Article 370: Let’s Not Give in Anymore to Islamic Exclusionism and Separatism

Note: The following article is in response to the article 'Lets not turn Kashmir into another Gaza' by two Pakistani authors, and the same should be kept in mind. 

Authors: Prabhat Shankar, Geetanjali Yadav

The world cannot afford to turn a blind eye anymore to an ideology which is in dire need of immediate reform to make it compatible to the universally acceptable and moral ethos of mutual acceptance, peaceful coexistence, gender equality and secularism.

The iconic Sharda Peeth was one of the greatest temples of learning for Kashmiri Hindus. Unfortunately it went to the side of Pakistan, and lies in tatters. With a government antithetical to minorities and only for Islam, the minorities have only the option to leave Pakistan.

History

Seventy-three years ago, the prolonged war of independence of India against its British occupation, saw fruition on 15 August 1947. Inspired by its century’s old civilizational ethos, and led by Mahatma Gandhi, the movement was seeped into non-violence, peace, equality and brotherhood. Subsequently, this Indian struggle of Independence inspired many such other movements world-wide and was emulated by the likes of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

Ironically, this unifying theme of equality and peaceful co-existence could not appeal enough to a section of people with vested interests. Inspired in the name of Islam and Muslim brotherhood, a movement led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah arose to demand a separate country, exclusively for Muslims. Rooted in the supremacist ideology of Islamic superiority, it negated the principles of co-existence and acceptance of personal choice. This idea was naturally resisted, as the same Hindus and Muslims had been co-existing from centuries. But the attempts of keeping the country unified were met with the calls of direct action day. To force their demand of the new country, the same mob perpetuated violence and massacre of the unsuspecting population. Thus, the nation of Pakistan was born by rejecting the principles of peaceful co-existence.

Unification of the States

The undivided India consisted of British occupied India, and 565 princely states. In the ensuing partition, the princely states were given a chance to join either of the two newborn nations. Despite Pakistan forcing itself as a nation exclusively for Muslims, India instead of giving in to this madness, chose to remain a secular nation which would accept one and all religions. This allowed India to gain the trust of many princely states. 

Jammu and Kashmir has been one of the holiest places of the Indian civilization since centuries. It has been the seat of a number of holy places, shrines, places of learning. During the time of partition, this state was ruled by Maharaj Hari Singh. The state had a majority Buddhist population in the area of Ladakh, majority Hindu population in the area of Jammu, and a majority Muslim population in the area of Kashmir. Thus, the king took his own time in deciding matters. After due negotiations on both sides of the new-born nations, he chose to join the Indian federation on 26 October 1947, and signed the instrument of ascension for this. When this news reached Islamabad, unable to digested this decision, Pakistan chose to send its forces towards Kashmir for a forceful annexation. India responded promptly, and the attacking forces were quickly pushed back. Unfortunately, before the invading forces could be flushed out completely, a premature ceasefire was declared. The land thus occupied was Pakistani forces came to be known as ‘Pakistan Occupied Kashmir’. In search of peace, this area thus came under the forceful and illegal occupation of Pakistan. The other half constitutionally became the part of Indian federation.

Fast-forward to the Present Era

Since 1948, the above status quo was maintained, despite the fact that in 1971 Indo-Pakistani war, 72,000 Pakistani solders had to surrender to the Indian forces after a humiliating defeat, and which saw the birth of Bangladesh. On the other front, what happened to the trajectory of the two new-born nations where one chose to follow a secular constitution, the other choosing to put Islam above everything else?

Islamic State of Pakistan

Pakistan was born by placing Islam superior to everything else and imagined it to be its binding glue. With that attitude, it forgot the principles of natural justice. No wonder, it started to unravel faster than a pack of cards.

• According to the Pakistani constitution, only and only a Muslim can occupy the top post of the country. Non-Muslims don’t have this right.
• Taking it further, Muslim faiths like Ahmadiyya’s have been proclaimed as non-Muslims by constitutional declaration. Their first Muslim Nobel laureate in Physics, Abdus Salam, finds no mention as he was an Ahmadiyya.
• The two-nation theory was debunked in 1971, when eastern Pakistan chose to dissociate itself from the western Pakistan, and thus a new nation of Bangladesh was born.
• The population of all minority reduced to an insignificant amount of less than 1% in Pakistan.
•  Any remaining minority population is forcibly converted, and under laws like Sec 295, where offering even a rational critic of Islam, Prophet or the Quran needs to be punished by Capital Punishment.
• Pakistan has been internationally recognized as the epicenter of terrorism. Almost all terrorist events have some Pakistani connection to itself. Osama Bin laden was found living close to Army headquarters for over a decade. The government supported Taliban in Afghanistan for a long time.
• After three military defeats against India (1965,1971,1999), Pakistani government is openly harboring global terrorists as Hafiz Saeed. Its efforts to promote terrorism have been rewarded by a FATF blacklist recently.
• In pursuit of terrorism, the country is on a verge of bankruptcy, and surviving on doles of China and USA.
•  Despite fashioning itself as ‘champions of Muslims’, it is forced to remain silent at the treatment of Uighur Muslims inChina, where more than a million of them have been put in several internment camps.

Secular Republic of India

The mother country, though stabbed by the deep wounds at this betrayal, chose to gather itself, and refused to fall prey to this madness. Let’s look at its present state:

• India is a Secular republic, agnostic to the personal beliefs of its citizens.
• Union of more than 30 states, which has many Hindu majority, Sikh majority in Punjab, Christianity Majority in North east, Muslim majority in the Kashmir section of J&K.
• The Muslim population itself has ballooned from 5%in 1947 to more than 15% at present. Equality of opportunity has seen them occupying top-most post in every sphere of life.
• The Sikh, Jain, Parsi minorities count as the richest and most influential section of the society. The secular, plural and accepting all nature of Indian constitution has allowed this.
• The Indian democracy is well known for its elections, where more than a billion people participate in franchise. Never ever a military coup happened here.

·         This unifying approach has placed India in the comity of nations which are developing fast, are preferred destination of investment, and more than that, are loved and trusted by almost all nations for its humanitarian, compassionate and bipartisan approach.

Article 370 and its repulsion

Now let’s come to the matter of Article 370. While J&K became a part of India in 1947, a Presidential notification in 1954 inserted the Article 370 in the constitution. It allowed for some special provisions in the form of special powers to frame its laws, and was meant to be a temporary provision to facilitate smooth integration. Let’s see how this special feature impacted the polity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Salient Features of Article 370        

• The law was discriminatory against the citizens of India, where the cardinal principle of equality before the law was not being followed.
• The central laws to improve the life of the people, like right to education, right to information, reservation to the backward classes, anti-corruption laws: none of them were applicable in J&K, and the state politicians were hardly bothered.
• The law was blatantly discriminatory to the women of J&K, as if they chose to marry outside the state, they lost all their property rights due to this!
•  The article denied rights to its refugees, who had escaped the massacre of partition and chose to come to this state, as they were denied any job opportunities.
• The word ‘secularism’ was not included in the constitution of J&K, unlike the Indian constitution.

Does any state of India, which has a Jain, Sikh, Christian majority population need special privilege? Why does a single Muslim majority state need that special privilege? Are we not equals, not part of the same constitution? India has provided a level playing game to each section of society in the form of supportive policies. If an outsider buying land in J&K is a threat to the demography of Kashmir, then are such people arguing that rise of Muslim population in India from 5% to 15% is a threat to India? Equality is a two way street, and must be respected both the ways. 

Eviction of Kashmiri Hindus

In this entire episode, one aspect which is always blatantly overlooked is the forced exodus of more than 1 million Kashmiri Hindus, who were the inhabitants of Kashmir Valley. Though the original inhabitants of Kashmir, these Kashmiri Hindus were over-numbered as Islam spread and multiplied in demography. Taking advantage of demographic superiority, these Kashmiri Hindus were threatened and forced to evict the valley in January 1989, rendering them penniless and homeless. Till date, they have remained like that, with no efforts on anyone’s part to make them return. Their homes are deserted or forcibly occupied. This is what is the actual legacy of article 370. The abrogation of 370 is just a small solace to these displaced millions, with no hope of return in sight as yet.

Advice to Pakistan

Pakistan has failed to learn the values of pluralism, secularism and equality before law, irrespective of religious identities. In the pursuit of Islamic supremacy, it is destroying itself by radicalizing own citizens. In their article, when the authors are reminding us of Gaza, they are following the same course of threatening terrorism and violence to meet their objective. They should remember that the world has become much wiser, has seen the Twin-tower attacks of 2001, French london terror attacks, and has refused to bow down to any form of terrorism. Such scorched earth policy will only hasten and expose the true nature of their threat.

It would be well advised for Pakistan to accept that multi-religious states exist which don’t discriminate between its citizens based on religions. The difference between India and Pakistan is too glaring for the world to miss it. Kashmir is just one shining example of that. While it can keep fooling its own impoverished citizens in the name of Darul-Islam for some more time, but its citizens are already paying a very heavy price for that.

We urge the authors to wake up to the reality of the new world which refuses to judge a citizen based on their religious identity. We have a couple of amazing friends in Pakistan, and it would be a travesty if their country is ruined in the name of antiquated ideas. For the beginners, can we urge the authors to acknowledge and start a movement for constitutional amendment of Pakistan, where a non-Muslim too can reach its top position? For a Pakistan where an Ahmediyya too can be embraced by them? The world is waiting for an answer, alas, without much of a hope!


Prabhat Shankar is a Senior Research Engineer in Industry
Geetanjali Yadav is a Fullbright scholar, working in an Academic Institution

The discredited BBC report: How it satisfies five out of six criteria of publishing false findings

Recently, BBC published a report on Fake news, and summarized its findings with the words ‘Nationalism is the Key driver of Fake news in India’. The report was summarily dissected and called out for its miserably small sample size, reliance on biased sources, questionable design and definitions, and flip flops over qualitative/quantitative/ethnographic research. In the note on the authorship, the writer claims: ‘This is a work of empirical evidence, and not of opinions’. The strong claim implies full reliance on absolute quantitative methods but is being defended as a ‘qualitative report’, which is ‘just a starting point’.

The strong rebuttal of the report led to it being taken down, and there was a hope that probably the authors will address the specific queries raised, and subsequently have an objective look at the entire report. Unfortunately, none of that happened, and without any explanations to the core issues raised, BBC was back with an ostrich like attitude of ‘We stand by our report’. In this light, it becomes even more important to call out their report which is completely opaque on the most important points and seems to be driving an agenda. This would not have been so harmful had it been an opinion piece. But furthering a biased agenda by appropriating the word ‘research’ to it must pass through the rigor that is demanded of scientific methods.

For considered to be a work of research, any work should fulfill these criteria:

1.      The data on which the report is based must be free of sampling bias.

2.      The conclusions obtained from the data, based on suitable methodologies, must be independently verifiable and reproducible.

The articles dissecting the BBC report have already demonstrated the biased sources of this report. That alone is enough to deduce that the findings of this ‘research report’ are false. Nevertheless, let us have a detailed look at the phenomena of reports with false findings.

False research papers are flooding us continuously

A landmark paper was published in 2005 in PLoS Medicine by John PA Ionnidis on the phenomena of false findings of published research and is titled ‘Why Most Published Research Findings are False’. This paper has more than 6000 citations till date, demonstrating that published reports with false findings are an epidemic in the academic field. The paper ascribes several reasons for research paper with fake findings, which fall under the umbrella of Bias.

Bias: “It is the combination of various design, data analysis and presentation factors that tend to produce research findings when they should not be produced” is the definition of bias in this paper. The corollaries or impact of having bias in a given study are listed as follows and has been taken from the paper.

1.      The smaller the studies conducted in a scientific field, the less likely the research findings are to be true (It studies the effect of small sample size).

2.      The smaller the effect size, the less likely the research findings are to be true (analyzes how small effect distorts the findings).

3.      The greater the number, and the lesser the selection of tested relationship, the less likely the research finding is true (studies impact of pre-study bias on the final outcome).

4.      Greater the flexibility in design and definitions, the less likely the research finding are to be true.

5.      The greater the financial and other interests and prejudices, the less likely the research findings are to be true.

6.      The hotter a scientific field, the less likely the research finding are to be true.

The study shows how the above factors often seep into the publications, making their findings inaccurate or outright false. The idea of scientific rigor exists to assure the above factors have been accounted for, and the findings can be objective and verifiable. If the above points are not adhered to and biases are not systematically eliminated, it is the purported research findings which become “simply accurate measures of the prevailing Bias”.

Examining the BBC article on the above criteria of reliable research

Let’s examine the BBC article in the light of the six points discussed above, where we also take into account their response to the criticism and updated methodology as well.

1.      The smaller the studies conducted in a scientific field, the less likely the research findings are to be true

The sample size of 40 people has been defended by BBC as being a qualitative report. In contrast, in the note in authorship, they have claim that this is a work of empirical evidences and thus the conclusions are undeniable.

2.      The smaller the effect size, the less likely the research findings are to be true:

The above point implies that research findings are truer with large effects, and more tending to be false with small effects. Without more transparency coming from BBC and them addressing their bias, this can explain some aspects of their ‘research findings’. It looks probable that BBC found certain instances of ‘Nationalism driving False news’ which may or may not have been significant but has amplified this finding as its main conclusion without rigorous cross check and analyzing alternate hypothesis. That is, they found some qualitative evidence for this phenomenon, and have elevated it to their main conclusion due to their confirmation bias.

3.      The greater the number, and the lesser the selection of tested relationship, the less likely the research finding is true.

This means “that the post study probability that a finding is true, depends a lot on the pre study odds”. As many have pointed out, it seems entirely possible that BBC first decided its conclusion, and then set out to find the evidence for it. This aspect is supported most by the response of the BBC to its criticism, where they have without responding to the point by point criticism, have simply announced that they ‘stand with the conclusions of their articles’. The questions of bias, political affiliation of the fact-check websites, have not even been touched upon. The most glaring evidence for it comes from the fact that there is no justification for the seed handles, which are used to determine the fake news cluster. One is simply required to take the BBC word for it on face value. This can only happen if the conclusions were already determined due to the political bias of BBC. The evidence of the leftist bias of BBC is well recorded here. (opindia article link)

4.      Greater the flexibility in design and definitions, the less likely the research finding are to be true.

The article mentions that “Flexibility increases the potential for transforming what would be negative results to positive results”. BBC has staged a coup here, where they come with their criteria of ‘sources having produced at least one fake news’. There is no reference to any community wide accepted definition of ‘sources of fake news’, no attempts for its justification, and no signs of acknowledging its mistake. The definition looks tailor made to include certain seed handles and reach an already decided conclusion. The worst part is, even for their own selected criteria, they refused to bring transparency by showing the purported fake news of the listed handles for fake news.

5.      The greater the financial and other interests and prejudices, the less likely the research findings are to be true.

This seems to an equal contributor to their report full of false findings. It need not be elaborated here as it has been covered in detail in various links (opindia link).  The BBC has relied on the ‘fact-check’ website altnews and factcheck, both of whose founders have connections to the congress party, which are political rivals of BJP and have been maligned in the report. As no explanation seems to be coming from BBC on this link, the explanation which is left is the report is an outcome of such prejudice, instead of being a work of honest analysis.

6.      The hotter a scientific field, the less likely the research finding are to be true.

The arrival of social media has posed a great challenge to the traditional media and has broken their hegemony. Consequent attempts of portraying social medias as conveyors of fake news have been rampant and articles about this phenomenon are appearing in traditional media with high frequency. BBC seems to be capitalizing on it by publishing shoddy research, and they might have thought it may go unchallenged due to the high volume of such articles. But the contribution of this aspect looks rather small, as honest mistakes arising due to this would have been corrected after pointing fingers at it. In the face of their political bias, we are inclined to give BBC benefit of doubt on this count.

Thus, what we find is the already discredited ‘research article’ satisfies five out of six criteria which contribute to publishing reports with false findings. It is rather unfortunate and unbecoming of this institution to have adopted an ostrich attitude and refused to honestly answer the points raised about its articles. Its response has been nothing but an eyewash and does not augur well for its further credibility.

It brings to us the most likely explanation offered in the landmark paper, that what we are observing is the quantified bias of the people who have participated in this report. Such a bias maybe forgivable for an opinion piece but appending the word ‘Research’ to it must muster questions and probes.

Can BBC salvage the situation

There is no salvation for BBC until it comes clear of the questions of methodology to select the twitter seeds, why the particular definition of ‘sources with at least one fake news’ was chosen, the questions about the political bias and transparency of the websites altnews and factcheck etc. However, as the article mentions, ‘this may require a change in the scientific mentality, that maybe difficult to achieve’. Will BBC try to regain any of its lost honor?

Postscript: The need of Transparency

There are few glaring questions which need to be addressed by BBC in this regard on an urgent basis.

1.      The BBC report builds heavily on other reports. Was the veracity and bias of its reports analyzed, or the same was accepted as it was?

2.      The report lists a number of twitter handles and websites as have ‘published fake news at least one time’. Please provide the source data for this. That is, please list ‘fake news’ spread by these handles which were found to be fake. The entire exercise is meaningless without this step, and independent verification is crucial to eliminate bias.

3.      Were the above handles and websites contacted with the allegation of fake news against them, and was an effort to hear their side of the story? If yes, please list their response.

4.      The criteria of ‘at least one fake news’ is satisfied by multiple websites, including BBC. Do you agree or disagree with it? Please refer this article(opindia) for a detailed list. On what basis was BBC excluded?

5.      The website ‘The Better India’ was included in the list of handles having at least one fake news. Subsequently it was attributed to a ‘human error’. Please list why it was included initially, and how this was removed subsequently. This too is an elementary step.

6.      On the criteria of ‘at least one fake new’, who was responsible for preparing the labeled data or fake news and true news. Was it an algorithm or a human? If it was a human, what steps were taken to ensure eliminating any political bias?

7.      There have been lot of reports of bias against Altnews, factcheck etc. Despite the multiple evidences, why are these not labeled as source of fake news and having political bias.

8.      OpIndia has been a fact checking website which has exposed multiple lies. Its editor was invited by BBC itself in the panel discussion over Fake news. Why was this website not contacted for research purpose during the research phase?

Citation

1.      Why most published research findings are false: author's reply to Goodman and Greenland. PLoS Med. 2007;4(6):e215.

Few thoughts on Trump's executive order

Trump's executive order on halting immigration from 7 country's have kicked up a storm in many parts of America, and the order is being projected as something unprecedented, diabolical, and unexpected from a civilized world. But looking at the coverage, I think some very important points are completely being overlooked into this debate. I will try to point them briefly.

1. Most critics are in denial of a problem in the first place: While India has been a victim of Islamic separatism, radicalism and terrorism after it's partition in 1947 on religious lines, the problem has expanded worldwide in the post 9/11 era. There have been regular terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 26/11, Thailand, France, Belgium, London, Spain, China and numerous other countries which have direct links to Islamic radicalism. But instead of recognizing the JIhadi inspiration and link behind such attacks, many commentators try to cover them with the apology of 'Terror has no religion'. To prevent such attacks, governments have been forced to step up the security at airports, and are trying to spy in the digital world, which have created another uproar in the the form of Snowden leaks. But until the ideological fountainhead of these attacks are identified and countered, increased security measures will only lead to a police state with limited effectiveness.
While Trump's order may or may not be correct, he is spot on in identifying the problem. The critics who fail to recognize the problem in the first place don't have enough credibility left, howsoever noise they will make. Advent of social media has ensured the such people don't retain monopoly on disseminating their ideas.

2. Golden principal is not a one way street: While Trump's order must be criticized, it must be pointed out that sixteen countries ban Israel passport holders to enter their countries, all of which are Muslim majority. It is just one example of discrimination against people of different religious beliefs from these countries, and in most of them, the situation of minorities can be termed pitiable at best. If Muslims are not ready to treat other religious beliefs with respect, why should they expect equal treatment from other countries. Trump's order should be criticized, but only after these countries revoke the ban on Israel passport, right?

3. Immunity of religious criticism is inconsistent with freedom: While most religious beliefs are mocked and criticized, Islam has been given a free rope due to the fear of violent reprisal. Many movies mock and have uncharitable portrayal of Jesus, TV series like South Park are acerbic to every one, but they dare not portray Muhammad. Books like Satanic verses has been banned, and the authors is still in hiding to protect his life. The editorial staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was gunned down. Islamic society is plagued with problems such as Sharia law, which allow polygamy and divorce by saying 'Talak' three times. Criticism of such practices are met with the labels of 'Islamophobe' and 'Intolerant', while it is the other way round. Such a myopic and 'my way or highway' attitude towards religion is inconsistent with the principles of free movement and integration. Granted that not everyone is like that, but even a small fraction of people with such attitude are enough to bring the system out of equilibrium. Remember, not every Muslim demanded that Pakistan be created out of India, not everyone wanted Charlie Hebdo punished. Thus immigrants in need must be helped, but at the same time, it must be recognized that special efforts need to be in place to ensure that the integration is smooth, that freedom and criticism including satire should be accepted as a part of life.

In my personal view, Islam needs lot of reform, the most important among which is the rejection of Sharia. Religions are private belief, and they should not be allowed to affect legislative matters. Immigration without efforts coupled with such reforms will continue to increase the problem due to few bad apples. And while immigration helps a small fraction of population, a majority of them continues to suffer under the regressive Sharia laws. It is time that the world takes notice. 

Shocking new revelations about the 26/11 Mumbai terrorists attack

Certain shocking revelations about the Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack in Mumbai on 26/11/2008 attacks have come to light following an RTI by RVS Mani, former Under Secretary, Home Ministry.

1. It was well known that Indian delegation, consisting of Union Home Secretary(Madhukar Gupta), Director and Joint Secy of Internal Security, Joint secy of Foreign division, Joint Secy CBI to name a few were in Islamabad for the 'Composite Dialogue' process. 
2. What was completely unknown that after this dialogue ended on 26 evening, Pakistani establishment proposed to take them to a hill resort at Murree, a place 50 km away from Islamabad, to which the Indian delegation agreed.
3. As a result, when the attacks unfolded in Mumbai, the control room at the Home Ministry was almost empty, and there was confusion about coordinating information and action. 
4. The Indian delegation returned only next afternoon, after loosing critical hours in the beginning phase. Surprisingly, this critical piece of information, and strong circumstantial evidence on Pakistani duplicity was not let known to the public.

Even more surprisingly, instead of raising storms, Madhukar Gupta who was silent for all these years, made the following points in an interview with Times Now, where he mentions that

• dialogues were hold in a 'very cordial' manner, hence they had no reasons to mistrust their hosts
• what difference would it have made had they been in Islamabad or Murree
• What is to be gained by raising this issue after 7 years

Contrast the above information with the actions of the Indian establishment(6:20 min). The Pakistani Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary were in India the same fateful night. As soon as the information about Mumbai attacks emerged, they were provided an immediate flight to Pakistan, as the Indian establishment was concerned about their safety and security.

Now it is an incredulous task to pin point the real issue at hand: are our bureaucrats incompetent beyond belief, or they have something nasty to hide. Also, whether the Indian media is much more obnoxious than it usually seem to be. While the reporting of Barkha Dutt, and the Tamasha by news channels has been heavily criticized on this issue, what have been the investigative journalists doing? 

Even though Kasab had been caught alive, Digvijay and co. tried to blame this event as 'RSS ki Sazish'. What would have happened if all the 10 Jehadis had been shot dead, and thus there would have been no testimony of Kasab? Looking at the coverage of media, it was highly probable that 'Hindu groups' would have been blamed for this by a very large section of the media. Tukaram Ombale, the constable who paid by his life, but caught Kasab alive foiled this very likely scenario. 

Are the above suspicion just a wild goose chase? Consider other revelations related to security issues during UPA2:

• The role of a Lashkar-e-Toiba Fidayeen Ishrat Jahan has been tried to be whitewashed by the entire UPA machinery, and tried to be portrayed as 'Fake encounter'.
• The same issue was used to break the morale of IB, create a fissure between IB and CBI, where CBI tried to arrest top officers of IB, including Rajinder Kumar who provided intel for Ishrat Jahan.
• Recent revelations have shown that Col Purohit was framed in false cases, just because the term 'Hindu terror' could hang in air.
• Samjhauta blasts, in which initially the role of Lashkar was being investigated, was suddenly turned towards some 'Hindu groups'.

The criminal rot brought in by UPA 2, and the complicit role played by 'secular liberal' media has brought things to a dangerous juncture. If national security can be thrown to the winds, and doesn't invite intense scrutiny, how long can this vast nation remain together? 

Introducing a Scholar Hindu Monk: Swami Sarvapriyananda

We all have fond memories of our childhood, including the time spent at the school. If your childhood was spent in a residential school, away from home, then the school memories occupies a larger part of your persona. I have been fortunate to spend my childhood at the very beautiful and scenic campus of Ramakrishna Mission Deoghar, now in Jharkhand.

The entrance test of this school had consisted of two parts, a written and a "kind of" interview part. In the interview, all the children were collected in a classroom, and were required to do various tasks, assigned by various people. During that period, a monk dressed in white came to our class. He showed us some examples of mathematical calculations, based on multiplications of 11. For example, he showed that 11x11=121, 11x11x11=1331, etc, and asked us to compute us some larger products. That's all I can recall today from that time. 

After joining the school, we had chance to meet many monks, and the above monk also was present, and we came to know him as Vishwaroop Maharaj. Soft spoken and smiling, he was also present many times during the computer labs in those times of BASIC language. But there was not a lot of interaction with him, until we moved to more senior classes. I don't remember if he taught us ICVE(Indian Culture and Value Education) or not, as I remember this being taught by some other monks to my class. But Vishwaroop Maharaj had an opportunity to come to our class for short period during our final years. 

During class 10, we had to study world history, primarily the history of World war 1 and 2, modern world, and modern India. History classes are supposed to be soporific, though world history did seem interesting. Vishwaroop Maharaj was not our history teacher, but he was substituting for the absence for some teacher for few periods. He offered us to narrate the history of a specific war during world war II: The attack on Pearl Harbor.  We happily agreed, but nobody had thought his narration would be so spellbinding and will leave a lasting impression. 

He started his narration with the context of world war II, and how the Japanese involvement started. For the next two or three classes, he told us minutely about the different aspects of the preparation for the attack, how they were able to keep it as a secret, and how the micromanaged the plan. For example, to not let the military radars detect the fighter planes, they practiced flying as low as a few hundred feet over the land! He talked about the minute planning attack, best case and worst case scenario in the plans and so on. As mere students, we all were left mesmerized and craving for more after his periods were over. A bit more we got indeed, as the movie "Pearl Harbor" was released during that time, and he arranged for us to watch that movie. But after his narration, the movie actually looked quite stale :)

After my passing out from the school, he soon got sannyas and the ochre robes, with the new name of Swami Sarvapriyananda, a very apt name. I had few chances to interact with him after that, as he came once to IIT Kharagpur for a lecture on Vedanta, and other time when I went to Belur Math. Fortunately, he also made me say hello to another monk Mahan Maharaj(mathematician). 

Though we had know Vishwaroop Maharaj as a very learned monk during that time, but since, he has been introducing Hinduism and Vedanta at various platforms in a very beautiful manner. His lecture series at IIT Kanpur has been really popular. I am not sure, but I think he has been transferred to a Vedanta society in United States. 

Many of his video lectures are available on Internet, where he talks about various aspects of Hinduism, consciousness, body and mind, Vedanta in his beautiful voice. Beyond any religious dogma, he focuses on the essential questions of life, and provides lot of material for thinking and pondering over. I am giving link to one of the lectures, and others can be seen over youtube. 

Swami Sarvapriyananda at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago

Swami Sarvapriyananda at IIT Kanpur

I hope that he will introduce the elegant and beautiful ideas of Hinduism to the world, which are strew across the various texts of Upanishads, which will provide a way out for religious harmony in the coming decades.

Spiritual cities in India: Open meditation centers near the holy temples

Narendra Modi has been elected the Prime Minister of India from the most ancient and holy city of Varanasi on a new dawn of hope after a very long era of pessimism, neglect and stagnation. While Varanasi has been one of the center points  points of Indian spiritualism, in its present condition, it is disorganized and dirty. After taking over, Modi is fast tracking the ways to take the city out of its sorry state, and to scale it to new heights. He has added Kyoto on his upcoming visit to Japan, so that Varanasi can learn something from the development of this charming city.

While there must be hundreds of proposal to transform Varanasi and other heritage cities into vibrant centers of spirituality and culture, I would like to add one more suggestion to it. This has got purely to do with the spiritual aspect, rather than the infrastructure of the city. In present Kyoto, while there are hundreds of very beautiful temples who have preserved the rituals and cultures of Japan, they have mostly become a tourist destination. On the contrast, in India, many people visit Varanasi or other holy cities primary for the spiritual purpose rather than tourism. Thus, while developing these cities,  this aspect has to be kept in mind.

Indian spirituality definitely emphasizes rituals as a way to take the mind deeper into itself, but it prescribes self-introspection, primarily via meditation as the most important tool of self upliftment. Meditation has recently gained traction all over the world due to its perceptible and tangible benefits. Thus, while upgrading our own holy cities to the next level, it should be important to upgrade them spiritually as well. One of the ways to achieve it is to construct meditation centers for people in the vicinity of the holy temples, so that people can not only meet their deities, but they can also meditate upon them in peace for sometime. A beautiful statue of the deity related to the holy city can be placed in the meditation center. In many cases, there is no space near the temple as it is a very crowded area. In this situation, the meditation centers can be located as close as possible to the temple area.

Having such a meditation center will help the devotees to quietly sit down and infuse himself with the spirit pervading around the holy city. Meditative postures in holy atmosphere is a breeding ground for noble and uplifting ideas. It is the way forward for self upliftment, and to understand the true meaning of spirituality.

I am sure many other additions can be made to this suggestion, though I keep myself confined to this simple idea. Any other related ideas are welcome.

School toilets in India: Statewise Comparision

Narendra Modi, the most popular prime minister in India in about three decades, delivered his maiden independence speech from the ramparts of red fort on 15 August. The speech, delivered extempore, was memorable for a number of reasons.  Instead of talking in abstract terms and eloquent visions, he surprised one and all by talking about the most elementary and banal things related to day to day life of the common Indian men. One of the things he dwelt upon at length was related to cleanliness, hygiene, and toilets. Indian public places, even those in the so called metro cities are unfortunately indescribably dirty. But again, instead of talking in jargon, Modi set a simple goal: to have toilets in each and every government school in India. Unfortunately again, many of the government schools are devoid of this basic amenity, and is one of the big reasons that many students, particularly girls, stay away from schools in rural areas.

After the speech, the human resource ministry, taking quick action, put up the complete list of all schools in India, along with the data about how many of them lack toilets completely of separately for boys and girls. The data for toilets can be accessed at this website. The population data has been taken from wikipedia.

The above list is a good indicator about the development index of every state. In the above list, I have added the data of population of each state, and computed the ratio of schools, populations, and toilets without schools. Also, the data for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has been combined in the same state, as population data for them were not available to me separately.


 The best performers
The following states had toilets in all the schools!

a) Lakshadweep b) Daman & Diu c) Pondicherry d) Delhi e) Chandigarh 

All of them are union territories, and are not large in size. Despite, kudos for showing everything is not lost in India.

B) States/UT with maximum number of schools to population ratio:

If a state has larger population, it should have more number of schools. Computing the number of schools to total population may give an idea about the teacher-student ratio. Meghalaya was found to have the highest ratio, and all other states were normalized with respect to its ratio. Hence, Meghalaya has shown to be the highest ratio of 1. The top 10 states in this regard are:

States with best school/population ratio	Ratio	States with worst school/population	Ratio
1) Meghalaya (Best)	1	1) Chandigarh	0.05
2) Arunachal Pradesh	0.94	2) Delhi	0.07
3) Himachal Pradesh	0.85	3) Kerala	0.07
4) Mizoram	0.8	4) Pondicherry	0.14
5) Chhattisgarh	0.72	5) Daman & Diu	0.15
6) Jammu And Kashmir	0.71	6) Tamil Nadu	0.2
7) Uttaranchal	0.67	7) Andhra Pradesh	0.21
8) Assam	0.62	8) Gujarat	0.22
9) Madhya Pradesh	0.61	9) Maharashtra	0.23
10) Sikkim	0.55	10) Haryana	0.23

The interesting thing about above ratio is, Chandigarh, Kerala, Delhi, all three have the worst ratio of schools, but these places are supposed to have good education in schools. It will be interesting to actually investigate the further effect of this ratio.

The north-eastern states figure prominently in the best ratio of schools per population. Hope the bigger and central states learn something from these places.

The worst performers:
Now we take a look at the best and worst performers in the number of dysfunctional toilets. The data shared by the ministry lists the number of schools with no toilets for boys, with no toilet for girls, dysfunctional toilets for boys and for girls. To get a simple picture, I have added the number of schools with absent toilets and dysfunctional toilets, for boys and girls separately. The total (dysfunctional+non-existent) toilets for boys and girls are very closely similar, so for the sake of convenience, I am presenting the results on the basis of data of boys toilet.

States with minimum absent+dysfunctional boys toilets per school Best Performers	Ratio	States with maximum absent+dysfunctional boys toilets per schools Worst Performers	ratio
1) Lakshadweep	0	1) Arunachal Pradesh	0.63
2) Daman & Diu	0	2) Meghalaya	0.6
3) Pondicherry	0	3) Assam	0.46
4) Delhi	0	4) Bihar	0.42
5) Chandigarh	0	5) Jammu And Kashmir	0.41
6) Karnataka	0.01	6) Odisha	0.39
7) Andhra Pradesh	0.01	7) Mizoram	0.34
8) Maharashtra	0.04	8) West Bengal	0.3
9) Gujarat	0.04	9) Chhattisgarh	0.24
10) Kerala	0.05	10) Jharkhand	0.22

Gujarat and Kerala figure in the top 10 performers in this regard. In the worst performers category, the north-eastern states, which came out on top in the list of maximum school to population ratio, unfortunately they come on top in this regard also. Among the large states, Bihar, West Bengal take the top positions.
Honestly, I expected UP to be in this list as well, but it was a pleasant surprise that UP's performance is very good in the situation of toilets, and only 6% of its schools are without or with dysfunctional toilets.

Unique position of Bihar:
Combining the two data above has unfortunately put Bihar in a unique special distinction: It is the only state which has a worse dysfunctional toilet ratio, as compared to its number of schools per population. All other states, from the worst to best performers in any category, have a better ratio of schools per population than its dysfunctional toilets.

The above statistics are an interesting indicator to the state of education in different states. I hope that the initiative taken by Narendra Modi will lead to fully functional toilets in all the schools. 

The data for the above analysis can be downloaded from here :.xls format, .pdf format, .ods format.