UCC

For Equality All the Way

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3374531.ece

The Marriages Law (Amendment) Act

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2906570.ece

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/one-out-of-3-adolescent-girls-in-india-married/252060-61.html

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/under15-sex-indian-girls-beat-boys/252391-61.html

Beef and Cattle trade

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bajrang-vigilantes-cry-cowslaughter-beat-humiliate-muslim-trader/896817/
http://horizonspeaks.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/the-endless-blood/
Blood on the Border: BSF Killings
Jeffrey Hays- Facts and Details
what happens to dead cows in india
http://agri.gujarat.gov.in/hods/download/PasuSharakshanAdiniyam2011.pdf
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-26/chandigarh/32423609_1_joga-factory-dilshad-haji-cow-slaughter

Gandhi on Religious Education

These were some comments on a thread that were deleted in Outlookindiaonline.

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If only Hindu run educational institutions are given same privileges that are given to Christian/Muslim run educational institutions (exemptions from govt scrutiny, RTI etc), the whole issue wont arise. Christian run schools ensure that all students pray bible verses and participate in christian festivals and no one condemns that. Hindu run schools can do that and we can have them coexist with state run schools that are not saffronised.
Untill this is done, we have no choice but to allow majority religion texts in public schools.

RAMKI

DELHI, INDIA

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Ramki,
>> Hindu run schools can do that and we can have them coexist with state run schools that are not saffronised.

Religious schools can of course teach religious texts. Religious texts in public schools are a no-no.

ANWAAR

DALLAS, UNITED STATES

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@Anwaar,

Making any holy book a school text is communal

Gandhiji would disagree. All holy books can be made optional subjects. It includes the Quran, The Sermon on the Mount and The Zend Avestha. This is the non-secular, but non-communal view.

TEARFUL ONION

JHUMRI TALAIYYA, INDIA

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Tearful Onion,

Gandhiji would disagree. All holy books can be made optional subjects.

Your claim does not follow from the links that you provided. He says

A curriculum of religious instruction must include a study of the tenets of faiths other than one's own. For this purpose the students should be trained to cultivate the habit of understanding and appreciating the doctrines of various great religions of the world in a spirit of reverence and broad-minded tolerance.www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/gandhiphilosophy/philosophy_god_gospeloffaith.htm

In view of controversy generated over cartoons in textbooks, what do you have to say?

R. SAROJA

BOMBAY, INDIA

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@ R.Saroja,

Your claim does not follow from the links that you provided.

I am surprised by your question. Your extract and text (tolerance and reverence to other religions) agrees with Gandhiji's views ("I am a Hindu, Christian, Jew and so are all of you"). So making holy books of all religions optional subjects is Gandhian. But it is not secular (strict separation of religion from state).
I think the Kapil Sibal-like moderators may remove your and my posts, they have done it before without real reason.

TEARFUL ONION

JHUMRI TALAIYYA, INDIA

Notes on Monotheism

I have something in mind related to what neurobiologists and novelists(!) say about human nature. I am just going to list some observations without trying to link them. Surely there is some connection.  
For example consider the pathological case of multiple personality syndrome , Such patients admit to have been subject to early childhood physical and sexual abuse.

In early childhood, children are still developing a personality structure that allows integrative functioning. Trauma greatly interferes with the development of integrative meta cognitive functions and associative pathways between naturally developing ego states, enforcing separation instead of diffuse and inclusive functioning.

Sceptics believe that a small subset of doctors are responsible for diagnosing the majority of individuals with DID ( Dissociative Identity Disorder)

It has been suggested that symptoms of DID may be created iatrogenically by therapists using techniques to "recover" memories with suggestible patients.The characteristics of patients diagnosed with DID (hypnotizability, suggestibility, frequent fantasization and mental absorption) contributed to these concerns and concerns regarding the validity of recovered memories..

And there are case studies where people with brain tumour, stroke or head injuries undergo personality transformation. So if we say that the pathological is an extreme of the normal, what does it say about the normal? We know that we all play multiple roles, have mood swings... We all are aware of conscious mind,unconscious mind etc. and yet when this knowledge hits us, it is a shock So we have different personalities which come into play as we interact with different people, face different situations. 


As a child I was fascinated by ants, ever since I learnt that they have a society. From wikipedia

Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. These larger colonies consist mostly of sterile wingless females forming castes of "workers", "soldiers", or other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens". The colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony. 

Now what is Superorganism ?

A superorganism is an organism consisting of many organisms. This is usually meant to be a social unit of eusocial animals, where division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods of time. Ants are the best-known example of such a superorganism, while the naked mole rat is a famous example of the eusocial mammal. The technical definition of a superorganism is "a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective," phenomena being any activity "the hive wants" such as ants collecting food or bees choosing a new nest site. 

Can one consider humanity as such to be a superorganism ? Then what is the meaning of gods   ? A controversial work by psychologist Julian Jaynes on Bicameralism

 Bicameralism (the philosophy of "two-chamberedness") is a hypothesis in psychology that argues that the human brain once assumed a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind. The term was coined by psychologist Julian Jaynes, who presented the idea in his 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, wherein he made the case that a bicameral mentality was the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3000 years ago. Jaynes built a case for this hypothesis that human brains existed in a bicameral state until as recently as 3000 years ago by citing evidence from many diverse sources including historical literature. He took an interdisciplinary approach, drawing data from many different fields. Jaynes asserted that, until roughly the times written about in Homer's Iliad, humans did not generally have the self-awareness characteristic of consciousness as most people experience it today. Rather, the bicameral individual was guided by mental commands believed to be issued by external "gods" — commands which were recorded in ancient myths, legends and historical accounts. For example, in the Iliad and sections of the Old Testament no mention is made of any kind of cognitive processes such as introspection, and there is no apparent indication that the writers were self-aware. According to Jaynes, the older portions of the Old Testament (such as the Book of Amos) have few or none of the features of some later books of the Old Testament (such asEcclesiastes) as well as later works such as Homer's Odyssey, which show indications of a profoundly different kind of mentality — an early form of consciousness. However the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by many historians to be the oldest known recorded story (ca. 2000-2100 BC), features characters whose actions are deeply rooted in introspection and dream analysis.

In ancient times, Jaynes noted, gods were generally much more numerous and much more anthropomorphic than in modern times, and speculates that this was because each bicameral person had their own "god" who reflected their own desires and experiences. He also noted that in ancient societies the corpses of the dead were often treated as though still alive (being seated, dressed and even fed) and argued that the dead bodies were presumed to be still living and the source of auditory hallucinations (see ancestor worship). This adaptation to the village communities of 100 individuals or more formed the core of religion. Unlike today's hallucinations, the voices of ancient times were structured by cultural norms to produce a seamlessly functioning society. In Ancient Greek culture there is often mention of the Logos, which is a very similar concept. It was a type of guiding voice that was heard as from a seemingly external source.

Jaynes inferred that these "voices" came from the right brain counterparts of the left brain language centres—specifically, the counterparts to Wernicke's area and Broca's area. These regions are somewhat dormant in the right brains of most modern humans, but Jaynes noted that some studies show that auditory hallucinations correspond to increased activity in these areas of the brain. 

Julian Jaynes work remains controversial and has not received much study within mainstream psychology while works of neurobiologists like V.S.Ramachandran and  Michael Persinger seem to support what Julian Jaynes says. See also www.julianjaynes.org/  An alternate look by Daniel Dennett . Yet another by Mushtaq Bhat Bicameral Brain Breakdown.


So much from psychologists and neuroscientists. It has been extremely satisfying to read the exploration of mind in the works of Doris Lessing ( I recognised portions of Golden Notebook and The Four Gated City from my own "explorations" )


In this context only I raise the issue of monotheism. I have no sure answers to give.At different stages in my life, I have tried to go deep into religion and have turned away because may be I lacked experience in life. Now I am going to have another go at it, so may be after a day or two I am not going to speak anything about religion for a year or two at least.

Curiouser and Curiouser

THE CURIOUS CASE OF GHATKOPAR BOMB BLAST OF DEC. 2002 

On Dec.2, 2002 there was a bomb blast inside a BEST bus outside Ghatkopar Railway Station in suburban Mumbai. Two persons were killed and about 50 were injured.  

Khwaja Younus was one of the accused and was arrested

However he escaped from Police custody.

In the trial all the accused were acquitted.

How Yunus had escaped.

How he died.

Struggle continues for the family .See also Fall of Mumbai's encounter cops

On 25th Aug. 2003 there were twin blasts in taxis at Zaver bazaar and Gateway of India. The driver of the taxi where bomb was planted at Gateway of India had stepped out of his taxi, and thus he survived and led to the arrest of the accused, who have been sentenced to death.They were also charged with being behind  an unexploded bomb at the Seepz Bus Depot planted on December 2, 2002. 

So who was behind the bomb blast of 2nd Dec 2002? Different groups planting bombs at Ghatkopar and SEEPZ on 2nd Dec. 2002 ! Similar intensity bombs, same style (BEST bus)