PMO seeks to get Gandhi's Letter Back

Friday, June 29, 2007 (New Delhi)

A seven-page letter signed by Father of the Nation M K Gandhi goes under the hammer on July 3 in London.

Nineteen days before he fell to an assassin's bullets, a seven-page letter was written by Mahatma Gandhi in which he calls for tolerance towards Muslims and Urdu.

While time is fast running out for the Indian government, the pressure to get the manuscript back is mounting.

The Ministries of Culture and External affairs held a series of meetings on Thursday. On Friday, the Prime Minister's office is going to take the final call on how to do it. The options are:
Bid through organisations like the Nehru Museum and Library, as the government doesn't normally participate in auctions.
Ask the sale to be stopped by contesting the title of the manuscripts as the government feels the title of the manuscript is dubious.
The government can even seek an injunction against the sale.
Sources in the government say the manuscript perhaps has the same source as another lot of Gandhi papers that were up for sale in England in 1997 by the auction house Phillips.

An old picture shows L M Singhvi, the then Indian High Commissioner to the UK, receiving Gandhi's manuscripts.

This after he raised doubts about the title of Gandhi's papers, as all Gandhi writings are the property of Navjeevan Trust, as per Gandhi's last will dated February 20, 1940.

Surprisingly, sources in the Ministry of Culture and the Nehru Museum say the government acted late as it felt that the manuscript was not significant.

But those who know Gandhi say, once sold the manuscript will be lost forever.

Rig Veda becomes 'World Inheritance'

In the 60th year of Indian independence, here’s a reason that will make historians swell up with pride.

The medieval Indian manuscripts including the Rig Veda –restricted only to its practitioners till now – have now been selected for inscription in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, 2007.

While the Rig Veda has been selected from Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, other Indian nominations include the IAS Tamil Medic Manuscript Collection (1997), Archives of the Dutch East India Company (2003), a Dutch nomination, and the Saiva Manuscripts in Pondicherry (2005).

The Vedas are the first literary documents in the history of humankind, and they transcend far beyond their identity as scriptures.

The Rig Veda, oldest of the four Vedas, is among the 38 items of documentary heritage of exceptional value which have been added to the prestigious register, bringing the total number of inscriptions since 1997 to 158.

It is a collection of 1028 hymns of exceptional literary qualities eulogising the Vedic deities and is said to be the source of the Aryan culture.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni welcomed the move and said India's cultural heritage “always brought happiness to all the countrymen.”

The recommendation to include Rig Veda was floated by the International Advisory Committee, which met in Pretoria (South Africa) from June 11 to 15 and was formally accepted by UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura.

The programme for the Memory of the World was initiated by UNESCO in 1990s to honour significant landmarks in the world’s documentary heritage and have them recorded as world's inheritance.

The Memory of the World programme claims to guard the world against collective amnesia by preservation of the valuable archival holdings and library collections all over the world. These are thereafter made available in the public domain for dissmeniation and awareness.

The National Mission for Manuscripts of the Culture Ministry had submitted the nomination on behalf of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

Out of the total number of 28,000 Manuscripts housed at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, the 30 manuscripts of the Rig Veda form a valuable part of the collection.

Besides the Rig Veda, the list of 38 items of documentary heritage includes Unpublished Papers of Christopher Okigbo, considered one of the most renowned African poets of the 20th century, killed during the civil war in Nigeria.

Human Rights Documentary Heritage, 1976-1983 (Argentina), The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906-Australia), the world's first feature-length film, and The Convict Records of Australia: written account of the deportation over 80 years (1788-1868) of some 165,000 convicts from the UK, who founded the independent Australian Commonwealth also find a place in this year's entry .

Further, The Tabula Peutingeriana or Peutinger's Table (Australia), the only surviving ancient map depicting the road network of the Roman Empire's public communications service, and Canada's Hudsons Bay Company Archival records, which played a crucial role in Canada's creation, have also been included in the prestigious list.

Muscovite impresses with his mastery of Tamil

Alexander M. Dubianskiy

His chaste Tamil surprises you. Alexander M.Dubianskiy hails from Moscow. He and his Tamil language students were in Chennai recently.
He met music director Ilaiyaraaja, Gangai Ameran and writer Jayakanthan. He is particular that his studentsfollow him in speaking the language with the correct pronunciation.
Dr. Dubianskiy spoke to S.R.Ashok Kumar about his passion for the Tamil Language.
Alexander M.Dubianskiy holds a doctorate in Tamil Language and literature and works in the Department of Indian philology, Institute of Asian and African studies, Moscow State University.
He visits Tamil Nadu every second year. This time, four of his students accompanied him and they all went round Tamil Nadu.
"When I wanted to go for higher studies, a friend who studied in the oriental language department in the University of Moscow wanted me to pursue the same courses he was studying — Hindi and Sanskrit. That year, in 1965, a new group of students started studying Tamil. I joined them. Today, I am happy that I have learnt a new and rich language.
"That was the first group that studied the language. The university did not have a full-fledged Tamil scholar at that time.
"Students and people from Tamil Nadu helped the lecturers. Tamil fascinated me very much due to its rich literature and poetry.
"After finishing my course I decided to pursue a postgraduate course in Tamil mainly to learn more about the language."
Dr. Dubianskiy soon started teaching Tamil literature. "But that was when it was called the Soviet Union. Now there are practically no jobs for people studying Tamil in Russia. I hope something will be done soon ... "
He feels it is his duty to sustain the study of Tamil because he considers Tamil and Tamil culture an important part of Indian culture.
Although, he completed his doctorate in 1974, the academic came to India only in 1978-79.
"I studied in the University of Madras under the guidance of some very knowledgeable people such as Professor N. Sanjeevi. I was very friendly with my teacher Prof. Pon Kothandaraman (Porko)."
His research thesis was on Sangam poetry — an area on which he has guided other students too, as also the poems of Subramania Bharathi.
Dr. Dubianskiy says has learnt something from every visit. This is his 12th visit to the State.
His one great wish: "I want somebody to take my place and spread the Tamil language. I also want more students to learn it."

Iron Lady of a lost cause

Irom Sharmila Chanu's story is magnetic in its moral force, yet not violent or binding. It's heroic, yet rooted. It's self-sacrificing. Irom's struggle talks about human life when it's robbed one of its most essential commodity -dignity.

Irom hasn't eaten a morsel of food or taken a drop of water for the past six years.

Synonymous with the agitation against the Armed Forced Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Irom Sharmila demands that the draconian act 'must go' to restore peace in the state.

"I can't tolerate the atrocities on my contemporaries and on my people. This is God's will and I will carry on. It's intolerable," she says.

Today, she weighs just 37 kgs and most of her body organs are wasted. For the past six years, the Indian state has kept her alive on a cocktail of vitamins and nutrients and she is forcibly fed twice a day through her nose.

Charged with attempt to suicide, Sharmila has been in the custody of the Delhi Police for the past one year and five police personnel guard her round the clock.

Irom Sharmila, a poet, a Gandhian on a modern-day satygraha, is today a high security prisoner.

Those who come to visit her at Room No 8 in the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the Capital—where is is currently lodged—are searched, their gifts opened, and conversations overheard.

In a nation that reveres the principles of Ahimsa and Satyagraha one of Gandhi's greatest followers has been forgotten.

Moment of fulfillment for India, Ratan Tata

Shy, reticent almost reclusive—Ratan Tata seems almost opposite of what a chairman of India’s largest corporate house might be. But time and again he has displayed a spine of steel.
Ratan Tata is one of the most respected corporate chieftains in India. However, there's a still a lack of clarity about who'll be his successor after his planned retirement in 2012.
With the latest acquisition of London-based steelmaker Corus, Tata has certainly arrived on the global arena.
That's a short snapshot of Ratan Tata, 69, who controls the $22bn Tata group, which includes 96 companies manufacturing a range of products from automobiles to watches, steel to fertilisers.
Aggressive tycoon:
Way back in 1962 a young Ratan Tata fresh out from studies in the US joined the house of the Tatas. Over the next 30-years he worked in almost every group company before the legendry JRD Tata chose him as the chairman of the group.
Almost immediately he faced criticism for his decisions to sell Tata oil mills and move out of ACC—the largest cement company at the time. Besides, at the group’s headquarters he was opposed by the stalwarts he had tipped to the chairman posts.
Rusi Modi of Tata Steel and Ajit Kerkar of Indian Hotels seemed unhappy with him at the helm but he managed to ease them out. He then focussed on his dream project—an indigenous passenger car. In 1998 Tata motors unveiled the Indica. It transported the company from a commercial vehicle maker to one of India’s biggest carmakers.
In 2000, Tata’s bought the Teteley Tea. Since then they have been buying companies worth thousands of crore.
Today, the smooth, suave, and introvert Ratan is being seen as an aggressive and ambitious businessman, whose strategic vision has shifted from local to global.
In a recent interview, Ratan Tata said: "We were very obsessed with ourselves in India. So, I have felt for some time that we didn't need to be that."
This realisation has struck many Indian promoters and, after the Tata-Corus deal, India's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outflows will exceed FDI inflows in the first seven months of this financial year.
Crucial Milestones :
As the group entered the 21st century, Ratan Tata was obsessed with four critical issues.
The first was to globalise his group's operations, where he has succeeded to a certain extent.
The second was to safeguard his companies against possible hostile takeovers after the London-based Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, purchased the Luxembourg-based Arcelor early last year to become the world's largest steelmaker, and announced his ambitious plans in India.
So, to thwart any threats, Tata decided to up his stakes in most of the group companies.
Lone Fighter:
The unmarried Ratan Tata had to look for a successor. There were several candidates - including his step-brother, Noel - but none of them had an established track record. Some of them didn't have the character to carry on the legacy of a group that's synonymous with reliability of products, honesty, integrity and public service.
Last year, the retirement age for non-executive directors of Tata Sons, the holding company, was raised from 70 to 75 years.
The Corus buyout makes Tata Steel the world's fifth largest steelmaker.
But it needs to play the catch-up game with Mittal. Tata has to do the same with Mukesh Ambani, the promoter of India's largest private sector firm, Reliance Industries, which aims to be among the top 100 in the Fortune 500 list.

Satyagraha - 100 Years

September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. Gandhi called it "Satyagraha."

The date was September 11th, 1906. Speaking before 3,000 Indians gathered at a theater in Johannesburg, Gandhi organized a strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppose racist policies in South Africa. Satyagraha was born and since then, it has been adopted by many around the world to resist social injustice and oppression.

Gandhi used it in India to win independence from the British. The Reverend Martin Luther King used it in the United States to oppose segregation and Nelson Mandela used it in South Africa to end apartheid.

IITians started Silicon Valley boom

A University of California study found that 10 per cent of all start-ups in the Silicon Valley between 1995 and 1998 were by Indians, most of whom had come from the IIT system.

According to the new study, Indian immigrants are a significant driving force behind the creation of new engineering and technology companies in the United States in the past decade.

The study says that of the estimated 7,300 US tech startups founded by immigrants, 26 per cent have Indian founders, CEOs, presidents or head researchers.

The study, 'Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs', conducted by researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering at the Duke University, says that Indians have managed to beat the Chinese with a share of 15.5 per cent as opposed to seven per cent in 1980-1998.

Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley's Indian workforce is highly educated. In 1990, they earned graduate degrees at significantly greater rates than their white counterparts: 32 per cent of the Indians employed in Silicon Valley in 1990 had advanced degrees, compared to only 11 per cent for the white population.

The study quotes the example of Radha Basu who left her conservative South Indian family to pursue graduate studies in computer science at the University of Southern California in the early 1970s.

Like many other skilled immigrants, she was subsequently drawn into the fast-growing Silicon Valley labor market where she began a long career at Hewlett-Packard (HP).

When Basu returned to India to participate in an electronics industry task force in the mid-1980s, the government invited her to set up one of the country's first foreign subsidiaries.

She spent four years establishing HP's software center in Bangalore--pioneering the trend among foreign companies of tapping India's highly skilled, but relatively low-cost software talent.

When Basu returned to Silicon Valley in 1989 the HP office in India employed 400 people, and it has since grown to become one of HP's most successful foreign subsidiaries.

Radha Basu was uniquely positioned to negotiate the complex and often bewildering bureaucracy and the backward infrastructure of her home country. She explains that it takes both patience and cultural understanding do business in India: "You can't just fly in and out and stay in a five-star hotel and expect to get things done like you can elsewhere. You have to understand India and its development needs and adapt to them."

Many Indian engineers are now doing what Basu did in the early 1990s: They exploited their cultural and linguistic capabilities and their contacts to help build software operations in their home country.

However, the study also says that a very few Indian engineers choose to live and work permanently in India. Indian engineers - if they return at all - typically do so on a temporary basis.

The study, which covered 28,766 firms with annual sales of more than USD 1 million and 20 or more employees, comes nearly eight years after an influential report from the University of California, Berkeley, on the impact of foreign-born entrepreneurs.

"This study shows the tremendous contribution immigrants in general and Indians in particular are making to the US economy and global competitiveness. This is a win-win for America and for the immigrants that make it here", Vivek Wadhwa, Delhi-born Duke's executive in residence and the founder of two tech startups in North Carolina's Research Triangle was quoted by PTI as saying.

The study makes it amply clear that immigrants do not take away jobs from citizens of the US as many Americans feared, but were instead creating new jobs and wealth, things that did not exist earlier.

Russia's History Re-Discovered...

Vishnu idol found during excavation in Russian town, January 04, 2007 - Rediff News...

An ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia's Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia.

The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD.

Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

"We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research," Reader of Ulyanovsk State University's archaeology department Dr Alexander Kozhevin told state-run television Vesti.

Dr Kozhevin, who has been working in Staraya Maina for last seven years, said that every single square metre of the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of Samara, a tributary of Volga, is studded with antiques.

Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, Dr Kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons.

He believes that today's Staraya Maina, a town of eight thousand, was ten times more populated in the ancient times.

It is from here that people started migrating to the Don and Dneiper rivers around the time ancient Russy built the city of Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine.
An international conference is being organised later this year to study the legacy of the ancient village, which can radically change the history of ancient Russia.

Tippu Sultan Massacred 700

Check out the below URL for more details

http://www.india-forum.com/articles/152/1/Did-Tipu-massacre-700-Iyengar-men,-women-&-kids%3F

Did Tipu massacre 700 Iyengar men, women & kids?

Deepavali, the festival of lights, is observed as Dark Day even now by their descendants

Less than three weeks from now will occurs Naraka Chaturdashi, the famous festival of lights, but Mandyam Iyengars don't celebrate it; they observe it as a Dark Day. It was on this day over 200 years ago that Tipu Sultan herded nearly 700 men and women belonging to this community and put them to a cruel death, according to two Mysore-based scholars who have more than academic interest in this particular aspect of history.

Dr MA Jayashree and MA Narasimhan, whose close relation with the Wadiyars of Mysore goes back to more than 150 years, have brought out this fact in a paper they jointly presented at a seminar of significance at Dhvanyaloka, Mysore, not too long ago. Their all-important observations went unrecorded in the main due to poor media coverage of the seminar what was essentially academic in character. The ongoing animated debate on Tipu, set off by Minister Shankara Murthy, who has since apologised for what he said, provides an opportunity to highlight what the two scholars describe as "the forgotten chapter in the history of Mysore".

In their detailed account of the event, the couple says that the mass killing of Mandyam Iyengars, related to Tirumaliengar, the Pradhan of Mysore (referred to by the British as Tirumala Row) and living between Mandya and Srirangapatna, is very much a fact of history, not fiction created by the enemies of Tipu.

Iyengars who belongs to to Bharadwaja gotra, the lineage of the Pradhan, stay away from Deepavali celebrations because it was on the same day that Tipu Sultan killed their ancestors. Every child of those families is told about the bloody event that day, the paper points out.

The heroic role that dowager queen Rani Lakshammanni and her relentless battle for the restoration of the throne during the period of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, is not adequately mentioned (except in the three-volume History of Mysore by Hayavadana Rao). "It is a pity that her persistent effort and courage despite being confined behind the curtains of the royal palace and constantly threatened by the mercurial temper of Tipu Sultan in bringing about the promise that she had made to her husband Immadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, finds scant mention by the historians. We do not even have an authentic biography of this grand dame of Mysore who lived most of her life under house arrest," it says.

Historians have not done justice to the pradhans of Mysore either, Dr Jayashree and Nrasimhan complain, adding that Without Tirumalaiengar and his brother Narayan Row, Lakshmmanni could not have achieved her cherished goal. "The history of the pradhans is all the more endearing to us for we belong to Tirumalaiengar's family.

What was the provocation for Tipu to put the 700 members of this family to sword? Though Lakshammanni begins her quest for the restoration of the throne from the ascension of Hyder Ali to the throne, she started negotiating with the British in the 1760's with the help of Tirumala Row and Narayana Row. She had assured the two brothers of the pradhanship of Mysore and one-tenth of the income of the state as their salary in perpetuity, should they succeed in their endeavor. On coming to know of this, Hyder imprisoned all their relatives.

It was in 1790's that Tipu Sultan, on coming to know of the agreement between Gen. Harris, the then Governor of Madras, and Tirumaliyengar, herded the latter's relatives for decimation. "There is no mention of this in any history book, but 200 years after the horror, the Mandyam Iyengars do not celebrate the festival. This itself is a strong indication how true the event is and how strongly they feel about the cruel end their ancestors met with for no fault of theirs," the couple points out.

Narasimhan, who is the superintendent of Jaganmohan Art Gallery, and his wife Jayashree identify themselves a a "group of people who are trying to set down the norms for re-writing of the history of India with an Indian perspective" as from the Moghul historians downwards to the historians of the colonial and modern period, there seems to be a gradual polarization of presentation, which is "glaringly biased".

"It somehow slips in to a mode where the conquerors are heaped with all the encomiums and the vanquished is made to shoulder all the opprobrium the historians see and create," the couple says. Questioning the stand of noted historian Romilla Thapar that history has to be read in between the lines (of inscriptions), it deprecates the tendency to brush aside folklore and tradition, "the backbone of Indian history".

Hidden Truths About TajMahal

No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says theTaj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya ) .

In the course of his research Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai SIngh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place fordead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Humayun,Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says the term " Mahal " has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries from Afghanisthan to Algeria . "The unusual explanation that the term TajMahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects.
Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes.
Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal, he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace .

Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale cre ated bycourt sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a fewsamples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan. European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo,who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the cit y in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.

The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time.Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu templeratherthan a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj ! Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public . Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government t ried to have Prof. Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition dire consequences .

There is only one way to discredit or validate Oak's research. The current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Ma hal under U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate.

Non-violence has a lot of opportunity in today's world

"Non-violence has not been proven in every case. But the failure of violence has been proven in a few thousand cases," said Rajmohan Gandhi at the launch of his book "Mohandas — A True Story Of A Man, His People and an Empire," here on Monday.

In reply to a question by a member of the audience, Mr. Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma, said that non-violence had a tremendous opportunity in today's strife-ridden world.

It is said that history is full of ifs and buts and it reflected in the questions fielded to Mr. Gandhi. To a question whether India and Pakistan would have been different countries had Mahatma Gandhi's assassination not taken place, he said: "There is a possibility, a likelihood that India-Pakistan relations might have taken a better turn," adding that he [Gandhiji] could have helped the people of the two countries shed their suspicion and resentment.

Earlier, as an introduction to the book, historian Ramachandra Guha termed it "a major book by a major scholar" and said that "the book breaks new ground". Choosing to question Mr. Gandhi on the themes of family and politics from Gandhiji's life, Mr. Guha asked Mr. Gandhi on the Mahatma's interaction with his wife and children, often perceived as harsh and cruel.

Because the Mahatma had taken up such a large undertaking for the nation, he had little love left for his family, Mr. Gandhi opined.

Giving his account of the Mahatma's decision to choose Jawaharlal Nehru as India's first Prime Minister, Mr. Gandhi said, "He [Gandhiji] instinctively felt that in the hands of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian state, in relative terms would be a gentle state," Mr. Gandhi said that the Mahatma realised the Indian people's innate tendency for violence and oppression over the meek and felt that under Nehru it would be least harsh and most gentle.

When asked on the Mahatma's transformation from a shy person to a charismatic figure, he said: "Gives hope to all of us, doesn't it?" As his parting shot, Mr. Gandhi said: "Gandhiji was great and effective not because he had no fear but because he acted despite his fear."

How English Invaded India!