India Today says....

All of us have heard about the two Indias that exist in a single country. India and Bharat.
India is what drives the country’s high economic growth, but it is Bharat where most of the country lives.It is often believed that the bustling metro is dragged down by the backward village.

At one level this is true – particularly across social sectors like illiteracy and infant mortality. Yet these days what most of India doesn’t know is that the Bharat they rarely pay attention to, is being transformed as dramatically as the metros. Change in India these days does not merely mean the growth of malls. Its deepest impact is felt on a section of the population whose livelihood is linked to the land, whose lives depend entirely on nature and whose news usually centres on natural disasters like floods, famines and drought.

Much of the Indian village today does not look like it did a few decades ago, full of cracked earth and farmers in ragged clothes. The panchayat sarpanch carries a mobile, farmers head to work on mopeds and their children are sent abroad to study. If Kalahandi 25 years ago was once a symbol of starvation, today it is a place where there are 150 rice mills and locals run a cottage industry that manufactures washing powder. Across India, villages are growing and changing in varying degrees. In some cases, the change to innovative farming techniques like switching crops or taking up improved irrigation has given farmers a chance to alter centuries-old economic cycles.

In other cases, the use of new technology has played a key role: for example in Bardhaman in West Bengal, the only district in India to have connected every panchayat by the Internet. Or Anksapur in Andhra Pradesh, where water harvesting improved the groundwater table and farmers got a chance to buy 1,500 acres from neighbouring village for profitable cultivation. Villages have benefited from easy access to finace, the ncreasing price of rural land and social welfare schemes that increase the job opportunities and keep youth involved in the villages they grew up in. This is not to say taht poverty does not exist in rural heartlands of India but there are great changes afoot which are transforming rural lifestyles. Nevertheless, they still remain dependent on the unpredictability of nature itself.

Yet, what we are seeing is an astonishing empowerment of India’s villages due to the business of economics and the most simple of sciences in places we have never heard of: like Fatehpura-Pilvai in Gujarat, Theni in Tamilnadu or Dhekalgaon in Madhya Pradesh.

I strongly believe India’s salvation lies in modernizing its agriculture and finding employment for those who move away from the land as a result. The changing face of rural India is a welcome sign that this is happening although it still has a long way to go…before which we need a CORRECTED India and not a CORRUPTED India!!

Recall India's PAST..Think Twice, Act Wise as you VOTE!!

Indian civilisation is perhaps the most ancient and continuing civilisation of the world. India has a long history and has been recognised by others as a land of great wealth and even greater wisdom. But India has also experienced continued foreign attacks and alien rule for centuries and this has resulted in a loss of pride in India and its remarkable achievements. Indians, particularly educated under the system of education imposed by the Britishers, have lost sight of not only the cultural and civilisational greatness of India, but also of its technological achievements and abounding natural resources.
 Old British documents established that India was far advanced in the technical and educational fields than Britain of 18th and early-19th Century. Its agriculture technically and productively was far superior; it produced a much higher grade of iron and steel. The Iron Pillar at Mehrauli in Delhi has withstood the ravages of time for 1,500 years or more without any sign of rusting or decay. Metallurgists of the world have marvelled at this high degree of sophistication in technology. Textiles formed the great industrial enterprise of pre-British India. Up to the late-18th Century, India was the leading producer and exporter of textiles; China was then a close second.
History tells us that India was a land of abundance. The country has been blessed with great natural fertility, abundant water and unlimited sunshine. According to foreigners visiting this country, Indians were regarded as the best agriculturists in the world. Records of these travels from the 4th Century BC till early-19th Century speakvolumes about our agricultural abundance which dazzled the world. The Thanjaur (900- 1200 AD) inscriptions and Ramnathapuram (1325 AD) inscriptions record 15 to 20 tonnes per hectare production of paddy. Now, even after the first green revolution, according to Government statistics, Ludhiana in the late-20th Century recorded a production of 5.5 tonnes of paddy per hectare. It is, therefore, imperative that India rediscovers an agricultural technology which incorporates all the inputs from our own wisdom and agricultural skills that made us a land of abundance in food.


Indian economy was as flourishing as its agriculture. Foreigners from Magasthenes to Fa-Hian and Hiuen-Tsiang have described and praised Indian material prosperity. Indian villages around 1780 in Bihar have been cited as an example of cleanliness and hospitality. The streets were swept and watered and the people had a remarkable sense of hospitality and attention to accommodate the needs of the travellers.




 Indian advancements in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, physics and biological sciences have been documented and recognised all over the world. Contributions in the field of medicine and surgery are also well known. Ayurveda and Yoga are the best gifts from India to the world in creating a healthy civilisation. India knew plastic surgery, practised it for centuries and, in fact, it has become the basis of modern plastic surgery. India also practised the system of inoculation against small pox centuries before the vaccination was discovered by Dr Edward Jenner.


Fa-Hian, writing about Magadha in 400 AD, has mentioned that a well organised health care system existed in India. According to him, the nobles and householders of this country had founded hospitals within the city to which the poor of all countries, the destitute, the crippled and the diseased may repair. “They receive every kind of requisite help. Physicians inspect their diseases, and according to their cases, order them food and drink, medicines or decoctions, everything in fact that contributes to their ease.When cured they depart at their ease.” It has been established beyond doubt by the several reports on education at the end of the 18th Century and the writings of Indian scholars that not only did India have a functioning indigenous educational system but that it actually compared more than favourably with the system obtaining in England at the time in respect of the number of schools and colleges proportionate to the population, the number of students in schools and colleges, the diligence as well as the intelligence of the students, the quality of the teachers and the financial support provided from private and public sources. Contrary to the then prevailing opinion, those attending school and college included an impressive percentage of lower caste students, Muslims and girls. Mahatma Gandhi was absolutely right in saying that India was more illiterate in 1931 compared to its state of literacy 50-60 years ago, i.e. in 1870. India had also an expertise in ship building, as also in extensive manufacturing and uses of dyes, and also in manufacturing paper.


India had a share of about 22.5 per cent of world GDP in 1600 AD which during British domination suffered a steep decline to 12.25 per cent in 1870, while the British share in the same period rose sharply from 1.8 per cent to 9.1 per cent. When Britishers left India, the economy was completely shattered and India’s share in world manufacture, trade and GDP declined further. Even after 62 years of Independence, India’s share in world market remains less than one per cent. India’s prosperity, its talents and the state of its high moral society can be best understood by what Thomas Babington Macaulay stated in his speech of February 02, 1835, in the British Parliament. “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such high caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very back bone of this nation,
which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.” This policy was implemented very meticulously by Britishers and the education system was created to make Indian’s ignorant about themselves.


No nation can chart out its domestic or foreign policies unless it has a clear understanding about itself, its history, its strength and failings. It becomes all the more important for any nation to know its roots which sustain its people in a highly mobile and globalised world. Leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi and others who spearheaded the freedom movement had built the struggle around a clear vision of India’s civilisational consciousness. Indian ways of thought and action were in the centre of their political action. These leaders had a vision to reconstruct the political and economic institutions of India as a continuum of the civilisational consciousness which made India one country, one people and one nation. It is unfortunate that the leaders of independent India quickly discarded this vision and continued to work with the institutional structures created by the British which had nothing to do with India’s world view and its vitality which were responsible for its survival despite continued outside attacks and alien rule.


During the six decades of our independence, governance of our country, except for a short period, was with the Congress and its associates. It was most unfortunate that they never thought of creating a socio-economic and political paradigm of governance drawing from the civilisational consciousness of India. They, instead, tried to emulate whatever was being practised in this or that Western country. The disastrous results are before us.


What was required after independence was to reorient India’s polity to bring it in consonance with the seekings and sensibilities of the Indian people. Failure to do so has resulted in a fractured society, vast economic disparities, terrorism and communal conflict, insecurity, moral, psychological and spiritual degradation, and a state apparatus unable to handle any of these problems. Attempts are sometimes made to apply palliatives to manage the affairs but nothing succeeds. What is needed is to arrive at a consensus about the ‘Idea’ of India and also about the seekings and preferences of the people and how they find expression in various socio-economic, political organisations and cultural, aesthetic and ethical sensibilities of the people of India.


The civilisational consciousness of India has been well defined by the sages and philosophers and has its roots in Bharatiya or Hindu world view. This world view is holistic and spiritual. It accepts that diversity is inherent in the scheme of creation; it is the manifestation of the same cosmic entity in different forms. Hence it not only accepts diversity but respects it and even more celebrates it. Hindu or Bharatiya view of life seeks unity in diversity. It is an inclusive approach and one can say that Hinduism is the most ennobling experience in spiritual co-existence. The Bharatiya mind has contemplated beyond national boundaries and the Vedic Rishi declared in the hoary past ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbukam’ – that the world is a family. The horizons of India’s worldview are known to have extended from Bamiyan / Kandahar to Borobudur / Indonesia on the one hand, and Sri Lanka to Japan on the other. Imprints of Indian culture are found in some other parts of the world as well. In ancient times India was isolated in geography but not in cultural relationship, trade and commerce.


The belief in essential unity of mankind is a unique feature of Hindu thought. The Vedic Rishi had also declared that ‘Ekam Sad Viprah Bahudha Vadanti’ (truth or reality is one but wise men describe it in different ways). This is essentially a secular thought in the real sense of the term because it accepts that one can follow his own path to reach the ultimate. Hindus are well known for their belief in harmony of religions. And because of this world view almost all religions practised in different parts of the world have existed peacefully in India and will continue to do so.
 But it appears that even after six decades of independence India has not been able to discover its innate vitality and its sense of time and consequently has lost its direction and will to act. The drift is acute and has encompassed all aspects of national life. The situation needs a change and a new paradigm is called for, for creating a prosperous, progressive and powerful India whose voice is heard in international fora.


India can achieve this goal provided the people seriously set to this task. We are endowed with vast human and material resources. Indian youth have demonstrated their capabilities in various walks of life and proved their competence. In science and technology, space and atomic energy, despite handicaps and lack of world class facilities, they have done remarkably well. In industry, business and management and information communication technology, they have successfully taken challenging risks. With this energetic and vibrant youth power and by prudently harnessing natural resources, Indians can perform miracles provided they work with self-confidence and pride in India. We have to assure a prominent role and full opportunities to our youth in the decision-making process. They are the future and the propellers of our prosperity.


India need not blindly copy this or that model of development; it should evolve a model suited to its genius and resources. The Integral Humanism suggested by Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay provides such a model. India should be original, India should innovate, and India should move upwards on the ladder of global leadership. The global scenario demands a solution, a radical solution to save the world from the impending disaster of the Great Economic Recession and terrorism looming large all over the world.


India is destined to play its historic role at this crucial juncture.
And its our responsibility to play an even more crucial role in electing our leaders in this tough time.So, think twice and act wise as you vote!!


PS:- Needless to say that India needs a determined leadership and a decisive governance .

INDIA NEEDS FOCUS ON AGRICULTURE !!

Gone were the days of saying "Agriculture is the backbone of India" and "Farmer is the backbone of the Economy". Its the need of the hour to introspect in to the situation. The Government has announced that over 1,12,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1993. Shame on our part to bear this. Farming is the less equally treated one despite it’s the only source for our fooding. Its not that the inequality is unknown or new to us. What makes the last 15 years different is the ruthlessness with which it has been engineered and the cynicism with which it has been constructed.


Albeit, the social pressure arising from widening inequality has increased in the past few years(driven by globalization and rise of capitalism), the direction of policy on farming-----central to rural India is SIMPLE in its main idea---- to take agriculture out of the farmers' hands and to put in the hands of corporation. Every move and every policy, only pushes this idea further forward. We are witnessing the largest displacement in our history. Its not happening in dam or mining project. Its happening in agriculture. And we haven't a clue yet what we will do with the millions we're busy shoving off the land. This is not done with lands and bulldozers. We are just making the farming impossible for small holders. And we create no options for those whose livelihoods we so cheerfully destroy.In other words,many move to a status that is neither a farmer nor a worker(a pathetic situation to be keenly observed).


India, the peoples' country was supposed to run on two wheels…one is the FARMER and the other is the SOLDIER. After all, this is not the voice of one, not mine. It’s the slogan of the thousands or for that matter the millions of Indians…"JAI JAWAN, JAI KISAN". If the thousands of the educated( the so called skilled) are unable to answer the problems of a day or two days rain or the Government does not give scope to such discussions what about the fate of the person(who thinks that all his survival/future is in our hands) standing before us begging for the recovery….come on he is doing not just for his sake but for the whole country(you can feel it only if you dig in deep). Above all, I want to put a question...."HOW MANY OF YOU EVER THOUGHT OF A FARMER WHILE/AFTER TAKING YOUR FOOD? HOW MANY OF YOU SHOW YOUR CONCERN ATLEAST BY SAYING "ANNADATA SUKHIBHAVA"?" This seems to be foolish/ridiculous as you read .But, if you can think …I'm telling, if you can polish your thoughts, you'll come to know that from those mere words one could bring "the has to DOs" for a farmer on someday(possibly in the near future*).


Hours in the assembly sessions are being consumed for estimating each others' wealth…. Many of the sessions were passed by, some without questioning the issues regarding water, agriculture, irrigation projects , financial sector, inflation at full-length and in-depth(here I mean whatever they asked, the way was not so pestering that the ruling party has just ruled it off) and some of-course were gently ignored without giving a minimal solution/ answer. Though I couldn't ask for debate in such assembly meetings, but no doubt I can question for atleast a discussion that is to be held in the so called "SESSIONS".
Though we all know that we have to learn from mistakes, failures inorder to succeed….. there are umpteen instances wherein our state failed to do that, due to which the dream of turning it into GOLDEN LAND has now become a nightmare. When 1000s of acres of ground nut plantation(that are to be reaped the next day) was lost due to heavy rains, when all the fish lakes in and around Vijayawada(as I remember) were bombed for the sake of other projects(that are incomplete till now), when killings are observed in similar manner in the vicinity of same place for the same reasons, when prices are hiking day by day and so forth….where is the place for a comman man for his survival??Or more particularly "the life of a farmer??" You may get the doubt why I'm more stressing on the farmer…Yes!?


Yeah…..FARMER he is the one soul on earth who does not look for his profits !!
The whole day he sweats for the sake of the Nation….though he thinks he gets some bucks....mind you in our terms, "he is just hoping for that"(as we know his salary is completely based on the probability)…and at the end of the day he simply sleeps keeping his legs into stomach….I mean with an empty stomach. [These are not simple words…but are statements after doing a survey in my Grandmother's Village].
Then, our immediate thought is …why doesn't he leave such a job in which his salary is always a probable one??Isn't it?…yes….even I questioned it…the answer was…."Dear, see its our conventional job….had done by my ancestors….have been doing by us….will be done by our sons & daughters, though we have dark side of it(no enough money out of it)…..we always look at the other side …"the satisfaction we get" …this is not a mere job but the responsibility handed over by my forefathers to us and moreover it is the other way of serving the Nation(the motherland) with food" !!! Amazing answer, a very generous reply. But, what about those who are weak-heartened and are attempting for suicides? Lets not let this happen further. If we keep a hard and fast rule that the persons who work hard should enjoy the fruits of it, then its not impossible to keep them happy. Thence, India needs focus on Agriculture in general and on FARMER in particular!!


* If there are persons who can spare a few minutes to hear and solve their problems.