\ SAMVAD संवाद
Ashadha Shukla 5, Vik. Samvat 2078, Yugabda 5123:16 July, 2021: SM 3008 (For Private Circulation Only)
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1. FESTIVALS: NAG PANCHAMI |
2. PRANT PRACHARAK BAITHAK AT CHITRAKOOT |
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3. DEVELOPMENT ISN’T POSSIBLE WITHOUT UNITY IN THE COUNTRY: RSS |
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SEWA ACTIVITIES ACROSS ALL SECTIONS OF SOCIETY 4. CARING FOR MENTALLY CHALLENGED 5. HONORING MOMS WITH SEWA – ICARE: HSS USA 6. ESSENTIAL KITS AND MEDICINES DISTRIBUTION ACROSS BHARAT AND NEPAL |
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7. ‘BANGABANDHU CHAIR’ AT UNIVERSITY OF DELHI |
8. INDONESIAN HINDUS TAKE PART IN YADNYA KASADA RITUAL |
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9. BHARAT BUILDING GROUND STATION FOR ASEAN IN VIETNAM |
10. ‘ONE EARTH, ONE HEALTH’ : GLOBAL COWIN PLATFORM |
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11. MANIPUR ON BHARATIYA RAIL MAP |
12. ARUNACHAL PRADESH GETS FIRST-EVER CABINET MINISTER, TRIPURA FIRST EVER MINISTER |
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13. KHADI PRAKRITIK PAINT UNIT INAUGURATED BY GADKARI |
14. PIO SAMIR BANERJEE WINS WIMBLEDON BOYS’ SINGLES TITLE |
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15. ABHIMANYU MISHRA IS YOUNGEST EVER CHESS GRANDMASTER |
16. SIRISHA BANDLA THIRD BHARATIYA AMERICAN ASTRONAUT |
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17. DR MOHAN BHAGWAT INAUGURATES ’CHARAK SADAN’ AT NASIK |
18. OBITUARIES |
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19. SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN |
FOOD FOR THOUGHT |
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Article: GURUJI’S NON-CONFLICTING FORMULA FOR MINORITY ASSIMILATION |
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1. FESTIVALS: NAG PANCHAMI:
Nag Panchami is one of the unique festivals when people perform traditional
worship of Nagas or Snakes. Nag Panchami is celebrated on Shravan Shukla 5, 13th
August this year.
2. PRANT PRACHARAK BAITHAK AT CHITRAKOOT: Annual prant pracharak baithak of RSS was held at Chitrakoot on 9th – 12th July with Akhil Bharatiya adhikaris while other delegates joined virtually. Apart from various organizational topics, discussion was held on the possibility of the third wave of Corona and a nationwide program of ‘workers training’ has been envisaged. This training will be completed in the month of August and from September, many more people and organizations will be connected in this campaign reaching upto 2.5 lakh places. In this training, necessary precautions and Covid related measures for children and mothers have been included.
3. DEVELOPMENT ISN’T POSSIBLE WITHOUT UNITY IN THE COUNTRY: RSS: “Development isn’t possible without unity in the country. The basis of unity should be nationalism and the glory of ancestors.” said RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat on 3rd July at a book release event at Ghaziabad. The book titled, ‘Vaicharik Samanvay: Ek Vyavharik Pahal,’ is penned by Dr Khwaja Iftekhar Ahmad.
Reiterating his call for nationalism and communal harmony, Dr Bhagwat said, “The only solution to Hindu-Muslim conflict is dialogue and not discord.” Adding in the same vein, Bhagwat said, “Don't get trapped in the cycle of fear that Islam is in danger in India.” -GoTop
SEWA ACTIVITIES ACROSS ALL SECTIONS OF SOCIETY
4. CARING FOR MENTALLY CHALLENGED: In Bengaluru recently, these COVID warriors - Somesh Pattanakodi, Manjunatha Makkalageri, Ganesh Bhosle, Lingaraja Nayanar, Nagaraja Bail Ganagera, Hanumanta Kademani and Gurushantayya Hiremath - saw a man Nagaraj Sajjan lying naked, in a critical condition - starved and dehydrated. After tending and clothing him, they rushed him to a hospital in an ambulance. They even took him to a psychiatric hospital in Dharwad and admitted him there. They informed his family of his condition and also followed up by visiting the hospital every day. -GoTop
5. HONORING MOMS WITH SEWA – ICARE:
HSS USA participated in a sewa project called ‘Honoring Moms In Need’ during
past couple of months. HSS - Contra Costa Vibhag cosponsored an ICARE program to
honor and help moms in need and their babies through the Monument Crisis Center
Walnut Creek
HINDU SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH JAPAN conducted medical camp with support of local karyakartas at Hindu Refugee Camp Adarshnagar, Delhi.
6. ESSENTIAL KITS AND MEDICINES
DISTRIBUTION ACROSS BHARAT AND NEPAL: Continuing its drive to serve people
affected by Covid-19 with essential items and medicines, Sewa International with
partner organizations supplied such items across Bharat at Kacchi Basti of
Jaipur – 13 families of daily wage earners , 4 villages of Krishna District in
Tamil Nadu – 384 kits to low income families, transgender community at Kolkata –
200 kits, Machhi Gadha area of Noida UP – 50 grocery and hygiene kits etc.
7. ‘BANGABANDHU CHAIR’ AT UNIVERSITY OF DELHI: Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Delhi University signed an MoU on 12th July to set up ‘Bangabandhu Chair’ at University of Delhi to honour Father of the Nation and one among the greatest Bengali Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The development coincides with the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence and Bangladesh Bharat diplomatic relations.
The key focus of establishment of the chair will be on the shared cultural heritage of Bharat and Bangladesh with subjects like Anthropology, Buddhist Studies, Geography, History, Music, Fine Arts and Political Science. -GoTop
8. INDONESIAN HINDUS TAKE PART IN YADNYA KASADA RITUAL: Indonesian Hindus Tenggerese worshippers climbed up Mount Bromo during the Yadnya Kasada ritual on 26th June in Probolinggo, Java, Indonesia. The Tenggerese people are an ethnic group in Eastern Java, Indonesia's most populous island, who believe themselves to be descendants of the Majapahit princes that ruled the area historically.
9. BHARAT BUILDING GROUND STATION FOR ASEAN IN VIETNAM: As part of space cooperation between Bharat and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Bharat has started work on establishing a ground station, payload data reception, processing and dissemination facility in Vietnam.
From providing remote sensing data and training to working with countries on small satellites, Indian Space Research Organization ISRO has had a long partnership with ASEAN and this is another step towards furthering Bharat’s space diplomacy.
The proposed facility, which will be built on a four-hectare land at My Phouc-3 industrial park, Binh Doung province, Vietnam will have an 11m antenna which will be installed by ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC).
The estimated cost of the project is 86 billion Vietnamese dollars and work is expected to be completed in 18 months of being commissioned. The said facility in Vietnam might also help Bharat’s Gaganyaan mission as ISRO is looking to have its own coverage for at least 90% of the flight path and depend as little on other tracking stations as possible for the human flight mission. -GoTop
10. ‘ONE EARTH, ONE HEALTH’ : GLOBAL COWIN PLATFORM: Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi addressed the CoWin Global Conclave on 5th July as Bharat presented the indigenously developed CoWIN platform to the world at the virtual global meet of representatives from 142 countries. He expressed delight at the enthusiasm and interest shown by countries from across the globe for Co-WIN platform: “India has been committed to sharing all our experiences, expertise and resources with the global community in this battle. Despite all our constraints, we have tried to share as much as possible with the world. Technology is integral to our fight against COVID-19. “
11. MANIPUR ON BHARATIYA RAIL MAP: In a historic development, Manipur got the first passenger train as Rajdhani Express from Assam’s Silchar railway station reached the Vaingaichunpao railway station in Manipur on 2nd July for an 11 km long trial run. Manipur had its first train in 2016 when Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi flagged off a passenger train between Jiribam in Manipur and Silchar in Assam.
12. ARUNACHAL PRADESH GETS FIRST-EVER CABINET MINISTER, TRIPURA FIRST EVER MINISTER: In the recent reshuffling of the Council of Ministers on 7th July, there are many firsts. Five leaders from the North-East have joined PM Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, which is the highest ever representation from the region.
The focus is on getting young people on board and nurturing leadership. 16 first-time MPs have been inducted into the Council of Ministers.
Shri Kiren Rijiju is the first to be appointed as cabinet Minister from Arunachal Pradesh. Pratima Bhowmik, is the first-ever leader from Tripura to find a place in the Union Council of Ministers. With new inductions, the women’s strength in the Council of Ministers is 11, the highest since 2004.
Nisith Pramanik, 35, a first-time MP from West Bengal, is the youngest member of the Council of Ministers. -GoTop
13. KHADI PRAKRITIK PAINT UNIT
INAUGURATED BY GADKARI: Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin
Gadkari virtually inaugurated the new automated manufacturing unit of Khadi
Prakritik Paint in Jaipur on 6th July. It is Bharat’s first and only paint made
from cow dung.
14. PIO SAMIR BANERJEE WINS WIMBLEDON BOYS’ SINGLES TITLE: Bharatiya-American tennis player Samir Banerjee, 17, has won the Wimbledon Boys’ singles title. He defeated Victor Lilov of the USA 7-5, 6-3 to win the title in the final, which lasted one hour and 22 minutes on 11th July.
Some of the other tennis superstars to have won this boys’ singles title include Stefan Edberg, Roger Federer and Gael Monfils. -GoTop
15. ABHIMANYU MISHRA IS YOUNGEST EVER CHESS GRANDMASTER: Bharatiya-origin American Abhimanyu Mishra has become the youngest ever chess Grandmaster in the world. At 12 years, four months and 25 days, he obliterated the long-standing record held by Sergey Karjakin, who was 12 years and seven months old when he attained the title.
Abhimanyu was just two-and-a-half-years old when his father Hemant, who works in data management, introduced him to chess. By five, he was beating his father and competing in local tournaments, where he started defeating players as old as his father. His coach Arunkumar said , “ He remembers everything he sees. He remembers moves from games in 2014 and 2015. His mind absorbs everything.” -GoTop
16. SIRISHA BANDLA THIRD BHARATIYA AMERICAN ASTRONAUT: Sirisha Bandla vaulted into space on 11th July on board VSS Unity 22, becoming the third Bharatiya American astronaut to do so.
Astronaut 004 Bandla, accompanied by Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, two other crewmates and two pilots touched the space mark.
During the space flight, Bandla was scheduled to conduct experiments designed by the U.S. government's pioneer space agency, NASA involving plants in microgravity.
Bandla is the third Bharatiya American in space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Pandya Williams and the fourth person of Bharatiya descent, the first being Rakesh Sharma, who flew on a Soviet spacecraft.
Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh and grew up in Houston, Texas. -GoTop
17. DR MOHAN BHAGWAT INAUGURATES ’CHARAK SADAN’ AT NASIK: “Affordable and
easy treatment therapies need to reach the people. Ayurveda has thought of
holistic wellness while others have considered illness”, said RSS
Sarsanghachalak Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, while inaugurating ‘Charak Sadan’, the
central office of the Ayurved Vyaspeeth at Nasik on 14th July.
Dr Bhagwat further said that Ayurveda has reached an important stage today and it’s importance has been noticed during the Corona period. There is a need for dedicated work for the spread of Ayurveda all over the world. It has become necessary to exchange knowledge of the pathies (therapies) and to motivate other pathies for the same. For this, all the pathies must come together. For this, Ayurveda needs to take initiative. Charak Sadan is not an end goal but a place. -GoTop
18. OBITUARIES: Swami Prakashananda, the former head of Sivagiri Mutt and President Sree Narayan Dharma Sangham, passed away on 7th July. He was 99.
19. SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN: Pravas: Visitors:
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: A person can rise through the efforts of his own mind;
or draw himself down, in the same manner. Because each person is his own friend
or enemy.—Srimadbhagwat Gita (Chapter 6 - Verse 5) -GoTop
JAI SHRI RAM
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GURUJI’S NON-CONFLICTING FORMULA FOR MINORITY ASSIMILATION
S .Gurumurthy
On the above premises Guruji founded
his concept of assimilation and asserted the understanding that all citizens of
India, including the minorities, have common cultural duty to the nation (rashtra
dharma), to the society (samaja dharma), and to their ancestors (kula dharma),
none of which interferes with his personal right to follow any worship that
suits him best (vyakti dharma), constitutes the essence of assimilation.
Guruji had to wage an intense intellectual battle against all calumny to keep
alive this integrated formula for assimilation for the future discourse to
benefit by.
The most farsighted, sagely contribution of Guruji to national integration was
his uncompromising intellectual campaign that national integration was possible
only by assimilating the minorities into the national mainstream. Guruji’s
concept of assimilation of minorities was founded on the integrating principles
recounted in the earlier parts of this series and recapitulated briefly here:
First, the nation in India is cultural, not religious which the Supreme Court
has accepted; second, all Bharatiyas, including Muslims, are descendents of
common ancestors, a fact which even Islamic Pakistan’s official history accepts;
third, behind the apparent diversity of people, there is a subtle underlying
unity, which the Supreme Court has accepted; the subtle underlying unity
constitutes the way of life and the basic or mainstream national culture of
India which is endorsed by the Supreme Court; that basic culture is Hindu in
character, which too is endorsed by the Supreme Court; the nation in India is
not just a bundle of political and economic rights; the Hindu culture is not to
be equated to Hindu religion which is also endorsed by the Supreme Court; all
religions now in this country have been welcomed, protected and fostered by
ancient Hindu world view of acceptance of all faiths, which was also noted by
the Supreme Court ; no one has been ever discriminated on religious grounds in
this country. a point again noted by the Supreme Court; he cannot be the son of
the soil who does not recognise the rights of another to follow any religion;
cultural assimilation is Indianisation which is also noted by the Supreme Court;
Indianisation does not amount to Hinduisation in religious sense which is also
endorsed by the Supreme Court; the Hinduism or Hindu culture does not affect the
development of common culture as common culture develops around core or basic
culture which was also recognised by the Supreme Court ; the Hindu concept of
State has always been secular and the Supreme Court said confirmingly that
Hindutva may protect secularism. On the above premises Guruji founded his
concept of assimilation and asserted the understanding that all citizens of
India, including the minorities, have common cultural duty to the nation (rashtra
dharma), to the society (samaja dharma), and to their ancestors (kula dharma),
none of which interferes with his personal right to follow any worship that
suits him best (vyakti dharma), constitutes the essence of assimilation. Guruji
had to wage an intense intellectual battle against all calumny to keep alive
this integrated formula for assimilation for the future discourse to benefit
by.
Now read this speech. “I am proud of India, not only because of her ancient magnificent heritage, ...... India’s strength has been two fold: her innate culture which flowered through ages, and capacity to draw from other sources and thus add to her own. .......There is a continuous synthesis in India’s real history, and the many political changes which have taken place have had little effect on the growth of variegated and yet essentially unified culture. I have said that I am proud of our inheritance and our ancestors who gave an intellectual and cultural pre-eminence to India. Note the words, “proud of India” for “her ancient magnificent heritage”; India’s “innate culture that has flowered through the ages”; there is “continuous synthesis in India’s real history”; India’s “variegated, yet, essentially unified culture”; “proud of our inheritance and our ancestors”. Unifying culture, cultural nationalism, assimilation – the core ideas of Guruji’s – are manifest in this speech. Was it Guruji’s? No. Sardar Patel’s. Gandhiji’s? No. The speaker was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru! Where? At the convocation of Aligarh University in 1948!(29) Earlier, in his Independence Day address, Pandit Nehru spoke of India “as a symbol of unity in diversity”, of its “capacity to assimilate” and of “ability to reconcile the irreconcilable.”(30) So, Guruji’s views on cultural nationalism, common ancesty and assimilation were identical to Pandit Nehru’s. Did Pandit Nehru drop talking about it later, because it would have identified him with RSS? In his fundamental work Hind Swaraj written by Gandhi in 1909, he said that India was one nation from time immemorial. Answering the question whether the introduction of Mohammedans not unmade the ancient nation, Gandhiji said: “India cannot cease to be one nation because of those belonging to different religions live in it. The introduction of foreigners does not necessarily destroy a nation; they merge in it. A country is a nation only when such a situation obtains in it. That country must have a faculty of assimilation. India has ever been such a country..... those who are conscious of the spirit of nationality do not interfere with one another’s religion. If they do they are not fit to be considered a nation.”(30) Even thirty years later, in 1938, Gandhiji found ‘nothing to make him alter his views expounded in’ the Hind Swaraj in which these views were written.(31) So Gandhiji had remined firm on nationalism and assimilation.
Assimilation: Society integrates multiculturalism; states enforces integration
After World War II, the west, guilty of genocide of Jewish minorities and with no common potential within to assimilate minorities, began advocating multiculturalism, which ignored the critical idea of common mainstream culture, on which the concept of assimilation was founded. The doctrines of assimilation and multiculturalism are two diametrically opposite poles. Assimilation is a social function, which ensures social and cultural integration of the nation.
But multiculturalism is a political function and a legal and constitutional alternative which forces integration and fractures and undermines national society. Multiculturalism appoints the State as arbiter between different sub-cultural sections of the national society – and in the process it de-legitimises the very concept of mainstream national culture and mainstream national society. But, as we shall see in detail later, the experience of the West, which fashioned multiculturalism and fancied it as lot, has demonstrated that multiculturalism first undermines, later gradually destroys, the mainstream national culture and society and finally makes national integration a function of just law, with breach of it as just a law and order issue. This approach has created indigestible minorities who threaten the very foundation of some western nations today.(32) Therefore, idea of assimilation of minorities, where the mainstream national society and core or basic culture play the integrative role, contradicts multiculturalism. There is vital difference between the state-society relation in the West as compared to state-society relation in Asia, particularly in India. In the West, after undermining the Church, the State has virtually eliminated the society in the natural sense of the term – now what is substituted for the naturally evolved society is civil society which is nothing but State registered collectives like clubs, association and the like. Margaret Thatcher said that there is nothing like society at all.(33) In family-oriented countries like India, where individualism is subordinated to the family, community and society, national integration is largely a social function – the State alone cannot and is unable to bring about integration through only through the Constitution and law and order. In India, with with just 12,800 police stations for some 6.5 lakh villages and towns(34), the State alone cannot ensure and enforce social and national integration by law and law and order machinery. Where the society is fractured like in Jammu and Kashmir, certain areas of North-East India, the law and order machinery of the State itself itself can only prevent or deal with law and order issues. Therefore, the law and the law and order machinery can only enforce national integration whereas only the social process achieves integration by assimilation.
Assimilation turns bad word after Gandhi and Nehru; Guruji’s lonely battle to keep alive the idea of assimilation
But for want of intellectual exposition and defence at higher levels of national leadership after Mahatma Gandhi – and after Pandit Nehru stopped talking about assimilation later – the concept of assimilation of minorities gradually became an inelegant word in national discourse depicted almost as annihilation of minorities’ culture. This was thanks mainly to pseudo-secularism slowly replacing genuine secularism in national politics post Independence. Another reason for the national discourse to turn against the idea of assimilation was the emergence of multiculturalism in Western discourse in 1960s. Guruji had to fight a lonely battle to keep the concept of assimilation alive. And the West which underwent an experiement of multiculturlism and exported that experiment to India, is now reverting back to assimilation.(35) How sagely is Guruji’s contribution to national and global discourse can be understood by seeing how the West which generated the idea of multiculturalism is now going back to assimilation of minorities as the solution to its growing minority – read Muslim – problem.
(Full article with Reference numbers can be seen at https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2021/7/9/Guruji-s-non-conflicting-formula-for-minority-assimilation.html) -GoTop
SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN vishwav@bol.net.in http://shrivishwaniketan.blogspot.com
