Thank goodness! Rajeev has finally come out of his belief that all that matters is what some white guys sitting on the other side of the Globe think of India. Congratulations for finally understanding that what INDIA IS, is more important than what whites think it is.
None of Rajeev's articles are complete without a reference to China. He somewhow tries to drag that country from nowhere. Quite a talent he has after all. However, he has hit the right note when he said that the Brahmaputra Delta and Kaveri Delta produced 25% of the agricultural output. Why would that offend any telugu speaking people. This is beyond me. If the statement is false, by all means show statistical evidence to say so. If you have any other means to establish the fact about Godavari Delta, then show it. Where is the scope of getting hurt owing to anti-telugu sentiments? Anyway, Thanjavur has for sometime been known as the rice bowl of india and is in the kaveri delta area.
It doesn't matter what the westerners think about India. It is important what we think about ourselves. Invasion and destruction has always been part of mankind. Haven't we seen islamists ruling India for over 800 years. Likewise british ruled india for 200 years. The only country whose kings have not ruled other kingdoms is India. Even within India, haven't we heard of Magadha kings and many others at war. Emperor Ashoka destroyed Kalinga before becoming a buddhist. His invasion has led to those oriyans migrating to Lanka and creating Sinhala language. We still take pride in the fact that Rajaraja chola had a powerful navy which invaded the malayan kingdom of shri vijaya because of the pirates problem. Wars and invasions have taken place forever. Why blame the british, it is natural after all.
It is intresting that the article could mention clearly about the existance of Sun, and Uttarayan at that in India, and that before british invasion !
This mention may not be liked by Neheruvian stalinists, the british talibans etc . A lot of these people have been contempted to think that civillization ( For many that is beer,english language etc) in India started with british invasion. Taliban has simillar ideas about Afgan history.
Reading Rajeev's article above and the reader's posts below, I get the distinct impression that as Indians we : 1. Are quick to critize and reluctant in praise 2. Quick to spot anything which hurts our sentiments and slow to accept any praise that is showered on us. Are we being cynical or is there a feeling amongst urban Indians that taking praise/optimism expressed at it's face value is somewhat ingnoble/foolish. Do we have to search for demons even when someone is telling us that we scrwed up in the past and the future is turning out better? Some people are expressing doubts on Kaveri delta vs Godavari delta. It is just a reflection of the insecurity of the telugu person I presume he wants his lands name to be mentioned in the article prominently. Assuming it were mentioned then the comment would be on something else.
RE:I get the impression
by kumar on Jan 31, 2007 12:39 PM Permalink
yes, i agree with what you say. if we mention every great civilization in India then we would have to mention every single subgroup. Its may also hard to trust a fellow indian who says one civilization was greater than the next just because they might have ulterior motive to make their own people sound better.
What we can go with is (unbiased) international studies and most have agreed that the Kaveria Delta was prominent. Besides the Tamil civilization is known all over the world so would there be anything wrong with saying that the Chola empire was one of the best in India. Not all kingdoms were born equal. We should be proud (including non-Tamilians) of this Chola empire because it is INDIAN
(by the way, I am not Tamil, just mentioning it before everyone assumes i am degenerating other people)
"The Brahmaputra Delta and the Kaveri Delta were the two most prosperous parts of India prior to European imperialism"... what was rest of India doing in those days? and what about the fertile lands of Andhra Pradesh on the deltas of Godavari & Krishna ? You should come up with some records rather than writing what you feel like writing.
RE:i doubt
by Parimala Badrinath on Feb 01, 2007 12:13 AM Permalink
You are right. I too am indignant ! How insensitive of Rajeev to mention just those 2 deltas without specifying which side of the delta he was actually referring to. Is it to the north or the south side of the Kaveri delta ? Is it to the east or the west side of the Brahmaputra delta ?
You people always ignore my hamlet on the south-western side of the Pampa delta.
RE:i doubt
by Gatti Santosh on Jan 31, 2007 10:47 AM Permalink
Yes,You are right. I am a telugu guy. Whenever they talk about the greatness of India, they dont include about our telugu people,culture and history as if we are nothing to them.
RE:RE:i doubt
by kumar on Jan 31, 2007 12:41 PM Permalink
Its unrealistic for Mr. Srinivasan to justify everything he says. He would then have to use academic reference for everything. What he said is a common knowledge and should be taken at face value.
RE:Stop making such sweeping statements
by suppandi on Jan 31, 2007 11:14 AM Permalink
wakeup. by agriculture, it does not mean only working in the fields-- food processing,dairy,poultry are all part. also rajeev said IP generation. IP generation can be in any field: medicene, pharma, electronics. FYI: the 3 names that you have mentioned above are classic cases of NOT generating any IP, but using the IP generated by someone else profitably. As an example,I can take any bet that the next for the big thing in IT--''nano tech'' India's contribution will be miniscule.
RE:RE:Stop making such sweeping statements
by zzzzz zzzzz on Feb 01, 2007 03:10 AM Permalink
You need to do both. You can't just say stay away from heavy engineering, it's not what we're good at. That's the stupidest things to stay. IP or no IP, any industrialized nation's backbone depends on solid heavy engineering. Anybody who says otherwise is either a fool or just speaks for attention; which is what most of these lousy bloggers do anyway.
RE:RE:RE:Stop making such sweeping statements
by suppandi on Feb 01, 2007 12:08 PM Permalink
I may be wrong in all I said, but I can show you any number of proofs that the examples of NOT generating IP are TATA,RELIANCE,BAJAJ,JINDAL,ITC,and continue with any number of Indian Manufacturing companies. Also, just to quench your curiosity, read up the Balance Sheets of Infy,WIPRO,SATYAM,HCL, plus the next 10 next biggest Indian software companies and see if you can spot any reference to number of patents "registered and given" to them. This is exactly what I mean. Just that I am not looking down at Indian companies. We all know for a fact that number of Indians in USA, Europe have contributed and got patents for their work. Even in India, GE has a Research Centre in Bangalore which has many Indians working and is producing patents for its global companies. If you feel it is all words and no numbers.. I have a shocking statistic... sum profits of top 50 Indian companies annually, which will be less that what Intel and Microsoft 'spend' in R&D. Gotcha, did I?
RE:RE:RE:RE:Stop making such sweeping statements
by zzzzz zzzzz on Feb 02, 2007 11:53 PM Permalink
john thomas: Ignorant is you. And others of your ilk who become experts by reading up a few articles on the internet without understanding the larger context. Core Competence is fine. But to ignore heavy industries and infrastructure growth in a coutry like India is stupidity. There's no shortcut or bypasses for industrialization. You have to go through the phases. Otherwise development will not be uniform, only in small pockets. How can you talk of core competency in knowledge industry when half the population is illiterate? First thing, get rid of poverty, achieve 99% lieteracy - and then talk about such new fangled words. It suits the US - but they went through it in phases as well. Every industrialized nation did that. Where was Intel and Microsoft in 1970s 80s? If your basics aren't right, you'll end up with farmers swinging laptops and relieving themselves in fields at the sametime due to lack of infrastructure.
I think we've to thank the British who not only made us civilized, but for making the country we call India. We also have to thank them for building our Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North Block, South Block, the Railways, the Airports and many other things. We also have to thank them for the English language. Look at all these economic progress we've in India brought by outsourcing because of the English language. Now the Chinese are working hard to master the English language. I think our country will progress further, if we encourage our people to learn and speak English very fluently.
RE:Same S, Different Day
by S on Jan 31, 2007 02:33 AM Permalink
What an illogical and mindless peice of junk statement this is. Thank them for exploiting a rich country in search of which Europeans found America? Never heard a crazier and a dumb statment in my life. We Indians are smart enough to learn any lang. not just English, look at scores of IT professionals who learn German and Japanese to work on their projects. My advice for you Rajesh, go to Britain and work for a british boss to repay the debt of them teaching you English.
RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by Southie on Jan 31, 2007 03:53 AM Permalink
I dont think his statement is illogical. What Rajesh is saying is that UK brought English to India. If they hadn't then it would have taken longer for English to come to India. If it wasn't for UK, then the muslim invaders would have played more havoc in India. We have to thank Britain (despite its bloody exploitation), that they did save the non-Muslims. Furthermore, What he is saying is that England formed India. India isn't a natural construct, hence if we become a powerful nation, it started off with the UK uniting us but of course, its still our hard work. If UK hadn't united us, then neither would we have united nor been reaching our level of success now. Sure, there would be some Indian Kingdoms that would have done well, I am sure the Tamil kingdom, which had largely resisted muslim invaders would have done ok, but not at the level of untied India. Think about it before you write Rajesh's comment off.
RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by Southie on Jan 31, 2007 04:01 AM Permalink
by the way, i disagree with Rajesh's statement that says Britain made us civilized but he is right that they did unite us. If we don't accept the uniting part, we are living in a dream world.
By the way, if it wasn't for British invasion, would we have gotten rid of the caste system at least at a legal level? Probably not, then again, the Muslim invaders would have forced us to so perhaps yes, except we won't have been Hindus. Catch 22 huh
RE:RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by Shravan Kumar on Jan 31, 2007 05:24 AM Permalink
Southie, I don't have a problem if you wanna agree with Rajesh's statement. I still think it is qu"ite illogical. We are making assumptions that if the British didn't rule us...". Two things I think could have happened.. 1) The French might have ruled us...and unified us and taught us French, France is a Developed coutnry like Britain.And French ppl speak English too...and they weren't ruled by the British. 2) If no one ruled us, we would be like the states of America which had to go thru a civil war for unification. And similar there are many possibilities.....
So, there is no basis to say that the British rule did good to us. It would be silly and meaningless to say other wise.
RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by Nanda Kumar on Jan 31, 2007 10:33 AM Permalink
Sorry Guys. Your assumptions are dangerous.
Japanese , still dont speak english/ either Russian/German.
Did anyone rule Europe to unite them? now they speak as european Union. They got united because of US Threat/to be stronger gobal voice/ fall of USSR - to make bipolar world again.
India is always united my Hindu culture and practises.
We would have not lost punjab and bengal - if we has not ruled my British.
May be we would have been much stronger - Including region from present day afghan to Malaysia into one nations - bigger than china.
RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by devarajan k on Jan 31, 2007 10:07 AM Permalink
I agree with Southie and Rajesh's statements...the Brits did their damage...but also helped us substantially...infact we are still using 70% of British infrastructure. We also owe it to them for unification. Indians unifying on their own ?? That is a good joke....remember two crabs in the glass jar story..
RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by sarita kulharia on Jan 31, 2007 04:39 PM Permalink
If you read carefully then by the time british came to india muslim power was almost finished. Marathas, Jats, Sikhs, rajputs, dogras and hindu kings in assam had already established themselves in power after replacing muslims. Together they controlled 90% of India. Only in avadh, mysore, andhra and bengal were muslim rulers were in power. Rulers of Mysore, bengal and avadh were more of secular nature. So non-muslims were facing persecution by muslims in andhra (or Hyderabad). The british did nothing to stop the persecution here and non-muslims were persecuted even after independence.
Now with regard to unifying India-- India had more princly states when british left than when they came to India.
It was Sardar Patel who is responsible for unifying India. As regards to your notion of natural construct (or natural country) India is a natural construct. a. In terms of geography: India has natural boundries. Himalayas in north, desert in west, dense forests and hills in east, an ocean in south. These natural barriers have guarded India's frontiers. A large number of invasions (including that of "Mohhomad bin qasim" and "Changez khan" were not as successful as they were elsewhere). b. Religiously: Islam is a recent development. All through centuries Indians shared a common bond of religion. Earlier there was hinduism. When Jainism and budhism became strong, hinduism accepted the core values of these to an extent that budhism and jainism became identical to hinduism. Sages like Gautam and Mahavir Jain were revered by hindus also. In hinduism although there were divisions (like shavites and vashnavites) yet the puranas show that the people following shiv and vishnu were related--(Shiv puran: Shiv says - "I shall not be pleased by those who worship me and not vishnu" and Vishnu puran and Bhagvat Puran: Vishnu says - "I shall not be pleased by those who worship me but not Shiva) c.Philosophicaly: All Indians have the tendency to accept what is best practice irrespective of where it is comming from. This is the root cause that Indian civilisation has survived since time eternal. We are not rigid people and our strength is our flexibility. It is most certain that we would have most certainly accepted machines and industrial revolution even without british). d. Genetically: Aryans had originated from Dravidians and were not a separate race that had come from outside and this has been proved by the mitochondrial DNA studies (Published some time back on rediff). The Aryan invasion theory is crap. All people in Indian subcontinent have same gene pool and have originated from dravidians (I know this might prove a bashing point for some).
Of course we have internal conflicts, but then which country in world does not have internal conflicts. Even brothers have conflicts and that is what we are. Tamilians, Jats, Marathas, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and all the rest -- we are brothers in one nation.
The concept of purity or uniformity of race as being central to a country is absurd. Pakistan is still trying to achieve purity. It is a mirage. People in a nation shall not be uniform in beliefs, actions and behaviours. Otherwise they might well be robots.
Indian concept of nationhood was "unity in diversity", and a unifying relationship based on justice and fairness, "a duty for the mother land" and not to a race religion of caste.
I hope I have made things very clear. Let me say once again: India was, is and shall remain a nation eventhough thousand civilisations like british shall come and go away.
RE:RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by S Ramanathan on Feb 15, 2007 02:02 AM Permalink
Excellent reply. For me this is the best and well researched contribution here.
RE:Same S, Different Day
by kumar on Jan 31, 2007 10:37 AM Permalink
Nanda Kumar, there are more instance of countries not unifing than unifying. If india would have unified like EU, then it would still be different countries, just some week central powers.
If you want to talk about Malaya, that was run by the Chola. Why would any Chola country that held large swathe of land and was a power in its own right want to unify into present day india.
RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by kumar on Jan 31, 2007 10:47 AM Permalink
by the way, i am not saying India is not a great country. What i am saying is one of hte reasons why we are great is because someone unified us. We still worked hard to keep united. There are, of course, somethings wrong with India, but thats with any country. However, i would like us to be honest (or at least discuss it) that it was UK who united us not something that we did by ourselves. I am sure most people are glad that we are united. Why have 101 small kingdoms when u can have a large country. I dont want you think i am not proud to be indian
RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by kumar on Jan 31, 2007 10:50 AM Permalink
Last thing....if someone like Chandra Bose had united us, do you think we would have stayed united. Remember, CB colluded with the Nazi Germany who believed in Arya supramacy. People like him would have been indebted to Germany and gone onto a mad pogram to wipe out everything that is Dravidian and Eastern Indian and we would have seen more war. I am glad that Chandra Bose didn't succeed because anyone who colludes with the devil is not good in my books and I staunchly believe he would disenfranchised some of the population somehow
RE:RE:RE:RE:Same S, Different Day
by vijay kumar on Feb 07, 2007 12:31 AM Permalink
Mr. Kumar, think before you write, My small advice. British wanted divided India and they tried hard to divide India, even when they are about to leave. Never united it. Please learn this next time.
India never existed as a single sovereign country until the British took over. Before the British, India was a conglomerate of small kingdoms fighting with each other all the time. So the concept that a united India ever existed in the history is a sham. And the name Hinduism is coined by the British about 300 years ago. The words Hindu or Hinduism are not of Indian origin and they are not mentioned anywhere in any ancient Indian literature (Ramayana, Gita). A Hindu (as per Arabs and Persians) is a person living along the Indus valley, and the Moguls called the non-Muslims in India Hindus. The British followed the same tradition and finally Hindu and Hinduism become a religion.
RE:RE:Same S, different day
by Mahesh Jagga on Feb 06, 2007 02:51 PM Permalink
One weird logic.
I have a family which happened to be estranged due to domestic issues this morning. If a neighbour's threat to my son brings the family closer, Shall I go and thank my neighbour for uniting us.
Ridiculous.
I agree with Madhwa on this. If British had not looted trillions from India, we just might have been rich states (with weak or strong centre). Windows might have been Khirkian and Bill Gates might have been born in India as Billu Ghate. Who knows we might have been the only super power - Indian Union of States.
Get out of this syndrome - its called Stockholm Syndrome. It forces the victim to be indebted to the tormentor.
RE:Same S, different day
by Prashant on Jan 31, 2007 02:08 AM Permalink
Rajesh,
You are correct. There was not "hindu" religion before muslims invaded the subcontinent. The religion itself is a term used by westerners.
I would call it "way of life". There were major groups who followed certain ways of life. There were people who believed in vedic rituals and sacrifices. There were some people who believed in "buddist" way of life. and some believed in "Jainist" way of life. and there were many others who had different life styles.
Even though brahmins were mainly following the vedic way fo life there were some who followed others too.
After seeing the success of buddhism some of its tradisions and practices were absorbed by other religions. The vedic people also started folliwing ahinsa etc. They also liked the way buddist people's idea of shunya or tathata. The three ways to achieve shunyata were mahayana, hinyana and vajrayana(tantric version)they Started worshiping "pradnya" and to achieve shunata started following tantrikism as this was the easiest route. In doing that either some of them lost their actual rituals described in vedas and started worshiping "Shiva" and "Vishnu". When patanjali a brahmin ruler started ruling india he wanted brahmins to rule the continent and re-wrote manusmrity and thus came to existance the caste system. Now in doing that brahmins kept their status as supreme and to happen that they wrote so many hipocritic scripts that people still believe are written by gods.
Just my observation from what I have read so far and analysed so far.
RE:Same S, different day
by Southie on Jan 31, 2007 01:16 AM Permalink
Rajesh, your comment makes total sense. There was no Hindu, India long long time ago. There was a world known to the people of the region and they called it Bharat but that included Sri Lanka, etc, etc.
I don't think the Sinhalese or Tamils who left that region said, i am leaving India for Sri Lanka. They were leaving their respective kingdoms to go to an island. In fact, the Tamils probably left one part of their Chola country to go to another part (internal migration).
Rajeev - please reply to what Rajesh says. We need to thank the British for uniting us cause they made us Indians, not Indians made us Indians.
RE:RE:Same S, different day
by vijay kumar on Feb 07, 2007 12:33 AM Permalink
so did britan, and USA for that matter Germany and USSR and even Japan had small chiefdoms, how did they all become one nations and did not split. Even Malaysia was ruled by six kings as 1900s. Why is it a one nation now and why is not singapore part of it?
RE:RE:Same S, different day
by ice tea on Feb 08, 2007 01:16 AM Permalink
British never had good thoughts for any of their colonies.They believed in divide and rule policy and if somebody says few good things have happened to india becoz of them, its due to some natural phenomenon like when you do toomuch harm to something, it also leaves some good marks.If british were not here, india could not have become a rich nation considering the mind of our people.I could say that we would have named our country "ISLAMIA".
Yes! Starting With Ved Vyasji..Scriptures teaches to find out who you are in terms of your mind!
Thanks Rajeev for a Wonderful Article! And I wonder why British not subsidising AIDS drugs for Africa, after all teaching in India is that British came to civilize India ha:) Atleast that's what Newspapers like Malayalamnorama and deepika and all write in Kerala:)
Uttarayan (apparent northward movement of the Sun) started on Dec 23rd 2006. Due to an error in the Hindu calendar, Uttarayan still is assumed to happen on Jan 14/15th odd - which was the date a thousand or more years ago...Time Hindus grew up and opened their eyes and actually looked in the skies for some truths - not just the old texts...
Unfortunately ever since Rajeev wrote the article about the Tsunami, I have stopped holding him in high regard as a sensible person...he is just one of the other south indians who keep beating their drums that they are the best, they are the best. seen many many such south indians...
What happened to hinduisms vasudaiv kutumbakam. why do you want the chinese to suffer bad effects of industrialisation...are they not humans? or they are not south indians so you dont like them. if you look at anthropology texts, the ancestors of people from indonesia traveled and moved into eastern and southern india and china...but of course that was long before hinduism began...so i guess that would not apply to Rajeev...
The more I see the world the more I start understanding Mark Twain's quote "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."
Time for hindus, muslims, christians from india to travel. not just travel - but open their eyes, travel and understand how similar we all are... its a beautiful and amazing world...if we only want to see...
RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by Tigger_and_Pooh on Jan 31, 2007 01:11 AM Permalink
1. who are the authors of the so calle d"anthropologt texts that you read"?
2. what is your basis to assert the date of start of hinduism?
RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by Sudheer Tumuluru on Jan 31, 2007 01:38 AM Permalink
Where the hell did Rajeev mention anything about north or south? He didn't talk about north or south at all, rather Bengal and Madras: both being on the east coast. So you got your directions messed up dude!
And, could you please substantiate your conjecture that some Indians migrated from Indonesia (that's a new one): in fact it is quite the opposite. Indian influences, specifically Maurya (through Ashoka and his children), Kalinga and Chola dynasties are present in ancient IndoChina: Angkor Wat being the prime example.
Rajeev never said that Chinese should suffer because of industrialization: that is already happening. Since China is already the world's workshop, we in India can look at our inner strengths and harness those instead of just aping others.
I fail to understand why you would develop an inferiority complex just looking at the author's name and quickly blurt out random s*#t that south indian this, north indian that. Let's try to be mature and think as one nation instead of trying to blame so ethnicity for thinking differently from you! It is better to keep your mouth shut instead of speaking out and let the world know you are an idiot.
RE:RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by me on Jan 31, 2007 03:08 AM Permalink
lets wind our clocks back - more than what vedas, upanishads, hindus could tell us...say around 10000 years ago? that would be what archaeology could tell us. and what do you see? humans migrate out from africa. from arabia they enter "india" of that time. settle down. in a few years a giant volcano erupts in the indian ocean near present day indonesia. a 6 year nuclear winter sets in in india and pakistan because of the volcanic cloud. populations in this subcontinent get wiped out. after the nuclear winter people from indonesia slowly start moving back along the coast toward the subcontinent. one branch moves into india and another branch moves to china from our north east. it is still a long long time before hinduism will begin. angkor wat is a very very recent example in archaeological terms.
when you talk of inner strengths and not aping others, i think u need to introspect. what do hindu rituals do? are hindus not aping the past without even knowing what mumbo jumbo they utter? are any of the hindu rituals relevant in any bit of way to ur current lives? how many of u actually planned ur own weddings? how many actually have plain unadulterated fun at ur weddings - days which r supposedly desginated to be your own when u should be happiest to bond with your lifemates. i have woman hindu friends who dont even talk of their marriage because all they did were some rituals which they didnt like...they are ashamed of the rituals that they did...(or were forced on them)
live in the present and love the people around u rather than ur rituals and your pasts...
love begins when religion ends. u will learn to love human beings of all colors, sexual orientations, countries, disabilities only if u stop thinking that my religion is better than ur religion, my country better that urs, my state better than urs, my language better that urs...
read material that is actually scientific..gives unbiased views. its time a scientific uprising starts in india which frees it from all its mangal doshas and kuja doshas and shani rahus ketus, sea water near some dargah turning sweet, ganpati drinking milk.... people should learn to live brave happy simple lives with a scientific attitude of learning new things everyday and dusting off old cobwebs.
RE:RE:RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by Sudheer on Jan 31, 2007 05:31 AM Permalink
I am not sure which volcanic eruption you are referring to. If it is the Krakatoa eruption, the earliest recorded eruption was in 416AD. It is also a known fact that Ashoka ruled from 273-232BC. BTW, in 416AD, people in Indonesia followed the "Hindu" religion and had Hindu kings. So please give us more specific references (URLS??).
While I totally agree with you that we should reform our old Hindu calendar and not get immersed in our own dogma and ritualistic practices, Rajeev's point was not regarding the accuracy of this date, but just the significance of it. Almost all cultures have celebrated the Winter Solistice in one way or another: the date December 25th for Christmas is not actually the day of Jesus's birth, but was chosen by the Romans because it was convenient to celebrate it with the pagan festival of the Winter Solistice: the day the worshipped the sun for his triumph over darkness (Sol Invictus).
Also, just to be clear, while I do not agree with Rajeev's views of blaming everything that's bad in India on communist past and its current vestiges; I like the general tone in his articles which give an optmistic look at the future. Nothing wrong with uplifting articles, with a touch of self-aggrandizement ;-)
RE:RE:RE:RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by me on Feb 01, 2007 12:07 AM Permalink
wind your clock much much more behind 416AD. 416ad is less than 2000 years ago. i was referring to something that happened more than 10000 years ago.. the volcanic eruption i was referring to was long long long long before hinduism existed. here you go. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
the more we learn about humankinds journey or even life's journey through evolution, the more certain we become of one repeating truth that - we are all one. be it one with humans, one with animals, one with all life in general. the future will only be optimistic if we learn to look at people of all countries as citizens of earth who want a better life a more fulfilling life. look at tensions growing due to japanese military increases, or north korea's nuclear ambitions. or islam's fundamentalist, radical missionaries. if we continue looking at other countries, other religions as enemies, we are only hastening our end. if we look for our successes in defeating others, we may win but a short sighted war.
the urge to compete for survival is innate in humans, and all living beings alike. But to make a systematic organized machinery of hate, lies and mistrust on the basis of artificial borders like countries and religions is only a human 'inhumane' tendency. i think it is time to find happiness in a more positive way. something that will benefit earth and life on earth. not benefit just one nation or one religion. it is time to find the correct meaning of vasudaiv kutumbakam (it should not mean colonizing the earth by one powerful country or one religion. but just living peacefully/innocently (not ignorantly) with all living things)
RE:RE:RE:uttarayan, china, humanity
by vijay kumar on Feb 07, 2007 12:41 AM Permalink
If a massive volcano occur in Indonesia and people in Indian subcontinent get wiped out. How did people in Indonesia survive? Can you please explain that.
