Mumbai Mantralaya fire on Twitter.

Today, June 21, 2012, Maharastra matralaya set fire on twitter. Lots of tweets on satirical note reads

Balaji ‏@i_Balaji Is this #Mantralaya fire big setback for Modi?

SM @qinnairen: Rajnikanth sighed a hot breathe in the direction of Mumbai. And, #Mantralaya burns.

 advaitachowdhary ‏@mayaadvaita In 2009 just before elections YSR also burnt down a floor in the secretariat to remove all proof of corruption.#Mantralaya fire is DejuVu !

Ashutosh Patankar ‏@ashutosh1671 Saffron Terror RT @iNeelSoni: RSS Hand in #Mantralaya Fire ! #TweetLykDigVijaySingh

Rudresh ‏@smartrudra Mumbai fire look like a sabotage. Innocent people put in death situation now by these bloody politicians #Mantralaya

@diggyleaks South Block takes swift action on #Mantralaya fire, sends a planeload of 2G files to Mumbai. #Adarsh

Hemant Charya ‏@hemantcharya Overheard at the #Mantralaya, "अरे, त्या फाइली तिकडेच होत्या ना? नक्की ना?"..translated, "Hey, were those files there? R U sure?"

sharon ‏@sharonpicardo Being at nariman point allows us to hear the helicopters hovering over #Mantralaya adding fuel to the fire. Last chance to destroy evidence.

Nigel Britto ‏@NigelBritto Fire at #Mantralaya? Excellent. If people are dying, let's hope it's the ministers and not some poor employees trying hard to make a living.

Tanmay Bhat ‏@thetanmay Ram Gopal Varma on stand by. #Mantralaya

Srivatsa Krishna ‏@SrivatsaKrishna #mantralaya fire. Good time to get rid of #Adarsh records

 Veritas ‏@Veritas_R Maha CM himself at #Mantralaya to make sure all files are burnt !

Nani©™ ‏@Restinpeacedarkwell i guess this #Mantralaya fire is a Planned by Congress people...why don't these Politicians jump in to theat fire and REST IN PEACE :D

Veritas ‏@Veritas_R Congress is guru of getting things done by agencies be it #President elections or #Mantralaya fire....

Jinx ‏@jinx_dee @sardesairajdeep Adarsh Society files burned off.. Shouldn't that be headlines??? Mantralaya #Mantralaya

Jens Iyer ‏@JestChill So now that many'original' documents have been destroyed in the great #Mantralaya fire,the babus and #Politicians are sure gonna make money!

Smiling ரெட்டை வால் ‏@rvdilip @i_Balaji @qinnairen #Rajini has lost his power, as no #politician is affected; its the poor bldg which suffers. #Mantralaya

MediaCrooks ‏@mediacrooks Simple! Coalition Dharma! LOL! RT @REINSTALLINDIA The fire erupted at 2 entirely diff areas of #Mantralaya... both at the same time. #HOW ?

Faking News ‏@fakingnews @sardesairajdeep question why Shiv Sena is supporting Pranab, is there a deal? Sainiks will bring #mantralaya fire right to your office

And our Pipli Live reports.

barkha dutt ‏@BDUTT How about some gratitude and hat doffing to fire fighters instead of the usual petty carping #mantralaya

Rajdeep Sardesai ‏@sardesairajdeep Just spoke to Leander: says he hasnt opted out, but AITA conditions unacceptable. I give up!! bring on #Mantralaya fire!!

Political frustration among common Indians can be clearly seen with state and central government apathy towards effective administration. Our Pipli Live Journos, instead of being critical to state preparedness against any possible espionage activities like this fire, put more emphasis on fire fighting or nice chat with Tennis star to sideline the issue. just like tweet by Ashutosh Patankar ‏@ashutosh1671 R.R.Aba Patil: Bade shahar ka Chhota haadsa. Mantralaya Renovation me aaega bada paisa! ;) #Mantralaya #Adarsh #Lavasa

Finally, this tweet by Kunal ♉ ‏@koolkunaly2k When #Mantralaya was burning, Twitter was laughing. #sad sums up everything. 

Counter Intellectual Brahminism - 2

A short description of Drona's principle to accept students has been discussed in "Counter Intellectual Brahminism - 1" [1]. This part is to specific to the arguments presented by Anand Patwardhan in his Times of India article Intellectual Brahminism [2] and its relation with current controversy of Ambedkar's cartoon.

It has already been argued that Brahmins as teachers did not restrict the flow of knowledge [1]. If Mr. Patwardhan's argument is true, who educated western scholars, one of the most complicated language Sanskrit? Ain't Sanskrit or knowledge exclusive to Brahmins?

Mr. Patwardhan forgets that poverty does not identify castes. Therefore, economic criteria is more suitable for uplifting poor section of the society. Why should a rich from so called "Dalit" get economic advantage over a poor disadvantaged "upper" caste? Mr. Patwardhan is correct in saying Mandal commission did not invented Castes. The word "Caste" has a Portuguese origin [3]. Thus, Caste is a Portuguese black box model to understand Indian society. The economic criteria that Mandal commission used was specifically applied with this "Black box" framework [4]. In this "Black box", economically backward "upper caste" deprivation for centuries was completely forgotten.

Wondering, how this "Caste - A Portuguese black box" is anyway linked to the cartoon controversy [5]. The cartoon is self explanatory. It portrays the then prime minister of India, Pt. J. Nehru, is pushing for early completion of constitution. Amused people of India are watching this circus. Some "Dalit" political "Elites" attempted to exploit this issue by putting the cartoon completely out of context. The context understood here is "Pt. Nehru, a Brahmin, is insulting Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit, in front of entire nation". Needless to say a fore mentioned context is not an intellectual reading of the cartoon. Similar ill-intellectual connection has been demonstrated in https://twitter.com/beenasarwar/status/210909426603917312 linking [2] and [5].

Dr. Ambedkar presents an extraordinary example that intellect is not restricted to Portuguese construct of Brahmans. Brahmans were intellectuals who used their wisdom to organize society that lasted more than 3000 years. How they achieved it, is a matter of debate. Dr. Ambedkar achieved the status of "Brahmin" by using his knowledge and made constitution of India. In reality, Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism to get rid of any Caste attribute [6]. Today's political class abuse Buddhism by introducing "Dalit", therefore caste system, in it. Author of this blog is waiting for that day when modern historians introduce concept - "Brahmins considered Buddhist as Dalits in ancient India. This is one major reason why Buddhism declined in India."

So let Mr. Patwardhan keep his thumb, very modern symbol of illiteracy, with pride. Brahmans do not need him to sacrifice his pride.

References

[1] Bhatt V., (2012) "Counter Intellectual Brahminism- 1", http://www.bhattvihang.blogspot.de/2012/06/counter-intellectual-brahminism-1.html

[2] Patwardhan A., (1992) "Intellectual Brahminism", http://www.patwardhan.com/writings/Intellectual%20Brahminism.htm

[3] Daniel A., (2005) "The Confusing Caste System", http://adaniel.tripod.com/confusion.htm

[4] Sakrikar D., (1994) "The Mandal Commission Report", http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Dalit-tribal/mandal-2.htm

[5] Anonymous, (2012)"Ambedkar cartoon controversy NCERT row Sibal", http://www.ablble.com/2012/05/ambedkar-cartoon-controversy-ncert-row.html
[6] Ramchandra, (2001) "Why Dr. Ambedkar Renounced Hinduism?" http://www.ambedkar.org/Babasaheb/Why.htm

Counter Intellectual Brahminism - 1

It is interesting to note some section of society has hatred to core for Brahmins. One such example has been found by a "Muslim" intellectual Ms/Dr Beena sarwar: https://twitter.com/beenasarwar/status/210909426603917312

The article quoted was written by Anand Patwardhan [1] that ends with line "let the Dronas write their editorials; Eklavya will no longer sacrifice his thumb." Here Dronas were referred to senior columnist of a news paper. The article [1] goes on to make some baseless allegations such as "The priests of old tightly controlled information flow and ensured that the masses would remain illiterate and powerless." This misconception need to be addressed. 

The story is narrated in [1] on Eklavya - a Shudra was son of a Bhil community leader. In other words, He was prince of confederation of Bhil tribes at Nishadha [2]. Before looking into this story, we need to know another rejected student of Drona. The reject student name is Karna, who played role in Mahabharata war [3].

Karna was introduced to Drona as a son of charioteer. Drona simply rejected him on the grounds of his principle that "He is teaching only to Kshatriyas". Drona was unaware of the fact that Karna was born Kshatriya. After rejection by Drona, Karna began his search for a teacher (Brahmin) to teach him archery. He found teacher named Parshuram. Parshuram has made principle that "He will not teach anything to Kshatriyas". Knowing Karna as a son of charioteer, Parshuram accepted him as his student. 

Once rejected by Drona, unlike Karna, Eklavya decided to make statue of Drona. He put his full faith in Drona statue, while learning archery by himself. Drona came to know about Eklavya when a dog came to him with mouth filled with arrows. The arrows were shot by Eklavya in such a way that dog was just made silent without killing him. Drona investigated and found that Eklevya was practicing lessons by himself. Drona asked Eklavya who is his teacher as former had refused to teach latter. Eklavya politely replied, his teacher is no other than Drona, pointing his finger to statue of latter.

Two victims of Drona's principle used different approach to obtain knowledge. One obtained from another Brahmin teacher while another obtained through extreme respect for a Brahmin in form of a "Guru" - a teacher. Eklavya never accepted any one as his teacher except Drona. Thus, former made a statue of latter.

The thumb impression is very important symbol for illiterates in modern world. Therefore, the message hidden in Drona-Eklavya story [2] will often remain hidden. The demand for thumb by Drona was an extreme test of Eklavya. It was a test of "Shisya Dharma". Eklavya successfully passed the test. Learned Eklavya presented a Nobel example of "Guru Bhakti" and got rid of very symbol of modern illiterates.

In modern India, all three legends are remembered with very high esteem. Drona was an exceptional teacher and, Arjun and Eklavya were his exceptional students. Awards are named after these exceptional personality in Indian history (Not Mythology, Marxist historians feel free to disagree though) for exceptional contribution in sports education.

One can always argue that there was hidden agenda of Drona for Thumb-chopping test. This agenda was to make Arjun invincible warrior in archery. His favoritism for Arjun was well known. Drona saw a formidable challenge for Arjun in the form of Eklavya. However, one can see in later stage of Mahabharat that favoritism of Drona led to his death by his most favorite student Arjun. On many other occasions,  Mahabharat depicts down side of favoritism. This favoritism exist among many diverse relationships e.g. father and son (Dhritrashtra and Duryodhan), husband and wife (Arjun and Draupadi), Nobelist vs treacherous (Yudhisthir vs Shakuni).

This discussion suggest that Shudra were free to choose their own way of life. There is no reason, otherwise, to make Eklavya a prince of Shudra community "leader". Furthermore, Brahmins in this period did not controlled flow of the knowledge. There are few important questions need to be answered. who determined caste as upper and lower caste? If caste in a society can be attributed to a work group, how one work group is superior to another? who decides it? Certainly not God or a Brahmin.

Note: Wikipedia references are used to provide general information on important Mahabharat characters. Most accurate description can be found in original text of Mahabharat.

References

[1] Patwardhan, A., (1992) "Intellectual Brahminism", http://www.patwardhan.com/writings/Intellectual%20Brahminism.htm

[2] Anonymous, (2012) "Ekalavya", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya

[3] Anonymous, (2012) "Karna", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna

Dr. Ram Puniyani: Historical Subversion

This article is aimed to make counter arguments to Dr. Ram Puniyani's youtube post that has been referred in blog (http://chagataikhan.blogspot.de/search/label/Bajrang%20Dal). The arguments Dr. Ram Puniyani make in this video is that "All kings Hindus/Muslims/Christians have destroyed holy places of other religions. The reason to destroy temple is to loot wealth stored in the temple". Furthermore, in this video Dr. Puniyani suggest that Mahmud of Gazni's iconoclasm and destroying holy places was not unique to Hindu places of worship. Mahmud of Gazni also destroyed Muslim places of worship. we will examine these claims made by Dr. Puniyani in this article.

It is not surprising that Dr. Puniyani has chosen to follow Marxist history to build his opinion. Marxist flavor of history is widely accepted as real history of India. Furthermore, Marxist historians have dominated in writing history books for NCERT (National Center for Educational Research and Training) in India. 

Lets examine arguments presented in this video one by one. In this video Dr Puniyani mentioned that on the way to Gujarat, Gazni (also known as Gaznavi) had to fight with Muslim king of Multan. Latter than destroyed many mosques in Multan after conquest. In this narrations, Dr. Puniyani omits one important feature that the mosque destroyed by Gazni were those belonging to Ismaili sect of Islam. Sectarian violence is well known among different sects of Islam. Mahmud of Gazni was an orthodox Sunni Muslim[1]. It is, therefore, justified for him to destroy mosques of other sects of Islam. Furthermore, Mr Khaled Ahmed notes in his article published on August 14, 2005 in daily times "... Ghaznavi attacked Multan and Mansura and killed non-orthodox Muslims along with the infidels."[2]. This shows Mahmud of Gazni's religious zeal for Sunni sect of Islam. Dr. Puniyani and other Marxist historians conveniently forgets the fact that Islam is not a monolith religion. In the same article, Mr Khaled Ahmed also notes "Sadly, the Ismailis destroyed another mandir in Multan and built a mosque in its place ...". This emphasis that Muslims freely used their muscle power to destroy Hindu places of worship irrespective of their sects. 

In order to undermine religious zeal in demolishing Hindu places of worship, new concepts were introduced. In case of Somnath Temple, a classic case of historical subversion, Mr. Khaled Ahmed quotes acclaimed historian following Marxist approach of historiography, Prof. Romilla Thapar.

 

"Sunday magazine of Nawa-e-Waqt (17 July 2005) had a write-up derived from Romilla Thapar saying that before Mehmud Ghaznavi destroyed the mandir of Somnath in Gujarat, he was told by someone that Somnath was actually the temple of Manat.

Manat was a goddess of pre-Islamic Arabia whose black statue (unshaped stone) was taken from Makka and brought to Gujarat. Ghaznavi was supposed to be following the directive of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the mandir of Manat should be destroyed."

However, the argument, Somath temple was a temple for a Arab goddess of pre-Islamic era, does not hide the Islamic religious zeal of destroying non-Islamic places of worship and iconoclasm. Furthermore, there is no historical evidence that shows Somnath temple was indeed a temple of Arab goddess Manat. It is plausible that Gazni's greed for wealth in Hindu temples may tempt him to employ Hindu generals to direct his army. This employment does not show Gazni's generosity towards infidels.

In another case, Dr. Puniyani makes a failed attempt to portray generosity of Aurangzeb - A Mughal king towards infidels. Aurangzeb has phenomenal record of destroying Hindu temples in India[3]. In another classic example of historical subversion, Dr. Puniyani narrates a story of Aurangzeb's journey to Kolkata with 44 Hindu kings. This story was first appeared in a book, The Feathers and the Stones, authored by Dr. P.  Sitaramayya. This story has been discussed in detail by Dr. K. Elst [4]. It is interesting to note that there exist no authentic record of Aurangzeb made any visit to Bengal during his life time[4].

Historical subversion by intellectuals is knowingly performed to avoid communal disturbance in today's globalized environment. However, Historical subversion leads to gross injustice to natives of any geographical region. It not only undermines atrocities perpetrated by foreign armies but also justifies their actions. How can one justify unprovoked invasion, loot and plunder of Mahmud of Gazni in Gujarat?

Note: The sources depicted as Anonymous refers to either multiple author(s) in case of Wikipedia or unknown who present collection of historical recordings by noted historians in case of reference [3].

References

[1] Anonymous,  (2011) "Mahmud of Ghazni", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmud_of_Ghazni

[2] Ahmed, K., (2005) "WORD FOR WORD: Was Somnath a temple of goddess Manat?", http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-8-2005_pg3_3

[3] Anonymous, (2009) "Temple Destruction by Aurangzeb (Proof Documents)", http://aurangazeb.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/temple-destruction-by-arangzeb-proof-documents/

[4] Elst, K., (2002) "Why did Aurangzeb Demolish the Kashi Vishvanath?", http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/ayodhya/kashivishvanath.html