ആദരാഞ്ജലികള്‍

എ അയ്യപ്പന്‍ (27 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 1949 - 21 ഒക്ടോബര്‍ 2010)

ബുദ്ധാ
ഞാനാട്ടിന്‍കുട്ടി
കല്ലേറുകൊണ്ടിട്ടെന്റെ കണ്ണുപോയ്
നിന്‍ ആല്‍ത്തറകാണുവാനൊട്ടുംവയ്യ.

കൃപാധാമമേ ബുദ്ധാ, കാണുവാനൊട്ടും വയ്യ
പ്രഭാതാരവും എന്നെ തെളിച്ച പുല്‍പ്പാതയും.
ഇടയന്‍ നഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട കുഞ്ഞാടാണല്ലോ, യിനി
തുണ നീ മാത്രം ബുദ്ധാ,
അലിവിന്നുറവു നീ.

കണ്ണിലെച്ചോര വീഴും പാതയില്‍ നീ നില്‍ക്കുമോ
കണ്ണിനെച്ചുംബിച്ചെന്നെ തോളിലേറ്റുമോ, നിന്റെ
കണ്ണിന്റെ കനിവെല്ലാം കാണുവാന്‍ കഴിയുമോ?

മുള്ളുകള്‍ തറയ്ക്കുന്നു കാലുകള്‍ മുടന്തുന്നു
വിണ്ണിലേക്കുയരുന്ന വൈഖരി പോലെ നിന്റെ
പൊന്നുവാഗ്ദാനം വീണ്ടും കേള്‍ക്കുമോ തഥാഗതാ!

മിണ്ടാത്ത നിന്‍ വെങ്കല പ്രതിമയെങ്ങാണവോ
മണ്ട ഞാന്‍ പൊട്ടിച്ചെന്റെ കുരുതി സമ്മാനിക്കാം
കാരുണ്യമോ, കരസ്​പര്‍ശമോയേല്‍ക്കാതെ നിന്‍
പേരുവിളിച്ചും കൊണ്ടെന്‍ ചോരക്കണ്ണടയവേ,

പുല്‍ക്കൊടിത്താഴ്‌വരകള്‍ കാതില്‍പ്പറഞ്ഞൂയെന്നെ
കല്ലെറിഞ്ഞവനൊരു സിദ്ധാര്‍ത്ഥനെന്ന കുട്ടി.
(ബുദ്ധനും ആട്ടിന്‍കുട്ടിയും എന്ന കവിത)

Roy's Experiments with Life

This is Roy, my friend... who lives in solitude amidst the wilderness of Wayanad in Kerala, in a self built hut on the banks of Narasipuzha, a tributary of the river Kabani. In a space of less than 20 cents (approx. 9600 sq.ft) he is "experimenting organic farming", or rather learning living with nature. He wakes up to the sound of birds chirping, his pleasure grows with the day seeing his plants bloom. Cabbages, cauliflowers, beans, turnips, carrots, radishes, mustards ... all grow together in his tiny orchard. He is no close to Fukuoka or Dabholkar, but with an attitude much the same. Read on to know more about that attitude in his own words.

information technology & the usa

I was working as an IT consultant in corporate America for nearly five years. By most definitions I had ‘made it’ — good education, good job, nice car, pretty girlfriend, ‘success.’ Yet, I voluntarily chose to walk away from it all and search for a totally different way of life. Why? Let me share two reasons, one external and one internal, although both are deeply connected.

I had long since questioned the role of the US government and multinational corporations in dominating the world and recreating it in its own image. But the wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq — though hardly new or different than what the US had long been doing — brought me to a point where I had to make a decision: was this a system I could support? For supporting it I was, through my tax dollars, job, and my way of life — despite going to protests to the contrary. I decided there must be a better way of living, a way of life not based on competition, violence and endless ‘growth,’ but rather based on cooperation, justice, harmony with nature, etc.

The other reason I walked away was more internal. It’s not that I was depressed — in fact I was actually happy much of the time. But I learned that extremes of highs and lows are two sides of the same coin. It is like a drug. In fact, I found that much of my life was like a drug. I was addicted to so many things: to money, work, material wealth, impressing others, etc. Like any
drug though, there was no real satisfaction, no contentment, no peace — only a desire for more. And like any addict, my character suffered for it. I realized I had become competitive, stressed out, selfish, greedy, individualistic. I did not have any real love for others, was certainly not content, and had little peace of mind. That was hardly the person I wanted to be. And so, after a long struggle, I quit my job, sold my belongings, and left America in search of truth, in search of a better way of living and being, both externally and internally.


joyful living at kanavu - kerala

Lightning bugs lit up the dark night, along with millions of stars that filled the clear sky. Crickets and frogs by the thousands rang loudly from seemingly everywhere. The paddy fields stood still, barely visible, growing silently in the dark. Yet, it was the sound of children and youth singing joyfully that filled the air and overwhelmed all else. It was my last night at Kanavu, and after a full day my favorite time had arrived. That day, after waking up at six and doing Kalari, Kerala’s traditional martial art, we then went to the nearby forest to collect plants to put in our newly dug up beds. The knowledge of which plants have which benefits was astounding. The forest was green as always, the main river supplemented by several small streams with pure water. Leeches here and there kept us watchful, scorpions and snakes kept at bay. After lunch, I joined the team building a bamboo hut close by for one of our friends. We gathered everything we needed locally - bamboo from the forest and thatch from coconut leaves. I learned a lot watching the group skillfully cut, scrape, and weave bamboo with grace. We worked until dusk, bathed, and feeling refreshed after a good day’s work, we sat down on the verandah and sang with happiness.

After leaving my corporate job in America and returning to my family’s homeland of Kerala, I was led to Kanavu by a question that has pursued me for some time now: what is the good life? Is it possible to live a life based on values of sharing, love, peace, justice and harmony with nature, rather than the competition, alienation, exploitation and violence so much a part of capitalist culture?

While not perfect, in many ways Kanavu actually exceeded my dreams of the good life – simple in material possessions but so rich in spirit. Here everyone participates in work, which hardly seems like work at all, since we do varied tasks with people we cherish, rather than doing monotonous labor only for money. And here the lines between work, play, and education are not so clearly separated. At the rice harvest in particular, I was amazed how quickly my friends would break into song and dance!

My experiences at Kanavu raised many questions. What has my own schooling lacked? What are my true needs? What have I been neglecting? How do I change myself?

After working in the paddy and ginger fields, I felt surprisingly great. I discovered that we as humans were meant to do physical activity – something I wasn’t getting much of in my years of schooling and office work. Despite all the propaganda to the contrary, working with our hands in the fields is not beneath our dignity.

At Kanavu I learned that so many of what I used to consider ‘needs’ were really artificially created, whereas many of our true needs I was neglecting. After experiencing the daily singing and dancing that so enriches Kanavu life, I have little doubt that there is something in the human spirit that needs this. And the songs here are not formulaic film songs that are played off a CD, but mostly folk songs that touch our spirit – the energy is amazing. Community also is a true human need – we need other people near us that we know and love.

Finally, I have a need for nature – both being connected to the forest, animals, and rivers, but also being connected to the processes of nature – birth and death, young and old, day and night. At Kanavu, we live in harmony and connection to nature, growing much of our own food without chemicals, building with local materials, treating animals like family. In my artificial urban upbringing, food was something that seemed to grow at the supermarket, people lived in fear of old age and death, and even night was turned into day by bright lights and the TV. By meeting more of our true needs, I experienced a joy at Kanavu far deeper than the temporary pleasures of the consumerist lifestyle.

On the other hand, living without electricity or running water, sleeping on the cold floor, leaches, etc. - those are all things one can get used to rather easily. I learned that the human body has a remarkable ability to adapt to new environments if one is willing.

I was challenged personally at Kanavu in many ways. I realized I had a strong sense of ‘mine’ – my space, my belongings, doing what I feel like doing, etc. It was a challenge to learn to share freely – something that seems quite natural to everyone here. My very consciousness needs to change – from seeing myself in separation from others to sensing the interconnectedness of us all. I may know this in my head but it needs to go deeper than that. Being in an environment like Kanavu certainly helps in nurturing such a deep change.

At the end of Akira Kurasowa's famous film 'Rashomon', when the woodcutter adopts the abandoned baby, the monk thanks him for restoring his faith in mankind. After meeting Roy the first time, I had said to myself 'Yes, there is hope!'.

Saddam Hussein's execution - Some questions

At last, Saddam Hussein was executed, by the very people, whom he tortured. "Justice" has been served. Now we can move on and find the next "Saddam". Look at Cuba, may be we have our next prey there - "Fidel" is tired, old. Let's kill him before he dies. Meanwhile we can prepare Iran, feed her before she can be slaughtered.

While pro-US media were celebrating Saddam's execution, I was "digging", reading posts from people around the globe, some were supporters, some were not. I replicate some great diggs here which say what I want to say, why re-invent the wheel? :) ...

... my country IS controlled by an "evil dictator". And I would never ask the US to liberate me, I'm happy and my life is better than most Iraqis right now. And OMGWTF I can POST ON DIGG and browse the internets freely!!

The price of total freedom in Iraq was too high.. Societies evolve and adopt democracy when they're ready for it, "Liberating" and forcing democracy upon any country is *#&%. It would take a very long time to make Iraq stable again.

Saddam was evil no doubt, but the trial was a joke. Someone explain why he isnt in the Hague... Saddam had many of his lawyers killed, he is being tried by the very people he hurt... and charged with "crimes against humanity" and yet wasn't tried by the world court?... WE should at least act like we are being fair. I have no doubt the hague would find him guilty, that isnt the point and no i dont give a crap about Saddam, that also isnt the point. It is americans image of freedom and fairness that is the point. That is why a fomer US attorney Gerneral was the lawyer on saddams side, not that he supported saddam but he actually believed in the rule of law and that even the worst people on the planet deserve a fair trial...

Also the U.S is the only non third world nation with the death penalty... it is barbaric to become evil to fight evil. It justifies killing and i think that is the main reason he is not in the Hague also like you hear so often from both sides in this election, the timing is rather suspicious we will hear nothing but how this is a turning point right up till we vote...

Bush didn't stop two terrorist regimes: He created a terrorist fun-house (Iraq), and started withdrawal from Afghanistan long before the Taliban was gone. Sure, we killed a bunch of heads of state, but the Taliban is still very much in control of the country. The job in Afghanistan simply wasn't done before Bush started on Iraq.

Besides, this War of Terror has killed more Iraqi civilians than Saddam ever did (using our weapons, mind you).

I don't really support the killing of another person, even if he has caused many deaths. I would personally sentence him to life, and not give him any sorts of luxuries like he got when we were holding him.

Saddam:
Halabja: 5,000
1991 uprisings: 10,000 = 15,000 (Approx)

Bush:
Iraq: 45,000-50,000

So when does Bush go on trial?

Don't think I'm not a supporter of our troops or anything. Hell, my brother-in-law came back three days ago! But, if Saddam is being executed for ordering killings...

I'll know I'll probably get dugg down for this, but I really don't care.

After all the "digging", I landed into HarryBrowne.org, where I read an excellent article titled "Can you imagine? Hussien was right & Bush was wrong". Excerpts from the article.

You may remember that in 2002, the year before the Iraq War began, the United Nations Security Council ordered Iraq to produce a report detailing all of its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons — past and present. Iraqi officials complied and produced an 11,800-page report on Iraq's weapons programs. The report described all the chemical and biological weapons the country once had — where they came from and what was done with them — as well as what had happened to Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

Although the report was prepared for the United Nations, U.S. officials intercepted the report, edited out 8,000 pages (over two thirds) of it, and delivered its Reader's Digest version of the report to the UN.

A German reporter managed to obtain a copy of the original report from Iraq, and then compared it with the truncated copy the U.S. gave to the UN. He found that the missing parts covered the Iraqis' acquisition of chemical and biological weapons from the U.S., the delivery of non-fissionable materials for a nuclear bomb by the U.S. to the Iraqis, and the training of Iraqi nuclear scientists at U.S. nuclear facilities in Los Alamos, Sandia, and Berkeley.

US invaded Iraq saying that it helped Osama Bin Laden and was involved in 9/11. It said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We believed.

Today, Iraq invasion is complete, thousands of civilians killed, Saddam is executed. We believe that "Justice has prevailed".

I was off

Hi, I was not updating my blog for quite a while. Got married, relocated to Chennai from Dubai, new responsibilities, new job. Now, I am "somewhat" settled and plan to blog again.

Meanwhile, while I was away, my blog rose in ranking... a google search for "suresh balasubramanian" will lead anyone in the globe to my blog. Hurray, that is no mean achievement! I am gonna celebrate this with a champaign.

People's History

While most historians study the role of great men in affecting history, Howard Zinn chronicles history from the bottom up, from the street, the home, and the workplace. His signature work, A People's History of the United States, is told from the viewpoint of—and in the words of—its women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. In his contribution to a balanced understanding of history, Zinn describes how many of the country's greatest internal battles—for labor laws, women's rights and racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against steel-willed resistance. It is "a history written from the standpoint of those who have been marginalized politically and economically and whose struggles have been largely omitted from most histories."

Here is a link to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States available online. A must-must-must read.

Hear a Dramatic reading of Zinn's A People's History of the United States from Democracy Now!


Some quotes of zinn...

...the idea that history is made from the top, and if we want change to come about we must depend on our presidents, on the Supreme Court, on Congress. If history shows anything, to me, it shows that we cannot depend on those people on top to make the necessary changes towards justice and peace. It's social movements we must depend on to do that.

...It's not possible because all history is a selection out of an infinite number of facts. As soon as you begin to select, you select according to what you think is important. Therefore it is already not objective. It's already biased in the direction of whatever you, as the selector of this information, think people should know. So it's really not possible. Of course, some people claim to be objective. The worst thing is to claim to be objective. Of course you can't be. Historians should say what their values are, what they care about, what their background is, and let you know what is important to them so that young people and everybody who reads history are warned in advance that they should never count on any one source, but should go to many sources. So it's not possible to be objective, and it's not desirable if it were possible. We should have history that does reflect points of view and values, in other words, history that is not objective. We should have history that enhances human values, humane values, values of brotherhood, sisterhood, peace, justice and equality. The closest I can get to it is the values enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. Equality, the right of all people to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those are values that historians should actively promulgate in writing history. In doing that they needn't distort or omit important things. But it does mean if they have those values in mind, that they will emphasize those things in history which will bring up a new generation of people who read history books and who will care about treating other people equally, about doing away with war, about justice in every form.

I have my biases, my leanings. So if I'm writing or speaking about Columbus, I will try not to hide, omit the fact that Columbus did a remarkable thing in crossing the ocean and venturing out into uncharted waters. It took physical courage and navigational skill. It was a remarkable event. I have to say that so that I don't omit what people see as the positive side of Columbus. But then I have to go on to say the other things about Columbus which are much more important than his navigational skill, than the fact that he was a religious man. That is how he treated the human beings that he found in this hemisphere. The enslavement, the torture, the murder, the dehumanization of these people. That is the important thing.There's an interesting way in which you can frame a sentence which will show what you emphasize and which will have two very different results. Here's what I mean. Take Columbus as an example. You can frame it, and this was the way the Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison in effect framed it in his biography of Columbus: Columbus committed genocide, but he was a wonderful sailor. He did a remarkable and extraordinary thing in finding these islands in the Western Hemisphere. Where's the emphasis there? He committed genocide, but ... He's a good sailor. I say, He was a good sailor, but he treated people with the most horrible cruelty. Those are two different ways of saying the same facts. Depending on which side of the buck you're on, you show your bias. I believe that it's good for us to put our biases in the direction of a humane view of history.

Hear an interview of Howard Zinn by Bob McChesney, host of Media Matters.

Alternative Media

How often do you get a chance to see an interview with Noam Chomsky on a television channel? How often do you get a chance to hear a presentation by Arundhati Roy or Howard Zinn? The so called "Free Press" and "Free Media", have been hijacked by the empire. It is high time that we create a universe of alternative information. The journey has already begun, to create an alternative media that can say loudly that the "King is nude".

Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International. AR provides information, analyses and views that are frequently ignored or distorted in other media.

South End Press is a nonprofit, collectively run book publisher with more than 250 titles in print. Since our founding in 1977, we have tried to meet the needs of readers who are exploring, or are already committed to, the politics of radical social change.

Democracy Now!'s War and Peace Report provides our audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media, including independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts. In addition, the War and Peace Report hosts real debates - debates between people who substantially disagree, such as between the White House or the Pentagon spokespeople on the one hand, and grassroots activists on the other.

Hear Arundhati Roy's presentation “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free”, presented in New York City at The Riverside Church on May 13, 2003 from Democracy Now!

NGO-isation of resistance

This is an article titled "Help That Hinders" by Arundhati Roy (the picture above is of Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan), posted without her permission. But I am sure she wouldn't mind it, since the message has to reach as far as possible. A realization of the politics behind NGO-isation, how it turns what people ought to have by right into charity, aid or benevolence, how it defuses resistance and political anger towards the state. A must read...

Help That Hinders
by Arundhati Roy

Because of globalisation the distance between decision-makers and those who endure the effects of those decisions has never been so great. Gatherings such as the World Social Forum allow local activist movements to reduce that distance and get to know their counterparts from wealthier countries. When the first private dam was built, at Maheshawar, links between the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the organisation Urgewald (Germany), the Berne Declaration (Switzerland) and the International Rivers Network (Berkeley, US) made it possible to divert many banks and international companies from the project. That would not have been possible without solid local resistance and international support to allow the local voice to be heard globally, which led to investors withdrawing from the project.

One problem faced by mass movements is the NGO-isation of resistance. It will be easy to twist what I say into an indictment of all NGOs, but that would be false. There are NGOs doing valuable work; there are also fake NGOs set up either to siphon off grant money or as tax dodges. But it’s important to consider the NGO phenomenon in a broader political context.In India the funded NGO boom began in the late 1980s and 1990s, coinciding with the opening of India’s markets to neoliberalism.

At the time the state, in keeping with the requirements of structural adjustment, was withdrawing funding from rural development, agriculture, energy, transport and public health.

As the state abdicated its traditional role, NGOs moved in to work in these areas. But their available funds are a minute fraction of the cut in public spending. Most wealthy NGOs are financed and patronised by aid and development agencies, funded by western governments, the World Bank, the United Nations and multinational corporations. Though they may not be the same agencies, they are certainly part of the same political formation that oversees the neoliberal project and demands the slash in government spending.

Why should these agencies fund NGOs? Could it be missionary zeal? Guilt? It’s more than that. NGOs give the impression that they are filling a vacuum created by a retreating state. And they are, but in a materially inconsequential way. Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger and dole out as aid or benevolence what people ought to have by right. NGOs alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt political resistance. NGOs form a buffer between the sarkar and public. Between empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators, the interpreters, the facilitators.

In the long run NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They’re what botanists would call an indicator species. The greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism, the greater the outbreak of NGOs. Nothing illustrates this more poignantly than the phenomenon of the US preparing to invade a country while simultaneously readying NGOs to clean up the resultant devastation.

To ensure their funding is not jeopardised and that the governments of the countries they work in will allow them to function, NGOs have to present themselves in a shallow framework, more or less shorn of a political or historical context (an inconvenient historical or political context anyway). Apolitical - therefore extremely political - reports of distress from poor countries and war zones eventually make the (dark) people of those (dark) countries seem like pathological victims. Another malnourished Indian, starving Ethiopian, Afghan refugee camp, maimed Sudanese in need of the white man’s help. They unwittingly reinforce racist stereotypes and reaffirm the achievements, the comforts and the compassion - the tough love - of western civilisation. They’re the secular missionaries of the modern world.

Eventually, on a smaller scale, but more insidiously, the capital available to NGOs plays the same role in alternative politics as the speculative capital that flows in and out of the economies of poor countries. It begins to dictate the agenda. It turns confrontation into negotiation. It depoliticises resistance. It interferes with local peoples’ movements that have traditionally been self-reliant. NGOs have funds to employ local people who could be activists in resistance movements, but instead feel they are doing some immediate, creative good while earning a living. Real political resistance offers no such short cuts.

Lord Rama not a Homo Sapien!

Before I could recover from the hang-over of writing the post Aryan Invasion: History or Politics? about politizising history, this one caught my eye. First an intro, excerpts from an article from india.krishna.org.

NASA Images Discover Ancient Bridge between India and Sri Lanka - Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge's age is also almost equivalent. This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in treta yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).

Now let me take you to this superb article The Hoax Of The NASA Bridge by Prabir Purkayastha.

THE recent story of NASA discovering a “mysterious 1.75 million year ancient bridge”... was initially propagated by Vaishnava News Network an ISKON web site and was promptly hailed as a scientific proof of Ramayana by Hindutva internet sites. Not much notice would have been taken of such claims... if PTI and television channels had not picked up the story.

...we need to delve into the mindset of the Hindu fundamentalists... This mindset believes that there is a deep-seated “western” conspiracy to deny Hindus the rightful place as the most ancient civilisation. The "proof" of this conspiracy is that there are a few “western” men – David Frawley (initiated name Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) and Michel Cremo (initiated name Drutakarma Dasa) -- who are themselves saying that there is a “western” conspiracy to deny Hindus their rightful place.

Frawley, who by his own admission is close to VHP and has met with the senior RSS leaders gets all the RSS luminaries in attendance when he visits and “lectures” here. ... David Frawley runs an Institute called American Institute of Vedic Studies and provides astrological consultations and runs correspondence courses on astrology. Similarly, Michael Cremo... has met with Murli Manohar Joshi to discuss the Drwarka marine archaeology attempt to date an alleged sunken ancient city off the Gujarat coast. This is in spite of having no expertise in archaeology of any variety.

The problem with the age of the yugas is that it then suggests that human beings were around from Sat Yuga and therefore for millions of years. Yet the fossil record is very clear. The Homo sapiens have been around for about 150,000 to 180,000 years. Homo erectus emigrated out of Africa about 750,000 years back and even the hand axe had not been discovered 1.7 million years ago, the supposed time of occurrence of Ramayana.

The need of fundamentalists all over the world is similar: all of them find evolution supported by the fossil record runs counter to what is written in the scriptures. In the case of the Christian fundamentalists, the age of all living beings cannot be older than 6,000 years and of course God created the first man and woman. The Muslim fundamentalists also support the Adam and Eve myth and therefore deny evolution.

The creationists in the USA have been trying for the last hundred years to stop the teaching of evolution in schools...It is the same debate that is now reaching India. Just as the fundamentalists there tried to get various parts of scriptures enter the schools, the fundamentalists here have attacked the school curriculum. The Ramayana epic and its historicity is obviously a major issue. After the Ramjanmabhoomi “movement”, it is necessary to focus Ramayana as more than just an epic, which may or may not have historical basis. The method here is also similar: the Ramajanmabhoomi – as per the VHP – is a matter of faith and not of proof. Similarly, the chronology of Ramayana must also be a matter of faith. If science is an obstacle to such claims, then science must be demolished. And if it can be done using science itself, then so much the better.

The scientific community in India is not aware of the kind of attack that the Hindu fundamentalists are planning on the entire educational system. The current changes in the NCERT textbooks are only symptomatic of this mindset. The aim here is to subvert the method of science and substitute instead with belief in myth and prejudice. It is this mindset that proclaimed that sun revolved around the earth and punished Galileo. It is the same mindset that suggests that the scriptures must be correct and science wrong if human beings as we know them today have arisen only 150,000 -180,000 years back. And it is the same belief in scriptures that leads a Giriraj Kishore to claim that the life of a cow is much more important than the life of five dalits. And unless the scientists are willing to join the fight against this distortion of education, and knowledge we are likely to lose the battle for a better future.

NASA has distanced itself from such claims:

"The images [...] may be ours, but their interpretation is certainly not ours. [...] Remote sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing any of the patterns seen."

Are we moving towards a world full of misinterpreted history and science?

An honest self-criticism by a Leftist

I have been going through www.revolutionarydemocracy.org regularly ever since I found it googling. The article by Prakash Rao titled "Contemporary Communism and the Relation of the Party to Political Power" is an excellent one and is an honest self-criticism by a true Leftist. Prakash Rao convincingly states that "the communist party cannot substitute itself for the class" and that "a communist party that fights for power for itself, at any stage, will become transformed into a bourgeois party". Excerpts from the article:-

We are living at a time when the greatest offensive is being carried out by imperialism and the reactionary bourgeoisie against the theory and practice of communism. The degeneration of the Bolshevik Party and the social system in the Soviet Union created the spectacle of a caricature of communism. In particular, it led to the conversion of the dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the party of the new bourgeoisie. Imperialism and the international bourgeoisie screamed against this ‘one party dictatorship’ as they organised the final destruction of the shell of socialism and ushered in classical capitalism and the multi-party dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

The real problem with Soviet democracy was that the role played by the working class and cooperative peasants in the exercise of political power ceased to develop, after the initial stage of socialism. The communist party started concentrating all decision-making power in its own hands, instead of playing its role as the advanced consciousness and enabler of the working class to exercise power. The Communist Party of Soviet Union (Bolshevik) succumbed to the imperialist pressure and embraced modern revisionism. It failed to play the leading role as an abler of the toiling masses to rule themselves, consistent with their capacity and consciousness at the stage of socialism that existed in the Soviet Union after the end of the Second World War. It degenerated from a party of revolution into a tool of the new elite.

When the party ceased to play its role as the vanguard of the working class, the nature of political power began to change. The dictatorship of the proletariat degenerated into the dictatorship of the party of the new elite. The socialist state was converted into a social-imperialist superpower. Discontent spread among the masses of people, which was used by imperialism and the emerging Russian bourgeoisie to wipe out the Soviet Union itself, along with all traces of socialism.

The pressure of imperialist bourgeois ideology and the illusion of power created by the parliamentary system will not be such big problems if the communists and other progressive forces draw the appropriate lessons from the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Far from drawing the lessons and modernising the theory of proletarian democracy, there are parties within the communist movement that are conciliating with the system and political process of capitalist democracy. Such class conciliation within the communist movement is the main roadblock to the strengthening of united struggle of the working class and all the oppressed in this period.

The most important lesson from the rise and fall of proletarian democracy in the 20th century is that a communist party cannot and must not strive to bring itself to power, or keep itself in power. A proletarian party, by definition, seeks power for its class and not for itself. In order to achieve this goal, it must build the united political front of all the oppressed, and imbue the working class with the consciousness to lead the oppressed masses in the struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish proletarian democracy.

The classics of our doctrine teach us that the communist party is the vanguard party of the working class in which the advanced sections of the class militate. The communist party cannot substitute itself for the class. It must refresh and develop its role as the vanguard of the class at each stage of the revolution and socialism. A communist party that fights for power for itself, at any stage, will become transformed into a bourgeois party.

Excellent indeed. We need more such efforts to instigate the idea of true Leftism.

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