Languages
Arabic Czech German Greek English Spanish Finnish French Hungarian Italian Lithuanian Latvian Dutch Polish Portuguese Russian Slovak Swedish Turkish Ukrainian
Subscribe
To get our newsletter please enter your email address in the box below and press 'Subscribe' button.

Current Issue



Articles   Latest
Articles   Hot
AGONIES OF PAKISTAN
It is the massacre of children that brings tears and sympathies transcending national boundaries, drowning the bitter neighborly relations. Pakistan’s agony of 16 December 2014 in Peshawar killings, ripping apart families adds to the more than 40,000 deaths from terror attacks since 2001. If a corpse in a grave has a conscience, Zia ul Huq of vicious Islamic fundamentalism of 1979-88 days may have a shed a tear. And H.W Bush who had warned Pakistan in 1992 as has been reported may not have been surprised. And Hillary Clinton must be having the last laugh after her remark that Pakistan should not expect that snakes it was breeding would bite only its neighbors. read more...read more...
POLITICS OF BHARAT RATNA
Atal Bihari VajpaiIt is different when it is given to politicians as has happened in India and very ludicrous when the serving prime minister like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who preside over the cabinet committee to decide who should be awarded Bharat Ratna decide to award it to themselves as shown above. Someone gave the statistics to show that twenty one out of forty three Bharat Ratna awarded have been to politicians, some of them of mediocre provincial stature but of the Congress party. Now it is the turn of the BJP to award it to their own icons. No one will remember Gen.Manekshaw in this heat. read more...read more...
Printer Friendly Tell a Friend

CLARIFICATION

Clarifications: Some of our esteemed readers have raised queries while  reviewing our Newsletter. We do appreciate their concerns and would like to clarify to the extent possible.
 
Macaulay's Speech in British Parliament on February 2, 1835. We tried to gather proof to authenticate our statement but since this is an event that happened 175 years ago, the historical evidence cannot be decisive. But available historical records on the internet do indicate that Macaulay could  have made such a speech, if not in the British Parliament then may be  somewhere else in 1835  The excerpt given in the Newsletter was copy - pasted from net after typing Abdul Kalam on Macaulay on the google search.

Macaulay's  intention is clear from the minutes, the excerpts from  which are reproduced.

Minutes by Hon'ble T.B. Macaulay , dated 2nd February 1835. 10] I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is indeed full [33] To sum up what I have said. I think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813, that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we are free to employ our funds as we choose, that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic, that the natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic, that neither as the languages of law nor as the languages of religion have the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encouragement, that it is possible to make natives of this
country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed.

[34] In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, --a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population .

While there may be historical debates about Maculay's presumed or actual or the defective or the specific utterances, but the fact remains that most of the historical evidence points towards Maculay's overview on education for India and are similar to the excerpt given in the newsletter. Thes views are undisputed and well known.

Before  Macaulay sixty percent of the land revenue, in India  was spent on education. Nalanda, the center of Buddhist learning dates back to 427 A.D. It was visited by Chinese scholars who  have given an account of this  university which is recorded in the  Chinese history also.  Takshila, another center of Hindu and Buddhist learning was before Nalanda. The  English language  came in existence from Greek and Latin in the 16th century .
 
Clearly, Macaulay's attempt was to de-sanskritise and perhaps even de-spiritualize India, even if the motives was to` modernize 'the country. Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi, former HRD minister Govt.of India and Mr.Abdul Kalam, former President have also made  references like ours in their speeches.
 
The results of the policies followed of Macaulay can be seen from the census published in 1901. The male literacy in India was ten percent and female literacy half a percent as per this census . What happened between 1836 to 1901 was hardly a rapid climb in literacy. It is reasonable to infer that those policies led to de-sanskritsation and de-spiritualization of six generation of students. Worse, the policy was based on an imperialist design fostered by  shallow opinion on many vital matters concerning India
 
Among the western scholars Goethe of Germany, who extolled the achievements of India’s national culture. In fact Goethe studied  Shakuntala by Kalidas,  rated Kalidas very high and can be said much  above Shakespeare
 
How can we substantiate thought Research? No Funds has been the cry  of Astro-researchers since long. For instance Astrologers have given correct predictions on rainfall but these are rarely acknowledged. The meteorological department spends30000 crore and their forecasts are often incorrect but astrology has not got even a single paise. Therefore  to expect any substantial research is out of place Not one rupee was spent by the Government before 2000 for either promotion or for preserving astrology.

The debate of Akarma and Vikarma: To quote Mr K.N.Rao " I remember that it is the fourth chapter of Gita. Both words Vikarma and Akarma occur here. In Sankrit it will be Akarmah while in Hindi it will be Akarma
kim karma kim akarmeti
kavayo `py atra mohitah'
tat te karma pravaksyami
yaj jnatva moksyase subhat (cp 4 shloka 16)
 
All my life I have seen karamkandis miss the finer and subtle points  of Gyanakhanda for which knowledge of Sanskrit is not necessary at all-K.N.Rao

Keywords: Journal of Astrology, KN Rao, Journal of Astrology Newsletter, Deepak Bisaria

Full Site Search
-->
Online Lyrics by ViArt Free CMS