On Satanic Verses, A thousand Ramayans, Banning the Ahemediyyas and other controversies

In response to tweets about – no reactions from the Media on the ABVP ban on Sanjay Kak’s screening of a movie on Kashmir versus the apparent overdose of dialogue on Rushdie being denied welcome to India, i wrote the following on a blog post.

By doing this i am hoping that the author of the blog will see the other side

# When recently a version of the Ramayana was removed from the DU syllabus there was a HUGE ruckus in the same media that you are calling #Islamophobic and that they have disappeared See:

# MF Hussain has been painting Hindu gods and godesses in the nude for *decades* now; i am certain that it has been hurting the sentiment of some just as the reading of Satanic Verses would have hurt some; However, it was not until the recent “reactionary” rise of a hard-line right-wing hindus in the middle of the last decade, that he had any trouble painting such.

# Recently a Keralite writer has written a book on re-interpreting Draupadi’s reltionship with Krishna from the Mahabharat, and represented it in a very sexual manner. The book has NOT been banned, in spite of protests

# Imam Bukhari recently disrupted an exhibition of the Ahmeddiyas and asking them to *not call themselves muslims* http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ahmediyyas-let-them-be/853910/2

Isn’t the ABVP incident that you are referring to falling in the same category? BTW, there was hardly any reaction from the liberals you are referring to on this incident as well. So your notion of categorising them in one class, and one behaviour is inaccurate.

You may agree that most reactions such as banning books is *most often political, than righteous*. Given that the judgment of right vs wrong cannot be given to a government, there needs to be freedom to express anything.

It is self-defeating for people to say anything but things that build bridges and that heal people. This is a problem of the human race. Yet, such self-expression, and even if it takes connotations of provocation, cannot be responded with *banning* and *taking away the right to speech*. The latter is probably worse than the former because it eliminates the chance/opportunity to have a dialogue and bring change. It draws lines of me vs then, and people tend to join one or the other party, thus further creating divisions.

From within the Muslim world, perhaps there is only a *vocal minority* which has strong opinions on the reading and sale of the Satanic Verses, while respectable scholars like Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s voices are made meek, and unheard. Who is right? Why should the Maulana’s opinion and sentiment be made out to be less important than those of the ones protesting?

“Imported Threat” to the Andaman – Spotted Deer, Elephants, Crows, plant species

They’re beautiful but within themselves they carry the seeds of destruction.

Spotted deer were introduced to the Andaman Islands either in the early 1900s or the 1930s. The exact date doesn’t matter, and nor does the actual number. What matters is that, in the absence of predators, they have multiplied and spread, swimming from one island to another. In each island their population has shot up, and they browse relentlessly on the seedlings of the forest trees that regenerate there. They avoid browsing on only two of the hundreds of species of trees found there. Forests of Pongamia (pongam) monocultures are taking over the coastlines, and Lagerstroemia, leafless for most of the year, is taking over the once lush rainforests of the interior. If left unchecked, the fabled forests of the Andamans will, sooner or later, be a thing of the past.

Options for control

What can be done to control the deer? Sterilisation is too expensive and chancy. Translocation is possible, but to where? Back to mainland India? Which Government will bear the cost? The logical solution is culling, but then we have to deal with the vociferous animal rights brigade. Apparently the ‘right’ of an individual animal is more important than the unique ecosystem it destroys.

After almost a decade of inaction and hoping that the problem would go away, the Andaman Administration has written to the Centre, asking this animal species be declared vermin in the islands. Now it’s the Centre’s turn to avoid taking any action. Somehow the matter is too unimportant to find a place on the agenda of the National Board for Wildlife, whose members’ only preoccupation seems to be to avoid controversy and hence ensure their re-nomination onto the Board. Even declaring the deer vermin is not going to solve the problem of how it is to be removed from National Parks where shooting is banned.

The deer are only one of several problem animals. The most spectacular are the 30 or so elephants that were released on Interview Island about 50 years ago, when the logging company using them went bankrupt. They debark and knock down the trees, killing them. The deer then make sure that no regeneration takes place.

A few years ago, an offer was made by the Berlin Zoo to translocate these elephants to mainland India, provided they got a couple of young ones for the zoo. Again our brilliant environmentalists leapt into action. The elephants would feel cold, and they would miss the society of their peers! This seems to be less desirable than dying of starvation, which is what appears to be happening now. Anyway the offer, tentative as it was, has since been withdrawn.

Complete article at: http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article2840068.ece

Google Analytics cuts off J&K from India’s map

Google Analytics' map showing J&K cut off

Learning Societies Unconference; Mumbai; 28 Feb to 04 Mar 2012

I’m applying for attending the Learning Societies Unconfernce to be held near Mumbai between 28 Feb and 04 Mar 2012. The 3 questions they asked me, and my responses.

 

Please describe yourself and your own learning/unlearning journey in a short personal note (up to 500 words) which can be shared with the larger group. *

My internet social profiles say: “Entrepreneur/ Drupal, Open Source evangelist/ Green activist/ Pilgrim/ In pursuit of a purposeful life”.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my working life. Have mastered the art of *delaying gratification* (even though it is beginning to hurt the financial planning for the family a bit), i’ve learnt to *live fairly frugally*. Actually, i’ve always had an intuitive pull towards frugal and sustainable living; about sharing and co-ownership; towards spiritual values. This pull led to a search for the divine fairly early on in my life, leading first to a crisis/depression, eventually resulting in a *search* for health, wellness, and a *deep seeking*. I still do not know what i am seeking; what i am after – so end up calling myself a *pilgrim, in pursuit of a purposeful life*.

Yet i know where to look – sustainable farming, renewable energy, meditation, Gandhi, writing of life, travelling, photography, advocacy, a bit of coaching, employee-owned companies, and entrepreneurship.

 

What kind of learning communities and learning experiments have you been trying co-create? *

“Beyond Tech” is an initiative i’ve seeded at Srijan to help bring diversity and breadth to people. http://www.srijan.in/beyond-tech. This year my goal is to startup two more projects:

a) invest in a large piece of land in the mountains alongwith Navin Pangti – with the objective of forming a base for experimentation with *BioChar* for increased organic agriculture productivity, for regenerating degraded forests around using “seedball sowing”, and eventually creating a sustainable local economy with an element of eco-tourism.

b) create an e-commerce property to bring give market access for natural and wellness products to self-help groups and social communities around the country

What questions, topics, workshops, proposals, projects, invitations, etc. related to unfolding learning societies would you like to contribute and further explore in this unconference? *

The two projects listed above. BioChar is of keen interest to me given its tremendous benefits in increasing agricultural produce naturally, and its tremendous potential in acting as a *carbon sink*. As an example, 1 ton of BioChar = 3 tonnes of CO2.

My salary over the years

Most people consider asking how much they earn an intrusion on their privacy. We all find it difficult to share our salaries – sometimes  a) *out of guilt*, and  b) at other times *out of shame*.

Since, i wrote this article inviting entrepreneurs to see themselves as investors, and start drawing a salary as close as what the market may pay them (instead of sacrificing it for constantly and feeding their business), i thought i should share how i have drawn my salary over these years.

2002-03:	Rs.10,000/- (Feb 2003 to May 2004)
2003-04:	Rs.15,000/- (June 2004-March 2005)
2005-06:	Rs.30,000/- (April 2005-Sep 2005)
2005-06:	Rs.40,000/- (Oct 2005-Sep 2006)
2006-07:	Rs.61,500/- (Nov 2006-April 2007)
2007-08:	Rs.63,000/- (May 2007-March 2008)
2008-09:	Rs.71,600/- (April 2008-Sep 2009)
2009-10:	Rs.1,00,000/- (October 2009-Sep 2011)

The last salary that i drew in Aug 1999, as an employee was Rs.28,000-30,000/- – while i do not recall accurately – it was in that order. And i reached this salary again, after about 5 years of being self-employed. And even after this, the salary growth was too low.

My peers, those who chose to stay on India (very few did), were earning atleast about 2 times my salary drawn in 2009-2010. And by the way, the industry would be willing to give me much more than that for the skills i have/had gained over these years of running an IT services business. I created a decent brand, delivered fairly visible projects with decent amount of quality, and created a nice team of open source enthusiasts. A fairly successful, even if a smallish business, over the years.

So, if you are a young entrepreneur just starting out, here’s my message :: while you must sacrifice and *delay your gratification*, there is no reason for you to be unjust to yourself, and worse – to your family.

Learn from my mistakes if you can, and constantly strive to give yourself atleast close to a market salary. You can evaluate this, by interviewing your friends and peers, and by searching on job sites for people with similar profiles to yours.

And when your business starts succeeding, give yourself a hefty raise, and year-end dividends – that would be the incentive for delaying your gratification early on during the initial years of the business.

The Indian connection with the Shaolin Temples in China

In 495 AD, the Indian monk Ba Tuo, or Buddhabhadra, came to China teaching a form of Buddhism known as Xiao Sheng Buddhism. He was given land at the foot of Shaoshi mountain by Emperor Shao Wen and founded the Shaolin Temple on this land.

Source: http://www.usashaolintemple.org/chanbuddhism-history/

And how about CROMA? Are they serious about their website at all?

One worse than the other! I just blogged about the pathetic state of Airtel’s online transactions; and went to Croma’s website – the big electronics retail outlet by TATAs to search for a *steamer*. Well, it took them 96 seconds for a search across 130 pages, to tell me they did not have it. What a shame! Someone please tell their agency about Apache SOLR search, or route them to Srijan Technologies to help them out with it.

Is Airtel serious about it’s online payments?

Is Airtel serious about its online business? Is IBM serious about having its systems running? Just went to book a broadband line for my home (disgusted with the lack-of-transparency from MTNL in its billing), and this is what i got – “Unable to process your request. Please try later!!!” bah!

On Democracy and Democratic Workplaces

A couple of my colleagues gifted me *Animal Farm* a book by George Orwell. It is a depressing story (so far as i’ve read) about how a *people’s revolution* (or *animal’s revolution* in this case; against the tyranny of human beings) is usurped by some self-styled *leaders* from among the animals.

While going through emotions of anger and depression, in reading the book, i felt deeply motivated to re-affirm by strong conviction in *workplace democracy* and *employee ownership*, as the only way to create a more equitable, just and sustainable world for ourselves in the years ahead. And if i may say, a world without economic crises generated out of human greed.

Leaving my readers with thoughts from Thomas Freidman on how democratic workplaces, just as democratic countries, are going to be the order of the day in the coming years; and the new kind of leadership, leaders in such institutions would have to offer to their employees / customers / citizens.

“The days of leading countries or companies via a one-way conversation are over,” says Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN and the author of the book “How.” “The old system of ‘command and control’ — using carrots and sticks — to exert power over people is fast being replaced by ‘connect and collaborate’ — to generate power through people.” Leaders and managers cannot just impose their will, adds Seidman. “Now you have to have a two-way conversation that connects deeply with your citizens or customers or employees.”

This kind of leadership is especially critical today, adds Seidman, “when people are creating a lot of ‘freedom from’ things — freedom from oppression or whatever system is in their way — but have not yet scaled the values and built the institutional frameworks that enable ‘freedom to’ — freedom to build a career, a business or a meaningful life.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/opinion/sunday/friedman-help-wanted.html

Can Kashmir remain *free* if India moves out?

A few minutes backed picked up some tweets about Rev. Khanna getting arrested in Kashmir for converting a few muslims, and read a blog which was being referred to: http://kafila.org/2011/12/25/merry-christmas-rev-khanna-thinking-about-freedom-and-intolerance-in-kashmir/.

Here’s my response to the author and my view on the issue:

Shuddha, defending a Rev. priest to freely convert could be defended in its own right. Why make such a massive case against *Indian Occupation* in the same post? A really *defensive article*, as if to keep the azadiwallas in good humour!

Meanwhile, wherever Islam has dominated, all religions, even sects within Islam – those of the unorthodox types – Ahmeddiyas, Bahai’s Sufis – have all suffered, persecuted, and often eliminated or exterminated. This has happened in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran.

Recently, a perfectly normal exhibition of various calligraphic Quran’s organised by Ahmadiyas in Delhi, was *forced* to close down by the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, because he felt the Ahmadiyas are *not Muslims*; see: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article2481853.ece

Even *bridge-builders* like Mualana Wahiduddin Khan are classified as *heretics* and ostracised from mainstream Islam.

Saudi Arabia does not allow anyone to practice any other religion; one has heard horrible stories of pictures of Indian gods and godesses being picked out of pockets of Indians and crushed by immigration officers – as a way of teaching a lesson about who not to argue with in that country.

In 1951 22% of Bangladesh was Hindu; by 2001, it was down to 9.2%. Let’s look at Pakistan. Post partition (and the massive migrations) nearly 20% of the Pakistani population was Hindu, while it is now less than 2%. The reasons are primarily of direct/in-direct persecution and often even forced conversions and threats.

That the same precedent would follow in Kashmir once it found *independence* from India is not only believable, but perhaps inevitable. No matter what the liberal, and well-meaning Kashmiri Muslims say or do, they do not have much in control.

Sufi processions and even Dargahs are regularly targetted by militants and extremists, just as they are in Pakistan. No one has heard such incidents happening anywhere in India. The situation is becoming so bad that organisations such as the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting is asking *Is Kashmir headed the way of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Islamic radicalism has fueled a nihilistic ideology of settling disagreements through violence?*. See http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/kashmir-india-pakistan-sufi-wahhabi-islam.

This is a case for India to not only remain in Kashmir, but also cause influence of its culture, which includes Sufism, back into Kashmiri mainstream.