These Five Strategies For 2023 Will Cement India’s Newfound Global Role

Points to Note:

I started republishing the important articles I considered as essential to understanding global politics from various sources. Below are the important key points to understand.

While China and US appear to be at logger heads, they have teamed up to maintain a bi-multipolar world, creating a mutual sphere of influence where each could be dominant player. The readers has to understand the concepts of unipolarity, uni-multipolarity, bi-polarity, bi-multipolarity. As per this design, Russia was in the danger of becoming junior partner to china which it is trying to avoid, by aligning with India.

The NSTC (North South Trade Corridor) is an alternative trade route built by russia, iran, India to bypass the existing routes through Suez controlled by the west.

Similar articles on this topic:

http:///forceindia.net/guest-column/towards-bi-multipolarity/

—————————————–

Courtesy Andrew Korybko

https://korybko.substack.com/p/these-five-strategies-for-2023-will

The five strategies suggested in this piece are integral for further accelerating the global systemic transition to multiplexity that has already reached its latest tripolar phase as a result of India’s masterful responses to the past year’s chaotic events. In the span of a single year, India emerged as a globally significant Great Power, one whose policies have truly changed the course of International Relations due to the historic context within which they were promulgated.

2022 saw the global systemic transition unprecedentedly accelerate as a result of the full-spectrum paradigm-changing consequences catalyzed by Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. Moscow was forced to defend its national security red lines there after NATO crossed them, after which the US-led West’s Golden Billion imposed unparalleled sanctions that destabilized the world. Despite successfully reasserting its declining unipolar hegemony over the EU, the US failed to do the same elsewhere. 

The jointly BRICS- & SCO-led Global South refused to comply with America’s anti-Russian demands since these dozens of states had already become confident enough asserting their objective national interests over the years to the point where they weren’t going to be coerced into unilaterally conceding on them. Nowhere was this defiance more geostrategically meaningful than when it came to India, which the US earlier predicted would easily be pressured into marching in lockstep with its diktats.

America took India’s compliance with its anti-Russian demands for granted since its policymakers wrongly assumed that it had already become their largest vassal state. This false assessment was due to India being their country’s only Major Defense Partner, a member of the Quad, a participant in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and a fellow practitioner of Western-style democracy. In their eyes, all of this meant that India supposedly submitted to the US a long time ago.

The reality was altogether different though since India’s rapidly developing strategic relations with the US were actually driven by its leadership’s desire to balance between the Golden Billion and the Global South of which their country is a part in order to emerge as the kingmaker in the New Cold War. To that end, it decisively became Russia’s alternative valve from Western pressure so as to preemptively avert the scenario of its decades-long partner becoming disproportionately dependent on China.

That in turn revolutionized International Relations by breaking its hitherto bi-multipolar impasse characterized by the Sino-American superpower duopoly’s outsized influence, which would have been reinforced had China been able to get whatever it wanted from Russia in the preceding scenario. The global systemic transition is now irreversibly moving towards tripolarity ahead of its final form of multiplexity, but this process can be further accelerated by India doing the following across 2023:

1] Double down on the North-South Transport Corridor

President Putin’s repeated references to the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) this month [December-ed] prove that he regards it as a globally game-changing megaproject since it nowadays serves as the physical core of the third pole of influence that Russia, India, and Iran are jointly creating. By doubling down on the NSTC just like Russia signalled that it’s preparing to do, India can supercharge their collective efforts to break through the bi-multipolar impasse in International Relations a lot sooner than expected.

2] Tangibly assemble a New Non-Aligned Movement

India’s principled neutrality has already reaped the grand strategic dividend of turning it into the kingmaker of the New Cold War, the position of which can be cemented by leveraging its chairmanship of the G20 to assemble a new Non-Aligned Movement (“Neo-NAM”). As the voice of the Global South and its aspiring leader, India is uniquely placed to play the role of inspiring others to emulate its success so as to preemptively avert their own possible dependence on the Sino-American superpower duopoly.

3] Constantly recalibrate multi-alignment as required

The secret to India’s grand strategic success thus far is that its leadership has proven itself capable of flexibly adapting to rapidly changing circumstances in order to optimize their pursuit of objective national interests. This approach requires constant recalibration considering the continued uncertainty that’s expected to unfold across this decade’s “Age of Complexity”, which will predictably result in India undertaking more decisive policy moves as required in order to retain its irreplaceable kingmaker role.

4] Maintain equidistance between the superpowers

Building upon the above, the guiding imperative of the aforementioned approach is to maintain equidistance between the Sino-American superpowers, which will preserve India’s hard-earned strategic autonomy together with not inadvertently provoking a security dilemma with either. Preemptively averting the second scenario is crucial since India can ill-afford to be on China or the US’ bad side, which might lead to military or economic threats against it respectively if they regard India as their enemy.

5]  Prepare for the scenario of a Sino-American New Détente

The flurry of diplomacy between China and the US since President Xi met with his Western counterparts during November’s G20 proves that they’re indeed exploring the possibility of far-reaching mutual compromises aimed at indefinitely delaying the Indian-driven end of bi-multipolarity. In the event that a New Detente is clinched sometime next year, which is far from guaranteed but still can’t be ruled out, then India must be prepared for the worst-case scenario of China and the US teaming up against it.

The five strategies shared above are integral for further accelerating the global systemic transition to multiplexity that has already reached its latest tripolar phase as a result of India’s masterful responses to the past year’s chaotic events. In the span of a single year, India emerged as a globally significant Great Power, one whose policies have truly changed the course of International Relations due to the historic context within which they were promulgated.

Instead of submitting to the US as its largest vassal state like the latter’s policymakers wrongly assumed had been the case for years already, which would have led to Russia becoming China’s “junior partner” out of necessity and thus entrenching bi-multipolarity, India reaffirmed its independence. That had the effect of derailing both superpowers’ grand strategic trajectory, thus midwifing the next phase of the global systemic transition, which is now irreversible.

Nevertheless, the Sino-American superpower duopoly is presently plotting to join forces in indefinitely delaying the Indian-driven end of the bi-multipolar system that they have equal self-interested stakes in preserving, ergo their ongoing discussions over a New Détente. It’s with this scenario in mind, which would be major if it comes to pass, that the five suggestions were made above with a view towards facilitating the global systemic changes that were catalyzed by India over the past year.

Even in the event that China and the US agree to a series of far-reaching mutual compromises aimed at enabling them to jointly push back against these aforesaid changes, their efforts will be futile since India will continue ensuring the irreversibility of everything that’s unfolded by leading from the front. Doubling down on the NSTC will make tripolarity a reality a lot sooner than expected, while tangibly assembling the Neo-NAM will multilateralize this system by including the entire Global South within it.

India is the only country capable of leading the tripolar evolution in International Relations due to its equidistance between the superpowers and the attendant kingmaker role that this has endowed it with in the New Cold War. Nobody else can inspire dozens of other states to follow their lead and thus sustain the progress that’s been achieved thus far in the systemic transition to multiplexity. Without exaggeration, it can therefore be concluded that India’s newfound global role is truly historic.

2023: The Future Has Arrived: The End of 500 Years of Conquistador Civilisation

It is often said that the systemic Western European superiority complex, a disease which consists of the self-justified domination and exploitation of the surrounding world, began with the First ‘Crusade’ (1096-1099). Technically, this is true, but before it there were other events which we may call ‘Pre-Crusades’. For example, there was the massacre by the barbarian Frankish leader Charlemagne of 4,500 Saxons at Verden in 782. This bloodbath was the foundation of Frankish Europe, which still survives as the core of the lies of the EU today.

After the collapse of Charlemagne’s Europe and a period of consolidation, 200 years later there came the events of the earlier eleventh century which did exactly presage the First Crusade at its end. First, there was the Frankish ‘Reconquista’ Crusade which began to accelerate in the eleventh century in Iberia. Then came the ‘Norman’ (in fact they were the collective campaigns of all the Frankish-made scum of North-Western Europe) Crusades or Conquests in Sicily, Southern Italy and in England in 1066.

Like these ‘Pre-Crusades’, the genocidal ‘conquests’ of the First Crusade essentially took place inside Europe, or else close by in the Near East. These Viking-type raiding and trading military

India is creation of British Freemasons

The article below is from economic times detailing the history of freemason and how they integrated india.

1. India is a creation of Free masons.  Every institution of present day india is masonic creation.  The constitution, the judiciary, the beurocracy, the rotary club, the JCI clubs, Lions Club, the parliament, and every other you practically come across.  These are totally different from the traditional social institutions and setups like the grama panchayat, the jati panchayat, the veda patashala, agama patasala, the ayurvedic & sidha gurukul, traditional educational institutions etc.

2. Hinduism is a creation of Freemasonry because freemasonry needs a holy book.  The native people of Bharath who wanted to join freemasonry, created Hinduism, to get admitted in to freemasonry.

3. If Hinduism itself is a creation of freemasonry, then what about Hindutva?  the answer is obvious.

4. Freemasonry was essentially a colonial tool, to integrate different arms of British Raj, like the civil servants, judiciary, business men etc.  Even today, most top beurocrats, Judges, IPS officers, Military veterans, Intelligence officials all are connected at the masonic lodges.

5. RSS and Hindutva are also masonic creation.  The RSS shaka is stripped down version of the Masonic rituals happening secretly inside the lodge.  Particularly the masonic salute is same as RSS salute.  So if any one believing that RSS and BJP is there to protect our Paramparyam, he is certainly a fool and ignoramasus.  Have you ever had questions on why RSS & BJP has not done anything to revive our tradition?  Think about it.

6.  Those Brahmins, still attached to their vedic dharma and those who wanted to revive it should understand that RSS and Hindutva are the no.1 enemy who had destroyed the brahmin community.  If you really want to revive vedic dharma, first get out of RSS.

7. Those who want to protect jathi, also should first get out of RSS and Hindutva.  They are the Trojan horses of Freemasons who wanted to destroy from within.

8. Both Congress and BJP are creation of different sects of freemasons.  In my understanding, congress is creation of British Freemasonry, while BJP is creation of French freemasonry. The fight b/w congress and BJP is the fight bw British and French freemasonry.  I may be wrong here.  readers can enlighten me.

9.  In short, India is totally different from Bharath.  Every tradition setup and history of bharath is systematically and brutally destroyed by Freemasons controlled India.

10. Looking back at history, most of the so called Reformers were freemasons.  They raped the Bharathiya society at all levels making each and every community to forego their aachaarams.  These reformers were created out of each community and brahmins were the first casuality.

11. At the time of 1857, many of the royals and princes were part of freemason.  After 1857 war, all those kings & kingdoms not part of freemasonry was brutally destroyed.  Those who were part of freemasons remained and ascended the throne.  When India attained so called freedom in 1947, all those 565 princely states were members of freemasonry.  And those royals, who still retain their royal title (Travancore, Mysore king, Scindias etc) are still now members of freemasonry.

================================================================

 

https://m.economictimes.com/industry/miscellaneous/how-masonry-built-integration-in-india/amp_articleshow/60977201.cms

There is a key moment in The Man Who Would Be King, John Huston’s hugely entertaining 1975 epic, which is based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. Two disreputable British soldiers have made their way to Kafiristan, a valley beyond the Khyber Pass almost totally cut-off from the rest of the world.

The soldiers, played by Sean Connery and Michael Caine, try to take advantage of the ignorance of the inhabitants to loot the place, but the local priests are hostile. One rips open Connery’s shirt to stab him but stops at the sight of a medal with the compass and eye symbol of the Freemasons. They associate that ancient symbol with Sikander, or Alexander the Great, who they revere, and immediately accept Connery as his successor and their king.

Freemasons in India are currently celebrating a couple of anniversaries. The United Grand Lodge of England was set up in 1717 and this helped the formation of the first Masonic Lodge in India just 11 years later, in 1729, in Fort William, which is now Kolkata. In the highly formalised world of the Masons relationships between Lodges are described in familial terms, so the 300th anniversary of the ‘Mother Lodge’ is a matter of some importance.

The Masons of South India have been particularly active. They organised a music concert featuring the works of Mozart, who was famously a Mason and used Masonic themes in his opera The Magic Flute. They also commissioned a history of their activities and buildings in South India entitled Brotherhood and Benevolence. Researched and written by urban historians V Sriram and Karthik A Bhatt it commemorates the many notable men who were Masons in South India and showcases Chennai’s Freemason’s Hall and the other buildings associated with the Freemasons in South India.

Buildings matter to the Masons, who are said to originate with secret associations of master builders of the European medieval ages. They revere a pan-religious deity they call the Great Architect of the Universe and put much significance in a figure named Hiram Abiff, who was said to be the builder of King Solomon’s Temple, murdered for refusing to divulge the secrets of masons. And this is where the use of architectural implements like compasses in Masonic imagery comes from.

Not surprisingly, Masons in Mumbai are also celebrating the 120th anniversary of their own Temple, a building that, despite its central location near CST station, has always remained rather invisible in an appropriately Masonic manner. But now the Masons have opened up its ornate interiors to a few journalists and tour parties and, like the South Indian masons, are talking about their allegedly mysterious practices.

As documented in Sriram and Bhatt’s book though, and the annals of the Times of India, the mysteries of the Masons seem more imagined than actual. The details of Masonic practice have long been known and the sheer number of stories about their secret handshakes, ceremonial attire and initiation rites raises the question of how secret these actually are. The idea of their secrecy seems to matter rather more than the reality.

This is certainly true of the numerous opponents of Freemasonry. The idea of a secret and powerful elite, with special rituals and maybe even religion, has always been perfect for conspiracy theorists. Masons are alleged to be behind various global conspiracies and portrayed as sinister manipulators in many books and films. Organisations from the Roman Catholic Church to Hamas have condemned them. The USA’s first significant third political party was the Anti-Masonic Party.

Masons themselves protest that they are merely a philanthropic and fraternal organisation, devoted to good works and getting to know each other. But they participate enthusiastically in the rituals, dressing up and jargon and are always referring so coyly to their not-quite secrecy that it is hard not to wonder if it helps recruit new members. Their rather odd organisation, like Rotarians crossed with Theosophists, seems much more attractive when it comes with a hint of behind-the-scenes domination.

Yet historically the Masons may have played a truly useful role in India and Kipling suggests how. He became a Mason as a young man in Lahore in 1886, though he seems to have been an active member only for a few years. But the Masons feature several times in his work. Apart from The Man Who Would Be King they play a role in Kim, where one of the few facts known about Kim’s deceased soldier father is that he was a Mason. As per the practice, the young orphan was taken care of by the Masons, of which his mentor, Colonel Creighton, is one. It might seem odd that in the rigid hierarchies of the Raj a regular soldier and Colonel could both be equal members in a Lodge but this was what the Masons provided. They seem to have emerged at a time when differences of class, community and creed were increasing in Europe, and were an attempt to bridge the gaps. Since there were powerful interests behind the differences, like the Protestant and Catholic Churches, these attempts were necessarily rather secretive at first.

Freemasonry has always come under suspicion of being either irreligious or partial to one religion. Its response has been to assert the importance of God – one is required to affirm faith of some kind when joining – but to leave the actual Deity vague. Masons did not have to cut ties with their existing religion when they joined and they used this to argue against their opponents: if they could include all religions and communities, how could they be a threat to any?

The historian Vahid Fozdar argues in his essay ‘That Grand Primeval and Fundamental Religion: the Transformation of Freemasonry into a British Imperial Cult’ that Masonry used these principles for a particular purpose – strengthening the British Empire in India. He points out that in the early 19th century Christian missionaries were becoming increasingly active in India.

The East India Company had earlier emphasised commerce, not Christianity, in its takeover of India, but converting Indians became a useful way to sell the growth of their Empire to British politicians wary of how their country’s growth as a colonial empire would transform it. But all this religious activity came to a crashing halt with the Rising of 1857 that was partly blamed on the activities of the missionaries. Indians were promised that their religions would be left alone.

But if religion was no longer going to bring British and Indians closer, something else was needed. Fozdar argues that this is where Masonry came in: “For Raj officials…Masonic ‘religion’ inculcated civic consciousness and responsibility, which are key features of a ‘civil religion’.” Masonry was good at building bonds within professional communities – the military, the business community, civil servants – which helped build the institutions that the Raj needed to develop.

There were a few problems. Masonry was exclusively male, which didn’t matter in a patriarchal system like the Raj, but it was also European, which gave it an instinctive racial bias. The rhetoric of Masonry spoke about universal brotherhood, but individual Masons felt that crossing racial barriers was going too far. This lead to an extensive campaign that pitted Masonic ideology against its individuals.

Masons in India were occasionally willing to let in Muslim aristocrats – Umdat ul-Umrah, eldest son of the Nawab of the Carnatic was made a member in 1775. Parsis were also allowed after a spirited campaign by Maneckji Cursetji, the first Indian sheriff of Bombay. But Masons refused Hindus, arguing that Masonry believed in a single Deity, which Muslims and Parsis did, but not Hindus. They also asked how Hindus could accept universal brotherhood while supporting caste barriers. (As a practical point, orthodox Hindus would not eat at the dinners that were an important part of Masonic life).

But a few factors helped the reformers. Despite the structure of a ‘Mother Lodge’ which ‘daughter’ Lodges obeyed, in fact there were multiple lineages to choose from. Scottish and Irish Masons had a parallel structure to the English lodge system, and were often happy to sanction their own, more liberal Lodges. This made a big difference in Bombay, where the Scottish or Irish influence was strong. (But Cursetji sidestepped all three British Masonic systems by going to Paris and getting accepted by a French Lodge. He then returned to India demanding acceptance as an accredited Mason).

The British royal family also helped. Its male members had embraced Masonry, often becoming its leaders – a fusion with the establishment that fed conspiracy theorists, but also added to the elite appeal – and when issues about inclusivity finally reached them, they usually supported the principle. When the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, toured India in 1876-77, he was already Grand Master of the English lodge and he happily emphasised the inclusive, and imperial, nature of Freemasonry. Most important of all, Hinduism itself, or a certain view of it, started changing. Hindu reformists started emphasising the essential unity of Hindu religious thought under its plurality of deities. The Vedas were put forward as foundational scriptures, like the Bible – a useful point, since Masonic practice required a Holy Book of some kind. Movements to overcome caste divisions came up, with admittedly little reach in the sort of elites who aspired to join the Masons, but it was useful to suggest that caste was not essential to Hinduism. Masons, meanwhile, were also discovering – sometimes almost inventing – the apparently ancient roots of Masonry, some of which they argued could be traced back to ancient religions like Hinduism.

By the end of the 19th century Masonry in India was becoming integrated. In large cities Lodges tended to divide between communities, but in smaller places there was real mixing. Kipling paid tribute in his poem ‘The Mother Lodge’ which had a Mason remembering his old Lodge and its variety of members. This included British members, but also Indians: “We’d Bola Nath, Accountant/ An’ Saul the Aden Jew/ An’ Din Mohammed, draughtsman/Of the Survey Office too/ There was Babu Chuckerbutty/ An’ Amir Singh the Sikh/An’ Castro from the fittin’-sheds/ The Roman Catholick!” (Kipling notes that the Lodge never ate together, which avoided Hindu caste issues).

Kipling is remembered for his lines “East is East and West is West/ And Never the Twain Shall Meet” but what’s less remembered is that the end of that verse contradicts the opening statement: “But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth/ When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!” Masonry offered a way, however imperfect and limited, to achieve this during the Raj. Perhaps Indian Masons should think of organising screenings of The Man Who Would Be King as part of their celebrations this year.

Why Hindi is alien to south India ?

Excellent article from Jijith Nadamuri Ravi.   He runs a wiki portal ancientvoice.wikidot.com

I agree with every word of his.  He has beautifully summarised what the actual issue is.

• Hindi is corrupted language of persian mixed with local khariboli dialect.
• It is a tent language, used by invading raiders. Vocabularies reflect mercenary culture.
• Its as alien as English. Used widely during Mughal rule.
• South Indian languages not corrupted by persian.
• North indian languages have heavy persian vocabulary imbibed.  Whereas south indian languages use sanskrit vocabulary.

—————————————————————-

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10206703743109181&id=1742010296

My take on Hindi promotion in India.

I am a fluent Hindi speaker and has nothing against the language. Nor do i subscribe to Dravidian politics. I am a great promoter of Samskrtam and also Tamil.

But Hindi is a loose language which can be easily used to subvert Bharatiya Samskrti. It indeed happen when Bollywood used it as a vehicle to promote Arabic and Persian words all over India including in the South.

North India was fully dominated by Islamic Invaders and filled all north Indian languages with Arabic words (and Persian words too, as Islamic invaders came passing through Persia).

For example safed, subzi, shayad, hargiz, hardam, dil, deevana, khusboo, badboo, hindu, diwan, havildar, shaandar, tandurust, kofta, kulcha, kurta, biriyani, paneer, maidan, jaldi, zinda, zindagi, rozgar, and so on all Persian.

The words – afsos, khilaf, agar, magar, zaroor, lekin, taraf, sahi, galat, saaf, insaf, kaanoon, insaniat, shaheed, mazboot, kamzor, rahm, berahm, vafa, bevafa – all are Arabic.

Think about most of Bollywood movie dialogues and you get more of it.

Whatever Samskrta words in Hindi are but Samskrt words with horribly wrong pronunciation eg:- Mandooka – Mendak, Shiras – Sar, Mukha – Mu’h, Naasika – Naak, Karna – Kaan, Jihva – Jeeb, Akshi – Aankh, Hasta- Haath, Paada – Paav and so on.

Arabic Persian inflexion into Southern languages is very meager not even 1% of what happened to Hindi. Thus we have words like Jilla, Tehsil etc, mostly administrative division names, that came from Persian into southern languages but such Persian or Arabic loan words in southern Indian languages is less than 1%.

The vocabulary of Southern languages contain 30% to 60% pure Samskrt words, like Aanandam, Aishvaryam, Adhikaram, Aayus, Aarogyam, Anumaana, Bhaagyam, Bharanam, Chandra, Chandrika, Chikitsa, Charitram, Dhanam, Dhairyam, Dhaanyam, Dharma, Dvesha, Eeshvara, Ichcha, Phalam, Phanam, Garima, Ghraham, Gahanam, Harsham, Hamsam, Indriyam, Jaya, Jananam, Janmam, Karmam, Kaaryam, Karthavyam, Laaghavam, Lakshanam, Mahima, Maandyam, Mani, Mekhala, Madhuram, Nashtam, Nakham, Nagaram, Oushadham, Ojas, Pramaana, Paramam, Paayasam, Paarshvam, Paribhavam, Pranayam, Raashram, Raksha, Sundara, Shabdam, Sadya, Sangam, Samgamam, Taatparyam, Tantram, Yauvanam, Uurjam, Vaatsalyam, Vastram, Vaardhakyam, Kshanam, Prayoga, Pravrtti, Yuddha, Abhimana, Abhijatya, Vijaya, Vinaya, Varnana, Vimarsana etc.

It is the Persian, Arabic and distorted Samskrt words in Hindi that makes it difficult for Southern languages to learn in contrast to learning Samskrta words which are easy to learn for them because they are already present in their languages.

Hence it is wrong to impose / promote Hindi all the while no such attempt is made to promote Samskrtam which deserve such promotion, in place of Hindi.

(Based on comments below, expanding the post further to add more clarity:-)

Increasing Samskrt word usage in Hindi will certainly make it more understable to southern language speakers. No doubt about it. But that is not easy. Correct pronunciation of those Samskrt words too matters.

It is easy for the Southerners to listen to Samskrt words in Hindi pronounced in their correct forms. For example, given a choice they would like to call ‘nose’ as ‘naasika’ because they are familiar with it through Samskrtam. But they won’t like to call it ‘naak’. In this situation, will Hindi speakers change the word for nose from naak to naasika? These are some practical scenarios.

There is also one more hidden element that not many people know except those who indulge in the realms of the supernatural consciousness.

The correctly pronounced words act as powerful gateways to the super consciousness, allowing one to establish Yogic connections with the consciousness of the ancient gurus and rshis of the past.

Thus, the word ‘naasika’ acts as a super conscious gateway leading you to deep past while the word ‘naak’ cut short your journey to the consciousness realms.

This principle is also the basis of mantra saadhana, slokaadhyayana, yogaabhyaasa, and dhyana and also why one gets powerful by developing sharp minds and deep concentration by reciting Samsktra slokas or merely speaking in Samskrtam.

This is also the reason why Samskrtam bestows better concentration and intelligence to its frequent users.

Hindi offers no such subtle benifits.

Most people see the language debate as a one-dimensional political issue (bringing BJP, DMK etc in it) while my focusing is more on its multi-dimensional social, cultural, civilizational and aadhyatmic aspects, not withstanding the fact that Congress for 70 plus years fooled India by promoting Arabic and Persian in the name of Hindi / Urdu promotionmuch like how Bollywood fooled Indians through Hindi/Urdu dialogs in the popular movies.

We can solve the political aspects of the languages by removing the terms like ‘first language’, ‘second language’, ‘third language’ etc.

Instead define it as:-

Native Language : Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Bangali, Maithili, Angi, Magadhi, Avadhi, Suraseni, Santali, Portuguese, French etc

National Link Language: Hindi

International Link Language: English

Inter Cosmic / Inter Conscious Link Language : Samskrtam.

Note:-

The maps below also shows how a large number of northern languages are approximated as Hindi. These northern languages, each contain greater percentage of Samskrtam in it as they are ancient languages spoken in the ancient janapathas mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Bangali – Vanga janapatha
Angi – spoken in Anga janapatha
Maithili -spoken in Mithila / Videha janapatha
Bhojpuri – spoken in Malla janapstha
Avadhi – spoken in Ayodhya / Kosala Janapatha
Suraseni / Vraja bhasha – Spoken in Mathura, Vrndavana and Surasena janapatha
Khariboli – Hindi – spoken in Kuru / Panchala janapathas
Haryanvi – in Kuru, Matsya and Salva janapathas
Marvari – spoken in Marubhumi (desert) and in janapathas in that region like Salva and Matsya
Bundheli – spoken in Chedi, Dasarna, Karusha, Kunti and Avanti janapathas.
Malava – in Malava, Avanti, Kunti janapsthas
Narmadi – in Haihaya and Mahishmsti
Punjabi – in Trigarta, Balhlika, Madra, Kekaya
Dogri – in Bhahlika, Kashmira janapathas
Kashmiri – in Kashmira janapatha
Kinnauri – in Kinnara regions

Gujarathi – spoken in Anarta, Surastra, Surparaka janapathad and in Dwaraka.

Marathi – spoken in Ashmaka and janapsthas in this region like Balirastra, Pansurastra, Navarastra, Anupa etc and also in Avanti, Kunti and Haiyeya.

It is to be noted that these were derived from the language of the common public who spoke apabhramsha of Samskrtam and royal houses spoke Samskrtam and thus it acted as a link language of communication between all janapathas of Bharatavarsha.

These native languages also need to be promoted with proper growth in literature, theatres, film industies and movies, along with Hindi.

The typical mindset of anglicised urban brahmins – self derogatory

The below writing was published in the facebook profile of one person calleed “keertana”, who claims to be from brahmin caste, and has seen all the oppressions first hand.

I have seen such self-derogatary writings from many such anglicised brahmins in tamilbrahmin forum.

Vedamgopal and vyas, had been heavily offended by the term “Dubashi” that i used to represent these kind of anglicised brahmins.  They started attacking vellala castes in turn, instead of debating the core issue.

Now i want to ask them how are they going to answer to the below accusation made by one of such anglicised brahmin they are striving to defend.  Do they agree with her?

And how many of us have ever thought about the mindset of these persons?  To understand their thought process, we need to understand the world view, the type of society they are live in, and how they view about our traditional society.

Will write more about this in my next article.  Before that would like to see how hindu oriented brahmins respond to such offensive write up from their anglicised peers.

---

Writeup by a self-claiming brahmin lady:

I belong to a so called ‘upper’ caste. I am fully aware of the atrocities my ancestors have committed to whole communities of people.

My ancestors denied entire communities of children the right to education for two thousand years. My ancestors denied them the fine arts for 2000 years. My ancestors denied them the right to God for 2000 years. My ancestors denied them the right to sanitation for 2000 years. They denied them the right to free speech for 2000 years.

Hindus should junk Hindu Code of Law

I happened to read Madhukishwar’s article few years back, and found it open minded and truly rational in every aspects.  Which ever topic she writes on, she dwells in to the details without any ideological bias and present facts from ground to support her stance.   This is the kind of thought process that is expected out of Hindu Intellectuals.  But barring few, no other writers or columnists had written anything that reflects ground reality.

The latest article by Madhu Kishwar on Unform Civil Code is simple and brilliant,  She has beautifully explained how every laws in india in the name of Hindu is victorian minded, and never reflected the true nature of diverse hindu society.   She makes am important point that there is no religious sanction in hindu society and all laws are customary and localised to jathi, area, family etc.

 

Please read the two parts of the series at below URL.

Part -1:  Covers how muslim angle to UCC and recomments that already existing indian laws are sufficient and we do not need new UCC.  She also covers how tribal  laws enacted by british has marginalised the tribal women who enjoyed protection from earlier collective system.

https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/why-we-dont-need-the-uniform-civil-code

Part – 2:

https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/why-we-dont-need-the-uniform-civil-code-part-ii

In the second part, she covers how Hindu law were forcefully enacted by British on victorian christian framework, and how it destroyed the life style of numerous people groups.

I am reproducing this second part, as it is more important for us to further discuss.  The core point is that we have to dismantle the Hindu Code of Law and put in to trash to free the hindu society from the slavery of urban liberals.

---

Reproducing part-2 of the article:

Most people think that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is the author of reversing and thwarting the process of reform of Muslim Personal Law by using his brute majority in Parliament to pass the Muslim Women’s Protection Act of 1986 which arrogantly overrode the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case.

But Rajiv Gandhi was neither the first nor the last prime minister to have polarised India on communal lines through ill-advised political interventions. The mess started with the doyen of secularism, Jawaharlal Nehru himself. It defies comprehension why in the very first decade after independence, Nehru chose to put the entire weight of his government in pushing through “reforming” only Hindu customary laws on the basis of poorly understood and half-baked knowledge derived from our erstwhile colonial rulers of what constituted Hindu customs while refusing to touch Muslim or Christian personal laws.

The attempt to codify Hindu law was initiated in the late 18th century because the British colonial rulers wanted to bring under their judicial purview all the aspects of social and political life of diverse communities of India as part of Pax Brittanica. None of the earlier foreign rulers, no matter how tyrannical, had ever encroached upon the internal affairs of diverse communities of India. India was called a land of self-governing village republics precisely because  each village and each community retained its right to manage its internal affairs – be it social organisation or family structure and rules of inheritance. And customs by their very nature are not static. They keep evolving and changing with time.

The British were befuddled by the vast diversity and complexity of Indian society. Having come from a society where most aspects of family and community affairs came under the jurisdiction of canon law, the British looked for similar sources of authority in India. They assumed that just as the European marriage laws were based on Biblical tenets, so must the personal laws of Hindus draw their legitimacy from some fundamental religious tenets.

However, the social reality in India was totally at variance with the assumptions of the British. There was no single body of canon law, no Biblical-type commandments or the equivalent of a Pope to legitimise a uniform code for all the diverse communities of India, no Shankaracharya whose writ ran all over the country. But that did not prevent the British from searching. Neither the Hindu Dharmashastras nor Smritis suggest that there exists an immutable, universal moral doctrine for all people at all times. Rather, they emphasise that codes of morality must be specific to time, person, and place, and evolve according to changing requirements. That is how pluralism could become a way of life and the foundational principle of Indic civilisation. Even today when communities defend their own customs, they say, Hamaare yahan yeh hi pratha hai (This is our tradition here).” They never insist that it must become the standard norm for all.

Dharmashastras were not strictly religious treatises either. Dharma itself means the aggregate of duties and obligations, religious, moral, social and legal. This code of dharmic conduct was expected from each of the social roles a person performs. But there is no attempt to insist on a universal code for all of humanity. It is meant to be situation- and time-specific as well as person- and place-specific rather than an immutable set of laws. And the authority to change or start new customs too lies with not just the biradari (community) but also with the kula or family.

For example, Narada states, “Custom is powerful and overrides the sacred law.” The famous quote of Brihaspati Deshe desheya acharah paramparayakramjagaleh; Sa shastrarhabalavanaiva langhaniyah kadhachava essentially emphasises that different regions evolve different customs as per the requirements of that locality and community. People did not need to seek legitimacy from this or that text for practices they found appropriate, nor did they need the approval of any priesthood for amending, changing or scrapping a practice which came to be seen as unfair or unnecessary. This gave endless scope for change and adaptation as well as easy acceptance of differences among communities. While each kula and family had the authority to modify its over customs, none arrogated to itself the power to insist that others follow suit.

Manu Smriti, a text that the British promoted as the most authoritative code for Hindus, stresses that the business of the ruler is not to impose laws from above but that,

Jallikattu: Beyond what meets the eye

This article was written by Balakumar Somu , a photographer and real animal rights activists who has travelled extensively in the rural villages of southern TN.  I bet, you could not get such insights in jallikattu in any of the media .

I have merged two parts of the article in single post.  Has given the links to both the parts in vijayvaani.

Beware, this is a lengthy article, but i am sure, you wont find it boring.

---

Part-1 :  http://vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4152

Part-2 : http://vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=4153

There is no denying that some of the observations made by the honourable judges of the Supreme Court of India regarding Jallikattu have deeply hurt Tamil sentiments. It is because these observations have exposed how little understanding the judges, lawyers and the so-called animal rights activists have regarding Jallikattu and its vitality in preserving and improving the Indian Native Cattle breeds. World over, Tamils, rural and urban, educated and otherwise, are up in arms against these ‘observations’ showing how close Jallikattu is to the Tamil heart.

The honourable Supreme Court of India banned Jallikattu on May 7, 2014 citing animal abuse and torture in a case filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) along with the US-based animal-shelter organisation, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and a few other such animal welfare organisations. The Supreme Court imposed a blanket ban on all traditional cultural practices and rural sports all over India, that involved ‘bulls’, including Jallikattu, Manjuvirattu, Vadam, Eruthukattum Thiruvizha, Rekla and Bullock-cart races of Tamilnadu, Sethali, Kaalapoottu in Kerala, Bailgada in Maharashtra and bullock-cart races all over India.

Freemasons and illuminatis

This is old news item published in an established newspaper.  I am reproducing here for further discussion.

What do you think about these secret societies like freemasons?

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/nehru-vivekananda-tata-were-also-freemasons/article4237921.ece

Nehru, Vivekananda, Tata were also Freemasons

New Delhi, Dec 25:  

They are one of the world’s oldest secretive societies whose members included Motilal Nehru, Vivekananda, JRD Tata, King George VI and George Washington, among others. Their temples and lodges are specimens of grand architecture and their arcane rituals have inspired as much curiosity as fear. They are the Freemasons.

Freemasonry, an esoteric fraternity which owes its origin in the late 16th to 17th century in Scotland and England came to India through the East India Company in the early 18th century. They are known by their most recognisable symbol of an interlaced ‘Square and Compass’, found on the facade of all Freemason’s Hall.

The Grand Lodge of India (GLI) is the main governing body of Freemasonry within India. It was officially constituted on November 24, 1961 and celebrated its Golden Jubilee last year.

Before the establishment of its own order there were three delegations from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Grand Lodge of Ireland and Grand Lodge of England.

“Our first lodge was a military one established by the EIC in 1730. After the British took it back to England post-Independence, the oldest surviving lodge, now in India is the Calcutta’s Freemason’s Hall, known as ‘The Star in the East’,” Ambarish Singh Roy, a Freemason and Assistant Regional Grand Secretary, Regional Grand Lodge of Eastern India said.

The fraternity is administratively organised into independent Grand Lodges or sometimes Orients, each of which governs its own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate or daughter Lodges. Grand Lodges are independent and sovereign bodies that govern Masonry in a given country, state, or geographical area (termed a jurisdiction).

Made famous by the bestsellers of Dan Brown, like ‘The Da Vinci Code’, the Freemasons society commands a global membership of over 6 millions and their number in India is only growing. Their secret and elaborate rituals involve a checkered-board floor and their lodges are run well by ‘Grand Masters’.

India’s first President Rajendra Prasad, first Vice-President S Radhakrishnan, Sir Phirozeshah Mehta, C Rajagopalachari, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the Nawab Of Pataudi Mansur Ali Khan, Maharaja Jivaji Rao Scindia, among other eminent Indians, were also Freemasons, according to information on the Regional Grand Lodge of North India.

Ambarish and other Freemasons from around the world participated in their 12th World Conference and 51st Grand Festival of India organised recently in South India.

The two-day conference in Mahabalipuram saw around 37 Grand Masters from their respective Lodges and carried the theme of “The Role of Freemasonry in Universal Peacekeeping”.

The conference was followed by a Grand Festival in Chennai which ended with the formal induction of new Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of India.

“RW Bro Vasudev Masurekar took over the charge of the next Grand Master from MW Bro Capt Dr B Balaram Biswakumar in a formal ceremony that was held during the festival,” B Kamakoti, Grand Secretary said.

Freemasons around the world though do not operate under an over-arching body they recognise and derecognise each other. Each country has one central Grand Lodge which is run by a Grand Master elected every three year.

“At the conference only those Lodges were invited which are in ‘amity with each other’ which means those that recognise each other. Also, during a world conference only the Grand Masters (GMs) are allowed to speak or present papers,” Kamakoti added.

The Grand Secretary affirmed that now with so many literature and cinema based on or featuring Freemasonry, whatever myths that been associate with it, must been dispelled.

“I believe whatever myths people had associated with Freemasonry have been dispelled now with so many books and movies, having come out and I feel really sorry for those who say, who do not know or have heard of this,” Kamakoti added.

Well, despite their presence with architecturally striking buildings bearing the ‘Square and Compass’, in almost all major cities in India, Freemasonry has still remained a somewhat esoteric and a mythical term. But its members say, they brush by it almost everyday albeit unwittingly.

“The iconic Rashtrapati Bhavan (Viceroy’s House) has Masonic signatures as many British kings were Freemasons. In fact, the plan of the creation of the New Delhi capital has Masonry embedded in it.

Even, the Jantar Mantar has Masonic elements. We can see it, a layman cannot,” added Roy who said Freemasonry involves a lot of study on astronomy as well.

Asked if Freemasonry is present in Pakistan, the Grand Lodge of India informed that it existed earlier before being disbanded by ex-Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and ex-President Zia-ul Haq.

“We did had Freemasonry in Pakistan but it was disbanded during the reign of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Zia-ul Haq and now those building are being used as government bungalows and post-offices, among others,” Roy added.

“The Goshamal Baradari in Hyderabad, built in 1682 by Sultan Abul Hassan Tanasha, is the oldest building used as a Masonic Temple in India. It was donated to the fraternity in 1872 by the Nizam of Hyderabad,” Roy said expounding on the architectural heritage of Freemasonry in India.

The organisers believed that Freemasonry would only rise in popularity from here and cited the example of the “revival of the long dormant Patna Regional Grand Lodge which had its Annual Meeting this January” and are now targeting the Ranchi lodge.

The world conference also marked a unique achievement for India as the only country to have been allowed so far to host it twice after being given the nod for the 2002 edition in New Delhi. The next edition is scheduled to be hosted by Romania in 2014.

(This article was published on December 25, 2012)

Can any one become an archakar?

My discussion in TamilBrahmins.com site about the recent archakar issue.  Reproducing my post here for further discussion.

http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/showthread.php?t=29417

———————

The recent Supreme Court judgement on Archaka has opened a very old issue back to the fore front. The ultimate question being asked is “Can any one become archakar?”

As a non-brahmin, being invited to this forum as guest participant long back, i would like to pen down my views based on my own analysis and experience.

1. The terminologies like archaka and temples are being used loosely and in generic sense, mainly by the communists and DK ideologists. What does one mean by the term temple? Are all temples same ? and more importantly, are all GODS and GODDESSES same? Answers to these questions will solve most of the problems.

In Bharathya society (for my own reasons i would avoid the term Hindu, which i will explain later), there are three major categories of temples.

1. Agamic Based Temples -> Shaiva temples, vaishnava temples, shaaktha temples

2. Tantric based Temples -> Amman Temples, Grama Devata temples etc.

3. Tribal Worships -> Temples worshipped by Tribal People.

Agamic Based Temples:
———————————

This is classified in to shaiva, vaishnava and shaktha temples, which follows respective agamas. These temples are vaideeha temples, where vedas become supreme, with rules and regulations laid out by agamas. There is no animal sacrifice in any of these temples, and pooja is done by respective brahmin communities in these temples.

Pooja is done through chanting of mantras (usually vedic mantras).

Tantric Based Temples:
——————————-

These are mostly amman temples (kaali ), and in some cases, male gods mostly found among agrarian societies. eg: selliyamman, kaaliyamman etc. There is NO agama or strict guideline for these temples. Sampradaya is the norm.

The composition of these temples are different from the agamic temples. The moolavar deivam is kaali, and there is a protective deity at the entrance (or border). Karuppusamy, Muni, madurai veeran etc are some examples of protector deity.

apart from this, there are saptha kannimars, found in most of these temples.

Mode of worship is through rituals. There is NO mantra for these temples. The pooja is done predominantly by separate community called Pandarams, who are different from brahmins. The pandarams wear poonool, but do not learn vedas or agamas. (recently the VHP has been foolishly & stupidly training these pandarams in mantra chanting, corrupting both mantras and these native systems).

In many temples of male gods, only males can do pooja. In case this male temple is a kula deiva temple, only the male person from that particular gotra can become priest. (This is followed in my temple)

These tantric temples are Kula Devata temples to most non-brahmin communities. Also these kaali temples are grama temples in all villages. eg: bagawathi amman, maariyamman etc.

Brahmins cannot and should not do pooja in the kaali temples. THis is the norm followed in our society.

Tribal Worships:
———————-

This is followed by forest tribals, and there is no fixed pattern. Whatever evolved among each tribal groups, is followed. These worships are largely unknown. The pooja is done by

Back to the Issue:

The issue of “any one becoming archaka” is primarily raised as means to attack & drive away the brahmins from the agamic temples. It has colonial origins & colonial agenda, and continues till today. And this issue has multitude of dimensions, and based on certain stereotypes.

Let me list Some of the stereotypes:
———————————————–

Stereotype – 1: Most important stereotype is that all Temples are Same. This stereotype, even though created by colonial forces, is actively promoted by our own people.

Stereotype – 2: Only Brahmins are allowed to do pooja in all temples.

Stereotype – 3: Pooja is just set of chantings & rituals, like how prayer is done in church / mosque. ie, pooja is reduced to set of process like in industries or corporate companies.

Stereotype – 4: GOD is ONLY for satisfying human desires / needs. GOD can ONLY save. It cannot kill. This stereotype is most devastating one, because it creates a consumeric mindset / perception towards god. Today’s generation feels that if GOD does not help, then its NOT GOD.

The solution to this issue lies in demolishing the above stereotypes.

Breaking Stereotype – 1 will establish the fact that all temples are NOT same. This will allow us to focus on the diversity of our temples. More importantly the diversity within agamic temples.

Stereotype – 2 will expose the reality that brahmins do pooja only in agamic temples, and in all other temples, it is Non-Brahmins who do the pooja. and if non-brahmins are already doing poojas in non-agamic temples, then the very issue becomes meaningless. right?

Brahmins NOT equal to Archakas:

A perception is created that any brahmins can do archanai inside the garbagraha. This is wrong.

Archakaship is hereditary, as with every other traditional institutions in bharathiya society. Temples are NOT corporate companies for anyone to apply for job.

What about Dalits?

The DK & Communist ideologists always invoke the dalit card to rake this archaka issue. And they have successfully created a stereotype that Dalits were NEVER allowed to do pooja in temples (again malicious generalisation of temples).

The reality is that Dalits are the priests in their own kula devata temples. And priest of ONE dalit community are NOT allowed to do pooja in the kula devata temple of another dalit community. For eg, a priest from parayar community cannot do pooja in the temples of Sakkiliyar community or Pallar community. Vice versa.

In Tamilnadu, the Telugu Sakkiliars are vaishnavites, and have their own perumal temple as kula devata. There it is their own community member serving as poosari. This poosari has to follow strict vegetarian diet, and acharams. In each of their kula temples, there is a Saami Maadu (divine bull), which should NOT be castrated. This poosari will take this divine bull to all the areas / villages where their community members live.

These real life examples are NEVER considered by our educated brahmins when debating this archaka issue. and this ignorance is the advantage that the DK and Communist ideologists have in the public debates.

Where did we Go wrong?

1. The first and foremost reason is the extreme dis-connect created b/w brahmins and Non-Brahmins, through monstrous propoganda. Particularly the brahmins who pursued higher education, and migrated to Metros and Cities totally lost the understanding of our social fabric. They sourced all the info through media controlled by communists. I hope, that internet will break this dis-connect and enable direct exchange of information b/w brahmins and non-brahmins.

2. Artificial and unnatural concepts like Universalism and equality adopted and internalised by our people. It is this universalism that makes us believe that all temples are same and all GODS are same. It is equality that places archakas on the same platter with non-archakas. Both are alien concepts to vaideeha tradition. Equality is communist concept and everyone knows how communism was hostile to vedic brahmins.

3. The negation of Jathi, kula, gotra system, which is the foundation of bharathiya society and root of our cultural tree. The eradication of caste in the name of unification has pitted us against our own socio-historic foundation. Infact, the war on caste should be equated to Cultural Genocide. Because every culture and tradition is centered around our jathi system.

How can we ever save our dharma by cutting our roots? We have to boldy assert our jathi identity, and then counter the propoganda. The brahmins should come out of the artificial guilt systematically imposed on them.

4. The creation of Hinduism as canonical religion by colonial rulers (pursued by maratha chithpavan peshwas) has done the greatest damage by abrahamising us from within. First it corrupted our vedas, by making it as a canonical religious text like bible.

Next, it created internal conflicts by putting diverse communities and cultures in to single identity BOX.

If we look at the law enacted by Karunanidhi stating that any Hindu can become archaka in hindu temple, it is based on this artificial religion called “Hinduism”. I want to pont out that there is NO proper definition of Hindu by constitution. It merely states that those who are NOT christian, or muslim or jew is hindu. THis is ultra stupid one. If one is NOT christian or muslim or jew, then he should be identified by the name he has used for generations. Certainly, our fore fathers did not identify themselves as hindus at any point of history.

This erosion of our native identities weakened our acharams and our understanding,

5. The deliberate, cunning betrayal of Bharathiya Society by Hindu Organisations, mainly the Sangh Parivar. They are the trojan horses within our dharmic bharathiya society. They are the ones, who promoted the very identity of Hindu and Hindutva, and silently worked for destroying jathi on which our dharma is based. They promoted marrying brahmins with harijans in the name of Hindu Unity. And even today, they never care about temples or our traditions. But they occupty the central space of our bharathiya society by creating a false impression that they are working for reviving our tradition.

The way forward:

We have to stop subscribing to the views of Universalism and Equality. NOT equal does NOT mean higher lower. It means everyone is unique and different. Every place is unique. Every region is unique. and hence every temple is unique. and our forefathers created sampradayas based on this uniqueness. By acknowledging this uniqueness, we can invalidate the argument that anyone can become archaka.

Before ending, let me ask few questions.

1. When brahmins of one sampradaya (Iyengar) is NOT allowed to do pooja in the temples of another sampradaya, how can we allow non-brahmins to do pooja?

2. When brahmins are NOT allowed in Non-Agamic rural temples, it is natural that non-brahmins are NOT allowed to do pooja in agamic temples. Everyone recognises each other’s sampradaya.

3. All major non-brahmin jathis of tamilnadu (thevars, nadars, vellalars, vanniyars, naidus, chettiyars etc) , always want brahmin priests in agamic temples. Even karunanidhi wants it. Which means the society at large is NOT willing to accept change the status quo. The communists claim that temples are for common people, we have to use the very same argument that common people wants brahmins as priests in agamic temples. Few hundred ideologically moticated individuals cannot dictate or control the society.

India’s Brutal Destruction of Bharath – 3 – forceful destruction of village

This fertile village which can produce food for ever, is now destroyed for the sake of Colonial Metro.  The rights of the villagers over their land which they lived for centuries are NOT recognized by the metro india.

Continuation of Colonialism in a different form.

———————-

http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/a-villages-nightmare/article6756538.ece

Two hours was all it took to destroy 80 hectares of fertile land with standing crop in Kannankottai, as the Tamil Nadu government went about “acquiring” the land to implement an “essential” project, invoking a British-era Act. By ILANGOVAN RAJASEKARAN

DAWN had not broken yet on November 7 when rumbling noises jolted the residents out of sleep at Kannankottai village in Gummidipoondi taluk of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district, some 50 kilometres from Chennai, near the border with Andhra Pradesh. Uncertain about their source, the villagers, mostly farmers and farmworkers, gathered at the village square and started moving towards the fields from where the sounds were coming. They were dumbstruck by what they saw there. A dozen earthmovers, excavators, lorries and tractors were destroying standing paddy and other crops growing in the fertile lands that had given the village the name “Kutti Thanjavur” (Mini Thanjavur: Thanjavur is the rice bowl of the State). A team of government officials was supervising the destruction, with a posse of policemen providing them security.

The “operation annihilation” was completed in less than two hours and it laid waste 200 acres (80 hectares) of land with standing crop and left the villagers’ lives in ruin. Water-carrying ducts, culverts and sluices of the Kannankottai Raja Eri tank which commands an ayacut of 3,000 acres, were destroyed. The men protested angrily, while the women wailed at what they saw as an “impudent act” of the state. The paddy crop needed only two more weeks to be harvested and the groundnut crop was also ready for harvesting.

The residents said that the Public Works Department (PWD), by its mindless act of destruction under the ruse of acquiring land for the Thervoy Kandigai-Kannankottai reservoir project, an ambitious project of the Tamil Nadu government to augment water supply to Chennai city, not only destroyed land and standing crop but also the century-old irrigation system of the Kannankottai Raja Eri tank, which has been the source of livelihood for more than 10 villages, including Kannankottai.

“I nursed them [the crop] like my children. It was a heartless act of murder. I was watching helplessly,” said 70-year-old Murugan, one of many Dalit landholders in the village for whom farming is the only source of livelihood.

The questionable acquisition of large parcels of “live” land from farmers on that “Black Friday”, as they call it, invited widespread condemnation.

The farmers’ fight against the acquisition had suffered a blow two days earlier, when the Madras High Court, in a ruling on November 5, dismissed a batch of public interest petitions challenging the acquisition and agreed with the government that the project was an essential one. The court also said that many farmers had accepted the interim compensation. This emboldened the state to unleash strong-arm tactics against a hapless people who refused to part with the land they had been tilling for generations. Without giving them the mandated 60 days to file an appeal against the High Court order, the government got down to the task of taking possession of the land.

“We do not know how to react. But we are confident that the judiciary will understand our plight and come to our rescue,” said P. Vijayakumar, who owns five acres of land. Refusing to accept the compensation, he and 50 other farmers have approached the judiciary through a series of petitions and appeals.

Interestingly, nearly 60 per cent of the farmers in the village are Dalits who also work as agricultural labourers. Telugu-speaking Naidus form the next major land-holding caste group. “All of us are small and medium farmers owning tracts of wet and dry lands. It was harmonious and peaceful existence for generations until the reservoir project came and brought with it disarray and despair. The village economy hinges on farming alone,” said Raagan, a Dalit farmer whose wife, R. Muniammal, is the village panchayat president.

The villagers smell a conspiracy in the urgency with which the project is being executed. They claim that the reservoir project aims to supply water to the nearby SIPCOT Industrial Estate, which has multinational companies, many of which are water guzzlers. “The current water supply is not adequate for them. They have been pressuring the state for adequate supply,” said K. Balram Naidu, a former village panchayat president. He is now the chairman of the Farmlands Retrieval Committee, which is spearheading the struggle against the land acquisition.

“The Chief Minister might not have been properly informed about it,” he said, adding that farmers in the village raised two paddy crops and a groundnut crop in a year. The village has been a proud leader in terms of agriculture produce in the Gummidipoondi block for several decades.

Vijayakumar endorsed Balram Naidu’s views. He said the farmers usually went for two crops of paddy on 2,000 acres and a third crop if the Kannankottai lake had enough storage. “We produce 80,000 bags of paddy, of 76 kg each, per crop. Two crops ensure a production of around 1.60 lakh bags of paddy. A few farmers go for a third crop, too, every year with the aid of well irrigation. We grow groundnut on about 300 acres, besides sesame and green gram,” he said.

Kannankottai’s nightmare began when the government announced the project to augment the reservoir capacity of Chennai city by 4.20 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) at a cost of Rs.1,851 crore, on August 4, 2011. It envisaged creating a new storage capacity of 1 tmc ft at Thervoy Kandigai, Thirukandalam and Kannankottai Raja Eri. Six tanks —Nemam, Porur, Iyambakkam, Ambattur, Korattur and Madhavaram—were to be desilted to augment their capacities by 0.9 tmcft each, besides the Cholavaram tank.

Accordingly, the Water Resources Department (WRD) of the Public Works Department, while submitting a proposal, said Chennai city received drinking water supply from the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh under the Krishna Water Supply Project. The four reservoirs of Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam stored the monsoon flows and acted as storage reservoirs for the water received from the Krishna river. At present, the combined storage capacity of the four reservoirs is 11,057 million cubic feet.

During the monsoon, according to PWD officials, whenever the four reservoirs achieved full storage level (FRL), water received from the Krishna river could not be stored in them. “Subsequently, the government has to ask Andhra Pradesh to cut supplies during these periods. On account of this, the city is not able to receive the full quantum of allocated water,” an official pointed out.

Hence, it was held that a new reservoir be formed by connecting two tanks—the Thervoy Kandigai tank and the Kannankottai Rajaneri tank—will ensure an additional annual storage of 1 tmcft. (The reservoir will have the capacity to hold 1 tmcft when filled twice, which is equal to the amount of water drawn every month from the existing reservoirs to meet the city’s water requirements.)

To build additional storage capacity for the Krishna water, the WRD proposed to construct an off-take canal from the Kandaleru-Poondi canal (through which the water comes from Andhra Pradesh) with a length of 7,900 metres, passing through Thamaraikuppam, Senjiagaram and Pallikuppam villages and the reserve forest of Pallikuppam. A maximum flood discharge diversion canal would also be built.

To implement the scheme, the State government needed to acquire 1,252.47 acres of land at a cost of Rs.160 crore. It includes 692.42 acres of patta land, mainly wet; 527.92 acres of poromboke land; and 32.13 acres of forest land. On the basis of this assessment, the government sanctioned Rs.330 crore for the “formation of a new reservoir near Kannankottai and Thervoy Kandigai villages in Gummidipoondi taluk”, which the then Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, inaugurated on September 11, 2013, through videoconferencing.

The concern of the people that the water in the new reservoir is actually meant for industries situated in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate is not far from the truth. The State, in its administrative sanction note dated January 24, 2012, has specifically stated that the project should be executed “without affecting the SIPCOT lands”. A notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, was passed to acquire land in Kannankottai village. It also invoked the urgency provisions under Section 17 of the same Act to dispense with the mandatory inquiry under Section 5(a) of the Act. These were notified in the gazette on July 15, 2013.

The villagers pointed out that the government’s decision to dispense with the mandatory inquiry was not justifiable since it deprived the landholders of their rights. Senior advocate N.R. Chandran, while arguing their case in the Madras High Court, pointed out that even the Supreme Court had held that the exceptional and extraordinary power of dispensing with the inquiry under Section 5(a) of the Act “is not a routine power and a greater degree of care must be taken by the State while invoking such powers of compulsory acquisition”.

He noted that the government had not notified the acquisition under the provisions of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which came into effect on January 1, 2014. The notification under Section 4 of the 1894 Act, he maintained, violated the fundamental rights of the farmers, guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

But the State in its reply pointed out that the project was meant to meet the drinking water needs of Chennai city and hence was very important. It states: “The government has already taken possession of 629.92 acres of poromboke lands and, similarly, out of 800.65 acres of patta lands, 24 awards have also been passed for acquiring 753.22 acres and of which 102.80 acres have already been acquired. Land owners, 36 in total, have also received compensation of Rs.11.96 crore. At present 33 per cent of project work has been completed. Of the total 571 land owners, only a few have approached the court.”

It further claimed that the government had issued an order on January 20, 2014, regarding the applicability of the 2013 Act to the land owners, stating that all provisions of the new Act relating to the determination of compensation shall apply to them.

But the residents are wary. They are not sure whether the amendments regarding rehabilitation and resettlement (RR) under the new Act will be applicable to them. A former village vice-president, E. Govindasamy, a Dalit, however, pointed out that the provisions of the new Act had not been followed.

Against the spirit of the law

The Act, he said, was meant to “ensure, in consultation with institutions of local self-government and gram sabhas established under the Constitution, a humane, participative, informed and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance of the owners of the land and other families and provide just and fair compensation to those whose land has been acquired and make adequate provisions for their rehabilitation and resettlement”. The resolution of the village panchayat’s gram sabha meeting on September 9, 2012, asking the State to “abandon the project” had been ignored, he said.

As the controversy over the land acquisition deepens, farmers alleged that they were not properly informed about the terms of what they called “a compulsory acquisition”. No public announcement such as beating a tom-tom was made, nor were the details of the acquisition proceedings conveyed to them, they said. “We have not been given the copies of the necessary environmental impact assessment (EIA) report of the project too,” said Vijayakumar. They insist that instead of fertile wetlands, alternative lands are available on the southern side of the village, which could be utilised for the project.

The hasty land acquisition has left important questions unanswered. The aggrieved farmers claimed that the State government did not obtain the mandated social impact assessment report. The Tiruvallur District Collector, they alleged, had not visited them in their village to listen to their grievances. They said that before the announcement of the project, a team of revenue officials had come and sought their views on it and that they had strongly opposed it.

But nothing seems to have worked in the farmers’ favour. “The land now technically belongs to the PWD since March this year,” says District Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao. Talking to Frontline, he said the villagers had, in fact, met him. “It is an important project. We have dispersed interim awards of compensation as per the guidelines. Adequate awards will be paid as per the new Act. A few have refused to accept and gone to court.” He added that he had asked the officials not to pursue the acquisition until the harvesting of crops was over.

But the people are sceptical. The major political parties, barring the Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), confined their support to the mere issuing of statements. The affected residents want compensation on the basis of current market value. They are at a loss to understand how water will be shared by the rest of the traditional ayacutdars of Kannankottai and Thervoy Kandigai tanks once they are merged.

Today, Kannankottai wears a haunted look. Though the heavy machines that wreaked havoc on their lives have been withdrawn temporarily, the fear remains. They are yet to recover from the trauma of the Black Friday when their crops were killed. Their future looks bleak.