From: unitedhindufront+noreply@googlegroups.com
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:54:02 +0000
Subject: {UnitedHinduFront} Digest for
unitedhindufront@googlegroups.com - 7 Messages in 7 Topics
To: Digest Recipients <unitedhindufront+digest@googlegroups.com>
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Today's Topic Summary
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Group: unitedhindufront@googlegroups.com
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/topics
- Prabhupada on Nehru incarnation: Re: The Parliament is Not Supreme
- The People Are [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/a8538f78d60ffb0
- When Is a "Riot" a Revolt? -Carl Finamore-24 August 2011 [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/577f08a82e9320a
- {BJM} Madam Gandhi is SUFFERING from an acute enlargement of her
wealth gland.,,,,,,,,,, [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/2cdec85b538b1b73
- Manmohan's letter to Anna Hazare narrows differences [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/66c71601d777aa98
- Article on History & Need of Making WILL [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/479401b6d49cc250
- Kerala Hindus rightful owners of Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple
wealth-C I Issac-22 August 2011 [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/895557dc50a8a142
- Poorer Indians are more with Anna -- Corruption hurts them the
most [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/5c19574e5c141a6b
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Topic: Prabhupada on Nehru incarnation: Re: The Parliament is Not
Supreme - The People Are
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/a8538f78d60ffb0
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---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: "Mohan Gupta" <mgupta@rogers.com>
Date: Aug 23 10:25PM -0400
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/b5249fc42a35ae24
From: Sekhar Vemula <sekharvemula123@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 6:01 AM
Subject: [scw] Prabhupada on Nehru incarnation: Re: The Parliament is
Not Supreme - The People Are
To: stop-corruption-worldwide@googlegroups.com
Here is the expansion of the link Suresh Vyas provided.
Prabhupada And Nehru's Incarnation
April 29, 2011 by the-truth-detector
Filed under India
26 Comments
The incident that we are going to recount took place in mid-sixties.
It took place soon after Nehru's death when Prabhupada was still
alive. I was then working in an office in downtown Broadway in New
York City, not too far from Brooklyn.
There at Brooklyn, in Henry Street, Prabhupada used to preach in a
small house, which served, at the time, as some kind of a
head-quarters of the Hare Krishna people. I used to go and attend
their services, now and then, mostly after office and before returning
to my apartment in Flushing, Queens.
Prabhupada, whenever he visited New York at the time, put up there and
his sermons were attended in the evenings by a big crowd. Not only
were there the usual chantings and eventual prasadam but there was a
serious question and answer period. And the subjects varied from
Varnashram Dharma to Reincarnation and many other similar topics. They
were naturally of great interest to the local boys and girls, men and
women of America but for us Hindus of India too, the question & answer
period was of extreme interest and enlightenment. Those who have had
the good fortune of hearing, first hand, Prabhupada's sermons could
easily imagine how charged the discussions were.
Nehru had died only a few weeks ago in India. Ashes from his funeral
pyre had been strewn from airplanes, all over India. Every-where in
India, the dead man's eulogy was being sung and this was the man who
was at the root of India's unpreparedness when China attacked, the
Kashmir imbroglio, the minority (or Mohammedan) problems in India and
so on. It was amazing that many of the American disciples of
Prabhupada were better informed of problems in India, generated by
Nehru and his incompetence. However, the man had died only recently
and out of a sense of propriety, no one spoke ill of Nehru in that
congregation at the time.
Then a youngman asked Prabhupada a question on re-imcarnation. Was it
true that most dead were reborn and passed through the cycle of life
and death once again, except those few good men who attained nirvaana
and were not born again but blended with Brahman or the Almighty? If
so, could Prabhupada (who was considered to be a reincarnation of the
sage Vyasa, the writer of the Mahabharatam) throw some light on the
current status of Nehru. Did he obtain nirvaana or was he reborn; if
so what kind of a body did he receive on his next birth?
The question was a loaded one, I thought. In fact, I had the misgiving
that Prabhupada might refuse to answer. But then, I was wrong. I had
not yet known Prabhupada so well. He was undaunted by any question and
his reply came forth instantly. Quite clearly Prabhupada knew Nehru
like the palm of his hand; it was us who knew so little of the man,
thanks to all the well executed suppression of details of Nehru's
private and personal life by the GoI and the Indian media. For
instance, even today, some half a century after Nehru and his family
took over the reins of Indian government, we do not know who indeed
was Indira's father-in-law!
Prabhupada started his discourse. He said that Nehru was re-born
almost immediately after his death, a thing that happens only to the
most sinful people. He did not even have a short-lived taste of heaven
before he was born again. What was worse, is that Nehru was born this
time in the form of a dog. He was a dog in a small town of Sweden. His
master had another dog before the dog-Nehru was acquired by him and so
the dog-Nehru had to share the love of his master with another dog.
Prabhupada explained that to be born as a dog, after having been born
as a Kashmiri Brahmin in India, is a big fall. It indicated that Nehru
had led a vile life, a very vile life, during his existence as a man
in India. Also, Nehru's hatred for anything vaishnava did not make
things any easier for him.
That Nehru was a meat-eater, specially beef-eater, a regular
wine-drinker, made things even worse for him. On top of that, Nehru
was (a fact which we did not know then and learnt later, much later,
only after having read M.O. Mathai's treatises on Nehru; Mathai should
know for he was the Catholic private secretary for Nehru for a decade
or so) a notorious womanizer. It was not only Mrs. Mountbatten that he
slept with on a regular basis while our jawans were dying on battle
fields in the north-east and in Kashmir; he used to sleep with each
and every woman he could lay his hands on. Thus, he had left a chain
of bastards one of whom had been delivered in a Catholic nunnery in
Bangalore. In the mean time, his sidekick, one Krishna Menon, became
the Minister of Defense. First thing he did was dismantle the
Ichhapore Gun Factory and turned it into a coffee making machine
factory. He was a communist and he loved the Chinese more than he
loved Indians.
Prabhupada was quite discreet; we know now, for he did not divulge to
us at the time that Nehru finally died of syphilis (exactly like the
communist leader Lenin of Russia) and not a bullet wound on the battle
front. Prabhupada, however, told us in detail all the harms Nehru did
to the Hindus of India, all the insults that he had heaped on them
during his reign.
Nehru used to brag of his non-Hindu upbringing. He used to say openly
that he was brought up as a Mohammedan, educated as a westerner; it
was only by accident that he was born a Hindu. It is now known that he
was born in a house in the red-light district of Allahabad, where his
father Motilal used to ply a brothel-keeper's trade. No one wants to
talk of this dark side of Nehru's upbringing. On the other hand, it is
said openly, wrongly of course, that he was born in the Anand Bhavan,
which was not even owned by Moti Lal at the time Nehru was born.
However, the few little details that we learnt from Prabhupada opened
our eyes and I returned home very depressed. I was even more depressed
to think that our people in India were singing all kinds of fulsome
obituaries for this man who was worse than a traitor to the Hindus,
the overwhelming majority of India. What was wrong? The next few years
showed us all that was wrong! His daughter, in order to create
differences between the Hindus and the Sikhs, the fighting arm of the
Hindus since generations, attacked the sacred temple at Hari-Mandir
Sahib in Amritsar. She had to pay for the crime with her life and
event-ually, as we have all seen, our gods saw to it that the dynasty
was totally destroyed for the sins of Nehru, now a dog in Sweden! –
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Suresh Vyas <skanda987@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 6:25 PM
Subject: Re: [scw] Re: The Parliament is Not Supreme - The People Are
To: Ramesh Alvar <kapinaksan1@yahoo.co.in>
Cc: Stop Corruption Worldwide
<stop-corruption-worldwide@googlegroups.com>, Kris Dev
<krisdev@gmail.com>
Below link shows a Vedic aacharya's view of Nehru:
http://krishna.org/prabhupada-and-nehrus-incarnation/
On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 2:16 AM, Ramesh Alvar <kapinaksan1@yahoo.co.in> wrote:
Very sensible pronouncement by Nehru. He had many good
qualities and many bad ones which have landed India in an insecure
state.
Ramesh
--- On Sat, 20/8/11, Kris Dev <krisdev@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Kris Dev <krisdev@gmail.com>
Subject: [scw] Re: The Parliament is Not Supreme - The People Are
To: "Stop Corruption Worldwide"
<stop-corruption-worldwide@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, 20 August, 2011, 9:10 AM
Reproduce below is what I learnt as Pandit Nehru's address
on August 3, 1962 while inaugurating the annual conference of State
Ministers
of Community Development and Panchayati Raj:
" Either you trust the people or you don't. There is no half way
house. Partly trusting them leaves you nowhere. Then they have no
responsibility and they do not develop properly. That is why, having
given this authority and power to them you should not tamper with it
by official interference. Democracy is not merely Parliament at the
top or in the States but something that excites every person and
something that trains every one to take his proper place and indeed,
any place in the country if need arises. I have said and I mean it,
that all this Panchayati Raj, whatever things we are doing, are
ultimately meant to train up every individual in India to be a
potential Prime Minister of India."
If the above is true, does not citizens have all rights for peaceful
protest against government and parliament as they are supreme in a
democracy.
--
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Topic: When Is a "Riot" a Revolt? -Carl Finamore-24 August 2011
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/577f08a82e9320a
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---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: "Sandhya Jain " <sandhya206@bol.net.in>
Date: Aug 24 07:38AM +0530
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/3e28404b1cf12c2a
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1932
When Is a "Riot" a Revolt?
Carl Finamore
24 August 2011
Several days of unprecedented revolt by the most impoverished minority
populated neighborhoods of London has shaken the normally staid and
reserved British aristocracy. Prime Minister David Cameron cut short
his Italian vacation in sunny Tuscany to return to the red-orange
glare of a burning city. The prime minister was not the only one
inconvenienced.
In an effort to mobilize 16,000 police officers concentrated in London
alone, England's soccer-addicted fans saw their August 10 match
against the Netherlands in Wembley stadium canceled.
So it appears, this week at least [Aug 12], after years of ignoring
glaring inequality and injustice, it is safe to say that all of
England took notice of the crowded south London neighborhood of
Tottenham and to similar minority communities in Birmingham,
Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol where an explosive, fiery social
consciousness has been rekindled.
Tottenham itself, where events first ignited over the police killing
of an unarmed black youth, is a genuinely multi-cultural mix of mostly
British-born African-Caribbean along with Turkish, Portuguese,
Albanian, Kurdish and Somali peoples reportedly speaking 300 different
languages. It claims to be the most diverse community in all of
Europe, but there is no doubt that most share in common the intense
poverty and the abuse and neglect by the rich and powerful that is all
too familiar.
During this past week, these different languages came together to
speak with one voice: look at us; we deserve to be treated fairly.
London's current revolt is quite different than the massive protests
in other European capitals and even distinguished from those in the
Middle East. The poor of Tottenham, however, do share much with their
brethren in the black and minority communities of North America.
Neither have powerful advocates that are independent of the political
establishment.
London's Revolt Forecasts America's Future?
Traditional community and labor organizations in both Britain and the
United States purporting to represent the working class have utterly
failed these communities and allowed both Downing Street and Wall
Street to impose their most austere policies on those least
represented among us.
"Most of all, it once again exposes the trickery and deceit of those
who aspire to be our leaders. Not a single black 'leader' has spoken
out in defence of the youths. Not one," Hal Austin writes in the
August 9 CounterPunch. Austin is a Barbadian, living in London and a
leading journalist and social commentator from the black community.
Cannot the same be said in America where, for example, prominent
national voices mobilizing the oppressed communities to demand jobs
are noticeably absent? Of course, the British government peddles a
different story about events in Tottenham. Most are echoed by the
establishment press.
A typical response came from GlobalPost's London correspondent,
Michael Goldfarb, who was quoted on the PBS "NewsHour" web site as
derisively dismissing the social problems of Tottenham by commenting
that "the tension around [the police killing of the black youth] got
out of hand very quickly, but it was clear almost from the beginning
that this was plain old looting" by mainly unemployed youth with
nothing to do on hot summer nights, he said.
To the extent that this crude and vulgar opinion is shared by many in
Britain, it only serves to confirm the truth: Tottenham residents are
isolated politically and socially from the rest of British society and
particularly from the rest of the working class.
Fundamentally, their isolated existence explains the different form
the rebellion took; more akin to a chaotic riot in many people's eyes
as opposed to the far-better organized massive upheavals in Madrid,
Athens and Cairo that united majority sections of their population and
that, thereby, more easily won sympathy and admiration throughout the
world.
It is important to recall that these same massive actions ultimately
achieved major support from significant and massive social
organizations that helped define the powerful and effective character
of their protests.
Culpability for the desperate acts in Tottenham is shared by
organizations of the working class that have so profoundly failed to
embrace these communities and offer them the same shared benefits of
organization and same shared status as brothers and sisters. Their
organizational and political inclusion early on, I believe, would have
significantly altered and strengthened how Tottenham residents reacted
these last few days.
Divided and Disorganized
Attempts during the era of the triumphant civil rights movement to
politically and socially unite the black community in the United
States were met with government-inspired assassinations and police
terrorism, as documented by revelations contained in the US
government's COINTELPRO papers.
As a result, beginning in the 1970s, criminal gangs began replacing
FBI-targeted militant organizations like Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee, Congress of Racial Equality, Southern
Leadership Conference, Black Panthers, Young Lords, Brown Berets, and
numerous other effective social and political organizations in the
communities of the oppressed.
This had a debilitating effect after several decades, and results
today in reactions to police brutality and poverty being often marked
by scattered individual acts of frustration and anger. Protests are
sometimes laced with anti-social behavior previously adopted as
survival techniques. For example, while ostensible political targets
such as police cars and offices were burned in both Tottenham and
Cairo, there was also, in the former case, the indiscriminate burning
of buildings and some personal accounts of victimizations that come
from pent-up rage.
There were other examples of criminal activity and even conflicts
between gangs in the oppressed community of Tottenham that were also
reported. Again, these are a result of decades of disorganization in
the oppressed communities.
These are not excuses, neither are they defenses. It is an explanation
that contains the answer for its resolution: new organizations must be
forged that unite the community around common social goals and
aspirations.
The proliferation of criminal gangs and the utter lack of a coherent,
credible and socially class-conscious leadership is but another
reflection of political and social separation from the majority of
working people.
But this reality and the impact it has on distorting the communities'
response should not in any way diminish the powerful and profound
social nature of the Tottenham revolt, one deserving of our full
support.
The 1965 Watt's rebellion in Los Angeles was similarly attacked in its
day as a criminal enterprise, but history has now properly recorded it
as a true revolt against poverty and discrimination. History will also
record Tottenham on this honor roll.
The rich and powerful benefit from divisions and rivalries in the
oppressed communities, both in Britain and in the United States.
Arguably, these same forces promote criminalization as a way of
preventing the kind of social unity that could become a powerful
political force.
A politically cohesive and united Tottenham is the frightening specter
that certainly haunts the wealthy elite in Britain, even more than the
current very dramatic random acts of outrage.
As for their richer cousins in the United States, the wealthy elite
here are only too well aware of the smoldering embers of discontent
that have been stoked by the same draconian reductions in jobs and
social services that have been adopted in Britain.
These issues affect the majority of Americans and, hopefully, we learn
from Tottenham that a united response is the best response with no
community or section of working people left alone to fend for
themselves.
Carl Finamore is Machinist Local 1781 delegate to the San Francisco
Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He can be reached here.
Courtesy Truthout
http://www.truth-out.org/when-riot-revolt/1313008260
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Topic: {BJM} Madam Gandhi is SUFFERING from an acute enlargement of
her wealth gland.,,,,,,,,,,
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/2cdec85b538b1b73
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From: Omprakash agarwal <omprakashagarwal1973@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 24 04:02AM -0700
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/7a1d68c1bb09d636
*Jai Hind,
*
*Sonia Gandhi's Surgery?*
Ever wondered why the Congress is so tight lipped about this so called
'surgery'?
Ever wondered why this shroud of secrecy behind her surgery?
Ever wondered why Madam Gandhi had to go at this time for surgery? And what
was the ailment that could not have been attended to by Indian doctors?
Ever wondered that she is accompanied by her family members
AND NOT A SINGLE DOCTOR (NOT EVEN HER PERSONAL PHYSICIAN) has accompanied
her. Most unusual!
If the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's knees could have been
replaced in Mumbai by a surgeon of Indian origin, why Madam Gandhi
needed to go abroad for her surgery?
And even Manmohan Singh though a pensioner of the World bank
and able to get free medical treatment in the US , got his heart surgery
done in Delhi .......
And has she actually gone to the US or some other country?
It is strongly suspected that the need for her to go abroad at
this time is linked to the fact that Dr. Subramaniam Swamy's petition
for the permission to prosecute Madam Gandhi (an MP) for corruption
charges,
pending with the Prime Minister's Office, has to be decided before the end
of August this year.
Dr. Swamy has given incontrovertible proof of Sonia Gandhi's accounts in
foreign banks,
and these cannot be overlooked or ignored.
Madam Gandhi is actually suffering from an acute enlargement of her *wealth
gland*.
The real surgery for which Madam Gandhi has gone abroad has to do with the
operation
of her illegal bank accounts, as time is running out for her and her
cronies.
*Omprakash Agarwal*
*
(A Decision should be made with choice and not under duress)*
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Topic: Manmohan's letter to Anna Hazare narrows differences
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/66c71601d777aa98
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---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: United Hindu Front <unitedhindufront@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 23 05:52PM -0400
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/b92eecfd0cffffde
Manmohan's letter to Anna Hazare narrows differences
A sudden conciliatory gesture by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
reach out to the diminutive 74-year-old Anna Hazare on Tuesday brought
the government and Team Anna to the negotiating table within hours.
Singh offered to place Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill before the
parliamentary standing committee and urged him to end his fast.
Singh's letter to Hazare came hours after Team Anna's associates made
their first face-to-face contact with law minister Salman Khurshid in
the afternoon and was followed by a longer late evening meeting with
finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who would lead the government's
negotiators.
The late night negotiations have assumed some urgency in view of
Hazare's failing health. Mukherjee reiterated Singh's appeal to end
the indefinite fast, saying Hazare's life was too precious.
After the dialogue between Mukherjee and Team Anna, the PM convened a
late night meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.
Team Anna negotiator Arvind Kejriwal told mediapersons that the
government had no objection to bringing the PM under the purview of
the lokpal and to consultations with Team Anna to strengthen the draft
judicial accountability law.
"They have sought time to respond to three demands: covering the lower
bureaucracy, (appointment of) lokayuktas in states and penalising
government servants who do not stick to deadlines in their respective
citizen's charters," Kejriwal said.
Singh's letter to Hazare said, "I have maintained that your and our
objective is identical. At worst, our paths and methodologies may
differ."
The letter, which started with Singh expressing "increasing concern"
over Hazare's health, pointed out that the government was responsible
to the will of the people as represented by Parliament.
Sources said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who played a
key role in drafting the letter, met the PM earlier in the day. The
letter was prompted by concern over Hazare's health and the need to
send a signal that it might be possible to accommodate divergent views
without compromising on parliamentary and constitutional norms.
=============================================================================
Topic: Article on History & Need of Making WILL
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/479401b6d49cc250
=============================================================================
---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: Vimal Wadhawan <vimalwadhawan@yahoo.co.in>
Date: Aug 23 05:55AM +0530
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/149db9f6632c6e27
Article on History & Need of Making WILL
http://www.virarjun.com/DisplayNews.aspx?newsid=37307&news=पिता%20का%20अधिकार,%20पुत्रों%20के%20कर्तव्य
Our MOVE activites on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001108828081
Vimal Wadhawan Yogacharya
Advocate, Supreme Court of India
09968357171, 09312912139
=============================================================================
Topic: Kerala Hindus rightful owners of Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple
wealth-C I Issac-22 August 2011
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/895557dc50a8a142
=============================================================================
---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: "Sandhya Jain " <sandhya206@bol.net.in>
Date: Aug 22 07:23AM +0530
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/4089eb9ff1737805
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1929
Kerala Hindus rightful owners of Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple wealth
C I Issac
22 August 2011
When the underground vaults of the Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple of
Trivandrum were opened, the world was astounded. The value of the
invaluable treasures found in the vaults cross millions and billions
of rupees. More startling was the fact that this was the savings
[surplus] of a small principality [Travancore] of British India in a
short duration of just 200 years. Instead of saluting the royal family
for their long cherished social commitment and accountability to their
subjects, the newspapers and visual media along with social hypocrites
unleashed a flood of verbiage to defame the Travancore royal family
and the Hindu way of life.
In a similar vein, for some decades now, the Hindu society in Kerala
has been subjected to futile controversies regarding its rituals,
reservation policy, and other such petty topics. The entire time and
energy of the Hindus is frittered away in finding answers to the
controversies raked by vested groups, including politico-religious
elements. Major print and visual media are now under the control of
these vested groups and are productively using them to ignite
mushrooming disagreements amongst Hindus, instead of finding
conformity. In short, the Hindus of Kerala are always on the
defensive.
Thus, the discovery of huge wealth in the safe vaults of the temple
once again drags Hindu society into another media sponsored
hullabaloo. The current one relating to the temple is the question of
ownership of the discovered wealth. There can be no doubt that Sri
Padmanabha Swami owns it, and accordingly, it belongs to the Hindus of
Kerala.
Is there really room for controversy? What is the reason for the
present hullabaloo? Why is a section of the media and vested groups
attempting to depict the wealth found in the vaults as a hoarding, an
unknown or unexpected treasure found by surprise? It is no hoarding or
discovered treasure; it is the collective savings of the Hindus and
their rulers.
On 3 January 1750, Marthanda Varma, founder of modern Travancore
State, after completing his conquest and consolidation, dedicated the
kingdom and its sovereignty at the feet of the household deity, Sri
Padmanabha. This incident is well known in the annals of history as
thrippadi daanam (dedication of the kingdom at the holy feet of the
family deity Sri Padmanabha). And the entire wealth accumulated in the
temple vaults between this significant day (3 Jan. 1750) and the
integration of princely states in the Indian Union in 1947.
To the Hindu, materialism and spiritualism are reciprocal tributes.
The Vedas attests it and suggested the fourfold purushaarthas. One
should glimpse and appraise the source of wealth found in the vaults
of the temple from this Hindu worldview. And while thus appraising,
the socio-economic status of the State should be properly accounted
for.
In 1816, the total population of Kerala was below two million and the
share of Travancore was 9,06,587. In 1881, the population of
Travancore was 24,01,158 and its Hindu share was 17, 55,707. In 1931,
it was 50,95,973 and its Hindu share was 35,67,181 [T. K. Veluppillai,
Travancore State Manual, Trivandrum, 1940, Vol. I, p. 374]. And
Travancore was a State with limited resources. Optimum utilization of
the limited resources was the watchword of its rulers.
The kingdom of Travancore in those days was land with inadequate
resources. From 1729 to 1947, a period of 218 years, this land was
ruled over by 12 kings. No doubt the wealth now seen in the temple
vaults was the savings [surplus] of these self restrained kings.
For this savings [surplus], the rulers never levied exactions from
their subjects. In the opinion of A. Sridharamenon, pioneer
historiographer of Kerala, "The framework of the future administrative
system of Travancore was evolved under these rulers and several
progressive and liberal reforms were introduced. …… That the State had
an impressive record of enlightened administration to its credit and
that it was one of the progressive states of India under British rule"
[Survey of Kerala History, Kottayam, 1970, pp 326, 336].
The palace lives of Travancore kings were simple and non-lavish.
Pappad is a dear side dish of Kerala menu. It is seen that royal
family members enjoyed pappad only on auspicious festive occasions
like Onam, Vishu, etc. This policy of austerity and simple living is
the secret of the vast wealth found today inside the vaults of the
temple. It was savings for the future. In short, the story behind the
temple wealth is the blending of the traditional saving habit of
Indians and a cordial relation of kings and their Hindu subjects. It
is the sober admixture of modernity and Hindu worldview, the
purusharthas.
No doubt, the discovery of precious and valuable wealth beneath the
vaults of the temple will enhance the self-esteem of Kerala Hindus.
This really poses a challenge to certain corners of the
socio-political structure of Kerala. For long, the Hindus of Kerala
were subservient to various political interest groups. For this reason
most sections of Hindus are socially and economically backward and
Hindu society in general is not fit to support them and so they need
governmental support to shore up their future. Thus they are at the
mercy of the ruling party. Those groups who used Hindus for their ends
always tried their best to generate antagonism between various Hindu
jatis by distorting and misinterpreting Kerala's ancient past. Hence
they are striving to interpret the source of the temple wealth as poll
taxes extracted from the subalterns by the rulers.
One such distortion relates to the terminology applied to traditional
professional taxes like thalaikkanam, mulaivila, etc. These taxes
existed from the Sangam period. Mulaivila was a professional tax
collected from women laboures. According to cynics, this was a tax
paid by subaltern women for their breasts! Epigraphic records negate
this cynical interpretation. [See A. Sridharamenon, op cit, p141].
This skeptic intervention in the Hindu domain in the light of temple
wealth is a conspiracy hatched against Hindus to demoralize them. It
is deliberately designed to deflate their self-esteem and enslave them
for the future political will of the state. Professional tax, excise
duty, income tax, etc were collected caringly. The fault is with those
who try to give Euro-centric etymological twists to native tax
terminologies. How can one take the sword against the royal family of
Travancore for this arbitrary interpretation?
Even though taxes were collected, the input to the treasury was
meager. The total population of Travancore in 1816 was 9,60,000. Out
of this, the subalterns or the said tax payers were 6,80,000. The
enlightened monarchs of Travancore rationalized ancient tax structure
by which several of the said discriminatory tax practices were
discarded along with the birth of the new kingdom, Travancore. In the
shrinking ambit of tax structure, how did such a thinly populated
kingdom acquire such immense wealth? The answer is simple – the rulers
gave due consideration to dharma and strived for a welfare state.
Kings on the throne were eager to make the kingdom at par with the
then world standard. They gave due consideration to modernization from
the eighteenth century onwards. They successfully modernized the state
without westernizing it. Their priority was the promotion of trade and
commerce; both domestic and international. Thus they constructed
several roads and canals connecting hinterlands with port towns. They
promoted wetland agriculture and commercial crops [See A.
Sridharamenon, op cit, p 281]. The State monopolized foreign trade, by
which both state and farmer interests were protected. Corruption was
uprooted from all levels of administration; corrupt officials were
punished [A. Sridharamenon, op cit, p 356]. By enlightened and
judicious administration the kings effectively utilized the limited
resources of the state. Thus they never depended on expeditions and
booty for their financial requirements.
A conspiracy is underway to declare the temple valuables as the vested
property of the State and thus end the rights of Hindus over the
wealth. During the colonial period, Hindus met such a tragedy. In
1812, with the advice of British Resident, Col. Munro, the ruler took
over 378 cash-rich temples out of state's 19,524 temples. By 1891,
10,160 temples perished automatically [C. M. Agur, Resident of
Travancore, "The Church History of Travancore," Trivandrum, 1902, pp
7, 8, 9].
Col. Munro was cleverer in his task of demolishing temples than
medieval Muslim monarchs. Royal takeover of temples resulted in the
mercy killing of economically non-sound temples by rupturing the
reciprocal relations between the temples. The lessons of history are
vital.
Hindus are advised to avert the repetition of history in the case of
Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple. If the history is repeated, it will
further marginalize the Hindus of Kerala. Already in Kerala, education
is a sour grape to non-minority communities. In such a scenario, who
will ensure justice to the unorganized Hindus? [For details see: Dr.
Fasal Gafoor, Kalakaumudi Weekly, 3 July 2011, No 1869].
The relevance of Hindu awareness over the valuables found in the
temple vaults, and Hindu vigilance is imperative to protect the
valuables. History teaches us that once valuables are allowed to
shelter outside the temple, they will be lost forever to the Hindu
community.
Kerala Hindus must acquire self-esteem and cultivate a new mood so
that they are second to none.
The author is a retired Professor of History, and lives in Trivandrum
=============================================================================
Topic: Poorer Indians are more with Anna -- Corruption hurts them the most
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/t/5c19574e5c141a6b
=============================================================================
---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: viji <viji123@yahoo.com>
Date: Aug 23 06:02AM -0700
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/unitedhindufront/msg/2298959fe819f284
"The poorer sections are more with Anna since he understands their hurt and
loss and frozen anger at the government's minions and their daily dacoity at
their expense. "
Why Anna's middle class has disdain for parliament
Parliament<http://www.firstpost.com/politics/why-annas-middle-class-has-disdain-for-parliament-67213.html>
TUESDAY,
AUGUST 23, 2011
The poorer sections are more with Anna since he understands their hurt and
loss and frozen anger at the government's minions and their daily dacoity at
their expense. PTI
By* R Vaidyanathan*
The tripod constructed by Jawaharlal Nehru consisted of socialism,
secularism and parliamentary supremacy.
The socialism part went with Narasimha Rao, even though the word is still in
our constitution, which declares us to be a socialist republic. Every
elected representative is forced to swear by it, exposing us to total
hypocrisy in running our polity.
The day the law was amended to deny alimony to Shah Bano, the edifice of
secularism, too, developed a crack. In a society which considers everything,
including trees and animals, sacred, the notion of "secularism" was anyway a
bit stretched. It came down fully with the Ayodhya agitation. However, our
constitution includes secularism in its preface. The word was inserted into
the constitution during the emergency, and was not a part of the original
statute.
The third leg of the Nehruvian tripod, the primacy of Parliament in making
laws, was treated with an enormous amount of respect, even reverence.
Members of state assemblies and Parliament were called law-makers even
though a good number among them do not know what kind of laws they make. The
disconnect between our burgeoning middle classes and the so-called
law-makers has been widening in leaps and bounds in recent decades.
A great fault line has been developing for a while, and this hasn't been
noticed by blind political experts. Today there is a huge trust deficit with
the political class. In the early sixties, during the conflict with China,
this author has seen women giving away their gold ornaments when leaders
went around in jeeps to collect money for defence. Today, women will
probably run inside their homes if they see a jeep with politicians asking
for donations.
The Nehruvian middle class was essentially a public sector one: they tended
to work in government, or in companies owned by government: HMT, Bhel, LIC,
State Bank of India. Every engineer and accountant in the 1950s and 1960s
aspired to work for these companies, and prepared massively for the stiff
entrance tests.
The public sector middle class of those decades was often aligned with Left
unions. They sought the creation of more government entities and agitated
for enhanced pay. They waved flags when Indira Gandhi nationalised banks.
The middle classes shouted *Inquilab Zindabad* in processions those days.
Bengal led this class, and so did Kerala.
This middle class influenced and infiltrated all aspects of Indian life,
including the arts, cinema, literature, books and history. They selected
their "intellectuals" and "academic leaders". The government was criticised,
but only for being less leftist. They captured the Planning Commissions and
hundreds of other academies. They were essentially government-subsidised
revolutionaries. The pinnacle of their achievement was the creation of the
Jawaharlal Nehru University – appropriately named – where "*lal salaam"* and
"*inquilab*" could be paraded as serious academic research in social
sciences.
It is not that the masses are dumb, but the law-makers are deaf. They talk
about the supremacy of Parliament when the third leg of the Nehruvian tripod
is about to collapse.
There was significant dissent even in such places, but largely between the
extreme Left and the moderate Left.
But the 1980s and, especially the 1990s, were different periods. The fall of
the Berlin Wall was a major marker on the side of ideology. Narasimha Rao
understood history better than many historians. The economy opened up and a
new middle class based on the service economy came in being. The share of
the service sector moved to above 60 percent and its growth dictated the
growth of the overall economy. Information technology (IT) became the new
beacon for the middle class. Let's call them the software (SW) middle class.
Even though IT still forms a small part of our service economy, the fact is
it has replaced the public sector middle class. The red flag changed colour,
with a tinge of saffron. Its aspirations are different. It includes not just
the employed white collar worker; it also contains a huge mass of the
self-employed. Their numbers could be upwards of 20 crore – 200 million.
The disconnect between this middle class and the elected representatives is
very large, particularly at the local level. For instance, in Bangalore or
Mumbai, corporators have no connect with them, whether in terms of language,
dress or idiom. Most corporators are road contractors or hooch traders or
lottery barons and the middle class is alienated from them.
As for Parliament, who can deny that it has many members charged with
criminal activities? The criticism that has been hurled against this new
software middle class, which is largely with Anna
Hazare<http://www.firstpost.com/topics/anna-hazare-62012.html>,
is that it does not fully understand our parliamentary system. Our
Parliament is supreme and Anna is not an elected person, it is said.
Sure, but even Manmohan Singh is not an elected person. He hasn't even been
freely elected by the Congress Parliamentary Party. The Congress
constitution was amended in May 2004 to give Sonia Gandhi the right to
choose the party's PM, and she chose Manmohan Singh. The National Advisory
Council is not an elected body but it formulates laws which are accepted by
the government.
Seen against this backdrop, the issue of being elected is treated as a joke
by the middle class. The social contract of this middle class with a
parliament that is supreme is over. It is time our parliamentarians — both
ruling and opposition — realise this.
There is no point in asking why tribals and the poor are not at Ramlila
Maidan. <http://www.firstpost.com/topics/ramlila-maidan-62698.html> They
simply can't afford to be there, or they will lose their daily earnings.
But it is more than likely that the poor are with Anna because corruption
affects the corporations and the richer sections less. They can afford to
pay bribes — and pass on the costs to their customers or employers.
Corruption, for them, is thus just an irritating expense.
For my flower vendor in Bangalore, though, a bribe is a hurtful expense. It
can be as much as Rs 30 on a Rs 300 turnover. Arm-chair Leftists who do not
understand much about the real India go on arguing about how big business is
with Anna. Maybe so. But the poorer sections are more with him since he
understands their hurt and loss and frozen anger at the government's minions
and their daily dacoity at their expense.
It is not that the masses are dumb, but the law-makers are deaf. They talk
about the supremacy of Parliament when the third leg of the Nehruvian tripod
is about to collapse. Are we in a position to deal with this? Are we going
to mouth age-old slogans of the public sector middle classes of the 1960s or
the new software middle classes? Is it possible to bring Parliament and
other elected bodies in sync with the aspirations of the new middle classes?
Despite all the exhortations of Lenin and Mao, it is the middle class which
leads change in our country – whether it was our independence struggle or
the struggle against the emergency. If Parliament becomes irrelevant then it
is a huge challenge for us to rework our institutions. That should be the
focus now instead of the inane talk about how Parliament is supreme or the
constitution is supreme or the people are supreme.
Maybe, the time has come to ask ourselves whether the current parliamentary
system has outlived its purpose.
*The author is professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Views are personal *
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