take
place in order to induce the Karman on the soul. If one of the
essential conditions which constitute the guilt of slaughter (hiwsa),

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER 3. 243

* There are three ways of committing sins : by
one s own activity, by commission, by approval (of
the deed). (26)

1 These are the three ways of committing sins.
Thus by purity of the heart one reaches Nirvana. (27)

*A layman may kill his son (during a famine) and
eat him ; a wise (monk) who partakes of the meat,
will not be defiled by the sin 1 / (28)

The mind of those who sin in thoughts is not
pure ; they are wrong, they do not conduct themselves
carefully 2 . (29)

Men attached to pleasure, who think that the
above-mentioned doctrines will save them, commit
sins. (30)

As a blind-born man getting into a leaky boat,
wants to reach the shore, but is drowned during the
passage 3 , so some unworthy, heretical 6rama;2as wish
to get beyond the Circle of Births, but they are
whirled round in it. (31, 32)

Thus I say.

THIRD CHAPTER.

If a monk should eat forbidden food which a pious
(layman) has prepared for some guest, and which food
has been mixed up with even thousand (times more

is wanting the Karman is still produced ; however, it does not take
a firm hold of the soul, but merely touches it. This is of course
the opinion of the Kriyavadins.

1 According to *Silanka the father too would not be guilty ; but
this interpretation is against good sense and grammar.

2 This is the answer of the Siddhantin to the foregoing pro
positions.

3 The same verse recurs below, I, n, 30.

R 2

244 sfiTRAKtf/TANGA.

pure food) 1 , he would be neither monk nor lay
man, (i)

,Srama#as who do not comprehend this and do not
know what is dangerous, who care for the pleasures
of the moment only, will suffer death an endless
number of times, like big 2 fishes who when the
water rises are by the water (deposited) on dry land
and are killed (there), poor things, by hungry ^ankas
and herons. (2-4)

We hear also of another error of some (philo
sophers) : some say that the world has been created
(or is governed) 3 by the gods, others, by Brahman. (5)

Some 4 say that it has been created by the Lvara,
others that it was produced from chaos, &c., this
world with living beings and lifeless things, with its
variety of pleasure and pain. (6)

The great &shi 5 said, that the world has been
created by Svayambhu; Mara originated Maya,
therefore the world (appears to be) uneternal. (7)

Some Brihmawas and .Sramatfas say that the

1 This might also be translated: though the food passes through
the hands of a thousand men before he accepts it.

2 Vesaliya = vai^alika. The commentators offer three
explanations of this word, (i) marine, vi^ala^ samudras tatra-
bhava/^; (2) belonging to the genus called vi.rala; (3) big,

vijala.

3 Devautte. This is either devair upta, sown, i.e. produced
by the gods, or devair gupta/^, governed by the gods.

4 The adherents of the Yoga and Sahkhya philosophy, or the
theistical and atheistical followers of the latter, are apparently
meant by some and others/

5 The commentators unfortunately have not preserved the name
of the great &shi ; they identify Svayambhu with Vishnu or some
one else. This Svayambhu, afraid that the earth should become
overcrowded, called to help Yama, alias Mara, who with the help of
Maya makes the creatures appear to die.

[Sid Harth]

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER 3. 245

universe was produced from the (primeval) egg, and
He (Brahman) created the things. These ignorant
men speak untruth. (8)

Those who on arguments of their own maintain
that the world has been created, do not know the
truth. Nor will (the world) ever perish. (9)

K now that misery arises from wicked deeds l . How
can those who do not know the origin (of misery)
know r its prevention ? (10)

Some say that the soul (of him who is) pure will
become free from bad Karman (on reaching beati
tude), but that in that state it will again become
defiled through pleasant excitement or hate, (n)

(According to them 2 ) he who has lived on earth
as a restrained monk, will afterwards become free
from Karman. As clear water which was free from
defilement becomes again defiled, so (will be the
soul). (12)

A wise man should consider that these (heretics)
do not lead a life of chastity, and that all these
disputants proclaim their own creed in opposition
(to the others). (13)

(Others 3 maintain that) perfection can only be
reached by their method of religious life, not other
wise ; and that even before (that time) they have

1 It is not given us by any of the above-mentioned agents whom
the opponents believe to have created the world.

2 According to Silahka the followers of Gosala and the Trai-
ra-rikas are meant. The latter are the Gaina followers of the
Vai-yeshika philosophy. The Traira^ika .Sakha was founded by
.Oaluka Rohagupta, see part i, p. 290. The name Traira-sika is
said to have been given to these philosophers because they admit
a third state besides those of the bound and of the liberated.

3 According to -Stlanka the Saivas and Ekada/z^ins are meant.

246 SUTRAKK/TANGA.

their senses under control and possess everything to
be wished for 1 . (14)

Some say that they will be perfected and sound.
On the head of Perfection some men are infatuated
with their own doctrines. (15)

But these uncontrolled (men) will whirl round in
the beginningless (Circle of Births) ; after a Kalpa
they will rise from their sphere to become the lowest
of Asuras 2 . (16)

Thus I say.

FOURTH CHAPTER.

These (philosophers) who are vanquished (by
their passions) cannot help you in cases where a
sinner perishes 3 ; though having given up their
former occupations they will give advice in worldly
matters, (i)

A wise monk who fully appreciates this, should
not mix with those (heretics) ; without conceit and
not attached to them a sage should lead a life equally
removed (from love and hate). (2)

Some say that those who own possessions and
engage in undertakings (may reach perfection) ; but
a monk should take his refuge to those who neither
own possessions nor engage in undertakings. (3)

A wise man should beg food which has been

1 They acquire the eight siddhis or magical powers.

2 I translate the words /M/za asurakivvisiya according to the
explanation of the commentary. But they may also mean : from
the sphere of Asuras and sinners.

3 A various reading first commented upon by Silanka is:
balapa72&lt;/itama/n6, being ignorant men who fancy themselves
learned.

BOOK I, LECTURE I, CHAPTER 4. 247

prepared (for somebody else), and he should accept
what is freely given him, without greed and passions ;
he should abstain from overbearing behaviour 1 . (4)

He should know the talk of people : some say
things which are the outcome of a wrong understand
ing and are but opinions of others repeated. (5)

The world is boundless and eternal, it exists
from eternity and does not perish 2 ; (another) bold
philosopher 3 says that the world is limited, but
eternal. (6)

Some say that the knowledge (of the highest
authority) is unlimited ; but the same bold philo
sopher says that it is limited in every way 4 . (7)

Some beings have motion, others not ; it depends
on certain conditions whether they are in the one
state or in the other. (8)

(E.g. big creatures) have one form of bodily exist
ence and then another 5 . But all are subject to pain ;
hence they should not be killed. (9)

This is the quintessence of wisdom : not to kill
anything. Know this to be the legitimate conclusion

1 Oma#a = apamana.

2 According to Silafika the eternity of things means, with these
philosophers, that one thing always retains the same genus or
gti, e. g. that he who was a man in this life will again be a man
in the next.

3 According to the commentators Vyasa is intended. The
doctrine referred to in the text is that of the Purawas.

4 The commentators interpret this verse as if not two philo
sophical opinions but only one was spoken of. Unlimited
knowledge is according to them different from omniscience ;
in the second part of the sentence limited refers to the sleep
of Brahman during which he is unconscious.

5 Men are some time embryos, then young men, then old men.

248 StjTRAKK/TANGA.

from the principle of the reciprocity with regard to
non-killing 1 . (10)

Living (according to the rules of conduct), and
without greed, one should take care of the highest
good 2 .

In walking, in sitting and lying down, and in food
and drink : with regard to these three points a monk
should always control himself.

And he should leave off pride 3 , wrath 4 , deceit 5 ,
and greed 6 . (IT, 12)

Possessing the Samitis and being protected by the
five Sa^varas, a pious monk should live, till he
reaches perfection, as a man free from fetters among
those bound in fetters (viz. the householders). (13)

Thus I say.

1 Ahiwsasamaya^ = ahi;^sasamataw, viz. as you do not
wish to be killed, so others do not wish to be killed. The last
part of the sentence might also be translated : know this to be the
real meaning of the Law (s a may a) of ahiwsa. The same verse
recurs I, 1 1, 10.

2 A dan a, right knowledge, right faith, and right conduct.

3 Ukkasa = utkarsha, mana.

4 Cralaa =^valana, krodha. 5 Numa = maya.

6 Mag-g-/$attha = madhyastha, lobha. Compare the similar
expressions in I, i, 2, 12, above, p. 241, notes 1-4, and I, 2, 2,
29,
below, p. 257.

BOOK I, LECTURE 2, CHAPTER I. 249

SECOND LECTURE 1 ,

CALLED

THE DESTRUCTION OF KARMAN.

FIRST CHAPTER.

(^zshabha said to his sons) :

Acquire perfect knowledge of the Law ! why do
you not study it ? It is difficult to obtain instruction
in it after this life. The days (that are gone by)
will never return, nor is it easy a second time to
obtain human birth, (i)

See, young and old men, even children in the
mother s womb die. As a hawk catches a quail, so
(life) will end when its time is spent 2 . (2)

1 The name of this lecture, which occurs in its last line, is
veyaliya, because, as the author of the Niryukti remarks, it treats
on vidarika, destruction (of Karman), and because it is composed
in the Vaitaliya metre. For either word, vaidarika (or rather
vaidalika, cf. karmavidalana) and vaitaliya may, in (raina
Prakrz t, become vyaliya or vetaliya. A play of words was
apparently intended ; it would have been impossible, if both words
had not become identical in sound. We may, therefore, conclude
that the language of the author obeyed the same phonetic laws
as the aina Prakm exhibited in our MSS., or in other words, that
the text has been written down in about the same language in
which it was originally composed. The name of the Fifteenth
Lecture leads to the same inference; for it is called ^amaiya
(yamakiya) because each of its verses contains the verbal
ornament called yamaka, and because it opens with the words
gam aiyaw (yad atitam).

2 One MS. here inserts giv&na. giviyam, the life of living
beings.

250

(A man) may suffer for the sake of his parents ;
he will not easily obtain happiness after this life.
A pious man should consider these causes of danger
and cease to act. (3)

For in this world living beings suffer individually
for their deeds ; for the deed they have done them
selves, they obtain (punishment), and will not get
over it before they have felt it. (4)

Even gods, Gandharvas, Rakshasas, and Asuras ;
animals who live on earth, and snakes ; kings,
common people, merchants, and Brahma^as : they
all must leave their rank and suffer. (5)

Notwithstanding their pleasures and relations, all
men must suffer in due time the fruit of their
works ; as a cocoa-nut detaching itself from its stalk
(falls down), so (life) will end when its time is
spent. (6)

Even a very learned or virtuous man, or a Brah-
ma/za or an ascetic, will be severely punished for
his deed when he is given to actions of deceit 1 . (7)

See, those (heretics) who search for the knowledge
of truth, but who do not cross the Sa^sara, talk
only about the highest good (without reaching it).

How will you understand what is near you and
what is beyond 2 ? In the meanwhile you suffer for
your deeds. (8)

He who walks about naked and lean, he who eats
only once after a month, if he is filled with deceit,
will be born an endless number of times. (9)

1 Abhintima.

2 According to *Silahka, this world and the next, or domestic
life and monachism, or the Sarasara and Moksha are meant by the
expression what is near you and what is beyond/

BOOK I, LECTURE 2, CHAPTER I. 251

Man, cease from sins ! For the life of men will
come to an end 1 . Men who are drowned (in lust,
as it were), and addicted to pleasure will, for want
of control, be deluded 2 . (10)

Exert and control yourself ! For it is not easy to
walk on ways where there are minutely small animals.
Follow the commandments which the Arhats have
well proclaimed 3 , (n)

Heroes (of faith) who desist (from sins) and exert
themselves aright, who subdue wrath, fear, &c., will
never kill living beings ; they desist from sins and
are entirely happy. (12)

It is not myself alone who suffers, all creatures in
the world suffer ; this a wise man 4 should consider,
and he should patiently bear (such calamities) as
befall him, without giving way to his passions. (13)

As a wall covered with a plastering (of dried cow-
dung) 5 is by a shock made thin, so (a monk) should
make his body lean by fasting, &c. He should

1 Paliyantam. Another explanation of this word, preferred
by the commentators, is palyopamasya antar: within, i.e. some
thing shorter than a Palyopama.

2 Or, acquire Karman which is to result in delusion.

3 According to the commentators : practise (control) according
to the sasana (i. e. sutras) ; this has been well declared by the
Arhats.

4 Sahie. This word is explained sometimes by svahita,
intent on his spiritual welfare, sometimes byhitena ^Mnadina
sahita^, possessed of knowledge, &c. I translate it wise/ and
derive the word from Sanskrit sahrz daya, the correct Prakrz t for
which would be sahiyae.

5 Cow-dung is stuck, in the form of flat round cakes, against
a wall to dry there. When the cakes are dried a little shake
is sufficient to make them come down, whereby the wall will
be restored to its original shape and dimensions.

252

S6TRAK#/TANGA.

abstain from slaughter of living beings. This is the
Law proclaimed by the Sage. (14)

As a bird covered with dust removes the grey
powder by shaking itself, so a worthy and austere
Brahma^a 1 , who does penance, annihilates his
Karman. (15)

Young and old people claim a houseless .Sramatfa
as their own, though he begs according to the Law,
observes the rules of conduct, and performs austeri
ties. People will even cry themselves hoarse, but
they will not captivate him. (16)

Whatever they will do to move his pity, however
they will cry about their son, they will not captivate
a worthy and virtuous monk or make him return to
domestic life. (17)

Though they tempt him with pleasures, and
though they should bind him and carry him home, if
he does not care for a (worldly) life, they will not
captivate him or make him return to domestic
life. (18)

His father and mother, his children and wife who
claim him, will admonish him : See, you are our
supporter ; care not for the next world in order to
support us. (19)

Some people are (foolishly) attached to others,
and are thereby deluded ; the unrighteous make
them adopt unrighteousness, and they exult in their
wickedness. (20)

Therefore a worthy and wise man should be

1 Mahawa = brahman a. The commentator derives the word
from ma and root han ! The word is a synonym of muni, with
which it frequently occurs in the same verse and has then been
left out in the translation.

BOOK I, LECTURE 2, CHAPTER 2. 253

careful, ceasing from sin and being entirely happy.
The virtuous heroes of faith (have chosen) the great
road, the right and certain path to perfection. (21)

He who has entered the road leading to the
destruction (of Karman) 1 , who controls his mind,
speech, and body, who has given up his possessions
and relations and all undertakings, should walk about
subduing his senses. (22)

SECOND CHAPTER.

A sage thinks that he should leave off sins just as
(a snake) leaves its slough ; and he is not proud of
his Gotra and other advantages ; or is there any use
in blaming others? (i)

A man who insults another will long whirl in the
Circle of Births; to blame others is not good. Con
sidering this a sage is not conceited. (2)

He who is independent, and he who is the servant
of a servant, if they but observe the Vow of Silence 2 ,
they have no reason to be ashamed ; (therefore a
monk) should behave equally towards all. (3)

Indifferent and pure with regard to every kind of
control, a .Srama^a should walk about ; he who
entertains pure thoughts during his whole life, dies
as a worthy and wise man. (4)

The sage who sees the far-off (goal, viz. liberation),
past and future things, will practise indifference,
though he suffer corporal punishment and be
beaten. (5)

Possessing perfect wisdom, a sage always van
quishes (his passions) ; he correctly expounds the

1 Veyaliya-maggam. 2 Maunapada.

254 S&TRAKfl/TANGA.

Law ; he never neglects even the smallest (duty) ; he
is neither angry nor proud. (6)

A man who controls himself according to (the
Law), which is praised by many people, and is not
bound by any worldly ties, who is always pure like
a lake, proclaims the Law of Kasyapa. (7)

Seeing that numerous living beings lead an indi
vidual life, and that every one feels (pleasure and
pain) just as the others, a wise man who observes
the Vow of Silence, leaves off (injuring them). (8)

A sage has completely mastered the Law, and
has ceased to do actions ; but the selfish grieve, they
will not (thereby) recover their (lost) property 1 . (9)

Know that it (viz. property) entails pains in this
world, and very great pains 2 in the next. Who will
lead a domestic life when he knows that everything
must perish ? (10)

One should know (and renounce) the great attach
ment (to the world), and respect and honours on
earth ; (for conceit) is a very thin thorn difficult to
pull out. A wise man, therefore, should abandon
worldliness 3 . (n)

A monk should perform postures (as Kayotsarga,
&c.) alone on his seat, and alone on his couch he
should meditate; excelling in the performance of
austerities, guarded in words, and restrained in
thoughts. (12)

1 -Silahka quotes a verse which the Nagargnniyas insert here ;
compare part i, p. 32, note 2.

2 I take duhawduha for a kind of intensive form of duha.

3 This is a rather dark verse. Silarika, after explaining it,
quotes the verse as it was read by the Nagar^uniyas, which may
be rendered thus : Respect and honours are a great obstacle, this
he should know ; be the thorn small (or) difficult to pull out, a
wise
man should remove it by the (means we are about to describe).

255

An ascetic does not shut the door of a deserted
house (where he puts up), nor does he open it ; when
asked he returns no (rude) answer ; he cuts no grass,
nor does he strew it (on the ground for a couch). (13)

Where (he is) at sunset, there he calmly (performs
his duties) ; a sage bears pleasant and unpleasant
things, be there insects, or wild beasts, or snakes. (14)

He bears the three kinds of calamities arising from
beasts, men, and gods. A great sage will not be
seized with a shivering, &C. 1 , when he stays in a
deserted house. (15)

He should not fear for his life, nor should he
desire to be praised (for his courage). Fearful
things will frighten the mind of a monk who stays in
a deserted house. (16)

They say that he who is very well disciplined,
who protects others, who lives in a place removed
from other people, who is not frightened by dangers,
possesses right conduct, &c. (17)

A monk who uses warm or hot water 2 , who follows
the Law, and loathes (wrong conduct), will by inter
course with bad kings become deficient in his devo
tion though he be ever so virtuous. (18)

When a monk quarrels and uses very bad lan
guage, he will suffer great spiritual loss ; therefore
a wise man should not quarrel. (19)

He who abstains from cold water 2 , who plans (or
undertakes) nothing, and has ceased from even the
smallest actions, who does not eat food out of the dish
of a householder, possesses right conduct, &c. (20)

1 Literally, horripilation. By the &c/ the other outward signs
of horror are indicated.

2 It should be kept in mind that aina monks are forbidden to
use cold water, because it is considered to possess life.

256 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

Though life cannot be prolonged, as the saying is 1 ,
still foolish people sin recklessly; a foolish man is
filled to the brim (as it were) with sins. Considering
this a sage is not conceited. (21)

By self-invented rites common people seek holi
ness 2 , they are full of deceit and shrouded (as it
were) in delusion. But a monk is holy 2 through
his innocence, he allows no troubles 3 to influence his
words, (thoughts, and acts). (22)

As a clever gambler, playing at dice, is not van
quished, since he casts the Krz ta, but not Kali, nor
Treta, nor Dvapara ; (23)

So adopt for your welfare the best and highest
Law which has been proclaimed in this world by the
Saviour, as the clever (gambler casts) the Krzta, and
avoids the other casts. (24)

I have heard that sensual pleasures are said to
have the strongest hold on men ; but those who
abstain from them follow the Law of Kasyapa. (25)

Those who follow the Law that has been pro
claimed by 6^atrzka, the great seer 4 , are virtuous
and righteous ; they confirm each other in the
Law. (26)

Take no heed of the seductive (pleasures), en
deavour to shake off delusion. Those who are not
subdued by the wicked (pleasures), know meditation
to be their duty 5 . (27)

1 Compare Uttaradhyayana IV, i, above p. 18. The same words
recur below, I, 2, 3, 10, p. 259.

2 Paleti = praliyate. 3 Literally, cold and heat.

4 Mahavira.

5 A hi tarn, literally, has been declared. The commentators
explain the word as a -hi tarn, thoroughly good, or atmani
vyavasthitam, placed in the soul.

BOOK I, LECTURE 2, CHAPTER 3. 257

A monk should not tell stories, nor ask idle ques
tions, nor gossip 1 . But, knowing the highest Law,
he should perform his religious duties, and regard
nothing his own. (28)

A monk should not indulge deceit 2 , greed 3 , pride 4 ,
and wrath 5 . Those are virtuous who have arrived at
the right understanding of these passions, and who
have well practised control 6 . (29)

(A monk) should be free from attachment, wise,
controlling himself, seeking the Law, earnest in the
performance of austerities, and subduing his senses.
It is difficult to obtain the soul s benefit. (30)

Right conduct, &c., which has been taught by the
Gnbtrtka, the sage who knew everything in the
whole world, has either not been learned or not
been truly practised (by creatures now in dis
tress). (31)

Many men who thought this Law to be the highest
good and conducive to their spiritual welfare, obeyed
their preceptors, ceased from works, and have crossed
the great flood (of worldly existence). (32)

Thus I say.

THIRD CHAPTER.

If a monk who abstains from actions, suffers pain
(for acts done) through ignorance, that Karman will

1 Samprasaraka ? 2 .Oanna = maya.

3 Pasawsa = pra^awsa, lobha.

4 Ukkasa = utkarsha, mana.

5 Pagasa = prakaja, krodha.

6 Dhuya = dhuta. The word preceding this is sug6siyam =
gushtam, sSvitaw. A various reading is su^^osiyaw, which
means who have well annihilated their Karman (dhuta).

[45] S

258

be annihilated through control. The wise reach
(perfection) getting rid of death, (i)

Those who resist the seductions 1 are placed on
a line with those who have crossed the Sawsara.
Therefore look up (at beatitude as the end in view).
Those (virtuous men) regard pleasures as equal to
diseases. (2)

Men of princely rank wear precious things imported
by merchants ; likened (to these precious things) are
the excellent great vows together with (the pro
hibition of) eating at night. (3)

Pleasure-seeking men who are greedy and are
absorbed by amusements, are reckless and like the
wretched ; they do not know that meditation (has
been enjoined as) a duty. (4)

As a bullock which is hurt and urged on by the
driver 2 becomes weak, and at last, when its strength
is exhausted and it is unable to move, sinks down ; (5)

So he who knows the pursuit of pleasures, must
sooner or later give up their enjoyment (lest they
drag him down 3 ). He who is still surrounded by
pleasant things 4 , should not love pleasures, whether
he obtains them, or for some reason or other does
not obtain them. (6)

Lest the lot of the wicked should fall to you,
escape (the influence of the senses), and discipline
yourself! The wicked will much and strongly grieve,
groan, and wail. (7)

1 Vinnavawa = vig-^apana, explained striya^.

2 Instead of driver and bullock we might translate hunter
and deer.

3 He should not be engrossed by them as the bullock sinks
down beneath its burden.

4 To render kami.

BOOK I, LECTURE 2, CHAPTER 3. 259

See, life in this world (is transient) ; though your life
lasts a hundred years, you die as a short-lived man ;
mind that (your) years swiftly pass. Nevertheless
greedy men are attached to pleasures. (8)

Those who engage in undertakings, who work
the perdition of their souls, and who kill (living
beings), will go to the world of the wicked, to the
abode of the Asuras for a long time (to dwell
there). (9)

Though life cannot be prolonged, as the saying
is l , still foolish people sin recklessly (thinking) : We
are only concerned with the present time ; who has
seen the next world and returned thence ? (10)

Believe in the words of him who sees (everything),
you who are blind, as it were, you whose sight is
blinded, ah, whose sight is obstructed by your works
which result in delusion ! (i i)

The unhappy again and again suffer from delusion;
therefore have done with praise and honours ! A
wise ascetic should consider that living beings are
like himself (as regards love of life, aversion to
pain, &c.). (12)

The man also who still lives in the house, should,
in accordance with his creed 2 , be merciful to living
beings ; we are bidden to be fair and equal with all ;
(thereby even a householder) goes to the world of
the gods. (13)

Being instructed in the creed of the Lord, exert
yourself in the truth (i.e. in control) ! A monk who
has thoroughly subdued his selfishness should collect
pure alms. (14)

Knowing the truth, one should live up to it,

1 Compare p. 256, note i. 2 Anupurvya.

S 2

26O

seeking the Law, earnest in the performance of
austerities, possessing the Guptis, being accomplished,
one should always exert oneself, intent on the
soul s benefit, and desiring the highest good (viz.
liberation). (15)

The fool thinks that his wealth, cattle, and rela
tions will save him ; they him, or he them. But
they are no help, no protection. (16)

When calamity befalls him, or the end of his
life draws near, he must go and come alone ;
the wise believe that there is nothing to protect
him. (17)

All living beings owe their present form of exis
tence to their own Karman ; timid, wicked, suffering
latent misery, they err about (in the Circle of Births),
subject to birth, old age, and death. (18)

He should know that the present time is the best
opportunity to mend, and that an awakening is
difficult to obtain. A wise man should be aware of
this l . The (first) ina 2 has said this, and so the
remaining ones (will) say it. (19)

ye monks, the virtuous (inas) that have been
and will be, the followers of the Law of Kasyapa 3 ,
they all have commended these virtues. (20)

Do not kill living beings in the threefold way 4 ,
being intent on your spiritual welfare and abstaining
from sins. In this way numberless men have reached

1 A various reading mentioned in the commentary is ahiyasae,
he should bear (all troubles).

2 The whole lecture is put by the commentators in the mouth
of 7?/shabha.

3 The first and last Tirthakaras belonged to the Ka^yapa Gotra.

4 I. e. by your own acts, by order, and by assent ; or by
thoughts, words, and acts.

BOOK I, LECTURE 3, CHAPTER I. 26 1

perfection, and others, who live now, and who are to
come, (will reach it). (21)

Thus spoke the Arhat Gna.tr iputra, the reverend,
famous native of Vaisall 1 , who possessed the highest
knowledge and the highest faith, who possessed
(simultaneously) the highest knowledge and faith.

Thus I say.

THIRD LECTURE,

CALLED

THE KNOWLEDGE OF TROUBLES 2 .

FIRST CHAPTER.

A man believes himself a hero as long as he does
not behold the foe, as did -Smipala (before he beheld)
the valorously-fighting, great warrior 3 . (i)

They go forward to the head of the battle; but
when the fight has begun the mother will not recog
nise her son, and he will be mangled by his foe. (2)

So a novice, who as yet has not suffered pains and
is not yet used to a mendicant s life, believes himself
a hero till he practises austerities 4 . (3)

1 See my remarks in part i, Introduction, p. xi. This passage
in prose appended to the metrical text seems to contradict the
supposition of the commentators that the whole lecture was pro
nounced by J?zshabha.

2 Compare Uttaradhyayana II, above, p. 9 ff.

3 Viz. Krz shwa. Kr/sha s victory over -Smipala is told in the
Mahabharata, Sabhaparvan, Sijupalavadha (eighth parvan). It
forms the subject of Magha s famous poem Sijupalavadha.

4 Luha/ft = ruksham, i.e. sa/wyamam, control.

262 SfjTRAICR/TANGA.

When during the winter they suffer from cold and
draughts, the weak become disheartened like Kshat-
triyas who have lost their kingdom. (4)

When they suffer from the heat of summer, sad
and thirsty, the weak become disheartened like fish
in shallow water. (5)

It is painful never to take anything but what is
freely given, and begging is a hard task. Common
people say that (men become monks) because they
will not work and are wretched. (6)

Weak men who are unable (to bear) these insults
in villages or towns, become disheartened like
cowards in the battle. (7)

Perchance a snarling dog will bite a hungry monk ;
in that case the weak will become disheartened like
animals burnt by fire. (8)

Some who hate (the monks), revile them : ( Those
who lead such a (miserable) life (as monks do), atone
but (for their sins in a former life)/ (9)

Some call them names, as naked, lowest of
beggars, baldhead, scabby, filthy, nasty/ (10)

Those who behave in this way and do not know
better, go from darkness to utter darkness, being
fools and shrouded in delusion 1 , (u)

When bitten by flies and gnats, and unable (to
bear) the pricking of grass, (they will begin to doubt),
I have not seen the next world, all may end with
death 2 ! (12)

Some weak men who suffer from the plucking out
of the hair, and who are unable to preserve their
chastity, will become disheartened like fish transfixed
by a spear 3 . (13)

1 Compare I, i, i, 14. 2 Compare I, 3, 3, 6.

3 Ketana, perhaps caught with the hook/

BOOK 1, LECTURE 3, CHAPTER 2. 263

Some low people who lead a life of iniquity, and
entertain heretical opinions, being subject to love
and hatred, injure a monk. (14)

Some fools in outlying countries take a pious monk
for a spy or a thief, bind him, and insult him with
angry words. (15)

A weak monk being hurt with a stick or a fist
or a fruit, remembers his (kind) relations, just as a
woman who in a passion has left (her husband and
house). (16)

All these hardships are difficult to bear; the
weak return to their house (when they cannot
bear them), like elephants covered with arrows
(break down). (17)

Thus I say.

SECOND CHAPTER.

There are some tender affections which monks
cannot easily overcome. On their account some
become disheartened, and are unable to practise
control, (i)

His relations on seeing him will surround him and
cry : Child, we have brought you up, (now) support
us ! O dear ! why will you leave us ? (2)

* Child, your father is an old man ; your sister
is still very young; (and here), O dear, are your
own brothers from the same mother ; why will you
leave us ? (3)

Support your mother and father, thus you will
win this world ; it is a duty in this world to protect
one s mother. (4)

The old people are kind-spoken ; your sons, child,
are very young ; you have married your wife ; (take
care) that she will not go to another man. (5)

264 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

Come, child, let us go home ; we can do all
the work, you need not (do it) ; the next time we
shall take care (that you will not be overburdened
with work) ; child, let us meanwhile go to our
house. (6)

Afterwards you may go again; by this (visit of
yours) you will not cease to be a Sra.ma.na. ; who will
hinder you to practise control when you have done
with worldly desires 1 ? (7)

All your outstanding debts we have divided
between us, and we shall give you the money
(required for) business. (8)

In this way (his relations) come to him, lamenting,
and try to persuade him. Held fast by his attach
ment for his relations, he quickly returns to his
house. (9)

As a creeper encircles a tree growing in the forest,
so his relations press him hard that he should leave
off control. (10)

He is held fast by his attachment for his relations.
So the keepers always follow a newly-caught elephant,
and a cow which has just calved never goes far (from
the calf), (n)

Men do not (easily) get over this attachment, as
(they do not get over) the ocean 2 . For its sake the
weak suffer pains, being engrossed by their attach
ment for their relations. (12)

But a monk should renounce it ; for every attach
ment is but a cause of sin. He should not desire
life, having been instructed in the best Law. (13)

There are these whirlpools which have been

1 Ak am again. Another explanation is, if you are not willing
(to do domestic work).

2 Patala, explained by samudra.

BOOK I, LECTURE 3, CHAPTER 3. 265

pointed out by Kasyapa : the wise keep clear of
them, but the ignorant go down in them. (14)

Kings and ministers of kings, Brahma^as and
Kshattriyas try with pleasant things to seduce a
monk who leads a holy life. (15)

(They try to seduce him) with elephants, horses,
chariots, and cars, with pleasure-trips (saying to
him) : Enjoy these excellent pleasures, great sage,
we worship you ! (16)

Clothes, perfumes, ornaments, women, and beds :
enjoy these pleasures, friend, we worship you ! (17)

All the vows which you, holy man, have kept
while a monk, are compatible with your living in
a house. (18)

It will be no sin, for you have wandered about
long (enough)/ In this way they try to tempt him,
as men decoy a pig with wild rice. (19)

Weak men who are exhorted to live as monks,
but who are unable to practise control, break down
like weak (bullocks carrying a heavy burden)
uphill. (20)

Unable to practise the rough (i.e. control), and
harassed by the austerities, weak men break down,
like old oxen in going uphill. (21)

When men who are greedy, attached to women,
and who love pleasures, are tempted in the way
described above, they return to their houses. (22)

Thus I say.

THIRD CHAPTER.

As at the time of the battle the coward looks
behind him for a ditch, thicket, or other hiding-place 1 ,
(thinking that) nobody knows who will win ; (i)

1 Nfima = pra/U yannam, giriguhadikam.

266 StjTRAK^/TANGA.

A moment s moment will bring the decision 1 ;
when we lose, we shall fly. Thus thinks the
coward. (2)

So some .Srama/zas, knowing themselves to be
weak, have recourse to worldly sciences 2 when they
see that they will suffer want. (3)

(They say) : Who knows what will cause my loss
of sanctity, women or water ? When we are ques
tioned, we shall speak out (i.e. show our knowledge).
We have no (other) resource (in case of need) ! (4)

They are cautious, like those who look out for
a ditch, &c. Those who doubt (their ability for
control) are like men ignorant of the way. (5)

But famous warriors, leaders of heroes at the time
of the battle, do not look behind them ; (they think)
what if all end with death ? (6)

A monk who exerts himself in a similar way,
should slip off the ties that bind him to his house.
Putting aside all undertakings, he should wander
about for the welfare of his soul. (7)

Some revile a monk who leads a holy life. But
these revilers are far off from perfection 3 . (8)

(The revilers say), * You live just as the laymen
do, being attached to one another, for (e.g.) you beg
alms for a sick man and give it him. (9)

Therefore you still have an attachment, being
obedient to the will of one another ; you have not
the purity produced by the right path, and have not
got beyond the Circle of Births. (10)

Now a monk who knows (the truth about) Moksha

1 Literally, a moment of a moment of moments will be such.

2 As grammar, astrology, medicine, &c.

8 Samahi, explained moksha, compare first note in the Tenth
Lecture.

BOOK I, LECTURE 3, CHAPTER 3. 267

should answer them 1 : You speak thus, wavering
between two ways of life (viz. that of householders
and monks), (i i)

You eat out of the vessels 2 (of householders,
and make them) bring food for a sick brother ; you
eat seeds and drink cold water 3 , and what has been
especially prepared (for you when sick). (12)

* You are infected by great faults, you are void of
discrimination, and your resolutions are bad. It is
not good to scratch a wound too much, for it will
grow worse V (13)

They should be instructed in the truth by one who
knows it and is free from passions 5 : Yours is not
the right way, you speak and act without con
sideration. (14)

This your talk is weak, like the top of a bamboo,
(when you say : a sick brother) may eat the food
brought by a householder, but not that brought by
a monk ! (15)

(And when you say that) our religious precepts
are wholesome only for householders (not for monks,
we reply that our prophet had) no such (inconsistent)
ideas when he taught (his Law). (16)

When (these heretics) cannot prove (their asser
tion) by any arguments they give up the discussion,
and fall back on their bold (assertion). (17)

1 According to Silahka the A^ivikas or the Digambaras are
intended.

2 For these heretics carry the principle of absolute poverty so far
as to reject even the use of almsbowls.

4 The meaning is that the overdoing of the principle of poverty
is just as harmful as the scratching of a wound.

Apa^/inna = aprati^wa, explained by ragadvesharahita.

268

Overcome by their passions and infected by
untruth, (these men) have recourse to bad language,
as the (savage) 7"ankana l (when beaten) have re
course to their hills. (18)

The argumentation of a monk whose mind is at
rest 2 should possess many good qualities. He
should proceed in such a way as not to exasperate
his opponent. (19)

Following this Law which has been proclaimed
by the Kajyapa, a sound monk should carefully
attend a sick brother. (20)

Knowing the beautiful Law, a wise and thoroughly
restrained monk should bear all hardships and
wander about till he reaches final liberation. (21)

Thus I say.

FOURTH CHAPTER.

Some say that in old times great men, rich in
religious penance, have reached perfection though
they drank (cold) water (and ate fruits and roots).
Ignorant men (who hear such assertions) are led
astray (by them), (i)

Nami, the king of Videha, ate nothing, Rama-
gupta did eat, Bahuka drank (cold) water, and so did
Taraga^a 3 , the seer. (2)

Asila, Devala, the great sage Dvipayana, and

1 This hill tribe lived somewhere in the north-east of Madhya-
de^a, see Petersburg Dictionary, s. v.

2 Attasamahie = atmasamadhika.

3 Concerning Nami, see above, p. 35, note 2. Ramagupta may
be another name of Rama. Instead of Taragawa .Silanka writes
Narayawa.

BOOK I, LECTURE 3, CHAPTER 4. 269

Parasara did drink (cold) water, and did eat seeds
and sprouts \ (3)

1 1 have heard that in old times these renowned
and well-known great men ate seeds and drank
water, and have reached perfection. (4)

When weak (monks hear such assertions) they
become disheartened, as donkeys break down under
their burden ; in case of danger they retreat (and
perish) like men who walk on crutches 2 . (5)

Some 3 say: Pleasant things are produced from
pleasant things 4 . (They are those who disdain) the
noble path and the renowned highest good. (6)

Do not, by disdaining it, lose much for the sake
of little. If you do not give up this (wrong law),
you will repent of it as the man did who carried iron
(a long way) believing it to be silver. (7)

(And so will) those who kill living beings, who do
not abstain from untrue speech, who take what is
not freely given them, who enjoy sexual pleasures,
and who own property. (8)

1 Asila is not known from other sources; perhaps Asita is
meant, and Asila Devila stands for Asita Devala. Concerning
Dvipayana, the Para-rara, compare Journal of the German Oriental
Society, vol. 42, p. 495. But in the Aupapatika Sutra (ed. Leumann,
76) Parajara and Dvipayana are two distinct persons.

2 Pi^asappi = piMasarpin. Silahka comments on the
reading pi/Masappi, i.e. prz sh/asarpin; but he makes out no
good meaning.

3 According to the commentators the Buddhists are intended.
They quote some verses in illustration of the push/imarga of
the Buddhists, one of which is not yet known I believe. It runs
thus : m&nunnam bhoyawaw bhu/ H ma.nunna.rn sayawasawaw I
manunnamsi agarawsi ma.nunna.rn ^Myae mum it Having enjoyed
a pleasant dinner, and a pleasant seat and bed, a mum in a pleasant
house meditates on pleasant things.

4 Viz. Moksha, a pleasant thing, is arrived at through a comfort
able life, another pleasant thing.

270 s)TRAK#/TANGA.

Some unworthy heretics x , slaves of women,
ignorant men who are averse to the Law of the
inas, speak thus : (9)

As the squeezing of a blister or boil (causes
relief) for some time, (and has no dangerous con
sequences), so it is with (the enjoyment of) charming
women. How could there be any sin in it ? (10)

As a ram drinks the quiet water 2 , so, &c. (the rest
as in verse 10). (i i)

As the bird Pinga 3 drinks the quiet water (flying),
&c. (the rest as in verse 10). (12)

So say some unworthy heretics who entertain
false doctrines, and who long for pleasures, as the
ewe 4 for her kid. (13)

Those who do not think of the future, but only
enjoy the present, will repent of it afterwards when
their life or their youth is gone. (14)

But those who exert themselves at the proper
time, feel no remorse afterwards ; these heroes who
have got rid of their fetters, do not long for life. (15)

As Vaitara/d, the river (of hell), is difficult to pass,
so in this world women are to the unwise (a tempta
tion) difficult to overcome. (16)

Those who have given up intercourse with women

1 Pasattha = par^vastha.

2 The meaning seems to be that by the ram s drinking the water
is not disturbed.

8 Explained by kapiw^ala, the francoline partridge.

4 Puyawa (putana, who is ever desirous of young), explained
either by j-akini hog or ga^arika ewe/ The commentators
relate the following anecdote. In order to find out which animal
loved its young ones best, their young ones were placed at the
bottom of a well. Their mothers assembled round the brink and
howled, but the ewe threw herself recklessly into the well. There
fore the ewe excels the other animals in maternal love.

BOOK I, LECTURE 4, CHAPTER I. 271

and have left off adorning themselves, are well
established in control, because they have renounced
everything. (17)

As merchants go over the sea, so they will cross
the flood (of Sa^sara), where living beings despond
and suffer pains because of their own deeds. (18)

A monk who knows this, will live as a virtuous
man guarded by the Samitis ; he will abstain from
untrue speech, and not take what is not freely given
him. (19)

He should cease to injure living beings whether
they move or not, on high, below, and on earth.
For this has been called the Nirvana, which consists
in peace 1 . (20)

21, 22 = 1, 3, 3, 20 and 21.

Thus I say.

FOURTH LECTURE 2 ,

CALLED

KNOWLEDGE OF WOMEN.

FIRST CHAPTER.

A monk who has left his mother and father and
all worldly ties, (determines) to walk about alone
and wise, to abstain from sexual pleasures, and to
ask for a secluded place (where to lodge), (i)

1 See below, I, n, n.

^ 2 This whole adhyayana is composed in the archaic form of
Arya, of which I have treated at length in the thirty-eighth volume
of the Journal of the German Oriental Society, p. 594. The same
metre occurs also in the Suttanipata of the Buddhists (ed. Fausboll,
26 f., lyoff.), a fact which I was not aware of when I wrote the
paper just referred to.

272

With clever pretences women make up to him,
however foolish they be ; they know how to contrive
that some monks will become intimate with them. (2)

They will often sit down at his side ; they always
put on fine clothes ; they will show him the lower
part of their body, and the armpit, when lifting up
their arms, so that he will follow them about. (3)

And occasionally a woman l will tempt him to
a comfortable couch or bed. But he should know
these things to be as many traps under various
disguises. (4)

He should not look at them, nor should he consent
to anything inconsiderate, nor walk together with
them ; thus he will well guard himself. (5)

Inviting a monk and winning his confidence, they
offer themselves to him. But he should know, and
fly from these temptations 2 in their various forms. (6)

Meekly and politely they approach him with their
manifold arts to win his heart ; and talking sweetly
in confidential conversation they make him do (what
they like). (7)

As (men by baiting) with a piece of flesh a fearless
single lion get him into a trap, so women may
capture an ascetic though he be careful. (8)

And then they make him do what they like, even
as a wheelwright gradually turns the felly of a wheel.
As an antelope caught in a snare, so he does not get
out of it, however he struggles. (9)

Afterwards he will feel remorse like one who has
drunk milk mixed with poison ; considering the

1 The original has the plural itthio, but the metre requires
itthi in the singular.

2 Literally sounds/ which stands for objects of the senses in
general.

BOOK I, LECTURE 4, CHAPTER I. 273

consequences, a worthy monk should have no inter
course with women. (10)

Therefore he should avoid women, knowing them
to be like a poisoned thorn. He is no Nirgrantha
who without companion (goes into) houses, being
a slave (to passion) and preaches (his religion), (n)

Those who are attached to this sinful (intercourse)
must be reckoned among the wicked. Even a monk
who practises severe austerities should avoid the
company of women. (12)

A monk should have no intercourse with his
daughters and daughters-in-law, with nurses or
female slaves, or with grown-up girls. (13)

When the relations and friends see (the intimacy
of a monk with a girl), they become angry (saying) :
All creatures love pleasures ; you are a man, protect
and support her/ (14)

But some become angry even when they see an
innocent 6rama;za, and suspect the fidelity of their
wives because of the dishes they serve up 1 . (15)

Those who have intercourse with (women) have
already ceased to practise meditation ; Sramanas,
therefore, for the benefit of their souls, do not go to
the apartments (of women). (16)

Though many leave the house, some (of them)
arrive but at a middling position (between house
holder and monk) ; they merely talk of the path to
perfection. The force of sinners is talking. (17)

In the assembly he pronounces holy (words), yet
secretly he commits sins ; but the wise know him to
be a deceiver and great rogue. (18)

1 There is a saying in German : Eine verliebte Kochin versalzt
den Brei, a cook in love spoils the soup/ The commentators
put different constructions on the last part of the sentence.
[45] T

2 74 SCTRAKK/TANGA.

The sinner does not confess his wrong, but rather
boasts of it when reprimanded. Though he is ad
monished not to act as most men do, he becomes
weak again and again. (19)

Some men of great intelligence who perform their
duties as supporters of women, get into their power,
though they be well acquainted with the Stri-
veda 1 . (20)

(The adulterers ) hands and feet are cut off, their
skin and flesh are torn off, they are roasted alive, and
acid is poured into their wounds. (21)

Their ears and nose are cut off, and their throats
cut ; (all this) they will suffer, but though suffering
here for their sins they will not promise not to do 2
the same again. (22)

All this some have learned, and it has been well
demonstrated in the Striveda. Though (people)
know it, they do wrong (impelled) by Karman. (23)

One man (women) have in their heart, another in
their words, and another still in their actions.
Therefore a monk should not trust women, knowing
that they are full of deceit. (24)

A young woman, putting on fine ornaments and
clothes, will say to a ^rama^a : I shall give up (my
former way of life) and practise the rough (viz.
control). Reverend sir, teach me the Law! (25)

Or by professing herself a lay-disciple and co
religionist of the ^rama^as, (she will try to make
a friend of him). As a pot filled with lac (will melt)

1 I. e. Kamajastra, or rather the part of it treating on courtezans,
Vamka, that had been composed by Dattaka. He is mentioned
by the commentators in an anecdote they relate ad v. 24.

2 The original has kahinti they will do; it must be kahaw ti
1 1 shall do/

BOOK I, LECTURE 4, CHAPTER 2. 275

near the fire, so even a wise (monk) will fall through
intercourse with women. (26)

A pot filled with lac thrown into the fire melts
quickly and is destroyed ; so monks are lost through
intercourse with women. (27)

Some commit sins (with a girl), but when ques
tioned about it, they say : I have done no sin ; she
only slept in my lap (like my daughter)/ (28)

This is a second folly of the sinner that he
obstinately denies what he has done. He commits
a twofold sin, since, for the sake of his reputation,
he falls again 1 . (29)

(Some women) will say, by way of invitation, to
a good-looking, self-knowing monk: * Holy man,
accept a robe, an almsbowl, food or drink (at our
house) ! (30)

He should regard their words like wild rice 2 , and
should not desire to call at (their) house ; for a fool
who is bound in the fetters of sensuality will be
subject to delusion again and again. (31)

Thus I say.

SECOND CHAPTER.

A monk, living single 3 , should not fall in love ;
if he loves pleasures, he should again become in
different. Now hear the pleasures of 6rama;/as,
which some monks enjoy, (i)

When a monk breaks the law, dotes (on a woman),
and is absorbed by that passion, she afterwards

1 Visaw6si. Vishaw/za is explained asawyama.
1 Wherewith pigs are decoyed, see above, p. 265, verse 19.
3 Oe = 6ka&gt;$, explained : free from love and hate.

T 2

2 76 SUTRAKK7TANGA.

scolds him 1 , lifts her foot, and tramples on his
head. (2)

O monk, if you will not live with me as a woman
who has still her hair, I shall tear it out ; but do not
live separated from me/ (3)

But when they have captured him, they send him
on all sorts of errands 2 : * Look (for the bodkin to)
carve the bottle-gourd 3 , fetch some nice fruit. (4)

* (Bring) wood to cook the vegetables, or that we
may light a fire at night ; paint my feet 4 , come and
meanwhile rub my back ! (5)

Look after my clothes, bring food and drink, get
me some perfume, a broom, a barber 5 (to shave my
head)! (6)

Give me the collyrium-box, my ornaments, the
lute, Lodhra-powder 6 , a Lodhra-flower, the Ve^u-
palasika-lute 7 , a pill ! (7)

A Utpalakush/a 8 , Tagara 9 -powder, and aloe
pounded together with Usira 10 , oil for anointing the

1 Paribhindiyawa = paribhidya.

2 The following verses are interesting as they afford us a glimpse
of a Hindu household some 2,000 years ago. We find here
a curious list of domestic furniture and other things of com
mon use.

3 Alabu/fc/^e^a = alabu/fc^edam pippalakadi jastram.

4 Or, scour my pots.

5 Kasavaga = ka^yapa, explained napita. The word is
probably derived from the root kash to scrape/ According to
Silahka verses 5-6 refer to things used by monks and nuns.

6 Symplocos Racemosa, the bark of which is used in dyeing.

7 This is a thin piece of bamboo or bark held between the teeth
and with the left hand, and played by the right hand just like
a VM. (Silahka.)

8 Probably Costus Speciosus. 9 Tabernaemontana Coronaria.
10 Andropogon Muricatus.

BOOK I, LECTURE 4, CHAPTER 2. 277

face, baskets of bamboo wickerwork to put my
things in ! (8)

* Reach me the lip-salve, fetch the umbrella and
slippers, the knife to cut the string, have my robe
dyed bluish ! (9)

Give me the pot to cook the vegetables in,
Myrobalans *, the jar to fetch water in, the stick to
paint the mark upon the forehead, the pin to apply
collyrium (to the eyelids), or the fan when it is
hot! (10)

* Fetch me the pincers 2 , the comb, the ribbon to
bind up the hair, reach me the looking-glass, put
the tooth-brush near me ! (i i)

Fetch me areca-nut and betel, needle and thread,
the chamber-pot, the winnowing basket, the mortar,
the pot for liquefying natron 3 ! (12)

Give me the vessel (used in worshipping the
gods 4 ), the water-pot. Friend, dig a privy. Fetch
the bow for our son, the bullock for the .Srama-

ra! (13)

The small pot, the drum, and the ball of cloth
for the boy (to play with). 6Yama;za, the rainy
season is at hand, look after the house and the
stores! (14)

(Fetch) the chair with woven twine seat 5 , the
wooden shoes 6 to walk on ! Pregnant women order

1 They are used in bathing.

2 To tear out the hair growing in the nose.

3 Used in India instead of soap for cleaning linen.

4 ^Tandalaka, a copper vessel used in worship. The name
was current in Mathura at the time when Silahka wrote or the
author from whose work he copied this remark.

5 See Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, 632.

6 Paulla; either the wooden sandals or slippers made of

grass.

278

their husbands about like slaves to fulfil their
craving. (15)

When a son, the reward (of their wedded life), is
born, (the mother bids the father) to hold the baby,
or to give it her. Thus some supporters of their
sons have to carry burdens like camels. (16)

Getting up in the night they lull the baby asleep 1
like nurses ; and though they are ashamed of them
selves, they wash the clothes like washermen 2 . (17)

This has been done by many men who for the sake
of pleasures have stooped so low ; they become the
equals of slaves, animals, servants, beasts of burden
mere nobodies. (18)

One should not mind the entreaties of women,
but abstain from their friendship and company.
These pleasures which are derived therefrom are
called causes of blamable actions. (19)

Restraining himself by the thought that these
dangerous (pleasures) will not be to his benefit,
a monk should abstain from women, and commit no
unnatural crime 3 . (20)

A wise and learned monk whose soul is in a pure
condition (Lesya), will abstain from doing work for
others ; in thoughts, words, and actions he will bear
all troubles. (21)

The hero (of faith) who has vanquished sin and
delusion, has said all this. A monk, therefore, whose
soul is pure (and free from sins) should wander about
till he reaches final liberation. (22)

Thus I say.

1 -STlahka gives a specimen of a lullaby without meaning and metre.

2 Hawsa, explained ra^-aka.

3 No itthiw no pasuw bhikkhu no sayapawiwa rnllggeggsi.

BOOK I, LECTURE 5, CHAPTER I. 279

FIFTH LECTURE,

CALLED

DESCRIPTION OF THE HELLS.

FIRST CHAPTER.

I once asked the Kevalin, the great sage 1 :
What is the punishment in the hells ? Knowing it,
O sage, tell it me who do not know it ! How do
sinners go to hell ? (i)

When I thus questioned the illustrious K^Uyapa,
the omniscient one 2 spoke as follows : I shall
describe the truly insupportable pains where there
is distress and (the punishment of) evil deeds. (2)

Those cruel sinners who, from a desire of (worldly)
life, commit bad deeds, will sink into the dreadful
hell which is full of dense darkness and great
suffering. (3)

He who always kills movable and immovable
beings for the sake of his own comfort, who injures
them, who takes what is not freely given, who does
not learn what is to be practised (viz. control) ; (4)

The impudent sinner, who injures many beings
without relenting 3 , will go to hell ; at the end of
his life he will sink to the (place of) darkness ; head
downwards he comes to the place of torture. (5)

They hear the cries of the punishers : Beat, cut,

1 I. e. Mahavira. Sudharman speaks to G^mbusvamin.

2 Asupanna = a.?upra &lt; r #a quickly comprehending/ I usually
render this word intelligent/ when it is used of common monks.

3 Anivvue = anirvr/ta^.

280 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

split, burn him ! The prisoners in hell lose their
senses from fright, and do not know in what di
rection to run. (6)

Going to a place like a burning heap of coals on
fire, and being burnt they cry horribly; they remain
there long, shrieking aloud. (7)

Have you heard of the horrible (river) Vaitara/d,
whose cutting waves are like sharp razors l ? They
cross the horrible Vaitara^i, being urged on by
arrows, and wounded with spears. (8)

The punishers pierce them with darts ; they go
in the boat, losing their memory; others pierce them
with long pikes and tridents, and throw them on the
ground. (9)

Some, round whose neck big stones are tied, are
drowned in deep water. Others again roll about in
the Kadambavaluka (river) 2 or in burning chaff, and
are roasted in it. (10)

And they come to the great impassable hell, full
of agony, called Asurya (i.e. where the sun does not
shine), where there is great darkness, where fires,
placed above, below, and all around, are blazing, (i i)

There, as in a cave, being roasted on the fire, he
is burned, having lost the reminiscence (of his sins)
and consciousness of everything else ; always suf
fering (he comes) to that miserable hot place that
is ever ready (for the punishment of evildoers) 3 . (12)

1 -Silarika says that the water of this river is alkali and hot
blood ; compare Uttaradhyayana XIX, 59, above p. 95.

2 See the note on Uttaradhyayana XIX, 50, above p. 94, note i.
J The last two lines recur in verse 21 with the only difference

that there kasi^aw stands for kalurcaw in this place; yet the
commentators offer a different explanation in the second place.
In my translation I follow their interpretation both times.

BOOK I, LECTURE 5, CHAPTER I. 281

There the cruel punishers have lighted four fires,
and roast the sinners ; they are roasted there like
fishes put on the fire alive. (13)

The prisoners in hell come to the dreadful place
called Santaksha^a 1 (i.e. cutting), where the cruel
punishers tie their hands and feet, and with axes in
their hands cut them like wooden planks. (14)

And they turn the writhing victims round, and
stew them, like living fishes, in an iron caldron
filled with their own blood, their limbs covered
with ordure, their heads smashed. (15)

They are not reduced to ashes there, and they
do not die of their enormous pains ; undergoing this
punishment 2 , the miserable men suffer for their
misdeeds. (16)

And there in the place, where there is constant
shivering, they resort to a large burning fire ; but
they find no relief in that place of torture ; the
tormentors torture them still 3 . (17)

There is heard everywhere the noise of painfully
uttered cries even as in the street of a town. Those
whose bad Karman takes effect (viz. the punishers),
violently torment again and again those whose bad
Karman takes effect also (viz. the punished). (18)

They deprive the sinner of his life ; I shall truly
tell you how this is done. The wicked (punishers)
remind by (similar) punishment (their victims) of all
sins they had committed in a former life 4 . (19)

Being killed they are thrown into a hell which is

1 Here and in similar places the commentators do not take the
word as a proper name, but as an epithet.

2 Anubhaga.

3 Or, with burning fire they roast them.

4 See Uttaradhyayana XIX, 69 ff., above p. 96.

282 S6TR AKK7TANGA.

full of boiling filth. There they stay eating filth,
and they are eaten by vermin. (20)

And there is an always crowded, hot place, which
men deserve for their great sins, and which is full
of misery 1 . (The punishers) put them in shackles,
beat their bodies, and torment them (by perforating)
their skulls with drills. (21)

They cut off the sinner s nose with a razor, they
cut off both his ears and lips ; they pull out his tongue
a span s length and torment (him by piercing it)
with sharp pikes. (22)

There the sinners dripping (with blood) whine
day and night even as the dry leaves of a palm-tree
(agitated by the wind). Their blood, matter, and
flesh are dropping off while they are roasted, their
bodies being besmeared with natron. (23)

Have you heard of the large, erected caldron of
more than man s size, full of blood and matter,
which is extremely heated by a fresh fire, in which
blood and matter are boiling ? (24)

The sinners are thrown into it and boiled there,
while they utter horrid cries of agony ; they are
made to drink molten lead and copper when they
are thirsty, and they shriek still more horribly. (25)

Those evildoers who have here forfeited their
souls (happiness) for the sake of small (pleasures),
and have been born in the lowest births during
hundred thousands of * former years/ will stay in
this (hell). Their punishment will be adequate to
their deeds. (26)

The wicked who have committed crimes will

1 Compare note on verse 12. The same lines recur in the next
chapter, verse 13. The commentator gives the same explanation
there as here.

BOOK I, LECTURE 5, CHAPTER 2. 283

atone for them, deprived of all pleasant and lovely
objects, by dwelling in the stinking crowded hell,
a scene of pain, which is full of flesh (&c.). (27)
Thus I say.

SECOND CHAPTER.

I shall now truly tell you another kind of perpetual
suffering, how the sinners who have committed crimes
suffer for the deeds they have done in their former
lives, (i)

Tying their hands and feet the (punishers) cut
open their belly with razors and knives ; taking hold
of the mangled body of the sinner, they forcibly tear
the skin off his back. (2)

They cut off his arms at the armpits ; they force
his mouth wide open and scald it ; they yoke the
sinner to a car and drive him, and growing angry l
they pierce his back with a goad. (3)

The (sinners) walk over ground burning and
glowing like red-hot iron ; scorched they shriek
horribly, being urged on with arrows 2 and put to
a red-hot yoke. (4)

The sinners are driven over slippery ground
which is like a road of red-hot iron ; in this dread
ful place (the ministers of hell) make them go
forward like slaves (beating them) with sticks. (5)

Proceeding in this intolerable (hell) they are
crushed by rocks tumbling down. There is the

1 Arussa = arushya, here and in a similar passage (verse 15)
the commentators explain it, making him angry, exasperating
him/ They have misunderstood rah a #2 si in the second line,
rendering it rahasi ; it is of course = rathe.

2 Usu = ishu, explained by aravijesha a kind of awl/

284 SUTRAKR7TANGA.

(caldron) Santapani 1 , where evildoers suffer for a
long time. (6)

They throw the sinners into caldrons and boil
them ; scalded they rise thence again ; devilish
crows 2 feed on them and (so do) other beasts having
claws devour them. (7)

There is a place of smokeless fire in the form of
a pile 3 where (the sinners) greatly distressed shriek
horribly ; head downwards they are lacerated and
cut into pieces with iron knives. (8)

Tied up and skinned they are devoured by steel-
nebbed birds ; it is the hell called Sa^ivani, where
life is long, and where men of an evil mind are
tortured. (9)

The (punishers) pierce them with sharp pikes as
people do with a captured pig. Transfixed by a pike
the (sinners) shriek horribly ; suffering both (bodily
and mentally) they feel nothing but pains. (10)

There is a great place always on fire, where fires
burn without fuel ; there for a long time stay the
evildoers shrieking aloud. (11)

Setting on fire large piles, they thrust into
them (a sinner) who will cry horribly ; as butter
thrown in the fire melts, so does the evildoer
there. (12)

And there is an always crowded, hot place which
one deserves for one s great sins, and which is full
of misery. There (the punishers) tie (the sinner s)

1 Or, it is (the hell) called Santapani. My translation in the
text agrees with .Silahka s interpretation.

2 Compare Uttaradhyayana XIX, 58, p. 95.

3 Samusiya/tt nama. This might also be rendered, called
Samu/^rita. But the commentators do not take samusiya for
a proper name.

BOOK I, LECTURE 5, CHAPTER 2. 285

hands and feet, and belabour him with sticks like an
enemy. (13)

They break the sinner s back with a weapon, and
smash his skull with iron clubs ; their bodies are split
and sawn like a plank ; and tortured with red-hot
awls (the sinners) are subjected (to cruelties). (14)

Cruel evildoers 1 t urged on with arrows, and put
to work (by the punishers), carry burdens in the
way of elephants ; two or three (punishers) get on
one (victim) and growing angry 2 hurt his vital
parts. (15)

The sinners are driven over the large, slippery,
and thorny ground ; tightly bound with straps 3 they
lose their senses ; the revenging (punishers) cut
them into pieces 4 , and throw them about like a
bali-sacrifice. (16)

There is a dreadful mountain towering high up
in the air, called Vaitalika 5 , where the evildoers are
tortured for more than a thousand hours. (17)

Tortured, the sinners shriek, suffering day and
night ; in this horrid, great hell, which is full of
implements of torture, they are put to a cruel
death. (18)

Full of wrath, like their enemies in a former life,

1 Ruddaasahukammi = raudra-asadhu-karmarca^. Si-
lahka thinks that the ministers of hell are meant ; but then the
verse will not construe.

2 See note on verse 3.

3 Vivaddhatappehiw, in a marginal gloss, explained:
baddhva ^armabandhanai^. But it might also be vivrz ddhata-
pai&gt; under increased tortures/

4 Ko//a = ku/ayitva.

5 Vetaliya. The commentators render it vaikriya produced
by magic, and moreover explain the word as an epithet, not as
a proper name.

286

(the punishers) crush them with hammers and clubs.
With mangled bodies, and vomiting blood, they
fall to the ground, head foremost. (19)

There are the ever hungry 1 , savage, always
wrathful, great jackals by whom the evildoers
bound with shackles are devoured. (20)

There is the dreadful, slimy river, which is always
flowing and full of molten iron ; in this very dreadful
river (the sinners) must descend one by one 2 . (21)

These pains are suffered without interruption by
the sinner who stays there for a long time. There
is no escape from the torture ; he must, himself and
alone, suffer the pains. (22)

Whatever cruelty he has clone in a former birth,
the same will be inflicted on him in the Circle
of Births. Having been born in an extremely
miserable state of life, the sufferer experiences in
finite pain. (23)

A wise man hearing of these hells should not kill
any living being in the whole world ; believing in
true doctrines and renouncing all property he should
know the world, but not become a slave to it. (24)

Knowing the endless Circle of Births 3 with regard
to animals, men, and gods, and the reward they will
get ; knowing all this, (a wise man) should wait for
his decease, practising meanwhile self-control. (25)

Thus I say.

1 A;zasiya, anajita^. This might also be taken as the name
of the jackals.

2 Egayata, explained kakina/$.

3 ^Tauranta.

BOOK I, LECTURE 6. 287

SIXTH LECTURE,

CALLED

PRAISE OF MAHAVIRA.

and Brahma^as, householders and here
tics, have asked (me): Who is he that proclaimed
this unrivalled truly wholesome Law, which was (put
forward) with true knowledge 1 ? (i)

What was the knowledge, what the faith, and
what the conduct of the GV7atrzputra ? If you know
it truly, O monk, tell us as you have heard it, as it
was told you ! (2)

This wise and clever great sage possessed infinite
knowledge and infinite faith. Learn and think about
the Law and the piety of the glorious man who lived
before our eyes 2 1 (3)

This wise man had explored all beings, whether
they move or not, on high, below, and on earth, as
well as the eternal and transient things. Like a
lamp he put the Law in a true light. (4)

He sees everything; his knowledge has got be
yond (the four lower stages) 3 ; he has no impurity ;
he is virtuous, of a fixed mind, the highest, the

1 The question is supposed to be addressed by Gambusvamin
to Sudharman.

2 7ifakkhupah /^iyassa = akshu/$pathe sthitasya,
literally, who stood (or stands) in the path of the eyes/ We
are scarcely entitled to infer from this phrase that the author had
actually seen Mahavira as tradition would make us believe.

3 Abhibhuya-nawi. Concerning the five stages or kinds of
knowledge, see above, p. 152. The Kevala knowledge is intended.

288 SUTRAKK/TANGA.

wisest in the whole world ; he has broken from all
ties ; he is above danger and the necessity to
continue life l . (5)

Omniscient, wandering about without a home,
crossing the flood (of the Sa^sara), wise, and of
an unlimited perception, without an equal, he shines
forth (or he does penance) like the sun, and he
illumines the darkness like a brilliant fire, (6)

The omniscient 2 sage, Kasyapa, has proclaimed
this highest Law of the Gmas ; he, the illustrious
one, is prominent (among men) like the thousand-
eyed Indra among the gods of heaven. (7)

His knowledge is inexhaustible like the (water
of the) sea ; he has no limits and is pure like the
great ocean ; he is free from passion, unfettered, and
brilliant like .Sakra, the lord of the gods. (8)

By his vigour he is the most vigorous ; as
Sudarsana (Meru), the best of all mountains, or
as heaven, a very mine of delight, he shines forth
endowed with many virtues. (9)

(Meru) a hundred thousand yq^anas high, with
three tiers 3 , with the Pa/^aga (-wood) as its flag,
rising ninety-nine thousand yq^anas above the
ground, and reaching one thousand below it; (10)

It touches the sky and is immersed in the earth ;
round it revolve the suns 4 ; it has the colour of
gold, and contains many Nandana (parks) 5 ; on it
the Mahendras enjoy themselves, (i i)

1 To render anayu//.

2 Asupanna = a supragn a, literally, quickly \\itted; the word
is usually explained by kevalin.

3 Kanaka, one of stone, one of gold, and one of turquoise.

4 As is well known the Gainas assume a plurality of suns.

5 The names of these four parks are, according to the com-

BOOK I, LECTURE 6. 289

This mountain is distinguished by (many) names ;
it has the colour of burnished gold ; it is the greatest
of all mountains, difficult to ascend on account of its
rocks ; this excellent mountain is like a part of the
earth on fire. (12)

The king of mountains, standing in the centre of
the earth, is seen in a pure light l like that of the
sun. With such beauty shines forth this many-
coloured, lovely (mountain), which is crowned with
radiance. (13)

Thus is described the glory of mount Sudan-ana,
the great mountain ; similar to it is the 6rama;za
6^atrzputra, who is noble, glorious, full of faith,
knowledge, and virtue. (14)

As Nishadha 2 is the best of long-stretched
mountains, and Ru/aka of circular ones, so is he
(Mahavira) among sages the wisest in the world, ac
cording to the declaration of the wise ones. (15)

After having taught the highest Law he practised
the highest contemplation 3 , which is the purest of
pure, pure without a flaw, thoroughly white (as it
were) like mother-of-pearl and the moon. (16)

Having annihilated all his Karman, the great
sage by his knowledge, virtue, and faith reached

mentary, .Salavana, Nandanavana, Saumanasavana, and
(or Pa&lt;/uka) vana. The first is at the foot of Meru, the second
500 yo-anas above it, the third 62,000 above the second, and the
fourth 36,000 above the last, i. e. at the very top.

1 Suddha-lesse = juddhalejya. Here le.rya is equal to

2 Nishadha and Ru^aka are two fabulous chains of mountains
situated beyond Gambudvipa.

5 This is the jukla dhyana. As jukla, which I translate
pure/ originally means while/ the comparison with the moon
is natural in the original.

[45] U

2QO S$TRAK#7TANGA.

the insurpassable, highest perfection, a state which
has a beginning but no end. (17)

As the ,5almali, in which the Supar^a 1 gods
take their delight, is most famous among trees,
as Nandana is among parks, so is the Omni
scient most famous through his knowledge and
virtue. (18)

As thunder is the loudest of sounds, as the moon
is the most glorious of heavenly bodies, as sandal is
the best of perfumes, so of monks is he who
had renounced all wishes or plans. (19)

As (the ocean on which sleeps) Svayambhu is the
best of seas, as Dhara^endra is the best of Nagas,
as the juice of sugarcane is, as it were, the flag
of juices, so is he (Mahavira) the flag of monks
by his austerities. (20)

As Airava^a is the best of elephants, the lion
of beasts, Gaiiga of rivers, as GarWa, Ve^udeva \
is the best of birds, so is 6^/atrz putra the best of
those who have taught the Nirvana. (21)

As Vishvaksena 3 is the most famous of warriors,
as the lotus is the best of flowers, as Dantavakra
is the best of Kshattriyas, so Vardhamana is the
best of sages. (22)

As giving safety is the best of gifts, as the best
of true speeches is that which causes no dis-

1 They belong to the Bhavanapatis, see above, p. 225.

2 The commentator says that Ve/mdeva is another name of
Garik/a. Venu stands perhaps for ve/zhu = vishwu; but I do
not know that Garu^/a ever was directly identified with Vishnu.

5 Visasena. Vishvaksena is a name of Krishna. The
commentators make Vuvasena of Visasewa, and seem to take it
as a synonym of /akravartin or universal monarch. Dantavakra is
mentioned in my Ausgewahlte Erzahlungen/ p. 35, line 36.

BOOK I, LECTURE 6. 29 1

tress, as chastity is the highest of austerities, so is
the 6rama^a Gn&riputra. the highest of men. (23)

As the Lavasaptamas l are the highest of those
gods who live very long, as the palace Saudharman
is the best of heavenly abodes, as Nirvana is the
chief object of the Law, so there is no wiser man
than Gna.tr tputr a.. (24)

He (bears everything) like the earth ; he annihi
lates (his Karman) ; he is free from greed ; he, the
Omniscient, does not keep store (of anything) ; he
has crossed the ocean of life like the sea : he, the
Hero, who grants protection to all, and whose per
ception is infinite. (25)

Having conquered the passions which defile the
soul: wrath, pride, deceit, and greed, the Arhat,
the great sage, does not commit any wrong, nor does
he cause it to be committed. (26)

He understood the doctrines of the Kriyavadins,
of the Akriyavadins, of the Vainayikas, and of the
A^anavadins 2 ; he had mastered all philosophical
systems, and he practised control as long as he
lived. (27)

He abstained 3 from women, and from eating at
night, he practised austerities for the removal of
pain, he knew this world and that beyond ; the lord
renounced 3 everything at every time. (28)

Having heard and believing in the Law, which

The commentator identifies them with the fifth class of
Anuttara gods (see Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 215, above p. 227),
and explains the name by saying if they lived seven lavas longer,
they would reach perfection.

2 Concerning these four principal heresies see note on Uttara
dhyayana XVIII, 23, above p. 83.

3 Variya, literally forbade.

U 2

2 Q2 SUTRAKK7TANGA.

has been proclaimed and taught by the Arhat,
and has been demonstrated with arguments, people
will either make an end of their mundane exist
ence, or they will become like Indra, the king of
gods. (29)
Thus I say.

SEVENTH LECTURE,

CALLED

DESCRIPTION OF THE WICKED.

Earth, water, fire, wind; grass, trees, and corn;
and the movable beings, (viz.) the oviparous, vivi
parous, those generated from dirt, and those gene
rated in fluids 1 ; (i)

These classes (of living beings) have been declared
(by the inas) ; know and understand that they
(all desire) happiness; by (hurting) these beings
(men) do harm to their own souls, and will again
and again be born as one of them. (2)

Every being born high or low in the scale of
the living creation, among movable and immovable
beings, will meet with its death. Whatever sins the
evildoer commits in every birth, for them he must
die 2 . (3)

1 The last two classes are, according to the commentators,
(i) lice, bugs, &c.; (2) beings like cotton threads in thick milk,
sour barley gruel, &c. Apparently vibrios are meant.

2 Mi^ati miyate. Another rendering offered by Silahka
is he will be filled (by Karman).

BOOK I, LECTURE 7. 293

In this world or in the next (the sinners suffer
themselves what they have inflicted on other beings),
a hundred times, or (suffer) other punishment. Living
in the Sawsara they ever acquire new Karman, and
suffer for their misdeeds. (4)

Some leave their mother and father to live as
,5rama;zas, but they use fire; (the prophet) says:
People are wicked who kill beings for the sake
of their own pleasure/ (5)

He who lights a fire, kills living beings; he who
extinguishes it, kills the fire. Therefore a wise
man who well considers the Law, should light no
fire. (6)

Earth contains life, and water contains life ;
jumping (or flying) insects fall in (the fire) ; dirt-
born vermin l (and beings) living in wood : all these
beings are burned by lighting a fire. (7)

Sprouts are beings possessed of natural develop
ment 2 , their bodies (require) nourishment, and all
have their individual life. Reckless men who cut
them down out of regard for their own pleasure,
destroy many living beings. (8)

By destroying seeds, when young or grown up,
a careless man does harm to his own soul. (The
prophet) says : People are wicked who destroy seeds
for the sake of their own pleasure. (9)

1 Viz. insects originated in dung, &c. used as fuel.

2 Vilambaga; the commentators in explanation of this word
say that plants, like men, go through all states of development,
youth, ripe age, old age, &c. I think vilambaga is derived from
vi&lt;/ambaka, they imitate (the development of animals). For if
I understand Silahka aright, a plant contains a great many bhutas
or beings, each localised in a certain part of the plant, as roots,
&c.
This is, according to him, the meaning of pu^osiyawi, rendered
in the text have their individual life.

294

Men die as embryos, or as babies who do not yet
talk, or who do so already ; other men, as boys
wearing five tufts of hair x , or as youths, or in middle
age : at the expiration of their life all leave the
body and die. (10)

Wake up, men ! If we look at the dangers
(to which he is exposed) a fool has not much
chance to obtain human birth ; always suffering like
men in fever, people will go to utter misery, (i i)

Some say that perfection is reached by abstaining
from the seasoner of food (viz. salt) 2 , others by the
use of cold water (i.e. by ablutions) 3 , others again
by (tending) a fire 4 . (12)

Perfection is not reached by bathing in the morn
ing, nor by abstention from acids and salt ; but by
drinking liquor or eating meat or garlic men obtain
another state of existence (than perfection). (13)

Those who, touching water in the morning and
evening, contend that perfection is obtained through
water (are easily refuted). For if perfection could
be obtained by contact with w^ater, many beings
living in water must have reached perfection : (14)

Fishes, tortoises, aquatic snakes, cormorants,

1 Pa#/a.nkha. It usually denotes certain ascetics: but -Silanka
here renders it kumara boy.

2 -Silanka notices two different readings: (i) aharasappa#/a-
gava^a^ewa^, by abstaining from food seasoned with one
of the five kinds of salt (viz. saindhava, sauvar^ala, vi&lt;/a,
rauma,
samudra) ; (2) aharao pa^^aga , by abstaining from five kinds
of food : garlic, onion, young camels milk, beef, liquor.

3 Silahka mentions the Varibhadrakas, a subdivision of the
Bhagavatas, as belonging to this category. He states elsewhere
that they eat jaivala (Vallisneria Octandra) and frequently bathe,
wash themselves, and drink water.

4 Viz. Tapasas and Brahma/zas.

BOOK I, LECTURE 7. 295

otters 1 , and demons living in water. The clever
ones declare those to be wrong who maintain that
perfection may be obtained through water. (15)

If water did wash off the impure Karman, it must
take off merit too. But this (assertion of the here
tics) has no foundation but their wish. As a blind
man follows a guide (and misses his goal), so a fool
(who makes ablutions, &c. as a means of reaching
Moksha) kills living beings. (16)

If water did wash off the sins of him who committed
them, some would have obtained perfection who killed
water-beings. Therefore he is wrong who maintains
the attainment of perfection through water. (17)

Those who, lighting fire in the morning and
evening, contend that perfection is obtained through
fire (are easily refuted). For if thereby perfection
could be obtained, mechanics also, who use fire,
would be liberated. (18)

Perfection cannot be established by such gratuitous
assertions ; those who have not learned the truth will
come to harm. A wise man, who knows the truth,
should know and understand that all beings desire
happiness. (19)

All creatures who have committed sins wail,
suffer, and tremble. Considering this a wise monk
who has ceased to sin, and guards his own self,
should abstain from violence with regard to mov
able and (immovable) beings. (20)

He who keeps a store of rightly-obtained food and
eats it ; he who makes ablutions with pure water,

1 U//a or u/Ma, explained as a kind of aquatic animal ; the
Sanskrit prototype is apparently udra, but the commentators
render it ush/ra!

296 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

contracting his limbs ; he who washes and adorns
his clothes, is far from being a naked monk. (21)

A wise man, seeing that it is sinful (to use) water,
should live of pure water, till he is liberated from
the Sa?;zsara x ; not eating seeds and bulbs, he
abstains from bathing, &c., and from women. (22)

He who, after having left father, mother, house,
sons, cattle, and wealth, visits houses where he gets
nice food, is far from being a Sr3.ma.na. (23)

He who visits houses where he gets nice food,
who professes the Law, desirous only of filling his
belly, and brags (of himself) for the sake of food,
is not equal to the hundredth part of an Arya. (24)

A miserable man, who becomes a monk in order
to get food from others, and a flatterer by the desire
of filling his belly, will, in no remote future, come
to harm, even as a boar greedy of wild rice 2 . (25)

The servile man says pleasing things for the sake
of food, drink, and other things : but wrong belief
and bad conduct are worthless like chaff. (26)

He should beg where he is unknown, and maintain
himself by it ; he should not seek fame and respect
by his austerities; he should not desire (pleasant)
sounds and colours, but conquer his longing for all
kinds of pleasures. (27)

A monk should avoid every attachment and bear
every pain, be full (of wisdom), not greedy, wander
about homeless, give assurance of safety (to all
beings), and be free from passions. (28)

(In order to be able) to practise control 3 a monk
should eat ; he should desire to get rid of sin ; if he

Ai = adi. 2 Cf. p. 265, verse 19.

Bharassa ^aya = bharasya (=sawyamasya) yatra.

BOOK I, LECTURE 8. 297

suffers pain, he should have recourse to control,
and subdue the foe at the head of the battle, as it
were. (29)

Though beaten he should be like a plank 1 ; he
should wait for the advent of death ; having anni
hilated his Karman he should not again mix with
the world, but be rather like a car whose axle is
broken. (30)

Thus I say.

EIGHTH LECTURE,

CALLED
ON EXERTION 2 .

It is said that two definitions of exertion are
given ; but in what does the exertion of the virtuous
consist, and how is it defined ? (i)

Some say that it consists in works, and the pious
(say that it consists) in abstention from works.
Men appear divided into two classes from this point
of view. (2)

Carelessness is called (the cause of) Karman,
carefulness that of the contrary (viz. absence of
Karman) ; when the one or the other is predicated

J Phalagavata/Mi = phalagavad avatash/a^. *Silanka
gives the following explanation : As a plank planed on both
sides becomes thin, so a sadhu, by reducing his body by exterior
and interior tapas, grows thin, of weak body.

2 Virya ; it is the power or virtue of a thing.

298 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

(of a man, he is called) either a fool or a wise
man. (3)

Some learn sciences J which teach the destruction
of living beings, others study spells for killing all
sorts of creatures. (4)

Deceivers practise deceit in order to procure
themselves pleasures and amusement ; they kill, cut,
and dismember (beings) for the sake of their own
comfort. (5)

The careless (commit sins) by thoughts, words,
and acts, with regard to this and the next world,
both (by doing the act themselves and by making
others do it). (6)

A cruel 2 man does cruel acts and is thereby
involved in other cruelties ; but sinful undertakings
will in the end bring about misery. (7)

Sinners, subject to love and hate and doing wrong,
acquire Karman arising from passions 3 and commit
many sins. (8)

Thus the * exertion leading to works of the
sinners has been described ; now learn from me the
wise men s exertion not leading to works. (9)

A pious monk, who is free from bonds and has
severed all fetters, annihilates his bad Karman, and
removes definitely the thorn (of sin). (10)

Following the right doctrine he exerts himself;
as one becomes more and more the receptacle

= jastra or jastra. On the latter alternative we
must translate (practice of) arms/

2 Veri = vairin, ^ivopamardakarin.

3 Karma is of two kinds, airyapathika, arising from walking/
i. e. from those actions which are indispensable to a virtuous life
or the conduct of monks, and samparayika, arising from the
passions.

BOOK I, LECTURE 8. 299

of misery, so his bad thoughts (or sinfulness)
increase, (i i)

Those who have good places (in heaven, &c.)
must surely leave them (some time). We live
together with relations and friends but a limited
time. (12)

Considering this, a wise man should conquer his
greed, and enter upon the noble (path), which con
tains all virtues and is not blamed 1 . (13)

Whether he know the pith of the Law by intuition
or through instruction, a houseless (monk) should
exert himself and abstain from sins. (14)

When a wise man, in whatever way, comes to
know that the apportioned space of his life draws
towards its end, he should in the meantime quickly
learn the method (of dying a religious death) 2 . (15)

As a tortoise draws its limbs into its own body,
so a wise man should cover, as it were, his sins with
his own meditation. (16)

He should draw in, as it were, his hands and feet,
his mind and five organs of sense, the effect of his
bad Karman, and every bad use of language. (17)

The virtuous exert themselves with regard to
the distant end (viz. Liberation 3 ). One should live

1 Savvadhammamagoviyaw. According to the commentator
the meaning of this phrase is : which is not blamed or shown to
be wrong by all (heretical) Laws.

2 See Uttaradhyayana, Fifth Lecture.

3 Silarika quotes and comments upon four different readings
of the first line of this verse, the last of which is rendered above
as
it is the textus receptus of the Dipika. (i) Abstaining from even
small pride and from deceit, one, &c. (2) Great for even
small. (3) I have heard from some men : This is the valour of
the virtuous man, that, &c. After this verse Silahka quotes
another which, he says, is not found in MSS. of the text, but

indifferent to one s own happiness, calm, and without
any attachment. (18)

Do not kill living beings, do not take what is
not freely given, do not talk false, treacherous
speech ! This is the Law of him who is rich in
control. (19)

Do not desire by words or thoughts what is
a transgression (of the Law) ; guarding yourself in
all ways, and subduing (the senses), practise
control. (20)

A man who guards his self and subdues his
senses, abhors all sins, past, present, and future
ones. (21)

Benighted men of wrong faith, (though) they be
renowned as heroes, exert themselves in a bad way,
which will have, in all respects, evil consequences
for them. (22)

Wise men of right faith, who are renowned heroes,
exert themselves in a good way which will have no
(evil) consequences whatever for them. (23)

Penance is of no good if performed by noble men
who have turned monks (for the sake of fame) ; but
that penance of which nobody else knows any
thing (is meritorious). Do not spread your own
fame 1 ! (24)

A pious man should eat little, drink little, talk
little ; he should always exert himself, being calm,
indifferent, a subduer (of his senses), and free from
greed. (25)

Meditating and performing religious practices,

is found in the 7 ika. It is, however, the identical verse I, 3, 4,
20,
see above, p. 271, which occurs again I, n, n.
1 Compare Matthew vi. 1-6.

[Sid Harth]

BOOK I, LECTURE 9.

abandoning his body, regarding forbearance as the
paramount duty, a monk should wander about till
he obtains liberation. (26)
Thus I say.

NINTH LECTURE,

CALLED
THE LAW.

What is the Law that has been preached by the
wise Brahma^a l (i. e. Mahavira) ? Learn from me
the noble Law of the inas as it is. (i)

Brahma^as, Kshattriyas, Vaisyas, ^Ta^alas, Vuk-
kasas, hunters 2 , merchants 3 , .Sudras, and others who
are accustomed to do acts ; (2)

The iniquity 4 of all these men who cling to
property goes on increasing ; for those who procure
themselves pleasures by sinful acts will not get rid
of misery. (3)

After a man has done acts which cause the death
of living beings, his pleasure-seeking relations take
possession of his wealth, whilst the doer of the acts
must suffer for them. (4)

Mother, father, daughter-in-law, brother, wife, and
sons will not be able to help me, when I suffer for

my own deeds 5 . (5)

1 The word brahmawa (mahawa) is here, as in many other pas
sages, a mere honorific title which could be rendered by ascetic.

2 Esiya. 3 Vesiya. 4 Vera = vaira.
5 This verse recurs in Uttaradhyayana VI, 3 ; above, p. 25.

302 stiTRAKfl/TANGA.

Taking to heart this truth from which flow the
most important truths, a monk, without property and
without egoism, should follow the teaching of the
G mas. (6)

Leaving his wealth, sons, relations, and property,
leaving sorrow that never ceases, (a monk) should
wander about without any worldly interests. (7)

Earth, water, fire, and wind ; grass, trees, and
corn ; oviparous animals, the two kinds of vivipa
rous 1 animals; beings engendered in fluids and in
dirt, and plants ; (8)

These six classes of living beings a wise man
should know and treat tenderly, in thoughts, words,
and acts ; he should neither do actions nor desire
property whereby he might do them any harm. (9)

Untrue speech, sexual intercourse, personal
property, taking things that are not freely given :
all these causes of injury to living beings a wise
man should abstain from. (10)

Deceit 2 , greed 3 , anger 4 , and pride 5 : combat
these causes of sin ; a wise man should abstain
from them, (n)

Washing, dyeing, making urine, evacuation of the
bowels, vomiting, anointing of the eyes, and what
ever is contrary to the rules of conduct Q : from all
this a wise man should abstain. (12)

1 Poyag-arau = pota^arayu, i.e. born alive (as elephants,
&c.) and born together with the chorion (as cows, &c.)

2 Paliuw^ aTza = parikuzz^ ana, i. e. maya.

3 Bhaya^a = bhag-ana, i.e. lobha.

4 Tha&lt;/illa, i.e. kr6dha.

5 Ussaya;za = u&gt;C 7 &gt;^raya, i.e. mana. These four passions are
named here from the way in which they are supposed to act upon
the soul. Similar names occurred above, p. 248, notes 3-6.

6 Palimantha.

BOOK I, LECTURE 9. 303

Perfumes, wreaths, bathing, cleansing of the teeth,
property, actions referring to women : from all this
a wise man should abstain. (13)

Alms that have been prepared, or bought, or
stolen, or brought for the sake of a monk, or alms
that contain particles of the above mentioned, or
such alms as are unacceptable (for one cause or
other), from all these a wise man should abstain. (14)

Invigorating food, anointing of the eyes, greed,
damaging others, washing (one s limbs), (rubbing
them with) Lodhra-powder, &c. : from all this a wise
man should abstain. (15)

Deliberating with laymen, praising their work,
answering their questions, eating the householder s
meals : from all this a wise man should abstain. (16)

He should not learn to play chess J , he should
not speak anything forbidden by the Law ; a wise
man should abstain from fights and quarrels. (17)

Shoes, an umbrella, dice, chowries, working for
another, helping each other : from all this a wise
man should abstain. (18)

A monk should not void his excrements or urine
among plants ; he should never rinse his mouth
(even) with distilled water after having removed
(everything endowed with life). (19)

He should never eat or drink out of a house
holder s vessel ; nor wear his clothes, especially if he

1 Ash/a pada. This does not necessarily, in this place, mean
chess-board, but any game played on a similar chequered board
may be intended. The earliest unmistakable mention of chess,
that I have met with, occurs in Ratnakara s Haravi^aya XII, 9,
a mahakavya written in the first half of the ninth century A.D. in
Kashmir. Another explanation of a/M&vaya/u is arthapadam
= artha-rastram means of acquiring property.

304

is a naked monk : from all this a wise man should
abstain. (20)

A stool or bed or a seat in a house, asking of
news and recollection (of past sports) : from all this
a wise man should abstain. (21)

Fame, glory, and renown ; honours and respectful
treatment ; all pleasures in the whole world : from
all this a wise man should abstain. (22)

A monk (should be content) with such food and
drink as will sustain his life ; he should give a portion
of it to others : [from all this a wise man should
abstain 1 .] (23)

Thus spoke the Nirgrantha, the great sage
Mahavira ; he who possesses infinite knowledge
and faith has taught the Law and the sacred
texts 2 . (24)

In speaking (a monk) should use as few words as
possible ; he should not delight in another s foibles ;
he should avoid deceiving speech 3 , and should answer
after ripe reflection. (25)

One will repent of having used the third kind of
speech 4 ; a secret should not be made known. This
is the Nirgrantha s commandment. (26)

1 The last part of this verse is here repeated from the preceding
ones ; but it is quite out of place here.

2 Here apparently ended the original treatise ; the following
verses are not directly connected with it.

8 M&i//M/za#z, always rendered matrz sthanam. I think it
is a regular corruption for mayasthanam. The second syllable
of the word becomes short before two consonants, and then the
ya was changed into i with which it is almost interchangeable.

4 The four kinds of speech are (i) true speech, (2) untrue
speech, (3) speech partly true and partly untrue, (4) speech which
is neither true nor untrue, see part i, p. 150. Inaccurate state
ments are intended here.

BOOK I, LECTURE 9. 305

(A monk) should not call one names 1 , nor friend/
nor by his Gotra ; thou, thou is vulgar ; never
address one by thou ! (27)

A virtuous monk should never keep company
(with the wicked); for thereby he incurs dangers
(for his conduct) disguised as pleasures. A wise
man should be aware of them. (28)

(A monk) should not stay in the house of a
householder except by constraint; nor should he
amuse himself too long (by looking) at the sports
of the children of the village 2 . (29)

Not desirous of fine things, he should wander
about, exerting himself; not careless in his conduct,
he should bear whatever pains he has to suffer. (30)

If beaten, he should not be angry ; if abused, he
should not fly into a passion ; with a placid mind
he should bear everything and not make a great
noise. (31)

He should not enjoy pleasures though they offer
themselves ; for thus he is said (to reach) discern
ment. He should always practise what is right to
do in the presence of the enlightened ones. (32)

He should obey and serve a wise and pious
teacher, (such teachers) as are heroes (of faith),
who search for the benefit of their souls, are firm
in control, and subdue their senses. (33)

These men, who do not see the light (as it were)
in domestic life, are the beloved of the people ; these
heroes, free from bondage, do not desire life. (34)

1 Ho la, which is said to be a D&i word of abuse. The same
word occurs also in the AHrahga Sutra, see part i, p. 151, where
I translated it by loon/

2 According to Silarika : (he should not join) the sports of the
children of a village, nor amuse himself too long.

[45] X

306 sftTRAKR/TANGA.

They do not long for sensual pleasures, they do
not engage in works. All that (the heretics) always
talk about, is opposed to the right faith. (35)

Excessive pride and deceit, all worldly vanities :
all this a wise man knows and renounces, and thus
brings about his final Liberation. (36)

Thus I say.

TENTH LECTURE,

CALLED

CAREFULNESS 1 .

The wise (Arhat) having pondered on the Law
proclaimed it ; learn from me correctly what is care
fulness. A monk who forms no resolutions and is
possessed of carefulness, should wander about, giving
no offence to any creature ; (i)

To no living beings, whether they move or not,
whether above or below or on earth, by putting
a strain upon them by his hands or feet 2 . Nor
should he take from householders anything that is
not freely given. (2)

Having mastered the Law and got rid of care
lessness, he should live on allowed food 3 , and treat

1 Samahi = samadhi. This word has not only the meaning
meditation, but also a much wider one. Here it is explained as
the means of obtaining Moksha/ I have chosen carefulness/
because it is less technical than control/ which I have used in
other places.

2 The first part of verse 2 to be construed with the last part
of the preceding verse.

BOOK I, LECTURE IO. 307

all beings as he himself would be treated ; he should
not expose himself to guilt by his desire for life ;
a monk who performs austerities should not keep
any store. (3)

Restraining his senses from women, a sage
should wander about free from all worldly ties.
See, every creature and every being suffers pain
and is afflicted. (4)

Doing harm to these beings, an ignorant man
becomes involved in sins. Sin is committed by
injuring (beings), and one sins also by employing
others (in such acts). (5)

He too who leads a miserable life, commits sin.
Therefore (the inas) have enjoined thorough care
fulness. One should know the truth, delight in
control and sound judgment, cease from injuring
beings, and be of a settled mind. (6)

Looking at all people with an impartial mind, one
should not do anything to please or to harm them.
After a virtuous beginning some become miserable
and lose heart, (since) they desire honour and fame. (7)

Desiring unallowed 1 food and accepting such, the
sinner, careless in his conduct, is attached to women,
and tries to acquire property. (8)

Given to violent deeds he accumulates (Karman) ;
on his decease he (meets with) really distressing
misery. Therefore a wise man considers well the
Law ; a sage wanders about free from all worldly
ties. (9)

He should not expose himself to guilt by his
desire for life, but he should wander about without
any attachment. Speaking after due consideration,

1 Ahaga&lt;/a=yathakrz ta; cf. p. 131, note 7, i.
X 2

308 stiTRAKK/TANGA.

and combating his worldly desires, he should say
nothing that involves slaughter of living beings. (10)

He should not desire unallowed food, and he
should not mix with people who desire such ; he
should mortify his flesh, thinking (of his duty), and
giving up his sorrows without regard (to worldly
interests), (n)

Try to realise that you are single and alone ;
thereby you will obtain Liberation ; mind, this is no
false assertion ! This Liberation is not anything
unreal, but the best thing. An ascetic is free from
anger, and delights in the truth. (12)

Abstain from sexual intercourse with women, do
not acquire property ; a man possessed of carefulness
will, beyond doubt, be a saviour (to others) in all
circumstances. (13)

A monk having conquered aversion to control
and delight in sensual objects 1 , should bear all
troubles caused by (pricking) grass, cold, heat, and
insects ; he should endure pleasant and unpleasant
smells. (14)

Guarding his speech and possessed of carefulness,
acquiring (pure) Lesya 2 , he should wander about ; he
should not thatch a house for himself or for others,
nor behave towards other people like a house
holder. (15)

Questioned by somebody who maintains the un
changeable character of the soul 3 , he should expound
the true (doctrine) ; those who engage in works and

1 This is, according to Sflahka, the meaning of the words
araiw raiw v, see, however, above, p. in, note i.

2 See Uttaradhyayana, Lecture XXXIV.

3 Akiriyaaya = akriyatman.

BOOK I, LECTURE IO. 309

are held in worldly bondage, do not know the Law
which leads to Liberation. (16)

Men here have various opinions ; (they adhere) to
the doctrine of the Kriyavadins and Akriyavadins.
The iniquity of an unrestrained sinner, who after
having been born injures the body (of beings to pro
cure his own happiness), goes on increasing. (17)

Forgetting that his life will have an end, a rash
and foolish man is full of selfishness ; he toils day
and night, greedy of wealth, as if he never should
grow old or die. (18)

Leave wealth and cattle, all relations and dear
friends ! (A man) always talks (about these things),
and he is infatuated with them ; but other people
will take away his wealth. (19)

As smaller beasts keep at a distance from a lion,
being afraid of him, so a wise man keeps aloof from
sin, well considering the Law. (20)

A wise man who has become awakened should
turn away from sin, when he considers the evils
arising from slaughter and the great dangers entailed
by his cruel disposition. (21)

A sage setting out for the real good 1 (viz. Libera
tion), should not speak untruth ; this (rule, they say,)
comprises Nirvana and the whole of carefulness.
He should not do works, nor cause others to do
them, nor assent to others doing them. (22)

When he gets pure (food), he should not be
affected (by love or hate), and he should not be too

1 Attagami = aptagamin. Apta is either Moksha as

assumed in my translation, or it denotes the highest authority ;

in the latter case we can translate : who proceeds on the
right path.

310

fond (of such food) nor long for it. A pious monk,
free from bonds, should wander about desiring
neither honours nor fame. (23)

A monk who has left the house and is free from
desires should abandon his body, annihilating his
sins ; he should not desire life nor death, and walk
about, having got beyond the Circle (of Births) 1 . (24)

Thus I say.

ELEVENTH LECTURE,

CALLED
THE PATH.

What is the Path that has been preached by the
wise Brahma^a 2 (i. e. Mahavira), having correctly
entered upon which path a man crosses the flood
(of Sa^sara) which is difficult to pass ? (i)

O monk and great sage, tell us this best path
which leads to liberation from all misery, as you
know it ! (2)

Tell us how we should describe that path, if
somebody, a god or a man, should ask us about

it! (3)

If somebody, a god or a man, ask you about it,
tell them the truth about the path. Listen to
me! (4)

The very difficult (path) explained by the
Kasyapa, following which some men from this earth

1 Or, the fetter of sin. 2 See note on IX, i.

BOOK I, LECTURE II. 311

have formerly passed over (the Sa;^sara) like traders
over the ocean 1 , pass over it (even now), and will
pass over it in future ; (this path which) I have
learned, I shall explain in due order ; men, listen to
me ! (5, 6)

Earth-lives are individual beings, so are water-
lives, fire-lives, and wind-lives ; grass, trees, corn ; (7)

And the remaining, (viz.) the movable beings ; thus
are enumerated the six classes of living beings ;
these are all the living beings, there are no more
besides. (8)

A wise man should study them with all means of
philosophical research. All beings hate pains ;
therefore one should not kill them. (9)

This is the quintessence of wisdom : not to kill
anything. Know this to be the legitimate conclusion

from the principle of the reciprocity with regard to

non-killing 2 . (10)

He should cease to injure living beings whether
they move or not, on high, below, and on earth.
For this has been called the Nirvana, which consists

in peace 3 , (n)

Master (of his senses) and avoiding wrong, he
should do no harm to anybody, neither by thoughts,
nor words, nor acts. (12)

A wise man who restrains his senses and possesses
great knowledge, should accept such things as are
freely given him, being always circumspect with
regard to the accepting of alms, and abstaining from
what he is forbidden to accept. (13)

1 The same simile occurs also in I, 3, 4, 18, above p. 271

2 The same verse occurred above, I, i, 4, 10, p. 247.

3 We have had the same verse above, I, 3, 4, 20, p. 271.

3 1 2

A true monk should not accept such food and
drink as has been especially prepared for him along
with slaughter of living beings. (14)

He should not partake of a meal which contains
but a particle of forbidden food * : this is the Law
of him who is rich in control. Whatever (food
a monk) suspects (to be impure), he may not
eat. (15)

A man who guards his soul and subdues his
senses, should never assent to anybody killing
beings. In towns and villages cases (will occur,
which place) the faithful (in a dilemma) 2 . (16)

Hearing the talk of people, one should not
say, this is a good action/ nor this is a bad
action. For there is an objection (to either
answer). (17)

He should not say that it is meritorious, because
he ought to save those beings, whether they move
or not, which are killed there for the sake of making
a gift. (18)

Nor should he say that it is not meritorious,
because he would then prevent those for whose sake
the food and drink in question is prepared, to get
their due. (19)

Those who praise the gift, are accessory 3 to the
killing of beings; those who forbid it, deprive
(others) of the means of subsistence. (20)

Those, however, who give neither answer, viz.

This is the meaning of the phrase pfitikarma na seveta.
2 When well-meaning people sink a well, offer a sacrifice, or
feed persons, &c.
8 Literally, wish.

BOOK I, LECTURE II. 313

that it is meritorious, or is not so, do not expose
themselves to guilt, and will reach Beatitude 1 . (21)

Knowing that Beatitude is the best thing as the
moon is among the stars, a sage always restrained
and subduing his senses brings about Beati
tude. (22)

A pious man 2 shows an island to the beings
which are carried away (by the flood of the Sa^sara)
and suffer for their deeds. This place of safety has
been proclaimed (by the Tirthakaras). (23)

He who guards his soul, subdues his senses, puts
a stop to the current (of the Sawsara), and is free
from Asravas 3 , is (entitled to) expound the pure,
complete, unparalleled Law. (24)

Those who do not know this (Law), are not
awakened, though they fancy themselves awakened ;
believing themselves awakened, they are beyond
the boundary of right faith 4 . (25)

Eating seeds and drinking cold water 5 and what

1 Silanka quotes the following Sanskrit verse to show the
application of the maxim to the digging of a well : satyaw
vapreshu sftam Ja^ikaradhavalaw vari pitva prakama/% vyuMMnnase-
shatrzshfla/^ pramuditamanasa/^ pramsartha bhavanti I sosham nite
g-alaughe dinakarakiraair yanty ananta vind.sa.rn teno^dasinabhavaw
vra^ati muniga?za/$ kupavapradikarye II Forsooth, when living
beings drink to their hearts content the cool water of ditches,
which is white like the moon, their thirst is completely allayed
and their heart is gladdened ; but when all the water is dried up by
the rays of the sun, numberless creatures must die ; therefore the
sages decline every interest in the construction of wells and
ditches/

2 The commentators connect sahu as adjective with divam,
and supply Tirthakara, &c. as subject.

8 See above, p. 55, note i. 4 Samadhi.

5 Viodaga = M^odaka.

3 I 4 S&lt;JTRAKK7TANGA.

has been especially prepared for them, they enter
upon meditation 1 , but are ignorant of the truth, and
do not possess carefulness. (26)

As fl^ankas, herons, ospreys, cormorants, and
pheasants meditate upon capturing fish, (which is)
a sinful and very low meditation, so some heretical,
unworthy .Srama^as contemplate the pursuit of
pleasures; (they are) sinful and very low like
herons. (27, 28)

Here some weak-minded persons, abusing the
pure path, enter upon a wrong path. They thereby
will go to misery and destruction. (29)

As a blind-born man getting into a leaky boat
wants to reach the shore, but is drowned during the
passage 2 ; so some unworthy, heretical ^rama^as,
having got into the full current (of the 6a^sara),
will incur great danger. (30, 31)

But knowing this Law which has been proclaimed
by the Kasyapa, (a monk) crosses the dreadful
current (of the Sa?;zsara), and wanders about intent
on the benefit of his soul. (32)

Indifferent to worldly objects, a man should
wander about treating all creatures in the world so
as he himself would be treated. (33)

A wise man knowing (and renouncing) excessive
pride and deceit, (in short) giving up all (causes of
worldly existence), brings about his Liberation 3 . (34)

He acquires good qualities, and leaves off bad
qualities; a monk, who vigorously practises aus
terities, avoids anger and pride. (35)

The Buddhas 4 that were, and the Buddhas that

1 Comp. I, 3, 3, 12. 2 Verses 30, 310=!, i, 2, 31, 320.

3 The first line of this verse occurred in I, 9, 36.

4 Here Buddha is a synonym for Tirthakara.

BOOK I, LECTURE 12. 315

will be, they (as it were) have Peace as their foun
dation, even as all things have the earth for their
foundation. (36)

And if any accidents whatever befall him who
has gained that (foundation), he will not be over
powered by them as a mountain by the storm 1 . (37)

A restrained, very learned, and wise (monk)
should accept such alms as are freely given him,
being free from passions and waiting for his end.
This is the doctrine of the Kevalin. (38)

Thus I say.

TWELFTH LECTURE,

CALLED

THE CREED 2 .

There are four (heretical) creeds 3 which the
disputants severally uphold : i. the Kriyavada, 2. the
Akriyavada, 3. the Vinayavada, and 4. the A^a-
navada. (i)

The agnostics 4 , though they (pretend to) be

1 Silanka says that by exercise the power of resistance will be
increased, and in confirmation of this he relates the well-known
story of the herdsman who daily carried a calf from its birth till it
was two years old.

2 Samosarawa = samavasararca. This word and the verb
samosarai are commonly used when Mahavira preaches to
a meeting (melapaka) gathered round him.

3 Compare Uttaradhyayana XVIII, 23, above p. 83, note 2.

4 Annawiya = a^anikas, the followers of the fourth sect.

3 1 6

clever, reason incoherently, and do not get beyond
the confusion of their ideas. Ignorant (teachers)
speak to ignorant (pupils), and without reflection
they speak untruth. (2)

Believing truth to be untruth, and calling a bad
man good, the various upholders of Vinaya, asked
about it, explain their tenet l . (3)

Without perceiving the truth they speak thus :
this object (viz. Moksha) is realised by us thus (viz.
by Vinaya). The Akriyavadins who deny Karman 2 ,
do not admit that the action (of the soul is trans
mitted to) the future moments 3 . (4)

They become involved in contradiction in their
own assertions ; they falter in their speech and are
unable to repeat what is said to them 4 . This (their
opinion) has a valiant counter-opinion, this (our
opinion) has no valiant counter-opinion; and Karman
has six sources 5 . (5)

The Akriyavadins who do not understand the
truth, bring forward various opinions ; many men

1 Viz. that Moksha is arrived at through Vinaya, discipline.

2 Lavavasanki. Lava is explained by karman, and ava-
sahki by apasartuw silam yeshaw te.

3 The meaning is that as everything has but a momentary
existence, there is no connection between the thing as it is now,
and as it will be in the next moment. This is a doctrine of the
Bauddhas. But the Sarikhyas are also reckoned among the
Akriyavadins, because, according to them, the atman does not act.

4 -Silahka in commenting upon this passage has to say a good
deal about the Bauddhas. It is perhaps of interest that he
mentions their 500 Gatakas, and not thirty-four which is the
recognised number of (zatakas according to the Northern Buddhist.
How .Silanka came to a knowledge of the numbers of Gatakas
accepted by the Southern Buddhists, I cannot tell.

5 Viz. the six Asravas.

BOOK I, LECTURE 12. 317

believing in them will whirl round in the endless
Circle of Births. (6)

There rises no sun, nor does it set ; there waxes
no moon, nor does it wane ; there are no rivers
running, nor any winds blowing ; the whole world
is ascertained to be unreal V (7)

As a blind man, though he have a light, does not see
colours, &c v because he is deprived of his eye(sight),
so the Akriyavadin, having a perverted intellect,
does not recognise the action (of the soul) though it
does exist. (8)

Many men in this world who have studied
astrology, the art of interpreting dreams, divination
from diagrams, augury, divination from bodily marks,
and from portents, and the eight branches (of
divination from omens), know the future 2 . (9)

(The opponents say that) some forecasts are true,
and the prophecies of others prove wrong ; therefore
they do not study those sciences, but they profess to
know the world, fools though they be 3 . (10)

The (Kriyavadins) 6"rama^as and Brahma/zas un
derstanding the world (according to their lights), speak
thus : misery is produced by one s own works, not by
those of somebody else (viz. fate, creator, &c.) 4 . But
right knowledge and conduct lead to liberation, (i i)

1 This is the opinion of the -Sunyavadins, who are considered
to belong to the Akriyavadins, because they deny all actions, even
such as are perceived by everybody (Silahka).

2 This would be impossible if the whole world was unreal.

8 A various reading, commented upon by the scholiasts, runs
thus: ahawsu vi^apalimokkham 6 va, they say that one must
give up science.

4 The Kriyavadins contend, according to Silahka, that works
alone, by themselves, without knowledge, lead to Moksha.

3 1 8 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

The (Tirthakaras), being (as it were) the eyes of
the world and its leaders, teach the path which is
salutary to men ; they have declared that the world
is eternal inasmuch as creatures are (for ever) living
in it, O ye men ! (12)

The Rakshasas and the dwellers in Yama s world,
the troops 1 of Asuras and Gandharvas, and the
spirits that walk the air, and individual beings 2 :
they will all be born again and again. (13)

(The Sa^sara) which is compared to the bound
less flood of water, know it to be impassable and
of very long duration on account of repeated births 3 .
Men therein, seduced by their senses and by women,
are born again and again both (as movable and
immovable beings). (14)

The sinners cannot annihilate their works by new
works ; the pious annihilate their works by abstention
from works ; the wise and happy men who got rid
of the effects of greed, do not commit sins. (15)

They know the past, present, and future ways of
the world ; they are leaders of other men, but
follow no leader; they are awakened, and put an
end to mundane existence. (16)

Averse to injury of living beings, they do not act,
nor cause others to act. Always restraining them-

1 Kaya. The commentators explain this word as denoting
the earth-bodies, &c., but from the context it will be seen that
it refers to Asuras and Gandharvas, and must be translated
by troops/

2 Pud/io siya = prz thak jrita^; according to -Sflahka,
pr/thivyd^rita/^. This expression is generally used to denote
the lower order of beings.

3 To render bhavagahana.

BOOK I, LECTURE 12. 319

selves, those pious men practise control, and some
become heroes through their knowledge. (17)

He regards small beings and large beings, the
whole world as equal to himself; he comprehends
the immense world, and being awakened he controls
himself among the careless. (18)

Those who have learned (the truth) by themselves
or from others, are able (to save) themselves and
others. One should always honour a man, who
is like a light and makes manifest the Law after
having well considered it. (19)

He who knows himself and the world ; who knows
where (the creatures) go, and whence they will not
return ; who knows what is eternal, and what is
transient ; birth and death, and the future existences
of men ; (20)

He who knows the tortures of beings below (i. e.
in hell); who knows the influx of sin and its stop
page 1 ; who knows misery and its annihilation,
he is entitled to expound the Kriyavada 2 , (21)

Being not attached to sounds and colours, indif
ferent to tastes and smells, not desiring life nor
death, guarded by control, and exempt from the
Circle (of Births). (22)

Thus I say.

1 Asrava and sawvara.

2 It is evident that the ^ainas considered themselves Kriyavadins.
I had overlooked this passage when penning the note on p. 83.

32O SCTRAK.R/TANGA.

THIRTEENTH LECTURE,

CALLED

THE REAL TRUTH.

I shall now expound, in accordance with truth,
the various qualities of men ; I shall explain the
virtue and peace of the good, the vices and the
unrest of the wicked, (i)

Having learned the Law from men who exert
themselves day and night, from the Tathagatas 1 t
they neglect the conduct in which they had been
instructed, and speak rudely to their teacher. (2)

Those who explain the pure doctrine according
to their individual opinion, falsify it in repeating (it
after their teachers) ; those who speak untruth
from pride of knowledge, are not capable of many
virtues. (3)

Those who on being questioned conceal the
truth, defraud themselves of the real good. These
bad men who believe themselves good and are full
of deceit, will go to endless punishment. (4)

He who is of a wrathful disposition and calls
everything by its true name 2 , who renews a composed
quarrel, will, like a blind man groping his way with

1 According to the commentators, Gaina teachers, inclusive of
the schismatical ones, are intended. Tathagata is a synonym
of Tirthakara and Buddha; but it is less frequently used by
the Gainas than by the Bauddhas with whom it is of very common
occurrence.

2 Gaga///$abhasi =^agadarthabhashin. Silanka proposes
also^-ayarthabhashin, who speaks dogmatically.

a stick, do harm to himself, being still subject to
passion and possessing evil Karman. (5)

He who is quarrelsome and talks improperly,
is not impartial nor beyond the reach of deceit l ;
but he who executes the commands (of his teacher)
and controls himself, sees nothing but the truth
and is exempt from deceit. (6)

He who conforms to admonitions however many
he receives, is kindly spoken, subtile, manly, noble,
and a well-doer; (such a man) is impartial and
beyond the reach of deceit. (7)

He who believes himself rich in control, or incon
siderately vaunts his knowledge, or fancies himself
purified by austerities, will look upon other men as
shadows. (8)

He is always turned round by delusion, and has
no place in the Gotra where the Vow of Silence
is practised (viz. in the 6aina church), who not
being awakened puts himself forward in order to
gain honours through something different from
control. (9)

A Brahma^a or Kshattriya by birth, a scion of
the Ugra 2 race or a Li///zavi 3 , who enters the order
eating alms given him by others, is not stuck up on
account of his renowned Gotra. (10)

His pedigree on his mother s and on his father s

Ghziighz. (tempest) = maya.

2 Concerning the Ugras, see above, p. 71, note 2.

3 LeM/^ai. According to the Gainas the Li/^^avi and Mallakis
were the chiefs of Ka^i and Ko^ala. They seem to have succeeded
the Aikshvakas, who ruled there in the times of the Ramayawa.
The Li/^avis became a powerful race, who held the supreme
power in Eastern India during many centuries after the beginning
of our era.

[45] Y

322 SUTRAKfl/TANGA.

side will be of no use to him, nothing will but right
knowledge and conduct : when after becoming
a monk he acts like a householder, he will not
succeed in obtaining final Liberation, (n)

If a poor monk subsisting on the meanest food
is attached to vanities, desires fame, and not being
awakened, (makes his monkhood) a means of sub
sistence, he will suffer again and again (in the Circle
of Births). (12)

A monk, who is eloquent, speaks very well, has
bright ideas, is .clever, possesses a fine intellect, and
has purified his soul, may (perhaps) despise other
men on account of his intellect. (13)

Thus an intelligent monk who puts himself for
ward, has not yet realised carefulness ; or rather
he is a weak-minded man who elated by his success
blames other men. (14)

A monk should combat pride of genius, pride of
sanctity, pride of birth, and (pride of good) living,
which is enumerated as the fourth ; such a man is
wise and of the right stuff, (i 5)

The wise leave off these kinds of pride, the pious
do not cultivate them ; the great sages are above
all such things as Gotra (&c.), and they ascend to
the place where there is no Gotra at all (viz. to
Moksha). (16)

A monk who looks upon his body as on a corpse
and fully understands the Law, will on entering
a village or a town distinguish between what may
be accepted and what may not, and will not be greedy
of food or drink. (17)

A monk having conquered aversion to control
and delight in sensual objects, living in company
with many brethren or leading a single life, should

BOOK I, LECTURE 13. 323

silently repeat to himself: A man must come and
go (according to his Karman) alone (i. e. without
deriving any help from others). (18)

Knowing it by intuition or having learned it from
others, one should teach the Law which is a benefit
to men ; the pious are not given to blameable sinful
practices. (19)

If (a monk preaches the Law to some one) whose
disposition he has not ascertained, that man, not
believing (what he is taught), will become angry,
and may wound him in a way that will shorten or
end his life. When he knows their disposition, he
(may teach) others the truth. (20)

A wise man by suppressing his Karman and his
will should renounce his interest in everything else.
(For) through the objects of sight (i.e. senses) which
are causes of danger, men come to harm. Knowing
the truth with regard to movable and immovable
beings (a monk should exert himself) 1 . (21)

Not desiring honour or fame, he should say
nothing to anybody either to please or to irritate
him. Avoiding all evils, a monk should without
embarrassment and passion (preach the Law). (22)

Well considering (his duties) in accordance with
truth, abstaining from doing injury to living beings,
not desiring life nor death, he should wander about
released from the Circle (of Births). (23)

Thus I say.

1 The commentators make out the following meaning : A wise
(preacher) should ascertain (his hearers ) occupations and inclina
tions, and then (try to) better their evil disposition. Through the
objects of sight which are causes of danger, men are led astray.
A wise man knowing (the disposition of his hearers should preach
the Law which is wholesome) to all living beings whether they move
or not.

Y 2

324 sfiTRAKJUTANGA.

FOURTEENTH LECTURE,

CALLED
THE NIRGRANTHA.

He who has given up all worldly ties and is
instructed in our creed, should practise chastity,
exerting himself; obeying the commands (of his
teacher) he should make himself well acquainted
with the conduct ; a clever (monk) should avoid
carelessness, (i)

As (birds of prey), e. g. ZYzankas, carry off a
fluttering young bird whose wings are not yet grown,
when it attempts to fly from the nest, but is not
able to do so, because it is too young and its wings
are not yet grown ; (2)

Just as they carry off a young bird whose wings
are not yet grown, so many unprincipled men will
seduce a novice who has not yet mastered the Law,
thinking that they can get him in their power, when
they have made him leave (the Ga^/cvta) l . (3)

A good man should long to live with his teacher
in order to perform his duties 2 , knowing that he
who does not live with his teacher will not put
an end to his mundane existence. Making manifest

1 Nissariyaw = ni//saritam. I follow in the text the inter
pretation of the commentators. But I think that instead of
mannamawa we must read, as in the preceding verse, manna-
mawaw; and translate: believing himself rich in control
(vasima;w) though he be still wanting in strength (nissariyaw).

2 Samahi;/2.

BOOK I, LECTURE 14. 325

the conduct of the virtuous, an intelligent (monk)
should not leave the (company of his teacher). (4)

(A monk) who complies with the rules for Yatis l
as regards postures, lying down, sitting, and exertion,
who is thoroughly acquainted with the Samitis and
Guptis, should in teaching others explain each single
(point of conduct). (5)

Whether he hears (pleasant) sounds or dreadful
ones, he should not allow himself to be influenced
by them, and persevere in control ; nor should
a monk be sleepy or careless, but by every means
he should get rid of doubts. (6)

If admonished by a young or an old monk, by
one above him or one of equal age, he should not
retort against him 2 , being perfectly free from passion ;
for one who is (as it were) carried away (by the
stream of the Sa^sara), will not get to its opposite
shore. (7)

(He should not become angry) if (doing anything
wrong) his own creed is quoted against him by
a heretic, or if he is corrected by (somebody else) be
he young or old, or by a female slave engaged in
low work or carrying a jar, or by some house
holder. (8)

He should not be angry with them nor do them
any harm, nor say a single hard word to them, but
he should promise not to commit the same sin
again ; for this is better than to do wrong. (9)

As to one who has lost his way in the wood,
others who have not, (show it, thus some) teach the

1 Susadhuyukta.

2 Sammaw tayaw thirato nsUbhigaH ^e. I translate
according to the commentators, as I am unable to understand
the words in the text.

326 stiTRAKR/TANGA.

path which is salutary to men. Therefore (he
should think) : this is for my good that those who
know put me right. (10)

Now he who has lost his way should treat with
all honour him who has not. This simile has been
explained by the Prophet. Having learned what
is right one should practise it. (n)

As a guide in a dark night does not find the way
since he cannot see it, but recognises the way when
it has become light by the rising of the sun; (12)

So a novice who has not mastered the Law, does
not know the Law, not being awakened ; but after
wards he knows it well through the words of the
6anas, as with his eye (the wanderer sees the
way) after sunrise. (13)

Always restrained with regard to movable and
immovable beings which are on high, below, and
on earth, (a monk) should wander about entertaining
no hostile thoughts (towards them) and being stead
fast (in control). (14)

At the right time he may put a question about
living beings to a well-conducted (monk), who will
explain the conduct of the virtuous ; and what he
hears he should follow and treasure up in his heart,
thinking that it is the doctrine of the Kevalins. (15)

Living in this (company of the teacher) and pro
tecting (himself or other beings) in the three ways
(viz. in thoughts, words, and acts), he (gets) peace
and the annihilation (of sins) as they say. Thus
speak those who know the three worlds, and they
do not again commit faults! (16)

A monk by hearing the desired Truth gets bright
ideas and becomes a clever (teacher) ; desiring the
highest good and practising austerities and silence,

BOOK I, LECTURE 14. 327

he will obtain final Liberation (living on) pure
(food). (17)

Those who having investigated the Law expound
it, are awakened and put an end to mundane existence;
able to liberate both (themselves and others), they
answer the well-deliberated questions. (18)

He does not conceal (the truth) nor falsify it ;
he should not indulge his pride and (desire for)
fame ; being wise he should not joke, nor pronounce
benedictions. (19)

Averse to injury of living beings, he does not
disgrace his calling 1 by the use of spells ; a good
man does not desire anything from other people,
and he does not give utterance to heretical doc
trines. (20)

A monk living single should not ridicule heretical
doctrines, and should avoid hard words though they
be true ; he should not be vain, nor brag, but he
should without embarrassment and passion (preach
the Law). (21)

A monk should be modest 2 though he be of
a fearless mind ; he should expound the Syadvada 3 ;
he should use the two (permitted) kinds of speech 4 ,
living among virtuous men, impartial and wise. (22)

He who follows (the instruction) may believe
something untrue ; (one should) kindly (tell him)
It is thus or thus. One should never hurt him by

1 Gotra, explained by mauna.

2 Sanki^iya = jarikyeta.

3 Vibha^-yavada. The saptabhahginaya or seven modes
of assertion are intended by the expression in the text. See
Bhandarkar, Report, 1883-84, p. 95.

4 See above, p. 304, note 4. The first and fourth kinds of speech
are here intended.

328 SOTRAKK/TANGA.

outrageous language, nor give long-winded explana
tions of difficult passages. (23)

(If the pupil does not understand his short expla
nation), he should explain at greater length. When
the pupil has heard it, he will correctly understand
the Truth. A monk should utter pure speech, which
is in accordance with the creed (of the inas), and
should declare the distinction of sin. (24)

He should well learn the (sacred texts) as they
have been revealed ; he should endeavour (to teach
the creed), but he should not speak unduly long.
A faithful man who is able to explain the entire
creed 1 will not corrupt the faith. (25)

He should not pervert nor render obscure (the
truth) ; he should fabricate neither text nor meaning,
being a saviour ; being devoted to the Teacher and
considering well his words, he delivers faithfully
what he has learned. (26)

He who correctly knows the sacred texts, who
practises austerities, who understands all details of
the Law, who is an authentic interpreter, clever, and
learned such a man is competent to explain the
entire creed. (27)

Thus I say.

1 Samahi = samadhi.

BOOK I, LECTURE 15. 329

FIFTEENTH LECTURE,

CALLED
THE YAMAKAS l .

What is past, present, and to come, all this is
known to the Leader, the Saviour, who annihilates
the hindrances to right faith, (i)

The annihilator of doubt knows the incompara
ble (Law) ; he, the expounder of the incomparable 4
(Law), is not inclined towards this or that (heretical
doctrine). (2).

On this or that (article of the creed he has) the
correct opinion ; hence he is rightly called a true
(man) ; he who always possesses the truth, is kind
towards his fellow-creatures. (3)

Towards your fellow-creatures be not hostile :
that is the Law of him who is rich in control ; he
who is rich in control renounces everything, and in
this (world meditates on the) reflections on life 2 . (4)

1 This lecture has been named from its opening words
g-amaiyam, which also means, consisting of yamakas (compare
Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xl, p. 101). For
in this lecture each verse or line opens with a word repeated
from the end of the preceding one. This artifice is technically
called .srznkhala-yamaka, or chain-yamaka, a term which seems
to be contained in another name of our lecture, mentioned by
the author of the Niryukti (verse 28), viz. adaniya-sankaliya.
For sarikaliya is the Prakrz t for jrz rikhala (e.g. in our text I,
5,
2, 20), though .Silahka here renders it wrongly sahkalita; and
adaniya by itself is used as a name of our lecture.

2 These are the twelve bhavanas or meditations on the vanity of
life and the world in general, and on the excellence of the Law, &c.

33O S&lt;JTRAK/27TANGA.

He whose soul is purified by meditating on those
reflections is compared to a ship in water ; like a ship
reaching the shore he gets beyond misery. (5)

A wise man gets beyond it who knows the sins of
this world ; sinful acts are got rid of by him who
does not undertake any new acts. (6)

He who does not undertake new acts does not
acquire Karman,and he verily understands (Karman);
understanding it he becomes a Great Hero *, who is
not born (again) and does not die. (7)

A Great Hero, who has no Karman, does not
die. As the wind extinguishes a light, (so he puts
down) the lovely women in this world. (8)

Those men whom women do not seduce, value
Moksha most ; those men are free from bondage and
do not desire life. (9)

Turning from worldly life, they reach the goal by
pious acts ; by their pious acts they are directed
(towards Liberation), and they show the way to
others. (TO)

The preaching of the Law (has different effect)
on different creatures; he who is rich in control, is
treated with honour 2 , but does not care for it ; he
exerts himself, subdues his senses, is firm, and
abstains from sexual intercourse, (n)

(He should not yield to temptations as a pig which)
is decoyed by wild rice, being proof against sins, and
free from faults. Being free from faults he always

1 Mahavira.

2 Puyawasae, explained by pu^ana-asvadaka. I should
prefer pu^a-na^aka, who abolished the worship of gods, in
which case the following word awasa6 = an-ajaya might be
rendered : he makes no plans.

BOOK I, LECTURE 15. 331

subdues his senses, and has reached the incompar
able cession of Karman 1 . (12)

Knowing the incomparable (control), he should
not be hostile towards anybody, in thoughts, words,
or deeds, having eyes (to see everything). (13)

He truly is the eye of men who (dwells so to speak)
on the end 2 of desire ; on its end (i. e. edge) glides
the razor, on its end (i. e. rim) rolls the wheel. (14)

Because the wise use the ends (of things, i. e. bad
food, &c.) 3 they are called makers of an end here.
Here in the world of men we are men to fulfil the
Law. (15)

In this creed which surpasses the world, (men)
become perfected saints or gods, as I have heard ;
and I have heard that outside the rank of men this
is not so 3 . (16)

Some (heretics) have said that they (viz. the gods)
put an end to misery 4 ; but others (^ainas) have
repeatedly said that this (human) body is not easily
obtained. (17)

To one whose soul has left (human life), it is not
easy again to obtain instruction (in the Law), nor is
such a mental disposition which they declare appro
priate for adopting the Law 5 . (18)

How can it even be imagined that he should

1 Sandhipatte. Sandhi is explained Karmavivaralaksha-
wam bhavasandhim.

2 There is a play on the word end in this and the next
verse which to a modern mind savours more of the absurd than
the profound.

3 Perfection cannot be obtained by other creatures than men.

4 I. e. reach final beatitude.

5 The words as they are preserved do not construe ; the
meaning, however, must have been about what I have given
in the translation.

332 stiTR AKtf/TANGA.

be born again, who professes the pure, complete,
unparalleled Law, and is a receptacle of the un
paralleled Law ? (19)

How could the wise Tathagatas be born again,
the Tathagatas who engage in no undertakings, the
supreme, the eyes of the world ? (20)

And there has been declared by the Kajyapa the
supreme condition x , by realising which some happy
and wise men reach excellence. (21)

A wise man who has gained strength (in control)
which leads to the expiation of sins, annihilates his
former works, and does not do new ones. (22)

The Great Hero does no actions which are the
effects of former sins. By his actions he is directed
(towards Moksha), abstaining from works which are
entailed by birth 2 . (23)

That which all saints value highly (viz. control),
destroys the thorn (viz. Karman) ; practising it
some have been liberated, and others have become
gods. (24)

There have been wise men, and there will be
pious men, who having come to the end and made
manifest the end of the incomprehensible path,
have been liberated. (25)

Thus I say.

1 Viz. control.

2 Gamma.ya.rn. The commentators explain it yan matam;
but I think it is =

BOOK I, LECTURE 1 6. 333

SIXTEENTH LECTURE,

CALLED
THE SONG 1 .

Now the Venerable One said : He who thus sub
dues his senses, who is well qualified (for his task) 2
and abandons his body, is to be called a Brahma;za,
a .Srama^a, a Bhikshu, a Nirgrantha. (The pupil)
replied : Why is he who thus subdues his senses,
who is well qualified (for his task) and abandons
his body, to be called a Brahma^a, a vSrama^a, a
Bhikshu, a Nirgrantha? Tell this, O great sage! (i)

He is a Brahma^a for this reason that he has
ceased from all sinful actions, viz. love, hate, quarrel,
calumny, backbiting, reviling of others, aversion to
control, and love of pleasures, deceit, untruth, and the
sin of wrong belief ; that he possesses the Sarnitis,
always exerts himself, is not angry, nor proud. (2)

He is a .5rama;za for this reason that he is not
hampered by any obstacles, that he is free from
desires, (abstaining from) property, killing, telling
lies, and sexual intercourse ; (and from) wrath, pride,
deceit, greed, love, and hate : thus giving up every
passion that involves him in sin, (such as) killing
of beings. (Such a man) deserves the name of a
Sr3.m3.na., who subdues (moreover) his senses, is well
qualified (for his task), and abandons his body. (3)

1 Gaha = gatha. In this lecture, which is in prose as regards
form and contents, there is nothing that could justify the title
given it.

2 Davie = dravya.

334 S&lt;JTRAKtf/TANGA.

He is a Bhikshu for this reason that he is not
conceited, but modest, and obedient (to his Guru),
that he subdues his senses, is well qualified (for his
task), and abandons his body, that he sustains all
troubles and calamities, that he practises with a pure
mind the (prescribed) conduct, exerts himself well,
is steadfast, and eats but a moderate quantity 1 of
food which is given him by others. (Such a man)
deserves the name of a Bhikshu. (4)

He is a Nirgrantha for this reason that he is single 2 ,
knowing the absolute (atman), awakened, proof against
sins, well disciplined ; that he possesses the Samitis
and equanimity, know^s the true nature of the Self, is
wise, has renounced the causes of sin both (objec
tively and subjectively 3 ), does not desire honour,
respect, and hospitality, but searches and knows
the Law, endeavours to gain Liberation, and lives
restrained. (Such a man) deserves the name of a
Nirgrantha, who subdues his senses, is well qualified
(for his task), and abandons his body. (5)

Know this to be thus as I have told you, because
I am the Saviour. (6)

Thus I say.

1 S a #2 k hay a. The commentator takes this word as a gerund
and explains it : knowing (the vanity of the world).

2 Eka, i.e. free from love and hate.
8 Dravyato bhavataj a.

SECOND BOOK 1 .
FIRST LECTURE 2 ,

CALLED
THE LOTUS.

long-lived (Gambusvamin) ! I (Sudharman)

have heard the following Discourse from the Vene

rable (Mahavira). We now come to the Lecture
called the Lotus/ The contents of it are as
follows : ( i )

There is a lotus-pool containing much water
and mud, very full and complete, answering to
the idea (one has of a lotus-pool), full of white
lotuses, delightful, conspicuous, magnificent, and
splendid. (2)

And everywhere all over the lotus-pool there
grew many white lotuses, the best of Nymphaeas,
as we are told, in beautiful array, tall, brilliant, of
fine colour, smell, taste, and touch, (&c., all down to)
splendid. (3)

And in the very middle of this lotus-pool there
grew one big white lotus, the best of Nymphaeas,

1 With the exception of the fifth and sixth lectures, the whole
Book (mitaskandha) is in prose. I have adhered to the sub
division of the lectures exhibited in the Bombay edition, which,
on the whole, agrees with that of most MSS.

2 The lectures of this Book are called, according to the Nir-
yukti, Great (maha) Lectures.

336 S&TRAK.R7TANGA.

as we are told, in an excellent position, tall, (&c., all
down to) splendid. (4)

[$ 3 and 4 are to be repeated with the word all
or whole added to lotus-pool *.] (5)

Now there came a man from th Eastern quarter
to the lotus-pool, and standing on the bank of it he
saw that one big white lotus, (&c., as above). Now
this man spoke thus : I am a knowing, clever, well-
informed, discerning, wise, not foolish man, who
keeps the way, knows the way, and is acquainted
with the direction and bent of the way. I shall
fetch that white lotus, the best of all Nymphaeas.
Having said this the man entered the lotus-pool.
And the more he proceeded, the more the water
and the mud (seemed to) extend. He had left the
shore, and he did not come up to the white lotus,
the best of Nymphaeas, he could not get back to
this bank, nor to the opposite one, but in the middle
of the lotus-pool he stuck in the mud. (6)

This was the first man. Now (we shall describe)
the second man. There came a man from the
Southern quarter to the lotus-pool, and standing
on the bank of it he saw that one big white lotus
(&c., all as above). There he saw one man who
had left the shore, but had not come up to the white
lotus, the best of Nymphaeas, who could not get
back to his bank, nor to the opposite one, but stuck
in the mud in the middle of the lotus-pool. Now
the second man spoke of the first man thus : This
man is not knowing, not clever, (&c., see above, all
down to) not acquainted with the direction and bent

1 In the text the words savvavanti /a n&m are prefixed to the
text of 3 and 4. I give the explanation of -Silahka:

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 337

of the way. For that man said : I am a knowing,
(&c., all down to) I shall fetch that white lotus, the
best of Nymphaeas. But this white lotus, the
best of Nymphaeas, cannot be got in the way this
man tried. (7)

1 However, I am a knowing, clever, (&c., all down
to the end of the paragraph) he stuck in the mud.
This was the second man. (The same thing hap
pened to a third and a fourth man, who came from
the Western and Northern quarters respectively,
and saw two and three men respectively sticking in
the mud. Some MSS. give the story at length,
others abbreviate it.) (8, 9)

Now a monk living on low food and desiring to
get to the shore (of the Sa^sara), knowing, clever,
(&c., all down to) acquainted with the direction and
bent of the way, came to that lotus-pool from some
one of the four quarters or from one of the inter
mediate points (of the compass). Standing on the
bank of the lotus-pool he saw the one big white
lotus, (&c., as above). And he saw there those
four men who having left the shore, (&c., all as
above) stuck in the mud. Then the monk said :
1 These men are not knowing, (&c., all down to) not
acquainted with the direction and bent of the way ;
for these men thought : We shall fetch that white
lotus, the best of Nymphaeas. But this white
lotus, the best of Nymphaeas, cannot be got in the
way these men tried. I am a monk living on low
food, (&c., all down to) acquainted with the direction
and bent of the way. I shall fetch that white
lotus, the best of Nymphaeas. Having said this
the monk did not enter the lotus-pool ; but standing
on the bank of it he raised his voice : Fly up,
[45] Z

338

O white lotus, best of Nymphaeas ! And the
white lotus, the best of Nymphaeas, flew up. (10)

I have told you, O long-lived ^rama^as, a simile 1 ;
you must comprehend the meaning of it 2 . The
Nirgrantha monks and nuns worshipped and praised
the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira, and then spoke
thus : You have told, O long-lived 5rama;^a, the
simile, but we do not comprehend its meaning,

long-lived 6Yama7/a ! The Venerable Ascetic
Mahavira addressed the crowd of Nirgrantha monks
and nuns, and spoke thus : Ah, you long-lived
Sramawas ! I shall tell, declare, explain, expound,
and demonstrate it with its meaning, reasons, and
arguments. Thus I say: (n)

long-lived .Srama/zas 3 , meaning 4 the world

1 spoke of the lotus-pool. Meaning Karman
I spoke of the water. Meaning pleasures and
amusements I spoke of the mud. Meaning people
in general I spoke of those many white lotuses, the
best of Nymphaeas. Meaning the king I spoke of
the one big white lotus, the best of Nymphaeas.
Meaning heretical teachers I spoke of those four
men. Meaning the Law I spoke of the monk.
Meaning the church 5 I spoke of the bank. Meaning
the preaching of the Law I spoke of (the monk s)
voice. Meaning Nirvana I spoke of (the lotus )
flying up. Meaning these things, O long-lived
6rama^as, I told this (simile). (12)

1 Na6 -#atam, literally, that which is known.

2 In the text the sentence closes with bhante, a word frequently
used in addressing members of the order.

3 These words are in the original repeated in each of the follow
ing sentences. I drop them in the translation.

4 Appaha//u=atmany ahrz tya, literally, having in my mind.

5 Dharmatirtha.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 339

Here in the East, West, North, and South many
men have been born according to their merit, as
inhabitants of this our world, viz. some as Aryas,
some as non-Aryas, some in noble families, some in
low families, some as big men, some as small men,
some of good complexion, some of bad complexion,
some as handsome men, some as ugly men. And of
these men one man is king, who is strong like the
great Himavat, Malaya, Mandara, and Mahendra
mountains, (&c., all down to) who governs his kingdom
in which all riots and mutinies have been suppressed 1 .

And this king had an assembly of Ugras 2 and
sons of Ugras, Bhogas 2 and sons of Bhogas, Aiksh-
vakas and sons of Aikshvakas, Gtibtrts and sons of
Giiatris, Kauravas and sons of Kauravas, warriors
and sons of warriors, Brahma;^as and sons of
Brahma^as, Li/X?/avis and sons of Li//(vavis, com
manders and sons of commanders, generals and sons
of generals. (13)

And of these men some one 3 is full of faith.
Forsooth, the .5rama?2as or Brahma^as made up
their mind to go to him. Being professors of some
religion (they thought) We shall teach him our
religion/ (And they said) : * Know this, dear sir,
that we explain and teach this religion well. (14)

Upwards from the soles of the feet, downwards

1 This is one of the var/zaka or typical descriptions which are
so frequent in the canonical books. The full text is given in the
Aupapatika Sutra, ed. Leumann, n, p. 26 f. Of the many
meanings the word var/zaka may have, masterpiece seems the
one in which it must be taken here. Many varwakas are, partly
at least, composed in a curious metre which I have named Hyper-
metron, see Indische Studien, vol. xvii, pp. 389 ff.

2 Concerning the Ugras and Bhogas compare note 2 on p. 71.

3 Apparently the king is meant.

Z 2

340 SUTRAKK7TANGA.

from the tips of the hair on the head, within the
skin s surface is (what is called) Soul 1 , or what is the
same, the Atman. The whole soul lives ; when this
(body) is dead, it does not live. It lasts as long as
the body lasts, it does not outlast the destruction
(of the body). With it (viz. the body) ends life.
Other men carry it (viz. the corpse) away to burn it.

When it has been consumed by fire, only dove-

coloured bones remain, and the four bearers return
with the hearse to their village. Therefore there is
and exists no (soul different from the body). Those
who believe that there is and exists no (such soul),
speak the truth. Those who maintain that the soul
is something different from the body, cannot tell
whether the soul (as separated from the body) is long
or small, whether globular or circular or triangular
or square or sexagonal or octagonal or long, whether
black or blue or red or yellow or white, whether of
sweet smell or of bad smell, whether bitter or
pungent or astringent or sour or sweet, whether hard
or soft or heavy or light or cold or hot or smooth or
rough. Those, therefore, who believe that there is
and exists no soul, speak the truth. Those who
maintain that the soul is something different from
the body, do not see the following (objections) : (15)
As a man draws a sword from the scabbard and
shows it (you, saying) : " Friend, this is the sword, and
that is the scabbard," so nobody can draw (the soul
from the body) and show it (you, saying): " Friend, this
is the soul, and that is the body." As a man draws
a fibre from a stalk of Mu%"a grass and shows it
(you, saying) : " Friend, this is the stalk, and that is
the fibre ; " or takes a bone out of the flesh, or the

1 Giva.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 341

seed of Amalaka 1 from the palm of his hand, or
a particle of fresh butter out of coagulated milk, and
shows you both things separately 2 ; or as he presses
oil from the seed of Atast 3 , and shows the oil and oil
cake separately, or as he presses the juice from the
sugar-cane, and shows the juice and the molasses 4
separately, so nobody can show you the soul and the
body separately. The same applies also when fire is
churned from Aram-wood. Those who believe that
there is and exists no soul, speak the truth. Those
who say that the soul is different from the body, are
wrong. (16)

This murderer says : Kill, dig, slay, burn, cook,
cut or break to pieces, destroy ! Life ends here ; there
is no world beyond.

These (Nastikas) cannot inform 5 you on the
following points : whether an action is good or bad,
meritorious or not, well done or not well done,
whether one reaches perfection or not, whether one
goes to hell or not. Thus undertaking various works
they engage in various pleasures and amusements
for their own enjoyment. (17)

Thus some shameless men becoming monks pro
pagate a Law of their own. And others believe
it, put their faith in it, adopt it, (saying :) Well, you
speak the truth, O Brahma^a, (or) O Sramana. ! We
shall present you with food, drink, spices, and
sweetmeats, with a robe, a bowl, or a broom.

1 Emblica Myrobalanos.

2 I have somewhat condensed this passage.

3 Ayau//asi in Prakrzt; it is Linum Usitatissimum.

4 Khoyz. See Grierson, Peasant Life of Bihar, p. 236. The
word is apparently derived from root kshud.

5 Pa^iv6denti = prativ6dayanti. The commentators, how
ever, explain it as understand.

34 2 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

Some have been induced to honour them, some
have made (their proselytes) to honour them. (18)

Before (entering an order) they were determined
to become 6rama?2as, houseless, poor monks who
would have neither sons nor cattle, to eat only what
should be given them by others, and to commit no
sins. After having entered their order they do not
cease (from sins), they themselves commit sins, they
cause others to commit sins, and they assent to
another s committing sins. Thus they are given
to pleasures, amusements, and sensual lust ; they are
greedy, fettered, passionate, covetous, the slaves of
love and hate; therefore they cannot free themselves
(from the Circle of Births), nor free anybody else
from it, nor free any other of the four kinds of living
beings from it. They have left their former occupa
tions, but have not entered the noble path. They
cannot return (to worldly life), nor get beyond it ;
they stick (as it were) in pleasures and amusements.
Thus I have treated of the first man (as one who
believes that) soul and body are one and the same
thing. (19)

Now I shall treat of the second man l (as one who
believes that) everything consists of the five elements.

Here in the East, (&c., see $ 13, 14, all down to)
teach this religion well. (20)

There are five elements 2 through which we explain

1 According to the commentators the Lokayatikas or the
Sankhyas are intended. The latter explain the whole world as
developed from the Prakrzti or chaos, and contend that the atman
does not act. The Lokayatikas deny the separate existence of the
atman, and maintain that the elements are called atman when they
manifest intellect (/aitanya).

2 Mahabbhtiya=mahabhuta.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 343

whether an action is good or bad, (&c., see 18, all
down to) hell or not. Everything down to a blade
of grass (consists of them). (21)

And one should know the intermixture l of the
elements by an enumeration of them. Earth is the
first element, water the second, fire the third, wind
the fourth, and air the fifth. These five elements
are not created, directly or indirectly, nor made; they
are not effects nor products ; they are without begin
ning and end ; they always produce effects, are in
dependent of a directing cause or everything else; they
are eternal. Some, however, say that there is a Self
besides the five elements. What is, does not perish ;
from nothing nothing comes. (22)

All living beings, all things, the whole world con
sists of nothing but these (five elements). They are
the primary cause of the world, even down to a blade
of grass. (23)

A man buys and causes to buy, kills and causes to
kill, cooks and causes to cook, he may even sell and
kill a man. Know, that even in this case he does
not do wrong/

These (Nastikas) cannot inform you, (&c., see
15-18, all down to) they stick (as it were) in pleasures
and amusements.

Thus I have treated of the second man (who
believes that) everything consists of the five
elements. (24)

Now I shall treat of the third man (who believes
that) the Self 2 is the cause of everything.

1 Samavaya.

2 The word used in the text is isara = ijvara, but afterwards
pur is a = purushaisusedinitsplace. Both words are synonymous

344

Here in the East, (&c., see $ 12, 13, all down to)
teach this religion well. (25)

( Here all things have the Self for their cause and
their object, they are produced by the Self, they are
manifested by the Self, they are intimately con
nected with the Self, they are bound up in the
Self.

As, for instance, a tumour is generated in the body,
grows with the body, is not separate from the body,
but is bound up in the body : so all things have the
Self for their cause, (&c., all as above).

As, for instance, a feeling of indisposition is gener
ated in the body, grows with the body, is never
separate from the body, but is bound up in the body :
so all things have the Self for their cause, (&c., all as
above).

* As, for instance, an anthill is made of earth, grows
through earth, is not separate from earth, but is
bound up in earth : so all things, (&c., all as above).

* As, for instance, a tree springs up on earth, grows
on earth, is not separate from earth, but is bound up
in earth : so all things, (&c., all as above).

As, for instance, a lotus springs up in earth, grows
on earth, is not separate from earth, but is bound up
in earth : so all things, (&c., all as above).

As, for instance, a mass of water is produced by
water, grows through water, is not separate from
water, but is bound up in water : so all things, (&c.,
all as above).

1 As, for instance, a water-bubble is produced in
water, grows in water, is not separate from water,

with a tin an, the first may denote the highest 3, tin an as in the
Yoga philosophy, or the par a mat man as in the Vedanta.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 345

but is bound up in water : so all things, (&c., all as
above). (26)

And the twelve Aiigas, the Canon of the Gawins x ,
which has been taught, produced, and declared by
the 6Vama;zas, the Nirgranthas, viz. the A/arariga
(all down to) the Drzsh/ivada, is wrong, not true, not
a representation of the truth ; but this (our doctrine)
is correct, is true, is a representation of the truth/

The (heretics in question) make this assertion, they
uphold this assertion, they (try to) establish this
assertion.

Therefore they cannot get out of the misery
produced by this (error), even as a bird cannot get
out of its cage. (27)

These (heretics) cannot inform you, (&c., see j 16-
19, all down to) they stick, as it were, in pleasures
and amusements.

Thus I have treated of the third man (who believes
that) the Self is the cause of everything. (28)

Now I shall treat of the fourth man who believes
that Fate is the cause of everything.

Here in the East, (&c., see $ 12, 13, all down to)
teach this religion well. (29)

c There are two (kinds of) men. One man admits
action, another man does not admit action. Both
men, he who admits action, and he who does not
admit action, are alike, their case is the same, because
they are actuated by the same force 2 . (30)

1 Gawipi^aga.

2 Viz. Fate. For it is their destiny to entertain one belief or the
other, and they are not amenable to it. This is the interpretation
of the commentators. But to the phrase karawam apanna they
give here a meaning different from that in the following paragraphs.
I therefore propose the following translation of the end of the

346

* An ignorant man thinks about the cause as fol
lows : " When I suffer, grieve, blame myself, grow
feeble T , am afflicted, or undergo great pain, I have
caused it ; or when another man suffers, &c., he has
caused it." Thus an ignorant man thinks himself or
another man to be the cause of what he or the other
man experiences. (31)

A wise man thinks about the cause as follows :
"When I suffer, &c., I did not cause it; and when
another man suffers, &c., he did not cause it 2 ."

A wise man thinks thus 3 about the cause of what
he himself or another man experiences. I say this :
" Movable or immovable beings in all the four quar
ters thus (i.e. by the will of Fate) come to have a body,
to undergo the vicissitudes of life, to lose their body,
to arrive at some state of existence, to experience
pleasure and pain 4 ."

Entertaining such opinions these (heretics) cannot
inform you, (&c., as in 17, down to the end). (32)

These worthless men entertain such opinions, and
believe in them till they cannot return, (&c., as in
$19 down to) amusements.

paragraph : are equally (wrong), (err) alike as regards the cause
(of actions)/

1 Tippami, explained lose strength of body/ The word
cannot be trz pyami, because it means I am satisfied/ The
word is probably derived from the root tik to kill/ Tippami
would be an irregular passive, just as sippami from si, see
Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachforschung, vol. xxvii, p. 250.
Leumann, Aupapatika Sutra, glossary s.v. tippa;zaya, explains this
word by crying on the authority of Abhayadeva. Either mean
ing suits the passages where it occurs in our text.

2 But Fate is the cause.

8 That is to say, that Fate distributes pleasure and pain.
4 I render the rather ambiguous expressions in the original
according to the interpretation of the commentators.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 347

I have treated of the fourth man who believes
that Fate is the cause of everything. (33)

These four men, differing in intellect, will, charac
ter, opinions, taste, undertakings, and plans, have
left their former occupations, but have not entered
the noble path. They cannot return (to worldly
life) nor get beyond it ; they stick (as it were) in
pleasures and amusements. (34)

I say : here in the East, West, North, and South
there are some men, viz. Aryas, non-Aryas, (&c., as
in $ 13, all down to) ugly men. They own small or
large houses and fields, they own few or many ser
vants and peasants. Being born in such-like families,
they renounce (their possessions) and lead a mendi
cant s life. Some leave their kinsmen and their
property to lead a mendicant s life ; others, who
have no kinsmen nor property, lead a mendicant s
life. Whether they have kinsmen and property or
not, they renounce them and lead a mendicant s

life. (35)

Previously, however, they thought thus : Here,
indeed, a man, who is on the point of turning monk,
makes the following reflections with regard to dif
ferent things : I possess fields, houses, silver, gold,
riches, corn, copper, clothes, real valuable property,
as riches, gold, precious stones, jewels, pearls, conches,
stones, corals, rubies 1 . I enjoy sounds, colours,
smells, tastes, and feelings of touch. These plea
sures and amusements belong to me, and I belong
to them. (36)

A wise man, previously, should thus think to

1 The same enumeration of valuable things occurs elsewhere,
e. g. Kalpa Sutra, Lives of the 6rinas, 90.

34-8 StjTRAKtf/TANGA.

himself: Here, indeed, some painful illness or
disease might befall me, unwished for, unpleasant,
disagreeable, nasty 1 , painful and not at all plea
sant. O ye dear pleasures, take upon you this
painful illness or disease, unwished for, unpleasant,
disagreeable, nasty, painful and not at all plea
sant, that I may not suffer, grieve, blame myself,
grow feeble, be afflicted, and undergo great pain 2 .
Deliver me from this painful illness or disease, (&c.,
all as above)/ But this desire of his has never yet
been fulfilled. (37)

Here, in this life, pleasures and amusements are
not able to help or to save one. Sometimes a man
first forsakes pleasures and amusements, sometimes
they first forsake him. Pleasures and amusements
are one thing, and I am another. Why then should
we be infatuated with pleasures and amusements
which are alien (to our being) ? Taking this into
consideration, we shall give up pleasures and
amusements. A wise man thinks them alien to
himself. (38)

There are things more intimately connected with
me, viz. my mother, father, brother, sister, wife,
children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law, servants,
friends, kinsmen, companions, and acquaintances.
These my relations belong to me, and I belong to
them. A wise man, previously, should think thus to
himself: Here, indeed,some painful illness or disease
might befall me, (&c., all as in 37 down to the end,
but substitute " relations " for " pleasures "). (39)

1 The original has six synonyms for disagreeable, which it is
impossible to render adequately in English.

2 The same words occurred in 31.

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 349

Or some painful illness or disease, unwished
for, (&c., all down to) not at all pleasant might
befall my dear relations. I will take upon me this
painful illness or disease, &c., that they may not
suffer, (all down to) undergo great pain. I will
deliver them from this painful illness or disease.
But this desire of his has never yet been fulfilled.
For one man cannot take upon himself the pains of
another ; one man cannot experience what another
has done l . (40)

Individually a man is born, individually he dies,
individually he falls (from this state of existence),
individually he rises (to another) 2 . His passions 3 ,
consciousness, intellect, perceptions, and impressions
belong to the individual exclusively. Here, indeed,
the bonds of relationship are not able to help nor
save one. (All as in I 38 down to the end ; substi
tute bonds of relationship for pleasures and
amusements. ) (41)

There are things more intimately connected with
me, viz. my hands, feet, arms, legs, head, belly, charac
ter, life, strength, colour, skin, complexion, ear, eye,
nose, tongue, and touch ; they are part and parcel
of me. But I grow old with regard to life, strength,
(all down to) touch. The strong joints become
loose, the body is furrowed with wrinkles, the black
hair turns white, even this dear body which has
grown with food, must be relinquished in due time.

1 I.e. his Karman.

2 According to the commentators the last two passages should
be translated: individually he leaves (his possessions, &c.), in
dividually he is joined (to them)/

,50 SUTRAKR7TANGA.

Making such reflections, a monk should lead a mendi
cant s life and know that all things are divided into
living beings and things without life, (and living
beings again into) movable and immovable ones. (42)

Here, indeed, householders are killers (of beings)
and acquirers of property, and so are even some
Srama/zas and Brahma;^as. They themselves kill
movable and immovable living beings, have them
killed by another person, or consent to another s
killing them. (43)

Here, indeed, householders are killers (of beings)
and acquirers of property, and so are even some
6rama?2as and Brahma^as. They themselves acquire
sentient or senseless objects of pleasure, have them
acquired by another person, or consent to another s
acquiring them. (44)

Here, indeed, householders are killers (of beings)
and acquirers of property, and so are even some
6rama^as and Brahma^as. But I am no killer (of
beings) nor an acquirer of property. Relying upon l
householders and such .Srama/zas and Brahma^as as
are killers (of beings) and acquirers of property, we
shall lead a life of chastity. (He should, however,
part company with them.) (The pupil asks) : What
is the reason thereof? (The teacher answers) : As
before (their ordination they were killers of beings),
so (they will be) afterwards, and vice versa. It is
evident that (householders) do not abstain (from
sins) nor exert themselves (in control) ; and (as
monks) they will relapse into the same (bad
habits). (45)

Nissae=rmraya, explained

BOOK 2, LECTURE I. 351

The householders and those 6rama#as and Brah-
ma;zas, who are killers (of beings) and acquirers of
property, commit sins both (from love and hatred).
But a monk who takes this into consideration, should
lead a life subject to neither (love nor hatred). (46)

I say : in the East, West, North, and South
(a true monk) will have renounced works, be exempt
from works, will have put an end to them. This
has been taught (by the prophets, &c.). (47)

The Venerable One has declared that the cause
(of sins) are the six classes of living beings, earth-
lives, &c. As is my pain when I am knocked or
struck with a stick, bone, fist, clod, or potsherd ;
or menaced, beaten, burned, tormented, or deprived
of life ; and as I feel every pain and agony from
death down to the pulling out of a hair : in the same
way, be sure of this, all kinds of living beings feel
the same pain and agony, &c., as I, when they are
ill-treated in the same way 1 . For this reason all
sorts of living beings should not be beaten, nor
treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented,
nor deprived of life 2 . (48)

I say : the Arhats and Bhagavats of the past,
present, and future, all say thus, speak thus, declare
thus, explain thus : all sorts of living beings should
not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused,
nor tormented, nor driven away. This constant,
permanent, eternal, true Law has been taught by
wise men who comprehend all things. Thus a monk
abstains from (the five cardinal sins :) slaughter of
living beings, &c. He does not clean his teeth with

1 The text repeats the phrases just translated.

2 The same words form the text of the homily in AXarahga I, 4.

352 stiTR AKK7TANGA.

a tooth-brush \ he does not accept collyrium, emetics,
and perfumes. (49)

A monk who does not act, nor kill, who is free
from wrath, pride, deceit, and greed, who is calm
and happy, should not entertain the following wish :
May I, after my departure from this world, by dint
of my intellect, knowledge, memory, learning, or
of the performance of austerities, religious duties,
chastity, or of this habit to eat no more than is
necessary to sustain life, become a god at whose
command are all objects of pleasure, or a perfected
saint who is exempt from pain and misery. (Through
his austerities) he may obtain his object, or he may
not obtain it. (50)

A monk should not be infatuated with sounds,
colours, smells, tastes, and feelings of touch ; he
should abstain from wrath, pride, deceit, and greed,
from love, hate, quarrel, calumny, reviling of others,
aversion to control and delight in sensual things,
deceit and untruth, and the sin of wrong belief. In
this way a monk ceases to acquire gross Karman,
controls himself, and abstains from sins. (51)

He does not kill movable or immovable beings,
nor has them killed by another person, nor does he
consent to another s killing them. In this way
a monk ceases to acquire gross Karman, controls
himself, and abstains from sins. (52)

He does not acquire sentient or senseless objects
of pleasure, nor has them acquired by another person,
nor does he consent to another s acquiring them.
In this way, (&c., all as above). (53)

1 Or rather a piece of wood with which the Hindus rub their
teeth.

353

He does no actions arising from sinful causes *,
nor has them done by another person, nor does he
consent to another s doing them. In this way (&c.,
all as above). (54)

A monk should not take food, drink, dainties,
and spices when he knows that (the householder) to
satisfy him, or for the sake of a co-religionist, has
bought or stolen or taken it, though it was not given
nor to be taken, but was taken by force, by acting
sinfully towards all sorts of living beings 2 ; nor does
he cause another person to eat it, nor does he consent
to another s eating it. In this way (&c., all as
above). (55)

A monk may think as follows : The (householders)
have the means (to procure food for those) for whose
sake it is prepared; viz. for himself 3 , his sons,
daughters, daughters-in-law, nurses, relations, chiefs,
male and female slaves, male and female servants ;
for a treat of sweetmeats, for a supper, for a break
fast the collation has been prepared. This food is
to be eaten by some people, it is prepared by some
one else, it is destined for some one else, it is free from
the faults occasioned either by the giver or by the
receiver or by the act of receiving it 4 , rendered
pure 5 , rendered free from living matter 6 , wholly free
from living things 7 , it has been begged, has been
given to the monk on account of his profession 8 ,

1 Samparayika. The commentators say : ta a pradv6sha-
nihnavamatsaryantarayajatanopaghatair badhyate.

2 Compare A/aranga Sutra II, i, i, n.

3 Apparently the householder is intended.

4 Udgama, utpadana, eshawa. See above, p. 131, note 7.

5 iSastratitam. 6 -Sastrapariwamitam.
7 Avihiwsitam. 8 Vaishikam.

[45] A a

354 SUTRAKfl/TANGA.

it has been collected in small bits 1 , it is food fit for
a learned monk, it is lawful to eat it at the present
occasion, it is of the prescribed quantity, it greases,
as it were, the axle of the carriage and anoints the
sore, being just sufficient to enable one to practise
control and to carry the burden of it ; he should
consume that food (without delay) even as the snake
returning to its hole ; that is to say : one should eat
when it is time for eating, drink when it is time for
drinking, dress when it is time for dressing, seek
cover when it is time for seeking cover, and sleep
when it is time for sleeping. (56)

A monk who knows the proper measure (in all
things) travelling in one direction or other, should
teach, explain, and praise (the Law), preach it unto
those who exert themselves well, and to those who
do not, to all who come to listen. (He should preach
to them): indifference for the peace of mind, cessation
of passion, Nirvana, purity, simplicity, humility, free
dom from bonds 2 . He should preach the Law which
prohibits to kill any living being, after having well
considered it. (57)

When a monk preaches the Law, he should preach
it not for the sake of food, drink, clothes, resting-
place, or lodging, nor for any objects of pleasure ;
but he should preach the Law indefatigably, for
no other motive than the annihilation of Kar-
man. (58)

Those heroes of faith who are instructed in the
Law by such a monk and exert themselves well, are

1 Samudanikam, i.e. as bees collect honey from many flowers.
Cf. p. 80, note i.

2 Compare A/aranga Sutra I, 7, 4, i, part i, p. 68, note 3.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 355

possessed of all (virtues), abstain from all (sins),
cease from all (passions), conduct themselves well
in every way, and reach final beatitude. (59)

Such a monk searches the Law, knows the Law,
and endeavours to gain Liberation ; as it has been
said : He may get the white lotus, the best of
Nymphaeus, or he may not get it. Such a monk
knows and renounces actions, worldly occupations,
and the life o f a householder ; he is free from passions,
possesses the Samitis, is wise, always exerts himself;
he is to be called: a .Sramarca, a Brahma^a, calm,
a subduer of his senses, guarding himself, liberated,
a seer, a sage, virtuous, wise, a monk, living on low
food, desiring to get to the shore (of the Sawsara),
fulfilling the general and particular virtues 1 . (60)

Thus I say.

SECOND LECTURE,

CALLED

ON ACTIVITY 2 .

O long-lived (Cambusvamin) ! I (Sudharman) have

heard the following Discourse from the Venerable

(Mahavira). We now come to the Lecture called
on Activity. The contents of it are as follows :

1 ^arawakarawaparavid. A ara?;a is explained by mula-
guwa, karawa by uttaraguwa. The mulaguaas consist in the
observance of the five vows, the uttaraguwas are the five Samitis,
the three Guptis, &c., in short, the duties of a monk.

2 Kiriya/Me = kriyasthanam, literally, the subject of
activity.

A a 2

356 sfiTRAKLR/TANGA.

It treats, briefly, of two subjects : merit and dement.
(The former is when the Self is) at rest, (the latter,
when it is) in disturbance 1 , (i)

Now the explanation 2 of the first subject, viz.
demerit, is as follows. Here in the East, West,
North, and South, (&c., all as in II, i, 12, down to)
ugly men. (2)

And as regards committing of sin 3 , among denizens
of hell, brute animals, gods, men, and whatever other
suchlike beings there be, the sentient beings feel 4
the pain. (3)

And these beings practise the following thirteen
kinds of activity

1 . sinning for one s interest ;

2. sinning without a personal interest ;

3. sinning by slaying ;

4. sinning through accident ;

5. sinning by an error of sight ;

6. sinning by lying ;

7. sinning by taking what is not freely given ;

8. sinning by a mere conceit ;

9. sinning through pride ;

10. sinning through bad treatment of one s friends ;

11. sinning through deceit ;

12. sinning through greed ;

13. actions referring to a religious life. (4)

1 Upajanta and anupa^anta.

2 Vibhafiga, more literally, case.

3 DaWasamadana, explained papopadana.

4 A difference is made between feeling (anubhavanti) and knowing
(vidanti): (i) the sa^wins or rational beings feel and know
impressions; (2) the Siddhas only know them; (3) the reasonless
beings only feel them; (4) things without life neither know nor
feel them. Sentient beings are those in Nos. i and 3.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 357

1. The first kind of committing sins is that prompted
by a motive. This is the case when a man for his
own sake, for the sake of his relations, his house,
his family, his friends, for the sake of Nagas, Bhutas,
or Yakshas does injury to movable or immovable
beings, or has it done by another person, or consents
to another s doing it. Thereby the bad Karman
accrues to him. This is the first kind of committing
sins, that prompted by a motive. (5)

2. We now treat of the second kind of committing
sins, viz. that which is not prompted by personal in
terest. This is the case when a man slays, kills,
cuts, pierces, hacks, mangles, or puts to death movable
living beings, not because he wants their body, skin,
flesh, blood, heart, bile, feathers of their tail, tail, big
or small horns, teeth, tusks, nails, sinews, bones, or
marrow ; nor because he has been wounded by them,
or is wounded, or will be wounded ; nor in order to
support his children, or to feed his cattle, or to
enlarge his houses, nor for the maintenance of
Srama^as and Brahma^as, nor for the benefit of his
body ; setting aside reason a fool acquires the habit
of cruelty, being a wanton killer. (6)

This is the case when a man slays, &c. (see above)
immovable living beings as Ikka/a-reed, KaMina,
antuka-grass, Para-grass 1 , Moksha-trees 2 , grass,
Ku^a-grass, Ku//Maka 3 , Pappaka 4 , or straw, not

1 Compare A/fcarariga Sutra II, 2, 3, 18, note i. One MS. reads
Sraga for paraga. Eraka is the name of a reed.

2 Moksha is the name of a tree = mushkaka. The AHrahga
and one of our MSS. have moraga, peacocks feathers. But that
is out of place here.

3 Ku/fc/fc/$a is a white water-lily. The A/arahga Sutra has

= kur/^aka, brush.
Paaka in the A/aranga Sutra.

358

in order to support his children, (&c., all down to)
wanton killer. (7)

Or when a man on a marsh, a lake, a sheet of
water, a pasture-ground, a place surrounded by
a ditch, a moat, a thicket, stronghold 1 in a thicket,
forest, stronghold in a forest, [mountain, stronghold
on a mountain 2 ], piles up grass and lights a fire, or
has it lighted by another person, or consents to
another s lighting it. Thereby the bad Karman
accrues to him. This is the second kind of com
mitting sins, that prompted by no personal in
terest (8)

3. We now treat of the third kind of committing
sins, called slaying. This is the case when a man
thinking that some one has hurt, hurts, or will hurt
him, or one of his people, or somebody else, or one
of that person s people, kills movable and immovable
beings, has them killed by another person, or consents
to another s killing them. Thereby the bad Karman
accrues to him. This is the third kind of commit
ting sins, called slaying. (9)

4. We now treat of the fourth kind of committing
sins, called accidental 3 . This is the case when in
marshes (&c., all as above, down to) strongholds in

1 Or a group of trees.

2 A nearly identical enumeration of places occurs in A/aranga
Sutra II, 3, 3, 2. The words in brackets seem to be added later;
for iStlahka does not comment upon them, and expressly mentions
ten places. They are generally omitted in the sequel when the
same passage occurs again.

3 Akasmaddafi?e. The commentators remark that the word
akasma t is in Magadha pronounced by the people as in Sanskrit.
The fact is that we meet here and in the end of the next paragraph
with the spelling akasmat, while in the middle of the paragraphs
it is spelled akamha, which is the true Prakrzt form.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 359

a forest, a man who lives on deer, who likes deer,
who dotes on deer, goes a hunting deer. Fancying
to see deer, he takes aim with his arrow to kill the
deer. Thinking that he will kill the deer, he kills
a partridge, or a duck, or a quail, or a pigeon, or
a monkey, or a francoline partridge. Here instead
of one (being) he hurts another, (therefore he is
called) an accidental killer. (10)

This is the case when a man weeding rice, Kodrava 1 ,
panic seed, Paraka, or Ralaka, uses his knife to cut
some weeds. Fancying that he is cutting some
weed-grasses 2 , he cuts rice (&c., down to) Ralaka.
Here instead of one (plant) he hurts another ; (there
fore he is called) an accidental killer. Thereby the
bad Karman accrues to him. This is the fourth
kind of committing sins, called accidental, (i i)

5. We now treat of the fifth kind of committing
sins, viz. by an error of sight. This is the case
when a man living together with his mother, father,
brothers, sisters, wives, sons, daughters, or daughters-
in-law, and mistaking a friend for an enemy, kills the
friend by mistake. (12)

This is the case when during a riot in a village 3 ,

1 Paspalum Sobriculatum.

2 They are specialised in the text as Syamakaw trtnam,
mukundaka vrihiusita, and kalesuka. Only the two first
are mentioned in our dictionaries.

3 In the Dipika the following versus memorialis is quoted, in
which the names of places mentioned in the text are defined :
gram6 vrz tya vriteh syan nagaram uru/foturgopurodbhasLrobham
khe/aw nadyadrivesh/a/rc parivrztam abhita/6 kharva/am parvatena I
gramair yuktam ma/ambam dalitadajajatai/^ (?) pattanaw ratnayonir
dr67/akhya;ft sindhuvelavalayitam atha sambadhanaw va*drLsrmgell
It will be seen that the meaning of these terms given in this verse
differs from that given in notes 3-11, p. 176.

360

or a scot-free town, or a town with an earth wall, or
a poor town, or an isolated town, or a large town,
or a sea-town, or a mine, or a hermitage, or a
halting-place of processions or caravans, or a capital,
a man mistaking for a robber one who is not, kills
him by mistake. Thereby the bad Karman accrues
to him. This is the fifth kind of committing sins,
viz. by an error of sight. (13)

6. We now treat of the sixth kind of committing
sins, viz. by lying. This is the case when a man
for his own sake, or for the sake of his relations,
his house, or his servants tells lies, causes another
person to tell lies, or consents to another s telling
lies. Thereby the bad Karman accrues to him.
This is the sixth kind of committing sins, viz. by
lying. (14)

7. Now we treat of the seventh kind of com
mitting sins, viz. by taking what is not freely given.
This is the case when a man for his own sake (&c.,
as above) takes himself what is not freely given, has
it taken by another person, or consents to another s
taking it. Thereby the bad Karman accrues to him.
This is the seventh kind of committing sins, viz. by
taking what is not freely given. (15)

8. Now we treat of the eighth kind of committing
sins, viz. by a mere conceit. This is the case when
a man, without being disappointed by anybody in
any way, meditates, melancholy, sorry, angry, down
cast, anxious in thoughts and ideas, plunged in a sea
of sorrow and misery, reposing his head on the palm
of his hand, overcome by painful reflections, and
casting his eyes on the ground 1 . There are four

1 The same passage occurs Kalpa Sutra, Lives of the 6*inas 5
92, part i, p. 249.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 361

mental, but real, conditions (of this kind), viz. wrath,
pride, deceit, and greed ; for wrath, pride, deceit, and
greed are mental conditions. Thereby the bad
Karman accrues to him. This is the eighth kind
of committing sins, viz. by a mere conceit. (16)

9. Now we treat of the ninth kind of committing
sins, viz. through pride. This is the case when
a man drunk (as it were) with pride of caste, family,
beauty, piety, knowledge, success, power, intelli
gence l , or any other kind of pride, slights, blames,
abuses, reviles, despises somebody else and extols
himself, (thinking :) he is my inferior, I am of better
caste or family, and possess greater power and other
advantages. When he leaves this body and is only
accompanied by his Karman, he, without a will of
his own, goes forth from womb to womb, from birth
to birth, from death to death, from hell to hell. He
is cruel, stubborn, fickle, and proud. Thereby the
bad Karman accrues to him. This is the ninth kind
of committing sins, viz. through pride. (17)

10. We now treat of the tenth kind of committing
sins, consisting in bad treatment of one s friends.
This is the case when a man living together with
his mother, father, brothers, sisters, wives, sons,
daughters, or daughters-in-law, severely punishes
even the smallest offence of theirs ; e. g. he ducks
the offender 2 in cold water, or pours hot water over
him, or scalds him with fire, or lashes his sides sore
with a halter, reed, rope 3 , strap of leather, whip, or

1 These are the eight kinds of pride, madasthanani.

2 The original has kaya#z, the body.

3 Nettewa^netrewa. The commentator says that it is a
particular tree; but 1 think the usual meaning of n6tra, viz. rope,
suits better.

[Sid Harth]

362 stjTRAKK/TANGA.

thong of a whip, or he beats the offender with a
stick, bone, fist, clod, or potsherd. When such
a man is at home, (his people) are miserable ; but
when he is abroad, they rejoice. Such a man, who
is for ever punishing, severely punishing, is hateful
in this world and the next, irritable, passionate,
an extortioner 1 . Thereby the bad Karman accrues
to him. This is the tenth kind of committing sins,
consisting in bad treatment of one s friends. (18)

ii. We now treat of the eleventh kind of com
mitting sins, viz. through deceit. Those who conceal
their thoughts, who are shrouded in darkness, who
are light as the feather of an owl or heavy like a
mountain, use unworthy 2 speech though they be
Aryas. They believe themselves different from
what they really are ; asked one thing, they answer
another, they speak different from what is to be
spoken. (19)

As a man in whose body sticks an arrow 3 , does
not extricate it (fearing the pain), nor has it extricated
by somebody else, nor destroys it, but hides it ; and
the arrow, being not removed, goes deeper and
deeper (in the flesh) ; so a deceitful man, having
practised deception, does not confess it, expiate
it, blame the deed to himself or others, does not
remove it, annihilate it, and endeavour not to do it
again, does not practise the prescribed austerities and
penance. A deceitful man is generally not trusted 4
in this world, a deceitful man is not trusted in the
next world. He blames and reviles (the person

, literally, who eats the flesh of the back.
2 Andrya. 3 -Salya.

4 Paayati, pratyayati. Dipika: avi.rvasyataya pratya
yati prakhyatizra yati.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 363

whom he has deceived), he praises himself, and
rejoices, and does not desist (from his vile practices);
he conceals the wrong he has done to others, and
does not acquire a pure Lesya. Thereby the bad
Karman accrues to him. This is the eleventh kind
of committing sins, viz. through deceit. (20)

12. We now treat of the twelfth kind of committing
sins, viz. through greed. Those (heretical monks)
who live in woods, in huts, about villages, or practise
some secret rites, are not well controlled, nor do they
well abstain (from slaying) all sorts of living beings.
They employ speech that is true and untrue at the
same time * : do not beat me, beat others ; do not
abuse me, abuse others ; do not capture me, capture
others ; do not torment me, torment others ; do not
deprive me of life, deprive others of life V And thus
they are given to sensual pleasures, desire them, are
held captive by them, passionately love them for
four or five years, for six or ten years (the period)
may be shorter or longer. After having enjoyed
these pleasures, and having died at their allotted
time, they will be born in some places inhabited by
Asuras and evildoers. And when they are released
therefrom, they will be born deaf and dumb, or
blind 3 , or dumb by birth. Thereby the bad Karman
accrues to him. This is the twelfth kind of com
mitting sins, viz. through greed. (21)

1 Concerning the fourfold division of speech see above, p. 135,
and part i, p. 150, note 2.

2 The meaning is that Brahmans declare it a capital crime to
kill a Brahman, but a venial one to kill a .Sudra.

3 Tammuyattie = tamomukatvena, explained either, blind
by birth, or absolutely stupid or ignorant.

364 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

These twelvekinds of committing sins shouldbewell
understood by a pious Sramana or Brahma^a 1 . (22)

13. We now treat of the thirteenth kind of
acquiring Karman, that having reference to religious
life 2 . A monk 3 who controls himself for the benefit
of his soul, who in walking carefully avoids to cause
the death of any living creature 4 , who uses gentle
and righteous speech 5 , who receives alms in a
manner to avoid the forty-two faults 6 , who is careful
in receiving and keeping of things necessary for
religious exercises 7 , who performs the operations
of nature (excrements, urine, saliva, corporal im
purities and mucus) in an unfrequented place 8 , who
is careful with regard to mind, speech, and body 9 ,
who guards his mind, speech, and body so as to
protect his soul from passions 10 , who guards his
senses, who leads a chaste life regulated by the
three Guptis, who carefully walks, stands, sits down,
lies down, and speaks, who carefully takes up and lays

1 The Karman of the preceding twelve kinds of sins is called
samparayika (see p. 298, n. 3). It takes hold of the Atman till
it is annihilated ; it is a lasting Karman, while that described in
the
next paragraph is of a momentary existence.

2 Iriyavahiya = iryapathika or airyapathika. The term
iryapatha literally means, way of walking, but technically it
denotes the actions of which the life of a correct ascetic consists,
and airyapathika, therefore, is the Karman inseparable from it.

3 The text consists of a string of technical terms, many of
which have been explained already. I here incorporate the ex
planation in the translation. For more particulars see Bhandarkar s
Report, p. 98.

4 Iryasamita. 5 Bhashasamita. 6 Eshawasamita.

7 BhaT/^amatradananikshepaTzasamita.

8 U/fcMra-prasravaTza-jleshma-^alla-j-rznghaTza-parish-
/Mpanika-samita. 9 Mawa^-, vak-, kaya-samita.

10 Mana^-, vak-, kaya-gupta.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 365

down his cloth, alms-bowl, blanket, broom, (even)
such a monk performs various subtile actions called
iryapathika (if it did but consist in moving an eye
lash). This Karman is acquired and comes in contact
(with the soul) in the first moment, in the second
moment it is experienced, in the third it is destroyed ;
thus it is acquired, comes in contact (with the soul),
takes rise, and is destroyed. For all time to come
(the person in question) is exempt from Karman 1 .
Thereby the bad Karman accrues to him 2 . This
is the thirteenth kind of acquiring Karman, that
inseparable from a religious life. (23)

All the Arhats and Bhagavats of the past,
present, and future have told, tell, and will tell,
have declared, declare, and will declare the above
thirteen kinds of acquiring Karman. They have
practised, practise, and will practise the thirteenth
kind of acquiring Karman. (24)

As a supplement 3 to the above (discussion) will

1 An almost identical passage occurs in the Uttaradhyayana
XXIX, 71, above p. 172.

2 This typical passage is repeated here though it is apparently
out of place.

3 Not only this paragraph but also all that follows up to the last
paragraph seems to be a later addition. For in the last paragraph
the subject treated of in 1-27 is taken up again and brought to
its conclusion. After the supplement 25-27 a separate treatise on
the main subject is inserted 28-60 (28-57 on demerit, 58-59 on
merit, 60 on a mixed state) ; after this follows a similar treatise
in 61-77 (6 1-68 on demerit, 69-74 on merit, 75-77 on a
mixed state). In 78 we have again a supplement, and 79-82
contain another supplement (or perhaps two). 83-85 give the
conclusion of the first treatise ( 1-24) and must originally have
followed immediately after 24. So we have here, besides some
appendices, three distinct original treatises on the same subject,
very awkwardly pieced together to form one continuous lecture.

366

now be told the subject of men s success by occult
sciences. Some men differing in intellect, will,
character, opinions, taste, undertakings, and plans,
study various evil sciences; (25) viz. (the divina
tion) from terrestrial accidents, from strange phe
nomena 1 , from dreams, from. phenomena in the air,
from changes in the body, from sounds, from
mystical signs 2 , from seeds 3 ; (the interpretation
of the) marks of women, men, elephants, cows,
partridges, cocks, ducks, quails, of wheels, parasols,
shields, sticks, swords, precious stones, jewels 4 ; (26)
the art to make one happy or miserable, to make
a woman pregnant, to deprive one of his wits ;
incantations 5 , conjuring 6 ; oblations of substances ;
the martial arts ; the course of the moon, sun,
Venus, and Jupiter ; the falling of meteors ; great
conflagration ; divination from wild animals 7 , the
flight of crows, showers of dust, rain of blood, the
Vaitall and Ardhavaitall arts 8 , the art of casting
people asleep, of opening doors, the art of ATa^alas,
of 6abaras, of Dravu/as, of Kalihgas, of Gau^/as, of
Gandharas ; the spells for making somebody fall
down, rise, yawn ; for making him immovable, or
cling to something ; for making him sick, or sound ;

1 E. g. the laughing of monkeys.

2 Lakshawa. The mystical signs meant are the svastika, &c.

3 Vyaw^ana. The seeds are sesamum, beans, &c.

4 Kakiwi, rendered ratna in the commentary.

6 Atharvawi. 6 Pakajasani = indra^ala.

7 Mrz gaakra.

8 According to the commentary the Vaitali art teaches to raise
a stick (? daw^am utthapayati, perhaps to lay a punishment on
somebody) by spells; and the Ardhavaitalika, to remove it. In
Pali vetala/tf means the magic art of bringing dead bodies to life
by spells, see Childers Dictionary of the Pali Language, sub voce.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 367

for making somebody go forth, disappear, (or
come) l . These and similar sciences are practised
(by some men) for the sake of food, drink, clothes,
a lodging, a bed, and various objects of pleasure.
They practise a wrong science, the unworthy, the
mistaken 2 men. After having died at their allotted
time, they will be born in some places inhabited by
Asuras and evildoers. And when they are released
therefrom, they will again be born deaf and dumb,
or night-blind. (27)

Some man for his own sake or for the sake of his
relations, family, or servants, or entering the service
of an acquaintance or neighbour of his, becomes his
companion or his helpmate, or he goes to meet him,
or he becomes a burglar, or a cut-purse, or he tends
sheep, or he becomes a hunter 3 , or he catches
birds, or he uses nets (for catching deer), or he
becomes a fisherman or a cowherd or a slayer of
cows or a dog-keeper or he hunts with dogs. (28)

A man, becoming the companion of another man,
will follow him everywhere, (and having inspired
him with confidence) beats, cuts, pierces, tears,
thrashes, or puts him to death, and thereby gets
his food. By these very evil deeds he degrades
himself 4 . (29)

A man, becoming the helpmate of another man,
always attends on him, (and having inspired him
with confidence) beats, &c. (all down to) degrades
himself. (30)

1 Ayamawiw, it is omitted in some MSS. and in the
commentaries.

2 Vipratipanna. 3 So variya, translated saukarika.
4 I. e. he will be born in one of the low courses of existence.

368

A man, going to meet somebody, on the road,
beats, &c. (all down to) degrades himself. (31)

A man, becoming a burglar, breaks into a house
and beats, &c. (all down to) degrades himself. (32)

A man, becoming a cut-purse, cuts the purse and
beats, &c. (all down to) degrades himself. (33)

A man, becoming a tender of sheep, beats, cuts,
pierces, tears, thrashes, or puts to death a ram or
some other animal. (The rest as above.) (34)

A man, becoming a hunter, beats, &c. (all down
to) puts to death a buffalo or some other animal.
(The rest as above.) (35)

A man, using nets (for catching deer), beats, &c.,
an antelope or some other animal. (The rest as
above.) (36)

A man, catching birds, beats, &c., a bird or some
other animal. (The rest as above.) (37)

A man, becoming a fisherman, beats, &c., a fish
or some other animal. (The rest as above.) (38)

A man, becoming a cowherd, beats, &c., a cow
or some other animal. (The rest as above.) (39)

A man, slaying cows, beats, &c., a cow or some
other animal. (The rest as above.) (40)

A man, becoming a dog-keeper, beats, &c., a dog
or some other animal. (The rest as above.) (41)

A man, becoming the helpmate of a dog-keeper,
beats, Sec., a dog or some other animal. (The rest
as above.) (42)

A man, rising in an assembly, may promise to
kill some (animal) and he will beat, &c., a part
ridge, duck, quail, pigeon, monkey, a francoline
partridge, or some other animal. (The rest as
above.) (43)

A man, being angry for some reason, e.g. because

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 369

his granary or his liquor-cask runs short \ sets fire
to the cornfields of the householders or their sons,
has the fire set by another person, or consents
to another s setting fire to them. (The rest as
above.) (44)

A man, being angry for some reason, e.g. because
his granary or liquor-cask runs short, makes a deep
cut in the strong limbs of the camels, cows, horses,
or donkeys of the householders or their sons, has
it made by another person, or consents to another s
making the cut. (The rest as above.) (45)

A man, being angry for some reason, e. g. because
his granary or his liquor-cask runs short, covers
with brambles or twigs the householders , or their
sons , stable for the camels, cows, horses, or donkeys,
and burns them, or has them burnt by another
person, or consents to another s burning them.
(The rest as above.) (46)

A man, being angry for some reason, &c. (as
above), steals a householder s or his sons earrings
(or girdle) *, or jewels, or pearls, has them stolen by
another person, or consents to another s stealing
them. (The rest as above.) (47)

A man, being angry, &c. (as before), robs 6ra-
ma/zas or Brahma^as of their umbrella, stick, staff,
small property, pot, chair, clothes, blanket, leather
boots, knife, or scabbard, has it done by another
person, or consents to another s robbing them. (The
rest as above.) (48)

A man, without consideration (and without any

va surathalae^a va. My translation is
conjectural.

2 Gu;za ; omitted in the printed text.
[45] B b

provocation), sets fire to the cornfields of the house
holders, &c. (All as in 44.) (49)

A man, without consideration, makes a deep cut
in the strong limbs of the camels, &c. (All as in

45-) (50)

A man, without consideration, covers with bram
bles and twigs the stables for the camels, &c., and
burns them, &c. (All as in (j 46.) (51)

A man, without consideration, steals the earrings,
&c. (All as in 47.) (52)

A man, without consideration, robs Srama#as or
Brahma^as of their umbrella, &c. (All as in

f4-) (53)

A man, on seeing Sramawas or Brahma^as (whom

he detests), degrades himself by various evil deeds.
Either he gives them a slap with the open hand to
turn them away l , or he abuses them. And when the
monk at the proper time calls (at his house on the
begging- tour), he does not give him alms (but
says) : those who become 6rama;zas are the meanest
workmen, men unable to support (their family),
low-caste men, wretches, idlers! (54)

Such men praise this life, this miserable life ; they
do nothing on behalf of the next world ; they suffer,
grieve, blame themselves, grow feeble, are afflicted,
and undergo great pain ; they do not cease to cause
others to suffer, grieve, &c., to slay and to put men
in fetters ; and while they make suffer or kill, or
make suffer and kill (beings), and do various evil

1 A/fc/^arae apphaletta bhavai =apsarayaj ^apu/ikayas
asphalayita bhavati. I am not sure that I have hit the
meaning; apsara is perhaps derived from apasarayati, the word

is wanting in our dictionaries.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 371

deeds, they enjoy the excellent pleasures of human
life ; viz. such a man eats at dinner-time, he drinks
at drinking-time, he dresses himself at dressing-time,
he goes to bed at the proper time, and sleeps at
sleeping-time. Doing everything in its turn, he
bathes, makes the offering (to the house-gods) \
performs auspicious rites and expiatory acts, washes
his head, hangs a wreath round his neck, adorns
himself with precious stones and golden (trinkets),
puts on (his head) a chaplet of flowers ; with his
body strengthened, with a wreath hanging clown
to the girdle of his loins, dressed in new clothes,
his limbs and body anointed with sandal, (sitting)
on a large throne in a lofty upper room (of his
house), surrounded by women and a troop of
followers, in the light (of torches) burning the whole
night, under the great din of uninterrupted story
telling, dramatical plays, singing, and music, as
beating of time, performing on the V!;za, Turya,
the great drum, and Pa/upa/aha 2 , he enjoys the
excellent pleasures of human life. (55)

When he gives an order to one man, even four
or five men will, without being asked, go up to him
(and say) : Speak, beloved of the gods, what shall
we do ? what shall we fetch ? what shall we give
you ? what (trinket) shall we put on you ? what is
your heart s desire ? what relishes your mouth ?

Unworthy men who see him will say: Forsooth,
this man is a god ; this man is the anointed of the
gods, this man will support (us), as he supports

1 Compare Kalpa Sutra, Lives of the inas, 66, notes. Our com
mentator explains the prdyajJitta (expiatory acts) as ceremonies
counteracting bad dreams.

2 Compare Kalpa Sutra, Lives of the Ginzs, 14, part i, p. 223.

B b 2

372 S(JTRAK#7TANGA.

others. But noble men who see him will say :
This man does cruel actions, and maintains him
self by them. His is the southern region, the hell,
the dark fortnight l . In the future he will not easily
obtain enlightenment. (56)

(The conduct described in the preceding) part 2 is
agreeable to some (heretical) monks, to some house
holders, to men governed by love of life. This
conduct is unworthy, impure, void (of virtues), not
holy, not right, not eradicating sins ; it is not the
road to perfection, liberation, Nirvana, final delivery,
not the road of those who are freed from all
misery ; it is thoroughly untrue, and bad.

This is the explanation of the first subject, viz.
demerit. (57)

Now the explanation of the second subject, viz.
merit, is as follows :

Here in the East, West, North, and South there
are some men, viz. Aryas, non-Aryas, (all down to)
ugly men. They own fields and houses, (&c., all as
in II, i, $ 34-59, down to) reach final beatitude. (58)

(The conduct described in this) part is holy, right,
(all just the reverse of what was said in $ 58, down to)
thoroughly true, and good. This is the explanation
of the second subject, viz. merit. (59)

Now the explanation of the third subject, viz. the
mixed state, is as follows :

Those who live in woods, in huts, near villages,
(&c., all as above, $21, down to) or blind. (The

1 For according to the commentaries the worst of all regions is
the south, the worst state of being that of denizens of hell, and the
dark fortnight is the worse half of the month.

conduct described in this) part is not holy, (&c., all
as in $ 57, down to) thoroughly untrue, and bad.

This is the explanation of the third subject, viz.
the mixed state. (60)

Now the explanation of the first subject, viz.
demerit, is as follows :

Here in the East, West, North, and South live
some men ; they are householders, men of great
desires, great undertakings, great possessions, un
righteous men, men practising unrighteousness, very
unrighteous men, men speaking unrighteously, living
unrighteously, thinking unrighteously, given to un
righteousness, men of unrighteous character and con
duct, men gaining an unrighteous livelihood. (61)

They beat, cut 1 , pierce, skin, are bloody-handed,
violent, cruel, wicked, rash ; they habitually practise
bribery 2 , fraud, deceit, imposture, dishonesty, and
trickery ; they are of bad character and morals, they
are difficult to please, they do not abstain from
killing living beings ; as long as they live they do
not abstain from wrath, (&c., all as in II, i, 51,
down to) the sin of wrong belief; nor from bathing,
rubbing, painting, anointing themselves; from sounds,
touches, tastes, colours, smells ; from wreaths and
ornaments ; from cars, carriages, vehicles, litters,
swings 3 , coach and pair 4 , palankins 5 , beds, seats ;

1 These words are in the 2nd person sing, of the imperative,
which, according to Pamni III, 4, 2, may be used to express a re
peated or habitual action.

2 Gilli, purushadvayotkshipta g^ollika.
4 Thilli, explained: a vehicle drawn by a pair of mules; but,
according to Leumann s.v., saddle.

6 Siyasandima;ziya, explained .nbikavijesha.

374 S^JTRAK^/TANGA.

from enjoying a ride or drive ; from having many
followers ; from buying, selling, doing business with
Mashas 1 , half Mashas, and Rupees ; from silver, gold,
riches, corn, precious stones, pearls, conches, stones,
and corals ; from using wrong weights and measures ;
from undertakings and slaughter ; from working and
making others work ; from cooking and making
others cook ; from cutting, pounding, threatening,
beating, binding, killing, and causing pain ; and
whatever other suchlike wicked and sinful actions
of worthless men there be, that cause pains to other
beings : these men clo not abstain from them as
long as they live. (62)

As some idle, cruel men wantonly injure Kalama 2 ,
Masura 3 , sesamum, Mudga 4 , beans, Nishpava 5 ,
Kulattha 6 , Alisanda 7 , filami//Ma 8 , so an idle,
cruel man wantonly hurts partridges, ducks, quails,
pigeons, francoline partridges, deer, buffaloes, boars,
iguanas, tortoises, and snakes.

A man will (occasionally) severely punish even
the smallest offence of his domestics, viz. a slave or
messenger or hired servant or vassal 9 or para
site ; e. g. punish him, pull out his hair, beat him,
put him in irons, in fetters, in stocks, into prison,
screw up in a pair of shackles (his hands and feet)

1 Mash a is a weight of gold. z A sort of rice.

3 A sort of pulse or lentil. 4 A sort of kidney-bean.

5 Probably Dolichos Sinensis.

6 A sort of pulse, Dolichos Uniflorus.

7 I cannot identify this plant, our dictionaries do not contain
this or a similar word.

! This word ought perhaps to be divided in two; ela are
cardamoms, but what mikkhz is I cannot say.

9 Bhagilla = bhagika, one who gets the sixth part of the
products (e.g. of agriculture) of the work for which he is hired.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 375

and break them, cut off his hands or feet or ears
or nose or lips or head or face (?) l , pierce his feet,
tear out his eyes, teeth, tongue, hang him, brush
him, whirl him round, impale him, lacerate him,
pour acids (in his wounds), belabour him with cutting-
grass, bind him to a lion s tail (!), or a bull s tail,
burn him in a wood on fire, let him be devoured by
crows and vultures, stop his food and drink, keep
him a prisoner for life, let him die any of these
horrid deaths. (63)

A man will (occasionally) severely punish even
the smallest offence of his next of kin, viz. his
mother or father or brother or sister or wife or
sons or daughters or daughters-in-law ; e.g. he ducks
the offender in cold water, (&c., all as in 18, down
to) hateful in this world and the next. They suffer,
grieve, blame themselves, grow feeble, are afflicted,
and undergo great pain ; they do not cease to cause
others to suffer, grieve, &c., to slay and to put men
in fetters 2 . (64)

And thus they are given to sensual pleasures,
desire them, are held captive by them, passionately
love them for four or five years, for six or ten years
the period may be shorter or longer 3 . Having
enjoyed pleasures, having produced the effects
of iniquity, having acquired the Karman of many
sinful actions which generally bear him downwards,
(he goes to the bottom of the hell) 4 . As a ball of

1 The following two words, vegaH/^ahiyaand anga//^ahiya,
I cannot translate.

2 Compare 55. 3 Compare 21.

4 These words from the end of the paragraph are to be supplied
here, or rather the following passage has been inserted in the

376

iron or stone, when thrown in the water, sinks
below the surface of the water till it stops at the
bottom, so a man of the sort we are treating of,
who is full of Karman, full of sin, full of demerit,
full of disgrace 1 , full of iniquity, full of wicked
thoughts, deceit, imposture, and fraud, and, as a rule,
kills animals, having died at the allotted time, will
sink below this earth, and go to the bottom of the
hell. (65)

These hells are round inside, square outside, on
their floor razorlike arrows are thick-set (and covered
with flowers), they are filled with perpetual darkness,
never lighted up by the planets, moon, sun, Na-
kshatras, and stars ; their floor is slippery with
a coating of marrow, fat, flesh, blood, and matter,
and besmeared with grease ; these hells are impure,
smelling detestably, black, of the colour of fire,
very rugged, difficult to pass, horrid. And horrid
are the pains in these hells. (66)

And those who are condemned to live in these
hells, do not sleep nor slumber, nor do they get
any consolation 2 or comfort or recreation or en
couragement ; but the denizens of hell there suffer
exquisite, great, deep, hard, rough, violent, painful,
sharp, intolerable agonies. (67)

As a tree growing on a hill falls by its weight
when its roots are cut, on a low, rugged, inaccessible
place, so a man of the sort we are treating of

middle of the sentence so that it is apparently cut in two, of which
the first lacks the verb.

1 There is, apparently, a pun in the three words vagga, pahka,
ay as a, for they mean also steel, mud, iron.

2 Muim or sayaw or suim. The Dipika has jruti. The
following words are rati, dhr/ti, mati.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 377

wanders from womb to womb, from birth to birth,
from death to death, from hell to hell, from pain
to pain. His is the southern region, the hell, the
dark fortnight 1 . In the future he will not easily
obtain enlightenment. (The conduct described in
the preceding) part is unworthy, impure, (&c., see
$ 57, all down to) it is thoroughly untrue, and bad.
This is the explanation of the first subject, viz.
demerit. (68)

Now the explanation of the second subject, viz.
merit, is as follows :

Here in the East, West, North, and South there
are some such men as abstain from undertakings
and possessions, righteous men, men practising
righteousness, (&c., all as in $ 58, but substitute
righteous for unrighteous/ down to) men gaining
a righteous livelihood. They are of good character
and morals, they are easy to please and good. They
abstain from killing living beings as long as they live,
(&c., all just the reverse of what was said in 62,
down to) whatever other suchlike wicked actions
there be, that cause pains to other beings : these men
abstain from them as long as they live. (69)

There are such monks as in walking carefully
avoid to occasion the death of any living creature,
(&c., all as in J 23, clown to) as lead chaste lives
regulated by the three Guptis, as are free from
anger, pride, deceit, and greed, as are calm, tranquil,
passionless, happy, free from the Asravas, and
bondage, without sorrow ; as water does not adhere
to a copper vessel, or collyrium to mother-of-pearl

1 Compare 56 and note i on p. 372.

,78 SUTRAK7?7TANGA.

(so sins find no place in them) ; their course is
unobstructed like that of Life ; like the firmament
they want nothing to support them ; like the wind
they know no obstacles ; their heart is pure like
the water (of rivers or tanks) in autumn ; like the
leaves of a lotus they cannot be soiled by anything ;
their senses are well protected like the limbs of
a tortoise ; they are single and alone like the horn
of a rhinoceros ; they are free like birds ; they are
always waking like the fabulous bird Bharu^a ;
they are valorous like elephants, strong like bulls,
difficult to attack like lions, steady and firm like
Mount Mandara, deep like the ocean, mild like the
moon, refulgent like the sun, pure like excellent
gold; like the earth they patiently bear every
thing; like a well-kindled fire they shine in their
splendour l . (70)

There are no obstacles anywhere for these
reverend men. The obstacles have been declared
to be of four kinds, viz. animals born from eggs,
viviparous animals, things belonging to somebody,
articles necessary for religious exercises 2 . In which
ever direction they want to go, there they meet with
no obstacle ; but being pure and free, full of learn
ing, control, and austerities, they purify them
selves. (71)

These reverend men practise the following mode

1 The same passage occurs, mutatis mutandis, in the Kalpa
Sutra, Lives of the Ginas, 118; see part i, p. 261, and notes
i and 2.

2 The author of the Dipika offers diverse interpretations of this
division of obstacles, which are apparently guesses and not based on
a solid tradition. In the parallel passage of the Kalpa Sutra, 119,
the division is according to : matter, space, time, and affects.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 379

of living which just suffices for carrying on existence ;
they eat but one meal in two, three, four, five, six,
seven days, in half a month, in one, two, three, four,
five, six months ; they (have vowed to) live on such
food only as has been taken out of the cooking-
vessel, or as is still in it, or the first kind of food
in one place and the second in another, or on low
food, or bad food, or food collected in small bits,
or food given with a dirty hand, or the reverse,
or food given with a hand, &c. soiled by it; they
(have vowed to) accept such alms only as are within
sight (when they beg), or are out of sight, as they
are asked whether they would accept, or as they
are not asked about, as are given with contempt,
or the reverse ; they beg (in houses where they are)
unknown, or when food is scarce l ; they accept only
such things as are at hand, or only a limited number
of gifts, or only a fixed quantity of food ; they beg
according to the rules (laid down for begging) ;
they eat low food or bad food or tasteless food
or badly tasting food or rough food or disagreeable
food; they lead a low or mean life; they drink
sour gruel, they eat nothing seasoned with ghee
or similar materials ; they do not drink liquors
or eat meat, they do not eat highly-flavoured
food ; they eat standing, or supported by some
thing, or sitting on a stool or an armchair; they
lie down stretched out like a stick, or curved
like a bent piece of wood 2 ; they sit in the sun,

1 The author of the Dipika states that such monks beg in the
morning.

2 Laga&lt;/asai6. They lie in such a position that only their
heels and head, or the back touch the ground.

380

they go naked l ; they do not scratch themselves ;
they do not spit ; they do not cut their beard,
hair, and nails, they do not take any care of their
person. (72)

Living in this way they practise many years
Srama/zahood, and if then they fall sick, or even
if they do not, they refuse food and omit many
meals by abstaining from food. When they have
attained that for whose sake they went about
naked and bald-headed, did not bathe, nor clean
their teeth, nor protect their head from the sun,
nor wear shoes; they slept on the bare ground
or a plank or a piece of wood, plucked out their
hair, led a life of chastity, entered the houses of
strangers, and bore, with indifference, success,
failure, honour, disgrace, slights, blame, reviling,
threatening, beating, all sorts of hardships 2 , and
the twenty-two calamities and troubles ; (when they
have attained their end), they reach, while they
are breathing their last, the highest knowledge
and faith, called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme,
unobstructed, unimpeded, complete and full ; and
then they obtain absolute perfection, enlightenment,
deliverance, final beatitude, and put an end to
all misery. (73)

Some become liberated 3 without assuming another
body (after quitting the last). But others, having
died at the allotted time, are, on account of a residue

1 I leave out agattaya or agamaya, which is not explained in
the Dipika.

2 Gramakaw/aka, either the abuse met with in villages, or the
objects of the senses (indriyagrama).

3 Bhayantaro bhavanti. Bhayantaro is explained: who
go (gantara/^) from bhava to Moksha.

of (good) Karman, born in one of the regions of the
gods. Among very beautiful, very splendid, very
excellent, very glorious, very strong, very powerful,
very happy (gods), they become very beautiful, very
splendid, &c., gods 1 ; their breasts shining with
necklaces ; their arms encumbered with bracelets
and armrings ; wearing ear-ornaments 2 which play
on their cheeks, and earrings which hang down
to the bracelets on their upper arms ; wearing
various ornaments on their hands ; their crowns
adorned with gay wreaths ; putting on highly per
fumed, excellent clothes ; using beautiful, excellent
garlands and ointments ; their splendid body orna
mented with a long down-reaching garland ; having
divine colours, touches, constitution (of the body),
and rank ; lighting up and illumining all ten quarters
(of the universe) with their divine beauty, splendour,
lustre, brightness, brilliancy, and light ; beautiful
when they go, beautiful when they rest, and happy
also in the time to come.

(The conduct described in the preceding) part
is worthy, pure, (&c., see 57, all down to) it is
thoroughly true, and good.

This is the explanation of the second subject,
viz. merit. (74)

Now the explanation of the third subject, viz.
the mixed state, is as follows :

Here in the East, West, North, and South there
are some such men as have few desires, few under
takings, few possessions, righteous men, men

1 The following description contains passages recurring in the
Kalpa Sutra, 14, 15.

382 sOTRAKtf/TANGA.

practising righteousness, (&c., all as in $ 69, down to)
men gaining a righteous livelihood. They are of
good character and morals, easy to please, and good.
They abstain, as long as they live, from one kind
of killing living beings, but they do not abstain
from another, (&c., similar as in 62, all down to)
whatever suchlike wicked actions there be, that
cause pains to other beings, from some of them
these men abstain as long as they live, from others
they do not abstain. (75)

There 1 are, for instance, followers of the ^Srama^as,
who comprehend (the doctrine about) living beings
and things without life, who understand (the dif
ference between) virtues and sins, who are well
grounded in (the knowledge of) the Asravas, Sam-
vara, the realisation and annihilation (of Karman), the
subject of actions 2 , bondage, and final liberation;
who, without anybody to back them 3 , cannot be
seduced from the creed of the Nirgranthas by
hosts of gods, Asuras, Nagas, Suvar^as, Yakshas,
Rakshasas, Kinnaras, Kimpurushas, Gammas, and
snake-gods ; who have no doubts, scruples, or
misgivings about this creed of the Nirgranthas, but
have grasped its meaning, got hold of its meaning,
got information about its meaning, ascertained its

1 Silanka says with regard to 76: The MSS. of the text
generally differ from one another in this passage; the text com
mented upon in the Tika, does not agree with that of any MS.
I therefore comment upon the text exhibited in one MS. If,
therefore, my text does not agree with that (of the reader) he should
not be alarmed/ All the MSS. I use have the same text, that of
the commentator. It is characteristic of the way in which
Harshakula, the author of the Dipika, worked, that he copies
Silanka s above remark with some verbal alterations.

2 Kriyadhikararca. 3 Asahaya.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 383

meaning, and understood its meaning ; whose very
marrow 1 of the bones has been penetrated by their
love (for the Nirgrantha creed), avowing that it
alone is true, and all others futile. They keep the
bar 2 (of their gates) raised and their door open,
having no desire to enter a stranger s house or
his seraglio. They strictly keep the Posaha-fast
on the fourteenth and eighth days of the month, on
certain festivals 3 , and on full-moon days. They
provide the Nirgrantha .5rama;2as with pure accep
table food, drink, dainties and spices, with clothes,
alms-bowls, blankets and brooms, with drugs and
medicines, with stools, planks, beds, and couches.
They purify themselves by practising the 611avratas
and Gu^avratas 4 , the Virama/za, the Pratyakhyana,

1 Here the commentator inserts the following story : In
Rag-agrz ha lived a friar versed in magic arts ; he carried off every
woman he saw. On the citizens complaining about the rape, the
king resolved to find out and punish the man. Catching sight of
him at last on the fifth day, the king went after him till the friar
disappeared in a hollow tree of the park, which led to an underground
room. There the king followed and killed him. He released all
the women whom the friar had captured. But one of them would
not return to her husband, being desperately smitten with love for
her seducer. On the advice of some wise men she was made to
drink the friar s (pounded) bones mixed up with milk. This took
the spell off her and cured her of her strange passion.

2 Usiyaphaliha=u///ritaparigha. The commentator mis
takes phaliha for spa/ika, and vainly labours to make out a sound
meaning.

3 Uddish/a.

4 Concerning the Guwavratas see Bhandarkar s Report, 1883, 1884,
p. 114. The Silavratas are apparently identical with the Auvratas,
ibidem. Hoernle translates this passage : by exercises in the moral
restraints (imposed) by the religious vows as well as in the
(general)
renunciations and (special) Posaha-abstinences. Uvasaga Dasao,
translation, p. 41.

384 SflTRAKRZTANGA.

the Posaha-fasts, and austerities which they have
vowed to perform l . (76)

Living in this way they are for many years fol
lowers of the .5Yama;2as, and if then they fall sick, or
even if they do not, they refuse food and omit many
meals by abstaining from food. Having confessed
their sins and expiated them, and having attained
perfection 2 , they die at their allotted time, to be born
again as gods in one of the regions of the gods, (&c.,
all as in 74, down to) it is thoroughly true, and good.

This is the explanation of the third subject, viz.
the mixed state. (77)

He who does not practise cessation 3 (from sin),
is called a foolish man ; he who practises cessation
(from sin), is called a wise man ; he who in one
regard practises cessation (from sin) and in another
does not, is said to be in a state partaking of that
of a wise man and that of a foolish man.

The conduct of him who does not practise cessation
from all (sins), is that of a man who kills living
creatures; it is unworthy, (&c., all down to) thoroughly
untrue, and bad.

The conduct of him who practises cessation from
all (sins), is that of a man who does not kill living
creatures ; it is worthy, pure, (&c., all down to)
thoroughly true, and good.

The conduct of a man who in one regard practises
cessation from all (sins) and in another does not, is

1 The same passage occurs below, 7, 4, and Aupapatika Sutra,
124. Upasakadaja", 66.

2 Samadhi, which is elsewhere explained by m 6 k s h a, but in our
case it cannot be final liberation, but a state of purity of the
soul.

8 Virati.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 385

that of a man who kills some living creatures and
does not kill others ; it is worthy, pure, (&c., all
down to) thoroughly true, and good. (78)

Those whom we have been treating of, fall under
the two heads : merit and demerit ; (the former is
when the Self is) at rest, (the latter, when it is) in
disturbance.

Now the explanation of the first subject is as
follows :

There are enumerated three hundred and sixty-
three philosophical schools 1 : those of the Kriya-
vada, those of the Akriyavada, those of the A^a-
nikavada, and those of the Vainayikavada. These
(philosophers) teach final beatitude, they teach final
deliverance, they speak as 6ravakas, they speak as
teachers of .Sravakas 2 . (79)

All these philosophers, founders of systems of their
own, differing in intellect, will, character, opinions,
taste, undertakings, and plans, formed one large circle,
and every one of them stood in his place.

One man took hold of a vessel quite full of

1 According to the commentators there are 180 schools of
Kriyavadins, 84 of Akriyavadins, 67 of A^Mnikavadins, and 32 of
Vainayikavadins. These numbers are arrived at by calculation,
not by actual observation. E.g. the 180 possible schools of the
Kriyavadins are calculated in the following way. The nine cate
gories of the Gainas are: g lva, a^iva, asrava, sawvara,
nir^ara, pu?zya, papa, bandha, and moksha. Each of them
may be regarded as svata/^ and parata^, as nitya and anitya
with regard to kala, i^vara, atma, niyati, and svabhava. By
multiplying 9 successively in 2, 2, 5, we find 180 to be the number
of possible schools of Kriyavadins.

2 I.e. they learn these heresies from their teachers, and teach
them to their pupils.

[45] C C

386 sCTRAKtf/TANGA.

burning coals by an iron pair of tongs, and addressed
those philosophers, founders of systems of their own,
differing in intellect, (&c., all down to) undertakings
and plans, in the following way : Heighho ! ye philo
sophers, (&c., all down to) undertakings and plans !
take this vessel full of burning coals and hold it for
a minute in your hands ! But do not take hold of it
by a pair of tongs, nor put out the fire, nor come
to the help of one of your own creed or of an alien
creed (by putting out the fire, &c.) ; but fair and
honest 1 , without using any trick, stretch out your
hands/ Having thus spoken, the man took hold of
the vessel quite full of burning coals by an iron pair
of tongs, and (offered to) put it in the hands of those
philosophers. But the philosophers, (&c., all down
to) undertakings and plans, held back their hands.
On this the man addressed all the philosophers, (&c.,
all down to) undertakings and plans, in the following
way : Heighho, ye philosophers, (&c., all down to)
undertakings and plans ! why do you hold back your
hands ? Our hand will be burned. What then,
if it is burned ? (We shall suffer) pain/ Because
you are afraid of pain, you hold back your hands !
(So are all creatures averse to pain). This is a maxim
of general application 2 , it is a true principle, a reli
gious reflection 3 ; this maxim, this principle, this
religious reflection holds good with regard to every
(living being). Therefore those ^Srama^as and Brah-
ma?2as who say that all sorts of living beings may be
beaten or treated with violence or abused or tor-

1 Niyagapa^ivanna. l Tula.

3 Sam6saraa = samavasaraa, explained: dharmaviHra,
viz. of the true adage: atmavat sarvabhfttani ya/^ pa^yati sa
pa^yati.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 2. 387

mented or deprived of life, will in the time to come 1
suffer cutting or piercing, will experience birth, old
age, death, conception in the womb, the Circle of
Births, regeneration, existence as a foetus, the whole
scale of mundane existences, and suffer a variety of
pains 2 . (80)

They will many times undergo punishment, pulling
out of the hair, threatening, putting in irons, (&c.,
similar as in J 63, all down to) whirling round ; (they
will witness) the death of their mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and daughters-in-
law ; (they will experience) poverty, bad luck, com
pany of hated people, separation from those whom
they love, misery, and despair ; they will again and
again wander about in the beginningless and endless,
immense wilderness of the fourfold Sa^sara. They
will not reach perfection, (&c., all down to) not put
an end to all misery. This is a maxim of general
application, (&c., all down to) holds good with regard
to every (living being). (81)

But those .SramaTzas and Brahma^as who say that
all sorts of living beings should not be beaten, &c.,
will in the time to come not suffer cutting, &c. They
will not undergo many punishments, (&c., all just the
reverse of what has been said in JJ 80, 81, down to)
put an end to all misery. (82)

Thus those beings who practise the first twelve
kinds of actions 3 , have not attained perfection, (&c.,
all down to) have not, nor do, nor will put an end to
all misery. (83)

1 Agantu. 2 Kalankalibhava.

8 Described in 5-21. See p. 365, note 3.
C C 2

;88

But those beings who practise the thirteenth kind
of action, have attained perfection, (&c., all down
to) have put, or put, or will put an end to all
misery. (84)

Thus a monk who obtains his soul s good and
benefit, who guards himself, who (well directs the
functions) of his soul, who well exerts himself, who
protects himself (from evil), who is careful of himself,
who saves himself (from the Sawsara), should with
hold his soul (from the twelve kinds of committing
sins). (85)

Thus I say.

THIRD LECTURE,

CALLED

KNOWLEDGE OF FOOD.

long-lived (ambusvamin) ! I (Sudharman)
have heard the following discourse from the Vener

able (Mahavira). We now come to the Lecture

called Knowledge of Food. The contents of it
are as follows :

Here in the East, West, North, and South there
are, all in all, in the world four kinds of seed : seeds
generated at the top (of the plant), at its root, at its
knots, at its stem \ According to the seed and place

1 The commentators here give the reading of the Nagarg-uniyas :
&lt; the growth of seeds of the plants is fivefold, viz. they grow
from
the top (of the plant), its root, its knots, its stem, and its
beads ;

BOOK 2, LECTURE 3. 389

(of growth) of these plants some beings born in
earth, originated in earth, and grown in earth, having
in it their birth, origin, and growth, being impelled
by their Karman, and coming forth in it on account
of their Karman, growing there in particles of earth,
the origin of various things come forth as
trees 1 , (i)

These living beings feed on the liquid substance 2
of these particles of earth, the origin of various
things ; these beings consume earth-bodies, water-
bodies, fire-bodies, wind-bodies, bodies of plants ;
they deprive of life the bodies of manifold movable
and immovable beings ; the destroyed bodies which
have been consumed before, or absorbed by the
rind, (are) digested and assimilated (by them). And
the bodies of these (trees) which bring forth their
different parts, are of manifold colours, smells, tastes,
touches, forms, and arrangement of corporeal par
ticles 3 .

and some are of a sixth kind called sammur&gt;l /$ima (i.e. those
plants which are believed to be originated by the coalescing
particles of the substance in which they grow, e.g. grass springing
up on ground lately cleared by fire). The various readings of the
Nagarnniyas are occasionally quoted in commentaries (see e.g.
part i, p. 32, note 2). But I do not think that it has been satis
factorily made out who these Nagar^-uniyas were.

1 The meaning is, that souls who on account of their Karman
are to be born as trees, previously are embodied in earth, and
thence they are transferred by their Karman to the seed which
brings forth the tree.

2 Si;zeha, explained: snigdhabhava. In the sequel where
plants are spoken of, I shall render this word by sap or humours,
as the context may require.

3 I.e. the food assimilated by the tree is the material of which its
different parts, as root, stem, leaves, &c., are formed, and these
parts are of manifold form, colours, &c.

3QO SCTRAKK/TANGA.

These beings (animating trees) come into existence
because of their Karman ; so we are taught (by the
Tirthakaras, &c.) (2)

And again it has been said of old : some beings
born in trees, originated by trees, sprung from trees,
(&c., as in $ i, down to) springing from trees that
originated in earth, come forth as trees originated
by trees 1 . These beings feed on the sap of the
trees originated in earth, (&c., all as in 2, down to
the end). (3)

(In the same way, and in nearly the same words,
the offshoots of the trees mentioned in the preceding
paragraph are treated of.) (4)

And again it has been said of old : some beings
born in trees, (&c., all as above, down to) growing in
trees, that are originated by trees, come forth as their
roots, bulb, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers,
fruits, and seeds 2 . These beings feed on the sap of
those trees originated by trees, (&c., all as in 2,
down to) and the bodies of the roots, bulb, stem,
&c. are of manifold colours, (&c., all as in $ 2, down
to the end). (5)

(The four paragraphs that come next, 6-9, are
identical with the preceding ones, except that
creeper 3 is substituted for tree. ) (6-9)

(In the same way grass 4 is treated in four
paragraphs, but the whole is much abridged ; then

1 Apparently trees sprung from shoots, sprouts, aerial-roots, &c.
are meant. They are considered as a class different from those
whose offshoots they are.

2 One soul, ^iva, pervades the whole tree; it is the soul of the
tree. Separate ^iv as, however, reside in the roots, &c.

3 A^/$6ruha = adhyar6ha, explained in the Dipika: valli-
vrz ksha. 4 Tn na..

BOOK 2, LECTURE 3. 39 1

it is said that herbs 1 and plants 2 are to be treated
in four paragraphs each.) (10-15)

And again it has been said of old : some beings
born in earth, (&c., all as in $ i, down to) growing
there in particles of earth that are the origin of
various things, come forth as Aya, Kaya, Kuha^a,
Kandu, Uvvehaliya, Nivvehaliya, Esava, Sa///a,
Av^attaga, Vasa^iya 3 . (The rest as in $ 2, but sub
stitute the words Aya, &c. for trees. ) Here there
is only one paragraph, the remaining three do not
apply here 4 . (16)

And again it has been said of old : some beings
born in water, (&c., all as in $ i-i i, substitute only
water for earth. Thus we have four paragraphs
for trees, four for creepers, four for grass, four for
herbs, four for plants). (17)

Now it has been said of old : some beings born in
water, (&c., all as above, down to) growing in par
ticles of water that are the origin of various things,
come forth as Udaga, Avaga 5 , Pa^aga, Sevala 6 ,
Kalambuya 7 , Kaseruya 8 , Ka//^abha;nya, Uppala,

1 6sahi = 6shadhi. 2 Hariya = harita.

8 All the commentators say about the words Aya, &c. (which
offer some various readings in the MSS.), is that they denote
particular plants (vanaspatrmesha) which must be learned from
people (who know them). I give the words in their Prakrz t form,
and do not attempt to transpose them into Sanskrit.

4 For there are no Ayas originated by Ayas except through
their seed.

5 Avaka, a grassy plant growing in marshy land, Blyxa
Octandra.

6 -Saivala, the aquatic plant Vallisneria.

7 Kadamba, Nauclea Kadamba.

8 Ka^eru, Scirpus Kysoor.

Pauma, Kumuya, Nali^a l , Subhagasomya, Po^ariya,
Mahapo/z^ariya, Sayavatta, Sahassavatta, Kalhara,
Koka^ada, Tamarasa 2 , as stalks and fibres of lotus,
as Pukkhala 3 , and Pukkhalatthibhaga. (The rest
similar as in 2.) (18)

And again it has been said of old : some beings
come forth as movable beings from trees born in
earth, from trees originated by trees, from the roots,
(&c., down to) seeds produced by trees, originated
by creepers born on trees, from creepers born on
creepers, from the roots, &c. of creepers born on
creepers, from grass 4 , from herbs 4 , from plants 4 ,
from Aya, (&c., all down to) Kura born in earth ;
from trees born in water (the rest similar as with
trees born in earth), from Udaga, (&c., all down to)
Pukkhalatthibhaga born in water. (19)

These creatures feed on the sap of the trees,
creepers, grass, herbs, plants, be they born in earth
or water, on trees or creepers or grass or herbs or
plants ; (the sap) of their roots, (&c., all down to)
seeds, of Ayas, &c., of Udakas, &c. And these
creatures consume earth-bodies, (&c., all as in 2,
down to) assimilated by them. And the bodies of
these beings born of trees, creepers, grass, herbs,
plants, their roots, &c., of Ayas, &c., of Udagas, &c.,
are of manifold colours, (&c., the rest as in $ 2, down
to the end). (20)

1 The last four are well-known varieties of lotus, called in
Sanskrit:
utpala, padma, kumuda, nalina.

2 The Sanskrit of the last seven items is : puwdarika, mahapu;^-
arika, jatapattra, sahasrapattra, kahlara, kokanada, and tamarasa ;
they are all varieties of lotus.

8 Pushkara.

4 This is to be detailed in the same way as with trees and
creepers.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 3. 393

And again it has been said of old : a man and
a woman combine in cohabitation in a cunnus, which
was produced by their Karman, and there they
deposit their humours. Therein are born the souls of
different men, viz. of those born in Karmabhumi l , or
in Akarmabhumi, or in the minor continents, of Aryas
and barbarians, as women or men or eunuchs, accord
ing to the semen and blood of the mother 2 and the
other circumstances 3 (contingent on their coming
into existence). These beings at first feed on the
menses of the mother and the semen of the father,
or both combined into an unclean, foul (substance).
And afterwards they absorb with a part (of their
bodies) the essence 4 of whatever food the mothers
take. Gradually increasing and attaining to the
proper dimensions of a foetus 5 they come forth from
the womb, some as males, some as females, some as
neuters. As long as they are babies, they suck the
mother s milk; but when they grow older, they eat
boiled rice, or gruel, or both movable and immov
able beings, These beings consume earth-bodies,
(&c., all as before, down to) assimilated by them.
And the bodies of these men, viz. those born in
Karmabhumi, or Akarmabhumi, or in the minor
continents, of Aryas and barbarians, are of mani-

1 Compare note i, p. 225.

2 Both are indicated in the text by big" a. According to ilahka,
a male will be produced if the semen is in excess ; a female, if the
blood ; a neuter, if they are equally balanced.

3 Avakaja. According to *Silanka, a male is produced from
the right side of the womb, a female from the left, a neuter from
both together.

4 Oyam = o^as.

5 Paliyagam, explained garbhaparipaka.

394

fold colours, (&c., all as in 2, down to the
end). (21)

(This paragraph is nearly identical with the pre
ceding one, but substitute * aquatic animals of five
organs of sense, viz. fishes, (all down to) 1 porpoises/
for different men in the beginning and the end.
The following sentence in the middle is slightly
different ; it runs thus : as long as they are young,
they feed on the mothers humours, but when they
grow older they eat plants, or both movable and
immovable beings. ) (22)

(This paragraph treats of) quadrupeds 2 , terrestrial
animals with five organs of sense, viz. solidungular
animals, biungular animals, multiungular animals,
and animals having toes with nails. (All as in the
last paragraph, only as long as they are young, they
feed on their mothers milk. ) (23)

(This paragraph treats of) reptiles moving on the
breast, (being) terrestrial animals with five organs
of sense, viz. snakes, huge snakes 3 , Asalika, and
dragons 4 . (All as before, but the following passage
is different.) Some bring forth eggs, some bring
forth living young ones ; some come out of the egg
as males, some as females, some as neuters. As
long as they are young, they live on wind. (The
rest as above.) (24)

(This paragraph treats of) terrestrial animals with
five organs of sense, walking on their arms, viz,
iguanas, ichneumons, porcupines, frogs, chameleons,

1 See Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 173 ; above, p. 223.

2 Compare Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 180, ibidem.

3 A^agara, literally serpents which devour goats.

4 Mahoraga. According to the Guzerati gloss these snakes
are a thousand yq^anas long.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 3. 395

Khoras, Gharakoillas x , Vissawbharas 2 , rats, man-
gooses, Pailaiyas, cats, Gohas, A^auppaiyas 3 . (The
rest as in the last paragraph.) (25)

(This paragraph treats of) aerial animals with five
organs of sense : birds with membranous wings,
birds with feathered wings, birds with wings in the
shape of a box, and birds (which sit on) outspread
wings 4 . (All as before ; only the following passage
is different) : As long as they are young, they are
hatched by their mothers warmth. (The rest as
above.) (26)

And again it has been said of old : there are
beings of manifold birth and origin, (&c., all as in
i, down to) growing there on the animate or in
animate bodies of manifold movable or immovable
creatures, come forth as parasites 5 . These beings
feed on the humours of various movable and im
movable creatures, &c. And the bodies of these
movable and immovable parasites are of manifold
colours, (&c., as above). (27)

In the same way vermin generated in filthy sub
stances 6 and in the skin of living animals 7 are to be
treated of. (28, 29)

And again it has been said of old : there are some
beings of manifold birth and origin, (&c., all as in () i,

1 Gr* hak6kila, probably identical with grz hagolika, a lizard.

2 Vij-vawbhara is given in the smaller Petersburg Dictionary
as the name of a scorpion or some similar animal. However, it
must denote here some other animal.

3 This may be ^atushpadika, quadruped; but then the word
must be taken in a restricted sense, perhaps, small quadrupeds.

4 See Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 187; above, p. 224. Perhaps bee
tles and butterflies are intended by the two last kinds ofpakshins?

5 A#usuya = anusuta or anusyuta.

6 Duruvasawbhava. 7 Khuruduga.

396

down to) growing thereon (or in) the animate or
inanimate bodies of manifold movable or immov
able creatures as that (water)-body x , which is pro
duced by wind, condensed by wind, and carried along
by wind ; it goes upwards, when there is an upward
wind ; it goes downwards, when there is a downward
wind ; it goes in a horizontal direction, when there
is a horizontal wind; (its varieties are) hoar-frost,
snow, mist, hailstones, dew, and rain. These beings
feed on the humours of these manifold movable
and immovable creatures, &c. And the bodies of
these (water-lives, viz.) hoar-frost, &c., produced by
manifold movable or immovable creatures, are of
manifold colours, (&c., as above) 2 . (30)

And again it has been said of old : some beings,
born in water, (&c., all similar as in $ i, down to)
come forth in water(-bodies) in the water produced
by manifold movable or immovable beings. These
beings feed on the humours of the water(-bodies)
produced by manifold movable and immovable
creatures. (The rest similar as above.) (31)

And again it has been said of old : some beings,
born in water, (&c., all similar as in J i, down to)
come forth in water-bodies produced by other water-
bodies. These beings feed on the humours of those
other water-bodies produced by water-bodies. (The
rest similar as above.) (32)

And again it has been said of old : some beings,
born in water, (&c., all similar as in i, down to)
come forth as movable creatures in the water

1 There is apparently no predicate in this sentence.

2 This paragraph gives the scientific explanation of the way
by which water-bodies or the bodies of water-lives are produced by
wind.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 3. 397

produced by water-bodies. These beings feed on
the humours of the water(-bodies) produced by
water. (The rest similar as before.) (33)

And again it has been said of old : some beings,
of various birth and origin, (&c., all as in i, down
to) come forth as fire-bodies in the manifold animate
or inanimate bodies of movable or immovable
creatures 1 . These beings feed on the manifold
movable or immovable creatures. (The rest similar
as before.)

The remaining three paragraphs are similar (to
those treating of) water-bodies. (34)

(This paragraph treats of wind-bodies in the same
way as the preceding ones treated of fire-bodies ; like
it, it consists of four paragraphs). (35)

And again it has been said of old : some beings,
of various birth and origin, (&c., all as in i, down
to) come forth, in the manifold animate and inani
mate bodies of movable and immovable creatures 2 ,
as earth, gravel, &c. Here the following verses
(from the Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 74-77) are to
be made use of:

1. Earth, gravel, sand, stones, rocks, rock-salt,

iron, copper, tin, lead, silver, gold, and diamond ;

2. Orpiment, vermilion, realgar, Sasaka, antimony,

coral, Abhrapa/ala, Abhravaluka ; these are varieties

of gross (earth-)boclies, and precious stones.

1 E.g. when two bulls or elephants rush upon one another,
sparks of fire are seen issuing from their horns or teeth. Fire is
produced when two pieces of wood or stone are rubbed one against
the other.

2 According to the commentators, earth-bodies are produced in
the shape of precious stones, in the head of snakes, of pearls in the
teeth (sic) of elephants, and so in reeds, &c.

398 SUTRAKR/TANGA.

3. Hyacinth, natron, Anka, crystal, Lohitaksha,
emerald, Masaragalla, Bhu^amo^aka, and sapphire ;

4. bandana, red chalk, Ha^sagarbha, Pulaka,
and sulphur ; A andraprabha, lapis lazuli, Galakanta,
and Suryakanta.

These beings feed on the humours of these
manifold movable and immovable beings. (The
rest as above.)

The remaining three paragraphs are similar (to
those treating of) water-bodies. (36)

And again it has been said of old : all sorts of
living beings, of manifold birth, origin, and growth,
born in bodies, originated in bodies, grown in bodies,
feeding on bodies, experience their Karman, are
actuated by it, have their form and duration of life
determined by Karman, and undergo changes
through the influence of Karman. This you should
know, and knowing it you will be careful and cir
cumspect with regard to your food, and always exert
yourself. (37)

Thus I say.

FOURTH LECTURE,

CALLED

RENUNCIATION OF ACTIVITY.

O long-lived ( iambus vamin) ! I (Sudharman)

have heard the following Discourse from the

Venerable (Mahavira). We now come to the
Lecture called * Renunciation of Activity/ The
contents of it are as follows :

BOOK 2, LECTURE 4. 399

It is the Self that may 1 not renounce (activity), that
may be accustomed to act, that may adhere to errors,
that may be prone to sin, that may be thoroughly
ignorant, that may be thoroughly stolid 2 , that may not
consider the operations 3 of mind, speech, and body,
that may not avoid and renounce sins.

The Venerable One has said, He (i. e. the Self)
is uncontrolled, unresigned, does not avoid and
renounce sins, is active, careless, prone to sin,
thoroughly ignorant, thoroughly stolid. Though
a fool does not consider 4 the operations of his mind,
speech, and body, nor does see even a dream 5 ; still
he commits sins 6 . (i)

The opponent says to the teacher : There can
be no sin, if (the perpetrator of an action) does not
possess sinful thoughts, speech, and functions of the
body, if he does not kill, if he has no internal organ,
if he does not consider the operations of mind,
speech, and body, if he does not see even a dream.

1 May is to render yavi = Hpi. This word is used here to
indicate that the reverse is true in other cases. This paragraph
emphasises the Gaina doctrine that the Self or atman is the direct
cause of all actions of an individual being, in opposition to the
Sankhya philosophers who maintain the absolute inactivity of the
purusha, and to the Bauddhas who deny the existence of a separate
atman altogether.

2 Literally, sleeping (sutta = supta).

3 Literally, speeches (vakka = vakya).

4 We ought, perhaps, to translate : if he is not conscious of, &c.

5 I.e. when consciousness is fainter than in a dream.

6 The doctrine of the Gainas is that Karman is the result of the
action of every being, even of those whose intellect or consciousness
is not developed, as with the k6ndriyas or beings who possess
but one organ of sense. The opponent, however, maintains that
only conscious actions of intelligent beings bring about Karman.
This question is discussed in the following paragraphs.

4OO

What is the meaning of the opponent in making
this statement ? When there is a sinful mind, there
is sin of the mind; when there is sinful speech, there
is sin of the speech ; when there is a sinful body,
there is sin of the body. When one kills, possesses an
internal organ, and considers the operations of mind,
speech, and body, when one sees even a dream, then
there is sin. Only he who has these qualities can
commit sin. The opponent goes on to say, Those
who say : There is sin, though (the perpetrator of an
action) does not possess sinful thoughts, speeches,
and functions of the body, though he does not kill,
though he does not possess an internal organ,
though he does not consider the operations of mind,
speech, and body, and though he does not see even
a dream, those who say this, are wrong/ (2)

Here the teacher says to the opponent : * It is
true what I have just said : there is sin, though (the
perpetrator of the action) do not possess sinful
thoughts, (&c., all as above, down to) though he do
not see even a dream. What is the reason there
of? (The AMrya says) 1 : The Venerable One
has assigned the six classes of living beings as the
reason : the earth-lives, (&c., all down to) movable
beings. With regard to these six classes of living
beings, the Self does not avoid and renounce sins,
he is wicked and does harm through cruelty : (this
holds good with regard to the five cardinal sins :)
killing of living beings, &c. (and the passions) :
anger, &c. (down to) the sin of wrong belief. (3)

(The A/arya says) : The Venerable One has
illustrated this by the example of a murderer :

1 These words here and in the sequel are in Sanskrit; they
probably are a gloss.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 4. 401

a murderer (who hates) a householder or his son or
the king or his servant, resolves, on an occasion
offering, to enter (the victim s house) and to kill him
when he finds an opportunity 1 . Is not this murderer
who has formed this resolution 2 , (a man) who, day
and night, whether sleeping or waking, is full of
hostility and wrong ; who is wicked and does harm
through cruelty? An unbiassed opponent before
whom this is laid, will answer : Indeed, he is ! (4)

(The AMrya says) : As this murderer who has
formed the above resolution is a man who (&c., all
as in 4, down to) does harm through cruelty (and
this holds good with regard to the five cardinal
sins :) killing of living beings, &c. (and the passions:)
anger, &c., (down to) the sin of wrong beliefso it
has been said of him by the Venerable One : he 3 is
uncontrolled, unresigned, he does not avoid and
renounce sins, he is active, careless, prone to sin,
thoroughly ignorant, thoroughly stolid. Though
a fool does not consider the operations of his mind,
speech, and body, nor does see even a dream,
still he commits sins. (5)

As a murderer who entertains (murderous) in
tentions towards a householder, &c., is a man who
(&c., all as in 4, down to) does harm through
cruelty ; so an ignorant man who entertains (cruel)
intentions towards all sorts of living beings, is a man

The Nagar^uniyas have another reading (where, is not stated
by Silahka) : If he sees no opportunity, or his proposed victim is
always on his guard, he does not kill him, but he resolves in his
mind : If I get an opportunity, or I find that man off his guard,
I shall certainly kill him.

2 The original repeats the preceding passage in full. I abridge
it here and in the sequel.

I.e. every soul, even that of a being with but one organ of sense.
[45] D d

4&lt;D2 sfiTRAKR/TANGA.

who (&c., all as in f 4, down to) does harm through
cruelty. (6)

(An opponent might object) : This is no good
reasoning. (For) there are many living beings
which one, during one s whole life, never saw, nor
heard of, nor cared for, nor took notice of. Towards
these beings, therefore, one cannot (be said to) en
tertain (murderous) intentions, nor to be one who,
day and night, whether sleeping or waking, is full of
hostility and wrong, (&c., the rest as in f 4). (y) 1

(The A/arya says) : The Venerable One has
refuted this by two illustrations, one of a sentient
being, the other of a senseless being. The first is
as follows : A sentient being, possessing five organs
of sense and a developed internal organ, may with
regard to the six classes of living beings, viz. earth-
bodies, (all down to) movable beings, impose some
restriction upon himself; (e.g.) that he will meet
his wants, or have them met by others, by means of
earth-bodies only. His intention is : I shall meet my
wants, or have them met by others, by means of
earth-bodies only. His intention is not (to make
use of) this or that (particular earth-body) : he meets
his wants, or has them met by others, by means of
earth-bodies in general. With regard to them,

1 Silanka here makes it clear that the discussion, in the preceding
paragraphs, is carried on in the form of a syllogism of five parts
established in Hindu logics. i contains the proposition, prati^wa,
3 the cause, hetu, 4 the exemplification, udahara^a or
drz sh/anta, 5 the upanaya or that part which shows that the
hetu is in the subject of the syllogism, and 6 the conclusion,
nigamana. We thus see how deeply rooted in, and how genial
to, the mind of the Hindus was the pa^Mvayavam anumanam
or syllogism of five parts ; for the author conforms to it, I dare
say,
unintentionally.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 4. 403

therefore, he is uncontrolled, unrestrained, does not
avoid and renounce sins. The same applies to the
remaining five classes of living beings. Some one
may meet his wants, or have them met by others,
by means of the six classes of living beings. His
intention is : I shall meet my wants, or have them
met by others, by means of the six classes of living
beings ; it is not : by means of some particular
beings. He meets his wants, (&c.) by means of
living beings in general. With regard to them,
therefore, he is uncontrolled, &c. (This holds good
with the five cardinal sins) : killing of living beings,
&c., (and with the passions) : anger, (&c., all down
to) the sin of wrong belief. The Venerable One
has said that such a creature, (&c., all as in i, down
to) commits sins. (8)

The illustration of senseless beings is as follows :
Senseless beings, viz. earth-bodies, (&c., all down to)
plants, to which must be added, as a sixth item,
some movable beings, which have no reason nor
consciousness, nor intellect, nor mind, nor speech, in
order to do something, or to have it done by others,
or to consent to others doing it; these benighted
creatures (are to be considered as murderers), are
full of hostility and wrong (all as in $ 4) l against all

1 If the passage were printed in full, the most glaring contra
dictions would stare the reader in the face. The cause hereof is
not that the passage cannot correctly be rendered, but that the
authors of the Sutras always make use of set phrases whether all
parts of them suit the case in hand or not. Sometimes we can
avoid downright nonsense by selecting a somewhat different
rendering from what was given in another part of the book ; and
so I do in the last sentence of this paragraph. But this is only
a makeshift.

D d 2

404 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

sorts of living beings. (This holds good with the
five cardinal sins :) killing of living beings, &c., (and
with the passions, all down to) the sin of wrong
belief. Know this : though these beings have
neither mind nor speech, yet as they cause pain, grief,
damages, harm, and injury, they must be regarded
as not abstaining from causing pain, &c. (9)

Thus even senseless beings are reckoned instru
mental in bringing about slaughter of living beings,
(&c., all down to) the sin of wrong belief. Beings,
whatever their origin, who were sentient (in one
existence) will become senseless ones (in another)
and vice versa. Not getting rid of, nor shaking off,
nor annihilating, nor destroying their Karman, the
thoroughly wicked and ignorant wander from the
body of a senseless being into that of sentient ones, or
from the body of a sentient being into that of sense
less ones, or from the body of a sentient being into
that of another, or from the body of a senseless being
into that of another. The sentient beings and the
senseless ones, both are wrong in their conduct and
commit sins through cruelty. The Venerable One
has said that such a (creature) is uncontrolled, (&c.,
all as in $ i, down to) commits sins. (10)

(The opponent asks) : What must one do or
cause to be done, in order to become controlled and
restrained, to avoid and renounce sins ? (The A/arya
answers) : The Venerable One has declared that

the cause (of sins) are the six classes of living

beings, earth-lives, &c. As I feel pain, so they do.
Therefore they should not be injured or killed 1 .

1 I here abridge the text which is identical with II, i, 48 ff.,

BOOK 2, LECTURE 5. 405

This constant, permanent, eternal, true Law has
been taught by wise men who comprehend all

things. Thus a monk abstains from (the five

cardinal sins) : slaughter of living beings, &c., (and of
vices, all down to) the sin of wrong belief. He does
not clean his teeth with a tooth-brush, he does not
accept collyrium, emetics, and perfumes. Such
a monk does not act nor kill, he is free from wrath,
pride, deceit, and greed, he is calm and happy.
The Venerable One says that such a (monk) is well
controlled and restrained, does avoid and renounce
sins, is not active, but careful and thoroughly
wise, (n)

Thus I say.

FIFTH LECTURE,

CALLED

FREEDOM FROM ERROR.

A very clever (monk) who practises the vow of
chastity, should not adopt the following (heretical)
doctrines, nor behave badly in this religion, (i)

He should not believe that (this world) is with
out beginning or without end, eternal or not eternal,
according to the argumentation (of heretics) 1 . (2)

From these alternatives you cannot arrive at

1 The Gainas decide all such questions with the help of the
syadvada, which in an admirable way removes all difficulties;
e. g. the world is eternal as far as that part is concerned which is

4O6 SJTRAK7?7TANGA.

truth ; from these alternatives you are, certainly,
led to error. (3)

One should not say : that there will be an end of
beings who (know and) teach the truth 1 ; nor that
all beings are not alike, nor that they shall be in
(perpetual) bondage, or (that the prophets are)
eternal. (4)

From these alternatives you cannot arrive at the
truth, &c. (see verse 3). (5)

One should not say : the guilt of killing small and
great animals is the same, or not the same. (6)

From these alternatives, &c. (7)

One should know that those who accept things
especially prepared for them 2 , will be affected by
dement (in some cases), or will not be affected
(where it is allowed by scripture). (8)

From these alternatives, &c. (9)

One should not maintain the identity of the
audarika 3 , aharika, and karma^a bodies, nor

the substratum of the idea (samanya) world ; it is not eternal as
far as its ever-changing state is meant.

1 *Sastara/$, teachers, here those who reach perfection. The
meaning is that the world would become empty if all beings should
reach perfection. This should not be maintained, nor the opposite
opinion, that some beings are qualified for Nirvana and others not.

2 AhakammaTn, see p. 131, note 7.

! The ainas assume that each individual possesses five bodies :
(i) audarika, or the body that is seen; (2) karma^a, receptacle
of Karman, it is composed of Karman particles; (3) tai^asa,
a body composed of particles of fire, it causes digestion;
(4) aharaka, a subtile body of the soul, with which he goes to
distant places (e.g. when a^aturda^apurvin goes to the Kevalin
to clear up some doubt) ; (5) vaikriya, a subtile body which can
be changed at will. All these bodies/ except the first, are what in
common language are called spirits or souls. We have here
a Hindu counterpart of the belief in the plurality of souls shared

BOOK 2, LECTURE 5. 407

that everything cannot everywhere come into exist
ence 1 , nor that it can. (10)

From these alternatives, &c. (n)

Do not maintain that the world does not exist,
maintain that it exists. (12)

Do not maintain that Giva and A^iva do not
exist, but that they exist. (13)

Do not maintain that Dharma and Adharma do
not exist, but that they exist. (14)

Do not maintain that bondage and liberation do
not exist, but that they exist. (15)

Do not maintain that virtue and vice 2 do not
exist, but that they exist. (16)

Do not maintain that Asrava and the stoppage of
Asrava do not exist, but that they exist. (17)

Do not maintain that the experiencing of the
effect, and the annihilation of Karman do not exist,
but that they exist. (18)

Do not maintain that activity and non-activity do
not exist, but that they exist. ( 1 9)

by many ancient and modern nations. Compare the following
verses quoted in Tylor, Origin of Culture, Chapter XI :
Bis duo sunt homini, manes, caro, spiritus, umbra :

Quattuor haec loci bis duo suscipiunt.
Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolat umbra

Manes Orcus habet, spiritus astra petit.

I am inclined to believe that the idea of the aharaka and
vaikriya .rariras is developed from the popular belief that the
soul in sleep leaves the body and travels far away. Compare also
the Sahkhya terms vaikrz ta and tai^asa, Garbe, Die Sawkhya-
Philosophie, pp. 236, 249.

1 According to the commentator this is said against the Sahkhya
philosophy, for as everything is an effect of Prakrz ti, and Prakr/ti
is
present everywhere, everything may come into existence everywhere.

2 Pu^yam and papam. The one is the good Karman (.yubharn
karmapudgalam) ; the other, the bad.

Do not maintain that anger and pride do not
exist, but that they exist. (20)

Do not maintain that deceit and greed do not
exist, but that they exist. (21)

Do not maintain that love and hate do not exist,
but that they exist. (22)

Do not maintain that the fourfold Circle of Births
does not exist, but that it exists. (23)

Do not maintain that there are no gods and god
desses, but that there are. (24)

Do not maintain that there is no such thing as
perfection and non-perfection, but that there is such
a thing. (25)

Do not maintain that there is no place exclusively
reserved for those who attain to perfection, but that
there is such ] . (26)

Do not maintain that there are no pious and
wicked men, but that there are. (27)

Do not maintain that there is no such thing as
good and bad, but that there is good and bad. (28)

The theory will not work that (a man is always)
good, or (always) bad. The wrongly instructed
*Srama#as do not comprehend the (soul s) bondage 2
(through Karman). (29)

(Do not assert) that everything is imperishable, or
full of pains, nor that criminals should be put to
death or not be put to death ; one should not speak
in this way. (30)

Do not assert that those men are well-behaved
monks who lead a pure life, and that those others
lead an impure life. (31)

1 See Uttaradhyayana XXXVI, 62, 63, p. 212.

2 Vera = vaira ; explained karmabandha.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 6. 409

A wise monk should not say : we get alms (from
this householder) or we do not ; but he should
improve his chances for final liberation ] . (32)

A monk should conform himself to these opinions
taught by the inas, and wander about till he reaches
final liberation. (33)

Thus I say.

SIXTH LECTURE,

CALLED

ARDRAKA 2 .

Go^ala.

Listen, Ardraka 3 , to what (Mahavira) has done.
At first he wandered about as a single monk ; but
now he has surrounded himself by many monks, and
teaches every one of them the Law at length, (i)

1 Santimaggaw / a vuhae = jantimargaw a vrmhayet.

2 The commentators relate a romantic story about prince
Ardraka, which need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say that
he became monk, and after many adventures held the disputation
which forms the subject of our lecture. After having vanquished
his opponents, he was about to join Mahavira, when a newly-tamed
elephant broke his chain, rushed on him, but just in front of him
went down on his knees and paid him reverence. King Sre-
mka witnessed this scene, and wondered how the elephant could
have broken his chains. Ardraka replied that it was still more
strange that a man could break the fetters which worldliness had
fastened upon him. The whole story must be very old, for it is
epitomised in ten gathas by the author of the Niryukti. The names
of the opponents not stated in the text of the verses are supplied
from the commentaries.

3 This name is spelt either Ardra or Ardraka, Adda in Prakm.

4-IO SCTRAK&ZTANGA.

* The inconstant man has decided upon this mode
of life l : to stand up in a crowd of men, surrounded
by monks, and to teach his doctrines for the benefit
of many people. Therefore his former and his
present life are not of a piece. (2)

Either to live as a single mendicant (was right
conduct) or his present life ; therefore both do not
agree with each other.

Ardraka.

" His past, present, and future lives agree with each
other; for he is really always single and alone (though
he be now surrounded by many followers). (3)

" For if a .Srama^a or Brahma^a who causes peace
and security, comprehends the nature of movable
and immovable living beings and explains it in
a crowd numbering thousands, he realises single
ness, remaining in the same mental condition as
before 2 . (4)

"It is no sin to teach the Law, if (he who teaches
it) is patient and resigned, subdues his senses, avoids
bad speech, and uses virtuous speech. (5)

"He who (teaches) the great vows (of monks) and
the five small vows (of the laity 3 ), the five Asravas
and the stoppage of the Asravas, and control, who
avoids Karman in this blessed life of .Sramawas, him
I call a .Srama;za." (6)

1 According to the commentators, Goj-ala intimates that Mahavira
had found it very inconvenient to live alone, because he was then
exposed to many injuries ; so he set up as a Tirthakara.

2 Taha/C /e=:tathar/a. Ar/a is here explained as equal to
lejya.

3 Awuvrata. They are a modification of the great vows,
intended for the laity. See Bhandarkar s Report, p. 114.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 6. 411

Go^ila.

( As your Law makes it no sin for Mahavira to
surround himself by a crowd of disciples), so accord
ing to our Law an ascetic, who lives alone and
single, commits no sin if he uses cold water, eats
seeds, accepts things prepared for him, and has inter
course with women/ (7)

Ardraka.

" Know this : those who use cold water, eat seeds,
accept things especially prepared for them, and have
intercourse with women, are (no better than) house
holders, but they are no 6Vama?2as. (8)

" If those who eat seeds, use (cold) water, and have
intercourse with women, are admitted to be .5rama-
Tzas, then householders too are 6rama;ms ; for they
do the same things l . (9)

" Monks who eat seeds and use cold water, who
beg alms as a means of living, will, though they
leave their relations, be born again and again, and
will not put an end to mundane existence." (10)

Go^ala.

* In making this statement you blame all philo
sophers alike !

Ardraka.

" Every philosopher praises his own doctrines and
makes them known, (n)

" ^rama^as and Brahma^as blame one another
when they teach (their doctrines). (The truth, they

1 I.e. if the characteristic mark of a -Sramarca is to wander about
without a companion, and to bear all sorts of hardship, then house
holders are included in this definition; for some of them also
wander about without a companion and bear the same hardships.

412 SCTRAKK/TANGA.

say,) is all on their side ; there is none on that of
the opponents. But we blame only the (wrong)
doctrines and not at all (those who entertain
them). (12)

" We do not detract from anybody because of his
personal qualities ; but we make known the path
pointed out in our creed. I have been taught the
supreme, right path by worthy, good men. (13)

" If a well-controlled man, afraid of injuring any
movable or immovable living beings, above, below,
or on earth, condemns (evil deeds), he does not at
all blame (anybody) in this world." (14)

Go^la.

Out of fear your SrB.ma.na. will not stay in houses
for travellers or in public garden-houses ; for in
such places he would meet with many clever people,
with lower or nobler men, with talkative or silent
ones. (15)

4 He will not stay there because he fears lest some
monks, wise, well instructed, learned men, who are
well versed in the sacred texts and their meaning,
should put questions to him. (16)

Ardraka.

" Doing nothing without a purpose, nor without
consideration, neither on the behest of the king
nor from fear of anybody, he answers questions
or not (according to the circumstances) ; but he
(answers) worthy people with a definite purpose (in
his mind) 1 , (i 7)

1 As the commentators explain : he is actuated by the Karman,
by virtue of which he has become a prophet (tirthakaranama-
karman) ; and this Karman must take effect and so be annihi
lated.

[Sid Harth]

BOOK 2, LECTURE 6. 413

" He, the wise man, impartially teaches (the Law)
whether he goes (to his pupils) or not ; because un
worthy men have fallen from the true faith, he does
not go to places (frequented by them)." (18)

Go^ala.

As a merchant desirous of gain (shows) his wares
and attracts a crowd to do business, in a similar way
(acts) the Sramana. G^atrzputra. This is what I think
and calculate about it. (19)

Ardraka.

" (Mahavira) acquires no new (Karman), he anni
hilates the old, avoiding wrong opinions ; and thus
the saviour said to others : Herein is contained the
vow (leading to) Brahman (i. e. Moksha) ; this is
the gain which a Sramand. is desirous of. Thus
I say. (20)

" A merchant kills living beings and desires pro
perty ; not leaving his kinsmen, he attracts a crowd in
order to do business. (21)

" Desiring riches and addicted to sensuality, mer
chants wander about to earn their living. But we
(say) that they are passionately fond of pleasures,
unworthy, and desiring the enjoyment of love. (22)

"They do not abstain from slaughter and the
acquirement of property, they are in bondage and
full of wickedness ; and their gain of which you
spoke, will be the endless Circle of Births and pains
manifold l . (23)

" They do not always make profit, nor does it last

or wedha. According to Silahka it is = na iha: not
even here (do they find the profit they seek). I think it may be
the Prakr/t of anekadha. It may, however, stand for sneha^, in
which case the meaning would be : love s (reward will be) pain.

414 SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

for ever ; they meet with both results (success and
failure) in their quest of gain l . The profit (of the
teacher), however, has a beginning, but no end ; the
saviour and sage shares his profit (with others). (24)
" Him who kills no (living beings), who has com
passion on all creatures, who is well grounded in the
Law, and causes the truth of the Law to be known,
him you would equal to those wicked men ! This
is the outcome of your folly." (25)

A Buddhist 2 .

If (a savage) thrusts a spit through the side of
a granary 3 , mistaking it for a man ; or through a
gourd, mistaking it for a baby, and roasts it, he will
be guilty of murder according to our views. (26)

1 If a savage 4 puts a man on a spit and roasts him,
mistaking him for a fragment of the granary ; or a

1 Vayanti te do vi gu6*dayammi = vra^anti te dvavapi
guwav udaye. The usual reading adopted by the commentators
is guno for gune. They translate: vadanti te dvau vigata-
guraodayau bhavata iti : (the experts) say that both (kinds of
profit) are without value and duration. It is obvious that this
interpretation is wrong.

2 Ardraka after having put down Gorala is met, on his way to
Mahavira, by Buddhists who engage him in the following dis
cussion.

3 Pinnagapindi. The commentators explain pi^^aga
(=piyaka) by khala, and pindi by bhinnaka (?) or jakala.
Silahka gives the following explanation. During a struggle with
savage men (mle/^a) some one runs away and throws his cloak off
on a granary. An enemy in pursuit of that man mistakes it for
him and takes hold of it, together with the part of the granary
This interpretation looks absurd ; but it will appear not so if we
remember that granaries are beehive-shaped reservoirs made of
sun-baked mud or wattle and mud ; compare Grierson, Bihar
Peasant Life, p. 17.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 6. 415

baby, mistaking him for a gourd, he will not be
guilty of murder according to our views. (27)

If anybody thrusts a spit through a man or a baby,
mistaking him for a fragment of the granary, puts him
on the fire, and roasts him, that will be a meal fit
for Buddhas to break fast upon. (28)

Those who always feed two thousand worthy
monks, acquire great merit 1 and become powerful
gods in Arupa (dhatu) V (29)

Ardraka.

u Well-controlled men cannot accept (your denial
of) guilt incurred by (unintentionally) doing harm to
living beings. It will cause error and no good to both
who teach such doctrines and who believe them. (30)

" A man who knows the nature of movable and
immovable living beings, above, below, and on earth,
who is afraid of injuring them and abstains from
wicked deeds, may speak and act (in accordance
with our Law) ; he will not be guilty of any (sin). (31)

"It is impossible to mistake (a fragment of the
granary) for a man ; only an unworthy man can say
it. How can (the idea of a man) be produced by
a fragment of the granary ? Even to utter this is an
untruth. (32)

" Do not use such speech by means of which
you do evil ; for such speech is incompatible with
virtues. No ordained (monk) should speak empty
words 3 . (33)

1 Puakhandha = puyaskandha,

2 A r op pa. This is apparently derived from Arupa as rendered
in the text. Arupadhatu is the highest heaven of the Buddhists ;
compare Burnouf, Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 807.

3 Urala = udara, here explained nissara, void of sense.

4 1 6 s)TRAK7TANGA.

" Oh ! you have explored this subject ; you have
thoroughly examined the consequences of acts l of
living beings ; your (fame) reaches the Eastern and
Western oceans ; you view (the universe as if) it
stood on the palm of your hands ! (34)

" Thoroughly examining the consequences of acts
of living beings, (our monks) have found out a pure
way of sustaining life. It is a maxim 2 of the monks
of our creed 3 , that nobody who lives by secret sins 4 ,
should lay down the Law. (35)

"A man who always feeds two thousand worthy
monks, does not control himself, and will be blamed
in this world like a man with bloody hands. (36)

" They kill a fattened sheep, and prepare food for
the sake of a particular person ; they season the meat
with salt and oil, and dress it with pepper. (37)

" You are irreligious, unworthy men, devoted to
foolish pleasures, who say that partaking heartily of
this meat you are not soiled by sin. (38)

" All who partake of such food, commit sins in
their ignorance ; but the wise do nothing of the
kind. Even to utter it is an untruth. (39)

" In compassion to all beings, the seers, the
G^atrz putras 5 , avoid what is sinful ; afraid of it, they
abstain from food especially prepared for them. (40)

" They abstain from wicked deeds, afraid of injur
ing living beings, and do no harm to any creature ;
therefore they do not partake of such food. This is
a maxim of the monks of our creed. (41)

, explained karmavipaka.

2 Anudharma.

3 Iha sawyatanam, who control themselves in this (creed of
the (jamas).

4 .Oannapadopag-ivin. 6 I.e. the ainas.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 6. 417

"(Having reached) this perfection 1 in the Law of
the Nirgranthas and standing firm in it, one should
live without deceit 2 . The awakened sage who is
endowed with all virtues thereby obtained very
great fame." (42)

A Vedic Priest.

Those who always feed two thousand holy 3
mendicants, acquire great merit and become gods.
This is the teaching of the Veda. (43)

Ardraka.

"He who always feeds two thousand holy cats 4
(i. e. Brahma^as), will have to endure great pains in
hell, being surrounded by hungry (beasts). (44)

" He who despises the Law that enjoins compas
sion, and praises the Law that permits slaughter, and
who feeds but a single unprincipled man, even if he
be a king, will go to darkness 5 , and not to the
gods." (45)

A Vedantin 6 .

1 Both of us follow (very much the same) Law ;
we stood firm in it, and shall do so in the time to
come ; (we believe that) virtue consists in good
conduct, and that knowledge (is necessary for libera
tion) ; and with regard to the Circle of Births there
is no difference between us. (46)

1 Samadhi. 2 Aih6. 3 Snataka, cf. Manu XI, i.

4 Kulalaya = kula/a, explained mar^ara. Another explana
tion is : who live (alaya) in houses.

5 Nisaw, literally, night.

6 Silanka calls this opponent an Ekada^in, and ascribes to him
the views of the Sahkhya philosophy. But it is evident from the
sequel that he is a Vedantin, as the commentators admit in their
comment on the next verse.

[45] E e

41 8 SUTRAKK/TANGA.

* (But we assume) an invisible, great, eternal, im
perishable, and indestructible Soul, who excels all
other beings in every respect, as the moon excels
the stars. (47)

Ardraka.

" (If there were but one Soul common to all beings)
they could not be known (from one another), nor
could they experience different lots ; there would not
be Brahma^as, Kshattriyas, Vai.syas, and .Sudras x ,
insects, birds, and snakes ; all would be men and
gods. (48)

" Those who do not know all things by Kevala
(knowledge), but who being ignorant teach a Law
(of their own), are lost themselves, and work the
ruin of others in this dreadful, boundless Circle of
Births. (49)

" Those who know all things by the full Kevala
knowledge, and who practising meditation teach
the whole Law, are themselves saved and save
others. (50)

" You have, in your mind, made equal both those
who lead a blameable life, and those who in this
world practise right conduct. Friend, you are de-
luded." (51)

A Hastitapasa 2 .

Every year we kill one big elephant with an
arrow, and live upon it in order to spare the life
of other animals. (52)

1 Pessa = preshya, literally, servants or slaves.

2 The Hastitapasas are thus named from the fact that they kill
an elephant and live upon its flesh for a whole year or for six
months, as .Silarika adds, explaining thus the words avi ya (api a)
after sa;;zva&gt;/^are7za. The Hastitapasas are mentioned in a list
of
the different Tapasas in the Aupapatika Sutra, ed. Leumann, 74.

BOOK 2,

419

Ardraka.

" If every year you kill but one animal without
abstaining from sin, though you are not guilty of
the slaughter of other creatures, there is little
difference between you and a householder. (53)

" If a man kills every year but one animal, and
lives (in other respects) as a 6rama;/a, he is un
worthy, and works his perdition. Such men will
not become Kevalins." (54)

A (monk) who has achieved his religious perfection
through the instruction of the Awakened One l , and
stands firm in it, who guards himself in the threefold
way (i. e. with regard to thoughts, words, and acts),
and who possesses the things requisite for crossing
the immense ocean of existence, may preach the
Law. (55)

Thus I say.

SEVENTH LECTURE,

CALLED
NALANDA.

At that time, at that period, there was a town of
the name Ra^agrzha : it was rich, happy, thriving,
&c. 2 Outside of Ra^agrzha, in a north-eastern

1 Buddhassa aai.

2 This &c. refers to the typical description of towns. Our text
contains only the first words of the description, but the Aupapa-
tika Sutra, i, gives it at length.

E e 2

42O

direction, there was the suburb Nalanda ; it contained
many hundreds of buildings, &C. 1 (i)

In that suburb Nalanda there was a householder
called Lepa ; he was prosperous, famous ; rich in
high and large houses, beds, seats, vehicles, and
chariots; abounding in riches, gold, and silver;
possessed of useful and necessary things ; wasting
plenty of food and drink; owning many male and
female slaves, cows, buffaloes, and sheep ; and in
ferior to nobody. (2)

This householder Lepa, a follower of the ^rama^as,
comprehended (the doctrine of) living beings and
things without life, (&c., all as in II, 2, 76, p. 382,
down to the end of the paragraph). (3)

This householder Lepa possessed, in a north
eastern direction from the suburb Nalandi, a bath
ing-hall, called Seshadravya 2 ; it contained many
hundreds of pillars, was beautiful, &c. In a north
eastern direction from this bathing-hall Seshadravya,
there was a park called Hastiyama. (Description of
the park 3 .) (4)

And there in some house the Venerable Gautama
was staying. The venerable (man) was in the
garden, and so was Udaka, the son of Pe&lt;2%ala,
a Nirgrantha and follower of Parsva 4 , of the Medarya
Gotra. He went there where the Venerable Gautama
was, and said : O long-lived Gautama, I want to
ask you about a point (of faith) ; O long-lived one,

1 I cannot tell where the full description occurs.

2 The name denotes : the rest of materials, i. e. the hall which
was built with the materials not used (in building the house), the
well-known few remaining bricks/

3 The text is given in the Aupapatika Sutra, 3.

4 Compare the Twenty-second Lecture of the Uttaradhyayana.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 421

please explain it to me so as it has been taught (by
the Tirthakara). And the Venerable Gautama spoke
thus to Udaka, the son of PeY/Mla : "Well, long-lived
one, I shall see about it, when I have heard and
understood (your question)." And Udaka, the son of
PedMla, spoke thus to the Venerable Gautama : (5)
C O long-lived Gautama, there are Nirgrantha
5rama?zas, called Kumaraputras, who profess your
creed ; they make a zealous l householder, a follower
of the 6Yama;zas, renounce injury to movable beings
except on the order (from an established authority),
as the householder caused one of the captured
thieves to be set free 2 . Those who make this
renunciation, make a bad renunciation ; those who
cause this renunciation to be made, cause a bad
renunciation to be made ; in causing another to
make this renunciation, they annul their own allega
tion 3 . Why do I say this ? Beings belong to the
Circle of Births ; though they be (now) immovable
beings, they will (some time) become movable ones,
or though they be (now) movable beings, they will
become immovable ones ; when they leave the bodies

1 Uvasampanna.

2 These words seem to refer to an apologue told by the
commentator : King Ratnasekhara of Ratnapura, once making
a pleasure trip, issued an order that nobody should remain in the
town. Six brothers disobeyed, were brought before the king, and
sentenced to death. Their father in vain implored the king to spare
them, or to spare five, four, three, two of his sons. At last the
king consented to pardon the eldest son, at which the old father
rejoiced. The six sons are likened to the six classes of living
beings. As a householder cannot altogether abstain from injuring
them, as monks do, he is content to abstain from injuring movable
beings or animals.

3 Viz. that by abstaining from slaughter of living beings they kill
no living beings.

422 S^TR AKR/TANG A.

of immovable beings, they will be born in bodies of
movable ones, and when they leave the bodies
of movable beings, they will be born in bodies of
immovable ones. When they are born in bodies
of immovable beings, it is no sin to kill them. (6)

(But if they make him renounce) injury to creatures
which are, for the time being, movable beings, except
on the order (from an established authority) as the
householder caused one of the captured thieves to
be set free (if they take this vow), those who make
this renunciation, make a good renunciation ; those
who cause this renunciation to be made, cause a good
renunciation to be made ; in causing another to
make this renunciation, they do not annul their
own allegation. Though in this way 1 a correct
expression is found, some (monks) from anger or
greed cause the householder to make the renunciation
(without the necessary restriction). Is not this our
interpretation right ? O long-lived Gautama, do you
approve of it ? (7)

And Gautama spoke thus to Udaka, the son of
Pe^ala : "O long-lived Udaka, we certainly do not
approve of it. The Sramanas or Brahma^as who
say thus, speak thus, declare thus, and explain thus,
do not speak as ,5rama%as or Nirgranthas, they
speak noxious speech. They mislead laymen. They
make void all vows undertaken for sparing particular
living beings 2 . Why do I say this ? Beings belong

1 I.e. by specifying the movable beings as beings which are
movable ones for the time being.

2 E.g. if a man vows to kill no Brahma^a (and does not add the
restriction for the time being ), he may kill no man or animal
whatever ; for the soul of that man or animal may, in the past, have
been embodied in a Brahmawa.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 423

to the Circle of Births ; though they be (now) im
movable beings, they will (some time) become
movable ones, (&c., all as in $ 6, down to) when
they leave the bodies of movable beings, they will
be born in the bodies of immovable ones. When
they are born in the bodies of movable beings,
it is a sin to kill them. (8)

And Udaka, the son of Pe^%ala, spoke thus :
Which beings do you call movable beings ? movable
ones or others ?

And Gautama spoke thus to Udaka, the son of
Pe^/Mla : "O long-lived Udaka, what you call
beings which are, for the time being, movable
ones, we call movable beings ; and what we call
movable beings, you call beings which are, for the
time being, movable ones. Both expressions are
equal, and mean the same thing. O long-lived
one, why do you think it more correct to say : beings
which are, for the time being, movable ones ; and
why do you think it incorrect to say: movable
beings, that you censure the one expression, and
applaud the other ? This your interpretation is not
right. (9)

"And the Venerable One has spoken thus : Some
men there are who say : we cannot, submitting to
the tonsure, renounce the life of a householder and
enter the monastic state, but we shall gradually
conform to the Gotra (i. e. community of the monks).
Accordingly they make known the limits ] , fix the
limits, determine the limits (beyond which they will
not go in the enjoyment of worldly goods) ; and

1 Literally, the number. A sample of such vows is given in the
beginning of the Uvasaga Dasao, see Hoernle s edition, 16 ff.

424

renounce injury to movable beings, except on the
order 1 (of an established authority) as the house
holder caused one of the captured thieves to be set
free. And this turns out to their benefit. (10)

" Movable beings are called so, when they get this
character 2 through the taking effect of the Karman
relating to movable beings. But when their duration
of life as movable beings comes to its close, the
(soul), embodied in a movable being, leaves its life
as such and becomes embodied in an immovable
being. Immovable beings are called so, when they
get this character through the taking effect of the
Karman relating to immovable beings. But when
their duration of life as an immovable being comes
to its close, the (soul), embodied in an immovable
being, leaves its life as such and takes again
a new form of existence ; they are (then) called 3
animated beings, (animals) of large bodies, or of
long life." (n)

And Udaka, the son of Pe^/Mla, spoke thus to
the Venerable Gautama : Is there not a chance,
that a follower of the *Sramaas, though he has
renounced slaughter of but one class of living
beings, ceases altogether to injure any 4 ? Why do

Abhiyoga. Silanka enumerates four kinds of abhiyoga:
gaa-, bala-, devata-abhiyoga, and gurunigraha.
2 Nam a, literally, name.

They are called (vu/fc/anti=:u/yante) is apparently equi-
yalerrtwith: they get the name(nama); name/ however, means
in G^ina and Bauddha terminology as much as the nature of the
thing/ The words of the text, therefore, come to mean : &lt; they
become or are animated beings/ &c.

The question discussed in the following paragraphs is whether,
at some future time, all movable beings in the Sawsara might not
die out, and none but immovable beings be left. This idea is
combated at great length by Gautama.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 425

I say this ? Beings belong to the Circle of Births,
though they be (now) immovable beings, they will
(some time) become movable ones, and though they
be movable beings, they will become immovable
ones. When they leave the bodies of immovable
beings, all are born in bodies of movable ones, and
when they leave the bodies of movable beings, all
will be born in bodies of immovable ones. When
they are born in bodies of immovable beings, they
may be killed V (12)

And the Venerable Gautama spoke thus to Udaka,
the son of Ped/ala : " O long-lived one, we 2 do not
admit what you say ; viz. that there is a chance that
a follower of the ^rama^as should cease to do injury
to any kind of living beings. Why do we say this ?
Beings belong to the Circle of Births, (&c., all as
above, down to) when they are born in bodies of
movable beings, it is a sin to kill them. They are
called animated beings, (animals) of large bodies,
or of long life. There are always a great many
animate beings, (the slaughter of) which a follower
of the 6rama;zas must renounce, there are none,
(the slaughter of) which he need not renounce. If
he ceases, or has done with, or has given up (injuring)
the large class of movable beings, his renunciation is

1 The meaning is, that at some future time movable beings may
have ceased to exist, since they are all born as immovable beings,
and vice versa. If the latter is the case, a layman, who abstains
from killing animals, practically does injury to no being whatever ;
if the former is the case, he cannot transgress his vow even if he
would.

The text has the Sanskrit word asmakam, of which the com
mentator alleges that it was thus pronounced by all people in
Magadha, compare note 2, p. 358.

426 StJTR AKtf 7TANG A.

good. What you or somebody else says, that there
is a chance of a layman s ceasing to do an injury
altogether, by renouncing slaughter of one kind
of beings ; this interpretation of yours is not
right." (13)

The Venerable One l gave an illustration : " I put
a question to the Nirgranthas : O long-lived ones,
(suppose) there be some men who have made the
following declaration : I shall not inflict punishment
on those who, submitting to the tonsure, renounce
the life of a householder and enter the monastic
state ; but I shall inflict punishment on those who
lead a domestic life. Some ,Srama;za, who for four
or five years, or for six or ten years the period
may be shorter or longer has wandered about in
the land, returns to domestic life. Now answer me :
does the man break his word when he puts to death
this (renegade) householder ? " Certainly not ! It
is just the same with a follower of the .Srama/zas,
who has renounced injury to movable beings, but
not to immovable ones. If he kills immovable
beings, he does not transgress his vow. This you
acknowledge, O Nirgranthas, this you must acknow-
ledge!" (14)

The Venerable One gave another illustration :
" I put a question to the Nirgranthas. O long-lived
Nirgranthas, (suppose) there be householders or
sons of householders, born in respectable families,
who come to you for instruction in the Law. Ought
they to be instructed in the Law?" Yes, they
should. "When they have learned and under
stood this Law, will they say: this creed of the

1 Gautama.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 427

Nirgranthas is true, supreme, excellent, full of
virtues, right, pure, it removes doubts, it is the
road to perfection, liberation, Nirvana ; it is free
from error and doubts, it is the road of those who
are free from all misery ; those who adopt it will
reach perfection, (&c., all down to) put an end to
all misery ; exerting ourselves we shall control our
selves with regard to all kinds of living beings.
Will they speak thus ? " Yes. " Should such men
be admitted to the order?" Yes, they should.
" Should such men be instructed in the discipline
and kept to attend to religious instruction ? " Yes,
they should. " Do they renounce injury to every
living being ? " Yes, they do. " Now (suppose)
one of these men who lead such a life, after wander
ing about in the land for four or five years, or for

six or ten years the period may be shorter or

longer returns to domestic life. Will this man
(still) abstain from doing injury to every living
being ? " * No. " The same man l who at first (as
a householder) had not renounced injury to every
living being, who afterwards has renounced, and
who now does not renounce injury to every living
being, did at first not control himself, did so after
wards, and does not so now. As long as he does
not control himself, he does not renounce injury to
every living being 2 . This you acknowledge, O
Nirgranthas, this you must acknowledge ! " (15)

The Venerable One gave (another) illustration :
" I put a question to the Nirgranthas. O long-lived

1 Se^e se^-ive, literally, his soul.

2 Here the last sentence but one of the preceding paragraph
ought to be repeated. But there is no trace of it in my MSS. or
the commentary.

428 SCTRAKK/TANGA.

Nirgranthas, (suppose) there be monks or nuns of
other sects, who come to you for instruction in the
Law, (all as before, down to) attend to religious in
struction." Yes, they should. " Is it lawful to eat
with such men ? " * Yes, it is/ " Now (suppose) some
of these people who lead such a life, (&c., all as before,
down to) return to domestic life. Is it lawful to eat
with them then ? " * No, it is not 1 / " The same man
with whom to eat was not lawful at first, was lawful
afterwards, and is not lawful now, was no Sra.ma.na.
at first, was a Sra.ma.na. afterwards, and is no Sramana.
now. It is not lawful for Nirgrantha vSrama^as to
eat together with him. This you acknowledge, O
Nirgranthas; this you must acknowledge !" (16)

And the Venerable One spoke thus: "There are
some followers of the Sra.ma.na.s, who have made this
declaration : we cannot, submitting to the tonsure,
renounce the life of a householder and enter the
monastic state, but we shall strictly observe the
Posaha on the fourteenth and the eighth days of
each fortnight, (on the new-moon, and) full-moon days,
we renounce gross ill-usage of living beings, grossly
lying speech, gross taking of things not given, (un
lawful) sexual intercourse, (unlimited) appropriation
of property ; we shall set limits to our desires in the
two forms and in the three ways 2 . They will also
make the following renunciation : neither do nor
cause anything (sinful) to be done for my sake/

1 No \n*&tth& sama//^e; I think the Sanskrit of this phrase,
which is not explained by the commentator, is no ayam artha^
samartha^.

2 Viz. I will not do it, nor cause it to be done, either in thought
or in word or in deed. Compare Uvasaga Dasao, Hoernle s edition,
i3ff-

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 429

Having (on Posaha-days) abstained from eating,
drinking, bathing, and using beds or chairs, may
they, on their decease, be said to make a (righteous)
end of their life ? " Certainly, they do make such
an end of their life. "They are called animated
beings, (&c., all as in 13, down to) this interpretation
of yours is not right." (17)

The Venerable One spoke thus : " There are some
followers of the 6Vama;/as, who have made this
declaration : we cannot, submitting to the tonsure,
renounce the life of a householder and enter the
monastic state ; we also cannot strictly observe the
Posaha on the fourteenth and the eighth days of
each fortnight, (on the clays of new-moon) and
full-moon ; but while we are preparing ourselves for
death by fasting 1 , we shall abstain from food and
drink without longing for the end ; we shall renounce
all ill-usage of living beings, all lying speech, all
taking of things not given, all sexual intercourse, all
property, (saying) : neither do nor cause anything
(sinful) to be done for my sake. (All the rest as in
the preceding paragraph.)" (18)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are
some men of great desires, great undertakings, &c. 2 ,
who do not abstain from all ill-usage of living beings,
(&c., down to) from all property. During the whole
time, from their taking the vows of a follower of the
.Srama^as till their death, they abstain from injury
to living beings. Then they die; in their next
existence they experience their Karman, and receive
an evil lot. (The rest as before.)" (19)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are

1 Sa/raleha7/ag^usaa-Msiya. 2 See II, 2, 61.

43O SUTRAKtf/TANGA.

some men of no desires, no undertakings, who abstain
from all ill-usage of living beings, (&c., down to) from
all property. During the whole time, from their
taking the vows of a follower of the ^rama^as till
their death, they abstain from injury to living beings.
Then they die ; in their next existence they ex
perience their Karman, and receive a happy lot.
(The rest as before.)" (20)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are
some men of few desires, few undertakings, who
abstain from ill-usage of one sort of living beings,
(&c., down to) from one sort of property. During
the whole time, (&c., the rest as in the last para-
graph)." (21)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are
some men who live in woods, in huts, near villages,
or practise some secret rites, who are not well con
trolled, do not well abstain (from slaying) all sorts of

living beings. They employ speech that is true and

untrue at the same time : do not beat me, beat others,
(&c., all as in II, 2, 21, down to) having died at their
allotted time, they are born in some places inhabited
by Asuras : and evil-doers. And when they are

released therefrom, they will be born deaf and dumb

or blind. They are called animated beings, (&c., the
rest as in $ 13)." (22)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are
some beings of a long life, which a follower of
the .Srama/zas abstains from injuring through life.
They die after him. They are called animated
beings, (&c., the rest as in f 13)." (23)

1 Asuriya. Silahka here offers a second explanation of this
word, viz. asurya, where no sun ever shines.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 43!

(The two next paragraphs treat in exactly the
same way of beings of an equally long life, which die
simultaneously with him, and of beings of a short
life, which die before him.) (24, 25)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " There are
some followers of the .Srama^as, who have made
this declaration : we are not able to strictly observe
the Posaha-days, but we are able, when preparing
ourselves for death by fasting, to abstain from food
and drink without longing for the end. The vow of
such a man is the Samayika Desavakasika l : (he
declares) in the morning : (I shall travel) only thus
or thus far in an eastern, western, southern,
northern direction. He renounces injury to all
beings : I shall cause peace and security to all sorts
of living beings.

"Within those (limits) the movable living beings,
which the follower of the 5rama^as abstains from
injuring till his death, will leave their life, and will
then be born, within the same limits, as movable
living beings, which the follower of the .Srama/zas
abstains from injuring till his death. With regard to
them the follower of the .Srama/zas has made a good
renunciation. They are called animated beings, (&c.,
the rest as before). (26)

"The movable beings within those limits, &c. 2 , will,

1 The De.ravaka.9ika consists in drawing closer or contracting
every day the limits already laid down (in accordance with the
GuTzavratas) to the range of one s travels, &c. The Gu^avrata
referred to is the Digvirati, i.e. to lay down a limit beyond which
one shall not travel in the different directions, or a limit as to
the
countries one shall visit for the acquisition of wealth. From
Bhandarkar Report, p. ii4f. The explanation in the commentary
materially agrees with the above.

2 The original repeats the phrases of the preceding paragraph.

432 SUTRAKK/TANGA.

after their death, be born within the same limits as
immovable beings, from injuring which without
a purpose the follower of the 6rama^as abstains till
death, but not with a purpose 1 , (&c., the rest as
before). (27)

" The movable beings within those limits, &c., will,
after their death, be born, beyond those limits, as
movable or immovable beings, (&c., the rest as
before). (28)

" The immovable beings within those limits, &c.,
will, after their death, be born, within the same
limits, as movable beings, (&c., the rest as be
fore). (29)

" The immovable beings within those limits, &c.,
will, after their death, be born, within the same limits,
as immovable beings, (&c., the rest as before). (30)

" The immovable beings within those limits, &c.,
will, after their death, be born, beyond those limits,
as immovable beings, (&c., the rest as before). (31)

"The movable and immovable beings beyond those
limits, &c., will, after their death, be born, within
those limits, as movable beings, (&c., the rest as
before). (32)

"The movable and immovable beings beyond those
limits, &c., will, after their death, be born, within
those limits, as immovable beings, (&c., the rest as
before). (33)

"The movable and immovable beings beyond those
limits, &c., will, after their death, be born, beyond

I abridge them as far as possible, and give the full text only where
it differs from that of 26.

1 This clause comes always after the words immovable beings
down to 34.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 433

those limits, as movable and immovable beings, (&c.
the rest as before)." (34)

The Venerable One spoke thus : u It has never
happened, it does not happen, nor will it ever happen,
that all movable beings will die out and become
immovable ones, nor that all immovable beings die
out and become movable ones. Since movable and
immovable beings never die out, there is no chance,
as you or somebody else say, that a layman ceases
to do injury altogether by renouncing slaughter of
one kind of beings ; this interpretation of yours is
not right." (35)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " If (a man)
who has been instructed in right knowledge, faith,
and conduct for the avoidance of sins, blames
a (righteous) .Srama/za or Brahma^a though he is
well disposed towards them, he effects the loss of his
merit for another world ; but if he does not blame
them, he heightens the purity of his merit for
another world."

On this Udaka, the son of PedMla, took no
further notice of the Venerable Gautama and was
about to return in the direction in which v he had
come. (36)

And the Venerable One spoke thus : " O long-
lived Udaka, he who has learned from a SYama/za
or Brahma^a whomsoever even one noble religious
truth, and considers himself thereby furthered with
regard to his peace and happiness, will respect,
acknowledge, praise, salute, honour, reverence, and
worship him even as a blessed and holy deity or
sacred shrine." (37)

Then Udaka, the son of Pe^ala, spoke thus to
the Venerable Gautama : * As I had not before

[45] F f

434 SUTRAK^/TANGA.

known, heard, understood, and comprehended these
words, I did not believe in the meaning (of your
words), which I had never perceived nor heard nor
understood nor appreciated, and which were never
explained nor denned nor delivered nor made clear
to me, nor pondered over by me. But now, Reverend
Sir, as I do know, &c., these words which I have
perceived, heard, &c., I believe, accept, and approve
of their meaning. It is just as you say ! (38)

Then the Venerable Gautama spoke thus to Udaka,
the son of PetfYzala : " Believe it, sir ; accept it, sir ;
approve of it, sir ; it is just as we have said." Then
Udaka, the son of PeY2%ala, spoke thus to the Vener
able Gautama : I desire, Reverend Sir, in your
presence to pass from the creed which enjoins four
vows 1 , to the creed which enjoins the five great vows
and the Pratikrama;/a V (39)

Then the Venerable Gautama went with Udaka,
the son of Pe^/Mla, to the Venerable Ascetic Maha-
vira. Then Udaka, the son of Pe^ala, solemnly
circumambulated the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira
three times from the left to the right, and having
done so he praised and worshipped him, and then he
spoke thus : I desire, Reverend Sir, in your presence
to pass from the creed which enjoins four vows, to
the creed which enjoins the five great vows and the
Pratikrama/^a. May it so please you, beloved of the

1 See above, p. 121, note 2. In this way the creed of Parjva is
characterised in contradistinction to that of Mahavira.

2 Pratikramawa is the expiation of sins ... by means of
Nindana Garha^a, Alo^ana, and other processes. Nindana is
condemning the sinful act or repenting of it to oneself; Garha^a
is doing the same before a Guru ; and A16/ana is making a con
fession of it to the Guru. Bhandarkar, Report, p. 9, note {.

BOOK 2, LECTURE 7. 435

gods, do not deny me ! Then, in the presence of
the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira, Udaka, the son of
Pe^ala, passed from the creed which enjoins four
vows, to the creed which enjoins the five great vows
and the Pratikrama^a. (40)
Thus I say.

Ff 2

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

Abhayadeva, page 346 note i.

Activity, kinds of, 356 f.

A^-ita, 85 n 2.

AgTvika, 267 n i.

A^wanavada, 315.

A^/zanavadin, 83 n 2, 291.

A^anikavada, 385.

Agnikumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.

Agnijikha, 87 n 4.

Aharaka body, 406, n 3.

Ahuka, 113 n 2.

Aikshvaka, 86.

Airava#a, Indra s elephant, 290.

A/fcaranga. 345, 351 n 2, 353 n 2, 354

n2, 357 n, 358 n 2.
Akarmabhumi, 225, 393.
Akriyavada, 315, 385.
Akriyavadin, 83 n 2, 291, 309, 316.
A,yuta (Kalpa), 226, 228.
Anata (Kalpa), 226, 228.
Andhakavr/ shwi, 118.
Arigavidya, 70 n 2.
Animals, aquatic, 223.

terrestrial, 223.

winged, 224.
Ahkiua, 41.

Anuttara (gods), 227, 228, 291 ni.
Apabhrawja, 114 n 2.
Aparag-ita (Anuttara), 227.
Ara, a Tirthakara, 85 n 5, 86.
Araa (Kalpa), 226, 228.
Ardhavaitali, an art, 366.
Ardraka, a Gaina sage, 409 ff.
Arishtanemi, 112, ii4n2, 115.
Arupadhatu, a heaven of the Bud
dhists, 415.
Arya, 241.
Arya. metre, 271 n 2.
Asana, 197.
Asha^a, 143, 144.
Asila, a r/ shi, 268.
Asita Devala, 269 n i.
Asphota-bower, 81.
Astrology, 71 n i.
Asura, 34, 53, 250, 259, 318, 382.

Asurakumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.
Asurya, a hell, 280.
Ajvasena, 85 n 4.
Ajvayu^a, a month, 143.
/Lrvina, a month, 143 n i.
Atharva^i, incantations, 366 n 5.
Audarika body, 173, 406, n 3.
Aupapatika Sutra, 132 n, 269 n i,

384 n i, 420 n3.
Avasarpiwi, 17 n, 42 n 2, 200.
Ayodhya, 85 n i, 2.

Bahuka, 268.

Bala, a ^TaWala, 50 n i.

Bala, king of Hastinapura, 88 n i.

Balabhadra, a robber, 32 n.

Balabhadra, a king, 88.

Baladeva, 87 n 4.

Balakosh^/6a, 50 n i.

Balajri, 88.

Bali, 86 n i.

Barhaspatya, 236 n2.

Bauddha, 236 n 2, 316 n 3.

Beings, living, subdivision of, 210 ff.

Benares, 50 n i, 87 n 4, 136.

Bhadra, mother of Maghavan, 85

n3-
Bhadra, daughter of king Kausalika,

A 50 n i, 53.

Bhadrapada, a month, 143.
Bhandarkar, R. G., 50 n 2, 69 n i,

129 n 2, 155 n 4 , 163 n 3, 165

n 2, 182 n 4, 327 n 3, 383 n 3,

431 n i.

Bharata, 85, n i.
Bharatavarsha, 85.
BharuWa, fabulous bird, 19, 378.
Bhashya, 134 n 3.
Bhaumeyika (gods), 225.
Bhavabhavana, 69 n i.
Bhavana, the twelve, 329 n 2.
Bhavanapati, 202, 207 n, 225 ff.
Bhavanavasin = Bhaumeyika, 225.
Bhoga, a clan, 71, n 2, 118 n 2, 339.
Bhog-arag-a, 118 n 2.

438

GAINA SUTRAS.

Bhr/gu, (62), (65).
Bhuta (Vyantara), 122 n i, 226.
Bimbisara, 100 n 2.
Brahmadatta, 57.
Brahmaloka (Kalpa), 226, 227.
Brahman, the creator, 244.
Brahman, name of a palace, 58.
Brahmawa = Mahavira, 310.
Brahma^as, 418.
Brahmara^a, 87 n 5.
Br/hatkalpa, 183 n 5.
Buddha, 415.
Buddhists, 414 f.
Bukkasa, 15.

Chess, earliest mention of, 303 n i.

Danava, 77, 121.
Dantavakra, a king, 290.
Daja, 183.
Dasara, 113 n 4.
Dasarha, 113, 115.
Dajarwa, 57, 87.
Dajarwabhadra, 87 n i.
Dajajrutaskandha, 183 n 5.
Dajavaikalika, 116 n 2, nS n i.
Dasyu, 43.
Dattaka, 274 n i.
Death with one s will, 20.

against one s will, 20.
Dejavakajika vow, 431, n i.
Dejikosha, 92 n 3, 150 n 4.
Devaka, 113 n 2.

Devak?, 112, 113 n 2.

Devala, a r/shi, 268.

Development, 153, 154.

Dhana, 32 n.

Dhararaendra, a naga, 290.

Dhumabha hell, 221.

Dhyana, 179 ; arta,raudra,dharma ,

jukla , 200 n i.

Digambara, 69 n i, 119 n 2, 267 n r.
Dogundaga gods, 88, n 2, ioS.
Dosha, udgama , 131 n 7.

udpadana , 132 n.

grahawaishawa, 133 n.
paribhogaisharca, 134 n.

Dr/shdvada, 155, 345.
Dropping of case affixes, 128 n i.
Dvapara, a cast of dice, 256.
Dvaraka, 113 n 2, 115.
Dvarakavati, 87 n 5.
Dvimukha, 87.

Dvtpakumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.
Dvipayana, a r/shi, 268.
Dvipr/sh/a or Dvipushri, 87 05.

Earth lives, 213.
fekada^in, 245 n 2, 417 n 6.
shawa-samiti, 27 n i, 129.

Kick, 85 n 2.
Fire lives, 217.
Former years, 16, 201.
Fortnight, dark, 372, 377.

Gambusvamin, (8), (73), 235.

Gambu-tree, 48.

Gaadhara, 149, n i.

Ga/zaya = Bauddhas, 238.

Gandharva, 8, 77, 121,226, 250, 318.

Ganga, 290.

Ganges, 50 n i.

Garasandha, 113 02.

Garbe, 214 n, 406 n 3.

Gardabhali, 82, 83.

Garga, 149.

Garu^a, 290; gods, 382.

Gatha, 182.

Gauri, 50 n i.

Gautama, 112, 119 ff, 420 ff.

Gautama, law-book, 67 n i.

Gay a, 86 n 3.

Gayaghosha, 136, 140, 141.

Gayanta (Anuttara gods), 227.

Generatio aequivoca, 224.

Gha^ikakumara (Bhavanavasin), 2 2 5.

Gina, 45, 77.

Girnar, 115 n i.

Givanmukti, 156 n 8.

Givavi^arav/v tti, 219 n 2.

Gwanamarga, 26 n i.

G^atadharmakatha, 182 n 7.

G;7atadhyayana, 182.

G;7atr/ , a clan, 339.

G;?atr/ ka, 256, 257.

Gwatr/putra, 27, 232, 239, 261, 287,

289, 290, 413.
G7zatr/ putras = Gainas, 416.
Gojala, 245 n 2, 409 f.
Gotama Gotra, 41 n 2, 83.
G6tra = church or order, 321, 327,

A 23
Graiveyaka (gods), 226, 228.

Grierson, 277 115, 341 114.
Gyesh/^amula, a month, 144.
Gyotishanga, 137, 141.
Gyotishka gods, 202, 207 n, 225 ff.

Haravi^aya, a poem, 303 n i.
Haribhadra, 116 n 2.
Harikeja, 50, n i, 55.
Bala, 50.

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

439

Harishea, 86, n 2.

Harivawja, 117 n i.

Hastinapura, 56, 60, 8511 4, 86ni,

87 n i.
Hastitapasa, a division of Tapasas,

418, n 2.

Hastiyama, a park, 420.
Hell, description of, 93 ff, 279 ff, 376.
Hema/andra, 69 n i, 92 n 3, 95 n i,

118 n 4, 150 n4.
Himavant, mountains, 339.
Hoernle, 383 n 4, 423 n i, 428 n 2.
Hiittemann, 29 n 2.
Hypermetron, 339 n i.

Indra, 292.

Indradatta, 32 n.

Indrabhuti, 41 n 2.

tjana (Kalpa), 226, 227.

tshatpragbhara, 212.

Ishukara, name of a town, 62 ;

ra, ri, name of a king, 61, 62,

68.

Isuyara= Ishukara, 62 n i.
fjvara, the creator, 244.

Jackals in hell, 286.
Jolly, 237 n 4 .
Jupiter, planet, 366.

Kadambavaluka, river of hell, 94,

280.

Kailasa, 40.

^Taitra, a month, 143, n T.
/fakravala, 239 n i.
Kakutstha, 85 n 5.
Kakutstha, 85 n 5.
Kalakufa, 77 n i, 105.
Kalawg-ara, a hill, 57.
Kali, a cast of dice, 256.
Kalidasa, 115 n 3.
Kalinga, 87.
Kalpa Sutra, 71 n 2, 100 n 4, 360 n i,

371 n, 381 n i.
Kamalavati, 62.
Kamajastra, 274 n i.
Kambq^a, 47, 126.
jfifampa, 108.

Kampilya, 57, 80, 81, 86 n 2.
Kawsa, 113 n 2, 1 18 n 2.
Ka.nda.la, 15, 50, n i, 301.
ATandraprabha, 214.
Kanthaka, excellent horse, 47 n 2,

126 n i.
Kapila, 31 n i.
^Taraka, 237 n 4.

Karakaw^u, 87.
Karka, 58.

Karmabhumi, 225, 393.
Karmawa body, 173, 406 n 3.
Karttika, a month, 143.
Karttikeyanupreksha, 69 ni, i82n4.
ATarvaka, 236 n 4, 238 n 3.
Kclri, 57, 87.

Kajyapa, 8, 10, 15, 31 n i, 138, 158,
260 n 3, 265, 279, 288, 310,

v 3I4
Kaurava, 339.

Kausalika, 50 n i, 53.
Kaujambt, 32 n, 102.
Kayotsarga, 55112, 147, 148, 149,

159, 164.
Kesara, park, 81.
Ke^ava (Kr/sha), 112, 115.
KeVi, 1 1 9 ff.
Kevala, 152, 193.
aluka, 245 n 2.
Kimpurusha (Vyantara), 226, 382.
Kinnara, 77, 122, 226, 382.
^Titra, 56 ft
Kitra, 115.
K6sh//^aka park, 120.
Kr/shwa, 112 n 2, 113 n 2, 261 n 3.
Kr/ ta, a cast of dice, 256.
Kriyavada, 315, 319, 385.
Kriyavadin, 83 n 2, 291, 309, 317,

319 112.

Kshaikavadin, 83 n 2.
Kshattriya, 418.
Kubera, 117 n 2.
Kulala, 68 n i.
u!ani, 57.

Kumaraputra, Gainas, 421.
Kunthu, a Tirthakara, 85 n 5, 86.
Kunthu, an insect, 15, 220.
urwi, 134 n 3.
Kuru, 62 n i.

Lantaka (Kalpa), 226, 227.

Lavasaptama gods, 291.

Le^/ ai, 321 n 3.

Lepa, a Gaina layman, 420 ff.

Le\rya, 56 n i, 181, 196 ff.

Leumann, E., 29 n 2, 57 n, 58 n i,
60 n i, 2, 116 n 2, 118 n i, 3,
175 n i, 179 n 2, 212 n i, 269
n i, 339 n i, 346 n i, 373 114.

Li&gt;tavi 9 321, 339.

Lokayatika, 342 n i.

Luke, 29 n 2.

Madhyadeja, 268 n i.

440

GAINA SUTRAS.

Magadha, 106 f.

Magha, a month, 115 n i.

Magha, the poet, 261 n 3.

Maghavan, 85, n 3.

Mahabala, 88 n i.

Mahahari, 86 n 2.

Mahapadma, 86, n i.

Mahapra;za heaven, 84.

Mahlmkla (Kalpa), 226, 228.

Mahavagga, 83 n 2.

Mahavira, 8, 21, 41 n 2, 73.

Mahendra mountain, 339.

Mahendra (Kalpa), 226,. 227.

Mahoraga (Vyantara), 226.

Makara, 223.

Malaya mountain, 339.

Mallaki, 321 n 3.

ManaAparyaya, 152, 193.

Mandara mountain, 49, 93, 339, 378.

Mad?ikukshi ATaitya, 100.

Manorama, 36, 37.

Mara, 244 n 5.

Materialists, 339 f, 342 f.

Mathura, 112 n 2, 113 n 2.

Matter, 153.

Matthew s gospel, 29 n 2, 300 n i.

Maya, 244, n 5.

Medarya Gotra, 420.

Meghaduta, 115 n 3.

Merchants, three, parable of, 29.

Meru, in, 288.

Mithila, 36.

Mlekkhz, 43, 24 r.

Mohaniya, 192, 193.

Mr/ ga, 88, 99.

Mr/gaputra, 88 f, 99..

Mr/tagariga, 57.

Munisuvrata, 86 n i.

Naga gods, 382.

Nagakumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.

Nagarg-umya, 254 n i, 3, 388 n i,

401 n i.
Naggati, 87.
Nagna^-it (87).
Nalakiibara, 117, n 3.
Nalanda, suburb of Ra^agr/ha, 4 1 9 f.
Kami, 35, 87, 268.
Namu^i, 86 n i.

Nandana, Indra s park, 100, 104, 290.
Nandana, a Baladeva, 87 n 4.
- (palace), 88.

Nandana-parks on Meru, 288.
Nandanavana, park on Meru, 288 n 5.
Narayaa, a r/ shi, 268 n 3.
Nastika, 236 n 4.

Nemi, 115 n 3.
Nila, 49 n i.

Nirgrantha, 52, 74 ff, &c.
Nishadha, a fabulous mountain, 289.
Nupurapai/ita, 118 n 4.

Occult sciences, 366.

Padmagulma, 57.

Padmottara, 86 n i.

Palita, 108.

Palyopama, 84 n i, 200 fF.

Pai/aka, park on Meru, 288 n 5.

Papaya, a forest on Meru, 288.

Paw^uka, see Parc^aka.

Pawini, 118 n 2.

Pankabha hell, 221.

Pa;/Hla, 60, 6 1, 87.

Parajara, a r/ shi, 269.

Parishaha (of 22 kinds), 9.

Parijish/aparvan, 118 n 4.

Parjva, 119, 121, 420 ff.

Pasattha = pai\rvastha, 270 n i.

Pata/^ali, 118 n 2.

Paurushi, 142 n i ff.

Pausha, a month, 143.

Pe^ala, father of Udaka, 420 ff.

Phalguna, 143.

Pihu^a, 1 08.

Pija/a, 51 n i, 225.

Plants, 215.

Posaha, 23, n 2, 428, 429, 431.

Prakalpa, 183.

Pra#ata (Kalpa), 226, 228.

Prasena^-it, 32 n.

Pratikramaa, 159, (163), 434j 435 .

Pratikramaa Sutra, 148, 149.

Pratyekabuddh?., 35 n 2, 87 n 2.

Pride, eight kinds of, 361 n i.

Puns, 26 n 3, 242 n 2, 170 n 3,

331 112.

Purandara, 117.
Purimatala, 57.
Pushrimarga, 269 n 3.

Quality, 153.

Ragagr/ ha, 32 n, 86 n 3, 383, 419 f.
Ra^imati (Rag-a , Rag-i), 113.
Raivataka, 115, n 2, 116.
Rakshasa, 77,121, 226, 250, 318,382.
Rakshasi, 35 n i.
Rama (Baladeva), 112, 115.
Ramagupta, a r/ shi, 268.
Ramayaa, 85 n 5, 144 n 2, 321 n 3.
Rash/raku/a, 236 n i.

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

441

Rathanemi, 112, 116, n i, 117.
Ratnabha hell, 221.
Ratnakara, the poet, 303 n i.
Ratnaprabha hell, 218 n 3.
Ratnapura, a town, 421 n 2.
Ratnajekhara, a king, 421 n 2.
&shabha, 71 n 2, 85 n i, 138, 249,

261 n 2.

Rohagupta, 245 n 2.
Rohiwi, 112.
Rudradeva, 50 n i.
Ru/aka, a fabulous mountain, 289.
Rupee, 374.
Rupiwi, 1 08.

Sagara, 85, n 2.

Sahadevi, 85 n 4.

Sahasrara (Kalpa), 226, 228.

Saiva, 245 n 2.

Saivadhikarin, 237 n 4.

Sakra = Indra, 36, 41, 87, 288.

Salavana, park on Meru, 288 n 5.

Salmali-tree, 84, 104, 290.

Sambhuta, 56 ff.

Samudrapala, 108.

Samudravi^aya, king of Sravasti,

85 n 3.

Samudravig-aya, king of Ra^agr/ha,

86 n 3.

Samudravi^aya, king of Saurikapura,

112, 117.
Sana, 197.

Sanatkumara, (60), 60 n 3, 85 n 4.
Sanatkumara (Kalpa), 226, 227.
Saw^aya, 80 ff.
Sa^g-ivanf, a hell, 284.
Safikhya,237,2 44 n4,3i6n3, 342111.
Santakshawa, a hell, 281.
Santapani, a caldron in hell, 284.
Santi, 85, n 5.
Sarkarabha hell, 221.
Sarvartha, a Vimana, 211.
Sarvarthasiddha (Anuttara gods),

227, 228.

Saudharma (Kalpa), 226, 227, 291.
Sauri, 112 n 2.
Saurikapura, 112 n 2.
Saury apura, 112 n 2.
Sauvira, 87.
Sceptics, 21.

Seshadravya, a bathing-hall, 420.
Siddha, 8, 77, 183.
Simile, 326, 338.
Sijupala, 261.

Sijupalavadha, 115 n i, 261 n 3.
Sita, a river, 49.

Sita, the highest heaven, 212.

Siva, 112.

Skandha, the five skandhas of the

Buddhists, 238.
Soriyapura, 112 n 2.
Souls, 153.

Southern region, 372, 377.
Sra.va.na., a month, 144.
Sravasti, 32 n, 85 n 3, 120.
Sreika, 100 f, 409 n i.
Srmkhalayamaka, 329 n i.
Story told, 383 n i, 421 n 2.
Subha^andra, 69 n i.
Substance, 153.
Sudarjana, 48.
Sudarjana = Meru, 288, 289.
Sudharman, (8), (73), 235.
Sudra, 301, 418.
Sugriva, a town, 88.
Sumanasavana, park on Meru, 2 8 8 n 5 .
Sunanda, 60 n 3.
Sunyavadins, Bauddhas, 317 n i.
Supara, 68 ; gods, 290, 382.
Sura, 112 n 2.
Surya Siddhanta, 218 n 3.
Sutanu, 117 n i.
Sutrakr/tahga, 182 n 6, 183.
Suvarakumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.
Suvrata, 86 n i.
Svapaka, 50, 55, 57, 59.
Svayambhu = Vishu, 49, 290, 244,

n 4 .

Svayawsambuddha, 32 n, 35 n2, 36.
Svetambara, 69 n i, 119 n 2.
Syadvada, 405 n i.
Syllogism, 402 n i.

Tai^-asa body, 172, 173, 406 n 3.

Tama hell, 221.

Tamatama hell, 221.

Tahkana, a hill tribe, 268.

Tapasa, 140, 418 n 2.

Taragaa, a r/ shi, 268.

Tathagata = tirthakara, 320, 332.

Tattvarthadhigama Sutra, 49 n i.

Time, 153.

Tinduka grove, son i ; a park, 1 20 f;

tree, 51.
Tirtha, 165.

Trailokya Dipika, 49 n i.
Trairajika, 245 n 2.
Treta, a cast of dice, 256.
Tylor, 406 n 3.

Udadhikumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.
Udaka, follower of Parjva, 420 fF.

442

GAINA SUTRAS.

Udaya, 58.
Udayana, 87, n 2.
Ugra, 71, n 2, 321, 339.
Ugrasena, 113 n 2, 118 n 2.

Umasvati, 49 n i, 152 n i.
Usuyara = Ishukara, 62 n i.
Uttaradhyayana, 232.
Uvasaga Dasao, 23 n 2, 27 n 2, 71 ni,

383 n 4, 384 n i, 423 n i,

428 n 2.

Va^ravaluka, 94.

Vauj-ayanta (Anuttara gods), 227.

Vaikriya body, 406 n 3.

Vaimanika, 202, 207 n, 225 ff.

Vainayika, 83, 291, 316; vada, 385.

Vauakha, a month, 143.

Vauali, 27, 261.

VaLralika, 27 n 2.

Vaijeshika, 64 n 2, 245 n 2.

VaLnka, part of the Kamajastra,

274 n i.

Vaijramaa, 117, n 2.
Vai jravawa, 117 n 2 .
Vaijya, 301, 418.
Vaitali, an art, 366.
Vaitalika, a mountain in hell, 285.
Vaitaliya, metre, 249 n i.
Vaitara^i, river of hell, 95 n 3, 104,

270, 280.

Valukabha hell, 221.
Varaha Mihira, 38 n i, 70 n 2.
Vardhamana, 120 f, 290.
Varibhadraka, a subdivision of the

Bhagavatas, 294 n 3.
Var/zaka, 339 n i.
Vasish/^a, law-book, 67 n i.
Vasish/i, (65), 66.
Vastra/eda, 70 n 2.
Vastuvidya, 70 n 2.
Vasudeva, 112 n 2.
Vasudeva, 48, 87 n 5, 113.

Vatakumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.

Veda, 137.

Vedanta, 343 n 2.

Vedantin, 237 n i, 417.

Veudeva, name of Garu^/a, 290.

Veupalajika-lute, 276.

Venus, planet, 366.

Verse quoted, 4 n 4, 8 n 4, 24 n 3,

179 n 4, 269 n 3, 313 n r,

359 n 3.
Vetala, 105.
Videha, 41, 87, 268.
Vidyutkumara (Bhavanavasin), 225.
Vi^aya, a Tirthakara, 87.
Vi^aya (Anuttara gods), 227, 228.
Vi^ayaghosha, 136, 140, 141.
Vikrama, a poet, 115 n 3.
Vimala, 88 n i.
Vimana, 164.
Vinayavada, 315.
Vishmi, 49 n 2, 86 n i, 244 n 5.
Vishwukumara, 86 n i.
Vishu Puraa, 113 n2, 117 n i,

118 n 2.

Vishvaksena, name of Kr*sha, 290.
Vow of silence, 321.
Vr/ shwi, 114.
Vukkasa, 301.
Vyantara gods, 122 n i, 202, 207 n,

225 ff.

Vyasa, 246 n 3.

Vyatyaya; linga , va^ana , i n 2.
Vyavahara Sutra, 183 n 5.

Water lives, 215.

Yadava, 113 n 2.

Yadu, 113 n 4.

Yaksha, 16, 50 n i, 51 ff, 77, 122,

226, 382.
Yamaka, 329 n i.
Yaja, two women, 32 n, 62.
Yoga, 244 n 4 , 343 n 2.

INDEX OF
SANSKRIT AND PRAK/?/T WORDS

OCCURRING IN THE TEXT AND THE NOTES.

akarmata, page 161, (172).

akalevarajrewi, 45.

akash ay a-yathakhy ata, 157.

akasmat, used in Magadha, 358 n 3.

akarawa, 134 n.

akukkuo, no.

akkosa, 9.

agandhana, 118 n 3.

agnihotra, 138.

arika, 214.

ahga, 155, 345.

angavidya, 34.

angula, 143, n 2.

a^akkhu, 193 n 2.

a^akshurdarjana, 172 n 3.

a^ela, 9.

370 n i.
114 n 2.
ya, 221.
221.

221.

a^va, 154, 207 n 3.
aggtmsire, 134 n 4.
ag-6ruha = adhyaroha, 390 n 3.
, 83 n 2.

a, 321 n i.
7 n 5.

= anajita, 286 n i.
a^issa, 189 n i.
aiha = nirmaya, 417 n 2.
aullaya, 219.
awuvrata, 410 n 3.
awusasammi, 151 n i.
atasi seed, 341.

attagami = aptagamin, 309 n i.
addhasamaya, 208 n i.
adharma, 153, 207.
adhikaraik], sell, kriya, 181 n 5.
adhyavapura, 132 n.
adhyahr/ ta, 132 n.

anahgapravishte, 155 n 2.
anantanubandha, 194 n i.
ana^ana, 175.
anisr/ sh/a, 132 n.
anudharma, 416 n 2.
anupariharika, 157 n 3.
anupajanta, 356 n i.
anupreksha, 69 n i, 159, (165).
anubhaga = karmavipaka, 169 n T,

281 n 2, 416 n i.
antara, 209 n 3.
antaraya, 172, 193, 194, 195.
andhiya, 221.
annaa, 9.

annaTziya = a^anika, 315 n 4.
aparikarma, 176 n i.
aparita, 133 n.
appa^ileha, 168 n 5.
appattiya = krodha, 241.
appaha/m, 338 n 4.
apratibaddhata, 159, (166).
apratyakhyana, 194 n i.
aprama^a, 134 n.
abhigama, 154.
abhinibodha, 152 n i.
abhinutna, 250 n i.
abhibhuyana/zi = kevalin, 287 n 3.
abhiyoga, five kinds of, 424 n i.
abhyutthana, 142.
abhrapa/ala, 214.
abhravaluka, 214.
amalaka seed, 341.
amurta, 64 n 2.
aya, 28 n i.
ayauttasi, 341 n 3.
ayantrita (uncoined ?), 105 n 3.
ara, 17 n.
arawi-wood, 341.
arati, 9, 190 n i.
araiw raiw va, 308 n i.

444

GAINA SUTRAS.

arg-u;za, a grass, 216 n 5.

ardhape/a, 177, n 4.

alasa, 219.

alabha, 9.

aloka, 207 f.

avaga = avaka, an aquatic plant,

^391.

avagaha, 153 n 4.
avadhi, 120, 152.
avadhi^ana, 193.
avamaratra, 143.
avamodarika, 175.
avirati, 184 n 3.
avihiwsita, 353 n 7.
ash/apada, chess? 303 n r.
asawkhakala, 209 n 2.
asawzkhyeya, 20off.
asuratvabhavana, 230, 231.
astikaya, 153 n 2, 155 n 4 , 157 n 2.
asmakam (so pronounced in Ma-

gadha), 425 n 2.
assakawwi (ajvakanza), 217 n 4.
ahaga^/a = yathakr/ta, 307 n r.

akamaga, 264 n i.

akaja, 153 n 3.

jUamla, 230.

a.*arya, 179* n 4.

a&gt;//Mdya, 132 n.

a^ivika, 132 n.

agnz, 154.

aa^iya, 48 n i.

adana, 59 n i, 248 n 2.

adana-samiti, 129.

adhakarmika, 131 n 7.

apr/&gt;/ana, 142.

abhinibodhika, 152, 193.

abhiyogikabhavana, 230, 231.

aya, a plant, 391.

ayatawgatvapratyagata, 177, n 4.

ayama, 230 n i.

ayamaga, 72 n 2.

ayushka, 165, n 2, 194, 195.

ayuv&karman, 192.

arambha, 135 n 7.

arussa = arushya, 283 n i.

aroppa = arupa, 415 n 2.

arg-ava, 160, (169).

alambana, 167 n 2.

alisanda, a plant, 374.

aluya (aluka), 216, n 12.

alo^ana, 158, (162).

avara^iya, 195.

avajyika, 142.

ajatana, 184.

ajlika, a kind of snake, 394.

ajrama, 39.

asupanna = ajupra^a, 279 n 2, 288

n 2.

asurakivvisiya, 246 n 2.
asuriya = asurya, 430 n i.
asrava, 81, 99, 194, &c.
aharapratyakhyana, 160, (167).

ikka/a, a reed, 357.
ingala, 134 n.
ihginimara^a, 176 n i.
i^/6akara, 142.
itthi, 9.

itthiveya, 162 n 4.
itvara, 175.
indagaiya, 220.
iriyavahiya, 364 n 2.

iryapathika, 364 n 2.
irya-samiti, 129.

ukkala, 220.

ukkasa = mana, 248 n 3.

ukkasa = mana, 257 n 4.

u^ara-samiti, 130.

u//a, 295 n i.

utkalika, 218 n i.

utku^ana, 373 n 2.

uttaragu#a, 143, 144.

utpalakush^a, 276.

utpadana, 353 n 4.

utsarpiwi, 17 n, 42 n 2, 200.

udaga, an aquatic plant ? 391.

udgama, 353 n 4.

uddish/a, 383 n 3.

udbhinna, 132 n.

unmijra, 132 n.

unrrmrita, 133 n.

upadeja, 154.

upadhipratyakhyana, 160, (167).

upabhoga, 194 n 2.

upama, 19 n 2.

upayukta, 130 n 3.

upayoga, 153 n 6.

upajanta, 356 n i.

upajantamoha, 155 n i.

upasampada, 142.

upadhyaya, 179 n 4.

ullova, 204 n i.

uvasampanna, 421 n r.

uvvehaliya, a plant, 391.

usia, 9.

usira, a perfume, 276.

usu = ishu, 283 n 2.

ussaya^a = mana, 302 n 5.

uhiw^aliya, 221.

INDEX OF SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT WORDS. 445

r/^vT, 178 n 2.
r;shi, 244.

ekatva, 154 n i.

ekagramana/feannivejana, 159, (166).

ekendriya, 42 n i.

egatta, 208, 213 n i.

egayata = ekakin, 286 n 2.

elami/^a, a plant, 374.

eshawa, 27 n i, 129, 131 n 3, 178,

353 n 4.

esava, a plant, 391.
esiya, 301 n 2.

airyapathika, 172 n 5, 298 n 3, 364
n 2.

6e = eka, 275 n 3.

dm, 140.

oga^a, 135 n 2.

ogahawa, 211 n i.

ogha, 134 n 2.

6maa = apamana, 247 n i.

aughika, 134 n i.
auddesika, 131 n 7.
aupagrahika, 134 n i.

kahkarca, 221.

ka^^abhawiya, a plant, 391.
katt&gt;6ahara (kash//6ahara), 220.
ka//6ina, a plant, 357.
kanaka, tier, 288 n 3.
kaha, 217 (kr/shakanda, n i).
kandarpabhavana, 230, 231.
kandu, a plant, 391.
kapittha, 198.
kamar, 96 n 2.
karaagua, 156 n 7.
karaaguajredht, 163 n i.
karaasatya, 160, (169).
karapi//7a, 381 n 2.
karmapatha, 83 n 2.
karva^a, 176 n 7.
kalankalibhava, 387 n 2.
kalama, a plant, 374.
kalambuya = kadamba, 391.
kalpa, 1 6, 164.
kalpasthita, 157 n 3.
kashayapratyakhyana, 160, (167).
kaseruya = kajeru, 391.
kau-=kapota, 197 n 4.
kakini, jewels, 366 n 4.
kakini, a small coin, 28.
ka%ika, 72 n 3.
kamaduh, 104.

kaya, a plant, 391.

kayakle.ra, 175.

kayaguptata, 160, (170).

kayagupti, 130.

kayasamadharaa, 160, (170).

kayiki, sell, kriya, 181 n 5.

karshapawa, (28), 105.

kalapratikramaa, 145, 147, 148.

kalasya pratyupekshawa, 159, (164).

kasha, 197.

kasavaga = napita, 276 n 6.

kimpaka, 187.

kiriya^awe, 355 n 2.

kilvishabhavana, 230, 231.

kukkuWa, 221.

ku^aphawaka, 116 n i.

kuaka, a plant, 357.

ku^/ambaya, 216 n 16.

ku^/uvvaya, 215.

kunda-flowers, 197.

kumara, 96 n 2.

kula, 179 n 4.

kulattha, a plant, 374.

kulala, 68 n i.

kulalaya, kula/a, marg-ara, 417 n 4.

kuja, a grass, 357.

kuhaa, a plant, 391.

kuhawa, 216 n 8.

kuha/^a, 96 n i.

kuheVavi^ga, 105 n 5.

kura, 391, 392.

ketana, 262 n 3.

keyakandali, 215.

ko//a=kufayitva, 285 n 4.

kotthala, 92.

kodrava, a kind of grain, 359.

kolasuwaya, 94 n 3.

kriya, 154, 181 n 5.

krita, 132 n.

krodhapiw^a, 133 n.

krodhavi^-aya, 161, (171).

kro^a, 212.

kshapakajrei, 45 n 2.

kshamapaa, 159, (164).

kshanti, 160, (169).

kshiwamoha, 155 n i.

khaladawa, 369 n i.
khaluwka, 150 n i.
khuruduga, 395 n 7.
khe/a, 176 n 6.
khora, an animal, 395.

(324).

149, n i, 179 n 4 .
345.

gaa,

446

GAINA SUTRAS.

ga;//iyasatta, 195 n i.

gandhana, 118 n 3.

gandhahastin, 113 n 2.

galigaddaha, 150 n i.

gavesha#a, 131 n 4.

gaawgaika, 79 n i.

gathashodajaka, 235 n i.

garava, 98 n i, 181 n i.

gaha, 333 n i.

gilli, a swing, 373 n 3.

gu/&6a, 216 n i.

guw^uka, 216 n 5.

gua, 153 n i.

guwavrata, 383.

guwasthana, 155 n i, 172 n 4.

guptata, vide rnano , vag, kaya.

gupti, 52, 98, 107, 129, 135, &c.

gurusadharmikajujrushaa, 158,

(162).

go^aka, 145 n 3.
gotra, 193, 194, 195, 35, 322;

=church, 321, 327, 423.
gomfitrika, 177, n 4.
grahawaisharca, 131 n 5, 133 n.
gramaka/aka, 380 n 2.
glana, 179 n 4.

ghana (a wind), 218.
gharak6illa=gr/hakokila, 395.
ghatin, 163 n 3.
ghra8ndriyanigraha, 161, (171).

/fcakkhu, 193 n 2.

&gt;akra, 41.

/fcakravartin, 85 n i.

/fcakshurindriyanigraha, 161, (171).

&gt;&akshurdarjana, 172 n 3.

^aturindriya, 43.

y^aturviwjatistava, 159, (163).

bandana, 214, 219.

/fcandalaka, a copper vessel, 277 n 4.

araakara/zaparavid, 355 n i.

^ariya, 9.

^arma^ataka, 224 n i.

/^auppaiya, an animal, 395.

auppaya, 103 n i.

/^aritrasampannata, 160, (171).

/fcikitsa, 133 n.

y^uya, 28 n 2.

^urayoga, 133 n.

eie, 36 n 2.

/fcaitya, 36 n 2, 100 n 3.

/foityakarman, 242 n 3.

attaga, a plant, 391.
^admastha, 155 n i, 157.

/bandana, 142.
^anna = maya, 257 n 2
&6ardita, 133 n.
^/6imala, 150 n 4.
^edopasthapana, 157.

/&gt;Anva 341.

320 n 2.

329.

^arnaiya, 249 n i.
gammayaw, 332.
^alakanta, 214.

221.

, 248 n 4.

, 9, 130 n 2.
^alaga, 219.
^-avai, 215.

^ihvendriyanigraha, 161, (171).
^iva, 154, i6 4 n 5, 207 n 3.
-6ha, an animal, 395.
^Tzanasampannata, 160, (170).
192.

, 349 n 3.
321 n i.

, 95 n 2, 224, 324.

tagara-powder, 276.

tawaphasa, 9.

tawahara (tr/wahara), 220.

tathakara, 142.

tantavagaiya, 221.

tantu^a, 13 n 2.

tapas, 159, (166).

tapasvin, 179 n 4.

tammuyatta, tamomukatva, 363 n 3.

talapufa (a poison), 77.

talau^/a, 77 n i.

tmttigga, 235 n 3.

tippami, 346 n i.

tirikkha, 221 n 4.

tumbaka, 197.

tula, 386 n 2.

tuhaga, 217.

turya, 371.

tr/shwa, 185 n 3.

trayastritfzja, 88 n 2.

trika/uka, 198.

trmdriya, 43.

tha^illa=kr6dha, 302 n 4.
thill i, 373 n 4.
thihuya, 216.

INDEX OF SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT WORDS. 447

dawsamasaya, 9.
daw^/a, 181 n i.
daWasamadana, 356 n 3.
danranasampannata, 160, (171).
darranavaraiya, 192.
davie = dravya, 333 n 2.
dayaka, 133 n.
diga/I&6a, 9.
duga, 220.
duttara, 186 n i.
duruvasawbhava, 395 n 6.
duhawduha, 254 n 3.
dutakarman, 132 n.
devautte, 244 n 3.
de.ravaka.rika, 431 n i.
dehati = pajyati, 240 n 3.
doguti&hi, 25 n 4.
dola, 221.
dosa, 56 n 2.
dravya, 153 n i.
drotfamukha, 176 n 8.
dvindriya, 42.

dharma, 153, 154, 207, &c.
dharmakatha, 159, (166).
dharmajraddha, 158, (162).
dhatrlkarman, 132 n.
dhinkaa, 221.
dhuya, 257 n 6.
dhurna, 134 n.
dhruva, 32 n.

nakshatra, 144.
nagara, 176 n 3.
nandavatta, 221.
nandyavarta, 221 n 2.
napuwsakaveda, 162 n 4.
nay a, 155.
nayuta, 29, n i.
nayutariga, 29 n i.
naman, 193, 194, 195.
naya=7zata, a simile, 338 n i.
nioga//&gt;6T, 2, n 2, 4 n 2.
nikshipta, 133 n.
nigama, 176 n 4.

nigraha, vide jrotrendriya , /^akshur-
indriya^ghra^endriya^^-ihvend-
A riya, spanranendriya .
nidana, 60 n 3, 162 n 3.
nidra, 193 n 2.
nidranidra, 193 n 2.
ninda, 158, (163).
nimitta, 132 n.
niyaga///6T, 4 n 2.
niyagapa^ivanna, 386 n i.
niyuta, 29 n i.

nirgara, 14 n i.
nirveda, 158, (161).
nivvehaliya, a plant, 391.
nishpava, a plant, 374.
nisarga, 154.
nisihiya, 9.

nissae = nijraya, 350 n i.
niya, 221.

numa=pra^/6anna, 265 n i.
numa=maya, 241 n 3, 248 n 5.
naishedhiki, 142.
no-kashaya, 172 n i, 190 n i.

pailaiya, an animal, 395.
pakshapiWa, 4 n i.

pagasa = krodha, 257 n 5.
pa/Waka, 357 n 4;

pag-ava, ^153 n r, 178 n i.
pa^akiuila, 80 n 2.

pa/^endriya, 43.

pampa/aha, 371.

pawana, 176 n 9.

pa&lt;/ikamittu kalassa, 148 n 4.

pa^/ileha, 79 n i.

pawaga, an aquatic plant, 391.

patahgavithika, 177, n 4.

pattahara (patrahara), 220.

pada, 143, n 2.

padakambala, 78 n i.

panaka, 217.

panna, 9.

pappaka, a plant, 357.

para, a grass, 357.

paraka, a plant, 359.

paraka^/a, 6 n 2, 204 n 2.

paramadharmika, 182 n 5.

paravartana, 159, (165).

paravr/ tti, 132 n.

paritapaniki, scil. kriya, 181 n 5.

paripr/ ^^ana, 159, (165).
paribhogaishaa, 131 n 6, 134 n.
pariharavuuddhika, 157.
pariharika, 157 n 3.
parisaha, 9, 183 n 2.
paryastika, 3 n 2.
paryaya, 153 n r.
paryayadharma, 109.
parvaga, 216 n 7.
paliu/z^aga, 199 n 3.
paliu?Xaa=maya, 302 n 2.
palimantha, 302 n 6.
palimokkha, 317 n 3.
paliyantam, 251 n i.
paliyaga=paripaka, 393.

448

GAINA SUTRAS.

palyopama, 84 n i, 200 ff.

palli, 176 n 5.

palloya, 219.

palhatthiya, 3 n 2.

paja#zsa=16bha, 257 n 3.

paulla, slippers, 277 n 6.

pakajasan^indra^ala, 366 n 6.

patala = samudra, 264 n 2.

padapopagamana, 176 n i.

papa, 154.

pasattha = par jvastha, 240112,270111.

pinga, 270.

pitth imamsi, 362 n i.

piwwagapiWi, 414 n 3.

pivasa, 9.

pihita, 133 n.

pk#?asappi = pi^asarpin, 269 n 2.

pukkhalatthibhaga, 392.

pu^osiya, 293 n 2, 318 n 2.

puwwakhandha, puyaskandha,4 1 5 n i .

puwya, 154.

puraa purabhedam, 102 n 2, 451.

pulaka, 214.

puvvasawthuya, 7 n 2.

puhutta, 208 n 5, 213 n i, 223 n 3.

putika, 132 n.

putikarman, 312 n i.

puyawa, 270 n 4.

puya#asae, 330 n 2.

purva, 16 n i, 29 n i.

purvanga, 29 n i.

pr/thaktva, 154 n i.

pe/a, 177, n 4.

poAAbatn, 102 n i.

pottiya, 221.

potthaw, 102 n i.

p6ya-arau = p6ta &lt; -arayu, 302 n i.

polla (pulla), 105 n 2.

prakirwa, 155.

pra^ala, 193 n 2.

praalapra/ala, 193 n 2.

prawita, 178 n 3.

pratipr/ ^/6ana, 142.

pratirupata, 160, (168).

pratyakhyana, 1 59, (164), 194 n i, 383.

pratyakhyana, vide sambhoga ,
upadhi , ahara , kashaya , yoga ,
jarira , sahaya , bhakta , sad-
bhava .

pradeja, 194 n 4.

pradejagra, 194 n 4.

pramaa, 155.

pravra^ya, 204.

prawa, 164 n 5.

praatipatiki kriya, 181 n 5.

pradu^karawa, 132 n.

pradveshik?, scil. kriya, 181 n 5.
prabhr/tika, 132 n.
pramitya, 132 n.
prayaj-itta, 179.
prayaj^ittakaraa, 159, (164).
premadveshamithyadarjanavi^-aya,
161, (172).

phalagavata?/&gt;6i, 297 n i.
phasuya, 6 n i.
phi^/ai, 103 n 2.

badara, (34).

bandha, 154.

bahira, 155 n 2.

bi#a, 154.

bfeodaka, 267 n 3, 313 n 5.

buddha, 2 n i, 3 n i, 5 n 2, 7 n 2,

45, 45 n 3 and 5, 84 n 3.
buhae, 45 n 2.
bodhi, 34.

brahmagupti, 182 n 2.
brahman = moksha, 413.

bhaktapratyakhyana, 160, (168),

176 n i.

bhadantawaw, 101 n i.
bhante, 338 n 2.
bhayarca = lobha, 302 n 3.
bhayantaro, 380 n 3.
bhavana, 69, 183 n 4.
bhavasatya, 160, (169).
bhasha-samiti, 129.
bhiksha-^arya, 175.
bhikshudharma, 182 n 3.
bhn^amo^aka, 214.
bhuta, 164 n 5.
bhoga, 194 n 3.

manghu, 34.

ma^Mttha = lobha, 248 n 6.
ma/amba, 176 n 10.
mawanawa, 152 n 2.
maw^alika, 218 n 2.
madasthana, 361 n i.
mati, 152 n i.
mana^paryaya, 152, 193.
mana^samadharaa, 160, (170).
mano-guptata, 160, (169).
mano-gupti, 130.
mantradosha, 133 n.
mara^akala, 175.
masaragalla, 214.
masura, a plant, 374.
mahapalT, 84, n i.

mai//i&gt;ana = raatr/sthana (or maya-
sthana ?), 304 n 4.

INDEX OF SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT WORDS. 449

maivahaya (matr/vahaka), 219.
manapiw^/a, 133 n.
manavi^-aya, 161, (171).
mayavi.g-aya, 161, (171).
mardava, 160, (169).
malahr/ta, 132 n.
maluga (maluka), 220.
masha, 34, 374.
mahawa, 252 n i.
migg-ati = miyate, 292 n 2.
mithyakara, 142.
milakkhu, mle^^a, 414 n 3, 4.
mukti, 160, (169).
munga. grass, 340.
mudga, a plant, 374.
muni, 140.
musiw^i, 217.
mulakarman, 133 n.
mulaya, mulaka, 215 n 15.
mr/ga^akra, 366 n 7.
moksha, a tree, 357.
mohabhavana, 230, 232.
maireyaka, 198.
maunapada, 253 n 2.
mrakshita, 133 n.

yama, 136.
Ya-na, 318.
yamaka, 329.
yamakiya, 249 n i.
yoga, 163 n 2, 184.
yogapiWa, 133 n.
yogapratyakhyana, 160, (167).
yogasatya, 160 (169).

nig-oharawa, 78 n i.
rati, 190 n i.
rasaparityaga, 175.
ralaka, a plant, 359.
rish^aka, 197.
roga, 9.

ro^a, 95 n i.
rohiwi, a fruit, 197.

lakshaa, forespelling, 366.

lagaw^asaiwo, 379 n 2.

lavavasanki, 316 n 2.

la^a, 12 n i, 306 n 3.

lipta, 133 n.

lejya, 56 n i, 181, 196 fF.

luha = ruksha, sawyama, 261 n 4.

loka, 207 f.

lodhra-powder, 276.

lobhapiWa, 133 n.

lobhavi^aya, 161, (172).

[45]

16hiihuya, 216.
lohitaksha, 214.

vakkasa-pulaga, 34.

va^akanda, 217 (va^rakanda, n 2).

vanaspati, 217.

vandana, 159, (163).

vapanika, 133 n.

vartana, 153 n 5.

vardhamana gr/ha, 38 n i.

valaya, 216 n 6.

vaha, 9.

vaksamadharaa, 160, (170).

vagguptata, 160 (170).

vaggupti, 130.

va/^ana, 159, (165).

vasaiya, a plant, 391.

vasi/^andawakappa, 99 n i.

vasimuha (mukha), 219.

viukkasa = mana, 241 n 2.

viosagga, viusagga, viussagga, 179 n i.

vikattha, 181 n 2.

vikaha, 131 n 2.

vigada, 10 n 3.

vUitta, 221.

vi^ittapattaya, 221.

vi^itrajayanasanasevana, 159, (166).

vi^aya, vide mana , rnaya , krodha ,

lobha , prema .
vi^a (vidvan), 84 n 2.
vidyapiWa, 133 n.
vinaya, 179.
vinivartana, 159, (167).
vinnavawa = striya&gt;6, 258 n i.
vipratipanna, 367 n 2.
vibhanga, 356 n 2.
vibha^yavada = syadvada, 327 n 3.
viramaa, 383.
virati, 383 n 3.
virali, 221.
vilambaga, 293 n 2.
visawesi, 275 n i.
vistara, 154.

vissambhara, an animal, 395.
vina., 371.

vitaragata, 160, (169).
virasana, 178.
virya, 301 n 2.
vusimao, 22 n i.
\Qtth\, 151 n 3.

vedaniya, 168 n 3, 192, 193, 195.
vedika, 145 n 5.

veyaliya, 249 n i ; magga, 253 n i.
vera = vaira, karmabandha, 408 n 2.
verattiya, 144.
vesaliya, 244 n 2.

Gg

450

GATNA SUTRAS.

vesiya, 301 n 2.
vainayika, 83 n 2.
vaiyavr/tya, 160, 179, 181 n 7.
vaishika, 353 n 8.
vya%ana, forespelling, 366.
vyavadana, 159, (166).
vyutsarga, 179.

jankita, 133 n.

jankhanaka, 219.

jataghni, 37.

jabala, 183 n i.

jambukavartta, 177, n 4.

jalya, 181 n i.

jastrapariwamita, 353 n 6.

jastratita, 353 n 5.

jirisha, 198.

jilavrata, 383.

jukladhyana, 173 n i, 205 n i.

jaiksha, 179 n 4.

jaileji, 161, 171 n 2, 172.

jravaka, 108.

jruta, 120, 152, 193.

jrut.asyaradhana, 159, (166).

jrotrendriyanigraha, 161, (171).

sawzyama, 159, (166).

sawyer-ana, 134 n.

sawrambha, 135 n 5.

sawlmata, 175.

sawvara, 55, 73, n 2, 154.

sawvartaka, 218.

sawvega, 158, (161).

sawstavapijwfa, 133 n.

sa#zhr/ta, 133 n.

sakkarapurakkara, 9.

sankaliya = .rrmkhala, 329 n i.

sawkalpavikalpana, 191 n i.

sawkshepa, 154.

sawkhij-^a, 43 n i.

sawkhyeya, 43 n i.

sahgha, 179 n 4.

sa^&gt;&a, a plant, 391.

s&tngnfi, 181 n 3.

sawg-valana, 194 n i.

sa^//6a, 29 n 3.

sattva, 164 n 5.

satya, vide bhava , karaa, yoga .

sadavan, 220.

sadbhavapratyakhyana, 160, (168).

sawtatiw pappa, 208 n 3.

sandhipatte, 331 n i.

sanniv&ra, 177 n 2.

saparikarma, 176 n i.

sapehae, 25.

samaya, 200, n 3, 235 n 2.

samara, 5 n i.

samavaya, 343 n i.

samara, 177 n 3.

samadharawa, vide rnano , vak,

kaya.

samadhi, 185 n i.
samadhiyoga, 34 n 2.
samarambha, 135 n 6.
samahi, 266 n 3, 306 n i, 313 n 4,

324 112, 328 n i, 384 n i, 417

n i.

samita, 33.
samiti, 52, 98, 129.
samila, 94 n 4.
samudarciya, 80 n i.
samudanika, 354 n i.
samusiya, 284 n 3.
samosararca = samavasarawa, 3 1 5 n 2,

386 n 3.
sampannata, vide ana, danrana ,

^aritra .

samparaya, 157.
sambadha, 176 n n.
sambhoga, 167 n i.
sambhogapratyakhyana, 159, (1^7).
sammatta, 9.

sammur^ima, 223 n i, 388 n i.
sayogin, 17^2 n 4.
sanrapratyakhyana, 160, (167).
sarpa//attra, 216 n 8.
sarvaguasampurwata, 160, (169).
salila, 68 n i.

savvappaga = lobha, 241 n i.
savvavanti, 336 n i.
sassirili, 215.
sahasamuiya, 154 n 2.
sahasambuddha, 35 n 2.
sahaya-pratyakhyana, 160, (168).
sahie, 251 04.
sagaropama, 84 n i.
sadharmika, 179 n 4.
sama^ari, 142.
samayika, 157, 159, (163).
samudayika, 134 n i.
samparayika, 298 n 3, 353 n i&gt; 3 6 4

n i.

sasaka, 213.
sahaya, 221.
sihgirk/i, 221.
siddhi, 246 n i.
sir ili, 215.
siya, 9.

siyasandimawiya, a palankm, 373 n 5.
sihaka;z#i, 217.
suuttara, 186 n 2.
sukha^ata, 159, (166).

INDEX OF SANSKRIT AND PRAKfl/T WORDS. 45 [

su-6siya, sugv&osiya, 257 n 6. striveda, 162 n 4, 274.

subhagasoiya, a plant, 392. sthavira, 73, 149, 179 n 4.

surathalaya, 369 n i. sthapanakarmika, 132 n.

sukshma, 157. snataka, 140, 417 n 3.

sutra, 154. spanfanendriyanigraha, 161, (171).

surawa(ya), 217. smr/ ti = mati, 152 n i.

suryakanta, 214. svadhyaya, 159, (165).

seggb, 9.

sevala, an aquatic plant, 391. hawsa, a washerman, 278 n 2.

sehiya, 239 n 3. hawsagarbha, 214.

somangala, 219. haritakaya, 216 n 10.

sovariya = saukarika, 367 n 3. harili, 215.

sauvira, 72 n 3. hastipippali, 198.

stavastutimahgala, 159, (164). hola, a word of abuse, 305 n i.

CORRECTION.

Page 102, verse 18, the phrase puraa purabhedawi has been wrongly
translated : which is among towns what Indra is (among the gods) ;
it simply means: an old town. For purabhedawi is the Prakr/ t
equivalent of the Sanskrit and Pali word pu/abhedanam, town.
Cancel note 2.

Gg 2

TRANSLITERATION OF ORIENTAL ALPHABETS

[bademiyansubhanallah]

India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 22 :: Oct. 24 - Nov. 06, 1998

COVER STORY

Amartya took his concern for society forward: K. N. Raj

AMARTYA SEN once wrote to me in reply to my response to his book
Poverty and Famine: "I have never had the illusion that I was saying
something that had not been said before. But I did think that I was
saying things that could have saved some lives if they were reflected
in policy. To use Ashok Mitra's phrase, if our great-grandmothers ran
governments, they would have saved many lives indeed."

This is a statement typical of Amartya and in a way is a reflection of
his important contribution. Because, as I told him, I think that most
of the things that welfare economists talk about are those that are
obvious to all of us, especially the common people. In fact, even a
pure philosopher and religious thinker like Sree Narayana Guru, who
achieved a social transformation in Kerala, spoke about the very same
things that welfare economists speak about today: education, health
care facilities, even small-scale industries. But economic theory was
all about how production is organised and so on, and not about how it
affects the welfare of the community or a particular segment of the
community.

Earlier economists such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert
Malthus and Karl Marx were indeed concerned about society. However,
after Marx, conservative economists perhaps thought it better to leave
all these problems aside and concentrate on what is called the pure
theory of value and distribution. It had nothing to do with
institutions. This trend was somewhat altered by people like John
Maynard Keynes, because they were concerned about the problem of
unemployment. Amartya took this concern for society forward, and when
speaking about its practical side he always referred to India in
general, and Kerala in particular. In fact, he claimed, and he did
demonstrate, that Kerala had done much better than China in some
fields of development.

Amartya has always been very sensitive about the question of famine,
because he himself grew up at the time of the Bengal famine. He was
struck by the absolute helplessness of the people some of whom having
travelled distances died right outside his house. That experience made
a very deep impression on him. He went on to study the question of
famine and demonstrated that it did not always occur owing to shortage
of food, but it was a question of distribution as well. This is where
questions of welfare come in, obvious questions like "if distribution
of food was proper, why should only some people die?"

Amartya showed how in China, a Communist country much concerned about
distribution, lack of information became the real reason for the
famine of late 1950s. Officials and the media were trained to report
only what was good, and Beijing had no clue that there was a famine.

C. RATHEESH KUMAR

Amartya referred always to the comparisons between the famine in China
and in Bengal. In the latter case, it was really a question of
distribution, black-marketing and so on - events governed by market
principles. Because he saw the terrible effects of famine as a child,
it was natural for him to investigate the Chinese famine as well. He
fished out the truth, which was unwelcome to the Chinese. He showed
that the important determinants of entitlement in that context were
political pressure and administrative force and, negatively, the
authority's ability to suppress information by keeping the stories of
starvation out of the newspapers.

Amartya once wrote to me: "If the government can 'afford' to have
famines, then in a poor country from time to time it will have
famines, since it will not be forced to organise relief and, if
necessary, import food from abroad, and it could continue to carry on
its insensitive policy with quiet dogmatism."

Amartya is not a Marxist. But he is sympathetic to Marxists because
Marxists have been concerned about the poor. Many people like me
practised welfare economics without knowing that it was welfare
economics, because we were anxious that economics should help the
poor. But people who take economic theory literally would say that
this is not our problem. Amartya was very good at theory. He went
along with that. But he very quickly understood the limitations of
that kind of pure theory.

His welfare theory goes into the realm of philosophy. Most economists
are not like that anymore, although the fundamental contribution of
Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, was the book Theory of
Moral Sentiments. That was, however, forgotten by neo-classical
economists who had nothing to do with moral sentiments. Perhaps, that
reduces their theoretical rigour. How will you make a theory in
morality? You cannot make a model out of morality!

Amartya is a superb teacher; he is one of the best I have known. At
the Delhi School of Economics (DSE), where Amartya joined as a fellow
teacher, his classroom always overflowed with students from other
classes. There was no need for taking attendance and Amartya always
considered it an absolute waste of time. When our department finally
put up a proposal for doing away with the practice of taking
attendance, there was opposition from every other department. However,
the Vice-Chancellor, C.D. Deshmukh, being a civil servant who knew how
to manage rules, allowed our department alone to discontinue the
practice. In Amartya Sen's case, and for all of us in the department,
it made no difference at all.

The DSE was at the peak of its popularity and was one of the strongest
departments in the world when it had Amartya, Jagdish Bhagwati and
Sukhamoy Chakravarty. The DSE celebrates its golden jubilee on
November 14, and if they invite Amartya I am sure he will attract a
huge crowd.

Amartya was very closely linked with the Tagore family. I think it is
because of this factor that despite the difficulties involved in
getting his passport renewed frequently (because he travels a lot) he
remains an Indian citizen. Once, when my wife asked him whether he had
changed his citizenship, he got very angry and said: "Sarasamma, how
dare you ask such a question?" That is why I used to say that he is
one of the few "fanatic" Indians that I know. Amartya is a delightful
person to know. We were neighbours in our DSE days, and our families
also got to know each other very well.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1522/15220150.htm

Handbook on maximising profits
K. SUBRAMANIAN

The book attempts to ride two horses — economic theory and management
guide

PROFIT POWER ECONOMICS — A New Competitive Strategy for Creating
Sustainable Wealth: Mia de Kuijper, Oxford University Press, 198
Madison Avenue, New York. $ 34.95.

Classical economics of the Adam Smith variety and its latter day
variants had no theory of foreign direct investment (FDI) or the
growth of multi-national corporations (MNCs). In the post-Second World
War years, economists like Raymond Vernon posited “product cycle”
theories which were U.S.-centric.

A radical breakthrough was made in the 1960s when Stephen Hymer
explained FDI as the defining feature of the MNC and related its
advantages vis-À-vis the other forms of foreign operations such as
licensing.

Coasian concept

While Hymer hinted at the idea of ‘internalisation’ of knowledge as
the driver of MNC growth, it was Ronald Coase who provided a
theoretical framework known as “internalisation.” Since then, a rich
body of theoretical literature has been built around the Coasian
concept of “transaction cost.” No wonder, he received the Nobel Prize
for his unique contribution.

Transaction cost is not the cost of a transaction but the cost
inherent in the transaction itself. Contracts fail and cannot be
enforced with all available legal resources. The issue turns critical
when a corporation has to trade in assets that are proprietary — brand
names, secrecy of process and products, managerial skills, and so on.
To avoid costs such as misappropriation and to maximise gains, the
MNCs internalise the assets within their structure.

The field was taken over by Dunning and a number of economists in the
Manchester School. They developed what is called the ‘OLI
Paradigm’ (also known as eclectic) which combines the advantages of
Ownership, Location, and Internationalisation.

Oliver Williamson who received the Nobel Prize this year advanced our
understanding richly. He applies “transaction cost” ideas in different
settings to figure out governance structures in different
circumstances.

MNC theories

The endeavour in current work is to establish that the MNCs create
internal markets and take steps to handle situations where the
external market does not exist or fails. There is no longer reliance
on vertically integrated formations. It takes an array of alliances or
networks as long as there is broader control over the formation as a
whole. They provide for cultural variety across the borders and for
the problems inherent in control from long distances.

The ideas of Mia de Kuijper, author of this book, have to be tested
against these trends in MNC theories. de Kuijper has her feet firmly
in both academia and giant corporations; she was associated with
companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and PepsiCo.

Critical to her exposition is the notion of “profit power,” which is
derived from “power nodes.” She has identified 12 such nodes. In
defining them, there is confusion or mix-up between assets and
strategies. For instance, nodes like brand, secret ingredients, and
focussed and proprietary processes are assets. The others such as
“regulatory protection”, “financial resources”, and “customer base”,
are strategies.

By describing ‘profit power’ as “economic clout — the ability of a
company to hold on to the value it itself has created, as well as to
extract a share of profits from competitors, to create incremental
value for itself and its partners in business relationships, and to
shape the risks it and others will take on” — she engages in
tautology. Profit power flows from holding on to proprietary assets
and internalising them. Indeed, strategies may, and will, change from
time to time.

Transparency

There is vagueness or a mystique attached to her idea of “value
addition” along the chain. It is difficult to envision how, without
the controlling influence or the “invisible hand” from headquarters,
it can be added or sustained.

Another key theme running across the book is the role of
“transparency” and the impact of information technology. There can be
no disagreement that access to information has increased exponentially
and the cost of collection has come down precipitously. Informatics
and outsourcing are indeed integral parts of current corporate
management and strategies. However, it will be naïve to conclude, as
de Kuijper does, that all information is in the public domain and
accessible. Supply of information will continue to be limited and
guarded and those vital for corporate growth will be held back.

de Kuijper says “the contribution of this book to economic theory is
to demonstrate why markets do not work perfectly even when, or rather
especially when, information becomes perfect, and to show how we can
make practical use of this insight.” At another place, she says how it
can be a source of “extraordinary profitability.”

From a theoretical level, the book lowers its bars and turns into a
guide for corporate executives on developing ‘nodes”, adopting rules
to maximise profits, and drawing up action plans to achieve that goal.
The book attempts to ride two horses — economic theory and management
guide. While it fails in the former, it is more successful as a
practitioner’s handbook.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 05, 2010

http://www.hindu.com/br/2010/01/05/stories/2010010550031200.htm

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http://www.hinduonnet.com/ebooks/eb0013.htm

Volume 17 - Issue 21, Oct. 14 - 27, 2000

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

Analysing China's performance
C.T. KURIEN

Economics Blue Book of the People's Republic of China, 1999: Analysis
and Forecast, Edited by Sun Wenbin, Michelle H.W. Fong, Geof Wade;
Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong; 1999.

THE main theme of this, the second volume of the authorised annual
English language publications on the performance of the Chinese
economy, authored by researchers of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, other scholars and state officials, is the same as that of
the first-one, "the track alteration" the economy of China has been
undergoing in recent years. The change of track is from a
predominantly state-owned and controlled economy to a socialist market
economy. The process was initiated in 1978 an d gained momentum from
1987.

One of the perceptible achievements of the change has been a sudden
spurt in the rate of growth of the Chinese economy. For several years
since 1978, the growth rate was over 10 per cent per annum, touching
15.2 per cent in 1984 and 14.2 per cent in 1992 . By the middle of the
1990s, the economy had become overheated, leading to a high level of
inflation. A "hard landing" was then attempted which also had some
adverse consequences. In 1996 and 1997 there was a shift to "soft
landing". The application of brakes of both varieties had the intended
result of slowing down the economy. Both 1997 and 1998 have been
described as years of "mild deflation". One issue debated in the
present volume is whether the same will continue in 1999 or whether it
will turn o ut to be a year of recovery.

In 1998, the Chinese economy faced some unanticipated problems, both
internal and external. The internal problems were caused by heavy
floods in the midstream and downstream portions of the Yangtze River,
with an estimated economic loss of 160 billion re nminbi (RMB). (By
way of comparison it may be noted that this amount was almost 85 per
cent of the total value of exports of the year and more than the total
value of imports.) Fortunately, the floods did not reduce the total
grain output which, in fact, slightly exceeded the 1997 figures. But
the production of cotton and tobacco was hit badly. Apart from the
adverse impact on production, the floods showed the vulnerability of
vast expanses of territory and of the country's ecological environment
in gen eral which has a bearing on the lives and livelihoods of the
people.

The external shock was not so visible, but was no less serious. The
financial and currency crisis that dramatically affected South Korea,
Thailand and Indonesia ina 1997 and the continuing stagnation of the
Japanese economy and the depreciation of the Ja panese yen cast a
shadow over China's conditions. In spite of the fall in the value of
most currencies in Asia in relation to the U.S. dollar, a deliberate
decision was made not to devalue the RMB, which in turn affected the
growth of exports. It also le d to the realisation that the growth of
the Chinese economy depends primarily on internal factors - a fact
which may have been overlooked for a while because of all the
excitement of opening up of the economy after decades of self-imposed
isolation.

However, it was no longer possible to go back to old economic policies
as money and markets had changed the functioning of the economy and
the rise in the levels of income of the bulk of the population had
altered patterns of expenditure. With the change in the ownership of
enterprises - from primarily state-owned or collective to increasingly
private-owned - credit and borrowing and interest rate regimes had
come to occupy a prominent role. In an attempt to stimulate domestic
activity, interest rates w ere reduced five times in 1998, but without
leading to the expected results. Changes in fiscal policies have also
been attempted. Several tax reductions - on stamp duties on bond
transactions, tax rebates on textile machinery and shipping - were
effected . Public investment was also stepped up. And, in order to
finance investment, RMB 100 billion worth of treasury bonds were
issued, in part to mobilise savings of the households and channel them
into productive activity.

But a constant refrain in the Blue Book is that the crux of the
economic problem of the Chinese economy currently is that consumer
spending is not going up as much as it should. A variety of
explanations are offered. Personal disposable income in both ur ban
and rural areas increased at a slightly higher rate than in 1997.
However, the growth of personal income fell behind gross domestic
product (GDP) growth rate. It is pointed out that in the early- and
mid-1980s, the general complaint was that "salarie s were eating up
profits" (during the high growth period from 1986 onwards, the annual
average family income growth rate was only 6.3 per cent, considerably
below the growth rate of GDP) and that consequently the proportion of
average personal income to GDP at constant prices fell from 57.5 per
cent in 1986 to 45.5 per cent in 1996. This is recognised as a failure
of the market economy to guarantee that labour income will
automatically grow with GDP growth. A recommendation made is that
salaries of thos e who work in the areas of education, science, art,
health and government should be increased and that it could be done
through appropriate fiscal adjustment.

Three other reasons are put forward as explanations for low consumer
expenditure. First, consumer spending was suppressed by the
uncertainties about future income owing to the possibility of
unemployment and the expected increase in the future expenses o n
education, medical care and retirement. In other words, Chinese public
expenditure in the social sectors is not adequate enough to maintain
rising private expenditure - indeed a significant finding that should
have a bearing on policies in the evolving socialist market economy.
Second, Chinese consumers have passed the stage where basic consumer
necessities could be met through supply managements alone. That is,
the Chinese economy has moved out of a sellers' market into a buyers'
market. Producers ha ve to respect consumer preferences for the kinds
of goods that their higher incomes permit to buy. Third, in 1997
registered unemployment rate was 3.1 per cent of the labour force. But
when the number of people waiting to be employed was also taken into
account, the rate went up to 8 to 9 per cent.

As already noted, in 1998 the Chinese economy was affected by external
factors as well. The poor performance of the Japanese economy and the
fall in the external value of many Asian countries had an adverse
impact on China's exports. However, imports als o got reduced and so
the year ended with a trade surplus as well as a higher foreign
exchange reserve. The Asian financial crisis also had some impact on
foreign direct investment in China. Investment from Asian countries -
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Phil ippines, Thailand, Singapore, South
Korea and others - which constituted about 75 per cent of the total in
1997 came down to a little above 70 per cent and declined in absolute
terms also. At the same time, investment from Europe and the U.S.
increased.

A brief reference to Hong Kong may be made in concluding this review
mainly because of the fact that on July 1, 1997 the British handed
over Hong Kong to China and it became the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region based on the "one country, two (econ omic)
systems" principle. It is unfortunate that this transfer happened at a
time when the Asian financial crisis was setting in. The growth rate
of Hong Kong suffered as a consequence. Particularly affected were
activities in finance, real estate, retai l trade and hotels.
Unemployment increased and problems related to it became very visible
as there was also an increase of new immigrants from the Mainland. The
banking sector and the stock market came under severe strain. However,
the administration suc ceeded in keeping matters under control.

The Blue Book is meant for outsiders who are interested in the Chinese
economy and it certainly serves a useful purpose. As an interested
user I would make some comments about its contents and format. One
would see more statistical information in the vol ume. Statistical
information is available throughout, but the appendix containing
consolidated statistics constitutes only seven pages out of a total of
over 500. It will be helpful to have critical evaluation of official
statistics also. In the 50 artic les that form the substance of the
volume there is a great deal of repetition. In a compilation of this
kind some repetition is unavoidable. But it should be possible, in the
future issues, to reduce it considerably.

I must also add that Chinese scholars who have authored the articles
seem to suffer from want of appropriate theoretical tools to analyse
the Chinese economy in its present phase. They have relied almost
exclusively, though not uncritically on Western ma cro economic theory
and its analytical corpus. However, macro economic aggregates are
premised on micro economics, particularly the nature and objectives of
the basic production units of a capitalist economy. Since China
differs significantly from Wester n economies in this regard, it is
necessary to use theories and tools suitable for the country's
conditions. This is not an easy task. But if the Chinese scholars
succeed in adapting Marxist theory to suit their conditions, it must
be possible for them t o evolve economic theories and analytical tools
to deal with the kind of market socialism they are trying to put into
practice.

Two articles on the Chinese economy, based on the first Economics Blue
Book and other writings were published in Frontline, September 11 and
September 25, 1998.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1721/17210760.htm

Volume 19 - Issue 04, Feb.16 - Mar. 1, 2002

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

Economics and values
V. SURJIT
R. MOHAN

The Values of Economics - An Aristotelian Perspective by Irene van
Staveren; Eburon Publishers, 2001; pages 242, £18.99.

IN her book The Values of Economics - An Aristotelian Perspective,
Irene van Staveren discusses how the values of freedom, justice and
care have been kept beyond the pale of modern economics and examines
related issues incisively. She won the Gunnar Myrdal Prize for 2000
for her dissertation "Caring for economics - An Aristotelian
perspective", from which this book evolved. Staveren is a lecturer in
Labour Market Economics of Developing Countries at the Institute of
Social Studies at The Hague.

The study of economics in universities is dominated, by a large
extent, by the neoclassical or orthodox approach, which rests on
axioms about consumer preferences and on the assumption of rationality
of consumer behaviour. The actor is constructed as the 'rational
economic man' or Homo Economicus. Economics is introduced as a subject
that deals with the price system, rational utility maximising
individuals who are price takers, their demand curves, the profit
maximising firms' supply curves, indifference maps, constrained
maximisation behaviour, and the Pareto optimal situation in which no
one can be made better off without making someone else worse off,
which is learnt by the calculus method, more recently by using set
theory. Quotations from the Fable of bees: Or Private Vices and Public
Virtues by Bernard Mandeville (1670-1730) and from Adam Smith -
regarding each one's maximisation of self-interest leading to maximum
social good - are often adverted to.

The concept of Utils though can be argued as being analogous to
weight, volume and temperature, its measurement in numbers being
nothing but the whim of the author. In this book the author looks at
the missing ethical capabilities of the rational economic man and at
what has been lost in the evolution of the dominant strand of
economics. She conducts an elaborate inquiry into this and offers a
reasoned critique. The book encourages students of economics to look
beyond the world of axioms, constrained maximisations and
optimisations.

The author lays emphasis on the value domains of Freedom, Justice and
Care, how closely they are interwoven and how an excess or deficiency
in one can result in an inability to feed on one another and how an
excess of one can create problems. The preface of the book starts with
the passage, "Somewhere along the route of modernisation economics has
lost its connection to the most basic characteristics of human
behaviour. It has come to disregard human motives, emotions,
evaluation and the different forms of interaction through which human
actions in economic life provide for themselves and for others. With
this neglect the discipline not only lost much of its charm but also
became less persuasive."

The author narrates the case of two victims who suffered brain damage
in accidents but were later cured. One of them, Phineas Gage, who was
25 years old at the time of the accident in 1848, was a foreman. A
1.10-metre-long iron bar weighing 6 kg pierced his skull from the left
cheek, passed through the front of his brain and the top of his head,
and landed 30 metres away. After treatment for two months, he was
cured, though he lost one eye.

However, Gage's personality underwent a metamorphosis. The polite,
precise and committed person became rude, blasphemous, stubborn and
capricious. He lost his job, broke up his family and ended up as a
vagabond. He was incapable of planning ahead or earning a living,
though he had not lost his rational capabilities or his ability to
read and talk, remember and process information and to direct his
hands to do a task. The author characterises this person as a real-
life clone of the rational economic man. The deficiency of the
rational economic man is that he interacts with society without being
influenced by it and he interacts only through an ideal market in
which prices form the only means of communication. He is depicted as
having a utility function and his foremost aim is to maximise it.

Values are not ends in themselves. According to the author,
commitment, emotional attachment, deliberation and human interaction
all express human values, and to some extent all these values are
shared and contested among individuals in a society. The problem
conceived by the author is how to address the role of such values in
economics without, on the one hand, moving too far away from economics
into sociology and without, on the other hand, reducing values to
axioms that exclude any meaningful rationality, as in the case of
neoclassical economics. Neoclassical economics is not value neutral.
It takes value freedom for granted. She cites passages from Free to
Choose, authored by Milton Friedman, and Rose Friedman, to bring home
this point. The commitment to liberty in neoclassical economics is
expressed as free individual, free choice and free exchange. The
defence of liberty is based on a free exchange that leads to efficient
markets.

Justice is described as a natural counter-value to freedom. Excessive
pursuit of freedom will have negative consequences for others. For
example, a pursuit of profit that results in the exploitation of
workers, the unequal distribution of gains from international trade
and so on. The author also cites from John Rawls' A Theory of Justice
(1971). Can the poor suffer for the cause of a Pareto superior utility
gain, the aggregate of which may benefit only or mainly the rich? Thus
free exchange will not occur without a substantive form of justice.

CARE is another value that the author says modern economists excluded
from the sphere of the subject. "Species activity that includes
everything that we do to maintain, continue and repair our world so
that we can live in that as well as possible" (Joan Tronto, 1993). In
economics the relevance of caring commitments were recognised by
Amartya Sen (1981), Jon Elser (1983) and Robert Frank (1988). Feminist
economists have also made contributions on caring labour.

The author cites an interesting example of Sen's illustration of Ali,
an immigrant shopkeeper in London who has a friend called Dona. Dona
gets information about some racists planning to attack Ali and does
not know how to warn him. Complaining to the police is not of any use
as they dismiss Dona's story as a product of paranoid fantasy. Dona
knows that Ali keeps Charles, a business contact informed about his
movements. The only way she can warn Ali is by breaking into Charles'
room and leaving a message about the planned attack. Under utilitarian
thinking and justice reasoning there is no reason for breaking into
Charles' room. Charles is a self-centered egoist, who will be more
disturbed by his room being broken into than by Ali getting beaten up.
From a justice perspective, there is no justification as Ali's life is
not in danger, only his health and dignity. From a utilitarian
perspective Charles' utility will decrease and Ali's further utility
loss as a consequence of the bashing will be less than the utility
gains by ten racist attackers. Does the very idea appear preposterous?
If so, you value care as an end in itself. Sen encourages Dona to
follow her "deeply held and resilient conviction that she must save
Ali". Care is one's responsibility toward the community that one feels
part of. Without responsibility, negative external effects will
rapidly restrain the economic process, says the author.

Staveren says that Adam Smith's contribution to the domain of justice
and care has been undervalued. Smith, widely known as the author of
Wealth of Nations, had also authored The Moral Sentiments. He
recognised the two objects of the economy: "first to provide a
plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or more properly to
enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves;
and secondly, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue
sufficient for public services" (Adam Smith, 1776, Book IV;
Introduction: 428).

Smith also recognised the role of the care economy at home in moulding
the labour force of the future. He recognised that labour, like
capital, is a produced factor. His writing quoted below evidences
Smith's contribution to the domain of justice: "No society can surely
be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are
poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed,
cloath and lodge the whole body of people, should have such a share of
the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well
fed, cloathed and lodged." (Smith 1776, Book I. VIII: 96).

The author examines the views of John Stuart Mill, Plato and Karl Marx
in his writing. Margaret Reid's pioneering contribution to home
economics is also discussed. The idea of care economy was developed
from the experiences of women, their role as consumers and as unpaid
labour at home. Her idea of a 'fair market' from a consumers' point of
view has been dealt with by the author in Consumers and Market (1942).
Another researcher on the home economy of care introduced by the
author is Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote her books at the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century - The Home
(1903) and Women and Economics (1899).

Gilman argued that the unpaid care labour of women at home is not
compensated for by the income earned by their husbands. She described
care as a basic human sphere and considers the valuing of the sympathy
and care of a mother in market terms as unthinkable. Staveren
considers this view more realistic than Pigou's famous statement that
gross domestic product (GDP) decreases when a man marries his
housekeeper. To generate a hypotheses on the behaviour of economic
actors and each value domain, the author employed unconventional
research methods - at least in economics, field surveys and focus
groups. She also discusses the extended utility function espoused by
Garry Becker and McCloskey's methods for a via media between
individual and social approach.

The values of freedom, justice and care cannot be aggregated into one
value, as they are incommensurable. They cannot be made to occupy a
hierarchy of importance. They cannot be subordinated to utility.
Staveren hopes that the outline of the empirical framework can guide
further theoretical enquiry into care and other values in economics.

In dealing with care economics she deals with the issue of
privatisation of health-care. For more than a decade or so, hard-
boiled votaries of privatisation and some half-boiled experts have
considered privatisation a magic wand that can exorcise the ghost of
inefficiency that they attribute to the public sector. The importance
of cost recovery fees, including in health care, is insisted upon in
revival packages. In the health sector, privatisation results in
making healthcare more expensive and this can in turn result in a
lower demand for privatised healthcare. This case of a downward
sloping demand curve can hardly be found objectionable by
neoclassicals. This reduced demand will cause an increase in
malnutrition and health problems, particularly for women and children.
This has the effect of undermining the productivity of future
generations in the labour market.

Cuts in health budgets, which aim to peg fiscal deficit at a fixed per
cent of GDP, whatever the cost, and the draining of capable doctors
from the public to the private sector, will cause longer waiting lists
and queues in clinics. People who cannot afford expensive healthcare
need more care at home. This will mean that women have to divert more
time to care at home and less to other activities. This is a typical
case of the substitution effect described in economics textbooks. The
argument of efficiency is actually an argument of false efficiency,
causing intergenerational loss of productivity and intragenerational
loss of output. This is a classic case of privatisation adversely
affecting productivity and output. It is interesting to note how the
author uses concepts of traditional economics to show how its
conclusion is unworkable. The magician who is recommended for
exorcising public sector inefficiency is chased away using his own
magic wand.

The author also points out how the oft-criticised 'inefficient state
organised distributive measures' have in fact aided the growth of GDP
in newly industrialising South-East Asian countries. Studies by
believers of neoclassical paradigms of growth have shown that a fair
distribution of income has in fact stimulated GDP growth. (Robert Baro
1991; Nancy Birdstall, David Ross and Richard Sabort 1995; United
Nations Development Programme 1995, 1996, 1997; Sen 1998). Other
things being equal, economies with lower inequalities at the start of
1960-85 grew faster (Birdstall, Ross and Sabort 1995; 50).

THE author identifies the domain of values - freedom, justice and
care. When one is deficient it cannot adequately perform a role in the
economy. "A deficient value domain is not able to feed into the other
value domains to diminish the respective deficiencies." Each domain
needs a threshold to feed the other. She argues that in the former
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the domain of freedom was
deficient, which led to substantial inefficiencies in the economy. In
post-1990s Russia, the domain of justice is deficient. Likewise, the
excess of any one domain is also problematic. Excesses in the domain
of justice lead to bureaucratic over-regulation and oppression. Virtue
is considered a mean between deficiency and excess. This develops
through the rational behaviour of actors in each domain using all
their ethical capabilities to further each domain's value, and
therefore involves a 'balancing act' between them.

One most likely answer to the criticism of the rational economic man
with missing ethical capabilities is that only in theory is the
abstraction and ruling out of external influences permissible. The
author does not disagree with this but adds, by way of caution, that
the abstraction should reflect, although it is abstract in form, real,
healthy human behaviour if it intends to explain the economic
behaviour of human beings. Kaushik Basu is of the opinion that even
though he has criticised conventional economics and positive political
economy, he does not mean to detract from the many achievements of
modern economics. The discipline's rigour and comprehensiveness have
undoubtedly contributed to our understanding of the marketplace. A
regrettable consequence is that it has spilled over to domains where
we have little reason to be confident. Not only the individual self-
interest but institutions also matter (Kaushik Basu, Prelude to
Political Economy).

The book gives a good exposure to the basic idea of the value domains
of freedom, justice and care and the limitations of looking at
economics from the neoclassical point of view. It discusses writers
and their ideas, which get little importance in the economics
curriculum of the universities today.

V. Surjit and R. Mohan are research scholars at the Centre for
Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1904/19040760.htm

Volume 19 - Issue 15, July 20 - August 02, 2002

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

In defence of development economics
C.T. KURIEN
Development Economics - Nature and Significance by Syed Nawab Haider
Naqvi; Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2002; pages 269, Rs.450.

A QUICK survey of "development economics" in the past half a century
will be somewhat as follows. In the 1950s it emerged as a specialised
field of studies in universities in different parts of the world,
particularly in the United States. Research and publications
flourished and the field became quite prestigious in the 1960s, partly
as an extension of the Keynesian emphasis on the role of the state in
the economic sphere and partly as a revival of the classical
economists' concern with long-term growth. The resurgence of neo-
classical economics in the 1970s and the claim that rational economic
calculation by individuals is the basis of all economic activity
started to challenge the need for a separate discipline of development
economics. This in turn led in the 1980s to some defence of
development economics, but also to many obituaries. In the "state vs
market" debate of the 1990s, development economics came to be
identified with the state, and neo-classical economics as the
theoretical champion of the "free market" appeared to have scored a
technical knock-out of the already emaciated development economics.

It is against this background that Syed Naqvi presents his new defence
of development economics. The author had his training in economics in
the well-known American universities of Princeton, Yale and Harvard,
where he must have had a thorough exposure to neo-classical economics
and its imperialistic claims of universality.

He then returned to his own country, Pakistan, taught in the Quaid-I-
Azam University in Islamabad, served as Director of the Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics and was for some time a member of
the Pakistan Planning Commission. Anyone who is trained in neo-
classical economics but deals with practical problems of development,
discovers the emptiness, if not the perversion, that lies hidden
behind the rigour and elegance of neo-classical economics. Some make
desperate attempts to defend and justify neo-classical economics.
Others expose its pseudo-universality and insist that a different
approach is necessary to understand development problems and seek
remedies for them.

Naqvi belongs to the second group. Therefore, his defence of
development economics as a separate discipline is a reasoned but
unfortunately repetitive critique of neo-classical economics. The
work, thus, is primarily academic. I recommend it to students of
economics and development economics, particularly those at the post-
graduate level, because apart from being a logical critique of neo-
classical economics, it is also an excellent survey of the literature
available, mainly on development economics. Non-academic readers with
practical interest in development problems may find the prolific
reference to the literature, a dozen and more per page at times,
somewhat distracting.

However, the author's defence of development economics (against the
onslaught of neo-classical economics) can be salvaged from the jargon
of the professional. On page 190 there is a clear statement of what
development economics is: "The basic aim of development economics, as
described in this book, is to explain the nature and mechanics of the
development process as it has unfolded in the developing countries so
far, and to change this state for the better by increasing per capita
incomes, reducing distributional inequities, lowering the incidence of
poverty and improving human capabilities to convert increment in per
capita income into some meaningful metric of personal well-
being" (emphases as in the original).

Neo-classical economists may not oppose this statement of what
development economics aims to achieve, but they may find it difficult
to accept these social objectives as a statement of the purpose of a
science. Their statement of the nature of the science of neo-classical
economics is that it is an attempt to understand an economy as the
maximisation of a representative agent's utility over an infinite
future and rules of behaviour compatible with this objective derived
logically from a set of stated axioms.

Two very different perspectives are represented here. The matter could
have been left to be debated by scholars in their secluded cloisters.
But the problem is that the two perspectives lead to divergent, indeed
contradictory, policy prescriptions. Thus, one of the implications of
neo-classical economics is said to be that the most rational policy is
to leave all economic issues to be settled by the logic and laws of
the markets, leading to the "leave it to the market" dictum.
Development economics, on the other hand, assigns a significant role
to the state in matters of economic policy. In fact, it will go
further and argue that some of the key development objectives, such as
eradication of poverty, reduction of inequalities and universalisation
of education and health care, cannot be achieved without the active
intervention of the state.

How are these differences to be tackled? Naqvi devotes a good part of
the book to attempting to resolve the "state vs market" debate. There
has been a proliferation of literature on this topic and the author
provides a critical review of it. The only way to settle the debate,
if it can be settled at all, is to insist that the exercise of
authority and involvement in mutually beneficial transactions are both
common to, and basic ingredients of, any human community and that,
therefore, there is no way to choose between them.

Hence the policy issue is how the authority of the state and the
operations of the market are to be combined and that there cannot be
an a priori answer to that question because that combination depends
on the community concerned (a family, a firm, a country) and will
change over time. If so, it is not very helpful, and not very
satisfactory, to reduce the problem to that of the coexistence of the
public and private sectors and then argue that the right solution is
to go in for a "mixed economy". Even granting that all functioning
economies (as opposed to conceptual economies) are "mixed economies",
there is the need to indicate the nature of the mixture: it is
contextual and will vary over time. Also, the basic issue is not to
decide on how two independent sectors are to be optimally combined,
but how to coordinate decisions in the context of a plurality of
overlapping agencies.

It is doubtful whether the nature and significance of development
economics as a separate field of study can be established through an
argument with neo-classical economics in terms of specifics such as
the "state vs market" theme, although it is central to an appreciation
of the differences between the two fields.

There are two fundamental differences between neo-classical economics
and development economics. The first is that for neo-classical
economics the primary units of analysis are all homogeneous
individuals, in the sense that all individuals are maximisers of
utility or satisfaction though they differ in terms of their tastes
and preferences. The grouping of these individuals - into owners,
producers and consumers, for instance - is a mere analytical device
meant to establish certain propositions.

Development economics, on the other hand, deals with real-life human
beings living in historically contexted groups, societies and nations.
Secondly, and arising from the first, the problematic of development
economics consists of real-life problems of production of goods and
services within noticeable institutional arrangements, with equally
traceable arrangements that decide how what is produced will be shared
among members of society. Development economics diagnoses social
problems, but is also committed to treating them with some clear
notions about the nature of a healthy social order. If it is a
science, it is similar to medical or health science. Neo-classical
economics, on the other hand, claims to be a "pure" science, deriving
its propositions or theorems logically from a set of stated premises
whose validity or realism is not subject to empirical verification. It
is a constructed theoretical system.

Scoring debating points over neo-classical economics, therefore, is
hardly the way to establish the credentials of development economics.
As a policy-oriented discipline, the task of development economics is
to get on with the job, meticulously diagnosing the nature of the
problems it has chosen to deal with and suggesting remedies to achieve
authentic human development within just and participatory social
arrangements. To the extent that neo-classical economics (or any other
"school" of economics) can help in this process, use it; if not, just
dump it.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1915/19150710.htm

Volume 21 - Issue 11, May 22 - Jun 04, 2004
India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

Teaching a relevant economics
VENKATESH ATHREYA

Globalisation and the Developing Economies: Theory and Evidence edited
by Aditya Bhattacharjea and Sugat Marjit; Manohar Publishers and
Distributors, New Delhi, 2004; pages 234, Rs.475.

A DIFFICULTY that serious teachers of economics in colleges and
universities face is the absence of books that deal cogently with
problems specific to developing countries, and in a manner that is
ideally accessible to the post-graduate student or at least to the
teacher. The Anglo-Saxon neoclassical tradition is dominant in the
leading universities of India and many other developing countries, a
fact not unrelated to the economic as well as ideological hegemony of
the metropolitan countries over their erstwhile colonies in the post-
Second World War period. While mainstream neoclassical economics
provides a useful tool kit for certain microeconomic problems of
limited interest, it is singularly unhelpful in dealing with macro
economic issues. In fact, neoclassical economics implicitly denies the
possibility of a macroeconomics, which is not deducible from axiomatic
microeconomic foundations. It tends to view many problems of great
complexity and contemporary interest through the methodological prism
of individualism and does not grapple with structures or processes at
meso- or macro-levels in an economy. It claims to be universally
applicable and shows scant regard for differences in the nature of
economic institutions and their implications for answers to economic
questions. But as Professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi points out in his
foreword to the book under review: "... [E]conomics as a discipline
within the broad area of human sciences is necessarily context-
specific." In a hugely unequal world, where the majority of countries
are ex-colonies deformed by colonial and continuing neocolonial
exploitation, the context becomes all the more important in the case
of development economics. The book is a very innovative effort to
address the problem of developing material for use in teaching
economics at the postgraduate level in a developing country context.
It is the outcome of a conference held in December 1999 at the Centre
for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata with the support of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO).

The book consists of nine essays, each dealing with a distinct issue,
but there is an overall unity to the book in the sense that most
essays attempt to grapple with contemporary problems of great
relevance and complexity using theoretical-empirical frameworks that
go well beyond conventional neoclassical economics. The first three
essays are country-specific studies dealing respectively with the
disastrous economic transition in Russia, the South Korean experience
and Malaysia's handling of the East Asian crisis as it affected that
country. The next four essays deal with different but important
aspects of the contemporary international economy and its implications
for developing economies, addressing critically in the process the
mainstream understanding of the relevant issues. The penultimate essay
deals with the crucial issues of malnutrition and poverty in India
over the last three decades. The final essay focusses on the socio-
economic aspects of the issue of reproduction and the family. Most of
the essays are carefully constructed, with an evident effort at
pedagogical clarity as well.

IN an elaborate and insightful essay, the veteran Russia specialist
Professor Nirmal Chandra raises the question whether Russia will
survive the International Monetary Fund (IMF) medicine. Tracing the
key indicators of the Russian economy through the 1990s, Chandra shows
that the Russian economy has been devastated by the neoliberal shock
therapy forced on it by the IMF and implemented by a venal political
leadership. The Russian economy has been in a state of depression for
quite some time. There has been massive capital flight from Russia.
The country's political rulers are in league with financial oligarchs
and criminals and are dependent on the Western powers, especially the
United States, for survival. Finally, Russia has experienced a
demographic catastrophe with a sharp decline in birth rates, a steep
increase in death rates and a sizeable absolute decline in population.
Chandra draws attention to the fact that the interests of the Russian
mafia-oligarchs and Western governments were often intertwined.
Supporting a joint statement issued in June 2000 by a group of
distinguished economists from both the U.S. and Russia, which
essentially amounts to a repudiation of the reforms imposed by the IMF
in Russia at the behest of the Western powers and in line with its own
flawed understanding, Chandra raises a question. If the illegal
privatisations are annulled, as implicitly suggested by the joint
statement, most firms will either fall into the hands of foreign
investors who alone will have the wherewithal to buy the firms at
appropriate prices, or in the likely event of strong popular
opposition to such a move on both economic and nationalist grounds,
the firms will revert back to state ownership. Will the U.S.
countenance such a possibility? Chandra, citing Nobel laureate Joseph
Stiglitz, believes that the U.S. will not, and concludes: "Either
Russia must forsake its dependence on the IMF and the U.S. treasury,
or go on suffering indefinitely."

In a fascinating account of the evolution of South Korea's economic
policies over the decades of its emergence as an economic powerhouse,
Chul Gyue Yoo brings out the fact that South Korea's rapid
industrialisation occurred during the period when financial policy was
subordinate to and run as an accessory to industrial policy. This has
obvious implications for other developing countries. A policy regime
that subordinates the interests of industry and agriculture, and of
productive investment more generally, to the dictates of finance
cannot deliver sustained economic growth over a long period. As Yoo
says, such a policy as the one followed in South Korea meant that "...
the interests of the financial class were repressed... based on the
view that the financial rentier class was... a parasitic group... "
The much maligned "financial repression" is not such a bad thing after
all. Unfortunately for South Korea, monetarist thinking, imposed by
the IMF, displaced the earlier focus on material economic growth and
put "... the interest of the financial sector before that of the
industrial sector... "

Yoo draws attention to the fact that globalisation and neoliberal
ideology, which in his view derive their influence less from anonymous
market forces and more from political intervention through
institutions like the U.S. government and international organisations,
try to promote homogenisation among national capitalist economies. He
makes the important point that "... the effects of the neoliberal
regime on individual countries, despite strong pressure for
convergence towards one model of capitalism, will always be mediated
by the distinctive institutions and practices specific to each
country".

The essay by Eu Chye Tan takes a rather more sanguine view of
speculation in forex markets than would be warranted by global
experience, but in the specific context of Malaysia since 1998. Tan's
view that speculation will help stability in forex markets and that
economic agents will learn to hedge against exchange rate risk is
unconvincing. In contrast, in a brief but pithy paper, Professor Amit
Bhaduri shows that speculation can be destabilising under reasonable
assumptions about the real world. He argues against a binary divide
between control and deregulation, taking the position that exchange
rate deregulation can be combined with greater regulation of short-
term portfolio capital flows and by adopting a cautious policy towards
foreign borrowing. A point that needs to be made here is that formal
mathematical models only give you what you have put into them in the
first place. In most cases, they are at best aids in stating elegantly
what is plausible, but at the risk of concealing assumptions about the
real world in a maze of algebra, as the late Maurice Dobb had warned
more than 60 years ago in a brilliant essay entitled "Some tendencies
in modern economic theory".

ADITYA BHATTCHARJEA'S essay is easily one of the best in this
collection. In a careful and rigorous reading of the more recent
literature on the relationship between increasing returns to scale,
trade and development that makes an effort to go beyond the dominant
neoclassical paradigm, the author demonstrates that the new literature
continues to be hampered by its roots in the same paradigm. However,
the author also notes that they "... capture some of the important
stylised facts of development and of production subject to IRS
(increasing returns to scale) that cannot be dealt with satisfactorily
in traditional versions trade theory".

In an essay on wages, labour mobility and international migration,
Sugata Marjit and Saibal Kar take an unwarranted dig at the student
movement when they assert: "Often sound economic judgment has to take
a back seat because of the shameless hypocrisy of the so-called
egalitarian student movement. Higher education invariably accommodates
students coming from more privileged segments of society and they
always protest vehemently if the subsidy is reduced even by a bit."
The presumption that higher education must not be subsidised is not
validated by the fact that the services of a section of those
receiving subsidised higher education are lost to a country because of
emigration. What such a situation calls for is a more nuanced approach
to the issue than simple and unargued railing against subsidy, and in
the bargain, innuendo against an undefined "so-called egalitarian
student movement". From the standpoint of scientific and technological
self-reliance, the case for subsidising higher education remains
valid. The modalities of delivering subsidy effectively to those most
in need of it do certainly need to be explored.

Prabirjit Sarkar's essay on export diversification and market shares
notes that in spite of the increasing importance of manufactured
products in the exports of the countries of the South to the countries
of the North in the period since the Second World War, the commodity
terms of trade (CTT) of the South has continued to deteriorate. As
Sarkar points out, diversification of export structures has helped
some developing countries in market penetration in the sense that the
more diversified a country's export structure is, the more is its
share in world exports. However, the rate of deterioration in its CTT
does not decline even if its exports are more diversified. What this
means, in layman's terms, is that the purchasing power of the exports
of developing countries and their relative gains from trade are being
constantly reduced. What also needs to be borne in mind is that the
intra-firm trade of multinational corporations dominates world trade
and they use the technique of transfer pricing to siphon out surpluses
from Third World countries bypassing extant regulations in the
process.

Professor R. Radhakrishna and his co-authors have examined the issues
of nutritional intake, nutritional status and changing food
preferences in India over the last three decades. While their focus on
changing food and more generally consumer preferences tends to
obfuscate matters a bit, their overall findings are clear and
sobering. They conclude that India has "... failed to make much dent
in reducing widespread malnutrition. As many as half of the preschool
children suffer from malnutrition and close to half the adult
population suffer from chronic energy deficiency in rural areas".
Moreover, "The bottom 30 per cent of the rural population had a per
capita intake of only 1,670 kcal per day, compared to the nutritional
requirement of 2,200 kcal per day". The authors note that "Economic
growth, left to itself, may not have a dramatic impact on the
nutritional situation in the near future... ", a point which does not
figure in the official celebrations of `India Shining'.

The final essay in the book is by Professor Nirmala Banerjee on the
socio-economic analysis of reproduction and the family. It is an
insightful and fascinating survey of the relevant literature.

While the editors' claim that "... getting familiar with the materials
presented here will not cause any undue burden on the students of the
Third World... " is perhaps overly optimistic and ambitious, the book
will be an excellent aid to serious teachers of economics at the post-
graduate level.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2111/stories/20040604000507300.htm

Our collective future
CHINMAYA R. GHAREKHAN

Chris Patten’s take on the big questions about the global condition
and the bumpy road ahead

WHAT NEXT? — Surviving the Twenty-first Century: Chris Patten; Allen
Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel
Enclave, New Delhi-110017. Rs.795.

Anyone who has read Chris Patten’s Not Quite the Diplomat, a highly
readable memoir, would look forward to reading his What Next? It is a
more serious work in which the author analyses, in simple and witty
language, major issues confronting humankind in the 21st century and
outlines answers to deal with them. When everything that can be said
about the challenges of the day has already been stated in numerous
books, it is not surprising that What Next does not contain too many
original thoughts. What is distinguishing about this book is the ease
and facility with which the author explains complex issues in simple
yet serious tone.

Challenges

What Next covers practically the entire gamut of issues, from
proliferation to illicit trade in small arms, drugs to diseases and
epidemics, water shortage to energy crunch, terrorism to climate
change. One thing comes through repeatedly and clearly. Patten is a
committed liberal internationalist. He has enormous sympathy and
empathy for developing countries. If ever there would be a world
government, the author would be a frontrunner for the job of Minister-
in-charge of development. He is merciless in his criticism of the
“hopeless and dangerous unilateralism of the first years of the Bush
Administration,” which he admits, was a major provocation for his
decision to write the book. He is very critical of the Anglo-American
intervention in Iraq which, he says, “has made the world less safe and
the effort to contain terrorism more onerous.”

Climate change

The most serious challenge, he argues at length and with conviction,
is global warming and climate change, an issue that cuts to the heart
of how we manage our lives, our households, our societies. “The damage
we are doing to our environment is perhaps the only one which is truly
new in nature and in scale, the only remotely existential challenge
that we face.” He is ‘moderately optimistic’ about solving the climate
problem, despite the American government’s obstinate unwillingness to
come to terms with the crisis. He is somewhat less demanding in his
prescription than many others. He seems to believe that a call to go
back to the 1990 level is not realistic. He says it is too late now to
avoid a temperature rise of 2º C over the pre-industrial levels. “If
we are lucky, we may be able to put the ceiling there; if we are
unlucky, we will find ourselves in the danger zone beyond 3º C. So the
task is to ensure that greenhouse emissions peak within 15 years and
fall to half their present levels by the middle of the century.” In
other words, he believes that it is not too late to start acting now.
In the context of the climate change problem, the author quotes what
Mahatma Gandhi said as far back as in 1928: “God forbid that India
should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West. If an
entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it
would strip the world bare like locusts.” He calls upon the E.U. to
demonstrate global leadership on climate change and adds that at the
heart of any effective global agreement will be a settlement between
the U.S. and China.

On terrorism

In an excellent chapter on terrorism entitled “Skies of Flame”, the
author makes a distinction between “the war on terror” and “the war
against terrorists”. He believes that the war on terror is essentially
unwinnable. “Anytime you declare victory, you can find that your
crowing is the precursor to this or that extremist strapping bombs to
his or her body.” He cautions the readers against misinterpreting his
view on unwinnability of the war on terror against leading to the
conclusion that the battle against terrorists too is unwinnable. His
intellectual integrity leads the author to admit that the world has
made some progress in the battle against terrorists on President
Bush’s watch despite his strategy but because of some of his tactics.
A settlement of the Palestinian problem, he is convinced, “would do
more to hack through the roots of terrorism in the Middle East than
anything else.” He emphasises the generally recognised but unheeded
need to reject the confrontational view of Islam.

Quoting Amartya Sen, the author believes that the only way to “win”
the war on terror is to remember our humanism, the foundation of any
global civil society. Democracies, he says, should live by their
principles in fighting terrorism. However, he comes to what for him is
obviously an unpleasant conclusion, namely, that “terrorism is
something that is very unlikely to be expunged from our lives.”

Rising China

Patten is a strong supporter of the U.N. despite its inadequacies and
imperfections. He is highly sceptical of the proposed Alliance of
Democracies. The importance he gives to China in the 21st century
order of things comes through repeatedly but he is not ready to accord
the status of a superpower to China. “If the Chinese are to become a
superpower, they are going to have to square a lot of circles, solve a
lot of problems, in the coming century.” He has a balanced approach
towards non-proliferation issues. As for Iran, he has this to say: “If
there was ever a measure of the degree to which America’s problems in
the world are self-inflicted, Iran is it.”

The one problem with the book is its size, its verbosity. What has
been expressed in 450 pages could easily have been compressed in about
350, without sacrificing any of its substance. All in all, however,
What Next? is a one volume reference book, which libraries as well as
individual scholars would find extremely useful for the study of the
major challenges facing humankind today and in the years ahead.

(The reviewer, Chinmaya R.Gharekhan, is the author of “The Horseshoe
Table: An Inside View of the UN Security Council”.)

http://www.hindu.com/br/2008/12/16/stories/2008121651181300.htm

Book Review

Contemporary globalisation
VENKATESH ATHREYA

GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT: Sunanda Sen; National Book Trust,
India, 5 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, Phase II, New Delhi-110070.
Rs. 40.

This book is by a distinguished teacher and researcher of economics
who has specialised in international trade and finance. It explains
the actual implications of contemporary globalisation (as opposed to
the claims made on its behalf by neoliberal theology) for developing
countries and for the various sections of the people in these
countries. In the process, it also provides a critique of several
claims of mainstream economic theory concerning the efficiency
properties of liberalised markets and their efficacious implications
for economic growth. It argues that globalisation as is currently
occurring results in highly inequitable and unsustainable growth.

Features

The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter seeks to
identify the key, distinctive features of contemporary globalisation.
The second chapter deals with the changes in the world order and
assertion of hegemony by the rich countries through globalisation from
the 1970s. The end of the Second World War saw the weakening of the
imperial powers, the rise of a socialist camp and a wave of
decolonisation, and for a brief while, the onward march of capitalist
globalisation appeared to slow down. Between 1950 and the early 1970s,
several developing countries, especially in Asia and Latin America,
sought to pursue a relatively independent path of national
development, taking advantage of the changed global situation. From
the early 1970s, however, the powerful club of rich countries began to
reassert their hegemony. The rise to dominance of finance capital by
the end of the 1970s consolidated the forces of globalisation.
Hegemonic nations (G7) and multinational institutions (the IMF, World
Bank and the WTO) exercise authority over developing countries,
dictating economic policies. There is also an emerging cosy
relationship between the elite of the developing countries and the
rich country elite.

Critique

In the third chapter, the author provides a critique of neoclassical
economics in relation to the alleged virtues of the free market,
contrasting these claims with the rather different results on the
ground. This chapter also brings out the widely varying performance of
a number of developing countries pursuing the path of liberalisation
and globalisation, with only a very few registering even respectable
rates of economic growth. It goes into the various agreements under
WTO and how they have hurt the developing countries while helping the
advanced ones. It then deals with the process of financial opening up
in India and shows how it has led to financial exclusion, hurting
agriculture and, small and medium industries. In the fourth chapter,
the question of technological change, its impact on different sections
of the people, and issues of control over technology and the process
of generation of new knowledge and techniques are discussed. The new
post-TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) dispensation
makes technological catching-up well nigh impossible for the
developing countries. In the fifth and final chapter, the author goes
into the relationship between globalisation and development. It argues
that globalisation may deliver growth (though not always and
everywhere) but fails to deliver development. The link between growth
and development only works when growth is also “people-centred.”
Noting that in an economy open to unregulated flows of capital, the
state policy is primarily directed to preventing capital flight, the
author draws attention to the resultant “democracy deficit.”

Agents of change

While seeking to identify forces that can change things for the
better, this chapter privileges a heterogeneous collection of NGOs,
social activists and social movements as agents of social change, but
omits to note the crucial role played by the Left both in fighting
neoliberal policies, raising people’s consciousness in the process,
and its record of impressive land reforms which should be part of any
alternative to the neoliberal regime. The book will be useful to
students of economics as an introduction to issues of globalisation
and development. It will also be of use to the non-specialist reader
in providing a critical viewpoint on globalisation. The exposition
sometimes gets cluttered by the author’s constant engagement with
neoclassical economics as part of her attempt to refute it. This has
made the book a little less readable at some points in the text. To
provide an exposition of the complex economic and political issues
associated with the process of globalisation that is both
comprehensive and simple is of course a huge challenge, and the author
deserves our warm appreciation for an excellent effort. The publisher
is also to be commended.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008

http://www.hindu.com/br/2008/12/16/stories/2008121651171300.htm

Book Review

Banking in a developing economy
S. ARUNAJATESAN

FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION IN A LESS DEVELOPED ECONOMY — The History of
the United Bank of India: Indrajit Mallick, Sugata Marjit; Sage
Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B 1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial
Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044. Rs. 795.

There is a popular saying that the history of the State Bank of India
is the history of banking in India. But after reading this book it is
evident that the history of all the old and well-run banks, more
particularly the public sector banks, reflects the history of banking
in India. The authors while focusing on the United Bank of India have
analysed a number of critical issues relevant to development of
banking in the country. The issues range from absence of banking
regulations act and the central bank as the regulator for a fairly
long period in the early days, nationalisation of banks, priority
sector lending, high level of non-performing assets, delay in judicial
process, deposit insurance, capital adequacy norms, importance of
prudent banking, frequent waiver of loan repayment, militant unions,
technology adoption, human resource policy and autonomy. Perhaps each
issue warrants detailed study and documentation. The authors have done
an excellent job in crystallising the issues in clear terms so that
the scholars and experts in banking may work further on those matters.

Case study

The origin of the United Bank of India is traced to Comila Banking
Corporation, established by N.C. Dutta in 1914. His son also a lawyer
of repute joined him. Both of them shaped the bank and guided its
destiny. Many more small banks were merged with Comila Bank and it was
named as the United Bank of India. The bank rapidly grew in size,
spread its activities. It was one among the top 14 banks in India and
was therefore nationalised in 1969. The bank which started as a town
bank became a regional bank and ultimately a national bank with a
dominant presence in the eastern and north-eastern region. Government
ownership conferred certain privileges and advantages, but also caused
several constraints. Before 1969 the role and functions of the United
Bank of India, like many other sound private sector banks were
strictly pure banking, customer service and profit, but the post-
nationalisation period was complex, frustrating and painful.

Wide-ranging issues

The authors in their wisdom and experience have expressed the views on
several issues. On the matter of capital adequacy norms, they are of
the view that capital at 9 per cent or 10 per cent is of no guarantee
for safety, if the risk management and lending norms of the bank are
sloppy. Solvency depends more on sound policy, careful investment and
lending with conservative approach. In fact, the recent crisis in the
U.S. proved that the culprit is sub-prime lending and not inadequate
capital. On priority sector lending, the authors’ views are that
social banking is incompatible with commercial banking and
dysfunctional. Social welfare and support to weaker sections are
important but banks are not the appropriate instruments for this
purpose.

The abnormal size of non-performing assets (NPA) at 7 per cent of the
aggregate loans was the result of wrong credit policy and programme
either enforced by the government or caused by temptation to make
super profit. Even today NPA as absolute figure is rising although as
a percentage to total advance has come down from seven per cent to one
per cent. Further real position is distorted by purchase and sale of
NPAs between banks and asset reconstruction companies and debt
restructuring. The problem has worsened by the inordinate delay in
judicial process in dealing with bank cases. The authors have also
discussed the issues relating to staff union, staff productivity and
bank merger. The book is certainly a valuable addition to the
literature on banking and timely.

http://www.hindu.com/br/2008/12/16/stories/2008121651161300.htm

Book Review

Migration trade-offs
SURESH NAMBATH

Impact of India’s rising economy on the Indian diaspora in East Asian
countries

RISING INDIA AND INDIAN COMMUNITIES IN EAST ASIA: Edited by K.
Kesavapany, A. Mani and P. Ramasamy; ISEAS Publishing, Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies, 30, Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Pasir Panjang,
Singapore-119614.

Does India’s economic growth and widening influence hold implications
for Indian communities in other countries? For long, people loosely
identified as of Indian origin who had settled in other countries,
especially East Asian nations, were thought of as being better off
than the Indians in India. Those who managed to leave India also
escaped from its poverty. However, this long-held perception is now
changing. The boom in the Indian economy and the political and social
pressures on Indian communities in the East Asian region in recent
years seem to have more than closed the gap in economic prosperity
between Indians in India and Indian communities in East Asia.

Case of Malaysia

Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, a collection of
papers presented at a conference on the same subject organised by the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, seeks to reveal the
relationship between the rise of India and the lives of Indians in
East Asia. The spread of India’s influence beyond the South Asian
region opens up new avenues for Indian communities in other countries.
There is greater expectation that India will be able to pressure the
smaller East Asian nations to look into the grievances of the Indian
communities. As the book puts it, “Politically, India might only exert
a mild influence. However, economically and especially in the
development of the software industry, India is expected to have a
great impact.” Also, Indian communities that earlier viewed any
assertion of the Indian identity as problematic in the countries of
their residence now see advantages in seeking to re-establish an
affinity with their “ancestral” land.

Malaysia, a country where political representation is organised on the
basis of ethnicity, lends itself as a fit subject for study in the
book. Home to a considerable Indian population, mostly Tamils who came
as indentured labour during the British colonial period, Malaysia has
witnessed a forceful assertion of Indian and Hindu identity in the
last few years under the leadership of Hindraf or Hindu Rights Action
Force. Unlike the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), which has formal
representation in the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional or
National Front headed by the United Malay National Organization
(UMNO), Hindraf is an oppositional group that is outside the official
political framework of Malaysia.

Even the political rivals of MIC, the Indian Progressive Front and the
People’s Progressive Party, have been co-opted into the political
framework of Malaysia and are now supportive of the ruling coalition.
As P. Ramasamy argues in “Politics of Indian Representation in
Malaysia”, the MIC’s “basic methodology of representation is the
cultivation of personal friendship with UMNO leaders at the national
and state levels so that some minor concessions could be derived for
the community.” A large number of Malaysian Indians thus feel the need
for a political formation that would not compromise with the
establishment and would speak for their rights from a position of
strength.

Singapore

In Singapore, however, the situation is very different. Singapore’s
population policy encourages skilled Indians to settle in Singapore.
“The local Indian population should benefit from this influx through
assimilation in the longer term,” according to G. Shantakumar and
Pundarik Mukhopadhaya. The stress on immigration of professionals
could also explain why the Indians lag in terms of sex ratios, with
Singapore showing more males beyond age fifty. However, the Indians
still have a long way to go to match the attainment of the Chinese
population, who enjoyed a historical advantage in capital
accumulation.

But globalisation of the Singapore economy as well as the Indian
economy meant that Indian skills and capital could move easily to the
city-state. Whether this could also end the market discrimination
against Indian labour and reverse a situation in which qualifications
from the Indian sub-continent are less-recognised is still moot,
according to the authors of the paper on “Demographics, Incomes and
Developmental Issues in Singapore”.

No assimilation

In Thailand and the Philippines, the Indian migration was mostly from
the Punjab and the Sindh. As non-Muslims from these areas were
extremely conscious of their ethnicity vis-À-vis Islam, they preserved
their religious identity as Hindus and Sikhs after migration by
maintaining close kinship ties, points out A. Mani. But Tamils in
Thailand have been assimilated into Thai society through inter-ethnic
marriage as they were small in number and felt no compulsion to
zealously protect their Indian or Hindu identity.

In Japan, the migration of Indians is more recent. Many Indians came
in from the 1990s onwards to work in the IT industry and stayed on.
The migration is also on account of globalisation and liberalisation
in India and the involvement of Japanese companies in the Indian
economy. Indian workers in Japanese companies were sent to Japan for
training. Japan being a developed economy, the situation of the Indian
migrants is not comparable to that in other countries of East Asia.

Overall, Indians in East Asia did not undergo any assimilation process
in the countries of the adoption. The book seeks to explain this by
arguing that the requirement to assimilate was not strong on Indians
because Indians, “unlike the Chinese,” were not considered a threat in
the countries of their adoption. Whether a rising India will change
the situation is difficult to foretell.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008

http://www.hindu.com/br/2008/12/16/stories/2008121651231400.htm

Working out a secure future

Contemporary Macro-Economics
Ed by Amitava Bose et al

Macro-Economic Stabilization and Adjustment
By M.J. Manohar Rao and Raj Nallari

*Publishers: Oxford University Press, New Delhi (for both)

*Price: Rs 595.

*Price: Rs 650.

SINCE the 1930s macro-economic thinking has assumed greater
significance with the advent of Keynesian Revolution. In the 1980s the
financial programming of the IMF and the financial requirements
approach of the World Bank have further added new dimension al
dynamics in the macro-economic spectrum. The aggregates of National
Income Accounting, National Production Matrix and National Employment
Generation are pointers in indexing macro-economic growth in all types
of economies.

Both books under review are complementary in their theoretical focus
and supplementary in their practical policy initiatives. A combined
reading of the books will enrich the understanding of macro-economics
even to general readers.

Contemporary Macro-economics is a compendium of 10 well-researched
papers dedicated to Professor Mahir Kanti Rakshi by his students in
Presidency College, Kolkota. The papers are conveniently classified
into five sections. National Income, Development, D ynamics, Finance
and Institutions focussing on the contemporary issues in macro-
economic theory.

Pradip Maiti's paper clarifies the concept of real GDP as used in the
national income accounting literature and shows how it can be obtained
from outputs of individual producing units. Maiti also builds up a
theoretical structure of flow of funds relatio ns for the broad
sectors of the Indian economy and estimates the various aggregates in
these relations for a selected year.

In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in the concept
of Net National Product (NNP) as a measure of welfare. Would the
equality between the value of current investment and the present value
of future welfare hold in this simplified world?

In their joint paper, Swapan Dasgupta and Tapan Mitra point out that
the equality is indeed satisfied if the competitive programme is also
an optional programme, or if an additional condition is met. The
importance of additional condition arises from the well-known fact
that when the future is open ended, not all competitive programmes are
optimal. A competitive programme, for which NNP is an exact measure of
current and future welfare, does lead to sustainable development if
and only if the value of in vestment, net of the depreciation of non-
renewable resources, is never negative.

Amitava Krishna Dutt's paper, attempts to compare and synthesise
models which show how the agricultural sector can constrain industrial
growth in less-developed countries (LDCS) through demand and wage-
goods constraints. Sugata Marjit et al explore the i mplications of
free trade for income distribution, especially for the relative wage
between skilled and unskilled workers in the context of a less-
developed country. The study shows that skilled/unskilled wage-gap is
likely to worsen with capital mobilit y.

Macro-economic theory has been characterised by a resurgence of
interest in the theory of economic growth. Dipankar Dasgupta attempts
to summarise some of the developments in the area of New Growth Theory
(NGT) in terms of an elementary supply-demand fra mework, where the
object of demand as well as supply is the rate of growth itself
Dynamic Optimisation Models are currently in use in a number of
different areas in economics, to address a wide variety of issues.

The relationship between the Dynamic Optimisation Model and the
(optimal) policy function associated with it is central to such
applications. Tapin Mitra's paper presents a selective survey of
results relevant to understanding this relationship. While Su dipto
Dasgupta paper focuses on how financing decisions affect product
markets, Bhaswar Moitra's paper discusses some basic issues related to
sovereign debt.

One of the most exciting recent developments in economics is the
explicit study of institutions. In its broadest sense, an institution
may be regarded as a contextual device within which social and
economic relationships are framed. Gautam Bose's paper r epresents a
selective study of different institutional arrangements that
facilitate intermediation of trading processes. He shows that if both
intermediation and private meetings are permitted, those agents with
greater potential gains from trade will ta ke the intermediation
route, while the remaining agents will wait for private trades.

The theory of implementation is concerned with the extent to which
social goals can be achieved or implemented through decentralised
decision-making procedures. In his paper Bhaskar Dutta surveys a class
of conditions, known as `preference reversal condi tions', that can be
used as litmus tests for determining whether a given social choice
correspondence is implementable or not. Naturally, these conditions
vary with the equilibrium concept that is used to describe agent
behaviour. Dutta provides a unifie d treatment of both the conditions
themselves, and the way in which they vary with the equilibrium
concept.

The book is refreshing in its methodological approach and rewarding in
its practical revelations. A useful guide to the students, researchers
and scholars in economic studies.

M.J. Manohar Rao and Raj Nallari's treatise is a technical
introduction to the theory and design of stabilisation and growth-
oriented structural adjustment programmes. This book attempts to
bridge the analytical framework gap between macro-economics and
development economics by adapting the existing theory of short-run
macro-economic stabilisation to the particular conditions and
structural characteristics of developing economies. The contents of
book are presented in five parts-macro-economic framework and
policies, analytical framework for stabilisation and adjustment,
monetary, fiscal and external sector adjustments, redistribution,
adjustment and growth and lessons of adjustment experience.

The first part focuses on macro-economic relationship and policies.
The second chapter discusses certain basic accounting concepts
revolving around three key macro-economic relationships and between
four key sectors (the government private, monetary and external
sectors. The third chapter discusses macro-economic adjustment from a
policy perspective. It focuses on monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate
policies in developing countries.

The fourth chapter discusses the Polak model against the background of
the theory it was partly responsible for creating, viz. the monetary
approach to the balance of payments. The following chapter initially
discusses the accounting framework underlying growth and resource gap
models, and the next chapter relates the analytical approaches of the
Fund and the Bank and integrates growth into the basic monetary model,
thereby highlighting the joint determination of inflation and growth.

The third part of the book integrates monetary, fiscal, and external
sector adjustments into the basic inflation/growth processes
underlying the merged Bank-Fund model. Chapter 7 discusses the concept
of financial repression and monetary sector reform wh ich is followed
by an overview of the specific features of interest rate policy. The
underlying implications of fiscal arithmetic and provides empirical
evidence regarding monetary accommodation and the analytical framework
for formulating an external de bt strategy in terms of a sustainable
debt-output ratio and the role of the exchange rate in the analysis
are also discussed in this part.

The fourth part of the book highlights areas of development macro-
economics that have been particularly active in recent years. The
concept of `adjustment with a human face' with special reference to
the relationship between poverty, income distribution, and growth is
highlighted in one of the chapters. Further discussions centre around
the several alternative approaches to adjustment with growth.

The fifth and final part of the book dwells on the lessons of the
adjustment experience, in particular, the impacts of financial and
economic policies on growth. The basic characteristics of financial
crises, with special reference to the types, origins, identification,
and signals of such crises, as also the issues involved in
liberalisation with stabilisation with special reference to the
optimal sequencing of reforms and the high-inflation trap are the
topics analysed.

Finally, the lessons of experience are briefly summarised and the book
with a few brief injunctions to policy makers in the form of specific
economic policy guidelines.

Having analysed rigorously the genesis of the East Asian contagious
financial crisis, the authors have presented a theoretical model of
financial crisis. Against the backdrop of high financial
vulnerability, one of the most fundamental propositions of op en-
economy macro-economics is that it is theoretically impossible for the
government to simultaneously aim at stable exchange rates, financial
openness, and monetary independence, the so-called `impossible
trinity'-- and therefore the sustainability of a ny instrument/target
mix under increasing capital mobility requires continuous policy co-
ordination.

The empirical results of the Indian economy indicate that a currency
crisis, in the form of a speculative attack, can be prevented only if
there exists substantial policy flexibility which enables the
authorities to continuously respond and adjust to ext ernal shocks.
The main derivative of this study is that macro-economic stability,
which is often synonymous with reduced inflation and improvements in
the BOP, is essential for long-run growth. Therefore, more than
anything else, macro-economic policies should be designed to stabilise
real output in the face of erogenous disturbances.

While liberalisation is essential in the medium term the sequencing of
economic reforms is critical in the short-run. In effect, the domestic
sector has to be liberalised first. Long-run economic growth is a very
gradual process and needs sustained stabi lisation, a competitive real
exchange rate to promote exports, a high rate of savings, and adequate
supply-side policies to increase the productivity of investment.

Institutional developments, with special reference to the central bank
and the banking system financial and capital markets, as well as
regulatory and supervisory agencies, are crucial for sustained long-
run growth. Regardless of whatever other sacrifice s the economy is
compelled to make in the process of adjustment, there should be no
reductions in government expenditures on education. Above all, macro-
economic policies can explain only a certain part of a country's
economic performance. A well-planned stabilisation and growth-oriented
structural adjustment programme will provide a solid foundation for
the continuing success of government policies.

The contents of the book create new waves of theoretical insights and
policy perspectives in macro-economic stabilisation and adjustment
dynamics. A good referral to macro economists, research pilgrims, open
economy champions and development policy pundi ts.

P. Jegadish Gandhi

The reviewer is Honorary Director, Vellore Institute of Development
Studies.

Financial Daily
from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, July 09, 2001

http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2001/07/09/stories/120909aa.htm

Volume 26 - Issue 15 :: Jul. 18-31, 2009

INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

New look at growth
ASHISH KOTHARI

The author challenges set notions of development and stimulates new
ideas on how humanity can achieve sustainable living.

THIS book could not have been better timed, coming as it does in the
midst of the worst economic crisis the world has faced for decades.
Debal Deb, a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in
Kolkata, has written an incisive analysis of what is fundamentally
wrong with the global economic system. He also presents a framework
for an alternative path of human welfare that does not imperil the
very earth that sustains us, and is available to all people. He
combines various disciplines and perspectives in an impressive
synthesis.

Deb’s basic contention is that the ideology of development, narrowly
defined in terms of material wealth to be achieved through industrial
growth, has become an unquestioned fetish. It is what Deb calls
“developmentality”, a mindset “which equates affluence with
development, measures development in terms of GNP [gross national
product] growth, and accepts development to be the destiny of
civilisation”.

The first half of the book is dedicated to an illuminating analysis of
the origins, evolution and impacts of developmentality. This includes
various dubious biological and sociological justifications for
subjugating indigenous peoples and poor countries, leading to the
colonisation of the globe by a few European nations. As capitalism
spread rapidly into the colonies, subsistence societies were overtaken
by the monetised economy, common resource management by private
landholdings, and diverse local knowledge systems by the Western
“rationalist” one. All this (and more) culminated in the ideology of
developmentality, with human progress being defined narrowly in terms
of indicators such as GNP or per capita income (PCI), promoted
vigorously by agencies such as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).

The past few decades of development have witnessed environmental
destruction never before seen in human history, with the collapse of
many ecosystems, a global extinction crisis, and climate change
threatening to engulf all of us. Simultaneously, several hundred
million people have remained in abject poverty and deprivation (nearly
40 per cent of South Asians are below the poverty line; one in three
Asians do not have access to safe drinking water and one in two to
sanitation). Inequalities have grown to obscene levels, exposing the
hollowness of the “trickle-down” theory.

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) estimates that between 1990 and
2001 “for every $100 worth of growth in the world’s per person income,
just $0.60 found its target and contributed to reducing poverty below
the $1-a-day line”. Communities or countries that have resisted or
hesitated to adopt the “development” ideology have been cajoled,
bribed, or threatened into conforming. Foreign aid and trade have been
used to increase the stronghold and profits of multinational
companies, mostly under the clever guise of helping poor nations in
their quest to “develop”.

So successful has been the brainwashing that decision-makers in
virtually all countries now aspire to the same economic goals (GNP,
etc., measured in percentage growth rates), hardly stopping to assess
whether this actually improves the welfare, happiness and satisfaction
of all people. This is true not only of capitalist economies but also
of socialist and communist countries where industrialisation has
wrought havoc on the environment and people.

The author debunks, in detail, the myths of classical (so-called
“neoliberal”) economic theory that provide the intellectual
justification for developmentality. These include the notion that
every “rational” individual acts only out of self-interest, the blind
faith in technology being the answer to all problems, and the dogma
that nature and natural resources are only to be valued for their
utility or monetary worth.

ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY

In Bhubaneswar. Pro-Market policies and unbridled consumerism allow
the rich to plunder the earth, says the author.

Deb also takes on the popular notions of population growth and poverty
being at the root of the ecological and social crises, showing that it
is government policies of free market and industrialisation, unbridled
consumerism and power inequalities that allow the rich to continue
plundering the earth. For instance, an average citizen of the United
States “consumes 50 times more steel, 56 times more energy, 170 times
more synthetic rubber and newsprint, 250 times more motor fuel, and
300 times more plastic than the average Indian citizen”.

Though the book provides examples from various countries, Deb provides
more detailed case studies from India. There is a sharp critique of
the Green Revolution from the 1960s to the present, which has been
uncritically credited with the significant rise in foodgrain
production in India and has on the other hand led to problems with
declining soil productivity, water pollution and shortages, loss of
biodiversity, and displacement of small farmers.

In the second half of the book, Deb turns to the search for
alternatives. He critiques a number of solutions offered by proponents
of what he calls “weak sustainability”, such as environmental
economists who attempt to build in ecological costs, for instance, of
pollution, into economic planning and budgeting. He contends that even
proponents of sustainable development, such as the famous Brundtland
Report Our Common Future, have only a limited vision, for they do not
see the impossibility of ever-increasing economic growth.

For more fundamental alternatives (“strong sustainability”), Deb draws
on some of Marx’s writings on the rift between people and nature, on a
number of other writers and activists who have questioned the
domination of the Western world view, and on the continuing traditions
and ethics of indigenous peoples or “ecosystem communities” such as
the Bishnois or the women of the Chipko movement. In more recent
times, there have been new insights provided by “sustainability
science” and ecological studies, the revolutionary zero-growth models
of ecological economics, and a greater understanding of the
contemporary relevance of traditional knowledge systems and common
resource management regimes. Underlying all this is also a call for a
new politics, with more participatory forms of democracy that do not
accept either centralised state systems or the dictates of the “free
market”.

It is this heady combination that Deb terms “inclusive freedom and
sustainability”, the subtitle of his book. Leading the movement
towards such alternatives is a range of civil society organisations,
mass movements and radical individuals in various fields. But there
are also formidable challenges: the powerful “bureaucrat-politician-
academic” clique that defines and imposes conventional development
ideology, the close links of private corporates with scientific bodies
and even many non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the failure of
the traditional Left to fathom and respond to the ecological crisis, a
media that continues to brainwash the public with visions of
consumerist and industrial utopias, and an educational system that
promotes conformity. Nevertheless, says Deb, it is possible to move
towards a saner future through ecological literacy and ethics, civic
democracy, inclusive freedom, and the revival of the commons.

One of the book’s strongest points is its wide-ranging use of
literature and thoughts from economics, ecology, sociology, political
science, philosophy and indigenous knowledge systems. It is,
therefore, surprising that he does not use Gandhian thought at all.
Gandhi’s challenge to development is as powerful as anyone else’s.
Moreover, his vision of an alternative world and his undoubted
contribution to many of the people’s movements that Deb justifiably
posits as important forces towards a saner world, are impossible to
ignore. Yet Gandhi figures only in passing in the context of Nehru’s
post-Independence push to industrialisation.

Deb also, surprisingly, omits reference to recent global attempts at
understanding humanity’s impact, including the seminal Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment ( www.millenniumassessment.org) and the exciting
Ecological Footprint network ( www.footprintnetwork.org). Another
relatively minor criticism is that the book would have been much more
readable if it was shorter and the language simpler. There is
considerable repetitiveness, for example, of the concepts and
criticisms of developmentality. The language used is often difficult
and jargonish (One example: “Environmentalism rejects the primacy of
Eurocentric cultural positivism, but opposes the post-modernist
escapism into non-committal pluralism.”). I do hope Deb will write a
simpler, shorter version, for his work challenges set notions and
stimulates new ideas on how humanity can achieve sustainable living,
and therefore deserves a much wider audience. •

Ashish Kothari is with Kalpavriksh – Environmental Action Group.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2615/stories/20090731261507300.htm

Volume 20 - Issue 09, April 26 - May 09, 2003

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

BOOKS

India's informal economy
KARIN KAPADIA

India Working: Essays on Society and Economy by Barbara Harriss-White;
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003; pages 316, Rs.950.

BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE has been producing remarkable work for two
decades in the varied field of development issues. Much of this work
has drawn on insights from her fieldwork in northern Tamil Nadu and
she uses these insights to illuminate important questions of wide
relevance. In this valuable and provocative book she engages with a
range of debates, drawing the reader into an intense argument right
through the book's 300 pages. I found myself disagreeing with several
of her arguments, but I learnt a great deal from each one of them.

The book is not an easy read. It is densely written and its heavily
footnoted text draws on a vast and diverse array of academic research.
However, it repays close attention from the reader. Harriss-White
tries to do something that few development economists try to do - she
attempts to set the economic data on India within its socio-political
contexts. This is a task that mainstream economists do not even think
of attempting since they are not willing to acknowledge that economic
reality is very different from the abstract models they prefer to
study. For this reason, Harriss-White's book deserves applause and
wide readership.

The book's focus is on India's informal economy, what Harriss-White
calls "the economy of the India of the 88 per cent". This term is used
since more than 74 per cent of the population is rural and another 14
per cent lives in towns with a population below 200,000. The remaining
12 per cent lives in metropolitan cities (page 1). The informal
economy generates 90.3 per cent of all livelihoods in India and 60 per
cent of the country's net domestic product (page 5). Her study of the
informal economy leads us, as well, into the country's black economy,
with which the informal economy overlaps at several points.

Harriss-White's central argument in the book is that "the social
structures of accumulation" in India create "the matrix through which
accumulation and distribution take place" (page 13). She argues: "In
the India of the 88 per cent, it is clear that a range of non-State
social structures, and the ideas and cultural practices attached to
them, are even more crucial for accumulation than they are in
industrial societies. Six, in particular, are explored in this book:
the structure of the workforce, social classes, gender, religion,
caste and space" (page 15). Thus her book has ambitious goals - she
tells us that it seeks "to describe and analyse the economy of India's
88 per cent" by examining the socio-cultural and political elements of
"the social structures of accumulation". It also hopes "to contribute,
however modestly, to the analysis of contemporary capitalism" in India
(page 15).

Harriss-White draws primarily on data on small-town India, arguing
that this is where one can best examine "the non-corporate (economy)
in which 88 per cent of Indians live and work" (page 239). To
delineate the micro-economies of small-town India where the
"intermediate classes", who are her main focus, reside, she draws on
her own field research from northern Tamil Nadu.

Harriss-White's research on the local economy, seen within its
cultural matrices, is insightful. This "field economics", focussed on
the business classes in their daily dealings with each other, with
their workforces and with the local state, reveals the ways in which
the local economy is very tightly - though "informally" - controlled
and regulated by these mercantile business classes. Her detailed
documentation of the business methods of these "intermediate classes",
shows the ways, mainly hidden but sometimes brazen, by which the
state's control is neutralised and rendered harmless, competition is
eliminated, and new entrants kept out of the market.

Harriss-White argues that throughout India small-town and rural
economies are dominated by these intermediate classes, which are
constituted by "a loose coalition of the small-scale capitalist class,
agrarian and local agribusiness elites, and local state
officials" (page 241). The interests of the intermediate classes are
significantly different from those of corporate capital. Harris-White
argues that the former "directly appropriate the returns to rents of
all kinds and are able to do this through oligopolistic collusion in
markets and through structures of regulation that remain hardly
touched by liberalisation. They connive with local officials to secure
the protection of rents and of the state resources they capture. They
seek state subsidies, but more importantly they secure beneficial
concessions by influencing policy in its implementation.... Their
evasion of tax is the equivalent of a major subsidy to [their]
mercantile accumulation, while depriving the state of capacity and
legitimacy" (page 241).

Harriss-White argues that it is these intermediate classes that are,
in fact, the dominant segment in India's economy. She defends this
thesis by arguing that the informal economy, in which the intermediate
classes are hegemonic, "accounts for two-thirds of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP)" and that "at least half of the informal economy is
`black'" (page 246). This is why she characterises the informal
economy as "anti-social" - it is regulated by the intermediate classes
and ruled by their narrow values based on self-interest.

Harriss-White further argues that the size of the intermediate classes
is growing and a "new wave of small capital, based on primary
accumulation, is reinforcing and expanding the informal and black
economy, intensifying the casualisation of labour and transferring the
risks of unstable livelihoods to the workforce" (page 246). The
severely exploited labour force is radically subordinated and "labour
is regulated through the social structures of gender, religion and
caste, and of local markets" (page 241). Her study of the local
hegemony of the intermediate classes leads her to conclude: "Fraud and
tax evasion are part and parcel of Indian capitalism.... The bulk of
the economy is beyond the direct control of the State... . Countering
this literally anti-social economy calls for the emergence of a more
robust and active culture of collective accountability" (page 247).

It is impossible to do justice to the richness and complexity of this
book in a short review. Among the many interesting issues that it
raises are arguments relating to the impact of India's religious
pluralism on the structure of its economy and the question of whether
capitalism in India is proving to be the "social solvent" that it was
widely expected to be (page 245). A major contribution of this book is
its discussion of the debates on "industrial clusters" (or "industrial
districts") in India. Here Harriss-White argues that the overly
positive view of "industrial clusters" and "flexible specialisation"
in India, that currently prevails, is quite mistaken. Her arguments
here are well taken. She points out that industrial clusters are a
common, not exceptional, form of development in India. Low technology
is usual in these industrial districts. Contrary to what cluster
theory enthusiasts, whose numbers are growing, claim, most industrial
clusters do not have the "developmentally positive potential" (page
208) shown by highly exceptional clusters like Bangalore and Tirupur.
In fact, most industrial clusters in India excel in the "super-
exploitation" of workers, especially women and children (page 222).

Importantly - and this is a fact that cluster enthusiasts often choose
to ignore in studied silence - a lot of field research shows that
entrepreneurs demonstrate "a complete disregard for anything other
than private profit". This, coupled with "the inadequate and negligent
enforcement of effluent standards" by the co-opted state, has resulted
in vast tracts of agricultural land being rendered unfit for
agricultural use, while large sections of local populations have been
deprived of their sources of drinking water, because these are now
toxic (page 237). In Tamil Nadu such disasters have occurred in the
Palar Valley (due to tanneries) and in Tirupur (due to the hosiery
industry). The state has remained indifferent or slow and extremely
reluctant to act against the entrepreneurial class (page 237), with
whom it is in close collusion. The result is that the burden of these
"negative externalities", created by highly profitable (and much
admired) industries, falls, crushingly, on those least able to bear
this environmental disaster - the virtually disenfranchised rural
poor.

The book's postscript turns to the contemporary political context.
Entitled, "Postscript: proto-fascist politics and the economy", it
examines "the key elements of fascism" and "the class origins of
fascism" in order "to evaluate the prospects of fascist currents in
India" (page 253). While this is helpful, even more interesting is
Harriss-White's argument, made at several points in her main text,
that, in the final analysis, it is likely to be economic reasons that
lie behind Hindu communal attacks on Muslims, even though these are
camouflaged and covered up in political rhetoric about "religion" and
"Hindutva". This argument is extremely persuasive, especially given
the fact that anecdotal evidence so far suggests that this was the
motivation behind the Bharatiya Janata Party's supervision of the
shocking pogroms against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

Harriss-White's book, with its pragmatic, undeterred attention to the
unlovely realities of the structuring forces behind the economy, is a
wake-up call. It documents the strength of the powerful political and
institutional forces that rule the economy today, in unholy alliances
that have institutionalised corruption and fraud, making them an
accepted, everyday part of the economy. These hegemonic forces have
created almost overwhelming obstacles to the possibility of
"democratically determined accountability" (page 247).

But, though overwhelming, these forces and their "anti-social economy"
can and must be challenged. To do so requires, as a first step, a
dispassionate recognition of the reach and nature of the ugly
political and economic realities that encircle us. In this task this
book is a useful guide.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2009/stories/20030509000107100.htm

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 25, 2003

Business

There's no immutable law in economics

IN A recent public speech on economic policy, Bimal Jalan, Governor of
the Reserve Bank of India, explained the realism which drives India's
exchange rate policy. (Dr Jalan lays down office in October).

Coming from a person who steered the country's external sector through
the turbulent second half of the last decade (marked by major
international events such as the Asian currency crisis, and global
market shocks) with a steady hand and a definite, medium-term vision,
Dr Jalan's comments are a great lesson for everybody.

There can be no doctrinaire, orthodox, rule-bound approach to the
financial markets and economics and more generally the social
sciences. That is the most important message flowing from Dr Jalan's
speech. Equally interesting was his declaring the central bank's
openness to suggestions and feed back in the process of policy
formulation.

Since it has taken place in fairly quick succession, one cannot but
compare Dr Jalan's pragmatic approach with the almost obsessive rule-
bound approach of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to economic
policy issues. This dogmatic approach was articulated by its (IMF's)
Chief Economist, Kenneth Rogoff a few days before Dr. Jalan's speech.
On a recent visit to India, Mr. Rogoff almost instinctively talked
about India's fiscal deficit being completely unsustainable and it
being the root cause of all its economic malaise. Now, this line on
fiscal deficits has been the standard of the IMF for such a long time
that its representatives almost instinctively parrot out the
argument.

Quite oblivious to the fact that this has been turned on its head in
the most convincing manner in many countries across the world.

For instance, one is reminded of Lawrence Summers, a former US
Treasury Secretary, publicly recommending that Japan pump-prime more
(even as its public debt was well over 150 per cent of its GDP)
precisely when the IMF / rating agencies were ringing the alarm bells
on its deficits and one agency actually downgraded Japanese debt.
Japan has continued to pump-prime and though things have certainly not
improved, neither have they got any worse. There is more to Japan's
economic malaise than just the fiscal deficits.

More recently, Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve,
publicly supported the fiscal stimuli package of the Bush
Administration as soon as it was unveiled while the same Chairman had
some time earlier spoken eloquently about the virtues of balanced
budgets. One can only ascribe the Chairman's turnaround on budget
deficits — if it can be called a turnaround — to his pragmatic
approach to economic circumstances.

A budget deficit while undesirable at a point in time for an economy
becomes necessary some other time for the same economy. One cannot
have a single policy for all times. (The deficit constraints which the
Maastricht Treaty has imposed on Euro zone countries and the tensions
this is causing in the Euro zone is another stark pointer to the non-
sustainability of rule-bound economic policies).

So much for practical economics in the advanced countries being out of
sync with the IMFs doctrinaire approach. A more telling example is
available in itself.

The country is in the midst of a stubborn run of budget deficits over
the past decade — averaging around 7 per cent of GDP and which is
certainly not yet through its course — that Indian interest rates have
fallen to their all time low around 5.50 per cent. Indeed, yields on
10 year Indian government bonds which were ruling around 15 per cent a
decade ago are now around 5.50 per cent and could fall more. And India
continues to post sizable deficits which do not seem like reversing in
the foreseeable future.

What is particularly noteworthy is that the Indian developments seem
to have comprehensively negated some core tenets of the IMF approach.
Not only has India posted huge deficits, it has also heavily monetised
those deficits over the course of the decade (though the level of
monetisation has come down in the recent past).

Runaway inflation and severe upward pressure on interest rates — that
is what the IMF has been warning will follow big government deficits
and their monetisation. What has happened in India?

While inflation has continued to behave (averaging around 6.5 per cent
in the past decade), interest rates, as mentioned earlier, are still
to bottom out. While there are definitely concerns about how Indian
inflation is being measured (inflation in the services sector, for
example, is not reckoned at all), the country is not near runaway
inflation. The Indian currency is still maintaining its integrity, by
and large, as a store of value and means of payment.

The Indian situation is somewhat analogous to the Japanese. That is,
things have certainly not improved here dramatically (for instance,
there is no double digit growth with these ultra-low interest rates)
but they are not deteriorating either. The larger message being: there
is more to the economy and the lacunae in it than just some text-book
prescriptions on fiscal deficits.

By the way, it is quite possible that over the course of the next few
months, Indian bond yields could be on par with those on U.S.
government bonds. Ten year US bonds are now yielding around 4.50 per
cent. There is no immutable law in economics which says Indian bond
yields cannot match U.S. Treasuries.

T. B. Kapali

(The author is Asst Vice President (Treasury) in ING Vysya Bank. These
are purely his personal views which do not reflect those of his
employer).

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/biz/2003/08/25/stories/2003082500080200.htm

Book Review

On economic reforms
S. MAHENDRA DEV

The book is a fitting tribute to Prof. Bagchi’s contribution to social
sciences

POST-REFORM DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA — Essays for Amiya Kumar Bagchi:
Edited by Manoj Kumar Sanyal, Mandira Sanyal, and Shahina Amin; Orient
Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. 3-6-752, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029. Rs. 695.

Economic reforms have influenced the development strategies in recent
decades. There have been some improvements in economic growth and
other indicators in the post-reform period.

However, there are concerns regarding poverty reduction, quantity and
quality of employment generation, human development, and inequalities
in the economy and society — rural-urban, man-woman and so on. It is
known that economic growth is only one of the means or instruments for
achieving the end — the well-being and freedoms of the people.

A festschrift volume for Prof. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, the book under
review deals with post-reform developments in Asia. Bagchi is an
eminent economist, a social scientist, and an institution-builder. His
research on various development issues is widely known. He interacted
with renowned economists and social scientists. As indicated in a
‘tribute’ to him in the volume, he acknowledged “his debt to his
teachers Maurice Dobb, R.M. Goodwin and Joan Robinson in particular”
at Trinity College. He also records his debt to Amartya Sen and
Sukhamoy Chakravorty and recalls his useful interactions with the
students of the Presidency College, Calcutta (now Kolkata).

As mentioned in the ‘preface,’ the essays are an “attempt to grapple
with the issues often raised in the development debate on whether neo-
liberal reforms in developing nations have raised poverty, food
insecurity and income inequality, hindered empowerment of women,
raised agrarian distress, reallocated resources for private
profitability as against social gain and facilitated the rise of multi-
national oligopoly.” These issues have been examined on the basis of
empirical data drawn from China, India, and Bangladesh. The volume
contains 11 essays — six on India, two on China, and one on
Bangladesh; the other two papers deal with theoretical issues.

Inequality

The papers on China focus on the inequality across regions and the
rural-urban disparities. Inequalities increased in China in spite of
rapid economic growth. Those on India have as their themes food
insecurity, growth-poverty-employment relationship, gender
discrimination in the labour market, agrarian distress caused by
withdrawal of state support to small farmers and, policy shift in
‘priority sector lending’ to the detriment of small and marginal
farmers and entrepreneurs.

One of the papers refers to the paradox of higher GDP growth, lower
poverty, and higher unemployment in the post-reform India and the
authors discuss it using the data up to 1999-2000. But if we use the
more recent 2004-05 data, the employment growth rate will be high.
Although unemployment increased, it is still less than 10 per cent.
Apart from unemployment, a basic problem in India is that of “working
poor.” People are working but at low wages, in low working conditions,
and without any social security. In other words, there is no paradox
of low poverty and high unemployment in India.

Child labour

The paper on Bangladesh revisits poverty issues in the context of
child labour. It indicates that the determinants of children’s market
work and household work will have to be examined in separate models.
The last two papers discuss an analytical framework for understanding
the issues relating to the recent rise of multi-national firms and the
rapid growth of India’s software technology.

One can differ with the methodology used and the analysis made in some
of the papers. It may be noted that the impact of economic reforms
depends on initial conditions and other factors. In general, the
international experience shows that reforms have not succeeded in
Latin America and Africa.

On the other hand, the experience of South East Asia and East Asia
with economic reforms and poverty reduction has been much better. For
example, in China, although inequalities increased, their official
data show that the poverty ratio is very low and children suffering
malnutrition is eight per cent. This does not mean that everything is
good about these regions. Countries here also suffered on account of
the financial crisis in the late 1990s. As pointed out in the book,
these countries and those in South Asia have to focus more on
inequalities, employment, poverty, human development, and other social
and economic problems apart from accelerating economic growth.

Moreover, economic reforms have given greater importance to the
financial sector as compared to the real sector. The Indian experience
with reforms over the past 18 years reveals that there have been
achievements on the growth front but inequalities widened and the
performance in terms of the quality of employment and progress in
social sector is far from satisfactory. For example, malnutrition
among children was stubborn at 45 per cent during the period
1998-2006. Fortunately, there is a growing recognition in countries
like India that an equitable or inclusive development is imperative
since the social and economic disparities are persistently high and
worsening, in spite of the higher economic growth. Compared to other
countries, India has done well in the present financial crisis because
of its cautious approach.

To conclude, this book is a significant addition to the literature on
economic reforms and a fitting tribute to Prof. Bagchi’s contribution
to social sciences.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 06, 2009

http://www.hindu.com/br/2009/10/06/stories/2009100650631200.htm

All the world's a market

*Selling Globalisation

The Myth of the Global Economy
By Michael Veseth

Publishers: Lynne Rienner
Price: not mentioned.

THIS book began as a project to explore the application of chaos
theory -- the analysis of non-linear dynamical processes -- to
international political economy, especially to the study of
international financial movements. Case study of four `global' fir ms
-- Boeing, Microsoft, Nike, and the Frank Russell Company - enables
the author ``think creatively about what actual globalisation is and
what it means, which led me to the truth behind the myth.''

About the G-word: Globalisation, ``one of the most powerful and
persuasive images of today's world'', -- as promise or as threat --
the book argued that globalisation is badly misunderstood. It is
quantitatively and qualitatively different from the conve ntional
wisdom. Global financial markets have a built-in tendency toward chaos
and crisis, and the instability worsens as markets expand.

For the author, globalisation is really a delivery system, not a final
product. When one accepts the image of hyperglobalisation, one
simultaneously accepts, usually without question, a number of other
images -- political, economic, and intellectual.

Again, globalisation has many faces. It is, in fact, a complex dynamic
process. Veseth tells first of the four stories, which features Nike
-- how the threat of globalisation can be used effectively to promote
private interests even in a situation in whi ch the global connection
is clearly irrelevant. And finally, the fourth story looks to the pro-
democracy movement in Indonesia to provide an example of how
globalisation can be used to promote all sides of an issue.

Nike seemed to be playing the various state and local governments
against one another, looking for the best deal. Nike was able to
bargain with local governments for concessions in part because of its
image as a footloose global firm. The belief in footl oose
globalisation as a general feature of corporate behaviour was enough
to induce local governments to scramble to offer concessions to Nike,
which improved Nike's position in bargaining for its Oregon home turf.
Hyperglobalisation was a useful image t hat served Nike well in these
negotiations.

The second story shows how the image of globalisation can be
manipulated and used to promote public policies that are at best
tangentially related to global markets.

The third story is about the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger, shows
how the consequences of actual globalisation do not always follow the
hyperglobalisation model. At first glance, the merger of two global
industrial and technological giants, creating th e largest aerospace
and defence manufacturer in the world, seems to be quintessential
hyperglobalisation. The EU threatened to impose crippling fines and
sanctions on Boeing if the merger with McDonnel Douglas went through
as planned. The EU action was n ot about monopoly power; rather, it
was about national interest.

In the fourth case, captioned `Globalisation and Democracy in
Indonesia', it is shown that as global firms and markets gain power,
citizens lose it.

The book has shown four faces of globalisation, but it really has a
thousand faces. Globalisation, Galbraith writes, is not the death of
the welfare state, but a reason to extend it. Globalisation is as
highly marketable a product in the ivory tower as i t undoubtedly is
in politics, business, and the media. So useful is this concept, in
fact, that if it did not exist, we might need to invent it.

As per the author, Ricardo Petrella has made some progress towards a
working definition of globalisation. Petrella considers
internationalisation to be a process in which raw materials, goods,
and services are exchanged across national borders. Multinati
onalisation is a further development in which especially capital but
also some labour moves across national borders as part of the
production process. Petrella's list suggests the multidimensional
nature of globalisation, but it suffers the obvious flaw that it
defines globalisation in terms of itself. Globalisation is the process
of economic, political, and social change that occurs when all agents
in a system have access to a common pool of resources.

Since Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the quintessential global
businesses in most people's minds, it is useful to consider the degree
to which they really remain multi-local enterprises. A trip through
the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta reveals surprising deg rees of product
adaptation to local market conditions. Coca-Cola is a successful
global brand precisely because it is so successfully multi-local.
Likewise, McDonald's product lines adapt to local market conditions to
a surprising degree. The book cites the example in India. The new
stores in India make their hamburgers from lamb. Local pools are the
key to global competitiveness. Globalisation is clearly not the end of
geography. No amount of electronic technology can eliminate the
importance of local factors to global businesses.

The state will persist because the need for the state has grown, but
also because the local resource pools and socio-economic problems on
which states are based are undiminished.

Nike's famous roots are, of course, very local. The first Nike shoes
were made in Japan, and over the years more than 99 per cent of Nike
shoes have been imported through a global commodity chain that links
Nike's mainly core markets with its contract pr oducers in the semi-
periphery (e.g., South Korea) and the periphery (e.g., China and
Indonesia). Nike is truly global by my definition because it swims in
both pools. Nike does not have many employees (only about 14,000 in
1995) for a corporation with al most $5 billion in sales. Nike invests
heavily in creating demand for its products by building its stable of
celebrity endorsers and making the swoosh a symbol of their
lifestyles. Most Nike shoes and other products are made in Asia. Nike
does not own th e factories that make its shoes.

Boeing's global commercial sales are so large that they alone can skew
the balance of payments statistics of the rest of the US economy.
Boeing is almost big enough to be a nation in many respects, and a
look at Boeing actually tells us something about b oth global business
and the condition of the nation-state. Nike is a creature of the
market. Boeing is a creature of the state.

The book has looked at four examples of actual globalisation: Nike,
Boeing, Frank Russell, and Microsoft. However, as the author believes,
only Nike is global in the sense that he has defined this term; Boeing
shows that state power is an important facto r in economic
globalisation; the Frank Russell Company demonstrates that people
matter more and that technology perhaps matters less than is often
suspected in global businesses. Microsoft highlights several important
aspects of globalisation.

Moving further to the political economy of globalisation in Chapter
VI, it is held, globalisation is a lever that special interests can
use to pry open certain public policy doors that would otherwise be
tightly shut. Economic interdependence, strengthen ed by technological
change and scientific advances, made the nations of the world so
interdependent, especially in terms of finance, that sovereignty was
an obsolete concept. An unambiguous lesson of the last forty years is
that increased participation i n the world economy has become the key
to domestic growth and prosperity.

The penultimate chapter deals with ``Unsettled Foundations''.
Globalisation is all about markets. Hyperglobalisation is, what David
Sousa calls: `garbage can' politics: `the global economy' is an
enormously attractive problem. Economic ideas like global markets are
exploited by both politicians, as Krugman notes, and economists who
have a policy axe to grind.

Globalisation, seen through the lens of economics, is a highly
efficient and altogether admirable process driven by greed or the
desire of wealth or the love of money or purposeful behaviour.
Globalisation, being the ultimate expansion of markets to a gl obal
scale, is therefore everything an economist believes in.

Joseph Schumpeter addressed this important problem in his 1939 books
Business Cycles. It is the dynamical interaction of these cycles,
Schumpeter argued that creates macroeconomic cycles. Schumpeter's
vision of economic was dynamic, and ultimately chaoti c. Schumpeter
lacked the sophisticated mathematical tools necessary to make his
vision of a theory non-linear dynamical economics a reality.

The last chapter `rethinks' globalisation. By some measures, the world
is less thoroughly integrated today than it was in the period before
World War I that Keynes has idealised. When people think of
globalisation, for good or for bad, they think about a world of Nike,
which is unequal, envious, performance-oriented, capitalist world.
Among the many forces that limit the extent to which true
globalisation can happen is the fundamental instability of global
financial markets. If globalisation is not new, not ubiquitous, and
not unstoppable, then why does it get so much attention? Globalisation
gets attention because it is a useful concept, globalisation has been
so effectively marketed is that attempts to provide a sound economic
critique of this concep t have thus far been ineffective.

An erudite treatise that the book constitutes, it makes an apt and
timely contribution of great significance to the complex term which
globalisation connotes.

Raghu Dayal

Financial Daily
from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, January 22, 2001

http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2001/01/22/stories/122209b2.htm

"We're in the Money": Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/3bc67593a8a0ac5b#
Madam I 'm Adam: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/fbe56c67d373c696#
It's the Economy, Stupid: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/a46d86d4a3976279#
BRIC-a-BRAC: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/1d0dab2a874d0f26#
Big Bang: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/293ffa6b644467ef#
Indian Economic Survey: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/83574501e1c1ee72#
World's Baked Billionaires: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/42a9c3eca9882e80#
Below Poverty line, Line: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/097e4867b8baf22a#
Outsourcing Sorcery: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/topics?start=300&sa=N
Globalization Gobbledigook: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/bea6b5954e7332f4#
Indian Budget Bonanza: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/40cc05563d71e4a4#
Pranab Mukherjee, my Main Man: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/0ce38c4203700750#

[chhotemianinshallah]

Thuggee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thuggee (or tuggee, ठग्गी ṭhagī) (from Hindi ठग ṭhag ‘thief’, from
Sanskrit स्थग sthaga ‘cunning’, ‘sly’, ‘fraudulent’, ‘dishonest’,
‘scoundrel’, from स्थगति sthagati ‘he conceals’)[1] is the term for a
particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India.

Thuggery

The English word "thug" comes from the Hindi word "thag", meaning
"conman". It is one of many Indian words borrowed into English during
the British colonial period. The English connotation of 'thug' is
synonymous with terms like hoodlum and hooligan, indicating a person
(who may or may not be anti-social) who harasses others, usually for
hire.[citation needed] People regarded as thugs might commit assault
(or 'menace'), battery, even robbery and grievous bodily harm, but
they usually stop short of murder. Additionally, "thugs" usually
travel in pairs, though they can work alone or in groups of four to
six members, and are typically open about their presence (except to
law enforcement officials); while "Thuggee" were covert and operated
as members of a group, often called a "Thuggee cult" by the British.
Hence, the word "Thuggee" is capitalised while the word "thug" usually
is not; which enables distinction of a "Thug" (here, a short form of
"Thuggee") from a "thug".

In the heyday of Thuggee activity, travellers were typically part of a
travelling group, so the term Thuggee typically referred to killing of
a large number of people in a single operation. This aspect
distinguishes Thuggee from similar concept of dacoity, which means
simple armed robbery.

Dacoity has similarities with the terms brigand and bandit from
European and Latin American experience, but there appear to be no
exact Western parallels for Thuggee. Perhaps the closest concepts
would be the format of piracy, though this is solely maritime robbery
(usually with murder), and the earlier, but similar, format of raids
on coastal settlements by Viking seafarers. Some aspects, however, are
reminiscent of the Mafia group of organisations.

Between them, these classes of criminal activity illustrate some of
the mystique that attached to the Thugs and the complex mixture of
fear and dread of these murderous men that was felt by the ordinary
people who might well be their victims.

There is some question as to the extent of the religious dimension of
Thuggee. Most contemporary sources described Thuggee as being a
religious cult, but some modern sources feel it was merely a
specialized form of organized crime or paramilitary activity, with no
particular religious dimension beyond the normal piety of the
villagers from whom its members were recruited.

Time period

The concept of Thuggee is known from the 17th century, though the term
and/or activity possibly dates back as early as the 13th century.
Thuggee was actively practiced at least through the end of the 19th
century. If remnants of the Thuggee tradition survived into the 20th
and 21st centuries, they did so very covertly. The film Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom is based on the premise that Thuggee cults
survived covertly into the early 20th century.

Stern suppression by the British was important in reducing Thuggee
activity but more significant was the introduction of modern methods
of travel, in particular the displacement of travelling on foot or by
horse in groups by the railway, which effectively rendered Thuggee
obsolete.

The nature

The particular groups, as well as the general concept, were often
equally durable and would outlive the 'careers' of individual members
to develop into a crime family lasting generations. These groups
progressed from being simple gangs into becoming 'fraternities' or
even 'cults', featuring the initiation of new members, either through
the heredity of a criminal underclass, or through an apprenticeship,
such as normally associated with skilled or learned professions or the
training programs of elite military units. Other sources describe the
Thugs as a criminal 'tribe' or caste. Over the course of generations,
the secrets must be kept within the 'family'. The marriage of
offspring within the group both safeguards the secret knowledge,
allowing it to be imparted steadily to the children without the risk
of uninitiated neighbours overhearing, and reinforces the exclusive
and selective nature of the organisation. This preserves the mystique,
which is in itself part of the formula of success, and creates an
elite aura around it. At the moment of attack, the sudden revelation
of the identity of the assailants produces a shock that disables
defensive manoeuvres, at least for a few, vital moments, while the
reputation for invincibility engenders a defeatism that results in a
fait accompli.

The practice

Thugs were active all over the Bengal region of the Indian
subcontinent. Maps showing the possessions of the British East India
Company in 1765 and 1805Thuggee is described as a cult of people
engaged in the multiple murder and robbery of travelers. At the time,
most travelers in India would travel in caravan for mutual support and
security, since travel meant the crossing of difficult terrain before
the coming of metalled roads, the passing among different races,
religions and castes, at a period before police forces were formed. In
order to attempt the massacre of an entire caravan, the Thugs needed
to be numerous and well-coordinated. They also needed to be
sufficiently stealthy, at least in the early stages, to begin their
slaughter without rousing all at once. This required a high degree of
planning, organization – including props and patter – timing, teamwork
and discipline. With anything less than complete success a survivor
could escape to raise a hue and cry. These horrendous but
sophisticated operations lay somewhere between organized crime and
paramilitary activity and were far removed from the ordinary criminal
in the audacity, magnitude, and ruthlessness of the enterprise.

The modus operandi was to join a caravan and become accepted as bona-
fide travelers themselves. The Thugs would need to delay any attack
until their fellow travelers had dropped the initial wariness of the
newcomers and had been lulled into a false sense of security. The
Thugs first needed to befriend the travelers and win their trust. Once
the travelers had allowed the Thugs to join them and disperse amongst
them (a task which might sometimes, depending on the size of the
target group, require accompaniment for hundreds of miles), the Thugs
would wait for a suitable place and time before killing and robbing
them.

There were obviously variations on a theme. When tackling a large
group, a Thuggee band might disperse along a route and join a group in
stages, concealing their acquaintanceship, such that they could come
to outnumber their intended victims by small, non-threatening
increments. If the travelers had doubts about any one party, they
might confide their worries to another party of the same Thuggee band.
The trusted band would thus be the best placed to deal with these
members of the caravan at the appropriate time, but might also be able
to advise their colleagues to 'back off' or otherwise modify their
behavior, to allay suspicion.

The killing place would need to be remote from local observers and
suitable to prevent escape (e.g., backed against a river). Thugs
tended to develop favored places of execution, called beles. They knew
the geography of these places well—better than their victims. They
needed to, if they were to anticipate the likely escape routes and
hiding-places of the quicker-witted and more determined of the
travelers.

The timing might be at night or during a rest-break, when the
travelers would be busy with chores and when the background cries and
noise would mask any sounds of alarm. A quick and quiet method, which
left no stains and required no special weapons, was strangulation.
This method is particularly associated with Thuggee and led to the
Thugs also being referred to as the Phansigars, or "noose-operators",
and simply as "stranglers" by British troops. Usually two or three
Thugs would strangle one traveller. The Thugs would then need to
dispose of the bodies: they might bury them or might throw them into a
nearby well.[2].

The leader of a gang was called the 'jemadar': this is an ordinary
Indian word and is now used as the rank of an Army officer
(Lieutenant), who would command a similar number of men to a Thuggee
gang-leader. An English equivalent term might be 'the Boss' or 'the
Guv'nor' (Governor).

As with modern criminal gangs, each member of the group had his own
function: the equivalent of the 'hit-man,' 'the lookout,' and the
'getaway driver' would be those Thugs tasked with luring travelers
with charming words or acting as guardian to prevent escape of victims
while the killing took place.

They usually killed their victims in darkness while the thugs made
music or noise to escape discovery. If burying bodies close to a well-
traveled trade-route, they would need to disguise the 'earthworks' of
their graveyard as a camp-site, tamping down the covering mounds and
leaving some items of rubbish or remnants of a fire to 'explain' the
disturbances and obscure the burials.

One reason given for the Thuggee success in avoiding detection and
capture so often and over such long periods of time is a self-
discipline and restraint in avoiding groups of travelers on shorter
journeys, even if they seemed laden with suitable plunder. Choosing
only travelers far from home gave more time until the alarm was raised
and the distance made it less likely that colleagues would follow on
to investigate the disappearances. Another reason given is the high
degree of teamwork and co-ordination both during the infiltration
phase and at the moment of attack. This was a sophisticated criminal
elite that knew its business well and approached each 'operation' like
a military mission.

Use of garotte

The garotte is often depicted as the common weapon of the Thuggee. It
is sometimes described as a rumal (head covering or kerchief), or
translated as "yellow scarf". "Yellow" in this case may refer to a
natural cream or khaki colour rather than bright yellow. Most Indian
males in Central India or Hindustan would have a puggaree or head-
scarf, worn either as a turban or worn around a kullah and draped to
protect the back of the neck. Types of scarves were also worn as
cummerbunds, in place of a belt. Any of these items could have served
as strangling ligatures.

Religion and Thuggee

Thuggee groups might be Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, but Thuggee is
particularly associated with followers of the Hindu Goddess Kali (or
Durga), whom they often called Bhavani.[3][4][5] It was noted, even at
the time, that only a very small minority of the followers of Kali
were Thuggees. Many Thuggees worshipped Kali but most supporters of
Kali did not practise Thuggee.

Some Thuggee groups claimed descent from seven Muslim tribes[citation
needed], but the majority of Hindu followers only seem to be related
during the early periods of Islamic development through their
religious creed and staunch worship of Kali, one of the Hindu Tantric
Goddesses. At a time of political unrest, with changes from Hindu
Rajput rulers to Muslim Moghul emperors and viceroys, and possibly
back again, a wise group would display allegiance to both creeds, but
its ultimate loyalty was probably only to itself.

"There seem to have been very few Sikh Thugs. But Sahib Khan, the
Deccan strangler, 'knew Ram Sing Siek: he was a noted Thug leader - a
very shrewd man,' who also served with the Pindaris for a while and
was responsible for the assassination of the notorious Pindari leader
Sheikh Dulloo." Sleeman, Ramaseeana I, 239-40.

Some sources view the Thugs as a cult or sect. Given the extent of the
problem, in geographical scale and in the duration of time, it is
likely that many groups would wish to keep their secrets from betrayal
from within and from intrusion by outsiders and would have evolved
into secret criminal fraternities. It also follows that if they were
repeatedly successful, then they must have 'divine blessing' and would
wish to give thanks to, and worship, the deity to whom they ascribed
their support. In the West, as well, criminality and religious
observance are not always mutually incompatible.

Origin and recruitment

A group of thugs, ca. 1863The earliest recorded mention of the Thugs
as a special band or fraternity, rather than as ordinary thieves, is
found in the following passage of Ziau-d din Barni's History of Firoz
Shah (written about 1356):

In the reign of that sultan (about 1290), some Thugs were taken in
Delhi, and a man belonging to that fraternity was the means of about a
thousand being captured. But not one of these did the sultan have
killed. He gave orders for them to be put into boats and to be
conveyed into the lower country, to the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti,
where they were to be set free. The Thugs would thus have to dwell
about Lakhnauti and would not trouble the neighbourhood of Delhi any
more." (Sir HM Elliot's History of India, iii. 141).

Membership was sometimes passed from father to son, in what would now
be termed a criminal underclass. The leaders of long-established Thug
groups tended to come from these hereditary lines, as the gang
developed into a criminal 'tribe'. Other men would get to know a Thug
band and would hope to be recruited, in the way that one might aspire
to join an elite regiment or university: they were the best operators
in "the business" and, like a regiment or college fraternity, once in
the group, there was a camaraderie of numbers and shared experience.
The robbery became less a question of solving problems of poverty and
more a profession, like soldiering.

Sometimes the young children of the travelers would be spared and
groomed to become Thugs themselves, as the presence of children would
help allay suspicion. A fourth way of becoming a Thug was by training
with a guru, similar to an apprenticeship for a guild or profession,
during which the candidate could be assessed for reliability, courage,
discretion and discipline.[2]

The magnitude of the problem

Estimates of the total number of victims vary widely, depending on the
author's idea of the length of existence of the Thugs (for which there
are no reliable sources). According to the Guinness Book of Records
the Thuggee cult was responsible for approximately 2,000,000 deaths,
while British historian Dr. Mike Dash estimates that they killed
50,000 persons in total, based on his assumption that they only
started to exist 150 years before their eradication in the 1830s.

Yearly figures for the early 19th century are better documented, but
even they are inaccurate estimates. For example, gang leader Behram
has often been considered the world's most prolific serial killer,
blamed for 931 killings between 1790 and 1830. Reference to
contemporary manuscript sources, however, shows that Behram actually
gave inconsistent statements regarding the number of murders he had
committed. While he did state that he had "been present at" 931
killings committed by his gang of 25 to 50 men, elsewhere he admitted
that he had personally strangled "only" around 125 people. Having
turned King's Evidence and agreed to inform on his former companions,
furthermore, Behram never stood trial for any of the killings
attributed to him, the total of which must thus remain a matter of
dispute.[6]

Suppression

The Thuggee cult was suppressed by the British rulers of India in the
1830s.[2] The arrival of the British and their development of a
methodology to tackle crime meant the techniques of the Thugs had met
their match. Suddenly, the mysterious disappearances were mysteries no
longer and it became clear how even large caravans could be
infiltrated by apparently small groups, that were in fact acting in
concert. Once the techniques were known to all travellers, the element
of surprise was gone and the attacks became botched, until the hunters
became the hunted.

Civil servant William Henry Sleeman, superintendent, 'Thuggee and
Dacoity Dept.' in 1835, and later its Commissioner in 1839.Reasons for
British success included:

the dissemination of reports regarding Thuggee developments across
territorial borders, so that each administrator was made aware of new
techniques as soon as they were put in practice, so that travellers
could be warned and advised on possible counter-measures.
the use of King's evidence programmes gave an incentive for gang
members to inform on their peers to save their own lives. This
undermined the code of silence that protected members.
at a time when, even in Britain, policing was in its infancy, the
British set up a dedicated police force, the Thuggee Department, and
special tribunals that prevented local influence from affecting
criminal proceedings.
the police force applied the new detective methodologies to record the
locations of attacks, the time of day or circumstances of the attack,
the size of group, the approach to the victims and the behaviours
after the attacks. In this way, a single informant, belonging to one
gang in one region, might yield details that would be applicable to
most, or all, gangs in a region or indeed across all India.
The initiative of suppression was due largely to the efforts of the
civil servant William Sleeman, who started an extensive campaign
involving profiling and intelligence. A police organisation known as
the 'Thuggee and Dacoity Department' was established within the
Government of India, with William Sleeman appointed Superintendent of
the department in 1835. Thousands of men were either put in prison,
executed, or expelled from British India.[2] The campaign was heavily
based on informants recruited from captured thugs who were offered
protection on the condition that they told everything that they knew.
By the 1870s, the Thug cult was extinct, but it led to the
promulgation of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Although it was
repealed upon independence of India, the concept of 'criminal tribes'
and 'criminal castes' is still prevalent in India.[7][8] The
Department remained in existence until 1904, when it was replaced by
the Central Criminal Intelligence Department (CID).

Possible misinterpretation by the British and scepticism about the
existence

In her book The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs
of India (2002), Martine van Woerkens suggests that evidence for the
existence of a Thuggee cult in the 19th century was in part the
product of "colonial imaginings" — British fear of the little-known
interior of India and limited understanding of the religious and
social practices of its inhabitants. For a comparison, see Juggernaut
and the Black Hole of Calcutta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta

Krishna Dutta, while reviewing the book Thug: the true story of
India's murderous cult by the British historian Dr. Mike Dash in The
Independent, argues:[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent

"In recent years, the revisionist view that thuggee was a British
invention, a means to tighten their hold in the country, has been
given credence in India, France and the US, but this well-researched
book objectively questions that assertion."
In his book, Dash rejects scepticism about the existence of a secret
network of groups with a modus operandi that was different from
highwaymen, such as dacoits. To prove his point Dash refers to the
excavated corpses in graves, of which the hidden locations were
revealed to Sleeman's team by thug informants. In addition, Dash
treats the extensive and thorough documentation that Sleeman made.
Dash rejects the colonial emphasis on the religious motivation for
robbing, but instead asserts that monetary gain was the main
motivation for Thuggee and that men sometimes became Thugs due to
extreme poverty. He further asserts that the Thugs were highly
superstitious and that they worshipped the Hindu goddess Kali, but
that their faith was not very different from their contemporary non-
thugs. He admits, though, that the thugs had certain group-specific
superstitions and rituals.

Aftermath

The discovery of the thuggee was one of the main reason why the
Criminal Tribes Act was created.

In popular culture

This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial
references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's
impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and
remove trivial references. (November 2009)

In literature

The story of Thuggee was popularised by books such as Philip Meadows
Taylor's novel Confessions of a Thug, 1839, leading to the word "thug"
entering the English language. Ameer Ali, the protagonist of
Confessions of a Thug was said to be based on a real Thug called Syeed
Amir Ali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Meadows_Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Thug_(novel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagonist

John Masters' novel The Deceivers also deals with the subject. A more
recent book is George Bruce's The Stranglers: The cult of Thuggee and
its overthrow in British India (1968). Dan Simmons's Song of Kali,
1985, features a Thuggee cult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Masters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Simmons

The 19th century American writer Mark Twain discusses the Thuggee
fairly extensively in chapters 9 and 10 of "Following the Equator:
Volume II", 1897, THE ECCO PRESS, ISBN 0-88001-519-5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

Christopher Moore's novel, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff,
Christ's Childhood Pal, describes a Thuggee ritual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb:_The_Gospel_According_to_Biff,_Christ%27s_Childhood_Pal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Moore_(author)

The 1976 science fiction novel Strangler's Moon by E.E. "Doc" Smith
and Stephen Goldin is based on the Thuggee (book #2 in the Family
D'Alembert series).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangler%27s_Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Goldin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_D%27Alembert

Sci-Fi/Fantasy author Glen Cook uses an India-like setting and Thuggee
as a plot vehicle in his books Shadow Games (June 1989), and Dreams of
Steel (April 1990). The books and later ones that continue the
storyline form part of Cook's Black Company series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_of_Steel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Company

The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey has a Hindu villain, whose
minions are Thuggee, almost without exception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Lackey
Author William T. Vollmann draws upon Sleeman in his story The Yellow
Sugar, which is one of two tales in his collection The Rainbow Stories
dealing with the colour yellow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Vollmann
In the pre-Holmes short story "The Mystery of Uncle Jeremy's
Household" (1887), Arthur Conan Doyle centres the narrative on a
beautiful female Thuggee in England who has "occasional fits of
fanaticism" and "horrible conceptions of religion".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle
Italian writer Emilio Salgari (1862–1911) wrote about thugs in I
Misteri della Jungla Nera (1895) and Le Due Tigri (1904) and other
short stories.
George Macdonald Fraser's novel Flashman in the Great Game (1975)
makes references to the "cult" of Thuggee, while the phrase: "pass the
tobacco" is used as a verbal signal for the killing to begin.
The DC Comics character Ravan is a Thuggee assassin who kills to delay
the return of Kali. He is the enemy of Kobra who seeks to bring about
her return.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravan_(comics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobra_(comics)

In the novel The Thirteenth Manifestation: the Song of Kali Ma (2006)
by Josephine Dunne, thuggees appear as assassins who operate from an
ancient subterranean Kali temple under the mountains between the
Pakistan and Indian line of control in Kashmir.

In film

The two most popular depictions of the cult in film are the 1939 film,
Gunga Din, and the 1984 film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The Indiana Jones movie is notable for Amrish Puri's villain, who is
shown chanting lines such as "maaro maaro sooar ko, chamdi nocho pee
lo khoon" - literally "Kill, Kill the pig, flay his skin, drink his
blood". Temple of Doom was temporarily banned in India for an
allegedly racist portrayal of Indians. Both films have the heroes
fighting secret revivals of the cult to prevent them from resuming
their reigns of terror, although Temple of Doom included features that
were never part of the Thuggee, such as cardiectomy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Temple_of_Doom
In the 1956 film Around the World in Eighty Days, starring David
Niven, Passepartout rescues a princess captured by the Thuggee and
sentenced to burn to death in the funeral pyre with her deceased
husband. (In the original Jules Verne novel, Thuggee are mentioned
only briefly, and not directly in connection with this princess.)[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_Eighty_Days_(1956_film)
In 1960 British horror studio Hammer Film Productions released The
Stranglers of Bombay. In the film, Guy Rolfe portrays an heroic
British officer battling institutional mismanagement by the British
East India Company, as well as Thuggee infiltration of Indian society,
in an attempt to bring the cultists to justice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company
The 1968 Bollywood film Sangharsh, based on a story by Jnanpith Award
winner, Mahasweta Devi, presented a fictionalised account of vendetta
within a Thuggee cult in the holy Indian town of Varanasi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunghursh_(1968_film)
The 1988 film version of The Deceivers, produced by Ismail Merchant
and starring Pierce Brosnan, is a fictionalised account of the initial
discovery and infiltration of the Thuggee sect by an imperial British
administrator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deceivers
The 1954 film I Misteri della Giungla Nera directed by Gian Paolo
Callegari and starring Lex Barker, where a group of religious fanatics
in India, the Thugs, prey upon European and natives alike by capturing
and offering them up in sacrifice to their frightful goddess, Kali
(from imdb.) Adapted from Emilio Salgari's book by the same name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari
The 1965 film Help! directed by Richard Lester and featuring The
Beatles parodies the thuggee as the cult that tries to steal Ringo's
sacrificial ring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help!_(film)

In television

In an episode of Highlander: The Series, "The Wrath of Kali", Duncan
MacLeod deals with immortal Kamir (played by Indian actor Kabir Bedi),
last of the Thuggee.
The fifth episode of the short-lived Clerks: The Animated Series
featured a plot twist where the Little League World Champions were
kidnapped by the Thuggee, where they were forced to chip rock away
from walls (much like the Thuggee in Temple of Doom).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_League
In the episode "The Yellow Scarf Affair" of the series The Man from
U.N.C.L.E., Agent Napoleon Solo uncovers a revival of the Thuggee cult
while investigating a plane crash in India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_U.N.C.L.E.
On It Ain't Half Hot Mum series 2, episode 8, "The Night of the
Thugs", the concert party take refuge from a rainstorm in a ruined
Thuggee temple. NB - Rare unscripted "giggle" from Captain Ashwood
when Colonel Reynolds discuss stealing the ruby from the statue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodes_of_Highlander_(season_4)#The_Wrath_of_Kali

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Ain%27t_Half_Hot_Mum
See also

Highwayman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highwayman

Notes and references

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/T/THU/thugs.html
^ Thugs 1902 Encyclopædia Britannica'.Pali-sthag.
^ a b c d Dash, Mike Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult
ISBN 1-86207-604-9, 2005
^ Dash, pp. 284-286 in the Dutch translation of the book
^ Dash, pp. 247 in the Dutch translation of the book
^ Dash, page 329 of the UK edition - notes to Chapter 16
^ James Paton, 'Collections on Thuggee and Dacoitee', British Library
Add. Mss. 41300
^ "Thugs Traditional View" (shtml). BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/thugs.shtml.
Retrieved 2007-09-17.
^ Sinister sects: Thug, Mike Dash's investigation into the gangs who
preyed on travellers in 19th-century India by Kevin Rushby, The
Guardian, Saturday, June 11, 2005.
^ Dutta, Krishna (2005) The sacred slaughterers. Book review of Thug:
the true story of India's murderous cult by Mike Dash. In the
Independent (Published: 8 July 2005)text
^ Verne, Jules (August 18, 2005). Around The World in Eighty Days.
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=34998. See
page 38, where the Thuggee chief is mentioned, and page 46, where the
bride is referred to as a suttee.

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica,
Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition
Dash, Mike Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult ISBN
1-86207-604-9, 2005
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Dash
Dutta, Krishna (2005) The sacred slaughterers. Book review of Thug:
the true story of India's murderous cult by Mike Dash. In The
Independent (Published: 8 July 2005) text
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/thug-the-true-story-of-indias-murderous-cult-by-mike-dash-497902.html
Paton, James 'Collections on Thuggee and Dacoitee', British Library
Add. Mss. 41300
Woerkens, Martine van The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and
the Thugs of India (2002),

External links

Acting in the "Theatre of Anarchy": 'The Anti-Thug Campaign' and
Elaborations of Colonial Rule in Early-Nineteenth Century India by Tom
Lloyd (2006) in PDF file format
http://www.csas.ed.ac.uk/fichiers/LLOYD.pdf
Parama Roy: Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee. In: idem, Indian
Traffic. Identities in Question in Colonial and Postcolonial India.
University of California Press 1998. (in html format)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee"

Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee
Acknowledgments

This book owes a great deal to the critical perspicacity and
generosity of friends, colleagues, mentors, and institutions, whom I
am grateful to be able to name and thank. These pages would have been
impossible to bring to fruition without the encouragement and
intellectual support of Sandhya Shetty and Carole-Anne Tyler, who
consistently asked the difficult questions and who taught me through
the inspiration of their own scholarship. I am also grateful to
Lalitha Gopalan, who so often told me what I was thinking before I
knew it myself. I am grateful too to the many other friends and
colleagues who read the manuscript, either in full or in part, or who
responded to my work at conferences: Katherine Kinney, Joe Childers,
R. Radhakrishnan, Inderpal Grewal, Vincent Cheng, Daniel Boyarin, Kim
Devlin, Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks, Bette London, Ron Inden, Robert
Goldman, Aditya Behl, Gayatri Spivak, Jennifer Brody, George Haggerty,
Lawrence Cohen, Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, and Susan Foster. I am
indebted to the readers for the University of California Press,
especially Caren Kaplan and Sangeeta Ray, for their meticulous,
constructive, and sympathetic evaluation of the project. My editor,
Doris Kretschmer, has been unfailingly helpful and patient. I am also
grateful to Dore Brown and Diane Jagusiak of the University of
California Press, and to Sarah Myers, for their scrupulous editing. I
am indebted above all to my parents, Amalendu and Ramola Roy, as well
as to Bharat Trehan for (among other things) his recall of a youth
productively spent watching Bombay films.
This project has been funded by a University of California President’s
Research Fellowship in the Humanities in 1991–1992, a fellowship in
the University of California, Riverside’s Center for Ideas and Society
in the spring of 1994, and by two pretenure faculty-development awards
from the University of California, Riverside. I am grateful for this
support.

2. Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee

I am a Thug, my father and grandfather were Thugs, and I have thugged
with many. Let the government employ me and I will do its work.
He had met hundreds of other Deceivers, and the notes were a complete
tale of all he had seen and heard and done; of all the Deceivers who
had engaged in any action, with their descriptions, habits, and homes;
of each murder, and how it had gone, and how it might have been
prevented—or improved upon. The words could be read for either
purpose, according to the spirit of the reader.

At the time that Burton was impersonating Mirza Abdullah in the
bazaars of Sind, another important narrative of disguise,
surveillance, and racial crossing was being written in the
subcontinent, this one under the auspices of the Thuggee and Dacoity
Department of the East India Company’s government. This was the
narrative of the exposure and extirpation of a form of hereditary
criminality called thuggee; it was to form a significant constitutive
component of the authoritarian and interventionary reform of the 1830s
and 1840s and to contribute to the still-emerging project of
“discovering India.” “It was with the flourish of mystery unveiled and
mastered,” writes a contemporary historian, “that a group of officers
of the Political Department had lobbied for special operations against
[a] ‘murderous fraternity’ and for special laws to deal with it.” [1]
It is that tale of thuggee that this chapter will take up, at least in
part as a counterpoint to the Burtonian record of the Englishman as
native. It examines the phenomenon designated thuggee by colonial
authority in nineteenth-century India, a phenomenon whose emergence,
codification, and overthrow was to become perhaps the founding moment
for the study of indigenous criminality, as a problem of
impersonation, visibility, and the transactions of reading. I use the
example of thuggee to explore one of the various and often mutually
discontinuous kinds of identities that were created, fixed, or
rendered ambivalent for Indian colonial subjects. In approaching the
problematic of thuggee in the colonial context through the optic of
identity formation and subjection, I broach a nexus of concerns that
cohere around the epistemes of representation and knowledge: the
problematic of the formation of colonial knowledge, the contested,
changing, and uneven definitions of law, order, criminality, and
reform in early-nineteenth-century India, the theorization of colonial
identities (Indian and British), and the discursive problems
associated with generating the moral subject of the civilizing mission
of British colonialism.

This chapter has three sections, with significant amounts of overlap.
The first examines the official records of the Thuggee and Dacoity
Department (first established in the 1830s), a cluster of documents
that I have perhaps rather arbitrarily designated the thuggee archive.
This includes first and foremost the files on thuggee and dacoity in
the India Office Library and the National Archives of India. Also
incorporated in this thuggee archive are the works (Ramaseeana, or a
Vocabulary of the Peculiar Language Used by the Thugs [1836]; Report
on Budhuk Alias Bagree Dacoits and Other Gang Robbers by Hereditary
Profession [1849]; Report on the Depredations Committed by the Thug
Gangs [1840]) of William Henry Sleeman of thuggee fame, as well as of
other officials associated directly or indirectly with the antithug
campaign: James Sleeman, Thug, or A Million Murders (1920); Charles
Hervey, Some Records of Crime (1892); Edward Thornton, Illustrations
of the History and Practices of the Thugs (1837); and the anonymously
authored The Thugs or Phansigars of India (1839), an abridged version
of the Ramaseeana for an American audience. This inventory of thuggee
materials also includes a number of biographies, fictionalizations,
and nonofficial accounts of the “discovery” of the phenomenon and its
eradication: James Hutton, A Popular Account of the Thugs and Dacoits,
the Hereditary Garroters and Gang-Robbers of India (1857); A. J.
Wightman, No Friend for Travellers (1959); George Bruce, The
Stranglers: The Cult of Thuggee and Its Overthrow in British India
(1968); Francis Tuker, The Yellow Scarf (1961); and Philip Meadows
Taylor, Confessions of a Thug (1839). These are collectively
designated the archive in this chapter, despite the incommensurability
in their generic status; this has been done because there appears to
be very little significant difference between one text and another in
this collection. Each seems to repeat the others in an uncanny
fashion; each narrates the same incidents in almost exactly the same
rhetorical mode; and each looks to W. H. Sleeman’s productions as the
founding texts of the thuggee narrative. (Meadows Taylor’s novel
differs from these only in its focus on a single thug and its
accumulation of additional [fictional] detail.)

The second section focuses on the special juridical procedures that
had to be instituted in order to deal with some of the most
intractable problems associated with a bizarre and enigmatic variety
of criminality. The final section provides a reading of the 1952 work
on the thugs by John Masters, The Deceivers, a novel that was
popularized in the 1980s in a film of that name by Merchant Ivory.
What sets this novel apart from the rest of the archive is the turn it
gives to the always already familiar narrative of thuggee through its
focus on the tensions of the investigating subject and its interest in
the English impersonation of Indianness and Englishness. It allows us
a way of (re)visiting and (re)inflecting the thuggee archive through
its stress on the colonizing male’s desires and identifications, and
thus forms an apposite corollary to the accent on Indian impersonation
that informs the discourse of criminal law.

At this point I should add a note about the limits of the enterprise
undertaken in this chapter. In the first place, I do not wish to
furnish another account of thuggee or to enter the traffic in
competing narratives of what might have constituted a material thug
organization or practice. Nor am I interested in reinscribing the
practices of the thugs in the register of subaltern insurgency,
though, given that subalternity is most properly construed as a
relational rather than an essential category,[2] I am not unwilling to
grant the thugs’ subaltern status. I am certainly sympathetic to
Ranajit Guha’s model of reading subaltern insurgency (as a “turning
things upside down”) through the texts of counterinsurgency.[3] But,
given the exclusions listed earlier in this paragraph, for me to read
thuggee as resistive, anticolonial, protonationalist, or even
antistate may be philosophically not discontinuous with the reading
practices that produced the thug as a demonized and completely
irrational entity. My object here is not to recuperate a subaltern
consciousness, even one that is acknowledged to be ineluctably
discursive, “a theoretical fiction to entitle the project of
reading,” [4] though I concede that the question of “subaltern
consciousness” cannot be completely bypassed.

I shall confine myself instead to examining the performative
subjectivity of the thug, as it is constructed in the discourse of
thuggee, as a way of teasing out, extending, and transforming some of
the implications of representation, mimicry, and visibility in the
colonial context. What I will engage are the models of reading that
are provided by the thuggee archives—how they are formed,
consolidated, or (partially) interrupted. And what I do argue is that
the reading of the uncovering of thuggee as an enabling moment for the
colonial state in its quest for the consolidation of judicial power
needs to be, if not displaced, at least complicated, by the
acknowledgment that thuggee forms an especially intransigent moment
within the colonial construction of criminality; it is a moment that
confounds and unsettles the received wisdom about identity formation,
truth production, and meliorative possibilities in early-nineteenth-
century India. What I also argue is that the discourse on and around
thuggee can be instrumental in opening up our present understanding of
the theorization of colonial identity, especially as it engages
questions of familiarity, visibility, and reproducibility. The text of
thuggee provides, for instance, a point of entry into a wider range of
mimic desires, identifications, and positions than someone like Bhabha
explicitly engages[5]—for instance, the colonizer’s fascination with
going native, the English miming of Englishness, or the indigenous
miming of indigenous subject positions—as well as foregrounding
questions of class, gender, and sexuality.

• • •

The Thug

The first thugs were not arrested by the British until 1799, after the
defeat at Seringapatam of Tipu Sultan, one of the most potent threats
to the expansionist ambitions of the East India Company; it was not
evident to the British at the time, though, that the stranglers were
thugs or hereditary killers. The first mention of the law-and-order
problem posed by thugs occurs in 1810, in the commander-in-chief’s
instructions to sepoys proceeding on leave about the dangers of
traveling at night and carrying large sums of cash instead of bills of
exchange;[6] but thuggee as a significant social arrangement or
discursive formation does not feature in this caution to the sepoys.
Thornton reproduces some correspondence between British magistrates
and police officials of the Western Provinces in the years 1814–1816
on the subject of thugs; at this point knowledge about them appears
very fragmentary, with no reference to shared religious rituals or
language or an idiosyncratic form of murder. It appears that the
notion of thuggee as a system rather than a disarticulated set of
violent acts was first broached in 1816 by Dr. Richard Sherwood, who
wrote an essay detailing its genealogy, organization, and argot for
the Madras Literary Gazette.[7] It proved, however, enormously
difficult to compel belief in the existence of such a fraternity (this
was to remain a problem in the decades to come), even among British
political officers, magistrates, and law-enforcement officials.
Meadows Taylor describes the capture of large numbers of thugs in
Bundelkhand and Malwa in the 1820s, an event that failed to “[excite]
more than a passing share of public attention.” [8] It was not until
Captain W. H. Sleeman undertook the exercise of decoding and exposing
thuggee in 1830, after the unexpected confession of the captured
bandit Feringheea, that a grand narrative of thuggee began to emerge.

Despite this relatively recent discovery, however, thuggee as praxis
and as identity was always represented as being of almost
inconceivable antiquity, conceived in the precolonial past and
sanctioned by long duration and popular Hindu mythology, if not
textual doctrine. A. J. Wightman, echoing his nineteenth-century
predecessors, asserts that though evidence of the existence of thuggee
is first found in records of the late thirteenth century, “it is
obvious that they must have been well-established at a much earlier
date.” [9] Some writers, like Sherwood, traced its origins to the
Arab, Afghan, and Mughal conquests of India of several centuries
earlier; James Sleeman and others traced the thugs back to the times
of Herodotus. The thug Feringheea is said to have claimed that the
sculptures at Ellora, which included representations of all the
professions on earth, featured a depiction of a thug plying his deadly
trade.[10] All the reports without exception demonstrate a tenacious
need to generate a creation myth, to locate not just a point of
discovery but a point of origin, and to establish a precolonial
genealogy. But at the beginning, as Geoff Bennington has said about
national histories, is also the myth of a beginning; and the origins
of thuggee keep receding into a more and more distant historical/
mythological point of inauguration.[11] In fact, several of the
accounts end up locating its beginning in a Hindu myth of creation.

The thugs, as they are represented in nineteenth- and twentieth-
century colonial representations, were a cult of professional
stranglers who preyed on travelers—though never on Englishmen—as an
act of worship to the popular Hindu goddess Kali. They were
represented as hereditary killers drawn from all regions, religions,
classes, and castes, united by their devotion to Kali and the act of
strangulation, which was, in this reading, quite literally sacralized.
The thugs were bound to their calling—and to each other—by shared
signifying systems: a language, a belief in the divine origin of the
practice, and a dizzying array of minutely observed rituals,
prohibitions, and superstitions. The thuggee system functioned as a
quasi-religious fraternity that, paradoxically, would accommodate just
about every Indian. It was defined as a compelling and
characteristically Indian form of social (ir)rationality, and the
practice was represented as resting upon an interlocking network of
constitutive contradictions.

Though the thugs robbed their victims and the confessions usually
demonstrate a very lucid recall of the division of the plunder,
thuggee was not conceived as having any economic base, particularly
because those involved in it appeared to have fixed abodes, peaceful
occupations, and a respectable place in the social and caste
hierarchies during those times when they were not engaged in killing
and plunder. While Sherwood does speculate, albeit briefly and
unevenly, on the proximate material causes of thuggee, the question
becomes progressively leached out of subsequent, and more hegemonic,
exegeses of thuggee. All the writers on the subject are insistent, to
greater or lesser degrees, that the thugs must not be regarded as
exigent, dispossessed, or rebellious subjects; they are unlike the
bandits of folk myth in being devious, unmartial (“cowardly” is the
adjective most often used), and almost obscenely respectable.[12] They
are characterized instead as hereditary killers whose “joyous
occupation” was, paradoxically, not only a matter of caste duty and
therefore ontological necessity but also a prime instance of
unalienated labor. By the time we come to James Sleeman’s hagiographic
account of his grandfather’s exploits, the act of strangulation has
not only been uncoupled from the usual motives for murder but has
acquired a quasi-libidinal charge: “The taking of human life for the
sheer lust of killing was the Thugs’ main object: the plunder, however
pleasant, being a secondary consideration.…Here was no body of amateur
assassins, driven to crime by force of circumstance, but men of
seeming respectability and high intelligence, often occupying
positions of importance and responsibility in their normal lives,
secretly trained from boyhood to the highest degree of skill in
strangulation.” [13] Sleeman is not alone in this reading of the
combined erotic and religious investment in murder. Taylor, in
Confessions of a Thug, hints at the homoerotic subtext of a thug’s
murder of a handsome lad; and George MacMunn explicitly couples the
left-hand Tantrism (including exorbitant and unauthorized sexual acts)
of Kali worshipers with behaviors like thuggee and nationalist
violence:

The murder trials that have followed on the sedition and secret murder
cult in Bengal, and indeed throughout India, show in their records how
the Hindu student depraved and often injured by too early eroticism,
turns to the suggestiveness of the murder-monger, and worships the
nitro-glycerine bomb as the apotheosis of his goddess [Kali].…The
student and the assistant editor of the rag, that but exists to
inflame students and pays its way by advertising the potent
aphrodisiacs among them, are the nidus of the bomb-cult.[14]

Katherine Mayo also locates the worship of Kali, premature and
excessive sexual activity, and acts of anticolonial terrorism within a
single perceptual grid.[15] This confluence of violence, illegitimacy,
and homoerotic desire is to resurface in The Deceivers.

Some twentieth-century scholars of colonial history have sought to
posit alternative, materialist histories of the phenomenon called
thuggee. Hiralal Gupta traces the development of thuggee or banditry
in the early nineteenth century to the success of the East India
Company’s expansionist policy, speculating that a significant number
of people captured as thugs by the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in
the 1830s and 1840s were erstwhile soldiers or officials in the employ
of rulers whose states had recently come under British control. These
people were among those who had lost their employment or fallen from
favor as a result of the annexation or reconfiguration of the Indian
princely states.[16] Sandria Freitag on the other hand points to the
displacement of peripatetic groups as a result of the ousting of local
settled rulers who had traditionally provided some protection to such
groups and to the establishment of the land-revenue-based state as a
possible explanation for the instances of collective acts of violence.
She also glosses the violence of dacoits—as of similar groups—as bids
for power and upward social mobility that would have been acknowledged
as such and accommodated by precolonial Indian state formations.[17]
Stewart Gordon argues that the large number of marauding groups that
were jockeying for political power in Malwa (where most of the thugs
seemed to be based) in the late eighteenth century posed a threat to
the stable sources of revenue in the region and necessitated the
creation of external sources of revenue. Those designated thugs were
“locally recruited, locally based” marauders hired to plunder outside
the neighborhood, as it were, in order to make up for revenue that
might have been lost to larger marauding groups.[18]

As I have already mentioned, Englishmen were never targeted by the
thugs; a few of the written accounts attribute the unsolved murder of
a Lieutenant Maunsell (or Monsell) in 1812 to thugs (as does the film
version of The Deceivers [1987], which opens with that killing), but
most of the thuggee texts point to the fact that the British had no
personal investment in the problem. Almost unfailingly these accounts
point to the antithug campaigns as exemplary instances of the active
benevolence of British rule, so often unjustly maligned or compared
unfavorably with indigenous rule. James Sleeman, who is particularly
apoplectic on this issue, argues that twentieth-century Indian demands
for independence were in effect a call for a return to the days of
thuggee: “Had this small handful of British officials, scattered like
poppies in a corn-field, shown the slightest timidity in grappling
with this gigantic task, they would surely have fallen victims to the
Thugs at the outset, in which case millions of Indians alive to-day
would never have been born, including possibly those who now agitate
for a restoration of the conditions under which Thuggee thrived and
battened.” [19]

Colonial accounts thus represent thuggee as outside a realm of
political and economic rationality (since it is religiously
sanctioned, grounded in caste, and linked to exorbitant pleasures).
Nonetheless, as the obsessive invocations of the Mutiny of 1857 and of
the Bengal revolutionaries of the twentieth century indicate, thuggee
was simultaneously addressed (even if not overtly acknowledged) as a
peculiarly potent threat to the authority and benevolence of the
empire in India. “To the colonial regime,” writes David Arnold, “crime
and politics were almost inseparable: serious crime was an implicit
defiance of state authority and a possible prelude to rebellion;
political resistance was either a ‘crime’ or the likely occasion for
it.” [20] Freitag points to the departures of British police action
from those of their Mughal predecessors; while the Mughals delegated
responsibility for containing collective crime to local functionaries,
the British felt such corporate criminal behaviors were nothing other
than a defiance of the state itself.[21] She points to the fundamental
distinctions, in terms of both the allocation of resources and the
formulation of legal procedures, that the Raj made between crimes
committed by individuals (“ordinary crime”) and those committed by
collectivities (“extraordinary crime”):

Elaboration of legal codes and police establishments to deal with
individual crime conveyed the impression that “the rule of law” had
been introduced into British India; yet the annual compilation of
crime and police statistics makes clear the minimal state resources
committed to policing individual crime. Unless such crime grew
alarmingly in a short period, or its policing fell significantly short
of what came to be seen as the norms of efficiency (for an inefficient
force), the state did not reckon individual crime to be of great
importance. By contrast, however, the British perceived collectively
criminal actions to be either directed against, or weakening, the
authority of the state. As a consequence, the British repeatedly felt
the need to launch centralized police forces against “extraordinary”
crime and viewed their inefficacy as a measure of the Raj’s impotence.
[22]

The thuggee records (including the confessions of thug approvers)
endeavor to provide—through the dominant tropes of ritualized,
religiously ratified, and libidinally charged slaughter—a tightly
knit, seamless, and self-validating account of an exceptional Indian
criminal practice. Yet, even as the record invokes the unvarying
trademarks of thug practice, it inescapably registers the
provisionality of its own categorization. The thug’s signature—murder
by strangulation, using a (silk) handkerchief—does not appear in every
act labeled thuggee; swords and poison feature as agents of
destruction quite as much as the talismanic rumal (handkerchief). Such
wide variations along a continuum of criminal activity were to lead,
after the 1830s, to an expansion of the provenance of thuggee: the
term came to include all kinds of organized and corporate criminal
activity (including poisoning and the kidnapping of children) that was
understood to be hereditary and/or itinerant. The confessions also
seem to demonstrate that at least some thugs were initiated into
professional practice not in adolescence or early manhood by older
male family members but later in life, most typically in response to a
situation of financial exigency.

Not only was it difficult to isolate certain crimes as the acts of
thugs, it was never easy either to establish the exceptional and
profoundly aberrant character of thuggee. The common complaint in all
the thuggee accounts without exception is that the activity of the
thugs seemed to mesh with exasperating ease into existing indigenous
networks of wealth and power, since they were supported by zamindars
(landowners), Indian princes, law-enforcement officials, merchants,
and even ordinary people. As Freitag suggests, “among organized
criminals the thags may have been the group most thoroughly embedded
in local society.” [23] The worship of Kali (also called Devi, or
Bhawani) could not easily be coded as an eccentric religious practice
either. Though some narratives do interpret the thugs’ invocation of
the goddess on the scaffold as proof positive of guilt (“Their
invocation of Bhawani at the drop was a confession of their guilt, for
no one in such a situation invokes Bhawani but a Thug, and he invokes
no other deity in any situation, whatever may be his religion or sect”)
[24], they also point to the widespread adoration of Kali across
regions and religions, among those identified as law-abiding as well
as those constituted as criminal.[25] Finally, while Thug beliefs and
rituals, especially those enacted at the start of an expedition, were
elaborately detailed, it was also asserted that in India expeditions
in quest of plunder were qualitatively no different from expeditions
undertaken for territorial aggrandizement; rulers and robbers alike
took the auspices after the Dasehra festival, before setting out on
their badshashi kam (kingly work).

Hence at least two contesting readings emerge: one defines the thugs
as a community apart, existing in enmity against law-abiding,
scrutable, and locally anchored subjects; the other identifies them as
natural to indigenous society, aided and abetted by all, and mirroring
and reproducing that society’s values. The uneasy fit between the
contextualizing move and the essentializing one was productive of an
aporia, which could only be resolved by invoking that most powerful of
all Indological epistemes—that of caste.[26] All the contradictions
and the seemingly endless heterogeneity of the subject category of the
thug are subsumed within that category, which is reified as coherent
and inflexible and emptied of any possibility of subjective freedom.
Once thuggee as social alliance was taxonomized as homologous to, if
not identical with (and the slippage from homology to identity occurs
without any apparent discursive strain), a caste, the thug could
simultaneously inhabit what had earlier been discrepant subject
positions: he could simultaneously be an exceptional criminal and a
representative Hindu, or Indian, since in the colonial imaginary the
territory of Hinduism is often coextensive with that of India.[27]
Even this reconciliation was not without its tensions, of course,
since thuggee as a philosophical system and a social formation seemed
to work strongly against the grain of the received colonial view of
India as irrevocably fractured along the fault lines of caste and
religion.

Nor was the caste explanation completely adequate to the great and, as
it seemed, illogical hybridity of thuggee. As a socioreligious
formation thuggee seemed to colonial investigators to be aligned with
popular, indeed demotic, forms of Hinduism in its reverence for Kali,
except that it attracted a large number of Muslim adherents, who
seemed to pay homage quite unproblematically both to the goddess and
to the strictures of the Koran. Here it is important to point to the
varied, contingent, and often irreconcilable constructions of Hindu
tradition in colonial discourse; the representation of Hinduism in the
discourse of thuggee is, for instance, quite discontinuous with that
which is operative in the discourse on sati, which was formulated in a
roughly contemporaneous moment. In the case of sati, as Lata Mani has
argued, colonial officials made energetic and systematic attempts to
establish Hinduism as a religion of the book; and Brahmanical readings
and textual authorities were privileged over custom and local
religious and social practice.[28] But in the instance of thuggee,
Hinduism is defined entirely as and by custom. Moreover, at the
popular or subaltern level, Hindu and Muslim forms of worship and
systems of belief may well have been less distinct than they were to
become (especially for more elevated castes and classes) later in the
century. The whole question in fact of Hindu doctrine and praxis and
its relation to thug identity is notoriously murky and ill defined.

Further complicating this discursive construction of thuggee was the
fact that professional thugs cultivated the appearance of the most
civic-minded of citizens and were conscientious about the discharge of
familial, social, and religious obligations. The very characteristics
that made them successful con men—their polish, their social and
rhetorical skills, their extraordinary capacity for duplicating
identities—also ensured their immense respectability in civil society.
But what rendered thuggee particularly elusive and frustrating to
British observers was its relative invisibility, its skill at
camouflage, and the difficulty of establishing it as a pervasive yet
eccentric form of lawlessness. Thug murders were typically performed
without shedding blood and without using identifiable offensive
weapons of any kind: they were performed far from the victims’ homes,
and the bodies were carefully buried. Because of the care exercised in
the killing and the disposal of the corpses (victims were buried with
great dispatch, and their graves were filled with rocks to keep out
any marauding animals) and the hazards attendant upon travel in
nineteenth-century India, these murders generally failed to register
as murders. Local landowners, rulers, and policemen connived at these
murders for their own benefit, or because they were prompted, it was
argued, by the heavy demands of superstition; and the peasantry, we
are told, simply ignored the bodies that occasionally appeared in
fields and wells. This raised the question of how far the circuit of
criminality actually extended: if local officials and the police
tolerated and even encouraged thuggee and ordinary folk made no
complaint about it, who could be said to remain unimplicated in it?
Under the circumstances, everything and everyone was liable to
suspicion, since the system of thuggee was both remarkably inclusive
and remarkably discreet in its operations. Hence British thuggee
inspectors were in the discomfiting position of focusing on crimes
that no one else acknowledged, certainly not (from the evidence of
these writers) most Indian princes or zamindars or even common folk
and generally not even the majority of the British magistracy or the
civil service. British scholars of thuggee were thus involved in a
detective project hobbled by an almost-fatal lack of empirical detail.
All natives were potentially thugs, since the system of thuggee was
remarkably inclusive; and the most seemingly innocent objects, like
handkerchiefs or gur (unrefined sugar, ritually consumed at the
commencement of an expedition), could participate in a diabolical
signifying system. And while British ignorance of thuggee (at least
until the 1830s) might contrast favorably with Indian knowledge—and
therefore complicity—it was susceptible of more objectionable
interpretations; in Masters’s novel, there is the danger that British
“ignorance” of thuggee can be read by the natives in a particularly
unflattering light: “In the nine years of the English Company’s rule
nothing had been done against the Deceivers. But William realized now
that most Indians knew at least of the existence of the Deceivers;
and, knowing, they could not believe the English did not also know;
therefore the English officials too were sharing in the spoils; so
what was the use of informing?” [29] (In the film version, the Indians
have good reason to be suspicious: George Angelsmith, the exemplary
servant of the East India Company, has full knowledge of the
activities of the thugs and profits from it.) Here it is not simply
the natives who are the object of investigation, codification, and
supervision; an alternative modality of interpretation is imaginable,
in which colonial authority is itself open to variant readings,
including those it has not authorized.

All these factors made the retrieval of information and the policing
of thuggee particularly vexing. And creating an archive and
standardizing reader response was not easy either. Though each thuggee
expedition and each act of thuggee was performed by the book, attended
by minutely detailed rituals and scrupulously observed omens, and was
immediately identifiable as such to those who could read the signs, it
was not immediately visible as such to those who could not or did not
see thuggee as a semiosis. Even in the 1860s, when knowledge about
thuggee had been codified, circulated, and reproduced and was
underwritten by wide-ranging institutional and legal support, Charles
Hervey complained that his subordinates were yet imperfect readers of
the complex and mysterious text of thuggee,

some correctly recognizing Thuggee in instances which were palpably
the deed of experts, although death should not have taken place;
others only doing so where death had resulted; some classing certain
murders as cases of “Thuggee” without reference to the means resorted
to in the perpetration thereof; others who wholly pass by cases of
poisoning whether followed by death or not, although they bore
evidence of being the acts of class criminals; some who restrict their
notice to selected cases only of its occurrence, passing by other
similar instances; some who endeavour to distinguish between different
degrees of poisoning, some calling “murder by poison” Thugee [sic],
others not doing so[;]…others who lump all such kindred offences under
round numbers without any narration of the attendant circumstances,
contented only with quoting against them the sections of the Penal
Code under which they were triable or were tried.[30]

With all the discrepant valences of this discourse, one factor
remained crucial in the determination of thuggee: the idea of
hereditary criminality. This was not a particularly novel reading of
corporate criminal activity in colonial India; as far back as 1772,
the dacoits of Bengal were strenuously and repeatedly characterized
not as individual or collective subjects responding to socioeconomic
transformations engendered by the sudden ascendancy of the East India
Company or indeed to any other material circumstance, or even to
chance, but as fulfilling a hereditary calling, if not a genetic
predisposition.[31] And, as Sanjay Nigam has convincingly
demonstrated, the colonial reification of caste as coherent and
inflexible, combined with the received notion of hereditary
criminality (most fully exemplified in the instance of thuggee), was
to have a long and ominous history in colonial and postcolonial India;
the Criminal Tribes and Castes Act of 1872 was to designate (without
any possibility of appeal) a number of vagrant and impoverished
“communities” as “criminal by birth” and thus subject to surveillance,
control, and attempted rehabilitation.[32] I am struck here by the
considerable (though not complete) overlap of this discourse with
Michel Foucault’s description of the emergence of the homosexual as a
distinct ontological category in the nineteenth century:

The nineteenth-century homosexual became a personage, a past, a case
history, and a childhood, in addition to being a type of life, a life
form, and a morphology, with an indiscreet anatomy and a mysterious
physiology. Nothing that went into his total composition was
unaffected by his sexuality. It was everywhere present in him: at the
root of all his actions because it was their insidious and
indefinitely active principle; written immodestly on his face and body
because it was a secret that always gave itself away. It was
cosubstantial with him, less as a habitual sin than as a singular
nature.…The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual
was now a species.[33]

Because thuggee was such a slippery issue, a kind of legal,
disciplinary, and discursive apparatus was brought to bear on it that
did not occur in the case for instance of sati, another retrograde and
horrific practice apparently authorized by Hinduism. This is not of
course to assert that sati as a discursive formation was unproblematic
for colonial administrators and reformers; Lata Mani has pointed that
the abolition of sati in colonial India was preceded by its
legalization and has drawn attention to the valorization of the
“voluntary” sati in colonial and nationalist discourses. But thuggee
was not so much spectacular—as sati was (at least until 1829)—as
invisible. As a result it was much more difficult to discursively
track its trajectory and to determine the success of the pacification.
Sati was abolished in 1829, and there are no official records after
that date of the practice; it was presumed that it had simply been
legislated out of existence. But in the instance of thuggee, such
faith in the efficacy of legislative sanction is much more uncertain.

In the juridical domain, thuggee was defined as an “exceptional case”
in the name of a colonial contingency, since thuggee by definition was
exorbitant to standard law-and-order discourse and marked at all
points by immoderation.[34] This enabled the establishment of a
discursive and juridical system that was entirely self-referential and
self-validating, in which it was sufficient to be identified as a thug
or “hereditary criminal” through an approver’s testimony, without
actually being convicted of a specific crime, to be liable to arrest,
trial, and, almost inevitably, conviction. I will return to this
shortly.

Knowledge of thuggee as an essence then had to be constructed,
crucially, around an absence; and all the confessions, all the subject
effects produced by the testimony of approvers, were a strenuous
effort to recover a “consciousness,” a consciousness that would
provide the foundation for the revelations that ratified the antithug
campaign. But if thuggee was as far-reaching and as subtle as W. H.
Sleeman and his associates insisted, and if thug ontology and practice
was determined by birth, how could an Englishman ever hope to know the
whole truth and nothing but the truth? How could one verify the
confessions of the approvers and establish checks over their control
of the official record? Thornton registers exasperation at the
contaminated nature of the confessions: “Few things are more difficult
to a native of India than to tell the truth, under any circumstances;
and the confessions of criminals, in all countries, may be expected to
contain a mixture of truth and falsehood. The deposition of Moklal is
not consistent with the rest; nor even with another statement made by
himself, made in conversation with Captain Sleeman.” [35] He also
cites (as do other accounts of thuggee) the instance of an approver
who functioned as a double agent, beguiling his English employer into
believing him committed to the capture of thugs while providing
information and English passes [documents authorizing unimpeded travel
within, and between, designated territories] to his criminal comrades.
[36]

While James Sleeman claims that W. H. Sleeman and his colleagues, in
the 1830s, “resolved that this trade of Thuggee should no longer be
any more a mystery than tailoring or carpentering, began to initiate
themselves into all the secrets of the craft, and were soon, in their
knowledge of the theory of the profession, little behind the
professors themselves,” [37] the “secrecy” of thuggee never
disappeared as a threat. W. H. Sleeman—speaking of course with the
superior wisdom of his newfound knowledge—records a state preceding
revelation with combined horror and incredulity:

While I was in the Civil charge of the district of Nursingpore…no
ordinary robbery or theft could be committed without my being
acquainted with it; nor was there a robber or a thief of the ordinary
kind in the district, with whose character I had not become acquainted
in the discharge of my duty as magistrate; and if any man had then
told me, that a gang of assassins by profession resided in the village
of Kandelee, not four hundred yards from my court, and that [in the]
extensive groves of the village of Mandesur, only one stage from me…
was one of the largest Beles, or places of murder in all India; and
that large gangs from Hindustan and the Deccan used to rendezvous in
these groves, remain in them for many days altogether every year, and
carry their dreadful trade along all the lines of road that pass by
and branch off them, with the knowledge and connivance of the two
landholders by whose ancestors these groves had been planted, I should
have thought him a fool or a mad man; and yet nothing could have been
more true.[38]

Indeed, the entire discourse of thuggee is troped by figures of
darkness, mystery, inscrutability, unpredictability, and unexpected
menace, even as W. H. Sleeman and his assistants are inserted into a
heroic narrative of battle against evil. “Secrecy is indispensable”
for thug ceremonies, and “[a]n impenetrable veil of darkness is thrown
over their atrocities”;[39] “danger was everywhere, unseen and
unexpected” [40] for the Englishmen involved in the anti-thuggee
enterprise (even though Englishmen were known never to be attacked by
thugs); they were like “men isolated in the midst of a dangerous,
trackless and gloomy jungle, without map or compass”;[41] and “[the]
old Thug Associations, which have been now effectually put down in all
parts of India,…would assuredly rise up again, and flourish under the
assurance of religious sanction,…were the strength of the special
police, employed in the suppression, hastily reduced, or its vigilance
relaxed.” [42] Once again, Foucault on the discourse of sex and
sexuality is apropos: “What is peculiar to modern societies, in fact,
is not that they consigned sex to a shadow existence, but that they
dedicated themselves to speaking of it ad infinitum, while exploiting
it as the secret.” [43]

This very obscurity, this elusiveness that characterizes the thug as
discursive object, could and did function as an enabling moment for
the colonial law-and-order machine. Since it could never be decisively
established—given the terms of the discourse—that thuggee had been
extirpated, the need for endless vigilance was ratified. The moral
viability of the civilizing mission, indeed the very ground of its
possibility, is the never-satisfied, endlessly proliferating need for
reform. In the case of thuggee, colonial officials were confirmed in
their belief that the work of civilizing is never done. Thus many
writers warn repeatedly of the dangers of celebrating the demise of
thuggee prematurely; in 1893, Charles Hervey, successor to Colonel W.
H. Sleeman of thuggee fame, was still chasing after thugs. These
officers point not only to the hypnotic lure of thuggee for its
practitioners but also to the fact that native policemen and landlords
are only too anxious to conceal evidence of thug crimes from credulous
British officials overeager to congratulate themselves on the
cessation of this practice and overoptimistic about the all-
encompassing vigilance of colonial power. Thuggee never really goes
away as a present problem as sati might be said to do; it may almost
be said to function as a trope for all that is uncontrollable in the
law-and-order situation. In fact, the construction of hereditary,
pervasive, and socially or religiously sanctioned criminality
inaugurated in the discourse on thuggee reappears throughout the
nineteenth century in the discourse on dacoits, buddhuks, dhatoora
poisoners (all of whom came to occupy the same criminal category as
the thug), and specifically designated criminal tribes and castes.

How else might we understand this absence or unknowability that tropes
the discourse of thuggee? Certainly this simultaneous fear of and
pleasure in the duplicity and omnipresence of the thug deserves some
consideration, especially in light of the questions it raises about
the status of knowledge, subject positions, and representation in the
colonial state. Bhabha’s model of the emergence of shifty civil
subject of the colonial polity through mimicry can be extended here,
it seems to me, to some of the other possibilities of mimicry in the
colonial theater.[44] The situation of the thug is analogous to but
certainly not identical to that of the not quite/not white native—the
thug after all is not mimicking colonial ontology—though his capacity
for traffic in identities and positions is staggering. The instance of
thuggee intimates, I think, that the colonized subject’s mimicry need
not necessarily have the colonizer as its focus in order to function
as menace; mimicry, even if it is mimicry of indigenous subject
positions, frustrates the colonial desire for homogenized, duplicable,
and knowable native subjects in whom subalternity is sought to be
reproduced through the authorized version of mimicry. If there is one
thing that characterizes the thug of the archives, it is the
multiplicity and unpredictability of his manifestations. As we have
seen, it was what was perceived as this faculty for disguise and
invisibility that had to be criminalized by the laws designed to
convict thugs; theoretically there was no such entity as an honest
thug, and many so-called thugs were convicted who were, according to
the official records, engaged in “honest labour.” There is an ongoing
and strenuous endeavor in the discourse of thuggee to interpellate the
thug as an essence, a move which attests to the anxiety of rupture
that subtends the totalizing epistemologies of colonialism. Yet the
thug as discursive object is strikingly resistant to such fixity; he
is all things to all people. If native identity can be staged, can be
plural, then what are the implications for colonial authority and
colonialism’s project of information retrieval? Thuggee, I would
suggest, introduces a disturbance in the paradigm of information
retrieval that often seems dominant in texts like Kim and A Personal
Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, as well as the
notion of native authenticity and ontological purity that is a
governing trope of colonial discourse. The thug, through his capacity
for disguise and impersonation and his skill at negotiating multiple
and competing identities, usurps the colonizer’s privilege of complex
subjectivity and of movement between subject positions and thus can be
read to assume some control over both the construction and flow of
colonial knowledge. So he never becomes fully naturalized as the
disciplinary subject or, in other words, the knowable subject, of the
colonial polity. And thuggee, later rewritten as dacoity, continues to
function within the law-and-order context in the colonial and
postcolonial state formations as a trope for the unruly and
unreformable energies that cannot easily be accommodated to the needs
of the civilizing mission.[45]

• • •

The Law

The writings and reports of W. H. Sleeman, which form the core texts
around which the tale of thuggee is orchestrated, represent a
concerted and monumental effort to illuminate and classify the
obscurity of thuggee. Sleeman emerges, in both nineteenth- and
twentieth-century accounts of thuggee, as the hero of his own story.
Even those works, like George Bruce’s The Stranglers and James
Sleeman’s Thug, or A Million Murders, that purport to be histories of
the thugs rather than biographies, present the account of thuggee as
coextensive with the life of Sleeman. Sleeman emerges from these texts
(and his own, of course) as an exemplary figure in nineteenth-century
criminal and judicial procedures, who undertakes a self-appointed
messianic task of uncovering and reading. Nothing in his story happens
by chance. The discovery of the scope of thuggee as a result of
Feringheea’s confession is (re)written as an inevitability in the task
of reconstructing thuggee, and Sleeman’s anti-thuggee efforts traced
back to the moment of his arrival in India in 1809. All of Sleeman’s
life and work before 1830 is thus written as a prelude to the
climactic scenes of thug hunting and as a preparation for reading the
mysteries of this esoteric Indian cult. Sleeman above all is
transformed in this telling into an almost Saidean figure of
knowledge; he is the shikari (hunter) who, with his gift of languages,
long residence in India without being “Orientalized,” and experience
in war and in settling newly conquered territories, can present an
ideal model of the exegete. Though a crime like thuggee is quite
literally inconceivable to those “living under an efficient
government,” Sleeman is no Inspector Clouseau, no naive Englishman who
stumbles unaware upon a vast organized conspiracy. He knows what he is
looking for; indeed, Tuker’s biography imagines Sleeman becoming the
butt of his colleagues’ jokes during his early years in India because
of his eagerness to “discover” thuggee.[46] In this telling, thuggee
predates Sleeman; indeed, it is as old as India itself. Yet the text
of thuggee remains unread until Sleeman, the reader-as-savior,
provides the hermeneutic key to the mystery. He establishes the
exceptional quality of thuggee, distinguishing it from outlawry,
banditry, and other illegalities necessitated by privation; he
establishes the story of thuggee as a moral narrative and embeds it in
the culture of an Orientalist India.

The man whose ideal was, like that of a Sherlock Holmes, “to be
everywhere, and to see everything,” [47] proved phenomenally successful
—in his own terms—at cracking the code of thuggee. He showed a
remarkable capacity—far greater than that of Sherwood or even that of
the few officers who had harassed the thugs in the early decades of
the century—to globalize and codify discrete accounts of crimes in
different times and places into a metanarrative of hereditary crime.
On the evidence of approvers, he created gigantic and detailed “family
trees” of captured and uncaptured thugs that provided copious details
of each man’s crimes, place of origin, place in the caste hierarchy,
and personal and professional antecedents; he also mapped out all the
bhils (places of slaughter and burial) in central India. Every thug
could then be located on Sleeman’s gigantic grid, and information and
operations were centralized. The local knowledge of the approvers now
became part of a giant signifying chain. For the thug, there was no
escape: his history and his nature were always already known to the
all-seeing eyes of the colonial bureaucracy and criminal-justice
system; his experience formed a narrative even before he made his
confession and was in no way dependent on it. As Ameer Ali says in
Confessions of a Thug, “The man unfolded a roll of paper written in
Persian, and read a catalogue of crime, of murders, every one of which
I knew to be true; a faithful record it was of my past life, with but
few omissions.” [48] Sleeman also prepared a dictionary of Ramasee,
the secret language of the criminal fraternity, with a vocabulary made
up entirely of descriptions of criminal actions. This linguistic,
geographic, and genealogical grid left out little that was germane to
the needs of criminal justice in colonial India:

I have, I believe, entered in this vocabulary every thing to which
Thugs in any part of India have thought it necessary to assign a
peculiar term; and every term peculiar to their associations with
which I have yet become acquainted. I am satisfied that there is no
term, no rite, no ceremony, no opinion, no omen or usage that they
have intentionally concealed from me; and if any have been
accidentally omitted after the numerous narratives that I have had to
record, and cases to investigate, they can be but comparatively very
few and unimportant.[49]

The doctrine of thuggee was not simply a novel yet apposite way of
reading Indian criminality at a moment when the pressures to reform
the East India Company by reforming India were particularly marked.
The consequences of the discovery of thuggee were, in other words, not
simply a philosophical reconstellation of Indian criminality. Thuggee
also gave rise to a veritable cottage industry of policing and
surveillance techniques, as well as ethnographic documentation. Like
the system it purported to study, the discourse on thuggee was
totalizing in its scope. In the juridical domain, thuggee was defined
as an “exceptional case”; this enabled the establishment of a
radically new machinery of arrest, conviction, and punishment in thug
trials. The production of penal truth in thug trials proved, as we
have seen, notoriously difficult. Since thugs were peripatetic
operatives, who always committed their crimes far from home and
disposed of their plunder quickly, evidence was not only destroyed but
questions were raised about jurisdictional authority. Local
functionaries were not just uncooperative; many were allegedly bound
by a utilitarian calculus to thug gangs. In addition, the relatives of
the putative victims displayed no zeal in the punishment of crime or
the redress of wrongs; the vast majority refused to identify those
missing as murdered at all. This uncooperative behavior was attributed
to their fatalistic acceptance of all disasters (including,
apparently, cholera, poisonous snakes, and sudden death). Even when
thugs were captured, convicting them was rendered even more
troublesome by the fact that Muslim criminal law disallowed the
testimony of approvers.

The lack of independent witnesses, the unavailability in many cases of
both bodies and booty—the sheer paucity of positivist evidence, in
other words—could only be resolved in one way. The most important
criminal conspiracy of the century (of all time, some of the authors
claimed) could be adequately engaged only by a new conception of law.
Many of the tactics adopted by those spearheading the antithug drive
were not novel but had been pioneered earlier in Bengal; however, it
was the Thuggee and Dacoity Department’s use of these tactics that
proved not only successful but replicable.[50] Since the law as
currently defined made the complicity of individuals in particular
crimes almost impossible to establish, specific criminal acts were no
longer punishable as such. Instead, it was a subject position, or
rather, an ontology, that was criminalized. It was enough to be a
thug, without actually being convicted of a specific act of thuggee,
to be liable to the exorbitant measures of the Thuggee and Dacoity
Department. As Radhika Singha wrote, “The strangest feature of this
enactment was the use of a cant term ‘Thugs’ without explaining what
precisely the offence of ‘Thuggee’ was. That such a term was
acceptable at a time when a penal code upholding precision and
exactness was on the agenda is an indication of the success of a
publicist campaign in official circles.” [51] Act XXX of 1836 directed
that any person who was convicted of “having belonged to a gang of
Thugs, [was] liable to the penalty of imprisonment for life; and
[that] any person, accused of the offence, made punishable by the Act,
[was] liable to be tried by any Court, which would have been competent
to try him, if his offence had been committed within the district
where that Court sits.” [52] (Act XXIV of 1843 extended the punitive
sanctions of the thuggee laws to those found guilty of belonging to
dacoit gangs.) Act XXX also dispensed with the last vestiges of Muslim
criminal law (which is said to have provided greater protections for
the accused and greater clemency for the convicted than the Thuggee
and Dacoity Department thought advisable for those standing trial as
thugs) by doing away with the necessity for the fatwa (formal legal
opinion) of the Muslim law officer. It applied with retrospective
effect, and it established special courts for the trial of thugs—
including those captured outside company territory, within the
kingdoms of the Indian princes—often with special magistrates
appointed by the governor-general. It permitted the arrest of entire
families, including women and children, as legitimate means of
entrapping active (male) thugs; since thuggee was supposed to be a
family affair anyway, transmitted in the genes and passed on from
father to son, wives and children were also fit targets for the
colonial state’s punitive and corrective measures. The act admitted
the testimony of approvers in lieu of the testimony of independent
witnesses (which had been disallowed under Islamic law), a move which
created a remarkable mechanics of truth production and conviction.
(Act XIX of 1837, under the direction of Macaulay, did away with this
“dual standard of evidence” in criminal law by making the testimony of
approvers admissible in all courts of law, not just those prosecuting
cases of thuggee.)[53] Yet it is by no means to be assumed that
empiricism and observation were peripheral to the process, though it
was observation of a very carefully demarcated kind; there is in the
colonial archive an overwhelming weight given to the experiential
dimension of the knowledge of such canonical figures as Sleeman. All
disagreements encountered on the British side are attributed to
inexperience, to the lack of a proper interpretive framework within
which to place certain kinds of discoveries, or to a willful
ingenuousness about the success of British rule.

The definition of thuggee as a form of hereditary, corporate, and
religiously sanctioned identity allowed for no appeal by a thug
convicted under its special decrees; in theory—and in practice—there
was no such entity as an innocent thug. All those identified as thugs
by approvers’ testimony were automatically guilty, even if no specific
crimes could be proved against them and even if there was no (other)
evidence of their ever having associated with other thugs. Once the
thug hunts began, criminal activity was not always necessary for
arrest and conviction; even those “thugs” engaged in “honest
labour” (a theoretical impossibility, given the terms of the
discourse) were rounded up, tried, convicted, and imprisoned since the
compelling, hereditary lure of thuggee was always latent in the thug.
An overwhelmingly high proportion of those arrested were convicted, a
fact which validated, the Thuggee and Dacoity Department believed, the
thoroughness of its efforts and the justice of its cause.

Confessions were key to the discursive constitution of thuggee; not so
much at the actual thug trials as in the manifold accounts of thuggee
that were produced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Meadows
Taylor’s novel, as far as structural organization is concerned, reads
not very differently from the nonfictional official accounts of
thuggee: a brief introduction followed by hundreds of pages of
confession, interspersed more and more intermittently by the
narrator’s moral commentary. The confessional mode lent itself nicely
to the narrative conventions and imperatives of the nineteenth-century
English novel, which encompassed both the Newgate novel and the
spiritual autobiography.

One of the best approvers, Bukhtawar, provided a confession (which I
quoted at the beginning of this chapter) that was a model for all thug
confessions: “I am a Thug, my father and grandfather were Thugs, and I
have thugged with many. Let the government employ me and I will do its
work.” [54] The confessions serve not to elicit what is not already
known but to authenticate and authorize official knowledge of thuggee
in general and specific crimes in particular, as well as to produce
the thug as (colonial) criminal subject. For Foucault, the confession
“transcend[s] all other evidence; an element in the calculation of the
truth, it [is] also the act by which the accused accept[s] the charge
and recognize[s] its truth; it transform[s] an investigation carried
out without him into a voluntary affirmation. Through the confession,
the accused himself [takes] part in the ritual of producing penal
truth.” [55] In the eyes of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department, a
failure to confess was evidence less of innocence than of hardihood
and an acquaintance with the byzantine ramifications of Indian
criminal law.

And yet these confessions that dominate and drive all accounts of
thuggee are not confessions as such, but approver’s testimonies; the
two, as Shahid Amin so appositely reminds us, are not identical. For
while the confession proper seeks to dilute the guilt of the
confessing subject, the approver’s testimony, to be fully credible in
the eyes of the law, must implicate its speaker as fully as possible
in the illegality being described.[56]

The fact that approvers’ testimony was “tainted” and that they might
either wittingly or unwittingly implicate the innocent was undeniably
an issue, though anxiety on the score was aired only to be promptly
shown up as unfounded. The thuggee records continually stress the ways
in which the truth of each approver’s testimony was tested against all
the others. But even in these official accounts, it does not escape
remark that the approvers’ testimony regarding dates and other details
do not always match,[57] though all discursive contradictions are
always sought to be smoothed away. Bruce, who is the only one to raise
overtly the possibility of the conviction of the innocent, blames not
the system but its most visible instruments, the approvers: “Were
innocent men convicted upon the evidence of revengeful informers?.…
Those Thugs who were no longer free to strangle on the roads may have
conspired together to send victims to the gallows instead, for by
killing in this way they could at once show Kali their continued
devotion and save their own lives.” [58] These testimonies were not
required, under Act XXX, to be matched against the reports of
independent witnesses or against the weight of circumstantial
evidence; and none of the accused had the benefit of counsel, so the
approvers were never cross-examined by anyone other than the officers
of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department.

Even though the approvers were indispensable for forming the text of
thuggee and for prosecuting thugs, their own status remained somewhat
nebulous. On making “a full and ingenuous confession,” an approver
would be eligible to have his sentence of hanging or transportation
commuted. But an approver could never be released, since the lure of
the rumal made him irreclaimable for honest society. It was also
necessary that all approvers be convicted (not just arrested) thugs,
since it was contrary to the nature of British justice to hold its
subjects indefinitely without trial. How, though, could the government
convict approvers when it had no evidence except for what they
provided? The solution was to advise approvers to plead guilty to the
general charge of being thugs, under the provisions of Act XXX, rather
than to plead guilty to the charge of committing specific capital
crimes (which could result in the death penalty); this would ensure
their conviction, and then they could be held for life without
questioning the authority that held them.[59] It was easier and more
useful to hold approvers than to hang them; and they needed to be held
forever in order to ensure the uninterrupted production of truths
about thuggee. The above proceeding did away with the necessity of a
regular trial (that is to say, one conducted under the special courts
established by Act XXX) by having one whose outcome was known in
advance; and it guaranteed that there would be no escape from the
government’s mercy.

Truth production and conviction was only part of the job of the
Thuggee and Dacoity Department. Rehabilitation was also part of the
program, though the official wisdom on rehabilitation was marked by
considerable ambivalence. To be a part of a moral narrative, the
antithug campaign could not be purely punitive in nature, especially
in the instance of those prisoners who had not been convicted of
particular capital crimes. At the same time, if thugs were hereditary
murderers who found the call to blood irresistible, they were not
reformable subjects. The government’s response to the problem of
identity and rehabilitation was, even in its own terms, a markedly
uneven and patently hierarchized one. Some of the most distinguished
among the thugs were recruited into the police force. Some others were
rewarded by W. H. Sleeman by being allowed to live near him with their
families and followers in his compound, an arrangement about which
Freitag observes: “The similarity between the spatial and
psychological configurations of his compound and those of thag-
landlord relations in a village is not coincidental.” [60] Other thug
approvers and prisoners and their families were settled in colonies
and put to manual labor; from being dishonest and itinerant, they were
compelled to be poor and settled. The focus of reform was the children
of the thugs: they were taught various skills, though not taught to
read and write (because it would make them dissatisfied with their
condition). The sexuality of the sons of the thugs was strictly
regulated; they were not allowed to marry and breed a new generation
of thugs. (A female thug was a rarity and was, presumably, a less
potent conduit of the genetic material of hereditary criminality than
was a male.)

Mature thugs, however, were less easily assimilable into a regime of
morality and normalcy. Even captured thugs and informers emerge in the
reports as notoriously impervious to all efforts at moral
transformation. They repudiate repentance and reform, ascribing their
cooperation entirely to pragmatic motives and describing their
activities in professional terms, without the obligatory change of
heart normally central to the confessional narrative. Not only that,
they understand their present circumstances in terms of their failure
to observe omens and follow proscriptions and to be fully professional
about their work; the official success against themselves is simply
the result of the East India Company’s iqbal (good fortune), not its
moral or religious superiority or even its greater strategic skill.
They seem to refuse in other words to be drawn into the moral
narrative of the civilizing mission (though it must always be
remembered that the production of the thug as unreformable subject was
not necessarily contrary to the aims of the discourse on thuggee). The
following is a typical exchange; the questioner is presumably W. H.
Sleeman, the respondents thug informers:

Q:
If Davey’s displeasure visits all who punish Thugs, how is it that you
all escape so well?

Moradun:
Davey’s anger visited us when we were seized. That was the effect of
her resentment; she cast us off then and takes no notice of us now.

Q:
And if you were to return to Thuggee, she would still guide and
protect you?

Moradun:
Yes, but what gang would now receive us?

Q:
And are you not afraid to assist in suppressing Thuggee?

Moradun:
No; we see God is assisting you, and that Davey has withdrawn her
protection on account of our transgressions. We have sadly neglected
her worship. God knows in what it will all end.

Q:
True, God only knows; but we hope it will end in the entire
suppression of this wicked and foolish system; and in the conviction
on your part that Davey has really nothing to do with it.

Nasir:
That Davey instituted Thuggee, and supported it as long as we attended
to her omens, and observed the rules framed by the wisdom of our
ancestors, nothing in the world can ever make us doubt.[61]

• • •

The Englishman

This section, on The Deceivers, John Masters’s novel about thuggee,
serves as a (deconstructive) supplement to the official narrative of
the thug, in taking up some of the questions and figures that occupy a
recessive status in that account. Here we see that if the thug of the
archive provides one (admittedly slippery and fixed at the same time)
model of staging identities, there is another model that is crucial
for a comprehension of the thug-English engagement. This model is the
obverse of the process that generates the mimic man of colonial
discourse; it is the lure of going native. The term here both
resonates with and fails to correspond to the mimetic model provided
by Burton in the last chapter.[62] The will to mimicry governs
(Indian) thug and Englishman alike, as we shall see in The Deceivers,
where the plot is driven—as is the thug archive—by a fascination with
the absent and never fully recuperable thug. In engaging this
scenario, the novel also recasts the paradigmatic narrative of
mimicry, in which the native may mimic the colonizer but without any
access to essential Englishness, while the colonizer can trade
identities freely, with no strings attached, without actually being
interpellated as a colonized subject. The Deceivers makes manifest the
precariousness of such self-possession.

The dialectical dependence of the fantasy of complete knowledge on the
paranoid fear of native inscrutability is staged in this novel, where
there is a suturing of the ostensibly antithetical figures of the
English policeman and the thug approver. This novel allows for an
examination of the tension between the received wisdom about thuggee
and some of the marginal issues located at the pressure points of the
official discourse. This novel tells the story of William Savage, a
mediocre and distinctly unheroic English magistrate. Wracked by sexual
and professional anxieties, an alienated subject of the British
colonial machine in India, and sneakingly sympathetic to such Indian
customs as sati, he transforms himself into the exemplary colonial
officer by taking on—albeit temporarily—the calling of the thug. At
the urging of his young wife, Mary, he initially takes on the persona
of the absent Gopal the weaver in order to save Gopal’s wife from
sati; he, however, meets the renegade thug Hussein and decides to
continue as Gopal in order to track down the thugs. Once he assumes
the role, he finds himself powerfully drawn to the practice and goes
on to become a noted thug leader. He does not continue as a thug, of
course—even though at one point Hussein suggests to Savage that the
East India Company become a sponsor of thugs, like the other rulers of
the land; with a little help from his newly (re)constructed
Englishness and his friends, he returns to propriety at the end. (The
Merchant Ivory film production is even more skeptical than the novel
is of the progressivist teleology of the civilizing mission, as well
as of its “success”: in the film, George Angelsmith is led off in
chains, but Savage, estranged from his wife and his Christian god and
unable to prevent the sati that he has actually made possible, is
destined to be perpetually haunted by Kali.)

The Deceivers considers the unspoken and unspeakable possibility that
subtends so much of colonial discourse: what if identity can be
unhinged from race and national origin? And if (racial/national)
identity is unstable and subject to negotiation with each crossing of
a frontier, then in the name of what telos or destiny does Englishness
speak? What if, as R. Radhakrishnan so compellingly asks, on the
subject of diasporic, transnational culture, “identities and
ethnicities are not a matter of fixed and stable selves but rather the
results and products of fortuitous travels and recontextualizations?…
Is ethnicity nothing but, to use the familiar formula, what ethnicity
does?” [63] In the more lurid enactments of this alternative history,
a Kurtz, representing the loftiest intellectual and ethical
possibilities of the Enlightenment, can “go native” in the Dark
Continent. But, closer to “home,” there were, as Arnold has revealed,
more troubling English subjects—those poor white orphans and vagrants
(who were to have their own moment of glory in Kim) who lived lives
not often distinguishable from those of lower-class Indians.[64]
William Savage, the protagonist of The Deceivers, is located somewhere
between these two subject positions.

Despite the putative restoration to wholeness, Englishness, and
legality of William Savage at the close of the story, the narrative
nonetheless opens up a space for investigating the “double and split
subject” of the colonial enunciation, for what Bhabha calls—in the
context of the nation’s fissured enunciation—“dissemi-nation”: “a
space that is internally marked by cultural difference and the
heterogeneous histories of contending peoples, antagonistic
authorities, and tense cultural locations.” [65] As in the case of so
many other Englishmen, Savage will have to turn to Indianness in order
to return to or consolidate or improve his English self; in doing so,
he will come back as a new and more English Englishman, but he will
also, temporarily at least, be transformed into a border subject,
changed by his experience of Indianness, surrendering illusions of
full autonomy and Englishness in the crossing of boundaries. Here I
invoke Burton again as a point of reference. Burton had an
occasionally vexed relationship with national identity: his ancestry
was partly Irish and Welsh, and he grew up on the Continent, only
coming to live in England in his late teens. Yet for him identity,
whatever guises it might assume and however far it might roam, is
usually more persuasively anchored than is that of Masters’s
protagonist in an imperial Englishness. Burton can be, at different
times, a West Asian merchant or a Muslim hajji, but his identities are
clearly hierarchized and more manipulable than Savage’s. While the
success of his passing is always, in a sense, conditional upon his
being a man from elsewhere/nowhere, he can also claim nativeness as
his own production, wrenching an (imaginary) autonomy from the
dominion of necessity. Savage passes through Indianness en route to
Englishness, but, unlike Burton, he cannot pass in and out without
constraint. Indianness, while indispensable to Englishness, must also
be violently cast out if Englishness is to be secure(d). In The
Deceivers, identity is the locus of strain and contradiction. For
Savage, identity cannot be expansive, assimilationist, and pluralist;
each new identity competes with and displaces the last. That is why
Savage can at the end afford to take no prisoners or recruit any
approvers from among his erstwhile comrades; the thugs whom he has led
and who are now pursuing him must be wiped out in an act of punitive
and frenzied brutality that not only precludes the need for approvers
but also does away with any witnesses against, and rem(a)inders of,
his own thug self.

The Deceivers stages, indeed foregrounds, the positionality and
politics of that ordinarily self-effacing hero of thug narration, the
investigator, and the plurality of determinations that produces him.
In this context, Gayatri Spivak’s cautionary reminders about the
urgent necessity of disallowing the neutrality of the intellectual or
investigator should be borne in mind. In “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
she proffers a critique of the sanctioned myopia of the Foucault and
Deleuze of “Intellectuals and Power,” who are unable or unwilling to
acknowledge the complicity of the intellectual in the mechanisms that
produce representations of subaltern subjects and groups and who fail
to recognize that subaltern subjects are constrained to fashion
themselves in terms of already scripted epistemologies.[66] Her
introduction to Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” resonates with, and
provides another useful point of entry into, this problematic of
reading and engagement; the usefulness of deconstruction, she tells
us, lies in “the recognition,…of provisional and intractable starting
points in any investigative effort; its disclosure of complicities
where a will to knowledge would create oppositions; its insistence
that in disclosing complicities the critic-as-subject is herself
complicit with the object of her critique; its emphasis upon ‘history’
and upon the ethico-political as the ‘trace’ of that complicity—the
proof that we do not inhabit a clearly defined critical space free of
such traces.” [67] Where in the archives the English scribe was
progressively effaced from the scene of the crime as well as the scene
of writing, no such modesty is permitted the protagonist of Masters’s
novel. The novel accents above all his position of enunciation. He
cannot be, as in the normative thug account, the neutral conduit of
something clearly identified as a thug consciousness: the thug’s voice
cannot but inscribe Savage as both subject and object of his own
discourse.

The central aspect of Savage’s mission is not merely to bear witness;
he must above all produce a record, transform that irreducible
obscurity, that absence that is Indian corporate criminal activity,
into what Spivak terms an “interpretable text.” This of course was the
primary gift of Sleeman and his associates to the criminal justice
system in colonial India—to synthesize various and discrepant
occurrences as a semiosis under centralized control; against thuggee—
conceived of as a vast, well-articulated, and centralized conspiracy—
could be opposed the concentrated power/knowledge of the state. What
is required is a text and a model of reading that is reproducible in
the different temporalities and contexts of the colonial polity in
India. However, the novel intimates the limitations and complexities
of authorial intention. Savage produces his account in a condition of
profound subjective instability, opening his text up to multiple and
mutually contentious readings: “He had met hundreds of other
Deceivers, and the notes were a complete tale of all he had seen and
heard and done; of all the Deceivers who had engaged in any action,
with their descriptions, habits, and homes; of each murder, and how it
had gone, and how it might have been prevented—or improved upon. The
words could be read for either purpose, according to the spirit of the
reader” (p. 223). Above all, Savage’s account draws attention to the
transactional nature of reading. What ought to be a classic of
information retrieval and a master text on thuggee for colonial
authority is also a text for other thugs, a manual for reproducing
thug practice. Savage’s text (within the text of the Masters novel),
even though cast in the model of strict representational realism, is
susceptible of an Other reading; its meanings are ambushed, deflected,
and augmented en route to a destination it can never reach. The
Thuggee and Dacoity Department strove to produce, in its extensive
records on thug affiliation and activity, a text without nuances or
fissures, something that was not susceptible of any misreadings or
contesting interpretations. It sought, in its meticulous record
keeping and its attempts to square all the approvers’ testimonies with
each other and make them speak with one voice, to produce a record
that would have what was presumed to be the authority of material
fact. But for Savage, at least, it is impossible to engage in such an
enterprise without also inscribing his own complicity in his
testimonial. In this respect, he does approximate the classic approver
of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department, who cannot bear witness against
others without simultaneously bearing witness against himself.

While the novel insists that only impersonation can yield the truth,
it also illuminates the heterodox desires that underlie the exercise
of going native. Moreover, this impersonation is quite detached from
any agency on the part of William Savage and from any sense of
originary identity. Forced into the disguise of the Indian weaver
Gopal (by the patel [village headman] Chandra Sen) in an unwilling and
ultimately fruitless attempt to save a would-be sati, he is recognized
as an impostor by Hussein. Hussein is ideal material for an approver:
he has brains, courage, and resourcefulness, and he is remarkably
eager to undo the institution of thuggee, but his testimony alone is
not enough to compel belief in the practice. So he recruits an
Englishman to the anti-thuggee cause, knowing that only he can be
fully convincing as a figure of knowledge. And this knowledge can only
be acquired experientially, and by going outside the law as currently
constituted, as Savage learns when he follows the more conventional
methods of information retrieval. As Hussein says,

Several times some English official or other has got hold of
information about us. Then he has chased us out of his district, and
reported, I suppose. But they’ve never worked together, and it always
blew over. They’ll never destroy us until one of them finds out
everything, and forces the Lat Sahib [the governor-general] to believe
everything, and plans a campaign to cover all India. And that one who
finds out must fear Kali, or he will not understand her. But he must
not love her. (p. 208)

Unable to ignore the thugs as the other English functionaries are
ready to do, eager to discard the Englishness he so uncomfortably
inhabits, and pressured by Hussein and Mary, Savage decides to
continue as Gopal the weaver, who, as it turns out, is also Gopal the
thug. For an unsuccessful and insecure man like Savage, wracked by
anxieties about (heterosexual) masculinity and Englishness, it is the
very abdication of authority involved in playing a thug that is
peculiarly attractive; inhabiting the subject position of the most
criminalized and most scrutinized indigenous subject holds out the
promise of psychic satisfactions not ordinarily available to colonial
authority.

The novel dallies with the idea (as many crime fictions often do,
though less explicitly) of the fragility of the barriers that separate
the custodian of law and morality from the criminal. It actually makes
available the proposition (though it has to drop it at the end) that
Savage is at heart a thug and that his initiation into thuggee by
Hussein is no accident. He takes naturally to the trade, is attended
by good omens, and enjoys a facility of thought, speech, and action
that is alien to his English self. The idea of mimicry itself is
transformed in his performance of it and begins to assume to assume
the contours of possession, if not those of originary identity. There
is no difference for him between the mimicry of an identity and the
identity itself.

In order to pass for an Indian or a thug (ultimately these two
categories are collapsed, as we have seen in the other narratives of
thuggee) Savage must slough off certain normative aspects of
Englishness in the tropics—the militant Christianity, the revulsion
against disease and cruelty, the reforming impulse. He must instead
embrace what is described as the nondualistic moral economy of
Hinduism that sees both creation and destruction as suffused with the
divine. Needless to say, the psychic territory of “India” is always
coextensive with Hinduism, despite the fact that Muslims as well as
other religious groups are shown to practice thuggee as much as do
Hindus; and this Hinduism is consistently and exclusively fetishized
as blood lust and hyperbolic sexuality. As an Indian, and Hindu, and
thug, Savage must participate in a series of paradoxes. He must be
Indian, and thug, to return more securely to Englishness, and
legitimacy; he must allow evil to be done in order to do good; and,
since the contexts of legality are always shifting and are
particularly in need of redefinition in India, he must go outside the
law in order to uphold the law. Always relatively indifferent to the
finer points of legal procedure and defendants’ rights (here written
as an inaptitude for “paperwork”), the antithug drive allows him to
rethink the concepts of justice and legality in the colonial context,
where it is notoriously difficult to punish crime anyway:

“What does justice mean?”…“Fair trial, the rules of evidence, no
double hazard, no hearsay, and so on and so on? Or protection against
injustice, against violence? The means, or the end?.…Oh, I know we
have no evidence about them yet. That’s just what I mean. I tell you,
sir, they cannot be run down within our rule of law. Indians aren’t
English. “No man dies by the hand of man,” they think, so they won’t
give evidence because they are not angry with the murderers. They
think men who kill are driven by God to kill. And there are too many
jurisdictions, too far to go to give evidence, too long to wait. We’ve
got to go outside the law to catch them, to prevent more
murders.” (pp. 128–29)

Caught between a colonial government and an Indian populace unwilling,
for different reasons, to do what is necessary to end thuggee and
pressured, moreover, by Hussein, Savage becomes Gopal again, only more
completely in earnest this time. In his new role Savage discovers that
passing for a thug involves a radical (re)contextualization of his
once and future Englishness. Moreover, as Gopal he has to inhabit a
role and a history that is already in place. Impersonation involves
not freedom but strict adherence to a scripted identity; he cannot
start afresh, or make himself up as he goes along. He discovers that
as Gopal, he is already an expert strangler and strategist, destined
to be “the greatest the Deceivers have ever known” (p. 218). And once
he participates in the sacramental ritual of gur-sharing and tastes
the transubstantiated body of the goddess, his allegiance and destiny
are fixed. Savage is born to thuggee, as his comfort in his role of
thug demonstrates; indeed, his story undoes the usual weighting of
“self” and “role” in the Englishman’s subjectivity, since he is more
convincing (to himself, and apparently to Indians and Englishmen
alike) and comfortable as Indian and thug than as Englishman and
Christian. Hussein, who is more percipient than he about the
complexities of subject formation, reminds him that “free will” is an
adjunct (or an illusion) of Englishness alone. Savage must find out
that intentions guarantee nothing; not even the Englishman, once he
has decided to play the Indian, can escape the formulaic constraints
of Indian/thug ontology: “You are a Deceiver, from this dawn on for
ever. A strangler. Only stranglers may stand on the blanket: you stood
on it. Only stranglers may take the consecrated sugar of communion:
you took it. It doesn’t matter what a man thinks he is. When he eats
consecrated sugar, on the blanket, in front of the pick-axe, he is a
strangler, because Kali enters into him.” (p. 182)

Such a script also demands of course that he confront his double, the
original Gopal. In order to protect himself and in order to wrest some
autonomy for himself, Savage strangles Gopal and thus becomes Gopal
himself. But strangling the “real Gopal” only makes him more fully
Gopal, for he can now develop into his predestined role. From this
point on, all paradoxes are held in abeyance. From being complicit in
murder through inaction Savage proceeds to strangulation himself and
becomes, in an extraordinary take on the man-who-would-be-king vision
that tropes so much colonial discourse, a noted leader of thugs. Like
Burton the Muslim, Savage the thug is characterized not simply by
mastery but by an extraordinary surplus of subject effects. (Unlike
Burton, though, he is tempted, and he is corrupted—although not
irredeemably.)

The desire for Gopal, which is closely articulated with the desire to
be Gopal, is mediated, interestingly enough, through the figure of the
sati who frames the novel and who foregrounds the question of gender
that has been bypassed or placed under erasure in the thuggee
archives. I find the entry into thuggee through sati to be a
particularly productive conjuncture for the problematic of mimicry,
identity, and the colonizer’s desire. The sati, most obviously,
provides an occasion for access to Gopal. The sati has to be set up in
the beginning so that Savage can play Gopal; and then it has to be
deferred so that he can continue to play Gopal and go in search of
Gopal. Her presence in the novel displaces homoerotic desire and
returns Savage to heterosexuality. It also ensures his successful
miming of Indianness and Englishness. But the consolidation of
heterosexuality, masculinity, and Englishness demands not simply her
presence but her death. She is insistently narrativized as a voluntary
sati; she is a romanticized figure, whose sacrifice Savage has no
desire to thwart. He desires her, and his desire for her takes the
form of wanting her to die for him, which he ensures by killing Gopal.
In this way, he can enjoy the satisfactions of Indian as well as
English masculinity. As an Indian, he can have the woman die for him
(and deliver him of his sexual anxieties); but being fully Indian also
means that he himself must die, for the sati requires a dead husband.
As an Englishman, therefore, he can distance himself from the violent
implications of Indianness. The sati’s death releases him from the
exigent identity of the Indianness into which he had temporarily
descended and frees him to enact the rituals of Englishness with
greater plausibility. The most convincing Englishman—as indeed the
most expert thug—turns out to be the mimic man after all.

• • •

Afterword

Masters’s novel serves in many ways as the most apt of epilogues to
the colonial accounts of thuggee, given its excavation of the erotic/
affective and metaphysical seductions of that institution—and of the
thug—for English masculinity in the tropics and given its suggestion
that the lure of the thug for the Englishman may be as compelling as
that of thuggee for the (Indian) thug. It charges the project of
unveiling and chastisement with a profusion of guilty, even delirious,
appetites and obsessions that call for continual incitement and
consummation. It does not, of course, fail to play upon the received
colonial narrative of thuggee as timeless Indian duplicity; but it
also reconfigures it as an erotic tale of the fraternal, closeted, and
homicidal desire that drives Indian and English impersonation. Perhaps
most remarkably, it showcases the seamless self-referentiality of the
discourse on thuggee (as evidenced in an archive composed of
biographies, histories, novels, legal records, and rumors) by
collapsing the thug and the thug hunter into a single figure; with a
literalism quite unprecedented in any of the other texts it confirms
that wherever there is an Englishman there is a thug.

Notes

1. Radhika Singha, “‘Providential’ Circumstances: The Thuggee Campaign
of the 1830s and Legal Innovation,” Modern Asian Studies 27 (February
1993): 83.

2. Guha, “Historiography of Colonial India.”

3. Ranajit Guha, “The Prose of Counter-Insurgency,” in Subaltern
Studies II: Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed. Ranajit
Guha (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983). Also see Ranajit
Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983).

4. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Deconstructing Historiography,” in In
Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York and London:
Routledge, 1987), 204.

5. This is not to suggest that Bhabha forecloses on any of these other
possibilities.

6. James Hutton, A Popular Account of the Thugs and Dacoits, the
Hereditary Garroters and Gang-Robbers of India (London: W. H. Allen,
1857), 90–91.

7. Reproduced in George Bruce, The Stranglers: The Cult of Thuggee and
Its Overthrow in British India (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World,
1968), 13–26.

8. Philip Meadows Taylor, “Introduction,” in Confessions of a Thug
(London: Richard Bentley, 1858 [1839]), 5.

9. A. J. Wightman, No Friend for Travellers (London: Robert Hale,
1959), 15.

10. See Francis C. Tuker, The Yellow Scarf: The Story of the Life of
Thuggee Sleeman (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1961), 197–98.

11. Geoff Bennington, “Postal Politics and the Institution of the
Nation,” in Nation and Narration, ed. Homi K. Bhabha (London and New
York: Routledge, 1990).

12. Sandria Freitag argues that thugs were—in contrast to members of
criminal castes and tribes—regarded as “admirable and awesome
opponents.” See her “Crime in the Social Order of Colonial North
India,” Modern Asian Studies 25, no. 2 (1991): 227–61. While some of
this horrified admiration does inform Wightman and Meadows Taylor’s
representations, such admiration is more usually carefully repressed;
there is, in fact, an interesting tension between the awe-inspiring
(if damnable) thug of these texts and the contemptible figure that the
other texts strenuously accentuate.

13. James Sleeman, Thug, or A Million Murders (London: Sampson Low,
Marston, 1933 [1920]), 5.

14. Sir George MacMunn, The Religions and Hidden Cults of India
(London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1931), 172–73. See, too, Meadows
Taylor, “Introduction,” i:

At the present time it [the novel] may deserve a more attentive study;
recent events will have too well prepared the Reader’s mind for
implicit belief in all the systematic atrocities narrated.…It will
scarcely fail to be remarked, with what consummate art such numerous
bodies of men were organized, and for a long time kept absolutely
unknown, while committing acts of cruelty and rapine hardly
conceivable;…Captain Taylor’s Introduction…may…furnish some clue to
the successful concealment of a rebellion, in the existence of which
many of our oldest and most experienced officers, and men high in
authority, absolutely withheld belief, till too late and too cruelly
convinced of their fatal error.

15. Katherine Mayo, Mother India (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927).

16. Hiralal Gupta, “A Critical Study of the Thugs and Their
Activities,” Journal of Indian History, 37, part 2 (August 1959),
serial no. 110: 169–77.

17. Sandria B. Freitag, “Collective Crime and Authority in North
India,” in Crime and Criminality in British India, ed. Anand Yang
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985), 158–61.

18. Stewart N. Gordon, “Scarf and Sword: Thugs, Marauders, and State-
Formation in 18th Century Malwa,” Indian Economic and Social History
Review 6 (December 1969): 403–29. It should be noted that Gordon does
not ascribe the activities of the marauding groups to “Oriental
anarchy” or oppose “marauders” to “states,” arguing that both entities
had the same ends in view and were using the same methods of
legitimation, though with differing degrees of success.

19. J. Sleeman, Thug, 108.

20. David Arnold, Police Power and Colonial Rule: Madras 1859–1947
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986), 3. He notes the transformation
of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department into the Central Intelligence
Department in 1904; this body shifted its initial focus on wandering
gangs and criminals to “the collation of political intelligence,
relaying information about political leaders and organizations to the
various provinces concerned” (p. 187).

21. Freitag, “Collective Crime and Authority,” 142.

22. Freitag, “Crime in the Social Order,” 230.

23. Ibid., 234.

24. Fanny Parks, Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque
(Karachi and London: Oxford University Press, 1975 [1850]), 1: 153.

25. Kali became a figure of increasing respectability in the
nineteenth century; before this she was a deity adored (in Bengal at
least) largely though not exclusively by tribal and other subaltern
subjects, including thugs and dacoits. It is not clear if Kali was
identical with other female deities addressed as Devi or Bhawani.

26. See, for instance, Nicholas B. Dirks, “Castes of Mind,”
Representations 37 (Winter 1992): 59: “It is increasingly clear that
colonialism in India produced new forms of society that have been
taken to be traditional, and that caste itself as we now know it is
not a residual survival of ancient India but a specifically colonial
form of civil society. As such it both justifies and maintains the
colonial vision of an India where religion transcends politics,
society resists change, and the state awaits its virgin birth in the
postcolonial era.”

27. This had not, of course, been entirely true for Burton, perhaps
because of his sojourn in Sind or his early studies in Arabic. As
might be expected, the particular discourse being engaged would
determine the Hinduness, or otherwise, of the territory designated
“India.”

28. Lata Mani, “Contentious Traditions,” in The Nature and Context of
Minority Discourse, ed. Abdul JanMohamed and David Lloyd (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990).

29. John Masters, The Deceivers (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1952),
240. All further references to this novel will be incorporated
parenthetically into the text.

30. Charles Hervey, Some Records of Crime (Being the Diary of a Year,
Official and Particular, of an Officer of the Thuggee and Dacoitie
Police) (London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1892), 1: 50–51.

31. Ranjit Sen, Social Banditry in Bengal: A Study in Primary
Resistance, 1757–1793 (Calcutta: Ratna Prakashan, 1988), 2–3.

32. Sanjay Nigam, “Disciplining and Policing the ‘Criminals by
Birth,’” Indian Economic and Social History Review 27, no. 2 (1990):
131–64; 27, no. 3 (1990): 259–87.

33. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, trans. Robert Hurley
(New York: Vintage Books, 1978), 1: 43.

34. Radhika Singha argues that “the introduction of laws dealing with
ill-defined ‘criminal communities’ introduced certain fissures into
the ideology of the equal, abstract and universal legal
subject” (“‘Providential’ Circumstances,” 86, n. 10).

35. Edward Thornton, Illustrations of the History and Practices of the
Thugs (London: W. H. Allen, 1837), 145–46. This frankness is
relatively rare in the writings on thuggee; the issue of the
genuineness of the confessions, though, is an issue in all, judging
from the unfailing vehemence with which the method of conviction
through approvers’ testimony is defended as just, if not
unexceptionable.

36. Ibid., 374.

37. J. Sleeman, Thug, 120.

38. William H. Sleeman, Ramaseeana, or a Vocabulary of the Peculiar
Language Used by the Thugs (Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann, Military Orphan
Press, 1836), 32–33.

39. Thornton, Illustrations, 70, 11.

40. Wightman, No Friend for Travellers, 112.

41. J. Sleeman, Thug, 106.

42. William H. Sleeman, Report on Budhuk Alias Bagree Dacoits and
Other Gang Robbers by Hereditary Profession (Calcutta: J. C. Sherriff,
Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1849), 2–3.

43. Foucault, History of Sexuality, 1: 35.

44. Homi Bhabha, “Sly Civility” and “Of Mimicry and Man,” in The
Location of Culture.

45. See Mala Sen, India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi
(New Delhi: Indus/HarperCollins, 1991) for an example of the way in
which the colonial discourse of thuggee (in this instance, Tukar’s
Yellow Scarf) continues, in contemporary India, to frame the way in
which certain forms of collective violence are understood by the law-
and-order machinery of the state.

46. Tuker, Yellow Scarf, 38.

47. William H. Sleeman, Rambles and Recollections of an Indian
Official, ed. Vincent A. Smith (London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford
University Press, 1915), 555.

48. Taylor, Confessions of a Thug, 330.

49. W. H. Sleeman, Ramaseeana, 3.

50. Freitag, “Collective Crime and Authority,” 146.

51. Singha, “‘Providential’ Circumstances,” 84.

52. W. H. Sleeman, Report on Budhuk, 173. The thuggee act had the
following provisions:

1.Whoever shall be proved to have belonged, either before or after the
passing of this Act, to any gang of Thugs, either within or without
the Territories of the East India Company, shall be punished with
imprisonment for life, with hard labour.

2.And…every person accused of the offence…may be tried by any court,
which would have been competent to try him, if his offence had been
committed within the Zillah where that Court sits, any thing to the
contrary, in any Regulation contained, notwithstanding.

3.And…no Court shall, on a trial of any person accused of the offence…
require any Futwa from any Law Officer.

53. Singha, “‘Providential’ Circumstances,” 136–37.

54. J. Sleeman, Thug, 117.

55. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, trans. Alan Sheridan (New
York: Vintage Books, 1979), 38.

56. Shahid Amin, “Approver’s Testimony, Judicial Discourse: The Case
of Chauri Chaura,” in Subaltern Studies V: Writings on South Asian
History and Society, ed. Ranajit Guha (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1987).

57. William H. Sleeman, Report on the Depredations Committed by the
Thug Gangs of Upper and Central India (Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann,
Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1840). [BACK]

58. Bruce, Stranglers, 154.

59. W. H. Sleeman, Report on Budhuk, 303–5.

60. Freitag, “Crime in the Social Order,” 236. It is said that thugs
had routinely existed in a symbiotic relationship with landlords,
providing military protection and supplying booty from expeditions in
return for land and respectability. [BACK]

61. W. H. Sleeman, Ramaseeana, 186–87.

62. I should add here that the phrase going native is vested in my
paper with a multiplicity of valences; for instance, it encompasses
both the colonialist desire to “pass for” the native and the condition
that signifies racial regression.

63. R. Radhakrishnan, “Ethnicity in an Age of Diaspora,” Transition 54
(1991): 106.

64. David Arnold, “European Orphans and Vagrants in India in the
Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 7,
no. 2 (1979): 104–27.

65. Homi K. Bhabha, “DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins
of the Modern Nations,” in Nation and Narration, 299.

66. Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” See Michel Foucault,
“Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and
Gilles Deleuze,” in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected
Essays and Interviews, by Michel Foucault, trans. Donald F. Bouchard
and Sherry Simon (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1977), 205–
17.

67. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Translator’s Foreword to ‘Draupadi,’
by Mahasweta Devi,” in In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics
(New York and London: Routledge, 1987), 180.

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8s20097j&chunk.id=ch2

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8s20097j&chunk.id=ch3&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ch3&brand=eschol

turn of the century, is a highly unusual diary of one disciple’s
encounters with his guru and with other disciples over the last four
years (1882–1886) of Ramakrishna’s life. In this text, which is
written in Bengali, Ramakrishna is referred to as thakur, which is
both a common way of designating a Brahman as well as a word meaning
god; “M,” who was a schoolteacher, is called “master” in this work. In
the English translation of 1942 by Swami Nikhilananda, The Gospel of
Sri Ramakrishna (New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1973
[1942]), “the Master” is the standard appellation for Ramakrishna;
this usage may have been popularized by Vivekananda.

3. Partha Chatterjee, “A Religion of Urban Domesticity: Sri
Ramakrishna and the Calcutta Middle Class,” Subaltern Studies VII:
Writings on South Asian History and Society, ed. Partha Chatterjee and
Gyanendra Pandey (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992), 65.

4. Tapan Raychaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in
Nineteenth Century Bengal (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988),
219.

5. Quoted in ibid., 231. For further details, see Swami Saradananda,
Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master, trans. Swami Jagadananda, 2 vols.
(Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978 [1952]).

6. There were many references to the Paramhansa in Keshab’s journal,
the New Dispensation, and in the late 1870s Keshab published
Paramhanser Ukti, a ten-page Bengali booklet of Ramakrishna’s sayings.

7. Christopher Isherwood, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (London:
Methuen, 1965), 141. [BACK]

8. Quoted in ibid., 124.

9. Cited in Brian K. Smith, “How Not to Be a Hindu: The Case of the
Ramakrishna Mission,” in Religion and Law in Independent India, ed.
Robert P. Baird (New Delhi: Manohar, 1993), 343–44.

10. Sumit Sarkar, “The Kathamrita as Text: Towards an Understanding of
Ramakrishna Paramhamsa,” Occasional Paper 22 (New Delhi: Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library, 1985), 21 and passim. Also, see Sumit
Sarkar, “‘Kaliyuga,’ ‘Chakri’ and ‘Bhakti’: Ramakrishna and His
Times,” Economic and Political Weekly, 18 July 1992, 1543–66.
Ramakrishna’s disciples claimed that he had gone through his “Muslim”
and “Christian” phases before he met Keshab; please note that all the
dates in Ramakrishna’s life are culled from accounts by devotees and
admirers.

11. The term heterosexuality is here used catachrestically, since
Ramakrishna seems to be obviously outside the formations within which
we would situate “modern” Indian subjects, including Vivekananda. The
very terms homosexuality/heterosexuality (and, indeed, transsexuality,
which may also be said to resonate for Ramakrishna) are too western
and modern to be completely adequate to the task of analysis. I use
them very provisionally, in the absence of another vocabulary and
epistemology that might enable me to understand premodern, Indian/
Hindu conceptualizations of sexuality. In this context, I am reminded
of Diana Fuss’s generous and sensitive reading of Fanon’s claim (in
Black Skin, White Masks) that there is no (male) homosexuality in the
Antilles (“Interior Colonies,” 33):

Fanon’s insistence that there is no homosexuality in the Antilles may
convey a more trenchant meaning than the one he in fact intended: if
by ‘homosexuality’ one understands the culturally specific social
formations of same-sex desire as they are articulated in the West,
then they are indeed foreign to the Antilles.…Can one generalize from
the particular forms sexuality takes under Western capitalism to
sexuality as such? What kinds of colonizations do such discursive
translations perform on ‘other’ traditions of sexual differences?

Such a caution must be borne in mind, even as one cannot but deploy,
however hesitantly, the idioms of modern western sexualities. See
Jeffrey Kripal, Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life
and Teachings of Ramakrishna (Chicago and London: University of
Chicago Press, 1995) for a careful and fascinating reading of the
relationship of Ramakrishna’s “homosexuality” to his mysticism. I
regret that I have not been able to make fuller use of the Kripal
text, which was published after this chapter was written.

12. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity”, 60–61.

13. S. Sarkar, “Kathamrita as Text,” 50–71.

14. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity”, 45. Sumit Sarkar
claims, moreover, that the period of Ramakrishna’s popularity
coincided with a “kind of hiatus in bhadralok history,” when dreams of
social reform had been frustrated, official racism was marked, and
liberation through the overthrow of British rule not really
conceivable (“‘Kaliyuga,’ ‘Chakri’ and ‘Bhakti,’” 1547).

15. It is interesting to note that the disciples of Ramakrishna,
notably Vivekananda, preferred the term kamkanchan, “lust-and-gold,”
over the Master’s kaminikanchan and went to great lengths to explain
that the sage’s “symbolic” use of the term did not imply any
misogyny.

16. Nikhilananda, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 701. All subsequent
references will be incorporated parenthetically into the text.

17. This insight derives in a general way from Carole-Anne Tyler’s
reading of the ambivalent politics of gay drag (“Boys Will Be Girls:
The Politics of Gay Drag,” in Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay
Theories, ed. Diana Fuss [New York: Routledge, 1990]) as well from
Kaja Silverman’s account of the mastery permitted by T. E. Lawrence’s
reflexive masochism (“White Skin, Brown Masks”). In The Inner World: A
Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India (Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1978), 103, Sudhir Kakar characterizes Hindu
transvestism thus: “Rituals such as these represent not only the boy’s
attempt to identify with his mother but also the man’s effort to free
himself from her domination. By trying to be like women—wearing their
clothes, acquiring their organs, giving birth—these men are also
saying that they do not need women (mothers) any longer.” For a
sympathetic psychoanalytic reading of Ramakrishna’s assumption of
femininity, see Kakar, “Ramakrishna and the Mystical Experience,” in
The Analyst and the Mystic: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Religion and
Mysticism (New Delhi: Viking, 1991), 1–40.

18. Cited in S. Sarkar, “Kathamrita as Text,” 9.

19. D. S. Sarma, Studies in the Renaissance of Hinduism in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Benares: Benares Hindu University,
1944), 237.

20. I am grateful to Gayatri Spivak for pointing out to me the
numerous, and discontinuous, ways in which the English term woman
translates into Bengali (and/or Sanskrit). Even so, it is interesting
to note how often other forms of femininity threaten for Ramakrishna
to collapse into the figure of the kamini. Hence his warning to one of
his young male disciples to beware of women who claim to be actuated
by maternal feelings towards him.

21. Isherwood, Ramakrishna and His Disciples, 113.

22. I put this term in quotation marks to indicate that is placed
under erasure. One cannot assume that transvestism was inflected in
the same way for a nineteenth-century (straight?) Hindu male as it
might be for, say, a contemporary straight North American male. One
has to concede that his masculinity might have been constituted
differently, and in a different relationship to femininity, than might
be the case for our hypothetical North American male.

23. I am thinking here of N. T. Rama Rao’s assumption of feminine
attire, makeup, and jewelry, on one-half of his body in the days of
his chief ministership of Andhra Pradesh, apparently in a bid to
consolidate his political/spiritual power. Philip Spratt also provides
detailed anthropological evidence of religious transvestic ceremonies
all over India (Hindu Culture and Personality [Bombay: Manaktalas,
1966]). See, too, Kathryn Hansen’s splendid essay, “Making Women
Visible: Female Impersonators and Actresses on the Parsi Stage and in
Silent Cinema” (unpublished manuscript).

24. Ashis Nandy, At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and
Culture (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), 38.

25. Wendy Doniger, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts
(Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 319.

26. Ibid., 331.

27. Women could, on occasion, function as gurus; the Bhairavi
Brahmani, for instance, was Ramakrishna’s first guru. Other historical
and contemporary figures like Andal, Mahadeviakka, Mirabai, and
Anandamoyi Ma come to mind as well. Sharada Devi (Ramakrishna’s wife)
herself had several (female and male) disciples. I do not think,
however, that this militates against my understanding of the guru-
disciple relationship as functioning for the most part for and among
males nor against my reading of its gendered significance in early
nationalism.

28. I am obliged to Sandhya Shetty for pointing this out to me. The
gurudakshina (the gift to the guru) is situated outside (economic)
exchange and functions in a symbolic capacity only. The instance of
Drona the archer and his low-caste disciple Eklavya, who had to
sacrifice his thumb to ensure the superiority of the guru’s favorite
pupil Arjuna, only demonstrates that in the guru-shishya configuration
what is offered by the disciple is incommensurable with what is given
by the guru.

29. Life of Sri Ramakrishna, Compiled from Various Authentic Sources
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1964), 296.

30. Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works, ed.
Swami Nikhilananda (New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953),
13.

31. There is no “secular,” critical biography of Ramakrishna except
that by Max Mueller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899). While this inveighs against the
miraculizing tendencies of Ramakrishna’s disciples, not excepting
Vivekananda, and refuses to take Ramakrishna’s avatarhood seriously,
it is nonetheless entirely reverential about the man himself.

32. Life of Sri Ramakrishna, 117.

33. Ibid., 144–45.

34. Ibid., 294.

35. Swami Chetanananda, ed. Ramakrishna as We Saw Him (St. Louis, Mo.:
Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990), 110.

36. Sumit Sarkar notes: “Girish Ghosh confessed that seeing
Ramakrishna ‘playing’ with a young disciple made him recall a
‘terrible canard’ that he had once heard about the saint” (“Kathamrita
as Text,” 103).

37. Sister Nivedita [Margaret E. Noble], The Master as I Saw Him
(Calcutta: Udbodhan Office, 1910), 64.

38. Isherwood, Ramakrishna and His Disciples, 204.

39. This is not, of course, to assert that the conflicts were unique
to Naren; as we have seen, in terms of class position and intellectual
training he appears to have been no different from the majority of the
disciples. The others, however, appear to have been less outspoken in
their skepticism than he was. I hardly need add that the memory and
the narrative of these conflicts is overdetermined; if Naren had not
become Vivekananda, we would probably have heard far less of his
interactions with his guru. As it is, in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
his iconoclasticism is not as evident as that of, say, Bankim or Dr.
Mahendralal Sarkar (neither of whom was a disciple). Nonetheless, he
does seem to have been the unequivocal favorite of Ramakrishna. And it
also seems clear that he was accorded a degree of freedom of speech
and behavior not permitted most of the other disciples. (Girish Ghosh,
who was notorious for his drinking, patronage of prostitutes, and
occasional foul-mouthed invectives against the guru, was one of the
very few others who was granted such a license.)

40. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity.” Sumit Sarkar
emphasizes the saint’s determined pursuit of bhadralok disciples as
well as his reticence about religious practices (of the Baul,
Kartabhaja, and vamachari Tantric varieties) that might have offended
their sensibilities (“The Kathamrita as Text,” 36).

41. Chetanananda, Ramakrishna as We Saw Him, 385–90.

42. My thanks to Inderpal Grewal for suggesting this possibility to
me.

43. Hervey De Witt Griswold, Insights into Modern Hinduism (New York:
Henry Holt, 1934), 58.

44. Nationalism’s dependence on colonialism has been extensively
documented, to some degree by Nandy, Intimate Enemy, but most notably
by Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought. Certainly nationalism-and-
colonialism seems to function as one category for Vivekananda.

45. Not all Brahmos were as skeptical as Shibnath Shastri, who, much
though he admired Ramakrishna, believed that the saint’s austerities
at the beginning of his spiritual career had had deleterious effects
on his mental state; Keshab for one seems to have been less
incredulous of the spiritual nature of the saint’s trances. Sumit
Sarkar points out, interestingly, that while Ramakrishna’s family and
neighbors in Kamarpukur and Dakshineshwar attributed the trances to
madness or “possession,” his bhadralok disciples and admirers
described them as the samadhi state extolled by high Hindu doctrine.

46. Ramakrishna himself made conflicting assertions about his own
avatarhood; at points he dismissed the possibility derisively, while
at other times he claimed to be an avatar of Krishna, Chaitanya, and/
or Kali.

47. Swami Nikhilananda, Vivekananda: A Biography (New York:
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953), 42.

48. It is not possible to establish whether any of the swami’s
supporters were simply admirers or actually disciples. It is not
inconceivable that they may have become disciples retroactively,
following Vivekananda’s success in the west.

49. Sankari Prasad Basu and Sunil Bihari Ghosh, eds., Vivekananda in
Indian Newspapers 1893–1902 (Calcutta: Dineshchandra Basu
Bhattacharya, 1969), 9.

50. It should be noted that the swami’s Indian reputation was—to some
degree, at least—induced by himself, as a defensive measure no doubt
against the criticisms he encountered not only from Christian
ministers in the United States but also from members of the Brahmo
Samaj and perhaps the Theosophical Society as well. His early letters
to his disciples in Madras were full of exhortations to them to hold a
meeting in his honor and to proclaim him to the west as a true
spokesperson of Hinduism. He was also careful to keep them informed
about favorable reviews in the U.S. press.

51. Rakhal Chandra Nath, The New Hindu Movement 1886–1911 (Calcutta:
Minerva, 1982), 126.

52. Ibid., 129.

53. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity.”

54. Nath, New Hindu Movement, 115.

55. Vivekananda was rarely consistent in this view; this was typical
of him. At times he deployed the rhetoric of free trade to imply
mutual and equal advantage to east and west; at other times he
insisted that Indians were superior to the west in their indifference
to material things and that in fact the west called out for spiritual
conquest by an “aggressive Hinduism.” In this vacillation Vivekananda
was not untypical of the bourgeois neo-Hindu nationalists of his time.
[BACK]

56. He also enjoined his brother monks in India not to insist on the
acceptance of Ramakrishna’s avatarhood in would-be devotees and
disciples of the new order.

57. Harold W. French, The Swan’s Wide Waters: Ramakrishna and Western
Culture (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1974), 58.

58. Raychaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, 230.

59. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity.”

60. Nath, New Hindu Movement, 114.

61. Ibid., 17. Note that Bankim’s novel was undoubtedly the product of
a distinctly westward-looking nationalism. Nath describes Aurobindo’s
“Bhawani Mandir” as derived from Anandmath (and remarkably similar to
Vivekananda’s own cult of the warlike monk) in its emphasis on
manliness and in its devotion to Kali. [BACK]

62. Chatterjee, “Religion of Urban Domesticity,” 61.

63. Vivekananda, Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works, 151.

64. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s cult of physical fitness and
martial arts training has a great deal in common with Vivekananda’s
endorsement of “beef, biceps, and Bhagavad-Gita.”

65. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, by His Eastern and Western
Admirers (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1964 [1961]), 347.

66. At this point in Indian history, bourgeois and Hindu nationalisms—
the first represented by “moderates” in the Congress Party calling for
secular and constitutional reforms, the latter by Tilak, Bankim, and
others—have assumed the status of two distinct categories, though
quite often they function as one. I bear in mind also Sudipta
Kaviraj’s important caveat against the conflation of distinct
nationalisms (his own concern is with “early” and “mature”
nationalisms), which must be seen as disjunct rather than articulated
phenomena in Indian history; see Sudipta Kaviraj, “The Imaginary
Institution of India,” in Subaltern Studies VII: Writings on South
Asian History and Society, ed. Partha Chatterjee and Gyanendra Pandey
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991).

67. Basu and Ghosh, Vivekananda in Indian Newspapers, 27.

68. Nivedita, The Master as I Saw Him, 231.

69. Ibid., 388 (emphases in the original). [

70. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, 252. The speaker in this
instance was a woman, Constance Towne.

71. Marie Louise Burke, Swami Vivekananda in America: New Discoveries
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1958), 16.

72. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, 14.

73. Swami Vivekananda and His Guru (London and Madras: Christian
Literature Society for India, 1897), iv.

74. There is, to the uninstructed viewer, little if anything of the
disarrangement of limbs or clothing that normally marked the sage’s
experience of samadhi.

75. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “A Literary Representation of the
Subaltern,” in In Other Worlds (London and New York: Routledge, 1987),
264.

76. Nivedita functions here as a type of the western female disciple.

77. Mary Ann Doane, “Dark Continents: Epistemologies of Racial and
Sexual Difference in Psychoanalysis and the Cinema,” in Femmes
Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis (New York and London:
Routledge, 1991), 244.

78. Marie Louise Burke, Swami Vivekananda: His Second Visit to the
West; New Discoveries (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1973).

79. Kakar, Inner World, 160.

80. See, for instance, Romila Thapar: “[The ascetic] is celibate and
yet, at the same time, the most virile of men. The ascetic’s
demonstration of sexual prowess is not a contradiction in terms: it is
in fact a demonstration of his complete control over body functions,
since ideally the emission of semen is prohibited to
him” (“Renunciation: The Making of a Counter-Culture?” in Ancient
Indian Social History: Some Interpretations [Delhi: n.p., 1978], 94).
Also see Joseph Alter: “The whole purpose of brahmacharya [celibacy]
is to build up a resilient store of semen so that the body—in a
holistic, psychosomatic sense—radiates an aura of vitality and
strength” (“Celibacy, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Gender into
Nationalism in North India,” Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 1
[1994]: 51).

81. Steve Neale, “Masculinity as Spectacle,” in The Sexual Subject: A
Screen Reader in Sexuality (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 277–
87.

82. Ibid., 286.

83. Swami Vivekananda, “The Future of India,” in Lectures from Colombo
to Almora (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1956), 267.

84. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, 196. Sister Christine
(Christine Greenstidel) goes on to remark on the companionship of
Sadananda and Vivekananda on their North Indian pilgrimage: “Both were
artistic, both were poets by nature, both were attractive in
appearance. Artists raved about them.”

Nivedita also confesses, though far more discreetly, that she was
drawn to the swami by his “personality” rather his philosophy, which
she initially found unoriginal. Her “biography” of him, The Master as
I Saw Him, is remarkable for its reticence about his corporeality.

85. That such a construction of femininity was not necessarily
exclusive to Hindu reformers/revivalists is borne out by Faisal
Fatehali Devji: “[Muslim] reformist literature replaces the aggressive
sexual woman with the pathetic or suffering woman-as-mother” (“Gender
and the Politics of Space: The Movement for Women’s Reform in Muslim
India, 1857–1900,” South Asia, 14, no. 1 [1991], 151).

86. Partha Chatterjee, “The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s
Question,” in Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History, ed.
Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers
University Press, 1990), 237.

87. Sister Nivedita, The Web of Indian Life (London: William
Heinemann, 1904), 32–45.

88. See, among others, Lata Mani, “Contentious Traditions: The Debate
on Sati in Colonial India,” in The Nature and Context of Minority
Discourse, ed. Abdul JanMohamed and David Lloyd (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990); Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds.,
Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990); Chatterjee, Nation and Its
Fragments; and Madhu Kishwar, “Gandhi on Women,” Economic and
Political Weekly, 5 October 1985, 1691–1702.

89. Monier Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (New
Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1974 [1883]), 184–85. Also
see David R. Kinsley, “Kali: Blood and Death Out of Place,” in Devi:
Goddesses of India, ed. John S. Hawley and Donna M. Wulff (Berkeley
and London: University of California Press, 1996); and Ajit Mookerjee,
Kali: The Feminine Force (New York: Destiny Books, 1988).

90. Sumanta Banerjee, “Marginalization of Women’s Popular Culture in
Nineteenth Century Bengal,” in Recasting Women: Essays in Indian
Colonial History, ed. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 158.

91. Ramakrishna was married at the age of twenty-three to Sharadamoni
Debi, a child-bride of five. According to custom, she remained in her
natal home, while Ramakrishna continued his spiritual disciplines at
Dakshineshwar, forgetful of her existence. At eighteen she sought him
out at Dakshineshwar and acceded to his request that their marriage
remain unconsummated. Over the remaining decade and a half of
Ramakrishna’s life, she spent extended periods at Dakshineshwar, doing
his housekeeping and cooking and (usually) living in a separate
building in the temple complex. [BACK]

92. Nivedita, The Master as I Saw Him, 65.

93. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “A Literary Representation of the
Subaltern,” in In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (New York
and London: Routledge, 1987), 244. [BACK]

94. Nivedita, The Master as I Saw Him, 83.

95. Raychaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, 242.

96. Swami Vivekananda, Letters of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta: Advaita
Ashrama, 1964), 167–68.

97. Pandita Ramabai Saraswati (1858–1922) was a notable scholar and a
Hindu widow who converted to Christianity during a visit to England
and dedicated her life to the uplift of young Hindu widows. Her book,
The High-Caste Hindu Woman (London: George Bell and Sons, 1888), as
well as her travels in England and the United States, gained her
sympathy from feminists as well as Christian missionaries abroad and
censure from Hindu conservatives at home. Her shelter for widows, the
Sharda Sadan in Pune, was supported in large part by funds raised by
Ramabai Circles in the United States and England. Her travels in the
United States in the 1880s received extensive coverage in the U.S.
press.

98. Basu and Ghosh, Vivekananda in Indian Newspapers, 421–68.

99. This is necessarily a simplification of Vivekananda’s very
complicated responses to the issues of (gender and other) reform,
nationalism, and colonialism. The split was not simply between
“home” (where reform had to endorsed) and abroad (where Hinduism had
to be defended); even at “home” he had decidedly mixed responses to
reform and (religious and social) orthodoxy.

100. The phrase is Nivedita’s (The Master as I Saw Him, 124). In an
interesting departure from the hagiographical tradition in which
accounts of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are produced (and in which
tradition Nivedita’s own work uneasily belongs), she emphasizes not
the continuity of their respective “gospels” but their distinctness
from each other. She does this, besides, in a fashion that highlights
the swami’s struggles and doubts: “Sri Ramakrishna had been, as the
Swami himself said once of him, ‘like a flower,’ living apart in the
garden of a temple, simple, half-naked, orthodox, the ideal of the old
time in India, suddenly burst into bloom, in a world that had thought
to dismiss its very memory. It was at one the greatness and the
tragedy of my own Master’s life that he was not of this type. His was
the modern mind in its completeness.…His hope could not pass by
unheeded,…the hope of men of the nineteenth century” (The Master as I
Saw Him, 124–25).

101. Chatterjee, “Nationalist Resolution,” 237–38.

102. She was not, however, recognizably a nineteenth-century British
feminist—at least from the evidence of her early writings—even though
much has been made in the biographies of her feminism and other
“excesses.” Apparently Vivekananda himself made fun of her putative
feminism.

103. Quoted in Barbara Foxe, Long Journey Home: A Biography of
Margaret Noble (Nivedita) (London: Rider, 1975), 32–33.

104. Quoted in Vron Ware, Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and
History (London and New York: Verso, 1992), 121.

105. Sharada Devi seems to have been a figure who was not
unequivocally reverenced by the followers of Ramakrishna. Many
devotees visited her at Jayrambati and Kamarpukur, and she initiated
several people into discipleship. She was sometimes spoken of as an
avatar—like her husband—and the heiress to his spiritual kingdom. But
she was also often accused of being excessively worldly. Ramakrishna’s
most prominent disciples visited her only rarely; Swami Nikhilananda
says that this was because they hesitated to “[make] a display of
their spiritual fervour.” See his Holy Mother: Being the Life of Sri
Sarada Devi, Wife of Sri Ramakrishna and Helpmate in His Mission
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962). Spivak speaks of the way in
which her official biographer, Swami Gambhirananda, staged her as “a
counter-echo to what he perceived as the strong voice of the Western
Narcissus” (“Asked to Talk about Myself…,” Third Text 19 [Summer
1992]: 17). I would argue that this could only happen retrospectively,
and at a later moment from the one that Vivekananda inhabits.

106. See, for instance, Meredith Borthwick, The Changing Role of Women
in Bengal, 1849–1905 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1984), esp. chaps. 8 and 9; Ghulam Murshid, Reluctant Debutante:
Response of Bengali Women to Modernization, 1849–1905 (Rajshashi,
Bangladesh: Sahitya Samsad, 1983); and Kumar, History of Doing, esp.
chaps. 2 and 3.

107. The Indian woman was, obviously, recast in the nationalist moment—
as was the Indian man; but recast and fixed, with little room for
negotiation after the recasting had been effected. For an analysis of
a nationalist woman’s struggles with gendered identities in
nationalism, see chapter 5.

108. Romain Rolland, The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel,
trans. E. F. Malcolm-Smith (Mayavati, India: Advaita Ashrama, 1947),
152, n. 2.

109. Nivedita, The Master as I Saw Him, 136–37.

110. Quoted in Pravrajika Atmaprana, Sister Nivedita of Ramakrishna-
Vivekananda (Calcutta: Sister Nivedita Girls’ School, 1961), 30.

111. Foxe, Long Journey Home, 128.

112. Rakhal Nath maintains that the Ramakrishna Mission was the only
non-political body to come out of the “New Hindu” or Hindu revivalist
movement (Nath, New Hindu Movement). [BACK]

113. Foxe, Long Journey Home, 136.

114. Ibid., 150–51.

115. Barbara N. Ramusack, “Cultural Missionaries, Maternal
Imperialists, Feminist Allies: British Women Activists in India, 1865–
1945,” in Western Women and Imperialism: Complicity and Resistance,
ed. Nupur Chaudhuri and Margaret Strobel (Bloomington and
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992), 130.

116. S. B. Mookherjee, “Nivedita and Indian Womanhood,” in Nivedita
Commemoration Volume, ed. Amiya Kumar Majumdar (Calcutta: Dhiraj Basu,
1968), 244.

117. She met Gandhi briefly in Calcutta, in the early years of the
century. Gandhi (who in so many ways would grow to resemble the figure
of Ramakrishna) admired her Hindu partisanship but was unable to agree
with her on nationalist politics. The Congress Party under Gandhi had
a profoundly uneasy relationship with militant nationalist women like
Nivedita and the Rani of Jhansi.

118. Lizelle Reymond’s The Dedicated: A Biography of Nivedita (New
York: John Day, 1953) also helped disseminate this image, though its
factual claims have since been contested. Kumari Jayawardena’s chapter
on Nivedita (“Irish Rebellion and ‘Muscular Hinduism,’” in White
Woman’s Other Burden) describes the contradictory ways in which the
disciple of Vivekananda is remembered.

119. My thanks to Carole-Anne Tyler for sensitizing me to this
possibility. [BACK]

120. Foxe’s biography, Long Journey Home, is particularly derisive in
this regard. What had been admirable “manliness” in Vivekananda was
forwardness in the female disciple. [BACK]

121. Ibid., 205. [BACK]

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8s20097j&chunk.id=ch4&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ch4&brand=eschol

More to follow...

[chhotemianinshallah]

Rig-Veda for MS-WORD 97
Hiroshi KUMAMOTO
University of Tokyo
January 21, 1998

These files are based on the DOS text on the diskette accompanying RIG
VEDA, A METRICALLY RESTORED TEXT, edited by Barend A. van Nooten and
Gary B. Holland, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 50, Harvard UP, 1994.
The only difference is that the character 160 (A0h) for "a acute" is
replaced by 225 (E1h) throughout. This is necessary because A0h is
reserved by MS-WORD for "Nonbreaking space".

In order to use these WORD files, the truetype font SANSKR.TTF must be
installed. This font is designed according to the "International
Codepage for Sanskrit diacritics (including the special characters
used in the metrical version of the RV). See the last page of the
"Contents of the diskette" by van Nooten. Here again for the reason
stated above "a acute" appears at 225 (E1h).

Since the lower part of this Codepage is the DOS codepage 437, and not
the "Windows Character Set" (thus "n tilde" is 164, not 241), the
Windows users will have to reassign most of the shortcut keys for the
accented and umlauted characters when using this font.

The main reason for preparing these WORD files and SANSKR.TTF has been
to facilitate the use of the important electronic text on the
computers running the Japanese OS. The original DOS text of van Nooten
and Holland has been practically unusable for the average users (of
DOS, WINDOWS or MAC) here because much of the upper half of the
codepage is reserved for the Japanese characters. The text with font
attribute can be an answer to the problem.

It is hoped that italic, bold, bold-italic styles of SANSKR.TTF will
be ready in the near future.

Needless to say, these files are for non-commercial use only. Users
are allowed to download and use the text for their personal use,
provided that refrence is made to the HOS edition.

At the suggestion of Professor Michael Witzel, the editor of the
Series, I have withdrawn "for the moment" the new metrical text, and
replaced it by the Samhita Text, which is traditionally used and still
of use.

Click HERE to download. ftp://gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/Rigveda/

FTP directory /pub/Rigveda/ at gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp

To view this FTP site in Windows Explorer, click Page, and then click
Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer.

Welcome to the Department of Linguistics FTP Server.

Up to higher level directory

01/22/1998 12:00AM 2,256 readme.txt
01/22/1998 12:00AM 808,927 samhita.zip

ftp://gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/pub/Rigveda/

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Full text of "Faust im Bilde von den ersten Anfängen bis zum
Erscheinen des goetheschen Fragments"
Rudolf Payer von Thum

Faust im Bilde von den
ersten Anfängen bis zum Erscheinen
des Goetheschen Fragments.

FAUST IM BILDE

von den ersten Anfangen bis zum Er-
scheinen des Goetheschen Fragments

von Dr. Rudolf Payer von Thurn.,

Mit 22 Tafeln in Folio.
Ais XXX, XXXI. und XXXII, Band der »Chronik des Witner Go.the-
Vereins*.

Wien 1919.
Verlag des Wiener Goethe -Vereins.

Zur Einführung.

Die vorliegende Arbeit, die zum erstenmal im Juni 1917 als
Vereinsgabe
der Wiener Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft für das Jahr 1916 zur Ausgabe
gelangt und
von der Kritik durchwegs zustimmend aufgenommen worden ist, [Berliner
Tage-
blatt V. 11. Juli 1917, Morgen-Ausg. — Wiener Abendpost v. 24. Juli
1917
(Alex. V. Weilen) — Kunstchronik N. F , XXVIII. Jahrg., Nr. 40, Sp.
469 (Hans
Hetze) — X. Fr. Pr. Nr. 19046 v 30. Aug. 1917 (Hermine Cloeter) —
Zeit-
schrift für Bücherfreunde, Nov.-Dez. 1917, Sp. 427 (Georg Witkowski) —
Studien
u Skizzen zur Gemäkiekunde, III. Band, S. 115 (Th. v. Frimmel) —
Mitteilungen
der Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst, Beilage der ,,
Graphischen Künste"
1918, Nr. 4, S 61 (Arpäd Weixelgärtner)] erscheint nun auf Grund einer
sciner-
zeitigen Vereinbarung mit dem Vorstande der genannten Gesellschaft
zum
zweitenmal in äußerlich etwas weniger prächtigem Gewände, inhaltlich
aber
erweiterter Form, um den Mitsliedern des Wiener Goethe-Vereins die
bisher nicht
erschienenen Bände XXX, XXXI und XXXII der „Chronik des Wiener
Goelhe-
X'ereins" zu ersetzen.

An den Ergebnissen der Untersuchung brauchte nichts geändert zu
werden.
Abgesehen von einigen kleinen, durch die geänderten Verhältnisse
notwendig
j;ewordenen stilistischen Änderungen wurde zunächst die Anzahl der
aufgezählten
Klätter aus den besprochenen Porträtserien durch einige inzwischen neu
auf-
L^etauchte Bilder vermehrt. Zwei wichtige Ergänzungen, und zwar den
Hinweis
auf das Bild von Rembrandts Vater »bei Bredius im Haag (S. 8) und auf
den
Zusammenhang des van Sichemschen Stiches mit dem Titelholzschnitt des
Volks-
buches von 1588 (S. 13) verdanke ich unserem um die Ikonographie des
Goethe-
schen Faust hochverdienten Obmann-Stellvertreter Professor Dr. R. F.
Arnold.
Neu hinzugekommen ist ferner das mit dem „Faust'' des Moncornet
identische
Bild von Archimedes (Rückseite von Tafel 22 unten, Text S. 12) und die
lustige
Zusammenstellung des Faustkopfes aus Steyr mit den beiden Bischöfen
(Rückseite
von Tafel 22, Text S. 14). Da das Papier für die Lichtdrucke nicht
mehr zu be-
schaffen war, konnte die Anzahl der Tafeln nicht vermehrt werden, es
mußte
zu dem Auskunftsmittel gegriffen werden, die Rückseiten der Tafein 2,
3, 15 u.
-2 zu bedrucken.

Unserer Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, ihrem hochverdienten
Direktor
Hofrat Prof. Dr. L M. Eder und den bewährten Lehrkräften, vor allem
den Herren
Professoren .A.ugust Albert und Karl Broum sowie Herrn Fachlehrer
Alois Pillarz,
die das Zustandekommen auch dieser zweiten Ausgabe in selbstlosester
Weise
ermöglicht haben, gebührt auch diesmal wieder unser wärmster Dank.

Wien, im April 1919.

Dr. Rudoll Payer von Thurn.

Verzeichnis dor Tafeln.

Doctor FaVstvs. Stich nus dem Verla{>c von Fran^oi^
I^ngloit dit de Ciartre». Paris, zwischen 1633 und
1647. Or. : \X*icn, Familien-FideikomiuiU-Bibliothck.

Bfiste eines niederblickenden Greises.
Rail. v.in Jan Joris van Vlict. Bartsch 25. Or. : Wien.
AV

Rück
Unten: i' h i 1 o n le J u i f . !• . I . I» < uirtrcs

excndit. K. H. van Kyn tnv.
Hat über tKembrandts Vater. Ölbild im Fer-
dinandcura in Innsbruck (verkleinert), daneben
Radierung van Vliets nach diesem Bilde.

Baste eines Offiziers. Radierung von Jan
Joriü van Viiet: Bartsch 26. Or. : Wien, Albertina.

Rückseite :
Unten : Rembrandts Vate r.ölb. v.Rembrandt,

im Bes. von Dr. A. Bredius im Haag.
Dat über : Radierung Rembrandts nach
diesem Bilde und (zum Vergleiche von Tafel 2
wiederholt Büste eines niederbückenden Alten (verkl.).

Ruhe der heiligen Familie auf der
Flucht nach Ägypten. Ölbild von Rembrandt.
(Or. : Downton-Castle. England. A . R. Boughton
Knight.) Nach einer Heliogravüre von Fillon et Hcuse.

Judas bringt die Silberlinge zurück.
Ölbild von Rembrandt. Or. : Faiis. Baron A. von
Schickler. Nach einer Heliogravüre von Braun. Cle-
ment et Co. Dabei : „Heraclit* aus dem Verlage :
a; von l*ierre Aubiy in Stratiburg ; b) Remondini in
bassano. Or. : Wien, Familien-Fideikommiß-Bibliothek.

Doctor Faustus. Stich aus dem Verlage von Aubry.
Or.: Wien, Familien-Fideikommiß-Bibliothek.

Faustbuch des Christlich Meynenden.
Frankfurt u. Leipzig. 1725. Or. : Erlangen, Univ.-Bibl.

Doctor Faustus. Titclkupfer zum Fünften Stück der
Bibliothcca, Acta et Scripta Magica, Lemgo, 1739.

a« Doctor Faustus. Steindruck, Titelbild zu:
Doktor Faustos. Tragödie von Christoph Marlowe.
Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Wilhelm Müller.
Mit einer Vorrede von Ludwig Achim von Arnim.
Berlin, l8i8.0r.: Wien, Sammlung Hofrat Hugo Thimig.
Doctor Faustus nach Rembrandt. Steindruck.
Titelbild: Das Kloster. Von J. Scheible. 2. Band,
Stattgart. 1846.
10. a> Doktor Faust. (Nach Rembrandt.) Holz-
schnitt aus J. J. Webers xyl. Anstalt in Leipzig.
(Deutfche Männer. Bilder aus der Geschichte des
deutschen Volkes von Hermann dem Cherusker bis
auf unsere Tage von Manuel Rascbke, Leipzig und
Tcüchen, 1868, S. 41.) Or. : Wien, Hofbibliothek.
Doctor Johann Faust. I'ortriit nach
Rembrandt. Anon. Holzschnitt aus: Carl
Engel, Das Volksscbauspiel Doctor Johann Faust,
Oldenburg, 1874.

Zenon I'hilosophe. Stich von Daamont in Paris.
18. Jahrb. Or.: Wien, Familien-Fideikommiß-Bibliothek.

Faust, ölminiatur der Ambraser Sammlung. Or. : Wien,
Knnsthistorische Sammlungen.

l.e Doctevr Favste Philosophe Alcinand etc. .Such
von B. Moncoroet. Or. : Wien, Familien- Kideikom-
miü-Bibliothek.

b) Büste eines bartlosen Mannes. Rad. von
Rembrandt. 16 jl, Bartsch 307. Or.: Wien. Hufbibl.

c) N i e d e r b 1 i c k e n d e r K a h 1 k t> p f. R adicruog
von Rembrandt, 1631. Bartsch 296. Or. : Ebenda.

d) Marc Agripe Philosophe Alcmand. Stich von B.
Moncornet. Or.: Wien, Familien-Fideikommiü-Uibl.

14. a) Greis in weitem Samtmantcl. Radierung

von Rembrandt, um 1632. Bartsch 262. (Verkleinert.)

b) J)ivinus Plato. Stich aus dem Verlage von F. Lang-

lois. (Verkl.) Or.: Wien, Familien-Fidcikommiß-Bibl.

Faust in seinem Laboratorium. Rad. von
Rembrandt. 2. Plattenzustand. Bartsch 270. Or. :
Wien, Hof|)ib iothck.
Rückseite: Fran^ois Langlois dit de Char-
t r e s. Marchand Libraire-Imager ä Paris en I645.
Ant. van Dyck Pinxit, J. Pesne Sculp.
Faust in seinem Laboratorium. Stich von
J. H. Lips nach Rembrandt. Or. : Wien, Samm-
lung Felix Schwab.
17. a) Mcphostü phi les-Joan Faustus. Stich von
Christoph van Sichern 1066. Or. : Wien. Albertina,
b) D a s s e 1 b e. Nachstich aus Arnims Zeitung für Ein-
siedler (Trösteinsamkeit), Nr. 3 vom 6. April 1808
18 De Historie van Doctor Johannes Faustus. 1747. Or. :
Wien. Sammlung A. J..ÖW, Bibliothek der Stadt Wien.
IQ. De Historie van Docter Johannes Faustus o. 1. Or. :
Wien, Sammlung A. i.,öw, Bibliothek der Stadt Wien.

20. a) Histoire Prodigicuse et Lamentable de Jean Faust.

Cologne, Chez les Hi-ritiers de Pierre Marteau. 1712:
Or.: Sammlung A. Low, Bibliothek der Stadt Wien.
b) Histor e van Doctor Jan Faustus, Amsterdam, By
Hismanius van de Rumpel, o. I. Or. : Ebenda:

21. a) Doct. Faust, berühmter Schwarzkünstler.

Holz.schnitt einer undatierten Ausgabe des Faust-
buches des Christlich Meynenden. Or. : Wien, Samm-
lung A. Low. Bibliothek der Stadt Witn.
Desgleichen: Or. : Frankfurt a. M., Fr. D. Hocbstitt.
Jakob Herbrand. Professor der Theologie in
Tübingen 1578. Or. : Wien, Familien-Fideikommiß-
Bibliothek.
d) Georg W einrieb, Professor der Theologie in
Leipzig, f 1617. Or. : Ebenda.
Bemalte Terracotta- Büste des 16. Jahrh.

Or. : Wien. Kunsthist. Sammlungen.
Rückseite :
Oben : D o k t o r Faust. Gedruckt in diesem Jahr.
Or. : Histor. Museum der Stadt Steyr; links:
Melchior Otto Voit von Salzburg,
Bischof von Bamberg (1642- 1653); rechts:
Johann Philipp, Freih. v. Schönborn,
Erzbischof von Mainz, f 1673.
Unten: links: Archimedes Siracus, rechts:
Le Docteur FAUSTE PHILOSOPHE Alemaod
(zum Vergleiche wiederholt von Tafel 13 a!.

22.

Sämlli

Alilnlitiinpcii inii Ausnalimp lier Tafeln 4. t. 14 ?1 I) iincl 22
Sind in ( )rli'rM.-ili>Tip|',p «•iit)crjjcRct>cn.

» A^'^ denen bekannten elenden Tragoedien von
*'^* Ihm. hat es Gott lob! ein Ende, da man end-
lich solche einfältige Vorurtheile abgelegt hat, und ver-
nünftigere Vorstellungen liebt. Faust hat es nunmehr
lediglich Rembrandten zu danken, daß seiner noch ge-
dacht wird« — mit diesen Worten schloß einer der
berühmtesten Ärzte des Aufklärungszeitalters, der
spätere Leibarzt Friedrich des Großen Johann Carl
Wilhelm M o e h s e n, das Kapitel >Faust« in seinem
Buch, das im Geschmacke der Zeit den umständlichen
Titel führt: »Verzeichnis einer Sammlung von Bild-
nissen, größtentheils berühmter Ärzte; so wohl in
Kupferstichen, schwarzer Kunst und Holzschnitten, als
auch in einigen Handzeichnungen: diesem sind ver-
schiedene Nachrichten und Anmerkungen vorgesetzt,
die so wohl zur Geschichte der Arzneygelahrtheit, als
vornehmlich zur Geschichte der Künste gehören.«

Gerade über dieser Stelle des verdienstvollen
Buches hat das Schicksal die volle Schale der Ironie
ausgegossen: das Buch ist erschienen bei Christian
Friedrich Himburg in Berlin, demselben Himburg, der
ein paar Jahre später als der erste deutsche Verleger
auf den Gedanken gekommen ist. Alles, was bis dahin
von dem rasch berühmt gewordenen Verfasser des Götz
und des Werther im Druck erschienen war. in drei
Bänden gesammelt dem deutschen Publikum vorzu-
legen. Und zwei Jahre nach dem Erscheinen dieses
Buches konnte Gotter seine poetische Antwort auf
eine derb-lustige Epistel, mit der Goethe ihm im
Juni 1773 den eben erschienenen »Götz« übersendet,
mit den Worten schließen:

»Schick mir dafür den .Doctor Faust*
Sobald Dein Kopf ihn ausgebraust!«'

In der Tat hat sich für den Helden der deutschen
Volksbücher und der Puppenspiele ein ganz bestimmter,
eigenartiger Porträt-Typus herausgebildet, der um die
Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts — merkwürdig
genug in Paris — entstanden und bis über die Mitte
des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts hinaus in Geltung ge-
blieben ist.

Wie aber kam Rembrandt zu Faust?

Von den großen Malern und Stechern seiner Zeit,
den Dürer und Holbein, den Lukas Cranach und Lucas
von Leyden ebenso wie von ihren minder hervor-
ragenden Kunstverwandten hat uns keiner das Bild
des landfahrenden Gauklers überliefert, dazu schien
er seinen Zeitgenossen viel zu unbedeutend. Erst in
der Zeit von 1634 bis 1647 tauchte in dem damals so
blühenden Kupferstichhandel ein Porträt auf, das über

dem Kopfe des Dargestellten die Bezeichnung »Doctor
Favslvs«, in der linken oberen Ecke vom Beschauer)
die Künstler-Signatur »HRinbrandt Inuentor«, in der
rechten die Verleger-Adresse »F. L. D. Ciartres e.xcudJt«
trägt (Tafel V . Mit diesem Blatte hat sich die Forschung
in den letzten drei Jahrzehnten oft und eingehend be-
schäftigt-). Wenn es ihr trotzdem nicht gelungen ist,
das Dunkel völlig aufzuhellen, das über der Entstehung
desselben lagert, so ist die Ursache darin zu suchen,
daß offenbar allen Abdrücken des sehr seltenen Blattes,
die zum Vergleiche herangezogen worden sind, ein
Merkmal fehlte, das in dem vorzüglich erhaltenen
Exemplar der Habsburg-Lothringischen Familien-Fidei-
kommiß-Bibliothek, das unserer Reproduktion zu
Grunde liegt, zum Ausdruck kommt.

Es ist dies die Nummer 36, die rechts oben dicht
über der Verleger-Adresse mit der kalten Nadel leicht
eingerissen ist. Sie macht uns darauf aufmerksam,
daß wir das Blatt nicht für sich allein, wie dies bis-
her geschehen ist, zu betrachten haben, sondern als
einzelnes Glied einer größeren Serie. Erst wenn es
uns gelungen sein wird, diese Serie ganz oder wenig-
stens zum größeren Teile wieder zusammenzustellen
und die einzelnen Bildnisse mit ihren Urbildern zu
vergleichen, wird auch ein Licht auf unseren Faustkopf
fallen.

Das war nur möglich in der Porträtsammlung der
Familien-Fideikommiß-Bibliothek mit ihrer hier und da
belächelten, etwas altvaterischen Einteilung in »Stände«.
Zu unserem Blatte, das wie die übrigen später zu be-
sprechenden Faust-Bilder in der Abteilung »Ärzte« lag,
vermerkt der Katalog als Stecher den Namen H. David.
Unter den Arbeiten des um 1605 in Paris gebornen
und bis 1670 tätigen Zeichners und Kupferstechers
J^röme (Hieronymus) David verzeichnet nun Le Blanc*^
eine Folge von 36 Blättern: ttTetes de Phihiopha*.
Unser »Faust« trägt eben die Nummer 36! Ich ging
also die Abteilung »Philosophen» durch und fand in
ganz gleicher Plattengröße und Ausführung mit der
Verlegerfirma F. L. D. Ciartres e.xcudit versehen noch
folgende Blätter:

EwpedocUi Philo^ophti^ . . . \'r /S

.■Irchimtdes Siracus

Diogenes .... -/

Divinus Plato .'2

Socrates i"*

-' •

Thomas Morus . j'i

Philon le Juij .

Democritus \' ;

_2 Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

Außerdem ohne Nummer: sich nun eine Reihe von Radierungen, die die \
I'/iunufH* ii* la h' V lagen für folgende Porträts der Serie des
Ciat ,
J/trtiittttis. bildet haben: Fol. 89 {i: llunuqut ,it la Ktyi.
Makffmtt. Jates), Fol. 90 (Philon), Fol. 91 {.X/ahomef), Fe
Ammaeus StHfta mios. Stntiti {Arisfottlo), Fol. 93 {//eraililus), Fol.
94 {Dtn4o, .
und In der Hofbibliothek : Keines dieser Blätter, die durchwegs aus
den Jahren 1 u ^
Aristoteles. Und 1634 datiert sind, trägt jedoch den Namen des Dirge
Diese Folge von 36 Porträtköpfen scheint aber stellten. Auf
RembrandtischeOriglnal-RadierunKcn
doch keineswegs auf »Philosophen« beschränkt ge- gehen nur zwei
Blätter zurück: »Plato« auf den Un-
wesen zu sein, denn in ganz gleicher Plattengroße im weiten
Sammtmantel (Klassiker der Kunst VII:
und Ausführung fanden sich unter den »Königen«: S. 136) und »Thomas
Morus« auf den ersten Orier:
Geoffroy a la Grand Dent de Lusignan . . Nr. 2 talenkopf (Ebenda S.
238). Für die vier restliche;

Dionisius Tirannus Siracusa [sie] »6 Blätter läßt sich nicht eine R a
d i er u n g Rembrandt

Barbaroussa Rex Algerii Insignis Pirata . . » 8 oder van Vliets,
sondern je ein Ölbild Remhrandts

Magnus Tamerlanus »9 als Vorlage nachweisen, und zwar für »Diogenes«
das

Cirus Pers. Rex »13 Bildnis eines alten Mannes (König Saul?) im
Besitze

Atabalipa Rex Peruviae . » 16 von Quincy A. Shaw in Boston (Klassiker
der Kunst

II Re de Fez et Marocco . » 17 II. S. 363), für »Gaston de Foix« das
Bildnis eines

Solimannus Turcarum Imperator »24 jungen Mannes bei Charles Sedelmeyer
in Paris. (Eben-

Saladinus Suitanus »25 da S. 145). für »Democrit« das Selbstbildnis im
Haager

Scandrebec Roy d'albanie »29 Museum (Ebenda S. 26) und für den
Kämmerer der

Gasto Foisseivs »30 Königin Candace die Selbstbildnisse in Cassel und

und ohne Nummer: Gotha. (Ebenda S. 27). Lediglich bei unserem »Faus'

Athila Flagellum Dei, und bei »Heraclit« gestaltet sich das Verhältnis
zum

II Gran Mogor, und Rembrandtischen Original ein wenig anders, wie wir

Paracouissi Rex Plattae. weiter unten sehen werden.

Auf diese Weise wäre es uns gelungen, von den Die Platten der Vorlagen
sind durchwegs größer,

36 Blättern, aus denen die Serie bestehen soll, 27 zu- als das
einheitliche Format der Platten in der Serie

sammenzubringen. des Ciartres. Diese wieder verhalten sich zu ihren

Fünf: Geoffroy de Lusignan, Barbaroussa, Ata- Vorlagen »en contre-
partie«, d. h., der Stecher, der die

balipa, Socrates und Saladlnus weisen die Stecher- van Vlietischen
Vorlagen kopierte, hatte natürlich einen

Signatur I David F. auf. Abdruck vor sich; wenn er denselben Strich
für

Genau ein Dutzend davon geht in letzter Linie Strich auf der unter
seiner Hand liegenden Kupfer-
auf Remb-andtische Originale zurück. Dieser Umstand platte
nachbildete, kam der Abdrock von seiner
ist — mit einer einzigen Ausnahme (bei »Plato«) — P'a^te natürlich
verkehrt heraus. Wenn ein Kopf bei
in der linken oberen Ecke des Blattes durch die Sig- van Vliet nach
rechts sah, so sah er in der Nach-
natur IRinbrandt Inuentot, oder IR inuent. ausgedrückt, blldung nach
links und umgekehrt.
Es sind dies: Aristoteles, Dioi^enes, Plato, Thomas Monis. Die Serie
des Ciartres scheint bei den Zeitgenossen
Philan. Demochhu, L'Eunuqiu de la Keyne de Candaces, Beifall gefunden
ZU haben, denn sie wurde bald in Italien
lleracliius, Mahomet . Scatidrebeg. Gasto Foisseins und nachgedruckt.
Vor mir Hegt eine Reihe von Blättern
/•atut. Die Hälfte davon ist jedoch nicht direkt nach in etwas
abweichender Plattengröße (237:170 mm)
Rembrandtischen Originalen hergestellt, sondern nach und bedeutend
roherer Ausführung des Kupferstiches
Blättern, die Rembrandts Schüler van Vliet nach Origi- mit
italienischer Namensform und einigen italienischen
naien seines Meisters radiert hat. Jan Georg üoris) Versen unter dem
Bilde, welche die Persönlichkeit des
van Vliet ist angeblich um 1610 zu Delft geboren. Dargestellten zu
charakterisieren suchen. Einzelne der-
arbeitete 1631 noch in Leiden in Rembrandts Atelier selben tragen am
unteren Plattenrande die Stecher-
nach dessen Zeichnungen, und seine Blätter sind, so Signatur Cio :
Suiuro /uit und die Verleger-Adresse
lange er unter Rembrandts Leitung stand, von größter »/« Passano per
il Rtmondiui.*'')

Feinheit und kaum von den Radierungen des Meisters Von dieser
Italienischen Serie besitzt die Familien-

zu unterscheiden. Seine späteren Arbeiten tragen jedoch Fideikommiß-
Bibliothek eine größere Anzahl von

eine Brutalität zur Schau, die eine vollständige künst- Blättern.
Außer den auch bei Ciartres vorkommenden

leiische und psychische Dekadenz vermuten läßt«) »Philosophen«
Democritus, Heraclitus, Mahomet

In dem Bande »van Vliet« der Hofbibliothek findet und den Königen und
Feldherren Dionisius. Gasi

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

Fosseio (dieser sogar von zwei verschiedenen Platten),
Barbaroussa, Cirus, Atabatipa und Paracou-
issi finden sich hier noch die in unserem offenbar
unvollständigen Exemplar der Ciartres-Serie nicht ver-
tretenen, in vollständigen E.xemplaren aber doch wohl
vorhandenen »Philosophen« Crate Filosofo, Deme-
trlo Falereo, Esopo Frigio, Pytagoras und die
Könige« Gotofridus Bullionius Rex Jerusalem.
Nangazachi Rex Japo"', II GRN Nogay di
Persia, M. Cham Rex Tartarie und schließlich
ein Blatt mit der etwas rätselhaft klingenden Über-
schrift Josef Justs, das aber, wie aus den Versen
darunter hervorgeht, offenbar niemanden anderen als
den ägyptischen Josef darstellen soll. Dadurch erhöht
sich die Zahl der aus der französischen Serie festge-
stellten Porträts auf 36. Dasjenige Porträt aber, das
uns hier am meisten interessieren würde, unser »Faust«,
findet sich, wenigstens in unserer Sammlung, leider
nicht darunter. Den Weg über die Alpen scheint der
nordische Wanderer nicht gefunden zu haben.

Diese italienischen Blätter verhalten sich zu ihren
Vorlagen, den Blättern des Ciartres, naturgemäß wieder
»en contre-partie«, sehen also wieder nach derselben
Richtung, wie die van Vlietischen Originale,

Außerdem sind mir noch einzelne Blätter, z. B.
Scanderbec und Thomas Morus — wieder von anderen
Platten — mit lateinischer Legende untergekommen,
ja sogar zwei der Köpfe iDemocrit und Heradit) auf
einer Platte vereinigt mit englischen Versen darunter
und der Stecher-Signatur ly. Hollar sc. und der Ver-
leger-Adresse 'Sou/J hy John Querton, Newgate.^

Bevor wir nun auf dasjenige Blatt näher ein-
gehen, um dessen Willen wir die ganze Serie wieder-
herzustellen versucht haben, müssen wir die Person
des Verlegers, dem die ursprüngliche Serie ihre Ent-
stehung und Benennung verdankt, etwas näher ins
Auge fassen.

Fran^ois Langlois dit Ciartres war am
12. Mai 1588 zu Chartres, der Hauptstadt des Herzog-
tums Orleans geboren. Er reiste in Frankreich, Eng-
land, Italien, etablierte sich 1633 in Paris und war
bald ein vielbeschäftigter Kunsthändler und Agent
König Karl I. Auch als ausübender Musiker scheint
er sich einen Namen erworben zu haben '^^). Am
14. Jänner 1647 verzeichnet die Pfarr-Matrik von
St. Benoit in Paris: »Fran^ois Langlois, dit de Chartres,
inourut en son logis rue St. Jacques, pr^s le Mathurins,
vivant marchand de taille douce«^). Kein Geringerer
als Anton van Dyk hat uns sein Porträt, und zwar
in der Verkleidung eines dudelsackspielenden Savo-
yarden überliefert*). (Vgl. die Rückseite von Tafel 15).

Die Renaissance mit ihrem Ku't der Persönlichkeit
hat im Laufe des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, begünstigt

durch die fortschreitende Entwicklung und Verbreitung
des Kupferstiches, eine Reihe von Porttätwerken ge-
schaffen. In deren Mittelpunkt naturgemäß die viel-
bewunderten und nachgeahmten griechischen Philo-
sophen standen. Diesen angereiht zu werden, war eine
der größten Auszeichnungen, die einem Zeitgenossen
widerfahren konnte. Welche Verbreitung und welche
Bedeutung die Faustsage im Bewußtsein der mittel-
europäischen Kulturwelt innerhalb eines Jahrhunderts
gewonnen hat, geht wohl am besten daraus hervor,
daß der landfahrende Geselle, über den seine Zeit-
genossen in Deutschland sich durchwegs mit unver-
hohlener Geringschätzung äußern, etwa ein Jahrhundert
nach seinem Tode in die Gesellschaft von Königen
und Weisen Eingang gefunden hat. Und daß dies
weit über den Grenzen seines deutschen Vaterlandes,
im tonangebenden Paris, geschehen ist, erhöht die
Bedeutung dieser Auszeichnung.

Woher aber nahm der rührige Pariser Verleger
ein Bild des deutschen Doktors?

An Stelle der veralteten und vergriffenen Porträt-
serien des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts wollte Langlois
dem Publikum seiner Zeit eine neue vorlegen, die
sowohl in Bezug auf die künstlerische Ausführung
wie auf die Wahl der darzustellenden Persönlichkeiten
dem veränderten Zeitgeschmacke entgegenkommen
sollte. Wie ging er zu diesem Zwecke bei der Aus-
wahl seiner Originale vor? Merkwürdig genug! Er
nahm einfach eine Anzahl jener radierten Studienköpfe,
die ihm damals der Kunsthandel aus den Niederlanden
zuführte, und ließ sie durch seinen Stecher auf ein
einheitliches Plattenformat übertragen. Eine Reihe von
ehrwürdigen Greisenköpfen mit langen Barten konnte
ganz gut für die griechischen Weltweisen passieren
Ohne Bedenken schrieb unser Mann also flott über
den einen Kopf den Namen Empedocles, über einen
anderen Socrates, Plato, usw. Ein Kopf der — aller-
dings recht widerlich — lachte, war natürlich der
lachende Democrit, und mit Grazie so fort. Wenn wir
unserem rührigen Verleger auf dem van Dykschen
Porträt in sein schalkhaft blinzelndes Mephisto-Gesicht
sehen, möchten wir ihm solch eine kecke Mystifikation
seiner Zeitgenossen ganz wohl zutrauen.

Und doch war das, was er getan hat, im letzten
Grunde eigentlich nichts als ein allerdings recht ver-
späteter Ausläufer mittelalterlicher Geschichtsauffab-
sung, die das Individuelle vollständig übersah und
nur auf das Typische ausging. Ein klassisches Beispiel
hiefür bietet uns Harlmann Schedels >Buch der Croniken
und geschichten mit figuren und pildnussen von anbegin
der weit bis auf dise unsere zeit«, Nürnberg 1493, das
Dürers Lehrer Michael Wohlgemuth mit prächtigen
Holzschnitten geziert hat, und aus dem noch ein Jahr-

Chronik des Wiener Goeme-vereins XXX-, XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

hundert später der Verfasser des Spiesischen Faust-
buches seine historischen und geographischen Kennt-
nisse geschöpft hat. Der Herausgeber bringt, seinem
weitausgreifenden Programm gemäß, eine zahllose
Menge von historischen Porträts aus allen Epochen
der Weltgeschichte, verfügt aber nur über eine ganz
beschränkte Anzahl von Holzstöcken. Wie hilft er sich
nun aus dieser Klemme? Er verwendet einfach ein
und dasselbe Klischee für alle möglichen Leute: Das-
selbe Bild, das auf S. XXXVI! als Paris von Troja
bezeichnet ist, begegnet uns auf S. XLIX als der
Prophet Micheas, auf S. LX als Epimenides. auf S.LXIX
als Neemias, und so fort, ein anderes Klischee muß
für Agamemnon, Blas, Sokrates, Demosthenes und
Graf Albrecht zu Babenberg gelten. Nicht anders geht
noch fast ein Jahrhundert später Heinrich Pantaleon
in seinen >Teutscher Nation Warhafften Helden«,
Basel 1568-1578, vor.

^ Die Vorlagen, die Ciartres sich für seine Portät-
köpfe wählte, tragen keinerlei Bezeichnung der dar-
gestellten Person, sie sind lediglich Studienköpfe. Sie
sind, wie eingangs erwähnt, durchwegs größer als die
Nachstiche des Ciartres mit zwei Ausnahmen: den
Vorlagen für »Stan,/tyfieg Kay if Albaniet (Tafel 3) und
für unseren »Faust« (Tafel 2). Diese beiden Blätter
stehen einander in jeder Beziehung am nächsten. Sie
sind von genau gleicher Plattengröße und weisen auch
in der Technik die innigste Verwandtschaft auf. In
den Katalogen wurden sie seit jeher unmittelbar neben
einander angeführt'), aber nur der älteste Katalog von
Amade de Burgy (1755) bezeichnet p. 24 unser Blatt

unter Nr. 178 als >Het Portret van Doctor /'aiistus met

<fn kanl Hoofj eii een Mantel om*. Pierre Yver beschreibt

"S in selneni ^Supplement Au Catalogue Raisonn'. de J/_

' Gersaint, Helle et Ghmy, De Toutes Les Pieces Qti

prment r Oeuvre de Rimbrandtn (Amsterdam 1756), 5.123

mit folgenden Worten : »^v. idQ. 'Ute de l'iuilard en

BmsU, vu* de face et rega*dent vers le bat. E'le est chaitve
"f ptrtie, tt Porte une grande moustacke sur la levre sii-
rieure, avec un fetit tollet h ftntour du ctl. Set deux
oreillts sont dicouvtrttt , et le corps est enveloppe d'un
mamleau. ouvert par devamt. Presque dans la haut de la
•^oitt de FEstampe, on voit ecrit Rt, in. Ce Morceau parte
Nmees 6 tignes de haut^ sur 4 pouces lO lignes de large ■
■ OH prittnd en Hollande, que c'est le Portrait du Dictiur
Faustus. Pour moi Je eroit que M. de Burgy s'est tromp:,
lorsqu'il a plate ce Moreeau au rang des Ouvrages de la
main de Rembrandt, parct qu'il me paroit gravi par van
Vliet. Jl y a une Ccpie de ce Morceau en contre partie de
rOrginal, matt heaueoup plus grande, oü Fon voit icrit
au dessus de la tite, Doctor Faustus, Dans le coin
du htut de la droite om lit Remhrandt inventor , et a
gauche F. L. D. Ciartres exeud. Sa hauteur est de ~ pouces
sn hrnri ft <a iargeur de 6 pouces Q tignes.*

Die Bezeichnung dieses Blattes als Doktor Faustus
beruht also, wie schon Szamat<')lski, S. XXllI, Anm. 2,
ausgesprochen hat, auf einer Rückwirkung des Nach-
stiches von Ciartres. Später verschwindet sie aus den
Katalogen volständig'").

Die ausführlichste Beschreibung der einzelnen
Plattenzustände dieser beiden van Vlietischen Studien-
köpfe enthält ein Aufsatz von J. F. Linck in Robert
Naumanns Archiv für die zeichnenden Künste, 5. Jahr-
gang, 1859: Bemerkungen und Zusätze zu dem Ver-
zeichnisse von Bartsch über die Radierungen des Jan
Georg van Vliet, S. 289:

»B. 25. Brustbild eines niederblickenden Alten [d. i.
das Urbild unseres , Faust-]. Nach Rembrandt
I. Weniger bearbeitet und vor der Adresse. Selten.
II. Ebenfalls vor der Adresse, aber in den Haaren,
den beiden Ohren, sowie der rechten Seite des
Gesichtes und des Mantels bedeutend mit dem
Grabstichel retuschiert.
III. Mit der Adresse des J. de Ram.
B. 26. Brustbild eines Offiziers [d. i. .Scanderbeg' des
Ciartres]. Nach Rembrandt.
I. Vor aller Adresse. Selten.
II. Mit der Adresse von J. de Ram.

III. Die Künstlernamen und die Adresse sind be-
seitigt und die Platte retuschiert worden. Man
liest außerhalb derselben, 9 Linien vom unteren
Rande entfernt, den mit großen lateinischen
Lettern gedruckten Namen: Georgius Ragocy.
Selten.

IV. Die gedruckte Unterschrift ist der Platte näher
und nur 4 Linien von derselben entfernt; man
liest jetzt: Georgius Ragocy, Dei gratiae Prin-
ceps Transilvaniae, Partium Regni Hungariae
Dominum, et Siculorum Comes etc. t'Amster-
dam. Gedruckt by Hugo Allardt, in de Kalver-
straet in de Werelt-Kaert. Die Abdrücke der
Kupferplatte sind sehr schwach.^

Der Verfasser unterläßt es leider anzugeben, w o
er die einzelnen Abdrücke gesehen hat. Aus anderen
Quellen wissen wir, daß sich solche in Wien (Alber-
tina, Hofbibliothek, 1. Zustand), Berlin i'Kgl. Kupfer-
stichkabinett), Amsterdam und im Britischen Museum "i
finden. Ob die Pariser Nationalbibliothek das Blatt
besitzt, läßt sich bei den unzulänglichen Angaben im
Kataloge von Georges Duplessis (Teil III, S. 350: -En
buste, de face. Grav. au burin anonyme«) nicht ent-
scheiden. Außerdem dürfte es noch in anderen öffent-
lichen und Privatsammlungen vorkommen '-). Ein Ab-
druck unseres Faustkopfes mit" der Adresse von J. de
Ram (um 1680 in Holland geboren) ist mir nicht be-
kannt geworden.

Aus den Angaben Lincks sehen wir, daß ein und
dasselbe Original von dem einen Verleger als eine

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

ganz bestimmte historische Persönlichkeit ausgegeben
wird, was aber einen andern durchaus nicht hindert,
demselben Blatte eine ganz andere Bezeichnung bei-
zulegen. Den zwei Bezeichnungen als »Ragocy« stehen
drei als »Scanderbeg« (bei Ciartres, in der italienischen
Serie des Remondini und in einer Serie mit lateinischem
Te.xt) gegenüber. Der von der ungarischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften in der Sammlung Magyar Törteneti
Eletrajzok »Ungarische historische Lebensbeschrei-
bunger.) herausgegebenen Biographie Georg I. Rdköczys
von Ale.xander Szilägyi (Budapest 1893 ist unsere
Radierung als wirkungsvolles Titelbild beigegeben.
Im Anhange auf S. 421 findet sich ein kleiner Exkurs
Qber das Bild, in welchem nicht der leiseste Zweifel
an der Identität der dargestellten Person laut wird.
So ausgerüstet, können wir nun an die einge-
hendere Befrachtung unseres Faustbildes, und zwar
zunächst in dem Archetypus der van Viietischen Ra-
dierung, herantreten.

In dem umfangreichen Werke Rembrandts, das
der Russe Dmitri Rovinski mit großer Sorgfalt ge-
sammelt und verzeichnet hat, finden sich mehrere
kleine radierte Skizzen, die niederblickende Greisen-
köpfe mit schütterem Haupt- und Barthaar darstellen,
keiner darunter aber kann als die Vorlage unseres
Faustbildes angesprochen werden"). Erweckt dieser
Umstand schon von Haus aus ein gewisses Mißtrauen
gegen die Signatur Rt. in., so wird dieses noch ver-
stärkt, wenn wir den unbeholfenen Zug der Buch-
staben schärfer ins Auge fassen und mit der charakte-
ristischen eigenhändigen Signatur van Vliets auf der
Ragocy^- oder »Scanderbeg«-Platte vergleichen, die
in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form auf allen Blättern des
Künstlers wiederkehrt. Diese Beobachtung zwingt uns
zur Annahme, daß die ursprüngliche Signatur von der
Platte abgeschliffen und viel später durch die gegen-
wärtige ersetzt worden ist, ein Vorgang, den Linck ja
auch an der »Ragocyc-Platte festgestellt hat.

Daß das Blatt von der Hand van Vliets herrührt,
dafür haben wir, solange nicht ein Abdruck mit der
Signatur auftaucht, keinen anderen Beweis als die
genaue Übereinstimmung mit der deutlich signierten
»Ragocy«-Platte.

Was wir bisher von der Entstehung der ganzen
Serie und der Art, wie die einzelnen Köpfe zu ihren
Benennungen gekommen sind, ermitteln konnten,
mahnt uns also von vornherein zur äußersten Vorsicht,
und doch treffen gerade auf unseren Faustkopf einige
Merkmale zu, die eine gewisse Verbindung mit dem
Volksbuche herzustellen scheinen.

Von dem Titanengeiste, der da >name an sich
Adlers Flügel, wolte alle Grund am Himmel vnd Erden
erforschen«, ist in dem verhärmten Gesichte allerdings

nicht eine Spur zu entdecken. »Der tief zwischen den
abfallenden Schultern sitzende rundliche Kopf, das
runzlige Gesicht und die hoffnungslos, ausdruckslos
starrenden Augen, der spärliche Schnurrbart, kurz das
ganze kleinliche Alltagsgesicht, der schlichte Radmantel
und die kümmerliche, gefältelte Halskrause, das alles
stimmt eher zum Mitleid mit der traurigen Gestalt als
zur Bewunderung oder auch nur zur Teilnahme für
ihren Kummer. Das spärliche Haar, das schon fast
ganz kahle Vorderhaupt verstärken den Eindruck eher
noch. An einem Übermaß an Freuden leidet dieser
Griesgram sicher nicht; aber diese Furchen sind nicht
beim verzweifelten Grübeln über die Lösung des
Weltenrätsels entstanden. Vielleicht entstammen sie
einer wüsten Jugend, vielleicht jahrelangem Verdruß
über das Mißgeschick des Lebens.« ")

»Dieser Mann mit dem furchtsamen Ausdruck
auf der Oberlippe würde nie mit dem Bösen einen
Pakt geschlossen haben oder doch fünf Minuten spätem
von der Abmachung zurückgetreten sein, und mit
dieser dünnen, heiseren Stimme gesprochen, wären
die Worte, welche die Pforten der Hölle zu erschüttern
vermögen, nicht sehr eindrucksvoll gewesen'*).«

Steht somit der Gesamteindruck des Bildes ge-
radezu im direkten Widerspruch gegen die Vorstellung
von dem verwegenen Abenteurer, die uns das Volks-
buch vermittelt, so erfordert doch die folgende Tat-
sache eine ernste Erwägung:

Über die äußere Erscheinung Fausts enthalten
die Volksbücher keine Andeutung, mit einer einzigen
Ausnahme: In der Bearbeitung des Spiesischen Volks-
buches durch den Schwaben Rudolf Widmann (1599)
lautet eine Stelle im 21. Kapitel, »Doctor Faustus
erscheint nach seinem Tode*, folgendermaßen:
»So sahen auch die Nachbarn herumb den Geist des
Doct. Fausti bey nacht offtmals in seiner behausung
an dem fenster liegen, vnd sonderlich wann der Mond
schien. Er gieng in seiner behausung gantz leibhafftig.
wie er auff Erden gegangen war, mit allerley gestaldt
vnd kleydung. Dann Doctor Faustus war ein hock-
ruckerigs Männlein, eine dürre Person, habend ein
kleines grauwes bärtlein . . .**)«.

Interessant ist, daß diese Stelle n u r in der ver-
hältnismäßig sehr seltenen Widmannischen Bearbeitung,
und weder früher in der ursprünglichen Spiesischen
Ausgabe, noch später in der Pfitzerischen Bearbeitung,
durch die Widmanns Buch bald abgelöst wurde, mehr
vorkommt. Sie wurde zuerst von Erich Schmidt mit
unserem Bilde in Verbindung gebracht in der weite
kultur- und literaturgeschichtliche Ausblicke eröff-
nenden Abhandlung >Faust und das 16. Jahrhundert«^
die seither in die »Charakteristiken« aufgenommen
worden ist.

Chronik des Wiener Goethe- Vereins XXX, XXXI. u. XXXU. Bd.

»Anders«, heilit es dort, »gibt sich das zweite
Blatt, und so mag der historische Faust (der nach
Widmans Schiußcapitel dem Famulus Waiger als ein
.hochruckerigs Männlein, eine dürre Person, habend
ein kleines grawes Bärtlein' erschien) wohl ungefähr
ausgesehen haben: eine derbe, untersetzte Figur^
deren Kopf in den Schultern steckt, denn dei kurze
Hals wird ganz von dem Spitzenkragen verdeckt, mit
spärlichem getirgelten Haar, Schnurr- und Knebelbart
und einem confiscirten Gesicht, aus welchem ein
paar schelmische Augen gar durchtrieben in die Welt
gucken*. Sowet Erich Schmidt. Man könnte sogar
noch einen Schritt weiter gehen und behaupten, der
etwas sonderbar anmutende dreieckige Umriß und der
gesenkte Kopf sei dadurch entstanden, daß Faust
dargestellt ist, wie er nach der Angabe Widmanns^
mit beiden Ellbogen auf das Fensterbrett gestützt (an
dem Fenster liegend), auf die Straße hinabsieht.

Die schelmischen Augen, die gar durchtrieben in
die Welt gucken, finden sich allerdings auf unserem
Bilde rieht, es iit e4ier ein melancholischer Blick, mit
dem Urs dieser armselige Wicht anglotzt. Als Erich
Schmidt diesen Salz niederschrieb (1882 im 3. Bande
des Goethe-Jahrbuches, S. 96), hatte noch kein Faust-
Forscher dieses angeblich Rembrandtische Original
gesehen, das Szamatölski erst 1891 ans Licht gezogen
hat. Schmidts Bemerkung kann sich also nur auf eine
der zahlreichen Nachbildungen des neunzehnten Jahr-
hunderts, etwa die zu Karikaturen verzerrten Kopien
bei Scheible oder Engel beziehen (Tafel 9 und 10).

Außer dieser Stelle findet sich aber bei Widmann,
und wieder n u r bei ihm, noch eine zweite indirekte
Schilderung des äußeren Menschen Fausts. die die
früher angezogene btelle ergänzt tnd bestätigt. Au
diese hat zuerst Kiesewetter in seinem seltsamen Buche
»Faust in der Geschichte und Tradition«, Leipzig 1893,
S. 60, aufmerksam gemacht. Ich zitiere sie hier voll-
ständiger als Kiesewetter, und zwar nach dem Ab-
drucke in Scheibles »Kloster«, II, S. 521 f., weil sie noch
ein zweites Moment enthält, das hier in Betracht kommt:

»Als er nun auff solchem platz [in der Reichs-
stadt Schwäbisch Hall] auff vnd nieder spatzieren
gieng, sein etliche Sieder fürOber gangen, vnd sint
auff das gehengk, so vber das wasser gemacht worden,
gestiegen, vnd atda Stil gestanden, den Faustum an-
gesehen vnd jhr gespött getrieben, denn es ist vmb
die Sieder ein solches voick, wie in solcher Stadt ein
sprichwordt ist, das, wenn Christus Selbsten solt durch
das Hall gehen, er ohn gespött oder unbeschissen
nicht daruon kommen würd, also wiederfuhr es dem
D. Fausto auch, denn einer sagt, wer jst dieser klein
hockendt Mann, der ander antwortet, es ist der Esopus,
der dritte sagt, es ist der Bandelstrobel . . .«

Die Vorstellung des Buckeligen wird hier noch
verstärkt durch den Vergleich mit dem griechischen
Fabeldichter Aesop, dessen Werk durch die Bearbei-
tungen des Ulmer Stadtarztes Heinrich Stainhoewel
1 1475^1 und des ehemaligen Franziskaners Burkhard
Waldis (1548") im sechzehnten Jahrhundert In Deutsch-
land verbreitet war. Auf dem Titelholzschnitte des
»Buch und Leben des hochberühmten Fabeldichters
Aesop« von Stainhoewel (Ulm, Johannes Zainer, 1475 ,
ist der Dichter nach der mittelalterlichen, auf Maximus
Planudes zurückgehenden Überlieferung als buckliger
Zwerg dargestellt").

Wenn wir diese allerdings etwas dürftigen An-
deutungen über Fausts äußere Erscheinung zusammen-
fassen und auf unser radiertes Blältchen zu über-
tragen suchen, möchte es uns fast bedünken, als ob
gerade in diesem Falle der gute Ciartre's etwas ge-
wissenhafter als bei den übrigen Blättern seiner Serie
zu Werke gegangen wäre und etwas wie eine wirk-
liche Charakteristik der darzustellenden Persönlichkeit
angestrebt hätte. Freilich steht dieser Annahme ent-
gegen, daß zu seiner Zeit wohl das Spiesische Volks-
buch, nicht aber die Widmannische Bearbeitung des-
selben in französischer und holländischer Übersetzung
vorlag.

Ein ganz anderes Ansehen erhält die Sache je-
doch, wenn wir die Berechtigung der Signatur *Rt in.^
eingehender prüfen und das Rembrandtische Original
festzustellen suchen, das Joris van Vliet als Vorlage für
seine Radierung benutzt hat. Unter den selbständigen
Porträt- und Studienköpfen Rembrandts in Öl oder in
Radierung findet sich kein einziger, der ohneweiters
als identisch mit unserem »Faust« bezeichnet werden
könnte, dagegen stimmt Form und Ausdruck des
Gesichtes, vor allem aber die merkwürdige, unver-
ständliche Haltung des Körpers genau mit der Gestalt
des Närrvaters Joseph auf dem in englischem Privat-
besitz befindlichen, auf Eichenholz gemalten, 0765 m
hohen und 0*640 m breiten Bilde Rembrandts »Ruhe
der heiligen Familie auf der Flucht nach Ägypten«
überein. Leider kann ich das Bild auf Tafel 4 nur
nach der Heliogravüre von Fillon et Heuse in Wilhelm
Bodes und C. Hofstede de Groots großem Rembrandt-
Werk in Lichtdruck vorlegen und den van Vtietischen
Studienkopf in entsprechender Verkleinerung und Um-
kehrung danebenstelien'*). Wäre heute nicht jede Ver-
bindung mit England abgeschnitten, würde ich gern
einen Ausschnitt aus dem Bilde, nämlich die Büste
des heiligen Joseph, in Originalgröße wiedergeben.
Vielleicht ist übrigens die Zeit doch nicht mehr gar zu
ferne, in der ein Austausch geistiger Interessen unter
den Völkern, die sich noch bis vor kurzem auf Tod
und Leben bekämpften, wieder möglich sein wird.

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd

Dann soll der Versuch gemacht werden, den Besitzern
der vorliegenden Mappe diese Tafel nachzuliefern. Aus
ihr würde sich höchstwahrscheinlich ergeben, was sich
vorläufig nur durch eine auf ur zu verlässige Messungen
an der Reproduktion gegründete Proportion erschließen
läßt: daß der van Vlietische Studienkopf mit dem
Kopf'des heiligen Joseph auf dem Bilde sogar in der
Gröüe übereinstimmt. Daß er nach links gewendet ist,
während er auf dem Bilde nach rechts sieht, kann nach
dem, was wir auf S. 2 über die Nachbildungen in
Kupferstich erfahren haben, die Annahme der Ab-
hängigkeit nur bekräftigen.

Auch die Zeitfolge bietet keine Schwierigkeit,
denn die Flucht nach Ägypten ist nach Bode um 1630
entstanden, während der angebliche »Ragocy« oder
»Scanderbeg« van Vliets, der das Gegenstück zu dem
undatierten »Faust« bildet und also doch wohl gleich-
zeitig entstanden ist, auf der Originalplatte Tafel 3)
die Jahreszahl 1632 trägt.

Jetzt wird auf den ersten Blick so manches klar,
was bis dahin unerklärlich schien: das kummervolle
Antlitz des Nährvaters, der die Seinigen nur durch
rasche Flucht dem drohenden Verderben zu entziehen
vermag, der gesenkte Blick, denn er liest in einem
Buche, und die einseitige Haltung, denn er stützt seinen
linken Arm auf einen Felsblock, der gleichzeitig der
Gottesmutter zum Sitze dient.

Wenn ungeachtet der zahlreichen Obereinstim-
mungen noch ein Zweifel übrigbleiben sollte, ob Joseph
wirklich das Urbild des sogenannten »Faust« abge-
geben hat, so wird dieser Zweifel durch die Tatsache
zerstreut, daß der sonderbare Vorgang, den wir hier
beobachtet haben, durchaus nicht ganz vereinzelt da-
steht, sondern sich zur selben Zeit unter ganz gleichen
Verhältnissen wiederholt hat: aus demRembrandtischen
Bilde »Judas bringt die Silberlinge zurück« ist die
Gestalt des Judas in ihrer ungemein charakteristischen
Körperhaltung auf dem Umwege über van Vliet in die
Porträtserie des Ciartres und in jene des Aubry über-
gegangen. Hier aber muß sie den »weinenden Philo-
sophen« Heraklit (im Gegensatze zum »lachenden«
Demokrit' darstellen (Tafel 5)!")

In dem dritten Falle dagegen, in welchem ein
einzelner Kopf aus einem größeren Bilde Rembrandts
herauskopiert wurde, ist die Bezeichnung der darge-
stellten Person beibehalten worden: aus dem Bilde:
Joseph, seine Träume erzählend (in der Galerie Six
zu Amsterdam, Klassiker der Kunst, II, S. 175) Ist der
Kopf des Joseph in seiner vornübergehängten Haltung
in die Serie des Ciartres und von da in die italienische
des Romandini übergegangen.

Nun wird uns erst ein Ausspruch Goethes in der
Abhandlung »Über Leonard da Vincis Abendmahl«")

in seiner vollen Bedeutung klar: »Man bediente sich
mancher Figuren zu ganz anderm Zweck, als sie der
erste Urheber bestimmt hatte. Weltliche Gegenstände
wurden durch einige Zutaten in geistliche verwandelt;
heidnische Götter und Helden mußten sich bequemen,
Märtyrer und Evangelisten zu sein. Oft auch hatte der
Künstler zu eigner Belehrung und Übung irgend eine
Figur aus einem berühmten Werk kopiert und setzte
nun etwas von seiner Erfindung hinzu, um ein ver-
käufliches Bild daraus zu machen. Zuletzt darf man
auch wohl der Entdeckung und dem Mißbrauch der
Kupferstiche einenTeil des Kunstverderbens zuschreiben,
welche den Dutzendmalern fremde Erfindungen häufig
zubrachten, so daß niemand mehr studierte und die
Malerei zuletzt so weit verfiel, daß sie mit mechanischen
Arbeiten vermischt ward. Waren doch die Kupferstiche
selbst schon von den Originalen verschieden, und wer
sie kopierte, vervielfachte die Veränderung nach eigener
und fremder Überzeugung oder Grille.« Was dabei
für unser Faustbild herauskam, werden die folgenden
Tafeln zeigen.

Wenn wir den Nachstich aus dem Verlage des
Ciartres (Tafel 1) neben seine Vorlage, die van
Vlietische Radierung (Tafel 2), legen, springen die
Abweichungen sofort in die Augen: »Der Kupferstich
verändert die Radierung an sich nicht unbedeutend
aber die Abweichungen gehen über das Technische
hinaus. Die sorgfältigere Ausführung läßt den Stoff
des Mantels feiner erscheinen. Da das Licht von
einem etwas tieferen Punkte einfällt, so erscheint der
Kopf nicht ganz so gebückt. Die Züge sind etwas
verjüngt, das Gesicht hat einen fast schlauen Ausdruck
bekommen und besitzt in seiner Seibstbescheidung
etwas Entschlossenes. Dieser geriebene Herr nimmt
es schon eher mit dem Teufel auf. Seine Stimme mag
dünn sein, aber sie mag dabei etwas scharf Durch-
dringendes haben. Beim Abschließen des Vertrages
wird er sich schon vorsehen, daß er nicht zu kurz
kommt. Aus dem Fünfundsechzigjährigen ist ein
Fünfziger geworden ").«

Nachdem es uns auf diese Weise gelungen ist,
die bildliche Abstammung des Faust-Bildnisses
bis in dritte Generation zurückzuverfolgen, wollen
wir uns nun mit der gebotenen Vorsicht an den Ver-
such heranwagen, ob es nicht vielleicht möglich wäre,
einen Schritt weiter zu gelangen und bis zu dem
lebenden Urbilde vorzudringen.

Der Kopf des grämlichen Greises, der auf so
seltsamen Wegen und Umwegen zum Doktor Faust
geworden ist, blickt uns nämlich in verändertem KostOfh
und veränderter Haltung, aber mit denselben Gesichto-
zügen aus mehreren Bildern Rembrandt's entgegen,

Chronik des Wiener Goethe- Vereins XXX , XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

er ist also nicht frei erfunden, sondern einem lebenden
Modelle nachgebildet, das in unzähligen Variationer.
auf den Bildern Rembrandt's und seines Schülers
Gerard Dou wiederkehrt. Vor allem in einer Form und
Haltung, die ganz auffallend an unser Blatt erinnert,
und zwar so sehr, daß die Radierung van Vliet's
nach diesem Bilde im Kunsthandel des achtzehnten
Jahrhunderts ohneweiters als »Faust« bezeichnet
wurde. Lediglich das Kostüm ist verändert : den
kahlen Scheitel bedeckt eine turbanartig von einem
Tuche umwundene Pelzmütze, die uns auch auf
anderen Bildern Rembrandt's und Dou's begegnet,
und an die Stelle des dürftigen, geflickten Bettler-
mantels ist ein üppiger Pelzkragen getreten. Diesmal
liegt aber nicht ein Ausschnitt aus einem größeren
Bilde Rembrandt's zu Grunde, sondern ein selb-
ständiger Porträt- oder Studienkopf, dessen Original
sich Im Ferdinandeum zu Innsbruck befindet (Rück-
seite von Tafel 2, oben». Eine gute alte Kopie dieses
Bildes — früher Gerard Dou zugeschrieben — findet
sich auf Schloß Pommersfelden bei Bamberg
Klassiker der Kunst, XXIV, S. 26, 1801 Der ein-
gangs zitierte Moehsen beschreibt die Radierung,
die das kleine Bild in Originalgröße wiedergibt,
S. 14 folgendermaßen: >Man hat ein Blatt von van
Vliet, so einen Mann vorstellt, der in der Gesichts-
bildung mit diesem [d. i. dem Faust des Ciartres]
übereinkommt, außer daß er ein wenig älter aussieht
Den Kopf bedeckt eine ungeheure rauhe Mütze, die-
unterwärts mit einem gestreiften Tuche, zweimal um-
gebunden ist. Er ist hier in einem Pelze mit einem
breiten rauhen Ausschlag bekleidet, anstatt daß jener
einen offen stehenden Mantel, und einen weißen
Halskragen um hat. Zur rechten des Kopfes ist:
Ht ran Ryn in. Gleich darunter in einem Mono-
gramme: IG. van Vliet fuit /ög^. Ich habe dieses
Blatt sowohl neulich aus einer holländischen Ver-
steigerung unter dem Titel des Doctor Faust, als auch
1760 aus der Frobesischen Auktion zu Helmstädt er-
halten, woselbst es im Catalogo P. 2. p. 3%. n. 579
unter eben diesem Titel vorgekommen "). Gersaint
und Yver haben zwar, ersterer S. 291 u. f. und
letzterer S. 176 einige Blätter angeführet, die van Vliet
nach Rembrandt radirt hat, es kommt aber dieses
Blatt mit keinem der daselbst beschriebenen überein,
es müßte denn das zweyte bey dem Gersaint seyn,
welches er, ich weiß nicht warum, le Porträt de
Philo le Juif nennet.« Warum, w ird uns sofort
klar, wenn wir die Zusammenstellung auf der Rück-
seite von Tafel 2 überblicken und mit Tafel 1 ver-
gleichen: dieses Bild hat nämlich genau denselben
Weg wie der »Faust« zurückgelegt vom Rem-
brandtischen Ölbilde über die Radierung van Vliefs

in die Serie des Ciartres, wo es genau unter den -
selben Umständen wie der heilige Joseph zum
»Faust«, zu dem Namen »Philon le Juif« gekommen
jst. Zug um Zu^, Linie für Linie stimmt hier das
Gesicht mit dem »Faust« überein. Man beachte vor
allem die offenbar durch Hautfalten stufenweise ge-
gliederte Backenlinie mit den hohen Bartstoppeln,
dann Form und Lage der Ohren, besonders aber
die Mundpartie. Lediglich der spitzbübische Ausdruck
der Augen, der recht gat zu dem Bilde des durch-
triebenen Erz-Zauberers paßt, ist — gewollt oder un-
gewollt — durch tiefere Ausarbeitung der Augenpartie
ernster geworden und hat sich so unwillkürlich mehr
der Vorstellung von dem tiefen Denker genähert, der,
ein Zeitgenosse Christi, den Begriff des Logos als
Vermittlers zwischen dem Menschen und der Gottheit
philosophisch begründet hat.

In dasselbe kummerdurchfurchte Antlitz
blicken wir auf dem Rembrandt-Bilde auf der Rück-
seite von Tafel 3, auf das mich Professor Dr.
R. F. Arnold aufmerksam macht (Bode I Nr. 30,
Original in der Sammlung Dr. A. Bredius im Haag).
Wenn wir dieses Bild neben die van Vliet'sche Ra-
dierung, die hier zum Vergleiche wiederholt ist, legen,
wird wohl kaum ein Zweifel daran aufkommen, daß
es ein und derselbe Mensch ist, der auf diesen
beiden Blättern dargestellt ist. Er ist nur noch um
einige Jahre älter geworden, und Kummer und Sorge
haben noch tiefere Runen in sein Gesicht gegraben.
Der Blick ist nach aufwärts gerichtet, aber es sind
dieselben melancholischen Augen, mit denen unse;
»Faust« nach abwärts blickt.

In derselben Wendung, mit demselben Pelz und
demselben niederen Käppchen bekleidet ist dieser
Kopf dann nach dem Ö. bilde Rembrandt's (Klassiker
der Kunst II S. 40, 43), und der nach dem-
selben ausgeführten eigenhändigen Radierung des
Meisters (Klassiker der Kunst VIII S. 238. hier als
»erster Orientalenkopf bezeichnet) in die Serie des
Ciartres, und, wie ich vjrausgreifend erwähnen muß,
in jene des Peter Aubry übergegangen. Weil er aber
eine goldene Halskette mit einem Medaillon daran
trägt (die wir auf manchem anderen Rembrandt-
Bilde wieder erkennen), hat er hier den Namen
Thomas Morus erhalten.

Philo, der jüdische Philosoph aus der Zeit
Christi, der »weitbeschreite Zauberer und Schwarz-
künstler«, D. Johann Faust, und Thomas Moore, der
Großkanzler von England, der berühmte Verfasser
der »Utopia«, drei Persönlichkeiten, wie sie ver-
schiedener kaum gedacht werden können, finden wir
also in unserer Porträt-Serie durch drei Bilder Rem-
brandt's dargestellt, die alle drei auf ein und dasselbe

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

lebende Modell zurückgehen. Dieses Modell aber, das
uns auch auf noch zahlreichen anderen Studien-
kOpfen Rembrandl's begegnet, ist, wie die neuere
Forschung annimmt und in der Benennung der Bilder
zum Ausdruck bringt, niemand anderer als — Rem-
brandl's Vater, der Leydener MQIIermeister Härmen
Geritszoon van Rijn.

♦ * *

Und nun gilt es, die zahlreiche, zum Teil recht
entartete Nachkommenschaft zu verfolgen, die dieses
unter so seltsamen Umständen zum Doktor Faust
gewordene Bild von Rembrandt's Vater im Laufe von
zwei Jahrhunderten gezeugt hat.

Das folgende Blatt, das auf Tafel 6 nach dem
Originale der Familien-Fideikommiß-Bibliothek wieder-
gegeben ist, war bisher gänzlich UQbekannt. Es rührt
von einem Landsmann und Zeitgenossen des Ciartres
her, der ihn um zwanzig Jahre überlebt hat. Pierre
Aubry (1596-1667) stammte aus der Champagne und
ließ sich in dem damals noch deutschen Straßburg
nieder, wo er ein paar hundert Porträts berühmter
Zeitgenossen in Kupfer stach, mit denen er ganz
Europa überschwemmte"». Außer dem -Doktor
Faust< finden sich in ganz gleichem ovalen Rahmen
In unserer Sammlung noch folgende »Porträts« nach
denselben van Vlietischen Studienköpfen, die auch
Ciartres benützt hat: Heradites, Democritus, Thomas
Morus. Keines dieser Blätter trägt eine Stecher-
Signatur oder Verleger-Adresse. Sollte Aubry vielleicht
doch Bedenken getragen haben, diese kühnen Be-
nennungen mit seinem Namen zu decken und auf
diese Weise die Glaubwürdigkeit seiner übr gen
historischen Porträts in Frage zu stellen ? Unsere
Abdrücke sind allerdings so stark zugeschnitten, daß
kein Plattenrand zu erkennen ist, aber die Oberein-
stimmung in dem Format und vor allem die Gleich-
heit der Buchstabenformen der Unterschriften mit
jenen auf Blättern, die ausdrücklich die Firma des
Pierre Aubry tragen, lassen keinen Zweifel daran
aufkommen, daß auch diese vier Porträts aus seiner
Fabrik stammen.

Dieses Blatt scheint die Vorlage für eine spätere
Zeichnung gebildet zu haben, die Alexander Tille
a. a. O., S. 548, folgendermaßen beschreibt: »Ein
Tuschblatt, dessen Vorbild und Entstehung' noch
nicht bekannt geworden ist, macht den Kopf noch
jünger, noch runder und gibt der Gestalt eine Art
Gürtel, .^us dem Fünfziger ist ein Vierziger geworden,
der das Leben mit Wein utid Weib genossen hat.
Die Falten der Stirn und der untern rechten Wange
sind geblieben. Aus dem Gesicht spricht die Be-
kümmernis, daß der Bauch nich' mehr fähig ist, noch
etwas aufzunehmen. Das Blatt ist unterzeichnet

Doctor Faustus und darunter steht von einer Hand
um 17(j0 vermerkt : Natus in comitatu anhaltino etc.
Aus der Vorlage dieses Blattes ist das Titelblatt des
dritten deutschen Volksbuches von Faust abgeleitet.
des sogenannten Faustbuches des Christlich
Meynenden. dessen älteste bisher bekannt gewordene
Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1725 stammt. Es macht auf
seinem vergröbernden Holzschnitt den Doktor zum
Dreißiger. Das Haar ergänzt es ihm freilich nicht,
'.ber die Runzeln tilgt es ihm. Seine feisten Backen
und glotzigen Augen verraten, daß sein Gott der
Bauch ist. Für sein Lieblingsmahl oder den Wein
seines Herzens möchte et sich doch wohl dem Teufel
übergeben, für so wenig mutig man ihn auch sonst
hält. Es ist Faust der Fresser, der Schlemmer, nicht
mehr der Faust, der aus Wissensdurst wider Gott
kriegen wollte.«

Dieses Titelbild ist auf Tafel 7 wiedergegeben.
Den geistreichen Schlußfolgerungen Tilles vermag ich
aber nicht unbedingt zuzustimmen. Wer je in einer
größeren Sammlung von Kupferstich- und Holzschnitt-
Porträts gearbeitet und dabei in einzelnen Fällen die
Veränderungen verfolgt hat. die das Bild ein und der-
selben Persönlichkeit erleidet, wenn jedes folgende
vom vorausgehenden kopiert wird, der wird in den
Veränderungen nicht eine ^energisch durchgeführte
Charakteristik^ *•), sondern nur das Unvermögen des
reproduzierenden »Künstlers« erblicken. Alle Stiche
und Holzschnitte aus dritter und vierter Hand weisen
rundere, vollere Gesichter auf, denen in der Regel
jede Modellierung mangelt.

Während dieser Holzschnitt vor der Editio
princeps des »Christlich Meynenden« sich mit den
verschiedenen Auflagen des Volksbuches fast bis gegen
Ende des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts erhalten hat, ist
eine neue Nachbildung in Kupferstich entstanden, auf
die fast alle Wiederholungen des Bildes im neun-
zehnten Jahrhundert zurückgehen (Tafel 8). Sie findet
sich als Titelbild vor dem fünften Stück der »Biblio-
theca. Acta et Scripta Magica. Gründliche Nachrichten
und Urtheile von solchen Büchern und Handlungen,
Welche die Macht des Teufels in leiblichen Dingen
betreffen. Zur Ehre Gottes, und dem Dienst der
Menschen heraus gegeben von D. Erhard David
Hauber, Hochgräfl. Schauenburg- und Lippischen Super-
intendenten, der Kayserlichen Leopold-Carolinischen
Academie und der Königl. Preuss. Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften Mit-Genossen.« Lemgo 1739.

Eberhard David Hauber ,1695— 1765\ ein
Pfarrersohn aus Hohenhaßloch in Württemberg, wurde
1725 Superintendent zu Stadthagen und 1746 Pastor«
der deutschen St. Petrigemeinde in Kopenhagen.
Neben rein theologischen Arbeiten hat er sich vie

10

Chronik des Wiener Goethe-Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

mit geographischen Studien und mit biblischer
Archäologie beschäftigt • ). Seine Bibliotheca Magica,
die im großen und ganzen auf einem freisinnigen
Standpunkte steht, wurde begonnen in einer Zeit,
da der unter dem Namen der Jenaischen Christnacnts-
Tragödie bekannte Versuch einer Teufelsbeschwörung,
bei der mehrere Teilnehmer durch Kohlenoxydgas-
vergiftung ums Leben kamen, noch immer die Gemüter
erregte und die Federn der Gelehrten beschäftigte *")
Sogar der berühmteste Arzt jener Zeit, der Hallenser
Professor Friedrich Hoff mann, der schon 1706 in einer Ab-
handlung >De potentia diaboli in corpora« durchaus
nicht jeden Einfluß des Teufels schlechtweg geleugnet
hatte, und sein Schüler Johann Heinrich Schulze
haben damals in aufklärendem Sinne in den Streit
eingegriffen.

Auf einer Studienreise nach Holland, die er 1728
mit Unterstützung des Grafen Friedrich Christian
zu Schaumburg-Lippe unternahm, dürfte Hauber die
van Vlietische Radierung kennen gelernt oder er-
woiben haben. Zu dem unbeholfenen Nachstich, der
geradezu eine Karrikatur des holländischen Studien-
kopfes darstellt, gibt er auf S. 356 *") folgende : »An-
merkung zu dem Titul-Kupffer. Doctor Faust ist in
der Historie der Würckungen des Teufels, und der
Zauberey, ein so berühmter Name, daß sein Bildniß
auch billig einen Platz in unserer Bibliothec fordert.
Da mir nun schon vor geraumer Zelt ein von einem
guten Meister gezeichnetes, und in Kupffer gestochenes
Bild desselben zu Händen gekommen, so habe ich
solches diesem Stück vorsetzen wollen. Nun kann
ich zwar nicht sagen, daß Doctor Faust würcklich
also, wie das Bild zeiget, ausgesehen habe ; Da aber
doch solches Bild würcklich und schon vor vielen
Jahren in Kupffer gestochen worden, so wird es
unsern Lesern vermuthlich angenehm seyn, eine copie
davon zu sehen und zu haben.«

Der Rezensent der Allgemeinen Deutschen Biblio-
thek, 107, S. 529»';. urteilt über dieses Bild : »Das
mag nun acht seyn oder nicht, so hat es doch so
viel dem vermuthlichen Charakter eines solchen
Menschen entsprechendes, daß sich selbst mit Lavatern
ein paar Worte darüber jeden ließen, denn obgleich
die Physiognomie, eben keine Schwarzkünstlerische
Bosheit bezeichnet, so hat sie doch viel taschen-
spielerische Schalkheit und schadenfrohe Lauer-
samkeit«

Auf diesen Hauberischen Stich gehen die Nach-
bildungen zurück, die der Faustkopf in der ersten
Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts gefunden hat
(Tafel 9). Mit einer gewissen Selbständigkeit und
nicht ohne Geschick ist die Steinzeichnung behandelt,
die Wilhelm Müller und Ludwig Achim von Arnim 1818

hrer Übersetzung des Marloweschen Doktor Faustus
als Titelbild vorangestellt haben. Störend wirkt nui
die ganz unmotivierte Fältelung des Mantels. Wie
armselig nimmt sich daneben der Steindruck im fünften
Bande von Scheibie's »Kloster«, 1845, aus! Das wirre
Haar vermag der ungeschickte Zeichner nicht anders
darzustellen als dadurch, daß er den einen Teil sich
nach vorne, den andern nach rückwärts kräuseln läßt,
wodurch der Umriß des Schädels in Form einer scharf
gezeichneten Linie zum Ausdruck kommt, ein Vor-
gang, der schon an dem Hauberischen Stich zu be-
obachten ist.

Tafel 10 bringt zwei Nachbildungen aus der
zweiten Hälfte des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Die erste
ein Holzschnitt aus »Deutsche Männer. Bilder aus der
Geschichte des deutschen Volkes von Hermann dem
Cherusker bis auf unsere Tage von Manuel Raschke«
(Leipzig 1868), S, 41, geht, wie der Vergleich mit den
vorausgehenden Tafeln zeigt, offenbar direkt auf das
sehr selten gewordene Blatt des Ciartres zurück und
sucht diese Vorlage möglichst getreu wiederzugeben.
Die zweite dagegen, das Titelbild zu Karl Engels
ominösem »Volksschauspiel« ^Oldenburg 1876;, nimmt
sich wieder allerlei Freiheiten heraus: der ganz leicht
gefältelte Leinerkragen des Originals wird zu einer
Art Mühlsteinkragen, wie er zu Anfang des siebzehnten
Jahrhunderts getragen wurde, und die besonders scharf
gezeichneten und kühn geschwungenen Brauen machen
aus dem Faust einen Mephisto.

Und nun noch einmal aus Deutschland zurück
nach Paris, aus dem neunzehnten Jahrhundert zurück
ins achtzehnte !

Mit Erstaunen erkennen wir auf Tafel 11 unseren
Faustkopf wieder. Aber welche Veränderung ist mit
ihm vor sich gegangen ! Er scheint bereits den Hexen-
trank im Leibe zu haben, denn die zahllosen Runzeln
und Fältchen, die Zeugen kummervoll durchwachter
Nächte, sind geglättet, das dünne, wirre Haar ist
durch einen üppigen, in der Mitte ein wenig kokett
gescheitelten Schopf ersetzt, aber Schnurrbart, Kragen
und Mantel ist derselbe, kein Zweifel, daß wir ein
Abbild von demselben Urbild vor uns haben. Unser
Erstaunen wird nicht geringer, weim wir auf dem
Rahmen, der das Porträt umgibt, lesen: »Zenon Philo-
sophe Natif de l'lsle de Cypre mort a 98 ans.« Das
Blatt stammt wieder aus einer Serie von Philosophen,
der Pariser Verleger derselben aber, »Daumont rue
St. Martin«, ist derselbe, der sich innerhalb dieser
Serie das Stückchen geleistet hat, ein historisch be-
glaubigtes Porträt Rene I. von Anjou, Königs von
Neapel, geboren 1409, gestorben 1480, der nach einem
wechselreichen Leben sich den schönen Künsten
widmete, die Dichtungen der Troubadours sammelte

Chronik des Wiener Goethe-Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXU. Bd.

11

und selbst dichterisch tätig war, seinen Zeitgenossen
als »Benoist Spinoza fameux Philosophe« vor-
zulegen "" .

Während die bisher besprochenen Nachbildungen
in Kupferstich und Steindruck im großen und ganzen
doch immer das Bestreben gezeigt haben, die Vorlage
getreu wiederzugeben, nimmt das auf Tafel 12 in der
Größe und in der unwahrscheinlich grellen Farben -
Wirkung des Orignals getreu wiedergegebene Ö 1-
bildchen, das bisher völlig unbekannt war, in Bezug
auf Technik, Auffassung und vor allem Herkunft^
eine ganz besondere Stellung ein. Im Gegensatze zu
den bisher besprochenen Nachbildungen weist es
eine starke Umbildung ins Dämonische auf, und was
das MerkwQdigste daran ist, es stammt vom Hofe in
Innsbruck und aus einer Sammlung, deren Grund-
stock aus Bildnissen von Personen des sechzehnten
Jahrhunderts besteht.

Faust am Hofe zu Innsbruck! Als ich zum
erstenmale in der erst seit wenigen Jahren der
öffentlichen Besichtigung zugänglichen Porträtsamm-
lung, die gegenwärtig die Wände der Münz- und
Medaillen-Sammlung im kunsthistorischen Museum
ziert, meinen Faust erkannte, da schien sich mir
plötzlich ein unendlich weiter Ausblick zu eröffnen.
Meine Freude wurde jedoch bald herabgestimmt, als
ich mich mit der Geschichte des sogenannten Rem-
brandtischen Faust-Bildes einerseits und mit der Ge-
schichte der Ambraser Porträtsammlung andererseits
eingehender zu beschäftigen begann.

»Den am wenigsten bekannten Bestandteil des
großen Kunstbesitzes, der vormals im Schlosse Ambras
vereinigt war, bildet eine Sammlung kleiner Bildnisse
von regierenden Fürsten des fünfzehnten und
sechzehnten Jahrhunderts und ihren Ahnen, von Feld-
herren, Staatsmännern, Gelehrten, Künstlern und
Dichtern derselben Zeit und aus verschiedenen Ländern
Europas, unter denen Deutschland und Italien obenan
stehen. Man pflegt sie als Porträt-Sammlung des
Erzherzogs Ferdinand von Tirol (f 1595) zu be-
zeichnen, was in der Hauptsacha richtig ist. Doch
finden sich in ihr auch Bildnisse aus dem siebzehnten
Jahrhunderte bis zum Ende desselben. Diese zeigen,
daß deren auch noch später in einer, wenngleich
nicht großen Zahl, nach Ambras gekommen sind,
also zwischen einem alten Bestände und späteren
Erwerbungen unterschieden werden muß« *°). Die
Gruppe, welcher unser »Faust« angehört, schildert
Kenner mit folgenden Worten : »Die andere Reihe (41
dagegen ist wohl älter, (als die im vorausgehenden
Abschnitte besprochene Serie von Miniaturen des
siebzehnten Jahrhunderts), a'^er auch sehr unter-
geordnet. Sie umfaßt 46 gleich große, auf Leinwand

skizzenhaft gemalte, wohl meist erfundene Porträte
die durch den braunen Ton, der fast wie Untermalung
aussieht, und durch ein gelbliches, mit Weiß gehöhtes
Inkarnat auffallen. Als eine geschlossene Folge für
sich, scheinen sie von jeher wie ein Anhang der
Sammlung betrachtet und, was sie in der Tat ver-
dienen, wenig gewürdigt worden zu sein.«

Wenn wir die ganze Reihe sorgfältig durch-
gehen, können wir feststellen, daß unser »Faust« In
dieser Umgebung nicht allein steht, sondern einen
guten Teil der illustren Gesellschaft, in die ihn Ciarlres
seinerzeit gestellt, mit sich genommen hat. Bei ge-
nauem Zusehen erkennen wir unter Nummer 43
Herodes, 45 Dionysius, 48 Mahomet, 49 II Gran
Nogaj, 50Cirus, 52Archrimedes,53Esop, 54 Pythagoras.
56 Aristoteles, 57 Thomas Morus, 59 Chaireddin Barba-
rossa, 63 Mahomet, 67 den ägyptischen Josef.
Die Entstehung dieser Bilder läßt sich wohl nur so
erklären, daß der Maier, der den Auftrag erhielt, die
Sam.mlung zu vervollständigen, sich allerdings die
Blätter der Ciartres-Serie oder jener von Pierre Aubry
zum Vorbild genommen, die einzelnen Bildnisse aber
absichtlich aus seiner Phantasie heraus umgestaltet
hat, um die Abhängigkeit von seinen Vorlagen
weniger deutlich in die Augen springen zu lassen.
* *

Mehr als zwei Jahrhunderte haben wir in unserer
bisherigen Betrachtung durchmessen. Diesen langen
Zeitraum hindurch hat sich der aus holländischem
Boden hervorgewachsene, in der windigen Pariser
Großstadtluft umgetaufte Studienkopf als das be-
glaubigte Bildnis des geschichtlichen Faust mit merk-
würdiger Zähigkeit gerade in Deutschland am Leben
erhalten. Aber welche Wandlungen hat er durch-
machen müssen 1 Der Rembrandtische Lichtstrahl, der
von rechts oben über das Gesicht fällt, ist allmählich
verglommen, der gebeugte Kopf hat sich immer mehr
aufgerichtet, der gesenkte Blick gehoben, die Züge
haben sich von Stufe zu Stufe vergröbert, bis uns
schließlich das gramdurchfurchte Antlitz des Nähr-
vaters, zur mephistophelischen Fratze verzerrt, aus
der Bildfläche entgegenstarrt.

Daneben ist allerdings wiederholt der Versuch
unternommen worden, den einen oder anderen künst-
lerisch zum mindesten gleich hochstehenden Typus
als Faust einzuführen, keiner dieser Versuche hat
jedoch durchzudringen vermocht. Wir können uns
daher im folgenden darauf beschränken, die um der
Vollständigkeit willen gebrachten Abbildungen mit
kurzen Erläuterungen zu begleiten.

Tafel 13 bringt zunächst ein bartloses Gesichf
mit formloser Mütze in ovalem Rahmen mit der
Unterschrift : LE DOCTEVR FAVSTE PHILOSOPHE

12

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

ALEMAND etc. Es geht zurQck auf einen kleinen
radierten Studienkopf von Rembrandt, der, wie ich
glaube, das Modell zu einer Figur des sogenannten
großen Ecce Homo (Ölbild : Klassiker der Kunst, II,
S. 157, Radierung, ebenda, VIII, S. 195) darstellt, und
zwar zu jenem bartlosen Gesicht, das — hier von
Leidenschaft verzerrt — der abwehrend ausgestreckten
Hand des Pilatus gerade gegenübersteht. Das Porträt
stammt aus dem Verlage des Kupferstechers Balthasar
Moncornet, der, um 1615 zu Rouen geboren und nach
1670 gestorben, in seiner »boutique au fauburg Saint*
Marcel. dans la rue des Gobelins« zu Paris eine ähn-
liche Fabrik historischer Porträts betrieben hat, wie
seine älteren Zeitgenossen Langlois und Aubry **)■
Sein Faust-Porträt ist offenbar auf genau dieselbe
Weise zustandegekommen, wie das seines Zeit-
genossen Ciartres. Das ergibt sich am besten aus der
Zusammenstellung mit dem angeblichen Porträt des
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Fausl's
ungleich höher stehendem Zeitgenossen, der als
Doktor alier vier Fakultäten das berühmte Buch

Dt $miertttudin( et vanita/e omnitim SiUntiaiutn (t

artinm, das das Gehirn des Knaben Wolfgang Goethe
eine Zeitlang in ziemliche Verwirrung setzte »*), ge-
schrieben und gar manchen Charakterzug zum Bilde
des Goethischen Faust beigesteuert hat^')-

Auf Tafel 14 erkennen wir zunächst in ver-
kleinerter Nachbildung denselben Kopf in der Serie
des Ciartres, hier trägt er aber zur Abwechslung die
Bezeichnung Divinus Plato und überdies in der
linken oberen Ecke die Künstler-Signatur hPadoanus
Inuentor ! Durch die Gegenüberstellung mit der Rem-
brandtischen Originalradierung, die einen Amster-
damer Rabbiner darstellt, wird die völlige Halt-
losigkeit beider Benennungen offenbar. Das Bild des
Agrippa, wie es vor den älteren Ausgaben seiner
Schriften steht, sieht ganz anders aus.

Diese beiden Bildnisse stammen gleichfalls aus
einer Serie, deren Titel ich hier nur aus sekundärer
Quelle wiedergeben kann : Tabitau historiijue, ou nombre

tit I>i.'XLIlJ plamkes ou sont gravis en tailU-Joute Us
illtistrtt Francois tt Strängen de tun et Fautre text,
remar^uahUs far Itur naissante ou leur Jot tum, doctriue,
////«', (hargt tt iniflois; avtt leurs ihges et leurs
armoiries gravits far Pietre Daret, Louis ßoissevin (f
B. Montcrnet. Paris /fJSy2 — 56 **>,

Derselbe Rembrandtische Sludienkopf, der bei
Moncornet als »Le Doctevr Favste Philo-
so phe A II e m a n d etc.« bezeichnet ist, begegnet
uns in der Serie des Pietre Aubry, der, wie wir er-
fahren haben, seinen Faust schon hatte, als Archi-
medes Siracus (Tafel 22. Daß dieses Blatt zur selben
Serie gehört, wie der Doctor Faustus auf Tafel 6,

ergibt sich aus der übereinstimmenden Größe des
Ovals, der gleichen horizontalen Schraffierung des
Hintergrundes und dem gleichen Buchstabencharakter
der Unterschrift. Ein genauer Vergleich mit dem zu
diesem Zwecke hier wiederholten Docteur Favste des
Moncornet zeigt, daß der Kopf in dem Oval viel
weiter nach rechts geschoben ist, daß die Falten der
Mütze und der Pelzkragen viel schärfer heraus-
gearbeitet, die Züge des Gesichte« stark vergröbert
sind und die Mundpartie im tiefschwarzen Schatten
der sich kreuzenden Strichlagen nahezu völlig unter-
gegangen ist.

Vielleicht war eine gewisse Ähnlichkeit mit dem
bekanntesten und berühmtesten Faust-Bilde, Faust in
seinem Laboratorium (Tafel 15), dafür ausschlag-
gebend, daß man gerade diesen Rembrandtischen
Studienkopf für Faust ausgegeben hat. Aber auch bei
dieser größeren Radierung steht es durchaus nicht
einwandfrei fest, daß Rembrandt selbst hier einen
Faust darstellen wollte. »Nicht Erstaunen, nicht Ent-
setzen steht auf diesem runden, glattrasierten Gesicht,
sondern die Behaglichkeit im Beschauen des Selbst-
verständlichen. Die ganze Gestalt macht einen selbst-
sicheren, behäbigen und wohlgenährten Eindruck.
Seelische Erregungen sind ihr ganz fremd. Sie scheint
sich eher die Einzelheiten der Erscheinung einprägen
zu wollen, als daß sie darüber entsetzt wäre.^*) Ver-
hältnismäßig spät wird in der Literatur die Be-
zeichnung > Faust« - überdies durch einen garstigen
Druckfehler entstellt — zuni ersten Male auf dieses
Blatt angewendet in dem 1751 zu Paris erschienenen
Rembrandt-Katalog von Gersaint, Helle und Glomy-
Dort beginnt S. 195, Nr. 250, der diesem Blatt ge-
widmete Abschnitt unter der Überschrift J'autrieui

mit den Worten : J-t Portrait tfun PhHoso/he, ou Aleiecin,
coritiu en I/ollaniie sous to nont i/u /)octeur Fautrieus.

Diesen Katalog hat Goethe gekannt; am 3. Juli
1780 schreibt er an Merck, der selbst ein gründlicher
Rembrandt-Kenner und -Sammler war: >wenn du die
schöne Jahreszeit über den Gersaint entbehren kanst
mit dem Supplemente, so schick mir ihn mit.« Wozu
er ihn brauchte, geht aus einer späteren Briefstelle
(ll. Oktober 1780) hervor: >Sei doch so gut und
schreib mir, wie man es am gescheutsten macht,
eine Kupferstichsammlung zu rangiren ... Es ist dies
ein Auftrag, den mir der Herzog gegeben hat, und an
dem ihm viel gelegen ist.« Goethes Interesse für
Rembrandt ist jedoch keineswegs erst durch Merck
angeregt worden, er brachte es schon aus dem Vater-
hause nach Weimar mit Unter den Frankfurter
Malern, die Rat Goethe beschäftigte, war auch Johann
Georg Trautmann (1713—1769), »der sich den Rem-
brandt zum Muster genommen und es in ein-

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX, XXXI. u. XXXII. Bd.

13

geschlossenen Lichtern und Widerscheinen, nicht
weniger in effectvollen Feuersbrünsten weit gebracht
hatte, so daß er einstens aufgefordert wurde, einen
Pendant zu einem Rembrandtischen Bilde zu
malen«" . Ende August 1775, unmittelbar vor seinem
Abgang nach Weimar, schreibt Goethe an Johanna
Fahimer: »ich zeichne, künstle p. Und lebe ganz
mit Rembiandt« Dieses
Interesse für Rembrandt
hat ihn bis in das späteste
Alter begleitet : Am 23.
März 1829, drei Jahre vor
seinem Tode, schreibt er
an Rauch: »Vor einiger
Zeit erhielt ich unver-
muthet eine Capitalzeich-
nung von Rembrandt, wo-
ran ich schon einige
Wochen zehre, bey dieser
Gelegenheit andere Werke
dieses unvergleichlichen
Meisters hervorsuche und
in sein Verdienst einzu-
dringen mirzurAngelegen-
heit mache.' Von diesem
Blatte besaß ereinen guten
Abdruck^ .Als es sich bei
Veranstaltung der ersten
rechtmäßigen Gesamtaus-
gabe seiner Schriften im
Jahrel788darum handelte,
ein Titelkupfer für den 7.
Band, der das Faust-Frag-
ment enthalten sollte, aus-
zuwählen, ließ er noch in
Rom^*) durch den Kupfer-
stecher Joh. Heinrich Lips
diese Rembrandtische Ra-
dierung in Kupfer stechen
(Tafel 16 . Weiche Verän-
derungen Lips beim Nach-
stich vorgenommen hat,
ergibt sich aus einem Ver-
gleich der beiden Blätter. Die ältesten Ausgaben des
Volksbuches sind noch ohne jeden bildlichen Schmuck-
Erst ein 1588 ohne Angabe des Ortes erschienener Nach-
druck von Zarncke, Goethe-Schriften, S. 261 als a' be-
zeichnet), dessen Titelblatt hier nach dem Katalog der
Frankfurter Faust-Ausstellung wiedergegeben ist, weist
einen kleinen Holzschnitt iu\, der gewissermaßen das
Ende des Faust-Romans an den Anfang anknüpft, in-
dem er im Vordergrunde den Abschluß des Paktes, im
Hintergrunde die Höllenfahrt Fausts darstellt. Dem

yaubcrcr t)n ©c^ivarl^f ütifKcr / ® ie

er (ic^ gegen txm Xtu^d niiff eine bmanbtc

ytlt vetfd^titben I XOas tt {yU^wi^düttx für frl^^C

Äbcnrbf »rr g^fc^jen/frlbÄ an^ttiitnl vnx> grrvUt

btnibi^tttntU^ frfncn ooloerDUtM

cen t,9\)n empfangco.

5J?c^rcrtci(^ au£^ fcttieti cfgcticn l^ixu

Den/f6ttt>tt5fg<n rnö ©ottloff n inrnpl?«« jijm fdijercf«
Kf^ert ^ey fpid/ obrd^i»?l(c^rn (Srrmprl/vnD rtCQ»(^
OfgecXP^cnunct jufamrmn gebogen / xa^
in JDcucf vrrferrrgrr.

II.D. ixxxviii;

Zeichner hat dabei offenbar der Anfang des 5. Kapitels

vorgeschwebt, wo Faust dem Mephistopheles auf-
erlegt, >daß, so oft er jn forderte, er jm in gestalt
und Kleydung eines Franciscaner Münchs, mit einem
Glöcklin erscheinen solte. vnd zuvor etliche Zeichen
geben, damit er am Geläut könnte wissen, wenn er
daher komme.« Diese primitive Darstellung hat, wie

Professor Dr. F. Arnold zu-
erst bemerkt hat, zweifel-
los auf den künstlerisch
bedeutenden Kupferstich
eingewirkt, der auf Tafel

17 wiedergegeben ist. Man
beachte vor allem die Lage
des Glöckleins und des
Rosenkranzes bei Mephi-
stopheles, und die Haltung
der Hände der beiden Fi-
guren. Der Stich rührt von
Christoph vanSichem
her, dem II. dieses Namens,
einem Schüler des H. Golt-
zius, angeblich um 1580
zu Delft geboren und 1648
noch tätig, der hauptsäch-
lich biblische Stoffe nach
Dürer, Lukas von Leyden,
Holbein, Heremskerk und
H. Goltzius in Holz ge-
schnitten und in Kupfer ge-
stochen hat").Auch dieses
Blatt stammt aus einer
Serie von Bildnissen, aber
die Gesellschaft, in der
Faust hier auftritt, ist von
jener, in der ihn Ciartres
zum ersten Male einge-
führt hat, von Grund auf
verschieden. Im Jahre 1608
war in Amsterdam zum
1 . Male eineSammlung von

18 Bildnissen berühmter
Ketzer von Christoph van

Sichern erschienen. Sie enthält u. a. die Bildnisse
von Johann Beuckels von Leyden, Diederick Snyder,
Johann Mathys von Harleem, Bernhard Knipper-
dollinck, Cornelis van Dordrecht. Als im Jahre 1666
bei Wilhelm Goeree in Middelburgh eine neue Auflage
unter dem Titel »Het Tooneel der Hooft-Ketteren, Be-
stände in verscheyde Afbeeltsels van Valsche Pro-
pheten, Naeckt-Ioopers, Geest-dryvt rs, Sectarisen ei»
Duyvels-konstenaren. By een vergadert, en in't
Coper gesneeden, Door C V. Sichem« erschien, wurde

14

Chronik des Wiener Goethe-Vereins XXX., XXXI u. XXXII. Bd.

Faust und Wagnar als Tafel 19 und 20 hinzugefügt**).
Gegenübergestellt ist auf derselben Tafel ein Nachstich
aus Arnims Zeitung für Einsiedler vom April 1808.
Das Bild gehört hier zu einer Anmerkung des Heraus-
gebers zu den »Denksprüchen aus einer Friedens-
predigt an Deutschland von Jean Paul Fr. Richter«,
die heute niemand ohne Bewegung wird lesen können .

Die beiden folgenden Tafeln geben eine Aus-
wahl aus den rohen Holzschnitt-B Idern zweier
holländischer Obersetzungen des Spiesischsn Volks-
buches. In der Faust-Gestalt des einen (Tafel 18)
glaube ich den Einfluß van Sichems erkennen zu
können. Tafel 20 zeigt als Titelkupfer zu der von
Victor Palma Cayet herrührenden französischen Über-
setzung des Spiesischen Faust-Buches einen Faust
mit baltlosem Gesicht im Talar und Barett eines
französischen Baccalaureus während derBeschwörungs-
szene im Walde, umgeben von den Gestalten der
Teufel. In stark vergröberndem Holzschnitt erscheint
dasselbe Bild vor der undatierten holländischen Aus-
gabe von Hismans van di Rumpel in Amsterdam.
Tafel 21 gibt die beiden Faust-Bilder einer Gruppe
von undatierten Ausgaben des »Christich-Meynen-
den« wieder, deren Eigenheit, abgesehen von der
Neigung zur Verdeutschung der vielen Fremdwörter,
hauptsächlich in der Ausmerzung konfessionell an-
stößiger Motive besteht"). In dem ersten — Faust
neben einem Tische mit brennender Kerze stehend,
einen Brief in der Hand — glauben wir trotz der
Haarfülle noch immer die Züge des Rembrandt-
Vlietischen Typus wieder zu erkennen. Ganz anders
gestaltet sich dagegen die Auffassung in dem zweiten
Bilde. Offenbar beeinflußt durch die Darstellungen im
Puppenspiel, wählte der Zeichner das Bild eines
»greisen Dutzendgelehrten mit pedantischen Zügen,
Sein Haar ist ebenso sorgfältig gebürstet, wie die
Schubfächer seines Geistes in Ordnung gehalten
werden . . . auf seinen bebenden Lippen scheint
eher eine Genusregel als ein Zauberbann zu
schweben . . .« *'). Wie in den früheren Fällen ist
jedoch auch hier keine Spur einer gewollten
Charakteristik zu entdecken: Der Formschneider hat-
wie der Vergleich mit dem aufs Geratewohl heraus-
gegriffenen Bilde des Tübinger Professors Jakob
Heerbrand aus dem Jahre 1578 zeigt, einfach das
typische Porträt eines protestantischen Theologen des
sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, das ihm der Zufall in die
Hand spielte, für seine Zwecke umgestaltet, indem
er die ornamentale Umrahmung aus dem Renaissance-
in den Rokoko-Stil übersetzte und den ovalen
Rahmen, der in seiner Vorlage durch eine Umschrift
ausgefüllt ist, schraffierte. »So geht es durch nahezu
all die Ausgaben des vierten Faust-Buches, mehrfach

neu in Holz geschnitten, aber in seinen Wsentlichen
Zügen unverändert.«

Das Lustigste an der ganzen Sache aber ist, daß
es durchaus nicht der einzige Fall war, in dem ein
ehrwürdiger Gottesgelahrter sich in den verrufenen
Erz-Schwarzkünstler und TeufelsbQndler verwandeln
mußte: In Auerbachs Keller in L-ipzig hing eingerahmt
am Mittelpfeiler des oberen Kellers ein Holzschnitt,
unter dem die Namansunterschrift offenbar wegge-
schnitten ist, dafür ist auf das Blatt, auf dem das
Bild aufgeklebt ist (von alter Hand?) geschrieben
»Faust 1713«. -Tief sitzt der Kopf drin im Pelzmantel J.
und in der Halskrause. Spitzbart und Schnurrbart sind T
arg struppig. Die Muskelpartien des Gesichts verraten
große Tatkraft.« Wenn nun Tille angesichts dieses
Bildes den Zweifel nicht unterdrücken kann: »Aber
ein echter Faust ist auch er nicht« '■'), so können wir
darauf erwidern: Allerdings nicht, denn waswirhier
vor uns haben, ist das authentische Porträt des Leip-
ziger Theologen Georg Weinrich (1554—1617), der seit
1586 an der Thomaskirche tätig war, im Jahre 1600
als Rektor der Universität fungierte, sechsmal Dekan
seiner Fakultät war und eine stattliche Reihe theolo-
gischer Schriften und Predigten hinterlassen hat ** .

Hatte man auf diese Weise in dem protestan
tischen Sachsen das typische Porträt eines evange
lischen Theologen des 16. Jahrhunderts kurzerhand
jn einen »Faust« verwandelt, so griff mm in dem
katholischen Oesterreich ohne Bedenken zu dem
Bilde eines katholischen Kirchenfürsten aus dem
17. Jahrhundert. »Im Jahre 17S1«, berichtet Tille, a.
a. O. S. 551, »hatte der preußische Referendar Hcr-
klots in der „Preußischen Blumenlese" ein Gedicht
Doktor Faust veröffentlicht, das, unter dem Einfluß
der Hölty-Bürgerschen Balladendichtung und der über
den Teufelsglauben hinausgewachsenen Zeitanschauung
stehend, in freiem, schalkhaftem Tone den Schwank
behandelt, wie Faust die Nasen seiner Gäste scheinbar
in Trauben verwandelt. Ein steirischer Verleger griff
das Lied auf und sandte es stark verkürzt als fliegendes
Blatt hinaus in die Welt, nicht ohne ihm ein Faust-
bild mit auf den Weg zu geben. Er benutzte dazu
einen alten Druckstock des 17. Jahrhunderts.« Dieser
Druckstock kann nun ganz gut, wie unsere Zusammen-
stellung auf der Rückseite von Tafel 22 zeigt, das
Bild eines katholischen Kirchenfürsten des 17. Jahr-
hunderts sein, er kann aber ebensogut von einem
fliegenden Blatt aus der Zeit des oberösterreichischen
Bauernkrieges herrühren und etwa den »Studenten«
oder Stefan Fadinger darstellen.

So sehr verschieden die bisher besprochenen
Faustbilder sich erwiesen haben, so haben sie doch
eines gemeinsam: daß es durchwegs graphische Dar-

Chronik des Wiener Goelhe-Vereins XXX , XXXi. u. XXXII. Od.

15

Stellungen sind. Unbekannt war bisher, daß es auch
ein plastisches Werk gibt, das offenbar auf die-
selbe Weise wie die übrigen zu der Bezeichnung »Faust«
gekommen Ist. Es wurde gelegentlich einer Ausstellung
von Potträtbüsten im Oesterreichischen Museum von
der »Kunst-Chronik« (2. Jahrgang, 1867, S.8) als Faust-

Zum Schlüsse mag hK-r noch das Bild einer
Teufelsbeschwörung Platz finden aus der Zeit, da
der leibhaftige Johann oder Georg Faust noch auf
Erden sein Wesen trieb. Es stammt aus einer deut-
schen Übersetzung von Petrarcas aszetischer Schrift
,De remediis utriusque fortunae (1358— 1366', die unter

^6 LV.Capüci/^ottcrfmbungctncefc^at^*

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tfetbcthtf

6u4?( 646 it |c^Q im bymcl babm» tEbo boe/fo baf? bn gtoiß gut orcrbr.

bOste bezeichnet. Die Provenienz dieser Büste Ist eben-
so unbekannt wie der Künstler, der sie gemacht hat.
Die Entstehungszeit möchte etwa 1520 — 30 zu setzen
sein, *') Im Jahre 1909 ist sie von der Hofbibliothek
an das Kunsthistorische Museum abgegeben worden
(Tafel 22). Der dreieckige Umriß, der auseinander-
fallende Mantel hat offenbar die Anregung zu dieser
Benennung gegeben. Die Charakteristik, die der Re-
ferent der Kunst-Chronik aus der Büste herausliest»
würde eher auf einen Mephis^opheles als auf einen
Faust zutreffen.

dem Titel „Das Glücksbuch" zuerst 1532 bei Heinrich
Steiner in Augsburg erschienen ist. Die „viel zierlichen
und wunderlustparlichen Figuren, so nach visirlicher
Angebung des Hochgelehrten Doctors Sebastiani
Brandt seeligen auf jegliches Capitel gestellt sind'*,
rühren von Hans Weiditz her*"). Dieses Bild hat
Goethe kennen gelernt, freilich erst zu einer Zeit, als
das Faust-Fragment längst erschienen war. Es hat
sich aber in anderer Weise für sein Schaffen frucht-*
bar erwiesen, denn es bildet, wie Düntzer zuerst nach-
gewiesen hat, die Quelle zum „Schatzgräbei"«*).

16

Chronik des Wiener Goethe -Vereins XXX., XXXI. u. XXXIl. BJ

*) Gr&f H. G.. Goethe über te

II. Te«, 2. Band. S. 12.

') Szamat61»ki Siegfried, Das Fanstbuch
de« Christlich Mcynrnden nach dem Druck von 1725
[= Deutsche IJteraturdenkmale des 18. und IQ. Jahrhun-
derts, Nr. 39] Stuttgart, i81>l, S. XIX— XXVI. —
Kiese Wetter Carl, Kaust in der Geschichte und
Tradition, Leipzif». 1893, S. 60. — Tille Alexander,
The arlistic treatment of tbe Faust legend. Publications of
ihe English (ioethr Society No. VII. London, 1893, S. l65f.
— Derselbe, Doktor Faust auf alten Bildem. Vom
Fels zaro Meer, 18. Jahrgang. 26. Heft (i. September 1899),
S. 542 — 551. — Derselbe, Bilderverzeichnis der Bode-
Tilleschen Faust-Galerie. Köln, 1899, S. XV— XIX.

*) L e B 1 a n c M. Gh., Mannel de L'Amiteur d'Est-
anspes, Paris, 1856, II, 490.

*)"Wurrbach Alfred von, Niederländisches
Künstlei-L'xikon, Wien, I910, II, 805.

*) Vgl. Giuseppe Jacopo Ferrazzi, Di Bassano e
dei Bassanesi illustii, Bassano 1847, S. 164fr. — Der
Kupferstecher Johann Schweizer (Schwyzer), nach Naglcr 16,
136 aus Zürich, nach anderen ein Hesse von Geburt, ar-
beitete uiti 1645 und starb 1679.

•) Wurzbach, III, 56.

', Herluison H, Actes d'dtat civil d'aitistes
fran9ais OrUan«, 1873,8. 208. Na hweis Dr. Ulrich T h i e m e.

•)Schaeffer Emil. Van Dyck, S. 2I<).

•) Tille Alex., Die Faustsplit er in der Literatur
des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, Weimar, 1898, S. 610 f.,
Splitter 2C6, S. 614 f., Spliiter 270, S. 673, Splitter 282.

'**) Bartsch Adam. Catalogue Kaisono^ Wien,
• 797, II. S. 78, Nr. 25. — Dutuit Eugene, Manuel
de r amateur d' estampes. £coles Flamaude et Hollandaise,

III, 547. — Le B 1 a n c. Manuel, IV, 145, Nr. 26. —
Kovinski Dmitri, L'ccuvre grav^ des ^l(^ves de
Rembrandt et des maittes qui out gravc dans son goüt,
St. Petersbarg, 1894, Spalte 46.

") Szamatölski, S. XXI. — Rovinski, Sp. 46.

'*) K i e s e w e 1 1 e r, S. 60.

") Einer derselben auf Tafel 13 zur Raumausfüllang.

") T i 1 1 e, Faust auf alten Bildern. S. 548.

•'') Tille, The aitistic treatement. S. 165.

'*) Ich zitiere nach dem (bisher einzigen) Neudru<k
in Scbeiblcs Kloster. II. Band. S. 795. — Der Original-
drock bat, wie mir Prof. Dr. Otto Heuer mitteilt,
hockruckerigs. während Frich Schmidt (Goethe-
Jahrbu. h, III, 96) hochruckerigs zitiert.

'■) K. k. Hofbibliothek. Katalog der Buchkunsl-
Antttellong, Wien, 1916, S. 31, Nr. 99.

'•) Rembrandt von Wilhelm Bode. Paris.
1879, I, Fand, S. I9. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Ge-
mälde I, Nr. 37 (S. 106). In einem Buche lesend hat Rem-
brandt den Nährvater noch zweimal dargestellt. (Klassiker der
Kunst, VIII. S. 80. 138). Vgl. darüber Goethe, ,,Nach
Falconet und über Falconet" (Jub.-Ausg. 33. Band, S. 40) :
„es ist alles düster, außer einem Lümpchen, das dem Vater
leuchtet, der mit einem Büchelchcn dasitzt un<l Matien
einige Gebete vorzulesen scheint." An einer anderen Stelle
,Der Sammler und die Seinigen", Ebenda, S. 192; läßt
er es einen Pedanten als Anachronismus vermerken, ,,daQ
der heilige Joseph in einem gebundenen Buche lese". Der
Ausdiuck der Verdrossenheit, den Alexander Tilles scharfer
Blick ans dem van Vlietischen Sludienkopf richtig heraus-
gelesen hat, bildet einen charakteristischen Ztig an der
Gestalt des Nährvaters: Goethe hat das zweimal ausgespro-
chtn. einmal scherzhaft in dem Epigramm ,,Heilige Familie"

Anmerkungen.

Dichtungen, (Jub.-Ausg., i. Band. S. 252), das andere Mal in „Kunst
und Altertum" (Jub- Au.sg., 3f;. Ban<l, S. 304): „Auf den
heiligen Joseph überhaupt haben es die Künsll^jr abgesehen.
Die Byzantiner, denen man nicht nachsagen kann daü
sie überflüssigen Humor anbrächten, stellen bei der Geburt
den Heiligen immer verdrießlich vor."

'») Eben la, Text T. 6 f.. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis
Nr. IG, S. 52 - Das Modell des Judas glaube ich i»
dem Studienkopf in der Kgl. Galerie in Kassel (Kla.ssikei
der Kunst, IT, S. 356) zu erkennen.

*••) J u b. - A usgabe, 35. Band S. 44.

") Tille, Faust auf alten Bildern, S. 548.

") Bibliotheca Jo Nicolai Frobesii Matheniat. A(
Physices Professoris Quondam Helnnsfadiensis Pars II Bibüo-
thccam Pbysicam, Medicam, Mathemathicam Et Litterariam
Compleclcüs. Publicx Auctionis Lege Distrahelur Helmstadii
Die XV. M. Septembris es sqq. A. MDCCLX p. 396
Tille, Faustsplitter, No. 282, S. 673)

*') S i t z m a n n Ed., Dictionnaire de biographie des
hommes celcbrts de l'Alsace, Rixheim, I909, I, 66. Über
seine Beziehungen zu Moscherosch vgl. Artur Bechtold
Zeitschr. f. Bücherfreunde, N. F., 6., S. 270 f., 8., S. 230 ff.

*') Szamatölski, a. o. O., S. XXIV.

**) Allg. Deutsche B i o g r., Ji. Bd , S. 36 1.

»«) Tille, Faustsplitter, S. 189 ff.

") Die aber in der Tat S. 348 ist.

'") Nach C. B 1 ü m 1 e i n. Faustanalekten, in den Be-
richten des Fr. Deutschen Hochstiftes in Frankfurt a. M.,
N. F., Xn. (1896), S. 190. In der Allg. Deutschen Bibliothek
ist diese Stelle am angegebenen Orte nicht zu fmden.

") A 1 1 k i r c h Spinoza im Porträt, Jena. I913, 72 f.

'**) Kenner F., Die Porträtsammlung des Erzherzogs
Ferdinand von Tirol : Jahrbuch der Kunsthistor. Samm-
lungen des AI erh. Kaiserhauses, XIV. Band (1893). S. 37 ff,

") NouvelleBiogr. g^n^rale, 35.Bd.,S 953.

") Dichtung und Wahrheit, Jub.-Ausg..
22. Band, S. 190, 289.

*') R e i c h 1 A.. Euphorion, 4. Band (1897), S. 287 ff.

— Ritter G., Preuß. Jahrb , 141. Bd. (1910), S. 300 ff.|
'♦) Aberlc Carl, Grabdenkmal, Schädel und Ab-
bildungen des Theophrastus Paracelsus, Salzburg, 1891.
S. 292. Faust stehen in dieser Serie am nächsten dif
gleichfalls auf Rembrandt zurückgehenden Bildnisse von
Raimundus Lullus und Nicolas Favel.

»*) Tille, Faust auf alten Bildern, S. 547.

") Dichtung und Wahrheit, a. a. O., S. 29 f. — Vgl
auch Brandt Hermann, Goethe und die graphischen
Künste Heidelberg, 1913, S. 66 f.

*') Schuchardt Chr. Goethes Kunstsammlungen ,
Jena, 1848, I. Teil. S. 177, Nr. 322.

'*• An Göschen am 6. Februar 1788.

•p Wurzbach, a. a. O., I, 620.

*') Ausstellung von Handschriften, Druckwerken-,
Bildern und Tonwerken zur Faustsage und Faustdichtung
veranstaltet vom Freien Deutschen Hochstift. 28. Augus».

— 10. November 1893. Frankfurt a. M.. 1893, S. 107.
♦») Szamatölski, a. «>. O., S. XV. XXV (Klasss i).
") Tille, Bilderverzeichnis, S. XVIH.
**) Ebenda, S. XIX.

**) Allg. Deutsche B i o g r. 41. Band, S. 514 ff.
•*> Nachweis meines Kollegen Johann Jureczek.
**) R ö 1 1 i n ge r, Hans Weiditz, der Petrarkameister

Strasburg, 1904. Nr. 24 (S. 27 — 75).

*^Düntzer Heinrich, Goethos lyrische Ge-
dichte. Erläutert. 3. Anfl., Leipzig, X896, .S. 248.

Verlan des Wiener Goeihe-\'erein>. — Druck von Josef Roller & Co.
(unter verantw. Leitung von Josef VokD in Wita
In Kommiastoo bei Alfred llAlde'', Hol- und Universilltsbuciihindler
1., RoihenihurmfiraSe 2t.

Dniveriity of Torooto
Library

Acme Llbraiy Card Pocket

Und« Pau "Ref. lad« FU«**

Mad«l7 LIBRARY TIUREAU

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[navanavonmilita]

News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth

Google scholar search for the term "Caste System in India"

Thousand references provided. Some are in pdf format and can be read
in complete on the internet.

The scheduled tribes of India By Govind Sadashiv Ghurye

scheduled tribes

User Review - pulkit - Amazon.com -

i have a request that you please send me the followng questions on the
scheduled tribes in about 1 r 2 days. 1)who are they? 2)tribal arts
and crafts? 3)trial danse and music? 4)tribal women? 5)trial rituals
and social practices ? 6)ribal economy? 8)tribal rights? 9)differnt
tribes of india?

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Essays on north-east India: presented in memory of professor V.
Venkata Rao By Milton S. Sangma, V. Venkata Rao, North Eastern Hill
University. Dept. of History

Book overview

Commemoration volume, comprises contributed articles, sponsored by the
Department of History, North Eastern Hill University

Limited preview - 1994 - 326 pages

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Ethnicity, culture, and nationalism in North-east India By M. M.
Agrawal

Book overview

Papers presented at the Seminar on "Ethnicity, Culture, and
Nationalism: Problems in the Context of North-East India", held in
Sept. 1995 at the North Eastern Hill University.

Limited preview - 1996 - 175 pages

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Book overview

This Book Apart From The Early History Of The Khasis Covers The Period
Right Through The Birth Of Meghalaya And In Respect Of Subjects Like
Literature, Education Etc. Has Been Considerably Updated Right Upto
The Mid Eighties.

Snippet view - Edition: 3 - 1997 - 512 pages

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Title Principles of Khasi law
Author A. S. Khongphai
Edition 2

Publisher A.S. Khongphai, 1974
Original from the University of California
Digitized Jan 11, 2008

Length 82 pages

Subjects Law / Criminal Law / General
Law / General
Law, Khasi

Tradition and modernity in Khasi society
N K Dev

2004 - 411 pages - Snippet viewPrinciples of Khasi law
A. S. Khongphai

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References to this book
From Google Scholar

In-law Conflict

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Donna L Leonetti, Dilip C Nath, Natabar S Hemam, Evelyn Blackwood,
Patricia C Draper, Harald A ... - 2007 - Current Anthropology

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Title Meghalaya District Gazetteer: Jaintia Hills district

Volume 3 of Meghalaya District Gazetteer, Meghalaya (India). Dept. of
Arts & Culture
Authors Ivan Martin Simon, Meghalaya (India). Dept. of Arts & Culture
Publisher Govt. of Meghalaya, Arts & Culture Dept., 1996
Original from the University of Michigan

Digitized Apr 27, 2006
Subjects Meghalaya (India)

Contents
GENERAL 118 1

HISTORY 1928 19

PEOPLE 2940 29

CHAPTER P7 AGRICULTURE IRRIGATION 4165 41

INDUSTRIES 6676 66

BANKING TRADE COMMERCE 7791 77

COMMUNICATIONS 92112 92

MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS 113128 113

REVENUE ADMINISTRATION 152157 152

LAW AND ORDER 158166 158

OTHER DEPARTMENTS 167172 167

CHAPTER xrv LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT 173179 173

EDUCATION CULTURE 180197 180

MEDICAL PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES 198209 198

OTHER SOCIAL SERVICES 210214 210

PUBLIC LIFE VOLUNTARY SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 215219 215

More

ECONOMIC TRENDS 129141 129

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION 142151 142

PLACES OF INTEREST 220226 220

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Christians of India By Rowena Robinson

Book overview

`This book is dense with information and well structured. It gives a
good overview of the extraordinary variety of Christian life in India
and maps out the terrain for further reseearch... any serious student
of Christianity in India will find this book very valuable. It ought
to be read - however unlikely it is for this to happen - by all those
who are contesting the place of Christianity in contemporary India' -
Journal of Contemporary Religion

`This volume, which also provides an excellent select bibliography, is
therefore to be welcomed by all those interested in the study of
Indian Christianity' - The Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute

Christians of India is an important study on Christian communities in
India. Beginning with the authors critical scrutiny on existing
literature on Christianity in India, which she feels has suffered from
enormous neglect - a neglect that has extended to the study of all non-
Hindu communities. The author traces the roots of this neglect to the
roots of Sociology and Anthropolgy, from the moment these disciplines
came to India.

Limited preview - 2003 - 234 pages

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Popular Christianity in India: riting between the lines By Selva J.
Raj, Corinne G. Dempsey

Book overview

Popular Christianity in India explores Indian Christianity as crafted
and expressed through lived experience, providing an important balance
to currently available, typically theological, studies. Drawing from
many disciplines, this volume unearths the multifaceted terrain of
festivals, rituals, saints, miracle workers, missionaries, and
visionaries in Christian India, providing a wonderful glimpse of its
richness and complexities. The contributors reveal the ways in which
local Christian traditions deftly challenge assumed divisions and
power imbalances between East and West, Hindu and Christian, foreign
and indigenous, and elite and local expressions. Whether forging
complicated religious, caste, and national identities, employing
religious hybridity to promote well-being, or asserting autonomy
within oppressive social and religious structures, local Christianity
provides a crucial means for its participants to manage their earthly
needs and desires.

Limited preview - 2002 - 284 pages

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Hindu and Christian in South-East India By Geoffrey A. Oddie

Book overview

Limited preview - 1991 - 280 pages

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Hindu God, Christian God: how reason helps break down the boundaries
between ... By Francis Xavier Clooney

Book overview

This volume offers an in-depth study of key themes common to the Hindu
and Christian religious traditions. It redefines how we think about
Hinduism, comparative study, and Christian theology. This book offers
a bold new look at how traditions encounter one another, and how good
comparisons are to be made. Redefining theology as an interreligious,
comparative, dialogical, and confessional practice open to all people,
it invites not only Hindus and Christians, but also theologians from
all religious traditions, to enter into conversation with one another.

Limited preview - 2001 - 209 pages

User Review - Bekah - Goodreads -

If you haven't studied Hinduism you're going to want to DIE reading
this. But it's worth the read and has some interesting isights, though
I don't think they're always well thought out. His Theology After
Vedanta, I thought, was better.

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Hindu-Christian dialogue: theological soundings and perspectives By
Mariasusai Dhavamony

Book overview

Limited preview - 2002 - 220 pages

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The guru in Indian Catholicism: ambiguity or opportunity of
inculturation? By Catherine Cornille

Book overview

The attempt at inculturation of the Catholic Church in India has given
birth to Catholic ashrams. The essence and raison d'etre of a
traditional ashram is the figure of the guru. "The Guru in Indian
Catholicism" is a reflection on the implications, problems and
possibilities of introducing the Hindu notion of the guru into the
Catholic tradition. Cornille, a frequent visitor of the East, where
she has studied and lectured, presently teaches courses in the
Comparative Study of Religions at the Catholic University of Leuven,
Belgium. Her current research focusses mainly on the new religious
phenomena emerging from the encounter of religions and cultures.
(Peeters 1991)

Limited preview - 1991 - 214 pages

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An introduction to Third World theologies By John Parratt

Book overview

The greatest change which has come about in Christian theology over
the last generation has been the explosion of contextual theologies in
different parts of the world. This book provides the first overview of
the main trends and contributions to Christian thought of Third World
theologies. It sets out the common context of these theologies in
their experience of colonialism and western missions, and suggests
that they have forged new ways of doing theology which are quite
distinct from the theological traditions of the western world. With
key contributions from experts in their fields on Latin America,
India, East Asia, West and East Africa, Southern Africa and the
Caribbean, this book situates Christian thought in the cultural and
socio-political contexts of their respective regions, and demonstrates
how Third World theologies are providing different perspectives on
what it means to be a Christian in today's global world.

Limited preview - 2004 - 189 pages

User Review - JF McCord "Eternal Student" - Amazon.com -

The value of this work may not match up to its price-point for many,
but I found it to be an invaluable introduction to the various modes
of thought and theologizing being done outside of first-world ...

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Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications By Louis
Dumont

Book overview

Louis Dumont's modern classic, here presented in an enlarged, revised,
and corrected second edition, simultaneously supplies that reader with
the most cogent statement in the Indian castle system and its
organizing principles and a provocative advance in the comparison of
societies on the basis of their underlying ideologies. Dumont moves
gracefully from the ethnographic data to the level of the hierarchical
ideology encrusted in ancient religious texts which are revealed as
the governing conception of the contemporary caste structure. On yet
another plane of analysis, homo hierarchicus is contrasted with his
modern Western antithesis, homo aequalis. This edition includes a
lengthy new Preface in which Dumont reviews the academic discussion
inspired by Homo Hierarchicus and answers his critics. A new Postface,
which sketches the theoretical and comparative aspects of the concept
of hierarchy, and three significant Appendixes previously omitted from
the English translation complete in this innovative and influential
work.

Limited preview - Edition: 2 - 1980 - 488 pages

User Review - dilawar - Flag as inappropriate

Few arguments in this book are slightly misplaces and misleading.
Anyone who is taking clues from this book about Indian Society should/
must read "The idea of Natural Inequality and other essays" by Andre
Beteille.

Full Text (PDF)

Articles by Newell, W.
The first page of the pdf of this article appears below.

Journal of Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 2, 133-135 (1972)
DOI: 10.1177/144078337200800216

http://jos.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/8/2/133-a

Contextualising caste: post-Dumontian approaches By Mary Searle-
Chatterjee, Ursula Sharma

Book overview

Much anthropological and sociological work on South Asia (especially
work done by western academics) takes for granted the centrality of
caste in Hindu society. The aim of the present volume is to take a
critical look at this assumption, contextualising caste in relation to
other dimensions of modern Indian society. The contribution of the
volume will be both theoretical and ethnographic.

Limited preview - Item notes: no. 41 - 1994 - 184 pages

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Identity, gender, and poverty: new perspectives on caste and tribe in
Rajasthan By Maya Unnithan-Kumar

Book overview

Most studies of the so called tribal communities in India stress their
social, economic, and political differences from communities that are
organised on the basis of caste. It was this apparent contrast between
tribal and the caste lifestyle and, moreover, the paucity of material
on tribal groups, that motivated the author to undertake this study of
a poor "tribal" community, the Girasia, in northwestern India. While
doing her fieldwork, she soon became aware that the traditional tribe-
caste categories needed to be revised; in fact, she found them more
often that not to be constructs by outsiders, mostly academic. Of
greater importance for an understanding of the Girasia is the wider
and more complex issue of self-perception and identification by
others, which must be seen in the context of their poverty as well as
in the strategic and shifting use of kinship, gender and class
relations in the region.

Limited preview - 1997 - 291 pages

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Some of the interesting finds are listed below.

Social change in modern India By Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas

Book overview

This Volume Is A Compilation Of A Series Of Lectures Delivered By The
Eminent Social Anthropologist M. N. Srinivas. These Lectures Have Been
Widely Acclaimed And Have Since Been Recommended Or Prescribed As A
Text For Students Of Sociology, Anthropology And Indian Studies. The
Book Remains The Classic Of Social Anthropology As It Was Hailed, When
First Published.

Limited preview - 1995 - 200 pages -

Review: [untitled]
Noel P. Gist

Reviewed work(s): Social Change in Modern India. by M. N. Srinivas

American Sociological Review, Vol. 31, No. 6 (Dec., 1966), pp.
884-885
(review consists of 2 pages)

Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2091693

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Caste and Kinship in Central India: A Village and Its Region. Adrian
C. Mayer. American Journal of Sociology. Search Journal ...

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-T8nbM4LIb4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&ots=zz_gXOpYxT&sig=wr3ZckbQ0O-4J3dJ4kO-sHZjAuY#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[navanavonmilita]

I Write, ThereforeI am: Sid Harth

What's New: bgimpertBot updated Vidrios rotos y el ojo que los ve 4
seconds ago : Added goodreads ID. Open Library
One web page for every book. (More...)

featuring 23,946,401 books
(including 1,166,973 with full-text)

Open Library Redesign

We’re very excited to announce the “soft launch” of our brand new Open
Library site! This is version 1 of a reconstructed Open Library, and
we’re going to keep it “soft” at a special URL until we’re sure it’s
stable enough to make the final transition to openlibrary.org. We’re
hoping that will happen soon.
See the blog post for more details.

http://upstream.openlibrary.org/
http://blog.openlibrary.org/2010/03/17/announcing-the-open-library-redesign/

Find Books

Recent changes
http://openlibrary.org/recentchanges
Example search
http://openlibrary.org/search?q=tom+sawyer
Add a book
http://openlibrary.org/addbook
Index of books Build The Library
http://openlibrary.org/index/index.html
About the project
http://openlibrary.org/about
About the technology
http://openlibrary.org/about/tech
About the librarianship
http://openlibrary.org/about/lib
A guided tour Develop The Site
http://openlibrary.org/tour
Bug tracking
https://bugs.launchpad.net/openlibrary/
Source code repository (infogami)
http://github.com/openlibrary/openlibrary
http://github.com/infogami/infogami
Developer documentation
http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs
Translate the site
http://openlibrary.org/i18n

About the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to
build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent
access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with
disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that
exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco,
the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and
others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more
well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts,
audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in
our collections, and is working to provide specialized services
relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information
access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities.

Why the Archive is Building an 'Internet Library'

Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to
provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster
education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's
essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.

Many early movies were recycled to recover the silver in the film. The
Library of Alexandria - an ancient center of learning containing a
copy of every book in the world - was eventually burned to the ground.
Even now, at the turn of the 21st century, no comprehensive archives
of television or radio programs exist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

But without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no
mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically,
with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has
referred to as our "digital dark age."
http://www.longnow.org/people/board/

The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium
with major historical significance - and other "born-digital"
materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with
institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we
are working to preserve a record for generations to come.

Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been
considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open
society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it
through the ages.

The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers,
historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the
discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making
organization.
http://www.archive.org/web/collaborations.php#LoC_sculpture
http://www.archive.org/web/collaborations.php#Smithsonian

At present, the size of our Web collection is such that using it
requires programming skills. However, we are hopeful about the
development of tools and methods that will give the general public
easy and meaningful access to our collective history. In addition to
developing our own collections, we are working to promote the
formation of other Internet libraries in the United States and
elsewhere.

http://www.alexa.com/
http://www.archive.org/about/contact.php
http://www.archive.org/details/texts
http://www.archive.org/details/audio
http://www.archive.org/details/movies
http://www.archive.org/details/software

Holy Hindu Cow! What Now?

All that garbage spewed by Hindutva crowd, would be forever preserved
for milenniums. nay, "Yugas," for Hindu Brahmin brats, rats, rascals,
ruffians, rogues, Rastafarians, RSS-asses, and their progeny?

May Allah be praised!

Afterall, it is the "Kaliyuga."

Just kidding, I love the western inventions like "Internet."
What would these Hindu idiots do if it were not for the western
scholars, Michael Witzel, Wendy Doniger, Steve Farmer, various and
sundry Indologists, Sanskritists,included
made Sanskrit famous and available to one and all?

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Find out

How to make a Monetary Donation to the Archvive http://www.archive.org/donate/

About our announcement and discussion lists on Internet libraries and
movie archives as well as our user forums
Future Libraries - How People Envision Using Internet Libraries
From ephemera to artifact: Internet libraries can change the content
of the Internet from ephemera to enduring artifacts of our political
and cultural lives.

"I believe historians need every possible piece of paper and archived
byte of digital data they can muster. The Smithsonian Institution sees
the value, and has affiliated with the Archive to preserve the 1996
campaign Web sites, official and unofficial."

Dan Gillmor, computing editor, San Jose Mercury News, 1 September 1996

Protecting our right to know: Most states have pre-Internet sunshine
laws that require public access to government documents. Yet while the
Internet has generally increased public access to information, states
have just begun to amend those laws to reflect today's Internet
environment. According to Bill Chamberlin, director of the Marion
Brechner Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida's College
of Journalism and Communications, such laws are being enacted
"piecemeal, one state at a time," and cover information that varies
widely in nature - everything from "all public records" to specialized
information such as education reports and the licensing status of
medical practitioners. In the meantime, while public officials are
posting more information on the Internet than their state legislatures
require, there's little regulatory control over exactly what is
posted, when it's taken off, or how often it's updated. This leaves a
gap that online libraries can help to fill.

Exercising our "right to remember": Without paper libraries, it would
be hard to exercise our "right to remember" our political history or
hold government accountable. With much of the public's business now
moving from paper to digital media, Internet libraries are certain to
become essential in maintaining that right. Imagine, for instance, how
news coverage of an election campaign might suffer if journalists had
only limited access to previous statements that candidates had made in
the media.

"The Internet Archive is a service so essential that its founding is
bound to be looked back on with the fondness and respect that people
now have for the public libraries seeded by Andrew Carnegie a century
ago.... Digitized information, especially on the Internet, has such
rapid turnover these days that total loss is the norm. Civilization is
developing severe amnesia as a result; indeed it may have become too
amnesiac already to notice the problem properly. The Internet Archive
is the beginning of a cure - the beginning of complete, detailed,
accessible, searchable memory for society, and not just scholars this
time, but everyone."

Stewart Brand, president, The Long Now Foundation

Establishing Internet centers internationally: What is a country
without a memory of its cultural heritage? Internet libraries are the
place to preserve the aspect of a country's heritage that exists on
the Internet.

Tracing the way our language changes: During the late 19th century,
James Murray, a professor at Oxford University, built the first
edition of the Oxford English Dictionary by sending copies of selected
books to "men of letters" who volunteered to search them for the first
occurrences of words and to trace the migration of their various
meanings. Internet libraries could allow linguists to automate much of
this extremely labor-intensive process.

Tracking the Web's evolution: Historians, sociologists, and
journalists could use Internet libraries to hold up a mirror to
society. For example, they might ask when different ethnic groups or
special interests or certain businesses became a presence on the
Internet.

"We don't know where this Internet is going, and once we get there it
will be very instructive to look back."

Donald Heath, president of the Internet Society in Reston, Virginia

Reviving dead links: A few services - such as UC Berkeley's Digital
Library Project, the Online Computer Library Center, and Alexa
Internet are starting to offer access to archived versions of Web
pages when those pages have been removed from the Web. This means that
if you get a "404 - Page Not Found" error, you'll still be able to
find a version of the page.

Understanding the economy: Economists could use Archive data such as
link structures - what and how many links a site contains - to
investigate how the Web affects commerce.

Finding out what the Web tells us about ourselves: Researchers could
use data on links and traffic to better understand human behavior and
communication.

"Researchers could use the Archive's Web snapshots in combination with
usage statistics to compare how people in different countries use the
Web over long periods of time.... Political scientists and
sociologists could use the data to study how public opinion gets
formed. For example, suppose a device for increasing privacy became
available: Would it change usage patterns?"

Bernardo Huberman, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

"The Internet Archive has created a kind of test tube that allows a
broad range of researchers to analyze the Web in ways that have never
been possible before. What makes this type of research unique is that
it often requires the fusion of traditional tools and techniques with
new methods, and it results in the development of new theories,
techniques, and metrics."

James Pitkow, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

Looking back: With a "way-back machine" - a device that displayed the
Web as it looked on a given date - historians and others would
literally have a window on the past.

How would you use an Internet library?

Related Projects and Research
Internet libraries raise many issues in a range of areas, including
archiving technology, copyright, privacy and free speech, trademark,
trade secrets, import/export issues, stolen property, pornography, the
question of who will have access to the libraries, and more.
Below are links to projects, resources, and institutions related to
Internet libraries.

Internet Libraries and Librarianship
Archiving Technology
Internet Mapping
Internet Statistics
Copyright
Privacy and Free Speech

Internet Libraries and Librarianship

Alexa Internet has catalogued Web sites and provides this information
in a free service.
www.alexa.com

The American Library Association is a major trade association of
American libraries.
www.ala.org

The Australian National Library collects material including
organizational Web sites.
pandora.nla.gov.au/documents.html

The Council on Library and Information Resources works to ensure the
well-being of the scholarly communication system.
www.clir.org
See its publication Why Digitize? at
www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80.html

The Digital Library Forum (D-Lib) publishes an online magazine and
other resources for building digital libraries.
www.dlib.org

Attorney I. Trotter Hardy explains copyright law and examines its
implications for digital materials in his paper Internet Archives and
Copyright.
copyright_TH.php

The Internet Public Library site has many links to online resources
for the general public.
www.ipl.org

Brewster Kahle is a founder of WAIS Inc. and Alexa Internet and
chairman of the board of the Internet Archive. See his paper The
Ethics of Digital Librarianship at
ethics_BK.php

Michael Lesk of the National Science Foundation has written
extensively on digital archiving and digital libraries.
www.purl.net/NET/lesk

The Library of Congress is the national library of the United States.
www.loc.gov

The Museum Digital Library plans to help digitize collections and
provide access to them.
www.digitalmuseums.org

The National Archives and Records Administration oversees the
management of all US federal records. It also archives federal Web
sites including the Clinton White House site.
www.nara.gov

The National Science Foundation Digital Library Program has funded
academic research on digital libraries.
www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/dli/start.htm

National Technical Information Service (NTIS), U.S. Department of
Commerce, Technology Administration. NTIS is an archive and
distributor of scientific, technical, engineering and business related
information developed by and for the federal government.
www.ntis.gov

Network Wizards has been tracking Internet growth for many years.
www.nw.com

Project Gutenberg is making ASCII versions of classic literature
openly available. www.gutenberg.org

The Radio and Television Archive has many links to related resources.
www.rtvf.unt.edu/links/histsites.htm

Revival of the Library of Alexandria is a project to revive the
ancient library in Egypt.
www.bibalex.org

The Society of American Archivists is a professional association
focused on ensuring the identification, preservation, and use of
records of historical value.
www.archivists.org

The Royal Institute of Technology Library in Sweden is creating a
system of quality-assessed information resources on the Internet for
academic use.
www.lib.kth.se/main/eng

The United States Government Printing Office produces and distributes
information published by the US government.
www.access.gpo.gov

The University of Virginia is building a catalog of digital library
activities.
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/

Archiving Technology

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) computing and public
policy page includes papers and news on pending legislation on issues
including universal access, copyright and intellectual property, free
speech and the Internet, and privacy.
www.acm.org/serving

The Carnegie Mellon University Informedia Digital Video Library
Project is studying how multimedia digital libraries can be
established and used.
www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu

The Intermemory Project aims to develop highly survivable and
available storage systems.
www.intermemory.org

The National Film Preservation Board, established by the National Film
Preservation Act of 1988, works with the Library of Congress to study
and implement plans for film and television preservation. The site's
research page includes links to the board's 1993 film preservation
study, a 1994 film preservation plan, and a 1997 television and video
study. All the documents warn of the dire state of film and television
preservation in the United States.
lcweb.loc.gov/film/filmpres.html

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) posts IEC
International Standard names and symbols for prefixes for binary
multiples for use in data processing and data transmission.
www.physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

The Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) encourages research in
information retrieval from large text collections.
trec.nist.gov

Internet Mapping

An Atlas of Cyberspaces has maps and dynamic tools for visualizing Web
browsing.
www.cybergeography.com/atlas/surf.html

The Internet Mapping Project is a long-term project by a scientist at
Bell Labs to collect routing data on the Internet.
www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/ches/map

The Matrix Information Directory Service has good maps and
visualizations of the networked world.
www.mids.org

Peacock Maps has maps of Internet connectivity.
www.peacockmaps.com

Internet Statistics

WebReference has an Internet statistics page (publisher:
Internet.com).
webreference.com/internet/statistics.html

Copyright

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) copyright information
page includes text of pertinent laws and pending legislation.
www.acm.org/usacm/copyright

Tom W. Bell teaches intellectual property and Internet law at Chapman
University School of Law.
www.tomwbell.com
His site includes a graph showing the trend of the maximum US
copyright term at www.tomwbell.com/writings/(C)_Term.html

Cornell University posts the text of copyright law at
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/unframed/17/107.html
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/unframed/17/108.html

The Digital Future Coalition is a nonprofit working on the issues of
copyright in the digital age.
www.dfc.org

The National Academy Press is the publishing arm of the national
academies.
"The Digital Dilemma: Intellectual Property in the Information Age"
http://www.nap.edu/html/digital_dilemma/
"LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress"
www.nap.edu/books/0309071445/html

Pamela Samuelson is a professor in the School of Information
Management and Systems at UC Berkeley.
info.berkeley.edu/~pam

Title 17 of US copyright code
www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/

US Government Copyright Office
www.loc.gov/copyright

Privacy and Free Speech

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) free-speech information
page includes the text of pertinent laws and pending legislation.
www.acm.org/usacm/speech

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) privacy information page
includes the text of congressional testimony and links to other
resources.
www.acm.org/usacm/privacy

The Benton Foundation Communications Policy and Practice Program has
the goal of infusing the emerging communications environment with
public-interest values.
www.benton.org/cpphome.html

The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic
values and constitutional liberties in the digital age.
www.cdt.org

The Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference has a site containing
information on each annual conference held since 1991.
www.cfp.org

The Electronic Frontier Foundation works to protect fundamental civil
liberties, including privacy and freedom of expression in the arena of
computers and the Internet.
www.eff.org

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a project of the Fund for
Constitutional Government, is a public-interest research center whose
goal is to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues
and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional
values.
www.epic.org

The Free Expression Policy Project is a think tank on artistic and
intellectual freedom at NYU's Brennan Center for Justice. Through
policy research and advocacy, they explore freedom of expression
issues including censorship, copyright law, media localism, and
corporate media reform.
www.fepproject.org

The Internet Free Expression Alliance is an information and advocacy
organization focused on free speech as it relates to the Internet.
www.ifea.net

The Internet Privacy Coalition aims to protect privacy on the Internet
by promoting the widespread availability of strong encryption and the
relaxation of export controls on cryptography.
www.privacy.org/ipc

The Privacy Page includes news, alerts, and links to privacy-related
resources. Related organizations include the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, the Internet Privacy Coalition, and Privacy
International.
www.privacy.org

Privacy International is a London-based human rights group formed as a
watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations.
www.privacy.org/pi

Please suggest other pages that may be appropriate here.

Storage and Preservation

The Archive has two practical considerations in dealing with digital
collections:
How to store massive amounts of data
How to preserve the data for posterity

Storage

Storing the Archive's collections involves parsing, indexing, and
physically encoding the data. With the Internet collections growing at
exponential rates, this task poses an ongoing challenge.

Our hardware consists of PCs with clusters of IDE hard drives. Data is
stored on DLT tape and hard drives in various appropriate formats,
depending on the collection. Web data is received and stored in
archive format of 100-megabyte ARC files made up of many individual
files. Alexa Internet (currently the source of all crawls in our
collections) is proposing ARC as a standard for archiving Internet
objects. See Alexa for the format specification.

Preservation

Preservation is the ongoing task of permanently protecting stored
resources from damage or destruction. The main issues are guarding
against the consequences of accidents and data degradation and
maintaining the accessibility of data as formats become obsolete.

Accidents: Any medium or site used to store data is potentially
vulnerable to accidents and natural disasters. Maintaining copies of
the Archive�s collections at multiple sites can help alleviate
this risk. Part of the collection is already handled this way, and we
are proceeding as quickly as possible to do the same with the rest.

Migration: Over time, storage media can degrade to a point where the
data becomes permanently irretrievable. Although DLT tape is rated to
last 30 years, the industry rule of thumb is to migrate data every 10
years. We no longer use tapes for storage, however. Please take a look
at our page on our Petabox system for more information on our storage
systems.

Data formats: As advances are made in software applications, many data
formats become obsolete. We will be collecting software and emulators
that will aid future researchers, historians, and scholars in their
research.

Find out

How to get free access to the Archive's Internet collections

About our announcement and discussion lists on Internet libraries and
movie archives

http://www.archive.org/about/about.php

Contacts at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive

directions

When contacting the Internet Archive, please note that we do not have
a technical support department. Please refer to the forums and the
FAQs.

Tel: 415-561-6767
Fax: 415-840-0391
Web: www.archive.org
Email: info at archive dot org - (Please note to enable email from
@archive.org if you use any filtering devices!)

For best results, please first check the information at: forums and
the FAQs
You can use these to address any technical questions

Also available: Announcements and What's New at the Internet Archive

Address:
Internet Archive
300 Funston Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118

Web Team Contact Information:
116 Sheridan Avenue
The Presidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94129

Lists

Archivists Announcement List (news about Internet libraries)
read the web archive

Archivists Discussion List (discussion about Internet libraries)
read the web archive

Movie Archive Discussion List (news about online film archives)
read the web archive

Directions to the Internet Archive
Mass Transit Within San Francisco
By Car From the North Bay
By Car From the East Bay
By Car From the South Bay via 280
By Car From the South Bay via 101

Mass Transit Within San Francisco

Our area is served by San Francisco MUNI bus routes. The following
links listed below will take you to the different MUNI routes; please
select the most convenient route, click to see the schedule & map. 511
Trip Planner is also a useful resource

1 - California: Inbound toward Downtown. Outbound toward Richmond
district. Board at Davis St & Pine St. Ask the driver to let you off
at the corner of California St. & Park Presidio Blvd. Turn left on
Park Presidio Blvd. toward Geary Blvd. Turn left at Clement St., turn
right at Funston Ave. Destination will be on the left.

1AX - California 'A' Express: Inbound toward Financial district for
morning rush hour. Outbound toward Outer Richmond district for
afternoon rush hour. Get off at the corner of California St. & Park
Presidio Blvd. Turn left on Park Presidio Blvd. toward Geary Blvd.
Turn left at Clement St., turn right at Funston Ave. Destination will
be on the left.

1BX - California 'B' Express: Inbound toward Financial district for
morning rush hour. Outbound toward Outer Richmond district for
afternoon rush hour. Get off at the corner of California St. & Park
Presidio Blvd. Turn left on Park Presidio Blvd. toward Geary Blvd.
Turn left at Clement St., turn right at Funston Ave. Destination will
be on the left.

38L - Geary Limited: (same directions as a Route 38, but this route
has limited bus stops, and it is faster. Ask the driver to let you off
at the corner of Geary Blvd. & Park Presidio Blvd. Head east on Geary
(towards downtown) and turn left at Funston Ave. Destination will be
at the end of the block on the right.

38 - Geary: Ask the driver to let you off at the corner of Geary Blvd.
& Park Presidio Blvd. Head east on Geary (towards downtown) and turn
left at Funston Ave. Destination will be at the end of the block on
the right.

28 - 19th Ave: Ask the driver to let you off at the corner of Geary
Blvd. & Park Presidio Blvd. Head east on Geary (towards downtown) and
turn left at Funston Ave. Destination will be at the end of the block
on the right.

From the south bay on CalTrain: Board the bus route #30 on Townsend
St. & 4th St. Depart at 3rd St. & Market St. Then board bus route # 38
or #38L on Geary Blvd & Kearny St. Ask the driver to let you off at
the corner of Geary Blvd & Park Presidio Blvd. Head east on Geary
(towards downtown) and turn left at Funston Ave. Destination will be
at the end of the block on the right.

From BART, get off at Montgomery Street station and take the 38 Geary
(see above)

Driving From the North Bay

Take highway US-101 South across Golden Gate Bridge (Toll applies).

Continue on US-101 south, go 0.3 miles.

Take the 19th Ave. /Golden Gate Park exit onto CA-1 South, go 1.3
miles

Turn Right on Lake St.

Turn Left on 14TH Ave, go 0.3 miles

Turn Left on Clement St, go 0.1 miles

Turn Right on Funston Ave.

Arrive at 300 Funston Ave, San Francisco, on the Left

There is metered parking on Clement and 2-hour parking on Funston and
parallel avenues (please also note street cleaning times).

Driving From the East Bay

Take Interstate 80 west over the Bay Bridge.

Take the Golden Gate Bridge exit onto US-101 North, go 1.1 miles

Continue on Octavia Blvd, go 0.30 miles

Turn Left on Fell St, go 0.6 miles

Turn Right on Scott Ave, go 0.1 miles

Turn Left on Hayes St, go 0.1 miles

Turn Right on Divisadero Ave, go 0.6 miles

Turn Left on Geary Blvd, go 1.8 miles

Turn Right on Funston Ave, go 0.1 miles

Arrive at 300 Funston Ave. San Francisco, on the Right

There is metered parking on Clement and 2-hour parking on Funston and
parallel avenues (please also note street cleaning times).

From the South Bay via Highway 280

Take Interstate 280 north to San Francisco

When Interstate 280 splits into Route 1 and 280, veer left, onto
Highway 1 (19th Avenue).

Follow Highway 1 (19th Avenue) north across San Francisco and through
Golden Gate Park.

Turn Right on Clement St.

Turn Right on Funston Ave.

Arrive at 300 Funston Ave. San Francisco on the Left

There is metered parking on Clement and 2-hour parking on Funston and
parallel avenues (please also note street cleaning times).

From the South Bay via Highway 101

When Highway 101 splits into the Highway 80/Bay Bridge and Highway 101/
Golden Gate Bridge approaches, veer left, onto Highway 101.

Follow the 101 north/Golden Gate Bridge turnoff

Continue on Octavia Blvd, go 0.3 Miles.

Turn Left on Fell St, go 0.6 miles

Turn Right on Scott Ave, go 0.1 miles

Turn Left on Hayes St, go 0.1 miles

Turn Right on Divisadero Ave, go 0.6 miles

Turn Left on Geary Blvd, go 1.8 miles

Turn Right on Funston Ave, go 0.1 miles

Arrive at 300 Funston Ave. San Francisco, on the Right

There is metered parking on Clement and 2-hour parking on Funston and
parallel avenues (please also note street cleaning times).

http://www.archive.org/about/contact.php

Amarakocha; ou, Vocabulaire d'Amarasinha. Publié en Sanskrit avec une
traduction française des notes et un index par A. Loiseleur
Deslongchamps (Volume 1) - Amarasimha

Downloads: 452
Amarakocha; ou, Vocabulaire d'Amarasinha. Publié en Sanskrit avec une
traduction française des notes et un index par A. Loiseleur
Deslongchamps (Volume 2) - Amarasimha

Downloads: 385
Dictionnaire classique sanscrit-français où sont coordonnés, revisés
et complétés les travaux de Wilson, Bopp, Westergaard, Johnson, etc.
et contenant le devanagari, sa transcription européene,
l'interprétation, les racines et de nombreux rapprochements
philologiques - Burnouf, Emile, 1821-1907

Downloads: 2,286
Dictionnaire sanskrit-français - Stchoupak, Nadine

Downloads: 8,029
Average rating: (2 reviews)
The Practical Sanskrit-English dictionary containing appendices on
Sanskrit prosody and important literary and geogrpahical names of
ancient India - Apte, Vaman Shivaram, 1858-1892

Downloads: 3,109
Radices linguae Sanscritae ad decreta grammaticorum definivit atque
copia exemplorum exquisitiorum illustravit - Westergaard, N. L. (Niels
Ludvig), 1815-1878

Downloads: 747
Sabdakalpadrumah (Volume 1) - Deva, Radhakanta (Sir)

Downloads: 1,372
Sabdakalpadrumah (Volume 2) - Deva, Radhakanta (Sir)

Downloads: 822
Sabdakalpadrumah (Volume 3) - Deva, Radhakanta (Sir)

Downloads: 670
Sabdakalpadrumah (Volume 4) - Deva, Radhakanta (Sir)

Downloads: 651
Sabdakalpadrumah (Volume 5) - Deva, Radhakanta (Sir)

Downloads: 734
A Sanskrit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically
arranged, with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages.
new ed., greatly enl. and improved, with the collaboration of E.
Leumann, C. Cappeller and other scholars - Monier-Williams, Monier,
Sir, 1819-1899

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Sanskrit-Wörtenbuch, nach den Petersburger Wörterbüchern bearb -
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Supplement to the Glossary of Indian terms. A-J - Elliot, Sir Henry
Miers, 1808-1853
Reprinted by authority [of Sudder Board of Revenue, N.W. Provinces]

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Vacaspatyam (Volume 1) - Tarkavachaspati, Taranatha, 1812-1885

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Vacaspatyam (Volume 6) - Tarkavachaspati, Taranatha, 1812-1885

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A Sanskrit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically
arranged, with special reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German,
Anglo-Saxon, and other cognate Indo-European languages - Monier-
Williams, Monier, Sir, 1819-1899

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Sanskrit-Wörterbuch in kürzerer Fassung (Volume 1-4) - Böhtlingk,
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A Sanskrit-English dictionary, etymologically and philologically
arranged, with special reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German,
Anglo-Saxon, and other cognate Indo-European languages

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History of Classical Sanskrit Literature - M Krishnamachariar

Author: shankara_2000
Collection: opensource

Description

History of Classical Sanskrit Literature by M Krishnamachariar
contains an elaborate account of all branches of Classical Sanskrit
Literature on the basis of literary, epigraphical and archaelogical
sources. It has 23 chapters, each chapter dealing with a particular
topic arranged chronologically. It embodies a general study of the
Vedic, Epic, Puranic, classical and philosophical literature. Beside
notes and references it has an illuminating introduction and index of
authors and works.

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Sarva-darsana-sangraha of Madhavacharya
Author: shankara_2000
Collection: opensource

Description

In this fourteenth century text 'A Compendium of all the Philosophical
Systems' (of India) the author successively passes in review the
sixteen philosophical systems current in India at the time, and gives
what appeared to him to be their most important tenets, and the
principal arguments by which their followers endeavoured to maintain
them. In the course of his sketches, he frequently explains at some
length obscure details in the different systems.

The systems are arranged from the Advaita-point of view. They form a
gradually ascending scale-the first, the Charvaka and Buddha, being
the lowest as the farthest removed from Advaita, and the last, Sankhya
and Yoga being the highest as approaching most nearly to it.

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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http://www.archive.org/details/Sarva-darsana-sangrahaOfMadhavacharya

Sabdakalpadrumah ([1967])

Author: Deva, Radhakanta (Sir); Vasu, Varadaprasada; Vasu, Haricarana

Volume: 1

Subject: Sanskrit language -- Dictionaries
Publisher: Varanasi Caukhamba Samskrita sirija aphisa
Language: Sanskrit
Call number: ABS-8373
Digitizing sponsor: Tufts University and the National Science
Foundation
Book contributor: Robarts - University of Toronto
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Sa for Sanskrit Pop: Sid Harth

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/9f6d369c7793990f/86617d9d57fd858c?lnk=gst&q=sa+for#86617d9d57fd858c

Sudharma, Sanskrit Newspaper: Sid Harth

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/51f22c78acbc72b1/e95594ade6cc2436?q=sudharma&lnk=ol&
Hindu Worldview: Sid Harth
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I Write, Therefore I am: Sid Harth

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Hindus'Tantrum: Sid Harth
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Indian Morality Meltdown: Sid Harth

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Of God, Godmen and Good men: Sid Harth
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi/browse_thread/thread/beee6405766fa364#

[navanavonmilita]

I Write, Therefore I am: Sid Harth

India's National Magazine

From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 14 :: No. 21 :: Oct. 18 - 31, 1997

Representations of greatness
PARVATHI MENON

Akbar and His India, edited by Irfan Habib; Oxford University Press,
Delhi, 1997; pages 315, Rs. 495.

WE have for the first time a comprehensive book on the person and
historical role of Akbar, the renowned 16th century Mughal monarch.
Edited by the distinguished historian Irfan Habib, the book is a
collection of essays on this legendary figure of our history who, it
is tempting to construe from this collection of scholarly essays,
became a legend even within his lifetime.

The volume, we learn, is the first in a series of collective studies,
each devoted to a theme in medieval history. (Thereby hangs a tale.
The volume was to have been brought out under a publication programme
of the Centre for Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim
University, a project that had to be shelved when Irfan Habib was
removed from the honorary position of Coordinator at the Centre in May
1996 - "a minor by-product", says Habib in an editorial note, "of the
turn of the political winds, thankfully fleeting, of that eventful
month." He has refrained from saying that that position was
subsequently not restored to him by the University; this despite his
contributions towards shaping the history department in AMU into the
foremost centre of teaching and research in medieval Indian history in
the country.)

There are few who have been through school in India who have not
formed a textbook image of the Mughal emperor Akbar - certainly one of
the more popular figures amongst the pantheon of heroes in our history
- as a ruler broad of mind and vision, who realised the advantages of
secular statecraft to aid the process of governing the multi-faith,
multi-caste empire he presided over, and who denounced formal religion
to found his own 'religion' (as textbooks define it) of 'sul-i-
kul' (Absolute Peace).

We now learn that Akbar's personal contribution to making history
happen went far beyond this, and in areas as removed from each other
as diplomacy and ship-building. The 18 articles, four documents and 10
reviews that make up the book Akbar and His India have been written
for an academic and not a popular readership; some of the articles are
therefore less accessible to the interested lay reader in terms of
content and style than others. But collectively the articles provide
the most authentic and representative statement on Akbar to date.

The volume bears the imprint of a scholarship that has become
unfashionable in these post-modernist times - that of rigorous
adherence to the limits imposed by source material on the stated
research goal (whether the subject on hand is something as broad in
its scope as Emperor Akbar's world-view, or as specific as the
historical significance of a particular farman (royal order) issued by
Akbar in a particular year). For the reader, it provides a nuanced and
creative interpretation of Akbar based on hard historical data. A
majority of the articles are based on Persian sources and give
evidence of the authors' knowledge of a language that is the key to
the understanding of this period.

This volume then fleshes out and recasts our image of Akbar for the
sparkling person he really was: hugely talented and successful in
using the position of privilege he was born into, and the access it
gave him to material and intellectual resources, to slake his thirst
for knowledge, while simultaneously advancing its boundaries through
royal patronage. Whether it was in the domain of craft production,
technology, science, politics or philosophy, Akbar functioned at its
frontiers, constantly testing new waters, innovating, experimenting,
and most important of all, recording everything for posterity. An
emperor extrordinaire.

There are several sources that establish Akbar's close affinity with
technology (Irfan Habib, "Akbar and Technology"). "Akbar had a natural
inclination towards industrial crafts," says Habib, "and this was
undoubtedly a source of his concern with technological innovation." A
foreign traveller writing in 1580 claimed to "have even seen him
making ribbons like a lace-maker, and filing, sawing, working very
hard." The same traveller records that Akbar had a workshop near his
palace for the refined arts such as painting, tapestry-making, carpet-
weaving, curtain-making and for the manufacture of arms. In some of
them he acquired proficiency, and this fact is mentioned by so many
people that it cannot be dismissed for sycophantic exaggeration. "He
has so well practised the making of designs that if Mani (the great
artist) was alive, he would bite his fingers in astonishment at such
design-making and dyeing," exclaimed one writer.

The Ain-i-Akbari, written by Abul Fazl, Akbar's biographer and
minister, has a detailed description of the prefabricated and movable
wooden structures - a technological innovation in which Akbar had a
direct hand - that supplanted tents when Akbar and his entourage moved
from place to place. He invented a device that used saltpetre to cool
water; he is credited with vast improvement to water wheels through
gearing devices (the terraced gardens of Fatehpur Sikri, his capital
on a hill, were irrigated by wells from which water was lifted through
a network of viaducts, and gearing was crucial to this network); he
also put gearing to other applications like cart-mills and gun barrel
boring; he experimented with different techniques of ship-building
(although it is said that he sailed in a boat in the sea only once).
Akbar was also a keen patron of music (Francoise 'Nalini' Delvoye,
"The Image of Akbar as a patron of music in Indo-Persian and
Vernacular Sources") and an accomplished composer himself, and a
patron of the visual arts (Som Prakash Verma, "Painting under Akbar as
Narrative Art").

Akbar had a special interest in studying and recording astronomical
phenomena (Shireen Moosvi, "Science and Superstition under Akbar and
Jahangir: The Observation of Astronomical Phenomena"). Moosvi says
that there were seven recorded appearances of comets between 1556 and
1707, although only two were noted in Mughal sources. There were 56
eclipses of the sun in the reign of Akbar and Jahangir, although only
one solar eclipse during Akbar's period and two in the reign of
Jahangir were recorded. On the superstitions associated with eclipses
she says, "Akbar, notwithstanding his commitment to rationality, was
not immune to these superstitions." There is a whole section on
science and technology in the Ain-i-Akbari, which records Akbar's
interest in even such rarefied areas of science as sound and its
movement, and colour (Iqbal Ghani Khan "Scientific Concepts in Abu'l
Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari"). There is recorded an extraordinary experiment
conducted by Akbar to disprove the then prevalent theory of zuban-i-
qudrat (natural language). For this he confined six new-born infants
with their nurses - who were under strict instructions not to talk in
front of the children - for two years in islolation. At the end of the
period, the children could speak no language, on the basis of which
Akbar concluded that 'speech came to every tribe from hearing.'

Two of the most interesting articles in the collection discuss Akbar's
personality and world-view (Iqtidar Alam Khan, "Akbar's Personality
Traits and World Outlook - A Critical Appraisal"), and the development
of the notion of India, nascent and pre-modern though the idea was, in
Akbar's thinking and writing (M. Athar Ali, "The Perception of India
in Akbar and Abu'l Fazl"). The Timurid concept of Yasa-i Chingezi ("to
consider all sects as one and not to distinguish them from one
another") was imbibed early by Akbar, argues Iqtidar Alam Khan.

We get a picture of the young Akbar, impetuous and bright, and also
given to fits of depression; questioning the philosophical basis of
Islamic theology and jurisprudence; developing a certain sympathy to
Hinduism and its rites (the result of his marriages to Hindu women);
and then, from 1571, coming under the influence of pantheistic Sufi
doctrines that changed his entire outlook. He then developed the
concept of 'sul-i-kul' (Absolute Peace) "a concept denoting a
principle capable of promoting amity among divergent groups in a
culturally pluralistic situation," says Iqtidar Alam Khan. The
significance of this move in the direction of rationalism is often
missed: the Mughal emperor abandoned the prescribed prayers of Islam
and the notion of prophethood.

Athar Ali traces the idea of India in the Arabic-Persian tradition
starting with the rather precise geographical description of 'al-Hind'
in the writing of the 11th century scientist Abu Raihan al-Biruni.
This notion is taken forward, Athar Ali says, in the works of Amir
Khusrau, the early 14th century poet, who identifies it with certain
cultural commonalities. To this vision of India, argues Ali, Akbar
adds a new component, that of reform: "His prohibition of sati, and of
pre-puberty marriages, his demand for equal inheritance for the
daughter, his condemnation of slavery and the slave trade, all suggest
the rejection of some of the burdens of the past. From India seen as a
cultural unity, and then as a cultural diversity undergoing synthesis,
we have with Akbar the first vision of India undergoing moral or
social improvement."

Several articles in the collection deal with politics and diplomacy as
practised by Akbar's regime: the strategy he used to subjugate the
class of autonomous and semi-autonomous chieftains; his rather
successful policy of integrating Rajput principalities into the Mughal
state; the annexation of Sind, an interesting case-study of how Mughal
diplomacy and militarism worked together; the relations, overall
friendly, that he forged with the Portugese who were established on
the west coast; and the development of the Sikh panth under Akbar's
rule. The collection has an article on Akbar's relations with the
Jains and the influence on him of Jainism, based on Jain sources
(Pushpa Prasad, "Akbar and the Jains").

There are parts of the book that are not accessible to the interested
lay reader. It is, for instance, unrealistic to expect a reader to
know who is the 'Imam-i Adil' or the 'Mujtahid' (in Iqtidar Alam
Khan,"Akbar's Personality Traits..."); it is unfair to keep the reader
in the dark on which controversy was "made immortal by Alberuni's wise
comments" (Moosvi, "Science and Superstition...") . The collection
would also have benefited by the inclusion of a biographical note on
the character of Akbar and on the times he lived in ( along the lines
of, say , Shireen Moosvi's Episodes in the Life of Akbar: Contemporary
Records and Reminiscences, National Book Trust, Delhi, 1987). But
these are relatively minor drawbacks in a major contribution to the
field of medieval Indian history, and the intellectual history of
India.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1421/14210730.htm

Vol:23 Iss:24 URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2324/stories/20061215000507400.htm

BOOKS

Secularism, science and the Right
RALPH DUMAIN

The book seeks to expose the fundamentalist agenda of the religious
Right in India and the U.S.

THE three essays comprising this book are (1) Secularism without
Secularisation: Reflections on the Religious Right in America and
India; (2) Hindu Ecology in the Age of Hindutva: The Dangers of
Religious Environmentalism; and (3) Making Science Sacred: How
Postmodernism Aids Vedic Science.

In her introduction, Meera Nanda is gratified that the Hindutva party
in India recently suffered an electoral setback but is worried by the
2004 election in the United States, which "woke me out of my
intellectual complacency about the country that I have called home for
many years". She had not imagined the American wall of separation of
Church and state to be so fragile. Herein lies a problem: How could
Meera Nanda have been so naïve about her adopted homeland for so long?
Did she overestimate the U.S.? Could conditions in India be even
worse?

The first essay is a comparative study of Indian and American
secularism and religiosity. Both countries have officially secular
governments and highly religious populations. Indian and American
secular governments are founded on entirely different principles. The
Indian approach is based not on separation of government and religion
as in the U.S. but on the principle of equal treatment of all
religions. The state may subsidise religious institutions as long as
it does not play favourites, and it also has the right to intervene in
the practice of religion.

Secular government in the U.S. resulted from an alliance between
politically disadvantaged churches and the supporters of the
Enlightenment they otherwise disdained. American Protestantism was
split. Those with a modernist bent gravitated towards more liberal,
deistic, rationalist and scientific thinking. This tendency had a
political impact; however, it tended to be limited to highbrow, well-
educated and well-off congregations. Today, the fundamentalist Right
leads a backlash against them.

Indian secularism was born of the need to keep the peace among rival
religious groups, neutralise the caste system, and reform barbaric
social practices associated with a variety of religious practices. The
state took on the role of religious reform. The downside is that state
interference has made religion a battleground for political
manipulation and power play.

Hindu revivalism outmanoeuvred the secular forces within the Indian
independence movement. Hindu ideologues sanitised the past, proffering
a "purified" Hinduism as consistent with modern needs.

This is reactionary modernism: the incorporation of modernising
impulses into an atavistic anti-modernist ideology. Secularisation
amounted to an endorsement of Hinduism, compounded by the hypocritical
claim of essential Hindu "tolerance". As in the U.S., a rupture with
the past was passed off as continuity with the past. India's
trajectory was far worse. The secularist, deistical, naturalistic and
scientific tendencies of the American Enlightenment at least had some
institutional impact, but there was no counterpart in India. No
"disenchantment of nature" took root among a decisive contingent of
Indian intellectuals; instead, modern science was incorporated into
Vedic superstition.

Meera Nanda argues that the pragmatic manoeuvres establishing secular
states before the formation of secular cultures created the conditions
for the right-wing religious populism that menaces both countries.
Secular states cannot ultimately survive without the secularisation of
their inhabitants.

Why do some countries engender religious fundamentalist movements
while others at a comparable level of social development do not? Nikki
Keddie sees the explanation in a fusion of high levels of religiosity
and nationalism. Traditional religiosity has mushroomed in the U.S.,
accompanied by political conservatism and increasing activism.
Incredibly, Meera Nanda sees Hindu nationalism as worse. While
American nationalism is, at least in theory, non-ethnic and
universalistic, all one has to do is scratch the veneer of Hindu
liberal tolerance to find blood-and-soil "Aryan" nationalism. Secular
Indian intellectuals can absolve Hinduism from reactionary Hindutva
all they like, but they are digging their own graves; good, liberal
Hinduism is a fiction.

Conservative religiosity goes hand in hand with aggressive
nationalism: "Societies with higher levels of religiosity and
nationalism have tended to reinforce each other."

Why is this trend growing in the U.S.? Meera Nanda provides a hint
(page 51): "It is quite likely that this intensification of
religiosity coincides with the intensification of poverty and
insecurity in America in recent decades."

Yet there is a glaring omission in her summary of American religious
and political trends (pages 49-52): the religion and politics of black
America. The black population partakes of a fundamentalist religious
culture as culturally conservative and dangerously authoritarian as
that of its white counterpart, yet its political instinct for self-
preservation disposes black Americans towards overwhelming support for
the Democratic Party. Clearly, a more refined explanatory model is
needed.

Another minor quibble: In her final plea for the Enlightenment and
scientific reason, Meera Nanda also cautions the secular Left to
respect religion (page 57). I find her efforts to give faith its due
weak and unconvincing given the unequivocal condemnations of religious
superstition in the rest of the book, including a scant two pages
later. What is faith's due? The answer would seem to be: nothing. The
only tolerable religion seems to be a liberal religion so watered down
there is little left of it to interfere with rational processes.

In the second essay, Meera Nanda documents how Indian environmentalism
taps into Hindu religiosity (which habitually sanctifies every aspect
of nature), and argues why social movements should not do this. The
dangers of religious environmentalism are that it (1) nurtures Hindu
nationalism; (2) relinquishes secular spaces in public life, including
the spaces of social movements themselves; and (3) perpetuates the
irrational, inegalitarian aspects of tradition.

Further danger lurks in an alliance of Hindu nationalists with Western
neopagans and the infiltration of right-wing organicism and
traditionalism into the Left.

As Meera Nanda sees it, all eco-spirituality shares these
characteristics: (1) localism, anti-universalism; (2) non-dualism,
anti-humanism, re-enchantment of nature; (3) anti-anthropocentrism.
There is already a significant collusion of Western New Age, pagan and
deep ecology environmentalists with Hinduism and other manifestations
of "Eastern" spirituality. Apologists in the East and the West alike
gloss over the dark side of nature mysticism - its support of social
hierarchy, with the implication, sometimes overtly stated, that
egalitarianism is unnatural.

The Chipko movement provides an example of religious environmentalist
(and feminist) apologetics in practice. Supportive intellectuals
generated a rosy mythology of traditional spirituality as exemplar of
ecological consciousness, which entailed a monstrous rewriting of
history, eclipsing the evils of the caste system connected with
religion.

However, researchers have shown that the Chipko movement was motivated
by material interests having nothing to do with high principle or the
assertion of traditional values. In addition, ecological protection
was used as a pretext by government officials for the funding of Hindu
institutions.

Meanwhile, neopaganism in Europe, proselytising the re-enchantment of
nature, harbours localist, particularistic, chauvinist proclivities.
Here, the danger of cross-fertilisation of ideas between the European
new Right and Hindutva intellectuals is manifest, especially as both
have learned to camouflage themselves with the language of pluralist
tolerance and multiculturalism. Egalitarianism, materialism and
"Semitic monotheism" are excoriated in these circles. This is fascism
with a pluralist face, and the Left should have no part of it.

Finally, Meera Nanda notes that studies show that "nature worship
plays a highly ambiguous role in how people relate to nature".
Traditionally religious people do not take better care of nature, and
poor people involve themselves in environmental movements for secular
reasons.

"Making Science Sacred" is a powerful essay that effectively exposes
the mendacity underlying the euphemistic language of pluralism,
diversity and localism. Meera Nanda works in a central theme of her
previous book Prophets Facing Backward: the malignant collusion of
Western postmodernists, feminists and anti-imperialists with
reactionary Hindutva.

While there are at least voices within the mainline liberal churches
as well as scientists in the West who speak out against creationism, a
comparable presence is lacking in Indian public life to oppose the
superstitious deceit of Vedic Science. Worse, government agencies have
subsidised all kinds of traditional pseudoscience, while Vedic Science
credits itself for fostering modern discoveries such as quantum
mechanics.

Reactionary modernism is at work: ideologues champion science while
condemning secularism, naturalism, reductionism, the disenchantment of
nature, the West and even Semitic mentality. Incredibly, Meera Nanda
sees this as even worse than American Christian fundamentalist support
for creationism (page 97); "But while Christian fundamentalists in
America indulge in creationism primarily to get past the First
Amendment, Hinduisation of science in India is motivated by a deeply
chauvinistic nationalism." Surely, she once again sees the U.S. in a
more favourable light than it deserves.

Postmodernism plays into this agenda with its condemnation of
Enlightenment rationality, universalism and objectivity, and hence the
universalism of modern science, in their stead proffering social
constructivism, standpoint epistemology and local and situated
knowledges. Deep ecologists and prominent feminists rail against the
bias of the Western scientific world view. All this has been a great
boon for the panderers of Vedic Science. Not only can the history of
ideas be rewritten, but secular Indian modernisers can also be accused
of succumbing to mental colonisation.

Now comes the crux of the argument. While Christian and Islamic
conservatives are manifestly exclusionary of external ideas and
beliefs, Hinduism tends to be "inclusive", with a great deal of
pluralism and eclecticism, wherein lies the deception. Hinduism
possesses non-negotiable core beliefs, but there is much play for
relativism.

In contradistinction to Western liberalism, Hindu relativism
presupposes innate human inequality, and hence, different paths to
truth are hierarchically ranked. "The inclusiveness of Hinduism is a
mask of its hubris and self-aggrandisation."

Meera Nanda compares Hinduism with Christianity by comparing Manu with
St. Augustine (pages 106-108). While Augustine condemned pagan
knowledge, he nevertheless admitted pagans into the realm of rational
discourse and even allowed for the revision of scriptural claims via
metaphorical re-interpretation. By contrast, Manu denied the rational
unity of mankind and not only defamed heretics but also compared them
with lower castes and animals.

Other sacred Hindu texts were just as vicious towards materialists and
rationalists. All manifestations of Hindu relativism and its cardinal
epistemological principles were predicated on the hierarchical logic
of caste, and the condescending tolerance granted to others was
predicated on the unquestionable eternal truths of the Vedas guarded
by an exclusionary elite (pages 108-109).

When the Hindu renaissance encountered modern science via the British
Empire, its thinkers eclectically incorporated it as a lower grade
knowledge. Thus, the Enlightenment bypassed India.

If local knowledges are valid within their limited contexts, Vedic
ideology dovetails quite nicely with social constructivism, the
advocacy of ethnoscience and other alternative "ways of knowing" among
women and non-Western cultures. The language of relativism endemic to
postmodernism, postcolonialism and bourgeois feminism is also the
duplicitous language of Hindu metaphysics, and there is growing
collusion between the two camps.

In her zeal to criticise India's deplorable ideological heritage,
Meera Nanda seems here to be overly generous towards Augustine, as she
often seems to be towards the West. This is a minor objection. Her
overall argument is solid, particularly her analysis of what is
dangerous about the Hindu exploitation of pluralism and how its logic
meshes with the logic of postmodernism.

Relativism is no cure for absolutism; it is a manifestation of the
same disease. When you reject universalism, however it has been
misused in the past for exclusionary purposes, you open up the door to
the worst kind of despotism.

Meera Nanda convincingly argues that there is nothing edifying about
the enchantment of nature, polytheism, pantheism or syncretism, and
thus strikes an effective blow against New Age ideology in the West.

She demonstrates that New Age thought, neo-traditionalism and
relativism pave the road to fascism. Thus, she condemns the "treason
of the intellectuals" against universality and reason.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=20061215000507400.htm&date=fl2324/&prd=fline&

Volume 20 - Issue 26, December 20, 2003 - January 02, 2004

India's National Magazine
from the publishers of THE HINDU

ESSAY

Postmodernism, Hindu nationalism and `Vedic science'
MEERA NANDA

The mixing up of the mythos of the Vedas with the logos of science
must be of great concern not just to the scientific community, but
also to the religious people, for it is a distortion of both science
and spirituality.

The first part of a two-part article
The Vedas as books of science

IN 1996, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of the United Kingdom (U.K.)
produced a slick looking book, with many well-produced pictures of
colourfully dressed men and women performing Hindu ceremonies,
accompanied with warm, fuzzy and completely sanitised description of
the faith. The book, Explaining Hindu Dharma: A Guide for Teachers,
offers "teaching suggestions for introducing Hindu ideas and topics in
the classroom" at the middle to high school level in the British
schools system. The authors and editors are all card-carrying members
of the VHP. The book is now in its second edition and, going by the
glowing reviews on the back-cover, it seems to have established itself
as a much-used educational resource in the British school system.

What "teaching suggestions" does this Guide offer? It advises British
teachers to introduce Hindu dharma as "just another name" for "eternal
laws of nature" first discovered by Vedic seers, and subsequently
confirmed by modern physics and biological sciences. After giving a
false but incredibly smug account of mathematics, physics, astronomy,
medicine and evolutionary theory contained in the Vedic texts, the
Guide instructs the teachers to present the Vedic scriptures as "not
just old religious books, but as books which contain many true
scientific facts... these ancient scriptures of the Hindus can be
treated as scientific texts" (emphasis added). All that modern science
teaches us about the workings of nature can be found in the Vedas, and
all that the Vedas teach about the nature of matter, god, and human
beings is affirmed by modern science. There is no conflict, there are
no contradictions. Modern science and the Vedas are simply "different
names for the same truth".

This is the image of Hinduism that the VHP and other Hindutva
propagandists want to project around the world. The British case is
not an isolated example. Similar initiatives to portray Vedic-Aryan
India as the "cradle" of world civilisation and science have been
launched in Canada and the United States as well. Many of these
initiatives are beneficiaries of the generous and politically correct
policies of multicultural education in these countries. Under the
worthy cause of presenting the "community's" own views about its
culture, many Western governments are inadvertently funding Hindutva's
propaganda.

KAMAL NARANG

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Human Resource Development
Minister Murli Manohar Joshi at the inauguration of the Indian Science
Congress in New Delhi in 2001. The obsession for finding all kinds of
science in all kinds of obscure Hindu doctrines has been dictating the
official education policy of the BJP ever since it came to power
nearly half a decade ago.

But what concerns us in this article is not the long-distance Hindutva
(or "Yankee Hindutva", as some call it), dangerous though it is. This
essay is more about the left wing-counterpart of Yankee Hindutva: a
set of postmodernist ideas, mostly (but not entirely) exported from
the West, which unintentionally ends up supporting Hindutva's
propaganda regarding Vedic science. Over the last couple of decades, a
set of very fashionable, supposedly "radical" critiques of modern
science have dominated the Western universities. These critical
theories of science go under the label of "postmodernism" or "social
constructivism". These theories see modern science as an essentially
Western, masculine and imperialistic way of acquiring knowledge.
Intellectuals of Indian origin, many of them living and working in the
West, have played a lead role in development of postmodernist
critiques of modern science as a source of colonial "violence" against
non-Western ways of knowing.

In this two-part essay, I will examine how this postmodernist left has
provided philosophical arguments for Hindutva's claim that Vedas are
"just another name" for modern science. As we will see, postmodernist
attacks on objective and universal knowledge have played straight into
Hindu nationalist slogan of all perspectives being equally true -
within their own context and at their own level. The result is the
loud - but false - claims of finding a tradition of empirical science
in the spiritual teachings of the Vedas and Vedanta. Such
scientisation of the Vedas does nothing to actually promote an
empirical and rational tradition in India, while it does an
incalculable harm to the spiritual message of Hinduism's sacred books.
The mixing up of the mythos of the Vedas with the logos of science
must be of great concern not just to the scientific community, but
also to the religious people, for it is a distortion of both science
and spirituality.

In order to understand how postmodern critiques of science converge
with Hindutva's celebration of Vedas-as-science, let us follow the
logic behind VHP's Guide for Teachers.

This Guide claims that the ancient Hindu scriptures contain "many true
scientific facts" and therefore "can be treated as scientific texts".
Let us see what these "true scientific facts" are. The prime exhibit
is the "scientific affirmation" of the theory of guna (Sanskrit for
qualities or attributes). Following the essential Vedantic idea that
matter and spirit are not separate and distinct entities, but rather
the spiritual principle constitutes the very fabric of the material
world, the theory of gunas teaches that matter exhibits spiritual/
moral qualities. There are three such qualities or gunas which are
shared by all matter, living or non-living: the quality or guna of
purity and calmness seeking higher knowledge (sattvic), the quality or
guna of impurity, darkness, ignorance and inactivity (tamsic) and the
quality or guna of activity, curiosity, worldly gain (rajasic). Modern
atomic physics, the VHP's Guide claims, has confirmed the presence of
these qualities in nature. The evidence? Physics shows that there are
three atomic particles bearing positive, negative and neutral charges,
which correspond to the three gunas! From this "scientific proof" of
the existence of essentially spiritual/moral gunas in atoms, the Guide
goes on to triumphantly deduce the "scientific" confirmation of the
truths of all those Vedic sciences which use the concept of gunas (for
example, Ayurveda). Having "demonstrated" the scientific credentials
of Hinduism, the Guide boldly advises British school teachers to
instruct their students that there is "no conflict" between the
eternal laws of dharma and the laws discovered by modern science.

PARTH SANYAL

In Kolkata, astrologers demonstrating against the West Bengal
government's decision not to introduce astrology as a subject in the
State's universities. A file picture.

One of the most ludicrous mantras of Hindutva propaganda is that there
is "no conflict" between modern science and Hinduism. In reality,
everything we know about the workings of nature through the methods of
modern science radically disconfirms the presence of any morally
significant gunas, or shakti, or any other form of consciousness in
nature, as taught by the Vedic cosmology which treats nature as a
manifestation of divine consciousness. Far from there being "no
conflict" between science and Hinduism, a scientific understanding of
nature completely and radically negates the "eternal laws" of Hindu
dharma which teach an identity between spirit and matter. That is
precisely why the Hindutva apologists are so keen to tame modern
science by reducing it to "simply another name for the One Truth" -
the "one truth" of Absolute Consciousness contained in Hinduism's own
classical texts.

If Hindu propagandists can go this far in U.K., imagine their power in
India, where they control the Central government and its agencies for
media, education and research. This obsession for finding all kinds of
science in all kinds of obscure Hindu doctrines has been dictating the
official educational policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party ever since
it came to power nearly half a decade ago.

Indeed the BJP government can teach a thing or two to the creation
scientists in the U.S. Creationists, old and new, are trying to
smuggle in Christian dogma into secular schools in the U.S. by
redefining science in a way that allows God to be brought in as a
cause of natural phenomena. This "theistic science" is meant to serve
as the thin-edge of the wedge that will pry open the secular
establishment. Unlike the creationists who have to contend with the
courts and the legislatures in the U.S., the Indian government itself
wields the wedge of Vedic science intended to dismantle the
(admittedly half-hearted) secularist education policies. By teaching
Vedic Hinduism as "science", the Indian state and elites can portray
India as "secular" and "modern", a model of sobriety and
responsibility in contrast with those obscurantist Islamic
fundamentalists across the border who insist on keeping science out of
their madrassas. How useful is this appellation of "science", for it
dresses up so much religious indoctrination as "secular education".

Under the kindly patronage of the state, Hindutva's wedge strategy is
working wonders. Astrology is flourishing as an academic subject in
public and private colleges and universities, and is being put to use
in predicting future earthquakes and other natural disasters. Such
"sciences" as Vastu Shastra and Vedic mathematics are attracting
governmental grants for research and education. While the Ministry of
Defence is sponsoring research and development of weapons and devices
with magical powers mentioned in the ancient epics, the Health
Ministry is investing in research, development and sale of cow urine,
sold as a cure for all ailments from the Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) to tuberculosis (TB). Faith-healing and priest-craft
are other "sciences" receiving public and private funding. In the rest
of the culture, miracles and superstitions of all kinds have the
blessings of influential public figures, including elected Members of
Parliament.

THERE are two kinds of claims that feed the notion that the "Vedas are
books of science". The first kind declared the entire Vedic corpus as
converging with modern science, while the second concentrates on
defending such esoteric practices as astrology, vastu, Ayurveda,
transcendental meditation and so on as scientific within the Vedic
paradigm. The first stream seeks to establish likeness, connections
and convergences between radically opposed ideas (guna theory and
atomic particles, for example). This stream does not relativise
science: it simply grabs whatever theory of physics or biology may be
popular with Western scientists at any given time, and claims that
Hindu ideas are "like that", or "mean the same" and "therefore" are
perfectly modern and rational. The second stream is far more radical,
as it defends this "method" of drawing likenesses and correspondences
between unlike entities as perfectly rational and "scientific" within
the non-dualistic Vedic worldview. The second stream, in other words,
relativises scientific method to dominant religious worldviews: it
holds that the Hindu style of thinking by analogies and
correspondences "directly revealed to the mind's eye" is as scientific
within the "holistic" worldview of Vedic Hinduism, as the analytical
and experimental methodology of modern science is to the
"reductionist" worldview of Semitic religions. The relativist defence
of eclecticism as a legitimate scientific method not only provides a
cover for the first stream, it also provides a generic defence of such
emerging "alternative sciences" as "Vedic physics" and "Vedic
creationism", as well as defending such pseudo-sciences as Vedic
astrology, palmistry, TM (transcendental meditation) and new-age
Ayurveda (Deepak Chopra style).

In what follows, I will examine how postmodernist and social
constructivist critiques of science have lent support to both streams
of Vedas-as-science literature.

But first, I must clarify what I mean by postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a mood, a disposition. The chief characteristic of
the postmodernist disposition is that it is opposed to the
Enlightenment, which is taken to be the core of modernism. Of course,
there is no simple characterisation of the Enlightenment any more than
there is of postmodernism. A rough and ready portrayal might go like
this: Enlightenment is a general attitude fostered in the 17th and
18th centuries on the heels of the Scientific Revolution; it aims to
replace superstition and authority of traditions and established
religions with critical reason represented, above all, by the growth
of modern science. The Enlightenment project was based upon a hope
that improvement in secular scientific knowledge will lead to an
improvement of the human condition, not just materially but also
ethically and culturally. While the Enlightenment spirit flourished
primarily in Europe and North America, intellectual movements in
India, China, Japan, Latin America, Egypt and other parts of West Asia
were also influenced by it. However, the combined weight of
colonialism and cultural nationalism thwarted the Enlightenment spirit
in non-Western societies.

Postmodernists are disillusioned with this triumphalist view of
science dispelling ignorance and making the world a better place.
Their despair leads them to question the possibility of progress
toward some universal truth that everyone, everywhere must accept.
Against the Enlightenment's faith in such universal "meta-narratives"
advancing to truth, postmodernists prefer local traditions which are
not entirely led by rational and instrumental criteria but make room
for the sacred, the non-instrumental and even the irrational. Social
constructivist theories of science nicely complement postmodernists'
angst against science. There are many schools of social
constructivism, including the "strong programme" of the Edinburgh
(Scotland) school, and the "actor network" programme associated with a
school in Paris, France. The many convoluted and abstruse arguments of
these programmes do not concern us here. Basically, these programmes
assert that modern science, which we take to be moving closer to
objective truth about nature, is actually just one culture-bound way
to look at nature: no better or worse than all other sciences of other
cultures. Not just the agenda, but the content of all knowledge is
socially constructed: the supposed "facts" of modern science are
"Western" constructions, reflecting dominant interests and cultural
biases of Western societies.

Following this logic, Indian critics of science, especially those led
by the neo-Gandhians such as Ashis Nandy and Vandana Shiva, have
argued for developing local science which is grounded in the
civilisational ethos of India. Other well-known public intellectuals,
including such stalwarts as Rajni Kothari, Veena Das, Claude Alvares
and Shiv Vishwanathan, have thrown their considerable weight behind
this civilisational view of knowledge. This perspective also has
numerous sympathisers among "patriotic science" and the
environmentalist and feminist movements. A defence of local knowledges
against rationalisation and secularisation also underlies the
fashionable theories of post-colonialism and subaltern studies, which
have found a worldwide following through the writings of Partha
Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Dipesh Chakrabarty and
others. All these intellectuals and movements mentioned here have
their roots in movements for social justice, environmental protection
and women's rights - all traditional left-wing causes.

Social constructivist and postmodernist attacks on science have proven
to be a blessing for all religious zealots, in all major faiths, as
they no longer feel compelled to revise their metaphysics in the light
of progress in our understanding of nature in relevant fields. But
Hinduism displays a special resonance with the relativistic and
holistic thought that finds favour among postmodernists. In the rest
of this two-part paper, I will examine the general overlap between
Hindu apologetics and postmodernist view of hybridity (part I) and
alternative sciences (part II).

Postmodern "hybridity" and Hindu eclecticism

THE contemporary Hindu propagandists are inheritors of the 19th
century neo-Hindu nationalists who started the tradition of dressing
up the spirit-centered metaphysics of orthodox Hinduism in modern
scientific clothes. The neo-Hindu intellectuals, in turn, were
(consciously or unconsciously) displaying the well-known penchant of
generations of Sanskrit pundits for drawing resemblances and
correspondences between religious rituals, forces of nature and human
destiny.

Postmodernist theories of knowledge have rehabilitated this "method"
of drawing equivalences between different and contradictory worldviews
and allowing them to "hybridise" across traditions. The postmodernist
consensus is that since truth about the real world as-it-is cannot be
known, all knowledge systems are equivalent to each other in being
social constructions. Because they are all equally arbitrary, and none
any more objective than other, they can be mixed and matched in order
to serve the needs of human beings to live well in their own cultural
universes. From the postmodern perspective, the VHP justification of
the guna theory in terms of atomic physics is not anything to worry
about: it is merely an example of "hybridity" between two different
culturally constructed ways of seeing, a fusion between East and West,
tradition and modernity. Indeed, by postmodernist standards, it is not
this hybridity that we should worry about, but rather we should oppose
the "positivist" and "modernist" hubris that demands that non-Western
cultures should give up, or alter, elements of their inherited
cosmologies in the light of the growth of knowledge in natural
sciences. Let us see how this view of hybridity meshes in with the
Hindutva construction of Vedic science.

It is a well-known fact that Hinduism uses its eclectic mantra -
"Truth is one, the wise call it by different names" - as an instrument
for self-aggrandisement. Abrahamic religions go about converting the
Other through persuasion and through the use of physical force.
Hinduism, in contrast, absorbs the alien Other by proclaiming its
doctrines to be only "different names for the One Truth" contained in
Hinduism's own Perennial Wisdom. The teachings of the outsider, the
dissenter or the innovator are simply declared to be merely nominally
different, a minor and inferior variation of the Absolute and
Universal Truth known to Vedic Hindus from time immemorial.
Christianity and Islam at least acknowledge the radical otherness and
difference of other faiths, even as they attempt to convert them, even
at the cost of great violence and mayhem. Hinduism refuses to grant
other faiths their distinctiveness and difference, even as it
proclaims its great "tolerance". Hinduism's "tolerance" is a mere
disguise for its narcissistic obsession with its own greatness.

Whereas classical Hinduism limited this passive-aggressive form of
conquest to matters of religious doctrine, neo-Hindu intellectuals
have extended this mode of conquest to secular knowledge of modern
science as well. The tradition of claiming modern science as "just
another name" for the spiritual truths of the Vedas started with the
Bengal Renaissance. The contemporary Hindutva follows in the footsteps
of this tradition.

The Vedic science movement began in 1893 when Swami Vivekananda
(1863-1902) addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. In
that famous address, he sought to present Hinduism not just as a
fulfilment of all other religions, but also as a fulfilment of all of
science. Vivekananda claimed that only the spiritual monism of Advaita
Vedanta could fulfil the ultimate goal of natural science, which he
saw as the search for the ultimate source of the energy that creates
and sustains the world.

Vivekananda was followed by another Bengali nationalist-turned-
spiritualist, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Aurobindo proposed a divine
theory of evolution that treats evolution as the adventures of the
World-Spirit finding its own fulfilment through progressively higher
levels of consciousness, from matter to man to the yet-to-come
harmonious "supermind" of a socialistic collective. Newer theories of
Vedic creationism, which propose to replace Darwinian evolution with
"devolution" from the original one-ness with Brahman, are now being
proposed with utmost seriousness by the Hare Krishnas who, for all
their scandals and idiosyncrasies, remain faithful to the spirit of
Vaishnava Hinduism.

Vivekananda and Aurobindo lit the spark that has continued to fire the
nationalist imagination, right to the present time. The Neo-Hindu
literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially the
writings of Dayanand Saraswati, S. Radhakrishnan and the many
followers of Vivekananda, is replete with celebration of Hinduism as a
"scientific" religion. Even secularists like Jawaharlal Nehru remained
captive of this idea that the original teachings of Vedic Hinduism
were consonant with modern science, but only corrupted later by the
gradual deposits of superstition. Countless gurus and swamis began to
teach that the Vedas are simply "another name for science" and that
all of science only affirms what the Vedas have taught. This
scientistic version of Hinduism has found its way to the West through
the numerous ashrams and yoga retreats set up, most prominently, by
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his many clones.

ALL these numerous celebrations of "Vedas as science" follow a similar
intellectual strategy of finding analogies and equivalences. All
invoke extremely speculative theories from modern cosmology, quantum
mechanics, vitalistic theories of biology and parapsychology, and
other fringe sciences. They read back these sciences into Sanskrit
texts chosen at will, and their meaning decided by the whim of the
interpreter, and claim that the entities and processes mentioned in
Sanskrit texts are "like", "the same thing as", or "another word for"
the ideas expressed in modern cosmology, quantum physics or biology.
Thus there is a bit of a Brahman here and a bit of quantum mechanics
there, the two treated as interchangeable; there are references to
"energy", a scientific term with a definite mathematical formulation
in physics, which gets to mean "consciousness"; references to Newton's
laws of action and reaction are made to stand for the laws of karma
and reincarnation; completely discredited "evidence" from
parapsychology and "secret life of plants" are upheld as proofs of the
presence of different degrees of soul in all matter; "evolution" is
taught as the self-manifestation of Brahman and so on. The terms are
scientific, but the content is religious. There is no regard for
consistency either of scientific concepts, or of religious ideas. Both
wholes are broken apart, random connections and correspondences are
established and with great smugness, the two modes of knowing are
declared to be equivalent, and even inter-changeable. The only driving
force, the only idea that gives this whole mish-mash any coherence, is
the great anxiety to preserve and protect Hinduism from a rational
critique and demystification. Vedic science is motivated by cultural
chauvinism, pure and simple.

What does all this have to do with postmodernism, one may legitimately
ask. Neo-Hinduism, after all, has a history dating back at least two
centuries, and the analogical logic on which claims of Vedic science
are based goes back to times immemorial.

Neo-Hinduism did not start with postmodernism, obviously. And neither
does Hindutva share the postmodernist urgency to "overcome" and "go
beyond" the modernist fascination with progress and development. Far
from it. Neo-Hinduism and Hindutva are reactionary modernist
movements, intent on harnessing a mindless and even dangerous
technological modernisation for the advancement of a traditionalist,
deeply anti-secular and illiberal social agenda. Nevertheless, they
share a postmodernist philosophy of science that celebrates the kind
of contradictory mish-mash of science, spirituality, mysticism and
pure superstition that that passes as "Vedic science".

For those modernists who share the Enlightenment's hope for overcoming
ignorance and superstition, the value of modern science lies in its
objectivity and universality. Modernists see modern science as having
developed a critical tradition that insists upon subjecting our
hypotheses about nature to the strictest, most demanding empirical
tests and rigorously rejecting those hypotheses whose predictions fail
to be verified. For the modernist, the success of science in
explaining the workings of nature mean that sciences in other cultures
have a rational obligation to revise their standards of what kind of
evidence is admissible as science, what kind of logic is reasonable,
and how to distinguish justified knowledge from mere beliefs. For the
modernists, furthermore, modern science has provided a way to explain
the workings of nature without any need to bring in supernatural and
untestable causes such as a creator God, or an immanent Spirit.

For a postmodernist, however, this modernist faith in science is only
a sign of Eurocentrism and cultural imperialism. For a postmodernist,
other cultures are under no rational obligation to revise their
cosmologies, or adopt new procedures for ascertaining facts to bring
them in accord with modern science. Far from producing a uniquely
objective and universally valid account of nature, the "facts" of
modern science are only one among many other ways of constructing
other "facts" about nature, which are equally valid for other
cultures. Nature-in-itself cannot be known without imposing
classifications and meaning on it which are derived from cultural
metaphors and models. All ways of seeing nature are at par because all
are equally culture-bound. Modern science has no special claims to
truth and to our convictions, for it is as much of a cultural
construct of the West as other sciences are of their own cultures.

This view of science is derived from a variety of American and
European philosophies of science, associated mostly with such well-
known philosophers as Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, W.O Quine, Ludwig
Wittgenstein and Michel Foucault. This view of science has been
gaining popularity among Indian scholars of science since the infamous
"scientific temper" debates in early 1980s when Ashis Nandy, Vandana
Shiva and their sympathisers came out in defence of local knowledges
and traditions, including astrology, goddess worship as cure for small-
pox, taboos against menstruation and (later on) even sati. Over the
next two decades, it became a general practice in Indian scholarly
writing to treat modern science as just one way to adjudicate belief,
no different from any other tradition of sorting out truth from mere
group belief. Rationalism became a dirty word and Enlightenment became
a stand-in for "epistemic violence" of colonialism.

According to those who subscribe to this relativist philosophy, the
cross-cultural encounter between modern science and traditional
sciences is not a confrontation between more and less objective
knowledge, respectively. Rather it is a confrontation between two
different cultural ways of seeing the world, neither of which can
claim to represent reality-in-itself. Indeed, many radical feminists
and post-colonial critics go even further: they see modern science as
having lost its way and turned into a power of oppression and
exploitation. They want non-Western people not just to resist science
but to reform it by confronting it with their holistic traditional
sciences.

What happens when traditional cultures do need to adopt at least some
elements of modern knowledge? In such cases, postmodernists recommend
exactly the kind of "hybridity" as we have seen in the case of Vedic
sciences in which, for example, sub-atomic particles are interpreted
as referring to gunas, or where quantum energy is interpreted to be
the "same as" shakti, or where karma is interpreted to be a
determinant of biology in a "similar manner" as the genetic code and
so on. On the postmodern account, there is nothing irrational or
unscientific about this "method" of drawing equivalences and
correspondences between entirely unlike entities and ideas, even when
there may be serious contradictions between the two. On this account,
all science is based upon metaphors and analogies that reinforce
dominant cultures and social power, and all "facts" of nature are
really interpretations of nature through the lens of dominant culture.
It is perfectly rational, on this account, for Hindu nationalists to
want to reinterpret the "facts" of modern science by drawing analogies
with the dominant cultural models supplied by Hinduism. Because no
system of knowledge can claim to know reality as it really is, because
our best confirmed science is ultimately a cultural construct, all
cultures are free to pick and choose and mix various "facts", as long
as they do not disrupt their own time-honoured worldviews.

This view of reinterpretation of "Western" science to fit into the
tradition-sanctioned, local knowledges of "the people" has been
advocated by theories of "critical traditionalism" propounded by Ashis
Nandy and Bhiku Parekh in India and by the numerous admirers of Homi
Bhabha's obscure writings on "hybridity" abroad. In the West, this
view has found great favour among feminists, notably Sandra Harding
and Donna Haraway, and among anthropologists of science including
Bruno Latour, David Hess and their followers.

To conclude, one finds a convergence between the fashionable left's
position with the religious right's position on the science question.
The extreme scepticism of postmodern intellectuals toward modern
science has landed them in a position where they cannot, if they are
to remain true to their beliefs, criticise Hindutva's eclectic take-
over of modern science for the glory of the Vedic tradition.

Meera Nanda is the author of Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern
Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism (Rutgers University Press,
2003). An Indian edition of the book will be published by Permanent
Black in early 2004.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2026/stories/20040102000607800.htm

http://thetruthwholetruthandnothingbuttruth.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-write-therefore-i-am-sid-harth.html

[cogitoergosum]

India, a World Wasteland? Sid Harth
http://navanavonmilita.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/i-write-therefore-i-am-sid-harth/

T S Eliot

http://www.uea.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.106572!lite1f10.pdf

The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot

OOOO that Shakespearen rag_/
It's so elegant / so
Intelligent.

Perhaps Eliot’s most famous work, this controversial poem details the
journey of the human soul searching for redemption. The Waste Land is
known not only for its probing subject matter but also its radical
departure from traditional poetic style and structure incorporating
historical and literary allusions as well as unconventional use of
language.

AUTHOR: Eliot, Thomas Stearns, 1888–1965.
TITLE: The waste land, by T. S. Eliot.
PUBLISHED: New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922.
PHYSICAL DETAILS: 64 p.; 20 cm.
ISBN: 1-58734-012-7.
CITATION: Eliot, Thomas Stearns. The Waste Land. New York: Boni and
Liveright, 1922; Bartleby.com, 1998. www.bartleby.com/201/. [Date of
Printout].
ON-LINE ED.: Published February 1998 by Bartleby.com; © Copyright
Bartleby.com, Inc. (Terms of Use).

http://www.bartleby.com/br/201.html

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Waste Land. 1922.

The Waste Land

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering 5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 15
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock, 25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. 30
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu.
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?
'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; 35
'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das Meer.

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, 45
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations. 50
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. 55
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.

Unreal City, 60
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. 65
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying 'Stetson!
'You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 70
'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
'Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! 75
'You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!'

II. A GAME OF CHESS

THE Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out 80
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion; 85
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,
Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
That freshened from the window, these ascended 90
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone, 95
In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale 100
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,
'Jug Jug' to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms 105
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. 110

'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'

I think we are in rats' alley 115
Where the dead men lost their bones.

'What is that noise?'
The wind under the door.
'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'
Nothing again nothing. 120
'Do
'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
'Nothing?'
I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes. 125
'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'
But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It's so elegant
So intelligent 130
'What shall I do now? What shall I do?'
'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?
'What shall we ever do?'
The hot water at ten. 135
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said—
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself, 140
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set, 145
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said. 150
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.
Others can pick and choose if you can't.
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling. 155
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
(She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.) 160
The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don't want children?
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME 165
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight. 170
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good
night.

III. THE FIRE SERMON

THE river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed. 175
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; 180
Departed, have left no addresses.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept...
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear 185
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

A rat crept softly through the vegetation
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
While I was fishing in the dull canal
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse 190
Musing upon the king my brother's wreck
And on the king my father's death before him.
White bodies naked on the low damp ground
And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year. 195
But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.
O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
And on her daughter 200
They wash their feet in soda water
Et, O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!

Twit twit twit
Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc'd. 205
Tereu

Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter noon
Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants 210
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
Asked me in demotic French
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.

At the violet hour, when the eyes and back 215
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives 220
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Out of the window perilously spread
Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays, 225
On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest—
I too awaited the expected guest. 230
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,
One of the low on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
The time is now propitious, as he guesses, 235
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence; 240
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall 245
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows on final patronising kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit...

She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
Hardly aware of her departed lover; 250
Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:
'Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over.'
When lovely woman stoops to folly and
Paces about her room again, alone,
She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, 255
And puts a record on the gramophone.

'This music crept by me upon the waters'
And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street.
O City city, I can sometimes hear
Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street, 260
The pleasant whining of a mandoline
And a clatter and a chatter from within
Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls
Of Magnus Martyr hold
Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold. 265

The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide
Red sails 270
Wide
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
The barges wash
Drifting logs
Down Greenwich reach 275
Past the Isle of Dogs.
Weialala leia
Wallala leialala

Elizabeth and Leicester
Beating oars 280
The stern was formed
A gilded shell
Red and gold
The brisk swell
Rippled both shores 285
Southwest wind
Carried down stream
The peal of bells
White towers
Weialala leia 290
Wallala leialala

'Trams and dusty trees.
Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew
Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees
Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.' 295
'My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart
Under my feet. After the event
He wept. He promised "a new start".
I made no comment. What should I resent?'
'On Margate Sands. 300
I can connect
Nothing with nothing.
The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
My people humble people who expect
Nothing.' 305
la la

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest 310

burning

IV. DEATH BY WATER

PHLEBAS the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea 315
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, 320
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying 325
Prison and place and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience 330

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink 335
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit 340
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses
If there were water 345
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring 350
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock 355
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together 360
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
—But who is that on the other side of you? 365

What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only 370
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London 375
Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings 380
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in air were towers
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

In this decayed hole among the mountains 385
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one. 390
Only a cock stood on the rooftree
Co co rico co co rico
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
Bringing rain

Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves 395
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder
D A 400
Datta: what have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed 405
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms
D A 410
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours 415
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus
D A
Damyata: The boat responded
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar
The sea was calm, your heart would have responded 420
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient
To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order? 425

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam ceu chelidon—O swallow swallow
Le Prince d'Aquitaine à la tour abolie
These fragments I have shored against my ruins 430
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih

NOTES

Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental
symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book
on the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance (Macmillan). Indeed, so
deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston's book will elucidate the
difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I
recommend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself) to any
who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble. To another
work of anthropology I am indebted in general, one which has
influenced our generation profoundly; I mean The Golden Bough; I have
used especially the two volumes Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Anyone who is
acquainted with these works will immediately recognize in the poem
certain references to vegetation ceremonies.

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

Line 20 Cf. Ezekiel 2:7.

23. Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:5.

31. V. Tristan und Isolde, i, verses 5–8.

42. Id. iii, verse 24.

46. I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot pack of
cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own
convenience. The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my
purpose in two ways: because he is associated in my mind with the
Hanged God of Frazer, and because I associate him with the hooded
figure in the passage of the disciples to Emmaus in Part V. The
Phoenician Sailor and the Merchant appear later; also the 'crowds of
people', and Death by Water is executed in Part IV. The Man with Three
Staves (an authentic member of the Tarot pack) I associate, quite
arbitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

60. Cf. Baudelaire:
Fourmillante cité, cité pleine de rêves,
Où le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant.

63. Cf. Inferno, iii. 55–7:
si lunga tratta
di gente, ch'io non avrei mai creduto
che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta.

64. Cf. Inferno, iv. 25–27:
Quivi, secondo che per ascoltare,
non avea pianto, ma' che di sospiri,
che l'aura eterna facevan tremare.

68. A phenomenon which I have often noticed.

74. Cf. the Dirge in Webster's White Devil.

76. V. Baudelaire, Preface to Fleurs du Mal.

II. A GAME OF CHESS

77. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, II. ii. 190.

92. Laquearia. V. Aeneid, I. 726:
dependent lychni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis funalia
vincunt.

98. Sylvan scene. V. Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 140.

99. V. Ovid, Metamorphoses, vi, Philomela.

100. Cf. Part III, l. 204.

115. Cf. Part III, l. 195.

118. Cf. Webster: 'Is the wind in that door still?'

126. Cf. Part I, l. 37, 48.

138. Cf. the game of chess in Middleton's Women beware Women.

III. THE FIRE SERMON

176. V. Spenser, Prothalamion.

192. Cf. The Tempest, I. ii.

196. Cf. Marvell, To His Coy Mistress.

197. Cf. Day, Parliament of Bees:
When of the sudden, listening, you shall hear,
A noise of horns and hunting, which shall bring
Actaeon to Diana in the spring,
Where all shall see her naked skin...

199. I do not know the origin of the ballad from which these lines are
taken: it was reported to me from Sydney, Australia.

202. V. Verlaine, Parsifal.

210. The currants were quoted at a price 'carriage and insurance free
to London'; and the Bill of Lading, etc., were to be handed to the
buyer upon payment of the sight draft.

218. Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a 'character',
is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest.
Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the
Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from
Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman, and the
two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the
substance of the poem. The whole passage from Ovid is of great
anthropological interest:
...Cum Iunone iocos et 'maior vestra profecto est
Quam, quae contingit maribus', dixisse, 'voluptas.'
Illa negat; placuit quae sit sententia docti
Quaerere Tiresiae: venus huic erat utraque nota.
Nam duo magnorum viridi coeuntia silva
Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu
Deque viro factus, mirabile, femina septem
Egerat autumnos; octavo rursus eosdem
Vidit et 'est vestrae si tanta potentia plagae',
Dixit 'ut auctoris sortem in contraria mutet,
Nunc quoque vos feriam!' percussis anguibus isdem
Forma prior rediit genetivaque venit imago.
Arbiter hic igitur sumptus de lite iocosa
Dicta Iovis firmat; gravius Saturnia iusto
Nec pro materia fertur doluisse suique
Iudicis aeterna damnavit lumina nocte,
At pater omnipotens (neque enim licet inrita cuiquam
Facta dei fecisse deo) pro lumine adempto
Scire futura dedit poenamque levavit honore.

221. This may not appear as exact as Sappho's lines, but I had in mind
the 'longshore' or 'dory' fisherman, who returns at nightfall.

253. V. Goldsmith, the song in The Vicar of Wakefield.

257. V. The Tempest, as above.

264. The interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest
among Wren's interiors. See The Proposed Demolition of Nineteen City
Churches (P. S. King & Son, Ltd.).

266. The Song of the (three) Thames-daughters begins here. From line
292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn. V. Götterdammerung, III. i:
The Rhine-daughters.

279. V. Froude, Elizabeth, vol. I, ch. iv, letter of De Quadra to
Philip of Spain:
In the afternoon we were in a barge, watching the games on the
river. (The queen) was alone with Lord Robert and myself on the poop,
when they began to talk nonsense, and went so far that Lord Robert at
last said, as I was on the spot there was no reason why they should
not be married if the queen pleased.

293. Cf. Purgatorio, V. 133:
'Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia;
Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma.'

307. V. St. Augustine's Confessions: 'to Carthage then I came, where a
cauldron of unholy loves sang all about mine ears'.

308. The complete text of the Buddha's Fire Sermon (which corresponds
in importance to the Sermon on the Mount) from which these words are
taken, will be found translated in the late Henry Clarke Warren's
Buddhism in Translation (Harvard Oriental Series). Mr. Warren was one
of the great pioneers of Buddhist studies in the Occident.

309. From St. Augustine's Confessions again. The collocation of these
two representatives of eastern and western asceticism, as the
culmination of this part of the poem, is not an accident.

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

In the first part of Part V three themes are employed: the journey to
Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous (see Miss Weston's book),
and the present decay of eastern Europe.

357. This is Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii, the hermit-thrush which I
have heard in Quebec County. Chapman says (Handbook of Birds in
Eastern North America) 'it is most at home in secluded woodland and
thickety retreats.... Its notes are not remarkable for variety or
volume, but in purity and sweetness of tone and exquisite modulation
they are unequalled.' Its 'water-dripping song' is justly celebrated.

360. The following lines were stimulated by the account of one of the
Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of
Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers, at the
extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was
one more member than could actually be counted.

367–77. Cf. Hermann Hesse, Blick ins Chaos:
Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der halbe Osten Europas auf
dem Wege zum Chaos, fährt betrunken im heiligen Wahn am Abgrund
entlang und singt dazu, singt betrunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri
Karamasoff sang. Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Bürger beleidigt, der
Heilige und Seher hört sie mit Tränen.

401. 'Datta, dayadhvam, damyata' (Give, sympathize, control). The
fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found in the Brihadaranyaka--
Upanishad, 5, 1. A translation is found in Deussen's Sechzig
Upanishads des Veda, p. 489.

407. Cf. Webster, The White Devil, V, vi:
...they'll remarry
Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider
Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs.

411. Cf. Inferno, xxxiii. 46:
ed io sentii chiavar l'uscio di sotto
all'orribile torre.

Also F. H. Bradley, Appearance and Reality, p. 346:
My external sensations are no less private to myself than are my
thoughts or my feelings. In either case my experience falls within my
own circle, a circle closed on the outside; and, with all its elements
alike, every sphere is opaque to the others which surround it.... In
brief, regarded as an existence which appears in a soul, the whole
world for each is peculiar and private to that soul.

424. V. Weston, From Ritual to Romance; chapter on the Fisher King.

427. V. Purgatorio, xxvi. 148.
'Ara vos prec per aquella valor
'que vos guida al som de l'escalina,
'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor.'
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina.

428. V. Pervigilium Veneris. Cf. Philomela in Parts II and III.

429. V. Gerard de Nerval, Sonnet El Desdichado.

431. V. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.

433. Shantih. Repeated as here, a formal ending to an Upanishad. 'The
Peace which passeth understanding' is a feeble translation of the
conduct of this word.

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Search Results for “T S Eliot”

1) Gerontion. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/13.html
...Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain. I was neither at the hot
gates Nor fought in the warm rain Nor knee deep in the salt marsh,
heaving a cutlass, 5 Bitten...

2) Eliot, T. S. 1922. The Waste Land http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html
...Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering 5 Earth
in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer
surprised us, coming over the...

3) Sweeney Erect. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/15.html
...Faced by the snarled and yelping seas. Display me Aeolus above 5
Reviewing the insurgent gales Which tangle Ariadne's hair And swell
with haste the perjured sails....

4) A Cooking Egg. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/16.html
...Lay on the table, with the knitting. Daguerreotypes and
silhouettes, 5 Here grandfather and great great aunts, Supported on
the mantelpiece An Invitation to the Dance....

5) Le Directeur. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/17.html
...MALHEUR � la malheureuse Tamise Qui coule si pre�s du Spectateur.
Le directeur Conservateur Du Spectateur 5 Empeste la brise. Les
actionnaires R�actionnaires Du Spectateur...

6) The Hippopotamus. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/20.html
...For it is based upon a rock. The hippo's feeble steps may err In
compassing material ends, 10 While the True Church need never stir To
gather in its dividends. The...

7) M�lange Adult�re de Tout. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems
http://www.bartleby.com/199/18.html
...Casque noir de jemenfoutiste. En Allemagne, philosophe 10 Surexcit�
par Emporheben Au grand air de Bergsteigleben; J'erre toujours de-ci
de-l� A divers coups de tra...

8) Lune de Miel. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/19.html
...ILS ont vu les Pays-Bas, ils rentrent � Terre Haute; Mais une nuit
d'�t�, les voici � Ravenne, A l'aise entre deux draps, chez deux
centaines de punaises; La sueur...

9) Dans le Restaurant. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems http://www.bartleby.com/199/21.html
...Les taches de son gilet montent au chiffre de trentehuit. "Je la
chatouillais, pour la faire rire. J'�prouvais un instant de puissance
et de d�lire." Mais alors,...

10) Whispers of Immortality. Eliot, T. S. 1920. Poems
http://www.bartleby.com/199/22.html
...Leaned backward with a lipless grin. Daffodil bulbs instead of
balls 5 Stared from the sockets of the eyes! He knew that thought
clings round dead limbs Tightening...

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Search Results for “Essay”

1) Philip Massinger. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred Wood
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw11.html
...by him: the notes of Coleridge exemplify Coleridge's fragmentary
and fine perceptions; the essay of Leslie Stephen is a piece of
formidable destructive analysis;...

2) Dante. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred Wood http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw14.html
...poetry a paragraph which seems to me of very doubtful validity. I
have not seen the complete essay, and know the quotation only as it
appears in a critical notice...

3) Introduction. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred Wood http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw1.html
...but no conclusion is any more solidly established than it was in
1865. In the first essay in the first Essays in Criticism we read that
it has long seemed to me that...

4) Imperfect Critics. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred Wood
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw3.html
...Swinburne as Critic THREE conclusions at least issue from the
perusal of Swinburne's critical essays: Swinburne had mastered his
material, was more inward with the...

5) The Perfect Critic. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred Wood
http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw2.html
...to be Mr. Symons. 2 At hand is a volume which we may test. 1 Ten of
these thirteen essays deal with single plays of Shakespeare, and it is
therefore fair to take...

6) The Possibility of a Poetic Drama. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred
Wood http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw5.html
...and Plato, Spinoza, parts of Hume, Mr. Bradley's Principles of
Logic, Mr. Russell's essay on "Denoting": clear and beautifully formed
thought. But this is not what...

7) Tradition and the Individual Talent. Eliot, T. S. 1920. The Sacred
Wood http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html
...and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these
things. 17 III This essay proposes to halt at the frontier of
metaphysics or mysticism, and confine itself...

http://www.bartleby.com/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/sitesearch?FILTER=colEliot-Th&query=Essay&x=12&y=15

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and
Criticism. 1922.

Hamlet and His Problems

FEW critics have even admitted that Hamlet the play is the primary
problem, and Hamlet the character only secondary. And Hamlet the
character has had an especial temptation for that most dangerous type
of critic: the critic with a mind which is naturally of the creative
order, but which through some weakness in creative power exercises
itself in criticism instead. These minds often find in Hamlet a
vicarious existence for their own artistic realization. Such a mind
had Goethe, who made of Hamlet a Werther; and such had Coleridge, who
made of Hamlet a Coleridge; and probably neither of these men in
writing about Hamlet remembered that his first business was to study a
work of art. The kind of criticism that Goethe and Coleridge produced,
in writing of Hamlet, is the most misleading kind possible. For they
both possessed unquestionable critical insight, and both make their
critical aberrations the more plausible by the substitution—of their
own Hamlet for Shakespeare's—which their creative gift effects. We
should be thankful that Walter Pater did not fix his attention on this
play. 1
Two recent writers, Mr. J. M. Robertson and Professor Stoll of the
University of Minnesota, have issued small books which can be praised
for moving in the other direction. Mr. Stoll performs a service in
recalling to our attention the labours of the critics of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 1 observing that

they knew less about psychology than more recent Hamlet critics, but
they were nearer in spirit to Shakespeare's art; and as they insisted
on the importance of the effect of the whole rather than on the
importance of the leading character, they were nearer, in their old-
fashioned way, to the secret of dramatic art in general. 2
Qua work of art, the work of art cannot be interpreted; there is
nothing to interpret; we can only criticize it according to standards,
in comparison to other works of art; and for "interpretation" the
chief task is the presentation of relevant historical facts which the
reader is not assumed to know. Mr. Robertson points out, very
pertinently, how critics have failed in their "interpretation" of
Hamlet by ignoring what ought to be very obvious: that Hamlet is a
stratification, that it represents the efforts of a series of men,
each making what he could out of the work of his predecessors. The
Hamlet of Shakespeare will appear to us very differently if, instead
of treating the whole action of the play as due to Shakespeare's
design, we perceive his Hamlet to be superposed upon much cruder
material which persists even in the final form. 3
We know that there was an older play by Thomas Kyd, that
extraordinary dramatic (if not poetic) genius who was in all
probability the author of two plays so dissimilar as the Spanish
Tragedy and Arden of Feversham; and what this play was like we can
guess from three clues: from the Spanish Tragedy itself, from the tale
of Belleforest upon which Kyd's Hamlet must have been based, and from
a version acted in Germany in Shakespeare's lifetime which bears
strong evidence of having been adapted from the earlier, not from the
later, play. From these three sources it is clear that in the earlier
play the motive was a revenge-motive simply; that the action or delay
is caused, as in the Spanish Tragedy, solely by the difficulty of
assassinating a monarch surrounded by guards; and that the "madness"
of Hamlet was feigned in order to escape suspicion, and successfully.
In the final play of Shakespeare, on the other hand, there is a motive
which is more important than that of revenge, and which explicitly
"blunts" the latter; the delay in revenge is unexplained on grounds of
necessity or expediency; and the effect of the "madness" is not to
lull but to arouse the king's suspicion. The alteration is not
complete enough, however, to be convincing. Furthermore, there are
verbal parallels so close to the Spanish Tragedy as to leave no doubt
that in places Shakespeare was merely revising the text of Kyd. And
finally there are unexplained scenes—the Polonius-Laertes and the
Polonius-Reynaldo scenes—for which there is little excuse; these
scenes are not in the verse style of Kyd, and not beyond doubt in the
style of Shakespeare. These Mr. Robertson believes to be scenes in the
original play of Kyd reworked by a third hand, perhaps Chapman, before
Shakespeare touched the play. And he concludes, with very strong show
of reason, that the original play of Kyd was, like certain other
revenge plays, in two parts of five acts each. The upshot of Mr.
Robertson's examination is, we believe, irrefragable: that
Shakespeare's Hamlet, so far as it is Shakespeare's, is a play dealing
with the effect of a mother's guilt upon her son, and that Shakespeare
was unable to impose this motive successfully upon the "intractable"
material of the old play. 4
Of the intractability there can be no doubt. So far from being
Shakespeare's masterpiece, the play is most certainly an artistic
failure. In several ways the play is puzzling, and disquieting as is
none of the others. Of all the plays it is the longest and is possibly
the one on which Shakespeare spent most pains; and yet he has left in
it superfluous and inconsistent scenes which even hasty revision
should have noticed. The versification is variable. Lines like

Look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill,

are of the Shakespeare of Romeo and Juliet. The lines in Act v. sc.
ii.,

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep...
Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet;

are of his quite mature. Both workmanship and thought are in an
unstable condition. We are surely justified in attributing the play,
with that other profoundly interesting play of "intractable" material
and astonishing versification, Measure for Measure, to a period of
crisis, after which follow the tragic successes which culminate in
Coriolanus. Coriolanus may be not as "interesting" as Hamlet, but it
is, with Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's most assured artistic
success. And probably more people have thought Hamlet a work of art
because they found it interesting, than have found it interesting
because it is a work of art. It is the "Mona Lisa" of literature. 5
The grounds of Hamlet's failure are not immediately obvious. Mr.
Robertson is undoubtedly correct in concluding that the essential
emotion of the play is the feeling of a son towards a guilty mother:

[Hamlet's] tone is that of one who has suffered tortures on the
score of his mother's degradation.... The guilt of a mother is an
almost intolerable motive for drama, but it had to be maintained and
emphasized to supply a psychological solution, or rather a hint of
one.

This, however, is by no means the whole story. It is not merely the
"guilt of a mother" that cannot be handled as Shakespeare handled the
suspicion of Othello, the infatuation of Antony, or the pride of
Coriolanus. The subject might conceivably have expanded into a tragedy
like these, intelligible, self-complete, in the sunlight. Hamlet, like
the sonnets, is full of some stuff that the writer could not drag to
light, contemplate, or manipulate into art. And when we search for
this feeling, we find it, as in the sonnets, very difficult to
localize. You cannot point to it in the speeches; indeed, if you
examine the two famous soliloquies you see the versification of
Shakespeare, but a content which might be claimed by another, perhaps
by the author of the Revenge of Bussy d' Ambois, Act v. sc. i. We find
Shakespeare's Hamlet not in the action, not in any quotations that we
might select, so much as in an unmistakable tone which is unmistakably
not in the earlier play. 6
The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding
an "objective correlative"; in other words, a set of objects, a
situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must
terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately
evoked. If you examine any of Shakespeare's more successful tragedies,
you will find this exact equivalence; you will find that the state of
mind of Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep has been communicated to you
by a skilful accumulation of imagined sensory impressions; the words
of Macbeth on hearing of his wife's death strike us as if, given the
sequence of events, these words were automatically released by the
last event in the series. The artistic "inevitability" lies in this
complete adequacy of the external to the emotion; and this is
precisely what is deficient in Hamlet. Hamlet (the man) is dominated
by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is in excess of the
facts as they appear. And the supposed identity of Hamlet with his
author is genuine to this point: that Hamlet's bafflement at the
absence of objective equivalent to his feelings is a prolongation of
the bafflement of his creator in the face of his artistic problem.
Hamlet is up against the difficulty that his disgust is occasioned by
his mother, but that his mother is not an adequate equivalent for it;
his disgust envelops and exceeds her. It is thus a feeling which he
cannot understand; he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains to
poison life and obstruct action. None of the possible actions can
satisfy it; and nothing that Shakespeare can do with the plot can
express Hamlet for him. And it must be noticed that the very nature of
the données of the problem precludes objective equivalence. To have
heightened the criminality of Gertrude would have been to provide the
formula for a totally different emotion in Hamlet; it is just because
her character is so negative and insignificant that she arouses in
Hamlet the feeling which she is incapable of representing. 7
The "madness" of Hamlet lay to Shakespeare's hand; in the earlier
play a simple ruse, and to the end, we may presume, understood as a
ruse by the audience. For Shakespeare it is less than madness and more
than feigned. The levity of Hamlet, his repetition of phrase, his
puns, are not part of a deliberate plan of dissimulation, but a form
of emotional relief. In the character Hamlet it is the buffoonery of
an emotion which can find no outlet in action; in the dramatist it is
the buffoonery of an emotion which he cannot express in art. The
intense feeling, ecstatic or terrible, without an object or exceeding
its object, is something which every person of sensibility has known;
it is doubtless a study to pathologists. It often occurs in
adolescence: the ordinary person puts these feelings to sleep, or
trims down his feeling to fit the business world; the artist keeps it
alive by his ability to intensify the world to his emotions. The
Hamlet of Laforgue is an adolescent; the Hamlet of Shakespeare is not,
he has not that explanation and excuse. We must simply admit that here
Shakespeare tackled a problem which proved too much for him. Why he
attempted it at all is an insoluble puzzle; under compulsion of what
experience he attempted to express the inexpressibly horrible, we
cannot ever know. We need a great many facts in his biography; and we
should like to know whether, and when, and after or at the same time
as what personal experience, he read Montaigne, II. xii., Apologie de
Raimond Sebond. We should have, finally, to know something which is by
hypothesis unknowable, for we assume it to be an experience which, in
the manner indicated, exceeded the facts. We should have to understand
things which Shakespeare did not understand himself. 8

Note 1

I have never, by the way, seen a cogent refutation of Thomas Rymer's
objections to Othello. [back]

T.S. Eliot

Prufrock and Other Observations http://www.bartleby.com/198/
This collection of poems contains one of Eliot’s first and most well-
known poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Poems
Collection of twelve poems written by T.S. Eliot in 1920, including
Lune de Miel, The Hippopotamus and Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service.

The Waste Land http://www.bartleby.com/199/
Perhaps Eliot’s most famous piece, this controversial poem details the
journey of the human soul searching for redemption.

The Sacred Wood http://www.bartleby.com/200/
A collection of essays on poetry and criticism, including the famous
“Hamlet and His Problems.”

[Poetry] may make us from time to time a little more aware of the
deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to
which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion
of ourselves.
T.S.
Eliot

http://www.bartleby.com/people/Eliot-Th.html