In Hinduism or otherwise, it is known as Sanatana, the word ‘Dharma’ gives different meanings at different places following the context.  If we translate it into English it can be called ‘righteousness’ or ‘law’ or ‘duty’ or ‘custom/ritual’ or even ‘model’.  Confused?  How come one single word gives several meanings?  That’s the beauty of Hinduism.  Let me briefly explain to my international readers before we venture into our title, as it is very vital to know first to understand the article further.

A man observes a good character, say righteousness, then he follows the Dharma of Humankind.

A king/ruler implements precise judgements and rules his kingdom that benefits the public, say as law and then he follows the Dharma of the King.

If police arrest his close relative, maybe his son or father for any heinous crime without considering any second thought of his close relationship, say his duty, then he follows the Dharma of his position.  The same can be considered as a teacher does to his/her student without considering caste and creed.

A Priest conducts and delivers his knowledge and service, say custom or ritual, to everyone who approaches him without considering their wealth position and level of their position in the society, then he follows the Dharma of a Priest.

One stands alone by his/her character and that inspires millions of people, say Lord Rama is known for His character and follower of elders, then he/she follows the Dharma as a model to others.

These are small and simple examples to understand Dharma instantly and implement in one’s life.  To know this word more deeply, one needs to explore the literature of Sanatana Dharma.  Again here, I used the Dharma term after Sanatana, which means here that the way of life or rules laid by the Sanatana or Hinduism.

The word Dharma is derived from the Sanskrit root word (‘Dhatu’) ‘Dhri’ which means ‘to support’, ‘to hold’, or ‘to maintain’.  Dharma is described in early Vedic texts as laws that bring order to the World, if not, the World goes into chaos.

Before we go into the main part of the article let me also give a few more Sanskrit examples with some Slokas (Sloka is a Sanskrit word referring to a verse, proverb, hymn or poem that uses a specific meter) where the word ‘Dharma’ is used.

दीर्घा वै जाग्रतो रात्रिः दीर्घ श्रान्तस्य योजनम् ।

दीर्घो बालानां संसारः सद्धर्मं अविजानताम् ॥

dīrghā vai jāgratō rātriḥ dīrgha śrāntasya yōjanam ।

dīrghō bālānāṃ saṃsāraḥ saddharmaṃ avijānatām ॥

Meaning: Night appears very long to the one who is awake all through the night and the short distance of a place appears very long to the tired one. Similarly, life appears long for small-minded people who do not know what true Dharma is.

गौरवं गुरुषु स्नेहं नीचेषु प्रेम बन्धुषु ।

दर्शयन् विनयी धर्मी सर्वप्रीतिकरो भवेत् ॥

gauravaṃ guruṣu snēhaṃ nīcēṣu prēma bandhuṣu ।

darśayan vinayī dharmī sarvaprītikarō bhavēt ॥

Meaning: A modest and virtuous person who tenders regard to the elders, affection to the lowly and love to his kinsmen, is loved by all.

यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः ।

yato dharmastato jayaḥ ।

Meaning: Where there is Dharma, there will be Victory

Hope by now my international readers have got some idea about Dharma.  It has been clearly and categorically the term Dharma used in different contexts for different reasons.

Since we now understand Dharma, let’s apply this to the present world that undergoes the following scenarios.

• Grown children, especially sons, refuse to take care of their parents in their old age.
• Spouses do not respect their counterparts.
• Abrahamic religions like Christianity and Islam took all possible ways to spread their religions in a faster manner.
• Mighty countries try to put their nose into the sovereignty of other countries.
• Rich people take all advantage of have-nots, only to make more money in their businesses and to go to any extent to sell their businesses.
• The cinema industry and actors are no longer responsible people to society.
• Rulers, to reclaim their power, do anything shamelessly.
• Doctors and teachers who are supposed to be more responsible people, forgot their responsibility.
• Relationships are made laughable and meaningless.

Finally, money alone dominates over everything.  Allow me to analyze all these, from my and your perspective.

Why grown children are not taking care of their parents and sending them to old age homes?  They have given up their Dharma of caring for their parents who took care of these children and helped them to their current position.  Now it’s their turn to reciprocate the same to them.  As one English proverb goes, ‘men are what their mothers’ make them’, if the mother (let’s consider both parents) correctly cultivate them, these children would have been on the right path.  Parents gave up their Dharma to teach righteous path and so is the children are doing now to them.  Ultimately it is Dharma that neither one followed.

The husband ought to take care of the wife and so is the case with the wife.  In Sanatana Dharma, the wife must follow the husband and not the other way around.  Does it mean gender discrimination?  Never!  Hinduism is the only religion wherein so many female deities and mothers are considered as God to anybody.  A ship cannot have two captains.  Hence life-ship to be captained by the husband, however wife can assist and extend advice when there is any need arises. There is a subtle secret behind this.  Men and women cannot think alike, technically speaking, men think mentally and women emotionally.  Men can handle hard decisions, whereas women deal with delicate matters with heart.  There was a perfect understanding of the mindsets of men and women in those days and marriages were successful then, despite a few flaws emerge some time.  In today’s World, both genders are working, only to have a lavish life.  Contentment is not seen anywhere.  The more money you go for, the less peace you will have.  Money should be a catalyst in one’s life to move it smoothly, not a hurdle to stop it abruptly.  When a question of selection whether it is spouse or money, consider a spouse, to have a peaceful life.  The one who does not follow this Dharma, his/her life would be miserable.  However, according to Hinduism, Husband is the captain of the ship and the wife is the navigator, hence wife must follow the husband.  No gender discrimination at all in Sanatana Dharma.

Abrahamic religions like Christianity and Islam were and are very keen on spreading their wings to spread their religions.  No matter, whatever the possible and crooked way available, they don’t hesitate to approach.  Maybe using of sword or threatening, maybe using wealth or enticing with otherworldly material, never they sit aback.  They even go to the extent of defaming the existing religion of the soil, rewriting their history, burning their rich literature and whatnot.  Most of the European countries were victims of such acts of Christianity and most of the Asian and African countries were the victims of Islam.  Christianity and Islam were established in the countries they invaded within the short period of 30-60 years.  India stands alone among these countries where both these Abrahamic religions failed to convert the entire people either Christians or Muslims. The reason for their failure was hidden in the Vedic culture of Hindus. The topic of our discussion is not this, hence let’s get back to our topic.  What was the actual reason for such acts?  Mere spreading the religion was not alone the fact.  There was a big vacuum in the religion that existed in every country they invaded which was perfectly encashed by these religions.  In their religion, it was only one God and everyone should follow that one God.  There is no freedom to worship other religious Gods that exist.  No freedom to ask questions is allowed.  No freedom of rejection of one’s birth religion and embrace the other.  The result of such acts would lead to the death penalty.  So is not the case in Sanatana Dharma.  Since it is not an Abrahamic and not a religion itself but a way of life, it allows and even encourages questions when religious education is taught, which is, otherwise called, ‘Tarka Shastra’ means a system of education which deals philosophy of dialectics, logic and reasoning and art of debate that analyzes the nature and source of knowledge and its validity.  Have you ever seen such in any of those Abrahamic religions?  The Shastras in Sanatana Dharma not only teach religious activities but also character-building.  That is the richness of Sanatana Dharma, the way of life.  It is not to be read to understand but to be followed to understand and harvest the benefit.  The lack of Dharmic values in those Abrahamic religions caused disaster in the culture of every country they invaded.

Mighty countries, in terms of wealth, natural resources, defence and technological advancement, always tried to hold their position high among the rest of the countries by teasing or trying to invade other countries who are far from such capacities.  For instance, the US, China and Russia are a few known countries where we saw such activities, haven’t we?  Either they would be trying to show their supremacy, encroaching or even dominating.  A healthier and wealthier sibling in any family ought to take care of the weak one.  It is the fundamental Dharma of any family of siblings.  This way, the family is intact, integrated, and strong within.  So is the case with the world.  The world is one family!  Not all countries are rich, educated and have an abundance of natural resources.  Those countries that are blessed with these, must adopt the countries that do not have these, by standing as an elder brother.  Giving is happiness not taking, helping is divine not harassing.  Yes, there could be conflicts with some neighbouring countries.  In that scenario, you may not help, but surely should not harass by pouring power.  War is the ultimate weapon to be used, not for showing one’s supremacy or dominance.  Unfortunately, the present World is seeing all these, supremacy, dominance and encroaching.  Giving up Dharma in such a situation has a strong impact on Karma in return.  No individual, no country can escape from this.

No doubt, business is a way of making money and showing one’s skill in their domain.  ‘Businessing’ is a serious business, cannot afford to face a loss against their invested money and time.  The profit made from the business varies from business to business.  Does it mean that one can go to any extent to see the maximum height of profit?  Let me give an instance of this.  In the recent past, the entire World underwent the suffering of the Corona pandemic.  I place two perceptions on this.  One evil Pharma company creates such a deadly virus, spreads across the world and releases the vaccine subsequently at a higher price, only to make a huge profit in a shorter period.  The rest of the established and renowned Pharma industries found an excellent opportunity to make huge money on this and released their vaccines one after one.  In a time of crisis of this deadly virus pandemic, it is the Dharma of these Pharma companies to come out with a free and fair solution.  Was it the case?  The World knows the rest.  India, the only country that preaches and spreads Dharmic values, developed indigenous vaccines and gave them away free of cost to most of the countries that were poor, needy and suffering heavily from the pandemic.  India stands tall by her social responsibility and Dharmic values from the rest of the countries of the world.  The Indian Pharma companies had a fantastic opportunity to make huge money, but they refused to do so.  Dharmic values, that were taught to them and in their blood from ancient times were never allowed to do so. 

Cinema is another area of making huge money world widely.  The entertainment media’s deep impact on the minds of people is tremendous.  Any message said through this media reaches fast and precise to the minds of the public.  Good or bad, has a deep impact.  Having said that, do the media and actors of the feature films behave responsibly? Are they performing their duty correctly?  You know the answer.  Mere money making is the prime target, nobody cares about the good things alone should reach the public, neither the story writer, director, producer nor the actors.  It is simply an irresponsible attitude by them towards society.  Violent stories, bloodshed scenes, filthy language and obscenities in the film, are the prime needs to make a huge profit in every movie.  Barring a few, the entire cinema industry revolves around these evil qualities all around the world.  India is not an exception from this, however, some kind of control over these by the film certification body in India.  Can’t say what will happen tomorrow due to the influence of the Western world that slowly spreading in every part of industries in India too, sadly.  The time India gives up her Dharmic values, that will be the beginning of the destruction of the world.

The Dharma of a king or a ruler is to protect and present the best amenities and an amicable environment for his/her country’s people.  To stay in power is to maintain these to the public, not for self-esteem and to make himself/herself rich and the relatives and acquaintances.  Unfortunately, every political leader around the world does exactly as said above.  No matter how short-period one remains in power, but make enormous money as much as possible.  As one proverb goes in Sanskrit that ‘यथा राजा तथा प्रजा ‘ (yathā rājā tathā prajā), meaning ‘as is the king, so are the people’.  It is categorically said that people follow the example of leaders.  Leaders must set an example to their people, lest the country diminish gradually.

After the parents, doctors and teachers are seen as apex level, like God, because the first one saves the lives of many and the second one makes them so.  Why Gods are supreme?  They are spotless and perfect.  Humans cannot be like this, however, they can surely try to be like this, no matter if they can achieve it or not.  The responsibility for them is more in society than in any other profession in the world.  I am bound to use the word ‘profession’ here as these two are supposed to be service oriented rather than profession oriented.  Unfortunately, the Dharma of these two professions certainly declines day after day, especially in the field of medicine.  Doctors are no longer service-tendering people but money-making people.  When I say this, I exclude a few good souls. 

One Sanskrit hymn goes like this: 

‘शरीरे जर्जरीभूते व्याधिग्रस्ते कलेबरे । औषधं जाह्नवीतोयं वैद्यो नारायणो हरिः ॥ ‘

‘sharIrE jarjarIbhUtE vyAdhigrastE kalebarE | auShadham jaanhavItOyam vaidyO nArAyaNO harih’ 

The shloka means:  ‘Medicine should be considered as sacred as water from the river Ganges (a holy river in India) and that a doctor should be considered as a form of Lord Narayana (One of the forms of Hindu Gods)’.   Hindus keep the doctors at such a high level and these ‘doctor-Gods’ do not take minimum responsibility towards society.  They sell themselves to corporate hospitals for mere money and other lavish benefits.  This is a deviation from their Dharma, indeed.

In our living world, there are two basic relationships, one comes by birth and the other one is made through our marriage.  The one that comes by birth, we have no power to change it.  The second one must be handled carefully because the rest of life depends on that.  In most parts of the world, marriage decisions are made between would-be couples.  As these would-be couples age is not mature enough to understand and estimate the family of the other side of the would-be spouse, they tend to make huge mistakes which will be resulting disaster, in the later stage of their life.  Hence, we have so many diverse cases in the Western world.  The case is different in India where most of the marriages are decided by parents with the unknown person, but after analyzing and screening of their family and their past life, both economically and socially.  In the recent past three decades, love marriages spreading across Indian society also and the result of such marriages mostly end up with separation or suicide.  Indian marriages are mostly done after seeing the Gotra (the term Gotra is equivalent to lineage.  It broadly refers to people who are descendants of an unbroken male line called Rishi who was an accomplished and enlightened person.  Rishis were the key people who composed hymns of the Vedas from a common male ancestor or patriline).  When marriages are performed, the two families should not have the same Gotra, as every family has its own Gotra name.  It is forbidden to marry a male or female with the same Gotra as he or she would be his or her brother or sister.  Bypassing these guidelines, some families even have marriages within the same Gotra, which is a sin according to Sastra and precisely against Dharma.  This is because of the influence of Western culture in India which spoils so many Indian cultural values.  Indeed, such marriages are laughable and meaningless.  Such marriages shame their family and the community they belong to.

Balaji Canchi Sistla

6-7-2023 at 12 noon

From Hyderabad

Since the pandemic of Covid-19 started at the end of the year 2019, there was one single word that was famous among the general public in the entire world – ‘PANIC’.  Thanks to Media for exaggerating at their best level around the world by spreading the news 24/7 repeatedly in such a way, that everybody in the world should watch it and get panicked.  The Media did its best to spread the panic more, rather than giving awareness to the public or educate them.  The Media was well fed and supported by W.H.O.  as to how the panic is kept intact as maximum possible time.   Well, it is almost one and a half year now and the public around the world is in the same panic and worried of getting infected by Corona.  

Was this really so dreadful?  Are there any means behind spreading the virus or the panic news?  Who are beneficiaries, if so?  What a common man should do or face if he gets infected by Corona?  How Corona patients should be treated socially?  Let’s introspect.

Let’s now discuss, not how it spreads or asymptomatic/symptomatic or the mode of contact, etc., there are plenty of websites and learned people around you to stuff your brain, but let me say about how the infected patients taking this and how others behave with them.

There are 2 phases of feelings in every infected and uninfected people will undergo.  Confused, Panic and feared – thanks to the paid media for their exclusive contribution in this first phase.  This phase usually happens to uninfected people.

Once infected, the second phase of feelings will start such as paucity in taking any decision, kind of shyness or fear to disclose that they are infected, mental agony contributed by relatives and friends in a way of helping, fear of future in case of any untoward things happens to his/her family by him/her, etc.

Confused is the first step in phase 1 in uninfected people.  So much so info from the Media and surrounding people such as friends and relatives every new day they feed new stuff and that subsequently leave the people in confused stage. Once confused, panic will emerge in their minds that whether Corona will hit them.  Every day is a boxing day for them.  Every day they take more care when they deal with the outer world.

The fear gets worsened so high that it will follow them in their day-to-day life too.  Ironically, they never believe the people with whom they were dealing all these years.  They suspect everybody they come across with fear.  This will continue until they get infected.

The actual drama will now start soon after one gets infected.  The time one diagnosed as ‘positive’, the ‘positive attitude’ of the person goes down. The infected person stops to think that what to be done now.  So many thought processes will go in their mind and unable to make any firm decisions.

This will slowly push them into a mental state that how they are going to face society, friends, and relatives.  A kind of shyness or social embarrassment they feel to reveal that they are Covid patients.

Anyway, it is somehow said to near and dear, later one cannot imagine the pouring of advises and suggestions they get.  They volume is so high that they will not get time to think about which is to be considered, whom to be contacted.  Suggestions and advises come like waterfalls that it becomes almost impossible to come out of it.  Although their intend is to help the patients, on the contrary, they might confuse by pouring so many vague ideas.   One is unable to decide what to accept or reject any references they get.  The mental agony of the person in this stage is inexpressible.  Diagnosed as positive and having no clue where to start the treatment, but so much of pouring ideas and suggestions.  Added to that, the fear of the future gets into the mind, what if he/she dies, who will take care of the family, etc.  This stage is tough among all others and relieved so quickly once the treatment starts.

Trust me, Corona doesn’t kill any, but the fear about Corona does.  Corona doesn’t spare any, it will touch everybody in this world.  At any given time, out of 100, if you test, 70% will get positive, without a doubt. A small percentage of people will show most of the symptoms.  Most of the people walk around you with Corona without any symptoms or a few symptoms..  Once you have a strong immunity within you, no virus will harm you.  All we must do now is to enhance or improve the immunity within us. 

Most of the people die in this world every day by Cancer, Malaria, T.B., but not by Corona.  Having said that, why then Corona is given so much priority in the Media?  Why these figures are being shown on priority on TV while other deaths are not while they are much more in real?  Why China, from where this virus spread, did not get as much spread across other parts of China when every country got spread every part of their country?  So many questions need to be answered by WHO and other people concerned in this world’s biggest medical phobia.

The sooner you get Corona and diagnosed early, the quicker your body develops antibody.  There are numerous viruses in this world without any name.  You might have been said by your doctor when you went for treatment for your fever that you have viral fever, and the doctor gives medicines.  You would have also come out treated well someday later, after proper medications.  Such unnamed viruses are going to come more in future also, but why this virus is specifically named and popularized, have you ever thought of this?  Because there is a big commercial scam is taking place in the world and with or without knowing, most of the countries are involved in this.

According to one Dr N. N. Kannappan from Madurai, TN, India (a circulated message received from a social group), the hot water you drink is good for your throat, but this Coronavirus is hidden behind the Paranasal Sinus of your nose for 3 to 4 days, unfortunately the hot water we drink does not reach there.  After 3 to 4 days, the virus that was hidden behind the paranasal sinus reaches your lungs.

Then, you will have trouble in breathing, in the worst cases. That’s why it is very important to take steam, which reaches the back side of your Paranasal Sinus.  You must neutralize this virus in the nose itself with the help of steam.  At 50°C, this virus becomes disabled i.e., paralyzed.  At 60°C this virus becomes so weak that any human immune system can fight against it.  At 70°C this virus neutralized completely.  This is what the steam does.

The entire Public Health Department knows this, but everyone wants to take advantage of this Pandemic, hence they don’t share this information openly, may be they are tied-up by instructions or any other reasons. Of course, a few ‘kind doctors’ surely share this with their patients.  One who stays at home should take steam once a day.  If you go to the market to buy groceries, vegetables etc., take it twice a day.  Anyone who meets some people or goes to office should take steam 3 times a day, steam for a week.  No need to add medicines such as Eucalyptus oil in the hot water, however once in two-three days doesn’t harm you.

According to Dr N. N. Kannappan, Covid-19 can be neutralized by inhaling steam from the nose and mouth, which is eliminating the Coronavirus completely.  If all the people started a ‘steam drive’ campaign for a week, the pandemic will soon end.  If we all adopt this practice for a week the so called ‘deadly Covid-19’ will be erased.  This practice has no side effects and doesn’t cost anything either.

Now tell me, how many of your doctors have said this to you?  Hardly any doctor discloses this.  Well, world has become very commercial very long back.  Every part of your life is now knowingly or unknowingly a commercial aspect of it without your knowledge.  Develop your analytical skill and be a correct decision-maker first time and every time.

Finally, when you get Coronavirus, don’t be panic or scared about it.  It is a natural process of getting, watch the symptoms and treat it at the earlier stage itself and get yourself antibodies naturally.  If no symptoms, don’t worry, even you have the virus in your body, but your body is managing to fight with it.  Meanwhile, try to increase your immune system and do stream daily according to your need.  Watch TV less which propagate more on bad news, less good news.  Corona is not a medical war to accomplish success, but the psychological war to suppress the pseudo-Medias. 

Remember, a strong mind is more important to win the race rather than with a meager body.

Balaji Canchi Sistla

Hyderabad

21-4-2021

It was my friend who asked once about my opinion on inter-caste marriages (the caste system is the predominant aspect in arranged marriages by the parents in India even today – this info for my international readers).  Forget about inter-caste marriages, even among the same caste marriages but from the different regions has many changes in performing religious rituals and other daily routines.  These kinds of cultural changes are apparent in India when you travel from one region to another.  

India is a diverse country, its people, culture, climate, everything changes every 200-300 kms.  From the snows of the Himalayas of North to hot weather of the far South, from vast deserts of the Western region to the humid conditions of the Eastern regions, the Central region is cool dry weather and cool forest foothills, Indian lifestyles are completely depending on these geographical changes.  People express their feelings in different languages and dialects, they wear dress differently, they love to eat different food, they believe and follow different religions, etc.  All of these changes impact people culturally different.  That is why Indian culture differs like its lengthy geography. 

The term ‘culture’ has a big meaning to dig out.  Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.

Let’s come back to the question that my friend asked me.   As these differences are spilled across India, how could two persons of the same regions but raised up in different environments (caste) travel successfully?  Even this is unsuccessful if the same caste of people but from different regions or languages joining together – that is what I said to him.

He immediately shot this question that ‘there are people who lead a successful life with such differences, don’t you know this?’.  I know, he might shoot this question instantly soon after I give my opinion.

The point is, it is possible and make successful, only when either one or both of the couple is prepared to sacrifice a few or a lot and their egos and more importantly they should able to tackle diligently the friends and relatives.  These are people most of the time spoil the sport unintentionally in the name of helping them or guiding them.  

Now I took the liberty to ask this question as to ‘why he was keen on this subject?’ ‘Were there any such incidents happen?’  Without hesitation, he busted out what happened in his family.

He has two elder sisters, fortunately both had done love marriage with the same caste and same region.  Having their marriages were based on love, their children took advantage of this, forgetting that they married in the same caste and region.  The game starts now.  The elder sister’s children made the cross-over but successful because they just forgot their maternal side rituals and merged completely with the other side.   This is absolutely a sacrifice and giving up their ego. 

The second sister’s daughter inspired by all these cross-over marriages, followed the same as their seniors did.  The mistake that took place was after the marriage, there was no sacrifice and giving up ego.  That resulted in a crack in their marriage life within 2-3 years, meanwhile they had a child also.  The couple is from a different cultural environment and moreover from different religions too, but of the same region.  The crack gets widen, day by day and they started abusing each other in front of relatives too.  When inter-caste or inter-religion marriages are taking place, the couple doesn’t care the parents and relatives (friends are exceptional in this case, they are the ones always encourage such marriages without understanding the outcome of such marriages.  However, the same friends would have married with their caste people, if you probe this deeply, you will get this).  

When differences are started occurring, now the couple needs parents and relatives.  The Indian parents anyway support their children blindly in most of the cases, but relatives are ones who get into the scene to develop the crack further in the name of compromising or giving foolish suggestions. 

Does it mean that parents and relatives should not interfere in their marriage life when problems arrive?  What is the solution for such indifference marriages then?  The best part relatives can play here is, to arrange a conducive environment for the couple to talk on the issues taken place between them, not to pedal for more threatening relationship.

With increasing complexities in day-to-day marriage life, for that matter, even any other kind of life nowadays, people are eagerly looking for any alternates through which they get some solution for their problems.   We, as relatives, either seriously find some amicable solutions that make couples of such, make their life comfortable and happy, not to meddle for deepening the problems.

Another important aspect in India in the recent past is the emergence of the woman empowerment. Women are predominantly housewives or homemakers then and now in India. the changing perspective of this, in many places, especially metros and other big cities, women are also sharing their shoulders for the responsibility of running a family.   Sometimes, their earnings are challenging for their spouse in many houses.  On such occasions, the male ego would clash with women and that turns to be a big reason for inter-caste and inter-religion marriages.  Having said earlier, where there is a lack of sacrifice and dominance of ego by the spouse(s), there would be definitely an emergence of clash especially marriages of exampled as above.

The very beauty of the Indian people lies in their spirit of tolerance, give-and-take, a composition of cultures, etc.   Ironically, due to the influence of Western culture in India in the late 70s, Indian typical cultural values are diminishing too fast. 

What is important in life is not mere money-making, but living a happy life and happiness doesn’t come by money alone.  Happiness is a matter of mindset; matter of perceiving tough times also in better opportunities.  My grandmother used to say me when I was a very young age that real happiness lies in seeing others happy.  No life would be happy forever, unless there is a place for sacrifice and giving-up egos, be it a same caste/inter-caste/inter-religion/inter-region marriages. 

Cultural changes are not welcome but became inevitable……

Balaji Canchi Sistla

Hyderabad @ 4.30 pm on 31-8-2020

The very idea of CAA was perceived in other angle and brought another by-product to India called false patriotism among a certain group of people and community.  How far their stand is correct? Let’s discuss.

Now we have two questions in front of us.

Why some sect of people opposing this?

Why a particular community was false informed that their citizens are at stake by some malignant people?

There could be only two reasons; vote bank and illegal activities.

Before we discuss that, we should know what this CAA- Citizenship Amendment Act is all about?

This constitution was implemented in 1950, guaranteed citizenship to all of the country’s residents at the commencement of the constitution and made no distinction on the basis of religion and subsequently passed the Citizenship Act in 1955.

The Citizenship Act was first amended in 1985 after the Assam Accord (The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement.  It was led by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the protestors demanded the identification and deportation of all illegal foreigners – predominantly Bangladeshi immigrants) was signed, wherein the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed to identify foreign citizens, remove them from the electoral rolls, and expel them from the country.  The Citizenship Act was further amended in 1992, 2003, 2005 and 2015.

In December 2003, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 with far-reaching revisions of the Citizenship Act.  It added the notion of “illegal immigrants” to the Act, making them ineligible to apply for citizenship (by registration or naturalisation), and declaring their children also as illegal immigrants.  Illegal immigrants were defined as citizens of other countries who entered India without valid travel documents, or who remained in the country beyond the period permitted by their travel documents. They can be deported or jailed.  The bill was supported by the Indian National Congress, as well as the Left parties, such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI-M, etc.

The irony is, the parties who were supporting the Act so far, are now opposing.  What could be else than getting political mileage on this?  It is very apparent that they are for mere vote bank.  For them, politics is a business, not a service anymore.  It is their matter of survival.  Citizens and their welfare are secondary, indeed.

A very large number of illegal immigrants, the largest numbers of whom are from Bangladesh, live in India. The Task Force on Border Management quoted the figure of 15 million illegal migrants in 2001.  In 2004, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government stated in Parliament that there were 12 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India.  The reasons for the scale of migration include a porous border, historical migration patterns, economic reasons, and cultural and linguistic ties.  Many illegal migrants from Bangladesh had eventually received the right to vote.

Recently, Parliament of India on 11 December 2019 amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014.  Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility.  According to Intelligence Bureau records, there will be just over 30,000 immediate beneficiaries of the bill.

The amendment has been widely criticised as discriminating on the basis of religion, in particular, for excluding Muslims.  The Indian government categorically says that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have Islam as their state religion and therefore Muslims are “unlikely to face religious persecution” there.  Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are Muslim-majority countries that have modified their Constitutions in recent decades to declare Islam their official state religion. Therefore, according to the Indian government, Muslims in these Islamic countries are “unlikely to face religious persecution”.  The BBC states that while these countries have provisions in their constitution guaranteeing non-Muslims rights, including the freedom to practice their religion, in practice non-Muslim populations have experienced discrimination and persecution.

Interestingly, Muslims in India today hoisting Indian flags in their houses, only to show their patriotism in this way.  If that is the case, were they not patriotic all these years?  How patriotism suddenly sprouts to anybody and that to a particular community?  Why do they need to worry to prove their citizenship if they are genuine Indian citizen?

The Citizenship Act, 1955 clearly states that anyone born in India on or after January 26, 1950, up till July 1, 1987, is an Indian citizen by birth. Anyone born on or after July 1, 1987, but before the commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 and either of whose parents is an Indian citizen at the time of his birth is an Indian citizen. And anyone born after the commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 and both of whose parents are Indian citizens at the time of his birth.

A genuine Indian citizen has to furnish any one of the following documents when asked:

1. 1951 NRC
2. Electoral roll(s) up to 24 March (midnight), 1971
3. Land and tenancy records
4. Citizenship certificate
5. Permanent residential certificate
6. Refugee registration certificate
7. Any government-issued license/certificate
8. Government service/employment certificate
9. Bank or post

(source:  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/is-a-pan-india-nrc-possible-the-lesson-from-assam/articleshow/72454225.cms?from=mdr)

Similar acts for persecuted religious minorities, excluding the majority religion, have been introduced in other secular countries such as the United States. The Religious Persecution Relief Act, 2016 of the United States declares, “Syrian nationals who are religious minorities in their country of origin: shall be classified as refugees of special humanitarian concern, shall be eligible for priority two processing under the refugee resettlement priority system

India is not a signatory to either the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol.  It does not have a national policy on refugees. All refugees are classed as “illegal migrants”. While India has been willing to host refugees, its traditional position formulated by Jawaharlal Nehru is that such refugees must return to their home countries after the situation returns to normal.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a series of Tweets, said that “No Indian has anything to worry regarding this act. This act is only for those who have faced years of persecution outside and have no other place to go except India”.

The United States Secretary of State said that the US respects Indian democracy since it has a “robust” internal debate on the Citizenship Act.

Deputy Russian Ambassador to India, Roman Babushkin, said that Russia considers the legislation an internal matter of India.

Ambassador of France to India, Emmanuel Lenain, said that France considers the legislation an internal matter of India and respects it.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “Within India, people are facing many problems” and expressed her concerns saying, “We don’t understand why (the Indian government) did it. It was not necessary”. However, she maintained her stance that the CAA and NRC are internal matters of India.

Maldives’ Parliament Speaker and former president, Mohamed Nasheed, said that CAA is an internal issue of India and was democratically passed through both the houses of the Parliament.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, as expected, criticised the Act. Pakistan’s National Assembly passed a resolution labelling the Act as a “discriminatory law” and argued that it contravened “bilateral agreements and understandings between India and Pakistan, particularly those on security and rights of minorities in the respective countries”. However, the record of the minorities’ Human rights in Pakistan is terrible.

The bottom line is, India is not a piece of land where anybody can just enter illegally and get all legal facilities that a son of the soil gets.

If no action is taken even now, not Assam alone but the entire country will face Hindu citizen will face religious persecution in their own country.  There are so many Christian and Muslim countries in this World but for Hindus, India is the only country and they cannot move to another country on the basis of religious persecution.  Hence any Hindus in non-Hindu counties who seek the citizenship in India, it should be duly considered based on the reason.  If a Hindu doesn’t get asylum in India, where he/she will go?

Being a Hindu majority country, India is remaining secular and no other religions including Christians and Muslims in India face any restrictions on practising their religion.   The entire world owes a lot to India for her secularism, tolerance and equal constitutional powers among all her citizens irrespective of any religion.

India is a huge population nation wherein her own citizens do not get proper health care and education and other facilities, from where India would provide these to illegal immigrants.

(Thanks to wikipedia.org for some source of information)

 

Men are men in any part of the world, so is the case of women in the world, but there is a question arising on gender equality all the time. The women liberal thinking of attaining gender equality does not fetch the justice to their liberal thinking, but on the contrary, it would worsen their status in the society.

Although women across the globe think and act alike, there could be some nuance of thinking and acting by them. Women in American and European countries give less priorities in golden jewellery, whereas the case is other way around in India. Women in the African tribal territory, who walk half naked without any embarrassment, cannot be compared with the civilized societies in developed countries.  Women who stay with multi-relative system before and after their marriage in India are different from nuclear families in Western countries. Among a few differences, one common and concrete similarity in women in all over the world is ‘motherliness’, irrespective of one becomes motherhood or not. This is called ‘Matrutva’ in Sanskrit. The clement action or compassionate words are inherent naturally to women in any part of the world.

Women are basically born for caring and controlling the house and household, however, with the onset of cultural exchange between countries, most of the women have now lost their identity of their own culture and country. India is no more exception to this.

The role of women in ancient Indian literature is immense.  Ancient India had many learned ladies. There were two types of scholarly women — the Brahmavadinis, or the women who never married and chant Vedas throughout their lives and the Sadyodvadhus are those who became Vadhus or brides straightaway on the attainment of puberty, without undergoing the training in the Vedic studies.  Apart from Vedic learning and teaching, women were writing Sanskrit plays and verses, excelled in music, painting and other fine arts.  Women had enjoyed prominent roles in politics too in ancient India.  The foreign visitor, Megasthenes who was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work ‘Indika’, mentioned that the Pandya women were running the administration.   The Satavahana queen, “Nayanika ruled the kingdom on behalf of her minor son, so did Prabavati, daughter of Chandragupta II, on behalf of the minor prince, are a few examples to understand women administration skills. The unknown fact is, in the ancient times is that even Kings used to request the scholarly women of their family or their kingdom, to address the issues faced by them. The best known woman administrators in our recent memory are, Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai, Rani Mangamma, Rudramma Devi, et al.

With such awe legacy behind in Indian women, where they lost their way in recent times?

The atrocity on women are being highlighted in every newspaper now and then.  The data were shown in the manner that India is the epicentre for the women atrocity in any manner.  An American website (https://www.rainn.org) claims that on average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States, the country we consider most developed and dominant.  The website also ascertains the following:

• 82% of all juvenile victims are female. 90% of adult rape victims are female.
• Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.
• Women ages 18-24 who are college students are 3 times more likely than women in general to experience sexual violence. Females of the same age who are not enrolled in college are 4 times more likely.

On the worst side, millions of men in the United States have been victims of rape, the website claims.   In the revealed data says, 1 out of every 10 rape victims are male.  To one’s dismay, sexual violence in the military often goes unreported in the United States, according the website.

The case of India reveals the different story.  Assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty in the year 2014 shows 82,235.  Whereas the rape cases were 36,735 in the same year.  (Source: data.gov.in & ncrb.gov.in).  Those are few availed data from the website.

Well, there is no need to feel better on Indian incidents with the comparison of American. Although India is a much populated country than US, the crime rates are far below that of the US. Even one petty crime against women reported in any corner of the country is worth worrying.  Are crimes against women only by men?  There were 122,877 cases reported in the same year under cruelty by husband and other relatives.  Under Dowry Prohibition Act and Domestic Violence Act, there were 10,050 and 426 cases reported respectively.  One Nirbhaya case changed the thinking for reporting of crimes against women in India.

The Nirbhaya Act, implemented thereafter, did not curtail crime against women, but only persuaded the common public for reporting more such crimes.  The reporting could go higher in counting when the justice is given in a shorter period.  In the present scenario, the justice delivery rate of such crimes is a deterrent for many people to come forward to report.

On the other side, it gives feast to the news agencies to highlight such crimes in India and defaming the country’s image in worldwide.   India is a vast country (1.28 billion people where women are 624 million as of March 28, 2015 according to: http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html) and atrocity against women are in fewer lakhs.  It does not mean to ignore these figures, but at the same time it should not be considered as alarming!

In the wake of fighting for women’s freedom in India by the so called reformers in both genders, the common women were being pushed into the darkness of unawareness of their unique places in the society.

The role and responsibilities of Indian women are often misunderstood and misconstrued by the so called reformers of women’s freedom.  The deviated women today in India are edging towards destruction of well-constructed indigenous society.

What actually Women freedom means?

–      Is it something like walking in the midnight in an impolite dress which provokes rogues and rowdy people to misbehave?

–      Is it something like smoking in the mid of the streets or drinking in the pub along with boyfriends?

–      Is it something like any comment made on women for the sake of their benefit which is simply arguing and opposing without understanding the very essence of it?

–      Is it something like using their gender opportunism to sideline their men colleagues?

Unfortunately, today most of women in the name of reform and modernisation, losing their cultural identity.  Women today with the urge of making money, go to jobs at different timings leaving their family members at bay.  No children could be brought-up as better citizen in the hands of men.  Men don’t have patience to look after family members in terms of organising food, clothes and other amenities like an Indian woman.  The family that deprived women’s care, never stood-up on its own for family, society and the country.  The Indian women do not need to be taught about her responsibilities as she learns them from her childhood.

India from the ancient times, worshiped women as Goddess.  Each and every Indian epics will usher to this fact.  Every Indian woman is being called ‘Grahalakshmi’.  Nowhere in the world, one will find women are acclaimed to this high position. Its Indian women to feel proud of such admiring.

Now the game starts.  Are the Indian women are deserving of such qualitative appreciation of calling ‘Grahalakshmi’, even today?  Sadly, no!  Women in the search of money, be it Indian or any other countries, be it for running their own family’s sake or for the sake of lavish family life, definitely lost their hold in the home.  Husbands are left uncared in most the cases, being women are working with the different shifts, they unable to follow up their husband’s ins and outs.  Men are being careless by nature, in most of the cases, movements of children are simply ignored.  Old people in the house, irrespective of any side, will obviously have chance blame both, especially the working woman.  After working with a hectic schedule in the offices, where she will be able to address these issues?

One of my classmates, a woman, commented such high appreciation, calling a woman as ‘Grahalakshmi’ is as enticing tactics.  She said that by throwing these alluring terms, Indian women are treated as slaves in their own houses.  How Sad!  I really felt bad such misinterpretation.  No house will prosper without due respect to the women in the family.  I have even seen some houses where women were dominating personalities.  Even to the level that I have witnessed the houses in which women were main bread winners, where household men were treated very unpleasant way.  Women where with highly paid salary treated disrespectfully in the low paid husbands, I am told.  I tried my best part to convince her the role of women in Indian society, but ended with disappointment sadly.  She was always talking about the rights of women’s freedom in every field.  Fine!

The right they should fight for, not mere women freedom, but for the right of education to the every girl child;

The right they should fight for, to bring-down the crime rates against women;

The right they should fight for, is stop the domestic violence against them;

The right they should fight for, job equality in both government and private sectors;

The right they should fight for, an equal place in the armed forces;

The right they should fight for, an equal space in science and technology sectors.

As far as Indian women are considered, the family first and the others next.  No country woman takes the role that an Indian woman takes.  The genetic quality of Indian women for caring the family is not been seen any other part of the world, it is evolved generation by generation.  The place of Indian women in the society cannot be filled by men, indeed.

 

Author: Balaji Canchi Sistla

On 8-3-2017 at 9.30 AM, Hyderabad