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1 August 2012
1.
FESTIVALS: Purushottam Maas: A
solar year consists of 365.25 days while a lunar
year consists of 354.36 days. To bring parity, an
extra month is added after about 32 months in the
lunar calendar. This extra month finds mention in
Aithreya Brahmana, Taitreya Samhita Rigveda,
Atharvaveda etc. According to a legend, this extra
month went to Bhagwan Vishnu and requested
him to provide a Lord to him also since every
month, nakshatra and day are devoted to one or the
other Lord, it did not have any. Lord Vishnu
granted the wish and said: “You will be known by
my name, Purushottam”. Since then this month is
known as Purushottam maas and Lord Vishnu is
the Lord of it. It is also known as Adhik Mass,
Mal Maas, Adhimaas, Malimaluch, Sansarpa or
Ahansapati Maas. Charity, donation, homas are
performed during this month. Auspicious works
such as marriage, mundan etc are prohibited
during this month. There is an extra Bhadra in
Vikrami 2069, corresponding to August 18 to
September 17.
2.
EKAL TO OLYMPICS: Ekal student,
Pinki Karmakar, ran for Bharat with London
Olympic Torch in Nottingham Square on June 28.
Seventeen year old Pinki Karmakar is a student of
class X in Barbaruah Tea State High School of
Dibrugarh district, Assam. Pinki started her
journey from Ekal Vidyalaya in Barbaruah Tea
village of Dibrugarh. “It was the only running
school in my village then,” she said.
Pinki’s father, Rajan Karmakar, is a painter in a
factory and mother Leela Rajvar plucks tea leaves.
Among five sisters and one brother, Pinki is the
brightest. Pinki practises sports under the project
“Sports for Development” of UNICEF. She was
selected on her merit to run with Olympic Torch.
Pinki is proud of her country. The whole village is
proud of her. Pinki told the media, “I am elated. It
is due to the Ekal Vidyalaya I have reached here.
3.
VISHWA SANGH SHIKSHA VARG:
(Dwitiya Varsh) VSSV - 2012 started on July 15th
at Chinmay Ashram, Kouva, Trinidad. This 21day varg is the first such varga outside Bharat. A
total of 58 swayamsevaks from 6 countries are
participating in the varg. The countries represented
are USA, UK, Kenya and Caribbean countries of
Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad. The Varg was
inaugurated by Swami Prakashanandji of Chinmay
Ashram in presence of Swami Aksharanandji –
Guyana who is Sarvadhikari for the varg and Arun
Kankani – Vice President – Sewa International
USA. Swami Prakashanandji detailed the
importance of service to humanity and appealed to
the participants to remain ‘sachet’ (alert) during
the varg. Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Trinidad &
Tobago Sanghchalak Shri Deoroop Timal and
other office bearers were also present.
This is the 6th VSSV which takes place every 3 or
4 years for volunteers of HSS who finish their 3
Sangh Shiksha Vargas of 7 days in their respective
countries. The varg schedule includes shareerik
training like Ashtang Yoga, Samata, Dand,
Niyuddha and bauddhik programs of important
topics on Hindu culture, challenges to youth,
modern tools of communication etc. Programs
from local cultural groups showing the efforts
taken by ‘Jahaji’ Bharatiyas to preserve their
culture are also planned. RSS functionaries
Sarkaryavaha Ma. Bhaiyya ji Joshi, Ma. Kannan
ji, Ma. Bhagaiah ji, Saumitra ji Gokhale,
Ravikumar ji, Dr. Ram Vaidya ji and Anil Vartak
ji will also guide the participants.
4.
VISHWA SAMITI VARG-2012: With a
motto “Vayam Vishwa-Shanthai Chiram Yatna
Sheelah”, 15-day Vishwa Samiti Varg-2012 was
inaugurated at Hubli by Dr Ramachandra Bhat
Kotemane, Director, Veda Vijnana Gurukulam,
Bangalore on July 24 in august presence of
Rashtra Sevika Samiti Akhil Bharatiya Pramukh
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Kaaryavaahika Shanthakka, Varg Sarvaadhikaaari
Alakaataai Inaamdaar and Kshetriya Pracharak
Mangesh Bhende. Organised by Rashtra Sevika
Samiti, the Vishwa Samiti Varg is held once in 4
years, and this is the 5th such.
52 delegates from 8 countries are participating in
the Varg. An exhibition showcasing ancient Hindu
traditions, Bharat’s achievements in science and
technology, seva activities by RSS, has been
arranged in the Varg.
5.
ANNA STARTS NEW FAST: Anti-graft
activist Anna Hazare, who galvanised the country
last year with his hunger strikes against corruption,
began a new fast on July 29 to press demands for a
crackdown on official graft. Hazare and his
supporters want parliament to strengthen a
pending anti-corruption bill and the creation of a
special team to probe graft allegations against 15
ministers, including Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh. The 75-year-old former army truck driver
threatened to fast until death if the demands are
not met. “I am confident that... the people of my
country will not let me die. I draw my strength and
confidence from you,” Hazare told several
thousand supporters gathered at Jantar Mantar in
New Delhi.
6.
HANG ME IF I AM GUILTY, MODI:
"Hang me if I am guilty (Main gunehgaar hoon to
mujhe phaansi par latkaa do)", said Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi to the Urdu weekly Nai
Duniya, edited by former Rajya Sabha SP member
Shahid Siddiqui. He refused to offer an apology
for the 2002 communal violence. He said he
wasted no time in calling in the Army to deal with
the violence, citing a press communique issued by
the state government to buttress his contention.
"On February 27, I told my officers to contact the
Army. The Army said all their personnel were
deployed at the border because of the Parliament
attack...I said those working in certain sectors
would definitely not have gone to the border. At
least get them here," Modi told Siddiqui adding
that he had given "shoot-at-sight" instructions to
police to tackle the rioters. To a question that he
had ordered inaction for 48 hours, Modi said,
"Whoever said that should have faith in the SC.
You need to repose faith in someone. SC
appointed committee has come out with a report.
For the first time a riot was investigated. Faith
should be reposed in that." The interview is on the
cover of the weekly, and runs into six pages
covering post-Godhra riots, the state of Muslims
in Gujarat and other sensitive issues.
7.
RELIGION FOR RATINGS: It’s been
apparent for a while now that the country’s
electronic media will go to extreme lengths to
spice things up. But religion is now fair game too.
In yet another example of how the industry’s
commercial goals trump ethics, open-mindedness
and common sense, on July 24 a television show
broadcast an imam leading a Hindu boy through a
live conversion to Islam carried out in the studio
as part of the show, complete with the audience
joining in to suggest Muslim names for the new
convert. There is no reason to think the boy was
not converting of his own free will, but the whole
event had the distinct air of being carried out to
give viewers something new and different to
watch, even if that meant dragging an intensely
personal and spiritual experience into public view.
More disturbingly, what the channel obviously
didn’t stop to consider is the message this
broadcast would send to the country’s minorities.
The joy with which the conversion was greeted,
and the congratulations that followed, sent a clear
signal that other religions don’t enjoy the same
status in Pakistan as Islam does. In a country
where minorities are already treated as secondclass citizens in many ways, this served to
marginalise them even further. After the uproar
over her pursuit in a park of innocent couples —
who she later claimed were actors, making that
episode even more questionable — one would
think the host and her management would have
been more careful with her programming. But then
that is the problem with Pakistani media: it is
missing a responsibility chip, hurtling ahead with
what seems like exciting content without stopping
to consider the ethical implications or
appropriateness of its programming, or the
message it will send to all Pakistanis, not just
those it considers the mainstream. – Editorial, The
Dawn, Pakistan, July 27, 2012.
8.
SC FORMS PANEL TO END
AMARNATH YATRIS' WOES: Eighty eight
deaths so far in this year’s ongoing pilgrimage to
2
the Holy Cave of Amarnath shrine, situated at a
height of 13,500 feet in south Kashmir Himalayas,
led the Supreme Court on July 20 to constitute a
high powered committee (HPC) to undertake
remedial steps.
The HPC, chaired by the Jammu and Kashmir
Governor, who is also Chairman of the Amarnath
Shrine Board (ASB), would submit a report to the
court by August 13 on the steps to be taken for
widening of existing roads leading to the Holy
Cave, segregation of motorised and non-motorised
traffic, medical facilities at regular distance along
the entire stretch of the yatra, and the impact
caused to the environment. The bench of Justices
BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar issued a slew
of directions to the Centre, State Government and
ASB in view of the large number of casualties en
route the shrine.
9.
VHP WRITES TO RASHTRAPATI:
Dr Pravin Togadia, Antar-rashtriya Karyakari
Adhyaksha, Vishwa Hindu Parishad has written a
letter to the Rashtrapati on ethnic cleansing of
original tribes, other Hindus & non-Muslims in
Assam & current violence there. For the last two
decades, Karbi Anglong, Khasi, Dimasa, Bodo,
Jaintia & many other local tribes who have made
Bharat’s north east eco-friendly with their
environmentally simple life styles, who have made
Bharat rich with their great art & culture are being
brutally attacked, their jungle habitats burnt, their
women raped, their men fired at in close range &
ultimately they are forced to either die at the hands
of Bangla Deshi invaders or leave their age-old
traditional habitats.Unfortunately, the Assam’s
systematic ethnic cleansing of local tribes, other
Hindus & other non-Muslims is being ignored by
the authorities knowing fully well that the
happenings in Assam are the systematic efforts of
Bangla Desh helped by Jehadi elements to create
Greater Bangla Desh & socio-politically occupy
Assam & many parts of north eastern Bharat.
Terror outfits supported by HUJI in Bangla Desh
& ISI, Al Qaeda in Pakistan are fully deep-rooted
by now in Assam namely like MULTA (Muslim
Liberation United Tigers of Assam) & others.
VHP has demanded that a Tribunal should
immediately be formed to deport all Bangla Deshi
Muslim infiltrators from Assam & also from other
states in Bharat to prevent further Ethnic
Cleansing of Bharat’s own citizens. The tribunal
should have members from the Army, those
retired & served most part in Assam so that they
are well aware of the situation there, the sociocultural experts to understand the importance of
original tribes in Bharat & the legal experts to give
justice to all the tribes who have been facing
attacks by Bangla Deshis.
10.
HINDU HELP LINE for Assam
violence: More than three lakh people have been
affected by the sustained and systematic eight
days’ violence against original tribes and other
Hindus in Assam perpetrated by Bangla Deshi
infiltrators settled there.
For the past many years Bangla Deshi infiltrators
invaded Bharat from north eastern borders,
encroached upon these tribes’ lives, lands &
livelihood pushing them more & more away.
Karbi Anglong, Khasi, Bodo, Dimasa, Jaintiya &
many such tribes are worse affected.
Hindu Help Line has already a few conveners &
volunteers in Assam. They have been trying to
reach food, clothes, medicines, water, milk
powder, warm clothes etc.
Hindu help Line appeals to all in Bharat & abroad
to come ahead in helping Assam’s Original Tribes
& other Hindus in this times of crisis. Those who
wish to stand by with Hindus there & send aid, can
contact [email protected] or special mobile
Number 09825323406 only for Assam Relief Aid.
11.
SEVA BHARATI ASSAM has set up 3
base camps for medical relief exercise, 2 in
Kokrajhar and 1 in Gossaigaon. They have pressed
2 ambulances and two teams of doctors and
helpers at these camps. Medicines are being given
for contagious and water borne diseases. Relief
materials which are of immediate importance are
being provided in these camps. Mosquito coils,
bread, biscuits, bed sheets have been distributed.
12.
LAKSHMI SEHGAL PASSES AWAY:
Lakshmi Sehgal, freedom fighter and close
associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, passed
away on July 23 in Kanpur. The 97-year-old who
was the first captain of Rani of Jhansi Regiment,
the women's wing of Azad Hind Fauj or Indian
National Army, had been ailing for some time and
was undergoing treatment at the Kanpur Medical
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Centre. Sehgal was the Left Front candidate in the
2002 presidential election, but she lost to APJ
Abdul Kalam. Lakshmi Sahgal was a revolutionist
of the Bharatiya independence movement, an
officer of the Indian National Army, and the
Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind
government. Born in a Tamil Brahmin family in
1914, Lakshmi Swaminathan Sehgal obtained a
medical degree and set up a clinic for the poor in
Singapore in 1940. She fought the Allied forces in
World War-II, commanding Jhansi Rani Laxmi
Bai Regiment of INA.
13.
BAL APTE NO MORE: Senior Sangh
ideologue, veteran BJP leader and former Rajya
Sabha MP Balwant Parushuram Apte, 73 who was
popularly known as Bal Apte, passed away in
Mumbai on July 18 following a chronic lung
disease. He is survived by his wife and daughter.
A lawyer by profession, Bal Apte played a key
role in the expansion of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad and BJP work in many parts of the
country. He was also associated with Overseas
Freiends of BJP (OFBJP) activity for couple of
year.
In his condolence message, RSS Sarsanghchalak
Shri Mohan Bhagwat said, “The first and foremost
quality that comes to one’s mind about Apteji is
his candid, at times stern but always friendly
advice which had played often a stabilising role in
many a minds and matters. We have lost that
support forever. The pain of that loss we have to
bear along with members of his family. While
offering my condolences and respects in his
revered memory, we also pray for the necessary
courage to us all and peace and enlightenment on
the path of the departed soul.”
14.
US AWARD FOR 4 YOUNG
BHARATIYA-ORIGIN SCIENTISTS:
US
President Barack Obama has named four
Bharatiya-American
scientists
among
96
researchers as recipients of the prestigious
Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists
and Engineers. The awards bestowed on Sridevi
Vedula Sarma, Pawan Sinha, Parag A Pathak and
Biju Parekkadan is the highest honour given by the
US government to science and engineering
professionals in early stages of their independent
research careers.
"Discoveries in science and technology not only
strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a
people,"
Obama
said.
"The
impressive
accomplishments of today's awardees so early in
their careers promise even greater advances in the
years ahead." An associate professor of
computational and visual neuroscience in the
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Sinha received his undergraduate degree in
computer science from the IIT-New Delhi and his
Masters and doctoral degrees from MIT. Sarma is
assistant professor, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Institute for Computational Medicine
at the John Hopkins University. Parekkadan is
associated with Massachusetts General Hospital
and Harvard Medical School, whereas Parag A
Pathak is from the MIT.
15.
14-YEAR-OLD RESCUES 3: 14-yearold Sagar had gone to the Yamuna bank to deliver
lunch to his father, who operates a motorboat, and
was returning home when he saw Pankaj (15),
Gaurav (15), Badal (14) and Deepak (16) in the
Agra Canal in Southeast Delhi’s Jaitpur area,
screaming for help. “I dived into the canal. I
pulled Pankaj, Badal and Gaurav out of the water
one by one. But it was too late for Deepak. He was
gone. I looked for him for around 30 minutes and
then went home,” said the Class VII student of a
government school in Jaitpur. A police officer said
the four boys, who were cousins, were bathing on
the stairs of the 12-feet-deep canal, and slipped
into it. Just then Sagar was passing by and he
heard their screams.
16.
BHARAT
INDUCTS
3RD
INDIGENOUS STEALTH FRIGATE: Defence
Minister AK Anatomy on July 21 commissioned
the 6,200 tonne warship INS Sahyadri, which is
the third and last of the Shivalik-class stealth
frigates under Project 17 built indigenously at the
Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL), Mumbai. The
first two ships in the class are INS Shivalik and
INS Satpura that are now on active duty. The three
have cost some Rs 10,200 crore and have been
commissioned in the past two years.
The INS Sahyadri is an indicator of the
generational shift in Bharat’s warship-building
capability. The 143m long ship can tactically fire
4
weapons even before the enemy detects it. The
warship has long-range surface-to-surface Klub
missiles, area defence missiles Shtil and Barak,
anti-submarine torpedoes, 100 mm mounted gun
and six-barrelled 30 mm gun.
17.
GANDHINAGAR BHARAT'S TREE
CAPITAL: The latest figures of a census
conducted by Gujarat government show that
53.9% of 5,700-hectare area of its capital town
Gandhinagar is covered with trees. Effectively,
there are 416 trees for every 100 people in the city,
which are more than any other city in the country.
The census was conducted by the social forestry
department along with various municipal
corporations and urban development authorities.
According to Forest Survey of India, Bangalore,
Chandigarh and Delhi have a green cover of
18.9%, 14.9% and 11.9%, respectively. H S Singh,
additional principal chief conservator of forests,
social forestry, said, "Gandhinagar's tree cover is
comparable with the best in the world. Atlanta in
the US, for instance, is considered among the
greenest cities globally and has exactly the same
percentage of land under tree cover as
Gandhinagar's."
18.
SET IN STONE: In celebration of its
150th year, the Archeological Survey of India
(ASI) has scheduled a number of activities and
events, one of which is an exhibition, titled
“Archaeological Survey of India Outside India”,
on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art,
Mumbai. “We need to make people more aware of
Bharat’s expertise in archaeology and of the
culture in and outside the country,” says AK
Sinha, Director (CEP, NCF, Publication), ASI. He
adds that even fewer people know of the work
conducted outside the country by the ASI.
Among the sites represented in this exhibition are
the famous Angkor Wat Temple in Siem Reap,
Cambodia, Vat Phou Temple in Lao PDR, Laos,
and Ananda Temple in Bagan, Myanmar. In 1960,
an ASI team travelled to Egypt to begin
excavations in the areas around Afyeh and Tumus
after the Government of Egypt proposed a dam
around the area. The area explored included a
cemetery, which when excavated, revealed that a
number of graves had been plundered and the team
studied the method of disposal.
19.
INTERLOCUTORS
REPORT
OPPOSED: "The language of the Interlocutors’
Report is the language of the separatists. It
questions the laws which make J&K an integral
part of Bharat. It speaks about human rights
violation of terrorists but has failed to include the
voices of those who have been the real sufferers
like those who have migrated from Pakistan,” said
Leader of Opposition Smt Sushma Swaraj while
addressing a dharna at Jantar Mantar on July 16.
The dharna was organised by Jammu-Kashmir
People’s Forum to protest against the
Interlocutors’ Report. About 3,000 people
participated in the dharna.
RSS Akhil Bharatiya Sah Sampark Pramukh Ram
Madhav said, “The report is against the spirit of
non-negotiable integration of Jammu & Kashmir
with India in 1947. Mirpur, Muzaffrabad and
Gilgit are ours. This report has included only
sentiments of leaders of Kashmir Valley. A report
should have the sentiments in it, but it should not
be against the Constitution,” he said. He alleged
the interlocutors’ report is an attempt to include
the voices of those who do not have respect for the
Constitution. They have failed to put versions of
the refugees, the Kashmiri Pandits, who have been
forcefully evicted from their land.
A seminar was organised by India Foundation at
India International Centre New Delhi 21.07.2012
on interlocutors report on Jammu and Kashmir.
The seminar was well attended by intellectuals
from across the country and many retired military
officers. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley was very
critical of Justice Sageer Ahmed report which was
prepared when Sageer Ahmed was ailing. The
report was submitted to State Government after his
death without placing it before the members of the
Working Group including him (Jaitley). He said
that the cross border terrorism is an important
factor supporting militancy in J&K and it suits the
separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani for
whom their politics survives only if Kashmir
remains tense. He said the concessions can be
made to the common people and not to the
separatists of Kashmir.
20.
ARMY CHIEF ON LIFTING AFSPA:
The Army is against thinning of troops in Jammu
and Kashmir and has reiterated its position that the
5
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act should not be
withdrawn from certain parts of J&K as has been
proposed by the state government. Army Chief
General Bikram Singh, who visited the Northern
Command last month, is believed to have
recommended to the Ministry of Defence that
thinning of troops is not feasible at present given
the delicate security situation in the state and the
presence of terror camps and launching pads
across the Line of Control (LoC). The Army’s
position on the security situation in J&K has
factored a spurt in infiltration from across the
LoC. The numbers of attempts in the past few
weeks have been substantially more than those
that took place in same period last year. In the first
fortnight of July, at least 25 militants are believed
to have sneaked in. Over 600 militants are said to
be present at launching pads across the border.
21.
MAHARAJA
RANJIT
SINGH'S
HAVELI IN PAKISTAN: Punjab Chief Minister
Parkash Singh Badal on July 24 sought the
personal intervention of Prime Minister for
conservation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's
dilapidated ancestral haveli at Gujaranwala and
"baradri" of Maharaja Sher Singh at Lahore in
Pakistan. In a letter to the prime minister, Badal
noted that "Sher-e-Punjab" Maharaja Ranjit Singh
was the founder of the Sikh empire which
extended from the Khyber Pass in the west, to
Kashmir in the north, Sindh in the south, and Tibet
in the east. He said that historical religious
sentiments of people of Punjab were linked to
these monuments.
22.
BMS LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE:
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the largest trade
union organisation in Bharat launched its new
website www.bms.org.in on the occasion of its
foundation day on 23rd July in a function at
Ernakulam. The BMS has over 8.3 million
members and currently around 5860 unions are
affiliated to it. The website was formally
inaugurated by Shijin, an Auto driver also Joint
Secretary of Auto Union. More than 400 people
belonging to 12 unions attended the programme.
23.
SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN: Visitors:
Shri Sandeep Lad, Shri Paven Sharma, Shri Sunil
Pala, Susri Sita Morar, Susri Anisha Bhogaita,
Susri Seema Saujani from UK.
24.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: When the
orders (for withdrawal) came, members of Rani of
Jhansi Regiment sent a petition to Netaji signed in
their blood requesting him not to send them back.
They had come prepared to shed their blood and
wanted to be given the opportunity to do so. – Dr.
Lakshmi Sahgal, Indian National Army (INA).
JAI SHREE RAM
STARS, NOT SUN, PREDICT
MONSOONS ACCURATELY
Sandhya Jain
The Met office in Bharat, as elsewhere in the
world, forecasts monsoons based on the Gregorian
calendar. But that system has repeatedly proved
unreliable. We must look to the nakshatras for
solution.
According to the Hindu panchang, the month of
sawan which along with bhadon comprises
Bharat’s monsoon season, began on July 4; rains
drenched this parched city on July 5. Was the
monsoon on time, or ‘'delayed’ as the Met office
kept lamenting? The Union Ministry of
Agriculture was clueless how to reassure farmers
who sowed the kharif crop too early. CK Raju,
who played a key role in building Bharat’s first
supercomputer, Param, and received the TelesioGalilei Academy of Science’s gold medal for 2010
for discovering and correcting a mistake made by
Albert Einstein, says the monsoon was similarly
‘delayed’ in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2010.
Each time, the rains eventually belied the Met
office’s predictions of drought.
This is because the Gregorian calendar on which
the scientific community relies is not suitable for
such calculations. Bharat must first decide if the
monsoon synchronises with the tropical or sidereal
year. The tropical (solar) year is the length of time
the sun takes to return to the same position in the
cycle of seasons as seen from earth, such as from
one vernal equinox to the next.
It is not wholly synchronous with the earth’s orbit
around the sun (sidereal, actual year) due to the
precession of the equinoxes, and is around 20
minutes shorter (the difference can accumulate
over long periods). Bharatiya astronomy rests on
the sidereal year; a better method of timekeeping
6
as the sun’s transit against fixed stars (nakshatras,
for example, Dhruv-tara) is easy to observe and
traditionally determined sowing and harvesting
activities.
Europe was aware that it lacked the knowledge to
precisely calculate the length of either the tropical
or sidereal year, which Bharat knew from at least
the third century. Hence the Gregorian calendar
reform committee headed by Christoph Clavius
tried to consult Bharatiya calendrical sources; just
prior to the calendar reform of 1582, his student
Matteo Ricci was in Bharat, scouting calendrical
manuals in Cochin! The Gregorian calendar
reform was needed because the Julian calendar
fixed the length of the year very crudely as the
Romans were weak with fractions; so the calendar
slipped roughly one day every 128 years. By 1582
CE, it had slipped about 10 days out of phase in
the 1250-odd years since the Council of Nicaea
fixed the date of Easter by fixing the date of the
vernal equinox on XII calends (March 21). By the
end of the 16th century, the vernal equinox fell
around March 11 on the Julian calendar.
The Gregorian reform corrected this anomaly by
advancing the calendar by 10 days, and by making
every centennial year not a leap year unless
divisible by 400 (for example, 2000). It thus came
closer to a more accurate figure for the fractional
part of the length of the tropical year. The
correction was vital for the practical purpose of
fixing latitude from observation of solar altitude at
noon, necessary for navigation which was then
extremely important for Europe which lagged
behind the Bharatiyas and Arabs.
Shockingly, after independence, the Bharatiya
calendar reform committee adopted the Gregorian
calendar and said the seasons depend on the
tropical year! Superficially, the tropical year
seems supported by astronomical treatises like
Surya Siddhanta and PancaSiddhantika, but the
passages have been misunderstood. Anyway, even
prior to Varahamihira and the PancaSiddhantika,
Aryabhata explicitly advocated the sidereal year;
Marxist historians concur that Bharatiya
agriculture was linked to the nakshatras.
Modern Bharat has not seriously studied the
monsoons, though even today good monsoons
drive the economy. The late Meghnad Saha
believed heat balance alone mattered in
configuring the monsoons; CK Raju thinks wind
regime is the key, but says major research is
necessary to establish a paradigm. The ancients
coped by creating over 5000 panchangs, each
‘corrected’ to account for latitude (hence the
Kerala monsoon arrives much before rains in
Delhi) and longitude. There is a powerful cultural
context here —the Bharatiya calendar revolves
around the rainy season (varsha) as the year
(varsh) relates to rain. It is eternally relevant for
agriculture as poor calculations can wreak havoc
through mistimed agricultural operations.
The Nehruvian quest for “scientific temper” led to
slavish adoption of the Gregorian calendar for
calculating the seasons and monsoon rhythm,
though objective analysis shows that every year
the monsoon arrives in harmony with the
panchang, though ‘scientists’ keep bleating about
‘delays’. Refusing to learn from experience or
history, they have ruined farmers and harvests.
The keynote of the Hindu calendar is the
monsoons on which agriculture rests, and not
summer or winter which may be relevant in
Europe. Monsoons depend upon the wind regime.
The global circulation of wind is not decided
solely by the position of the sun. Hot air rises at
the equator, but does not descend at the poles. Due
to the Coriolis force, the earth’s rotation causes air
to be deflected and to descend before the HorseLatitudes (sub-tropical latitudes between 30 and
35 degrees north and south). Thus, the monsoons
also depend upon the Coriolis force, which is an
inertial force. Since the only possible inertial
framework is one fixed relative to the distant stars,
the Coriolis force relates to the sidereal motion of
the earth, and monsoons relate to the sidereal year.
Had monsoons related to the tropical year, the
cumulative difference between the tropical and
sidereal year would have put the Indian calendar
out of phase. This never happened.
By forcing farmers to abandon the ancient
nakshatra-governed seasons in favour of the
tropical year, Nehruvian secularism and scientific
temper have compromised our food security. An
eerie coincidence that has facilitated the eclipse of
agriculture from public consciousness is the
virtual disappearance of rural symbols once
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associated with major political parties —cow and
calf (Congress); plough and farmer (Janata, Lok
Dal), while the sickle of the communist parties has
degenerated into an offensive weapon. This is a
telling comment on the growing urban bias in our
polity and our distorted understanding of the
economy, the adverse effects of which have
already come to haunt us.
Two decades of liberalisation-globalisation and
thousands of crores of ‘incentives’ later, the
service and the manufacturing sectors have failed
to promote growth or made a dent in
unemployment nationwide. The economy is
gasping for a good monsoon to lift it out of the
present morass. Can we at least now trash the
liberalisation-era myth that there is no link
between agriculture and growth? -- The Pioneer,
17 July, 2012.
CHRISTIAN AFFRONT ON DIWALI
Viju Sidhwani, M.D.
Ever since we were young we attended the annual
Diwali mela at South Street Seaport. Each year our
family drove in to downtown Manhattan from the
surrounding suburbs. Breathing in the panoramic
views of the Big Apple, with the backdrop of a
glorious sunset, we knew an evening of live dance
performances, puppet shows and a display of
exquisite fireworks bursting on a blanket of stars
was soon to follow. This was our idea of Diwali.
Nearly every year I have enjoyed the crowds,
delicious food and divine music that is
characteristic of the street fair. However, this year
for the first time I came across a group who
prominently identified themselves as Bharatiya
Christian missionaries. They came not for the
purpose of enjoying the mela or for observing the
sacredness of the occasion, but with the intention
of converting Hindus and Sikhs to Christianity.
Among the other street vendors, this group set up a
table to distribute Christian literature and free
water to passersby. One person among them
brought color-coordinated T-shirts proclaiming
that Jesus is the only one. As the day progressed,
the growing number of motivated evangelists
infiltrated the crowds in the streets.
For much of the afternoon I saw them mobbing
innocent visitors, foisting upon them bottled water
and literature. I was handed a pamphlet by two
men, one of them asking if I was interested in
attaining peace. I accepted the literature and
briefly perused it before asking them why they
were preaching Christianity at a Diwali mela. One
of the men rudely responded that America is a free
country and that he had the right to freedom of
speech. His counterpart cited the technicality that
Diwali was over three weeks away and arrogantly
added that his presence was not disturbing anyone
because this was a community event open to
everyone. I eventually told one of them that I was
very happy being Hindu, to which he replied, “I’m
here to offer you something better.” Turned off
and insulted, I ended the conversation, indicating
to them that their presence was unwarranted and
their aggressive propagation of Christianity on
such a noble occasion was impolite and indecent.
The competitive antagonism brought by the
missionaries detracted from our festive celebration
of the festival of lights as they made efforts to
persuade members of our community to attend
church and eventually convert to Christianity.
Coerced conversion of faith is fundamentally
offensive to the benevolent and peaceful dharmic
traditions. While we as a unified community are
pluralistic in our beliefs and encourage diversity
amongst ourselves, we cannot welcome people
who alienate us from our native ancestry and
intend to annihilate a tradition that is thousands of
years old.
Hindu and Sikh American youth need the
opportunity to explore our culture and beliefs and
to enjoy our festivals without facing intimidation
by those who wish to lure them toward a belief
system that does not accept our tradition’s
antiquity, greatness and accepting nature.
On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, let us
propagate the true spirit of love and embrace our
brothers and sisters, be they of different faiths, on
the condition that we are venerated to a degree that
is commensurate with our benevolent outlook of
love and acceptance for all.
Viju Sidhwani, 32, is a physiatrist and
interventional pain specialist in New York City. -The Hinduism Today Magazine Web Edition,
July/August/September 2012
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