Learning from the West ---- Narayana Murty

Precise to the point 

Guess every minister in the country has read it and will now practice it!

A  BRILLIANT  SPEECH !!!!!
Learning from the West ---- Narayana Murty

Ladies and gentlemen: 

It is a pleasure to be here at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a man of strong values and he epitomized simple living. He was a freedom fighter and innovative administrator who contributed to nation building in full measure. It is indeed a matter of pride for me to be chosen for the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for Public Administration and Management Sciences. I thank the jury for this honor.

When I got the invitation to speak here, I decided to speak on an important topic on which I have pondered for years - the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society. Coming from a company that is built on strong values, the topic is close to my heart. Moreover, an organization is representative of society, and some of the lessons that I have learnt are applicable in the national context. In fact, values drive progress and define quality of life in society.

The word community joins two Latin words com ("together" or "with") and unus ("one"). A community, then, is both one and many. It is a unified multitude and not a mere group of people. As it is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can survive only collectively. Hence, the challenge is to form a progressive community by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this, we need to develop a value system where people accept modest sacrifices for the common good.

What is a value system? It is the protocol for behavior that enhances the trust, confidence and commitment of members of the community. It goes beyond the domain of legality - it is about decent and desirable behavior. Further, it includes putting the community interests ahead of your own. Thus, our collective survival and progress is predicated on sound values.

There are two pillars of the cultural value system - loyalty to family and loyalty to community. One should not be in isolation to the other, because, successful societies are those which combine both harmoniously. It is in this context that I will discuss the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society.

Some of you here might say that most of what I am going to discuss are actually Indian values in old ages, and not Western values. I live in the present, not in the bygone era. Therefore, I have seen these values practiced primarily in the West and not in India. Hence, the title of the topic.

I am happy as long as we practice these values - whether we call it Western or old Indian values. As an Indian, I am proud to be part of a culture, which has deep-rooted family values. We have tremendous loyalty to the family. For instance, parents make enormous sacrifices for their children. They support them until they can stand on their own feet. On the other side, children consider it their duty to take care of aged parents.

We believe: Mathru devo bhava - mother is God, and pithru devo bhava - father is God. Further, brothers and sisters sacrifice for each other. In fact, the eldest brother or sister is respected by all the other siblings. As for marriage, it is held to be a sacred union - husband and wife are bonded, most often, for life. In joint families, the entire family works towards the welfare of the family. There is so much love and affection in our family life.

This is the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths. Our families act as a critical support mechanism for us. In fact, the credit to the success of Infosys goes, as much to the founders as to their families, for supporting them through the tough times. Unfortunately, our attitude towards family life is not reflected in our attitude towards community behavior. From littering the streets to corruption to breaking of contractual obligations, we are apathetic to the common good. In the West - the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand - individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their community.

The primary difference between the West and us is that, there, people have a much better societal orientation. They care more for the society than we do. Further, they generally sacrifice more for the society than us. Quality of life is enhanced because of this. This is where we need to learn from the West.

 

I will talk about some of the lessons that we, Indians, can learn from the West.

In the West, there is respect for the public good. For instance, parks free of litter, clean streets, public toilets free of graffiti - all these are instances of care for the public good. On the contrary, in India, we keep our houses clean and water our gardens everyday - but, when we go to a park, we do not think twice before littering the place.

Corruption, as we see in India, is another example of putting the interest of oneself, and at best that of one's family, above that of the society. Society is relatively corruption free in the West. For instance, it is very difficult to bribe a police officer into avoiding a speeding ticket.

This is because of the individual's responsible behavior towards the community as a whole On the contrary, in India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and bribery have eaten into our vitals. For instance, contractors bribe officials, and construct low-quality roads and bridges. The result is that society loses in the form of substandard defence equipment and infrastructure, and low-quality recruitment, just to name a few impediments. Unfortunately, this behavior is condoned by almost everyone.

Apathy in solving community matters has held us back from making progress, which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but do not try to solve them. We behave as if the problems do not exist or is somebody else's. On the other hand, in the West, people solve societal problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude. For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India.

More than 40 years ago, Dr. K. L. Rao - an irrigation expert, suggested creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers in North and South India, to solve this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided to build a thermal power plant to meet Bangalore's power requirements. Unfortunately, we have still not started it. Further, the Milan subway in Bombay is in a deplorable state for the last 40 years, and no action has been taken.

To quote another example, considering the constant travel required in the software industry; five years ago, I had suggested a 240-page passport. This would eliminate frequent visits to the passport office. In fact, we are ready to pay for it. However, I am yet to hear from the Ministry of External Affairs on this.

We, Indians, would do well to remember Thomas Hunter's words: Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty soon overtakes it. What could be the reason for all this? We were ruled by foreigners for over thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that public issues belonged to some foreign ruler and that we have no role in solving them.

Moreover, we have lost the will to proactively solve our own problems. Thus, we have got used to just executing someone else's orders. Borrowing Aristotle's words: We are what we repeatedly do. Thus, having done this over the years, the decision-makers in our society are not trained for solving problems. Our decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately, there is nobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy.

Our intellectual arrogance has also not helped our society. I have traveled extensively, and in my experience, have not come across another society where people are as contemptuous of better societies as we are, with as little progress as we have achieved. Remember that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. No other society gloats so much about the past as we do, with as little current accomplishment.

Friends, this is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousand years old. For instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logician and traveler of the 10th century, who spent about 30 years in India from 997 AD to around 1027 AD, referred to this trait of Indians. According to him, during his visit, most Indian pundits considered it below their dignity even to hold arguments with him. In fact, on a few occasions when a pundit was willing to listen to hm, and found his arguments to be very sound, he invariably asked Barouni: which Indian pundit taught these smart things!

The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have, and learn from them. Contrary to this, our leaders make us believe that other societies do not know anything! At the same time, everyday, in the newspapers, you will find numerous claims from our leaders that ours is the greatest nation. These people would do well to remember Thomas Carlyle's words: The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.

If we have to progress, we have to change this attitude, listen to people who have performed better than us, learn from them and perform better than them. Infosys is a good example of such an attitude. We continue to rationalize our failures. No other society has mastered this part as well as we have. Obviously, this is an excuse to justify our incompetence, corruption, and apathy. This attitude has to change. As Sir Josiah Stamp has said: It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.

Another interesting attribute, which we Indians can learn from the West, is their accountability. Irrespective of your position, in the West, you are held accountable for what you do. However, in India, the more 'important' you are, the less answerable you are. For instance, a senior politician once declared that he 'forgot' to file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years - and he got away with it. To quote another instance, there are over 100 loss making public sector units (central) in India. Nevertheless, I have not seen action taken for bad performance against top managers in these organizations.

Dignity of labor is an integral part of the Western value system. In the West, each person is proud about his or her labor that raises honest sweat. On the other hand, in India, we tend to overlook the significance of those who are not in professional jobs. We have a mind set that reveres only supposedly intellectual work.

For instance, I have seen many engineers, fresh from college, who only want to do cutting-edge work and not work that is of relevance to business and the country. However, be it an organization or society, there are different people performing different roles. For success, all these people are required to discharge their duties. This includes everyone from the CEO to the person who serves tea - every role is important. Hence, we need a mind set that reveres everyone who puts in honest work.

Indians become intimate even without being friendly. They ask favors of strangers without any hesitation. For instance, the other day, while I was traveling from Bangalore to Mantralaya, I met a fellow traveler on the train. Hardly 5 minutes into the conversation, he requested me to speak to his MD about removing him from the bottom 10% list in his company, earmarked for disciplinary action. I was reminded of what Rudyard Kipling once said: A westerner can be friendly without being intimate while an easterner tends to be intimate without being friendly.

Yet another lesson to be learnt from the West, is about their professionalism in dealings. The common good being more important than personal equations, people do not let personal relations interfere with their professional dealings. For instance, they don't hesitate to chastise a colleague, even if he is a personal friend, for incompetent work.

In India, I have seen that we tend to view even work interactions from a personal perspective. Further, we are the most 'thin-skinned' society in the world - we see insults where none is meant. This may be because we were not free for most of the last thousand years. Further, we seem to extend this lack of professionalism to our sense of punctuality. We do not seem to respect the other person's time.

The Indian Standard Time somehow seems to be always running late. Moreover, deadlines are typically not met. How many public projects are completed on time? The disheartening aspect is that we have accepted this as the norm rather than the exception. In the West, they show professionalism by embracing meritocracy. Meritocracy by definition means that we cannot let personal prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. As we increasingly start to benchmark ourselves with global standards, we have to embrace meritocracy.

In the West, right from a very young age, parents teach their children to be independent in thinking. Thus, they grow up to be strong, confident individuals. In India, we still suffer from feudal thinking. I have seen people, who are otherwise bright, refusing to show independence and preferring to be told what to do by their boss. We need to overcome this attitude if we have to succeed globally.

The Western value system teaches respect to contractual obligation. In the West, contractual obligations are seldom dishonored. This is important - enforceability of legal rights and contracts is the most important factor in the enhancement of credibility of our people and nation.

In India, we consider our marriage vows as sacred. We are willing to sacrifice in order to respect our marriage vows. However, we do not extend this to the public domain. For instance, India had an unfavorable contract with Enron. Instead of punishing the people responsible for negotiating this, we reneged on the contract - this was much before we came to know about the illegal activities at Enron.

To quote another instance, I had given recommendations to several students for the national scholarship for higher studies in US universities. Most of them did not return to India even though contractually they were obliged to spend five years after their degree in India.

In fact, according to a professor at a reputed US university, the maximum default rate for student loans is among Indians - all of these students pass out in flying colors and land lucrative jobs, yet they refuse to pay back their loans. Thus, their action has made it difficult for the students after them, from India, to obtain loans. We have to change this attitude.

Further, we Indians do not display intellectual honesty. For example, our political leaders use mobile phones to tell journalists on the other side that they do not believe in technology! If we want our youngsters to progress, such hypocrisy must be stopped. We are all aware of our rights as citizens. Nevertheless, we often fail to acknowledge the duty that accompanies every right. To borrow Dwight Eisenhower's words: People that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Our duty is towards the community as a whole, as much as it is towards our families.

We have to remember that fundamental social problems grow out of a lack of commitment to the common good. To quote Henry Beecher: Culture is that which helps us to work for the betterment of all. Hence, friends, I do believe that we can make our society even better by assimilating these Western values into our own culture - we will be stronger for it.

Most of our behavior comes from greed, lack of self-confidence, lack of confidence in the nation, and lack of respect for the society. To borrow Gandhi's words: There is enough in this world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed. Let us work towards a society where we would do unto others what we would have others do unto us. Let us all be responsible citizens who make our country a great place to live. In the words of Churchill: Responsibility is the price of greatness. We have to extend our family values beyond the boundaries of our home.

Finally, let us work towards maximum welfare of the maximum people - Samasta janaanaam sukhino bhavantu. Thus, let us - people of this generation, conduct ourselves as great citizens rather than just good people so that we can serve as good examples for our younger generation.

What led to Europe’s economic crisis: Viktor Orban - Hungarian Prime Minister

Abandonment of Christian principles led to Europe's economic crisis: Hungarian Prime Minister

by Hilary White

• Tue Nov 20, 2012 14:26 EST

BUDAPEST, Nov. 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Europe must return to Christianity before economic regeneration is possible, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary said at a conference last week. According to Orban, the growing economic crisis in Europe is one that originates in the spiritual, not the economic order. To solve this crisis, he proposed a renewal of culture and politics based on Christian values to save Europe from economic, moral and social collapse.

"An economic improvement is only possible for Europe and Hungary if souls and hearts rise, too," Orban said at the XIV Congress of Catholics and Public Life on "Hope and the Christian response to the crisis."

Behind every successful economy, Orban said, there is "some kind of spiritual driving force."

Viktor Orban

"A Europe governed according to Christian values would regenerate."

"The European crisis," he said, "has not come by chance but by the carelessness and neglect of their responsibilities by leaders who have questioned precisely those Christian roots. That is the driving force that allowed European cohesion, family, work and credit. These values were the old continental economic power, thanks mainly to the development which in those days was done in accordance with [those] principles."

Info Catolica, a Spanish language news site, quoted Orban saying that even the credit crisis has been driven by the abandonment of Christian principles. The Christian Church before the Reformation, he said, always opposed usury (the charging of exorbitant rates of interest on loans) - a practice that has led to massive, insoluble debt both at the national and individual, personal levels of families.

In a Christian Europe the excesses that have created the economic crisis would not have been possible, he said. "A Christian Europe would have noticed that every euro is worked for. A Christian Europe would not have allowed entire countries sink into slavery to credit."

Orban, himself a Protestant, said it was the Protestant Reformation that first ushered in the age of usury and unfettered greed in which credit has been stripped of its moral dimension. Referring to the harsh "austerity measures" imposed by the EU on Greece and Italy, that have resulted in widespread unemployment and economic hardship, he said that political leaders have abandoned the "human aspects" of economics in efforts to contain the massive national debts accumulated by socialist governments over the last century.

He cited the new Hungarian constitution as a way forward for all of Europe, saying it is based on dignity, freedom, family, nation, fidelity, and love, with the express obligation to help the poor.

Last week, the Prime Minister made similar comments during a ceremony in Parliament in which he awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit, the Grand Cross, to the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn.

At the ceremony, Orban said that Europe that forgets its Christian roots is like a man who built his house on sand. He said that many responsible persons in Europe are committed to rebuilding European society from the "rock solid foundation" of its Christian heritage.

Hungary and Orban's leadership continues to be a thorn in the side of the statist, liberal consensus at the European Union. The Hungarian constitution has been under attack since its passage in May 2011. It explicitly defends the rights of the unborn and the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman, and asserts that Christianity is the basis of the Hungarian national identity.

The pro-life clauses of the new constitution have particularly been attacked by international abortion lobbyists the Center for Reproductive Rights. Johanna Westeson, the European regional director for the Center for Reproductive Rights, commenting on the Hungarian situation, said, "There is a very strong pronatalist (anti-choice) current in Central and Eastern Europe and that goes along with nationalist tendencies in many of these countries."

"Across Eastern and Central Europe, as unemployment surges and the European Union dithers, nationalist conservative and far right parties are on the march. Emboldened right-wing leaders are resurrecting debates around abortion and other reproductive services, even in countries like Hungary, one of the first European countries to explicitly legalize abortion."

Re: Tiger Dance

I am sharing with you an article on Tiger Dance published by me in 1998
--on the Hulivesha (Tiger dance) ......a unique form of folk dance in Dakshina Kannada, that fascinates the young and the old alike. In Hindu mythology, the tiger is considered as the favoured vehicle (carrier) of Goddess Sharada (...the deity in whose honour Dusshera is celebrated). Probably one of the reasons why this dance is performed during the Dusshera celebration. It is also performed during other festivals like Krishna Janmasthami.
This article in a yet to be refined form hopes to be part of my new book on our childhood in Mangalore - so friends, if you guys have an anecdote or interesting tid-bit of two to add here, request kindly do so.
Thanks
Maxie
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tiger Dance…..By Maxwell Pereira

 

I had occasion to pass through Mangalore the other day, and remember nostalgically some of the interesting aspects of an intriguing childhood spent there. Of the time when a class of people painted themselves or got into costumes to visit from house to house and perform their act like during Madri Gras or as they do in Brazil during the Carnival. Only, here it was in small groups or an individual venture, done more for the purpose of keeping up a folk art tradition, and earn those few extra bucks to supplement their meagre means.

 

Associated with the period just before Dusshera or Gowri puja, these were nothing short of a large scale public indulgence in fancy dress coupled with skilled street art - not necessarily a competition, but enacted for the sheer excitement of the period in time and the commercial prospects of it. Ingenuity and innovation, being the key factor to attract and sustain the interest of the viewer public. We children looked forward to this year after year, and made no bones about breaking rules and family taboos just to watch or get a glimpse of this form of popular entertainment. Whether they were welcome or not, these performers deigned to visit each house, to do their act of song, dance or recital to enthrall especially us kids, took what was given, and passed on to the next house that welcomed them.

 

We called them Vesha - meaning costume theatre in local parlance. And there were a variety of them in the season. When performers took to all forms, from being demon dancers - their ash covered bodies painted in frightening black and red, to impersonating tradesmen like postman, carpenter, pujaris, priests, mandarins and mendicants. There were 'bandar-madaris' with their trained monkeys and the tiny one-handed shrill drum of stretched leather with affixed knot-ended strings that beat with a tremendous din, by the mere twist of the wrist. The 'karadi' dancers with muzzle trapped bhalus (mostly black bears, - at times rare white ones too) with warning boards for kids to keep safe distance, who cruelly made the animal dance to their command. The koraga adivasi dancers were there in their grass skirts and caps made of areca spathes who played their own flute and performed a stationary dance with a peculiar foot movement to revolve at the same spot. Not to forget the kudmis of Koddel, and kunnbis with the traditional kol-ata typical to their tribe. And there were some, probably eunachs, who came and chanted 'siddhi-aur-siddhi' - what it meant to this day I don't know, - but did their inexplicable act and expected baksheesh for it all the same. We children listed the different veshas that dropped in at each of our homes, to boast and compare notes later, with friends and neighbours.

 

The highlight of the Veshas of course, had to be the Tiger Dance. Not everyone's cup of tea - from the performers' angle I mean. But there were traditional families whose members subjected their bodies year after year to be painted as tigers, beautiful Bengal tigers with perfectly real-life stripes and colours, headgear with ears and whiskers, not forgetting the fangs and nails too. I have seen tiger dances elsewhere in later life too, including in Pondicherry and neighbouring Tamil country, and can safely vouchsafe that no one can match the standards we witnessed in our childhood in Mangalore. And the typical drum beat of  "….da dand-dara …tatt-tara, …" that accompanied the 'tiger' troupe announcing its presence in an area, used to send a chill up our spine. I remember my petrified kid brother once taking shelter by climbing into a large rice-storage pot in the kitchen. There was total panic then when a servant who couldn't find him suspected possible kidnapping by someone in the tiger dance crowd. Even so, each time the sound of drum beckoned us, in excitement and anticipation we would wait, watching the 'tigers' inside a circle of crowd take positions of attack and defence, while growling and snarling effectively at bystanders. We were fascinated also by the fanfare that invariably preceded the group, with their banners and trophies carried aloft on cross frames in the style of kings of yore and chieftains stepping out to war.

 

On the penultimate day before the final ritual bath to clean the colours off at the tanks of Mangalore's Mangaladevi temple, the biggest of them all would step out. Nicknamed Pili-Mutthappa, - the doyen among all tiger dancers, he made his appearance on the streets of our town to strike terror in our hearts, when we kids who held him in great awe were told to behave or else…. Far and wide had spread the fame of this one, and people from miles around flocked to see this folk hero who was legend. On this day were special treats like tigers going through fiery rings, acrobatics, and other feats to enthrall. To tickle our fantasies were tiger cubs too, permitted to accompany on this last day alone.

 

Not many of the youngsters I spoke to in Mangalore, had seen a tiger dance. Like everything else, even this folk art I believe had degenerated into over indulgence in alcohol and extortion, warranting the authorities to clamp down in an effort to control and regulate. Sad. Will it ever be possible for us to find ways and means to preserve and cherish what we ourselves once enjoyed when young, and pass them on to our progeny to also enjoy!?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 24, 1998

On 15 September 2012 09:22, Leo Cunha <leopecunha@gmail.com> wrote:

brings back memories !!  yup, those were the days.  i recall  ...   there was also a karadi vesha   .....  and also a korgarachen naach, right??
   hv a nice weekend maxie      ......      leo

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 10:21 PM, Maxwell Pereira <maxpk44@gmail.com> wrote:

I am sure all my classmates would love this one.....
What nostalgia .....of those wonderful and wondrous carefree childhood days
Oh, the number of stories one can narrate of those times.. !
Maxie

To all my friends!! I do wish you enough!

Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure..
Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, "I love you and I wish you enough".
The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom".
They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?".
Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?".
"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.
"When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?".
She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone". She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. "When we said , 'I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them". Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
She then began to cry and walked away.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them but then an entire life to forget them.
TAKE TIME TO LIVE....
To all my friends and loved ones, I WISH YOU ENOUGH!!!
Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy

The Assam situation; and mass exodus of north-easterners from southern states.

25 August 2012:

(…..compiled from reports in various newspapers, television and other media including the Economist of UK, and analytical discourses in various discussion forums on internet and elsewhere)

Introduction

The mass exodus from our southern cities by thousands of panicked fellow Indians of the north-eastern region returning to their homes earlier this month has underscored deep social fissures in our country, as also the power of social media and the peril of weak political leadership – according to analysts quoted in the media over the last two weeks.

Hate messages and threats spread on social net-working sites of supposed violence against northeasterners studying or working in major southern cities/States, sparked off fear among tens of thousands of such people – the main cause for this panic that triggered the move for en masse return to their native states.

Intelligence agencies were quick to identify the source of these hate messages with fake and morphed images of torture and mutilation as emanating from Pakistani websites, and the government lost no time in ordering the blocking of these rumour-spreading rogue sites including accounts on facebook and twitter.

Brief backgrounder

Not everyone is aware of the full facts. In brief, on July 6th, a month after an altercation at a mosque in Assam run by (non-Muslim) tribesmen in north-east India, four men on motorcycles shot and killed two Muslims. Six weeks later, some 80 people were killed in communal bloodletting; the army was deployed in Assam with orders to shoot to kill.

It was then that tens of thousands of north-easterners in other parts of India suddenly fled homeward in fear of their lives; India accused Pakistanis of being the origin of doctored video messages designed to stir up religious hatred; and 400,000-500,000 Indians are alleged to be homeless or displaced within Assam, statedly the largest involuntary movement of people inside the country since independence. How on earth did a local conflict, one of many in the area, produce such devastating nationwide consequences?

Analytical summary of events

As per reports in newspapers, television and other media, the spark for the extraordinary sequence of events was the fight in western Assam between indigenous Bodo tribesmen (pronounced Boro) and Bengali-speaking people. The Bodo claim (…a claim vehemently supported by the opposition parties in India's parliament) that the incomers are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and want them kicked out.

The migrants are mostly Muslim. The Bodo are animist or Christian. It is alleged that Muslim population in the State has grown in the three decades to 2001; this, not necessarily the reason for the latest violence. In some villages now the Bodo are supposed to be a minority. They say they feel swamped by Muslim immigrants.

However, the conflict is not primarily about religion. It is about land. The Bodo hold land in common. The Bengali-speakers are settled farmers, anxious to establish private-property rights as protection against dispossession. In 2003, after a long, violent campaign for autonomy, the Bodo got their own Bodo Territorial Council, on whose turf outsiders may not own property. The Bodo consider all Muslims outsiders—hence the dispute at the mosque.

Assam's conflict has been going on for decades. A massacre in 1983 was far more brutal than this year's violence. Yet until now the dispute, like other insurgencies of the north-east, has had no real impact elsewhere in the country.

This time, there were riots in Mumbai and attacks in nearby Pune on people from Manipur. According to some reports some 30,000 north-easterners fled from Bangalore, nine of them being thrown off a moving train. Governments countered these claims, but HT Sangliana – a north-easterner, but former DGP of Karnataka, former BJP MP from Bangalore, and current Vice-Chairman of the country's Minority Commission – pleaded in an interview on national televion that complaints of mal-treatment of north-easterners should not be ignored by the government; they need to be verified. Amidst the panic, it appeared like some authorities encouraged the exodus by laying on special trains: reportedly 30,000 tickets to Guwahati, Assam's capital, were sold in three days.

The impact of mobile phones with almost everybody today, has made a difference. On August 12th people started getting text messages warning north-easterners to go home before the end of Ramzan (August 20th). They also got video messages with doctored images purporting to show the bodies of Muslims killed in Assam – images that were in fact of victims of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar.

Based on intelligence inputs, Union Home Secretary RK Singh appeared on national television to disclose that the mischievous websites that spread the messages were identified as from Pakistan and Home Minister Shinde asked for the Pakistani government's help in closing them down. Pakistan denied involvement, following which India ordered the blocking of over 250 websites and asked mobile-service providers to restrict the number of SMS messages. Yet the images have gone viral.

The Assam conflict also spread because people elsewhere sought to capitalize on it. Mumbai saw rival protests by a big Muslim organization – the Raza Academy, then a big Hindu one, by the Maharashtra Navnirman Samiti. The opposition (Hindu-nationalist) Bharatiya Janata Party said Assam's problem is illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Tarun Gogoi, the chief Minister of Assam which is ruled by the Congress party, countered bluntly "…there are no Bangladeshis in the clash but Indian citizens." The Assam conflict has not been such partisan fodder before.

What now for possible action:

It may be likely and hoped that these reverberations across the rest of the country will force the Central Government to focus at last on the chronic failings of its policy in the north-east. Linked to the rest of the country only by a "chicken's neck" stretch of land 22km wide, the region has remained isolated, poor and different. Assam, easily the biggest state in the north-east, is one of India's poorest. With a mixture of oriental mongoloid features in various degrees, North-easterners look different: and take offense at being called "Chinky". It is not uncommon though for North-easterners to call the rest of the country "mainland India".

Over the decades since India's independence one of the manifestations of this distinctiveness is the persistence of insurgencies in the region. The Institute for Conflict Management, a think-tank, lists 26 active armed groups in the region, and ten organizations proscribed by India's home ministry. Five of the seven states are troubled by armed separatists. In the early 2000s the death toll was reportedly 1,700 a year.

Dealing with such a region was always going to be hard. Yet successive governments have made things worse. They have attempted to placate insurgent groups by giving them more autonomy. The north-east has 16 such areas, more than the rest of India. But giving each group a place of its own creates restive new minorities within the area—as in Bodoland.

National politicians have also shied away from dealing with illegal migration, partly because the issue is toxic and partly because local politicians like to register newcomers as voters. For a while, Assam even had its own immigration policy, until that was struck down by the Supreme Court. By letting ambiguity about incomers' legal status persist, politicians leave the field open to armed extremists who want to kick all Muslims out.

The report card over the past decades indicates that the successive Central governments have attempted to buy peace. Between 20% and 55% of north-eastern states' GDP comes in fund transfers from the centre—a huge proportion. It keeps their economies going, but turns local governments into client states surrounded by autonomous areas ruled by former insurgents, while armed gangs wage guerrilla campaigns at the margins.

On the other side of the coin, there is reason to believe that there have been some improvements in the region. Fatalities have fallen since 2008, thanks to a deal with Bangladesh which denied some insurgents their former bases. But as is clear from the Bodo conflict, the grievances which produced the insurgencies remain. India's long-term goals in the region are to encourage its integration with the rest of the country, to use the north-east to boost economic ties with South-East Asia, and to check China's influence in Myanmar. At the moment, none of those aims is being advanced.

From a policing perspective…

i) The cause of exodus of residents hailing from NE areas to return home are SMS texts originating from Pakistan. It is indeed shameful to admit/allege that a neighbouring country was able to intrude our communication system and networks. However, we need to revisit the knee-jerk strategy adopted by the Government as immediate remedy to tackle this menace - and examine whether at all the answer really lies in blocking social net-working sites or in harnessing their potential for initiatives and positive propaganda to counter - by beating the enemy using their own stick! We need to be progressive in our approach. Banning a thing comes naturally to us. Our intelligence and understanding of issues will be better appreciated if we can be one up on technology, and harness the same for our greater benefit.

But I pray, while doing so, let us not ride on the Pakistani canard alone - the majority of sites (..over two third) identified for blocking are still non-Pakistani – possibly by Muslims and others in India too. Veteran journalist John Dayal has posted on his facebook page that 20% of these sites were by Hindus. So what in the name of follow up is being done about this? ...and why no hype on this score?

ii) Governmental responses:

(….role of DMs and SPs, the state leaderships in the IAS and IPS, and of political leaders).

That such mischief (…be it by Pakistanis, or others) could be expected, what has amazed all is that everyone sat down to watch this exodus continue without meaningful intervention. In silence it appeared all approved of this movement. Where were the MPs, MLAs in south India, the various CMs, religous leaders and social activists who survive on official doles. They all seem to have gone home to hole up. Where were the DMs and the police chiefs assuring the people to stay back for they will keep them safe. No DM held any press conference to deny rumours. Police chiefs were also absent from streets to prevent the human exit from their districts. Where were the employers of these people to tell them to stay back and promise them protection.

iii) Lessons to be learnt:
The loss of confidence in institutional management of society seemed total. Now we know how in future our new generations will act and our official agencies will sit back and watch this 'entertainment'. We as a nation are sitting ducks to be knocked out into dust by mere SMS, and not a bullet fired.
This exodus illustrates that we do not have an effective Civil Defence System on ground. Any small disciplined organisation can create absolute chaos by using rumours . Let us see how our district police units worked. Did we have a counter action system on ground to wave away rumours. Why did no DM hold any press conference to deny rumours. Why were the Police chiefs also absent from streets to prevent the human exit from their districts. Was it because no crime was committed?
The people have lost trust in the khaki uniform to be their guardian angels. This is very unfortunate. In six decades we have allowed the police system to only slide down and our words do not carry weight in people's mind. This is a time of trial for our system which is supposed to serve the people.

iv) Migrations:

A point in issue that popped up in discussion forums is the question why at all did so many thousands had to leave their homes in the NE in search of jobs in far off places? Then is it that in their work place they were exploited, and they could visit their homes only once a while at enormous cost of travel and loss of wages? In the 60 years after Independence what have the Governments – at the Centre and State, done to provide employment to the youth of NE? Instead of going into the reasons for this hapless lot to leave their homes, is it just our diversionary tactic to throw the blame on someone else… ?

Migration is an interesting phenomenon when looking at social development. A lot of positives cab be seen when there is movement of people for jobs. Such churning would dissolve firmly held social practices which otherwise we want to eradicate but find it difficult to. Its also an important factor showing more upward mobility of a nation when lots of people opt for migration for economic betterment.
We can't and shouldn't cry down migrations... Greener pastures and aspirations for bettering one's exposure and opportunities for jobs and lifestyles will always remain a motivating factor. There are advantages and disadvantages!

Nobody cried over Bihari migrations when at one stage (...and perhaps still do) they flooded the cities of the country to escape the conditions in their home state (.....just an example - I am not singling out any particular state). Wherever the Biharis went, with their endeavour and intellect they contributed to the development and prosperity of the chosen cities/states - enough to be feared by locals of a Bihari dominance if not Bihari take-over! Giving rise to local goons in the name of partisan interests to become heros and even national power wielders in their quest to oust the outsiders. I don't need to name places where this has happened.

But sticking to the north-east, those of us who served in the north-eastern states know how very clannish the local communities can be in their attitude towards outsiders. But when outside their own local environment/ communities/ and State, they are the friendliest of people. I remember when I was a college student in Bangalore in the '60s some of my best friends were Nagas, Manipuris, Khasis and other north-easterners who flooded Bangalore even in those days for higher studies and in search of class and culture.

As it should be, the north-easterners (and particularly some prominent tribes from the region) have taken full advantage of the tribal concessions and reservations to join the All India  and Central Services in large numbers. Whichever be the cadre to which they were/are allocated, I fear at any given point in time a large number of them if not the majority, would be serving in their own state - having wangled a berth back home by hook or by crook even on deputation through local political connections and obvious mismanagement by cadre authorities fanned by reluctance on the part of cadre officers to serve in the north-east... !

In the circumstances, over the last decade or so I have viewed the tendency for youngsters from the north-east moving out for jobs elsewhere in the country - and not necessarily only for studies - as a great positive and something to be encouraged !!!!!!  

 Shunning their "frog-in-the-well" attitude to life and venturing out of their cocoon comfort zones to take up jobs elsewhere is a wonderful development; which shows their acceptance of and growing confidence in the country which they are part of; something the country could not achieve in the 50-years prior to this decade! Today it is common to find Mizos and Nagas serving as shop assistants and waiters in restaurants - a sight by no stretch of imagination that could be dreamed of earlier!

Hence there is a great stake involved here for the nation - of restoring that confidence - which has been shattered and lost among our north-eastern brethren by the recent conspiracy ingeniously engineered by spreading rumours through the social-network medium.

Zeroing on Police functions, the phenomenon of migration needs to be understood by the police and appropriate response devised. An urgent need is apparent to have better and well thought out strategies to deal with problems of crime arising out of migration, rather than blaming migration for problems. It would be worthwhile to group-think on this issue on social discussion forums, on the current background of the Assam related rumour-mongering on social media.
Do Police need to have real time communication with people on state police websites and twitter and facebook? How useful is using state power to shut down sites etc and demonstrate effectiveness of force?
Police recruitment policies should factor in representation of all significant minorities. NYPD follows this, and Delhi Police at one stage during the 1980s focussed on recruiting from various parts of India - enabling them to present themselves as everyone's police force and getting valuable intelligence resources in the process.

Formation of social bodies and NGOs representing minorities should be encouraged. Leaders who emerge out of such organic growth should be engaged with and recognized.

Localities and public places, including places of worship, frequented by specific minorities should be mapped out and festivals.

IPS officers, who have some minority connection, should be tasked with being 'brand ambassadors' for inclusive policing.

Finally, as one of the senior retired police officers commented on a web discussion forum: "….one wonders why the younger generation is not so assertive to retain a social order around themselves. Is this generation of 'Dum Maro Dum' thinking?"

Whiskey

To all my class-fellows of yesteryears.......

This calls for a peg boys.

An old one but still worth a repeat

You don't have to enjoy whiskey to love this.
If the story is not apocryphal it'll only prove that politicians will be politicians - speaking from all sides of their mouth at the same time.

Subject: Whiskey
*Here my friends is a choice between the devil and divine!*
Choice is yours, no one can explain it better than Armon did half a century ago.
*WHISKEY*
In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of
Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. What follows is his answer, taken from the State Archives:
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the
bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.
However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it."
This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on
matters of principle."

--
Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.)
3725 Sector-23, Gurgaon-122017

9871263322

Fwd: first words on gramaphone

The First Words recorded on Gramophone.....

Not many are aware of this!

 

HMV Company had once published a pamphlet giving the history of the gramophone record. Gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century. Edison, who had invented many other gadgets like electric light and the motion picture camera, had become a legend even in his own time.

When He invented the gramophone record, which could record human voice for posterity, he wanted to record the voice of an eminent scholar

on his first piece. For that he chose Prof. Max Muller of Germany, another great personality of the 19th century. He wrote to Max Muller

saying, "I want to meet you and record your voice. When should I come?"

Max Muller who had great respect for Edison asked him to come on a suitable time when most of the scholars of the Europe would be

gathering in England.

Accordingly, Edison took a ship and went to England. He was introduced to the audience. All cheered Edison's presence. Later at the request of Edison, Max Muller came on the stage and spoke in front of the instrument. Then Edison went back to his laboratory and by afternoon came back with a disc. He played the gramophone disc from his instrument. The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller from the instrument. They were glad that voices of great persons like Max Muller could be stored for the benefit of posterity.

After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Alva Edison, Max Muller came to the stage and addressed the scholars

and asked them, "You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in

the afternoon. Did you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard this afternoon?"

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Max Muller had spoken. It was `Greek and Latin' to them as they say. But had it been Greek or Latin, they would have definitely understood because they were from various parts of Europe. It was in a language which the European scholars had never heard.

Max Muller then explained what he had spoken. He said that the language he spoke was Sanskrit and it was the first sloka of Rig Veda, which says "Agni Meele Purohitam." This was the first recorded public version on the gramophone plate.

Why did Max Muller choose this? Addressing the audience he said, "Vedas are the oldest text of the human race. And Agni Meele Purohitam is the first verse of Rig Veda. In the most primordial time, when the people did not know how even to cover their bodies and lived by hunting and housed in caves, Indians had attained high civilization and they gave the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas."

Such is the illustrious legacy of our country!

When "Agni Meele Purohitam" was replayed the entire audience stood up in silence as a mark of respect for the ancient Indian sages.

This verse means:

"Oh Agni, You who gleam in the darkness, To You we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage. So be of easy access to us, Agni, as a father to his son, abide with us for our well being.

It is sad that such a GREAT civilization has degenerated today into a country brimming with lost values, corruption, and discord in every aspect.