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| << June03, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] Yogi Sikand's posts |
June05, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]Sukla Sen,Yogi Sikand,Asha Shahed posts >> |
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From: "delhigroup498a" <delhigroup498a@yahoo.co.in> Date: Fri Jun 3, 2005 9:54am Subject: Re: COKE WATCH: Did The Law Break The Law, Asks Krishna Iyer This is the great example of how human right orginasation it self try to abuse the human rights of innocent .... One hand they are concern about coca cola ... victim of TADA , POTA , but they keep silent for Elder abuse by daughter in LAW by misusing the LAW 498a ( anti dowry ) . The have enough time to fight agaisnt them , but there is no time to save indian family. Today 98% case in court proved that the 498a mainly used to balckmail , extrotion of money , getting easy divorce , disown the son from their parents , old sick parents , pregent sister send to jail ... are they really more dangarous than a terioriest ??? As in case of TADA or POTA also police never arrest the parents or sister of the accused .. then why in 498a ??? Because a innocent man can not hire a good criminal laywer ??? In our society criminal move proudly in society and innocent go to jail for trail , as they can not take the advantage of Loop hole of the Indian LAW . Great india , punish more sick and old parents .. through them out of home , ill treated them , dont give them proper food and medicine ... because we have to save the Blood cancer of Indian society ( So called Power Babe - empored daughter in LAW ) . regards --- In indiathinkersnet@yahoogroups.com, "CHROkeralam" <chro1@r...> wrote: > New Indian Express, June 02, 2005, Thursday > > Did the law break the law, asks Krishna Iyer > > KOCHI: Justice V R Krishna Iyer demanded a second look into the Coco Cola judgment made by the High Court on Wednesday. Alleging that the modified decision smacks of bench shopping by powerful litigant, Justice Iyer said the circumstances of the case when fully disclosed may suggest a `riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. > -------------------------- [2] From: dnrad1 <dnrad1@sancharnet.in Date: Fri Jun 3, 2005 Subject: Godhra panel refuses to issue summons to Vajpayee, Fernandes The Hindu : National : Godhra panel refuses to issue summons to Vajpayee, Fernandes Godhra panel refuses to issue summons to Vajpayee, Fernandes Special Correspondent To write to them asking if they are willing to depose before it AHMEDABAD: The G. T. Nanavati-K. G. Shah judicial inquiry commission, which is probing into the Godhra train carnage and the communal riots that followed, will write to the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the former Gujarat Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, asking them if they were willing to depose before it. The Commission rejected the plea of the advocate of the riot victims, Mukul Sinha, for issuing summons or sending any notice to force them to appear before the commission. However, along with the letters, it agreed to send copies of Dr. Sinha's applications for issuing them summons and the documents which formed the basis for such a demand. Dr. Sinha had sought the cross-examination of Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Bhandari and Mr. Fernandes on the basis of press statements about their roles during the Gujarat riots. The request was made following the former President, K. R. Narayanan's press interview that he had written to Mr. Vajpayee for early intervention by the Army to control the riots but he failed to act on time. The Commission rejected Dr. Sinha's plea for summoning Mr. Narayanan after the former President informed it that he had "nothing more to add" to his earlier press statement. Mr. Bhandari had also made some remarks about the handling of the riots by the Narendra Modi Government and had suggested a thorough inquiry. Though he retracted his statement, Dr. Sinha wanted to cross-examine him. Pointsman questioned The pointsman at the Godhra railway station, Fatehsinh Solanki, who uncoupled the burnt S-5 and S-6 coaches from the Sabarmati Express before it resumed its journey to Ahmedabad on February 27, 2002 was cross-examined by the Commission. To questions by Dr. Sinha, Mr. Solanki said no one had "re-set" the vacuum before the train resumed its onward journey. While he uncoupled S-6 coach from S-7 at the site of the tragedy, the rest of the train was taken to the yard to detach S-5 and S-6. At no stage was there any need to re-set the vacuum break. Dr. Sinha said Mr. Solanki's statement made it clear that there was no chain-pulling the second time as claimed by the Gujarat Government to establish its theory of a "pre-planned conspiracy." The Commission will meet again on June 17 to consider Dr. Sinha's plea for re-summoning the main witness in the Best Bakery case, Zahira Sheikh. Her cross-examination ended abruptly last month after she refused to reply to most of the questions. Dr. Sinha said he would submit an application before the Commission to direct her to give proper replies. ----------------------------------------------------- [3] Date: Fri Jun 3, 2005 2:20pm Subject: A Race to the Top..Friedman in the NYT... myserenityin A Race to the Top By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: June 3, 2005 Bangalore, India It was extremely revealing traveling from Europe to India as French voters (and now Dutch ones) were rejecting the E.U. constitution - in one giant snub to President Jacques Chirac, European integration, immigration, Turkish membership in the E.U. and all the forces of globalization eating away at Europe's welfare states. It is interesting because French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day. Good luck. Voters in "old Europe" - France, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy - seem to be saying to their leaders: stop the world, we want to get off; while voters in India have been telling their leaders: stop the world and build us a stepstool, we want to get on. I feel sorry for Western European blue collar workers. A world of benefits they have known for 50 years is coming apart, and their governments don't seem to have a strategy for coping. One reason French voters turned down the E.U. constitution was rampant fears of "Polish plumbers." Rumors that low-cost immigrant plumbers from Poland were taking over the French plumbing trade became a rallying symbol for anti-E.U. constitution forces. A few weeks ago Franz M??ntefering, chairman of Germany's Social Democratic Party, compared private equity firms - which buy up failing businesses, downsize them and then sell them - to a "swarm of locusts." The fact that a top German politician has resorted to attacking capitalism to win votes tells you just how explosive the next decade in Western Europe could be, as some of these aging, inflexible economies - which have grown used to six-week vacations and unemployment insurance that is almost as good as having a job - become more intimately integrated with Eastern Europe, India and China in a flattening world. To appreciate just how explosive, come to Bangalore, India, the outsourcing capital of the world. The dirty little secret is that India is taking work from Europe or America not simply because of low wages. It is also because Indians are ready to work harder and can do anything from answering your phone to designing your next airplane or car. They are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top. Indeed, there is a huge famine breaking out all over India today, an incredible hunger. But it is not for food. It is a hunger for opportunity that has been pent up like volcanic lava under four decades of socialism, and it's now just bursting out with India's young generation. "India is the oldest civilization, the largest democracy and the youngest population - almost 70 percent is below age 35 and almost 50 percent is 25 and under," said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express. Next to India, Western Europe looks like an assisted-living facility with Turkish nurses. Sure, a huge portion of India still lives in wretched slums or villages, but more and more of the young cohort are grasping for something better. A grass-roots movement is now spreading, demanding that English be taught in state schools - where 85 percent of children go - beginning in first grade, not fourth grade. "What's new is where this movement is coming from," said the Indian commentator Krishna Prasad. "It's coming from the farmers and the Dalits, the lowest groups in society." Even the poor have been to the cities enough to know that English is now the key to a tech-sector job, and they want their kids to have those opportunities. The Indian state of West Bengal has the oldest elected Communist government left in the world today. Some global technology firms recently were looking at outsourcing there, but told the Communists they could not do so because of the possibility of worker strikes that might disrupt the business processes of the companies they work for. No problem. The Communist government declared information technology work an "essential service," making it illegal for those workers to strike. Have a nice day. "This is not about wages at all - the whole wage differential thing is going to reduce very quickly," said Rajesh Rao, who heads the innovative Indian game company, Dhruva. It is about people who have been starving "finally seeing the ability to realize their dreams." Both Infosys and Wipro, India's leading technology firms, received more than one million applications last year for a little more than 10,000 job openings. Yes, this is a bad time for France and friends to lose their appetite for hard work - just when India, China and Poland are rediscovering theirs. ------------------------------------------ [4] From: "P. Joseph Raju" aa5756@wayne.edu Date: Fri Jun 3, 2005 Subject: Enigma of Muslim failure Enigma of Muslim failure By Iqbal Jaffar (Dawn, 31 May 2005) HISTORY poses many unsolved questions. One of the questions, in fact an enigma, is the failure of Muslim societies to keep pace with the West in science and technology. The question, as Bernard Lewis puts it, is: 'Why did the great scientific breakthrough occur in Europe and not, as one might reasonably have expected, in the richer, more advanced and in most respects more enlightened realm of Islam?' In the vast literature produced by the Muslim and non-Muslim authors on the failure of Muslim societies over a period of about 500 years, no less than seven major causes have been identified: western imperialism that imposed its suffocating stranglehold over the Muslim countries for a long time; Islamic orthodoxy as an obstacle to progress; and its opposite, that is, deviation from the pristine Islamic values and laws as the reason for the fall from the grace; illiteracy that leads to low productivity and low social awareness; fast population growth that nullifies economic growth; relegation of women to an inferior and non-participatory position; and authoritarian mode of governance that stifles thought and innovation. Let us briefly look at each of these suggested causes to see how valid or relevant they are. First, the European imperialism which, as a possible cause of decline of the Muslims, can be summarily disposed of for the reason that the European powers did not become a paramount power in the Muslim world till the 19th century, whereas the decline of the Muslim societies in science and technology had begun as early as the 16th century, if not earlier. The fact is that the success of the western imperialism was not the cause, but a consequence of an extended failure of Muslim societies to keep pace with the West, or even to keep their own heritage alive after the 15th century. Next, the two divergent views about Islamic orthodoxy: First, orthodoxy as an obstacle and, second, as a cure. The answer can be found in the history of the truly Islamic state that existed for 31 years from the conquest of Makkah in 630 to the death of the fourth Caliph in 661. The first 14 years, up to the death of the second Caliph, were the years of political consolidation, territorial expansion and social change, while the subsequent 17 years were marked by internal strife and bloodshed, little expansion and hardly any social change. It is obvious, therefore, that an Islamic state is not a prescription for worldly success or failure. The fourth and the fifth causes (illiteracy and fast population growth) are the two present-day problems that are not relevant to the centuries when Europe was not more literate than the Muslim world, and the population growth rate was not a problem. Fast population growth has been a problem only for about the last 50 years and lower literacy rate for about 150 years. This leaves an unexplained period of about 350 years. The sixth suggested cause relates to the position of women in Muslim societies. But it is unfair to suggest that women were always worse off in Muslim societies than in the West. In fact, it is a credible proposition that women were better off in Muslim societies in the earlier centuries than in the West where they could be burnt at the stake as witches even up to the 17th century. In the US last trials of witches took place as late as 1692. It is for the Europeans to explain, therefore, how they managed to make that breathtaking progress following the 15th century despite the way they treated their women. Authoritarian mode of governance, seventh on the list of causes, is one of the more readily acceptable causes of the decline of Muslim societies, especially in modern times. While one does not advocate authoritarian rule, its relevance here is questionable. In the period up to the 18th century European mode of governance was no less authoritarian than the one in the Muslim countries, but Europe did not stagnate as did Muslim societies. In modern times too authoritarianism has not prevented growth of science and technology. The erstwhile Soviet Union is the best example of it, and an earlier example is that of 19th century Japan. This argument too, therefore, fails to solve the enigma of Muslim failure. What, then, is the answer? The answer is that we have so far avoided looking at the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that what we consider to be the failure of Muslim societies is, in fact, a collective failure of three great civilizations - the Muslim, the Chinese and the Indian - that had the potential to give birth to modern science or at least to participate in its birth. Since all the three civilizations failed to do what they could at about the same time we had better look for the reasons that would apply to all three of them. While doing so we can assume that those reasons, being common, would be unrelated to religious beliefs, racial characteristics and regional compulsions. But before proceeding further in our search for the answers, let us have a glimpse of Europe in transition after the Dark Ages (500 to 1100) to put things in their global perspective. Things began happening at an accelerating pace in Europe from 12th century onwards when Aristotle was rediscovered (1120), Toledo school of translators started translating Arabic books (1150), and universities were established at Bologna (1158), Oxford (1162), Paris (1170) and Cambridge (1209). Soon Europe was in the midst of the greatest intellectual ferment in history, leading to the beginning of Renaissance in the early 14th century, of exploration and discovery in the 15th, Reformation in the 16th, scientific and technological revolution in the 17th, and the industrial and social revolution in the 18th century. The Chinese, Indians and Muslims, including the next-door neighbours of Europe, the Ottomans, were almost totally unaware of and unconcerned about the changing face of Europe till as late as the 18th century. The reason for this lack of interest in Europe was the arrogant insularity of the three Asian civilizations. The Indians considered the foreigners as the Mlecchas (non-Indian, barbarians), Chinese too called the foreigners barbarians, and for the Muslims all others were infidels, again a term of contempt with an element of hostility. The Indians were the first to become insular. Despite their close contact with the Europeans since the 16th century and with the Muslims since earlier times, not a single book in Arabic, Persian or in any European language was ever translated into Sanskrit or any other Indian language. Indians who had made great contribution to mathematics, the queen of sciences, ceased to be creative in science and technology very early on. Bhaskara (12th century) was probably the last Indian to make a contribution to the science of mathematics. India has yet to regain those lost centuries. It has yet to lift 700 million Indians out of poverty and 500 million out of illiteracy. Next, the Chinese. It is not commonly known that in the early 15th century China was the most enterprizing naval power in the world. It had launched a fleet of 300 ships, each five times longer than the Portuguese ships of that time. The fleet had a crew of 30,000 men and made seven voyages along East Asia, and the east coast of Africa. China was poised to discover the west coast of the New World as the Europeans were gearing up to reach the east coast. At that point there happened an event that remains one of the mysteries of history. In 1436 there was an imperial edict by which all naval expeditions were suspended, ocean-going ships scuttled, and the navigational maps burnt. 'China's heroic age was over; its open door had slammed shut'. The self-imposed insularity to which China had returned in 1436 was not quite breached till after the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. China is still paying the cost of those lost centuries. The story of the failure of the Muslim civilization is quite similar. Its failure is essentially a failure of the Ottoman Empire that, for many centuries, occupied a large part of East Europe, Middle East and North Africa and, thus, stood between Europe and the rest of the Muslim world. But it stood like a barrier rather than an interface. European science could not cross that barrier. This was bad enough made worse by a single act. It is related to the advent of printing press invented by Gutenberg in Germany in 1455. It brought about the first communication revolution in the world. But for the printing revolution Renaissance, Reformation and the rise of modern science were inconceivable. The Ottomans took notice of this invention in a negative way. By a decree issued in 1485 by the Ottoman sultan, printing was forbidden and remained forbidden till 1727. As a kind of tragi-comedy, as it seems now, the Jews in Empire were allowed to establish printing presses on the condition that they would not publish books in Turkish or Arabic. Thus, both the Chinese and the Muslims opted out of the great adventure of creating the Modern Age by very specific and conscious decisions. Chinese opted out of the exploration of the physical world and the Ottomans opted out of the exploration of the intellectual world. The lesson for us in the story of the three civilizations is that interaction between different cultures and societies is the most powerful engine of change; the interactive creativity, is the most powerful source of new ideas; and insularity is suicidal. As early as 1867, after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese undertook to do what the rest of Asia should have done: industrialization was undertaken; feudalism was abolished; a written constitution and a two-chamber parliament were inaugurated; compulsory education and newspapers were introduced; religious toleration encouraged; and conservative rebellion was suppressed. And, said an imperial edict: 'Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world'. E-mail: tvo@... |
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| << June03, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] Yogi Sikand's posts |
June05, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]Sukla Sen,Yogi Sikand,Asha Shahed posts >> |
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