A decarbonisation pathway for industries can fulfil the twin objectives of sustained, inclusive economic growth while mitigating climate change
The global energy system has been undergoing a transition that is unprecedented in pace and scale. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, what was to be a crucial year in the global climate discourse has now become one of many socially-distant events and webinars. In a bold move, China’s President Xi Jinping announced his commitment to enhance the country’s nationally-determined contribution (NDC) and lower peak CO2 emissions before 2030, as well as the plan to reach carbon neutrality before 2060. Early estimates by the Climate Action Tracker suggest that if China were to submit a carbon neutrality pledge, it would lower warming projections by around 0.2-0.3°C. This announcement clearly signals that climate action is a strong national agenda for Beijing. With both China and the European Union shifting towards a zero-carbon narrative, India is in the spotlight now as one of the largest emitters in the world. The nation is currently on track to significantly overachieve its NDC targets, both on emissions’ intensity (a 30-35 per cent reduction by 2030 on the 2005 levels) and on non-fossil fuel electricity generation (40 per cent non-fossil fuel generating capacity by 2030).
While India is already considered a climate leader in the area of renewable energy growth and electricity sector decarbonisation, the country must turn its attention to industrial decarbonisation. A strong argument can be made that this would be crucial to not only achieving the Paris Agreement goals but also for Indian businesses to remain globally competitive. India and Sweden led the transition track at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019 and were entrusted with creating stronger commitments from the industry to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Recently, industries comprising “hard to abate” sectors, like aluminium and cement, mentioned that they have already initiated action towards enhancing energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable power in their overall mix. They are also undertaking carbon sequestration, maximising energy efficiency, adopting renewable technologies across the supply chain and embracing best practices of resource-efficiency and circular economy. However, these advancements are likely to face significant constraints in the form of technological capacity, governmental support and investment hurdles in taking up a decarbonisation pathway. Nonetheless, such initiatives can go a long way in boosting confidence of the sector and are crucial for helping India fulfil its climate action goals.
The global climate change and development narrative has highlighted the need to have development pathways that are resilient, green and sustainable. A decarbonisation pathway for industries can fulfil the twin objectives of sustained, inclusive economic growth while mitigating climate change. Decarbonisation as an industry-led approach within the sector would have co-benefits in the form of bringing India closer to fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as on Industries (SDG 9), Decent Growth (SDG 8), Energy (SDG 7) and Climate Action (SDG 13). By upscaling their “green” ambitions in the value chains, processes, infrastructure and partnerships, industries would contribute to the growth of decarbonised backward and forward linkages, enhance their sustainable development capacities and create a green growth paradigm for India. An integrated strategy encapsulating environmental, social and economic necessities would require collaboration between policy-makers and industries, with the former supporting and encouraging businesses through stable and green financing incentives and the latter contributing to nationwide growth through innovation and enhanced technical knowledge. The long-term impact of this kind of an informed industry-led approach, covering climate action and sustainable development, would lead to a positive ripple effect in multiple sectors. It would enable India to undergo a large-scale, comprehensive upgradation on poverty (SDG 1), sanitation (SDG 6), resource management and conservation (SDG 6, 12), skill-building (SDG 4) and amplify technical and financial efficacies through capacity-building (SDG 17). While the world is grappling with a pandemic, it has become quite clear that there is a need to sustain global momentum on climate action.
At the 75th Session of the UNGA, India highlighted the need for reforms at the UN for responding to challenges of the 21st century. Climate change and the subsequent shift towards a greener, circular economy are of utmost relevance here and require multilateral agencies to support developing countries in addressing these challenges through inclusive participation, coordination and support. Climate change puts the responsibility for a collated response on all the stakeholders, cross-cutting various sectors. Industries, catering to a diverse pool of economic activities, will have a pioneering role here. The UNGA and the New York Climate Week discourses have demonstrated a strong willingness by industries to act on addressing climate change. This momentum towards decarbonisation must be enforced and harboured through partnerships and support.
(Sastry and Raj are Research Associates, TERI)
In India, women’s struggle to gain working space continues. They form only 19.9 per cent of the total labour force, much below the halfway mark
Is gender stereotyping a thing of the past? No way! There are instances of sexism galore even in the “post-feministic” world. A widely circulated video on a popular social media platform showed how a “work from home” husband, hassled by his wife’s never-ending demands for participating in domestic chores, longs to get back to the office. The images, no doubt, reinforce the notion that domesticity is the women’s domain and the external world belongs to men.
In Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s recent Senate Judiciary confirmation meetings, her large brood found frequent mention and her commitment to motherhood was part of the public narrative. However, in the case of former Justice Antonin Scalia, his fatherhood and large family never found any mention.
During the present pandemic, a handful of women political leaders earned applause for their effective containment strategies. In a crisis, their humility, inclusiveness, decisiveness and empathy touched the right chord with their beleaguered compatriots. It certainly unsettled the existing presumptions about leadership, which is often associated with “macho” qualities.
Roshee Lamichhane, Professor, Kathmandu University School of Management, rues that “gender stereotyping is deeply ingrained in the very process of child rearing, which, often metamorphoses a girl into a submissive creature, and endows a boy with overbearing character traits.” Saira Shah Halim, a social activist, author and film-maker, says that “the school curriculum and textbooks further sustain the rigid construction of gendered roles and condition the young minds with many cliches. For instance, D stands for a doctor, depicting a man, N for a nurse, with the image of a woman and that father goes to office and mother cooks at home and such gender expectations act as a deterrent in nurturing aspirations, choices or freedoms for many girls.” She further says that “even emotional responses are gender-specific, such as aggression, anger and violence are signs of manly behaviour, and consequently, women bear the burnt, despite a host of protective laws, as malefactors often find social support.”
The role of socio-religious forces cannot be undermined in fostering an inequitable power play in gender relations. The sacred Hindu literature, Manu Smriti, whose tenets still hold sway, spoke of imposing “tight control over women’s autonomy” and ordained women to be under the protective care of male guardians like a father, husband and son in different phases of their lives. Festivals like Karva Chauth, Raksha Bandhan, Shiv Ratri, et al are perhaps the outcome of such diktats. Some States in India are now mulling a law against inter-faith marriages or the so-called “love jihad”, possibly another attempt to impose a patriarchal writ on sisters and daughters in the name of saving family honour.
The popular entertainment industry is no less responsible in keeping alive gendered myths through its scripts, casting and dialogues. In 2014, a UN-sponsored study in the 10 most-profitable global film industries, including India, found that films often prop up beliefs that masculine traits and behaviour are more valued than feminine ones. In Hindi movies, women were only in 11.9 per cent of the films as central characters (2015-2017), which was only about seven per cent in the 70s, according to a study by the IBM and two Delhi-based institutions.
Katherine Coffman, a Harvard Business School Professor, asserts that “gender stereotypes determine people’s beliefs about themselves and others. If I take a woman who has the exact same ability in two different categories — verbal and math — just the fact that there’s an average male advantage in math shapes her belief that her own ability in math is lower.”
Researchers from Illinois, New York and Princeton Universities also found that girls as young as six years old tend to believe that brilliance is reserved for men, while a University of Warwick study says that “girls feel the need to play down their intelligence to not intimidate boys, pretending to be less intelligent than they actually are, not speaking out against harassment, and withdrawing from hobbies, sports and activities that might seem unfeminine.” Undoubtedly, trying to live up to such unreal ideas of masculinity and femininity leads to a tragic loss of potential in young people, especially in women.
In the US, women comprise half of the labour force, but only 26 per cent of them are employed in computer and math jobs, and occupy fewer seats in the C-suite than men, particularly in male-dominated professions like finance and technology. They earn almost 60 per cent of advanced degrees, but bring home less pay, due to “occupational sorting”, as men go for higher-paying jobs than women. While gender gap in pay is a universal reality, the recent case of the Princeton university paying lesser to its women professors proves that even renowned institutions are not immune to gender prejudices.
In India, women’s struggle to gain working space continues, being only 19.9 per cent of the total labour force, much below the halfway mark says the World Bank. Women remain poorly represented in core sectors of the economy like oil and gas (seven per cent), automotive (10 per cent), pharmaceutical and healthcare (11 per cent) and information technology (28 per cent). They earn, on average, 65.5 per cent less than their male colleagues for the same work, says a India Skills Report 2020.
In the STEM disciplines, women constitute nearly 43 per cent of the total enrolments but only three per cent enrol in PhD in science and six per cent in engineering and technology. A meagre 14 per cent of them work as scientists, engineers, technologists in research development institutions.
A 2018 IMF study indicated that women are prone to being displaced by technology as they perform more routine tasks, and about 11 per cent of them are likely to suffer from job losses for want of the required STEM skills by 2030. Kelly’s Workforce insights reveals that about 81 per cent women in the STEM sector confronted a subtle gender bias in performance evaluations. A large proportion of them felt that they wouldn’t be offered top positions and faced exclusion because of the presence of fewer women peers and leaders.
While commenting on prevalence of sexism in academia, Lamichhane says that issues like women’s looks and their linkage with career prospects remain contested, but, such a purported perception, often makes an impact on employees’ quest to look attractive. This proclivity has gravely impacted the sanctity of meritocracy and commodified the looks of women, while it is not a debatable issue at all for male employees.
Nevertheless, a recent lab research finding on the pre-historic skeletal remains excavated from the Andes Mountains has upset the applecart for gender stereotyping, which confirmed that women in large numbers used to be the big game hunters, and not gatherers alone, demolishing the millennia-old belief. Hasn’t this put into question the origin of gender binaries?
Sadly, the WHO and John Hopkins University’s joint study affirms the existence of all-pervasive “gender stereotypes around the world regardless of their country’s level of development.” Yet, many women, known and unknown, dared to defy the status quo and carved a new path for themselves. The milestone for bridging the gender gap may be a century away, a long journey, but not unachievable.
(The writer is a retired Indian Information Service Officer, and a media educator)
Prashant Tewari in conversation with Sadhguru, a yogi and visionary. Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru’s work has touched the lives of millions worldwide through his transformational programs. An internationally renowned speaker and author of the New York Times Bestseller Inner Engineering, A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, Sadhguru has been an influential voice at major global forums including the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, addressing issues as diverse as socioeconomic development, leadership and spirituality. He has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Oxford, London Business School, IMD, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and MIT. In February 2017, Sadhguru was the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan Award by the Government of India, the highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.
Cauvery tree project will cleanse the environment & create massive alternate employment, do you think it will improve spiritual soul of the nation that is battered by human beings?
Sadhguru: Trees are our closest relatives. What trees exhale, we inhale; what we exhale, they inhale. They are half our respiratory system. Spirituality is not about looking heavenward; it is about looking inward. And when you look inward, what you find is that you are very much a part of everything around you. Without that realization, there is no spiritual process. We live in a culture that has traditionally revered everything – a tree, an animal, a bird, an insect, a rock – just to remind us that there is no such thing as an independent individual existence. So what we refer to as spirituality and what we refer to as ecology are not really different. The further we move away from nature, in many ways, the further we move away from our own nature. The other way is also true – the further we move away from our own nature, the more insensitive we become to every other life around us.
Sadhguru, do you think government should outsource nature repair work to non government sector for affective implementation since we have limited resources with government?
Sadhguru: Of course, governments must make the necessary policies. When we look at the governments of the world, 5.2 billion people live in democracies and have the ability to elect their leadership. This is why I have been working with United Nations agencies and other forces, and proposing this idea of a “Conscious Planet” movement. We are looking at how to get at least three billion people on board so that ecological issues become the issues that elect governments. Ecology should become if not number one, at least the number two issue in election manifestos. Only when ecology becomes an election issue, will it become government policy, and only then will there be large budgets allocated so that solutions manifest.
Industry has to partner with the government, NGOs, and the concerned people and put it into action on the ground. Today, corporations have become so large, they are nations by themselves. Each industry can take up one taluk in the country. And every individual, whatever sphere of life one is in, whatever responsibility one holds or influence one has, has to stand up and make changes happen in their area. Think of one district, and just transform it. Every human being has to do it. We have just been talking about it for too long; it is time to do something.
How will Cauvery Calling contribute to India's target nationally determined contributions (NDCs) target for 2030, under the aegis of the Paris Agreement?
Sadhguru: It is estimated that the 2.42 billion trees that we are aiming to plant in the next 12 years to revitalize Cauvery river can sequester 200-300 million tons of CO2 by 2030. This is 8-12% of India’s 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) target. Nature Based Solutions like Cauvery Calling are essential to tackle the ecological crisis in a way that is economically sustainable.
What can India as a nation do to ensure we meet this overall targets?
Sadhguru: Cauvery Calling is designed to be a replicable model for the tropical world, not limited to just the Cauvery river basin. Similar projects in various Indian river basins could easily help achieve and even surpass the NDC targets. Above all, Cauvery Calling is an economic plan with a significant ecological impact. In a nation such as India where almost half the population is engaged in agriculture, such a plan to increase tree cover will both enhance the livelihoods of farmers and bring numerous ecological benefits.
What will be the impact of forestation planned by Isha foundation in terms of improving the life of millions of people living adjacent to the proposed river line?
Sadhguru: The primary focus of Cauvery Calling is to improve farmers income by encouraging them to transition a portion of their land to tree-based agriculture or agroforestry and, in turn, increase the green cover in the Cauvery basin to the national aspiration of 33%. Improved tree coverage will herald an array of ecological benefits in the region, like water sequestration, better water quality, an increase in soil fertility and biodiversity, and reduced soil erosion.
Yes, it is true that agroforestry would addresses problems related to soil, water, nutrition and climate change, but Why would farmers opt for growing trees on their farmlands.
Sadhguru: Tree-based agriculture is highly lucrative, is generally less labor-intensive, and is highly resistant to climate change, floods and droughts. Through our Isha Outreach initiative, we have helped nearly 70,000 farmers in Tamil Nadu to take up tree-based agriculture, and have seen them multiply their incomes by 3-8 times in just 5-7 years. Additionally, the tree produce will promote allied industries and create new employment that will further boost the entire rural economy. Having timber trees on the farm is also an insurance for the farmer – they are assets he can utilize in times of need without succumbing to creditors, loan sharks and financial distress.
If they opt, then how will they earn their livelihood as the trees farming would take at least 6 to 7 years to give them income.
Sadhguru: We are encouraging farmers to convert a part of their farmland, not the entirety, in a phased manner to tree-based agriculture. They can also opt for boundary plantation – or planting trees along the perimeter of their farm – and continue with their regular crops instead of having a block tree plantation within the farm. In the first 2-3 years, when the trees are small, most of the land remains unshaded and available for cropping. Once the trees grow tall, farmers can continue to grow intercrops like yam, long pepper, groundnut, vegetables, pulses, drumstick and pepper vines grown on trees, to earn regular annual income.
Furthermore, governments should provide incentives to support farmers. For example, the Karnataka government's Krishi Aranya Protsahan Yojane offers farmers Rs. 125 for every sapling that is planted and survives over the first three years.
Who will guarantee them the fair prices for their trees/timber? Who will compensate if they are forced to sell at the prices even lower than the prices level prevailing at the time of growing samplings?
Sadhguru: India has imported timber and allied products worth $6.5-7.2 billion annually, from 2011-2015. So there is a huge demand for timber in this country and setting a favorable price should not be an issue for the farmer. Earlier, there were laws against cutting a tree that is grown in one’s own land. Now, based on our recommendation, some of the state governments and the central government are changing the laws so that a farmer can fell, transport, and sell the timber produce where they want. We are in the process of setting up a Timber Board and a Timber Exchange where farmers can get the best price for their timber. Also, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has already announced the establishment of a digital marketing platform for tree-based produce to promote agroforestry and green businesses.
The vegetables nutrients have fallen by 40%. Who is to be blamed Farmers or Govt. Policies? And how the redeem the situation?
Sadhguru: There is no need for a blame game. What is needed is sensible action. When nutrients in the soil are depleted, then nutrient content of the produce will be adversely affected. So we need to replenish the soil with organic content; the only way to do this is with leaves from trees and animal waste. Tree-based agriculture on farmlands will enrich the soil with organic matter, prevent loss of organic matter by shading the soil from sunlight, preserve soil moisture, promote microbial diversity and create a conducive microclimate for plants. In this regard, Cauvery Calling is important as it aims to help farmers convert one-third of their land to tree-based agriculture.
How can we motivate farmers for organic farming with your mega tree plantation scheme?
Sadhguru: As we have looked at, tree-based agriculture has a significant impact on soil health, and also reduces the erosion of valuable topsoil. With all the plus points that agroforestry offers farmers, chemical based farming will anyway become unnecessary. However, farmers need hand holding while transitioning to natural farming. The Isha Agro Movement is a very vibrant initiative focused on natural farming without the use of artificial fertilizers, insecticides or growth promoters. Through natural farming, all the inputs required for farming are largely generated by the farmer on his own farm without the need to purchase much from outside, hence increasing his earnings. A unique aspect of the movement is the sharing of time-tested traditional farming practices between farmers through a variety of training sessions. This approach has inspired thousands of farmers in the Cauvery basin, as well, to adopt natural farming.
‘Talentship’ is the term coined for decision science on staff talent resources. It is to HR what finance is to accounting and what marketing is to sales
Human Resource (HR) management is considered secondary to finance and marketing. Corporate leaders do not spare as much time for talent management as they do for investment allocation, customer service, marketing, product line and technology. Hence, the HR function is limited to delivery of programmes like skill development, incentives, hiring, learning, development and so on. This limits its scope exponentially. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift to enhance the function of HR managers to include decision-making about talent, as one cannot emphasise enough the importance of relevant human capital for the success of any organisation. Current business trends like globalisation, adoption of digital technology, labour scarcity, mergers and acquisitions, expanding and scaling down simultaneously and the changing demographic profile of workers make this transformation vital.
Even when it performs well, traditional HR function falls short of expectations. Unlike finance, operation and marketing, there appears to be no clear distinction between strategic and tactical HR. While strategic HR is more of a vision to be considered the best employer in the industry, tactical HR concerns the daily operations of managing employee benefit programmes and various rules and regulations. There are several areas that are left unanswered in traditional HR, like a thin plausible association between the core business principle and the talent management process. Employee management goals are mostly general in nature, such as headcount, labour costs, standard HR programmes and so on. These have no correlation with competitive success and shareholder value.
Although sizeable investments are done in HR management techniques, like balanced scorecards, analytics and so on to enhance staff capabilities, they rarely play a significant role in mergers and acquisitions and new market entries. They also provide insufficient understanding of a company’s competitive advantage developed through engaged employees. HR programmes are more like “one-size-fits all.” For instance, in marketing, it cannot be suggested that all products should have the same number of hours of advertising. Because, how can that be? Some may require it more than others. However, this way of functioning is prevalent in HR, that is, “50 hours of quality training” can be a standard statement for all workers. This type of training is less precise and may not be fully effective. Hence, traditional HR functions do not help leaders make better decisions about those resources to drive organisational effectiveness.
Where does the solution lie? Many researchers believe that the key is better metrics. As discussed above, HR measurements are limited to Return on Investments of programmes, balanced scorecards and improvement in Six-Sigma scores. Metrics like HR accounting, quality, branding and balanced scorecards are, no doubt, useful systems, if applied correctly, but they rarely address the fundamental challenge of improving talent decisions. However, according to the Corporate Leadership Council (2001), the two most significant and crucial areas of HR measurement, that is to augment decisions about human capital and associate HR to strategy, are seldom taken care of. Decision science has long been used in marketing, finance and operations and can be extended to HR functions too. It helps by providing a valid, dependable and steady framework that boosts the decision-making capability at all levels. Similar to finance and marketing function, HR helps in another critical aspect — talent. For organisations to achieve success, effective and professional decision-making is required in finance, marketing and talent markets.
“Talentship” is the term coined for decision science on staff talent resources. In fact, “talentship” is to HR what finance is to accounting, and what marketing is to sales. It is believed that from the point of view of HR, organisational success can be improved by enhancing the decisions on talent resources. As this concept of talentship evolves, success will come to companies not because of HR practices but due to the improved decision-making quality about talent resources throughout the firm. Similar to the finance and marketing department, talent decisions exist at various levels within a firm, with supervisors and managers deciding about the available staff and their personal talent. To gain any say in influential and strategic business planning processes, HR should focus more on a unique approach, focussed on talent, with a perspective of improving decisions and not just a process of implementing decisions. Every firm must make the “talentship” decision science workable by creating tools that facilitate decision-makers to make the right choices and develop interlinkages with strategic success. Without a proper framework, it is easy to get lost in myriad information and opinions and lose sight of the key issues, and therefore, the strategic vision.
(The writer is Associate Professor, Amity University, Noida)
There is nothing wrong with the Indian cricket team captain wanting to be beside his wife when she delivers their baby
Paternity leave is a serious issue even if we do not think of it much in India. In many developed nations, working men are given time off, time that is often mandated by law to be with their new-born children and share parenting responsibilities. This is where India’s patriarchal society actually counts against men as culturally they are not expected to be part of the child-rearing process as much as their Western counterparts. So much so that the concept of paternity leave is considered alien in all but a few Indian companies. Indeed even the Indian subsidiaries of many multinationals find extended paternity leave difficult to comprehend. And it is even tougher for many professionals. We even have women going back to work days after giving birth, let alone men.
Yes, many Indians do not have the luxury of taking maternity or paternity leave but in case they can afford that privilege, why do we bemoan it? So what if Anushka Sharma’s husband happens to be the Indian cricket team captain and will leave a tour halfway to be with her when she delivers their child. Virat Kohli has achieved huge milestones in his career and owes nobody, other than his family, anything. Those who have come out and questioned his professionalism and patriotism are talking nonsense. We do not talk like this of other athletes, even cricketers, in developed countries. Yes, it is apparent that Sharma and Kohli can afford the best help money can buy but why shouldn’t the two of them be together when they do the single most important thing that a man and woman do together, that is bringing a new life into this world? Kohli is assured of his talent and his place in the Indian team. However, if afterwards, he wants to quit the sport to be with his child, so what? He is unlikely to do that but we have to all grow up and understand that fathers have to play a bigger role in the child-rearing process. Maybe Kohli doing what he is doing will inspire other men to stand up and be a stakeholder in their child’s development. Sharing the first few months of a new-born’s life may not be remembered by the child when he/she grows up but will definitely be cherished by the father and mother for the rest of their lives. So let Virat do his thing.
Every world leader leaves behind a legacy. What kind of legacy has US President Donald Trump left? His successor Joe Biden has now inherited some bad and good policies, which he has to tackle. A Reuter’s report sums up his legacy thus, “Saying that he knew best what ailed America and often governing by executive order, President Donald Trump dismantled or disrupted multilateral pacts, overhauled tax and immigration systems and, with the help of Senate Republicans, reshaped the judiciary. Trump’s actions may be undone in many areas over time, but win or lose, his legacy will endure in the federal courts where his conservative lifetime appointees will influence every aspect of American life for decades.” The recent poll results have revealed how divisive the US has become. It is currently divided vertically on class, racial, economic, political, urban-rural and gender basis. Trump himself is alleged to be a divisive figure. President-elect Joe Biden has stressed his priority of uniting the country but he will have a huge challenge ahead.
The second is the Covid legacy. No doubt Trump did not create the pandemic but he could have handled it much better. Biden’s main issue during the campaign against him was how he ignored the outbreak, as a result of which the US has recorded the maximum number of cases in the world. Linked to the contagion is the shattered US economy. Former President Barack Obama left behind a thriving economy four years ago and even Trump was doing well in the first three years. Covid indeed shattered his dream of retaining his presidency. Had the elections been held last year or a year later, he might have returned to the White House. But today people are suffering from a sagging economy. Then there is the foreign policy, where he has left behind a mess. Though he did not start a war with any country, the US confronted North Korea, Iran and Venezuela. Israel’s relations with Arab States demonstrate unprecedented progress but Palestine has been ignored. His hard line on Iran led to an avoidable confrontation. Afghanistan, too, needed a better strategy.
The relationship with China deteriorated the most, raising fears of a new Cold War, especially after Trump called Covid a Chinese virus. He adopted two main strategies for tackling Beijing. The first was cultivating an alliance with India and the second was selling weapons to Taiwan to check the rise of China. India revitalised the Quad, invited Australia to a naval exercise with Japan and the US. Two other important foreign policy legacies were questioning the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and alienating European allies. Despite being a votary of democracy, he also indulged some authoritarian rulers.
Trump has left behind a diminished role for the US in multilateral institutions. He threatened the World Health Organisation by withdrawing the US’ contribution. He even threatened the United Nations that the US’ contribution would not come if the world body did not reform itself. He terminated important arms control agreements and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Thankfully Biden has already announced that the US would be rejoining the Paris climate accord and restore its primacy in these world bodies.
On trade-related issues, he played the hard-nosed businessman that he was and negotiated hard. He promised to shrink the trade deficit with other countries, particularly China, by introducing new taxes and other hurdles on imports. He challenged the multilateral alliances and the World Trade Organisation’s rules. In fact, within the first week of his taking over, Trump quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal negotiated by Obama. Then, the Trump Administration tightened immigration and reduced refugee admissions and access to asylum. He also made it much more difficult for immigrants from Muslim and African countries to enter the US. Now, Biden has announced a more relaxed immigration regime. Whether this is good for the US in the long run or not, only time will tell. Last but not the least, many analysts point out that though he is gone, “Trumpism” will remain at least for some time. After becoming the President in 2016, he dominated the Grand Old Party (GOP). He finished his rivals in the party and led it without challenge. The Republican establishment is gone but his base will still be there. After all, he managed to get half the country to vote for his party. Though he never delivered his key promises, the GOP base stayed with him. The New York Times points out, “Until a new generation of Republicans steps forward, Mr Trump could position himself as the de facto leader of the party, wielding an extraordinary database of information about his supporters that future candidates would love to rent or otherwise access.” What would Trump do now that he is defeated? He could return to his family business, set up a foundation, launch a new television network, go on a speaking tour, and write a memoir, which is what most of his predecessors have done. He could also run in the 2024 presidential elections but he is keeping his cards close to his chest.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
President Donald Trump may no longer be in the White House, but his influence is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. As for relations with India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an extraordinary capability to forge personal bond with key world leaders with a view to promoting India’s national interests. He did that with President Obama, President Trump and now he can do so with Joe Biden, presumably the next US President
Although it will take a few weeks for a formal declaration of results of the November 2020 presidential election in the United States, the results and lead reported so far make it quite clear that there will be a change of guard in the White House. On January 20, 2021, as the new President, presumably Joe Biden, takes oath as the next President of the United States, a post-Trump era will dawn with substantial challenges for the American people and even for the world. This election was contested in the midst of a global Covid-19 pandemic that hit the American people the hardest in terms of lives lost, livelihood in jeopardy and health security in absolute red zone. Yet the voters’ turnout was the highest in more than a century. Physical security of people, economic security of the nation, and Americas standing in the world were all in stake.
Analysts had begun to ponder whether the Trump era in the country’s history would be an aberration or a new trend. But the fact that about four more million people voted for Donald Trump in 2020 than they did in 2016 speaks volume of the post-Trump phase of events in the US even if a Democratic candidate assumes office in the White House. The race has been very close and Trump supporters have proved all poll survey results wrong the way it did in 2016. Significantly, a new presidency without adequate support in the US Congress is bound to face political hurdles in achieving the policy objectives. The pious intentions of uniting the country, preserving the American values and giving a healing touch to the nation may prove to be a Herculean task.
Today’s America is less white and much younger with changing values of Generation Z. The role of the Baby Boomers and Generation X has declined and role of the Millennials and Generation Z is becoming increasingly prominent. There is notable demographic shift in the society and the political dynamics have changed with people of colour and minorities being more conscious of their rights and political role. Donald Trump’s immigration policy, attitude towards racism, views on the white supremacists, the Black-Lives-Matter movement with supports from a large number of white population are all indicative of an America that is divided. The priority of the next American President will, of course, be providing a healing touch to the bruised and wounded society in an utterly divided nation. But how? It is not going to be easy. President Trump may no longer be in the White House, but his influence is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Sooner the Republican Party is able to discover a more temperate, tolerant, classy and compassionate leadership better it would be for the country to face the shifting reality of a changing demography and settle down with a new societal consensus.
The next US Administration will also have to ensure health security, improve economic wellbeing of the masses and promote racial equity. In all these, the role of the Indian-American community is going to be crucial. And this is where the roots of the socio-economic connection between India and the United States can be located. The Indian-American community has of late provided the strong social bridge between the two countries and the political and the economic role of this community in the US are critical to sustaining the momentum of India-US strategic partnership. This is a complex connection and it cannot be explained in plain language. But it needs emphasis that the Indian Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully engaged the Indian-American community in a manner that serves the interests of India as well as the United States.
Detractors would likely spread their discourse that Prime Minister Modi through the Indian-American community endorsed President Donald Trump in an election year and thus Joe Biden may play hardball with India. They may also draw attention to Pakistan bestowing “Hilal-e-Pakistan” on Joe Biden in 2008 and thus argue that a Biden presidency may be friendlier with a Pakistani Government. The reality is quite different. First, Prime Minister Modi had gone to America to bolster India’s ties with that country and sought to impress upon the President the role of a vast number of Indian-Americans in promoting American society and economy. He would have done the same thing in the Houston rally or Ahmedabad roadshow, had it been a different person in the White House. Reasoning that Biden’s policy towards Pakistan will be influenced by an award he received about 12 years ago is likewise untenable and fallacious. After all, Biden was the Vice President when Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan!
Significantly, India-US strategic partnership began to take shape since President Bill Clinton’s path-breaking trip to India in March 2000 and signing of a Vision Statement with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is that partnership envisioned by an American President and an Indian Prime Minister about 20 years ago that has borne fruit today and India-US relationship has never been better than what it is today. Twelve years of Republican Administration since end of Bill Clinton’s Democratic Administration have not erected any barriers to America’s strategic partnership with India. Eight years of Obama Administration and now next four years of Biden Administration cannot but further strengthen the US-Indian ties.
It was President Clinton who established a strategic partnership with India not long after India went nuclear. It was President George W Bush who signed the 123 Agreement to bolster India-US civil nuclear cooperation. It was President Obama who considered India a “lynchpin” of his “Asia Rebalancing” strategy and it was President Trump who made India a key anchor of his “India-Pacific” strategy. It was the Obama Administration who started the Defence Dialogue between the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence. It was President Trump who expanded it into 2+2 dialogue to include the State Department and Ministry of External Affairs. What else example can be given to underscore the robust bipartisan support in the US for having a strategic partnership with India!
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an extraordinary capability to forge personal bond with key world leaders with a view to promoting India’s national interests. He did that with President Obama, President Trump and now he can do so with Joe Biden, presumably the next US President.
(The writer, Prof Chintamani Mahapatra, an expert on US studies, is presently Rector, JNU, New Delhi)
Quality education and initiatives like Right to Education Act are fine but they are incomplete without competent and qualified teachers, something he emphasised
India celebrates its National Education Day on November 11, the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — a great scholar, freedom fighter, politician and a firm believer in the unity of India — but do we honour his passion and ideals? Azad is also remembered as our first Education Minister. Born in Mecca in 1888, his family moved to Kolkata in 1890. He was self-taught and never went to school. He started teaching at the age of 16 and continued his scholarly pursuits even while in the thick of national politics. He wrote poetry, translated the Quran and even authored several books.
Young Azad was influenced by revolutionaries and was deeply impressed by Sri Aurobindo. In 1908, he visited Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Turkey and was pained to find that while in these countries Muslims were fighting for freedom and democracy, Indian Muslims were favouring the British, keeping away from the nationalist movement. To change the Muslim mindset, he started a journal, Al-Hilal, in July 1912. He joined the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1923 at the age of 35. After the two-nation theory and the demand for a separate nation for Muslims gained ground, Azad could envision its conceptual fragility and disastrous future consequences for the nation, particularly for the Muslims. Unfortunately, India was partitioned and even Mahatma Gandhi and Azad had to become a party to it. What followed at the time of the Partition and the near permanency of the India-Pakistan conflict clearly indicate how sound and pragmatic ideas are sometimes lost in the political arena, resulting in unimaginable damage to future generations. Both India and Pakistan are perpetual victims of this scar.
Pakistan — fully submerged in religious orthodoxy and ignorance — inflicted several self-destructive wounds, suffered a couple of humiliating military defeats and was even decimated. It is propagating worldwide terrorism, and ironically, suffering its venomous consequences as well. Azad and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan are two outstanding luminaries of the freedom struggle, who presented the real — liberal and dynamic — version of Islam before their countrymen. Had the Muslim community paid heed to them, the world would not have been put under debilitating violence, insecurity and distrust that have engulfed humanity today.
The recent murderous attacks in France have stirred diametrically opposite reactions, indicating how serious the issues of religious bigotry, blind fundamentalism, terrorism and global insecurity are. The only ray of hope lies in education, formal education of the young and simultaneously the education of people in positions of power and decision-making in their “trusteeship role” for the generations ahead.
This year, the National Education Day celebration could very well focus on the role of education in achieving social cohesion and religious harmony. The recently launched National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has considerable connect with the basic principles of Buniyadi Talim, which was proposed by Gandhi in 1937. Delivering the presidential speech at the fourth session of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on January 13, 1948, Azad, the then Education Minister, said: “In connection with the scheme of basic education, the question of religious instruction had cropped up at that time. Two committees of the board pondered over it but they were unable to come to an agreed decision. I should like this question to be reconsidered in the light of the changed circumstances. For our country, this question has a special meaning.”
A realistic comprehension of the spirit and intent of Buniyadi Talim was indeed missed by those under the influence of “all that was Western and British.” To them, the existing transplanted system was doing fine. So why disturb it? It is only now that the consequences of this approach are before us: Unemployment, poverty, hunger, internal migration, neglect of villages and farmers and much more.
Everyone talks of a lack of moral, ethical and humanistic values. Corruption is a consequence of diminishing emphasis on character-building. Luminaries like Azad had anticipated such concerns. After posing the problem and putting it in the context, Azad articulated its elements: “It is already known to you that the 19th century liberal point of view concerning the imparting of religious education has already lost weight. Even after World War I, a new approach had begun to assert itself and the intellectual revolution brought about in the wake of World War II has given it a decisive shape. At first, it was considered that religions would stand in the way of free intellectual development of a child but now it has been admitted that religious education cannot altogether be dispensed with. If national education was devoid of this element, there would be no appreciation of moral values or moulding of character on human lines. It must be known to you that Russia had to give up its ideology during the last World War. The British Government in England also had to amend its education system in 1944.” With a crystal clear comprehension, Azad was convinced that the West felt the need of religious education as without religious influences, people become “over-rationalistic.”
In India, we are surrounded by “over religiosity.” How secularism is being interpreted in India leaves much to be desired, clarified and comprehended to bring people of varied religious affiliations to accept the equality of all religions: “Ekam sat viprah Bahudha Vadanti” (There is only one truth, learned ones call it by various names). What Azad articulated in the meeting on education has a global contemporary relevance: “Our present difficulties, unlike those of Europe, are not creations of materialistic zealots but of religious fanatics. If we want to overcome them, the solution lies not in rejecting religious instruction in elementary stages but in imparting sound and healthy religious education under our direct supervision so that misguided credulism may not affect children in their plastic age.”
Azad was India’s Education Minister for about a decade. His concern on the issue of religious instruction indicates his seriousness on social cohesion, religious amity, unity and integrity of the country, and that all of these depend on the right approach to education in human values and continued insistence on character formation. He was convinced that Indians would like their children to get religious education. If the State refused, they would do so privately. He was concerned that private sources were already working and were entrusting religious education to those teachers “who though literate are not educated. To them, religion means nothing but bigotry.” To save the “intellectual life of our country,” Azad emphatically warned all concerned not to entrust the imparting of early religious education to private sources. Further, no national Government could shirk the responsibility of moulding the “growing minds of the nation on the right lines” as it is its primary duty.
Here, Azad offers a global education policy guideline: Imparting quality education and initiatives like Right to Education Act are fine but these remain incomplete without a clear mention that such education shall be provided only by competent and qualified teachers. Further, nothing that distorts the sensitive young minds in any way shall be allowed to permeate the educational endeavour.
Education must be free from vested interests that believe in the supremacy of any single religion, which does not subscribe to the equality of all religions and refuses to introduce transparency in their schools — in approach, content and pedagogy.
It is well-known that schools of certain denominations are not preparing children for a world of peace and tranquility, for acceptance of diversity, for social cohesion and religious amity. And it is not a new phenomenon, as would be clear from Azad’s description given over 72 years: “The method of education, too, is such in which there is no scope for a broad and liberal outlook. It is quite plain, then, that the children will not be able to drive out the ideas infused into them in their early stage, whatever modern education may be given to them at a later stage.” At this stage, it is a global phenomenon that terrorist and fundamentalist organisations suffer no dearth of highly educated and technically qualified and competent young people.
The implementation of the NEP 2020 has begun in earnest. The growth, progress and development of India would depend on the quality of its education and the level of social cohesion and religious unity, seeds of which are to be sown in its schools, classrooms and playgrounds. The NEP 2020 must equip every Indian to stand up and repeat with full conviction what Azad had declared in 1940: “I am part of this indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to the noble edifice and without me this splendid structure of India is incomplete. I am an essential element which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.”
The great visionary paved the path for every Indian to move ahead and in the process made a singular contribution in the human march towards a world of peace, non-violence and love.
(The writer works in education and social cohesion)
The Majority Report is a research study undertaken by two retired IPS officers high-lighting the gross discrimination practiced by the UPA government against crores of poorest children of the majority community, namely the Hindus. Will it shock you, dear friends, if we were to inform you that in four out of the five globally recognized major human development indices the Hindus happen to be the most disadvantaged and the poorest religious group in India?
Not many people know that by using the flawed and fabricated findings of Sachar Committee, the former Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shri Salman Khurshid, acting in collusion with the former Prime Minister, robbed the un-washed and unlettered daughters and sons of nearly 34 crore Hindus living below the poverty line, mostly in rural areas. The High Level Committee chaired by Justice Sachar was born in sin of grave constitutional impropriety. The task assigned to Justice Sachar had been entrusted in 1992 by the Indian Parliament to the National Minorities Commission by enacting a special law called The Minorities Commission Act, 1992. All responsibilities for protection of the rights of minorities and ensuring their welfare had been assigned by the Parliament in terms of the aforesaid legislation to the Minorities Commission. Therefore the very act of the Prime Minister constituting a High Level Committee in March 2005, by an executive fiat for one single religious minority was patently unconstitutional and bad in law. The worst aspect of the sinister move, however, was that Justice Sachar did not inform the P.M. that what was being was a blatant violaton of the Constitution. In appointing Sachar Committee the former P.M. also violated the oath of his office.
For decades an unsubstantiated belief has been propagated across the country that economically and educationally the Muslims are the more disadvantaged than the Hindus. This falsehood is being unabashedly used by the powerful pro-Muslim vote bank lobby to bestow many unmerited benefits and concessions, including nearly twenty million scholarships and concessional educational loans exclusively on the Muslims, Christians and three other minorities. But it was revealed by Salman Khurshid’s Press Conference on May 29, 2012, that not one single scholarship was given to the daughter or son of the poorest Hindu. Nor were any cheaper educational or entrepreneurial loans advanced to any Hindu poor, while funds worth several lakh crores were advanced to the children of doubly blessed five minorities, namely the Muslims, the Christians, the Buddhits, the Parsis and the Sikhs.
This strategy of religion-based discrimination was implemented in pursuance of the communally divisive vote bank policy enunciated in the Prime Minister’s notoriously famous “Muslims First” policy statement made on December 9, 2006, by the Prime Minister. Inexplicably the aforesaid policy statement was made by Dr. Manmohan Singh on the birthday of Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance. Perhaps thereby hangs a tale of deceit.
The worst aspect of the ongoing discrimination is that crores of poor Hindus belonging to the perennially famished hoi polloi of rural India have been deliberately deprived of any share in the 20 million scholarships awarded to the five minorities, including four economically and educationally better placed communities than the Hindus. These four super-privileged minorities are the Christians, the Parsis, the Buddhists and the Sikhs all of whom happen to be show stealers in literacy average, economic prosperity and education.
The data pertaining to infant and child mortality, degree of urbanization and life expectancy at birth available in public domain proves that it is the Hindus, not the Muslims, who are the most disadvantaged religious group. Following are the five major globally recognized human development indicators:
i) Infant Mortality;
ii) Child Mortality;
iii) Life Expectancy at Birth;
iv) Degree of Urbanisation; and
v) Literacy
It was established by the National Family Health Survey -2 of 1998-99 that the Hindus are far behind the Muslims in the first four human development indices, excepting literacy in which Hindus with 65.1 percent literacy are marginally ahead of Muslims who have the literacy average of 59.1 percent. But Justice Sachar did not have the moral courage to identify and write that one single factor responsible for lower Muslim literacy average was the lower ratio of literacy among Muslim women at a meagre 50.1 percent. It was lower by 3.6 percent than the national average of female literacy at 53.7. Thus, this important cause of lower female literacy among Muslims ignored by Justice Sachar was the diktats of religious leaders restricting education of girls beyond a certain age and insistence on the customary veil.
Unfortunately most Hindus, including their spiritual gurus, tele-media analysts, self-anointed intellectuals and political leaders belong to the prosperous fraternity and well-to-do middle class. Their children do not need free scholarships. No wonder they have thus remained indifferent to the pathetic economic condition of the poorest Hindu masses, especially those trapped in the terminally ill rural areas? These busy-bodies strutting across the political and spiritual universe have never cared to know that in four, out of the five globally recognised human development indices, the majority community is lagging behind the Muslims, the Christians, the Buddhists, the Parsis and the Sikhs? That explains how the children of 34-35 crore poorest Hindus were led to slaughter on the alter of Sachar Report! The daughters and sons of nearly 340 million poorest Hindus were robbed in broad daylight of their rightful share in 20 million scholarships by the ruling politicians in an ugly bid to promote the ‘exclusive development’ of five minority communities. And lo and behold this deprivation of the poorest Hindu children was done in the garb of ‘inclusive development’!
The ongoing discriminatory policy against the majority religious group, mostly the rural Hindus, was launched by the Prime Minister with great fanfare in June, 2006, in the garb of Prime Minister’s New 15 Points Programme for Welfare of Minorities. Through a sleight of hand the poorest Hindu children were deprived of any share in twenty million scholarships showered on Muslim, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and the Sikhs.
The most shocking aspect of this biggest post-independence scam is that the Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and the Sikhs are the real show-stealers in literacy and education - way ahead of the Hindus.
A careful examination of Sachar Report reveals a series of ugly tricks devised to trample upon the Right to Equality of the eighty percent citizens of India on the ground of religion. Apparently the poorest students belonging to the majority community are being denied proportionate share in millions of scholarships and financial largesse worth thousands of crores because they happen to belong to the politically-pariahed religious group, the Hindus.
No Hindu or non-Hindu political leader showed the guts to question this implementation of ‘exclusive minority development’ programme tom-tomed as ‘inclusive growth’. Enumerated below are two prominent instances of fudging of facts by Justice Sachar in his report.
“Everything beyond the walls of the ghetto is seen as unsafe and hostile - markets, roads, lanes and public transport, schools and hospitals, Police Stations and government offices.”
Can any Indian honestly believe that the Muslim women are treated so shabbily in India? Many more instances of fudging of facts can be cited from the report of Justice Sachar. These are being left out because of shortage of space.
To sum up, a systematic and rational analysis of the comparative scores of the Hindus and the Muslims in various human development indices reveals that in the first four globally recognised economic development indicators the Hindus are lagging far behind the Muslims and four other religious minorities, namely the Christians, the Buddhists, the Parsis and the Sikhs. This truth was established four times by four different studies, though Justice Sachar ignored the documented truth for reasons best known to him.
The first well-documented rebuttal of the flawed findings of Justice Sachar came on September 2, 2006, when a paper was circulated by Prof. Sanjay Kumar of the Centre of Studies for Developing Studies, New Delhi, in a seminar organized at the prestigious Indian Institute of Public Administration. The research of Prof. Sanjay Ku-mar presented in a packed hall of distinguished scholars in the auditorium of the I.I.P.A. revealed that there was highly any difference in the economic and educational status of the Hindus and the Muslims.
The in-depth research based on a survey by the Centre for Developing Societies, New Delhi, further highlighted that the proportion of ‘the very poor’ Indians was higher among the Hindus than among the Muslims. The survey conducted in the year 2004 showed that the percentage of ‘very poor’ Hindus was 31 percent while the percentage of the ‘very poor’ among Muslims was only 24 percent. Thus, on the basis of the CDS survey the percentage of the ‘very poor’ people among the Hindus was nearly 25 percent higher than among the Muslims! It was a very significant finding of Prof. Sanjay Kumar, based on a survey comprising 27,000 random samples.
Mysteriously this important finding was ignored by Justice Sachar despite a clear directive in the Prime Minister’s Notification dated March 9, 2005. To Justice Sachar’s High-Level Committee to “obtain relevant information from Departments/ agencies of the Central & State Governments and also conduct an intensive literature survey to identify the published data, articles, and research on relative social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India at the State, regional and district levels” to address the problems faced by Muslims. More importantly, Prof. Sanjay Kumar’s research paper highlighting his important findings was duly sent to Justice Sachar by our Thinktank, Patriots’ Forum’. But the former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court chose to ignore the truth altogether for reasons best known to him and his teammates.
The second rebuttal of Justice Sachar’s fabricated findings came in October, 2010, when the National Health Survey- 3 (2005-2006) revealed a high quantum jump of 5.4 years from 62.6 years in the life expectancy of Muslims within a short span of 7 years, i.e., between 1998 and 2005. The advantage which Muslims had over their Hindu counterparts in life expectancy at birth was barely 1.2 years in 1998-1999, but it grew to 3 years in 2005-2006, as revealed by the National Family Health Survey -3.
And the master mystery of all mysteries was that the results of the National Family Health Survey of 2005-2006 were released in October, 2010 – i.e. after a long delay of 4 years! It needs to be investigated why in this age of super technology the findings of NFHS Survey-3 conducted in 2005-2006 were not made public. This inordinate delay was responsible for facilitating implementation of Sachar Committee’s recommendations favouring the Muslim community. The discriminatory largesse of 20 million scholarships and cheaper educational and entrepreneurial loans of several lakh crore rupees was showered on Muslims, along with 4 minorities in gross violation of the Right to Equality enshrined in the Constitution.
The third rebuttal of Justice Sachar’s fudged facts was made public in the findings of Rajesh Shukla, a Senior Fellow of the National Council of Applied Economic Research published in the Economic Times, New Delhi, on April 5, 2007, reconfirming that there was hardly any difference in the economic status of the Hindus and Muslims. Among other things Rajesh Shukla’s survey disclosed that the Sikh community were ‘the Sardars in Prosperity’, with Christians closely following behind them.
The fourth rebuttal of Justice Sachar’s findings came on February 24, 2011, in the reply to a Parliament Question answered by Vincent H. Pala, the Minister of State for Minorities in Lok Sabha admitting that the central government had no data pertaining to the number of persons living below the poverty line according to religious denominations. If as late as the year 2011 the government had no data about the number of Muslims and Hindus living below the poverty line, why were the fudged findings of Justice Sachar accepted and implemented several years ago?
The fifth demolition of the lies propagated by Sachar Committee came on October 24-25, 2011, when in a Seminar jointly organized by the United Nations Development Programme and India’s Planning Commission at Claridge’s Hotel, two scholars of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (Sukhdeo Thorat and Amaresh Pandey) presented a research paper re-confirming that there had been far greater poverty reduction among the Muslims than among the Hindus between 2004-2005 to 2009-2010.
Despite these five research-based rebuttals of Sachar Report the multi-dimensional discrimination against the unwashed daughters and sons of the poorest Hindus, living below the poverty line has continued at fast pace - perhaps in deference to the policy announcement made by the Prime Minister in December, 2006, on Sonia Gandhi’s birthday.
It is, however, for the self-anointed Hindu secularists to analyse and explain why no poorest of the poor Hindu child was considered eligible for even one single scholarship out of twenty million freeships showered by Salman Khurshid on the privileged children of Muslim and Christian parents. According to a half-page advertisement published in The Pioneer, New Delhi, on February 15, 2014, “over Rs. 1,95,000 crore of bank credit was showered on 5 minorities”. In sharp contrast, not one rupee worth bank credit was made available to anyone of the 35 crores Hindus living below the poverty line.
Most importantly, Prof. Suresh Tendulkar’s research had revealed that in 2009 approximately 37.2 percent Indians were living below the poverty line. It meant that roughly the unwashed children of 34-35 crore Hindu les miserables were debarred from applying for scholarships and educational loans in an unethical bid to consolidate a vote bank of five minorities. Such a policy of robbing the poorest on the ground of religion by recourse to a sleight of hand has no parallel in the history of any democratic country. Only a legal eagle like Salman Khurshid, aided by Justice Sachar, could do it with remarkable dexterity and finesse!
Now time has come for Shri Salman Khurshid and the former Prime minister to explain to 34 crore poor Hindus living below the poverty line, mostly in rural areas, why their hungry, emaciated and unlettered children were robbed of the rightful share in 20 million scholarships and educational loans totaling several lakh crore rupees?
Time has also come for the unlettered masses to seek identification of those public figures and government functionarie for deliberately cheating the poorest citizens of their right to equality.
The Sindhu and Sarasvati rivers were at the centre of Rig Vedic consciousness, closely followed by the Iravati (Ravi), Sutudri (Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Chandrabhaga (Chenab), Vitasta (Jhelum). Hence the reference to the land as Sapta Sindhu (seven rivers). The Sarasvati, mentioned some seventy times in the Rig Veda, dried up in post-Vedic times and was rediscovered in the last four decades through satellite imagery which spotted its paleochannels. This was a landmark breakthrough and provided Indic scholars the basis for challenging much of the traditional history of India as written by Western scholars and their followers in India.
As the Vedic peoples moved eastwards from the Punjab/Haryana region(where the Rig Veda was composed), they discovered new territories and rivers. Hence, the stotram for the water purification ceremony from the Puranas:
Gange cha yamune chaiva Godavari Sarasvati Narmada Sindhu Kaveri Jalasmin sammidham Kuru O ye Rivers Gange, Yamune, Godavari, Sarasvati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri! Reside together here in this water
There is a close bond between Sindhu and Sarasvati in Rig Vedic consciousness and the phrase ‘Akhand Bharat’ (undivided Bharat). Eminent historian and archaeologist Shivaji Singh has spelled this out in his definition of the word ‘aryam’ as characterising Akhand Bharat. Quoting the famous line from the Rig Veda, Krinvanto visvam aryam (Make the world aryam), he explains that aryam is that mindset, world view, attitude, which works for the spiritual and material welfare of humankind (Vedic Culture and its Continuity, 2010).
Elaborating, he points out that the word ‘aryam’ has nothing to do with the racist use of the word ‘aryan’ by Western scholarship, nor is it a linguistic construct.
The battle for akhand bharat is thus a battle for the definition of sacred geography (the land from the Himalaya and the northwest to Kanyakumari in the south and from Dwaraka in the west to un-divided Bengal in the east) but also the more universal meaning of aryam.
The question arises as to whether the sacred geography of akhand bharat is closely linked to the sanctity of the Sindhu and the Sarasvati and the meaning of aryam, and if so, why and how.
The Meaning of Aryam or Aryattva
One of the clearest explanations of this ideal of Aryam is provided by Shivaji Singh: “The essence of Vedic culture lies in its perception of Aryattva, a virtue the achievement of which is considered to be necessary for civilised living. The slogan Krinvanto viswam aryam (Rig Veda 9.63.5) is an appeal to the divine almighty power to help achieve this ideal.
Unfortunately, however, many historians have misunderstood this Aryattva”.
Scholars have often confused the Vedic Aryans with Indo Aryans, forgetting that the two concepts are different. ‘Arya’ being the self-designation of the Vedic people, ‘Vedic Aryan’ represents a historical reality. As against this, the term ‘Indo-Aryan’ is a linguistic construct denoting speaker of a sub-group of languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family, and being a construct, its validity is subject to verification.
Although language and culture are intimately connected, Arya does not denote a speaker of a particular language. In the Vedic view, a person speaking a Dravidian language is Arya if he possesses the virtue called Aryattva… (p10). Arya is defined one who is noble and refined in ideas and action, and these depend on a “world view characterised by a belief in certain concepts like Rta, Satya, Tapas, Yajna, Brahma etc.” (p10)
Aryattva is a blending of virtues that lead to the highest material and spiritual achievement. Rta simply means the order and harmony of the universe which the Rig Vedic Rishis saw in their physical environment, Nature. Yajna, the ritual of the fire, homa, is not only a tribute to the fire Deva, Agni, but embodies the orderly working of the universe reflected in Vedic astronomy. The intricate celestial relationships that the Rishis actually observed with the naked eye are clearly explained by BN Narahari Achar in ‘Sarasvati River and Chronology: Simulations using Planetarium Software’ (cited in Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu Civilisation, 2008, ed. S Kalyanaraman).
Satya (usually translated as Truth) represents the mirroring of the cosmic order in society and the individual’s alignment with this cosmic order. Likewise, Tapas or self-discipline (austerity) was practiced by the Rishis for the welfare of society and therefore the universal application of this to individuals who embody Aryam/Aryattva.
These ideals of virtuous living came to the consciousness of Vedic Rishis as they saw the heavens, the earth around them, the rivers, forests and lakes and all living creatures. Aryam was a holistic ideal which passed into Hindu consciousness and society as Dharma. A recent contemporary explanation of Dharma and Rta is provided by Shrinivas Tilak, A Reawakening to a secular Hindu nation (p13-16, 2008).
Dharma in Tilak’s interpretation (though not explicitly stated by him) is related to Aryam/ aryattva which is the social derivative of Rta as the Vedic seers envisioned it. Tilak provides a very lucid explanation of other aspects of Dharma.
The Vedic peoples engaged in international trade and were familiar with maritime travel and also engaged in the intellectual fields of mathematics and astronomy. The ideal of Aryam came to them on the banks of the Sindhu and Sarasvati. This was the basis of their spiritual bond with the two rivers.
Sacred Geography
Sindhu and Sarasvati were not only rivers that provided the livelihood of the Vedic peoples. In a previous article, the writer spoke of the role of the Sarasvati as the giver of ‘light’ (‘Sarasvati and the Resurgence of Hinduism’, Haindava Keralam, 08/05/2013). In the Rig Veda, Sarasvati is not only a river but the giver of ‘light’. Western scholars have traditionally dismissed the presence of the Goddesses (hereafter referred to as Devatas and Devis) in the Rig Veda and downplayed their importance.
Nevertheless, for a correct reading we have to see Sarasvati not only as a river Devi giving abundance and plenty to the Rig Vedic peoples, but also as the giver of ‘light.’ The very first book of the Rig Veda says: ‘…Sarasvati, the mighty flood, she with light illumines, She brightens every pious thought’ (Book 1, Hymn 3, Line 12, Griffith translation). The ‘light’ here refers to intel-lection and devotion and explains the origin of Sarasvati as patron of learning, knowledge, music, arts, etc. Book 1 is the work of Sage Agastya, also known for his famous Sarasvati Sthrotram (Ya kundendu tushaara, haara dhavala…) where he hails the Devi as the source of knowledge.
The ten books of the Rig Veda contain seventy references to Sarasvati. Of these, two are directly addressed to her, as one who gives prosperity and plenty. She is the mighty river that flows from the mountains to the sea. She is life giving water. There are some references to her as the origin of holy thoughts, but none as clear cut as the reference to the giver of ‘light’ by Agastya.
Hence, one can infer that the Rig Veda signalled the importance of knowledge. This fits in with NS Raja-ram’s thesis that Vedic Mathematics was central to the civilisation and that the geometric/algebraic notions of the period influenced Old Babylonia and Egypt and thence the Greek philosopher Pythagoras whose theorem is well known to most readers (See ‘The Ori-gins of Indo-Europeans’ and ‘The Third Wave’, Folks Magazine, Dec. 2012, Feb, March 2013).
Pythagoras (570 BC-495 BC) always wanted to visit India. There is a missing period of ten years in his life and scholars have speculated that he may have come to India during that time. He had, of course, visited Egypt and Babylonia.
If he did come to India, it is reasonable to assume that he learned his Mathematics directly from India and not through Old Babylonia and Egypt. It is not accidental that Sarasvati is deified as the source of ‘light.’ Rajaram points out that the mathematical formulae used for the bricks for the Vedic fire altar were borrowed by the Harappan civilisation (via the Sulba Sutras) whose peoples lived on the banks of the Sarasvati and Sindhu.
The Sindhu has been mentioned in the Rig Veda more than a dozen times, the most arresting being in Book X, where the power and might of the river are invoked. It would seem that this aspect overawed the Vedic peoples. Verses from the Rig Veda make this abundantly clear:
1)The singer, O ye Waters in Vivasvan’s place, shall tell your grandeur forth that is beyond compare. The Rivers have come forward triply, seven and seven. Sindhu in might surpasses all the streams that flow.
2) Varuna cut the channels for thy forward course, O Sindhu, when thou rannest on to win the race. Thou speedest over precipitious ridges of the earth, when thou art Lord and Leader of these moving floods.
3) His roar is lifted up to heaven above the earth: he puts forth endless vigour with a flash of light. Like floods of rain that fall in thunder from the cloud, so Sindhu rushes on bellowing like a bull.
4) Like mothers to their calves, like milch kine with their milk, so, Sindhu, unto thee the roaring rivers run. Thou leadest as a warrior king thine army’s wings what time thou comest in the van of these swift streams.
(Rig Veda, Griffiths translation, Book 10.75.1-4)
Shivaji Singh says the Sindhu’s contribution to the Indian ethos is tremendous. The Rig Veda highly adores Sindhu for its benefactions, and the reverence for the river has continued down the ages. The water purifying mantra (ganga cha yamune chaiva…) still repeated at the very beginning of Hindu religious perfomances, stands witness to the fact that Sindhu has traditionally been considered as one of the seven most important rivers of the subcontinent. Changes and modifications in political boundaries cannot alter this fact. Culture is far more durable than Politics (email communication). Sacred Space and Akhand Bharat Akhand Bharat, then, in which Sindhu and Sarasvati are integral parts, is a sacred space unique to the subcontinent. Here live the Devas and Devatas that the Rig Vedic Rishis sighted and were commemorated by them in the Rig Veda. As time went by, some of the names changed and more names were added to the Hindu pantheon. They still continue to inhabit the land mass from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin and from west to east.
In a discussion of rashtra as a culturally nuanced space, Shrinivas Tilak observes: “As a culturally integrated unity, the idea of rashtra inevitably developed a nuanced network of ideology, outlook and traditions inspired and informed by the particular geo-morphological features of the Indian landmass.” (Rewakening to a secular Hindu nation, p.20)
This culturally integrated unity which Hindus call the motherland was given several thousand years ago by the Rishis of the Rig Veda who first lived on the banks of the Sindhu and the Sarasvati.
The writer is a political philosopher who taught at a Canadian university
H.E. Dr. Michael Aaron N. N. Oquaye Esq (Jnr) is Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, with concurrent responsibility for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. H.E. Dr. Oquaye Jnr is an International Investment Corporate Lawyer with an extensive experience in Project Finance, Infrastructure, Mergers and Acquisitions, General Contract, and Commercial Transactions. His global experience is mainly focused on emerging businesses and markets. Countries of business include UK, USA, the ECOWAS region, and South Africa. His varied areas of legal practice are in the sectors of Energy (Oil and Gas Bio fuels and Renewable Energy), Media and Technology, Telecommunications, Commodities, and Agri-business among others. His work experience spans many years in both the UK and Ghana. His last job in the UK was at 9 King’s Bench Walk, Chancery Lane, London, where he worked with renowned barrister AI Mustakim. In Ghana, he is currently a legal practitioner at Exusia Law Consult with renowned lawyers such as Dr Yeboa Amoa (the first Managing Director of Ghana Stock Exchange) and Mrs. Essie F. Cobbina (Cocoa Board Ghana).
He was called to the Bar of England and Wales at The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn and later called to the bar in Ghana. He holds a BL from BPP University’s Law School in Holborn, UK, and an LLB from the Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, UK. He also started an LLM in Oil and Gas at The University of Dundee, Scotland, UK.
Prashant Tewari Editor in Chief in conversation with H.E. Dr. Michael Aaron N. N. Oquaye Esq (Jnr) to speak on the bilateral relationship between India and Ghana and more, he has successfully completed his tenure in India and he is returning back to his country to enter active politics.
Q H.E. You have spent quality time in India, what is special about India and the people?
Well, let me first of all say thank you and your organization for this opportunity to have a conversation, which is mainly to promote and develop the relationship between India and Ghana's. I'll have so many fond memories. The first one, of course, is the kind of welcome I had from the officials of India and the other African ambassadors, I really started enjoying the great Indian hospitality, that of course, is legendary. I really appreciated the Indian food, thank God, I was introduced to it in the UK, previously, and so I had quite a smooth understanding of it. With regard to sports, cricket has amazed me in India. And it was a fantastic experience with regard to cricket activity, especially combined with the Commonwealth experience. One thing I learned in India is to use sport to create commercial activity. And I was part of the Polo circuit in India, Golf was also another very good means of diplomacy. We introduced Indian Ghanaian food to India, this was done on the big show of Khana Khazana with Sanjeev Kapoor, I'll expand on that later during the interview. These were some of my very fond memories of India.
Q On the work front, what challenges you have encountered during your stay in India?
Yes, the first one I can easily cite is bureaucracy where certain things have been well established. And it makes difficult for most people to move. But luckily for me because of my background, as a private practitioner lawyer, I don't see a stumbling block, I am trained to make a case to change a law or to change the status quo, and to present it to a judge to use his discretion. So, I did the same thing with the Indian government. For example, the EXIM Bank relationship, they have a buyer’s credit, where India gives 85%. I said, why 85% when I have to go and borrow 15% from the commercial market, I will not take the loan. And I rather go to China. So, India wants to be competitive, they must give 100%. The processing fee of 0.5% on concessional loan of 4.5% was unnecessary. I just said look to remove it to make it competitive. The loan has become just 4.5% plus labor. These are some of the challenges in terms of business. Now, fortunately, one thing I noticed about the Indians is that some of them were unfamiliar with Africans, they were not sure what to expect and how to deal with you. That was a challenge because most of the time I have to sort of justify my inclusion to people who are not used to dealing with foreigners who are not used to dealing with diplomats. The same challenge was experienced by our students, especially those in very remote colleges, where I have to ask the university authorities to put down clear discrimination laws, so that anybody who was caught discriminating can be punished. And you can see that changed attitudes. These were some of the challenges I faced but I must say that there were more smooth things happening than the bureaucratic and discriminatory challenges that he faced.
Q India and Africa have great relationship at official level, similarly India and Ghana bilateral relationship is at its peak. But Ghana can lead the African continent to consolidate India and Africa relationship in a leadership role, your government is working on the proposal of being the African leader?
Yes, first of all, I'll say thanks for the compliments to myself my predecessor. And we're looking forward that whoever even succeed me, will do a fantastic job as well. But in terms of Ghana, as a leader in Africa, Ghana is already a leader in Africa. However, what I always keep explaining to the Indian government is that it is very difficult for India to want to deal with Africa as a continent. They have to deal with us bilaterally. So, if India wants a result in Africa, what they have to reach out to the countries themselves. Yes, but as I told you, COMESA and SADAC have secretariats but they cannot influence Ghana. There's something called the Africa continental free trade area, right, which is the new way where you produce in Ghana, and you can supply the whole of Africa without tariffs or duty. It is a commercial arrangement, but it's not a political one. So, this is where there still has to be a certain amount of bilateral relationship, we always keep telling the business community.
And you raised a very good question when you said, Ghana as leader. Ghana at the moment is the headquarters of the Africa continental free trade area. In effect, we are positioning ourselves as the gateway to Africa. When you come to Ghana, either commercially, or even to set up a factory, you'll be able to supply the whole of Africa. So, this is what we're not trying to do to help the Indian business community to be able to penetrate through Africa commercially, before they'll even be any sort of political understanding, which may be a thing of the future. Let me quickly equate this to the EU. We all know that the EU started as that European Economic Community, now they are trying to get a certain political angle which is still not working, but at least the trade and commerce is working. So, this is how Africa and India has to go with us. Let us focus on the commercial aspects. And India must be looking at setting up manufacturing basis in Africa because we are looking at value addition.
My brother, let me make a very important contribution here with regard to trade. India and Ghana have a trade at the moment of about five billion dollors. In the last two years, we have risen 48% in trade, because we have come to India to change the game. And now the trade balance is even in favor of Ghana, because India is now becoming more of an upper middle-class economy, where they are now becoming more of a consumer but where are the raw materials? Let me give you an example. Ghana trades in cocoa, gold, we supplied more gold than South Africa last year, we do cashew, we do rubber, all these things India needs. But if you look at the markets, they are all in Europe. London bullion metal exchange is in London, but the gold is produced in Africa, and consumed in Dubai or India. We need to change some of the structures look at diamonds produce in Africa. The diamond capital is in Belgium though India has the technology to polish diamonds. So why can the market shift to Asia? We have cocoa: Ghana and Ivory Coast cocoa produce 60% of the world's cocoa but the cocoa market hub is in Geneva Switzerland. Why is that the case? India is producing a lot of chocolate. So, we need to merge Asia and Africa even more to be able to do that. India has some of the biggest oil refineries with reliance and so on. Yet the trading of oil is done in Rotterdam. There is oil in Middle East and Africa that can be supplied to India direct, how do we make this happen? And that is why recently, just last year, Ghana in India signed an MOU for LPG gas, where you would help us with technology. Secondly, the technology of the west is very expensive and very advanced but India with your cheaper reverse technology is more practical for the African climate. I think we make better bedfellows, and we can even work to a better and common future together.
Q As suggested by you, G2G relationship is great between India and Africa but P2P relations are weak, you suggest the ways to increase the people to people contact to push for comprehensive improvement in India Africa relations?
In fact, you have raised a fantastic question. The first thing that I want to tell that in Ghana, we have something called one district one factory. So, we welcome Indian companies to manufacture steel, pharmacy, leather goods, electronic equipment’s by joining other Ghanaians in joint ventures. But the reverse is not happening. The Indian government doesn't have any schemes, which they will assist African or Ghanaian businesses to overcome and establish here. For example, we produce shea butter for cosmetics. Can we not supply here and then come and set up small factories, which will at least do the first or second stage of processing before we give to the Indian cosmetic and pharmaceutical businesses. How is the Indian government ready to open up on that?
It has to be talked about education in every country: Indians go to Australia and they go to America or Europe, Africans go to Australia, Europe, America, Canada. When you finish studying, you are given internship for a year or two in some countries to pick up work experience from that country. It allows the Indian industry to be familiar with Ghanaian work ethic and work output. But in India, African students finished studying hardly get the internship. And they have to go without any commercial experience. You are raised fantastic thing where the government of India, for example, should look at more B2B encouragement because Ghana is really encouraging from our side. We want African corporations feel free to come in here, especially when it comes to value addition. We don't want a relationship where it's all about borrowing money from EXIM bank. And I must commend India, that in the last two years alone, India invested private money of over $500 million foreign direct investment. India was the second largest in terms of funding and number of projects in Ghana in 2019, this again, was above 500 million, that's half a billion dollars of investment. And because we are welcoming you this way. So, we also want you to start welcoming us so that we can expand in Asia, and then we become partners in friendship.
Q Africa is a fabulous tourist destination for the world yet it is under marketed in India, why? And is there any scope for improvement in Travel & Tourism?
Yes, very much. I must say that, to be honest, Ghana has not really experienced much difficulty in traveling to India, India really are very accommodating in terms of visas to Ghanaians. In fact, there have been some occasions where the Ghanaians may not have all the documentation that bureaucratically India may want, and I've had to intervene and they've understood that these things. The only problem and most people face challenges is when they need to renew their papers, especially with FRRO. This is something that India needs to look at when it comes to FRRO Rule. And that is one little hitch that we have. And with regard to business again, I must say that generally, there are no major issue, because the Indians who come to Ghana, they trade happily, there are many Indians in Ghana at the moment who have lived there for hundred years and never been to India, Indians in Ghana are very unique because they marry Ghanaians. There is no discrimination in terms of Christian, Hindu: there are gurudwaras in Ghana, everybody is being treated as a human being.
I think in my personal opinion, India is a fantastic country. India is virtually a continent, an enigma. And I encourage a lot more Ghanaians to come here for tourism, and a lot more Indians to also go to Ghana for tourism, because it's when you go for tourism, that you are able to sample our cuisine, and most importantly, look at business opportunities. So, I think you're right, tourism will be a very good way of expanding the relationship, both sides, and let us see how best we can put it together. Ghana Tourism Authority is to be the Tourism Board is now an authority to promote tourism. The main focus of the Ghana Tourism Board has been in America, and Europe and Canada, simply because they are also trying to attract more of the Africans though I must admit that our focus should be more in Asia. I think that we can start developing that more, we've already started a few ad-hoc things. Our visa has increased within the last three years to double the amount, but it's mainly business that we are focused on. And I think we can focus more on tourism. We welcome any such introductions, who would want to come and meet the Ghana Tourism Authority.
Q Your message to India before you leave the country to take plunge in active politics?
My departure is actually on Saturday, the 31st. And I must say that of all the interviewers I've spoken to, you have been able to extract deeper information from the way you've phrased your questions. I think the question that you asked about my challenges faced in India is a genuine heartfelt question because some people they only want to hear just the rosy things. And that is a fake friendship or relationship. So, I'm very grateful style of chatting. And it made me very relaxed and maybe even open up more. And I felt like I was having a private conversation rather than an interview. I will continue to be the informal Ambassador of Ghana in India & vice versa to consolidate bilateral relationship.
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