W’end Links: Nehru, Yoga, Israel and Caste Census

Start your weekend with these excerpts from a conversation between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and an IAS probationer, Shri Yuvaraj Karan in 1950, reproduced from the print edition of the monthly magazine “Secularism Combat” (thanks Jiggs).

…Shri Yuvaraj Karan, a former IAS Officer, who is also one of the escapees from Pakistan has written a book “Understanding Partition” published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. When he was at the IAS training institute in Dehradun, in the first batch IAS trainees, Jawaharlal Nehru was invited to address them. At the end of Shri Nehru’s self confident and all knowing address Shri Yuvaraj whose mind was particularly exercised for the continued stay in India of the leaders of the Muslim League who had brought about partition of India and fought for the establishment of Pakistan, reacted to the observations made by Jawaharlal Nehru and provoked a dialogue! Here it is :

Y. Krishna (YK): Well, Sir, those who have brought about partition have been left behind in the partitioned India. The Muslim League had declared that the Hindus and Muslims were two nations and had asked for partition because they feared that the Muslims being a minority, would suffer oppression and atrocities at the hands of Hindu majority. Pakistan was to be their homeland where they could live in freedom from the tyranny of the Non-Muslim majority. But lo and behold! The vast majority of Muslims of UP, Bihar, Central provinces, Bombay etc remained behind in India and did not migrate to the homeland (Pakistan) created for them. We never accepted the two-nation theory though we were driven to accept partition to avoid bloodshed and to achieve Independence.

Prime minister (PM)– We are not a communal state. The Muslims, who have decided to stay in India, are as much honorable citizens of the country as the members of the majority community. They cannot be victimized in the new situation for their actions and conduct before and at the time of partition. We cannot and must not live in the past

YK : True Sir, but the immense suffering the people have undergone and the problems; only it has created new ones.

PM: You are too young to understand. The overwhelming majority of the Indian Muslims are politically backward and have been misled by the pernicious and poisonous propaganda of the Muslim league. So it will be wrong to treat the vast majority of Indian Muslims as being responsible for the ills of our country

YK: True Sir, the vast majority has been misled by the two-nation theory. But this does not absolve the Muslim League leadership; they are the authors of partition, and yet, the majority of this leadership has also stayed back in India. The Muslims of Pakistan, West Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Baluchistan as such never wanted or asked for Pakistan, in fact that they did not need to.

There was a pause and silence for a couple of minutes.

The Raja of Mahamudabad, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Raja of Pirpur, Maulana Hasrat Mohanti etc, from UP, Syed Hussain Imam from Bihar, M.Mod.Ismail from Madras etc to name a few of the host of Muslim League leaders, have stayed back in India though they had actively worked for the creation of Pakistan as the homeland for the Indian Muslims. There is not an iota of justification for such leaders being allowed to stay in India after having got the country partitioned on the basis of the two-Nation theory. They ought to have gone to the homeland they asked for and obtained

There was again a pause

PM Nehru’s face was flushed. After a brief silence, he resumed

PM: We cannot abandon the nationalist Muslims who had fought and sacrificed for India’s independence.

YK: But the congress has already abandoned the khidmatgars led by the Frontier Gandhi

PM: This was a most (unfortunate) decision forced on us by the geo-political realities

Read it in full here.

Next, read Sandeep on “The Hindu Roots of Yoga”

One of the more unfortunate but widespread phenomena today with regard to Hinduism is that we now need to produce elaborate evidence for things accepted as evident truths just thirty or forty years ago. In other words, writing defenses instead of doing original, constructive work. Yet the devil must be given its due lest it unleash more mischief upon us.

…Like everything in Hinduism, Yoga has its roots in the Vedas. A cursory reading of the Vedas and the principal Upanishads shows the widespread usage of the word Yoga therein. It is used in different philosophical contexts, and conveys different meanings and it’s not as a one-size-fits-all theory as these Yoga gurus claim it is.

In no particular order, the word Yoga is used liberally throughout the Rg, Yajur and Atharva Vedas, and the Aitareya, Katha, Mundaka, Mandukya, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, and the Mahanarayana Upanishads. These apart, there are about 50 Yogopanishads–Upanishads specifically dedicated to various aspects of Yoga like the Amritananda, Amritabindu, Yogatattva, Yogasikha, Pasupatabrahma, Hamsa, and Varaha Yogopanishads.

In the Vedas, Yoga is used in the sense of tapas (literally, “to burn” but it usually means intense penance). The Mahanarayana Upanishad, which has a separate section dedicated to Tapah Prashamsa (Glory of Penance) terms Tapas variously as rta (the Cosmic Order), truth, and self-restraint and upholds the importance and glory of Sanyasa Yoga or the Yoga of renunciation. Other principal Upanishads refer to Yoga in terms of Shravana (concentrated listening), Manana (revision, reflection), and Nidhidhyasana (intense contemplation on that which is learnt), all essential qualities that an aspirant of Vedanta should possess. The Katha Upanishad carries this celebrated verse, expounding the nature and aim of Yoga:

…The Mandukya, a short and terse Upanishad of just twelve verses, expounds on the meaning and nature of OM. It describes the states of Jagrat (wakeful), Swapna (dream), Sushupti (deep sleep), and Turiya (the Fourth state beyond deep sleep, the state of pure consciousness where only non-duality exists). The focus of this Upanishad on meditating upon OM in a way, forms some of the roots of Yoga Darshana. Similarly, we find a reference to Nadis in the Chandogya Upanishad, which says:

…We don’t need a text other than the Bhagavad Gita to look for ample references to Yoga. Celebrated verses about Yoga include

Read the full post here (recommended) it all The Hindu Roots of Yoga

Charles Moore asks “Why has Israel disarmed itself in the battle for world opinion?” (Thanks to Prakash for alerting me to this article)

…One would be perfectly justified in writing an entire column attacking the way Israel has been misrepresented over its fatal raid on the flotilla bound for Gaza on Monday. One could point out that the IHH, which was in charge of the Turkish boat which was attacked, has well-attested links to terrorist organisations. It was spoiling for a fight: some of those on board spoke of their desire for “martyrdom”. One could add that the men who fought the Israeli commandos were strangely described by ABC as “humanitarians with a few knives”. Chanting anti-Jewish battle-cries, they stabbed an Israeli soldier before, it seems, the Israelis had shot anyone. The same “humanitarians”, judging by fairly clear film of the incident, tried to club Israelis to death.

…But I shall say no more about any of these things, because what friends of Israel need to say at this point is that this mess is Israel’s fault.

I do not mean, as so many do, that Israel is wicked and aggressive, let alone – as is often, almost obscenely, claimed – that its actions replicate the behaviour of apartheid South Africa or even of Nazis in the Holocaust. I mean that Israel is at fault because, by failing to define the nature of the conflict, it is allowing such views to win.

…This saga is a terrible lesson in what happens when the wrong narrative is allowed to capture the public consciousness. This week’s event, perhaps prompted by a similar, ill-disciplined impulse to teach bad people a lesson, may well be used against Israel at the bar of world opinion 40 years hence.

…The failure, above all, is in what is now called (see last week’s column) “the battle of the narratives”.

…Israel has fought so long, and usually so well, in real battles, but it seems to have forgotten how to fight in verbal ones. On the day of the flotilla incident, all the outraged governments were on the airwaves almost before anything had happened. But it took five and a half hours before the Israeli Ambassador in America appeared in public. Quite a lot of articulate people spoke up in Israel’s support – it really will be a black day when there are no articulate people to be found to defend the Jewish state – but they had no clear, coordinated, Israeli government message, and so their ”innumerable guns’’ were pointing in different directions.

By contrast, the ”humanitarian’’ narrative was constantly repeated with all the efficient dishonesty that terrorists, when they use that word, deploy so well.

…Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them.

In full here.

And finally, Prof Ravinder Kaur writes onthe Caste Census:

The consensus of political parties and of senior Congress leaders like Veerappa Moily and Pranab Mukherjee on including caste in the upcoming census, is the worst kind of caving into political pressure by other parties who see this as an opportunity to demand higher quotas for their constituencies.

That this should be happening just when the importance of caste in our lives may actually be decreasing and we may be looking at each other beyond the over-determining primordial identities of caste, region, religion and even gender, is rather depressing.

…Yes, no doubt, caste continues to be a reality of Indian life…And most importantly, our politics is completely caste driven.

So much so that without any sense of shame, Moily, generally a sensible politician, reveals that caste identity is indicated in the left hand column in the list of party candidates for election — an open secret. A young politician like Rahul Gandhi is also known to be fascinated by caste arithmetic, perfecting the art with modern technology and databases.

…Today, with the Internet at their command, caste communities will coalesce and position themselves for action as soon as a caste census is announced, as easily as every website provides a drop-down menu with caste names to choose from. Except that unlike 1931, people will be wanting to move down and not up, because the limited government jobs and educational seats in highly subsidised elite educational institutions will be available only if you are one of the privileged “reserved”.

The time of innocence, of gathering “uncontaminated” data (if it was ever there) has long gone. One must not also underestimate the mischief that enumeration of social identities has the potential of enabling — if electoral rolls have been used for targeting religious communities, how do we know that next time it won’t be on the basis of caste?

Knowledge is power — dangerous power — when in the hands of the unscrupulous.

Read it in full.

Past weekend readings are here.