Portrait of a Holy City Struck by Capitalism and Tata`s Pull Back

Portrait of a Holy City Struck by Capitalism and Tata`s Pull Back
Option

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 51

Palash Biswas
http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/



Calcutta Telegraph Mamata adamant on sit-in at Singur
Hindu, India - 14 Aug 2008
“None has the right to stop a democratic movement,” she said, referring to moves by the State government to disallow any attempt to disrupt peace at Singur. ...
Singur: Govt to take stern steps The Statesman
In Singur, security plan in place for Aug 24 TMC strike Kolkata Newsline
Displaced Singur farmers to get shops Livemint
Calcutta Telegraph
all 5 news articles »

Economic boost: Tata Motors transforms Singur
Times of India, India - 11 Aug 2008
Like it or curse it, the Tata Nano factory in Singur is happening. No matter what Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee say or do from here on, ...
Himalayan Singur, minus Mamata Calcutta Telegraph
CPM signals Tata-Mamata talks Calcutta Telegraph
all 7 news articles »
Congress asks Left to initiate Singur talks
The Statesman, India - 9 Aug 2008
Alleging that the state government's “dictatorial” attitude and hasty administrative steps at Singur has complicated the situation, Madhya Pradesh Congress ...
CPM plans tit for tat in Singur Calcutta Telegraph
Marxists caught in their own trap The Statesman
Govt waits for Mamata request Calcutta Telegraph
all 8 news articles »

Singur under seige, thanks to the Left Front

Bs Reporter / Singur August 22, 2008, 19:00 IST

Singur is under siege today thanks to a meeting organised by the Left Front
Close to 1,000 buses have brought in lakhs of people to Singur, the factory site of Tata Motors. All movement on the National Highway, to and fro from the factory, has been stopped. While some work appears to be underway, only a handful of people are working at the site and the area is paralysed by people walking or squatting around the site.

Many of the buses carrying CPI (M) supporters appeared to be parked inside the site.

Thanks to the show of strength the factory site seems deserted. Very few men and machine appear to be working inside. The action is entirely outside the factory.

In other words, it's a another day of work loss for the Singur factory.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?tp=on&autono=45152

AFP India's Tata says may shift Nano car plant due to protests
AFP - 4 hours ago
If the protests do not end at the Singur plant, "we will very reluctantly need to move," Tata told reporters following the Tata Motors annual meeting. ...
End of Nano dreams? Tata threatens to pull out project
NDTV.com, India - 7 hours ago
Ratan Tata has threatened to pull out 'Nano' car project from West Bengal if violence continues in Singur. West Bengal's Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, ...

FICCI comes out in support of Singur project
Merinews, India - 2 hours ago
FICCI said that Tata’s small car unit in Singur has been a dream project for the state and any number of alternative sites were offered on a platter ...
No industrialisation at cost of farmers: Mamata
Hindu, India - 8 minutes ago
Singur problem would never be solved until and unless 400 acres of land forcibly taken away from unwilling farmers for the small car project was returned ...

Basu welcomes Mamata's willingness to talk on Singur
Press Trust of India, India - 8 Aug 2008
In an apparent softening of her belligerent stand on the Tata Motors' plant at Singur, Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday that she was open for talks with ...
Mamata's Singur agitation 'fascist' in nature: Subhas Hindu
Industry backs Buddha on Singur, takes a dig at bandh culture Expressindia.com
Let Singur be a state showpiece Economic Times
NDTV.com - Hindustan Times
all 236 news articles »
Nationwide strike against price rise cripples Left-ruled states
Times of India, India - 20 Aug 2008
The strike hindered work in the Left Front government's industrial spotlight of Singur as well. Only those workers who’ve been given shelter at the small ...
Small car’s big troubles continue
Daily News & Analysis, India - 17 hours ago
“Should the uncertainty continue, the company will take a call and decide if it makes sense to continue in Singur. Till then, Tata Motors is determined to ...

AFP Farmers talk tough on Singur
The Statesman, India - 8 Aug 2008
8: Although Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee agreed to talk to the authorities of Tata Motors over the “Singur land grab” controversy, ...
Communists assure security to Tata's small car plant at Singur Economic Times
Renewed protests threaten to delay Nano India launch Reuters
Bumpy road for world's cheapest car AFP
Hindu - MarketWatch
all 54 news articles »

VIENNA: A proposed provision in the Nuclear Suppliers' Group draft seeking to halt all nuclear commerce between the Group and India if it conducted further tests seemed to have become the sticking point as the 45-member NSG went into the second round of its meeting here Friday. ( Watch )

Most members are in favour of lifting the current ban that prevents nuclear commerce between the NSG and a non-signatory of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), like India. But some NSG members insist that it should not be lifted unless New Delhi formally says no to further nuclear tests.

India has made it clear it will not accept any "new" provisions in the draft that the United States had prepared for the NSG before its two-day meeting began here Thursday.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_says_no_to_new_provisions_in_NSG_draft/articleshow/3394115.cms

When Mr Obama surged ahead, the news media went into overdrive and, according to the Campaign Coverage Index from the Pew Research Centre, there has been more coverage of him than Mr McCain in the US news media every month this year, BBC reports. According to BBC,` They were watching President George W Bush's approval ratings scrape historic lows, the economy heading for the doldrums and continuing slaughter in Iraq - despite the surge of American troops.

The Republican Party seemed underwhelmed by its choice of presidential candidates and it was not hard to find party activists hunched over a beer and staring blankly into the middle distance, conceding that the Democrats seemed to have the White House wrapped up.’

RSS playing havoc to partition India once again. The movement for land for Amarnath Shrine is doing well as it has provoked the Autonomy demand forgotten.Reviving their strike call, separatist leaders on Friday asked people to observe a complete shutdown in the Kashmir valley for three days in the wake of the Amarnath land row, media reports.

Kolkata did nothing to stop partition in 1947. Rather the Bengali Brahmins did everything to ensure that the power should be transferred to them only ejecting out our indigenous people out of their Home lands in Punjab, Sind and Bengal.

Kolkata civil society has not decided any stance on this burning issue!


In Kolkata, the Sacred Cow of Bengalies worldwide,Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata Friday threatened to pull out of Singur saying that it was not possible to work in an atmosphere of tension and distrust.Even as the agitation in Singur is set to intensify, Tata Motors has assured the West Bengal Government that they will not pull out of the project until forced to. Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata met Bengal Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen, late Thursday night and expressed his anxiety over the proposed agitation on August 24. The meeting was held to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation at the Nano car plant at Singur. Tata aims to roll out the world's cheapest car in October this year.

After the threat from Tata group chairman Ratan Tata to shift the Tata Nano factory out of West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that the government is looking for a solution to the issue.

He said that the government has to find the solution through dialogue on Singur, adding that people of the state want the project.

"There will be future talks. I have appealed to the opposition to have peaceful demonstrations," said Buddhadeb.

He said that Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee wanted some papers that have been sent to her office.

In a surprise move, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya himself kicked off the crucial talks on the Singur deadlock with the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata on Wednesday.

The key issue of the talks is Mamata Banerjee's demand for the return of 400 acres from the Tata factory site to angry farmers.

If the land is not returned, Mamata Banerjee has threatened to indefinitely gherao the Tata Motors factory site from the August 24.

Tata group chief Ratan Tata has threatened to exit West Bengal if there was no let-up in violence at Singur, where the company is building a factory to make the world's cheapest car 'Nano'.

Tata said if the group was unwanted in the state "we would have to make a move despite whatever investments had been already made in the project".

The project is facing political protests, marred by violence. The Opposition, mainly the Trinamool Congress, has been demanding return of 400 acres of land, which the Tatas say, is required for ancillarisation of the project.

Meanwhile,Tata Motors (TML) has reviewed the long-term financing plans it announced in May for the Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) acquisition. Given the market weakness, it plans to raise Rs 3,000 crore through a phased divestment of certain investments over 6-8 months instead of the earlier plan to issue convertible preference shares.

TML had earlier announced that it would raise Rs 7,200 crore through three different rights issues. Now, it would raise Rs 4,200 crore through two different rights issues.

Shares in India's Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (TTM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) ended down on Thursday after having risen nearly 5 percent on its decision to scrap a planned 30 billion rupee ($686 million) convertible preference share issue.

India's top vehicle maker said late on Wednesday it would cancel the issue due to weak stock markets, and instead raise funds by selling some investments over the next six to eight months, within the Tata group where possible.

It now plans to raise 42 billion rupees from two rights issues instead of 72 billion rupees from three simultaneous issues to help fund its $2.3 billion acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands.

Addressing shareholders, Tata said that the company was looking at acquisitions to complement its product range. Without clarifying the segment in which Tata Tea was eyeing acquisitions, Tata said that the acquisitions would be strategic that would add particular strength, footprint in another country or access to technology.Tata Tea will be a beverage and food company, said Ratan Tata, chairman Tata Tea, at the company’s annual general meeting.

Mergers and acquisitions, or investments would be made, which make strategic value for us,” he said.

Responding to queries, on whether Tata Tea would consider changing its name, Tata said that the complexion of the company had changed from a mere tea company and the company would consider it.

Speaking on the sidelines, R K Krishna Kumar, vice-chairman, Tata Tea said that the company was eyeing markets in America and Russia in a big way and could even look at acquisitions.

Tata Tea would also look at spread and expanding its wellness range. The company was now a complete global company with 42 brands in 45 countries.

Tata Motors, one of India`s largest car producers will launch new second-generation Tata Indica by name of Indica Vista, reports Business Standard.
Within days of withdrawing a proposed investment plan of $3 billion in Bangladesh because of the country's prevalent political instability and the non-committal stance of the government, Tata Steel (BOM:500470) (Mumbai, India) firmed up its plans of developing a steel complex with a capacity of 4.5 million tons per year in Vietnam. The project will have an estimated cost of $5 billion. Essar Steel (Mumbai), POSCO (NYSE:PKX) (Pohang, South Korea) and Baosteel (Shanghai, China) were also reported to be in the race with Tata Steel for the project.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=137372, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services. For more information send inquiries to metalsandmineralsgroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us at www.industrialinfo.com.

THE £6.2-billion takeover of the Scunthorpe steelworks and the rest of the Corus business has proven to be the buy of the century for the new Indian owners.Tata Steel has made it into the list of the world's wealthiest companies for the first time in its 101-year history.The maiden entry at number 315 in the list of Global 500 companies released by the Fortune magazine comes after the Mumbai-based steelmaker announced its yearly profit had almost trebled to £1.46-billion.Profits for the quarter ending June 30 were also up by 21.78 per cent.But the latest results do not include the consolidated performance of Corus which is due to be announced next month.

Have you watched the live telecast and analysis on your TV browsing National and local channels today?

The press conference was managed with surgical precision.

Ratan Tata was perfect enough to draw the present Industrial scenario and future potentials in West Bengal!

But we have not addressed the basic problems what happened to all those closed industrial units in west Bengal? More than fifty six thousands of them?

What happened to the workers employed there?

What happened to the property owned by those industries?

What happened to Cotton?

What happened to Jute?

What happened to Tea?

What happened to engineering products?

It is the new aesthetics of market to strike the soft targets. Ratan tata quoted the Intelligentsia which eventually leads Singur Insurrection and addressed the Civil Society with a request to decide his option, to be or not to be!

Thus, the Portrait of the Holy city is drawn with intense interaction in between the Corporate and the civil society.

Sharing anguish of Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata, leading industry chambers on Friday asked the West Bengal Government to resolve the land issue with the Opposition and ensure that the Tata's dream small car project is not pulled out of the state.

The three apex chambers -- CII, FICCI and Assocham -- said West Bengal would be a big loser if the Tatas withdraw from the Singur project out of frustration.

"This (Tatas' withdrawing) will create problems for the state not only in the present but also for future in attracting investment," Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Amit Mitra said.

He said many alternative sites were offered "on a platter" elsewhere in the country for locating the small car project. But the Tatas decided on Singur because they were "committed to bring investment into a state which had attracted little investor attention".

An angry Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industry Chandrajit Banerjee said, "Small car is a world story. It is an issue of the country's image."

Banerjee said if the Tatas pull out of West Bengal, it would "irreversibly hamper the future industrialisation of the state and could take it back to an age of industrial vacuum".

Asked who is to blame for the impasse, Banerjee said, "anybody trying to create roadblock is wrong".

Assocham President Sajjan Jindal, whose JSW group has also lined up big-time investment in the State, said if the Tatas leave it would take West Bengal "back to the 1970s when the state witnessed large exodus of industry".

My friends, despite the aggressive stance taken by the Resistance Hegemony, Singur People have no chance in the bargain!
Not at all.
Anad Bazar Patrica leads the media to defend indiscriminate Industrialisation and Urbanisation! It defends Nuke Deal and US interests in India! It is fighting to build up Public Opinion for Tatas, Salem and Zindal and all the corporate houses. It is perverting Bengali language and literature. It has published so many issues of Desh to focus on Industrialisation! It has launched a campaign to promote Brand Buddha and at the same time it is the fiercest critic of the Left, specially CPIM! It mocks the third front and alliance of the Left with Mayawati. it is the only media Hose which shamelessly supports any US aggression anywhere in the world.
Pardon me!All the dignitaries of the so called Civil society have been produced by this Anad Bazar Group. Only exceptions are Mahashweta di and Nabarun Bhattacharya, her son!
Would all the writers and artists belonging to SWAJAN, SANHATI and Nagarik Manch be ready to boycott this anti people Media House?
Would Icon Writers not write in Puja specials published by the media houses helping the Ruling Gestapo?
Would they have enough courage to boycott the electronic media booms?
Zee network has taken over all government auditoriums including the cluster of Rabindra Sadan as they had tried in vain to capture the News Agency UNI. UNI workers sent back Subhash Chandra? Who dares in Bengal?
Dr Amartya sen is another Holy Cow of Bangla Caste Hindu Nationality who is the most powerful spokesman of US corporate Imperialism and the Ruling Gestapo in West Bengal? Who is also pleading for TATAs. The so called Nobel laureate spares Imperialism in significant works on Famine in India as well as China.
May the Civil society try to eject out this global Icon out of Bengal?
Nothing is going to happen,Mr Ratan Tata knows it correctly and hence, he leaves the Option of Industrialisation open to be decided by the Civil Society only. he has staked his money on the Right choice and he is not going to fail!
On Thursday, a section of city Intelligentsia led by Mahashweta Devi addressed another Press conference. Tushar Talukdar was on of the intellectual present. Talukdar was Kolkat Police commissioner during Jyoti Basu tenure. The so called civil society is tempted to field ex IPS, WBCS and IPS officers to defend Singur and Nandigram cases! is it not contradictory. The Butcher of Marichjhanpi genocide, Amiya Sanyal speaks on democratic norms. All those officials, known policy makers and executives of Ruling Hegemony gestapo accompany Mahashweta Devi and waste tonnes of news prints on edit pages! How the massacre Brigade has changed it`s heart?
Where is the space for the victims? Those who are uprooted from life and livelihood? Those who are being annihilated?
Neither Ruling nor Resistance Hegemony is interested to save our indigenous aboriginal communities!
I beg your pardon!


The Government of Bengal has been holding talks with the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee for the last few days to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to the opposition of the villagers to the Tata Motors plant which is to produce the low cost car Nano. The controversy surrounds the acquisition of 997-acre plot by the Bengal Government for the Rs 1 lakh car plant at Singur, 40km west of Kolkata.While the Trinamul Congress led resistance demands that the Government return 400 acres to those who did not want to sell their land, the Government has refused to do so.
Where the fire brand leader was hidden all the time while Tatas were allowed to go on with construction works?
Tats were allowed to invest Rs 15,000 corore! Now Ratan Tata leaves the Option to be decided by the Civil Society whether to pull out or not!
Where has been our dearest NGO leader Medha Patkar?
On 24th, I am sure . we will see another Olympiad of Reality Show where all the unexpected faces would be presented. We may guess some of them as Amar Singh and Somen Mitra!
Congress has also jumped in the fray as the marriage between UPA and Left is broken abruptly!
I won`t be surprised if the ruling left fields Mayawati to plead for Industry!
What is this all about?
Please explain!
What the Indigenous people, the peasants would get in this power game?
Mamata has clarified that she is against neither industrialisation nor the Tatas. It is understood that she is against the Ruling left Front! What to do with this stance?
Mamata and Medha and the Civil society have allowed Tatas and the State government to go on with Singur Project! Now they are just bargaining for some hundred acres of land!
What is the development we see in POSCO, Orissa?
What happened in Barnala?
What was the case of Navi Mumbai?
What we see in Noida?
Are all these cases not linked at all?
Just trace the developments in the sovereign Open Market!
Just have a look on the changing Geopolitics which has been turned into a war zone, a killing field with realliance of Global ruling Classes and strategic realliance in US Lead!
Who is leading the movement against the anti people policy making of the central government? What about Inflation, price rise, retail chain, nuclear plants and parks,GM seeds, natural resources, food security and starvation?
The Resistance Hegemony is either ignorant or cooperative to the task of annihilation!
Matters took a dramatic turn yesterday with the Trinamool Congress (TC) controlled gram panchayat in Singur saying that it would not grant any permissions to the plant like environmental and water use licences, and also threatened to take action against the company as its factory was blocking the rainwater drainage channel of the entire area leading onto the Hooghly river.
Speaking to reporters after the Tata Tea AGM, Ratan Tata said today: "We are deeply concerned at the violence and disruption and at the safety of our employees, equipment and investments at the project site at Singur," He said: "It is for the people of West Bengal and Kolkata to decide whether we are unwanted or accept us as a good corporate citizen.
"If it is the latter, then it is good."
He said that if it was the other, then it would be impossible to alter the plan "following which we would have to make a move despite whatever investments had been already made in the project."

Visibly disturbed Tata said that Rs 1500 crore of investments had been already made in the project.
"There is a sense of tension, violence and disruption (at Singur). Obviously it is not a conducive atmosphere. The compound wall is broken down, materials stolen." "Whatever be the cost, we will move out if the situation demands so," he said.
Tata said that there was a general perception that Tatas were exploiting the State. "We are extremely sensitive to the needs of the rural community. We have not come to exploit anyone. We have got the land on lease and not bought it."
The State had been long ignored by industrial houses, including the Tatas. "Despite much flak which we have drawn for locating the dream project at Singur, we have decided to locate the project here.
"We are also gifting a hospital to the State which would be commissioned in March 2009," he said. Saying that he had no regret for coming to West Bengal, he said "I am an optimist."
If the project was moved out of Singur, then it would definitely affect the future flow of investments by the Tatas in the State, he said.
Explaining the situation at Singur, Tata said: "It is not possible to work under police protection."
On the issue of 400 acres which had been earmarked for the ancillary units, Tata said that the small car 'Nano' was a unique product. "It is necessary to incorporate the ancillary units in the same location to keep the logistics cost low." 
The main opposition Trinamool Congress in the State is insisting that the company set up operations on 600 acres and return 400 acres of land earmarked for ancillary units to farmers from whom the property was acquired forcibly.
With the State Government not relenting to the opposition party's demands, a deadlock has been created leading to tension and violence in the project area.

TC chief Mamata Banerjee meanwhile has said that she would go ahead with the indefinite dharna near the Tata Motors' small car plant from August 24 but was open to dialogue.
She said yesterday that her party had already offered to the state government a solution for return of the 400 acres at Singur to 'unwilling' farmers.
Banerjee offered, “Let the company take whatever land it wants for its 600 acre factory and only after that will the farmers who have not accepted compensation take back their land- I am not insisting on return of the exact land”.
Tata Motors had written a “confidential” letter to Banerjee on the Nano small car project in Singur saying it needed only 600 acres for its car plant, while the other 400-odd acres at Singur would house auto component companies which would supply to the Nano project and also to other clients.
According to the government, this had emboldened Banerjee to ask for return of 400 acres.
To combat this, the state government yesterday produced a letter by Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant giving an “update” to West Bengal industry minister Nirupam Sen reportedly saying that it needed the full 997 acres now.

And now see what is all about the Policy making?
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today gave its approval for compulsory packaging of food grains and sugar in jute bags on 100 per cent basis for the jute year 2008-09 (July-June).
In the 2007-08 jute year too, following a meeting of the CCEA that was held under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, it was decided that jute bags must be used on 100 per cent basis for packaging of food grains and sugar.
The decision has been welcomed by the Rs 6,500-crore turnover jute industry, which had earlier apprehended a dilution of the Jute Packaging Materials Act, 1987, which makes it mandatory for food grains and sugar to be packed on 100 per cent basis in jute bags.
The move will directly benefit four million jute growers and two-and-a-half lakh workers engaged in the jute mills industry. The decision will ensure offtake of nine lakh tonnes of jute goods, out of the 17 lakh tonnes produced by the industry.
However, some exemptions have been prescribed in the order under the JPM Act. In the case of shortage or disruption in the supply of jute packaging material, the Union Ministry of Textiles will, in consultation with the user ministries concerned, further relax these provisions up to a maximum of 20 per cent for food grains and sugar, respectively.

The annual Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rose 12.63 per cent during the week ended August 9, above the previous week’s year-on-year rise of 12.44 per cent, Government data showed on Thursday. The Union Government, on Thursday, approved a new open market sale scheme (OMSS) for wheat and rice in order to keep grain prices in check ahead of the upcoming festival season.The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), at its meeting here, decided to allocate wheat under the OMSS both to State Governments/Union Territories as well as bulk consumers, such as roller flour mills.
“We plan to channelise about 50 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat under the scheme between September and March next.
Another 10 lt will be allocated to States/UTs as additional above-poverty-line (APL) quota”, a senior Food Ministry official said.
The exact distribution of the overall 50 lt OMSS quantities between the States/UTs and bulk consumers, and also the timing of intervention and locations, will be decided by the Ministry based on the recommendation of a Committee of Secretaries (CoS).
The official WPI for ‘All Commodities’ for the week ended August 9 rose to 240.7 points, up from 240.4 points for the previous week.

The annual inflation rate was recorded at 4.24 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.
On a disaggregated basis, during the latest reported week, the index for the Primary Articles group rose marginally as the Food Articles’ group index rose by 0.3 per cent due to higher prices of masur (3 per cent), tea, moong and gram (2 per cent each) and milk (1 per cent). However, the prices of urad, fish-marine and arhar (1 per cent each) declined.
In a move that would keep the roll out of third generation services on track, the Department of Telecom has rejected telecom regulator’s call to review some parts of the recently announced third generation policy. The TRAI had sought a review on several issues in the policy – the key one being DoT’s decision to allocate spectrum to CDMA players based on subscriber numbers. The regulator had also asked the Government to refer the issue of allowing new and foreign players back to TRAI so that it can suggest the terms and conditions of the new licence category.Rejecting TRAI’s view on foreign players, an internal DoT note said, “ The unified access licence are authorised to provide triple play – voice, data and video without any limit on speed of data. 3G service providers are not new category of licensees and they shall be offering 3G services under terms & conditions of the UASL licence. Therefore, the provision of the TRAI ACT 1997 is not applicable in this situation.”
Faced with falling margins due to rising interest rates, banks are focusing on the small and medium enterprises sector. Although lending to SMEs is slightly more risky compared with big corporates, with defaults ranging from 1-3 per cent, the higher returns make up for the defaults, said bankers.
It is, as one banker said, the ‘bread and butter’ for banks.
An SME client is usually charged interest rates slightly higher than the benchmark prime-lending rate of banks. “While a ‘AAA’ rated corporate can get loans at PLR or even 1-1.5 per cent lower than PLR, lending to SME is usually never lower than PLR,” said Mr V.K. Dhingra, Executive Director, UCO Bank.
Besides earning a higher yield, banks also benefit from a host of ancillary businesses from an SME client, according to Mr T.M. Bhasin, Executive Director, United Bank of India.
“Ancillary businesses such as Letter of Credits and guarantee from SME clients give banks an opportunity to earn fee-based income,” he said.
Banks are also taking additional initiatives to increase lending to this segment. For instance, ICICI Bank is planning to launch a private equity fund for SMEs and State Bank of India has recruited dedicated customer relationship executives to serve SME customers and to acquire new business.
Union Bank of India is redesigning its SME segment into clusters, based on both geography and industry; setting up processing centres called ‘SME Sarals’ and hiring specialised credit officers for this segment. So far, the bank has set up seven SME Sarals and hired 280 officers.
United Bank of India is looking at a 40 per cent growth in its SME portfolio in 2008-09, up from 27 per cent last year.
UCO Bank is looking at 20 per cent growth, against 18 per cent last year. “Gems and jewellery, auto components, engineering and textiles are the sectors our bank will be focusing in a big way this year,” said Mr Dhingra.
Union Bank of India saw its SME segment grow by 41 per cent to Rs 12,630 crore, in the first quarter, up from Rs 8,962 crore last year. For this fiscal, the bank has set a target of Rs 17,000 crore or 35-37 per cent growth.
Bank of India, which had an SME portfolio of Rs 21,000 crore as on June 30, 2008, expects growth in this segment to be around 22-23 per cent, which is in line with earlier years, said Mr S. C. Jain, General Manager, in charge of SME.
The lack of bargaining power with SMEs is also one of the reasons that banks would continue to focus on this segment.
“For SMEs there is no other capital available. They have to go in only for loan capital,” said Mr T. S. Krishnaswamy, Deputy General Manager, SME, SBI.
Given the overall economic slowdown, SBI is expecting its SME growth to see slight moderation, he added.
This year the bank is expecting the growth to be around 25-27 per cent, down from 31 per cent over the last three years.
The bank’s outstanding SME advances as on June 30, 2008 were around Rs 90,000 crore.
“SME is a segment of high growth. So our focus on this segment will remain. But because of the overall slowdown, new investments could be lesser this year,” he said.
This year, engineering goods sector may be hit by the high steel prices and the food processing sector too may be affected due to sluggish monsoon and curbs on exports of pulses, he added.The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday gave its approval for continuing the ongoing schemes of Ground Water Survey, Exploration and Investigation, Central Ground Water Authority, and Study of Recharge to Ground Water as one integrated scheme on Ground Water Management and Regulation at an outlay of Rs 460 crore during the Eleventh Plan period.
The scheme will help strengthen the ground water resource management system, delineation of ground water development-worthy areas, developing area-specific artificial recharge and rain water harvesting techniques, development of web-enabled ground water information system for quick dissemination of ground water data, and strengthening of coordination and synergy amongst all other stakeholders.


The state government has said the Calcutta High Court order in the Rizwanur Rahman case was an “emotional judgment” and that it would contest Thursday’s ruling.
The court has allowed the CBI to file chargesheets against seven persons, including Rizwanur’s father-in-law Ashok Todi, his brother Pradip and three police officers, for abetment of suicide
But Subrata Mukhopadhyay, the junior counsel for the state, said: “There has been no trial and unless this is done no one can be seen as guilty of abetment of suicide. This is clearly an emotional judgment.”
The court has also termed the city police’s attempts to arm-twist the couple “unconstitutional” and “inhuman”.
Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee appealed to the Tata group chief, Mr Ratan Tata to persuade the state government to return to the unwilling farmers 400 acres of the 997 acres acquired for the small car project at Singur since “industrialists should have a human face and show concern for the people.”
The state government, on the other hand, claimed that Tata Motors had clarified that the vendors' park was indispensable for their small car factory, contradicting Miss Banerjee's stand that the ancillary units on the controversial land could be shifted elsewhere .
Miss Banerjee pleaded that the Tatas require only 650 acres for their small car plant and claimed the letter written to her by the managing director of Tata Motors Limited, Mr Ravi Kant, mentioned the quantum of land needed for the mother plant.
The state commerce and industries minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, said he had enquired with the TML MD about the matter. The Tatas have given details of the land use in the total project area of 997 acres including the vendors' park.
“The Trinamul Congress chairperson had cited a letter at the meeting with industrialists. Since we were not aware of anything I enquired about it with Mr Kant. He gave us details of the land use which includes the land for ancillary units,” said Mr Sen.
The state government also said it was yet to receive any document from the Trinamul on the modalities for returning the controversial land. Miss Banerjee said: "We have already given the documents to them but again if they want we can always provide them with the relevant documents.''
After talks with the Trinamul-led Opposition the state government, it was learnt, believes there is “scope for negotiation over the 400 acres of land”. Over 60 acres of the controversial portion have been set aside for building roads and installing power lines.
The Trinamul chief insisted that they would go ahead with the agitation at Singur for an indefinite period from 24 August and any attempt by the administration to scuttle it would meet with stiff resistance. The state government would be “solely” responsible for the consequences, she said.
Miss Banerjee, who oversaw the agitation programme during the day, said the CPI-M would deploy one of its mass organisations to block roads of Singur on 24 August. “The intention is quite clear. The state government would be responsible for any eventuality,” she said. The administration is worried as the President is scheduled to visit Joykrishna Library on the same day at Uttarpara in Hooghly district.
The state home secretary, Mr AM Chakrabarti, said he would meet representatives of the Krishi Jomi Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee, spearheading the agitation, in a day or two.

The Statesman, Kolkata reports:
Two days after Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee drew applause from captains of industry for her views on industrialisation, CPI-M politburo member Mr Sitaram Yechury (photograph right) today was locked in a verbal duel with ICC committee members over the Marxists’ politics of forcing a shutdown on economic life by calling frequent bandhs like the one that paralysed life in three Left-ruled states yesterday.
“You seem to be in a mental state of the 1960s as you frequently call bandhs when the economy takes a beating and people are forced to remain indoors. What did you gain by yesterday's bandh ?” one industrialist asked Mr Yechury. “No wonder investors move away from West Bengal to Gujarat because the economic climate there is more congenial than here,” said another. “How can it be that the people of the three Left-ruled states have a perception about bandhs that is not shared by the rest of the country which carries on normally on such days ?” a third asked.
Mr Yechury had the stock Left response that bandhs or strikes were “but a last resort of the people when their pent-up feelings go unresponded." But he immediately became belligerent in his response to the barrage of criticism and asked the industrialists why they had remained silent during the past three years when prices of essential commodities had skyrocketed because of forward trading.
“If you want a serious debate, don't be led by prejudices (against the Left),” he almost chided the industrialists. “If investors shy away from Bengal, it's not because of bandhs, but for other reasons”, he said, without spelling out the “reasons.” He, however, claimed Bengal now ranked first among states attracting investment. In the end, Mr Yechury said politicians and industrialists need to collaborate rather than confront each other for the country's growth. He also felt a solution to the Singur stalemate through discussion would help the state’s economy
Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet Thursday accepted most of the recommendations of a parliamentary standing committee to improve the Unorganised Sector Workers’ Social Security Bill, 2008, which has already been introduced in Parliament.
The information and broadcasting minister, Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, told reporters that the government would incorporate the committee’s recommendations in the Bill through amendments in the next session of Parliament.
The minister said the Cabinet extended by six months a 29 August 2006 Central Notification concerning wheat, rice and pulses. The extension would be effective from 1 September 2008. The scope of the notification has been extended to paddy. Official sources said the order would help state governments check hoarding, and thereby control price-rise.
CGHS facilities: Mr Dasmunsi said the Cabinet considered proposals on extending CGHS facilities to journalists accredited to the Central government. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, constituted a three-member ministerial committee to examine if the CGHS facilities could be extended to families of the journalists. The committee includes the health minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, and the I&B minister. The committee would come out with its views this month, Mr Dasmunsi said.
MEA posts: The Cabinet also decided to create 518 posts in the external affairs ministry. Of these, 249 posts would be within the country, comprising 139 officers and 110 staff. The remaining 269 posts ~ 175 officers and 94 staff ~ would be created in Indian missions abroad.
The Cabinet decided to merge the two Centrally-sponsored schemes of Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR) and Computerization of Land Records (CLR), and to replace them with a modified Centrally-sponsored scheme of National Land Records Modernisation Programme (NLRMP).

Worried’, Tata flashes Singur alert
OUR BUREAU


Tata, Sen
Calcutta, Aug. 21: A “worried” Ratan Tata has no intention to pull out of Singur “until and unless forced to do so”, the Bengal government said tonight in the first public admission that the car project is not as foregone as was being made out.
“Actually, he is quite worried about the developments in Singur. He did not anticipate this kind of thing to happen for such a project,” industries minister Nirupam Sen said tonight after meeting Ratan Tata at a city hotel.
Asked whether there was any possibility of the Tatas withdrawing from the Singur project, Sen said: “He has made a lot of investment and it is not his intention to pull out until and unless he is forced to do so by circumstances.”
The comments attributed to Tata are certain to winch up pressure on Mamata, who has been trying hard to shed the tag of “anti-industry”.
Tata has said the fate of the project will ultimately be decided by the people of Bengal. “Tata thought that the small car project will be beneficial to the people of Bengal and that it will be welcomed by all,” the minister said.
The dramatic late-evening meeting took place on the eve of the Tata Tea annual general meeting — the official purpose behind Tata’s visit to the city — and on a day Mamata announced that she would go ahead with the siege of Singur from Sunday.
“We have told Tata that as far as discussions with the Trinamul Congress are concerned, they have assured us that there would be no lawlessness… there will be peaceful demonstration,” Sen said, indirectly putting the onus on the Opposition party to ensure the protest does not spin out of control — a possibility when charged crowds assemble.
Sen, who was accompanied by industries secretary Sabysachi Sen, said Tata expressed “anxiety” over what would happen on August 24. “I hope all parties, even those who are opposing us, will think before any kind of action so that the project can go through peacefully,” the minister said.
He declined to say if the government discussed any compromise formula with Tata.
Tata landed in the city at 6.25pm and reached the hotel after an hour or so. Sen called on Tata a little after 9pm and the talks lasted one and a half hours.
Trinamul has demanded the return of 400 acres meant for vendors to “unwilling farmers”, saying the car plant needed only “600-650 acres”.
The Tatas have clarified in a letter to the government today that the entire project needed 1,000 acres as the ancillary units were an integral part of the small-car project.
Trinamul sources said late tonight that Mamata wanted to meet Tata but the state government was preventing the industrialist from holding talks with her.
The party sources said the situation could be defused even now if the government made a public admission that land was acquired “forcibly”.
In return for such an acknowledgement, the Trinamul leadership will scale down the size of “the land to be returned” to “250 or 200” acres from 400, the sources said. According to government figures, the number of acres belonging to “unwilling farmers” stands at 167.
An official at the chief minister’s secretariat said the government and Trinamul might hold a second meeting in the next few days, after Mamata’s representatives met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Sen at Writers’ Buildings yesterday.
“I can’t say whether the second meeting will be held tomorrow or the day after, but it may take place,’’ the official said. Asked about this, the Trinamul chief merely said: “Our door is open for positive dialogue.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080822/jsp/frontpage/story_9727496.jsp
Sir, people feel bandh is Left’s first option
A STAFF REPORTER

Sitaram Yechury at the session. Telegraph picture
Calcutta, Aug. 21: Interactive session is the flavour of the season but not everyone is as fortunate as Mamata Banerjee to enjoy an uncontested run. Sitaram Yechury, the CPM politburo member who addressed a meeting of the Indian Chamber of Commerce at Bengal Club on Thursday, should know.
Yechury, whose party’s labour union Citu is celebrating the “success” of a 24-hour bandh on Wednesday, held forth before the industrialists on issues such as the nuclear deal, price rise and land acquisition.
As soon as his speech was over, an industrialist asked a question on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, and Yechury breezed through the familiar territory. But the next question rang out like a pistol shot in sharp contrast with the diffident queries that greeted Mamata at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
Over to Bengal Club, Thursday afternoon.
Harsh Jha (MD, Tata Metaliks): Please forgive me if I am being a bit harsh, but I think the Left is still wrapped up in the 60s and 70s. Why else do we have so many bandhs in this particular state? Yesterday’s strike call forced the state to come to a halt. What did the country gain?…
Yechury: (Tries to say something)
Jha: We have heard you. Please hear us, too.
Weren’t you contributing to inflation as well through this bandh? What impression are you sending out? The daily labourers lost out on their income.
Yechury: I think you are being too partisan. It’s not that we call for industrial strike too often. If I remember, the last such strike was called three years ago. And what impression are you talking about? If you are so concerned, why didn’t you support us when the CPM sought imposition of tax on windfall gains on private, joint venture oil firms and private refineries?….
Jha: (Tries to speak)
Yechury: I have heard you. Please listen.
We don’t want oil companies to make this windfall profit and let the common man bear the burden of increase in oil prices. Please don’t think in isolation.
Gaurav Swarup (MD, Paharpur Cooling Towers): I think we are deviating. Sir, without being so blunt, I think you will appreciate that bandh does affect the image of the state. Apart from other things, it does speak of the work culture as well. In fact, frequent bandhs affect the overall environment for investments in the state.
Yechury: I think you must appreciate that the CPM has always believed that strike is the last option. What do you do? We have been trying to attract the attention of the Prime Minister on the price rise of essential commodities and other issues for the last three years. Forget the figures of inflation. It’s the normal people who go out to the market who are the worst hit.
Yechury: And I would like to know whether the impression of the state is being hit owing to the bandh call or the agitation in Singur? Please understand that it’s the pent-up frustration of the people that force us to tread the path of a bandh. It’s the last resort.
Dibyendu Bose (MD, Tata Martrade International Logistics Ltd): But Sir, people outside feel bandh is the first option for the Left in Bengal. OK, even if we accept this bandh culture, can we just ensure that during a bandh, you can at least keep planes and trains out of its ambit? The aged and ailing, waiting for long-distance trains, suffer tremendously during such bandhs. At least, if it can be ensured that the sick can reach hospitals on a bandh day, that would make a lot of difference.
Yechury: I know what people feel about Bengal from outside and it’s not what you claim. Even Kerala had a bandh yesterday. But yes, I think what you are suggesting is true. We do try and ensure that the sick and the ailing don’t bear the brunt of the strike call. Trust me, we tried really hard and when there was no option, we had to go for a strike.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080822/jsp/frontpage/story_9727498.jsp
Land-grab cry from churches
MITA MUKHERJEE
Calcutta, Aug. 16: The land-grab cry against the government, till now heard only from Singur and Nandigram, is coming from some Christian missionaries, too.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church that runs a school for poor children on 375 acres in Falakata, Jalpaiguri, has been told by the government that it can keep only 24 acres.
“It (the government) wants to take the rest of the property,” said Bernard Halder, the principal of Seventh Day Adventist Church School, Calcutta, who also manages the property matters of the Falakata school.
The government informed the church about its decision two years ago. Halder said the compensation the church was getting was measly.
A senior land and land reforms department official said the church had flouted land ceiling norms, hence the acquisition. “Going by the land ceiling rules, an organisation cannot hold over 7.5 acres in urban areas and 24.20 acres in other areas,” he said.
The government can allow an organisation to possess more land in special cases, for instance, if it is for setting up an industry or for implementing a developmental project of the state or central government. But in such a case, cabinet approval is required.
“So, the church in Jalpaiguri will have to hand over the excess land,” the official said.
Citing the land ceiling rules, the state has started acquiring 60 acres from the Methodist Church in Asansol, 21 acres from the Baptist Union Church in Midnapore, 21 acres from the Evangelical Luthera Church in Purulia and 14 acres from the Church of North India in Jiagunge, Murshidabad.
“Ours is a philanthropist organisation,” Halder, of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, said. “We give free education, boarding, food and vocational training to poor children. A Christian missionary had donated the land and our main source of income is from cultivation of paddy, dairy farming and pisciulture on this land,” he said. “It will be impossible for us to run the institution if the land is taken away.”
The Bangiya Christiya Pariseba, a state-level organisation of Christian members and churches, has contended in court that the government cannot include church plots under land ceiling rules. The Pariseba will organise protests from September.
The organisation has written to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, minority affairs minister Abdus Sattar and land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah.
Mollah said: “I am only aware about the problem with a church in Jalpaiguri. I am looking into the complaints of the other churches.”
Herod Mullick, general secretary of the Pariseba, said: “If the state government turns a blind eye, we will organise law violation programmes and march to the Assembly.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080817/jsp/bengal/story_9702861.jsp

It’s Congress vs police at Singur
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Aug 21: Fresh trouble broke out in Singur when Congress supporters clashed with police after being resisted from entering the small car project area this morning.
Angry Congress supporters later blocked Durgapur Expressway for three hours from 11 a.m. today alleging that police resorted to lathicharge without any provocation.
According to reports, more than 2,000 Congress supporters, led by PCC member and former MLA, Mr Abdul Mannan, took out a rally from Singur demanding that land, acquired for the project without the consent of the farmers, be returned. Policemen on duty intercepted the rally at Sahanapara after Congress supporters tried to enter the project area. Soon a scuffle between police and Congress workers ensued. The situation deteriorated after Mr Mannan was allegedly manhandled by some policemen. Congress supporters later clashed with policemen triggering tension in the area. A huge police contingent was deployed to bring the situation under control. No one, however, was injured in the clash.
After being chased away by policemen, Congress workers sat on Durgapur Expressway and blocked the road for three hours that led to heavy traffic jam. The road block was withdrawn around 2 p.m. after senior police officers intervened. It may be mentioned here that home secretary, Mr Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti, during his visit to Singur car project last week, had made it clear that strong action would be taken against those who disrupt project work. He also told the reporters that no outsiders would be allowed to enter the project site.
“Congress supporters had planned to disrupt construction work for which they were not allowed to enter the project site. Only a scuffle between police and a section of agitators took place in front of the main gate of the project area today. The allegation of Congress leaders being humiliated by policemen is false. We didn't resort to lathicharge," said a senior district police officer. Meanwhile, a farmer from Beraberi Purbapara village at Singur, Narendranath Das (80), whose 4 bigha land came under the project area, died at his house following a cardiac arrest early today. His family alleged that Das was mentally upset after his land was forcibly taken away by the state government. He had been an active supporter of Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee which organised group meetings at various places across Singur today. Leaders of the peasants’ body urged people to participate in the indefinite dharna scheduled to start from 24 August outside the project area.

Protestors block road in Purulia
PURULIA, Aug. 21: Protesting against the closure of a polysacks factory at Jhalda in Purulia, employees blocked the Purulia-Jhalda road today.
It was reported that the employees failed to turn up yesterday due to the 24-hour industrial strike. Following yesterday's strike, the management decided not to open the factory today as well. As a result of which the Citu-backed employees’ union, protested against the closure and demanded the factory’s opening as soon as possible. However, Mr Bishnu Agarwal, a spokesperson of the management, expressed his displeasure at yesterday's forceful strike. The bandh in Purulia district actually started from Monday night itself. The situation finally returnedto normal today with a few stray incidents. On Monday most shops were closed due to Mansa Puja (snake worship). The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) organised a ‘rail roko' and Maoists called a bandh on Tuesday and there was an industrial strike yesterday.

State seeks relief for forest land bldgs
Times of India, India - 10 hours ago
Now, the government has urged the apex court that for the lands exempted from the Private Forests (Acquisition Act) prior to promulgation of the Forest ...
CNSV Commences Timber Removal On 250 Acres ('Breathitt Property ...
MarketWatch - 21 Aug 2008
CNSV is engaged in the acquisition of organic and natural food companies in the food service industry. The Company is also acquiring land for organic ...
House panel may keep govt`s land buy cap at 30 per cent
Business Standard, India - 14 Aug 2008
In the draft amendment to the Land Acquisition Act, it was proposed that the state could acquire only up to 30 per cent of the total land required for the ...
Land acquisition for Mopa airport starts
Times of India, India - 28 Jul 2008
... which is the urgency clause of the Land Acquisition Act. The government has to issue Section 6 of the Act (confirmation of decision to acquire the land) ...
Mopa airport project on fast track Navhind Times
all 2 news articles »
BUYINS.NET: MIND, NATH, NSTC, OPXT, REVU, RHIE Have Also Been ...
Trading Markets (press release), CA - 2 hours ago
Its lease pool includes various equipment that are used in seismic data acquisition, including electronic components of land, transition zone, ...
BUYINS.NET: RMTR, SPIR, SYNO, TGE, UFPT, VOLT Have Also Been Added ... Trading Markets (press release)
all 10 news articles »
Yechury upholds strikes, backs lower rates
Business Standard, India - 21 hours ago
He admitted there was a need for a new land acquisition act, which would take into account proper compensation for owners and dependents on land, ...
Nano project very important for Bengal: Yechury
Press Trust of India, India - 21 Aug 2008
Asked to comment on the controversy over the land Acquisition Act, 1894, he said "it is outdated and fresh legislation has to be brought." PTI.
Union Government issues administrative sanction
Newindpress, India - 17 Aug 2008
The government had only given the land and structure value according to the Land Acquisition Act (LA Act) for the evictees" they said. ...
Jharkhand political turmoil may hinder new projects
Financial Express, India - 20 Aug 2008
With the survival of the Koda government looking a remote possibility, the land acquisition process is bound to face yet another setback despite an R&R ...
OMNI Announces Contract Award and Expanded Service Locations
MarketWatch - 21 Aug 2008
announced today that it has been awarded a contract with a leading seismic data acquisition company to perform a major seismic drilling project in the north ...


New! Get the latest news on land acquisition act with Google Alerts.



Searches related to: land acquisition act sez singur raghuvansh prasad singh
on land ratan tata calcutta high court



India Infoline.com eGoM Retain s Land Ceiling, Compulsory Land Acquisition For SEZs
RTT News, NY - 7 Aug 2008
(RTTNews) - The Indian Government has not decided to alter any policy on politically sensitive issues like removing the land ceiling and relaxing the ban on ...
eGoM retains land ceiling on SEZs Economic Times
5000 ha land ceiling on SEZ stays Outlook (subscription)
all 16 news articles »
Demolitions begin near MU gate
KanglaOnline, India - 20 Aug 2008
The demolitions by the state PWD have started after an order was issued by the DC Imphal east under section 16 of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and the land ...
Ropar SDM’s reader caught taking bribe
Expressindia.com, India - 20 hours ago
The reader, identified as Nirmal Kumar, was taking the money to issue him a cheque of compensation in lieu of the acquisition of his land for the ...
Preliminary Final Report
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 20 Aug 2008
These operations create value throughout the development process, from land acquisition, through planning and approvals, financing, construction, ...
Shell gets Canadian approval for Duvernay purchase
Reuters - 19 Aug 2008
L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday the Canadian government had approved its planned C$5.9 billion ($5.6 billion) acquisition of ...
Shell gets Canadian approval for Duvernay purchase Reuters Canada
all 39 news articles »
The future of Pacific View school takes twists and turns
San Diego Union Tribune, United States - 17 Aug 2008
Mayor Jerome Stocks said last week that because of the Naylor Act the City Council should publicly discuss the park acquisition – including whether the city ...
No restrictions found on deed; 'it was sort of an urban legend' San Diego Union Tribune
all 2 news articles »
Biz Briefs
The Statesman, India - 20 Aug 2008
He said that the issue had come up because of limitations in the Act during the drafting stage as there was no clarity in the legislation on the issue. n ...
Parties misleading landowners: Asok
The Statesman, India - 18 Aug 2008
“The land price was not fixed by the SJDA. The price was fixed in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act and everything was transparent as far as the land ...
Penang sustained losses from land deals, says Guan Eng
Malaysia Star, Malaysia - 28 Jul 2008
... land deals, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. He said although land acquisitions were carried out under Section (1)(a) of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, ...
Preservation pipeline slows to a trickle
Plain Dealer, NJ - 21 Aug 2008
In addition to paying for direct acquisition of state lands, the GSPT has been an incredible catalyst for county and local land preservation. ...

Local Stories by Local People
Santa Barbara Edhat, CA - 1 hour ago
In a process that has been called ‘land use by litigation,' the developer is threatening to pursue legal actions against the County if they don't meet the ...
Town offers to drop Tinkham Forest appeal
Wicked Local Marion, MA - 21 hours ago
By Chris Reagle Frustrated with the time and money it has taken the town to litigate its interest in Tinkaham Forest for the purposes of a land swap, ...
TraderGains.com: Market news! STOCKS ON WATCH! (OTCBB:IVIT ...
Trading Markets (press release), CA - 21 Aug 2008
Removing timber on the 250-acre tract of land will also enable CNSV to gain access to potential drilling sites for approximately 8 to 10 natural gas wells, ...
'Cuncolim MLA forcing us to surrender our land'
Times of India, India - 24 Jul 2008
Former councillor of Cuncolim municipal council Santosh Dessai said that earlier under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act objections were allowed to be ...
China Water Industry Announces Acquisition of Eight Sewage ...
PR Newswire (press release), NY - 20 Aug 2008
It is a major Co., Ltd. transportation hub and product distribution center in eastern Guangdong Province - It is a major city on the ocean shore with land ...
Moshi land sought for fire sub-station
Times of India, India - 9 Aug 2008
... to give compensation for acquiring this land under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, Article 126(1), and Land Acquisition Act, 1894. ...
Fix the Highlands plan
NorthJersey.com, NJ - 19 Aug 2008
The Highlands Act was passed in 2004 to meet those challenges and to ensure that the future of our state would be protected through sound regional land-use ...

iBerkshires.com $1.64 billion energy and environment bond bill supports ...
iBerkshires.com, MA - 15 Aug 2008
The bond act supports Governor Patrick’s ambitious program of at least $50 million annually in land acquisition and protection, the largest in Massachusetts ...
SC verdict: Anti-Posco protesters to squat on forest land
Business Standard, India - 12 Aug 2008
The PPSS has formed a 15-member committee to strengthen its drive against the government’s land acquisition plan. The Supreme Court has allowed diversion of ...
Semtech Announces Fiscal Year 2009 Second Quarter Results
Business Wire (press release), CA - 20 Aug 2008
Non-GAAP results exclude the impact of stock based compensation, the amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, expenses and a recovery settlement ...

Feel America in Durga Puja Count Down!

Feel America in Durga Puja Count Down!

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 50

Palash Biswas
http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/

The Hindu Business Line Durga puja celebrations
HYDERABAD The onelakh odd Bengaliswho have made the twin cities their home away from home have geared up to celebrate Durga puja here Those who are slated ...
www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/10/01/stories/2003100102111701.htm - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
» !!!!! Here is an news article about Durga Puja Small Business ...
SEO, Internet Marketing blog for Small business. ... Durga Puja in Kolkata is synonymous with lights and this year too the artists of Chandannagore create ...
www.arun.info/blog/archives/2004/10/22/here-is-an-news-article-about-durga-puja/ - 38k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


Will Left get the 'right' response?

Soon after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared that the government would "very soon" approach the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to move forward on the Indo-US nuclear deal, an upset Left announced withdrawal of support to the UPA government. The move ended weeks of suspense on the issue. Now, with the PM declaring that there is no threat to the government’s stability, stage is set for a flurry of activities on the political scene. The Communists had also come down heavily on the government for approaching the IAEA to finalise the India-specific safeguards pact. With more and more support making the number game crucial, the big question is whether the determined Left parties will be able to rock the Indo-US nuke deal boat?
Hindustantimes.com brings together the stories that have dominated the popular mood in the recent times.

Also read Whither nuclear deal?

Convincing them is the key



Indo-US Agreements
A Strong, United & Clear Voice of Indo American Community. Contact Us
Nuclear Imaging Equipment
We Offer All Models Of The Nuclear Camera. Reconditioned & Warrantied!

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri , Hindustan Times
August 20, 2008
First Published: 23:07 IST(20/8/2008)
Last Updated: 23:15 IST(20/8/2008)


Print



Nothing, not even mushroom clouds, gets nuclear non-proliferation zealots into a frenzy more than talk of spreading enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology. This acronym may prove to be the single biggest hurdle to India ending its nuclear isolation when the Nuclear Suppliers Group meets in Vienna today.

The reason is that both technologies pave the way to atom bomb-building. Enrich uranium above a certain point and it’s warhead-ready. Reprocessing lets you strain glow-in-the-dark waste for fissile material. “Non-proliferation experts worry about reprocessing because it allows for the separation of pure plutonium from spent fuel rods,” says physicist R. Rajaraman. “In principle, it can be used directly to make weapons.” Thou Shalt Not Spread ENR Tech is the 11th commandment of arms control.

The fact that the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal leaves the door slightly ajar for India to access ENR equipment has made the New Zealand-to-Norway anti-nuclear axis so noisy in the run-up to Vienna. Their other demands include penalties for nuclear testing and a periodic review to see whether India isn’t N-cheating on the sly.

How enrichment and reprocessing has been seen in the eyes of various countries is a parable on how the Indo-US nuclear deal is understood by different players. For India, getting access to ENR was both a right and a requirement. ‘Full civil nuclear cooperation’ with the US had to include some ENR stuff, though the US doesn’t share this even with close allies. Section 104 of the Hyde Act allows India to get some ENR equipment and material under certain conditions. US proliferation expert Sharon Squassoni complained that the deal made India “a legitimate reprocessing State”.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=ce61c7ed-2568-4c58-89ee-76f2e869ce74Nucleardealimbroglio_Special&&Headline=Convincing+them+is+the+key


IBNLive.com
Nokia, Samsung, Motorola unperturbed by iPhone
Business Standard - 5 hours ago
PTI / New Delhi August 21, 2008, 16:54 IST As Apple's ultimate mobile gadget 'iPhone' prepares to conquer gizmo geeks in India, rival camps are anything but perturbed saying the iconic touchscreen phone was hardly a threat to their sales.
iPhone at midnight: A fantasy turned sour? Times of India
iPhone to be unveiled in India at midnight today Hindu




Sify
Nifty futures end in discount first time Aug
Economic Times - 3 hours ago
MUMBAI: Nifty futures ended in discount for the first in August series as stocks plunged on Thursday on weak global cues and expectations that the rising inflation may push RBI to hike rates again.
Mkts ends in deep red; Bank, Realty down 5% Moneycontrol.com
Finanical, real estate stocks pull down Sensex Business Standard
Sify - Livemint - India Infoline.com - Myiris.com
all 160 news articles »

India, Nasa tie up for Chandrayaan
Times of India - 20 hours ago
MUMBAI: Preparing to its first unmanned mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, between October and December, India joined seven other nations to team up with Nasa for the future exploration of earth's only satellite.
Chandrayaan-I set for launch later this year: Kasturirangan Business Standard
Moon mission The Statesman


BBC News
Shilpa’s emotional connection with Goody!
Times of India -

1 hour ago
And guess what, she’s found many sympathisers here, prominent among them is none other Shilpa Shetty, the host of Bigg Boss. Shilpa, we hear, was very concerned.
Bigg Boss members bid good-bye to Jade Bollywood Mantra
Payal returns with a bang in Bigg Boss Oneindia
Rediff - BBC News - Sify - South Asian Focus
all 48 news articles »



Just feel America!

Feel America in Durga puja Count down!

Banga or Vanga was never a part of Arya varta! It was the land of ASURAS!

Durga was invoked to crush the asuras and capture the Anarya Bhoomi, the Cursed forbidden land for the vaidikee Aryas who introduced Manusmriti and caste system to enslave the indigenous communities.

We indigenous people of Bengal and all over the world, converted into Hindutva, celebrate the defeat and indiscriminate Annihilation of our ancestors. We celebrate our displacement!

With just two months left for Durga Puja, the shopping for the festival has already begun!

In a goodwill gesture that will provide the much-needed relief to tourists, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) announced on Monday that it will not call bandhs during the Durga Puja.
“We welcome tourists during the Pujas and there will be no bandh in that period. If any emergency arises, we will make it public 20 days before,” said GJM chief Bimal Gurung.


The first lot of Nano cars is expected to come out of the factory in Singur, West Bengal, by September-October. On Tuesday, West Bengal's Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said the first batch of Nano would roll out as scheduled before the Durga Puja.


With Tata Motors having written a confidential letter to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on the Nano small car project in Singur, its Managing Director Ravi Kant has given an update to West Bengal Industry Minister Nirupam Sen.



However, the Nano brand so far does not find a mention in the available passenger car dealership application forms, which ask applicants to give their five-year sales and service estimates for six brands - Indica, Indigo, Indigo-Marina, Safari, Sumo and Spacio.
Just months ahead of the launch of its Rs 1 lakh Nano, the world's cheapest car, automaker Tata
Motors has started the process of expanding the dealership network for passenger cars. Tata's passenger car brands currently include Indica, Indigo, Sumo and Safari and would be joined by Nano before the year-end.

In a public announcement on Wednesday inviting applications from prospective dealers, the company said this would maximise their "opportunities, even as Tata Motors constantly expands its portfolio of passenger vehicle products and services, including the recently unveiled people's car, the Tata Nano".


It is the Black magic of Myth and Legends which hijack logic and sense of History. Indigenous people in Bengal worshipped Kali and Shiva! Durga puja had been always an elite affair associated with Brahminical zamindari! After the first world war, the Zamindars were decaying. Feudal lords had to feel the after affects of war and recession. So called struggle for freedom to liberate the zamindars, Rajas and Nawabs led by the Brahmins was launched to defend the ruling Class interests. And Durga Puja suddenly came into vogue very soon. Public Puja Festivals soon became the greatest Cultural festival first in Bengal, and then countrywide.

Scheduled castes of Bengal were still engaged in Manasa Puja, Gajan, Charak, Baruni, Gassi, Shivratri, Rakshakali Puja and Sheetala Puja, the indigenous rituals involving the forces of nature an the totems! They were never in the sphere of Durga Puja!

I have seen all the dimensions of folk in Tripura, Assam, Manipur,Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar and UP. but our people have soon forgot Jan, Ashtak gaan, Dole, Charak, Keertan, Zari Gaan, Rupgaan, Bhassan, Ramjatra, Krishanjatra, Naam Jangya, gaan, Baab gaan, Tennath, Sinni and every other ways of cultural behaviour. They disowned the natural forces as Shiva, Kali, Manasa, Sheetala and so on. Very soon they adopted all the caste hindu dieties of Ruling Hegemony as Durga, Ganesh,Rama, Laxmi and Saraswati.They even left Krishna Consciousness and surrendered to Brahminical supremacy. Now they enjoy most their legacy of enslavement and defeat, their displacement and annihilation glorified by Religion, Myth and Legends, superstitions!

I witnessed the changes happening around me while I was a child. In the Terai of Nainital. Where the ejected Namoshudra and Paundra Kshtriya and Malo peasants and fisherman were thrown into the dense uncultivated forest of Gim Corbet fame! it was a land of Plague, cholera and Malaria. our people were not afraid of that. They were not afraid of the Jungle or wild life either. We had the indigenous people from Sundarvan area of Khulna and Satkheera. They worshipped the forces of Nature. I remember the lost legacy of Banabibi most!

Sundarvan-spreading across the border into Bangladesh, the Sundarban is the forest at the delta where the Ganges meets the sea, 2500square km of forest has been declared a tiger sanctuary.Afternoon visit Tiger Project Area for view of wild animals.

Manindra sardar was a Paundra Kshatriya. His mother called my father God father. The Sardar family belonged to Sundarvana area of Khulna and they worshipped Ban Biwi, the reigning goddess of Sundarvan. In west Bengal, while I visited Sudhanyakhali, Pakhiralaya and Gosaba and other Sundarvan areas like Hasnabad, I came across the devotees of Bana Biwi. but our people, the partition victims rehabiliated in refugee colonies nationwide could not bear the legacy.

After breakfast full day sight seeing of Kolkatta-isn’t an ancient city like Delhi with its impressive relics of the past., it’s largely a British creation which dates back only 300 years and was the capital of British India , Job Charnock-a English merchant, kept the name of Kolkatta, later who married with a Brahmin’s widow.Visit for local sight seeing of Victoria Memorial- is a huge white-marble museum, a strange combination of classical European architecture with Mughal influences and the solid reminder of British Calcutta ,visit St.Paul’s Cathedral – is one of the most important churches in India. After visit Kalighat- 500 years old temple of goddess Kali, legend that when Shiva’s wife Parvati’s corpse was cut up, one of her fingers fell here, important pilgrimage site. Lunch at restaurant.

It is evident with Kalighta and Dakshineshwar temples that Durga was not the Goddess of Indigenous people. But Ramkrishna Paramhans, swami Vivekanand and Ramkrishna Mission made the indigenous goddess of nature saving our people from epidemics the goddess of Mainstream caste Hindus. Diwali is now associated with the Goddess.

When the Gods are worshipped, the animals also get a legitimate share of devotion from the worshippers. Think of Lord Shiva. He always moves with Nandi. The sacred bull is revered in every part of the country. Lord Kartik flies on a peacock. By coincidence, the bird is as charming as the heroic God. Ma Durga is found riding either on a lion or a tiger. In the Sundarvan area of West Bengal, a God named Dakshinrai is often worshipped who is believed to be the Lord of tigers. The locals believe that Dakshinrai will drive away the marauding big cats. In many parts of the country, snakes are treated with respect. In fact, Naagpanchami is the occasion to worship the serpents. It is believed that Mansa, the daughter of Lord Shiva, is the Goddess of snakes. Lakshmiji is worshipped along with an owl. Ma Saraswati, the Goddess of learning, is found with swans. Dharmaraj is always accompanied by a dog. If you remember, in the last journey of the Pandavas only the dog went to heaven with Yudhishthir. Yamraj has a buffalo as his Vahana. Ma Sashthi is believed to be fond of cats. Idols of Ma Kali are made with a jackal drinking blood dripping from a severed human head. Omnipresent Narada moves anywhere riding on the Garuda, the king of birds. Many people serve food to monkeys as representatives of Bhagwan Bajrangbali. Similarly, an elephant is the Vahana of Lord Viswakarma. The question is, was the Vahana concept just an imagination of our ancient gurus? Or could it be that the animals were associated consciously with the Lords to spread an important message?

Animals are associated with indigenous aboriginal people. Most of the wild life, specially the snakes and the birds are Totems. These totems were associated with Hindu deities making them more accepatable and using the popular myths and legends to entrap and enslave the indigenous people in the religion of Hinduism cursed with caste system and untouchability.

In the Terai of Nainital, I saw our people giving up Matua religion and Baruni identifying the Scheduled caste legacy. With further empowerment and awakening, they left Gajan and Charak and some of the superstitions involving semi gods, ghosts and spirits which were connected with harvesting. They left Gassi, the indigenous version of Nabanna, the festival of Harvesting.

rather they adopted Durga puja and Sarswati Pujs as posing caste Hindu. i could not distinguish the differences then as I never felt the stings of Caste system in Uttarakhand! I never knew the social fabrics of Bengal completely dominated by Brahmins. Our People adopted durga Puja to identify themselves with the High castes of Bengal as they were so proud of Rabindra, Vivekanand, Nazrul and Netaji. This was a feel of mainstream life and status the dalit Bengali refugees tasted out of Bengal.

I remember those days while my father tried his best to demand and ensure reservation for Namoshudras and Paundrakshtriyas . our people protested vehemently and declared that they were no more Untouchables. They never wanted Reservation as they felt like higher castes and worshipped Durga! Only after LPG introduced with intense Job crunch and anti pathy growing against East Bengal refugees thanks to RSS and Bengali Ruling Brahmins, our people awakened to demand reservation!

Our peopel forgot the History and are never ready to identify with Dravid, Anarya, Asura and Banga!

Now the Market uses it!

The Telgraph, Kolakat reports:

Organised marketing of the annual worship of Durga has begun with a Bengali-owned American company buying the rights to a Calcutta puja that will have Mithun Chakraborty as its brand ambassador.

Every rupee spent on Badamtala Ashar Sangha Puja at Chetla this year will come from the coffers of Media Morphosis, owned by New York-based Adris Chakrabarty. The company will market the event to recover its investment.

The company’s Indian subsidiary, Mumbai-based Manhattan Communications, will start a publicity campaign to attract sponsors in the run-up to the autumn festival. And MLA Fatakeshto Mithun will be the ticket to more eyeballs. On Friday, the actor turned up for the first promotional shoot in Mumbai.

“This is an effort to marry creativity with commerce on a corporate platform. Puja in Calcutta showcases wonderful artistic innovations and we are happy to play a supporting role,” Gautam Majumder, a senior official of the company, told Metro.

“The club has been branding its Puja cheap and we want to scale it up,” he added.

First up would be an SMS contest titled Experience Badamtala with prizes galore to select a theme for this edition of the south Calcutta club’s Puja.

Mridul Pathak, one of the patrons of the Puja, sold the idea of a tie-up to Chakrabarty during a trip to New York earlier this year.

“We tried to impress upon the company that we brought to life some unique themes and won accolades over the past few years without spending crores. Last year, we won eight awards,” said Suvajit Sarkar, the convener of the puja.

A team of company officials, led by Chakrabarty, visited Calcutta in March and held a discussion with the club’s members on Dol Jatra. The deal was signed soon after.



Please just wait Forty Five days for Durga puja Festival!

The Count Down for Mega retail bazaar has begun as soon as the sixth Pay Commission based pay hike is implemented. We , those who are not central government employees and other who have no purchasing capacity as par as the entry into the Open Market demands, have to feel the heat and dust! Ration at home is influenced immediately. Rice, flour, vegetables, edible oils, cosmetics, clothes, fishes, meat.. every day to day commodity is on steep hike. The Urban and suburban Bengalies are not so worried as the find the most expected Hilsa so cheap at the rate of just one hundred Rupees from the start!

On 15 th August Evening, me and wife Savita chose to walk around the market which turned to be as dense as a deep core forest of Humanity affluence! In our locality, we are privileged to have a string of Shopping Mall including Ready Made Centre, Shri Niketan, More and Reliance Fresh. Vishsal stands on BT Road. Spencer is to be launched very soon. Khadim Khajana and another shopping mall of SriNiketan are under construction!Our Posto Baba Journalist friends get Shopping Mall coupons very often and visit around the Metro declaring that shopping was never as good as it is now just like a new heaven!

Ready made centre saw no less than sixteen persons dead suffering from Gas Leak caused by Fire. It is ready to open and the Sale with stock clearance has to draw unprecedented crowd of super consumers. The station Road is so crowdy that you simply can not walk.

The pay scale details are awaited. New recruitment is rarest of happenings in the age of ERS VRS and retrenchment thanks to hire and fire policy. But an old man working in Kolkata GPO declared that day , `I will marry once again’.

Here you are! The Honeymoon has just begun!
You may not bargain at any shop. Lest you would be shown the exit.The logic is Pay Hike! since the government has declared it , we the people have to pay whatever demanded in exchange!

It is the big day for the nuclear deal as the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) begins a two-day meeting in Vienna. Without the NSG's approval, India cannot import nuclear fuel and technology from the world.

India is not only Sensex India! Not only Shining India! It is now Hindu super Power! Shopping Malls and Retail Chains make you global where you may chose any thing! Any international Brand. Credit Boom is olready on vogue. You have not to earn for consumption. just keep intact the VISA or Credit Card. Those who have to be benefited by recent or happening pay hike, or personal loan may jump forward and push the Commodity Index upwards!

Regional media and TV channels fed by FDI have turned to be the best agents of the market, we know!

Our new ICONs happen to Sanjay Nirupam, Jade Goody, Rahul Mahajan, Monika Bedi and so on. Ramdeb Baba plays a rare role of Travel aagent with his hyped much Yoga!

Just remember how Ramayana and Mahabharata were used to open the Rural market with promoting TV sets as the most wanted Home appliance!

Just imagine how Internet with MP3 technology plays the gimmick in young minds! Imagine that our children are going to have their on Micro PCS for only Rs Four Hundred!

Imagine that we would be using laptops without hard disk and Pen drives with maximum Memory more than 32 GB would play the IT game! Imagine that Computer Revolution takes over the Mobile and TV!

The Rural sector is already open!

Open are all the natural resources!

Rural production system survives no more!

Rural life is not self sufficient as it has been few decades ago! Green revolution changed the village Life and Agriculture itself. Chemicals and fertilizers played a vital road. now a complete package with chemical hub and Nuclear plant, automation and GM seeds take over. SEZ has changed the landscape and human scape. Reatil chain is going to change the life style.




Durga Puja in Bengal is no more a cultural festival. It is all year round the most super Duper Hit Reality show of Marketing Dewanagee. so, the count Down has begun from the 50th day!Ad campaigns are on! reality shows are on full swing.

our indigenous communities have no escape route as Past is never past for them. The aboriginal communities consisting of SC, ST, OBC and minorities live in superstitions. They live in past. But they aspire to cope with the Present which is physically Future for them. They are annihilated. They are uprooted. Displaced. Deprived. Persecuted. They are ousted from life and livelihood. But they tend to compete with those who have purchasing capacity infinite! And it is suicidal!

We are seized by Mythology as well as Modern times!

Myths do the maximum damage! Just browse any TV channel. The fastest. the super duper. The color. The cable! The News channel. The Musical. The astronomical and the Religious. They emphasise most on the Myths and legends! So a devotee of Sai Baba is declared the khatron Ke Khiladi. All the nonsense is created on name of Aliens and flying causers! Ravan, Rama, Sita, Mandodari, Hanuman and a string of mythological character are chased by the market forces.Superstitions mad real! Crimes become thriller and scandals and sting become the infinite source of entertainment.

All these Nonsense and all the superstitions, laughter shows and reality shows are targeted to entrap the potential consumers hidden amongst us! Purchasing Capacity haunts us as any legend or Myth would! Forget Culture! Forget language! Forget ethics!Forget behaviour! forget values! Forget family and relations. Forget Country and society. You are just an Unit of consumer alienated. here you stand.Do right or wrong whatsoever! Get the Purchasing power. If it is a credit card . So it be. Just enter the market and forget anything else!

Families are broken. Love marriages end so soon. But the Honeymoon continues like UPA Left! No feeling, no love! it is copulation only! No aesthetics, it is Sex only!

You may see so many Hip Lines around you while only before a few decades so many tonnes of News print were wasted to debate on the breast line! The Breast is all Open! Sexy is the most hyped tag! Salawar Kammeez exit and enters Capri! Brands rule our psyche struck by Myths and Legends for ages!

The market uses most the Myths, the legends, the Icons and Religion, our deeper most involvement!They are the hunters out in the dark of our superstitions, belief and religion! They strike most our roots to uproot us!

I am reading once again the so called classic of Tara Shankar Bando Padhyaya, Nagini Kanyar kahini, all about the snake charmers, the VISH VEDEs! All the myths and legends of Manasa Mangaland Padmpuran are used and interwoven in real life encounters! It is so charming and involving!

I am reading and I am dreaming!

Savita called me while I was in deep sleep and was dealing with the Myth of Doom`s day. The Himalayas melted. The Glaciers were coming down and I was just swimming on the waves and running downwards to the Ocean! My body converted into a soul. A ray of light entered into the Black Hole and it was an infinite Journey. My body was revolving like a reptile and I felt so close to a rare experience of meditation! It was like a feel the
KUNDALINI!

Kundalini (ku??alini ?????????) Sanskrit, literally "coiled". In Indian yoga, a "corporeal energy"[1] - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine,[2][3][4] hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent power'. Kundalini is considered a part of the subtle body along with chakras (energy centres) and nadis (channels). The overall conception has many points in common with Chinese acupuncture.

Kundalini
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yoga and Tantra propose that this energy may be "awoken" by such means as austerities, breath and other physical exercises, visualization and chanting. It may then rise up a subtle channel at the spine (called Sushumna) to the head, bringing psychological illumination. Each chakra is said to contain special characteristics.[5] Yogis tend to attempt this alone, Tantrics in couples, both usually under the instruction of a guru.

When Kundalini Shakti is conceived as a goddess then, when it rises to the head it unites itself with the Supreme Being (Lord Shiva). The aspirant gets engrossed in deep meditation and infinite bliss.[6][7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini

I was awake and felt very angry as savita disturbed in meditation! I decided to have a little KHAINI! Khaini is a product indigenous to India. It is essentially flavored "chewing tobacco". You, born out of Chappel drop when one chappel came to India 30 years back, khainikhor slum dweller of Burrabazar spit everywhere on Calcutta roads!

Savita was irritated!she tried her best to stop me! I was adamant.It is the cheapest Indigenous nasha. Savita is frightened of cancer as we have seen my chhoto Kakima and my father to succumb suffering from cancer. neither of them ever used Khaini!

savita was outraged and Called me CHANDAL!
I declared, ` So I am’!
Then I contested, `I never disturb you in your superstitions, religion and Puja path! I protest the Brahmins and you have developed a Brahmin at home’!
The debate continues!

The gist is that we are never liberated from superstitions, myths and legends! These are the soft most roots in our heart and mind. the market, the global world target it most fiercely!

In Hinduism, the Asura (Sanskrit: असुर) are a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes referred to as demons or sinful. They were opposed to the devas. Both groups are children of Kashyapa. The views of Asuras in Hinduism vary due to the many deities who were Asuras then later became known as Devas. The name is cognate to Ahura—indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary recognises the use of the term in reference to Zoroastrianism, where "Ahura" would perhaps be more appropriate—and Æsir, which implies a common Proto-Indo-European origin for the Asura and the Æsir.

The negative character of the asura in Hinduism seems to have evolved over time. In general, the earliest texts have the asuras presiding over moral and social phenomena (e.g. Varuna, the guardian of Ṛtá, or Bhaga, the patron of marriages) and the devas presiding over natural phenomena (e.g. Ushas, whose name means "dawn", or Indra, a weather god).

In later writings, such as the Puranas and Itihasas, we find that the "devas" are the godly persons and the "asuras" the demonic. According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6), all beings in the world partake either of the divine qualities (daivi sampad) or the demonic qualities (asuri sampad). The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita describes the divine qualities briefly and the demonic qualities at length. In summary the Gita (16.4) says that the asuric qualities are pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance.

The Padma Purana says that the devotees of Vishnu are endowed with the divine qualities (viṣṇu-bhaktaḥ smṛto daiva) whereas the asuras are just the opposite (āsuras tad-viparyayaḥ).


Rural markets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rural Markets are defined as those segments of overall market of any economy, which are distinct from the other types of markets like stock market, commodity markets or Labor economics. Rural Markets constitute an important segment of overall economy, for example, in the USA, out of about 3000 counties, around 2000 counties are rural, that is, non-urbanized, with population of 55 million. Typically, a rural market will represent a community in a rural area with a population of 2500 to 30000[1].

Contents
[hide]
1 Significance
2 Strategies
3 Present position
4 References




[edit] Significance
In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of the green revolution in India, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has taken shape. Sometimes, rural marketing is confused with agricultural marketing – the later denotes marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers. Also, when we consider the scenario of India and China, there is a picture that comes out,huge market for the developed products as well as the labor support. This has led to the change in the mindset of the marketers to move to these parts of the world.

Also rural market is getting an importance because of the saturation of the urban market. As due to the competition in the urban market, the market is more or so saturated as most of the capacity of the purchasers have been targeted by the marketers.So the marketers are looking for extending their product categories to an unexplored market i.e. the rural market. This has also led to the CSR activities being done by the corporate to help the poor people attain some wealth to spend on their product categories. Here we can think of HLL (now, HUL) initiatives in the rural India. One of such project is the Project Shakti, which is not only helping their company attain some revenue but also helping the poor women of the village to attain some money which is surely going to increase their purchasing power. Also this will increase their brand loyalty as well as recognition in that area. Similarly we can think of the ITC E-Chaupal, which is helping the poor farmers get all the information about the weather as well as the market price of the food grains they are producing.In other view these activities are also helping the companies increase their brand value. So as it is given above the significance of the rural market has increased due to the saturation of the urban market as well as in such conditions the company which will lead the way will be benefited as shown by the success of HUL and ITC initiatives.


[edit] Strategies
Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer. This, along with several other related issues, have been subject matter of intense discussions and debate in countries like India and China and focus of even international symposia organized in these countries[2].

Rural markets and rural marketing involve a number of strategies, which include:

Client and location specific promotion
Joint or cooperative promotion..
Bundling of inputs
Management of demand
Developmental marketing
Unique selling proposition (USP)
Extension services
Business ethics
Partnership for sustainability
Client and Location specific promotion involves a strategy designed to be suitable to the location and the client.

Joint or co-operative promotion strategy involves participation between the marketing agencies and the client.

'Bundling of inputs' denote a marketing strategy, in which several related items are sold to the target client, including arrangements of credit, after-sale service, and so on.

Management of demand involve continuous market research of buyer’s needs and problems at various levels so that continuous improvements and innovations can be undertaken for a sustainable market performance.

Developmental marketing refer to taking up marketing programmes keeping the development objective in mind and using various managerial and other inputs of marketing to achieve these objectives.

Media, both traditional as well as the modern media, is used as a marketing strategy.

Unique Selling Propositions (USP) involve presenting a theme with the product to attract the client to buy that particular product. For examples, some of famous Indian Farm equipment manufactures have coined catchy themes, which they display along with the products, to attract the target client, that is the farmers. English version of some of such themes would read like:

The heartbeats of rural India
With new technique for a life time of company
For the sake of progress and prosperity
Extension Services denote, in short, a system of attending to the missing links and providing the required know-how.

Ethics in Business. form, as usual, an important plank for rural markets and rural marketing.

Partnership for sustainability involve laying and building a foundation for continuous and long lasting relationship.

'''Building sustainable market linkages for rural products: Industry’s role, scope, opportunities and challenges'''

Introduction: Rural products of India are unique, innovative and have good utility and values. Large number of these rural products (like handicraft items, food products, embroidery, clothes & other products) sustains a significant segment of the population in the rural areas. Several attributes of rural products can be identified, for which, it has a demand in the market. Out of the lots, ‘ethnic origin’ and ‘indigenous design & appearance’ are two traits of rural products, attracting a premium in the market. But, contrary to this, the non-uniformity of rural products (from one another) and lack of its quality control measures has been creating a negative demand. Besides, the small sized and dispersed production units of these rural products hinder realization of the economies of scale in marketing and result in high transaction costs per unit of output. Niche-based products have no local market. Products in local use are also not marketed horizontally; they often first travel down to market through a long chain of intermediaries and then up to more difficult locations in the rural areas. In the process, the people in rural areas suffer from both low prices as producers and high prices as consumers. In this conflict, rural products loss its equilibrium and the supply side becomes exponentially high. Because of this hazard, rural entrepreneurs face acute economic loss and rural markets become stagnant. Therefore, there is an emergent need for Building sustainable market linkages for rural products, so that, it can be connected to larger markets and farmers can get a sustainable livelihood.

Market linkages for rural products: There are, broadly speaking, three ways in which they can be connected to the markets. They can do it on their own — through cooperatives. Or, the state can do it for them — through its procurement engines. Stages one and two, in a manner of speaking. Today, developmental thinking on market linkages has reached stage three — linkages through companies or industries.

Across India, previous attempts to create such linkages have floundered. Take Assam and other eastern states itself. Around the Eighties, the state government here decided that cooperatives were a great way to consolidate its political base. Loans went to the undeserving. Debts were written off. The institutions slowly got corrupted. As for the linkages provided by the state, these offer uncertain sustainability. Given this context, one can conclude that profit-oriented industry linkages are a more sustainable, more scalable alternative. In this scenario, companies can use the social infrastructure (the self help group et al) as an alternative procurement and distribution chain and vise versa.

Industry’s role in building market linkages: To make an effective market linkage, industries have to play as an engine of market, which can generate a brand image of the rural products. This initiative of industries will also strengthen the backward and forward linkages of the rural market, besides, accelerating the innovations of the rural products. Definitely, this strategy will also give a remarkable dividend to the industries & profit making companies. In micro level, it is observed that to create a sustainable market linkage for rural products, industries can develop an ecosystem of Self Help Groups (SHGs) by involving the local communities through village level empowerment. It is nothing less than the next phase in the democratization of commerce. Under this paradigm, industries can create a network with viable marketing channels covering all the linkages from villages to the global level. This architecture provides the right value of procurement through the village procurement centres and rural entrepreneurs can sell their products faster with better price realization. This model is also capable of generating a consumer business and an output business in a win-win scenario, where rural producers can get a wide marketing horizon and the industries shall get a new, lower cost ‘salesforce’. Another role of industries in building market linkages for agro-based rural products can be the ‘dynamic contract farming’. If a conventional industry can kick off a contract farming business, and export niche horticulture crops like cucumbers, the small and marginal farmers who could grow these small cucumbers would make Rs 30,000 in profits in a year. KRBL, one of India’s largest basmati exporters, has contract farming agreements with 24,000 farmers; Global Green buys from about 12,000 farmers. Moreover, in the current era of information technology, industry and private companies can also creatively use ICT for building sustainable marketing linkages. This approach creatively leverages information technology (IT) to set up a meta-market in favour of small and poor producers/rural entrepreneurs, who would otherwise continue to operate and transact in 'unevolved' markets where the rent-seeking vested interests exploit their disadvantaged position. ITC e Choupal is the best example in this context. Through creative use of Information Technology, ITC eChoupal has been creating sustainable stakeholder value by reorganizing the agri-commodity supply chains simultaneously improving the competitiveness of small farmer agriculture and enhancing rural prosperity. eChoupal also sidesteps the value-sapping problems caused by fragmentation, dispersion, heterogeneity and weak infrastructure. ITC takes on the role of a Network Orchestrator in this meta-market by stitching together an end-to-end solution. It eliminated the traditional 'mandi' system which involved lot of middlemen as a result of which farmers failed to get the right value for their produce. The solution simultaneously addresses the viability concerns of the participating companies by virtually aggregating the demand from thousands of small farmers, and the value-for-money concerns of the farmers by creating competition among the companies in each leg of the value chain.

Scope & opportunities: The basic scope of this novel initiative will be the mutual benefits of the rural entrepreneurs and industries. The entrepreneurs – primary beneficiaries, SHGs – bridge with the community, participating companies/industries and rural consumers have befitted through a robust commercial relationship. These models of marketing linkages demonstrate a large corporation which can play a major role in reorganizing markets and increasing the efficiency of a rural product generation system. While doing so it will benefit farmers and rural communities as well as shareholders. Moreover, the key role of information technology—provided and maintained by the industry/company for building linkages, and used by local farmers—brings about transparency, increased access to information, and rural transformation. Besides, this strategy of market linkage, addresses the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs due to institution voids, numerous intermediaries and infrastructure bottlenecks. Moreover, the prime scope of this model is the creation of opportunities for the rural entrepreneurs for product differentiation and innovation by offering them choices. Because of this sustainable market linkages, rural producers can participate in the benefits of globalization and will also develop their capacity to maintain global quality standard. Nonetheless, it creates new stakeholders for the industry sector. And subsequently, they become part of the firms’ core businesses. The involvement of the private /industry sector at the rural product and market development can also provide opportunities for the development of new services and values to the customers, which will find application in the developed markets. It will be worth mentioning that building a sustainable market linkage through industry’s intervention will also empower the rural mass (producers, farmers & entrepreneurs) to cope with socio-economic problems in the rural society and will ensure economic self –reliance.

Challenges: There are significant challenges to the entire process the most important being the capacity building of the rural entrepreneurs. For decades, the entrepreneurs associated with very conventional/traditional knowledge of business, humiliation with government, so they are likely to look at these initiatives with skepticism. Only consistent performance can convince the skeptics. Therefore, the industries must play a catalytic role to cope with this challenge and should also train the entrepreneurs to develop their managerial and IT skills. On the other hand, the products of the existing and popular brand also stand as threat to the rural products. These global giants (brand) may try to suppress the rural products in the markets with its communication hype. Therefore, developing alternative and additional market linkages for these products is an absolute necessity. Moreover, the low volumes of rural products, high operating cots, high attrition, and absence of local know how and relationships may also create problem in the process. Henceforth, it is essential to make a way out to cope with these odds.

Conclusion: These issues gain added complexity under globalization, where markets are characterized by extreme competition and volatility. While rural products has been perceived traditionally as catering to the local market, or at best, to a wider national market through limited formal channels, the reality of globalization since the 1990s introduced a new dimension to the market for such products. The issue of rural product generation through industrialization, therefore, needs to be viewed from a new angle and on far more scientific lines. The core of a scientific approach is to understand the market opportunities for rural products along with the country's development priorities and to chalk out a strategy where rural industries have an important role to play. While rural products are forced to increasingly become part of global supply chains, these products need to adapt themselves, not only according to the changing tastes of the national market, but also according to changes in tastes in the international market. Therefore, a process is essential to explore the market linkages and capacity building for SHGs through a bottom up approach and continuous dialogue with stakeholders of rural enterprise. This process should ensure the participation of rural people as consumers and producers in the globalization mechanism, with better livelihoods and global access to markets. The real challenge of building a sustainable market linkage starts here.


Bengal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Bengal (Bengali: বঙ্গ Bôngo, বাংলা Bangla, বঙ্গদেশ Bôngodesh or বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh), is a historical and geographical region in the northeast of South Asia. Today it is mainly divided between the independent nation of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal), and the state of West Bengal in India, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchical regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Tripura and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people (বাঙালি Bangali) who speak Bengali (বাংলা Bangla).[citation needed]

The region of Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, with a population density exceeding 900/km². Most of the Bengal region lies in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta, the world's largest delta. In the southern part of the delta lies the Sundarbans—the world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger. Though the population of the region is mostly rural and agrararian, two megacities, Kolkata (previously Calcutta) and Dhaka, are located in Bengal. The Bengal region is notable for its contribution to the socio-cultural uplift of Indian society in the form of the Bengal Renaissance, and revolutionary activities during the Indian independence movement.

Etymology and ethnology

The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.[6]

Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Vanga(বঙ্গ bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. The word Vanga and other words speculated to refer to Bengal (such as Anga) can be found in ancient Indian texts including the Vedas, Jaina texts, the Mahabharata and Puranas. The earliest reference to "Vangala" (বঙ্গাল bôngal) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 AD) of Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of Vangala.[7]

Some accounts claim that the word may derive from bhang, a preparation of cannabis which is used in some religious ceremonies in Bengal.[1][2]

The Proto-Australoids were one of the earliest inhabitants of Bengal.[8] Dravidians migrated to Bengal from the south, while Tibeto-Burman peoples migrated from the Himalayas,[8] followed by the Indo-Aryans from north-western India. The modern Bengali people are a blend of these people. Pathans, Iranians, Arabs and Turks also migrated to the region in the late Middle Ages while spreading Islam.




Durga Puja
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Durga Puja (Bengali: দুর্গা পূজা, ‘Worship of Durga’), also referred as Durgotsab (Bengali: দুর্গোৎসব, ‘Festival of Durga’) is an annual Bengali festival that celebrates worship of Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the five days observed as Sashthi , Maha Saptami, Mahashtami, Maha Nabami and Bijoya Dashami. The dates of Durga Puja celebrations are set according to traditional Bengali Calendar and the fortnight corresponding the festival is called Debi Pokkho (Bengali: দেবী পক্ষ, ‘Fortnight of the Goddess’). Debi Pokkho is preceded by Mahalaya (Bengali: মহালয়া), the last day of the previous fortnight Pitri Pokkho (Bengali: পিতৃ পক্ষ, ‘Fortnight of the Forefathers’), and is ended on Kojagori Lokkhi Puja (Bengali: কোজাগরী লক্ষ্মী পূজা, ‘Worship of Goddess Lakshmi on Kojagori Full Moon Night’)

Durga Puja is widely celebrated in West Bengal and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday. Not only it is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the State, but also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali society. Apart from West Bengal, Durga Puja is also celebrated in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and in some parts of India including Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir, Karnataka and Kerala. Durga Puja is also celebrated as a major festival in Nepal and Bangladesh. Nowadays, many non-residential Bengali cultural organizations arrange for Durgotsab in the countries like United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Kuwait etc also. In 2006, a grand Durga Puja ceremony was held in the Great Court of the British Museum. [1]

The prominence of Durga Puja increased gradually during the British Raj in Bengal. After the Hindu reformists resemble Durga with India, she had become an icon for the Indian independence movement. On the first quarter of 20th Century, the tradition of Baroyari or Community Puja was popularised due to this. After independence, Durga Puja became one of the largest celebrated festivals in the whole world.

Durga Puja includes the worships of Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Saraswati, Kartikeya and Mahishasura also. Modern tradition have come to include the display of decorated pandals and artistically depicted idols of Durga, exchange of Bijoya Greetings and publication of Puja Annuals.

Contents
[hide]
1 Names
2 Durga puja
2.1 Kolkata
2.2 Siliguri
3 Origin of the autumnal ceremony 'Sharadiya'
4 History
5 Evolution of the Community or Sarbajanin puja
6 Creation of the Idols
7 Durga puja in other parts of India
7.1 Maharashtra and Goa
7.2 Punjab
7.3 Orissa
7.4 Karnataka
7.5 Gujarat
7.6 Kerala
7.7 Kashmir
8 Durga Puja outside India
8.1 Bangladesh
8.2 Nepal
8.3 United States, Europe and Australia
9 Theme-based Pujas and Pandals
10 Environmental impact
11 Popular culture specific to the puja
12 See also
13 References
14 External links




[edit] Names
In Bengal, Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan (Bengali: অকালবোধন, 'untimely awakening of Durga'), Sharadiya Puja (Bengali: শারদীয়া পূজা, ‘autumnal worship’), Sharodotsab (Bengali: শারদোৎসব ‘festival of autumn’), Baro Puja (Bengali: বড় পূজা, ‘grand puja’), Maayer Pujo (Bengali: মায়ের পুজো, ‘worship of the Mother) or only referred as Puja or Pujo. In East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Durga Puja was used to celebrated as Bhagabati Puja. It is also called Durga Puja in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. [2]

Durga Puja is called Navratri Puja in Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra[3], Kullu Dussehra in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh[4], Mysore Dussehra in Mysore, Karnataka[5] and Bommai Kolu in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andra Pradesh[6].


[edit] Durga puja
The worship of Durga in the autumn (শরৎ Shôrot) is the year's largest Hindu festival of Bengal. Durga Puja is also celebrated in Nepal and Bhutan according to local traditions and variations. Puja means "worship," and Durga's Puja is celebrated from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing moon in the month of Ashwin (আশ্বিন Ashshin), which is the sixth month in the Bengali calendar. Occasionally however, due to shifts in the lunar cycle relative to the solar months, it may also be held in the following month, Kartika (কার্তিক Kartik). In the Gregorian calendar, these dates correspond to the months of September and October.

In the Krittibas Ramayana, Rama invokes the goddess Durga in his battle against Ravana. Although she was traditionally worshipped in the spring, due to contingencies of battle, Rama had to invoke her in the autumn akaal bodhan. Today it is this Rama's date for the puja that has gained ascendancy, although the spring puja, known as Basanti Puja [One of the oldest 'sabeki' Basanti Puja held every year at spring in Barddhaman Pal Bari more details for more details]], is also present in the Hindu almanac. Since the season of the puja is শরৎ Shôrot autumn, it is also known as শরদিয়া Shôrodia.

The pujas are held over a ten-day period, which is traditionally viewed as the coming of the married daughter, Durga, to her father, Himalaya's home. It is the most important festival in Bengal, and Bengalis celebrate with new clothes and other gifts, which are worn on the evenings when the family goes out to see the 'pandals' (temporary structures set up to venerate the goddess). Although it is a Hindu festival, religion takes a backseat on these five days: Durga Puja in Bengal is a carnival, where people from all backgrounds, regardless of their religious beliefs, participate and enjoy themselves to the hilt.


[edit] Kolkata
In Kolkata alone more than two-thousand pandals are set up, all clamouring for the admiration and praise of the populace. The city is adorned with lights. People from all over the country visit the city at this time, and every night is one mad carnival where thousands of people go 'pandal-hopping' with their friends and family. Traffic becomes a nightmare, and indeed, most people abandon their vehicles to travel by foot after a point. A special task force is deployed to control law and order.


[edit] Siliguri


Durga Puja 2007 of Saktigarh Uttjal Sahgha, Siliguri.
Hundreds of puja pendal are set up every year in the siliguri mahakuma area. Many attractive colourful pandal, glorious "Protima", and colorful lighting create joy for visitors. During the puja period, visitors come here from all over the world. The city is adorned with lights. Every day visitors come out on the roads with their family and friends. They enjoy the festival through the night.


[edit] Origin of the autumnal ceremony 'Sharadiya'
The actual worship of the Goddess Durga as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures falls in the month of Chaitra, which roughly overlaps with March or April. This ceremony is however not observed by many and is restricted to a handful in the state of West Bengal.

The more popular form, which is also known as Sharadiya (Autumnal) Durga Puja, is celebrated later in the year with the dates falling either in September or October. Since the Goddess is invoked at the wrong time, it is called "Akaal Bodhon" in Bengali.

The first such Puja was organised by Raja Nabakrishna Deb of the Shobhabazar Rajbari of Calcutta in honour of Lord Clive in the year 1757. The puja was organised because Clive wished to pay thanks for his victory in the Battle of Plassey. He was unable to do so in a Church because the only church in Calcutta at that time was destroyed by Siraj-ud-Daulah. Indeed many wealthy mercantile and Zamindar families in Bengal made British Officers of the East India Company guests of honour in the Pujas. The hosts vied with one another in arranging the most sumptuous fares, decorations and entertainment for their guests. This was deemed necessary since the Company was in charge of a large part of India including Bengal after the Battles of Plassey and Buxar.


[edit] History


Godess Durga, in one of the Pandals of Calcutta, now Kolkata.
A considerable literature exists around Durga in the Bengali language and its early forms, including avnirnaya (11th century), Durgabhaktitarangini by Vidyapati (14th century), etc. Durga Puja was popular in Bengal in the medieval period, and records exist of it being held in the courts of Rajshahi (16th century) and Nadia district (18th century). It was during the 18th century, however, that the worship of Durga became popular among the landed elite of Bengal, Zamindars. Prominent Pujas were conducted by the landed zamindars and jagirdars, enriched by British rule, including Raja Nabakrishna Deb, of Shobhabajar, who initiated an elaborate Puja at his residence. Many of these old pujas exist to this day. Today, the culture of Durga Puja has shifted from the princely houses to Sarbojanin (literally, "involving all") forms. The first such puja was held Guptipara - it was called barowari (baro meaning twelve and yar meaning friends)

Durga puja mood starts off with the Mahishasuramardini' – a radio programme that has been popular with the community since the 1950s. While earlier it used to be conducted live, later a recorded version began to be broadcast. Bengalis traditionally wake up at 4 in the morning on Mahalaya day to listen to the enchanting voice of the late Birendra Krishna Bhadra and the late Pankaj Kumar Mullick on All India Radio. as they recite hymns from the scriptures from the Devi Mahatmyam or Chandi.

During the week of Durga Puja, in the entire state of West Bengal as well as in large enclaves of Bengalis everywhere, life comes to a complete standstill. In playgrounds, traffic circles, ponds -- wherever space may be available -- elaborate structures called pandals 'are set up, many with nearly a year's worth of planning behind them. The word pandal means a temporary structure, made of bamboo and cloth, which is used as a temporary temple for the purpose of the puja. While some of the pandals are simple structures, others are often elaborate works of art with themes that rely heavily on history, current affairs and sometimes pure imagination.

Somewhere inside these complex edifices is a stage on which Durga reigns, standing on her lion mount, wielding ten weapons in her ten hands. This is the religious center of the festivities, and the crowds gather to offer flower worship or pushpanjali on the mornings, of the sixth to ninth days of the waxing moon fortnight known as Devi Pakshya (lit. Devi = goddess; Pakshya = period; Devi Pakshya meaning the period of the goddess). Ritual drummers – dhakis, carrying large leather-strung dhak –– show off their skills during ritual dance worships called aarati. On the tenth day, Durga the mother returns to her husband, Shiva, ritualised through her immersion into the waters –– Bishorjon also known as Bhaashan and Niranjan

Today's Puja, however, goes far beyond religion. In fact, visiting the pandals recent years, one can only say that Durgapuja is the largest outdoor art festival on earth. In the 1990s, a preponderance of architectural models came up on the pandal exteriors, but today the art motif extends to elaborate interiors, executed by trained artists, with consistent stylistic elements, carefully executed and bearing the name of the artist.



Image of Durga in an early 19th Century lithogragh.
The sculpture of the idol itself has evolved. The worship always depicts Durga with her four children, and occasionally two attendant deities and some banana-tree figures. In the olden days, all five idols would be depicted in a single frame, traditionally called pata. Since the 1980s however, the trend is to depict each idol separately.

At the end of six days, the idol is taken for immersion in a procession amid loud chants of 'Bolo Durga mai-ki jai' (glory be to Mother Durga') and 'aashchhe bochhor abar hobe' ('it will happen again next year') and drumbeats to the river or other water body. It is cast in the waters symbolic of the departure of the deity to her home with her husband in the Himalayas. After this, in a tradition called Vijaya Dashami, families visit each other and sweetmeats are offered to visitors (Dashami is literally "tenth day" and Vijay is "victory").

Durga Puja is also a festivity of Good (Ma Durga) winning over the evil (Maheshasoora the demon). It is a worship of power of Good which always wins over the bad.


[edit] Evolution of the Community or Sarbajanin puja
Initially the Puja was organised by affluent families since they had the money to organize the festival. During the late 19th and early 20th century, a burgeoning middle class, primarily in Calcutta, wished to observe the Puja. They created the community or Sarbojanin Pujas.

These Pujas are organized by a committee which represents a locality or neighbourhood. They collect funds called "chaanda" through door-to-door subscriptions, lotteries, concerts etc. These funds are pooled and used for the expenses of pandal construction, idol construction, ceremonies etc. The balance of the fund is generally donated to a charitable cause, as decided by the committee. Corporate sponsorships of the Pujas have gained momentum since the late 1990s. Major Pujas in Calcutta and in major metro areas such as Delhi and Chennai now derive almost all of their funds from corporate sponsorships. Community fund drives have become a formality.

Despite the resources used to organise a Puja, entry of visitors into the Pandal is generally free. A few Puja conducted in Gurgaon by wealthy Bengalis charge a fee. Pujas in Calcutta and elsewhere experiment with innovative concepts every year. Communities have created prizes for Best Pandal, Best Puja, and other categories.when you do puja you get blessed.


[edit] Creation of the Idols
The entire process of creation of the idols from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a holy process, supervised by rites and other rituals. On the Hindu date of Akshaya Tritiya when the Ratha Yatra is held, clay for the idols is collected from the banks of a river, preferably the Ganges. After the required rites, the clay is transported from which the idols are fashioned. An important event is 'Chakkhu Daan', literally donation of the eyes. Starting with Devi Durga, the eyes of the idols are painted on Mahalaya or the first day of the Pujas. Before painting on the eyes, the artisans fast for a day and eat only vegetarian food.

Many Pujas in and around Calcutta buy their idols from Kumartuli (also Kumortuli), an artisans' town in north Calcutta.


[edit] Durga puja in other parts of India

[edit] Maharashtra and Goa
In Maharashtra, Durga Puja is an enjoyable occasion. Puja is performed each day and devotees do not remove the flower garland that is put each day on the idol or image of the deity. After nine days, all nine garlands are removed together. Young girls who have not attained maturity are invited to eat, play games, dance and sing. An elephant is drawn with rangoli, and the girls play guessing games. Then they are fed a meal of their choice.

In Goa great festivities take place in the temples of shree Shantadurga , shree Mhalasa Narayani and shree Vijayadurga.


[edit] Punjab
People of Punjab strictly observe Navratri. Some Punjabis have only milk for seven days before breaking the fast on ashtami or navami. They worship Durga Ma and do the aarti at home. Some of them have fruit or a complete meal only once a day. Intoxicating drinks or meat, and other forms of entertainment are completely avoided. At the end of the fast, devotees feed beggars or worship little girls who spell the Shakti of the Mother Goddess.


[edit] Orissa
Orissa was part of the larger Bengal Presidency before it attained statehood in 1936. Many Bengali families had settled in Orissa, especially Cuttack, the erstwhile capital city. They were engaged in business or worked for the Government.

The first recorded Durga Puja in the state is said to have been in the year 1832 in the Kazibajaar area of Cuttack. The festival found favour among the Oriyas who assisted Bengali families in the organization of the Pujas. Due to differences which cropped up in later years, the Oriya people chose to organise and celebrate the Puja independently.

A pandal in Orissa is called "Merrha". For many years, the most expensive installation was the ChaandiMerrha (Chaandi means Silver) of Choudhuri Bajaar area of Cuttack. The ornamentation was done entirely in silver. A substantial increase in funding has led to the gold plating of the ornamentation. Now it is known as "SunaMerrha" (Suna means Gold). A few other Pujas in Cuttack now have silver ornaments, too.

The Durga Puja festivities are also prominient in Maa Cuttack Chandi temple. Maa Cuttack Chandi is the presiding deity of Cuttack. The goddess popularly called as Maa Katak Chandi, sits and rules on the heart of the ancient city. She is worshiped as Bhubaneswari. Maa Chandi is worshipped in various incarnations of Durga during the puja. In Cuttack, people strongly believe Maa Katak Chandi as 'The Living Goddess'.

The largest Pujas are held in Bhubaneswar. Shaheed Nagar, Nayapalli and Rasulgarh spend the most on the idols, decorations, lighting, and other elements.

One reason for the wide acceptance of Durga Puja is the importance of Maa Tarini, who is considered one of the embodiments of Shakti in Oriya culture. In addition, the state is close to Bengal and the peoples share a common socio-cultural history spanning millennia. Orissa is home to many important shrines dedicated to the Goddess; great festivities are organised there on Durga and Kali Puja.

It is thus one of the prime festivals of Orissa as well. People in Orissa celebrate it on a large scale. The Goddess Durga is among the sacred goddesses of Orissa. The celebrations are quite similar to the neighbouring state of West Bengal.


[edit] Karnataka
Durga Puja is celebrated in a grand way in this state. In Mysore, Dussehra is easily the most popular festival. Elephants are decked up with robes and jewellery and taken in processions through the streets of the city. In fact, many people visit Mysore from all over the country to watch this colorful event. There is also a floating festival in the temple tank at the foot of Chamundi Hill and a procession of chariots around the temple at the top.

Mysore is named after Mahishasur, the very demon which was slain by the Goddess. The original Indian name was Mahishur. There are temples dedicated to the demon king and even a gigantic statue of the demon in the city.


[edit] Gujarat
Navratri is devoted to Amba mataji. In some homes, images of mataji are worshiped in accordance with accepted practice. This is also true of the temples, which usually have a constant stream of visitors from morning to night. The most common form of public celebration is the performance of garba and dandia-ras/ras-garba (a form of garba with sticks), Gujarat's popular folk-dance, late throughout the nights of these nine days in public squares, open grounds and streets.


[edit] Kerala
In Kerala, Durga Puja signifies the beginning of formal education for every child aged 3-5 years. While puja goes on in the temple for all ten days, it is the concluding three days which are most important. Ashtami is the day of Ayudya Puja, when all the tools at home are worshipped. Custom dictates that no tools be used on this day. On navami day, Goddess Saraswati is honored by worshipping the books and records at home.

Thousands throng the Saraswati temple at Kottayam during this period to take a dip in the mysterious holy pond, whose source is yet unknown. Large gatherings are also seen at the famous temples at Thekkegram (Palghat), in which there are no idols, only huge mirrors. A devotee finds himself bowing before his own reflection, which symbolizes that God is within us.

Thrikkavu Temple, a famous Durga Devi Temple at Ponnani, Malapuram District of Kerala, is also famous for Navarathri festival and vidyarambham (beginning of formal education). Thousands of children throng this temple on vijaya desami day for vidyarambham.


[edit] Kashmir
Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir celebrate their festivals with pomp and show. These days, festivities are more subdued. The favorite deities of Kashmir are Lord Shiva and Serawali Ma Durga, the one who rides the tiger. Pundits and Muslims alike vouch that Navratri is important. Here each Hindu household does the puja at home. All the adult members of the household fast on water. In the evenings, fruit may be taken. As elsewhere, Kashmiris grow barley in earthen pots. They believe that if the growth in this pot is good, there is prosperity all year. The most important ritual for Kashmiri Pandits is to visit the temple of guardian goddess Kheer Bhawani on all nine days. On the last day of Navratri, an aarti is held at the temple, after which people break their fast. On Dussehra day, Ravana's effigy is burnt.


[edit] Durga Puja outside India
Durga Puja is celebrated by the Indian diaspora residing in different parts of the world. It is also celebrated in regions and by people culturally and historically distinct from India.


[edit] Bangladesh
Apart from India, there are numerous Durga Puja pandals in Bangladesh where বিজয়া দশমী Bijôea Dôshomi is officially recognized as a government holiday. Festivals are organized in every district center of Bangladesh, as well as in the thanas and villages. In 2007, the approximate number of Puja Mandap in Bangladesh is 20,649 [7].


[edit] Nepal
Dussehra in Nepal is called Dashain. As it is chiefly a Hindu nation, the pattern and dates of the festivals coincide with those of India. The King of Nepal plays a key role in the festivities, particularly during Saptami or the Seventh day of the pujas. Despite the overthrow of monarchy in Nepal, the Royal Family still has a significant cultural role in the nation.


[edit] United States, Europe and Australia
Durga Puja is organised by communities comprising of Indians in the US ,Europe and Australia. Although pandals are not constructed, the idols are flown in from Kumartuli in Bengal. The desire by the diaspora peoples to keep in touch with their cultural ties has led to a boom in religious tourism, as well as learning from priests or purohits versed in the rites. Also recently, the immersion of the Durga idol has been allowed in the Thames river for the festival which is held in London.


[edit] Theme-based Pujas and Pandals
Pandals and idols inspired by a particular theme have been the hallmark of many community or Sarbajanin Pujas in Calcutta since the 1990s. Puja committees decide on a particular theme, whose elements are incorporated into the pandal and the idols. Popular themes include ancient civilizations like the Egyptians or Incas. Contemporary subjects like the Titanic and Harry Potter have also been the subject in some pandals.

The design and decoration is usually done by art and architecture students based in the city. The budget required for such theme-based pujas is often higher than traditional pujas. They attract crowds and are well-received. Inspired by Calcutta, theme-based pandals are becoming popular in cities in neighbouring states, particularly Orissa (see above). Experimentation with the idols does not happen much outside Calcutta.


[edit] Environmental impact


Image of Durga being immersed in water. This has led to harm to aquatic life of many plants and animals
"Commercialisation of Hindu festivals like Durga Puja in the last quarter of 20th century have become a major environmental concern as devout Hindus want bigger and brighter idols and are no longer happy with the ones made from eco-friendly materials," said Ramapati Kumar, a toxics campaigner for Greenpeace. Environmentalists say the idols are often made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastic, cement and plaster of Paris, and are painted using toxic dyes.[8]

Environmentalists state that such materials do not dissolve easily. They reduce the oxygen level in the water, resulting in the death of fish and other aquatic organisms. The paints used contain heavy metals such as mercury, chromium and lead which are carcinogenous. These can adversely affect drinking water.


[edit] Popular culture specific to the puja


Covers of two prominent Bengali periodical’s Autumnal issues. Desh (left) with a traditional cover art and Unish Kuri (right) with a fashionable cover.
Durga Puja is one of the most important events in the Bengali society's calendar. Many Bengali films, albums and books are released to coincide with the Puja. The West Bengal government gives a fortnight of holidays for the Pujas. This time is used in various ways. Many people travel in India or abroad. Gatherings of friends called "Aadda" in Bengali is common in many homes and restaurants. A lot of shopping is done, and retailers cash in on this opportunity with special offers.

Visiting Pandals with friends and family, talking and sampling the food sold near them is known as Pandal Hopping. Young people embrace this activity. TV and Radio channels telecast Puja celebrations. Many Bengali channels devote whole days to the Pujas.

Bengali and Oriya weekly magazines bring out special issues for the Puja known as "Pujobaarshiki" or "Sharadiya Sankhya". These contain the works of many writers both established and upcoming and are thus much bigger than the regular issues. Some notable examples are Anandamela and Shuktara.


History
Main article: History of Bengal


Buddha and Bodhisattvas, 11th century, Pala Empire


Robert Clive, of British East India Company, after winning the
Battle of Plassey in 1757.


The Bengal Presidency at its greatest extent in 1858


Map of the Bengal province, 1893
Remnants of Copper Age settlements in the Bengal region date back 4,300 years,[9][10] when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed by the 10th century BC, located in the Bihar and Bengal regions. Magadha was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and consisted of several Janapadas.[8] One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC, located in an area in Bengal.[11] From the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around early 7th century.[12] After a period of anarchy, the native Buddhist Pala Empire ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded across the northern Indian subcontinent into Afghanistan during the reigns of Dharmapala and Devapala. The Pala dynasty was followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.[13] Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. The most notable among them is Murshid Quli Khan, who was succeeded by Alivardi Khan.

Portuguese traders arrived late in the fifteenth century, once Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498. European influence grew until the British East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal subah, or province, following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, was defeated by the British.[14] The Bengal Presidency was established by 1766, eventually including all British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives.[15] Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the Viceroy of India.[16] Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.[17]

Bengal has played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups were dominant. Armed attempts against to overthrow the British Raj reached a climax when Subhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army against the British. Bengal was also central in the rising political awareness of the Muslim population—Muslim League was established in Dhaka in 1906. In spite of a last ditch effort to form a United Bengal,[18] when India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines.[19] The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to Bangladesh in 1971). The circumstances of partition was bloody, with widespread religious riots in Bengal.[19][20]

The post-partition political history of East and West Bengal diverged for the most part. Starting from the Bengali Language Movement of 1952.[21] political dissent against West Pakistani domination grew steadily. Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, emerged as the political voice of the Bengali-speaking population of East Pakistan by 1960s.[22] In 1971, the crisis deepened when Rahman was arrested and a sustained military assault was launched on East Pakistan.[23] Most of the Awami League leaders fled and set up a government-in-exile in West Bengal. The guerrilla Mukti Bahini and Bengali regulars eventually received support from the Indian Armed Forces in December 1971, resulting in a decisive victory over Pakistan on 16 December in the Bangladesh Liberation War or Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.[24] The post independence history of Bangladesh was strife with conflict, with a long history of political assassinations and coups before parliamentary democracy was established in 1991. Since then, the political environment has been relatively stable.

West Bengal, the western part of Bengal, became a state in India. In the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure.[25] West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by CPI(M) has governed for the last three decades.[26] The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India were introduced in the mid-1990s by the central government, aided by election of a new reformist Chief Minister in 2000.







Religion in ancient Bengal: during pAla and candra
http://tanmoy.tripod.com/bengal/palacandrarelig.html.

Buddhism was on the decline and idol worship on the rise in Bengal at the beginning of this period. However, under the pAlas, buddhism grew, and as its last resort India, it developed some unique sects here. Similarly, hinduism started developing its uniquely east Indian and Bengali forms during this period.

Hinduism
Vedic and Puranic
Many of the land grants in this period to brahmins mention vedic rituals, and the brahmins are praised for their knowledge of the scriptures, grammar, philosophy, and travel to holy places. Their praised behaviour included prAtaH, nakta, ayAcita and upavAsana. During this period, brahmins from other parts of India, e.g. lATadesha, kroraJja, muktAvAstu, and especially madhyadesha coming and settling down in Bengal. Mention of this settling is found as early as the donation of land to 205 vaidika brAhmaNas by bhUtivarmA, great-great-grandfather of bhAskaravarma, but the largest record is of a large land grant to 6000 brahmanas in zrIhaTTa in punDravardhana by the candra king zrIcandradeva.

In this period, the pauranic tradition is also in strong force in Bengal. vedavyAsas mahAbhArata, rAmAYaNa, and the various purANas were also commonly read. The stories of pRthu, dhanaJjaYa, ambarIsha, sagara, nala, yayAti, vali, bhArgava, karNa, vRhaspati, agastya, parashurAma, rAma, hutabhuj and svAhA, dhanapati and bhadrA, viSNu and brahmA, brahmA and sarasvatI, indra and paulamI, purandara and vali, shiva and sati, umA, and sarvvANI, sUrya and his horses, samudrotthita sashadharalAnchana candra of atri's dynasty and kAnti and rohiNI were already well known. viSNu has already completely merged with avatAra kRSNa, son of devakI who went to yashodA, and is shrIpati, ksamApati born of the sea and husband of lakSmI and vasudharA, murArI husband of lakSmI, janArddana, hari, murAri. The other avatAras like narasiMha, parashurAma and vAmana are also known.

vaishnavism
Temples to nanna-nArAYaNa and garUD.astambha, temples to kAdambarI devakulikA, sthAnaka viSNu with lakSmI and sarasvatI, and separate idols of lakSmI and sarasvatI (one with rAm instead of the usual swan as her steed) and garUD.a have also been found. Overall, viSNu with lakSmI, sarasvatI, vasumatI, jaYa, vijaYa, his twelve avatAras, and brahmA predominate the idol collections. Most viSNu idols in Bengal are sthAnaka and in a group, few garUD.AsIna, AsIna, and yogAsIna are also found. The shaYAna style is extremely rare. Similarly, the mot common form was the trivikrama form, and the next was of the vAsudeva forms. But some other forms, e.g. abhicArika, shrIdhara (hRSikesha), vishvarUpa, and caturmukha. Joint idols of brahmA and viSNu, and separate idols of fat, four faced, four armed brahmA seated on a swan are also found. lakSmI is usually gajalakSmI, but four armed and two armed standing idols are also found, sometimes carrying a jhÃpi. Out of the avatAras of viSNu other than kRSNa, the most popular separate ones were varAha, narasiMha and vAmana; though a few matsya and parashurAma, and haladhara were also found. A few idols show influence of mahAyAnI buddhism on vishnavism in this period.

Shaivism
Shaivism was probably less important in comparison to vaishnavism. There is mention of establishment of a four headed liGgam for shiva. nArAYaNapAla donated land to pAshupatas, and is said to have established one thousand shiva temples. rAmapAla is said to have constructed three shiva temples, one temple dedicated to the eleven rudras and others to sUryya, skanda, and gaNapati. The shaivism was probably of the pAshupata kind started by shiva-shrIkaNTha and lakulIsha in first century BC. The eighteen Agamas and the six yAmalas written slightly later, including the piGgalA appendix to the brahmayAmala describe the pAshupata sect: it describes kAmarUpa, kaliGga, kaGkana, kAJcI, kAverI, koshala, and kAshmIra as being outside the AryAvartta which is ideal for shiva worship. However, gauD.iYa teachers were not considered amongst the best. Shiva was worshipped mainly as a liGgam, usually one headed, but sometimes four headed in north bengal. The latter usually has four shakti idols. Also are found candrashekhara, nRtyapara, sadAshiva, umA-maheshvara, ardhanArIshvara and kalyANa-sundara or shiva-vivAha. Out of the the rudra forms vaTuka bhairava and aghorarudra has been found. Both two armed and four armed IshAna forms have been found. A four armed sthAnaka is known as virUpAkSa, though it fits nIlakaNTha better. The naTarAja or naTeshvara form in bengal is distinct from the southern ones, are usually ten armed as described in matsyapurANa, and do not have the apasmArapuruSa at his feet. A twelve armed version is also found. The sadAshiva follows uttara-kAmikAgama and garUD.a purANa description; it is similar to the southern forms, and might have been brought from there. The umA-maheshvara was the favourite of the bengalis: shivakroD.opaviSTa, sukhAsInA, AliGganavaddhA, and hAsyAnandamaYI umA had tAntrika significance. arddhanArIshvara (man on right, woman on left) is rare in bengal. The kalyANa sundara forms have typically bengali characteristics like saptapadI and kartri vahana. The aghora rudra worship was probably a cult. The wildly laughing, fiery faced naked vaTukabhairava holding skull and wearing skull garland and wooden slippers accompanied by dogs is definitely a tAntrika influence. Some shaivaite teachers, especially of the sadAshiva form, were respected far outside bengal.

Separate gaNapati and kArttikeYa are also found though gaNesha was probably more popular. He was always portrayed dancing on a mouse with a fruit in his hand: a typical siddhiphaladAta. A single example of shaiva gANapatya sect has been found, and is exactly like the southern form: probably an import. kArttika is in the mahArAjalIlA pose on a peacock.

shAkta
Shakta purANa from seventh-eigth century speaks of shakti worship in rADh.a, vArendra, kAmarUpa, kAmAKhyA, and bhoTTadesha. jaYadratha-yAmala written outside bengal after the guptas mentions IshAnakAlI, rakSAkAlI, vIryyakAlI, prajJAkAlI etc., as well as ghoratArA, yoginIcakra, cakreshvarI, etc. These ultimately lead to the tantradharma in Bengal, and the forms of shakti in this phase is probably already precursors to being tAntrika. In fact mahAnIla sarasvatI seems completely tAntrika. Most idols are four armed and standing. Sometimes she is alone, sometimes with the entire family of gaNesha, kArttikeYa, lakSmI, and sarasvatI, and sometimes with family and brahmA, viSNu, and shiva. A chameleon, perhaps from the caNDI-kAlaketu story, and two auspicious banana plants, foreshadowing later kalAbau, are almost always found. The contents in the four hands vary, and these have been variously called caNDi or gaurI-pArvvatI. Sometimes, they are only two armed, sometimes joined by other gods like navagraha. Seated forms are rarer, and have four, six or twenty hands, and are called sarvvamaGgalA, aparAjitA, pArvvatI or bhuvaneshvarI, and mahAlakSmI. There is an example of liGgodbhavA caturbhujA, two arms in dhyAnamudrA, two holding akSamAlA and a book, called mahAmAYA or tripurabhairavI. Of the ugra forms, mahiSamarddinI durgA, sometimes called shrI-mAsika-caNDI, is the most popular, in the oldest forms she is eight or ten armed. The navadurgA form mentioned in bhaviSyapurANa is also found; this is probably influenced by mahAyAna and vajrayAna. Twelve and sixteen armed mahiSamarddinI have also been found, as well as a thirtytwo-armed. A few four and six armed vAgIshvarI have also been found. Of the mAtRkAs, cAmuNDI was most common in bengal especially in the twelve armed siddha-yogeshvarI, two armed danturA, rUpavidyA, ksamA, rudracarcikA, rudracAmuNDA, and siddhacAmuNDA forms. There is a pishitAsanA on a donkey, and a carcikA on a corpse. A four armed brAhmaNI, a few varAhI, and an indrAnI have also been found. gaGgA and yamunA used to flank the temples, yamunA alone is rare otherwise. gaGgA on a crocodile is not that rare, and four armed gaGgA idols are also found. gaGgA is sometimes called dakSiNA-kAlikA.

In later evolution, the distinction between shAkta and Buddhist tantrik beliefs is often difficult.

saura
sUryya was considered the healer of illnesses, and his importance continued to rise. The form of the idols were clearly of the western/Iranian kind, though the interpretation probably got strongly influenced by the vedic and brahminical thoughts. Most of the idols are standing, and with entire family: seated ones are rare. They rarely had six hands. There is one which has three faces and ten hands; probably this is mArttaNDa bhairava. There are rare idols influenced by southern rather than western tradition. A few horse-riding revanta idols are also seen. Some independent navagraha idols are also found; separately only a single candra and a single bRhaSpati have been found.

Other
In addition, manasA has been found. The local concept has also produced gaGgA and yamunA, as well as bauddha hArItI and brAhmaNya SaSThI. A lady with a child is known: it is not clear whether this is a depiction of the birth of shiva or viSNu. Rare examples of indra, agni, varuNa, yama, and kuvera have also been found. zrIcandradeva also established a maTha for brahmA and eight maThas, two each (one each for dezAntarI and vaMgAla) for agni vaizvAnara, yogezvara ziva, jaimini, and mahAkAla ziva. They studied the four vedas and cAndra vyAkaraNa and housed a variety of people: we find mention of, amongst others, kAryanirvAhaka and other brahmins, kAYastha, mAlAkAra, tailika, kumbhakAra, kAlalika, shaGkhavAdaka, DhakkavAdaka, drAgaD.ika, karmakAra, carmakAra, naTa, sUtradhAra, sthapati, karmakara, veTTika, nApita, rajaka, mahattara, brAhmaNa, vArika, gaNaka, and vaidya.

Buddhism
Royal support
Many of the kings in this period belonged to the mahAyAna sect of buddhism, as is clear from their official documents staring with appropriate prayers. However, many of the queens seem to be shaivaites (especially the pAzupata sect), and the kings established many temples dedicated to shiva, sarvvANi, nArAYaNa, eleven rudras, sUryya, skanda, gaNapati, and other hindu gods. Sometimes, like under nArAYaNapAla, not only were temples dedicated to shiva, but arrangement were made to provide for worship and sacrifice in these temples. The kings also participated in hindu rituals like bathing during the summer solistice, giving land grants to brahmins, attending the yajJas, and organizing srAddha ceremonies. dharmmapAla seems to even have accepted and somewhat reformed the caste system in society, and it seems that the later pAlas and kAmbojas might even have become hindus.

vihAras
On the other hand, this support for hinduism pales into insignificance when compared to the rise of Buddhism during this period. The state support for building and enhancing vihArAs, already known from the previous period, continued during this period. Thus dharmmapAla enhanced the nAlanda mahAvihAra with repairs, and established the somapura (or somapurI or zrIdharmapAladeva) mahAvihAra (in current pAhAD.apura in rAjazAhI district; may have originally been a jaina vihAra). Tibetan sources claim that the latter was established by devapAla, but archaelogical evidence is against that. Its three storied central building housed the main temple on the second floor; with ornamentation on top it looked like a pyramid. The courtyard surrounding this had buildings at each corner, and 177 housing units around it. This mahAvihAra had 108 temples, 6 schools and 114 teachers, including such famous ones like bhikSu AraNyaka kAlambalapAda bodhibhadra, atIsha dIpaGkara for a while, vIryyendra who made a huge buddha statue in buddhagaYA, and later, karuNAshrImitra teacher of gokulashrImitra. Under dharmmapAla, in the traikUTaka vihAra (location unknown, but may be in rADh.a), AcAryya haribhadra wrote his famous works. Buddhist kumAra ghoSa in 778 AD established a maJjushrI statue, probably during the rule of dharmmapAla. vikramazIla dharmmapAla might also have established the vikramapurI vihAra which housed such teachers as avadhUtAcArya kumAracandra and lIlAvajra, stdent of lakSmIGkara. In the eighth century itself, bAlaputradeva made a vihAra in the mahAvihAra of nAlandA, and devapAla gave five villages for its upkeep. Either he or dharmmapAla established the odantapurI vihAra as well. Later he put brahmin vIradeva, who turned buddhist under AcAryya sarvajJashAnti of kaniSkavihAra and came to devapAla in yashodharmapura vihAra in budhagaYA, as a teacher in nAlandA. In 851 AD, probably under devapAla, gomin avighnAkara went to the kingdom of karpadina in shilAhAra and established a prayer hall in kRSNagiri mahAvihAra. rAmapAla might have established tje jagaddala mahAvihAra which housed such teachers as vibhUticandra, dAnazIla, mokSAkara gupta, zubhAkara gupta, and dharmmAkara.

During mahIpAla and jaYapAla, vikramashIla and somapura mahAvihAras were international institutions of knowledge. Many great texts were written during this time, and teachers like atIsha dIpaGkara and ratnAkara arose. A bengali whose name is recorded as pau-si or ko-lin-nai took a lot of sanskrit texts to china in 1026 AD.

vihAras were scatterred all over in this period: traikUTaka vihAra in rADh.a, devIkoTa vihAra, with such teachers as AcAryya advaYavajra, udhilipA, and bhikSuNI mekhalA, in dinAjapura, paNDita vihAra in caTTagrAma, phullahari vihAra in nort Bihar, paTTikeraka mahAvihAra, kanakastUpa vihAra in which was probably the one referred to by harikAladeva raNavaGkamalla as durgottArA vihAra, and sannagara mahAvihAras, where lived vanaratna, in tripura, vikramapurI mahAvihAra with such teachers like avadhUtAcAryya kumAracandra, lIlAvajra, and puNyadhvaja in vikramapura, jagaddala mahAvihAra with the likes of vibhUticandra, dAnashIla, shubhAkara gupta, mokSAkaragupta, and dharmmAkara in varendrI, and many others. The number of smaller vihAras was huge, and though many famous teachers lived there, not all have been traced yet.

mahAyAna and its evolutions
The sammatIYavAda of the previous period is almost unrecognizable in the Bengali buddhism of this phase: the advent of tAntrika beliefs changed it almost beyond recognition. Traditionally AcAryya asaGga is associated with this large scale tAntrika influence on mahAyAna. The exact reasons of this transition are unknown, but it is possible that increased contact with the himAlaYan tribes might have contributed. The net resut was that shUnyavAda and vijJAnavAda, yogAcAra and mAdhyamikavAda, and even sarvAstivAda and mahAsAGghikavAda failed to capture people's attention except probably during their initiation; most people focussed on the magical elements and the importance of mantra giving rise to mantrayAna.

mantrayAna however soon evolved into the complex thoughts of vajrayAna. nAgArjuna conceived of the shUnyatatva: the idea that sorrow, karma, and its results are all meaningless, and knowledge or vijJana, of this fact, the knowledge associated with goddess nirAtmA, is nirvANa and leads to mahAsukha. bodhicitta is a particular state of the mind or soul which decides upon attaining true knowledge; it is compared to the concentration that underlies sexual intercourse. To control emotions, one needs to arouse them first. This bodhicitta is supposed to control the emotions and senses to the extent that it is called vajra, or hard. When bodhicitta becomes vajra, bodhijJAna is achieved, and this path is called vajrayAna. The gods and goddesses are the personifications of the mantra needed to control the emotions. All these are secret, and a teacher is essential in following this path.

sahajayAna is the part of mantrayAna that deemphasizes the gods, goddesses, and rituals (‘mokkha ki labbhai pAnI hNAi?’). The way to bodhi was not known to ordinary people, not even to Buddha himself: everyone had the capacity to reach bodhi which resided in their own bodies. They conceived of the female nihilistic nature and male kindness: their sexual union lead to ultimate happiness. They believed in basic equality (samarasa) and an empty mind (khasama: like the sky). They did not believe in asceticism (to vinu taruNi nirantara Nehe bodhi ki labbhai praNa vi dehe~), and liked simple comfort. They were totally against brahminical rituals (kajje virahia huavaha home~ | akkhi uhAvia kuD.a e' dhUrme~ ||) and caste system as well, and did not believe in the vedas and Agamas (jAhera vANacihNa rUba Na jAnI | se koise Agama vee~ vakhANI ||). Neither did they have much respect for the other religions of their time (jai nggA via hoi mukti tA suNaha siAlaha | lomupAD.aNo atthi siddhi tA juvai nitambaha || picchI gaNahe diTTha mokkha tA moraha camaraha | uJche~ bho aNõ hoi jANa tA kariha turaGgAha ||), and later extended that to the kApAlikas. In this period, however, the distinction between the sahajayAnIs and the kApAlikas was not that marked (A lo dombI toe sama karibe ma sAGga | nighiNa kAhNa kApAli joi lAga). These kApAlikas remained naked and used to wear garlands of bones. They wandered alone, and much of their behaviour arose out of the characters attributed to shiva.

kAlacakrayAna, a separate evolution from vajrayAna looked to rise above the cycle of time by controlling the activities of the body. Tradition has it that it arose in sambhala and came to Bengal later, but one of its main teachers, abhaYakaragupta lived here.

It is to be noted that these forms are not always cleanly distinguishable. It is not possible to classify the 84 siddhAcAryyas like AcAryya sarahapAda or sarahavajra of nAlanda from rAjJI city during ratnapala having been initiated at uDDiYAna, nAgArjuna, student of sarahpAda at nAlandA, luipAda of uDDiYAna, tillopAda or tailikapAda of paNdita vihAra from a brahmin family in caTTagrAma during mahIpAla, nAD.opAda, student of jetAri, of phullahari and vikrashIla vihAra from varendrI during jaYapAla, shavarapAda, student of sarahapAda, from baGgAla, advaYavajra, kAhNapAda, bhusuku, student of atIsha dIpaGkara, from vikramapura, kukkuripAda from a bengali brahmin family, etc. into the various sects.

All these forms of attaining bodhi relied on haThayoga, which involved a knowledge of the human body. The concept of the three major veins or flows, lalanA, rasanA, and avadhUti, their connections and cakras go back to this period. So does the classification of the religious natures of men into dombI, naTI, rajakI, caNDAlI, and brAhmaNI.

As the ideas of sahajayAna increased, the difference between Buddhist tAntrism and Hindu tAntrism slowly disappeared. Starting around the end of the pAla period Buddhist sahajayAna and Hindu shAkta beliefs slowly merged. In fact, some of the later forms like kaulamArga (a brahmnical system of beliefs that accepted the caste system, but whose main aim was to awaken the kulakuNDalinI, identified with shakti, in one's own body to unite with shiva) and nAthadharma, both of which claim descent from matsyendranAtha, who may have been the same as luipAda described above, can not be nicely classified as either Hindu or Buddhist.

The nAthadharmIs probably arose out of the rasasiddha yogis, the sect that did not believe in a freedom after death. That sect believed that the body is everything. They believed that this physical body could be converted to the shiva form, and that is freedom. The nathadharmIs sought for the cause of all ills and sorrows in an unprepared body and hence which wanted to improve the physical health more than anything else. Though they do not exist in Bengal today except as a sect of weavers, a famous character in Bengali folklore is madanAvatI or maYanAmatI, mother of gopIcÃda or govindracandra (disciple of jAlandharipAda or AdinAtha or hAD.ipAda, disciple of gorakSanAtha) and disciple of gorakSanAtha, disciple of matsyendranAtha. Other famous people of this sect include mInanAthaand cauraGgInAtha.

The avadhUtas, who lived ascetic lives in the forest, the pre-sahajIYA religion, that looked for simple, often carnal, pleasure, and the bAUla community of Bengal, who were much closer to the original vajra and sahajayAna, also arose out of this disintegration of the original buddhist religion.

Gods and goddesses
Though most of the idols from this period can be linked to mahAyAna and vajrayAna, a few do belong to the old buddhyAna conception of a central large shAkyasiMha or bodhisattva gautama in bhumisparsha, abhaYa, vyAkhyAna, dhyAna, or dharmacakrapravarttana form, surrouded by buddhAYana, incidents from his life. Some of these buddhas are worshipped even today as shivas.

mahAyAna pantheon was based on Adibuddha and AdipraJjA or praJjApAramita. The pancatathAgata or the five dhyAnibuddha, namely, vairocana, akSobhya, ratnasambhAra, amitAbha, and amoghasiddhi, and a sixth vajrasattva arose out of this Adibuddha. Each of these dhyAnibuddha has a bodhisattva and a mAnuSI buddha: present dhyAnibuddha amitAbha corresponds to bodhisattva avalokiteshvara lokanAtha and mAnuSI gautama. The bodhisattva's maJjushrI and maitreYa are also very famous. In addition, their power, all thought of as different forms of tArA are also important. No idols of Adibuddha have been found, though some of praJjApAramita have been. A few dhyAnibuddhas have also been found. The most common idols are of avalokiteshvara lokanAtha: mainly in the padmapANi, siMhanAda (said to cure leprosy), SaD.akSarI and khasaparNa (named probably after a place name in south bengal) forms, rarely of sugatisandarshanarupI form; both Asana and sthAnaka. There are a few 12-armed and six-armed forms which seem to be influenced by the Hindu pantheon of gods. The next most common avalokiteshvara was maJjushrI (linked to akSobhya) in the forms of maJjuvara on a lion, arapacana on a lotus on a snake, or of sthiracakra forms. vajrapANi who was the god of power and rain, and bodhisattva maitreYa are rare. Of the lower deities important are jambhala (god of wealth like the Hindu kuvera and linked with ratnasambhara), heruka (with akSobhya), and hevajra (a tAntrika god), the last usually embracing shakti. A few trailokyavashaGkara have also been found.

Of the tArAs, khadirvanI tArA (or shyAma tArA, linked to amoghasiddhi), vajra tArA (linked to ratnasambhara), and bhRkuTI tArA (linked to amitAbha) are the most common. A sitAtapatrA or sitatAra might also have been found, and a mahApratisarA (one of the pancarakSAmaNDala); and a few cannot be classified. Of the other goddesses, we find mainly mArIci (linked to vairocana and related to Hindu sUryya), parNashavarI (also called pishAcI, linked to amoghasiddhi), hArItI (shakti of jambhala), and cuNDA. A few uSNISavijaYA have aso been found.

vajrayAna conceived of a large number of gods and goddesses; called by names such as vajrasatva, hevajra, heruka, mahAmAYA, trailokyavashaGkara, nIlAmbaradharavajrapANi, yamAri, kRSNayamAri, jambhala, haYagrIva, samvara, cakrasamvara, cakreshvarAlI, kAli, vajrayoginI, siddhavajrayogini, kulukullA, kurukulla, vajrabhairava, vajradhara, hevajrodbhava, sitAtapatrAaparAjitA, and uSNISavijaYA. It is difficult to link these with the actual idols found from this period: many of these are unrepresented, and many idols do not seem to have been otherwise named.

Thus, in addition to vihAras, buddhism used to be well an alive in temples across Bengal. Temples of bhagavatItArA in candradvIpa, lokanAtha and buddhardhitArA in samataTa, cuNDA in paTTikeraka, and lokanAtha in harikela were quite famous. Most of the evidence, however, seems to concentrate in north and east Bengal, and slightly in bÃkurA-vIrabhuma region.

Jainism
Jainism (or nirgrantha religion) reduced in influence during this period. It still seems to have existed into the thirteenth century: at least in lATa, gauD.a, and vaGga; but it was quite weak by then. A few idols have been found of the digambara sect: mainly of pArshvanAtha, but a few of RSabhanAtha, AdinAtha, neminAtha, and shAntinAtha as well.

Up to history of ancient Bengal: religion

Valid HTML 4.0! Valid CSS!

Socialist Characteristics, Olympic Pride and Condom Ring tone

Socialist Characteristics, Olympic Pride and Condom Ring tone

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 49

Palash Biswas

http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/

News results for India in Beijing Olympic

NDTV.com Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins bronze medal at Beijing Olympics - 1 hour ago

By : ANI Wrestler Sushil Kumar on Wednesday brought further international glory to India by winning the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics after 56 years. ...

Oneindia - 161 related articles »
The Other Olympics - Aljazeera.net - 298 related articles »
Kumar wins India wrestling medal - BBC News - 145 related articles »

India at Beijing Olympics 2008 at Witty Sparks
India at Beijing Olympics 2008. Some of the performers Indians could watch out for in the Beijing Olympics are :. Rajyavardhan Rathore - Shooting(Double ...
www.wittysparks.com/2008/08/09/india-at-beijing-olympics-2008/ - 104k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

India's Bindra wins gold in the Men's 10m Air Rifle - The Official ...
11 Aug 2008 ... The official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. ... (BEIJING, August 11) -- India's Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the Men's ...
en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/shooting/n214528114.shtml - 14k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Beijing's Olympics efforts 'inspiration' for India

I am writing today with very complex circumstances at home and abroad. with President Mush departing, Corporate US Imperialism in India and south Asia as well, has to readjust its strategies once again. In Kashmir, the situation continues to worsen as RSS is doing its best to kill whatsoever are the chances of anti Imperialist Movement in India. The Left, disassociated from the UPA is not settled as yet as it is too involved to solve ideological and political situations in Left ruled three sates. India saw a nationwide Industrial strike as well as general strike in Left Ruled states.

The only relief comes from China, the forbidden land for India as yet in these hopeless troubled times of Manusmriti Agenda, Globalisation, Open Market, misinformation and annihilation of Indigenous communities worldwide as Our Mother land patriotic most sports persons belonging to other than the market Spenser oriented cricket have ensured at least three medals in Beijing Olympic!

Perestroika failed miserably in USSR and resulted into untimely demise of Revolution in entire Europe. Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Somalia and Iran are targeted without any resistance. War zone has escalated right into our heart in the divided bleeding geopolitics of south Asia and the Ruling Class has been sold for strategic re alliance of Hindu Zionist White Manusmriti Apartheid forces. Fascism has turned to be the best friend to support War Against Muslims which they call War against terrorism to boost the recession sub prime crisis struck war and weapon economy of united states of America.

India, particularly the caste system fed Hindutva forces cried Foul against Jade Goody when she used apartheid against Shilpa Shetty, an Indian actress just some time ago. Lo! Shilpa Shetty hosts the Reality show big Boss season two and enters Jade Goody, as the most welcome friend of India! her personal tragedy of suffering from Cancer is catered as marketable commodity and Electronic media subverts every issue relevant. Other participants of the Reality show also have enough controversial background to name a few: Rahul Mahajan, the Drug Addict, Monika Bedi,the Mafia Paramour, Sanjay Nirupam, the ex Shivshena Don!

Since morning I have been browsing all Indian Electronic channels full of Laughter shows, musical programmes, Crime reports, Sexual Perversions, Astrology, Sensational superstitions and so on and I could not update my informations on my time, nation and this planet.

This is a Misinformation explosion in full bloom while Big Boss Participants are being made ICONS of Future!

It is quite a relief while I see Beijing Olympic throws up some real Indian Icons in Abhinav Bindra, Saina Nehawal, Akhil, Jitendra, Bijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar!

May we study the success of China with socialist Characteristics and analyse our geopolitics historically scientifically? May we have some time to finalise our strategy to defend our black untouchable indigenous communities, nationalities, identities, mother languages? May we think to create a credible third political alternative to stop NDA as well as UPA to stop further partition of this country?


The demise of communism in the former Soviet Union and the massive political and economic changes in China are the stunning transformations of our century. Two central questions are emerging: Why did different communist systems experience different patterns of transition? Why did partial reforms in the Soviet Union and China turn into revolutions? This unique analytical and empirical study shows that patterns of regime transition in communist states depend on the countries' preexisting social structures and political and economic institutions. Minxin Pei identifies the rapid mobilization of previously excluded social groups during the reform phase as the most powerful explanation for the revolutionary outcome of initially limited political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union and China. Pei uses comparative data to analyze the different routes of transition to democracy and a market economy in the Soviet Union, China, and, to a lesser extent, other former communist states in Eastern Europe and Asia. The,theory is empirically tested in four case studies of changes in China and the Soviet Union - two on the development of the private sector in each country and two on the liberalization of the mass media. The author concludes with provocative statements about regime transition from communism. He rejects the idealistic notion that democratization can, by itself, remove the structural obstacles to economic transformation, and he sees high economic and political costs as unavoidable in transition from communism along either the Soviet or the Chinese path. In comparing Soviet and Chinese transition costs, however, he implicitly endorses the evolutionary changes taking place in China andexpresses strong doubt about the revolutionary changes that have occurred in the former Soviet Union.

Television viewers around the world are tuning into the Beijing Games in record numbers, and it’s likely to fill the coffers of the International Olympic Committee like never before and ease pressure to tinker with the Olympic formula.- Great Britain's newly-crowned 400 metres Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu's beaming smile lit up the Bird's Nest Stadium on Tuesday and now she plans a repeat triumph on homeground in London in 2012.

The Indo-US nuclear deal observers say that the deal will go through at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting in Vienna this Thursday.India's pointmen on the nuclear deal will be briefing three key members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna on Wednesday.The three key members are known as the Troika. They are Germany, currently head of the NSG, South Africa and Hungary.

Despite fierce opposition from Moscow, the United States and Poland signed a long-stalled agreement Wednesday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory.

The recent augmentation in the number of HIV positive people in India has caused concern and different measures have been initiated to curb the disease.There are measures aimed at spreading awareness about the prevention of this deadly disease among people.Likewise,measures have been introduced to dispel the stigma associated with AIDS because of which most HIV infected people opt to shun treatment.

One such measure is the launching of a cell phone ringtone that utters ‘Condom‘, ‘condom‘ repeatedly.This supposedly is part of a two-year project to make condoms socially acceptable via mass media which will result in the practice of safe sex.The acappella ringtone is a repetition of the word ‘condom‘ by a professional singer.It is expected that this will go a long way in making the use of condoms widespread.It is produced by the BBC World Service Trust and funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reportedly,the ring tone was launched on Aug. 8 and it has been downloaded 60,000 times since then. People are asked to download the original ringtone by SMSing “CONDOM” to 5676787 or from www.condomcondom.org.The initiative emphasises the use of condom as a parameter of sensibility,resposibility and awareness about health and well-being.Any link or association with AIDS is not sought as this disease is looked upon as a stigma in India.The Creative Director of the BBC World Service Trust, Radharani Mitra held that ringtones have become such personal statements that a specially created condom ringtone seemed just the right vehicle to define its user as a sensible person.


Meanwhile, in India, our dearest Homeland, around 50 people were on Wednesday injured in group clashes during an industrial strike called by Left trade unions which brought West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura to a halt and partially hit several eastern states but life in rest of the country remained largely unaffected. With the ruling Left Front governments backing the day- long stir called to protest against surging inflation and the Centre's "anti-people" economic policies, the shut down in West Bengal and Tripura was complete. While life was paralysed in Kerala, air services remained unaffected in the state.

Claiming that officials from Jammu were facing intimidation in Kashmir, the BJP on wednesday demanded that they be temporarily withdrawn from the valley in the wake of the agitation over Amarnath land issue.


Normal life was hit in parts of Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Meghalaya and Manipur with markets, business establishments and banks remaining closed in many areas there.

In Coochbehar in West Bengal, around 50 people were injured in clashes between CPI (M) and Trinamool Congress activists in four places when Left supporters attempted to enforce the shut down, police sources said. A police force has been rushed to the troubled area, they said.

Despite intense lobbying, it is unlikely that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will approve an India-specific draft waiver to conduct nuclear trade with its members during a two-day meet scheduled to begin tomorrow, a prominent arms-control think-tank opposed to the Indo-US nuclear deal has said.

"The US and India are certainly using strong-arms tactics but reports that a decision on the proposal could occur this week don't appear to match with the reality that many states of the 45-member NSG group still have significant concerns," said Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association.

The group could even postpone the case for a second or third meeting in September as certain changes would have to be made to the proposed text to get the NSG nod, Kimball claimed.

"The US, Germany and India are privately acknowledging that a second or third meeting will likely be convened sometime in September on the issue and that changes to the US' August 6 proposed text will be necessary to achieve NSG consensus," he said in an e-mail update on the Vienna meet.

"Perhaps in recognition of many difficulties the proposal faces in the NSG, Germany has reportedly invited India to present its case and answer questions from NSG countries at this week's meeting.

"The reports cite unnamed India officials as saying they are hesitant to do so. That (is) not surprising since India's participation in the discussion could force its officials to answer some uncomfortable but essential questions about its bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with the US, France, and Russia, as well as its interpretation of the India-IAEA safeguards agreement, and other issues," the official said.


Putin laments demise of Soviet Union

Associated Press

Moscow — President Vladimir Putin used a campaign speech Thursday to declare the demise of the Soviet Union a "national tragedy on an enormous scale," in what appeared to be his strongest-ever lament of the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Mr. Putin, a former agent of the Soviet KGB spy agency, has praised aspects of the Soviet Union in the past but never so robustly nor in such an important political setting.

"The breakup of the Soviet Union is a national tragedy on an enormous scale," from which "only the elites and nationalists of the republics gained," Mr. Putin said in a nationally televised speech to about 300 campaign workers gathered at Moscow State University.

The President's language was sure to send a chill through the 14 other former Soviet republics that have been independent from Moscow rule for more than a decade.

In the past and to audiences from the former republics, Mr. Putin has sought to ease fears about Russia having designs on rebuilding the old empire.

In September remarks after a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States — the grouping of former Soviet republics — Mr. Putin said:

"The Soviet Union [was] a very complicated page in the history of our people," adding "that train has left."

But on Thursday, he spoke in a much stronger tone, appearing to play to Russian nationalism.

"I think that ordinary citizens of the former Soviet Union and the post-Soviet space gained nothing from this. On the contrary, people have faced a huge number of problems," he said.

"Today we must look at the reality we live in. We cannot only look back and curse about this issue. We must look forward," he said.

Across town, meanwhile, Putin challengers in the election next month refused to debate among themselves in a television program called for that purpose. The candidates said a debate was meaningless without Mr. Putin, who says he doesn't need the free television advertising.

At the taping of what was to be the first debate ahead of the March 14 vote, four of Mr. Putin's six challengers answered questions from the studio audience, but then rejected the host's appeal that they debate each other.

"Bring Vladimir Putin here and we will have a debate," independent liberal candidate Irina Khakamada said, winning applause from the audience.

Calling it pointless to debate with anyone but Mr. Putin, "my main competitor", Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov said that by ignoring the debates, "Putin is depriving the population of the right to choose."

Also at the taping were candidates Sergei Glazyev of the populist-nationalist Homeland Party and Oleg Malyshkin of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party.

Regardless of Mr. Putin's public declarations about campaign advertising, state-controlled television channels already lavish him with extensive coverage — as on Thursday when state-run Rossiya showed his remarks live.

Addressing a packed auditorium at Moscow State University, Mr. Putin said: "The head of state should not engage in self-advertising."

"Nevertheless," he continued, "I am simply obliged before my voters and the entire country to account for what has been done during the past four years, and to tell people what I intend to do during the next four years."

Responding to a question after his state-of-the-nation-style speech, Mr. Putin said that the 1991 Soviet collapse — which most Russians regret — led to few gains and many problems for ordinary citizens.

Turning to global politics, Mr. Putin said that Russia must become a "full-fledged member of the world community" and assailed those in the West who still have a Cold War-era distrust of Russia. They "can't get out of the freezer," he said.

Mr. Putin reiterated his stated opposition to prolonging his time in office, limited to two terms. But he indicated he would choose a preferred successor, saying that the task of any top leader "is to propose to society a person he considers worthy to work further in this position."

Some Putin opponents had considered boycotting the presidential election, saying a fair vote was impossible in Russia today, and the refusal to debate in Thursday's program reflected the candidates' anger at the President's dominance of the campaign.

Some political analysts said, however, the public does not expect Mr. Putin to debate.

"They see the head of state as a monarch who shouldn't participate in discussions with those below him in the hierarchy," said Andrei Ryabov of the Carnegie Institute in Moscow said.

The Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe said the state-controlled media's parliamentary campaign coverage was slanted toward pro-Putin forces and accused the government of pressuring news media, to limit opposition views.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/...BNStory/Front/

Foreign relations of India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
India

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of India

Union Government[show]
Constitution of India
Fundamental Rights
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive
President
Vice President Prime Minister
The Cabinet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parliament
Rajya Sabha
The Chairman Lok Sabha
The Speaker

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Judiciary
Supreme Court of India
Chief Justice of India
High Courts
District Courts


Elections[show]
Election Commission
Chief Election Commissioner


Political Parties[show]
National Parties
State Parties

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

National Coalitions
Left Front
National Democratic Alliance
United Progressive Alliance


Local & State Govt.[show]
Governor
State Legislature
Vidhan Sabha
Vidhan Parishad
Panchayat


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other countries · Politics Portal
Government of India Portal
view • talk • edit

The Republic of India is the world's most-populous democracy and has one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world (8.9 percent GDP increase in 2007; second-fastest in the world after China).[1] With the world's fourth largest armed forces,[2] and fourth largest economy (in PPP terms),[3] it is considered to be a regional power[4][5] and a potential superpower.[6][7][8][9] It is India's growing international influence that increasingly gives it a more prominent voice in global affairs.[10][11][12][13]

India has a long history of collaboration with several countries and is considered as a leader of the developing world.[14][15] India was one of the founding members of several international organizations, most notably the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Asian Development Bank and the G20 industrial nations. India has also played an important and influential role in other international organizations like East Asia Summit,[16] World Trade Organization,[17] IMF,[18] G8+5[19] and IBSA Dialogue Forum.[20] Regional organizations India is a part of include SAARC and BIMSTEC.

After India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, it soon joined the Commonwealth of Nations and strongly supported independence movements in other colonies, like the Indonesian National Revolution.[21] During the Cold War, India adopted a foreign policy of not aligning itself with any major power bloc. However, India developed close ties with the Soviet Union and received extensive military support from it. The end of the Cold War significantly affected Indian foreign policy, as it did for much of the world. The country now seeks to strengthen its diplomatic and economic ties with the United States,[22] the People's Republic of China,[23] the European Union,[24] Japan,[25] Israel,[26] Mexico,[27] and Brazil.[28] India has also forged close ties with the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,[29] the African Union,[30] and the Arab League.[31] Though India continues to have a very strong military relationship with Russia,[32] Israel has emerged as India's second largest military partner[30] while India has built a strong strategic partnership with the United States[22] reflecting India's balanced and soverign foreign policy.

India has taken part in several UN peacekeeping missions and in 2007, it was the second-largest troop contributor to the United Nations.[33] India has also actively participated in UN reforms[34] and is currently seeking a permanent seat in the UNSC, along with the G4 nations.[35



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_India

Socialism with Chinese characteristics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Part of the series on
Communism v • d • e

Basic concepts[show]
Marxist philosophy
Class struggle
Proletarian internationalism
Communist party

Ideologies[show]
Marxism
Leninism
Trotskyism
Maoism
Juche
Left communism
Council communism
Titoism
Anarchist communism
Religious communism
Eurocommunism
National communism

Communist internationals[show]
Communist League
First International
Second International
Comintern
Fourth International

Prominent communists[show]
Karl Marx
Friedrich Engels
Vladimir Lenin
Rosa Luxemburg
Joseph Stalin
Leon Trotsky
Mao Zedong

Related subjects[show]
Anarchism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-communism
Communist state
Communist symbolism
Criticisms of communism
Democratic centralism
Dictatorship of the proletariat
History of communism
Left-wing politics
Luxemburgism
New Class
New Left
Post-Communism
Primitive communism
Socialism
Stalinism
Socialist economics
Soviet Union

Communism Portal
This article is about the term itself and its relationships. For its implementation and effects see Economy of the People's Republic of China and Chinese economic reform.
"Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (traditional Chinese: 具有中國特色的社會主義, simplified Chinese: 具有中国特色的社会主义, Pronunciation (help·info): Jùyǒu Zhōngguó tèsè de shèhuìzhǔyì) is an official term for the economy of the People's Republic of China which as of 2008 consists of the state having ownership of a large fraction of the Chinese economy, while at the same time having all entities participate within a market economy. This is a form of a socialist market economy and differs from market socialism and mixed economy in that while the state retained ownership of large enterprises, it does not use this ownership to intervene to change prices which are set by the market.

John Gittings in The Changing Face of China quotes Deng Xiaoping as stating:

"Planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity." [1]
The PRC government maintains that it has not abandoned Marxism, but has simply developed many of the terms and concepts of Marxist theory to accommodate its new economic system. The ruling Communist Party of China argues that socialism is not incompatible with these economic policies. In current Chinese Communist thinking, the PRC is in the primary stage of socialism, and this redefinition allows the PRC to undertake whatever economic policies are needed to develop into an industrialized nation.

See Chinese economic reform for the history of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Contents
[hide]
1 Marxist theory
2 Deng Xiaoping
3 Communist Party of China
4 See also
5 Sources
6 Further reading



[edit] Marxist theory
According to Technological Determinism & Socialism with Chinese Characteristics:

"new economic development strategy based upon decentralization of control over the state owned enterprise sector, expanded market transactions to replace command and control allocation, dismantling of the rural commune system (completed in 1985), increased use of material incentives in workplaces, and ultimately, upon the modernization of the Chinese economic infrastructure (as well as the military infrastructure). This last aspect of their strategy represents more than a mere objective. Modernization represents the mission of the pragmatists. Deng Xiaoping rejected the Maoist tendency to forswear the technological trappings of the so-called West (including soft technology in the form of social relationships) and embraced the idea that modernity required copying many of the traits of the Western capitalist nations." [2]
In Marxist theory, history progresses through a number of stages from slave society to feudal society to capitalist society to socialist society to communist society. According to the interpretation of this by the Communist Party of China, the revolution of 1949 was an irreversible change from capitalism to socialism and that therefore China is still socialist. However, Maoist organizations, such as the Maoist Internationalist Movement and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, claim that China reverted back to capitalism with the arrest of the Gang of Four, in 1976.


[edit] Deng Xiaoping
According to Necessary Chinese Illusions:

"Chinese professor Han Deqiang in his paper Chinese Cultural Revolution: Failure and Theoretical Originality examined the demise of communism in China. Han detailed how from its very beginning the communist revolutionary government had been infiltrated by a capitalist faction which had established itself within the bureaucracy. Prominent among the bureaucrats was Deng Xiaoping." [3]
Deng Xiaoping on June 30, 1984 said:

"What is socialism and what is Marxism? We were not quite clear about this in the past. Marxism attaches utmost importance to developing the productive forces. We have said that socialism is the primary stage of communism and that at the advanced stage the principle of from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs will be applied. This calls for highly developed productive forces and an overwhelming abundance of material wealth. Therefore, the fundamental task for the socialist stage is to develop the productive forces. The superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system. As they develop, the people's material and cultural life will constantly improve. One of our shortcomings after the founding of the People's Republic was that we didn't pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism." [4]

[edit] Communist Party of China
Wang Yu on behalf of the Communist Party of China in January 2004 said:

"production stagnated for a long time. There was little improvement in people’s quality of life, and China’s gap with developed economies widened further. All of this made Chinese Communists ask themselves time and again the following questions: Where on earth was the superiority of socialism? Was socialism rich or poor? What is revolution and what was its purpose? The theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, which took the development of the productive forces as its fundamental task, came into being amid and as a result of these reflections and reviews." [5]


Demise of the Soviet Union


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cameron Sawyer sent from Moscow news comments on the death of President Reagan. Randy Black, who lived in Omsk, comments: "Hurray for the positive bits and pieces of Russian opinion about Reagan! I, too, am surprised at the overwhelmingly positive nature of the posts from Russia. I also used to enjoy lunch at the Central House of Writers as the guest of a retired editor at Izvestia. On that note, it is interesting to see the opinion in the article by Bratersky of Izvestia regarding the effect of Star Wars on the Soviet budget/bankruptcy. It seems that many commentators offer an opinion that supports such a position. I support a slightly different position.

The USSR bankrupted itself over many issues, and over many years. Star Wars was only one facet of the equation. The myriad of causes of their demise included a corrupt, inefficient internal mechanism that sold goods to its people at a price that had no relationship to the cost of development, manufacture and distribution. I vividly remember purchasing a finely tooled hammer at a state shop in Omsk in 1993 for the equivalent in rubles price of three US pennies. Its origin was Czech, brought thousands of miles, made from the finest metal and wood and finished beautifully. That’s a lot to say about a simple hammer, I know, but it was typical of the goods I found in Siberia: Imported in many cases from great distances, finely made, yet cheaply packaged, if at all, and sold at ridiculously low prices for the benefit of her peoples who for the most part in those days, earned $15-$20 per month, if that much.

The USSR used hard currency revenues (US dollars) earned from international sales of its natural resources (oil, diamonds, timber and so forth) to subsidize such unprofitable operations and trade over many decades, and thus to keep the proletariat happy. Hard currency dollars from oil sales allowed the government to purchase other goods and materials needed in every facet of their life, goods and foods not available in sufficient numbers from their own factories and fields. When Reagan entered office, oil was trading above $35 per barrel, having been above $40 during the Carter administration. By 1986, it was below $10. Over the next several years, oil hovered in the $10-$20 range, give or take. The USSR was bankrupted soon thereafter as a result. While my Russian friends tell me that there were never enough goods on the shelves of stores in Russia, the problem grew much worse in the 80s. The lack of hard currency from oil exports certainly was a contributory factor. There are those among President Reagan’s entourage who believe that his administration caused the price of oil to dip and stay low over years as another element in the effort to bankrupt the USSR. In fact, Reagan did loosen controls on oil and gas production, thus resulting in a glut and the lower prices. Of course, there are many other reasons for the demise of the USSR, but a system of manufacturing and distribution that has no relationship to the cost of the goods seems like a good place to start".

RH. Randy's story of a hammer means that the problem with communism was not necessarily the quality of goods. The facile charge that the Communist bloc was incapable of manufacturing quality goods was as unfounded as the old dismissal of Japanese industry as being able only to copy Western goods stupidly. That talk faded away- My briefcase has a story comparable to Randy's hammer. At a store in Stanford's Shopping Center I bought an expensive American briefcase which kept falling open. I took it back and complained. The salesman, unperturbed, told me to choose another one. I selected a beautifully tooled leather one, and was surprised to learn that it was cheaper, so I got some money back. It has served me splendidly over the years. It was made in communist Romania.


Christopher Jones writes: "I agree that the Soviet Union collapsed of its own weight. I noticed that when Ronald Reagan died, he suddenly "won the cold war" and "defeated the Soviet Union." This of course is as ridiculous as the Americans winning the Battle of Britain. Communism was overthrown because it lost touch with its power base: the workers. Reagan had nothing at all to do with it. Probably the two men who could be most credited with the downfall of the Communist empire in eastern Europe was Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa".


http://wais.stanford.edu/Russia/demiseofsovietunion.htm



Glasnost
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Russian term
Гла́сность
Translit: glasnost'
English: openness
Glasnost (help·info) (Russian: Гла́сность, Russian pronunciation: [ˈglasnəsʲtʲ]) is the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev.

The word is a transliteration of the Russian word Гласность and was frequently used by Gorbachev to specify the policies he believed might help reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government, and moderate the abuse of administrative power in the Central Committee.

Glasnost can also refer to the specific period in the history of the USSR during the 1980s when there was less censorship and greater freedom of information.

Look up glasnost in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Contents
[hide]
1 Glasnost in USSR and in Russia
2 Areas of concern
3 Effects
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links



[edit] Glasnost in USSR and in Russia


Glasnost poster from 1987. The slogan is "Be Bold, Comrade! Openness is Our Strength!" (Russian: "Смелее, товарищ! Гласность - наша сила!")
This word appeared in 1985-1990 as a part of the program of reforms called perestroika (перестройка), whose goals included combating corruption and the abuse of privilege by the political classes. In the broadest sense, it aimed to liberalize freedom of the press gradually, and to allow for freedom of dissent.[1] The policy met resistance during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, when authorities hid the true extent of the nuclear accident for several days.

Through his policy of glasnost, Gorbachev pressured conservatives within the Communist Party who opposed perestroika, his programs of economic restructuring. By cultivating a spirit of intellectual and cultural openness which encouraged public debate and participation, Gorbachev hoped to increase the Soviet people's support for and participation in perestroika.


[edit] Areas of concern
While in the West the notion of "glasnost" is associated with freedom of speech, the main goal of this policy was to make the country's management transparent and open to debate, thus circumventing the narrow circle of apparatchiks who previously exercised complete control of the economy. Through reviewing the past or current mistakes being made, it was hoped that the Soviet people would back reforms such as perestroika.



Perestroika and glasnost postage stamp, 1988
Glasnost gave new freedoms to the people, such as a greater freedom of information by opening the secret parts for unallowed literature in the libraries[2][3] and a greater freedom of speech — a radical change, as control of speech and suppression of government criticism had previously been a central part of the Soviet system. There was also a greater degree of freedom within the media. In the late 1980s, the Soviet government came under increased criticism, as did Leninist ideology (which Gorbachev had attempted to preserve as the foundation for reform), and members of the Soviet population were more outspoken in their view that the Soviet government had become a failure. Glasnost did indeed provide freedom of expression, far beyond what Gorbachev had intended, and changed citizens' views towards the government, which played a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.


[edit] Effects
Relaxation of censorship resulted in the Communist Party losing its grip on the media. Before long, much to the embarrassment of the authorities, the media began to expose severe social and economic problems which the Soviet government had long denied and covered up. Long-denied problems such as poor housing, food shortages, alcoholism, widespread pollution, creeping mortality rates and the second-rate position of women were now receiving increased attention. Moreover, under glasnost, the people were able to learn significantly more about the horrors committed by the government when Joseph Stalin was in power. Although Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's personality cult, information about the true proportions of his atrocities was still suppressed. In all, the very positive view of Soviet life which had long been presented to the public by the official media was being rapidly dismantled, and the negative aspects of life in the Soviet Union were brought into the spotlight. This began to undermine the faith of the public in the Soviet system.

Political openness continued to produce unintended consequences. In elections to the regional assemblies of the Soviet Union's constituent republics, nationalists swept the board. As Gorbachev had weakened the system of internal political repression, the ability of the USSR's central Moscow government to impose its will on the USSR's constituent republics had been largely undermined. During the 1980s, calls for greater independence from Moscow's rule grew louder. This was especially marked in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which had been annexed into the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin in 1940. Nationalist feeling also took hold in other Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Starting in the mid-1980s, the Baltic states used the reforms provided by glasnost to assert their rights to protect their environment and their historic monuments and, later, their claims to sovereignty and independence. When the Balts withstood outside threats, they exposed an irresolute Kremlin. Bolstering separatism in other Soviet republics, the Balts triggered multiple challenges to the Soviet Union. Supported by Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, the Baltic republics asserted their sovereignty.

The rise of nationalism under glasnost also reawakened simmering ethnic tensions throughout the union. For example, in February 1988, Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian region in the Azerbaijan SSR, passed a resolution calling for unification with the Armenian SSR. Violence against local Azeris was then reported on Soviet television, which provoked massacres of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait.

The freedoms generated under Glasnost enabled increased contact between Soviet citizens and the western world, particularly with the United States. Restrictions on travel were loosened, allowing increased business and cultural contact. For example, one key meeting location was in the U.S. at the Dakin Building, then owned by American philanthropist Henry Dakin, who had extensive Russian contacts:

During the late 1980s, as glasnost and perestroika led to the liquidation of the Soviet empire, the Dakin building was the location for a series of groups facilitating United States-Russian contacts. They included the Center for U.S.-U.S.S.R. Initiatives, which helped more than 1000 Americans visit the Soviet Union and more than 100 then-Soviet citizens visit the U.S.[4]

While thousands of political prisoners and many dissidents were released in the spirit of glasnost, Gorbachev's original goal of using glasnost and perestroika to reform the Soviet Union was not achieved. In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved following a failed coup by conservative elements who were opposed to Gorbachev's reforms.



Perestroika
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the term. For the computer game, see Perestroika (computer game). For the play by Tony Kushner, see Angels in America. For the movement in political science, see Perestroika Movement (political science).
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)
This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality.
Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (May 2008)
Russian term
перестройка
Translit: perestroika
English: restructuring
Perestroika (help·info) (Russian: Перестройка, Russian pronunciation: [pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə]) is the Russian term (now used in English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987[1] by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Its literal meaning is "restructuring", referring to the restructuring of the Soviet economy.

Look up perestroika in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Contents
[hide]
1 The perestroika program
2 Unforeseen results of reform
3 Comparison with China
4 Summary
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References in Pop-Culture
8 References
9 External links



[edit] The perestroika program


Perestroika poster with Mikhail Gorbachev
During the initial period (1985-1987) of Mikhail Gorbachev's time in power, he talked about modifying central planning, but did not make any truly fundamental changes (uskoreniye, acceleration). Gorbachev and his team of economic advisers then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as perestroika (economic restructuring).

At the June 1987 plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses," which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.

In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet passed the Law on State Enterprise. The law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill state orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. Enterprises bought inputs from suppliers at negotiated contract prices. Under the law, enterprises became self-financing; that is, they had to cover expenses (wages, taxes, supplies, and debt service) through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy. Finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers' collectives. Gosplan's (Russian: Государственный комитет по планированию, State Committee for Planning) responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, not to formulate detailed production plans.

The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene.



Perestroika postage stamp, 1988
Gorbachev brought perestroika to the Soviet Union's foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His program virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations. It permitted the ministries of the various industrial and agricultural branches to conduct foreign trade in sectors under their responsibility rather than having to operate indirectly through the bureaucracy of trade ministry organizations. In addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime: the lack of contact between Soviet end users and suppliers and their foreign partners.

The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the Soviet Joint Venture Law, which went into effect in June 1987, limited foreign shares of a Soviet venture to 49 percent and required that Soviet citizens occupy the positions of chairman and general manager. After potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, and a potentially large domestic market. The foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and, in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality.

Gorbachev's economic changes did not do much to restart the country's sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms decentralized things to some extent, although price controls remained, as did the ruble's inconvertibility and most government controls over the means of production.

By 1990 the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies continued. Tax revenues declined because republic and local governments withheld tax revenues from the central government under the growing spirit of regional autonomy. The elimination of central control over production decisions, especially in the consumer goods sector, led to the breakdown in traditional supply-demand relationships without contributing to the formation of new ones. Thus, instead of streamlining the system, Gorbachev's decentralization caused new production bottlenecks.


[edit] Unforeseen results of reform
The new system bore the characteristics of neither central planning nor a market economy. Instead, the Soviet economy went from stagnation to deterioration. At the end of 1991, when the union officially dissolved, the national economy was in a virtual tailspin. In 1991 Soviet GDP had declined by 17 percent and was declining at an accelerating rate.[citation needed] Overinflation was becoming a major problem. Between 1990 and 1991, retail prices in the Soviet Union increased 140 percent.

Under these conditions, the general quality of life for the Soviet people deteriorated. The public traditionally faced shortages of durable goods, but under Gorbachev, food, clothes, and other basic necessities were in short supply. Fueled by the liberalized atmosphere of Gorbachev's glasnost and by the general improvement in information access in the late 1980s, public dissatisfaction with economic conditions was becoming much more overt than ever before in the Soviet period. The foreign-trade sector of the Soviet economy also showed signs of deterioration. The total Soviet hard-currency debt increased appreciably, and the Soviet Union, which had established an impeccable record for debt repayment in earlier decades, had accumulated sizable arrears by 1990. It did free up the arts and social sciences in the region and enabled formerly banned literature and films to be reconstructed to a degree, with filmmakers like Sergei Parajanov now out of prison.

In sum, the Soviet Union left a legacy of economic inefficiency and deterioration to the fifteen constituent republics after its breakup in December 1991. Arguably, the shortcomings of the Gorbachev reforms had contributed to the economic decline and eventual destruction of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the Gorbachev programs did start Russia on the precarious road to full-scale economic reform.

The failures of perestroika have led Alexander Zinovyev to coin the word catastroika (Russian катастройка), a blend of катастрофа - "catastrophe" and perestroika. Zinovyev wrote: "the effect of explanatory work has appeared the return desirable. All they wished to avoid, has occurred with double the force... Queues lengthened. Prices in the markets have jumped. At home, in queues, in transport, on work, at assemblies people have openly worn the perestroyka. .... Someone has learned, that the word "perestroyka" is translated on the Greek language by a word "accident". On this basis a new word "katastroyka" has appeared. Pensioners and older Party members saw in perestroika the counterrevolution and betrayal of Lenin's cause".[2]


[edit] Comparison with China
Perestroika and Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms have similar origins but very different effects on their respective countries' economies. Both efforts occurred in large communist countries attempting to modernize their economies, but while China's GDP has grown consistently since the late 1980s (albeit from a much lower level), national GDP in the USSR and in many of its successor states fell precipitously throughout the 1990s.[3][citation needed] Gorbachev's reforms were largely a top-down attempt at reform, and maintained many of the macroeconomic aspects of the command economy (including price controls, inconvertibility of the ruble, exclusion of private property ownership, and the government monopoly over most means of production). Reform was largely focused on industry and on cooperatives, and a limited role was given to the development of foreign investment and international trade. Factory managers were expected to meet state demands for goods, but to find their own funding. Perestroika reforms went far enough to create new bottlenecks in the Soviet economy, but arguably did not go far enough to effectively streamline it. Chinese economic reform was, by contrast, a bottom-up attempt at reform, focusing on light industry and agriculture (namely allowing peasants to sell produce grown on private holdings at market prices). Economic reforms were fostered through the development of "Special Economic Zones", designed for export and to attract foreign investment, municipally-managed Township and Village Enterprises and a "dual pricing" system leading to the steady phasing out of state-dictated prices. Greater latitude was given to managers of state-owned factories, while capital was made available to them through a reformed banking system and through fiscal policies (in contrast to the fiscal anarchy and fall in revenue experienced by the Soviet government during perestroika).


[edit] Summary
The perestroika reforms began the process leading to the dismantling of the Soviet-era command economy and its replacement with a market economy. However, the process arguably exacerbated already existing social and economic tensions within the Soviet Union, and no doubt helped to further nationalism among the constituent republics, as well as social fragmentation. The economic chaos that began with perestroika helped both to empower organized crime and allowed businessmen with the right connections to amass great personal fortunes as Russia's oligarchs. The economic freedoms instituted by Gorbachev under perestroika and the problems caused by these reforms arguably helped to begin the unraveling of Soviet society and hastened the end of the Soviet Union.



IngentaConnect Indian Geopolitics, the United States and Evolving ...
Indian Geopolitics, the United States and Evolving Correlates of Power in Asia. Author: VAUGHN, BRUCE1. Source: Geopolitics, Volume 9, Number 2, ...
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/geo/2004/00000009/00000002/art00008 - Similar pages - Note this
by B VAUGHN - Cited by 1 - All 2 versions

Indian Geopolitics, the United States and Evolving Correlates of ...
India has been poorly understood and often neglected by the United States. Its emerging role and geopolitical importance in the evolving correlates of...
www.informaworld.com/smpp/97904970-10987394/content~content=a714596963~db=all~order=page - Similar pages - Note this

India not party to US-China geopolitics: Foreign Secretary Saran ...
India not party to US-China geopolitics: Foreign Secretary Saran. India not party to US-China geopolitics: Foreign Secretary Saran Daily News & Updates ...
www.india-defence.com/reports/2422 - 15k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Geopolitics of South Asia and the Threat of War
The only reason that can be given is that India is a partner in these conflicts. India’s geopolitics is to keep South Asia divided, become the most ...
www.geocities.com/aipsg/proc21-geo.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Political Votemonger Rodents ravage Entire Indian Geopolitics!
Political Votemonger Rodents ravage Entire Indian Geopolitics!Seeking the abolition of the wage board, the Indian Newspaper Society on Wednesday accused the ...
palashspeaks.blog.co.uk/2007/09/19/political_votemonger_rodents_ravage_enti~3007323 - Similar pages - Note this

International Relations in India - Google Books Result
by Kanti P. Bajpai, Siddharth Mallavarapu - 2005 - Political Science - 546 pages
EIGHT Indian Geopolitics: 'Nation-State' and the Colonial Legacy SANJAY CHATURVEDI If geopolitics can be critically conceptualised as a 'way of seeing' ...
books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8125026401...

India should consider the geopolitics and precedents when debating ...
The world certainly has changed the 1960s and even from 1990 but India should consider the geopolitics of the nuclear agreement dispassionately ...
kalyanaramgurumurthy.wordpress.com/.../ - 14k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Oil, Geopolitics, and the Coming War with Iran
11 Apr 2005 ... Oil, Geopolitics, and the Coming War with Iran .... "We have communicated to the Indian government our concerns about the gas pipeline ...
www.commondreams.org/views05/0411-21.htm - 28k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

INDIA AND GEOPOLITICS
Geopolitics of India Power India Asia theater Super geopolitics.
www.scribd.com/doc/4812906/INDIA-AND-GEOPOLITICS- - 95k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

India In Geopolitics - The Monthly Review
India In Geopolitics - The Monthly Review. Allister Maunk, AIA Indian section. The historical first visit of the Indian President to Russia (the previous ...
www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=132 - 18k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


Unheralded Sushil Kumar rose from obscurity to find his rightful place in the history of Indian sports when he won the bronze medal in men's 66kg freestyle category at the Beijing Olympics here today.Sushil's campaign seemed nearly over when he lost his first round battle against eventual silver medallist Andriy Stadnik but repechage provided him a ray of hope and the Indian proved simply irresistible as he beat three grapplers on the trot to win the bronze.Down in the dumps after his opening round defeat, Sushil came up with an incredible show, beating Doug Schwab (USA), Albert Batyrov (Belarus) and finally the losing semifinalist Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan) in the repechage rounds to earn his slice of history.Sushil thus became the second Indian wrestler after K D Jadhav who won a bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games to win an Olympic medal.
Incidentally, in the 2006 Doha Asian Games also, Sushil had beaten Leonid to win the bronze.Against Leonid, Sushil grabbed early initiative by scoring two technical points that proved decisive in the end.

Though the Kazakh grappler scored one in the second period and managed to thwart Sushil, the Indian proved his superiority again in the third period and eventually prevailed 3-2 to trigger frenzied celebration among the Indians present at the Chinese Agricultural University here.

India's fledgling Olympic campaign on Wednesday received a sensational boost with unheralded grappler Sushil Kumar clinching a bronze medal and boxer Vijender Kumar assuring himself of at least a bronze to give the country a record three medals for the first time ever.

After Abhinav Bindra's gold-winning feat during the first week of the sporting extravaganza, the 25-year-old Sushil Kumar shot into fame by winning a bronze medal in the wrestling arena while Vijender has put himself on course for a silver or gold medal on a historic day for Indian sports.

Sushil and Vijender's heroics not only provided the late sparks to an otherwise dismal campaign but has created a record of sorts as India had never returned with three medals from the Olympics.

India had won two Olympic medals in the 1952 Helsinki Games when the hockey team had won the gold medal and wrestler KD Jadhav had won a bronze medal, a record which had stood for 56 long years.

While Sushil and Vijender did the country proud, there was some heartbreak for the Indians with another medal contender pugilist Jitender Kumar losing his quarter-final bout despite a valiant effort in the ring.

After days of disappointments, it turned out to be a day to cherish for the Indians as Sushil found his way to the record books by becoming only the second wrestler in India's Olympic history to win a bronze medal in the men's 66 kg freestyle category.

Vijender then brought more cheers for the contingent by beating Ecuador's Carlos Gongora in the quarter finals of the 75 kg category with a 9-4 verdict.

Sushil's campaign seemed nearly over when he lost his first round battle against eventual silver medallist Andriy Stadnik but repechage provided him a ray of hope and the Indian proved simply irresistible as he beat three grapplers on the trot to win the bronze.

Down in the dumps after his opening round defeat, Sushil came up with an incredible show, beating Doug Schwab (USA), Albert Batyrov (Belarus) and finally the losing semifinalist Leonid Spiridonov (Kazakhstan) in the repechage rounds to earn his slice of history.

Incidentally, in the 2006 Doha Asian Games also, Sushil had beaten Leonid to win the bronze.

Indian challenge ended in the table tennis event of Olympics after Achantha Sharath Kamal meekly surrendered 1-4 to Austria's Chen Weixing in the second round clash of the men's singles event in Beijing on Wednesday.

India's Jitender Kumar lost against Russia's Georgy Balakshin in the flyweight (51kg) quarterfinals at Beijing. It was a well-fought contest but the Russian definitely had an upperhand and trounced Jitender 15-11.

With two Olympic medals already in India's kitty, more hopes were rested on boxers Jitender Kumar and Vijender Kumar. With Jitender out of the medal race, Vijender remains the last ray of hope for the first boxing medal.

Round 1: 2-1

Balakshin took the lead with the first on spot punch. Jitender levelled him soon but he could take his score beyond that and the Russian took the lead right away.

Round 2: 5-5

The second round was an evenly fought and the two pugilists ended 5-5, though Balashin was leading 7-6.

Round 3: 6-3

With two rounds very closely fought, Balakshin became a bit more aggressive and succeeded in penetrating Jitender's defense. He was sharp and aggressive and ended up with a score of 6-3. This took his total lead to 13-9

Round 4: 2-2

With a lead that almost promised a victory, Balakshin became defensive. Jitender still managed to grab two points but it came too late. All last minute fight came out to be futile as the Russian emerged victorious.



NDTV reports:
Left-sponsored strike against inflation and government policies has hit normal life and the effect is being felt in several parts of the country but Left-ruled West Bengal has come to a complete standstill.

Everything is shut-- shops, schools, colleges, offices and even the IT sector companies. There are no taxis or buses on the roads. The streets of Kolkata are completely deserted.

The strike has been called by eight major trade unions including the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Centre for Industrial Trade Union (CITU).

Its also backed by 40 employees associations across sectors like public sector banks and airport ground handling staff.

All Delhi flights to Kolkata have been cancelled. Delhi flights to Kochi and Thiruvanthapuram in Kerala have also been affected.

Two flights from Delhi to Port Blair and Mumbai have also been cancelled.

Airports Authority of India's 22,000 employees are on strike between 7 am and 7 pm affecting ground handling at airports.

The Kolkata airport was the worst affected due to the strike. It wore a completely deserted look. Not a single flight landed at the airport since the morning.

Indian Airlines has been able to operate only two flights out of Kolkata since the morning whereas Kingfisher three and Jet Airways just one flight.

The streets of Kolkata are empty. The entire state of West Bengal has come to a standstill. No long distance train have left Howrah and Sealdah since Wednesday morning. Some passenger trains left Howrah and Sealdah but were blocked soon after.

And the flights to Kolkata which were supposed to depart from Delhi before 9.00 am and now stand cancelled are JetLite flight number S2 319, Kingfisher flight number IT 601, Indian Airlines flight number IC 401, Air India flight number AI 9401.

The effect of the strike is being felt more in the Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

Flights on passenger heavy routes like Kolkata, Trivandrum and Cochin have been affected.

Airport employees are protesting against privatisation of airports and rationalisation of employees' pay-scales. 250 Indian Air Force personnel have been deployed at 21 airfields across the country to ensure smooth air travel.

Not a single long distance train left from Howrah or Sealdah since morning. Some passenger trains did leave in the morning but were blocked soon after they left the station.

Many long distance trains coming to Howrah from different parts of the country are still stranded as trade union activists have blocked the railway tracks.

Banking transactions across the country will also be hit with employees' associations at all Public sector banks joining the strike, except for State Bank of India which was on strike on Monday.

The bank employees are protesting against the new economic policies of the government, especially with regards to mergers which have lead to job cuts.



Monika deserved more than SAI duplicity

BY JB LAMA

MANIPURIS were shocked beyond belief when Leishram Monika Devi — silver medallist in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, who was the lone woman weightlifter scheduled to represent India in Beijing — was dropped from the Indian Olympic squad. More than this, what has most hurt Manipuriri sentiment was the manner in which she was shunted out — just a few hours before the team was to take off on the night of 5 August. The official reason: she reportedly tested positive for an anabolic steroid. If so, then why the 11th hour decision?
Not unexpectedly, Manipuris vented their anger by organising an impromptu 24-hour bandh and staged rallies and demonstations in Imphal and Delhi. A public meeting described the decision as “injustice and a discriminatory act towards players in Manipur” and demanded an apology from the Centre within a week, failing which it threatened to organise more bandhs and demonstrations.
It has asked the Manipur Olympic Committee to seek recognition of Manipur as a separate entity in international and sporting events and all government and non-government sports organisations have been told to boycott any zonal, national and international competitions. The meeting also revealed some past injustices to sportspersons from Manipur, citing cases like the non-inclusion of the Sepak Takraw team and non-selection of pugilist Dingku from Manipur in the first trial for the last Bangkok Asian Games. And this was the same Dingku who won a gold for India.
Two days after the opening of the Olympic Games came the report of Monika having been absolved of the dope charge. But according to Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi, his request to allow her participation was turned down by the International Weightlifing Federation. Now for the pertinent question: How did the test conducted by an Indian laboratory suddenly turn out to be negative? The end result lends credence to Indian Weightlifting Federation general secretary BT Gulati’s suspicion that there was some “malafide intentions” behind it all. He had argued as much that “the tests had no validity because the Indian lab is not accredited by the World Anti-dope Agency, it does not follow procedure... its report was given internally and we have not been given a copy”.
While seeking a CBI probe, Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh said “the entire episode appears to be a big manipulative game played by the Sports Authority of India, the national dope testing laboratory and the Indian Olympic Association against a sportsperson whose dream for the Olympics has been shattered”. It is only to be expected that the SAI and the IOA, apart from telling the truth, will also clear themselves of the “manipulating game” charges. Until then, the two organisations will stand condemned by Manipuris.
In the spirit of justice and sporting competition, we feel the SAI and IOA have not only cheated Monika but the country too. Who knows that she might have realised her Olympic dream by winning a medal for India!
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=14&theme=&usrsess=1&id=218814


RIL may be allowed to sell diesel in domestic market








Ramesh Sharma

Dealing with diesel demand: Mr Murli Deora, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas; Mr R. S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC; Mr U. D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL; and Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, IOC, at a meeting in the Capital on Tuesday. -

Our Bureau


New Delhi, Aug. 19 With the diesel demand showing an 18-per cent growth and oil companies depending on imports to bridge the gap, the Government is considering changes in tax norms to allow refineries in export-oriented units such as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to feed the domestic market.

It is also mulling a differential pricing for power and other industrial consumers of the fuel.

After a review meeting with the chiefs of PSU oil companies here on Tuesday, the Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, said that a consistent, long-term pricing policy for diesel is required – one which would balance social concerns with business realities. The Ministry was seeking changes in tax rules to allow EOU refineries to supply petroleum products to PSU refiners.

Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, told news persons that “We have written to Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and the Commerce Ministry in this regard, and if the Finance Ministry also approves it, we will be able to buy diesel from Reliance as is the case with LPG.”

An EOU refinery will have to pay both customs and excise duty for selling the products in the domestic market. The excise duty comprises two components - ad valorem and specific. Currently, the EOU will have to face double taxation in specific.

In addition, the company will have to pay income-tax on its profits when it sells fuel in the domestic tariff area (DTA). “It is being examined if domestic sales by Reliance in the DTA can be given a ‘deemed export status’ and it continues to get income-tax waiver,” he said. RIL already enjoys a deemed export status for selling LPG to the PSUs.

Surge in demand


Mr Behuria said that industrial use of subsidised diesel was pushing up demand and forcing the refiners to increase imports. The output by Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation together in 2008-09 was estimated at 39.49 million tonne, with the demand being at 54.79 m.t.

While transport and agriculture demand for diesel had grown by 10-12 per cent, consumption by power producers and other industries had risen 30 per cent.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/20/stories/2008082052160100.htm


Business and bandh mix
- Govt to talk industrialisation, union to shut workplaces
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Nirupam Sen
Calcutta, Aug. 19: The right hand will try to unlock a factory tomorrow and the left will shut down almost every other such facility in Bengal. But unlike in the adage, the two hands of the CPM know exactly what they are doing.

By the time the state sli-thers into another bandh- induced slumber tomorrow, Writers’ Buildings will stir to life to talk about the future of the Tata car factory with representatives of the Trinamul Congress.

Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen today washed the government’s hands of tomorrow’s all-India general strike, saying the CPM had nothing to do with the shutdown call given by Citu.

He said the talks with Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee over the contentious 400 acres in Singur would be held as scheduled.

“The question of justifying tomorrow’s strike does not arise since we have not called it. It is up to those who have called the strike to make it a success. If people respond to the strike, it would be successful,” he said.

The Citu would not see the irony, despite having forced the shutdown.

“Our strike is not anti-industry but to protest the Centre’s anti-labour, anti-economic policies, including moves to amend labour laws, divestment, unemployment and price rise,” Bengal Citu secretary Kali Ghosh said. “Above all, it is against the Indo-US nuclear deal that would compromise our national sovereignty.”

If anyone is doubting Citu’s “pro-industry” credentials, here’s proof: the union wants work at the Tata factory in Singur to “progress”.

“We have called the general strike but workers of Tata Motors will decide whether to work tomorrow or not. We are not going to stop them forcibly. In fact, we want progress in Tata Motors’ work in Singur,” Ghosh said.

State Citu president and CPM leader Shyamal Chakraborty said the strike would not hamper the industrialisation talks. “There will be no problem for ministers to attend office at Writers’ Buildings tomorrow. It will be the same with Partha Chatterjee, who enjoys cabinet rank as leader of the Opposition in the Assembly,” he said.

Chakraborty did not clarify whether he was saying that in the Citu’s scheme of things, only ministers, not ordinary people, had the right to free movement and work.

But Trinamul’s Chatterjee, whose party knows a trick or two about enforcing bandhs, said: “I will not ask for security from the state government for travelling to Writers’. If bandh supporters prevent me, I shall return home straight.”

For Mamata, the shutdown has thrown up a bargaining chip. “I am urging industrialists present here to persuade the government to resolve the Singur issue. In return, I will consider solving the bandh problem,” she told an interactive session at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sources in her party later said it was a tongue-in-cheek remark.

“The ruling party has called a bandh tomorrow…. Is this democracy? Bandh should be a tool to be used by the Opposition,” she said.

Careful not to send “wrong” signals to the audience made of industrialists, she added: “It is not that we favour bandhs and gheraos. But it’s a tool of protest that we use as a last resort.”
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080820/jsp/bengal/story_9717178.jsp

Centre seeks extension of stay on Simi tribunal order

NEW DELHI, Aug. 19: The Centre today urged the Supreme Court to extend its stay on a tribunal's order lifting the ban imposed on Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) charged with indulging in terrorist activities, including the recent Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts.
Additional solicitor-general Mr Gopal Subramaniam who made an impromptu mention of the issue before a Bench of Justices Mr BN Aggrawal, Mr GS Singhvi and Mr JM Panchal, submitted that the matter which was scheduled to be heard on 22 August was not listed in the cause list (which carries details of cases scheduled to be taken up by a court on a particular day).
The ASG submitted that the “matter was of great importance” and the stay, if not extended, would adversely affect the country's interests. However, the air was cleared after the registry officials told the Bench that the matter was listed for hearing on 25 August. On 6 August, a Bench headed by Chief Justice Mr KG Balakrishnan stayed a special tribunal order that had earlier ordered lifting restrictions on its activities and also issued a notice to Simi. n SNS & PTI

If Musharraf couldn’t do it, who could?

Pakistan and its humongous problems won’t go away. In fact they are spilling into neighbouring countries and beyond.
In its six decades of bloody history, one of the country’s prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged like a thug and two others, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, were unceremoniously booted out from power and forced into exile. When under the pressure of “friendly persuasion” by outside powers, the two political rivals, with no love lost between them, were allowed to return to Pakistan, Mrs Bhutto, a darling of the West, was killed in an election melee and the other returnee, Mr Sharif, has been plotting revenge against the (ex)General who humiliated him in a 1999 putsch.
Since the 1980s when General Zia-ul-Haq seized power, Pakistan has been gradually turned into a nation with a fundamentalist mindset. In varying degrees, every institution, including the Pakistan armed forces and the ISI, has been infused with the fundamentalist virus that spread from Saudi-financed Wahabbi schools. Islamic fundamentalists and the US-financed Afghanistan armed resistance ultimately drove the Soviets out and also factored into the final collapse of the Soviet Union.
When the United States withdrew its presence from Afghanistan leaving well-armed guerrillas behind, the ISI in collusion with Al-Qaida and its financial resources raised the Taliban that overran the country, imposing brutal order on the war-ravaged nation.
By any historical standard the ISI-Taliban control of Afghanistan was a remarkable achievement of the Pakistan armed forces. No less significant has been the development of nuclear weapons, which made Pakistan a nation that could not be ignored in the light of proliferation threats and Islamic militancy.
On Christmas Day in 2003 when suicide bombers hit Mr Musharraf’s motorcade ~ certainly not the last attempt to kill him~ many analysts wondered what good was the mighty General to the United States in its global mission of fighting terrorism if he could not protect himself. Against all odds, Mr Musharraf put up a face of being a steadfast ally of the United States in its fight against Al- Qaida terrorism. He cautiously responded to peace overtures from India. But many in the West began to be impatient with him. Some wondered whether Mr Musharraf was fully committed to fighting Al-Qaida; or had another agenda.
But the United States saw no alternative to the man who seemed to control both the military and civilian life.
In the beginning, Mr Musharraf had an aura of “exceptionalism” about him, as if he were a man of destiny. He led a bloodless coup in 1999, promising to end political corruption and take Pakistan into a new direction. He conjured the vision of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as to how he had liberated Turkey from Islamic orthodoxy and made it a modern country. But Mr Mushrraf’s dream died too soon.
When the events of 9/11 forced him to reluctantly break away from the Taliban (whose control over Afghanistan had created an illusion of strategic depth for Pakistan) and join the US war against Al-Qaida, Mr Musharraf invoked the Prophet Muhammad’s political alliances and strategies (even with the enemies) and the Prophet’s final triumph.
Unfortunately, Mr Musharraf’s opportunistic alliance with Islamic parties to build a political base to keep his secular rivals, Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), out of power backfired; he unwittingly allowed extremism to grow.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=4&theme=&usrsess=1&id=218858

AN UNSETTLING END
- The UPA’s Pakistan policy is disastrously confused
Diplomacy - K.P. Nayar


Pervez Musharraf took the inevitable decision to step down as Pakistan’s president on the very day that his brother-officer-turned-president, General Zia-ul- Haq, was killed 20 years ago in a mysterious plane crash, which ended one of the darkest chapters in the short political history of Pakistan. Musharraf announced his decision the following day to his nation, which has been waiting for this denouement for months. Musharraf made up his mind to quit — in the face of declarations to the contrary throughout last weekend by his aides and his dwindling band of supporters — hours after the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, told a Sunday television talk show that asylum for the United States of America’s ally of almost seven years “is an issue that is not on the table”.

Musharraf is a smart man. He correctly calculated that with eroding support from the Bush administration in its twilight months, his options were rapidly closing. George W. Bush and Rice have stood by Musharraf through thick and thin while Rice’s predecessor, Colin Powell, another army general, had nothing but praise for this Pakistani in uniform after he tossed the Taliban out of his backyard a month after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. For the wily former president of Pakistan, the proverbial tail that managed to wag the dog during much of the last six years when it came to Pakistan’s engagement with Bush, matters could only have got worse under a new American president from January 20 next year, whether that president is Barack Obama or John McCain. Neither of them trusted Musharraf the way Bush and his aides did even if the trust of the latter was at a diminishing rate in the last several years.

Notwithstanding Rice’s assertion immediately after Musharraf’s farewell to his nation that “we strongly support the democratically elected civilian government” in Islamabad, officials who deal with Pakistan in key government agencies in Washington say privately that they would have preferred the army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, to have taken over. When Musharraf nominated Kayani last November to succeed him as chief of army staff, there was jubilation at the Pentagon: Kayani is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Its other distinguished alumni include Dwight D. Eisenhower, General George C. Marshall and General George S. Patton.
Pl read Complete story:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080820/jsp/opinion/story_9716598.jsp

Tata OK but 400 bye-bye: Mamata
Subtle shift before talks
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, Aug. 19: Mamata Banerjee today announced her party would attend a meeting on Singur at Writers’ Buildings tomorrow with the one-point agenda that 400 acres be returned to unwilling farmers, but behind the bluster was a subtle shift in stand.
“Let the Tatas build their factory on 600-650 acres and let ancillary units be relocated somewhere nearby,” she told industry leaders at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
This is the first time the Trinamul leader has said the 400 acres need not cover land on which the Tata Motors’ small car plant is coming up. Trinamul leaders described this as a “softening of her position”. So far, her stand was that land taken from unwilling farmers would have to be returned no matter where it fell.
“I don’t want the Tatas to leave, I don’t believe in Tata bye-bye, but simultaneously want the government to be fair to the farmers,” Mamata said.
The Trinamul leader also revealed that she had received a letter from Tata Motors on their Singur project, the first time the company has got in touch with her directly, but refused to divulge its contents saying it was marked “confidential’’.
“I would not be unethical by disclosing contents of the Tata Motors letter. However, on the basis of what they have written, I can say that they need 650 acres for the small car plant and not 1,000 acres.
“Moreover, the ancillary units coming up in Singur would not only supply materials to Tata Motors but also other companies across the globe. So, why did the government issue the notification that 1,000 acres would be required for the Tata project?” she asked.
It is learnt that the letter was written by Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant.
She was also unhappy that industries minister Nirupam Sen, and not chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, would be meeting her party’s representatives tomorrow.
“The chief minister should have realised that acceptance or rejection of our demand for the return of 400 acres at Singur would be a policy decision and his presence at tomorrow’s meeting was a must….
“Actually, his intention is to drag the issue and persuade us to defer our agitation so that the Tatas can roll out their small car by October. So, tomorrow’s meeting would be a meeting without results,” Mamata said.
She appealed to the chambers to persuade the government that “the Tata small car project does not need these 400 acres”. Unless the land was returned, her party’s August 24 agitation at Singur would “start and continue”, she warned.
CPM state secretary Biman Bose iterated the government line that land already acquired could not be returned for “practical and legal” reasons, and asked her to offer a “realistic solution”.
Mamata, who said she was “happy to get a letter from the chief minister inviting us for talks on Singur”, holds that the return of 400 acres “is the only solution we can offer”.
After Bhattacharjee invited her for talks yesterday, Mamata wrote back this morning to say her representatives would attend the meeting. The chief minister sent another letter today praising her for agreeing to hold a dialogue and confirming that Sen would meet Trinamul leaders at 4.30pm.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080820/jsp/frontpage/story_9717337.jsp


PDF]
SYNOPSIS India, US Imperialism and Anti-imperialist Movement In India
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
The present phase of anti-imperialist movement in India started with Calcutta. Convention in 1995 under the leadership of All India anti-imperialist Forum. ...
www.peoplejudgebush.org/files/ManikMukherjee.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India
The work focuses upon a specific chapter and aspect of India’s Freedom Movement — its complex and evolving relationship with Marxism in terms of the genesis ...
www.marxists.org/subject/india/index.htm - 16k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Anti-Imperialist Struggle in India
They systematically sabotaged the movement, and finally succeeded in throwing it into ..... MN Roy Internet Archive | Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India ...
www.marxists.org/archive/roy/1923/x01/x01.htm - 29k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

The Ghadar Movement
Many Sikhs and Hindu Punjabis who tasted freeddom outside colonial India in USA started Ghadr movement to free India from British rule in early 1900's. ...
www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/events/ghadr.html - 17k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

IMC India - Anti Imperialist Convention in Calicut
In the following years State level Committees were formed in 20 States of India and under their leadership people’s movements on various anti-imperialist ...
india.indymedia.org/en/2003/10/8158.shtml - 27k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

importance of dutt-bradley thesis
It points out that the first great anti-imperialist movement in India was the first non-cooperation movement of 1919-22, which it states "ended in the ...
www.cpim.org/marxist/199601_marxist_duttbrdly_hks.htm - 22k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

JSTOR: American Anti-Imperialists and the Pro-India Movement, 1900 ...
Like the Anti-Imperialist League from which it grew, the pro- India movement during the prewar years stressed the democratic political principle of ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8684(197402)43%3A1%3C83%3AAAATPM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W - Similar pages - Note this
by A Raucher - 1974 - Cited by 1

Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement- Denver
This DVD is put out by this RAIMD group – revolutionary anti-imperialist movement Denver — … It’s all verified, they even admit all this, they are telling ...
raimd.wordpress.com/ - 162k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire - Google Books Result
by Mrinalini Sinha - 2006 - Social Science - 366 pages
The League against Imperialism, formed in February 1927, ... 50 To a considerable extent, of course, the small pro-India movement in the United States ...
books.google.co.in/books?isbn=0822337959...

[L-I] All Success to the Anti-Imperialist Conventi: msg#00017
The All India Anti-Imperialist Forum (AIAIF) is going to hold an ... aggressors vacate Iraq immediately and to strengthen the anti-imperialist movement. ...
osdir.com/ml/politics.leninism.international/2003-11/msg00017.html - 31k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Now Nuclear Parks for the Hindu Super Power

Now Nuclear Parks for the Hindu Super Power

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 48

Palash Biswas

INFLATION AND MORALS
- The answer to inflation is to cut down defence spending
Ashok Mitra

Please have a heart; to ask a government wedded to the philosophy of the free market to discipline the demon of rising prices would be no less than cruelty. Inflation opens a floodgate of opportunities for producers and traders. A time lag exists between the production of a commodity and its sale. If prices shoot up during this interval, the producer makes a windfall profit in addition to the normal profit he already had borne in mind in his calculations. Given the gap of time between the purchase of stocks and their actual sales, the trader too experiences a windfall gain if market prices shoot up meanwhile. Free market economics ordains non-interference on the part of the government with happenings in the market. The continuing process of inflation helps producers and traders to keep making windfall profits. They should be allowed to do so, admonishes the doctrine of laissez-faire, the government must look the other way.

Such, then, is the crux of the matter. Inflation in the country, as measured by movements in the wholesale price index, is currently spilling beyond the rate of 12 per cent; in terms of the retail price index, it must be even higher. The government, given its commitment to neo-liberalism, can only watch the situation. It watches the situation with complacence for another, more intimate reason. The producers and the traders who are gathering in the profits are its classmates; their support sustains the government.

True, there is the other point of view. Whatever its class interests, the government functions within a democratic framework and will have to face the electorate soon. The overwhelming majority of the electorate consists of the poor and middle classes who are the severest victims of inflation. They could very well turn away from the parties constituting the government in case the wounds inflicted by rising prices become intolerable. Should not the government, for dear life, do something to save itself from the wrath of the people? For instance, could it not arrange to supply, through the public distribution system, essential commodities at a subsidy to the less fortunate sections? No, it could not; the proposal would be immediately shot down by decision-makers who shape and guide the destiny of the government. It is all very simple. Subsidized supply of commodities would adversely affect money-making by producers and traders; demand gets diverted from the free market to the public distribution system. That is as good as sabotaging the free market. The government, therefore, makes up its mind; it would not expand — on the contrary, it would phase out — the practice of supplying essential goods at subsidized prices.

Please read the complete story.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080818/jsp/opinion/story_9699845.jsp




Well, some friends of the Sensex shining India Ruling Hegemony have chosen to launch a hate campaign against me with xxx abusive language, I despise to quote. I hate to reply those illogical biased words of hatred. But is is an indication that I am shooting on Target!

They did not allow Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar to enter the Constitution assembly from Maharashtra and closed every door and window for his entry. The East Bengal Untouchables led by Jogendra Nath Mandal elected him for the Constitution assembly. Even in Independent India, they did not allow Dr Ambedkar to address his people in Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Dr Ambedkar could win no election in Independent India. neither Jogendra Nath Mandal could.At least, I am not so great. But the fascist Hindutva gladiators and ruling Hegemony Gestapo never allow any democratic space for black untouchables in India. The Global ruling class is quite adamant to implement the new global order of Post Modern Manusmriti Apartheid Hindu Zionist White Corporate Galaxy Imperialism led by United state of America.

They are very angry with my recent article, `Kashmir Conflict is Master Minded Hindutva Strategy to Stop Anti US Movement in India’. RSS projected next Prime Minister did not utter a single word against US Imperialism . Neither did he spoke a single word against strategic re alliance led by US and Indo US Nuke Deal in hyper hyped Parliamentary Nuke Opera during Trust Vote debate. Rather Mr Adwani used the opportunity of opening the debate on so called national Interests to address and mobilise the Hindutva Gestapo against Muslims in India which resulted as disaster on the Kashmir front. I had to write,` They Stopped Myawati and They May Stop Barrack Obama, too’ with a disclaimer that I never believe in personal Karishma and Vote Bank Equation as ways of dalit Liberation!

What is happening in Kashmir ? It is quite reminiscent of pre partition Bengal where Hindu Mahasabha did its best to provoke riots as well as Muslim Nationality to partition India so that the Brahmins could hold the Power! RSS is dividing the already divided geopolitics bleeding! NDA and UPA have aligned! The Ruling Hegemony as a whole is all out to defend US weapon and war economy corporate MNC interests in South Asia!


Nuke deal is going to be operationalised very soon thanks to the Ideological Hypocrisy of Brahmin Marxists in India as they wanted the precious time launching an international anti imperialist movement!

Now the Ruling Hegemony has decided to establish Nuclear parks beside SEZ, Chemical Hubs, Retail chain, LPG, Economic reforms, indiscriminate industrialisation and urbanisation to complete the agenda of Annihilate Indigenous Black Untouchables!

Yes, I never believe in Dalit Movement. I don`t believe that the goal of destroying the Manusmriti Rule of Caste System be achieved while we just bank on Casteology or reservation! As our senior friends VTR believes.

I never support US imperialism and Globalisation to create space for dalit Liberation or empowerment of Dalits. More over, I don`t believe in the concept of dalit or depressed as we are the mainstream majority people and the rulers, the Brahmins are a micro minority , mere three percent of Indian population. All the Mischief is done by this micro minority as they have sustained the caste system which divides the society into more than six thousand castes. I am not a blind Ambedkarite who escaped the prime task to address the nationalities. Thus, the Ruling Hegemony is successful to divide the aboriginal indigenous majority people further into SC, ST, OBC and Minority groups! I believe in Marxism as well as Indigenous National identities!

Today, in the first hours of Morning I called our philosopher poet friend, the Marxist Minister Anil Sarkar in Agartala and asked if any way is out there to stop NDA and UPA to sustain the Ruling Hegemony crushing and annihilating Indigenous communities!

Anilda spoke,` Mayawati happens the only option and we must rally behind her to stop RSS as well as UPA!’

I discussed with him about the fate of Gauri Amma in Kerala who was responsible to mobilise the Marxist Vote Bank in Kerala. Since Gauri Amma is a dalit, she was ousted from the party to accommodate Achutyanandan! I had asked him in New Delhi how CPIM would sustain the party line to project the dalit queen as Next prime Minister candidate with apotential risk to lose support base among the Caste Hindu communities in Bengal as well as Kerala! Anilda dismissed the assumption as internal politics of Kearal Unit and claimed that the Party strongly supports the master stroke of Prakash Karat!

He further defended the CPIM party Line of third front knowing my reservations about the idea!

I asked him his reaction on Chiranjivi launching a new party in Andhra where the Left is divided to chalk out new strategy in a scenario with new political equations. He anticipated the following questions and avoided to comment on. I understand his problem until the party decides its strategy!

Anil sarkar could not comment on Nepal situation as well. he could not welcome a Maoist Prime Minister in Nepal.

But Anil sarkar spoke on launching a united Black Untouchable global anti imperialist anti fascist movement immediately. He also supports the Nationality Identity as he has intensified the Mother Language Mission campaign!

He calimed, ` Our people in Tripura supports the Prakash karat Line!’

I did not tell him that the untouchable Tripura may not influence the Bengal and Kerala psyche!

Then he quoted from the speech of Prakash Karat delivered in a dalit convention organised by CPIM recently in Kerala!

Do you know Ranga Naykamma, the Telugu write who has analysed critically `Dias Capital!’

Ranga Nayakamma has written sixty books which include `Ramayana Vishvriksham’!

Ranga Nayakamma believes ,` Marx is compulsory to solve the caste Problem!’

In her latest book on Indian Dalit Movement she raised some very important questions in reference to the role of Dr Baba saheb Ambedkar!

The questions are as follows:

(A)Do we find a Scientific and historical analysis in the works and philosophy of Dr Ambedkar?

(B)Are the thoughts of Dr Ambedkar helpful enough to solve the Caste Problems and do they break the way of dalit liberation?

(C)Do the Abedkarites of Modern times involved in dalit Movement follow the Path of Dr Ambedkar?

(D) Is the Conversion is only way out to resist Hindutva? Is there any solution of complex Social Realities in In Indian society in Buddhism?

(E) Is Dr Ambedkar`s criticism of Marxism is based on logic?

(F) Did Dr Ambedkar studied Marxism seriously enough? Did he not spoilt his precious time to study Indian Mythology and Holy Books which sustain the caste system?

Well, she did not ask his credibility to lead a national Indigenous Movement as he never did try to address nationality problem! His failure to mobilise the ST and OBC is also not analysed properly.



But Ranga Nayakamma outlines well the achievements of Dr Ambedkar which we dare not to neglect.

Which are those achievements?

(A)Struggle against caste system is not new. But Dr Ambedkar was the first person who drew global attention to the Inhuman caste system and untouchability.

(B)We are fortunate that a man like Dr Ambedkar headed the drafting committe of Indian constitution. Dr Ambedkar is the only man responsible to introduce Reservation in Indian constitution to provide equal opportunity of empowerment to the depressed communities known as untouchables.

(C) More over, it was no less a personality than Dr Ambedkar himself, who exposed so called Mahatma, Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi and Congress, the best Agents of Hindutva and Indian fascism.

(D) Then, Dr Ambedkar tried his best not only to abolish the cursed Caste System but he also wanted to destroy the Manusmriti Rule, the brahminical Hegemony!



(E)Dr Ambedkar could not do away with Cast System in Hinduism and he opted to convert in Buddhism.



Ranga Nayakamma criticises Dr Ambedkar that he could not oppose the superstitions in Buddhism where as he could expose the Myths and superstitions in Hinduism very well with surgical precision.

I agree with Ranga Nayakamma when she concludes that Dalit Liberation and Reservation may not help each other. Continuation of Reservation never would make any way for Dalit liberation.

I assess the study as an objective realisation that Dr Ambedkar did not study well the Indigenous communities as productive forces and the indigenous production system as a whole.

Nuclear Power short-lists 4 suppliers for reactors

RAMAYANA RAPPER SELLS IN ANDHRA
According to Ms. Ranganayakamma, who is a celebrated Telugu writer with over 50 ... The admirers of Ambedkar had kicked up quite a protest over her book on ...
ranganayakamma.org/Two%20Reports%20on%20vishavruksham.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Biography
(Originally prepared when an English reviewer (of Ranganayakamma's book AN INTRODUCTION TO MARX'S ... Basically she is a novelist and short story writer. ...
ranganayakamma.org/biography.htm - 32k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
More results from ranganayakamma.org »

Telugu Fiction
After a successful beginning as a fiction writer, Ranganayakamma embarked ... later entitled "Ambedkar and Buddha will not do, the only solution is Marx". ...
www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~vemuri/classes/freshman/telugufiction.htm - 87k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist Media » Was Charles Bettelheim a ...
17 Sep 2007 ... Recently I read telugu book titled “China lo emi jarugutondi? ... Ranganayakamma criticised Ambedkar and his fans like Chandra Bhan Prasad ...
stalin-mao.net/?p=101 - 57k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

OPE-L message, Re: [OPE-L] Caste system- surplus woman question
It is good knockabout stuff in its criticisms of Ambedkar which seem mostly fair. ... This is an English translation of Ranganayakamma's Telugu book which ...
archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/ope-l/2007m02/msg00060.htm - 14k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

JSTOR: Rejecting Sita: Indian Responses to the Ideal Man's Cruel ...
The author notes: "Interestingly, Ambedkar is not the first social reformer ...... a famous Telugu work by Muppala Ranganayakamma, Ramayatna Vishabriksham, ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7189(199903)67%3A1%3C1%3ARSIRTT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N - Similar pages - Note this
by L Hess - 1999 - Cited by 2 - Related articles - All 3 versions

User talk:Viscious81/Archive 1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The issue of Sita's Absence was was debated decades ago in Telugu literature. ... Both Ranganayakamma and Arudra are 'high Brahmins' as Dab would like to ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Viscious81/Archive_1 - 80k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Organisation set up to combat non-secular forces
A recent Telugu book by Ranganayakamma, strongly critical of the `racist and ... Send e-mail to dalits@ambedkar.org with questions or comments about this ...
www.ambedkar.org/News/Organisationset.htm - 7k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

దార్ల: LIFE REFLECTIONS OF MADIGAS IN TELUGU LITERATURE
22 Jul 2008 ... The researchers opine that Jamba Purana is one among the Telugu folk arts. The classical writers have not recognized the Jamba Puranam as ...
vrdarla.blogspot.com/2008/07/life-reflections-of-madigas-in-telugu.html - 145k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Bibliography International Review of Social History vol. 48 part 2 ...
In this book, the English translation of a text originally written in Telugu, Ranganayakamma discusses the range of ideas on the "caste" question of the ...
www.iisg.nl/irsh/48-2-bib.php - 102k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this



CPI(M) will fight atrocities against Dalits, says Karat




Special Correspondent






It is now prioritising mobilisation of Dalits for this fight













— Photo: Vipin Chandran

CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and State Party Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan at the Dalit Convention organised at Kochi on Saturday.


KOCHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday that the CPI(M) would step up the fight against caste-based discrimination and atrocities against Dalits across the country.

Declaring open the Dalit convention here, he referred to the caste segregation at Uthapuram in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu and said the CPI (M)’s intervention there had helped in breaking the nine-foot wall that had cut off Dalits’ access.



A survey by the party had shown that acute forms of discrimination existed in Tamil villages. Such oppression took place in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and other places on a day-to-day basis and that was why the CPI (M) was now prioritising mobilisation of Dalits to fight against caste discrimination. The 19th party congress had mandated such a struggle.

He pointed out that the Dalits were the worst-affected by the globalisation-liberalisation policy as millions of traditional workers such as weavers, farmhands and fishermen had been deprived of their livelihoods. The CPI (M) stood for reservation of jobs for the SCs and STs in the private sector as well as for earmarking a certain percentage of seats in private higher-education institutions. Because of the government’s policy of downsizing, the public sector was shrinking leading to the shrinking of Dalits’ job opportunities too. Noting that the privatisation of public sector units reduced the number of reserved jobs, Mr. Karat asked the UPA government to ensure that when PSUs were privatised, the SC-ST quota should be continued in the privatised unit.

He contended that since many private units were heavily subsidised in the form of cheap power, tax holidays and infrastructural assistance, they were not exactly `private’ and that the State had a stake in them. In view of this, the government should ensure that these firms complied with the statutory SC-ST reservation.

Mr. Karat, however, stressed that reservation could be a temporary relief and for a permanent solution to the Dalit discrimination, basic social transformation was essential. It was because of the Communist movement and the work of social reformers that the Dalits’ condition was far better in Kerala than in any other State. The atrocities against the Dalits as witnessed in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu would never take place in Kerala, which had in the past been the venue of the worst form of untouchability and Dalit oppression, Mr. Karat said.

The CPI(M)’s organising the Dalit meet has been flayed by its political opponents saying the party was straying from its traditional ‘class struggle’ theory and that it was trying to create a Dalit vote bank.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/17/stories/2008081758991000.htm



















A. Shaikmohideen

A file picture of one of the reactors at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu.–


Anil Sasi


New Delhi, Aug. 17 With the prospects of India’s access to global nuclear reactor technology brightening, Westinghouse Electric Company (AP1000 series of reactors), GE-Hitachi (ABWR reactor series) , Areva (1,000 MW European pressurised reactors) and the Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom (VVER 1,000 reactors) are among the frontrunners for new projects planned across the country.

State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) – the monopoly nuclear power generator – has tentatively short-listed these four major reactor manufacturers based on “suitability” of technical parameters for placement of orders that will form the first phase of the Centre’s plan to build 40,000 MW of nuclear capacity by 2020, Government sources indicated.

Nuke Parks




Once nuclear trade commences, NPCIL hopes to set up “Nuclear Parks” or reactor clusters, for which four coastal sites have been identified across Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

These “parks” are being envisaged with a capacity of housing up to eight reactors of 1,000 MW each at a single location. The orders would initially be placed for around two reactors of 1,000 MW at each of the locations, following which more reactors could be added .

“The model would be on the lines of the Koodankulam project, where two 1,000 MW reactors were initially set up and subsequently the site is being expanded to accommodate more reactors,” an official said.

Officials hinted at the preference for Russian and French reactor technology since the Indian Government has already been engaging with them.

Russian VVER reactors are already being deployed at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu, while the Jaitapur site in Maharashtra was earmarked by the DAE for possible project collaboration with the French Government.

NSG meeting




With the India-specific safeguards agreement already cleared by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a special session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group – the 45-member nation cartel that controls nuclear commerce – to begin discussing the US-India deal is scheduled for August 21, with at least two sessions likely to be needed to reach an agreement on an exemption for India.

Indian utilities such as NPCIL would technically be in a position to engage with global suppliers once the NSG exemption is through, though the Indo-US deal would still be required to go back for an up-down vote at the US Congress.

A senior Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) official told Business Line that the country would like to keep its options open on the choice of reactor types at present, with practically all global reactor manufacturers making a beeline for India in the light of the opportunities that could open up.

“Cost specifications and safety parameters would form the two foremost parameters for the selection of the foreign equipment suppliers for future projects,” the official said. Foreign reactor suppliers are, however, unlikely to be allowed to own equity in the projects in the first phase, officials said.

To double capacity




0 India has 17 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 4,120 MW in operation. Six additional units, with a capacity of 3,160 MW, are under various stages of construction.

If nuclear trade with global players opens up, the Centre, which was originally targeting 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020, hopes to double nuclear capacity addition to achieve an installed capacity of 40,000 MW over the next 12 years.

According to US-India Business Council estimates, at least $100 billion (about Rs 400,000 crore) worth of investment will be needed to develop nuclear energy in India over the next 20 years.





Related Stories:
Why the nuclear deal is important — Reflections on the power mix
India to push ahead with nuke deal amid strict deadline
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081851400100.htm

Farm debt waiver: PSBs seek interest
















K.R.Srivats


New Delhi, Aug 17

Public sector banks (PSBs) have placed a new claim on the Central Government for their successful implementation of the farm debt waiver and debt relief scheme in a record time.

Besides fully compensating them for the amount waived off and the relief granted, they also want the Government to pay interest on the amount involved.

It is learnt that some of the chief executives of the PSBs had at their recent meeting with the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, suggested that the interest should be calculated from the date of announcement of the scheme, i.e. from February 29, when the Union Budget was announced, till the date of write-off.

Data with the Finance Ministry show that the PSBs had written off about Rs 25,357.56 crore towards farm debt waiver and Rs 5,314.54 crore towards debt relief scheme.

“We are asking for interest from the day of announcement of the debt waiver scheme as from that day, these accounts stopped yielding incomes for us,” a PSB chief executive said.

Co-op banks, RRBs




After PSBs, cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) played a major role in the farm debt waiver scheme. Under the scheme, cooperative banks and RRBs had written off Rs 28,802.91 crore towards farm debt waiver and Rs 6,565.41 crore towards debt relief scheme.

The Government is likely to provide for some compensation to the PSBs for the debt waiver scheme during the first batch of supplementary demands for grants when the monsoon session resumes.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081851280100.htm



Private sector investments in key sectors sharply down























D. Sampathkumar


Chennai, Aug. 17 The number of projects initiated in 2007-08, by the private corporate sector for implementation, in key sectors such as petroleum, sugar, textiles etc. is sharply down as against the previous year, a study by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reveals.

In its latest monthly bulletin (August 2008), the RBI says that as against 258 projects expected to cost around Rs 26,000 crore taken up in 2006-07, the number has come down to 128 with the projected investment pegged at Rs 10,700 crore.

Ironically, the development comes in the face of textile enterprises seeing a slight improvement in export prospects with problems plaguing the Chinese industry and units in other countries with which India competes in the global markets, as this paper reported in its edition dated August 17, 2008.

Similar tale





It is a similar tale in other sectors as well with both the number and project costs scaled down sharply. However, metals and hotel industries have shown buoyancy. (See Table).

The waning corporate interest in committing fresh investments is evident from another piece of statistics published by the RBI for 2007-08.

Such investments overall, which have shown a consistent rising trend in recent years, is flat for the first time in the year just gone by compared to the immediate previous year.

From a figure of close to Rs 73,000 crore in 2003-04, the projected fresh investments in 2006-07 had gone up nearly four fold at Rs 2,83,440 crore. But the subsequent year sees the private corporate sector investing only Rs 2,84,371 crore - a clear decline in real terms if inflation is taken into account over the project implementation period (See Table).

Worrisome feature











Another worrisome feature evident from the RBI data is that the entrepreneurial base is also shrinking with fewer new projects being taken up, but involving bigger-ticket investments to make up the higher value. For instance, it took roughly 1,054 new projects to notch up a figure of Rs 2,83,440 crore in 2006-07.

But nearly the same project size ( Rs 2,84,371 crore) was reached with nearly 150 fewer projects (910, to be exact) in 2007-08.

As the RBI data make it clear, the private corporate sector’s overwhelming focus on infrastructure projects such power, telecom, ports, airports, roads etc. while boosting up the numbers simultaneously masks the declining business fundamentals in others sectors where fewer projects are coming up.

Indeed, infrastructure which accounted for only a third of new projects in 2005-06 now constitutes close to half the value of fresh investments committed by the private sector.

Of particular interest is the growth in the number and project values of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and IT parks which have seen a ten-fold increase in the value of investments. Promoters have clearly been able to persuade financial institutions to discount political risks while backing these projects.



More Stories on : Economy | New Projects | RBI & Other Central Banks


Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081851380100.htm


Sify Buddhadeb invites Mamata for talks on Singur issue
Business Standard, India - 2 hours ago
PTI / Kolkata August 18, 2008, 18:37 IST In a renewed bid to resolve the Singur crisis, the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today invited ...
No extra land was acquired in Singur: Buddhadeb Sify
Somen to join Mamata in her Singur agitation from August 24 Expressindia.com
Buddhadeb rules out transfer of land to farmers in Singur Times of India
Kolkata Newsline - Hindu
all 34 news articles »
Tata factory adds to economic prosperity of Singur
Economic Times, India - 17 Aug 2008
SINGUR: Residents in Singur in West Bengal, who were once unhappy with setting up of the Tata factory in their area, are today thanking the authorities for ...
CPM loses Singur school poll
Calcutta Telegraph, India - 16 hours ago
17: The CPM was today routed in an election to the managing committee of a secondary school in Singur, months after its panchayat defeat in the area. ...

Calcutta Telegraph Mamata adamant on sit-in at Singur
Hindu, India - 14 Aug 2008
“None has the right to stop a democratic movement,” she said, referring to moves by the State government to disallow any attempt to disrupt peace at Singur. ...
Singur: Govt to take stern steps The Statesman
In Singur, security plan in place for Aug 24 TMC strike Kolkata Newsline
Displaced Singur farmers to get shops Livemint
Calcutta Telegraph
all 5 news articles »

Sify Basu welcomes Mamata's willingness to talk on Singur
Press Trust of India, India - 8 Aug 2008
In an apparent softening of her belligerent stand on the Tata Motors' plant at Singur, Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday that she was open for talks with ...
Mamata's Singur agitation 'fascist' in nature: Subhas Hindu
Industry backs Buddha on Singur, takes a dig at bandh culture Expressindia.com
Mamata softens on Singur, may talk to Tata NDTV.com
Economic Times - Hindustan Times
all 236 news articles »

Calcutta Telegraph Mamata to meet industrialists, clarify stand
The Statesman, India - 16 Aug 2008
Earlier, representatives of some chambers of commerce had said Miss Banerjee's opposition to the setting up of small car project of Tata Motors in Singur ...
Mamata date with business bosses Calcutta Telegraph
Mamata to meet business representatives Aug 19 Fresh News
Mamata to meet chambers of commerce representatives Aug 19 Fresh News
all 4 news articles »

AFP Farmers talk tough on Singur
The Statesman, India - 8 Aug 2008
8: Although Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee agreed to talk to the authorities of Tata Motors over the “Singur land grab” controversy, ...
Communists assure security to Tata's small car plant at Singur Economic Times
Renewed protests threaten to delay Nano India launch Reuters
Bumpy road for world's cheapest car AFP
Hindu - NDTV.com
all 54 news articles »
Bengal CM's carrot and stick approach on Singur
Merinews, India - 14 Aug 2008
The Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has appealed to the Trinamool Congress chief to sit for talks over Singur even as the home secretary ...
Mamata salvo on govt The Statesman
WB not to allow violence at Singur MSN India
Mamata sticks to her demand on Singur issue Zee News
NDTV.com - Merinews
all 9 news articles »

Calcutta Telegraph Singur: Cong struggles to take a stand
Business Standard, India - 10 Aug 2008
Although the central leadership of the Congress would like to see the project in Singur go ahead undisturbed, local leaders are treading cautiously keeping ...
Cong keen on Singur dharna Calcutta Telegraph
To build anti-Left force, Congress woos Trinamool Kolkata Newsline
Priya caution and land plan Calcutta Telegraph
all 4 news articles »
Economic boost: Tata Motors transforms Singur
Times of India, India - 11 Aug 2008
Like it or curse it, the Tata Nano factory in Singur is happening. No matter what Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee say or do from here on, ...


New! Get the latest news on Singur with Google Alerts.


Searches related to: Singur tata motors west bengal nandigram
mamata banerjee land acquisition act jyoti basu






MNCs seeking HR firms’ help to ‘outplace’ employees

















Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee
K. Bharat Kumar


New Delhi/Chennai, Aug. 17 IT companies are now roping in HR firms for ‘outplacement services’ to help workers, who have been asked to leave, to find new jobs.

Outplacement is gathering momentum with the US slowdown casting a cloud on hiring, and delay in client decisions forcing companies to cull jobs and weed out non-performers from the rolls, “Outplacement service is a global practice, but in recent times we have seen MNCs adopting it in India.

The demand for such services has picked up steam since the beginning of 2008 and we have offered ‘outplacement assistance’ to three MNCs for almost 250 employees,” Mr Kris Lakshmikanth, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Head Hunters India, said.

He said that his firm offers resume and interview assistance, career counselling and placement services to candidates affected by lay-offs.

Likewise, Ms Saundarya Rajesh, CEO of Chennai-based Avtar Career Creators, pointed out that company is seeing a rise in requests from IT and BPO companies to ‘outplace’ employees.

“We have received profiles of between 1,000 and 1,200 employees in the last three months, and this has been initiated by the HR departments of companies in the IT and BPO space,” she added. These profiles have come from about three-four companies to Avtar.

Different ways





Ms Rajesh adds, “After specifically communicating to employees that the company cannot retain them anymore, HR chiefs typically contact recruitment firms for help.” In these cases, employees can take leave and continue to get paid as they hunt for other jobs.

Interestingly, in certain cases, HR departments circulate the resumes in the market without necessarily communicating that to the employees and quietly welcome departures resulting from the move.

At times, the company that has given the mandate to the outplacement firm pays the latter for its services (in addition, the recruitment firm also charges the new employer for the placement).

“However, that is not an industry norm as yet, and in most instances, the recruitment firm gets paid by the new employer after the candidate is successfully placed,” says Mr Rishi Das, CEO of CareerNet Consulting, a company which has taken up six ‘outplacement assignments’ since August 2007, involving nearly 400 employees.

However, Mr Das feels that it is not as if IT and BPO companies are ‘downsizing’.

‘It’s right sizing’





“IT companies were hiring aggressively earlier but given the brisk pace of business, they were unable to let go of the bottom 10 per cent workforce despite the fact that such employees did not pass the performance muster.

That is changing now — with the US slowdown affecting new projects, companies are taking stock, weeding out non-performers and then recruiting afresh to bridge the shortfall,” he said.

Also in some cases, mergers and acquisitions are leading to duplication of processes and functions, prompting companies to hand out pink slips.

Layoffs are also coming from start-ups who were operating on a limited number of projects, he said, adding that his company had offered assistance to three such companies.



Related Stories:
‘HR leaders should be up to managing diverse workforces’
Employee referrals dispel hiring blues


More Stories on : Information Technology | Human Resources


Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/08/18/stories/2008081851270100.htm



Related Stories:
Banks face audit burden on farm loan reimbursement
Who benefits from the waiver?
Farm loan waiver: An ill-conceived package

Musharraf's turbulent 9 years in power
The Associated Press - 35 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pervez Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup and later led a reluctant nation into the US-led war on terror - an alliance that won him plaudits in the West but fueled anger at home.
Musharraf resigns as Pakistan president AFP
'Musharraf's exit will have no impact on Indo-Pak ties' Hindu
International Herald Tribune - Xinhua - ABC Online - Bloomberg
all 5,650 news articles »

Breaking the taboo, Indian op-eds suggest Kashmir plebiscite
Reuters India - 4 hours ago - The last time I visited Kashmir, in November, I was struck by an apparent contradiction: it was more peaceful than it ...
The Associated Press - Hindu - Hindustan Times
all 2,053 news articles »



Police survey jungles to locate former SIMI camps
Hindu - 3 hours ago - Vadodara (PTI): Police have surveyed jungles near Halol here to find out the locations where the members of banned SIMI ...
Expressindia.com - Newstrack India - Times of India
all 341 news articles » हिन्दी में »




Bindra's gold gauntlet
Times of India - 21 hours ago - Has Abhinav Bindra let the side down? By being the first ever Indian to win an individual Olympic gold, Bindra has ...
Calcutta Telegraph - Economic Times - TopNews
all 1,629 news articles »


Sify
Buddhadeb invites Mamata for talks on Singur issue
Business Standard - 2 hours ago
PTI / Kolkata August 18, 2008, 18:37 IST In a renewed bid to resolve the Singur crisis, the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today invited Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for talks, six days ahead of her party's plan to lay ...
TC demand for return of 400 acres cannot be met: Basu Hindu
Buddhadeb rules out transfer of land to farmers in Singur Times of India
Calcutta Telegraph - Expressindia.com - Sify - Kolkata Newsline
all 34 news articles »


Canada.com
Nepal Maoist head sworn in as PM
BBC News - 3 hours ago
The Nepalese Maoist leader, Prachanda, has been sworn in as prime minister, completing his transition from rebel leader to constitutional politician.
Nepal Maoist leader sworn in as PM AFP
Nepal's new prime minister takes oath of office The Associated Press
Reuters India - International Herald Tribune - Khabrein.info - CNN International
all 562 news articles » हिन्दी में »


TopNews
49 children died during clinical trials in AIIMS
Hindu - 4 hours ago
New Delhi (PTI): As many as 49 children have died during clinical trials of new medicines in the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here during the last two-and-a-half years.
Centre asks AIIMS to probe death of 49 children Expressindia.com
49 babies die during clinical trials Times of India
IBNLive.com - Monsters and Critics.com
all 21 news articles »




RTE.ie
Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty
Rediff - 6 hours ago
You know the best thing about these reality shows? They beg you to be judgmental. They go out of their way to grab your attention, have an opinion, however harsh, about them.
Bigg Boss kick-starts with big celebs NDTV.com
Return of the Jade IndiaGlitz
TopNews - Economic Times - Zee News - India-Forums.com
all 308 news articles »





India may be hub of chronic illness
Daily News & Analysis - 18 hours ago
According to a World Health Organisation report Preventing Chronic Diseases - A Vital Investment, 350 million people will die in the next 10 years of chronic disease and a significant proportion of these will be in India.
Campaign against chronic diseases set off in India Little About
Piramal group launches project to fight chronic diseases Hindu
Times of India - Business Standard - Livemint - TopNews
all 10 news articles


Sify Nuke deal will not supersede domestic law: US
Press Trust of India, India - 8 Aug 2008
"We're working hard to get the Indian civil-nuke program through this year. We're working with Congress to discuss the issues and resolve any outstanding ...
Senior US democrat warns nuke deal may be blocked Business Standard
Will the nuke deal finally operationalize? IndiaPost.com
US lawmaker threatens to upset N-deal Times of India
Transnational Institute - Press Trust of India
all 456 news articles »

BBC News India-US nuke deal will speed up growth: PM
SINDH TODAY, Pakistan - 14 Aug 2008
New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) The India-US nuclear deal will open ‘new pathways to accelerate industrialization of our country’, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ...
PM skips Indo-US nuke deal in his Independence Day address MyNews.in
all 571 news articles »

WELT ONLINE Bush, Singh agree to press ahead with nuke deal
Reuters India, India - 24 Jul 2008
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier on Thursday the Bush administration would push the US Congress hard to agree to the nuclear deal before ...
Nuke deal to open up 20 bn pound investment Business Standard
Indian Americans wish the UPA to survive NDTV.com
Nuke deal or 'nude' deal: Disintegrating India Merinews
United Press International - Thaindian.com
all 1,625 news articles »

Thaindian.com Congress to make nuke deal as main poll plank
Hindu, India - 6 Aug 2008
New Delhi (PTI): The Indo-US nuclear deal will be one of the main planks of Congress in coming elections with party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi asking ...
Cong to showcase Nuke deal in elections Daily News & Analysis
Rahul hardsells N-deal to public Times of India
Rahul Gandhi to give N-deal lessons to Congress spokespersons Thaindian.com
all 39 news articles »
Left to take battle against nuke deal, eco policies to streets
Press Trust of India, India - 11 Aug 2008
... with constituents of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) and several other parties opposed to the N-deal joining hands with the Communists. ...

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) Burns says Pak cannot expect a nuke deal like that of India
Press Trust of India, India - 31 Jul 2008
Burns also pressed for the speedy approval of the nuke deal ahead of the IAEA taking up the India-specific safeguards pact tomorrow for approval saying it ...
Pak may not get nuke deal like India NDTV.com
Hyde Act will lead the path of nuke deal: CPI (M) Hindu
Will NSG okay Indo-US nuke deal? Central Chronicle
IBNLive.com - Expressindia.com
all 74 news articles »

Boston Globe 'Next steps of nuke deal after IAEA meeting'
Business Standard, India - 23 Jul 2008
PTI / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 18:00 IST A day after winning the mandate for going ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, government today pinned hopes on the ...
India to push ahead with nuke deal amid strict deadline Hindu Business Line
Mulford presses swiftness on nuke deal Moneycontrol.com
Nuke deal can fuel weapons race: Pak Howrah News Service
elEconomista.es - Times of India
all 481 news articles »
US says no to Pak on nuke deal similar to Indo-US pact
Press Trust of India, India - 8 Aug 2008
Tokyo, Aug 8 (PTI) The United States today dismissed concerns that its nuclear deal with India may open up an opportunity for Pakistan and others to seek a ...


all 571 news articles »
Kashmir Newz Communications Kashmiri separatist leaders submit memorandum to UN office
Hindustan Times, India - 6 hours ago
PTI Separatists leaders on Monday submitted a memorandum at the UN office in Srinagar asking the world body to "actively engage" itself in Jammu and Kashmir ...
Kashmiri leadership submits memorandum to UN office - Associated Press of Pakistan
In Kashmir, there's azadi in air Times of India
Kashmir demo Scotsman
Economic Times - GreaterKashmir.com (press release)
all 256 news articles »

Calcutta Telegraph Kashmir braces for Hurriyat march to UN office
Hindustan Times, India - 11 hours ago
Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said: "The memorandum seeks UN intervention for the permanent resolution of Kashmir issue in the wake of the economic ...
Hurriyat calls off march to UN office NDTV.com
Pro-Indian Kashmiri Leader Threatens to Quit Indian Parliament NewsBlaze
Kashmiris Out in Streets, Demand UN Intervention Kashmir Observer
Economic Times - Hindu
all 148 news articles »

Thaindian.com BJP expresses concern over development in Kashmir
Economic Times, India - 19 hours ago
"There exists no government worth its name in Kashmir and the prevailing situation in the Valley is the result of the appeasement policy being pursued by ...
Kashmir separatists Emboldened by UPA ineptitude Organiser
Down to a trickle but some tourists still in Kashmir Fresh News
PM reviews Jammu and Kashmir situation Hindu
Press Trust of India - Newstrack India
all 141 news articles »

Zee News Troops in Indian Kashmir on alert to halt protests
Reuters India, India - 10 hours ago
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Indian authorities deployed more troops across Kashmir on Monday to prevent a planned march by separatists to a United ...
Protests continue in Kashmir valley as leadership divided over ... SINDH TODAY
No economic blockade of Kashmir now, says government Newindpress
J&K unrest: Hurriyat leaders march to UN office NDTV.com
Hindustan Times - Times of India
all 53 news articles »

Seattle Post Intelligencer What Musharraf's exit means for India
NDTV.com, India - 3 hours ago
With the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan, there is a growing feeling that Islamabad is likely to be more hawkish on the Kashmir ...
India fears vacuum left by Musharraf BBC News
Musharraf eased out of power, may go into exile Hindustan Times
India fears Musharraf exit will unleash new tensions Reuters
The Associated Press - Expressindia.com
all 250 news articles »

Times Now.tv Musharraf, key figure in Pak's Kashmiri militant project
Press Trust of India, India - 17 Aug 2008
Giving support to India's long held view that ISI is patronising militants in Kashmir by giving them all possible help, Stratfor which is a publisher of ...
Think the Unthinkable Hindustan Times
Senators condemn Indian atrocities in Jammu & Kashmir Daily Times
Looking Through Prism GreaterKashmir.com (press release)
The Post - Wall Street Journal
all 336 news articles »

Gulf Times Ensure safety of migrant labourers in Kashmir valley: APMCC
Hindu, India - 4 hours ago
Jammu (PTI): Expressing concern over the attacks on Bihari labourers and people of particular community in Kashmir valley, All Party Migrant Coordination ...
Migrant workers flee Kashmir Gulf Times
Several non-Kashmiri labourers flee Valley NDTV.com
Harmony in times of hate Hindustan Times
all 12 news articles »

IBNLive.com Omar threatens to quit over violence in Kashmir
Times of India, India - 19 hours ago
Omar alleged the Centre had always tried to solve Kashmir issue by gun. "Kashmir is a political issue and needs to be addressed politically."
Engage both parties, Omar urges Centre Hindu
Economic blockade proves Kashmiris are slaves: Omar GreaterKashmir.com (press release)
Omar threatens to quit as MP (Lead) SINDH TODAY
IBNLive.com - Times of India
all 44 news articles »

New! Get the latest news on Kashmir with Google Alerts.


Searches related to: Kashmir jammu and kashmir srinagar indian army
ghulam nabi azad jammu kashmir all parties hurriyat conference


Pranab slams CPI(M) for `misleading` masses on N-deal

Berhampore, Aug 18: Blaming the CPI(M) for its "misleading propaganda" on the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said nuclear power was needed to meet energy requirements of the country.

"CPI(M) is carrying on a misleading campaign on the Indo-US nuclear deal that the government has sacrificed country's sovereignty, which is utterly false," Mukherjee said at a seminar on 'nuclear deal', organised by the Murshidabad District Congress Committee, here.

Describing the CPI(M)'s stand on the deal as "bluffing the people," the Congress leader said "30 crore people in the country are still deprived of electricity which is a must for development."

Stating that cost of thermal or hydel power was much higher, he said the deal would help in generating the much-needed power in remote areas.

The minister said the government would do whatever was good for the people, keeping in mind country's sovereignty.
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=462910&sid=NAT




Sify CPI(M) congratulates Nepal's first PM Prachanda
Hindu, India - 16 Aug 2008
New Delhi (PTI): The CPI(M) on Saturday congratulated Nepal's Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, popularly known as Prachanda, on being elected as the first ...
All-party delegation led by Yechury to visit Kathmandu Economic Times
Yechury: Left hopes to meet Prachanda soon Howrah News Service
Yechury to lead all-party delegation to Kathmandu Khabrein.info
all 24 news articles »

Dolphin Man Phelps, Black Indigenous People in Olympic and We

Dolphin Man Phelps, Black Indigenous People in Olympic and We

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 47

Palash Biswas

http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/



Olympic - India: olympic games medals and ranking
OLYMPIC MEDALS. Updating: Turin 2006. Marina Genova Aeroporto, India. SUMMER GAMES PARTECIPATION 22 ... in the corresponding olympic games ranking ...
www.olympic.it/english/country/id_IND.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

India at the Olympics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India is credited for first participating at the Olympic Games in 1900, ... India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games since 1964. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Olympics - 74k - Cached - Similar pages

Welcome to Indian Olympic Association
Beijing 2008 - 29thSummer Olympic Games. Olympic News: CONGRATULATIONS Abhinav Bindra won India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal in the men's 10m ...
www.olympic.ind.in/ - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

News results for India in Olympic games

BBC News Indian media laud shooter Bindra's Olympic feat - 12 Aug 2008

India did not make the field hockey semifinals in six successive Olympic Games between 1984 and 2004, and even failed to qualify for Beijing.

CNN - 1608 related articles »
Phelps Wins Second Olympic Gold as India Gets First (Update4) - Bloomberg - 427 related articles »
Olympic medal race - Times Online - 2150 related articles »



Video results for India in Olympic games

Olympic Games Of India
1 min 15 sec
www.metacafe.com



India did not qualify in Olympic games, News ...
3 min 6 sec
video.google.com


funny olympic games in india
1 min 14 sec -






video.google.com



Tibetan exiles in India stir up a movement ...
48 sec -






www.youtube.com



India In Olympics 2004
India's participation in Athens Olympics 2004 in events like Hockey, ... The official Logo of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games - Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ...
olympics.indiapress.org/ - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

Chak De India: Indian Olympic contingent in Beijing ...
8 Aug 2008 ... India's Olympic team follow their national flag-bearer Rajvardhan Singh ... Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium August 8, 2008.
in.ibtimes.com/articles/20080808/beijing-olympic-opening-ceremony-india-team-singh-rathore.htm - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

Abhinav Bindra Wins India’s First Olympic Gold Medal
12 Aug 2008 ... I would like to reiterate that everyone who represents India at the Olympic Games has put in years of toil and sweat. ...
www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2008/08/abhinav-bindra-wins-olympic-gold/ - 28k - Cached - Similar pages

Yahoo! India Directory > Olympic Games
2010 Winter Olympics - Vancouver (6) - Learn about the 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games, scheduled to be held in ...
in.dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Sport/Events/International_Games/Olympic_Games/ - 13k - Cached - Similar pages

The Hindu : Front Page : Olympic Games: China lauds India for ...
8 Aug 2008 ... Beijing: China on Thursday thanked India for taking “effective” steps to ensure the smooth run of the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi and ...
www.hindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080856541200.htm - 22k - Cached - Similar pages

NIEians match wits at Samsung Olympic Games Quest 2008-India-The ...
9 Aug 2008 ... In the biggest battle of wits, Apeejay School Navi-Mumbai touched glory at the first ever Samsung Olympic Games Quest 2008 presented by ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../articleshow/3332135.cms - 42k - Cached - Similar pages


India's sole individual Olympic gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra on Saturday suggested the country draw inspiration from the Chinese “obsession to win Olympic medals” as there was no dearth of talent here that could be trained to win.
“I guess China is obsessed with winning Olympics gold medals and we should take inspiration from it. In India, there is no dearth of talent but a lot needs to be done to utilise it in a proper manner,” Bindra told reporters at his family farm near Zirakpur town near here.

China won the first Gold Medal in any Olympic Game in 1986. China defeats United states of America in another kind of World War in Beijing Olympic setting aside the protests in Tibet.

We are fortunate to boast that we participated in Olympic Games in 1900 and have a glorious past of Gold medals in Hockey!

What happened to us?

Bindra`s gold and hopefully sauces in Boxing may not wipe out the discrimination at home and the Results resultant!

Contrarily, Indigenous Communities worldwide have revealed the potentials of stamina and energy, skill and opportunity in the field of sports. Black power represents Super Power United States of America in sports. It is Athletics! It is Tennis. African countries have surged ahead to express the Indigenous Black Power. Even Europe is represented by the Black!

In India, Manusmriti rules the sporting fields as Ruling Brahminical Hegemony never allows the Indigenous talents any space any where. even in the field of sports!

Monica`s Lost Olympic is the case study of Indian Psyche! Please read:

nandigramunited: Monika`s Lost Olympic and Manipuri Explosion
Monika`s Lost Olympic and Manipuri Explosion Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 45 Palash Biswas http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/ ...
nandigramunited.blogspot.com/2008/08/monikas-lost-olympic-and-manipuri.html - 402k - Cached - Similar pages

Discussions - soc.culture.indian.marathi | Google Groups
Monika`s Lost Olympic and Manipuri Explosion Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 45 Palash Biswas [link] NDTV.com Protests for Monika turn violent ...
groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.marathi - 40k - Cached - Similar pages

One World One Dream - sci.anthropology.paleo | Google Groups
Palash Biswas. http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/. History of China .... of India Origin Buddhism with Confucius! We have lost our legacy and ...
groups.google.com/group/sci.anthropology.paleo/browse_thread/thread/51c7f5b0eedbc216 - 88k - Cached - Similar pages
More results from groups.google.com »

Palash Speaks
Speak Out Palash Biswas Friends you have to speak out Singur peasnt women drove out Tata Officials ... Tags: monika`s lost olympic and manipuri explosion, ...
palashspeaks.blog.co.uk/ - Similar pages

beijing olympics - Palash Speaks
Palash Biswas. http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/ ..... 8 Aug News of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games from China’s Official English Website. ...
palashspeaks.blog.co.uk/?tag=beijing-olympics - Similar pages
More results from palashspeaks.blog.co.uk »

indiainteracts.com is a social media platform, where users can ...
Palash Biswas. http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/. History of China ..... Lifter Monica Devi fails dope test, withdrawn from Beijing INDOlink ...
palashbiswas.indiainteracts.com/2008/08/09/one-world-one-dream/ - 174k - Cached - Similar pages


Dolphin Man Phleps has express very well the importance of technique associated with nature. He swims striking the waves at fifteen degree angle as the Dolphins do. Williams Sisters and the athletes from Africa led by Bolt represent the Black World. China has shown well how a Nation emancipates with National Pride scaling all heights!

What do we do?

Sports and politics often make an unwholesome mix. It was no different when sports minister M S Gill tried to suggest to India's "goldfinger" Abhinav Bindra that while he should call on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, it was not necessary to visit Leader of Opposition L K Advani.

Gill, who chaperoned Bindra around the Capital after he returned with his gold medal from Beijing, suggested that the champion call on Sonia after meeting President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

We are against apartheid . Are we against caste system and the Ruling Hegemony dominating the field of sports,too?

Do all nationalities and identities have enough opportunity to perform?
Is the selection process in sports is transparent enough?

More over, Half of the Indian children divided into more than six thousand castes apart from the aboriginal tribal people and the minorities are born with inherent injustice and inequality. The parents are ejected out of life, livelihood and indigenous production system. They are predestined to starve? We lose so many Bolts, William sisters, Karl Lewis, Maradona and so on as Poverty and starvation, discrimination and Ruling Hegemony spares no space for them. Our children are not allowed to enjoy life. They are disassociated from nature and natural resources, roots, culture, identity and mother language! How may we dream to compete china or United states of America?

More over, detached from Indian social Fabric as well as Social realism and banking on hatred and discrimination only, the Sensex Shining India Ruling Class treat this Indian nation as the Colony of United States of America! I dare to announce that the ruling class with strategic re alliance in US lead, may well consider the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals won by United states of America our achievement and glory. Depriving the Indigenous black untouchable is the agenda. Hence, we never learn the mystery of US, Chinese or US successes in Olympics!

How many Gold Medals have we won since 1900 in Olympic games?

Phleps alone has won more than us!

One billion and one hundred million Indians bear the legacy of Shame and exceptional successes may do no good until we change our psyche!

Hypcricy allows no space for democracy.
Please read this document!

UNITED NATIONS, INDIA AND BOYCOTT OF APARTHEID SPORT (1988)
[Paper presented at the seminar of the Sports Authority of India and the Arjuna Awardees Association, New Delhi, July 28-29, 1988. Published as a pamphlet.]



INTRODUCTION

The international boycott of apartheid sport has been a powerful means for sensitising world opinion against apartheid and in mobilising millions of people for action against that despicable system.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations against apartheid teams from South Africa, selected on the basis of race. Many thousands have even courted imprisonment in such demonstrations, especially in Western countries such as Britain, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. They have, by their actions, denounced the collaboration of their governments with apartheid South Africa, and in some cases helped change official policies.

The campaign against apartheid sport built unity and joint action among sports bodies, sportsmen and sports fans, anti-apartheid movements and governments - and set an example for similar action against other aspects of apartheid.

Apartheid sport became a national issue in several countries, like Australia and New Zealand. The mass action of students, workers, religious personalities and intellectuals opposed to any collaboration with apartheid, and the confrontations which followed helped change national attitudes to the problem of race in general.

The sports boycott was the first public action to force the arrogant white regime in South Africa to bend and make adjustments in its policy of rigid racial separation, however cosmetic they were. It showed that massive international pressure can be effective in promoting the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.

By the early 1970`s, apartheid sport was isolated internationally, but for the continued cooperation of sports bodies and sportsmen in some Western countries. The apartheid regime also began to try to restore some international contacts through misleading propaganda and the expenditure of millions of rand to entice sportsmen from abroad and build up pro-apartheid lobbies. The campaign had to focus on counteracting apartheid propaganda, upholding the Olympic principle of non- discrimination without any compromise and confronting the collaborators with apartheid sports.

The boycott is not yet complete and constant vigilance is required. But this year, the year of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC), significant new advances have been made and there is the prospect of plugging the remaining loopholes. For this, we need to study the past achievements and plan ahead.

This paper is by no means a full account of the role of the United Nations in the campaign against apartheid sport and of the contribution of India. It only refers to some highlights which are relevant to the tasks ahead.

The sports boycott has involved sacrifices by many sportsmen and sports bodies around the world. Indian sports bodies and sportsmen can be proud that, acting in solidarity with Africa, they have not flinched from sacrifice in the struggle against apartheid.

But the greatest sacrifices have been by black sportsmen and women in South Africa - Africans, Coloured people and Indians - who have not only been deprived of equal opportunities, but subjected to persecution for their opposition to discrimination. It is heartening that sportsmen of Indian origin in South Africa have fully identified themselves with the struggle of the African majority for total equality and have made a significant contribution, perhaps beyond their small numbers in some respects. I refer to some of them in this paper to underline that the struggle in South Africa is India's struggle as much as it is of the continent of Africa.

I present this paper in the hope that it will help India in making its rightful contribution in the next phase of the struggle against apartheid sport and its collaborators.

E.S. Reddy, July 1988

UNITED NATIONS, INDIA AND THE BOYCOTT OF APARTHEID SPORT



Racism in South Africa is all-pervasive. The white minority, constituting less than 15 percent of the population, has prospered by monopolising political and economic power and by segregating, discriminating and exploiting the rest of the people. The indigenous African majority, the Coloured people (people of mixed origin and of Malay origin) and the Indians (descendants of indentured labourers and some traders) and discriminated in employment, wages, housing, education, health, sport etc.

Apartheid was proclaimed as state policy in 1948, by a rabid racist regime which came to power that year, in a blatant and desperate attempt to streamline and entrench the abominable system of racism in the face of rising resistance in the country and a growing world abhorrence of racism. They had lost confidence in "white superiority": the blacks had to be kept down by force and denied opportunities to advance and to compete.

The struggle for freedom in South Africa has been long and difficult since white racist authorities receive support and sustenance from vested interests abroad. World support for the oppressed people and international sanctions against the apartheid regime have, therefore, been essential.

The issue of apartheid in sport is certainly not the most crucial - like the military and economic collaboration with the racist regime - but has a special significance.

Sport is governed by a moral code which prohibits racial and other discrimination. In South Africa, racial segregation is enforced in sport. The majority of the population is denied adequate facilities for sport - apart from the fact that they also suffer from poverty, and poor educational and health services which inhibit their advancement in sport. They are denied equal opportunities to compete in national and international tournaments. The issue is, therefore, clear and there can be no recognition of sport organised under the system of apartheid.

The movement for the international boycott of apartheid sport has provided an opportunity for millions of people around the world to demonstrate their abhorrence of apartheid and their support to the freedom movement in South Africa. The United Nations has encouraged and promoted the boycott. India, with its long tradition of opposition to racism in South Africa - since Mahatma Gandhi launched his first Satyagraha in that country - played an active role in the boycott campaign.

While the campaign has had great successes, the boycott is not yet complete. South Africa spends enormous sums of money on deceptive propaganda, and in enticements to sportsmen and women and sports administrators, and it has friends in the sporting world who protect it from total isolation.

All those who detest apartheid and value the moral code of sport must make a determined effort, in the light of the experience of the campaign, to defeat the protectors of apartheid and drive it out of international sport. For so long as racist sports bodies are allowed in international sport, it ceases to be true to its code.

Legacy of racism in sport in South Africa





When modern sport was organised in South Africa, whites formed their own sports bodies excluding any people of non-European origin. The white sports bodies secured affiliation to international sports federations. They even staged so-called "open" championships from which blacks were excluded. Blacks were treated in effect as non-persons, as mere beasts of burden.

A few black sportsmen managed to go abroad and gain international recognition, but they could not hope to become national champions in South Africa.

There were no laws against mixed sport as such: segregation was the "custom", with a few occasional mixed games in Cape and Natal. Racism was enforced by the white sports bodies and administrators, with assistance from the government and local authorities. Resistance against discrimination in sport began soon after the Second World War when the struggle for equality assumed a mass character and spread to all fronts. The call for international sanctions against South Africa was first raised during the Indian passive resistance campaign of 1946-48 - to follow up on India's embargo on its trade with South Africa. Indian sports leaders demanded that the non-Europeans must be represented in international sport.

A Committee for International Recognition was formed by black sportsmen in 1955. The next year it was able to secure recognition of the non-racial South African Table Tennis Board (SATTB) by the International Table Tennis Federation: the white body from South Africa was expelled. (Ivor Montagu, the leader of the British body, deserves credit for this principled decision of the ITTF).

The SATTB team was able to participate in the world championships held in Stockholm in 1957, but immediately after the government began to refuse passports to its teams. It ruled that no black could compete internationally except through the white sports body.

The Committee for International Recognition was followed by the South African Sports Association (SASA) in 1958 and the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC) in 1963 - to fight against racism in sport and press for international recognition of the non-racial sports bodies in South Africa. The South African Council on Sport (SACOS) was formed in 1973, uniting all the non-racial and anti-apartheid sports federations. Indian sportsmen and sports administrators have played an active role in these bodies.

The response of the authorities was repression against the non-racial sports movement.

Dennis Brutus, secretary of SASA and later President of SAN-ROC, was refused a passport to travel to Rome in 1960 to appeal to the International Olympic Committee. He was served with " banning orders" prohibiting him from meeting more than one person at a time: his speeches or writings could not published. He was taken to court when he met a foreign correspondent and sentenced to prison. He managed to escape to Mozambique and tried to go to the IOC in 1963, but the Portuguese authorities handed him over to South Africa and he spent a long time in prison. John Harris, then Chairman of SAN-ROC, was also refused a passport, restricted and then detained. Utterly frustrated, he joined a white armed resistance movement and was executed in 1965. Because of the persecution, SAN-ROC was obliged to operate from London since 1966.

Meanwhile, India, the Soviet Union and other countries began to propose in international sports federations that South Africa be called upon to end racial discrimination in sport or be excluded from international competition. They were able to draw attention to the issue but had little success.

The sports administrators in the West, especially in the white Commonwealth countries, did not hesitate to accept all-white teams as representing South Africa or to send teams to South Africa to play only with the white teams.

South Africa was forced to leave the Commonwealth in 1961. It had to leave the Imperial Cricket Conference (later renamed International Cricket Conference) and the Commonwealth Games. But the white members of the Commonwealth continued to maintain sporting ties with the white racists in South Africa.

Beginning of international action in 1963





International action against apartheid sport began in earnest in 1963, the year SAN-ROC was founded in South Africa.

Since SAN-ROC could not send representatives abroad, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement began to lobby Olympic Committees and other national sports bodies, to exclude apartheid sport from international competition. Abdul Minty, honorary secretary of the Movement, went to Baden Baden on behalf of SAN-ROC in October 1963 to contact delegations at the meeting of the International Olympic Committee.

The Afro-Asian delegations declared that they could not participate in the Olympics if South Africa was allowed to send racially selected teams in flagrant violation of the Olympic principles. Because of this threat, the IOC adopted a proposal by India which read:

"The National Olympic Committee of South Africa must declare formally that it understands and submits to the spirit of the Olympic Charter ... It must also obtain from its Government, before December 31, 1963, modification of its policy of racial discrimination in sport and competitions on its territory, failing which the South African National Olympic Committee will be forced to withdraw from the Olympic Games."

South Africa was thus excluded from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Its friends in the IOC manoeuvred to have it invited to the Mexico Olympics in 1968: more than fifty Afro-Asian, Socialist and other nations threatened a boycott and forced a reversal of the decision. South Africa was formally expelled from the IOC in 1970.

Despite the decision of the IOC, there had to be a protracted struggles in many international sports federations to exclude apartheid South Africa as its friends tried every means to block action. Equally, there had to be campaigns in many countries, especially in the West, against national sports bodies which insisted on continuing sports exchanges with apartheid South Africa.

United Nations involvement





The United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid was established in 1963 to follow the developments on the racial situation in South Africa and promote international action. The Committee was happy to note the growing campaign against apartheid sport, but took no specific action for several years. It was anxious not to give any pretext to the racists to complain that an organisation of governments was interfering in sport. But silence became impossible as the South African government blatantly interfered in the organisation of sport, resorting to brutal persecution of those demanding equality, and as boycott of apartheid sport became a powerful movement, especially in Western countries where sports bodies insisted on continuing links with the white sports bodies in South Africa.

The South African government issued a Proclamation in February 1965, under the "Group Areas Act", prohibiting any mixed sports or performances or even audiences, except by permit. In the few cases that permits were granted, the organisers were required to separate audiences by race, with six-foot wire fences, and provide separate entrances, toilets, canteens etc. In some events, only Coloured people and Indians were allowed, and Africans prohibited.

At the same time, the government began to make some so-called concessions to regain admission into the Olympics and retain bilateral sports exchanges with Western countries. In April 1967 it offered to send a mixed team to the Olympics - but to be chosen at separate trials. It also agreed not to prescribe the composition of teams invited from abroad. That became necessary as New Zealand had cancelled a rugby tour of South Africa that year when South Africa declared that Maoris would not be allowed in the team. A British cricket team was scheduled to tour South Africa in 1968, and South Africa was hoping to get other national teams to tour South Africa. If South Africa were to object to people of mixed blood in the foreign teams, that might have had political repercussions.

But Prime Minister Vorster made it very clear that this applied only to countries with which South Africa had traditional relationships. "We have no relations with West Indies, India and Pakistan... we had no such ties in the past, nor did I regard it as necessary that we should have them in future."

The MCC, the English cricket association, obliged the Vorster regime by not including Basil d`Oliveira, a Coloured cricketer, in its team. There was a public uproar as he was a logical choice, and the MCC invited him to replace an injured player. Vorster then banned the tour.

That infuriated British public opinion and gave a fillip to the boycott campaign. A "Stop the Seventy Tour" Committee was formed, with Peter Hain as Chairman, as the MCC persisted in inviting the white cricket team from South Africa in 1970, Opposition became widespread.

A South African rugby tour of 1969 became a dress rehearsal. Large demonstrations took place wherever they went, and matches had to be played behind barbed wire fences.

The MCC, however, persisted with its plans, ignoring all protests and even an appeal by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Reducing the tour to only 12 matches on 8 barricaded grounds, it had them patrolled for months in advance.

India and several African and other countries announced that they would not participate in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in July 1970 as the South Africans would be touring England. With the prospect of a fiasco in Edinburgh and responding to demands in the Parliament and by the public, the British Government formally asked the MCC to withdraw the invitation to South Africa.

Meanwhile, in 1968, the United Nations General Assembly requested all States and organisations "to suspend cultural, educational, sporting and other exchanges with the racist regime and with organisations or institutions in South Africa which practise apartheid."

Three years later, in 1971, the General Assembly adopted a special resolution on apartheid in sports - resolution 2775 D (XXVI) - calling on all sports organisations to uphold the Olympic principle of non- discrimination, expressing regret that some sports organisations had continued exchanges with racially selected South African teams and commending the international campaign against apartheid in sports.

With these decisions, United Nations began active support to the boycott of apartheid sport. Working in close cooperation with SAN-ROC, the anti-apartheid movements, and the Supreme Council on Sport in Africa, the Special Committee against Apartheid publicised and denounced all sports exchanges with South Africa, encouraged groups demonstrating against apartheid teams and contacted governments and sports bodies to take action. It organised a series of meetings at which sports bodies, anti-apartheid movements and committed governments could consult and decide on strategy. Apartheid sport became a public issue in every country with which South Africa sought sports exchanges.

Great successes were achieved, on the one hand by public action, especially in countries where the governments were against anti-apartheid action, and on the other by the willingness of Afro-Asian, Socialist and other countries to boycott international events to which apartheid South Africa was invited.

South Africa staged its own Games in 1969 and invited athletes from many Western countries. Many of those who initially accepted withdrew under public pressure.

In 1970 South Africa was expelled from the Olympic Movement. It was also excluded from most of the major world championships. Altogether 13 white South African sports bodies had been expelled or suspended from international sports bodies by that year. Apartheid South Africa's international contacts in amateur sport were reduced to tennis and golf and various minor sports, and bilateral exchanges with a few countries in cricket and rugby. But the struggle had to go on, and the next battlegrounds were in Australia and New Zealand.

Massive anti-apartheid demonstrations greeted the South African rugby tour of Australia in 1971. Initiated by the Australian Union of Students, the campaign received support by trade unions, churches and other organisations. The leader of the Labour Party, Gough Whitlam, opposed the tour and declared:

"Australians should never let an afternoon's entertainment blind them to a lifetime's repression for another nation."

R.J. Hawke, the leader of the trade union movement and now Prime Minister, actively opposed the tour.

The South African team had to be transported in Australian Air Force planes as the trade unions refused to service planes or trains transporting them. Seven hundred people were arrested and many were injured because of police brutality against demonstrators. The State of Queensland declared a ten-day State of Emergency during the tour, provoking a general strike by trade unions.

The Conservative Government hoped to arouse racist passions and win the next elections on the "law and order" issue. But its calculations backfired. The South African cricket tour, scheduled for later that year, had to be cancelled. A new Labour Government, headed by Gough Whitlam, came to power and announced an anti- apartheid sports policy in December 1972: that policy was followed even by subsequent Conservative Governments. The anti-apartheid sports action of 1971 had a lasting effect in educating Australian opinion on the issue of race.

New Zealand proved more difficult though public opinion there was equally aroused against apartheid sport. Apartheid sport was a national issue for many years.

The New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, toured South Africa in June-July 1970, despite protests by many groups in New Zealand and appeals from the United Nations. South Africa had agreed to treat Maoris in the team and Maori spectators as "honorary whites." While major demonstrations could be held against visiting South African teams, it was difficult to organise equally effective protests against teams going to South Africa.

The South African rugby tour of New Zealand, scheduled for 1973, became the first real test of strength. Strong opposition was expressed by numerous organisations, some of which vowed non-violent disruption of the matches, but the rugby authorities remained stubborn and the Conservative government refused to intervene.

In April 1972, the Supreme Council on Sport in Africa announced that African Commonwealth countries would boycott the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch in 1974 if the tour went ahead. India confirmed that it would also boycott the Games.

A Labour Government, headed by Norman Kirk, came to power soon after and decided to stop the tour "in the larger interests of New Zealand."

But that did not end the problem in New Zealand.

The New Zealand rugby federation decided on a tour of South Africa in 1976, despite the opposition of the Labour Government and the public. It became adamant after a Conservative Government, headed by R.D. Muldoon, came to power in November 1985. Protests by many New Zealand organisations and numerous appeals from abroad proved of no avail. The Prime Minister even insulted Chief Abraham Ordia, President of the Supreme Council on Sport in Africa, in June 1976 when he visited New Zealand for consultations.

The tour took place from late June, even as there was a national uprising in South Africa, following the massacre of hundreds of African schoolchildren in Soweto. Indignant at this tour, a number of governments and sports organisations decided to boycott sporting events with New Zealand.

The issue came up soon after at the Montreal Olympics in August 1976. The New Zealand Olympic Association refused even to dissociate itself from the action of the rugby federation. African nations then withdrew from the Olympics in protest against the participation of New Zealand, and they were joined by Guyana and Iraq. The boycott had great effect in focusing attention on the issue of collaboration with apartheid sport.

Canada and other countries recognised that many other events, including the Commonwealth Games due to take place in Canada next year, would be endangered. To avert a crisis, the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government adopted the "Gleneagles Agreement" in June 1977, undertaking to take "every practical step to discourage contact or competition of their nationals with sporting organisations, teams or sportsmen from South Africa." A similar declaration was adopted next year by Sports Ministers of the members of the Council of Europe. These declarations helped greatly to reduce sporting exchanges with South Africa.

The Muldoon Government in New Zealand, however, interpreted the agreement in the most restrictive way. It did little to discourage sporting exchanges with South Africa except for formal statements drawing attention to the Gleneagles Agreement.

The issue again came to a head in 1981 when the South African Springbok rugby team toured New Zealand. There were mass demonstrations and non-violent disruption of matches all over the country and some two thousand people were jailed.

The Conservative Party was defeated in the next elections in 1983 and the new Labour Government, led by David Lane, took active steps to prevent sports exchanges with South Africa.

Meanwhile, South Africa developed sports exchanges, especially in rugby, with France, the United States and other countries. Rugby authorities in these countries were insensitive to all appeals.

After public opposition and international representations, the French Government stopped the South African rugby tour of France in 1979 and announced that it was inappropriate for South African teams to tour France. It stopped a French rugby tour of South Africa in 1983.

In the United States, a South African rugby tour in 1981 was greeted by mass demonstrations. That put an end to similar tours.

To sum up, with 25 years of effort by many governments, sports organisations, anti-apartheid movements and others, the position has been reached where South Africa is excluded from the Olympics and most of the main international sports federations. Most governments are committed to prohibit or discourage sporting exchanges with South Africa.

But the boycott is, however, not yet complete. Governments of some countries, especially the United States, take no action, and some Governments, like that of Britain, take only a minimum of action. South Africa is able to maintain international contacts in rugby, cricket and several minor sports which are controlled by Western bodies, and in professional sports, especially tennis, golf and boxing.

(It is essential to clarify one aspect. The boycott of apartheid sport was intended to oppose apartheid sport and support non-racial sport in South Africa. Means for cooperation with non-racial sports bodies were discussed on several occasions. But the non-racial South African Council on Sport advised us that in order to prevent any manoeuvres by the apartheid bodies, there should be no sports exchanges with South Africa at present. The non-racial bodies were prepared to make the sacrifice and considered the boycott campaign the best assistance to them.)

Action against collaborators with apartheid sport





By mid-1970`s it became clear that efforts to boycott and exclude South African apartheid teams were not enough.

On the one hand, a number of sports bodies and sportsmen, especially in some Western countries, continued to support apartheid sport and play in South Africa. Many English cricketers, for instance, choose to spend their winter months in South Africa. Some international sports bodies, like the International Tennis Federation, not only rejected proposals to exclude South Africa but tried to penalise countries which boycotted South Africa.

On the other hand, South Africa, in its desperation, began to offer fabulous sums of money to sportsmen to play in South Africa. Some sportsmen succumbed to the temptations, especially because of unemployment. New types of action were required and the United Nations responded with the International Convention against Apartheid in Sports and a register of sportsmen and women playing in South Africa. Both involved, in a sense, a "third party boycott" - boycott not of apartheid South Africa alone but of those cooperating with apartheid sports.

Some African countries had spontaneously decided on a third party boycott already in 1970 and were soon joined by some Caribbean countries: they refused to allow sportsmen who competed in South Africa from playing in their countries. After the New Zealand rugby tour of South Africa and the boycott of the Montreal Olympics, there were moves for concerted international action.

International Convention against Apartheid in Sport





In May 1976, in a message to a United Nations Seminar in Havana, Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica suggested an international convention against apartheid in sport, which would provide for action against those collaborating with apartheid sport. The proposal was endorsed by the Seminar and then by the Non-aligned Summit in Colombo in August 1976. On the proposal of the Non-aligned countries, the United Nations General Assembly appointed a committee to draft the Convention. (India was a member of the Committee).

As an interim measure, the Committee prepared an International Declaration against Apartheid in Sport which was approved by the General Assembly on December 14, 1977.

The drafting of the Convention, however, proved difficult because of apprehensions about a legally- binding provision on "third party boycott". The Western countries were, in general, opposed to the Convention. The Soviet Union and several other countries expressed fear that the third party boycott would be complicated and might disrupt international sport.

After extensive consultations over several years, the Committee completed the draft Convention in 1985. It was approved by the General Assembly and opened for signature on May 16, 1986. Within one year the Convention was signed by 71 States and ratified by 21.

The Convention lays down that the States parties should prohibit entry into their country of sportsmen who participate in sports competitions in South Africa, or sportsmen or administrators who invite apartheid sports bodies or teams officially representing South Africa. They also undertake to secure sanctions against them by the relevant international sports bodies.

Register of sports contacts with South Africa





The United Nations "Register of Sports Contacts with South Africa" - a record of sports exchanges with South Africa and a list of sportsmen who have participated in sports events in South Africa - was initiated in 1980 and proved an effective instrument to discourage collaboration with apartheid sport.

Earlier, for many years, SAN-ROC, anti-apartheid movements and the United Nations had made appeals to sportsmen intending to compete in South Africa, but there was no follow up if the appeals were rebuffed. The matter was soon forgotten. The Special Committee against Apartheid initiated the register in 1980. so that the names of violators of the boycott would at least be kept on record. If they thought their decision was proper, as some of them claimed, surely they could not object to being named.

The register had an immediate effect. Though the United Nations did not recommend any specific action by governments or organisations. many African and other countries began to refuse visas to those on the register or otherwise prevent them from playing in their countries. Sportsmen had to choose between making money from apartheid, showing contempt to the oppressed people, and playing in countries committed against apartheid.

In order to assist those who were unaware of the issues or regretted their errors, the Special Committee agreed, at the request of SAN-ROC, to delete from the register the name of any sportsman who undertook not to play in South Africa again. The register became a tool for persuasion as well for retaliation.

As revulsion against apartheid spread around the world in recent years, more countries have begun to take action against those on the register. Hundreds of city councils and local authorities in Britain and other Western countries deny use of their sports facilities to persons on the United Nations register.

The initiation of the register helped dissuade many sportsmen from accepting invitations and even lucrative offers from South Africa. Scores of sportsmen have given undertakings not to play again in South Africa.

Commendation of sportsmen against apartheid





While taking action against collaborators with apartheid sport, the United Nations has publicised and commended the action of those who have promoted the boycott of apartheid sport and rejected enticements from apartheid. The Special Committee has presented citations to a number of them. It invited several sportsmen to its meetings in recognition of their contribution - among them two Indians, Bishen Singh Bedi in 1982 and Vijay Amritraj in 1988.

Task Ahead





Action against apartheid sport must be continued on several fronts.

South Africa must be expelled from the international sports federations of which it is still a member. Very firm action must be taken against these bodies and administrators who are so impudent as to penalise countries boycotting apartheid South Africa, by changing venues of meetings and championships unless the host country grants visas to South African racists and imposing fines on teams which refuse to play against racially selected teams claiming to represent South Africa.

Another issue is that of passports of convenience". A number of South African sportsmen have obtained foreign passports while retaining their South African nationality, with the permission of the apartheid regime, and infiltrate into international sport. They are aided in this by some governments and interests.

Zola Budd, a South African runner, was able to obtain British nationality within days in 1984 and enabled to compete in the Olympics and other events as a member of the British team, while retaining her South African links. It was only because of persistent international protests that the International Amateur Athletics Federation took action recently.

The Government of Zimbabwe announced in November 1987 that it would withdraw passports of former Rhodesians who use the document to compete in international sport for South Africa. Other countries, especially the United Kingdom, must be pressed to take similar action.

Cooperation of committed governments and organisations with SAN-ROC must be further strengthened to launch an offensive for the total isolation of apartheid sport.

As a result of the campaign since 1963, an overwhelming majority of countries and sports bodies are now committed against apartheid sport. It is now possible to take firm and determined action to make the boycott complete.

The declaration of the International Olympic Committee on June 21, 1988, against "apartheid in sport" - urging all members of the Olympic Movement, particularly the International Sports Federations, to consider further action for the total isolation of apartheid sport is an important development in this connection.

The friends of the racists have never been amenable to persuasion or half-hearted measures. They must be confronted. This is particularly important in cricket and tennis which are played in many countries totally committed against apartheid sport. If some of the Western sports bodies which dominate the international bodies in these codes threaten disruption, there should be no attempt to appease them; their bluff must be called.

The experience of India, which pioneered the boycott of apartheid in many aspects, is instructive. It was often able to secure international action, even though after a lapse of time, by being firm on the boycott. Her hesitation in recent years to ban collaborators with apartheid sport, and her acceptance of equivocal assurances, have proved futile and embarrassed the country more than once. It has become imperative for the government and sports bodies to formulate and proclaim a firm policy in order to rebuff the allies of apartheid. The campaign against apartheid sport must be seen clearly as a contribution to freedom in South Africa and Namibia, for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination in sport and for the promotion of sport as a means for strengthening friendship and cooperation at national and international levels.

The non-racial sports organisations in South Africa have recognised this. While exposing and denouncing the manoeuvres of the apartheid regime in announcing spurious adjustments in its policy to deceive world opinion, the South African Council on Sport declared in 1976 that "there can be no normal sport in an abnormal society." There can be no equality in sport so long as there is gross inequality in society. Apartheid must be abolished and that has become more urgent than ever as it is causing enormous destruction and suffering in the whole of southern Africa.

PERSECUTION OF NON-RACIAL SPORTS LEADERS

The South African regime has prevented non-racial sports leaders from attending meetings of international sports federations by withdrawing their passports. Its police have often tried to intimidate them.

The regime has persecuted several of these sports leaders by serving "banning orders" on them under the "Suppression of Communism Act" even though they were not active in any political organisation. These arbitrary orders involve stringent restrictions which even make normal social life impossible. The victims cannot meet more than one person at a time, cannot communicate with other "banned persons" and cannot be quoted in the press.

For instance, George Singh, a football star, sports administrator and an early leader in the struggle against apartheid sport, was served with five-year banning orders in 1964.

M.N. Pather, President of the South African Bodybuilding and Weightlifting Association, Secretary of the Southern Africa Lawn Tennis Union and Vice-President of the South African Soccer Federation, was elected secretary of the South African Council of Sport, the umbrella organisation of non-racial sports bodies in 1973. He was a refused a passport in 1975. He obtained a passport later, but the police seized it in June 1980 when he was due to leave for the United Nations for consultations.

The passport of Morgan Naidoo, President of the South African Amateur Swimming Federation, was withdrawn in August 1973 when he planned to attend the meeting of the International Swimming Federation in Belgrade. At that meeting, the ISF expelled the all-white South African Amateur Swimming Union. The apartheid regime then took revenge on Morgan Naidoo: it served him with five-year banning orders in November 1973.

SEWSUNKER "PAPWA" SEWGOLUM

Sewsunker "Papwa" Sewgolum, an Indian golf caddie, won the Natal Open Golf Championship in 1963. The whites had been pressed to allow him to compete, after he had won the Dutch Open Golf Championship in 1959 and 1960.

He was obliged to receive the trophy in heavy rain outside the clubhouse, while the whites were celebrating inside, as he was not allowed under the law to enter the clubhouse.

This incident received world-wide publicity and helped promote action against apartheid in sport. But it did not help Papwa much.

Papwa was runner-up in the South African Open Championship later in 1963. But from then on, he was banned successively from every major tournament in South Africa. His career as a golf champion ended because of apartheid.

JASMAT DHIRAJ

Jasmat Dhiraj, an Indian tennis champion from Johannesburg, went to Britain in 1966 under the sponsorship of non-racial South African Lawn Tennis Union. He won the North of England Men's Doubles Championship; and the South of England Singles Championship and Mixed Doubles Championship.

But he could not compete in the South African Open Tennis Championships because the white South African tennis union would not accept him. He was obliged to remain in Britain.

Dhiraj is a leader of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC) which fights for non- racialism in sports and promotes the total boycott of apartheid sport.

Proposals for the expulsion of South Africa have been repeatedly rejected in the International Lawn Tennis Federation because of the system of voting and the insensitivity of its leaders to the issue of racism.

Mr. Dhiraj was invited by the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid in March 1978 to speak at a press conference calling for the expulsion of South Africa from the Davis Cup tennis tournaments.

VIJAY AMRITRAJ

Speech at the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, May 6, 1988





My first official contact with South Africa came in 1974, at the age of 20, when as India's No.1 tennis player, I had led my country to the Davis Cup final for only the second time since independence. We had beaten some strong nations to reach the final and felt that we had a better than even chance to beat South Africa and win the Davis Cup for my country which had always been my dream ever since I had started the game.

Until then I only knew what little I had read about South Africa's apartheid policies. Now, coming in direct contact with that country made me take a much closer look at South Africa, its policies, its people, its association and contact with the West in every walk of life and the incredible struggle of the non-white people of that country for what the rest of the world takes for granted. Morally, it was an easy decision to make not to play the final but as a sportsman two thoughts kept coming into my mind. One was that we might never play in another final and the second was that we might never have as good a chance to win the Davis Cup.

With the Government of India's strong stand against apartheid we chose not to play. As a sportsman at age 20 I felt a little disappointed but my heart felt wonderful that I had somehow supported the struggle of a people fighting just to live like everybody else. Because of our default in that final it took just a couple of years to expel South Africa from the Davis Cup competition and thirteen years for my dream to come true and play in another final.

Since that time I have watched closely with growing pain at the violence and deaths of so many human beings, not because of a national disaster but because of an adamant and stubborn thinking of a very small minority.

Sport is big business now and not just a game any more and sportsmen and women must realise the world over that with fame and fortune come an incredible responsibility which may affect the lives of people in different countries. It is very easy to say "let us keep sports out of politics", but practically that is just not possible in certain cases. There are some issues that we must support or oppose, because we must clearly understand in our minds that we are first human beings before being sportsmen or women....

Over the years as a professional, I have been made several offers including vast sums of money to play exhibition matches in South Africa which I have declined. I feel that every individual, important or unimportant, artist, diplomat, professional or sportsman, has a certain responsibility towards his fellow men and if I may add, hopefully, a conscience. It is thus up to each of us to contribute in our own way towards a better world - a world of equality, of dignity, of freedom.


And read this:
THE SOCIAL BLOG
European Parliament passes a motion to end Dalit Discrimination in India
Posted in Dalits, Discrimination, International law by Aditya on February 22nd, 2007
Ads by Google
Christian village burnt
Hope and aid for the persecuted church in Indonesia
www.barnabasfund.org




Below is a motion of the European Parliament. It is revolutionary in the sense that it is obliging India to do something that its not done in the past many years. This resolution also comes forth in light of the Indian review of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which takes place tomorrow. The .Pdf version of the Document may be downloaded here.


EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF THE DALITS IN INDIA

P6_TA-PROV(2007)0016

The European Parliament ,

– having regard to the hearing held by its Committee on Development on 18 December 2006,

– having regard to its resolution of 28 September 2006 on the EU’s economic and trade relations with India (1) and Parliament’s Human Rights Reports of 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2005,

– having regard to General Recommendation XXIX (descent-based discrimination) adopted by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 22 August 2002 and the 48 measures to be taken by the State Parties,

– having regard to the study being undertaken by the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, in which draft Principles and Guidelines for the elimination of “discrimination based on work and descent” are being developed, and noting the preliminary report issued by the Special Rapporteurs on discrimination based on work and descent,

– having regard to the various provisions in the Constitution of India for the protection and promotion of the rights of Dalits, concerning at least 167 million people, including the provisions on the abolition of the practice of untouchability, the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of caste, equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and educational, employment and political affirmative action through reservations in State-run institutions and political representative bodies; having regard also to numerous legislative measures ordering the abolition of some of the worst practices of untouchability and caste discrimination, including bonded labour, manual scavenging and atrocities against Dalits,

– having regard to the National Human Rights Commission, the National and State Commissions for Scheduled Castes and the National Safai Karamchari Commission, dealing with the problem of manual scavenging,

– having regard to Rule 91 and Rule 90(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas India is the largest functioning democracy in the world where every citizen is equal before the ballot box, India’s immediate past President and Head of State was a Dalit and Dalits have served as ministers; whereas there are Hindu schools of thought which reject caste discrimination and exclusion as an aberration of their faith,

B. whereas Dalits and similar groups are also found in Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh,

C. whereas the National Human Rights Commission of India has reported that the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act remains very unsatisfactory, and whereas it has published numerous recommendations to address this problem,

D. whereas, despite twenty-seven officially registered atrocities being committed against Dalits every day, police often prevent Dalits from entering police stations, refuse the registration of cases by Dalits and regularly resort to the practice of torture against Dalits with impunity,

E. whereas, despite the fact that many Dalits do not report crimes for fear of reprisals by the dominant castes, official police statistics averaged over the past 5 years show that 13 Dalits are murdered every week, 5 Dalits” homes or possessions are burnt every week, 6 Dalits are kidnapped or abducted every week, 3 Dalit women are raped every day, 11 Dalits are beaten every day and a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes (2) ,

F. whereas a recent study on untouchability in rural India (3) , covering 565 villages in 11 States, found that public health workers refused to visit Dalit homes in 33% of villages, Dalits were prevented from entering police stations in 27.6% of villages, Dalit children had to sit separately while eating in 37.8% of government schools, Dalits did not get mail delivered to their homes in 23.5% of villages, and Dalits were denied access to water sources in 48.4% of villages because of segregation and untouchability practices,

G. whereas half of India’s Dalit children are undernourished, 21% are “severely underweight”, and 12% die before their fifth birthday (4)

H. whereas untouchability in schools has contributed to far higher drop-out and Illiteracy levels for Dalit children than those of the general population, with the “literacy gap” between Dalits and non-Dalits hardly changing since India’s independence and literacy rates for Dalit women remaining as low as 37.8% in rural India (5) ,

I. whereas Dalit women, who alongside “Tribal” women are the poorest of the poor in India, face double discrimination on the basis of caste and gender in all spheres of life, are subjected to gross violations of their physical integrity, including sexual abuse by dominant castes with impunity and are socially excluded and economically exploited,

J. whereas the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has observed substantial under-allocation and under-expenditure of the allocation for Dalit welfare and development under the government’s Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes,

K. whereas Dalits are subjected to bonded and forced labour and discriminated against in a range of markets, including in the labour, housing, consumer, capital and credit markets; are paid lower wages and subjected to longer working hours, delayed wages and verbal or physical abuse,



1. Welcomes the various provisions in the Constitution of India for the protection and promotion of the rights of Dalits; notes however that, in spite of these provisions, implementation of laws protecting the rights of Dalits remains grossly inadequate, and that atrocities, untouchability, illiteracy, inequality of opportunity, manual scavenging, inadequacy of wages, bonded labour, child labour and landlessness continue to blight the lives of India’s Dalits;

2. Expresses its concern at the low rate of conviction for the perpetrators of such crimes and calls on the Government of India to improve its criminal justice system in order to facilitate registration of charges against perpetrators of crimes against Dalits, to increase the conviction rate for such perpetrators, to significantly reduce the duration of court procedures; and to take special measures for the protection of Dalit women;

3. Welcomes the recent ban on the employment of children as domestic servants and workers in roadside eateries, restaurants, teashops etc. and urges the Indian Government to take further steps towards the complete banning of all forms of child labour;

4. Calls on the Government of India to take urgent steps to ensure equal access for Dalits to police stations and all other public institutions and facilities, including those related to its democratic structure such as panchayat buildings (the buildings housing local assemblies) and polling booths;

5. Applauds the fiscal policy followed by the Planning Commission of India and the various Ministries in the provision of the budgetary allocations towards the welfare and development of Dalits, and calls on the Government of India to ensure complete and time-bound implementation of all policy and budgetary measures towards the welfare and development of Dalits, including full implementation of the Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes;

6. Urges the Government of India to engage further with relevant UN human rightsbodies on the effective elimination of caste-based discrimination, including the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Special Rapporteurs assigned to develop Principles and Guidelines for the Elimination of Discrimination based on Work and Descent;

7. Calls on the Government of India to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and to take preventive measures to reduce the risk of Dalits facing torture, to take legal measures to criminalize torture in India, to take punitive measures to prosecute police who commit torture, to consistently provide rehabilitation and compensation for torture victims and to put in place an independent complaints mechanism for victims of torture that is accessible to Dalits;

8. Notes with concern the lack of substantive EU engagement with the Indian Government, notably within the EU-India Summits, on the vast problem of caste-based discrimination;

9. Urges the Council and the Commission to raise the issue of caste-based discrimination during EU-India Summits and other meetings as part of all political, human rights, civil society, development and trade dialogues and to inform the committees concerned of the progress and outcome of such dialogues;

10. Urges the EU members of the Joint Action Committee to develop dialogue on the problem of caste-based discrimination in terms of its discussions on democracy and human rights, social and employment policy and development cooperation;

11. Reiterates its expectation that EU development programmes in India include specific measures to ensure that minorities such as Dalits and Adivasis and other marginalized communities, tribes and castes, are able to close the wide gap with the rest of the population regarding the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals;

12. Recalls its demand that the Council and the Commission give priority to promoting equal opportunities in employment in private EU-based companies and encouraging EU- based companies to implement the “Ambedkar Principles” (Employment and Additional Principles on Economic and Social Exclusion Formulated to assist All Foreign Investors in South Asia to Address Caste Discrimination);

13. Welcomes the EU’s commitment to the development of Principles and Guidelines for the Elimination of Discrimination on the basis of Work and Descent by the UN Sub- Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and urges the Commission and the Council to continue that support;

14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States, the President, the Government and Parliament of India, the UN Secretary-General, and the heads of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization, the UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

(1) Texts Adopted , P6_TA(2006)0388

(2) Derived from figures provided in Crime in India 2005 , http://ncrb.nic.in/crime2005/home.htm and

http://ncrb.nic.in/crime2005/cii-2005/CHAP7.pdf

(3) Cf. G. Shah, H. Mander, S. Thorat, S. Deshpande and A. Baviskar Untouchability in Rural India , ,

Sage Publications, India, 2006.

(4) National Family Health Survey, commissioned by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,

1998-99 (last survey available), Chapter 6, p. 187, http://www.nfhsindia.org/data/india/indch6.pdf

(5) 2001 Census of India.



BBC News Mera Bharat Kahan?
Times of India, India - 16 hours ago
One gold medal at the Olympic Games, and we are over the moon. As India enters the 61st year of its independence, it's important to get a few key ...
Indian officials concerned about 2010 CWG preparations Press Trust of India
Billion Indians, but where are all their medals? Sydney Morning Herald
One gold for a billion people Economic Times
Business Standard - Times of India
all 1,607 news articles »

IBNLive.com Jitender and Vijender enter quarterfinals
Hindu, India - 17 hours ago
BEIJING: The Indian boxers look like they will live up to their promise of landing a medal in the Olympic Games, as Vijender Kumar and Jitender Kumar made ...
Can they do what Bindra did? NDTV.com
Three Indian boxers a step away from Olympic medal Economic Times
Indian boxers a bout away from medal Sify
Hindustan Times - Times of India
all 143 news articles »

Telegraph.co.uk The Olympics bonanza
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 1 hour ago
The tag "official sponsor" of the Olympic Games allows companies such as Coca-Cola, which has been part of the IOC program since 1928, to leverage their ...
Olympic spectacle reflects China’s economic prowess Gulf Times
Good policy, bad timing? The Eureka Reporter
all 554 news articles »

RTE.ie Paes sets sights on London 2012
AFP - 23 hours ago
BEIJING (AFP) — India's Leander Paes shrugged off his Beijing disappointment and set his sights on playing at the London Olympics in 2012 in what would be ...
Federer on course for medal News24
Indian challenge in tennis ends, it's all but over in shooting Hindu
It was a sweet revenge: Federer Times of India
International Herald Tribune - Independent Online
all 382 news articles »
Akhil stuns world champ
Hindu, India - 15 Aug 2008
... at the Olympic Games here, lifting the gloom brought about by the end of India's campaign in tennis and virtual end of further medal hopes in shooting. ...
Olympic Games 2008 Moldpress
Akhil back from the ropes Hindustan Times
AIBA Press Release Hot Boxing News
Hindustan Times ePaper - Sify
all 95 news articles »

Sunday Leader (subscription) Sri Lanka vs India ODI series
Sunday Leader (subscription), Sri Lanka - 16 hours ago
They are therefore uncertain of their participation in this prestigious event which will be held on par with the Olympic Games Five Sri Lankans have ...
The gold rush goes on … and on
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 1 hour ago
... iron-willed, sometimes lonely, unforgiving exertion and discipline and fixation required to excel on the bright, fleeting stage of an Olympic Games. ...

NDTV.com Indian athletes disappoint as Gowda, Mandeep bow out
NDTV.com, India - 16 Aug 2008
India's women discus throwers have already been eliminated, while Preeja Sreedharan was 25th (32:34.64s) among the 29 runners who completed in the 10000m. ...
Indian athletes disappoint Hindu
Indians come a cropper Calcutta Telegraph
Poor start by Indian athletes in Olympics Sify
Press Trust of India - Times of India
all 42 news articles »

Canada.com Picture this: Phelps has made the impossible happen
Kansas City Star, MO - 6 hours ago
About 108 million), India (about 1.1 billion) and Nigeria (about 120 million). He has now won 16 medals overall, which is also the most for any Olympian. ...
Phelps has perfected art of perfection Kansas City Star
all 383 news articles »

CTV.ca Summer Games Leave Canada Out in the Cold
New York Times, United States - 16 Aug 2008
While China and the United States jousted for Olympic supremacy, Canada sought its first swimming medal since the 2000 Sydney Games, and its first track and ...
Time to raise bar in pursuit of medals Irish Independent
Woe, Canada: 0 gold medals International Herald Tribune
Why Ireland doesn't win at Olympics Herald.ie
CKWS
all 375 news articles »



Featuring the theme of "One World, One Dream," the ongoing Beijing Olympic Games have offered a platform for dream seekers around the world, where they can turn their long-held dreams into reality, or at least keep them alive.Based on television audience data collected from 38 markets around the world, it is estimated that just over 2 billion people, almost one third of the world's population, watched the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. In India, 27 million viewers tuned in for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on August 8 on DD 1, DD News and DD Sports. The event got a TVR of 1.2. 62 per cent of the viewership comprised males. Most of the viewership came from Sec A and B. Sec B contributed 32 per cent of viewership, while Sec A contributed 27 per cent.


Having witnessed a century-old dream of hosting the world come true with the spectacular opening of the Beijing Games on Aug. 8, the 1.3 billion Chinese are thrilled at the dreamlike performance of their Olympians, who have grabbed 26 golds to ensure the country's lead on the medal table seven days into the competition.

  But just as the Games organizers had promised in the global relay of the Beijing Olympic torch, these Games are an occasion to "light the passion" and "share the dream," and the dream belongs not only to China, but the whole world.



Indian hopes of a first Olympic boxing medal were high on Saturday, with three fighters reaching the quarterfinals.The trio, coincidentally all called Kumar, a common name in India, will secure at least bronze if they win their next bouts.Indian athletes once again failed miserably at the Olympic platform, as they were unable to produce what they had achieved to earn the Olympic berth in the first place. As a result, discus thrower, Vikas Gowda and quarter-miler Mandeep Kaur, were both eliminated in the qualification rounds itself in the Beijing Games on Saturday.


There were two juggernauts in the spotlight of Week One at the Olympics, smashing records, making history. One was the deep, determined Chinese team, amassing an astounding 27 gold medals to far outpace all rivals. The other was Michael Phelps.China, an Olympic host for the first time, remained a target for skeptics who said the games' upbeat ambiance masked a heavy-handed approach to protests and press freedom. But logistically, the games went smoothly, protests were small-scale, the smog that had shrouded the city finally lifted and the home team flourished before exultant Chinese fans.

It wasn't all China and America. A balmy Saturday was capped by an electrifying late-night men's 100-meter race, with Jamaica's Usain Bolt setting a world record of 9.69 seconds.

But as the games reached their halfway point, the Chinese had won nearly 21 percent of all the gold medals awarded, triumphing in 11 different sports. If that pace continued to the end, China would rank among the top gold medal winners of any non-boycotted Olympics.

The United States was second in golds with 16, and ahead in total medals with 54 to China's 47. U.S. team leaders said they were unsurprised by the host country's ascension and welcomed the rivalry.

Scholarly articles for Black and Indigenous people in Olympic games

Reconciliation in Olympism: The Sydney 2000 Olympic ... - Hanna - Cited by 4
Savage Imaginings: Historical and Contemporary ... - Russell - Cited by 19
Playing Games with Sydney: Marketing Sydney for the 2000 ... - Waitt - Cited by 39


Search Results
LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous, Black Women Face ‘Triple Glass Ceiling’
Women account for nearly 60 percent of the 50 million indigenous people in Latin America ... Olympian Dreams · Olympic Games: A Reporter's Notebook -- BLOG ...
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38847 - 70k - Cached - Similar pages

The Olympics at the Millennium: Power, Politics, and the Games - Google Books Result
by Kay Schaffer, Sidonie Smith - 2000 - Sports & Recreation - 318 pages
... of Aborigines: The SOOO Olympic Games and Australia's Indigenous Peoples ... to boycotts and the indigenous people would be calling out black athletes. ...
books.google.co.in/books?isbn=0813528208...

Summer Olympics 2000 Games let Freeman promote her people's plight
The children of indigenous, black Aboriginal minority had suffered a ... a star athlete of social significance and conscious arriving at the Olympic Games. ...
espn.go.com/oly/summer00/columns/wojnarowski_adrian/749894.html - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

Indigenous Champions
At the last Olympic Games there was a record number of indigenous sports people. Select three and write a profile on each. The Marn Grook award is presented ...
ink.news.com.au/mercury/resources/indigenous.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

Australian Aborigines Olympic Games Reconciliation Sydney
Reconciliation in Olympism explores the representation and involvement of indigenous culture in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, from the time when Sydney bid ...
www.wallawallapress.com/olympic-reconcilliation.php - 6k - Cached - Similar pages

[RTF]
INDIGENOUS RESEARCHERS DEVELOPMENT SCHEME
File Format: Rich Text Format - View as HTML
The Olympic Branding of Aborigines: An analysis of the images of the 2000 Olympic Games and Australia's indigenous peoples. ...
www.arc.gov.au/rtf/IRDGrantsstartingin1999.rtf - Similar pages

Indigenous Olympics. The Observer For The Philippines Invited All ...
Now scotland could soon have its own group of indigenous people, .... Beijing air quality improves on day of olympic games > new $ million project will in ...
zwykevks.12gbfree.com/nbc-olymda/indigenous-olympics.html - 37k - Cached - Similar pages

Aboriginal Olympic Games Involvement - 26/11/1997 - NSW Parliament
In a very real sense the Olympic Games can act as a bridge between different ... indigenous Australians in preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. ...
www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA19971126024 - 32k - Cached - Similar pages

Associated Press reports:

`But blatant anti-Americanism didn't surface. Fans showered equally boisterous cheers on both the Chinese and U.S. teams when the Americans — every one of them an NBA star — overpowered Chinese idol Yao Ming and his teammates in an opening-round basketball game.

In another head-to-head showdown, when the Chinese women outscored the Americans in team gymnastics, Chinese fans cheered good routines and booed scores they thought were too low regardless of a gymnast's nationality. When American fans chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!", the Chinese responded with the local equivalent, "Jia You" — but there was no tinge of mean-spiritedness.

One factor in the relatively amicable rivalry is the web connecting the two contingents. All four U.S. table-tennis players are Chinese-born. Former Major Leaguer Jim Lefebvre coaches China's baseball team; former Chinese star Jenny Lang Ping coaches the U.S. women's volleyball team. Lang, who led China to a gold medal in 1984, drew thunderous cheers from the largely Chinese crowd when her team played China on Friday night.’



Light-flyweight Jitender Kumar reached the last eight on Saturday by outpointing Uzbek Tulashboy Doniyorov 13-6 and middleweight Vijender Kumar followed him through with a 13-3 points win over Thailand's Angkhan Chomphuphuang.

Bantamweight Akhil Kumar had advanced on Friday, extending a brilliant run by upsetting Russian world champion Sergey Vodopyanov.

India's Leander Paes shrugged off his Beijing disappointment and set his sights on playing at the London Olympics in 2012 in what would be his sixth Games.

Paes and on-off partner Mahesh Bhupathi lost 6-2, 6-4 to Roger Federer and Stanilas Wawrinka in the men's doubles quarter-finals here, a shattering defeat for the duo on Indian Independence Day.

Paes will be almost 40 by the time the next Olympics rolls around but he refuses to write off his chances of taking part.

Indian shooters' campaign at the Beijing Olympics ended today on a dismal note with Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput failing to qualify for the finals of men's 50 meter rifle three position here.
Narang fired 1167 to finish 13th while Rajput was a distant 26th with 1162 points in the qualification round.

Narang was way behind in the qualification mark as the last man making the cut tallied 1170 while Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia topped the list with 1176 points.

Rifle pro Abhinav Bindra, who fetched India its first-ever individual Olympic gold medal, was the lone winner here among the nine Indian shooters, including Athens silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the Beijing Shooting Range.

Gowda, 2005 Asian Championship silver medallist, came in with a personal best of 64.96 metres, but managed only 60.69m and finished 11th in the Group B and 22nd overall to finish his Olympic campaign.

Gowda, who has been training in the United States, where he is studying in the University of North Carolina, was 17th out of 29 athletes at Athens Olympics four years ago.

For the record, the top discus qualifier was Piotr Malachowski of Poland with a best of 65.94m and the last qualifier was Finland's Frantz Kruger, who threw the disc to 62.48m.

Mandeep Kaur, who has been credited with 51.74s at the Madurai Nationals, was more than a second slower in 52.88s and finished sixth in the seven-runner heat. The heat was won by Italian Libania Grenot Martinez, who clocked 50.87s, the fourth best time of the morning round.

Mandeep was 33rd overall in the field of 50 runners.

Sanya Richards of the US had the best time in the first round at 50.54s with Jamaican Shericka Williams second best at 50.57s.

India's women discus throwers have already been eliminated, while Preeja Sreedharan was 25th (32:34.64s) among the 29 runners who completed in the 10,000m.

The three heptathletes are also way below in the standings, as two more of the seven events need to be completed this evening.

G.G.Pramila (4302 points) was 28th, J.J. Shobha (4289) 30th and Susmita Singha Roy (4234) 33rd from among the 39 who are still in fray. Pramila is 743 points behind the leader Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine, who has 5045 points with Hyleas Fountain of US lying second at 5029 points.

NDTV reports:
Though Abhinav Bindra gave us the 'golden moment' to savour for a long time, many other medal prospects had a forgettable outing in Beijing. NDTV.com takes a look at some of India's best bets.

Akhil Kumar (Boxing, 51 kg category): The 27-year-old boxer had a forgettable Athens outing. But in 2006, he won India its first boxing gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. This year he beat Athens silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom.

Next outing: August 18, Men's Bantam (54kg) Quarterfinal 3 against Veaceslav Gojan.

Vijender Kumar (Boxing 75 kg category): The 22-year-old boxer has been talked about for a while. A silver at the Melbourne Games in 2006 and a Doha bronze haven't hurt his reputation after he made a first round exit at Athens. This time, he beat Bakhtiyar Artigev, the Athens champion. Vijender, son of a bus driver, trained hard for Beijing.

Next outing: August 20, Men's Middle (75kg) Quarterfinal 4 against Carlos Gongora.

Jitender Kumar (Boxing 51 kg category): Represented India at two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 2000. At the Commonwealth Games 1998 he lost to John Pearce, in 2002 at the semis to Steven Birch.

Next outing: August 20, Men's Fly (51kg) Quarterfinal 2 against Georgy Balakshin.

Anju Bobby George (Long Jump): Anju Bobby George is the only Indian to win a medal at the Athletics World Championships. Even though it happened five years ago, that historic achievement is the reason the long jumper is still being expected to win a medal in Beijing. After creating a national record (6.83m) in Athens, she has not been near her best. Her best three shows in 2008 have been 6.55 m. Age, too, is not on her side but known to be a fighter, Anju still has enough fire in her to spring up some surprise.
http://www.ndtv.com/olympics/storypage.aspx?storyid=SPOEN20080061878

Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal performance at the Beijing Olympics has announced India’s arrival in the sporting arena. This has made us to sit and remember some of the greatest sporting event in an independent India.

Though the greatest sporting moment might differ for everyone, these are a few moments where the whole nation has come forwarded and celebrated the victory of India.

Stunned by excellent facilities built in record time by the organisers of Beijing Olympics, sports officials from India lamented that preparations for hosting the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games was faltering.
"There is no doubt we are behind schedule right now," a senior Indian sports official told PTI here.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in Delhi from October 3-14.

"There is adhocism and lethargy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"There is no clear planning and things are moving at snail's pace," another official said, expressing concern that Delhi may falter if no urgent decisions are taken to step up construction and related activities for hosting the prestigious event.

Other officials, involved in the preparations for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, said the sheer planning that has gone into the Beijing Olympics has stunned them.

"The sheer magnitude of planning involved in the Olympics is mind-boggling and we would draw inspiration from the best practices followed here," said an official.

A number of sports officials from India are currently camping here and visiting Beijing sports facilities to get first-hand knowledge of how the organisers of the Olympics managed to ensure world-class facilities in record time.

"We are very impressed by what Beijing has done," one official said.

The Indian officials were also stunned by the ongoing gold sweep by Chinese athletes.
Report By Xinhua writers Zhou Yan and Zhou Xiaozheng

`Since the very first day of the Games, the world has been watching in awe an unstoppable Michael Phelps take one gold after another in the pool of the National Aquatics Center, or the Water Cube, with a six-for-six medal haul underscored with six fresh world records.

"The old records seemed as fragile as glass bottles in the Water Cube," exclaimed a Chinese TV sports commentator at the 23-year-old American swimmer's miraculous performance.

Driven by his dream for glory and backed by his near perfect physique, Phelps has never stopped training for the Olympics since his debut in Sydney 2000 as the youngest athlete on the U.S. team. He only placed fifth in the 200-meter butterfly then.

Despite a six-gold sweep in Athens 2004, Phelps never let up in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, and media reports said he often got up for training in the early hours of the day, to better adapt himself to the competition schedule in the Water Cube, which puts all the finals in the morning to accommodate the American TV viewers.

Through extensive media coverage, Phelps' dream of a record eight-gold sweep in the Beijing pool is now known to many Chinese, and most of them believe he deserves the glory.

"I wasn't that keen on swimming, but now I switch to the sports channel every morning at 10 a.m. to see Phelps swim," said Beijing retiree Song Xiurong, 62. "I hope he can fulfil his dream here."

Besides Phelps, other swimmers, if they are lucky enough to be competing in an event that the ambitious American is not in, have also found the Water Cube a magic stage for them to materialize their dreams.

Some 20 swimming world records have been refreshed, some of them more than once, over the past week in the Water Cube, triggering a heated discussion about the pool's "unique design" that might have helped boost the athletes' performance.

It should just be a happy coincidence, but Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi did make the following remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the Chinese parliament session in March:"If they (foreign athletes) cannot break world records in other places, maybe they can come to Beijing, where they will have a better luck."

The undying dreams for the Olympic glory are certainly not confined to the magic Water Cube, as India earned its first individual gold medal in the Beijing Shoot Range, and Mongolia saw its first Olympic champion rise on the mat in the Judo Hall.

Nor are the dreams a privilege for the winners of the gold, as some people have lit up their dreams with mere presence at the Games.

Massoud Azizi finished last in men's 100-meter sprint in 11.45 seconds on Friday. He was satisfied with his result, but also envious of other runners who have been able to train on an all-weather synthetic track.

"It is difficult since we don't even have a track in Afghanistan," said the 23-year-old Afghan runner, who had trained for seven years -- always on the concrete track.

"If we have a track like this, I can also win an Olympic medal...It's my dream to compete with Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay," he said after being disqualified on the red, elastic lap in the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, in north Beijing.

And the dreams ignited by the Olympic flame in Beijing have gone far beyond the Games and the competing Olympians, to be shared by everyone that wants to celebrate friendship, unity and a better future.

Taipei taxi driver Zhang Pingsheng was one of them. At the age of 59, he traveled more than 3,000 kilometers to Beijing for the Games -- by bike.

"I think this is the best way to celebrate," said Zhang, wearing a bright yellow helmet and blue-and-white sports wear. He flew to Hong Kong in mid May and took a ship to Shenzhen, where he bought the bike, a digital camera and a map, and started the 76-day odyssey to Beijing.

"My parents were born in the mainland and went to Taiwan in 1949. It was their lifetime dream to come back to their ancestral home," said Zhang.

Zhang arrived in Beijing on Aug. 8, the Games' opening day, with no tickets to any competitions. But a local non-governmental organization offered help, getting him a ticket for women's hockey.

Zhang's voice was hoarse and the fluorescent torch he was given to cheer for the players was broken at the end of the game, in which the Chinese team beat their South African opponents 3-0.

For Lin Hao, a nine-year-old boy from Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, the epicenter of the devastating May 12 earthquake, to meet NBA star Yao Ming at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was beyond his wildest dreams.

When Lin walked at Yao's side to lead the Chinese Olympic delegation into the Bird's Nest last Friday night, at least one million peers of his back in the quake-ravaged province were watching in surprise, admiration and even a little bit jealousy.

"We often play basketball together, and Yao has always been our idol," said Yang Yuerui, Lin's schoolmate at the Yingxiu Primary School. "I can't believe he has become the lucky one."

According to Yang, Lin just fulfilled one of the many dreams shared by the surviving students, and some of the other dreams, such as becoming a pilot to ship parents and schoolmates out when earthquake strikes, and inventing a machine to precisely forecast a tremor, were certainly more important than meeting Yao Ming.’

Results 1 - 10 of about 4,280,000 for Black in Olympic games. (0.22 seconds)

Search Results
Is China advocating discrimination against Blacks during Olympic ...
22 Jul 2008 ... Is China advocating discrimination against Blacks during Olympic Games? From the Shanghaiist:. In a couple of weeks Beijing will turn into a ...
sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/is-china-advocating-discrimination-against-blacks-during-olympic-games/ - 105k - Cached - Similar pages

Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony blacks out most of ...
12 Aug 2008 ... Behind the expensive pageantry of the Olympic opening ceremony, the profound contradictions of Chinese capitalism are building up. ...
www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/olym-a12.shtml - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

1968 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
After the event, the International Olympic Committee held an urgent meeting to consider cancelling the games. Main article: 1968 Olympics Black Power salute ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Summer_Olympics - 114k - Cached - Similar pages

Munich massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers ... Prior to the hostage-taking, the 1972 Munich Olympic Games were well into ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre - Similar pages
More results from en.wikipedia.org »

Olympic Games Vs. Drinking Games - The Case | Lewis Black's Root ...
Lewis Black passionately takes us through the history of the Olympic games and drinking games.
www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=179490&title=olympic-games-vs.-drinking - 51k - Cached - Similar pages

The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - The ...
He is an athlete noted for strength who represents the black Olympic ring. The Official Mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games ...
en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

eliesmith: Beijing Olympic Games: Blacks barred from Chinese Bars ...
22 Jul 2008 ... Beijing Olympic Games: Blacks barred from Chinese Bars and Pubs. According today’s edition of the French language Cameroonian online ...
eliesmith.blogspot.com/2008/07/beijing-olympic-games-blacks-barred.html - 107k - Cached - Similar pages

Black September and the Olympic Games in Munich
On September 5, 1972, Black September members attacked the Olympic Village and killed two Israeli Olympic athletes and took nine others hostage.
history1900s.about.com/od/1970s/qt/municholympics.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

Shanghaiist: Report: Beijing bars told to ban black people during ...
18 Jul 2008 ... Sorry little girl, you are too ugly for the Olympic opening ceremony (19) ... for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games. ...
shanghaiist.com/2008/07/18/the_racist_games.php - 91k - Cached - Similar pages

Olympics - EnchantedLearning.com
The flag of the Olympic Games has five interlocking rings (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) on a white ground. The rings represent the five parts of the ...
www.enchantedlearning.com/olympics/ - 33k - Cached - Similar pages



Jamaica has been celebrating its first Olympic 100m gold after Usain Bolt's record-breaking victory in Beijing.

Bolt cruised over the line in the Bird's Nest stadium in 9.69 secs, one of the biggest winning margins ever. Usain Bolt sent 100m sprinting into a different age last night by running an amazing world record of 9.69 seconds to win Olympic gold - and he did not even know he had done it.Bolt could have run far faster than his 9.69 seconds had he run through the finish line, but he sliced 0.03 off his world record anyway. In the end, it was all about Bolt putting on a show for a crowd that has roared for him every time he steps on the track.When Bolt was introduced at the start of the final, he struck a pose for the camera and smiled mischievously. He did not disappoint once the gun went off. He started strong and sailed away from the field with astonishing ease.


The Jamaican was in such a different class that, with 20m left of the race, he was turning around, waving his arms about and beginning to celebrate an astonishing triumph. Usain Bolt celebrated his coronation as the world’s fastest man 20 meters early, throwing out his arms and thumping his chest. But he still obliterated the world record in the 100 meters Saturday night, turning his Olympic gold medal performance into a show of astounding talent.



Jamaicans had gathered at big screens throughout the island to watch, and his victory sparked wild celebrations.

The stadium had not stopped buzzing from Usain Bolt's incredible 9.69 world record 100 metres run on Saturday before people began asking whether the Jamaican would also take Michael Johnson's 12-year-old 200m mark.

The way Bolt demolished his own 9.72 100 record while joyously celebrating implied that there was yet more in the tank of the remarkable Jamaican.However, Johnson's 19.32, set at the Atlanta Olympics, is more of a leap from Bolt's best of 19.67 set a month ago and, by the time he goes in the final on August 20, he will be feeling the effects of seven rounds of sprinting.

Haile Gebrselassie seeks his third Olympic 10,000 metres gold and fellow Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele bids for his second in a row in what should be a titanic Bird's Nest battle to finish off Sunday's action.

"I returned to the 10,000 because I can't run the marathon here, but I didn't want to miss Beijing," the 1996 and 2000 champion Gebrselassie, who joins Bekele and Athens silver medallist Sileshi Sihine on the Ethiopian team, told Reuters.

Marathon world record-holder Gebrselassie opted out of the longer event due to the expected heat, humidity and pollution of Beijing and his asthma problems. He acknowledged competing over 10,000 after having switched years ago to the marathon would be a challenge.

- Rafael Nadal, Elena Dementieva, and the sisters of Serena and Venus Williams all won gold on Sunday, the final day of the tennis competition at the Olympics.

The second-seeded Nadal picked up a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 win over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.

Dementieva rallied from a set down to beat fellow Russian Dinara Safina, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, taking advantage of 17 double faults by her opponent, as Safina had her 15-match winning streak broken.

The Williams sisters captured the gold in women's doubles, topping the Spanish team of Virginia Ruano Pascual and Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-2, 6-0. The American duo won 11 of the last 12 games in the match.

Michael Phelps has a 'wingspan' of only 208 centimetres. But when he gets into the pool and cuts through the water, it may as well be 2008. How appropriate it sounds. How the Chinese love him, for he so naturally adds to their auspicious theme of eight.

Eight gold medals! For god's sake that is a number not more than half a dozen countries are likely to show for their presence in Beijing this fortnight.

Now everyone, right down to the man on the street, wants a piece of Phelps. And, it is available, too. Not just in the form of Speedo caps, but also his autographs, which rose in worth from $ 25 last week to $ 500 after his seventh gold to $ 1,000 after the eighth.

Phelps passes Spitz with golden eight | I'm clean, says history making Phelps

Phelps' only rival in the first 10 days of the Games has been the spectacular August 8 Opening Ceremony. And maybe in the years to come, those who watched both will always be divided in their loyalties.

No heart-breaks. No 'so-close-and-yet-so-far' stories. Phelps had eight gold and the crowd its moment. And, the pool area was a sea of flashes from pocket cameras all over the stands.

This was Phelps' moment. After missing out on Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold at Athens - Phelps had only six gold and two bronze then - he had scored a perfect eight, a la Nadia Comaneci style.

Going back 16 years, Phelps, was first introduced to serious swimming around the age of seven to create an outlet for his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Now at 23, he is a subject of every scrutiny and an object of everybody's envy.

There will now be studies over his long torso and short legs and an incredibly long reach and then that amazing power-to-weight ratio coupled with a mind that even the strongest can only aspire for.

Standing at six foot four and tipping the scales at 196 pounds, he is as close you can get to perfection.

To be called the 'Greatest' in a sport that has already seen Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi and Ian Thorpe is indeed great praise, but to be able to come back from an Olympic Games with a 100 percent record, when every action - including your personal life - is a subject of intense scrutiny, is indeed mind-boggling.

There are analysts, who contend comparing Phelps with those before him is not fair to the ones of the bygone era. Maybe.

For Phelps' generation has technology to push them like never before. The Speedo LZR bodysuit's corset-like grip allows swimmers to get the best body position in water and it also reduces the drag.

Then there is that small matter of swimming pools these days having 10 lanes, which allow for the two outside lanes to be left empty. It reduces turbulence, for that it what it creates when arms and legs move in a manner resembling a propeller underwater.

More discussions will emerge, but for the present, a million dollars bonus from his sponsors, Speedo, awaits him. Then there is much else waiting for him in terms of other sponsorships.

Three Olympics on, Phelps has 14 gold and two bronze and needs just two more medals to go past the 18 for gymnast Larissa Latynina from the Soviet Union. But Phelps is more than just gold medals.

Sport and United States needed a Michael Phelps. More so, after the fall from grace of Marion Jones and athletics in US.

China will likely finish on top of the golden heap, but United States may get more attention, courtesy, 'Aquaman Michael Phelps'.

Swimmer Michael Phelps went on Sunday where no one has been before to win a record eighth gold at one Olympics and surpass Mark Spitz's famous 1972 feat.

The American stole the limelight even from Jamaican Usain Bolt's audaciously brilliant 100m win in the athletics showpiece that has been the Beijing Games' other defining moment so far.

On an unhappier note, American shooter Matt Emmons threw away gold for a second successive Games with a misfire on his final shot. He did the same four years ago in Athens by firing at the wrong target.

However, Johnson's 19.32, set at the Atlanta Olympics, is more of a leap from Bolt's best of 19.67 set a month ago and, by the time he goes in the final on August 20, he will be feeling the effects of seven rounds of sprinting.

Time is on Bolt's side.

He turns 22 the day after the 200 final and barring injury or off-track distractions, it is a matter of when, rather than if, he claims both marks.

His more immediate target is to seal the Olympic gold double, a feat nobody has achieved since Carl Lewis in 1984.

"I'm not worried about world records," he said. "I've got plenty of time for world records in the future.

"I'm focusing on the 200."

Johnson has little doubt that his record will go.

"I'm ready to kiss it goodbye if he keeps on doing what he's doing," Johnson said back in June before Bolt's latest exploits.

STACCATO STEPS

Johnson and Bolt's styles could not be more different, with the American pounding out staccato short steps from a stiffly upright body while the Jamaican unleashes his long legs almost languidly.

The end result, however, is the same total domination.

Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago took silver in an impressive 9.89 on Saturday and finished two metres behind the celebrating champion.

"I felt myself pulling away from the rest and I could see him slowing down and I'm still pumping to the line," he said.

Bolt, who two weeks ago said he was not even certain of running the 100, says the 200 is the race closest to his heart.

Such are the standards he is setting already, there might even be a whiff of disappointment if he merely wins the longer sprint.

His rivals, though, realise they are operating in the shadow of greatness.

"Usain Bolt is a phenomenal athlete," Thompson said. "It was only a matter of time before he began producing times like he's producing now."
Phelps, 23, held his arms aloft and hugged team mates after a relatively easy men's 4x100 metres medley relay win, unlike the finger-tip finishes in two of his earlier Beijing golds.

The all-time most successful Olympian, who has over nine days in China proved himself to be one of the greatest sportsmen the world has seen, showed he was still human, though.

"I just want to see my mom," said Phelps, who as a child in Baltimore had a screaming fit at his first swimming lesson because he did not want to get his face wet.

Phelps' 14th career gold, after six in Athens, took him past fellow American Spitz's seven at one Games in Munich. He has five more than anyone else in the Olympics' 112-year history. "It's been nothing but an upwards rollercoaster but it's been nothing but fun," he added at his moment of triumph, embracing his tearful mother and sister. "With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination."

Phelps achievement has dazzled the Chinese hosts, for whom eight is a lucky number, and brought timely cheer to Americans.

"The economy and gas prices are always on your mind but Michael's success helps you forget depressing things," said Los Angeles resident Samantha Higgins, who was among the tens of millions glued to Phelps's every race on TV in the United States.

Before his swim, Day Nine began in Beijing with a triumph for Romania in one of the Olympics' most gruelling events.

Constantina Tomescu had time to relax and wave as she entered the Bird's Nest stadium to claim a surprise win in the women's marathon that began in Tiananmen Square. "At the world (half marathon) championships in Canada, everybody said I couldn't run, but I showed today what I can do," she said.

In the highest-profile doping case yet of the Aug. 8-24 Games, Greece's defending women's 400 metres hurdles champion Fani Halkia failed a drug test hours before she was to compete.

Greece's Olympic Committee chief told Reuters the "golden girl" of the Athens Games should have stayed home instead of dragging the country's name through the mud.

"If you want to commit suicide it is up to you, but you do not have the right to kill your country," Minos Kyriakou said.

DEJA VU FOR SHOOTER

But it has been the scintillating sport, not scandals, dominating attention in Beijing and relegating the pre-Games focus on China's rights record and pollution problems.

Nobody doubted that Sunday was Phelps's day.

Blessed with an arm span bigger than his height, Phelps has pumped himself up with hip-hop before races and always looks for his mother in the stands.

He teamed up with Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak to help the United States smash the existing men's medley relay mark. All but one of Phelps's eight golds have come in world record times, and the other was an Olympic best.

"I wanted to put my mind to it and wanted to do something that no one ever did in sport," he added.

Jamaica's Bolt was the other name on everybody's lips.

He sprinted to victory in the 100 metres in world record time on Saturday night despite slowing at the end to check he was ahead and punch his chest in joy in front of 91,000 people.

"I was just having fun, that's me," said Bolt, 21.

It has been a fantastic weekend for Britain on the water and on two wheels. The hosts in 2012 have scored eight gold medals in two days in cycling, rowing, sailing and the pool, taking them to 11 golds and third place in the medals table.

Day Nine is the peak of the Games in terms of medals, with 34 golds to be awarded. At the top of the table China look to be building an unassailable lead, ahead of the United States by 30 golds to 19. They are just two golds away from their Athens total with more than seven days to go.

The U.S. team got some cheer when the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, put their tennis singles disappointment behind them to pick up a second consecutive gold in the doubles.

Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Dinara Safina to the singles crown, saying it was the greatest moment of her career. There was worse news for the Americans in the shooting range, when shooter Emmons had his moment of terrible deja vu, unbelievably throwing away a big lead right at the death for the second time in the Olympics.

After firing at the wrong target in Athens, a nervous Emmons this time squandered a huge 3.3-point lead on his final shot when he pulled the trigger by mistake while lining up, to register a mere 4.4 after scores mostly above 10 before that.

That error let China's Qiu Jian take gold in the men's 50m rifle three-positions. Emmons finished fourth.

"I didn't feel my trigger shaking but I guess it was," he said.


Israeli 1972 Olympic Team Murdered in Munich
The Fatah terrorists called themselves Black September in order to safeguard ... urged Arab regimes to boycott the summer Olympic Games in Australia, ...
palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_munich.php - 25k - Cached - Similar pages

Black Power Salute at Mexico City Olympic Games - Chicago68 ...
23 Feb 2008 ... Professor Edwards set up the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) and appealed to all black American athletes to boycott the games to ...
https://coral.uchicago.edu:8443/display/chicago68/Black+Power+Salute+at+Mexico+City+Olympic+Games - 28k - Cached - Similar pages

Mexico City Olympic Games -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he won the gold medal for the ... the U.S. Olympic Committee and ordered to leave Mexico for giving a black-power ...
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/972494/Mexico-City-Olympic-Games - Similar pages

BAW: Guest Perspective: Do the Olympic Games Have Relevance to ...
12 Aug 2008 ... Guest Perspective: Do the Olympic Games Have Relevance to Black America Anymore? African-American athletes are part of many teams at the ...
www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/olympicsrelevance812 - 71k - Cached - Similar pages

Olympic Games for Kids | Crafts | Preschool Lesson Plan Activities
Olympic Games for kids, crafts, lesson plan printable activities, medal, maze, ... *black & white · Olympic Games Coloring Pages & Color Posters ...
www.first-school.ws/activities/firststeps/olympics.htm - 32k - Cached - Similar pages

Highlights of individual Olympic Games
Olympic Games form an important international sporting event. ... Clement "Ike" Quartey of Ghana became the first black African Olympic medalist. ...
www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/olympic-games-highlights.html - 71k - Cached - Similar pages

Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Blacks Out Most of ...
Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Blacks Out Most of Twentieth Century. Syndicated from WSWS. Promoted by ron collins on Tue, 2008-08-12 17:35. ...
mostlywater.org/beijing_olympic_games_opening_ceremony_blacks_out_most_twentieth_century - 35k - Cached - Similar pages

Tierra Unica: First All Black Final In Olympic Games History ...
15 Aug 2008 ... Tierra Unica is a general travel and event blogsite focusing on world travel with a specific emphasis on South America - Peru, Argentina, ...
www.tierraunica.com/.../first-all-black-finals-in-olympic-games-history---mexico-68-olympic-100m-final.html - 80k - Cached - Similar pages

English as a Second Language Podcast
ESL Podcast 396 – Dealing in the Black Market Listen Learning Guide ... ESL Podcast 395 – Watching the Olympic Games Listen Learning Guide ...
www.eslpod.com/ - Similar pages

Hockey: Black Sticks refocus after controversial loss - 13 Aug ...
Olympic Games · Georgia beat Russia in beach volleyball · Burmester fourth as TV coverage blacks out. BEIJING - After his blood pressure had levelled out, ...
www.nzherald.co.nz/event/story.cfm?c_id=502&objectid=10526883 - 52k - Cached - Similar pages

Conspiracy Liaison of Policy Making

Conspiracy Liaison of Policy Making

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 46

Palash Biswas
http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/


By the time they reached India they had already started composing the Vedas. They had already invented chariot, arrow and better fighting skills as they had to fight their way through all the wilderness of the time. Peace-loving people of Indus were highly developed but they were not fighters as they did not need that skill till that time. These hordes of Aryan barbarians invaded and drove them into India . Mass killings happened. Their dams were destroyed. All these incidence are well described in the Vedas. Aryans leaders described as gods and local population described as Asuras or Rakshasas or Dravids. Then slowly drove them further south. This process was the biggest genocide of human history. Slowly these Aryans developed the Sanskrit language. The original language of Sind civilization was Prakrit and it evolved into Tamil and led to Malayalam, Telugu and other South Indian language. The South Indian are Dravids and Aryans became elite class Brahmins. Manu Samhita was written to protect Brahmins and gave them godlike stature among the conquered people. Now the Brahmin-dominated Indian society tries to re-write the correct history. But the Tamils have not forgotten this past. They kill Brahmins at every chance they get. They worship Ravan as a great saint and hate Rama and his army. In any war the victorious or the strong writes the history and people accept it as truth. That is how Rama became a god and Ravan became an Asura. Thanks to modern technology and media, we are able to know the truth of Iraq war otherwise victorious and strong America tried its best to fool the world that they invade Iraq to spread democracy and wipe out terrorism and WMD. But truth: they wanted the oil, they wanted to tilt Middle-East in favor of Israel. Before invasion there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq and there was nothing that could be labeled WMD. The Govt of India is doing its best to re-write history of Indus Valley Civilization and delete the unpleasant truth from the history. These facts were nicely there in Weikipedea online encyclopedia and by pressure from India these were deleted. Even genocide is denied by this website now. Reason: The divide between Dravid and Brahmins to be minimized. The gap between “lower castes” (the original Indian) and upper caste Hindu (who are decedents of Aryans) to be minimized. Otherwise result could be total disintegration of India.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/august2008/reports.htm



Conspiracy liaison of policy making is the greatest weapon of global ruling Class as the Mind control game has been. It has been the same case in Americas, Africa and Europe where Apartheid stopped empowerment and participation of the Black Indigenous communities in every sphere of life. In Asia it is the Zionism as well as Hindutva which stops the Muslims as well as more than six hundred castes, communities, nationalities, aboriginal and indigenous people to remain rooted in their life and livelihood!

All major crisis chronologies do involve around this conspiracy liaison of the Brahmins, the micro minority of three percent making the rest of the people subordinate , enslaved and bonded. That is why Kashmir bleeds today and the subcontinent has never got over the partition trauma! The phenomenon of Partition still continues with the Political religious Cocktail in this subcontinent.

North East and entire south India are isolated from the so called mainstream of India as the Brahmins always tried to play the old game of divide and Rule and the aboriginal and indigenous communities are either horizontally or vertically divided into castes, tribes, linguistic groups, nationalities, identifies, regions and religions! unfortunately the so called democratic institutions, constitution and parliament are manipulated and used to sustain the ruling Brahminical hegemony. It makes no sense who represents us in the Parliament, Assembly, Government , Judiciary, Media or anywhere else.. the process of Policy making is monopolised by the Brahmins. The Chief Secretaries in Indian states are cleverly appointed as well as the Cabinet secretaries. Nineteen out of twenty three Chief Secretaries of the Indian States belong to the micro minority ruling caste , the Brahmins. Ninety percent of the so called general quota for top positions in Secretariats, Collectorates, administration belong to the Brahmins only. Even the reserved posts remain vacant as the worthy candidates among the SC ST OBC communities are always unavailable. The result happens to the generalisation of the said quota liquidised. Left Ruled states in India are the best examples of this tradition where the OBCs are never identified!

Conspiracy liaison of rehabilitation has ousted the dalit Bengali refugees out of Bengali geopolitics and history altogether and they have been scattered and pitted against tribals countrywide, deprived of mother language, human rights, civil rights, political representation, reservation and even , citizenship.

My father late Pulin Kumar Biswas invested his life and everything in continuous lifelong struggle to regain all the lost rights of the dalit Bengali refugees.

I had to co operate him drafting his all documents.

I always insisted on strategies to influence Policy Making while he depended on the ruling Hegemony.

Even in situations like Nandigram, Singur, Navi Mumbai and Noida, the mass movement or insurrections are always hijacked by the Brahminical hegemony.

Last Tuesday, I accidentally landed in an informal talk among some icons of the Civil Society. Where, I spoke clear cut that neither the Power hegemony nor the Resistance hegemony has any space for the Indigenous communities. Further, I, somewhat to bitter to comment that the so called civil society is an effective weapon of the World Bank and Globalisation which tries its best to establish the sovereignty of Market.!

It was a real Tsunami in the cup of Coffee!

They quoted famine, Dr Amrtya sen and Md Yunus! I had to tell that all these policy makers stand to be the master conspirators. All the economists led by the so called Nobel laureates do work against the Indigenous communities as they create the logic of Annihilation. Just follow their stance in reference to any mass movement or insurrection like Singur, Nandigram, Navi Mumbai or Barnala. All of them make strategies how to exploit Natural resources of the Indigenous communities in the best interest of Global ruling Class as well as corporate US Imperialism!

I had to comment on NGO Politics, cocktail Ideology and anarchist Icons!

Some of them supported me. Dr Asit Roy informed me that he has gone through some of my articles on Net and found me quiet Interesting! However, he agreed with me that India remains a multi nationality geopolitics and the immediate agenda should be addressing the nationality problem.

Mr Samar Bagchi of NAPM knows my father and my friends in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand and he also has gone through some of my articles. but he concentrates on the development dynamics around Gandhi, whom I consider as the master Conspirator to finalise the deal of Power Transfer to the Brahmins with the decaying British Empire. In the Coffee House Mr Bagchi claimed that the Partition has proved to be good as the Muslims got enough opportunity of empowerment in the divided geopolitics.

I had to resist. I had to say that the Civil society consisting the Brahmins uses the Bangla nationality as well as mother language as prostitution! I had to say that all the Rubbish creative and so called classic literature on the Partition are no better than Fantasy! It is once again the Human documentation of hatred against the Indigenous communities and the Muslims! partition Victims enjoy no sympathy of the Ruling Hegemony! History and Literature never documented the first version of the Victims!

Please identify personally and chronologically who happened to be the Policy Makers! What have been their motivation and interest?

Please analyse the Gujrat Massacre and the University of Terrorism in the light of Policy making!
Pl study the Green revolution and the Akali Andolan!

Pl read all about the Peasants` Movement and Indigenous insurrections of the indigenous communities and follow the Policy Making! Then, follow the phenomenon of the Repression of Naxalites and Maoists countrywide!

Pl trace the history of Political movement in India, Political ideologies and applications, Telengana, Srikakulam,Wars of 1962, 1965, 1971 and kargil and analyse the defence deal!

Please Analise the changing demography, Majoritarian Election system, Panchayats, planning and regional development dynamics!

Please read the Military documentations and the accounts placed by the defence personnel including Dalvi, Kaul and Jacob!

What was it all about anti Congress Movement, Sarvodaya andolana,total revolution and the Emergency!

What was behind Operation Blue star?

What was behind the Anti reservation movement?

What is it the LPG?

SEZ?

Disinvestment?

Post modernism?
Chemical hubs?

Nuclear Plants?

Nuke deal and strategic re alliance?

FDI, IT and media bloom?

Pay commission Economy and politics!

Recruitment and training!

AFPSA?

POTA?

Open Market?
Retail chain?

Freedom!
- 7:02am Ninety percent top policy making posts are occupied by the ruling Brahmins! ... Communist Party was formed by the Hindu Zamindar Brhmins to stop any ...
palashspeaks.blog.co.uk/2007/03/23/freedom~1962111 - Similar pages - Note this

Sify Blogs India - Your free thought space with free 10 MB image ...
If I landed in school, I would like riding making the teacher a Horse. ... out castes and were called PEERALI Brahmins, Brhmins with Muslim connection. ...
blogs.sify.com/blogs_preview.php?blogid=2091 - 527k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Welcome to rediff.com
23 Jun 2007 ... I would like to clarify that, In the policy of reservation there is .... system by making the reservation upto 49% in premier inst of INDIA. ...
mboard.rediff.com/board/board.php?boardid=news2006may23franc&page=26 - 84k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Untitled Document
The absence of the Marathi-speaking leaders in the decision-making group of the .... Deshastha Brhmins who were more known as money-lenders (Karve 1968:81). ...
www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/langMove/samyukta.html - 44k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Brute! Killer regemented Hegemony Ruling West Bengal | Palash ...
Stung by criticism over his land acquisition policy, West Bengal Chief Minister ... happens to be the Real PAN CARD to hold power for Brhmins in Bengal. ...
indiainteracts.com/members/2008/01/13/Brute-Killer-regemented--Hegemony-Ruling-West-Bengal/ - 98k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

After fatwa, Vedanti invites Karunanidhi for debate on Lord Ram
5 Oct 2007 ... C)Brhamins made friend ship with Brhmins only -- yes 100%. avaal ..... I saw many Tamilians making frienship only with other tamils and not ...
thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2007/10/05/after-fatwa-vedanti-karunanidhi-debate-lord-ram.html - 193k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Discussion of current affairs and More.
“Tilak, Taraaju or Talwaar : Inko Maaro Jute Char “[ Brhmins , Baniyas and Thakurs ..... Now this hypocrite policy making by British Government when these ...
nuukkad.blogspot.com/ - 184k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Oh you Hindu wake up
THE SMART BRAHMINS BRHMINS are really smart people. ..... Can you believe that” a God making a mistake and cutting off his own son’s head? ...
www.scribd.com/doc/2404915/Oh-you-Hindu-wake-up - 374k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

[PDF]
OH! YOU!! HINDU AWAKE! WRITTEN BY DR. CHATTERJEE MA., Ph.D ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
BRHMINS are really smart people. Since they are all motivated claiming that ..... Can you believe that” a God making a mistake and cutting off his own ...
www.ahya.org/news/hinduawake.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

Chowk: Education: Brahmin and Mullah
The writer was making a case for open trade between india and pakistan for the ... Henry Kissinger writes in his book `Does America need a foreign Policy` ...
www.chowk.com/interacts/5076/2/0/a - 909k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this



Nobel Laureates Panacea for Policy Making
Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, Vikas Dhoot
Posted online: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 23:26 hrs
Updated On: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 23:26 hrs
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/A-Nobel-laureates-panacea-for-policymaking/315455/“India’s reserves are going up, your inbound capital flows are larger than your trade deficit (so, setting up a sovereign wealth fund is feasible). China has $1.6 trillion in reserves, largely from private capital inflows and its currency is a one-way street. But the astonishing trade surplus they are running since a couple of years is unacceptable in a developing country. It is pushing capital outside when it should be used at home and impoverishing people by holding real wages down.”
That’s the provocative Nobel laureate and former dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Michael Spence. As chair of the Growth Commission set up by the World Bank in April 2006 to ‘gather the best understanding about the policies and strategies that underlie rapid economic growth and poverty reduction’, Spence has been engaging with over 300 academics and policymakers from developing countries to examine growth and development, for two years.
The commission, whose members include Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Monetary Authority of Singapore chairman Goh Chok Tong, has come up with the world’s latest consensus on growth. Steering clear of prescribing a ‘secret’ recipe that the much-maligned Washington Consensus (1989) suggested for Latin American economies, the commission has tried to provide a policymaking framework that stresses on the subjective priorities and needs of different countries.
“While India’s priorities today are infrastructure, education, labour markets and ensuring the government doesn’t fiddle much with market prices, China has none of these problems. Instead, it needs to urgently fix social security, tertiary education, income inequalities and environmental issues. We have mooted a sensible policy priority-setting process that accounts for subjectivity of interests, so the output would be different across countries,” Spence told FE before releasing the report in the capital on Tuesday.
The Washington Consensus had stressed on minimising government’s role in the economy, engaging with the global economy and following rule-based regulatory frameworks. Spence differs: “The government must be an important and active player in leadership and implementation roles.”
Strategic Advising to Policymakers in India
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/cgsd/strategic_advising_india.html

Nirupam Bajpai's work with his colleagues, most notably with Jeffrey Sachs both at Harvard University (1995 to 2002) and at Columbia University (2002 to present), has helped advise policymakers on a variety of issues relating to the Indian economy and India’s economic reforms, both at the federal and state levels. Dr. Bajpai has been advising the Prime Ministers of India, (the Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee from October 1999 to May 2004 and the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh since June 2004) the Commerce and Industry Minister, the Ministers of Finance and Health and Family Welfare, among others. At the state level, Dr. Bajpai has advised the state Governments of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh among others. His research and advice has helped implement the following:

Based on Dr. Bajpai's suggestions, the former Prime Minister of India, the Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced major National Goals for Indian development during his Address to the Nation on August 15th, 2000. The Prime Minister said, “…, let us together resolve to make this decade, the Decade of Development. To realise this goal, we have decided to achieve the target of doubling India’s per capita income in the next ten years. The Prime Minister added, “The most valuable investment that we can make in India’s future is to ensure that every child gets education. We have decided that by 2010, every Indian child will get education up to class eight. We have launched Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All campaign) to achieve this goal. Education until graduation has been made free for women.”

The complete speech of the Prime Minister is available: http://www.indianembassy.org/special/cabinet/Primeminister/pm_id_2000.htm

In response to the goal of doubling India's per capita income by the year 2010, the Planning Commission of India set an eight-percent-per-year growth target for India's Tenth Five-Year Plan. Similarly, in response to the goal of attaining universal elementary education by the year 2010, the government is investing vast sums of money for expanding school coverage, capacity building, mid-day meals, free school books for children of families living below the poverty line and quality improvement measures.

India's export/import policy for the years 1999 and 2000 draws extensively on Dr. Bajpai's research and advice. Twelve Special Economic Zones are being established in India across nine states, based on his work with Professor Sachs and their recommendations to the then Minister of Commerce and Industry, the late Murasoli Maran.

For details of India’s Special Economic Zones: http://sezindia.nic.in/

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, based on Dr. Bajpai's suggestions, announced several major state-level development goals in July of 2002. Ms. Jayalalithaa said, “I would like to set the following development goals for Tamilnadu:

First by the year 2010 the per capita income of Tamilnadu would be doubled. Second, by the year 2005 there would be universalisation of education until class V with a special effort for girls and disadvantaged groups. Third, by the year 2008, Tamilnadu will not only be the leading player in the field of IT in India, but will also become a regional gateway to Asia home to half the humanity. Fourth by the year 2008,Tamilnadu will be the top ranking manufactured goods exporter in India and will double its export earnings and Finally, by the year 2010 all villages in Tamilnadu will possess electricity, a trunk road, telephone and internet connectivity, a school, clean water and sanitation, a village health worker and local self government. She added, “This is my dream, this is my vision for Tamilnadu and this is the theme the government headed by me has been striving to turn into a reality.”

Anchored on Dr. Bajpai's research papers on the information technology industry in Tamil Nadu, the State Government brought forth an Action Plan to develop the state's IT industry. In addition, his research and advising work has helped the Tamil Nadu government implement tax and expenditure reforms, and establish Special Economic Zones.

Based on Dr. Bajpai's recommendations and the research initiated under the leadership of Professor Sachs, the Government of India has set up a National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (NCMH). The NCMH, launched in New Delhi on January 9th, 2003, is co-chaired by the Finance and Health Ministers of India. The Ministry of Health, Government of India published the NCMH report in August 2005. The NCMH report is available at:

http://mohfw.nic.in/reports_on_ncmh.htm

For a project entitled ‘Scaling up Services in Rural India’, with Dr. Bajpai’s research, project direction and advice, the state governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are scaling up public investments in the primary health and primary education sectors in the rural areas of these two states. Additionally, the federal government is also helping provide larger resources to the states for these social sectors. Several other recommendations from the project reports are being utilized in order to improve service delivery in the rural areas. The federal government has also announced the setting-up of five Institutes of Public Health Administration in collaboration with the private sector.

Other economic policy reforms that have utilized his ideas and suggestions are in the areas of growth strategy, fiscal reform, export orientation and the role of states in promoting export-led growth, small-scale industry, labor laws, information technology and the use of IT in the education and health sectors.

Return to Nirupam Bajpai's homepage

Rise of Asia will be a challenge for policy-makers in India, U.S. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=19158&prog=zgp&proj=zsa,zusr

By Ashley J. Tellis
The Tribune, May 5, 2007
India, like the United States, is entering a complex geopolitical environment that is likely to survive for at least another two decades. This environment will be characterised by the continuing dominance of the United States in the global system.
However, the center of gravity in international politics, which is certain to shift from Europe to Asia, will produce at least four candidate great powers that could challenge Washington over time: Russia, Japan, China, and India. From this list, however, only China-for various reasons explored in the lecture-is likely, not certain, to materialise as a peer competitor to the United States in the future.
The American response to this possibility currently does not comport with either the classical Realist, the conventional Realist, or the Liberal internationalist prescriptions in their pure form: The United States rejected the option of preventive war that would be advocated by classical Realism.
It has also demurred from implementing a containment strategy that would be advocated by conventional Realism. And, it is uncertain whether the solutions of democratising China or tightly increasing economic interdependence with Beijing-the solutions issuing from Liberal internationalism-would prevent future geopolitical rivalry between the two countries.
Washington’s current approach to the emerging challenge of Asian geopolitics, therefore, reflects its own heritage of American exceptionalism, which combines elements from both the Realist and the Liberal traditions.
First, it emphasises not constraining Beijing but engaging it, while simultaneously increasing the strength of other states on China’s periphery.
Second, it seeks to protect the American capacity for sustained
innovation.
Third, it continues to invest in the technological bases for ensuring military superiority and uninterrupted access to the Asian continent.
Fourth, and finally, it endeavors to adapt its existing alliances to meet future challenges, while concurrently building new strategic partnerships
in Asia.
This multifaceted strategy is driven fundamentally by the conviction that the emerging Asian geopolitical environment will not be characterized solely by strategic rivalry - as was the case with the Soviet Union - but rather by different kinds of security competition that will coexist with deepening economic interdependence.
The presence of growing economic interdependence among states that might otherwise be political rivals implies that a country will aid its competitors in producing the very national power that may be used against itself, just as its competitors, in turn, would contribute to the production of that very national power which could be used against themselves as well.
This peculiar reality implies that India, like the United States, has to cope with a new Asian geopolitical universe where strategic threats are diffuse and attenuated, but never disappear and, more importantly, where the very forces that increase one’s prosperity also contribute to the increase in the dangers confronting oneself.
In such circumstances, New Delhi will be confronted by three unsettling certainties. First, India, like the United States, will not have the freedom to pursue simple and clear strategic policies, but only complex and ambiguous ones that will leave no single constituency – foreign or domestic – fully satisfied.
Second, India, like the United States, will have to perform a delicate juggling act which involves developing deep and collaborative bonds-political, economic, strategic-with a set of friends that are likely to be of greatest assistance to it (in relative terms), even as it seeks to pursue deepened interdependence with its prospective competitors.
Third, and finally, India, like the United States, will have to develop the organisational and psychological capacity for diplomatic, political, and strategic agility because of the perpetual course correction that will be essential for geopolitical success in a globalised world.
This is a summary of the writer’s address delivered after receiving the Professor M.L. Sondhi Prize for International Politics for 2006. This article originally appeared in The Tribune on May 5, 2007.

RAISING AIDS AWARENESS AMONG POLICY MAKERS IN INDIA
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2006/20060705_India_Bihar.asp

First legislative forum on HIV and AIDS in Bihar state
The Indian North Indian state of Bihar is the first in India to have established a forum with a formal constitution and institutional mechanisms for elected representatives to address AIDS issues in the state.
The Bihar Legislative Forum on HIV and AIDS (BLFA) was launched last week at a symposium in Bihar’s capital, by Shri Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s Chief Minister, as a way to raise AIDS awareness among policy makers in the state and to build capacity to address the challenges posed by AIDS.
Alerted by the growing number of infections, a number of Indian officials, including a former minister, submitted a proposal to create a forum for policy makers where they could learn more about HIV and AIDS and engage in dialogues on possible responses in the state.
In his opening address the Chief Minister welcomed the initiative and recognized the critical importance of leadership in the response to AIDS.
Reported numbers of HIV infections in the state (Bihar State AIDS control Society)


2001 2003
192 2500
“This initiative has come at the right time,” said Symposium organizer, elected member and speaker of Bihar legislative assembly, Mr Uday Narayan Chaudhary. “We are aware of the devastating effects of AIDS, but we need to know more about how it spreads and what we can do about it.”
“Half of the recently elected village representatives are women. This amounts to almost 100 000 women who could play a critical role in increasing people’s awareness about HIV at the grassroots level,” he added.
Chaudhary also said that heightened awareness is a key element to reducing the social stigma associated with HIV and AIDS.
Recognizing the need for consolidated action in Bihar, the Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar called for strengthening the public awareness campaign and committed to expand health infrastructures at various levels in the state. He also committed to support seminars and workshops to educate more than 200 000 elected village representatives on issues of public importance such as agriculture, rural development as well as AIDS.
Supporting these initiatives, Denis Broun, UNAIDS country coordinator in India, underlined the importance of political leadership to move the response to AIDS one step further. “Facing up to the issue of AIDS and taking concrete action such as this is vital to getting ahead of the epidemic,” he said. “By creating this forum, , Bihar’s leaders have introduced a critical link that will be key to Bihar’s victory in its AIDS response.”
Econometrica, Vol. 72, No. 5 (September, 2004), 1409¡©1443

THE OPEN CONSPIRACY TO SILENCE INDIAN MUSLIMS « GhulamMuhammed.Mumbai
12 Jul 2008 ... India’s skewed foreign policy, keeping the Arab world at arms ... There certainly seems to be a conspiracy to silence Muslims of India to ...
ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/the-open-conspiracy-to-silence-indian-muslims/ - 29k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Human All Too Human: India's food crisis and neo-liberal conspiracy
A billion plus population of India cannot depend on the ‘ship-to-mouth’ existence and the government needs to restore its policy to build up food grain ...
thoriumpentoxide.blogspot.com/2008/05/indias-food-crisis-and-neo-liberal.html - 72k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Stop the conspiracy bogies!
15 Aug 2008 ... It would be one thing to make the case for why policy should not be ... the India-US deal in a similar fashion with each side making the ...
www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=130072 - 32k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Conspiracy against Pakistan
Conspiracy against Pakistan By Air Marshal (Retd) Ayaz Ahmed Khan ... That India is already a major factor in US defence policy making, and US will soon see ...
www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2000/december/dec5d2000.htm - 19k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Book Review : The Srinagar Conspiracy
The implications are as clear as the back of one's palm: Bill Clinton is making a historic trip to India in March and the LET is going to make its old ...
www.kashmirherald.com/bookreviews/kashmirtheunforgottentale.html - 36k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Impact of the Hindu-German Conspiracy - Wikipedia, the free ...
[edit] In India. The conspiracy, especially in the scenario of the British war ... concessions as well as Whitehall's India Policy during and after WW I, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_Hindu-German_Conspiracy - 57k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

an indian conspiracy theory
The iodised salt sold in India contains the chemically much more stable of the two; ... A public health policy has been influenced by a conspiracy theory, ...
www.skeptics.org.uk/article.php?dir=articles&article=an_indian_conspiracy_theory.php - 20k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Red-faced BJP clears the air, says blasts no conspiracy - Express ...
31 Jul 2008 ... There is a conspiracy from the ruling Congress(Italy) to destabilise India. Some of the minority criminal elements(there are many) of the ...
www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Red-faced-BJP-clears-the-air--says-blasts-no-conspiracy/342864/ - 61k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Haryana
With a view to making Guru Jambheshwar University here a centre of academic ... some of his “own men” may also have played a dubious role in the conspiracy. ...
www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050808/haryana.htm - 47k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Russia's Policy Towards India: From Stalin to Yeltsin - Google Books Result
by J. A. Naik - 1995 - Political Science - 219 pages
As a result of the strike, prominent communist leaders in India were arrested and put on trial in what is popularly known as the "Meerut Conspiracy Case," ...
books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8185880794...





WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED
POLICY EXPERIMENT IN INDIA
BY RAGHABENDRA CHATTOPADHYAY AND ESTHER DUFLO1
http://www.povertyactionlab.org/papers/chattopadhyay_duflo.pdf
This paper uses political reservations for women in India to study the impact of
women¡¯s leadership on policy decisions. Since the mid-1990¡¯s, one third of Village
Council head positions in India have been randomly reserved for a woman: In these
councils only women could be elected to the position of head. Village Councils are responsible
for the provision of many local public goods in rural areas.Using a dataset we
collected on 265 Village Councils in West Bengal and Rajasthan, we compare the type
of public goods provided in reserved and unreserved Village Councils. We show that
the reservation of a council seat affects the types of public goods provided. Specifically,
leaders invest more in infrastructure that is directly relevant to the needs of their own
genders.
KEYWORDS: Gender, decentralization, affirmative action, political economy.
1. INTRODUCTION
RELATIVE TO THEIR SHARE IN THE POPULATION, women are under-represented
in all political positions. In June 2000, women represented 13.8% of
all parliament members in the world, up from 9% in 1987. Compared to economic
opportunities, education, and legal rights, political representation is the
area in which the gap between men and women has narrowed the least between
1995 and 2000 (Norris and Inglehart (2000)). Political reservations for women
are often proposed as a way to rapidly enhance women¡¯s ability to participate
in policymaking. Quotas for women in assemblies or on parties¡¯ candidate lists
are in force in the legislation of over 30 countries (World Bank (2001)), and in
the internal rules of at least one party in 12 countries of the European Union
(Norris (2001)).
Reservation policies clearly have a strong impact on women¡¯s representation,
2 and there is evidence that women and men have different policy preferences
(Lott and Kenny (1999) and Edlund and Pande (2001)). This does not
1We thank Daron Acemoglu, Abhijit Banerjee, Timothy Besley, Anne Case, Mihir Ghosh
Dastidar, Angus Deaton, Marie Lajus, Steve Levitt, Rohini Pande, and Emmanuel Saez for discussions,
Prasid Chakraborty and Mihir Ghosh Dastidar for organizing and supervising the data
collection in West Bengal, Callie Scott and Annie Duflo for organizing the data collection in
Rajasthan, Lucia Breierova, Shawn Cole, and Jonathan Robinson for excellent research assistance,
and the editor as well as four anonymous referees for very useful comments on previous
drafts. We also thank the National Institute of Health (through grant RO1HD39922-01),
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation for financial
support. Chattopadhyay thanks the Institute for Economic Development at Boston University
for its hospitality.
2See Jones (1998) for a study of the Argentinian case, and Norris (2001) for the impact of
reservation in the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Women¡¯s representation fell from 25%
to 7% in Eastern Europe when gender quotas were eliminated during the transition from Communism
(World Bank (2001)).
1409
1410 R. CHATTOPADHYAY AND E. DUFLO
necessarily imply, however, that women¡¯s reservation has an impact on policy
decisions. In a standard median voter model (e.g., Downs (1957)), where candidates
can commit to a specific policy and have electoral motives, political
decisions reflect the preferences of the electorate. Alternatively, in a Coasian
world, even if the reservation policy increases women¡¯s bargaining power, only
transfers to women should be affected; the efficient policy choices will still be
made, and women will be compensated with direct transfers.
However, despite the importance of this issue for the design of institutions,
very little is known about the causal effect of women¡¯s representation on policy
decisions. The available evidence, based on cross-sectional comparison, is
difficult to interpret, because the fact that women are better represented in a
particular country or locality may reflect the political preferences of the group
that elects them. The correlation between policy outcomes and women¡¯s participation
then may not imply a causal effect from women¡¯s participation.3
Furthermore, even if we knew more about the causal effect of women¡¯s
representation, this knowledge would not necessarily extend to the effects
of quotas or other mechanisms to enforce greater participation of women in
the political process. Ensuring women¡¯s representation through quotas may
change the nature of political competition and thus have direct effects. For
example, it may lower the average competence in the pool of eligible candidates,
alter voter preferences for political parties, or increase the number of
politicians that are new in office.
This paper studies the policy consequences of mandated representation of
women by taking advantage of a unique experiment implemented recently in
India. In 1993, an amendment to the constitution of India required the States
both to devolve more power over expenditures to local village councils (Gram
Panchayats, henceforth GPs) and to reserve one-third of all positions of chief
(Pradhan) to women. Since then, most Indian States have had two Panchayat
elections (Bihar and Punjab had only one, in 2001 and 1998 respectively), and
at least one-third of village representatives are women in all major States except
Uttar Pradesh, where only 25% of the village representatives are women
(Chaudhuri (2003)).We conducted a detailed survey of all investments in local
public goods in a sample of villages in two districts, Birbhum in West Bengal
and Udaipur in Rajasthan, and compared investments made in reserved and
unreserved GPs. AsGPs were randomly selected to be reserved for women, differences
in investment decisions can be confidently attributed to the reserved
status of those GPs.
3For example, Dollar, Fisman, and Gatti (2001) find a negative correlation between representation
of women in parliaments and corruption. Does this mean women are less corrupt, or that
countries that are less corrupt are also more likely to elect women to parliament? Besley and
Case (2000) show that worker compensation and child support enforcement policies are more
likely to be introduced in states where there are more women in parliament, after controlling for
state and year fixed effects. But they explicitly recognize that the fraction of women in parliament
may be a proxy for women¡¯s involvement in politics, more generally.
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1411
The results suggest that reservation affects policy choices. In particular, it
affects policy decisions in ways that seem to better reflect women¡¯s preferences.
The gender preferences of men and women are proxied by the types
of formal requests brought to the GP by each gender. In West Bengal, women
complain more often than men about drinking water and roads, and there are
more investments in drinking water and roads in GPs reserved for women. In
Rajasthan, women complain more often than men about drinking water but
less often about roads, and there are more investments in water and less investment
in roads in GPs reserved for women.
We exploit specific features of the reservation legislation to further investigate
whether the effects on public good provisions can be attributed to the
gender of the Pradhan, rather than to other consequences of reserving seats.
We specifically investigate whether the results can be explained by the fact
that women are inexperienced, that they may perceive themselves as being
less likely to be re-elected, and that they tend to come from more disadvantaged
backgrounds than men. We do not find any evidence that the impact of
reservation is driven by features other than the gender of the Pradhan.
These results thus indicate that a politician¡¯s gender does influence policy
decisions. More generally, they provide new evidence on the political process.
In particular, they provide strong evidence that the identity of a decision maker
does influence policy decisions. This provides empirical support to political
economy models that seek to enrich the Downsian model (Alesina (1988),
Osborne and Slivinski (1996), and Besley and Coate (1997)). The results are
consistent with previous evidence by Levitt (1996), which shows thatU.S. Senators¡¯
votes do not reflect either the wishes of their constituency or that of their
party, and by Pande (2003), who shows that in Indian States where a larger
share of seats is reserved for minorities in the State Legislative Assembly, the
level of transfers targeted towards these minorities is also higher. Our paper
presents the advantage of being based on a randomized experiment, where
identification is entirely transparent.
The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 describes the
political context and the policy. Section 3 presents a simple model, based on
the ¡°citizen candidate¡± model of Osborne and Slivinski (1996) and Besley and
Coate (1997), which outlines the possible effect of the reservation system.
Section 4 discusses the data collection and the empirical strategy. Section 5
presents the central results of the paper: the difference in public goods provisions
in reserved and unreserved GPs. Section 6 presents robustness checks.
Section 7 concludes.
2. THE POLICY AND DESIGN OF THE STUDY
2.1. The Panchayat System
The Panchayat is a system of village level (Gram Panchayat), block level
(Panchayat Samiti), and district level (Zilla Parishad) councils, members of
1412 R. CHATTOPADHYAY AND E. DUFLO
which are elected by the people, and are responsible for the administration
of local public goods. Each Gram Panchayat (GP) encompasses 10,000 people
in several villages (between 5 and 15). The GPs do not have jurisdiction over
urban areas, which are administered by separate municipalities. Voters elect a
council, which then elects among its members a Pradhan (chief) and an Upa-
Pradhan (vice-chief).4 Candidates are generally nominated by political parties,
but have to be residents of the villages they represent. The council makes decisions
by majority voting (the Pradhan does not have veto power). The Pradhan,
however, is the only member of the council with a full-time appointment.
The Panchayat system has existed formally in most of the major states of
India since the early 1950¡¯s. However, in most states, the system was not an effective
body of governance until the early 1990¡¯s. Elections were not held, and
the Panchayats did not assume any active role (Ghatak and Ghatak (2002)). In
1992, the 73rd amendment to the Constitution of India established throughout
India the framework of a three-tiered Panchayat system with regular elections.
It gave the GP primary responsibility in implementing development programs,
as well as in identifying the needs of the villages under its jurisdiction. Between
1993 and 2003, all major states but two (Bihar and Punjab) have had
at least two elections. The major responsibilities of the GP are to administer
local infrastructure (public buildings, water, roads) and identify targeted
welfare recipients. The main source of financing is still the state, but most of
the money which was previously earmarked for specific uses is now allocated
through four broad schemes: The Jawhar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) for infrastructure
(irrigation, drinking water, roads, repairs of community buildings, etc.);
a small additional drinking water scheme; funds for welfare programs (widow¡¯s,
old age, and maternity pensions, etc.); and a grant for GP functioning.5 The GP
has, in principle, complete flexibility in allocating these funds. At this point, the
GP has no direct control over the appointments of government paid teachers
or health workers, but in some states (Tamil Nadu andWest Bengal, for example),
there are Panchayat-run informal schools.
The Panchayat is required to organize two meetings per year, called ¡°Gram
Samsad.¡± These are meetings of villagers and village heads in which all voters
may participate. The GP council submits the proposed budget to the Gram
Samsad, and reports on their activities in the previous six months. The GP
leader also must set up regular office hours where villagers can lodge complaints
or requests.
In West Bengal, the Left Front (communist) Government gained power in
1977 on a platformof agrarian and political reform. The major political reform
4In Rajasthan, the chief is called a Sarpanch. In this paper, we will use the terminology ¡°Pradhan¡±
for both States.
5According to the balance sheets we could collect in 40 GPs inWest Bengal, the JRY accounts
for 30% of total GP income, the drinking water scheme 5%, the welfare programs 15%, the grant
for GP functioning 33%, and the GP¡¯s own revenue for 8%. GPs can also apply for some special
schemes¡ªa housing scheme for SC/ST, for example.
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1413
was to give life to a three-tiered Panchayat electoral system. The first election
took place in 1978 and elections have taken place at five-year intervals ever
since. Thus, the system that was put into place by the 73rd Amendment all over
India was already well established inWest Bengal. Following the Amendment,
the GP was given additional responsibilities inWest Bengal. In particular, they
were entrusted to establish and administer informal education centers (called
SSK), an alternative form of education for children who do not attend school
(an instructor who is not required to have any formal qualification teaches
children three hours a day in a temporary building or outdoors).
In Rajasthan, unlike West Bengal, there was no regularly elected Panchayat
system in charge of distribution of state funds until 1995. The first election was
held in 1995, followed by a second election in 2000. Since 1995, elections and
Gram Samsads have been held regularly, and are well attended. This setting
is thus very different, with a much shorter history of democratic government.
As inWest Bengal, the Panchayat can spend money on local infrastructure, but
unlikeWest Bengal, they are not allowed to run their own schools.
2.2. Reservation for Women
In 1992, the 73rd Amendment provided that one-third of the seats in all Panchayat
councils, as well as one-third of the Pradhan positions,must be reserved
for women. Seats and Pradhan¡¯s positions were also reserved for the two disadvantaged
minorities in India, scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST),
in the form of mandated representation proportional to each minority¡¯s population
share in each district. Reservations for women have been implemented
in all major states except Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (which has only reserved
25% of the seats to women).
InWest Bengal, the Panchayat Constitution Rule was modified in 1993, so as
to reserve one-third of the councilor positions in each GP to women; in a third
of the villages in each GP, only women could be candidates for the position of
councilor for the area. The proportion of women elected to Panchayat councils
increased to 36% after the 1993 election. The experience was considered a disappointment,
however, because very few women (only 196 out of 3,324 GPs)
advanced to the position of Pradhan, which is the only one that yields effective
power (Kanango (1998)). To conform to the 73rd amendment, the Panchayat
Constitution Rule of West Bengal was again modified in April 1998 (Government
ofWest Bengal (1998)) to introduce reservation of Pradhan positions for
women and SC/ST. In Rajasthan, the random rotation systemwas implemented
in 1995 and in 2000 at both levels (council members and Pradhans).
In both states, a specific set of rules ensures the random selection of GPs
where the office of Pradhan was to be reserved for a woman. All GPs in a
district are ranked in consecutive order according to their serial legislative
1414 R. CHATTOPADHYAY AND E. DUFLO
number (an administrative number pre-dating this reform). They are then
ranked in three separate lists, according to whether or not the seats were reserved
for a SC, for a ST, or were unreserved (these reservations were also
chosen randomly, following a similar method). Using these lists, every third
GP starting with the first on the list is reserved for a woman Pradhan for the
first election.6
From discussions with the government officials at the Panchayat Directorate
who devised the system and district officials who implemented it in individual
districts, it appears that these instructions were successfully implemented.
More importantly, in the district we study in West Bengal, we could verify that
the policy was strictly implemented. After sorting the GPs into those reserved
for SC/ST and those not reserved, we could reconstruct the entire list of GPs
reserved for a woman by sorting all GPs by their serial number, and selecting
every third GP starting from the first in each list. This verifies that the allocation
of GPs to the reserved list was indeed random, as intended.7
Table I shows the number of female Pradhans in reserved and unreserved
GPs in both states. In both states, all Pradhans in GPs reserved for a woman
are female. In West Bengal, only 6.5% of the Pradhans are female in unreserved
GPs. In Rajasthan, only one woman was elected on an unreserved seat,
despite the fact that this was the second cycle. Women elected once due to the
reservation system were not re-elected.8
TABLE I
FRACTION OF WOMEN AMONG PRADHANS IN RESERVED
AND UNRESERVED GP
Reserved GP Unreserved GP
(1) (2)
West Bengal
Total Number 54 107
Proportion of Female Pradhans 100% 6.5%
Rajasthan
Total Number 40 60
Proportion of Female Pradhans 100% 1.7%
6For the next election, every third GP starting with the second on the list was reserved for a
woman, etc. The Panchayat Constitution Rule has actual tables indicating the ranks of the GPs
to be reserved in each election.
7We could not obtain the necessary information to perform the same exercise in Rajasthan.
However, there too, the system appears to have been correctly implemented.
8The one woman elected on an unreserved seat had not been previously elected on a reserved
seat.
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1415
3. THEORY
3.1. Model
In this section, we analyze the possible effects of the reservation policy in
a representative democracy.We use the framework developed in Osborne and
Slivinski (1996) and Besley and Coate (1997), where the elected representatives
are ¡°citizen candidates.¡± Citizen candidates cannot commit to specific
policy platforms. Once elected, politicians will try to implement their preferred
policy option.However, citizens know other citizens¡¯ preferences and can influence
the final political outcome through their choice of whom to elect. Citizens
decide whether or not to run for office by trading off the probability of being
elected (and getting to implement their favorite outcomes) against a fixed cost
of running for election.
This framework is well suited to analyzing decentralized policymaking in India
since it is reasonable to assume that citizens in a Gram Panchayat know
each other well. In addition, a rationale for reservation in favor of women
can be introduced very naturally, by recognizing that women have a much
higher cost of running for office than men. These higher costs can prevent
the participation of women in the political process in the absence of reservation;
consequently, reservations can have a real effect on the decisions taken
if women and men have different preferences over which public goods to provide.
9
Everyone is eligible to vote and to stand as a candidate. The village elects
an individual who will implement a policy, chosen in the interval [0 1]. Each
citizen has a preferred policy option ¥øi, and women and men have different
policy preferences. Specifically, we assume that women¡¯s preferences are distributed
over the interval [0W ], and men¡¯s preferences are distributed over
the interval [M1].10
As in Osborne and Slivinski (1996) and Besley and Coate (1997), the political
game has three stages. Citizens first decide whether or not to run. The cost of
running for women, ¥äw, is greater than the cost of running for men, ¥äm. This
seems to be a very realistic assumption: In rural areas in India (at least in the
two states we are studying in this paper), literate women (who can run for
9Pande (2003) develops an alternative model to analyze the possible impact of the reservation
of a share of seats to SC/ST in state legislative assemblies in India. The argument is that candidates
are fielded by political parties, where minorities are under-represented relative to their
share in the population, which in turn leads to an under-representation of SC/ST among legislators,
in the absence of reservation. The present model seems better suited to the description of
local democracy, and avoids assumptions on the objective functions of political parties.
10Women¡¯s and men¡¯s distributions can overlap¡ªthat is, we can haveM below, we do seem to observe gender-based differences in tastes for public goods, the assumption
that men¡¯s and women¡¯s preferences are neatly ordered in this linear fashion is, of course,
quite extreme. However, relaxing this assumption would not change the qualitative nature of our
results.
1416 R. CHATTOPADHYAY AND E. DUFLO
office) come from lower middle class backgrounds, where it is frowned upon
for a woman to work outside their home, let alone to campaign or serve in
public office (for example,Hindu women inUdaipur generally observe Purdah,
and keep their face covered in public). Citizens then elect a candidate (as in
Besley and Coate (1997), we will assume that voting is strategic), and finally the
policy is implemented. During a given period of time, the candidate decides
each period which decision to take. The utility of citizen i if outcome xj is
implemented is |xj ¥øi| if citizen i was not a candidate, and |xj ¥øi| ¥äi
if citizen i was a candidate.
Where our model departs from the basic models by Besley and Coate and
Osborne and Slivinski is in the assumption that the policy that is finally implemented
is a mixture of the preferred policy option of the elected candidate,
and a policy option ¥ì, preferred by the local elite (as against just what the
candidate wants). This can reflect the ¡°capture¡± of decentralized government
by the local elite, modelled for example in Bardhan and Mookherkjee (2000)
and Besley and Coate (2001). An alternate, more positive view of this process
is that the elected official is subject to the control of the village assembly or
the elected council.11 Under both interpretations, it is plausible that ¥ì would
be more ¡°pro-male¡± than the median voter¡¯s preference, since the local elite
tend to be male, and men are also more likely to attend village meetings than
women. Therefore, this is what we will assume. Formally our assumption is
that the candidate¡¯s preferences are given a weight ¥á, so the policy finally implemented
by the elected citizen j is xj = ¥áwj + (1 ¥á)¥ì. This formalization
gives us an intuitive choice for the default decision, implemented if no one decides
to run.12 In this case, the decision is ¥ì, and citizen i¡¯s utility is |¥ì ¥øi|.
Initially, we will assume that ¥á is constant across elected candidates. We will
also assume that ¥ì >m, the median voter¡¯s preferred outcome. Citizens know
that the policy that will eventually be implemented will be influenced by the
lobbying process, and they take this into account when they cast their vote.
3.2. Analysis of the Model
Despite the fact that voters are completely informed and vote strategically
in this model (in particular, they correctly anticipate that the decision of the
elected citizen will reflect ex post lobbying), the outcome that is finally implementedmay
not reflect the preference of the median voter, for several reasons.
11There is evidence of both phenomena in the districts we study. First, bigger and richer villages
receive more public goods per capita than smaller villages, presumably because they have the
means to lean on the Panchayat leader. Also, in village meetings, there are instances of groups
trying to make sure they are getting the public goods they want, as well as of citizens complaining
that the allocations of goods favor politically more powerful people.
12Of course, in practice, there is always a candidate.However, it is not infrequent that Pradhans
are perceived as being a cover for someone else. There is even an expression to designate a
Pradhan who is in fact a dummy for a lobbying group: a ¡°shadow Pradhan.¡±
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1417
First, as in Besley and Coate (1997), there may be an equilibrium with two candidates
who, if elected, will implement decisions that are symmetric around the
median voter, but relatively far away from the median voter¡¯s preferred position.
With strategic voting, it may be impossible for a third candidate to enter
in the middle and win.13 Second, and specific to this model, parameters may
be such that, without reservation, there is no equilibrium where a woman is a
candidate. In this case, the outcome that will be implemented in equilibrium
will be to the right of M, the most ¡°pro-female¡± outcome preferred by a man.
Moreover, if the preferences of men and women do not overlap substantially,
if the preferences of the lobbies (or the village meeting) are sufficiently biased
towards male preferences, or if the power of the lobbies is sufficiently strong,
it is fully possible that any policy outcome will be to the right of the median
voter¡¯s preferred outcome. By inducing women to run, the reservation policy
moves to the left of the range of outcomes that can be implemented in equilibrium.
This will tend to improve women¡¯s utility, and, because the median
voter¡¯s policy may now be included in the range of policies that can be implemented
in equilibrium, this may also improve the utility of the median voter.
The intuition for this result is that the influence of the lobbies tends to moderate
women (since they start from the left of the median voter), while it makes
men more extreme.
In this section, we first analyze women¡¯s decision to run for office when there
is no reservation. We then derive the conditions under which the reservation
policy unambiguously improves the welfare of the median female voter, and
that of the median voter.
As most people who have analyzed a model of this class, we restrict the analysis
to pure strategy equilibria where no more than three candidates run. Under
mild assumptions, this also implies that there is no equilibria with more than
two candidates.14 All the proofs are in the Appendix.
The first proposition gives the conditions under which, without reservation,
women will not run.
PROPOSITION 1: If the following conditions hold, there is no equilibrium where
a woman runs in the absence of reservation:
(i) ¥äw 5 ¥äm >¥ì m;
(ii) ¥äw >m (1 ¥á)¥ì.
13Osborne and Slivinski (1996) show that this would not be true with sincere voting, which
would be defined here as voting for the person who, after the influence of the lobbying, would
implement the outcome that the citizen preferred. In this case, two candidates cannot be too far
apart.
14Formally, Besley and Coate (1997) show that there are no equilibria with exactly three candidates
if citizens abstain whenever they are indifferent between all candidates, and that Assumption
I (nonclumping) holds: For any interval I of the policy space [0 1], if there exists an
interval I of smaller length that contains the ideal point of at least one-third of the citizens, the
interval I must contain the ideal point of at least one citizen. They cannot rule out equilibria with
more than three candidates.
1418 R. CHATTOPADHYAY AND E. DUFLO
The first condition is the condition under which no woman runs unopposed.
The intuition is that when the cost of running is high for women, only women
with strong pro-women preferences will want to run. But if the cost of running
is low for a man, a man can then enter and win for sure. If the second condition
is satisfied, no woman agrees to run against a man: The two candidates
must have equal chances of winning, and thus the outcome they will implement
must be symmetric around the median voter. Under this condition, the
distance between the outcomes implemented by the two most extreme candidates
symmetric among the median voter is too small to compensate even the
most extreme woman¡¯s cost of running.
Of course, there is no guarantee that a woman would run once there is
reservation. The following lemma states the condition under which no woman
agrees to run even after reservation.
LEMMA 1: If ¥äw >¥á¥ì, there is no equilibrium in which a candidate runs under
the reservation regime.
Basically, if the cost of running is too high for women, or if the power of
elected officials is low, even the women with the most extreme preferences
would prefer the default option to what she can get by running and winning
the election. The fact that no one runs may decrease the utility of the median
voter: if a candidate had been running before the reservation, but no candidate
is running now, the outcome after reservation may be further away from the
preferences both of the female voters and the median voter. Reservation replaces
representative democracy with lobbying. Proposition 2 makes this point.
PROPOSITION 2: If ¥äw >¥á¥ì, ¥ì [¥áM +(1¥á)¥ì] ¡Ã ¥äm and ¥ì > max(m+ 5¥äm 2m [¥áM + (1 ¥á)¥ì]), the reservation leads to an unambiguous loss in
the utility of the median voter and that of women.
By contrast, when women run because of the reservation, reservation can
lead to an unambiguous increase in women¡¯s utility and the median voter¡¯s
utility. The conditions under which this is true are given in Proposition 3.
PROPOSITION 3: If ¥ì(1¥á)¥ì ¡Ã ¥äw, and the conditions in Proposition 1 are
satisfied, so that no woman runs without a reservation system, then the reservation
system:
(i) always increases the utility of the median female voter if ¥ì [¥áM + (1 ¥á)¥ì] ¡Ã min(m+ 5¥äw¥áW + (1 ¥á)¥ì¥ì ¥äw);
(ii) always increases the utility of the median voter and of the median female
voter if condition (i) is satisfied and, in addition, ¥ì [¥áM + (1 ¥á)¥ì] > 2m max((1 ¥á)¥ì (m 5¥äw)).
The first condition ensures that the most ¡°pro-woman¡± outcomes implemented
by a man are to the right of the most ¡°pro-man¡± outcomes
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1419
implemented by a woman. If this condition is not satisfied, the reservation
may or may not increase the utility of the median female voter, depending on
which equilibrium is chosen before and after the reservation system.
If the overlap between men¡¯s and women¡¯s preferences is not large, and if
lobbying power is important (but not so important that women refuse to run
altogether), reservation will unambiguously improve the median woman¡¯s utility.
The median voter¡¯s utility will also improve if the moderation induced by
electoral tactics (or the ex post lobbying) implies that the most pro-woman
outcome that can be implemented after the reservation

become easier for women to try to influence the policy process ex post (by lobbying
or by attending the meetings). This would move ¥ì to the left, and would
reinforce the results in the previous section: women¡¯s reservation will move
policy in a pro-woman direction.
Second, it assumes that all candidates have the same ability to impose their
preferred policies (what we call ¥á). Suppose we now allow ¥á to differ across
people. It is easy to see that in this case the only women who will run before
the reservation policies will tend to be strong women (high ¥á). Further,
men running before the reservation policies will tend to be strong men (to be
elected, they have to be strong enough for the outcomes they implement to
be reasonably close to what the median voter wants, even after lobbying). After
the reservation, however, relatively weak women with a strong pro-women
bias are as likely to be candidates as strong women with more moderate preferences,
and both will implement similar policies. Candidates¡¯ characteristics
are thus endogenous to the system of reservation; controlling for endogenous
characteristics without controlling for preferences (which are unobserved) may
therefore lead to biased estimates of the effect of the reservation policy. In
specification checks, we will nevertheless be able to control for differences in
some of these characteristics by using exogenous variation in candidates¡¯ characteristics
generated by the reservation policies.
Third, the model ignores many other possible effects of the reservation system.
In particular, it does not consider the possibility of strategic behavior on
the part of the elected official, which would occur if there was a future election.
Thus, it ignores possible effects of the model on incentives, which would arise
naturally if we embedded this model in a several-period model. In this model,
when Proposition 1 holds, women will return to not running when their GPs
rotate away from the set of reserved GPs. They thus face different incentives
than men who will be allowed to run again. On the other hand, men who are
elected on seats that are reserved in the next election face a term limit.We will
present estimates that directly control for different dynamic incentives, using
exogenous variation generated by rotation in the reservation system.
3.3. Testing the Empirical Predictions
The most robust prediction of the model, which sets it in contrast with a
Downsian or Coasian model of the political process, or with a model in which
the Panchayat is entirely directed by the bureaucracy, is that policy outcomes
are likely to differ in GPs that are reserved for women. To test this, we will
simply compare the type of goods provided in reserved and unreserved areas
and perform robustness checks to confirm that the difference seems to be due
to the gender of the reserved Pradhans.
More specifically, the model predicts that, in some cases, policy outcomes
will be closer to what women want than to what men want. To test this feature
of the model, we need measures of the average preferences of women and
WOMEN AS POLICY MAKERS 1421
men. One possible approach would be to derive women¡¯s and men¡¯s preferences
from a model of gender roles in the household. If the households are not
unitary and cannot commit to excluding the policy environment in their bargaining,
women and men will prefer policies that are likely to affect their bargaining
power or the price of the goods they consume, and thus have different
policy preferences. Women will thus prefer programs that increase women¡¯s
opportunity (such as public works programs where they can be employed) or
their productivity on their tasks (such as having a drinking water source next
to their house), while men will prefer programs that improve men¡¯s opportunity
and productivity. This is the approach in Foster and Rosenzweig (2002),
who construct a model that predicts the preferences of the poor versus the
rich, and then test when public goods allocation better reflects the needs of
the poor than the needs of the rich. Another approach would be to ask men
and women what their preferences are, an approach often conducted in political
science. This approach has the drawback that individuals may be reporting
socially acceptable preferences.
The approach we use here is to use the data on formal requests and complaints
that are brought to the Pradhan. Since complaining is costly (the
individual has to come to the GP office), the complaints are a reasonable
measure of the preferences of the individuals, if the individuals assume that
complaining will have an effect. A simple way of integrating the possibility
of costly communication into our model is to build it into the lobbying outcome
¥ì, so far assumed to be exogenously given.
Specifically, assume that the policy the Pradhan is implementing is in fact a
series of binary policy decisions (a choice between two goods). Before every
decision, a villager chosen at random gets a chance to convey to the leader his
preference over the choice that the village faces in this specific period.