If you ever wondered how bad the situation is in the North-East, look no further.  Courtesy this news-report by Rahul Karmakar (HT)*: Ministers Too Pay Tax to Militants in North-East (emphasis mine):

It’s out in the open. Ministers in the Northeast do pay `taxes’ to militants. A top leader of a faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland has claimed while drawing a line between extortion and levies imposed by underground `governments’.

…”Yes, we collect taxes and there’s nothing illegal about it,” asserted Kughalu Mulatonu, leader of the Khaplang faction of the NSCN. “Our tax net covers farmers, traders, government employees and even ministers and MLAs. Like the Indian government, we also have to run a government and sustain an army.”

In adjoining Manipur, at least half a dozen outfits such as the Peoples’ Liberation Army and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup collect tax from residents of Imphal Valley. This is over and above the tax that the government imposes. In government offices-police department included -the drawing and disbursing officers reportedly deduct the `tax’ from every employee’s salary before pay day and hand the cash over to the collection agents of each outfit every month…

If this is the case with elected leaders, you can well imagine the plight of the common people.

* Sadly no web-link to this story. I have no reason to doubt its veracity though. I have left a comment on Rahul’s blog to see if he has a link.

Somewhat related posts:

“India Breaking” - Read this and Weep

North-East “burning”

Getting obsessive about Arunachal…

Post from: || Satyameva Jayate ||

*** Excerpts Begin ***

Most educated Indians know that most Indian languages are divided into two broad linguistic streams - i.e. the “Indo-European” and the “Dravidian”. Tied in with this linguistic classification is the theory that the North Indian languages came with “Aryan” settlers.

…To this day, influential historians (such as Romila Thapar) and others at the JNU (and several other leading Indian universities) continue to swear by this colonial era model. Critics of this colonial-era formulation are usually dismissed as “amateurs” or “national chauvinists” who are somehow unable to comprehend the supposedly well-established “science” of “modern” linguistics.

But is this classification truly “scientific” or a construct that derives more from purely political considerations as some recent critics have argued?

Hungarian Critics of the “Indo-European” Scheme

For instance, in Hungary, there is a growing body of scholars who are extremely uncomfortable and dissatisfied with the manner in which Hungarian was excluded from the Indo-European framework.

…As some modern linguists have argued, the inclusion or exclusion of a language in a particular family must be based on very precise and consistent criterion that should be backed up computerized statistical analysis. For instance, there are some Indian language scholars who have suggested that a computerized analysis of Sanskrit and Latin lexicons might yield a far more limited overlap than would be rationally implied by the “Indo-European” classification.

In fact, such analysis might reveal a greater overlap between North Indian and South Indian langauages as well as between Adivasi langauges and their neighboring Indic langauges that are presently placed under the “Indo-European” umbrella.

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But to date, advocates of the Indo-European paradigm have strenuously resisted such calls for a fresh and unbiased scientific analysis of their classification methods. Nor have they been open to analyzing their conclusions in the context of geography, archaeology, anthropology, trade ties, cultural exchanges and regional political developments.

Few linguists ascribing to the Indo-European/Dravidian divide have bothered to investigate the extent of commonality between Sanskrit or Tamil or Munda and Hindi or Tibetan and Bengali. The possibilities of overlapping vocabularies or shared words between langauges that are currently placed in different linguistic streams has simply not interested many Western-influenced Indian linguists.

Problems with the “Indo-European” Construct

…Building primitive lexicons that show similar roots for certain common words can hardly be an adequate basis of linguistic classification. Especially if that classification is going to be further used to generate implications about sociological and cultural development. If the commonality between Indian and European langauages extends only to a small pastoral-era oral lexicon, the Indo-European theory of langauges could hardly be called in to justify the “Aryan Invasion” theory let alone infer that the Vedas were written by “Indo-European Aryan” migrants.

In fact, one of the unintended (or even intended) consequences of such linguistic speculation is that there has been a needless intellectual division between North Indians and South Indians, between Adivasis and “non-Adivasis” . Moreover, it has strengthened the now increasingly untenable view that there is no continuity between the Indo-Saraswati Harappan civilization and Vedic civilization, and that India’s languages (both in the oral and written forms) must have been brought to India by more “civilized” outsiders.

India and the Birth of Formal Linguistics

Although there is some disagreement on when Panini lived, few modern linguists would deny him and (his lesser-known) predecessors a place at the very forefront of the science of linguistics.

Amongs the earliest known formal Sanskrit lexicons is the Nighantu (a thesaurus-like lexicon) ascribed to Yaska (7th c BC) whose work attempted to systematize the various lexicons that had been developed to aid in the understanding and intrerpretation of the Vedic texts. These included lexicons of rare or difficult words classified into chapters containing similes, metonyms, and other categories of related words that were used to describe physical things and objects in nature. A separate chapter contained words that related to human physical/physiological and mental/emotional qualities and yet another chapter confined itself to words relating to abstract qualities and concepts. A separate book described homonyms that presented special difficulties in their interpretation or had ambiguous meanings. Yaska’s Nighantu was accompanied by his Nirukta (a treatise on entymology and word-parsing) in which rules for deriving words from roots and affixes are described. Yaska followed Sakatayana (an older grammarian) and described four types of words: nama (or nouns), akhyata (verbs), upsarga (prefixes) and nipata (particles such as prepositions). He defined verbs as those in which the process or action predominated and nouns as that in which an entity or a being or a thing predominated. He was also cognizant of how sometimes verbs taken on a noun-like form - such as “going for a walk” where the verb walk takes on a noun-like form.

Yaska also posited a semantic theory in which he argued that words had inherent meanings in contrast to Panini who argued that words had meanings only in their specific context. This debate appears to mirror the modern-day debate between semantic atomists and cognitive linguistics. Panini’s Ashtadhyayi (Eight Chapters) went deeper into linguistic morphology defining such terms as phonemes, morphemes and roots. He also described rules/algorithms for taking material from lexical lists (dhatupatha) and generating words from them in a structured and systematic manner. Panini’s influence on modern linguistics has been considerable (see notes below).

In this entire body of work stretching, from Sakatayana to Panini, there is virtually nothing to link Sanskrit to any European influence.

On the other hand, both Sanskrit and Tamil are syllabic languages and both treat consonants and vowels very similarly. Just as in Sanskrit where aksharas (speech particles or atoms) are divided into Svarams (vowels) and Vyanajanams (consonants), in Tamil vowels (Uyir Ezhuttu) are clearly distinguished from consonants Mey Ezhuttu.

Alphabets versus Syllables

And although linguists are divided as to which came first, both Sanskrit and Tamil are written in very similar ways. Unlike the European langauges that are written using alphabets (derived from Greek, and branching off from Latin or Cyrillic), all Indian languages are written using syllables made up of (simple or compound) consonant shapes that are modified by the symbols for vowels that connect the consonants. In Sanskrit (and languages derived from it) as well as in South Indian languages like Telugu and Kannada there is a precise and unambiguous correspondence between how words are pronounced and how they are written.

From the point of view of classifying languages based on the organizational principles that govern their written scripts no logic would permit the Sanskrit-derived North Indian langauges to be placed in the same language group as the European languages.

For instance, languages (such as Chinese or Japanese) that use pictograms, logograms and ideograms in their written form are a unique group of languages and are classified as “Semanto-phonetic”. To understand the development of such languages using morphological and entymological constructs as described by Sanskrit linguists such as Yaska or Panini would be absurd.

Yet, Western scholars seem to have no difficulty in clubbing Sanskrit with English and French even though the manner in which Sanskrit developed and was formalized was entirely unknown and alien to the Europeans. On the other hand, structurally speaking (notwithstanding some differences), Sanskrit and Tamil are like sisters, yet many Westerners persist with placing them in entirely different language families.

…

Pan-Indic Linguistic Features

Writing in Language in India (9, Jan, 2002), G. Sankaranarayanan observes how repeating words and forms is a significant feature that extends across the Indian subcontinent and includes not only the Sanskrit and Tamil derivatives but also Munda and languages from the Tibetan-Burmese group.

…Thus word repitition is an economic but meaningful way of expressing varied forms of frequency, plurality or multiplicity.

Note too that Indic languages permit the dropping of pronouns (which become implied). In the previous example both the subject (I/we) and object pronouns (him/her/them) may be dropped, but (got tired telling) would be impermissable in English.

Another form of repitition is the use of an echo word to suggest a broader category than the word echoed.

Sentence Word Order

It may also be noted that across India, both Sanskrit and Tamil derived languages use SOV (subject Object Verb) word order as a default. But several Indo-European langauges such as English, French, Portugese and Bulgarian use SVO word order.

However, in colloquial or theatrical speech, (or even in poetic/literary texts) Hindi (like Arabic) also permits VSO. Moreover, when repeated words are used all Indian langauges permit the omission of the subject and the word order becomes flexible - either OV or VO.

Word order also becomes flexible in the context of question and answer exchanges. Thus in Hindi “Gaye the Tum?” (Went did you?), “Tum Gaye The?” (You went did?) and “Tum Gaye?” (You went?) are all possible. Replies to where did you go could be equally varied from the standard SOV “Main Allahabad gaya tha” (I Allahabad went) to an OVS “Allahabad gaya tha main” (Allahabad went I) or simply OV “Allahabad gaya tha” (Allahabad went) or even VO “Gaya tha Allahabad” (Went Allahabad)

In this respect, Indian languages are similar to each other but not to less flexible “Indo-European” languages like English. On the other hand, Russian and Czech (like Hungarian) do not require a fixed or default word order.

In conclusion, it might be stated that the present scheme of bifurcating Indian langauges into the “Indo-European” and “Dravidian” scheme is unsatisfactory in many ways. Not only does it ignore vital commonalities between the langauges of Northern and Southern India, it has also precluded comprehensive comparitive studies between these Indic languages and other Indic langauges such as the Munda or those from the Tibetan-Burmese stream.

…Also obscured is the scientific analysis and rational organization that went into the formalization of Sanskrit (in both spoken and written forms) and other Indic languages that created a solid foundation for India’s largely self-propelled progress in philosophy, epistemology, law and governance, mathematics, art, theatre and music, mathematics, and the biological and physical sciences.

Consciously or unconsciously, the “Indo-European” scheme not only divided India from within but also set it apart from from its intellectually-linked Asian brethren and oceanic neighbors in Africa.

*** End of Excerpts ***

In case you are tempted to dismiss the author as another misguided “nationalist”, Sh Thadani is an undergrad from the prestigious IIT in Delhi and a Post-Graduate degree in Computer Science from Yale where his area of specialization included Theoretical Computer Science, the Syntax and Semantics of Computer Langauges and Natural Language Processing.  He was assisted in his reasearch by Giti Thadani, who is intimately familiar with several European langauges including German, French and Hungarian (as well as Sanskrit).

The article in full here.

Related Posts:

“Defalsify India’s History” by Subramanian Swamy - Excerpts

“The Rigveda and the Avesta: The Final Evidence” - A blurb

Revising the “Aryan Invasion of India” Theory

Post from: || Satyameva Jayate ||

*** Excerpts Begin ***

Like most women who prefer to visit the ladies’ room together, the women of Sakhara village in Vidarbha’s Yavatmal district also answered their nightly nature’s call in groups. Except it wasn’t for midnight banter, but for their safety.

Because right till early 2005, the ladies’ latrine in this tiny hamlet, located about 753 km north-east of Mumbai, was an open field.

Today, this village housing 62 families has 50 functional toilets. In November 2005, it received an award from the state government as the first ‘open defecation-free village’ in the Pandharkawda block of Yavatmal.

…“We used to sit down, look around here and there to make sure there were no men around, quickly do our business and scamper off,” grins Anusay Gonivar, a feisty 60-year-old and one of the village’s key SHG members.

While the men’s loo (read open ground) was a fair distance away, squatting in a field unprotected from prying eyes was unnerving for the women, especially at night.

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“We had to wake up our neighbours for company,” says Pushpabai Gutmulkuvar (54), another SHG member.

…Much of rural India has benefited from the government’s Nirmal Gram Yojana introduced in 2000, to ensure open-defecation free villages. Nearly 3,450 villages in Maharashtra have been declared open-defecation free thanks to this scheme, which highlights the issue of rural sanitation through the building of toilets in panchayats, blocks and districts.

Ironically, Sakhara’s inhabitants used the 20 government-sponsored toilets built in 2000 as storehouses.

“The government only made outer structures, which fell apart in a few months. There were no seats, no pipes; not even a door,” grumbles Gutmulkuvar. “Neither did they teach us how to use it or educate us about its benefits.”

In April 2005, with the aid of local UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) representatives, the women SHGs devised a sanitation plan for Sakhara.

Each of the groups pooled in Rs 500 for raw materials to build toilets costing Rs 300 to Rs 1,500.

…The government’s shoddy latrines were rebuilt with cemented bricks, commodes, flush tanks, drainage pipes — and doors. Makeshift toilets were also constructed in homes and the local primary school.

Once the toilets were ready, the most challenging part for the women was to convince the shy villagers to use them.

“They thought it was unhygienic to defecate and urinate within their own houses,” says Gonivar.

Through gram panchayat meetings, the women helped locals understand the advantages of lavatories. “It was strange at first,” …But it soon caught on.

…The women know they have earned this praise. “Our village is good, but we have worked hard to make it so,” says Gonivar.

*** Excerpts End ***

But a lot still needs to be done.

To round off this series,  pl. read this concluding paragraph from Tavleen Singh’s recent article, ‘Gandhian’ field trips:

Instead of the tokenism of renaming the NREGA in his name, what about a campaign to create sanitary living conditions in our villages in Gandhiji’s name? He was one of the few Indian leaders who was appalled by the squalour of rural Indian life and wrote about it eloquently.

There is much that can be done in Gandhiji’s name that would truly honour his memory. But, for that we need to get beyond the empty symbolism of sleepovers in Dalit huts. It mocks the misery of the poorest of our citizens to do this. They do not live in squalour because they like to, but because they have no choice.

Their squalid living conditions, their shameful poverty, bear witness to how little has changed for the Dalits since Gandhiji first began his fight against untouchability. What is sadder still is that Dalit leaders like Mayawati so quickly forget where they came from.

Related Posts:

On Open Defecation, Hygiene and India Shining - Part I

“A plea for sanitation” - excerpts

Post from: || Satyameva Jayate ||

He is old enough to be her great-great-grandfather. But Ahmed Muhamed Dhore, a Somalian who claims he is 112 years old, said he had realised a “dream” by marrying a 17-year-old bride.

Dhore – who says he was born in 1897, the year that Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee – already has 13 children by five wives, but said he would like more with his newest, Safiya Abdulle.

…”Today God helped me realise my dream,” Dore said. He and his new wife, who is almost a century his junior, are from the same village in Somalia, he said, adding that he had waited for her to grow up to propose. He says his children and two other wives agreed to the marriage, as did Abdulle’s parents.

“I didn’t force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love, and then we agreed to marry,” the groom said.

Dhore has 114 children and grandchildren. His oldest son is 80 and three of his wives have died.

***

I was reminded of the news-item when I stumbled upon this excerpt from Establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran & The Present Situation For Women by Parvin Darabi*:

Marriage
Under the Islamic Rules, the family protection law has been abrogated. The Islamic Republic resolutely supports the practice of polygamy.

Under the Islamic Republic, provisional marriage was sanctioned. Consequently, a man may marry “four Permanent” and as many “Provisional” wives as he desires.

The marriage age for girls was reduced to 13 and with the father’s consent, a girl may marry at the age of nine. No restriction on the age of the man. In recent years the marriage age for women has been reduced to 9 years of age.

“The most suitable time for a girl to get married is the time when the girl can have her first menstrual period in her husband’s house rather than her father’s.” Ayatollah Khomeini.

***

* Hat Tip: View from the Right

Related Posts:

Flogging, Caning and Starving Women under the guise of Sharia

One Planet, Two Worlds…

Muslim Women Personal Law Board unveils new “nikahnama”…

Post from: || Satyameva Jayate ||

The Param Vir Chakra is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air. The decoration may be awarded posthumously.

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*** Saluting our Heores - Major Somnath Sharma, PVC ***

A tribute to Major Somnath Sharma, Indian’s first “Param Veer” who sacrificed his life on this date, 62 years ago.

August-September 1947:  These are heady days. While most of the country is celebrating “independence”, the streams of refugees is a grim reminder of what was lost…and all is not well on the borders, particularly on the icy slopes and formidable heights of the land that Rishi Kashyap blessed hundreds of years ago.

Early-Mid October, 1947:   There are reports that a large group of armed tribals have moved close to the  border in Jammu & Kashmir , aided and abetted by Pakistan.

22nd October 1947: Armed tribals cross the border near Muzaffarabad, burn the twon  and overrun Uri. They also manage to capture the power station that supplies eletcricity to Srinagar, plunging the city into darkness. Reports suggest that the armed groups include regulars from the Paksitani Army “in mufti”.

Claude Arpi recalls what happened next:

In these dramatic circumstances, V P Menon, Sardar Patel’s faithful collaborator, went to Jammu and got Hari Singh’s signature on the printed Accession Form. He rushed back for the historic meeting in Delhi with India’s governor general, Lord Mountbatten in the chair.

A young army colonel named Sam Manekshaw, who attended the meeting, recalled:

As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God Almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said, ‘Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away?’ He [Nehru] said, ‘Of course, I want Kashmir.’ Then he [Patel] said: ‘Please give your orders.

Everything then moved very fast. Early the next morning, the first troops and equipment were airlifted from Palam airport to Srinagar. A young major was sent on his first assignment to Kashmir. He was responsible for the logistic. His name was S K Sinha (today the governor of Jammu and Kashmir).

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He later wrote about the first Indian jawans reaching Srinagar: ‘It was indeed inspiring to see grim determination writ large on their faces. They were all determined to do their best, no matter what handicap they had to contend with. I had never before seen such enthusiasm and fervour for duty.’

They knew that all eyes in India were focused on them. At Srinagar airfield, just before returning to Delhi, Sinha met an old friend, Major Somnath Sharma of 4 Kumaon. He had come a day earlier from Delhi with a broken arm.

Sinha found him ‘rather disgusted with life.’ With his ‘wretched hand in plaster,’ no one would give him ‘an active assignment in Delhi.’

His company had now been posted to Kashmir, but he was looking to be relieved soon from his present job and given ’something really active.’ His company’s duty was ‘only’ to protect the airport.

…But let us spend a moment on Somnath Sharma’s life.

He was born as the eldest son of an army family. His father General A N Sharma, who retired as the first director general of the Armed Medical Services after Independence, was often in non-family postings.

Som, as his friends and family called him, used to spend time with his maternal grandfather Pandit Daulat Ram in Srinagar. His favourite pastime was listening to his grandfather’s on the Bhagavad Gita. This influence of Krishna’s teachings to Arjun were to remain with Somnath till his last breath.

At the age of 10, Som enrolled at the Prince of Wales Royal Military College in Dehra Dun and later joined the Royal Indian Military Academy. As a young lieutenant, he chose to join the 8/19 Hyderabad Infantry Regiment.

His maternal uncle Captain Krishna Dutt Vasudeva who belonged to this regiment had died defending a bridge on the River Slim in Malaya against the Japanese. His bravery had made it possible for hundreds of his jawans to cross over to safety. The example of his uncle greatly influenced him during his career.

Somnath fought in World War II under Colonel K S Thimmayya (later the army chief) in Burma with the British Army. An anecdote speaks tellingly about the character of the young officer.

One day, Sharma’s orderly Bahadur was badly wounded in action and was unable to return to the camp. Sharma lifted Bahadur on his shoulders and began walking. When Thimmayya found his officer lagging behind under the weight of his orderly, he ordered him — ‘Leave this man, Som and rush back to the camp.’

Somnath retorted, ‘Sir, it is my own orderly that I am carrying; he is badly wounded and bleeding, l will not leave him behind.’ He eventually managed to carry Bahadur back, saving his life. He was awarded a ‘Mention in Dispatch’ for this act of bravery.

***

Back in New Delhi, as news of developments in Jammu & Kashmir trickled in, Major Sharma’s regiment was asked to move to Srinagar. Although technically ‘unfit for active duty in war’ (with a broken arm and a plaster from wrist to the elbow), Major Sharma insisted that he had to lead his company. He took charge of his new assignment at Srinagar airport on 1st Nov.

Claude Arpi writes what happened next:

Two days later on November 3, the ‘raiders’ reached Badgam a few miles away from the Srinagar airfield. Brigadier ‘Bogey’ Sen, the commander in Srinagar, immediately dispatched Sharma and his company to Badgam.
At 2:30 pm, supported by 3-inch and 2-inch mortars, a 700-strong tribal force attacked the Indian jawans. Being outnumbered by 7 to 1, Sharma immediately sent a request to Brigadier Sen for reinforcements.

He knew that if the enemy advanced any further, the airport would be lost and Kashmir would become a province of Pakistan; the airfield was the only lifeline between the Valley and the rest of India.

His last wireless message to the headquarters stated: ‘The enemy are only 50 yards from us. We are heavily outnumbered. We are under devastating fire. I shall not withdraw an inch but will fight to the last man and the last round.’

***

Major Sharma did not live to see another day. 4 Kumaon lost over half of their brave men…although they managed to inflict heavy losses on the attackers who lost about 200 men.

From “The Soldier who won India’s first Param Vir Chakra” by Claude Arpi:

Three days later, Major Sharma’s body was recovered. Though mutilated beyond recognition, a few pages of the Gita that he always kept in his breast pocket and the empty leather holster of Tewari’s pistol helped to identify the body. The pistol was gone.

During the last chat with his friend before flying to Kashmir, Somnath had joked that either he would die and win the Victoria Cross or become the army chief. It is his younger brother V N Sharma who in 1988 became chief of army staff.

***

Major Sharma’s sacrifice was not in vain. From the Indian Army’s website:

In the battle of Bagdam, Major Sharma, one JCO and 20 other ranks were killed. But their sacrifices did not go in vain. He and his men stemmed the tide of the enemy advance on Srinagar and the airfield for some very crucial hours. He has set an example of courage and qualities, seldom equaled in the history of the Indian Army. Major General Amarnath Sharma received India ’s first and highest wartime gallantry medal, Param Vir Chakra, on behalf of his brave son.

CITATION

Maj Somnath Sharma , 4 KUMANON (IC-521)

On 3 November 1947, Major Somnath Sharma’s company was ordered on a fighting patrol to Badgam in the Kashmir Valley .  He reached his objective at first light on 3 November and took up a position south of Badgam at 1100hours.  The enemy, estimated at about 500 attacked his company position from three sides; the company began to sustain heavy casualties.

Fully realizing the gravity of the situation and the direct threat that would result to both the aerodrome and Srinagar via Hum Hom, Major Somnath Sharma urged his company to fight the enemy tenaciously.  With extreme bravery he kept rushing across the open ground to his sections exposing himself to heavy and accurate fire to urge them to hold on.

Keeping his nerve, he skillfully directed the fire of his sections into the ever-advancing enemy.  He repeatedly exposed himself to the full fury of enemy fire and laid out cloth strips to guide our aircraft onto their targets in full view of the enemy.

Realising that casualties had affected the effectiveness of his light automatics, this officer whose left hand was in plaster, personally commenced filling magazines and issuing them to the light machine gunners.  A mortar shell landed right in the middle of the ammunition resulting in an explosion that killed him.

Major Sharma’s company held on to list position and the remnants withdrew only when almost completely surrounded. His inspiring example resulted in the enemy being delayed for six hours, thus gaining time for our reinforcements to get into position at Hum Hom to stem the tide of the enemy advance.

His leadership, gallantry and tenacious defence were such that his men were inspired to fight the enemy by seven to one, six hours after this gallant officer had been killed.

He has set an example of courage and qualities seldom equalled in the history of the Indian Army.  His last message to the Brigade Headquarters a few moments before he was killed was, ‘the enemy are only 50 yards from us.  We are heavily outnumbered.   We are under devastating fire.  I shall not withdraw an inch but will fight to the last man and the last round.’

***

As I read this, I had tears in my eyes…As you go about your day today, please spare a moment to remember these heroes.

Related Posts:

Saluting our Heroes: The “Param Vir Chakra” series

An Open Letter to Mr. Unnikrishnan

“Jo shahid hue hain unki, zara yaad karo qurbani…”

Of Stars and Martyrs, Munnabhai vs. Manish Pitambare

Post from: || Satyameva Jayate ||