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.