Friday 31 October 2014

The Macaulay minute


The Macaulay minute
1 novembre 2014, 02:24


Often the enemies of our culture try to destroy facts in order to cheat us from using them against them. The english media plays a huge role in this. The idea is to delegitimize every fact that praizes the Hindu culture and prop up imaginary bogeymen to destroy Hinduism.



One such fact is called the Macaulay minute. Here is what it says:

An excerpt from the address by Lord Macaulay (the first law member of the Governor-General’s Council) to the British Parliament on February 2, 1835:



“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre that I don’t think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem , their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.



Anyone who reads this can see why this is of great significance to Hindus. We are attempting from the time of the Islamic invasion, to recapture our true culture. The Islamic invaders did immense damage in the form of destruction of the institutions that supported Hindu culture. After them came the British who also went to great lengths to destroy the self-respect of Hindus by ridiculing openly everything that was not English. Large parts of our population have bought into this inferiority complex. We need to show the people how this was done. But they are not ready to believe that this was ever done. So deep is the brainwashing.



The Macaulay minute is a vital clue to such carefully planned destruction of Indian culture. This is no less important than the famous phrase 'The final solution' which was the plan hatched by the Nazis to rid Europe of Jews.



So this macaulay minute has been under great scrutiny by the forces arrayed against Hindus in India. These are composed of Muslim 'scholars', Christian clerics, Nehruvian-Marxist-"historians" who want to convince that this all a figment of the imagination in the Hindu zealot's mind. They say Macualay never said this and this is an "internet hoax".



So I took it upon myslef to seek the truth. After researching the archives of the British Parliament and not finding it, I wrote to the Archives officer asking why such a rumor then exists, if the records of the parliament don't show it. Here is my letter to him and his reply that explains this in detail. It clearly proves that Macauly DID say this and he DID try his damndest to destroy Indian, specifically HINDU, culture! Use this if you need to defend it.



From: b.k.vasan

Sent: 09 July 2010 00:55

To: HCInfo

Subject: Historical query



Subject: Historical query

Question: I keep coming across this quote from Lord Macaulay. Is there any way of confirming this from your records office please? the quote and dates given below:



An excerpt from the address by Lord Macaulay (the first law member of the Governor-General’s Council) to the British Parliament on February 2, 1835:



“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre that I don’t think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem , their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.



Reply from the Archives Officer of the Archives of the British Parliament:

Dear B. K. Vasan,



Thank you for your email. The item that you have found is Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education. This was not an address to Parliament, and the Parliamentary Archives does not hold it, the reasons for this I give below.



Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay (1800–1859), historian, essayist, and poet, was born on 25 October 1800. Macaulaywas elected for Calne on 15 February 1830 and took his seat three days later. He made his maiden speech on 5 April 1830 in support of a motion for the repeal of Jewish disabilities, but he made his name as an orator with the introduction of the whig government'sReform Bill in March 1831. He made five major speeches in support of the reform of parliament. Soon after the Reform Act was law, he sought a change of seat, and in the first elections for the reformed parliament he stood for Leeds. In 1833 the government'sCharter Act, presented to parliament by Grant, created a new supreme council for India, with a fourth post for a ‘law member’. It was offered (probably not without some lobbying on his part) to Macaulay. In early March 1834 Macaulay resigned his seat, and on the 15th he sailed for India. Macaulay left his mark on British administration, less in actual change than in memorable arguments on disputed issues. His most famous contribution, in which he joined Trevelyan, was to the controversy between orientalists and Anglicizers over the allocation of a sum of money to native students in higher education, one party favouring instruction in Sanskrit and Arabic, the other pressing for all instruction in English. Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education (2 February 1835) argued vigorously for the latter, on the grounds previously advanced by James Mill, that instruction in English would convey the findings of a more advanced culture and so the money would be more usefully spent. The Minute has become famous as a landmark in the dispute. The fact that Macaulay had resigned his seat means that his Minute is not a Parliamentary paper and therefore we do not hold it or a copy of it as a record in our collection.



However, Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education can be found on many websites using a search engine such as Google and entering the title and name of the author. I attach a link below to the website of the National Archives of India for your convenience.



http://nationalarchives.nic.in/



Yours sincerely,



Simon Gough

Archives Officer



Parliamentary Archives,

House of Lords,

Westminster,

London.

SW1A 0PW

United Kingdom.

Tel: +44(0)20 7219 3074

archives@parliament.uk

http://www.parliament.uk/archives

Online Catalogue: www.portcullis.parliament.uk



There are other quotes also from MAcaulay that substantiate his utter conviction that the Hindu culture was far superior to English culture and NEEDED to be destroyed for England to assert her colonial power in India:



Excerpt from story about release of Encyclopedia of Hinduism March 28 2010: (story in document titled 'Secularism springs from Hindu tolerance')

L K Advani said Kapil Kapoor, the Encyclopaedia's chief argued that "western culture internalised by the elite of our country because of the educational system thrust on us during British rule has made us ashamed and apologetic about our tradition, ceremonies, and customs, and specially about our languages, particularly Sanskrit."



He said Kapoor recounted a letter Thomas Macaulay had written to his father in 1836. "The effect of this (English) education on the Hindoos is prodigious. No Hindoo, who has received this education, ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence."



Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 - 1859)

Nonduality

With great gratitude I found myself with like-minded scientists and thought leaders at this year’s Science and Nonduality Conference (SAND) where a common ground was sought between neuroscientists, physicists and the consciousness community. This year’s theme was “Entanglement” and recognition that “when science drills down into the core of even the most solid-looking object, separateness dissolves, and all that remains are relationships extending throughout and possibly beyond, space and time.”October 31, 2014 by Tom Bunzel

Angkor wat

Angkor wat  temple was built by the Tamil  King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century who became a KHMER KING after Tamils conquered CAMBODIA NOT BY SWORD but by CULTURAL SOFT POWER .Suryavarman is tamil pallava king descent ,Pallavas ruled south India (Tamil nadu).......names like suryavarman ,mahindra varman were common in Tamil nadu ,thoese were the names of king belong to pallava dynasity ,they were famous for there architecture example : Mahabalipuram in Tamil nadu. Tamils used to be great sailors exploring all the south Asia countries by establishing commercial ties with them.  They used to have one of the largest fleet of ships WITH 2000 OR PLUS SHIPS  capable of carrying even elephants to build temples in Cambodia.

This was initially a VISHNU temple but had shiva lingas installed by successive kings but then now it is very sad to learn the Buddhists had succeeded in portraying this HINDU TEMPLE as BUDDHIST by adding recently BUDDHA statues and teaching all tourist Cambodian guides to distort history in favour of this latter added fiction. if IT WAS BUDDHIST WHY THE ANCIENT ROCKS PROTRAY ONLY SCENES FROM MAHABARATA AND RAMAYANA .

swami NITHYANANDA says about this super structure in his satsang :

Let us come to today’s satsangh.
First thing I wanted to tell you guys, the more and more I am studying about this Cambodia temples to explain to all of you, the more and more I am getting addicted. I have to use the right word – “intoxicated”! I am just getting intoxicated, overwhelmed, just by reading about those temples! See, Cambodia is not new for me. Even in this body I visited just a few years before and spent a lot of time. But, now, when I am sitting and studying to present to all of you guys, this is the word I have to use: It is “intoxicating” even to read and study! It is overwhelming!
I am basically a temple guy. I don’t need anything for my life other than one temple and one pillar for me to lean on it. That’s all! I will be sitting and leaning on that pillar in any one corner and go on chanting ‘Shiva! Shiva! Shiva! Shiva!’ Nothing, nothing much is required for me in my life. When I feel I sat too much, I will just walk, go around the temple. When I feel I have walked enough, I want to sit, I will sit in the corner again and chant ‘Shiva! Shiva! Shiva!’ I don’t actually need anything other than one corner of a temple. I can spend my whole life just sitting in one corner of a temple, because I am a temple person. Even this Bidadi temple that is why I am building! I am not building for anybody. I am just building it for me! So, whenever I feel like walking, I will just go round, go round, go round, go round. When I feel like sitting, I will just sit and gaze at the deity. That’s all! If some temple allows me to spend my whole day whenever I go to the temple, I will not build even my temple! Because nearby there is no other temple whenever I want to sit, I am building my own temple! That’s all! I am basically a temple person, understand, who lives in temple, loves temple. So, it is almost like a feast for me when I am reading about this Cambodia. I tell you guys, it is not just a feast for me, for all of you guys too it is going to be a feast! It is not just a feast for me, because, I mastered the science of: anything I enjoy, how to make others also enjoy that! If I am enjoying Advaitha, I know how to cook that and serve to you, how to make you enjoy it. Same way, these temples!
I wanted all of you to know, just the knowledge of architecture, construction, is not enough to build a temple. It needs tremendous inspiration, excitement, enthusiasm! Please understand, architectural knowledge and one person’s greed is enough to build palaces. If that person is able to pay you or frighten you, you will build palaces, pyramids. That is how the pyramids are built. Pyramids are built by people who are frightened. Palaces are built by people who are greedy. Palaces and pyramids and all can be built just by one king who is able to pay money to workers or frighten people to work with a little architectural knowledge. But temple cannot be built like that. Because, in building temple, every person who is working needs to be convinced about the ideology, because, the whole structure is involved with artistically expressed ideological conviction. Please understand, I am using a long word – “artistically expressed ideological conviction”. The person needs to be an artist. He needs to have the skill to express his artistic visualization capabilities, his visualization. And, above all, he needs to be convinced about the ideology from which those visualizations are coming out.
I will tell the example of Angkor Wat temple, where, around 3.8 kilometres length, Mahabharata whole scenes are carved, and 3.8 kilometres length, the Ksheera Saagara, Ksheera Saagara Manthana, means, “churning of the milky ocean”, is carved. Let us take the example of those sculptures. 3.8 kilometres means, based on the way you are working with machinery, in those days without machinery, at least at a time two-thousand people should have been carving that one carving! Please understand, because the nose structure and lip structure, all that has been done by one team. Otherwise, there will be major differences; the whole sculpture will not look like symmetrical, will not look very logical. You cannot say in Ramayana time or Mahabharata time, one group was having nose different, or another group was having two heads. So, a lot of things have to be aligned. May be two-thousand people were carving, “at least”, I am saying, that 3.8 kilometres. So, all two-thousand people have to be artists. All two-thousand need to be artists; means, who can visualize and express what they visualize in their carving. And all two-thousand have to be educated about the story. Please understand, if all of them are not educated about the story, the carving will not come perfectly. You cannot say, ‘This bit you carve, this man should look like this; and this bit you carve, this man should look like this.’ You cannot give job like that to all two-thousand. You can see the 3.8 kilometre long Ksheera Saagara, the “Churning of the Milky Ocean” sculpture. (Video of the sculpture is shown). All two-thousand have to be educated about the story. And, be very clear, artists are cranky fellows! No....artists are cranky fellows! May be, Xerox machine (photocopier) will not be cranky, but the printer will always be cranky, understand! Artists are not Xerox machines; they are printers! So, artists need to be convinced about the visualization. So, the acharya, or the leading sthapathi (traditional temple architect), whoever is responsible, Devaraja, Devendra, whoever is building, please understand, he has to convince all the two-thousand people about that sculpture. And people will have questions: ‘Who knows whether it happened or not?’ ‘Why are you wasting our time?’
And, one more thing: Carving is a very difficult job. Not like sitting and doing Completion or doing some Advaithic visualization or doing some puja. That is very easy. Just like this take a flower....and while you are offering, you will have a sweet smell! For a person who is doing this job (puja), believing in Advaitha is very easy; because, believing in Advaitha is only going to make him live with the perfume and scent and happy, comfortable life. But, for a sculptor, that is not the case. Please understand, even now, the people who work in stones, the stone sculptors, I have seen, don’t live more than fifty years! Their average life is fifty years, because of constantly the dust going and settling in their lungs. Now there is so much of protection. In those days their life span is surely less than thirty years! Average life span! They all know, they are going to die! And each time carving, it is physical hardship. Whenever you have physical hardship and pain, you will question your very existence. Not just ideology, your very existence! ‘Why am I alive?’ ‘What am I doing?’ ‘Why am I doing what I am doing?’ Now even the pujaris (temple priests) who are offering flowers are thinking, ‘Why am I doing? ‘What am I doing?’ ‘Why am I doing?’ ‘What am I......?’ I am just talking about one wall sculpture! What all can happen!
So, two-thousand people need to be ideologically convinced about this visualization of churning the milky ocean. Is it an easy joke convincing two-thousand people at a time? As I said, slaves cannot build this temple. It is not a dead pyramid. It is a living temple! Slaves cannot build it. So, all two-thousand, when they express the artistic intelligence from emotionally convinced ideological space, so all two-thousand first need to be convinced about that Advaithic truth, then about its purana (history); then the visualization has to happen in all two-thousand in the same way, because there is no other model from which they can carve!
I saw in Facebook, photograph of the first camera. Then, which camera took the photograph of this camera? You cannot take a photograph of the first camera, because, which camera took? No! Same way, here there is no model! All the two-thousand have to be made to visualize something similar, same! You can see, the video of that “Churning the Milky Ocean” of Cambodia Angkor Wat temple, where the demons and gods have a distinctive, but identical..... See, the demons and gods have different dress; but all gods have the same dress, and all demons have the same dress. And the whole scene is described: above, the angels; below, the fishes and ocean animals, including sharks and everything. I am wondering, first of all, for two-thousand people they should have had a classroom. Without mike (microphone) how did they speak to all those two-thousand? Was it a batch-by-batch training? What was the mode of payment? How was the cooking (of food) happening? What was the entertainment if they are tired and bored? If somebody falls sick, how were they given medical attention? Even if there was a misunderstanding or fight between them..... Because one side wall carving means two-thousand men, there should have been at least 3,000 people working. If there was a fight, problem, what was the legal system through which it was solved? What was happening? Oh, God!
And, some of the researchers who are in this field are saying, at least fifty-thousand people were working at a time on this temple. Understand, it means they will have to create a Sangha first, community, where this ideology is experientially lived....this ideology is experientially lived! God!
I am just trying to visualize how the whole community would have been.
It is just a feast! Largest religious structures ever built! This temple building was going on as a “spree”! That is the right word I will use. I think, that kind of an Advaithic experience was showered on people, Advaitha was the lifestyle. I can say, surely Cambodia would have been an enlightened civilization! Just an enlightened civilization!
I will continue, I will continue expanding on the wonder called “Cambodia”. It is a wonder called “Cambodia”.

Understand, this whole Cambodia infrastructure was created for mass enlightenment. The whole infrastructure was created for mass enlightenment, and it was consistently used for mass enlightenment for at least eight-hundred to thousand years. Later on, whatever may be the reason, may be the brutal attack on that enlightened community..... See, an enlightened community becomes slowly, slowly, soft, sensitive, beautiful, forgets to handle weapons. May be the brutal attack on the enlightened community, whatever may be the reason, the infrastructure is left without being used. Now, I have decided to reuse and restart using it. All those huge domes are amplifying mechanism. It is like a vast enlightenment-production industry, where almost one-lakh (100,000) people were made to sit at a time, and the energy transmission happened and the Kundalini awakening happened. This time, I commit with you guys, I will demonstrate! I will sit in the proper place, the centre of the garbha mandir. There is no deity there now. In most of the temples, the deity is missing.
That is another one surprising thing: All the Shiva temples’ deities are there! I don’t know why those Vishnu temples’ deities have been removed. Most of the Vishnu temples’ deities have been removed in Cambodia. Most of the Shiva temples, the deity is there. I think Shiva deity is very easy to make. Even if it gets removed, tomorrow you can replace. Because it is formless, Shiva deity is like non-offensive. People don’t get offended. Even other religion people, if they see the deity, they don’t get offended, because it is just formless. You can visualize anybody in that form, in that Shiva Linga, bow down and go. Whatever may be the reason.....
I will show you guys! Not just two-hundred of you who are going to come with me and experience Kundalini awakening at a time; even any tourist who is on the campus will start getting Kundalini awakening! You guys will see it! Because, that infrastructure is built for that purpose. People will be wondering: ‘What is happening to me? What is happening to me?’ That vast enclosure is used to transmit the enlightenment dosage. That is the right word I will use – “enlightenment dosage”! Every day, dosage of enlightenment in such a beautiful way, in such an amazing way! The structure was used to initiate at least a hundred-thousand, one-lakh people, into Kundalini experience at a time. Otherwise no reason why they built such a large infrastructure.
And, the whole thing, not just Angkor Wat temple, the whole Cambodia temples were built within two generations, two kings. I can say, in a way, sixty to eighty years, that’s all. Angkor Wat was built within twenty-seven years. I am talking about all the major Cambodian temples; they were built within sixty years! Within sixty years! It is an infrastructure created for Kundalini awakening. See, unless there is a solid experience transmitted, no one will have the inspiration to build such large temples, especially carving it in India and taking it all the way to Cambodia. Till they mastered the skill and efficiency, till they mastered the art and science, it was all carved here and sent.
Angkor Wat temple is not only the world’s largest religious structure, it is the world’s largest stone structure. Even now no one is able to break the record. At least for the last two-thousand years....no, from the day it was built, it continues to exist as the world’s largest religious structure and world’s largest stone structure! Undefeated! Unbroken record! Undefeated record! What defeat? Even challenging has not happened! No one is able to challenge it! Understand!
No one, no one can miss without getting the experience when you sit as a large group in that kind of infrastructure developed for enlightenment. You will see in Cambodia, in front of your eyes, just tourists, visitors, who walk in and look around.... See, when you sit as a large group and experience Kundalini, you will see a large number of visitors, onlookers, who will be standing around; they will all start shaking and experiencing Kundalini awakening! You will see this drama! Because, that whole structure is created for this purpose! The whole structure can be energized by pouring energy into one point. Just in that garbha mandir if you pour your energy, the whole circuit, the whole wall, 3.8 km wall – one side wall is 3.8 km long – the whole thing can be energized! If I touch the garbha mandir, the boundary wall, the person who is touching the boundary wall can feel the Kundalini awakening; Energy Darshan can be given! Somebody who is touching the boundary wall, I can give Energy Darshan to him by touching the garbha mandir! Almost three kilometres away from me, he will be experiencing the Energy Darshan! It is possible! You guys will see it, experience it!
These temples also act as a place where the energy is multiplied and the experience of Shivoham gets permanently strengthened in your system. Temples are, listen, temples are expanded space of the body, used as an energy storage battery to awaken people to enlightenment.
With this, I will move to Dial-the-Avatar calls. I am available now. Anybody can call from anywhere for any reason. It may be asking an answer for a solution, or asking blessing for a request, asking healing for a disease, whatever may be the reason, you can call.

Thursday 30 October 2014

DESPITE WHAT THE POPE SAYS, YOU CAN’T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION, BIG BANG AND GOD

DESPITE WHAT THE POPE SAYS, YOU CAN’T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION, BIG BANG AND GOD

Have your evolutionary cake and eat religious pre-destiny too? Why Pope Francis needs to get his foot off one boat (and out of his mouth).
 | Oct 30, 2014
Big Bang God Pope Newslaundry Anand Ranganathan
Ever since Pope Francis spoke on matters bereft of soul, the world seems to have discovered the hidden scientist in him. The press has turned his robe into a lab coat and his staff into a pipette. The Vatican is now a lab and those who go down on their knees at the pulpit graduate students. Science has provided religion the respectability it has always wished for. Oil has finally mixed with water. Here he comes, the benefactor – swinging his thurible, telling tales of Big Bang and Evolution, smoking out the gullible from their editorial rooms to make them see the light.
So what exactly did Francis pontificate on? Well, take a look at what our headlines screamed:
Hindustan Times, October 29, 2014: Pope Francis backs evolution, Big Bang theory.
Firstpost, October 29, 2014: Big Bang Theory to Rolling Stones: Six reasons why Pope Francis is so cool.
But did the Pope really back Evolution and the Big Bang? He did if you believe in tooth fairies. This is what the good Pope actually saidThe Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. Likewise, evolution was all part of God’s plan. The development of each creature’s characteristics over millennia does not contrast with the notion of creation because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.
There we have it. Not only the Big Bang but also Evolution was part of God’s plan. And God said, Let there be no doubt. He, not Lemaître or Darwin thought of these ideas. He, not Hubble or Miller proved them experimentally. And if one believes in the Holy Bible, which one is sure the Pope does, it follows that after God ignited the spark that led to the Big Bang, He did the following:
“He created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
Good.
And once God was done with the Big Bang he turned next to Evolution. And “He said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moved, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind, and everything that crept upon the earth after his kind.”
The first stage of Evolution was now complete. There were animals of all shapes and sizes grazing the earth, jumping from one tree to the next. But something was not right. One pair was missing.
“And God knew it, and He said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crept upon the earth. And God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the rib, which God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
Finer prose has never been written. Distilled over generations, it is time-tested and it makes one’s hair stand on end. Not one word is out of place. And precisely because of this one must then ask: When man and his wife, both of them naked, were not ashamed, why should those who believe in God be? Utter such magic, write such magic, believe in such magic!
Religion is a beautiful concept, even an atheist would admit to that. It has searing prose, thrilling stories, it has good conquering evil, it has flying angels and plummeting demons, the body intertwined with its soul, it has everything a scared man could wish for to bring him comfort. Religion is the naked truth of our society. And when almost all of humanity believes in it, there can be no discussion – one has to accept that religion is not going to go away soon. Truth be told, the world would probably be a poorer place without it.
But should religion be mixed with science? Can an emulsion – of oil and water – be sustained, before the bubbles burst? Can one really back Big Bang and Evolution if one believes in those rousing words above? The short answer is no, one cannot. Religion and science are not moulded from the same clay. Their beauty must be enjoyed separately. One cannot force itself upon the other. They are brothers born of different mothers.
Converts must seek the truth of their own volition.
What our Prime Minister did – talk of prehistoric molecular genetics and head transplantations and immaculate conceptions – was bad enough. We can be proud of our ancient knowledge – in mathematics, astronomy, in Ayurveda – without resorting to baloney. We can be proud of the Bhagvad Gita without wanting to derive a childish thrill from the observation that the maker of the atomic bomb – someone who wanted to bomb Tokyo and not Hiroshima to achieve maximum kill – saw the mushroom and uttered the immortal quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” Batraisms must be lampooned, and they have been.
But what our Pope did was worse. Not only did he slap Hubble, he also thumped Darwin on his head. And yet our media thinks the Pope is oh-so-cool. By saying what the Pope has on Big Bang and Evolution, the Vatican has spat at Galileo. Again. And it will continue to do so unless those whose job it is to question everyone and everything, stop looking for answers in religion. The brutal fact is that if Dinanath Batra converted to Christianity, you wouldn’t know the difference. This shoulder-hoisting of the Pope can either be out of ignorance or a bizarre paid-for image makeover. One can give the benefit of the doubt to our media and say ignorance. But ignorance cannot be an excuse forever. Christopher Hitchens, you are being missed.
One can either believe in the Big Bang and Evolution, or one can believe in God. There is more than enough space on this earth for both sets of believers to co-exist peacefully. What one cannot do is what the Pope has done, to believe in the Big Bang and Evolution, and at the same time believe that God is responsible for both.
Sorry. One cannot be a little bit pregnant.

The author can be contacted at anand.icgeb@gmail.com and on Twitter @ARangarajan1972
http://www.newslaundry.com/2014/10/30/despite-the-pope-says-you-cant-believe-in-evolution-big-bang-and-god/

Tiger conservation programme launches call for proposals

Tiger conservation programme launches call for proposals

15 October 2014 | Article
Today, IUCN’s Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHCP) is launching a call for field-based projects for tiger conservation. Nine tiger range countries are eligible for funding under this programme and multidisciplinary projects delivered by collaborative partnerships are encouraged. The five-year programme is funded by the German government through the KfW Development Bank.
Wild tigers will soon become extinct if nothing is done to halt their decline. Population numbers are estimated at 2,500 and tigers alarmingly now occupy only 6 to 7% of their former range.
Threats to tigers include illegal hunting, habitat destruction and loss of prey. They are hunted for their highly valued skins and their body parts, which are used as a component of many traditional Chinese medicines. Conversion of forest land to agriculture, commercial logging, and human settlement are the main drivers of tiger habitat loss.
Tigers are highly reliant on adequate prey resources and eat the equivalent of a large deer a week. In many areas, natural prey populations are reduced as a result of hunting by local communities, or through competition with livestock. In these areas, tigers often turn to livestock as an alternative food source, bringing them into conflict with local communities. This leads to a greater number of attacks by tigers on humans and in turn more retaliatory attacks by humans on tigers. The interactions are complex and both tigers and humans suffer as a result.
The aim of the ITHCP is to deliver field-based projects aimed at tiger conservation through addressing some of the issues described. By developing sustainable alternative livelihoods for local communities, the pressure on forest resources can be reduced. At the same time the quality of protected areas can be improved so that they support greater numbers of prey and ultimately healthier tiger populations. Reducing the direct conflict between tigers and humans should alleviate some of the pressures on both parties, enabling a more harmonious coexistence. In addition to this, the programme aims to tackle the poaching of wild tigers.
The call for proposals will initially be in the form of project concepts. A Project Advisory Committee will select candidate projects from these that should then be submitted in the form of full proposals. The application deadline is 30 November 2014.
For more information please contact the ITHCP Secretariat
Email: tiger.conservation@iucn.org 

IUCN OPENS A NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR TIGER CONSERVATION!


IUCN OPENS A NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR TIGER CONSERVATION!


Call opens October 15th 2014


A new Integrated Tiger Habitat Conservation Programme (ITHCP) managed by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is being initiated thanks to a 20 million euro grant from the German government through the KfW Development Bank. The aim of this new fund is to increase the number of tigers in the wild and improve the livelihoods of communities living in and around key tiger habitats.

Through this five-year programme, IUCN will provide funding that will benefit NGOs and conservation authorities from selected tiger range countries which, at the St Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010, committed to doubling the number of tigers occurring within their territories by 2020. Eligible countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam.

The Programme seeks to invest in projects that involve improving the management of tiger habitats, tackling tiger-human conflicts, increasing anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts and involving local communities in tiger conservation. While improving and managing tiger habitats, it will support the livelihoods of local communities who depends on the diverse range of natural resources found in these key areas.

The size of grants offered in the first call for proposals will range from EUR 700.000 to EUR 2 million. The average duration of individual projects is expected to be approximately 3-4 years.

We kindly recommend that interested organizations read the "Detailed Instructions for Applicants" below carefully before applying.

There is a link to the ITHCP Application Portal at the bottom of this page ("Apply here" button). All applicants are required to create an account on the portal and they will then be able to apply online. On this portal, applicants will upload and submit their completed concept notes together with other documentation.

The deadline for applications is November 30th 2014, 23h59 CET. Concept notes will be screened and the resulting short-list will be presented to the Programme Council for approval (pre-qualification stage). Following this initial decision, selected concepts will be invited to develop fully-fledged project proposals.

The ITHCP Secretariat is looking forward to receiving your application and wishes you the best of luck!


DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
Detailed Instructions for Applicants PDF Document 261KB

Feel free to contact us for more information:


ITHCP Secretariat
Global Species and KBA Programme
International Union for Conservation of Nature
Rue Mauverney 28
1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0120
Email: tiger.conservation@iucn.org
www.iucn.org/species

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Why India needs to rethink the Rafale deal


Why India needs to rethink the Rafale deal
October 26, 2014 Rakesh Krishnan Simha
Russian Ambassador in New Delhi Alexander Kadakin claims Chinese Sukhoi Flankers will swat the Rafale like mosquitoes, but what’s more worrying is India is willing to spend $30 billion on a stop-gap aircraft.

 

The most significant aspect of the Rafale deal is the cost. Source: AP


Fighter planes fall into two categories – the hunters and the hunted. The French are pitching their Rafale as the dogfight duke that is the crème de la crème of jet fighters. But the Russian side disagrees. Alexander Kadakin, Russia's ambassador in India, says Chinese-made Sukhoi-27s would be able to swat the Rafales like “mosquitoes on an August night.”

At this point it’s pointless to deliver the verdict on which aircraft is superior. The Rafale is a largely unknown commodity in aviation circles. Like most French fighters, it is most likely an unassuming, unspectacular but honest aircraft.

But what Kadakin left unsaid is ominous. First up, he said the hundreds of Su-27 Flankers supplied by Moscow to Beijing are much less advanced than the Flankers in India’s inventory. Now forget the Su-27 for a while and let’s talk about the two squadrons of the latest Su-35 Super Flanker that Russia has cleared for sale to China. This new iteration is a huge advancement over the already potent Su-27. If the aircraft's stupendous performance at the 2014 Paris Air Show is any indication then the Rafale is likely to fare even worse against the Su-35.

Costing dogfight

To be sure, the most significant aspect of the Rafale deal is the cost. Originally pegged at $10 billion, the size of the deal has climbed to a stratospheric $30 billion. So instead of bolstering the country’s air power, the Rafale is threatening to blow a gaping hole in India’s overstretched defence budget.

India may the third largest economy on the planet but in the backdrop of numerous projects requiring bucket loads of cash, New Delhi can’t afford to splurge on weapons, especially when alternatives are available for far less.

The IAF’s requirement of 126 aircraft can be quickly met – at a fraction of the cost of the Rafale – by inducting more numbers of the technologically superior Su-30s, which the IAF described as its “air dominance fighter,” and which is being produced at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

Related:





Each Indian made Su-30 costs approximately $75 million per unit. So if the IAF goes for 126 of them, the total cost will come to under $10 billion, which coincidentally is the originally envisaged amount. Plus, the Sukhois will provide more bang for the buck. “These aircraft will be the high end of India’s air power, and can be expected to remain in the force past 2030, and are competitive with or superior to top-end European fighters and American F-15 variants,” says Defense Industry Daily.

Another option is to buy more of the – even more cheaper – MiG-29, which is the mainstay of India’s interceptor force, and which had shattered the morale of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the 1999 Kargil War.

With the $20 billion or so saved, India can import leading edge aviation technology – from France, Russia, Germany or even the US to beef up its military aviation. With manufacturing declining in the US and Europe and thousands of defence sector jobs facing the axe, western engineers would be more than happy to work in India.

There is a precedent in this area. After 1991 when elite Soviet weapons engineers and scientists found their jobs gone, many of them found work at Chinese and South Korean companies – both military and civilian. Russian scientists and engineers ended up transforming the defence sector in both these Asian countries.

India too needs to tread the same path. Hiring unemployed or underemployed European defence sector workers would cut the development time frame of Indian defence projects. In fact, even Pakistan has a tenuous Russian connection. An administrator of Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission from 1967 to 1970 was Polish aeronautical engineer air commodore Wladyslaw Turowicz. Born in Siberia, the Pole made significant contributions to Pakistan’s missile programme as an aeronautical engineer.

That brings up the third option. India’s homemade Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) is being fielded in limited numbers, and further development can easily make it a world class fighter. India can then produce scores of LCAs costing around $40 million – for the IAF. For decades, China has adopted this policy of having hundreds of obsolete aircraft because “quantity has a quality all its own”.

Sending LCAs swarming into Pakistani air space would completely overwhelm that country’s defences. In effect, the Tejas fleet would kick the door in, allowing the Sukhois to pulverise targets with the supersonic BrahMos cruise missiles.

The LCA could even become the military equivalent of India’s $2000 TATA Nano car, for which there was a waiting list in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the LCA could be the ideal export aircraft to small countries with limited budgets. Aircraft such as the Su-30, MiG-29 and F-18 are too expensive and too big for the use of such nations. India could be the first to market a no-frills fighter.

Read section:
Defence and Security


Why Rafale?

When the MMRCA tender was floated over a decade ago, it seemed like a good idea. One, it was aimed at lowering India’s overwhelming dependence on Russia for advanced weapons.

Secondly, India wanted to acquire a medium aircraft that would fill the gap between the low-end LCA and the premium Sukhois.

The third reason was to shore up the IAF's depleting fighter fleet. The IAF’s sanctioned strength is 39.5 squadrons (an IAF combat squadron consists of 18 aircraft in service with another 3-4 in maintenance) but its current fleet is down to 34 squadrons. The air force says it requires 44 squadrons to meet a full-scale war with Pakistan, while also maintaining "a dissuasive posture" against China.

Earlier this year, the IAF told a Parliamentary standing committee on defence that a "collusive threat" from China and Pakistan would be difficult for it to handle. This was played up by the media, which failed to see the fine print: the IAF admitted (in the same statement) China may not pose “a collusive threat” if hostilities were to break out between India and Pakistan.

Indeed, why would the Chinese team up with a rapidly balkanizing Pakistan and attack a fellow BRICS member? It is not only counterintuitive but also a ridiculous idea.

As for the threat from Pakistan, it is really a joke. The arrival of the MiG-29 and the Sukhoi-30 in the 1990s has given the IAF a fearsome qualitative advantage over the PAF. This edge was demonstrated during the 1999 Kargil War. While a number of IAF aircraft took part in that campaign, it was the cover provided by the MiG-29 that spooked – and demoralised – the PAF pilots.

Says Strategy Page in a report dated May 20, 2005: “While PAF fighters did fly Combat Air Patrols (CAP) during the conflict, they stayed well within Pakistani air space. On occasions, IAF MiG-29s armed with the deadly R-77 BVR air-to-air missiles were able to lock on to PAF F-16s, forcing the latter to disengage.”

So scared were the Pakistani pilots of the Indian MiGs that the “PAF simply refused to play any part” in the war.

In the report “Airpower at 18,000 feet: IAF in the Kargil War” published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2012, Benjamin Lambeth says the Pakistani F-16s “typically maintained a safe distance of 10 to 20 miles on the Pakistani side of the LoC”.


Why the F-35 is a sitting duck for the Flankers

Qualitatively, the IAF is on an upward curve. In fact, in an interview to the media in 2012, former air force chief N.A.K. Browne gave the lie to the claim that the IAF was becoming weaker. According to Browne, the IAF is replacing older MiG-21s with Su-30s. He said once older aircraft are replaced with brand new Sukhois the IAF will have “far greater capability than even what we have today”.

If India and France sort out the numerous issues dogging the MMRCA deal and a contract is signed this year, then the first 18 Rafales will arrive from France in 2016. If all goes smoothly, the rest of the 102 aircraft could start rolling off HAL’s assembly lines by 2018.

But here’s the rub: around 2020 Sukhoi’s stealth fighter, the PAK-FA, in which India is a junior partner, will be ready to join the IAF. Why India is committing itself to a stopgap aircraft is mysterious.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

'Modi will recover black money from abroad' S Gurumurthy


'Modi will recover black money from abroad'
Last updated on: October 27, 2014 15:32 IST










'The difference between black money in India and the black money out of India is, in India, it is tax evaded money and Indian money outside India is not only tax evaded money, but money which has been taken out of India's capital resources needed for India.'


'So it is not only tax evasion, but treason too.'

S Gurumurthy speaks to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com about black money stashed abroad and how it needs to be brought back.

Swaminathan Gurumurthy, convener, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, launched his investigation into black money in 1986.

He was a member of the taskforce created by Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani just before the 2009 election. The BJP had promised then and before the 2014 election that it would bring back the black money stashed away in various banks outside India if it were voted to power.

When the Narendra Modi government informed the Supreme Court that it could not disclose certain details about black money because of the double taxation avoidance agreement India had with certain countries, it angered lawyer Ram Jethmalani, on whose plea the Supreme Court had constituted a Special Investigating Team on black money. Jethmalani accused the Modi government of toeing the United Progressive Alliance line.

In this exclusive interview with Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com, Gurumurthy left, below, explains his expectations of the Modi government on the black money issue.

In 2009 when we met before the parliamentary elections, you had just submitted the task force report on black money to Mr Advani. Did you continue with your investigation even after the BJP lost the elections?

Let me first talk about the initial hurdles in pursuing black money. There was an opinion among many leaders that there was no black money at all. (Former Union minister) Jairam Ramesh openly said it was complete nonsense. First the Congress said there was no black money, then they said there was no black money of this kind. Such opinion was shared even among some in the National Democratic Alliance.



Leaders from the BJP too?

Yes, there were some BJP leaders. They genuinely felt there was no black money. That is also because some of them could not understand that black money was not kept as currency. So the initial difficulty that had to be crossed after submitting the task force report, was making people agree that there was black money.

When Advani started talking about it strongly during the elections, it became a public issue. Unless something becomes a public issue, it will never be an issue at all. Because of the elections, it got enough publicity.

When it became an issue, even (Congress President) Sonia Gandhi had to come out with a statement that they would bring black money from abroad. Then (then [prime minister) Manmohan Singh had to repeat it.

Thus, it became an issue common to the political system. Till then, it was resisted. This was the biggest public hurdle that had to be overcome.

Today, no political party can say that black money is not an issue; it has become a national issue. Who drives it, who is more sincere, who has more commitment, is a different issue.

Was it not a global issue by then?

At the 2010 G-20 meeting, France and Germany took it up and said that casino capitalism was the product of the Anglo-Saxon economic model. It was the first time in the history of the world that a virtually racial term was used to describe economic behaviour.

They said this model fostered tax havens as respected, accepted and legitimate. France and Germany said, unless you take on the tax havens and the secret banking system, they would walk out of G-20. So America had to cave in.

Unless you understand the functioning of the global financial system and the role of secret money in it, you will never be able to understand the forces that prevent the campaign and exposure of black money.

The global GDP is about $72 trillion and the high net worth individuals' wealth is $54 trillion out of which $20 trillion is called offshore money. Offshore money is nothing but secret money.

We must understand that this does not mean cash alone; it is in the form of shares, real estate, bonds, yacht, ships, companies, gold, platinum. So this $20 trillion also is in the form of government bonds especially in America.

Much of this $20 trillion black money is from Asia and Africa. This is what drives the American stock market. And 55 per cent of American families are hooked to the stock market and nearly 60 per cent of retirement benefits and pension funds are invested in the stock market. It was less than 10 per cent in 1980 and gradually all the monies shifted from the bank to the stock market.

This connection of black money with the American stock market was what France and Germany resisted. They wanted the secrecy to be broken open.

That was how what we have been trying to do got global recognition. The black money issue can ever be tackled at home. After 2010, the world began to view it as a menace, but only as tax evaded money. But it is not only tax evaded money but it is money taken out of the country.

So the difference between black money in India and the black money out of India is, in India, it is tax evaded money and Indian money outside India is not only tax evaded money, but money which has been taken out of India's capital resources needed for India.

So it is not only tax evasion, but treason too.

Do you think all political parties are involved in this, and that is why they do not want to pursue this with enthusiasm?

Not only politicians, but bureaucrats, businessmen, some even in the judiciary are also corrupt. Then there is also drug money, gold smuggling etc. Politicians, who have been in power for too long, can be involved.

Most politicians are locally corrupt and they keep the money here itself. There was a politician in Jharkhand who said, when questioned about corruption, 'Did I put the money in a Swiss bank? I only invested here.' He implicitly claimed to be a nationalist in corruption.

The Global Financial Integrity organisation came out with a calculation that between 1948 and 2008, $500 billion (about 30 lakh crore) has gone out of India. And between 2003 and 2011, $350 billion (about 21 lakh crore) has gone out of India. Most of it had gone out of India after India liberalised the economy.

Are you connecting black money with liberalisation?

I am not saying the economy should not be liberalised. But there is a connection. It allows people to have more opportunities to spirit away money. There is no safeguard.

The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act is not there. The money laundering law, not in effective form, came too late. The threat of arrest is not there.

What I want to say is, it is now certain that funds have gone out of India and what has gone out of India is not a very small amount, but very large.

Also, it is not a one nation's problem, but a global issue. It means we can form global partnership and pursue this money.

Is it possible for countries to take black money back?

By legal action, money siphoned off by Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines has been recovered. African dictators' money has been recovered. It is possible to recover. But I don't think our income tax department and Enforcement Directorate can do it because it consists of people who have colluded with these things.

The only possibility is that our intelligence agencies must be used for this purpose.

First, you must get clues, vital leads, names of the account holders and bank names. Only then you can start legal action.

When you were with the task force, could you get all these details, like the names of people and banks?

We could get information, but only in respect of businessmen and not those of corrupt politicians.

In my view, this government must act and it has the opportunity to act. They have got to put together a set of very committed set of people with passion who will go about with this task.

I am sure Narendra Modi is quite keen about it. I have absolutely no doubt on that aspect.

At present, he has too many things to handle and I am sure he must be thinking about how to handle this. The matter is also with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had constituted a SIT on black money on Ram Jethmalani's plea. He accuses the Modi government of protecting the culprits. He said the Modi government is following the UPA path when it refused to divulge the names to the Supreme Court citing the treaty...

There are two sets of names. In Liechtenstein Bank accounts, the German government announced that anybody could take the information, but the Government of India asked them to give it under the direct taxation avoidance agreement under which it is a secret. That's why the Supreme Court asked why did they obtain it under a secret clause what is available in the open?

But the most important thing is the HSBC account particulars which we got from France. France got it from records stolen by a disgruntled employee in the HSBC bank in Switzerland. But the bank is in the Swiss jurisdiction. We got reportedly about 600 Indian names from France under the double taxation avoidance agreement.

The government view is that under terms of the bilateral the details can be disclosed it only after prosecution is launched. This is the claim of the government saying this is the international practice.

The other view is, with which I agree, is that in public court proceedings, the government can disclose the names. The government seems to say that the Supreme Court cannot over-rule the DTAA. But my view is no over-ruling is needed because the DTAA itself says that it can be disclosed in public court proceedings.

My view is when the court says the government has to disclose, it must disclose.

Yes, there are two views in this. Obviously, the bureaucrats will take a view which is very defensive and conservative. The more serious thing is they have filed an application saying the original order the Supreme Court had passed must be modified.

The original judgement says the government should not enter into any agreement with any country which says the information must be kept confidential and it is prohibiting the government from entering into inter-government agreement with the US for automatic and mutual sharing of financial information which is due in December

According to me, the government is wrong in filing this application because the DTAA with America specifically says you can disclose this information in public court proceedings. In my view, signing the inter-governmental agreement with America will not violate the Supreme Court judgment.

The perception among people is that the Modi government is not very enthusiastic about the black money issue and going slow like the UPA....

I won't take that view. Action to recover black money abroad will be in any way a slow process. It needs the world's cooperation. The government has to create an atmosphere in which the world sees that the Indian government is keen on fast action.

Till the UPA was in power, the world had had a feeling that India was not keen to recover black money. This has to be reversed.

The first thing the government can do today is to expeditiously file prosecutions against people who have concealed the money in HSBC and disclose their names.

Recovering black money is a very strategic issue as the Indian government has to make alliances with many countries for which we took no efforts at all so far. This government can take these efforts because it has high level of influence with most of the countries. The credibility of this government is high.

Do you have confidence in this government that it would pursue the issue honestly?

A hundred percent. This is going to be a very important agenda for Modi. He has made his intention clear to me many times before and after coming to power.

Modi may want to pursue it, but what about the others?

There is no one in the government who can think otherwise if the most powerful person, the PM, wants action to recover black money.

In my view, Modi is the person who will do it. Others will fall in line, even if they genuinely doubt whether there is so much money.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hinted that the name of a certain UPA minister is there. Is the issue only about UPA ministers and the Congress party? Is it not much bigger and deeper than that?

He was talking about the 600 names in the HSBC list; he was not talking about the entire gamut of black money. He was actually answering the Congress which was taunting the NDA government for not acting on black money.

It was a political statement and that was needed because the Congress was trying to take advantage of the secrecy. That is why Jaitley said, be careful, you are likely to be embarrassed.

Do you think the Modi government will pursue the matter as seriously if there are names of politicians from the BJP?

As yet, there is not even a suspicion of anybody from the BJP in it. So this is a hypothetical question. Even if somebody from the NDA is involved, public opinion and judicial opinion will force the disclosure.

The media must pursue it relentlessly. The problem is the some powerful sections of the media in India are also corrupt. If public opinion is generated, it will have its effect.

In spite of most media underplaying the black money issue and toeing the congress it has become an issue because it was made into an election issue by Advani. The credit for making it a huge public issue must go to Advani.

I am confident that the government will pursue the matter seriously. If not, people like us will not keep quiet. It is not to see the issue goes unattended that I have spent 30 years of my life on this. There are many people like me within and outside the system.

Have you got any startling revelations while pursuing the issue?

There are many leads, but to give startling revelations, you need facts.

Without facts, you will be making allegations. I do not make allegations without facts. We can only go to a certain extent and after that, we have no powers to probe them.

Image: S Gurumurthy. Photograph: Sreeram Selvaraj

Monday 27 October 2014

black money red money and white money

LET US clarify the black money issue : there are three kinds of money slashed in foreign banks :
1 black money : this money is just kept away in faraway lands to evade taxation by India. This is fiscal fraud.
2 Another kind of black money : the  source is unknown and how one has earned it not clear; coming from illegal activities , the culprits are not just businessman cum tax evaders but corrupt politicians, drug sellers and dangerous guys who earn by criminal means.
3. The third kind is those who pay their tax in India for the money they want to invest in a foreign bank thinking they may get more interest . This money may amount to crores but it is our capitalistic system which creates leagal millionaires and billionaires and they want to place their money where it gives them more return on investment.
conclusion : the first man is to be fined ; the second man is to be punished by a Judge after thorough investigation.
The third man should just be left free and untroubled because if you disturb him, your industrial units will run out of money and your sons and in laws and perhaps you will loose your jobs !

DID BRITISH SAVE INDIA FROM ISLAMISATION

Here is the reply of an Historian to a westerner who affirms that the intervention of the BRITISH had saved Indians from being completely islamised and had the British not colonised India , the Moghul would have made a comeback even after being defeated by Shivaji and they would have somehow managed to reconquer the lost Delhi throne. This kind of theory to boost the morale of the western colonialist can arise only in the minds of a egocentric western mind :
I am a history buff and my home library is filled with Indian history books. So i am serious when i write something. ‘Muslim rule’ is a ambiguous term. What do you mean by that ? The Maratha empire got rid of Mughals, the most powerful of Muslim dynasties that ruled India. The remnants of Mughal Empire – some of them were allies of British (Nizam of Hyderabad) and while others were against British (Nawab of Bengal).The British were interested in colonialism first and fore most and they viewed Muslims from their colonial enterprising angle, not in any ideological sense. They encouraged Muslim rule when it suited them (read about the British support to Nizam of Hyderabad in putting out revolts against Muslim rule) and fought against Muslim rule when it was in their interest of colonial expansion (egs. : defeating the nawab of Bengal and Tipu Sultan of Mysore). They displayed the same attitude towards Hindu rulers as well, encouraging some and fighting others based on their interests. In fact, one can argue that had the British did not intervene and defeated the Maratha Empire (with the help of Nizam of Hyderabad and other Muslim rulers i may add), the Marathas would have regained their control over India and that would have sound death knell to the remnants of Mughal empire. The British essentially practiced a divide and rule policy of aligning themselves with Muslims at one time and Hindus at other times based on their colonial interests. That continued right until 1947. The point is not that British created Hindu-Muslim conflict. That was there since Islam forced itself on India. The point is that the British in a classic divide and rule sense took advantage of this divide to further their colonial interests. Hence to suggest that British ended Muslim rule in India is not seeing the wood for the trees.

  • Vidya Sagar Amirapu This is a mischievous logic of an idle mind. Given the small numbers of the Brits they could not face even one large Indian King.
  • Vidya Sagar Amirapu yes if the Maratthas had prevailed at Panipat, the British were history.
  • Arun K Upadhyaya Absolutely ! Dis logic wd hardly have takers among discerning minds. D brits had der self interest foremost in der minds and had equal contempt for d natives b de hindus or muslims.For hindus both muslims and d british were equally harmful for denting der solidarity and socio political cohesion.
  • Ravichandran Raju Real culprits are British. They very well know they were migrated and en-cashed the situations.Totally they want to keep under the both as slaves. Religion clashes were favoured them. what to do ? Still these idiots on both sides remain qualified idiots.