.
.
.
Perhaps someone should tell the truly awful Zee TV channels about this.....with one of their programs portraying Akbar the Great as a glazed eyed psychopath. Its not just this one program. Many of their dramas evolve around overt show and veneration of Hinduism, which goes beyond that which is required for a TV show.
Ditto Bollywood and their use of Hindu Gods in the Titles, and the overuse of the Hindu religion in a lot of their movies.
Lets get rid of religious obscurantism and superstition, both of which go hand in hand.
_________________________________________
Role of media to promote secularism
.
By Markandey Katju at Times of India blog.
"Bhedaat ganah vinashyanti bhinnah supajapah parai
Tasmaat sanghaat yogeshu prayateran ganah sada".
"Republics are destroyed only by internal divisions among the people
Therefore a republic should always strive to maintain good relations among the people"
Tasmaat sanghaat yogeshu prayateran ganah sada".
"Republics are destroyed only by internal divisions among the people
Therefore a republic should always strive to maintain good relations among the people"
Shantiparva, Mahabharat, Chapter 108.
The issue of secularism is nowadays being
widely discussed, and so it is necessary to understand its real
significance in India. For this, it is first necessary to understand our
country.
As I have mentioned in detail in my article 'What is India' (see the video on kgfindia.com), India is broadly a country of immigrants, like North America. Probably 92-93 % people living in India today are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from the North West, looking for a comfortable region to settle down. (Aryans/Iranians, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, White Huns, Turko-Afghans.......in addition to small scale steady migration into India not related to military invasions....a very GOOD modern EXAMPLE IS THE 3-5 MILLION Afghans who have settled into Pakistani society..from 1950--2013, because living standards are far better there, in relative terms)Sadly this two anna video does not take a realistic view of the true SOUTHERN ARYAN PEOPLE.....dark hair, brown eyes, olive to very light skin.....Central Asia is a very hot dry place. The exception to ALL this are Northern Iranians in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia...the last 3 areas where Iranians tribes once prediminated before mixing with East Asian and creating the hybrid Turkic/Uigur/Mongol/Korean races. The original inhabitants of India are the pre-Dravidian tribals or adivasis (STs) e.g. Bhils, Gonds, Santhals, Todas, etc. who are hardly 7-8% of our population today.
People came to India because people migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas. India was a paradise for agricultural societies, because it has level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation, etc. Why should anyone migrate from India to, say, Afghanistan, which is cold, covered with snow several months in a year, mountainous, and uncomfortable? Hence people poured into India for thousands of years seeking a comfortable life.
(CORRECT---NOT really an invasion in most cases, but a ECONOMIC MIGRATION. Around 1500--2000 BC Central Asia experienced a process of desertification which forced the locals to seek greener pastures....in China, SE Asia via Tibet AND of course India. Iranian traits in the peoples appearance, culture can be found in all these regions to a greater or lessor degree)
These immigrants who came into India brought their own language, religion, customs, etc, and this is the reason for the tremendous diversity in India, so many religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups, etc.
We may compare India with China. Our population is about 120 crores, while China's is about 130 crore, and China's land area is over twice ours. However, there is broad (though not absolute) homogeneity in China, all Chinese have Mongoloid faces, they have one common written script called Mandarin (though spoken dialects are different), 95% Chinese are of one ethnic group called Han, etc. In India on the other hand, there is tremendous diversity.
It follows that to keep the country together and take it on the path of progress the only policy which will work is secularism and giving equal respect to all communities. This was the path shown by the great Emperor Akbar who through his policy of Suleh-e-kul (i.e. Universal toleration of all religions) gave equal respect to all religions, at a time when Catholics and Protestants were massacring each other in Europe. Akbar was the real creator of modern India, and his policy was followed by Jawaharlal Nehru and his colleagues who gave us a modern secular Constitution, and this is what is holding our country together, despite all our problems.
Secularism does not mean that one cannot practice one's religion. Secularism means that religion is one's private affair unconnected with the State, which will have no religion.
(As in any modern state)
India is presently passing through a transitional period in our history, from feudal agricultural society to a modern industrial society. This is a very painful and turbulent period, as a study of European history from the 16th to 19th Centuries (when Europe was passing through its transition) discloses, full of turmoil, wars, revolutions, social churning and chaos, intellectual ferment, etc. (A trouble some teenager goes through puberty...along with the usual teenage tantrums) It was only after going through this fire that modern society emerged in Europe. India is presently going through this fire, we are passing through a very agonizing period, which I guess will last for another 15-20 years.
In this period it is the patriotic duty of all Indians, particularly the intellectuals and the media, to help our country get over this transition faster and with less pain. This they can do by promoting modern rational and scientific ideas and combating backward feudal ideas and superstitions.
(Don't support Demogogic Modi---with his Israeli backers)
In this transitional age the role of ideas becomes extremely important, and hence the role of intellectuals and the media becomes extremely important. We may recall the role played by Voltaire, who attacked religions bigotry in France and Europe, Rousseau who attacked the entire feudal system, Thomas Paine, who proclaimed the Right of Man, etc. Our intellectuals and the media should do the same.
Today the bitter truth is that most of our people are still very backward, steeped in casteism and communalism. This is evident from what happens in our elections. Most people vote on the basis of caste and religion, instead of on the merits of the candidate. What after all are vote banks? Our people are still largely feudal and superstitious, believing in astrology and similar nonsense.
In this situation our intellectual and media have an important responsible, patriotic duty of giving correct guidance to the people by propagating modern, scientific ideas. But are they doing this? Much of what is shown in the media are superficialities like lives of film stars and cricketers. Instead of attacking communalism, a section of the media had become kar sewaks during the Ram Janambhumi agitation. (The English speaking media with links to Israel/USA....'CLASH OF CIVILIZATION) Whenever a bomb blast occurs with a short time many T.V. channels start saying that an email or SMS has come that some Muslim organization has claimed responsibility, thus demonizing the entire Muslim community. Is this responsible behaviour? An email or SMS can be sent by any mischievous person. The truth is that 99% people of all communities, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian etc are good, but often an attempt is made to depict all Muslims as terrorists.
Intellectuals and media people must fight against divisive tendencies in our country. We must remain united because modern industry requires a large market, and if we are divided and fight with each other modern industry cannot grow, and without modern industry we cannot generate the wealth required to abolish poverty, unemployment, etc and provide for healthcare, education, etc for our people. Therefore whatever divides us, whether on the basis of religion, caste, region, language, race, etc is anti-national, and whatever unites us (e.g. secularism) is the path we must adopt for progress. We must not be Hindu nationalists or Muslim nationalists or Sikh or Christian nationalists, we must all be Indian nationalists, and that is what everyone including the media should propagate.
_____________________________________ As I have mentioned in detail in my article 'What is India' (see the video on kgfindia.com), India is broadly a country of immigrants, like North America. Probably 92-93 % people living in India today are descendants of immigrants, who came mainly from the North West, looking for a comfortable region to settle down. (Aryans/Iranians, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, White Huns, Turko-Afghans.......in addition to small scale steady migration into India not related to military invasions....a very GOOD modern EXAMPLE IS THE 3-5 MILLION Afghans who have settled into Pakistani society..from 1950--2013, because living standards are far better there, in relative terms)Sadly this two anna video does not take a realistic view of the true SOUTHERN ARYAN PEOPLE.....dark hair, brown eyes, olive to very light skin.....Central Asia is a very hot dry place. The exception to ALL this are Northern Iranians in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia...the last 3 areas where Iranians tribes once prediminated before mixing with East Asian and creating the hybrid Turkic/Uigur/Mongol/Korean races. The original inhabitants of India are the pre-Dravidian tribals or adivasis (STs) e.g. Bhils, Gonds, Santhals, Todas, etc. who are hardly 7-8% of our population today.
People came to India because people migrate from uncomfortable areas to comfortable areas. India was a paradise for agricultural societies, because it has level land, fertile soil, plenty of water for irrigation, etc. Why should anyone migrate from India to, say, Afghanistan, which is cold, covered with snow several months in a year, mountainous, and uncomfortable? Hence people poured into India for thousands of years seeking a comfortable life.
(CORRECT---NOT really an invasion in most cases, but a ECONOMIC MIGRATION. Around 1500--2000 BC Central Asia experienced a process of desertification which forced the locals to seek greener pastures....in China, SE Asia via Tibet AND of course India. Iranian traits in the peoples appearance, culture can be found in all these regions to a greater or lessor degree)
These immigrants who came into India brought their own language, religion, customs, etc, and this is the reason for the tremendous diversity in India, so many religions, castes, languages, ethnic groups, etc.
We may compare India with China. Our population is about 120 crores, while China's is about 130 crore, and China's land area is over twice ours. However, there is broad (though not absolute) homogeneity in China, all Chinese have Mongoloid faces, they have one common written script called Mandarin (though spoken dialects are different), 95% Chinese are of one ethnic group called Han, etc. In India on the other hand, there is tremendous diversity.
It follows that to keep the country together and take it on the path of progress the only policy which will work is secularism and giving equal respect to all communities. This was the path shown by the great Emperor Akbar who through his policy of Suleh-e-kul (i.e. Universal toleration of all religions) gave equal respect to all religions, at a time when Catholics and Protestants were massacring each other in Europe. Akbar was the real creator of modern India, and his policy was followed by Jawaharlal Nehru and his colleagues who gave us a modern secular Constitution, and this is what is holding our country together, despite all our problems.
Secularism does not mean that one cannot practice one's religion. Secularism means that religion is one's private affair unconnected with the State, which will have no religion.
(As in any modern state)
India is presently passing through a transitional period in our history, from feudal agricultural society to a modern industrial society. This is a very painful and turbulent period, as a study of European history from the 16th to 19th Centuries (when Europe was passing through its transition) discloses, full of turmoil, wars, revolutions, social churning and chaos, intellectual ferment, etc. (A trouble some teenager goes through puberty...along with the usual teenage tantrums) It was only after going through this fire that modern society emerged in Europe. India is presently going through this fire, we are passing through a very agonizing period, which I guess will last for another 15-20 years.
In this period it is the patriotic duty of all Indians, particularly the intellectuals and the media, to help our country get over this transition faster and with less pain. This they can do by promoting modern rational and scientific ideas and combating backward feudal ideas and superstitions.
(Don't support Demogogic Modi---with his Israeli backers)
In this transitional age the role of ideas becomes extremely important, and hence the role of intellectuals and the media becomes extremely important. We may recall the role played by Voltaire, who attacked religions bigotry in France and Europe, Rousseau who attacked the entire feudal system, Thomas Paine, who proclaimed the Right of Man, etc. Our intellectuals and the media should do the same.
Today the bitter truth is that most of our people are still very backward, steeped in casteism and communalism. This is evident from what happens in our elections. Most people vote on the basis of caste and religion, instead of on the merits of the candidate. What after all are vote banks? Our people are still largely feudal and superstitious, believing in astrology and similar nonsense.
In this situation our intellectual and media have an important responsible, patriotic duty of giving correct guidance to the people by propagating modern, scientific ideas. But are they doing this? Much of what is shown in the media are superficialities like lives of film stars and cricketers. Instead of attacking communalism, a section of the media had become kar sewaks during the Ram Janambhumi agitation. (The English speaking media with links to Israel/USA....'CLASH OF CIVILIZATION) Whenever a bomb blast occurs with a short time many T.V. channels start saying that an email or SMS has come that some Muslim organization has claimed responsibility, thus demonizing the entire Muslim community. Is this responsible behaviour? An email or SMS can be sent by any mischievous person. The truth is that 99% people of all communities, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian etc are good, but often an attempt is made to depict all Muslims as terrorists.
Intellectuals and media people must fight against divisive tendencies in our country. We must remain united because modern industry requires a large market, and if we are divided and fight with each other modern industry cannot grow, and without modern industry we cannot generate the wealth required to abolish poverty, unemployment, etc and provide for healthcare, education, etc for our people. Therefore whatever divides us, whether on the basis of religion, caste, region, language, race, etc is anti-national, and whatever unites us (e.g. secularism) is the path we must adopt for progress. We must not be Hindu nationalists or Muslim nationalists or Sikh or Christian nationalists, we must all be Indian nationalists, and that is what everyone including the media should propagate.
95% of The ANCIENT SANSKRIT TEXT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION. LOGIC, RATIONALITY, OBJECTIVITY IS MORE IMPORTANT IN SANSKRIT TEXT.
INDIA IS A DIVERSE MULTI-CULTURAL COUNTRY, WITH INVADERS FROM THE NORTH WEST PRE-DOMINATING THE SUB-CONTINENT. THE ONLY WAY TO RUN/RULE SUCH A MULTI-CULTURAL COUNTRY IS THROUGH SECULAR RULE. RELIGIOUS BASE POLITICS WILL ONLY DIVIDE IT INTO 100 PIECES (AS THE BRITISH REALIZED)
INDIA WAS ALWAYS A VERY SCIENTIFICALLY ADVANCED COUNTRY.
THE EMPHASIS OF SANSKRIT IS REASON, WITH A SCIENTIFIC INQUIRING MIND.
Akbar was a great Indian leader who earnestly sought communal harmony. This was pragmatic, practical and logical. ....."History in the pursuit of imperialism" Professor Pandey.."Divide and rule" Tipu Sultan use to give 156 temples grants, to MAINTAIN SOCIAL HARMONY IN HIS STATE. HIS PM WAS A HINDU, AS WERE MOST OF his MILITARY COMMANDERS....serving a nominal Hindu queen, in a predominantly Hindi state. COMMUNALISM BEGAN IN INDIA SIGNIFICANTLY IN A SYSTEMATIC/INSTITUTIONALIZED BASIS AFTER THE INDIAN LIBERATION WAR OF 1857---THROUGH THE BRITISH DIVIDE AND RULE. ____________________________________________ INDO-ARYAN MIGRATION INTO INDIA.
Indo-Aryan or Indic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian family of Indo-European languages. Today, there are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they form the majority. The first people to have settled in India during Paleolithic times appear to have been an Australoid group who may have been closely related to Aboriginal Australians.[4]
From a genetic anthropological point of view, the research of Basu et
al. (2003) indicates that: "(1) there is an underlying unity of female
lineages in India, indicating that the initial number of female settlers
may have been small; (2) the tribal and the caste populations are
highly differentiated; (3) the Austro-Asiatic tribals are the earliest
settlers in India, providing support to one anthropological hypothesis
while refuting some others; (4) a major wave of humans entered India
through the northeast; (5) the Tibeto-Burman tribals share considerable
genetic commonalities with the Austro-Asiatic tribals, supporting the
hypothesis that they may have shared a common habitat in southern China,
but the two groups of tribals can be differentiated on the basis of
Y-chromosomal haplotypes; (6) the Dravidian tribals were possibly
widespread throughout India before the arrival of the
Indo-European-speaking nomads, but retreated to southern India to avoid
dominance; (7) formation of populations by fission that resulted in founder and drift
effects have left their imprints on the genetic structures of
contemporary populations; (8) the upper castes show closer genetic
affinities with Central Asian populations, although those of southern
India are more distant than those of northern India; (9) historical gene
flow into India has contributed to a considerable obliteration of
genetic histories of contemporary populations so that there is at
present no clear congruence of genetic and geographical or sociocultural
affinities."[5] Some of the hundreds of Aryan/Iranian tribes who migrated into India....from about 1500 BC. Contemporary
See also/related topics
- Arya
- Aryan
- Aryan race
- Aryavarta
- Indo-Aryan migration
- Indo-Aryan languages
- Proto-Indo-Europeans
- Iranian Peoples
- Dasa
- Kshatriya
Notes
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html#People
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pk.html#People
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html#People
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/07/24/2635149.htm
- ^ http://genome.cshlp.org/content/13/10/2277.full
- ^ Mallory, J.P. (1989). In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 38f.
- ^ e.g. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "Indo-Iranian languages", p. 306.
- ^ Brentjes (1981), Klejn (1974), Francfort (1989), Lyonnet (1993), Hiebert (1998) and Sarianidi (1993)
- ^ Edwin Bryant. 2001
- ^ e.g. Bernard Sergent. Genèse de l'Inde. 1997:161 ff.
- ^ Parpola, Asko (1999), "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European", in Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and Language, vol. III: Artefacts, languages and texts, London and New York: Routledge.
- ^ Review of: David Anthony. The horse, the wheel and language. 2007. – Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 36, Nos. 3 and 4: 1 – 17.
- ^ The Bronze Age of Europe: Reflections on K. Kristiansen and T. Larsson: The Rise of Bronze Age Society (2005). – Norwegian Archaeological Review, 41 (2), 2008: 213 - 228.
- ^ Manfred Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen, Heidelberg 1986-2000, II 293
- ^ Sindoi (or Sindi etc.) were also described by e.g. Herodotus, Strabo, Dionysius, Stephen Byzantine, Polienus. [1]
- ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755252/
- ^ http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=8d6ec7f1-ee68-4677-8a42-ae3d2c294db4&cKey=6980c0cf-b9d1-4cc8-b638-af5c78d7a09a&mKey={DFC2C4B1-FBCD-433D-86DD-B15521A77070}
- ^ Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists, by Sanghamitra Sengupta,1 Lev A. Zhivotovsky,2 Roy King,3 S. Q. Mehdi,4 Christopher A. Edmonds,3 Cheryl-Emiliane T. Chow,3 Alice A. Lin,3 Mitashree Mitra,5 Samir K. Sil,6 A. Ramesh,7 M. V. Usha Rani,8 Chitra M. Thakur,9 L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza,3 Partha P. Majumder,1 and Peter A. Underhill3, 1Human Genetics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India; 2N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; 3Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford; 4Biomedical and Genetic Engineering Division, Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, Islamabad; 5School of Studies in Anthropology, Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, India; 6University of Tripura, Tripura, India; 7Department of Genetics, University of Madras, Chennai, India; 8Department of Environmental Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India; and 9B. J. Wadia Hospital for Children, Mumbai, India [2]
- ^ http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/10/2905
- ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2621241/?tool=pubmed
- ^ http://genepath.med.harvard.edu/~reich/2009_Nature_Reich_India.pdf
- ^ http://www.ichg2011.org/cgi-bin/ichg11s?author=Moorjani%20P&sort=ptimes&sbutton=Detail&absno=20758&sid=15004
- ^ a b Havell, Ernest Binfield (1918). "ARYANS AND NON-ARYANS". The history of Aryan rule in India.
Harrap. p. 32. "Ethnographic investigations show that the Indo-Aryan
type described in the Hindu epics — a tall, fair-complexioned,
long-headed race, with narrow, prominent noses, broad shoulders, long
arms, slim waists "like a lion," and thin legs like a deer — is now (as
it was in the earliest times) mostly confined to Kashmir, the Panjab and
Rajputana, and represented by the Khattris, Jats, and Rajputs." Unknown parameter
|length=ignored (help) - ^ a b Risley, Herbert; Crooke, William. Crooke, William, ed. The people of India (2, reprint ed.). Asian Educational Services. p. 33. ISBN 81-206-1265-5.
"The Indo-Aryan type, occupying the Punjab, Rajputana, and Kashmir, and
having as its characteristic members the Rajputs, Khatris, and Jats.
This type approaches most closely to that ascribed to the traditional
Aryan colonists of India." Unknown parameter
|length=ignored (help) - ^ Jindal, Mangal Sen (1992). History of origin of some clans in India, with special reference to Jats (Original from the University of Michigan). Sarup & Sons. pp. 29–36. ISBN 81-85431-08-6. Unknown parameter
|length=ignored (help)
References
- Bryant, Edwin (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513777-9.
- Mallory, JP. 1998. "A European Perspective on Indo-Europeans in Asia". In The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern and Central Asia. Ed. Mair. Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man.
- Trubachov, Oleg N., 1999: Indoarica, Nauka, Moscow.
