Note: References to Greece and India are used in a very broad way. In the ancient world, the 'Greek' world included most Mediterranean nations - including those of North Africa, Palestine, modern-day Turkey, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. References to India apply to the general expanse of the sub-continent.

For a somewhat more detailed outline of the different rational schools and their emergence in India, Philosophical development from Upanishadic theism to scientific realism which outlines the epistemology of the Nyaya school, the Jain system of Syadavada, theories of causality and the atomic theories of Jain and Buddhist philosophers will be presented later. Also Buddhist Ethics and Social Criticism.

Will be presenting more on The Science of Ayurveda - Origin & History

Philosophical Development from Upanishadic Metaphysics to Scientific Realism

Upanishadic philosophy: preparing the ground for rationalism

Although the Upanishadic texts (like some of the earlier Vedic texts) are primarily concerned with acquiring knowledge of the "soul", "spirit" and "god" - there are aspects of Vedic and Upanishadic literature that also point to an intuitive understanding of nature and natural processes. In addition, many of the ideas are presented in a philosophical and exploratory manner - rather than as strict definitions of inviolable truth.

Although the Upanishadic texts goaded the Upanishadic student to concentrate on comprehending the inner spirit, rational investigation of the world by other scholars was not entirely squelched, and eventually, the Upanishadic period gave way to an era which was not inimical to the development of rational ideas, even encouraging scientific observation and advanced study in the fields of logic, mathematics and the physical sciences.

Following an era when rituals and superstitions had begun to proliferate, in some ways the Upanishadic texts helped to clear the ground for greater rationalism in society. Brahmin orthodoxy and ideas of ritual purity were superseded by a spiritual perspective that eschewed sectarianism and could be practised universally, unfettered by an individual's social standing. Much of the emphasis was on discovering "spiritual truths" for oneself as opposed to mechanically accepting the testimony of established religious leaders. Although there is a thematic commonality to the Upanishadic discourses, different commentators offered subtly varying perspectives and insights.

The concept of god in Upanishadic (and even earlier Vedic) thinking was quite different from the more common definition of god as creator and dispenser of reward and punishment. The Upanishadic concept of god was more abstract and philosophical. Different texts postulated the doctrine of a universal soul that embraced all physical beings. All life emanated from this universal soul and death simply caused individual manifestations of the soul to merge or mingle back with the universal soul. The concept of a universal soul was illustrated through analogies from natural phenomenon.

"As the bees make honey by collecting the juices of distant trees, and reduce the juice into one form. And as these juices have no discrimination, so that they might say, I am the juice of this tree or that, in the same manner, all these creatures, when they have become merged in the True, know not that they are merged in the True. . . ."

"These rivers run, the eastern (like the Ganges) towards the east, the western (like the Indus) towards the west. They go from sea to sea (i.e., the clouds lift up the water from the sea to the sky and send it back as rain to the sea). They become indeed sea. And as those rivers, when they are in the sea, do not know, I am this or that river, in the same manner, all these creatures, proceeding from the True, know not that they have proceeded from the True. . . ."

In another story, the "wise" father, expounder of the Upanishadic concept of god, asks his son to dissolve salt in water, and asked him to taste it from the surface, from the middle and from the bottom. In each case, the son finds the taste to be salty. To this his father replies that the 'universal being' though invisible resides in all of us, just as the salt, though invisible is completely dissolved in the water. (Chanddogya, VI)

As a corollary to this theory emerged the notion that even as individual beings might refer to this universal soul - i.e. god in varied ways - by using different names and different methods of worship - all living beings were nevertheless related to each other and to the universal god, and capable of merging with the universal god. This approach thus laid the foundation for egalitarian and non-discriminatory philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism (as well as non-sectarian streams of Hinduism) that followed the Upanishadic period. As is evident, such an approach was not incompatible with secular society, and permitted different faiths and sub-faiths to coexist in relative peace and harmony.

In the course of defining their philosophy, the scholars of the Upanishad period raised several questions that challenged mechanical theism (as was also done in some hymns from the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda). If god existed as the unique creator of the world, they wondered who created this unique creator. The logical pursuit of such a line of questioning could either lead to an infinite series of creators, or to the rejection or abandonment of this line of questioning. The common theist solution to this philosophical dilemma was to simply reject logic and demand unquestioning faith on the part of the believer. A few theists attempted to use this contradiction to their own advantage by positing that god existed precisely because "He" was indescribable by mere mortals. But, by and large, this contradiction was taken very seriously by the philosophers of the Upanishadic period. The Upanishadic philosophers attempted to resolve this contradiction by defining god as an entity that extended infinitely in all dimensions covering both space and time. This was a philosophical advance in that it attempted to come to terms with at least the most obvious challenges to the notion of god as a human-like creator and did not require the complete rejection of logic.

Another philosophical advance of the Upanishadic period was that religion was transformed from the realm of bookish parroting of scriptures to the realm of advanced intellectual debate and polemics. The Upanishadic philosophers did not lay down their conclusions as rigid doctrines or inviolable laws but as seductive parables - sometimes displaying remarkable worldly insight and analytical skill. By attempting to win over their followers through analogies from nature, and by employing the methods of abstract reasoning and debate, they created an environment where dialectical thinking and intellectual exchanges could later flourish. (Also see ref. below)

In the very process of their questioning, (and albeit speculative reasoning about god), they had opened the door for rationalists and even outright atheists who took their tentative questioning about the role and the character of god as "creator" to conclusions that rejected theism entirely. But in either case, many rationalist and/or naturalist philosophical streams emerged from this initial foundation. Some were nominally theistic (but in the abstract Upanishadic vein), others were agnostic (as the early Jains), while the early Buddhists and the Lokayatas were atheists. Thus even though the Upanishads contained much that should rightly be dismissed as abstruse intellectual jugglery and philosophical mumbo-jumbo, the Upanishadic philosophers had levelled the ground for the seeds of rationalism to flourish in Indian soil. source

The Vaisheshika School

The Vaisheshika school (considered to be founded by Kanada, author of the Vaisesika Sutra) was an early realistic school whose main achievement lay in it's attempt at classifying nature into like and unlike groups. It also posited that all matter was made up of tiny and indestructible particles - i.e. atoms that aggregated in different ways to form new compounds that formed the variety of matter that existed on the earth.

Their philosophy was described through the enumeration of the following concepts: Dravya (Substance),
Guna (Quality), Karma (Action), Samanya (Generality), Visesa (Particularity), Samavaya (Inherence) and
abhava (non-existence).

Dravya (or substance) was understood as the specific result of a particular aggregate effect - i.e. the combination of atoms in a unique way. Substances were repositories for qualities and actions. Guna or quality was that which resided in a dravya. Qualities did not however contain qualities themselves. 24 qualities were enumerated, such as - color, form, smell, touch, sound, number, magnitude, distinctions, conjunction, disjunction, nearness, remoteness, heaviness, fluidity and viscosity. (As was typical of the times, psychological attributes such as pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, effort, tendency, cognition, impression, and ethical attributes such as merit and demerit were also included in the list, i.e. - qualities that were inapplicable to inanimate objects were not treated separately)

Action or Karma represented physical movement. Unlike quality which was passive, Karma was dynamic. Action was the determinant of conjuction and disjunction. Five types of action were noted: throwing upwards or downwards, contraction, expansion and locomotion.

Satta or physical existence was viewed as being the common attribute of substance, quality and action - i.e. only existing (as opposed to imaginary) entities could have substance, qualities and be capable of action.

Samanyata or 'generality' was seen as a mental construct to create common classes of substances, qualities or actions while Visesata (particularity) was used to identify and separate individual items from their general classes. Samavaya or inherence was a relation that existed in those things that could not be separated without destroying them.

Four categories of Abhava as negation or non-existance were listed: pragabhava or prior non-existance, referring to the absence of an object before it's creation; dhvamsabhava or posterior negation, as the absence of an object after it had been destroyed; anyonyabhava or mutual non-existance, refering to an object being distinct and different from the other; atyantabhava or absolute non-existence, indicating non-existence in the past, present and future, citing the example of air as permanently lacking in smell - (which was presumably true in a period where air pollution must have been uncommon!).

An important contribution of the Vaisheshika school was a careful study of the time-relation in a chain of causes and effects. In a very rudimentary way, the school (along with other such schools) anticipated the theory of time calculus which could also be extended to space calculus.

The Vaisheshika school thus served as an important step in the study of science by enumerating concepts that could further the study of physics and chemistry. In addition, the the study of medical science (including veterinary science) received considerable impetus from such attempts at methodical observation and classification. source

The Nyaya and Related Schools

The Nyaya schools complemented and built on the Vaisheshika school by elaborating on the process of accumulating valid scientific knowledge through accurate perception and generating valid inferences.

The school articulated four means of acquiring valid knowledge: pratyaksha or perception through one of the senses; anumana or inference; upamana or comparison with a well-known object; or shabda - verbal testimony.

The conditions of perception, and it's range and limits were carefully studied. Trasarenu - the minima sensibile (i.e. the minimum visible), anubhuta-rupa - the infra-sensible, abhibhuta - the obscured perception , and anubhuta-vriti - potential perception, were recognized as different types of perception.

A general methodology of ascertaining the truth (tattva) was described which consisted of describing a proposition (uddesa), the ascertainment of essential facts obtained through perception, inference or induction (laksan or uppa-laksana), and finally examination and verification (pariksa and nirnaya). This process could involve examples (drishtanta), logical arguments (avayava), reasoning (tarka) and discussion (vada) - , intellectual exchange, or interplay of two opposing sides in the process of arriving at a decisive conclusion. A successful application of this method could result in a siddhanta - i.e. established principle - (or in the case of mathematics - a theorem or theory) elucidated through proofs (pramana). Alternatively, it could lead to a rejection of the initial proposition.

The Nyaya school identified various types of arguments that hindered or obstructed the path of genuine scientific pursuit, suggesting perhaps, that there may have been considerable practical resistance to their unstinting devotion to truth-seeking and scientific accuracy. They list the term jalpa - an argument not for the sake of arriving at the truth but for the sake of seeking victory (this term was coined perhaps to distinguish exaggerated and rhetorical arguments, or hyperbole from genuine arguments); vitanda (or cavil) to identify arguments that were specious or frivolous, or intended to divert attention from the substance of the debate, that were put-downs intended to lower the dignity or credibility of the opponent; and chal - equivocation or ruse to confuse the argument. Three types of chal are listed: vakchala - or verbal equivocation where the words of the opponent are deliberately misused to mean or suggest something different than what was intended; samanyachala or false generalization, where the opponents arguments are deliberately and incorrectly generalized in a way to suggest that the original arguments were ridiculous or absurd; uparachala - misinterpreting a word which is used figuratively by taking it literally. Also mentioned is jati, a type of fallacious argument where an inapplicable similiarity is cited to reject an argument, or conversely an irrelevant dissimiliarity is cited to reject an argument.

The Nyaya school also recognized that intelligent and meaningful debates were not possible if certain fundamental principles and basic definitions and concepts were not mutually accepted. Nigrahasthana was the term used to identify disagreements based on absence of mutually acceptable first principles. An example might be a debate between a theist who rejected logic, and a non-theist who rejected faith.

The Nyaya school also listed five classes of logical fallacies (hetvabhasa) : savyabhichara or the inconclusive type which employed reasoning from which more than one conclusion could be drawn but was used to insist on a single specific conclusion; viruddha or contradictory, where the reasoning used actually contradicted the proposition to be established; kalatita - where the elapse of time had made the argument invalid; sadhyasama, the unproven type, where the reasoning employed rested on arguments or principles that had not been proven and require proofs themselves - i.e. this was the type of fallacy where one unproven result was merely converted into another unproven result.; and finally prakaranasama - where the reasoning employed provoked the very question it was designed to answer - i.e. a recursive fallacy.

In this manner, the Nyaya school defined a very sophisticated school of rational philosophy where the process of scientific epistemology was analyzed threadbare and all the dangers of unscientific reasoning and propaganda ploys were skillfully exposed. source

Causality

Buddhist and Jain scholars, as well as later Hindu scholars offered their own approaches to scientific reasoning. Virtually all the rational schools were concerned with describing causality and causal relationships, and recognized that effects may not have single causes but may require a group or conjunction of causes to occur.

Buddhist scholars emphasized that cause and effect need not have a linear effect but that desired effects may also require the right conditions for their fruition. (That is to say that for a plant to grow successfully, it would not only need the right seed, but that it would also need the right type of soil, fertilization, sunlight and water.)

Both the Jains and the Buddhists correctly speculated that a potential for the desired effect must also be present in the cause or causal agent. (For instance, only a mango seed could produce a mango tree because only the mango seed incorporated the potential of developing into a mango tree.) As another example, one could note that something with brittle properties such as glass might break upon impact whereas something strong such as steel would survive. Thus a physical impact on substances of different properties would have different results.

The Nyaya school also recognized co-effects - i.e a series of antecedants could cause a series of effects - either successive and staggered in time, or near simultaneous. Nyaya texts on causality indicate that there was an awareness that light travelled at a very high speed but the transmission of light was not instantaneous.

Buddhist and Jain Atomic Theories

The Buddhist and Jain philosophers also proposed their own variations of the atomic theory. Like the Vaisheshikas, atoms were perceived as infinitely small by the Jainas. But the Jainas went a step further by positing that the union of atoms required opposite qualities in the combining atoms - as is true in the case of electrovalent bonding.

However, they erred in thinking that covalent bonding (which does not require opposite polarities in the combining atoms) could not occur. But their intuition that opposite polarities created mutual attraction and facilitated chemical reactions was correct.

In the Buddhist view, matter was in fact an aggregate of rapidly recurring forces or energy waves. Their theory was illustrated with examples drawn from natural phenomenon involved with light emission. An atom was perceived as a momentary flash of light combining and separating from other atoms according to strict and definite laws of causality. Physical matter was thus seen as a denser and more concentrated form of light.

Although at odds with other atomic theories of the time, their approach fit in with their general view that all things in nature were temporal, that there was constant change in nature - that degradation and renewal were continuous processes. source

The Syadvada System of Jain Logic

Jain philosophers also made certain important contributions to the science of Epistemology by proposing that the truth of a concept or observation could not only be true or false but indeterminate - and combinations of the above - such as true under some conditions (or true at a particular time or place - or true based on the validity of certain inferences) and false under other conditions, or true under some conditions but indeterminate under others, and so on. This led to a matrix of seven possible states of the truth (true, false, true or false, indeterminate, true or indeterminate, false or indeterminate, true or false or indeterminate).

Jaina rationalists also studied the relationship between the universal and the particular and made important points concerning generalities and individual peculiarities. They also noted that objects in the real world exist in a network of relationships with each other - and have specific attributes that mark them temporally and spatially: "Every real is thus hedged round by a network of relations and attributes, which we propose to call its system or context or universe of discourse, which demarcates it from others." Jaina philosophers also successfully synthesized earlier debates on change and permanence by positing that all objects (or parts of objects) passed through phases of "existence, persistence, and cessation" and that reality was therefore a complex combination of things relatively permanent yet also relatively changing.

These ideas thus formed the foundations of Indian science and contributed to the gradual elaboration of Mathematics and Astronomy, as well as Agricultural and Meteorological Sciences. Developments in Metallurgy and Ccivil Engineering also followed. Medicine and surgery perhaps received the greatest and the earliest impetus from these developments. Developments in philosophy also led to concomitant developments in the realm of art and culture.

Yet to a considerable extent, knowledge about the progress of science and reason in Indian history is often scarce. These (and other such) historical contributions were either denied or demeaned during the process of colonization, and are only now beginning to be re-acknowledged within India and abroad. But in A. D 1068, Indian contributions to the mainstream of science were held in great esteem and readily acknowledged in some parts of the world:

Here is what Said Al-Andalusi, an 11th C Spanish Scholar, court Historian and Chronicler wrote then: "Among the Nations, during the course of centuries and throughout the passage of time, India was known as the mine of wisdom and the 'fountainhead of justice and good Government' and the Indians were credited with excellent intellects, exalted ideas, universal maxims, rare inventions and wonderful talents ... They have studied Arithmetic and Geometry. They have also acquired copious and abundant knowledge of the movements of the stars, the secrets of the celestial sphere and all other kinds of mathematical sciences. Moreover, of all the peoples they are the most learned in the science of medicine and thoroughly informed about the properties of drugs, the nature of composite elements and peculiarities of the existing things." (Abu'l-Qasim's comments on India in Tabaqat al-Umam (Categories of Nations) PS: For References Material - check 'Source'.

South Asians History will continue later...a pause to pay tribute to a fallen star...Michael Jackson..

'King of Pop' Michael Jackson dies at 50

Los Angeles, June 25: It’s a sad day for music lovers as Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the ‘King of Pop’ and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday. He was 50.

A music genius, who got the world grooving to his signature style and heart thumping numbers, Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album ‘Thriller’ — which included the blockbuster hits ‘Beat It,’ ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Thriller’ — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

Out to gain his lost glory, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback ever. He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

Jackson rose to fame as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No 1 hits were 'I Want You Back,' 'ABC' and 'I'll Be There.'

Michael Jackson In India

Michael Jackson in Mumbai, India History World Tour - Oct. 30 - 01 Nov. 1996

World Tour Mumbai

Michael Jackson History World Tour - Mumbai

Indian fans mourn death of Michael Jackson

MUMBAI (AFP) — Indian fans on Friday remembered fondly Michael Jackson after his death was announced in the United States, harking back to his landmark concert in Mumbai and his philosophy on life.

The self-styled "King of Pop" played a sell-out gig in India's entertainment capital in 1996, wowing fans with a breathtaking two-hour set and also inviting children from local orphanages to his luxury hotel for a poolside party.

He also reportedly autographed the toilet he used on a visit to local politician and Hindu nationalist firebrand Bal Thackeray, who invited him to the city. Thackeray is said to still proudly point out the signed loo.

In a statement, Thackeray, now 83, recalled Jackson's dancing. "How many people can dance that way? You'd break your neck... He represents certain values in America that India should not have qualms in accepting," he said.

Nikhil Gangavane, who set up the Official Indian Michael Jackson Fanclub, said he was shocked at news of the 50-year-old singer's death.

"I didn't really believe the news. I didn't think it was really happening. I thought it was just some rumour. It's been a very sad day for us," he told AFP by telephone from Pune, 93 kilometres (58 miles) from Mumbai.

Gangavane, a 30-year-old composer, singer and photographer, said he had been inundated with calls and emails from some of the club's 13,000 Indian members. "Most of them are unable to speak too much right now," he added, describing Jackson as a "humanitarian" who spread "a message of peace and love" wherever he went.

"He's a man who always loved and taught us how we should be," he added.

Jerry Joseph, an Indian Michael Jackson impersonator who performs as "Jackson Jerry", said he was shocked at his idol's death, just before he was due to perform in a series of 50 comeback concerts in Britain.

"It (the concerts) was supposed to be the biggest thing he's done so far," the IT professional from the southern Indian state of Kerala told AFP by telephone from Sweden, where he is on a business trip.

"I planned to go to London to see him even though I didn't have a ticket."

Joseph, 27, said he still planned to perform his cabaret act as Jackson.

"I will not stop. Even though he's gone his popularity will not fade away that quickly," he added.

Indian artist Aijaz Saiyed gives final touches to a painting in tribute of US performer Michael Jackson in Ahmedabad. Indian fans on Friday remembered Jackson fondly after his death was announced in the United States, harking back to his landmark concert in Mumbai and his philosophy on life.

Michael Jackson In India - History World Tour

The King of Pop, arrived in Mumbai on October 30th. The svelte and sexy Sonali Bendre, clad in traditional Maharashtrian(Indian State – Maharashtra) nine yard saree, performed the aarti and tilak for Michael at the airport and he was quite taken up with the entire ceremony.

When he was being driven out of the air port in his 20-car motorcade, he stopped his Toyota, got rid of his security guards and stepped out to meet the urchins lined up along the highway to catch a glimpse of him. He picked up several children and hugged and kissed them. He then spent a few minutes with them before he proceeded to the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray’s residence, Matushree, in Bandra East. Here he was presented with a silver tabla and tanpura, which are musical instruments from India.

Later that evening, at the special bash organized in his honour by Bharat Shah (Organiser of the concert) at the Oberoi, he made a mere three minute appearance. Apparently, the singer had a late night before and wanted to retire to his room early. The crème de la crème of the Indian Entertainment Industry and Royal Families were there. Most of them of course, were left high and dry except for the actor Anupam Kher perhaps who to the initiative of jumping on the stage and grabbing Michael’s hand with a, ‘Yeah Michael, yeah!’. Shobha De (A Writer) was the next to gain inspiration and she even told the Press later, “Shaking hands with him was like an orgasm!” Bharat Shah presented Michael with a silver replica of the Taj Mahal at the same party. Cine Blitz Exclusively

Indian Media Myth & Fav Drinks

The Indian media myth about Michael being extremely reclusive, does not hold true anymore. During his stay at The Oberoi Hotel, he surprised the entire staff by mingling freely with his fans, who would drop in at the hotel to catch a glimpse of the King of Pop. He would smile and blow kisses to all his fans and shake hands with as many of them as possible.

According to Butler Manager, Sandeep Walia, who was attending to him with a team of three butlers, Michael loves sweet white wine. That is probably the only kind of alcohol that he consumed during his stay at the Oberoi. Apart from that, he loves orange drinks, Fanta being his favorite and a special German orange drink, Gatorade, which he carries with him.

Michael drinks a lot of Diet Coke as well, prefers his drinks at room temperature. Jackson has a penchant for chocolates too, so The Oberoi made sure there were chocolates, of all shapes, sizes and flavours kept in every reachable corner of his room.

The Oberoi - Kohinoor Suite - Indian Food

Michael Jackson likes a lot of festivity around him. The Kohinoor Suite at the Oberoi was decorated with flowers, balloons, confetti and bowls of sweets and chocolates to give it a spirit of celebration. While in his room, Jackson does not like to use the air-conditioner. He also likes his space. His body-guards have been instructed not to come close to him to give him enough space to move around.

Okay this is something that will really please his fans in India. According to one of his security men, India is not his new love. Jackson has always wanted to visit the country and the last time his show got cancelled he was very disappointed and upset.

Guess what Michael had for breakfast? On his first morning here, he ate masala dosa and the day after that, he had spicy alu paranthas with butter. His other meals mainly comprised of butter naans, butter chicken, tandoori chicken and spicy vegetable curries. His personal chef is of Indian origin and she co-ordinated his meals with the other chefs at the hotel.

Michael Jackson definitely has a predilection for Indian food but wait till you hear this. According to the hotel staff, he got naans (Enough for an army), tandoori chicken, dishes cooked in butter gravy and lots of paranthas packed, on the morning he was flying out of India.

Michael & Indian Kids Party

Jackson asked The Oberoi for an LLD player and a television, as well as a CD player for his personal use. He travels with his own library of CDs and LDs and spends most of the time indoors, watching films.

The world knows he loves kids and there are many in our country who wish, they were kids, because Michael only seemed to have time for them while he was here. At his request, a high tea was organized at the pool side where kids from orphanages were invited to meet and play with him. He gave them gifts and chocolates that he had brought with him. There was a party for kids organized in his room as well, on the day of the show itself.

About 50 children were invited and he ordered cakes and burgers for them. He made the kids sit on his lap and played with them. He had asked the hotel to provide him with a few saris which he wanted draped around the sofas during the photo session with the kids, to give his pictures the ethnic effect.

He would pick up his own newspapers from outside the door, which was normally very late in the morning. Michael is a late riser. His meal timings were also odd. He never had his breakfast before 12 noon and dinner before 1.00 pm.

When he returned to the hotel lobby after his mind blowing show, he folded his hands in a Namaste and blew kisses to all his fans before he got into the elevator. According to the staff, he was as energetic after the show, as he was before it perhaps! The two-hour-15-minute long performance hadn’t fatigued him in the least.

The Show -Andheri Sports Complex

November 1 at the Andheri Sports Complex was a spectacular event. The special effects were truly awesome and as for Michael, he can deservedly be called the best performer in the world. For those present at the show, it was an out of body experience!

For his show Michael flew in all his equipment in three Russian Antanov cargo planes. The stage was 60 ft. deep and 210 ft. wide and he had three teams to work on it – an assembling team, a dismantling team and a standby team as well. That’s what they call perfect organization.

It took at least 24 hours to erect the whole structure and prepare it for the show and less than six hours to bring it down. The green room was beneath the stage and had four divisions – The meditation room, the rest room, the photography room and the VIP guest room.

The rest room was ornately done in true Indian tradition, with regal décor befitting the King (real Maharaja) of Pop. This room had 20 air-conditioners installed and was christened the Air-Conditioned Marquee. Michael uses the photography room for photography sessions. The fortunate few who were allowed to accompany him under the stage, were his bodyguards, his tour manager and his wardrobe manager.

Stage Tank Props - The Earth Song

The tank that was used on the stage as a prop in “The Earth Song” was made of blocks of plywood, though it appeared as authentic as a battle tank. The other props, such as the dilapidated buildings and the shuttle Michael used to make a grand entrance in, was also made of collapsible material that could easily be dismantled. She show had its own tender moments, when it left everyone present in tears. And that included Michael who was moved to tears at the overwhelming response he received from the Indian audience for the first time.
“This has been the best show of the "World History Tour” he later admitted.

A special route was chalked out for Michael to drive into the Andheri Stadium with his entourage. And it was only at 8.30 pm that he actually reached the stadium.

More Memories of Michael Jacksong - King of Pop

The death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, brings back the memories of his tryst with the Celluloid city - MUMBAI, 13 years ago, when he mesmerized thousands of Mumbaikars with his performance at jam packed concert.

Michael Jackson performed at a packed concert here in 1996. The event was organised by Shiv Udyog Sena, an outfit floated by then Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray with the objective of providing jobs to 27 lakh youth in Maharashtra. During his short stay here, life in Mumbai centred around Michael Jackson and his “stories”.

The svelte and sexy Sonali Bendre, clad in traditional Maharashtrian (Indian State – Maharashtra) performed the aarti and tilak for Michael at the airport and he was quite taken up with the entire ceremony.

Svelte and Sexy Sonali Bendre

The King of Pop, arrived in Mumbai on October 30th,1996 at Mumbai’s Sahar airport in his private jet. Lakhs of people had thronged the airport to catch a glimpse of him.

Jackson was greeted by Sonali Bendre clad in a nine-yard sari and a Maharashtrian nathni (nose ring), standing with an aarti thali to welcome MJ, along with Raj Thackeray, Sharmila Thackeray and innumerable politicians who were there to receive Jackson.

The actress welcomed Jackson by performing ‘aarti’ and applying ’tilak’ on his forehead, at the Mumbai airport. Outside, Raj had organised a performance by a troupe of lezhim dancers with dholaks, and they wore traditional Maharashtrian clothes.

The popstar, when being driven in a 20-car motorcade from the air port, stopped his Toyota to meet the urchins lined up along the highway to catch a glimpse of him.He picked up several children and hugged and kissed them.
He then spent a few minutes with them before he proceeded to the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray’s residence, Matushree, in Bandra East.
Here he was presented with a silver tabla and tanpura, which are musical instruments from India. source

Prabhu Deva going to meet the King of Pop - Michael Jackson

The popstar, when being driven in a 20-car motorcade from the airport,
stopped his Toyota to meet the urchins lined up along the highway to catch a glimpse of him.

He greeted his fans with smiles and by blowing kisses and
shook hands with as many of them as possible, hotel sources recount.

Michael given the traditional Indian greeting to welcome a guest!

Traditional Greeting "Arti" - Shiv Sena Chief, Bal Thackeray’s residence??

Michael Jackson seen here with Raj Thackeray

Children from orphanages were invited to meet and play
with him at a high tea organised at the hotel pool side.
He gave them gifts and chocolates that he had brought with him.

Michael Jackson seen here with Bollywood actor Anupam Kher

Guest Blogger - Anupam Kher: My Tryst with Michael Jackson

My story goes back quite some time ago to the early nineties when I was shooting a television programme for my company with Prabhudeva, the one Indian who could moonwalk like Jackson. After the recording, I casually asked Prabhudeva, who had offered his services for free, one thing I could do to return the favour. Prabhudeva seriously told me that he would like nothing better than to be introduced to the King of Pop. I said he was indeed asking for the moon!

Though there was much talk of Michael Jackson coming to perform in Bombay – that was before it became Mumbai — it finally happened in November 1996. And the city went delirious. I could not attend the concert, but when film producer Bharat Shah threw a party at the Oberoi for the city’s who’s who, I attended. And when the King made his appearance, all the celebrities there were aware that they were in the presence of a living legend. We were all like zombies. I couldn’t help thinking that we were all acting as the extras in his Thriller video.

Then something inside me snapped. Rather than clapping prettily on the sidelines as the others, I broke Jackson’s firang security cordon and vaulted up the stage to shake his hand, saying something that I was a fan of his. Before the security guards could hustle me, Bharat Shah intervened and said to Jackson and his guards that I was India’s greatest actor. Not that Bharatbhai believed that bit about me for a moment, but I’m sure he did it out of sheer fright of the consequence of what happens when you breach a superstar’s security! I remember Shobha De writing the next day, “Anupam Kher broke the security cordon…so did I..”

To get to the story, I suddenly remembered Prabhudeva’s wish. I dialled him and asked him to fly down to Bombay. When he arrived, I begged Bharat Shah to introduce ‘India’s dancing Michael Jackson’ to the Original. Eventually, the two met and I took comfort in the fact that I had lived up to his request.

It is sad that the King of Pop later lost his genius and was reduced to a Whacko Jacko. In all this there is certainly a moral for us. But whatever Jackson may have become, no one can deny his place in history as the greatest entertainer of our times. Though I missed it, his concert, with 40 tonnes of equipment flown in, exposed Indian fans to what a true world-class music event ought to be.

In my book, Michael Jackson is to entertainment what Gandhi is to peace and humanity.

- Anupam Kher, Guest Blogger, PFC source

Mumbai girl talks about her night with Jackson

Mumbai: Many Michael Jackson fans across the world are sad at having lost that one opportunity to see the superstar in person, but a lucky girl in Mumbai not only got to see him but also hugged and danced with him.

Thirteen-years ago, when Piya Thakkar stood in line to watch the historic Michael Jackson concert in Mumbai, little did she know that she'd come out a mini-celebrity herself.

It was an act Michael Jackson performed in every city during his History tour - dancing with a girl to his hit song You Are Not Alone and in Mumbai Piya was the lucky girl.

"Suddenly I was known as the girl who danced with Michael Jackson and I lost all other identity. I hugged him and he was trying to slow dance with me and then he just went down on his knees and I was so shocked," says Piya Thakkar.

Some fans had to be pulled away by security, others cried, and still more sat down on the stage in disbelief. Piya showed her loyalty by refusing to bathe or change clothes she'd worn at the concert for days.

"I didn't bathe for just about one-and-a-half days, but the number of days was exaggerated a little in reports, but then I realised I couldn't go on like this so I got over it after two days," says she.

It's no wonder then that when the news of Jackson's death flashed on TV screens across the world, Piya felt an almost personal loss.

"I'm not that much of a cry baby but for the past two-three days it's been consuming me. I just wish he'd died with all the legacy he deserved," says she.

And in making that wish for the late King of Pop, Piya is certainly not alone in the world.
source

Thackeray Remembers Michael Jackson

MUMBAI: Indian fans on Friday remembered fondly Michael Jackson after his death was announced in the United States, harking back to his landmark concert in Mumbai and his philosophy on life.

The self-styled "King of Pop" played a sell-out gig in Mumbai in 1996, wowing fans with a breathtaking two-hour set and also inviting children from local orphanages to his luxury hotel for a poolside party.

He also reportedly autographed the toilet he used on a visit to local Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray,
who invited him to the city. Thackeray is said to still proudly point out the signed loo.

In a statement, Thackeray, now 83, recalled Jackson's dancing. "How many people can dance that way?
You'd break your neck... He represents certain values in America that India should not have qualms in accepting," he said.

Nikhil Gangavane, who set up the Official Indian Michael Jackson Fanclub, said he was shocked at news of the 50-year-old singer's death.

"I didn't really believe the news. I didn't think it was really happening. I thought it was just some rumour. It's been a very sad day for us," he told AFP by telephone from Pune, 93 kilometres (58 miles) from Mumbai.

Gangavane, a 30-year-old composer, singer and photographer, said he had been inundated with calls and emails from some of the club's 13,000 Indian members. "Most of them are unable to speak too much right now," he added, describing Jackson as a "humanitarian" who spread "a message of peace and love" wherever he went.

"He's a man who always loved and taught us how we should be," he added.

RQ, maybe you do a bollywood thread just for this legend...what you think?

in my opinion, these articles are worthy of a separate thread


-------------------
In my book, Michael Jackson is to entertainment what Gandhi is to peace and humanity.

- Anupam Kher, Guest Blogger, PFC source

Chams...i thought about it...as i found several sites with info about his visit to India...but yu know...didnt want anyone to say MJ is HW... Y on BW...MJ Mania on all the forums already...dadada...hence i add articles to India thread...if you think i should...then will 'think' about 'if' to do it ..J4U...

MJ Anthem

This song was composed & recorded by Nikhil Gangavane (The Official Indian Michael Jackson Fanclub - www.clubmj.com) for the support of Michael Jackson during his trial in year 2003. The song has been dowloaded by more than 1 million users worldwide. Enjoy this video of The Michael Jackson Anthem which shows snippets of Nikhil Gangavane performing it live on the stage.

The Michael Jackson Anthem was released on 22nd November 2003. By February 2009 the song has been downloaded by more than 1 MILLION people worldwide . The anthem was the first MJ support song released after the new allegations surfaced. It recieved hundreds of feedbacks, surprisingly most of which were not from Michael Jackson fans but from the media and general public. Please do not judge the song like you would judge a normally released song. The song is not up to the mark in terms of recording and vocals because it was composed, written and recorded in just a period of 2 days. Apart from the time constraints, the Indian fans here had to take loans from local financers to cover up the studio rentals and other formalities. source

Lyrics of The Michael Jackson Anthem

The Michael Jackson Anthem

Composed, Written and Sung by Nikhil Gangavane

You try to hurt him / Time and again
Fed the news with your lies / But in vain
Cuz he never broke down / Stood stiff and sound
Kept moving the world / But you followed him around
Don’t know him enough / And still you call him a freak
Never stopped with your madness / Thought he was weak
You could never understand / That he’s the man
Who is healing the world / In all the ways he can

Try to harm him now / And I’ll block your way
Hurl a stone at him / We’ll make you feel the pain
We’re here to fight / Against all who hate
Won’t ever let you / Bother him again
Now how can you think / That you’re foolin’ me
When the truth’s out there / For all to see
Through all the times / Here we will be
We’re not just fans / We are his swords and shields

He’s the King of Pop / We’ve no doubts about it (No doubts about it)
His music pumps up our heart-beats / We’ll always stand by him (Stand by him)
He’s the man we’ve always loved / He taught us how we should be (How we should be)
Spreading love and peace around / Like he’s always been (He has always been the King)

He goes out of his way / To lend a helping hand
To heal the broken / Hearts he finds
When everybody / Ignores their cries
He’s the only angel / In disguise
When they’re cryin’ alone / Lost in the time
Wiping of their tears / He makes them smile
Why this never made it / To your TV screens
Never was in print / In the news that you read

Try to harm him now / And I’ll block your way
Hurl a stone at him / We’ll make you feel the pain
We’re here to fight / Against all who hate
Won’t ever let you / Bother him again
Now how can you think / That you’re foolin’ me
When the truth’s out there / For all to see
Through all the times / Here we will be
We’re not just fans / We are his swords and shields

He’s the King of Pop / We have no doubts about it (Doubts about it)
His music pumps up our heart-beats / We’ll always stand by him (Stand by him)
He’s the man we’ve always loved / He taught us how we should be (How we should be)
Spreading love and peace around / Like he’s always been (He has always been the King) source

Michael made a promise to come back…to India...oh God!!!

After Michael Jackson had gone, when the hotel was preparing his suite for the next VVIP guest, they found Jackson’s gift to them: rather mischievously the great singer had scribbled on the pillow he had slept on

India, all my life I have longed to see your face.
I met you and your people and fell in love with you.
Now my heart is filled with sorrow and despair
for I have to leave, but I promise
I shall return to love you and caress you again.
Your kindness has overwhelmed me, your spiritual awareness has moved me,
and your children have truly touched my heart. They are the face of God.
I truly love and adore you India.
Forever, continue to love, heal and educate the children, the future shines on them.
You are my special love, India.
Forever, may God always bless you



Bharat Shah, Jeweller and Film-Financier, bought the pillow for a fabulous amount in an auction held for charity.

quote:

Originally posted by RQ:
Chams...i thought about it...as i found several sites with info about his visit to India...but yu know...didnt want anyone to say MJ is HW... Y on BW...MJ Mania on all the forums already...dadada...hence i add articles to India thread...if you think i should...then will 'think' about 'if' to do it ..J4U...

RQ, PLEASE, PLEASE create a whole new thread...He deserves it and so do all the people who read B'wood...

remember, it is not only us GY who read (there are 20 times more visitors than posters

World Traveller - I took this picture in Cochin, Kerela in the south of India on my second extensive trip to India, running to catch the men as they turned the corner with their over laden cart. I couldn't help but think that Michael Jackson probably earned more money in a few minutes than all of these men together over a decade.

A girl holds a photograph of Michael Jackson during an event organized
by Jackson's fans to pay tribute to the "King of Pop" in Bangalore, India

Man with the Moon Walk

Who was the first man to walk on the moon…? Michael Jackson The joke was lamely popular in class when Michael Jackson was at the peak of his career. He was our pre-teens hero; he was because of whom we are introduced to the Western culture. The break dance, the moon walk, the unconventional glass shattering in music, the ooaaa – the startling hiccup, and I remember it more as it was our change from the melodious Indian music and the likes of Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh. There is surely a reflection of this Michael Jackson style in the music in India today.

What I remember him for besides his outstandingly astounding music and extraordinary dancing skills, is the down to earth nature and his interaction when he had come to Mumbai, India for a concert in 1996. The public were divided into two groups, one, his die-hard fans, who were crazed by the fact that an international pop icon has agreed to come to Mumbai, and second, the conformist group who probably felt that exposure and more interaction with the west is not good for their ideology. There was an entire generation of teens who grew up listening to MJ’s music in late 80’s and early 90’s, and this concert was much more than a great deal for them, because MJ is an international icon. Kids who could come closer to break dancing were popular in all school and social circles, a fact for parents to boost about them. Anyone who could sing one of his songs or may be dance like him, hip hop or break dance, was considered being talented and blessed.

He was so popular that the name America was synonymous to Michael Jackson. While his tour in Mumbai, he managed to change the opinion of the conformist and all loved him. On his way from airport to the hotel, he got the bus stopped and picked up some street children ‘I love kids…’ He used the toilet at a politician’s place, his down to earth nature appealed to all. His opening word ‘Namaste’ at the concert touched hearts. We loved him and he loved us back. On the day of a concert, the streets to Andheri were jam packed; the walls were painted with posters of MJ, the street kids made a fortune selling his hair style caps and earrings. The lanes were deserted, as for the unlucky one’s who couldn’t make it to the concert were glued to the television set not to miss even a glimpse of History in making. Girls went gaga over shouting ‘Micheal – we love you’. A popular dance show on TV, which is running for fifteen years now, Boggie – Woggie, dedicated a season to his dance form entirely, it wasn’t called hip hop or western or robot, it was called ‘michaelolkers’. Johny Lever, a very popular Indian comedian, created his Indian counterpart “Mai-ka Lal Jaikishan” (Mother’s fond son, Jaikishan) for his stand up acts and everybody in audience, young or old knew whose name he was parodying. And when Michael left India, we were left with the hope and promise to many more shows, and this surely led the way for a confluence of Western and Indian music, officially.

He may be black or white, good or bad, scream or silent, thriller or mediocre, dangerous or hale, male or female, but for sure this king of pop has touched everyone’s life at one point of life and will continue to entertain us… forever. May his soul rest in peace. source

MJ’s Secret Unreleased CDs with Deepak Chopra

Michael Jackson had been quietly recording a new album that he hoped would move the world, says his longtime Indian-American friend Deepak Chopra.

The Thriller hitmaker died on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of 50. His friend of 20 years, doctor and writer Deepak Chopra, revealed that during a recent meeting, the star had shared with him the new material he had written.

"He was talking about this new song that he had done. He had shared that with me. I think I'm the only person who has the music right now, he was thinking really big," said Chopra.

"He arranged a very elaborate way of getting these tapes to me, these CDs, with three bodyguards and a limousine with shaded windows. You would think he was transferring the secrets of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to me. It took me a long time to open the package because it was covered in layer after layer after layer of plastic and cloth. He was very insecure about people knowing what he was up to in his music or his life because he had been hurt by the world," he added.

Chopra further informed that Jackson was enthusiastic about his planned comeback concerts in London, but conceded that he feared the singer wasn't fit enough for the grueling residency. "He was practicing, he was fasting, yet he wasn't physically in the position to do this," said Chopra. source

K R Narayanan - President of India presented a welcome token to MJ

Striking difference - Prez in Western Wear - MJ in Indian Clothes

AR Rahman pays tribute to Michael Jackson!

Indian music maestro AR Rahman has paid tribute to the one and only King of Pop Micheal Jackson on his sudden demise.

Here is his press statement: I am shocked at the untimely passing away of Michael Jackson, one of the greatest musicians of our time.

MJ, for most of our generation was an icon who made uncompromising music. He pushed the milestone of Pop music to unbelievable levels through the 80s and 90s. I am yet to find an artiste with that energy, perfection and vision.

I met him personally after the Oscars in Los Angeles and we vibed very well. He said that he loved India and the Indian people. He said he heard good things about me and he was praising the chord progression of Jai Ho's chorus.

He was bursting with energy and told me that every dance move he did, came from his soul and did a five second stunning example. It was like a lightning strike. He was concerned about developmental issues such as Global Warming and about wars and its damages to the human community.

He asked me to compose a unity anthem on the likes of "We are the World " for him. I nodded in awe ...!

He introduced me to his three lovely bright Kids. The kids told him, "I love you dad" and he replied, “I love you more” as a proud father. I wished him well for his concerts and he said “God Bless you”.

After hearing the shocking news I wished it was another rumour which would fade away soon. It took me time to believe that he is no more.

I remember, my late sound engineer Sridhar had brought me a video of the premiere of "Remember the Time" when I was recording "Kadal Rojave" for my first movie Roja. Seeing it inspired all of us that afternoon. Now, there is no Sridhar and no Jackson anymore.

I hope all of us value people's existence more and respect them when they are alive.

LIFE IS SHORT...! Artists and their art live for ever. Jai Ho, MJ!
We love you for your music, regardless of all the controversies!

- AR Rahman, Chennai. source

'Michael loved Indian food'

Many years ago, Michael Jackson had collaborated with A R Rahman in a song called Ekam Satyam. The album was produced by Bharat Bala and his wife Kanika Myer.

Kanika goes back in time and recounts her memories of meeting with the pop icon:

Michael heard A R Rahman's Vande Mataram -- which we had produced -- and wanted to work with Rahman and us. He was good friends with S P Hinduja, Chairman of The Hinduja Group, and got in touch with us through him.

He wanted to dance on an Indian song. So we recorded the song Ekam Satyam and took it to to him. I met him for the first time in Paris. It was a great honour to meet and produce a song for him. He was very humble and creative.

When he heard the song, he was very thrilled. In fact, when he put on the headphones to listen to the song, he started tapping his feet and tapping his band on his thigh in rhythm with the beats. He was enjoying himself. It was nice to see the way he heard the song.

He wanted us to take this song to Munich where a fundraiser concert was organised for the Red Cross by Nelson Mandela in 1999. Michael Jackson asked us to bring Indian dancers for the concert. So we took Indian dancers, as well as Prabhu Deva and Shobhana.

Before the concert, we met again to get his costume measurements. We wanted him to wear Indian costumes and he readily agreed.

On the day of the concert, I wanted to take a video of him backstage. He was very cool and not nervous at all. He was very passionate about what he was doing. He loved music so much.

One interesting thing about Michael Jackson was that he was a vegetarian, and loved Indian food. He took an Indian chef to Munich. He loved Indian culture, Indian food and the song and dance in our films.

I love his songs but my favourite is so You are not alone, They don't care about us, Heal the world, Childhood, Thriller and Man in the Mirror.

I miss him a lot. I cannot forget my first meeting with him till date. source

Solar Eclipse Today July 22

The solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 will be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting at most 6 minutes, 39 seconds. It has caused tourist interest in eastern China, Nepal and India.

The eclipse is part of saros series 136, like the record-setting solar eclipse of July 11, 1991. The next event from this series will be on August 2, 2027. The exceptional duration is a result of the moon being near perigee, with the apparent diameter of the moon 8% larger than the sun (magnitude 1.080).

This will be the second in the series of three eclipses in a month, with the lunar eclipse on July 7 and the lunar eclipse on August 6.

Visibility

It will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern Maldives, northern Pakistan and northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati.

Totality will be visible in many large cities, including Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Dinajpur,Siliguri, Guwahati, Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam. According to some experts, Taregana in Bihar is the "best" place to view the event.

A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including most of Southeast Asia (all of India and China) and north-eastern Oceania.

Duration

This solar eclipse will be the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the 21st century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132.

Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTC about 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan.

The uninhabited North Iwo Jima island is the landmass with totality time closest to maximum, while the closest inhabited point is Akusekijima, where the eclipse will last 6 minutes and 26 seconds.

source

Solar Eclipse July 2009 India – Total Solar Eclipse in India

A Total Solar Eclipse will be visible in India on July 22, 2009 from early morning 05:28 hrs to 07:40 hrs (Indian Standard Time). The total solar eclipse will last nearly four minutes — from 6.26 am to 6.30 am — in India and the sun will not be visible at all. In India, Total Lunar Eclipse will be visible in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Varanasi, West Bengal and Northeastern States. According to NASA, the solar eclipse on July 22, 2009 is a ‘Total Solar Eclipse’ and the Moon's umbral shadow on Sun begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and ends in the Pacific Ocean.

It is the longest total solar eclipse in the 21st century and will not surpass in duration until next 123 years.

The total solar eclipse in India will be visible in regions around Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Surat (Gujarat), Darjeeling (West Bengal), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Patna (Bihar).

Majority of the regions in India will not have a view of the Total solar eclipse. As per NASA data, it will be a partial eclipse in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. source

The path of the Surya Grahan Through India (Image from NASA)

The dark blue double line with circles indicates the path of
Total Solar Eclipse which includes central India, Bhutan and parts of China.

The grid area is of partial eclipse. (image from NASA)

Surya Grahan or Solar Eclipse in Hinduism - What to do during Surya Grahan? –

There are numerous recording of Surya Grahan, or Solar Eclipse, in Hindu scriptures. The most famous being the Suryagrahan during the famous Mahabharata war. Usually, Hindus do not perform any work during Surya Grahan and they purify themselves by taking a bath and by chanting mantras. A complete fast is undertaken by many Hindus during the period. In Hindu religion, taking a holy dip at sacred rivers and tirths on the Surya Grahan day is considered highly auspicious.

Ancient sages and texts like Brahman Siddhanta restrict viewing the eclipse – one should look at an eclipse through a cloth or a reflection of it.
A pregnant woman should never look directly at an eclipse.

Mantras Chanted during Surya Grahan

Some of the important mantras that are chanted during the Surya Grahan include:

Gayatri Mantra

Ashtakshara Mantra dedicated to Shri Krishna. Ashtakshara mantra is ‘Shri Krishna ha sharnam mama.’ Astakshari Mantra is also taken as ‘Om Namoh Narayan Na Yah.’

Mahamrityunjay Mantra is also chanted during eclipse.

Other mantras chanted are Surya Kavach Strotra and Aditya Hridaya Strotram
It is important that one chants mantra, or remember god in any form, at this time to keep calm and the aura clean.

Hindu Temples Remain Closed

All Hindu Temples remain closed during Surya Grahan. Temples open only after proper rituals are performed to get rid of the ill effects of the Surya Grahan. However, some Lord Shiva temples remain open during Surya Grahan as Lord Shiva is considered as ‘Layakara,’ who Himself is an embodiment of darkness.

Fasting During Surya Grahan

Adult Hindus stop eating 12 hours before a solar eclipse. Children, old people and those who are ill stop eating 3 hours before the beginning of a solar eclipse. If the solar eclipse ends after sunset, then people fast during night and consume food only next day morning.

One should not take food at the time of Grahan because it is said that at this time the most harmful rays from the sun can be seen and absorbed.

Pregnant Woman and Surya Grahan

Normally at the time of Surya Grahan, pregnant women are supposed to not come out of the house, with no sunlight entering either by doors or windows. This is to avoid harmful rays. You can find more detail regarding Surya Grahan and Pregnancy in this article.
source

Presenting a more indepth look at the Partitition Of India and subsequent upheaval of the Indian Sub Continent population.

Review - Partition of India

The Partition of India (Hindustani: हिन्दुस्तान की तक़्सीम, ہندوستان کی تقسیم Hindustān kī Taqsīm) was the partition of British India that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic of Pakistan and People's Republic of Bangladesh) and the Union of India (later Republic of India). The partition of India included the geographical division of the Bengal province of British India into East Pakistan and West Bengal (India), and the similar partition of the Punjab province into West Punjab (later Punjab (Pakistan) and Islamabad Capital Territory) and East Punjab (later Punjab (India), Haryana and Himachal Pradesh), and also the division of other assets, including the British Indian Army, the Indian Civil Service and other administrative services, the Indian railways, and the central treasury. The partition was promulgated in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Indian Empire.

In the aftermath of Partition, the princely states of India, which had been left by the Indian Independence Act 1947 to choose whether to accede to India or Pakistan or to remain outside them, were all incorporated into one or other of the new dominions. The question of the choice to be made in this connection by Jammu and Kashmir led to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and other wars and conflicts between India and Pakistan.

The secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971 is not covered by the term Partition of India, nor is the earlier separation of Burma from the administration of British India, or the earlier separation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Ceylon, part of the Madras Presidency of British India from 1795 until 1798, became a separate Crown Colony in 1798. Burma, gradually annexed by the British during 1826–86 and governed as a part of the British Indian administration until 1937, was directly administered thereafter. Burma was granted independence on January 4, 1948 and Ceylon on February 4, 1948. (See History of Sri Lanka and History of Burma) The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a princely state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however, the issue of sovereignty was left undefined.[4] In 1947, Sikkim became an independent kingdom under the suzerainty of India and remained so until 1975 when it was absorbed into India as the 22nd state.

The remaining countries of present-day South Asia are Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The first two, Nepal and Bhutan, having signed treaties with the British designating them as independent states, were never a part of British India, and therefore their borders were not affected by the partition.[5] The Maldives, which became a protectorate of the British crown in 1887 and gained its independence in 1965, was also unaffected by the partition.

The partition displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million. source

1901 Population Density, Map of British Indian Empire, 1909, showing the population density in 1901.

Map "Population Density of the British Indian Empire, 1909" from the Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford University Press, 1909. Scanned from personal copy and annotated by me (Fowler&fowler«Talk» 20:56, 22 March 2007(UTC))source

Historic Time Line - 1920 – 1932

The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as Hindu members.

A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent.

The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a demand in 1935. Iqbal, Jouhar and others then worked hard to draft Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who had till then worked for Hindu-Muslim unity, to lead the movement for this new nation.

By 1930, Jinnah had begun to despair of the fate of minority communities in a united India and had begun to argue that mainstream parties such as the Congress, of which he was once a member, were insensitive to Muslim interests. The 1932 communal award which seemed to threaten the position of Muslims in Hindu-majority provinces catalysed the resurgence of the Muslim League, with Jinnah as its leader.

However, the League did not do well in the 1937 provincial elections, demonstrating the hold of the conservative and local forces at the time.

1932 – 1942

In 1940, Jinnah made a statement at the Lahore conference that seemed to call for a separate Muslim 'nation'. However, the document was ambiguous and opaque, and did not evoke a Muslim nation in a territorial sense. This idea, though, was taken up by Muslims and particularly Hindus in the next seven years, and given a more territorial element.

All Muslim political parties including the Khaksar Tehrik of Allama Mashriqi opposed the partition of India Mashriqi was arrested on March 19, 1940.

Hindu organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha, though against the division of the country, were also insisting on the same chasm between Hindus and Muslims.

In 1937 at the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha held at Ahmedabad, Veer Savarkar in his presidential address asserted:

“ India cannot be assumed today to be Unitarian and homogeneous nation, but on the contrary there are two nations in the main — the Hindus and the Muslims.

Most of the Congress leaders were secularists and resolutely opposed the division of India on the lines of religion. Mohandas Gandhi and Allama Mashriqi believed that Hindus and Muslims could and should live in amity. Gandhi opposed the partition, saying,

“ My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines.
To assent to such a doctrine is for me a denial of God. ”

For years, Gandhi and his adherents struggled to keep Muslims in the Congress Party (a major exit of many Muslim activists began in the 1930s), in the process enraging both Hindu Nationalists and Indian Muslim nationalists. (Gandhi was assassinated soon after Partition by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who believed that Gandhi was appeasing Muslims at the cost of Hindus.)

Politicians and community leaders on both sides whipped up mutual suspicion and fear, culminating in dreadful events such as the riots during the Muslim League's Direct Action Day of August 1946 in Calcutta, in which more than 5,000 people were killed and many more injured.

As public order broke down all across northern India and Bengal, the pressure increased to seek a political partition of territories as a way to avoid a full-scale civil war.

1942 – 1946

Until 1946, the definition of Pakistan as demanded by the League was so flexible that it could have been interpreted as a sovereign nation Pakistan, or as a member of a confederated India.

Some historians believe Jinnah intended to use the threat of partition as a bargaining chip in order to gain more independence for the Muslim dominated provinces in the west from the Hindu dominated center.

Other historians claim that Jinnah's real vision was for a Pakistan that extended into Hindu-majority areas of India, by demanding the inclusion of the East of Punjab and West of Bengal, including Assam, a Hindu-majority country. Jinnah also fought hard for the annexation of Kashmir, a Muslim majority state with Hindu ruler; and the accession of Hyderabad and Junagadh, Hindu-majority states with Muslim rulers.

The British colonial administration did not directly rule all of "India". There were several different political arrangements in existence: Provinces were ruled directly and the Princely States with varying legal arrangements, like paramountcy.

The British Colonial Administration consisted of Secretary of State for India, the India Office, the Governor-General of India, and the Indian Civil Service.

The Indian political parties were:

All India Muslim League,
Communist Party of India,
Hindu Mahasabha,
Indian National Congress,
Khaksar Tehrik, and
Unionist Muslim League (mainly in the Punjab).
source

The Partition: 1947


Viceroy Lord Mountbatten of Burma with a countdown calendar to the Transfer of Power in the background

Mountbatten Plan

The actual division between the two new dominions was done according to what has come to be known as the 3 June Plan or Mountbatten Plan.

The border between India and Pakistan was determined by a British Government-commissioned report usually referred to as the Radcliffe Line after the London lawyer, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who wrote it.

Pakistan came into being with two non-contiguous enclaves, East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, separated geographically by India. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regions of the colony, and Pakistan from the majority Muslim areas.

Countries of Modern Indian subcontinentOn July 18, 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act that finalized the partition arrangement.

The Government of India Act 1935 was adapted to provide a legal framework for the two new dominions. Following partition, Pakistan was added as a new member of the United Nations. The union formed from the combination of the Hindu states assumed the name India which automatically granted it the seat of British India (a UN member since 1945) as a successor state.

The 625 Princely States were given a choice of which country to join. source

Photograph. Train to Pakistan, Delhi Railway Station. Margaret Bourke-White. 1947.
"Millions left for their promised new homeland with smiles on their faces as trains left both India and Pakistan.
This is a train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off." Downloaded from the BBC Web Site

Train to Pakistan Leaving Delhi Railway Station. Margaret Bourke-White. 1947.
"Millions left for their promised new homeland with smiles on their faces as trains left both India and Pakistan.
This is a train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off." Downloaded from the BBC Web Site

Rural Sikhs in a long ox-cart train heading towards India. Margaret Bourke-White. 1947.
The migration was a "Massive Exercise in Human Misery," wrote Bourke-White later.
Downloaded from BBC Web Site

Old Sikh man carrying his wife. Margaret Bourke-White. 1947. Over 10 million
people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts
and trains to their promised new home. Downloaded from BBC Web Site

An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the the roadside on this arduous journey.
"The old man is dying of exhaustion. The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White 1947. Downloaded from the BBC Web Site

Questions - Did this family & those kids die or survive this journey??ss. What of others?? Statistics!!!

Two Muslim men (in a rural refugee train headed towards Pakistan) carrying
an old woman in a makeshift Doli or Palanquin. 1947. Margaret Bourke-White.
Downloaded from BBC Web Site

The young & the old both caught in the Greed of Power Rule!! source

"With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila,
transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi." Margaret Bourke-White, 1947.
Downloaded from the BBC Web Site source

RQ, i missed you while u went hiding for 2 wks

Chams...not hiding gurl...buzzy...my cuz fm mn came ova for a visit...went visiting the family and went up NEO...Minden/PB/Algonquin..
Haliburton/Bancroft area...family fun & fishing....spent time wid the whole family...cuz son have a cottage by Rock Lake...

sounds like lotsa fun...family is always fun time

can u swim? I tried 2 yrs in a row and failed...one more time and den i gon give up...

yes...learnt a few yrs ago...went to Cuba but was so scared of the wata...decided had to overcome my fears and i registered at my local cc and had lessons...now i can swim..didnt swim up by the lake....thunderstorms was there at the time...so we jess ride around a bit on one of those sm dirt 4 wheelers...i did walk about by the lake edge in deh wata...cold rass...don't give up...go ahead and learn...its fun when you know...am glad i did cause while in india i did had a swim in the ganges in Rishikesh...high up the mountain areas where the water was clean n clear....

Partition 1947

India Pakistan Partition of 1947 / A Great Day for Freedom-Pink Floyd

A dramatized documentary: When after more than a century of British Empire Rule with an iron hand on the Indian subcontinent the British government would release its grasp things started to turn very ugly when the struggle for power and land began. Therefore the birth of independence was accompanied by the heavy labour of ethnic violence. Viceroy Mountbatten sought to withdraw from British India as fast as possible leaving the former subjects of Westminster to battle it out or come to an agreement of sorts. Parts 1-9 posted.

Last Days 1

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 1

Last Days 2

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 2

Last Days 3

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 3

Last Days 4

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 4

Last Days 5

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 5

Last Days 6

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 6

Last Days 7

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 7

Last Days 8

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 8

Last Days 9

Last Days of The Raj - the End of British India - Pt 9

India Struggle

Indian Struggle for Freedom (Original Video)

India Gains Independence

India Gains Independence - Rare Video

New India

A New India August 15 1947

Apne Azadi Ko Hum

Indian Patriotic Song - Mohd Rafi - Apni Azadi Ko Hum

India Gains Independence from Britain

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru looks down on the crowd during India's Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort, New Delhi, India, Aug. 15, 1947.

A Celebration of Independence

On June 15, 1947, the British House of Commons passed the Indian Independence Act, or Mountbatten Plan, which divided India into two dominions, India and Pakistan. It called for each dominion to be granted its independence by Aug. 15 of that year.

On the night of Aug. 14, thousands of Indians gathered near government buildings in Delhi for the official ceremony celebrating independence. Jawaharlal Nehru, who would become the first Prime Minister of India, addressed the crowd an hour before midnight.

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially,” he said. “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

When the clock struck midnight, India began its first Independence Day celebration and its first day free of the British Empire. “The formal ceremonies, carefully rehearsed, had to be abandoned; in their place was a spontaneous exhibition of joy and happiness which made August 15 an unforgettable day,” wrote Indian newspaper Fauji Akhbar.

“Delhi's thousands rejoiced,” wrote Time. “The town was gay, with orange, white and green. Bullocks' horns and horses' legs were painted in the new national colors, and silk merchants sold tri-colored saris.”

Missing from the festivities, however, was Mohandas Gandhi, leader of the independence movement. Gandhi opposed the partition of India and Pakistan, and was in the midst of a fast that he hoped would bring an end to the violence between the Hindus of India and the Muslims of Pakistan.

Lord Mountbatten, viceroy of India, “drew the biggest applause of the day,” according to Time, when he declared, “At this historic moment let us not forget all that India owes to Mahatma Gandhi—the architect of her freedom through nonviolence. We miss his presence here today and would have him know how he is in our thoughts.” source

Background: Road to Independence

India had been under British control since the 18th century, when the East India Company took control of the country. Following the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the British government officially assumed control of the country, instituting a government known as the “Raj.”

In 1919, in response to civil unrest over the outbreak of World War I and widespread crop failures, Britain passed the Rowlatt Act, which allowed the Raj to intern Indians suspected of sedition without trial. In protest of the act, Mohandas Gandhi declared a “satyagraha,” meaning “devotion to truth,” against the Raj, launching a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience.

Over the next 25 years, Gandhi would be the face of the Indian independence movement. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s protege, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League, would also play prominent roles in opposing British rule.

Britain gradually ceded control to Indian leaders, passing the Government of India Act in 1935, which allowed for the creation of provincial governments. In 1942, Britain offered India dominion status in exchange for its support in World War II, but Indian leaders turned it down.

Instead, Gandhi led the “Quit India” movement, ordering the British out of the country. The British responded by arresting all the leaders of the movement and over 60,000 other protestors. Following World War II, with India becoming ungovernable, the British decided it was time to grant it independence.

Lord Mountbatten was named veroy of India with the goal of brokering independence. Unable to determine how power between Hindu and Muslim leaders could be shared, Mountbatten determined that India should partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. The hastily drawn border led to religious violence and a dispute over the region of Kashmir that has served as the center of the more than 60 years of conflict between the two countries. source

Key Players: Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi

India owed much of its newfound freedom to the formidable partnership between Nehru and Gandhi. While they disagreed on tactics and religious matters, they shared a deep idealism and commitment to nonviolence, says Shashi Tharoor, UN under secretary-general, in Time.

“While the world was disintegrating into fascism, violence and war in the 20th century, Gandhi taught the virtues of truth, nonviolence and peace,” writes Tharoor. “The principal pillars of Nehru's legacy—democratic institution-building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics at home and a foreign policy of nonalignment--were all integral to a vision of Indianness that sustained the nation for decades.”

Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru was educated in Britain and studied law before returning to India in 1912, and did legal work before becoming interested in politics and the teachings of Gandhi. He later became a prominent figure in Gandhi's nationalist movement, serving as the president of Congress several times, and would spend a total of nine years in jail for civil disobedience.

During his tenure as prime minister, his government successfully dealt with significant challenges, such as the mass movement of minorities across the Indian-Pakistani border. He also succeeded in creating anew the political and administrative infrastructure for a parliamentary democracy and integrated some 500 states into the Indian Union, in addition to framing a new constitution.

He served as prime minister until his death in 1964. Two years later, his daughter, Indira Gandhi, became the prime minister. His grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, would also serve as prime minister.

Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi was India’s pre-eminent nationalist leader. Born in Gujarat in 1869, he studied law in London and fought for the civil and human rights of Indian peoples both in South Africa.

He developed non-violent political strategies influenced “primarily by Hinduism, but also by elements of Jainism and Christianity, as well as writers including Tolstoy and Thoreau,” according to the BBC. Upon his return to India, Gandhi applied these tactics, called “satyagraha” or “devotion to truth,” to the colonial independence movement.

He organized several campaigns working toward a free India and became a unifying figure in the diverse nationalist movement and a prominent member of the National Congress. British colonial authorities in India arrested him in March 1922 for sedition. In 1930, he went on his famous 200-mile march to extract salt from the sea in protest of the government's salt tax.

He was assassinated in 1948 by a man upset about his opposition to the British partition plan. source

A sand sculpture depicting Indian freedom fighters Mahatma Gandhi, left, and Subhash Chandra Bose is seen on a beach.
A man walks past behind holding a national flag, ahead of the country’s Independence Day, in Puri, India, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009.
India's Independence Day will be celebrated on Aug. 15.

Raksha Bandhan

Raksha Bandhan (the bond of protection in Hindi, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese and most other Indian languages) is a Hindu festival, which celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. It is celebrated on the full moon of the month of Shraavana (Shravan Poornima).

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her as she presents sweets to her brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed one another sweets. It is not necessary that the rakhi be given only to a blood brother; any male can be "adopted" as a brother by tying a rakhi on the person, that is "blood brothers and sisters", whether they are cousins or a good friend.

Indian history is replete with women asking for protection, through rakhi, from men who were neither their brothers, nor Hindus themselves. In 16th century, Rani Karnavati of Chittor sent a rakhi to the Mughal Emperor Humayun when she was threatened by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Humayun abandoned an ongoing military campaign to ride to her rescue.

The rakhi may also be tied on other special occasions to show solidarity and kinship (not necessarily only among brothers and sisters),
as was done during the Indian independence movement. source

India Historic Facts

Why India is a Great Country ?

Tiranga

Meri Jaan Tiranga Hai

Telugu Tiranga

This song written, composed & sung by Maestro Dr.Ghazal Srinivas

Janani Janama Bhoomi

Happy Independence Day 2009 - Janani Janama Bhoomi - जय हिन्द

Bharat Ko Ek Salaam - Jai Hind

Jai Hind. Take a look as music maestros' Pandit Jasraj, Javed Akhtar, Sonu N., Alka Yagnik,
Shankar M., Jagjit Singh together pay tribute to the Art, Culture of Bharat Mata. A Musical Sensation!

Vande Mataram Tamil

AR Rahman - Tamil Vande Mataram

Jana Gana Mana

AR Rahman - Jana Gana Mana

Vande Mataram: Some schools sing it, others don't - Decision was left to the schools: Education Department officials

NATIONAL SONG: Schoolchildren singing `Vande Mataram' on Kamarajar Salai

CHENNAI : With the State and Union Governments stating there was no compulsion for schools to sing `Vande Mataram' on Thursday, only a section of schools in the city chose to observe the occasion, claimed to be the centenary of the National Song.

Schools, which normally sang the National Song every day, did so on Thursday too. But managements were not prepared to discuss the controversial issue; and neither did School education department officials. They only said the option was left to the schools and the matter ended there.

Symbolic gesture

As a symbolic gesture, nearly 1,000 students assembled near the Gandhi statue on the Marina to sing `Vande Mataram' and distributed pamphlets with the lyrics of the song, and of Subramaniya Bharathi's `Vande Mataram' to members of the public.

"Students from Queen Mary's College, retired civil servants and children from about ten schools joined in," said Girija Seshadri, Principal, Jaigopal Garodia Hindu Vidyalaya, West Mambalam. The school has a practice of singing it every Monday on campus as it was, "... a patriotic song uniting citizens of different religions, classes and castes," she added. Chitra Prasad, Principal, NSN Matriculation said "Every year, we sing Vande Mataram at school on Independence Day and Republic Day. We shall continue to do so."

Though she did not wish to comment on the controversy over the song, she said, "At school, we celebrate Ramzan, Christmas and Diwali with equal enthusiasm. And we see this particular song as patriotic."

In most of the government schools, it was a normal day. Heads of government and aided schools noted there was no official word either way about the song. And most of the students here did not know the lyrics or its meaning. Dr.S.K. Khadri of Murthuzaviya Foundation that runs a school said "no advisory or instruction was received on the issue... so we did not sing the song... " In another aided institution P.S. Higher Secondary, Mylapore, headmaster B. Raghuveeran said "we felt there was nothing wrong in singing it and so we sang the first two stanzas and read out its meaning to the students."

Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?

These questions have been asked frequently: Was the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee too narrow? Were the committee members unable to appreciate the struggle for freedom among non-European peoples?" Or were the Norwegian committee members perhaps afraid to make a prize award which might be detrimental to the relationship between their own country and Great Britain?


When still alive, Mohandas Gandhi had many admirers, both in India and abroad. But his martyrdom in 1948 made him an even greater symbol of peace. Twenty-one years later, he was commemorated on this double-sized United Kingdom postage stamp.

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee; when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". However, the committee has never commented on the speculations as to why Gandhi was not awarded the prize, and until recently the sources which might shed some light on the matter were unavailable. source

Mahatma Gandhi – Who Was He?

Mohandas Karamchand – known as Mahatma or "Great-Souled" – Gandhi was born in Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in what is today the state of Gujarat in Western India, where his father was prime minister. His mother was a profoundly religious Hindu. She and the rest of the Gandhi family belonged to a branch of Hinduism in which non-violence and tolerance between religious groups were considered very important. His family background has later been seen as a very important explanation of why Mohandas Gandhi was able to achieve the position he held in Indian society. In the second half of the 1880s, Mohandas went to London where he studied law. After having finished his studies, he first went back to India to work as a barrister, and then, in 1893, to Natal in South Africa, where he was employed by an Indian trading company.

In South Africa Gandhi worked to improve living conditions for the Indian minority. This work, which was especially directed against increasingly racist legislation, made him develop a strong Indian and religious commitment, and a will to self-sacrifice. With a great deal of success he introduced a method of non-violence in the Indian struggle for basic human rights. The method, satyagraha – "truth force" – was highly idealistic; without rejecting the rule of law as a principle, the Indians should break those laws which were unreasonable or suppressive. Each individual would have to accept punishment for having violated the law. However, he should, calmly, yet with determination, reject the legitimacy of the law in question. This would, hopefully, make the adversaries – first the South African authorities, later the British in India – recognise the unlawfulness of their legislation.

When Gandhi came back to India in 1915, news of his achievements in South Africa had already spread to his home country. In only a few years, during the First World War, he became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress. Through the interwar period he initiated a series of non-violent campaigns against the British authorities. At the same time he made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians, and struggled for the emancipation of the 'untouchables' in Hindu society. While many of his fellow Indian nationalists preferred the use of non-violent methods against the British primarily for tactical reasons, Gandhi's non-violence was a matter of principle. His firmness on that point made people respect him regardless of their attitude towards Indian nationalism or religion. Even the British judges who sentenced him to imprisonment recognised Gandhi as an exceptional personality.source

The First Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

Among those who strongly admired Gandhi were the members of a network of pro-Gandhi "Friends of India" associations which had been established in Europe and the USA in the early 1930s. The Friends of India represented different lines of thought. The religious among them admired Gandhi for his piety. Others, anti-militarists and political radicals, were sympathetic to his philosophy of non-violence and supported him as an opponent of imperialism.

In 1937 a member of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament), Ole Colbjørnsen (Labour Party), nominated Gandhi for that year's Nobel Peace Prize, and he was duly selected as one of thirteen candidates on the Norwegian Nobel Committee's short list. Colbjørnsen did not himself write the motivation for Gandhi’s nomination; it was written by leading women of the Norwegian branch of "Friends of India", and its wording was of course as positive as could be expected.

An ordinary politician or a Christ? In this photo Gandhi listens to Muslims during the height of the warfare which followed the partition of India in 1947.

The committee's adviser, professor Jacob Worm-Müller, who wrote a report on Gandhi, was much more critical. On the one hand, he fully understood the general admiration for Gandhi as a person: "He is, undoubtedly, a good, noble and ascetic person – a prominent man who is deservedly honoured and loved by the masses of India." On the other hand, when considering Gandhi as a political leader, the Norwegian professor's description was less favourable. There are, he wrote, "sharp turns in his policies, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained by his followers. (...) He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician."

Gandhi had many critics in the international peace movement. The Nobel Committee adviser referred to these critics in maintaining that he was not consistently pacifist, that he should have known that some of his non-violent campaigns towards the British would degenerate into violence and terror. This was something that had happened during the first Non-Cooperation Campaign in 1920-1921, e.g. when a crowd in Chauri Chaura, the United Provinces, attacked a police station, killed many of the policemen and then set fire to the police station.

A frequent criticism from non-Indians was also that Gandhi was too much of an Indian nationalist. In his report, Professor Worm-Müller expressed his own doubts as to whether Gandhi's ideals were meant to be universal or primarily Indian: "One might say that it is significant that his well-known struggle in South Africa was on behalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were even worse."

The name of the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate was to be Lord Cecil of Chelwood. We do not know whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the Peace Prize to Gandhi that year, but it seems rather unlikely. Ole Colbjørnsen renominated him both in 1938 and in 1939, but ten years were to pass before Gandhi made the committee's short list again. source

1947: Victory and Defeat

In 1947 the nominations of Gandhi came by telegram from India, via the Norwegian Foreign Office. The nominators were B.G. Kher, Prime Minister of Bombay, Govindh Bhallabh Panth, Premier of United Provinces, and Mavalankar, the President of the Indian Legislative Assembly. Their arguments in support of his candidacy were written in telegram style, like the one from Govind Bhallabh Panth: "Recommend for this year Nobel Prize Mahatma Gandhi architect of the Indian nation the greatest living exponent of the moral order and the most effective champion of world peace today." There were to be six names on the Nobel Committee's short list, Mohandas Gandhi was one of them.

The Nobel Committee's adviser, the historian Jens Arup Seip, wrote a new report which is primarily an account of Gandhi's role in Indian political history after 1937. "The following ten years," Seip wrote, "from 1937 up to 1947, led to the event which for Gandhi and his movement was at the same time the greatest victory and the worst defeat – India's independence and India's partition." The report describes how Gandhi acted in the three different, but mutually related conflicts which the Indian National Congress had to handle in the last decade before independence: the struggle between the Indians and the British; the question of India's participation in the Second World War; and, finally, the conflict between Hindu and Muslim communities. In all these matters, Gandhi had consistently followed his own principles of non-violence.

The Seip report was not critical towards Gandhi in the same way as the report written by Worm-Müller ten years earlier. It was rather favourable, yet not explicitly supportive. Seip also wrote briefly on the ongoing separation of India and the new Muslim state, Pakistan, and concluded – rather prematurely it would seem today: "It is generally considered, as expressed for example in The Times of 15 August 1947, that if 'the gigantic surgical operation' constituted by the partition of India, has not led to bloodshed of much larger dimensions, Gandhi's teachings, the efforts of his followers and his own presence, should get a substantial part of the credit."

The partition of India in 1947 led to a process which we today probably would describe as "ethnic cleansing". Hundreds of thousands of people were massacred and millions had to move; Muslims from India to Pakistan, Hindus in the opposite direction.
Photo shows part of the crowds of refugees which poured into the city of New Delhi.

Peace Prize Committee Members Views

Having read the report, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee must have felt rather updated on the last phase of the Indian struggle for independence. However, the Nobel Peace Prize had never been awarded for that sort of struggle. The committee members also had to consider the following issues: Should Gandhi be selected for being a symbol of non-violence, and what political effects could be expected if the Peace Prize was awarded to the most prominent Indian leader – relations between India and Pakistan were far from developing peacefully during the autumn of 1947?

From the diary of committee chairman Gunnar Jahn, we now know that when the members were to make their decision on October 30, 1947, two acting committee members, the Christian conservative Herman Smitt Ingebretsen and the Christian liberal Christian Oftedal spoke in favour of Gandhi. One year earlier, they had strongly favoured John Mott, the YMCA leader. It seems that they generally preferred candidates who could serve as moral and religious symbols in a world threatened by social and ideological conflicts.

However, in 1947 they were not able to convince the three other members. The Labour politician Martin Tranmæl was very reluctant to award the Prize to Gandhi in the midst of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, and former Foreign Minister Birger Braadland agreed with Tranmæl. Gandhi was, they thought, too strongly committed to one of the belligerents. In addition both Tranmæl and Jahn had learnt that, one month earlier, at a prayer-meeting, Gandhi had made a statement which indicated that he had given up his consistent rejection of war. Based on a telegram from Reuters, The Times, on September 27, 1947, under the headline "Mr. Gandhi on 'war' with Pakistan" reported:

"Mr. Gandhi told his prayer meeting to-night that, though he had always opposed all warfare, if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan and if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimise it, the Indian Union Government would have to go to war against it. No one wanted war, but he could never advise anyone to put up with injustice. If all Hindus were annihilated for a just cause he would not mind. If there was war, the Hindus in Pakistan could not be fifth columnists. If their loyalty lay not with Pakistan they should leave it. Similarly Muslims whose loyalty was with Pakistan should not stay in the Indian Union."

Gandhi saw "no place for him in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not". In the picture, Gandhi's spiritual heir, Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, Defense Minister Sardar Baldev Singh, and the Commanders-in-Chief of the three Services, are inspecting a Guard of Honour at the Red Fort, Delhi, in August, 1948.
Fifty years later, both India and Pakistan had developed and tested their own nuclear weapons.

Peace Prize Awarded To Quakers

Gandhi had immediately stated that the report was correct, but incomplete. At the meeting he had added that he himself had not changed his mind and that "he had no place in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not".

Both Jahn and Tranmæl knew that the first report had not been complete, but they had become very doubtful. Jahn in his diary quoted himself as saying: "While it is true that he (Gandhi) is the greatest personality among the nominees – plenty of good things could be said about him – we should remember that he is not only an apostle for peace; he is first and foremost a patriot. (...) Moreover, we have to bear in mind that Gandhi is not naive.

He is an excellent jurist and a lawyer." It seems that the Committee Chairman suspected Gandhi's statement one month earlier to be a deliberate step to deter Pakistani aggression. Three of five members thus being against awarding the 1947 Prize to Gandhi, the Committee unanimously decided to award it to the Quakers.

1948: A Posthumous Award Considered

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The Committee received six letters of nomination naming Gandhi; among the nominators were the Quakers and Emily Greene Balch, former Laureates. For the third time Gandhi came on the Committee's short list – this time the list only included three names – and Committee adviser Seip wrote a report on Gandhi's activities during the last five months of his life. He concluded that Gandhi, through his course of life, had put his profound mark on an ethical and political attitude which would prevail as a norm for a large number of people both inside and outside India: "In this respect Gandhi can only be compared to the founders of religions."

Nobody had ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. But according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation in force at that time, the Nobel Prizes could, under certain circumstances, be awarded posthumously. Thus it was possible to give Gandhi the prize. However, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation, he left no property behind and no will; who should receive the Prize money? The Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, August Schou, asked another of the Committee's advisers, lawyer Ole Torleif Røed, to consider the practical consequences if the Committee were to award the Prize posthumously. Røed suggested a number of possible solutions for general application. Subsequently, he asked the Swedish prize-awarding institutions for their opinion. The answers were negative; posthumous awards, they thought, should not take place unless the laureate died after the Committee's decision had been made.

On November 18, 1948, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Chairman Gunnar Jahn wrote in his diary: "To me it seems beyond doubt that a posthumous award would be contrary to the intentions of the testator." According to the chairman, three of his colleagues agreed in the end, only Mr. Oftedal was in favour of a posthumous award to Gandhi.

Later, there have been speculations that the committee members could have had another deceased peace worker than Gandhi in mind when they declared that there was "no suitable living candidate", namely the Swedish UN envoy to Palestine, Count Bernadotte, who was murdered in September 1948. Today, this can be ruled out; Bernadotte had not been nominated in 1948. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Gandhi would have been invited to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize had he been alive one more year.source

Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. In retrospect, the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee may seem too narrow. Gandhi was very different from earlier Laureates. He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates.

There is no hint in the archives that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ever took into consideration the possibility of an adverse British reaction to an award to Gandhi. Thus it seems that the hypothesis that the Committee's omission of Gandhi was due to its members' not wanting to provoke British authorities, may be rejected.

In 1947 the conflict between India and Pakistan and Gandhi's prayer-meeting statement, which made people wonder whether he was about to abandon his consistent pacifism, seem to have been the primary reasons why he was not selected by the committee's majority. Unlike the situation today, there was no tradition for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to use the Peace Prize as a stimulus for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts.

During the last months of his life, Gandhi worked hard to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims which followed the partition of India. We know little about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's discussions on Gandhi's candidature in 1948 – other than the above quoted entry of November 18 in Gunnar Jahn's diary – but it seems clear that they seriously considered a posthumous award. When the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize, and then, one year later, not to spend the prize money for 1948 at all. What many thought should have been Mahatma Gandhi's place on the list of Laureates was silently but respectfully left open.
source

Refugees during partition of India, 1947

For one thing, the partitioning of nations has been a human tragedy in the past. Best estimates suggest that half a million people died during the partition of India - it could have been closer to a million - and 12 million were displaced. One observer recounted what he saw as a 14-year-old on board a train taking him from his childhood home:

Thousands of Muslims, men, women and children, all waiting to take a train in the opposite direction, savagely slaughtered before his eyes, killed, stabbed and beheaded.

Three or four trains full of Muslims were due to leave for Pakistan that day. None did.

"I saw Muslims being burnt alive, thrown onto bonfires, I saw bodies, I saw blood, I saw many things," he said. "The madness that very first day could have finished everybody."

Whatever the wisdom of dividing India, a thoughtful analyst might at least think twice before recommending the imposing the same solution in Iraq. But cautionary tales like these aren't enough to stop plucky "scholars" like Michael O'Hanlon from offering their proposals to a friendly audience of the powerful.

Vande Mataram

Indian Patriotic Song

Yeh Desh Hai Veer

Mohd Rafi - Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawanon Kaa

Jis Desh Mein

Mukesh - Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai

Tu Hindu Banega

Tu Hindu Banegana Musalman Banega

Nanhe Munni

Boot Polish - Nanhe Munni

Vande Mataram

Patriotic Songs Collection

Tum Matie

Patriotic Songs Collection

Ab Tumhare

Mohd Rafi - Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan - Indian Patriotic Song

Dil Diya Hai

Karma - Dil Diya Hai Jaan Bhi Denge

Kadam Kadam

Samadhi - Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja

Mannata

Heroes - Mannata

Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh (Punjabi: ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ بھگت سنگھ, IPA: [pə̀ɡət̪ sɪ́ŋɡ]) (September 28, 1907[1] – March 23, 1931) was an Indian freedom fighter, considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh (the word shaheed means "martyr").

Born to a family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against the British Raj in India, Singh, as a teenager, had studied European revolutionary movements and was attracted to anarchism and communism.

He became involved in numerous revolutionary organizations. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and became one of its leaders, converting it to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). Singh gained support when he underwent a 64-day fast in jail, demanding equal rights for Indian and British political prisoners. He was hanged for shooting a police officer in response to the killing of veteran freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai. His legacy prompted youth in India to begin fighting for Indian independence and also increased the rise of socialism in India. source

Early Life - Pic Of Bhagat Singh At 17 yrs

Bhagat Singh was born into a Sandhu Jat family to Sardar Kishan Singh Sandhu and Vidyavati in the Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab. Singh's given name of Bhagat means "devotee". He came from a patriotic Sikh family, some of whom had participated in movements supporting the independence of India and others who had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj, which would carry a heavy influence on Singh. His uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, as well as his father were members of the Ghadar Party, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha Grewal and Har Dayal. Ajit Singh was forced to flee to Persia because of pending cases against him while Swaran Singh was hanged on December 19, 1927 for his involvement in the Kakori train robbery of 1925.

Unlike many Sikhs his age, Singh did not attend Khalsa High School in Lahore, because his grandfather did not approve of the school officials' loyalism to the British authorities. Instead, his father enrolled him in Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, an Arya Samajist school. At age 13, Singh began to follow Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement.

At this point he had openly defied the British and had followed Gandhi's wishes by burning his government-school books and any British-imported clothing. Following Gandhi's withdrawal of the movement after the violent murders of policemen by villagers from Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, Singh, disgruntled with Gandhi's nonviolence action, joined the Young Revolutionary Movement and began advocating a violent movement against the British.

In 1923, Bhagat famously won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. This grabbed the attention of members of the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan including its General Secretary Professor Bhim Sen Vidyalankar. At this age, he quoted famous Punjabi literature and discussed the Problems of the Punjab. He read a lot of poetry and literature which was written by Punjabi writers and his favourite poet was Allama Iqbal from Sialkot.

In his teenage years, Bhagat Singh started studying at the National College in Lahore, but ran away from home to escape early marriage, and became a member of the organization Naujawan Bharat Sabha ("Youth Society of India"). In the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Singh and his fellow revolutionaries grew popular amongst the youth. He also joined the Hindustan Republican Association at the request of Professor Vidyalankar, which was then headed by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. It is believed that he had knowledge of the Kakori train robbery. He wrote for and edited Urdu and Punjabi newspapers published from Amritsar.

In September 1928, a meeting of various revolutionaries from across India was called at Delhi under the banner of the Kirti Kissan Party. Bhagat Singh was the secretary of the meet. His later revolutionary activities were carried out as a leader of this association. The capture and hanging of the main HRA Leaders also allowed him to be quickly promoted to higher ranks in the party, along with his fellow revolutionary Sukhdev Thapar.source

Lala Lajpat Rai's death and the Saunders murder

The British government created a commission under Sir John Simon to report on the current political situation in India in 1928. The Indian political parties boycotted the commission because it did not include a single Indian as its member and it was met with protests all over the country. When the commission visited Lahore on October 30, 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led the protest against Simon Commission in a silent non-violent march, but the police responded with violence. Lala Lajpat Rai was beaten with lathis at the chest. He later succumbed to his injuries. Bhagat Singh, who was an eyewitness to this event, vowed to take revenge.

He joined with other revolutionaries, Shivaram Rajguru, Jai Gopal and Sukhdev Thapar, in a plot to kill the police chief, Scott. Jai Gopal was supposed to identify the chief and signal for Singh to shoot. However, in a case of mistaken identity, Gopal signalled Singh on the appearance of J. P. Saunders, a Deputy Superintendent of Police. Thus, Saunders, instead of Scott, was shot. Bhagat Singh quickly left Lahore to escape the police. To avoid recognition, he shaved his beard and cut his hair, a violation of the sacred tenets of Sikhism.source

Bomb in the Assembly

In the face of actions by the revolutionaries, the British government enacted the Defence of India Act to give more power to the police.[citation needed] The purpose of the Act was to combat revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh. The Act was defeated in the council by one vote. However, the Act was then passed under the ordinance that claimed that it was in the best interest of the public. In response to this act, the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association planned to explode a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly where the ordinance was going to be passed.

Originally, Chandrashekhar Azad, another prominent leader of the revolutionary movement attempted to stop Bhagat Singh from carrying out the bombing. However, the remainder of the party forced him to succumb to Singh's wishes. It was decided that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, another revolutionary, would throw the bomb in the assembly.

On April 8, 1929, Singh and Dutt threw a bomb onto the corridors of the assembly and shouted "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution!"). This was followed by a shower of leaflets stating that it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.

The bomb neither killed nor injured anyone; Singh and Dutt claimed that this was deliberate on their part, a claim substantiated both by British forensics investigators who found that the bomb was not powerful enough to cause injury, and by the fact that the bomb was thrown away from people.

Singh and Dutt gave themselves up for arrest after the bomb. He and Dutt were sentenced to 'Transportation for Life' for the bombing on June 12, 1929. source

Trial and Execution

Shortly after his arrest and trial for the Assembly bombing, the British came to know of his involvement in the murder of J. P. Saunders. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were charged with the murder. Bhagat Singh decided to use the court as a tool to publicize his cause for the independence of India.

He admitted to the murder and made statements against the British rule during the trial. The case was ordered to be carried out without members of the HSRA present at the hearing. This created an uproar amongst Singh's supporters as he could no longer publicise his views.

While in jail, Bhagat Singh and other prisoners launched a hunger strike advocating for the rights of prisoners and those facing trial. The reason for the strike was that British murderers and thieves were treated better than Indian political prisoners, who, by law, were meant to be given better rights.

The aims in their strike were to ensure a decent standard of food for political prisoners, the availability of books and a daily newspaper, as well as better clothing and the supply of toilet necessities and other hygienic necessities. He also demanded that political prisoners should not be forced to do any labour or undignified work.

During this hunger strike that lasted 63 days and ended with the British succumbing to his wishes, he gained much popularity among the common Indians. Before the strike his popularity was limited mainly to the Punjab region.

Jinnah, one of the politicians present when the Central Legislative Assembly was bombed,[20] made no secret of his sympathies for the Lahore prisoners - commenting on the hunger strike he said "the man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul, and he believes in the justice of his cause." And talking of Singh's actions said "however much you deplore them and however much you say they are misguided, it is the system, this damnable system of governance, which is resented by the people".

Bhagat Singh also maintained the use of a diary, which he eventually made to fill 404 pages. In this diary he made numerous notes relating to the quotations and popular sayings of various people whose views he supported. Prominent in his diary were the views of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The comments in his diary led to an understanding of the philosophical thinking of Bhagat Singh. Before dying he also wrote a pamphlet entitled "Why I am an Atheist", as he was being accused of vanity by not accepting God in the face of death.

On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore with his fellow comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev. His supporters, who had been protesting against the hanging, immediately declared him as a shaheed or martyr. According to the Superintendent of Police at the time,
V.N. Smith, the hanging was advanced:

Normally execution took place at 8 am, but it was decided to act at once before the public could become aware of what had happened...At about 7 pm shouts of Inquilab Zindabad were heard from inside the jail. This was correctly, interpreted as a signal that the final curtain was about to drop.

Singh was cremated at Hussainiwala on banks of Sutlej river. Today, the Bhagat Singh Memorial commemorates freedom fighters of India.source

Ideals And Opinions

Bhagat Singh was attracted to anarchism and communism. Both communism and western anarchism had influence on him. He read the teachings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Mikhail Bakunin.

Bhagat Singh did not believe in Gandhian philosophy and viewed that Gandhian politics will replace one set of exploiters by another. Singh was an atheist and promoted the concept of atheism by writing a pamphlet titled Why I am an Atheist.

Bhagat Singh was also an admirer of the writings of Irish revolutionary Terence MacSwiney. When Bhagat Singh's father petitioned the British government to pardon his son, Bhagat Singh quoted Terence MacSwiney and said ""I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release" and told his father to withdraw the petition.

Some of his writings like "Blood Sprinkled on the Day of Holi Babbar Akalis on the Crucifix" were influenced by the struggle of Dharam Singh Hayatpur.source

Anarchism

From May to September, 1928, Bhagat Singh serially published several articles on anarchism in Punjabi periodical Kirti. He expressed concern over misunderstanding of the concept of anarchism among the public. Singh tried to eradicate the misconception among people about anarchism. He wrote, "The people are scared of the word anarchism. The word anarchism has been abused so much that even in India revolutionaries have been called anarchist to make them unpopular."

As anarchism means absence of ruler and abolition of state, not absence of rule, Singh explained, "I think in India the idea of universal brotherhood, the Sanskrit sentence vasudhaiva kutumbakam etc., have the same meaning." He wrote about the growth of anarchism, the "first man to explicitly propagate the theory of Anarchism was Proudhon and that is why he is called the founder of Anarchism. After him a Russian, Bakunin worked hard to spread the doctrine. He was followed by Prince Kropotkin etc."

Singh explained anarchism in the article:
The ultimate goal of Anarchism is complete independence, according to which no one will be obsessed with God or religion, nor will anybody be crazy for money or other worldly desires. There will be no chains on the body or control by the state. This means that they want to eliminate: the Church, God and Religion; the State; Private property.source

A rare historical photograph of students and staff of National College, Lahore, which was started by Lala Lajpat Rai for education
of students participating in the non-cooperation movement. Shaheed Bhagat Singh can be seen standing fourth from the right.

Bhagat Singh in Jail At Age 20.

Marxism

Bhagat Singh was also influenced by Marxism. Indian historian K. N. Panikkar described Singh as one of the early Marxists in India. From 1926, Bhagat Singh studied the history of the revolutionary movement in India and abroad.

In his prison notebooks, Singh used quotations from Lenin (on Imperialism being the highest stage of Capitalism) and Trotsky on revolution.
In written documents, when asked what was his last wish, he replied that he was studying the life of Lenin and he wanted to finish it before
his death.source

Atheism

During his teenage years, Singh was a devout Arya Samajist. However, he began to question religious ideologies after witnessing the Hindu-Muslim riots that broke out after Gandhi disbanded the Non-Cooperation Movement. He did not understand how members of these two groups, initially united in fighting against the British, could be at each others' throats because of their religious differences. At this point, Singh dropped his religious beliefs, since he believed religion hindered the revolutionaries' struggle for independence, and began studying the works of Bakunin, Lenin, Trotsky — all atheist revolutionaries. He also took an interest in Niralamba Swami's book Common Sense, which advocated a form of "mystic atheism".

While in a condemned cell in 1931, he wrote a pamphlet entitled 'Why I am an Atheist' in which he discusses and advocates the philosophy of atheism. This pamphlet was a result of some criticism by fellow revolutionaries on his failure to acknowledge religion and God while in a condemned cell, the accusation of vanity was also dealt with in this pamphlet.

He supported his own beliefs and claimed that he used to be a firm believer in The Almighty, but could not bring himself to believe the myths and beliefs that others held close to their hearts. In this pamphlet, he acknowledged the fact that religion made death easier, but also said that unproved philosophy is a sign of human weakness.source

Death

Bhagat Singh was known for his appreciation of martyrdom. His mentor as a young boy was Kartar Singh Sarabha. Singh is himself
considered a martyr for acting to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, also considered a martyr.

In the leaflet he threw in the Central Assembly on 9 April 1929, he stated that It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. After engaging in studies on the Russian Revolution, he wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India to unite and fight the British Empire.

While in prison, Bhagat Singh and two others had written a letter to the Viceroy asking him to treat them as prisoners of war and hence to execute them by firing squad and not by hanging. Prannath Mehta, Bhagat Singh's friend, visited him in the jail on March 20, four days before his execution, with a draft letter for clemency, but he declined to sign it

Controversy

Singh is said to have mentioned to Randhir Singh, prison inmate, Gadhar revolutionary and a known figure in Sikh circles, that he (Bhagat Singh) had shaven "hair and beard under pressing circumstances" and that "It was for the service of the country" that his companions "compelled him to give up the Sikh appearance" adding to it that he was "ashamed".

He had supposedly expressed, as last wish before being hanged, the desire to get "amrit" from Panj Pyare including Randhir Singh and to adorn full 5 k's. However, his last wish, of getting "amrit" from Panj Pyare was not granted by the British.

This version of events was largely discussed by Randhir Singh himself and so it has come under question. Some scholars[who?] claim that it was Bhagat Singh's meeting with Randhir Singh that compelled him to write his famous "Why I Am An Atheist" essay.

Many conspiracy theories exist regarding Singh, especially the events surrounding his death:

Mahatma Gandhi

One of the most popular ones is that Mahatma Gandhi had an opportunity to stop Singh's execution but did not. This particular theory has spread amongst the public in modern times after the creation of modern films such as The Legend of Bhagat Singh, which portray Gandhi as someone who was strongly at odds with Bhagat Singh and did not oppose his hanging.

A variation on this theory is that Gandhi actively conspired with the British to have Singh executed. Both theories are highly controversial and hotly contested. Gandhi's supporters say that Gandhi did not have enough influence with the British to stop the execution, much less arrange it. Furthermore, Gandhi's supporters assert that Singh's role in the independence movement was no threat to Gandhi's role as its leader, and so Gandhi would have no reason to want him dead.

Gandhi, during his lifetime, always maintained that he was a great admirer of Singh's patriotism. He also said that he was opposed to Singh's execution (and, for that matter, capital punishment in general) and proclaimed that he had no power to stop it. On Singh's execution, Gandhi said, "The government certainly had the right to hang these men. However, there are some rights which do credit to those who possess them only if they are enjoyed in name only." Gandhi also once said, on capital punishment, "I cannot in all conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take life because He alone gives it."

Gandhi had managed to have 90,000 political prisoners who were not members of his Satyagraha movement released under the pretext of "relieving political tension," in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. According to a report in the Indian magazine Frontline, he did plead several times for the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, including a personal visit on March 19, 1931, and in a letter to the Viceroy on the day of their execution, pleading fervently for commutation, not knowing that the letter would be too late.

Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, later said:

As I listened to Mr. Gandhi putting the case for commutation before me, I reflected first on what significance it surely was that the apostle of non-violence should so earnestly be pleading the cause of the devotees of a creed so fundamentally opposed to his own, but I should regard it as wholly wrong to allow my judgment to be influenced by purely political considerations. I could not imagine a case in which under the law, penalty had been more directly deserved.source

Saunders Family

On October 28, 2005, a book entitled Some Hidden Facts: Martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh—Secrets unfurled by an Intelligence Bureau Agent of British-India by K.S. Kooner and G.S. Sindhra was released.

The book asserts that Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were deliberately hanged in such a manner as to leave all three in a semi-conscious state, so that all three could later be taken outside the prison and shot dead by the Saunders family.

The book says that this was a prison operation codenamed "Operation Trojan Horse." Scholars are skeptical of the book's claims.

Legacy

Indian Independence Movement

Bhagat Singh's death had the effect that he desired and he inspired thousands of youths to assist the remainder of the Indian independence movement. After his hanging, youths in regions around Northern India rioted in protest against the British Raj.

More on this subject will be presented later.

Modern Day

Singh's contribution to Indian society and, in particular, the future of socialism in India. To celebrate the centenary of his birth, a group of intellectuals have set up an institution to commemorate Singh and his ideals.

Several popular Bollywood films have been made capturing the life and times of Bhagat Singh. The oldest is Shaheed in 1965, starring Manoj Kumar as Singh. Two major films about Singh were released in 2002, The Legend of Bhagat Singh and 23rd March 1931: Shaheed. The Legend of Bhagat Singh is Rajkumar Santoshi's adaptation, in which Ajay Devgan played Singh and Amrita Rao was featured in a brief role.

23 March 1931: Shaheed was directed by Guddu Dhanoa and starred Bobby Deol as Singh, with Sunny Deol and Aishwarya Rai in supporting roles. Another major film Shaheed-E-Azam, starring Sonu Sood, Maanav Vij, Rajinder Gupta, and Sadhana Singh, and directed by Sukumar Nair, also was produced by Iqbal Dhillon under the banner Surjit Movies.

The 2006 film Rang De Basanti is a film drawing parallels between revolutionaries of Bhagat Singh's era and modern Indian youth. It covers a lot of Bhagat Singh's role in the Indian freedom struggle. The movie revolves around a group of college students and how they each play the roles of Bhagat's friends and family.

The patriotic Urdu and Hindi songs, Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna (translated as "the desire to sacrifice") and Mera Rang De Basanti Chola ("my light-yellow-colored cloak"; Basanti referring to the light-yellow color of the Mustard flower grown in the Punjab and also one of the two main colors of the Sikh religion as per the Sikh rehat meryada(code of conduct of the Sikh Saint-Soldier) ), while created by Ram Prasad Bismil, are largely associated to Bhagat Singh's martyrdom and have been used in a number of Bhagat Singh-related films.

In September 2007 the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Khalid Maqbool, announced that a memorial to Bhagat Singh will be displayed at Lahore museum, according to the governor “Singh was the first martyr of the subcontinent and his example was followed by many youth of the time." source

Criticism

Bhagat Singh was criticized both by his contemporaries and by people after his death because of his violent and revolutionary stance towards the British and his strong opposition to the pacifist stance taken by the Indian National Congress and particularly Mahatma Gandhi.

The methods he used to make his point—shooting Saunders and throwing non-lethal bombs—were quite different from the non-violent non-cooperation used by Gandhi.

Bhagat Singh has also been accused of being too eager to die, as opposed to staying alive and continuing his movement. It has been alleged that he could have escaped from prison if he so wished, but he preferred that he die and become a legacy for other youths in India. Some lament that he may have done much more for India had he stayed alive.source

Quotations

"The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below; and not to realise truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in the actual experience of daily life; social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment of democracy; universal brotherhood can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity - of opportunity in the social, political and individual life."
— from Bhagat Singh's prison diary, p. 124
"Inquilab Zindabad" (Long live the revolution)source

He Left A Rich Legacy for The Youths

Bhagat Singh sacrificed his life for the nation 75 years ago. Chaman Lal suggests that the martyrdom day of this freedom fighter, who strongly opposed untouchability and communalism, should be observed as ‘Anti-Imperialism Day’ and his birth anniversary should be celebrated as ‘National Youth Day’

Bhagat Singh was just 23 years and a few months when he was hanged by British colonialists on March 23, 1931. By the time Bhagat Singh went to the gallows, he had entered the hearts and minds of all Indians, some of whom later became Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. With the publication of Bhagat Singh’s writings largely after 1947 and more in the last few decades of twentieth century (complete documents in Hindi are now available in one volume), the martyr became known as a revolutionary socialist thinker as well.

This year not only happens to be Bhagat Singh’s 75th year of martyrdom but will also mark the beginning of his birth centenary year on September 28. Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, in Lyallpur Banga. His ancestral village, however, is Khatkarkalan near Banga in Nawanshahar district. Bhagat Singh spent most of his childhood in Pakistan’s Punjab, particularly Lahore. He was also martyred in Lahore.

Bhagat Singh is revered not only in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh, while people in countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka also respect this great revolutionary from India.

Even in international arena, if Mahatma Gandhi has become a symbol of Indian non-violent struggle for freedom, Bhagat Singh’s name comes close to great revolutionaries like Che Guvera, Simon Bolivar and Nelson Mandela.

There is a need to propagate Bhagat Singh’s ideas by translating his documents in all Indian languages. A picture of Bhagat Singh should be hung in Parliament. His writings against communalism and untouchability could be introduced in school curricula. This freedom fighter is a symbol of unity for the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and his ideas can be a beacon of light for them.

It is suggested that Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom day should be observed as "Anti-Colonialism/Anti-Imperialism Day" in the subcontinent. It should be observed in a big way at Lahore by Indians and Pakistanis jointly. The main function should be held at Lahore Jail on March 23 at 7 pm, when 75 years ago he along with two other patriots Rajguru and Sukddev were hanged by the British. Artists, activists and writers of both countries should hold a weeklong event, which could include seminars, street and stage plays and film shows. This would help revive the memories of the martyrs and spread their ideas among the youth

In fact, it is felt that Pakistan should enter into a healthy competition with India in claiming the legacy of Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh was born, brought up and educated in Pakistan. He had his revolutionary training in National College at Lahore. His activities in India include holding a meeting of revolutionaries at Delhi in September 1928 and dropping a bomb on the Central Assembly in Delhi, apart from spending sometime in Kanpur or some other places. The joint legacy of Bhagat Singh can help both countries come closer, at least culturally.

The birthday of Bhagat Singh (September 28) should be declared as "National Youth Day". The ideas of the martyr would enthuse the youth, who are the builders of the free nation.

This freedom fighter no longer remains an individual. Historical personalities become symbols of ideas and movements. Bhagat Singh has emerged as a symbol of the most radical nationalist movement against imperialism and colonialism. He represents the highest ideals of Indian revolutionary movement.

Bhagat Singh is one among many national heroes, whom Dalits and minorities — who form a large chunk of the Indian society—are ready to accept as their hero because of his radical views on untouchability and communalism. Along with Dr Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh also has an appeal for Dalits of this nation.

In the context of misuse or overexposure of religion by some fascist fundamentalist groups in our society, Bhagat Singh’s ideas on religion or atheism can work as an antidote to counter such pernicious views

All democratic and nationalist Indians should unite on this occasion and by focusing on Bhagat Singh’s ideas, build a powerful resistance movement against a much more dangerous neo-colonial onslaught, more powerful than the old colonialist British empire.source

Will post more articles on Historic India...

Makar Sankranti....

The "Holy Bath," a Hindu ritual, is a purification by water before worship.
Large numbers of Hindu worshipers bathe in the Narmada River for the festival of Makar Sankranti.

India celebrates the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti

The Hindu festival of of Makar Sankranti is celebrated across India
as the end of winter and the beginning of the harvest season

Millions of Hindu pilgrims have been bathing in along the banks of the Ganges river at the start of the world's biggest religious festival.

Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges during the three-month-long Kumbh Mela festival cleanses them of their sins.

The festival commemorates a mythical battle between gods and demons over a pitcher of the nectar of immortality.

During the struggle, a few drops of nectar fell in four different places: Allahabad, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Nasik in Maharashtra.

The Kumbh Mela alternates between these four places and takes place every three years. This year the festival took place in Haridwar, with around one million pilgrims bathing in the Ganges there yesterday.

Once every 12 years, it becomes the even bigger Maha Kumbh Mela, or Grand Pitcher Festival, the biggest gathering of humanity for a common purpose anywhere in the world.

Yesterday was also the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti - celebrated across India as the end of winter and the beginning of the harvest season.
source

Hindu devotees offer prayers during the Makar Sankranti festival in Allahabad, India.

One million take holy dip on first day of Kumbh

About one million pilgrims took the holy dip on Thursday on the opening day of the three-month-long Kumbh Mela at Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

“The number of pilgrims touched 10 lakh by this afternoon,” confirmed Anand Vardhan, in charge of the mela arrangements. He, however, told mediapersons that the one-million figure was based on estimates.

Cold wave conditions and the cloud cover over Haridwar all through Wednesday failed to dampen the spirits of pilgrims.

The popular belief is that a bath in the Ganga on Makar Sankranti day – a holy day according to Hindu scriptures when the sun enters Makar Rashi (Capricorn) – and on one of the other prescribed days during the once-in-12-years Kumbh washes away all sins. But on Thursday, the sun shone brightly.

The Makar Sankranti also marks the beginning of the end of winter. This is the first of the 11 auspicious days during Kumbh ending April 28. The second important dip will be on Friday during the Mauni Amavasya.

“The nice weather has brought cheers on the faces of pilgrims and the administration,” Vardhan said, adding that elaborate security arrangements were in place to welcome 50 million to 60 million pilgrims.

Religious fervour enveloped the temple town as loud chants of Har-Har Mahadev (hail Lord Shiva) rent the air with the arrival of pilgrims from all over the country and abroad for the opening day of the mela.

For Omkar Singh, 35, a farmer who has come from Doda in Jammu and Kashmir, “It’s like a dream come true.”

Said Inder Bahadur Deupa from a village in Nepal, which is about 500 km from Haridwar, “At least one member from every house comes to Kumbh.”

Alms and the Pilgrim

Sensing pecuniary gains out of pilgrims’ divine grace, alms-seekers have come in droves from Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. For instance, Dataram, a labourer from UP, stationed his wife and children at strategic locations, while Kurmi Devi has come all the way from Bihar's Bhagalpur.

Divine Intoxication

A sadhu (saint) from a prominent akhara (cloister) in Madhya Pradesh, said, “Cannabis is in high demand as sadhus are arriving in large numbers and we have to provide prasad (religious offering) to them.” source

Prayers, Pitha And Holy Dip Mark Makar Sankranti

PATNA: Lakhs of people bathed in rivers and ponds on Thursday to welcome Makar Sankranti, the festival of harvest. Devotees then offered prayers in temples and paid obeisance to the Sun god and chanted the Gayatri Mantra for prosperity, peace and happiness. Hundreds of people also bathed at the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak at Sonepur in Saran district.

As in Thanksgiving in the US and Canada, people during Sankranti people offer the new harvest of flattened rice, popularly known as chura, to the gods, and then eat it as prasad with jaggery and sesame (til).

Despite the acute shortage of milk in the market for the last two days, people consumed home-made yoghurt, chura, black and white sesame, jaggery and hot and spicy vegetables after the customary morning prayers.

It was a day for philanthropists to show their generosity by distributing chura and tilkut to the needy. The small, yet significant, South Indian population, particularly those from Tamil Nadu, also celebrated Pongal with mouth-watering delicacies like rice, green gram dal sweetened with jaggery and rava pongal, a gourmet's delight. Even those from the North-East, mainly from Assam, celebrated Bhogali Bihu or Magh Bihu, coinciding with the winter solstice and the harvesting season, with til pitha, narikel pitha and bhat pitha.

Celebrating Makar Sankranti as a day of remembrance for the varieties of rice grown in India, particularly in Bihar, Chiranjeev Kumar, programme co-ordinator, environment, Taru Mitra, says, "In a survey conducted by Taru Mitra four years back, it was found that 80 varieties of rice were cultivated in Bihar. This included Basmati and Kala Kawar, which were grown in Madhubani, Darbhanga and Saharsa. The old variety of parmal was Kalam Kathi which was grown in the Mithilanchal region. Today, however, farmers choose to cultivate high yielding and hybrid varieties rather than the old varieties, as a result of which the old varieties are dying."

Taru Mitra has been celebrating Makar Sankranti since 2002 in a bid to revive these varieties.

Taking the occasion to greet the people of the state, chief minister Nitish Kumar termed Makar Sankranti and Lohri as symbols of India's multi-faceted cultural heritage. "Makar Sankranti and Lohri signify the end of winter and the beginning of the harvest festival. Makar Sankranti is a festival of social cohesion and amity between communities," he said.

Senior JD(U) leader Basishtha Narayan Singh hosted a feast at the NDA office. Over 1,000 people, including CM Nitish Kumar, ministers, legislators, NDA leaders and party workers were served chura, dahi, tilkuts and vegetables.

Not to be left behind, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad hosted a feast of delicacies at 10, Circular Road, the official residence of the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly and his wife, Rabri Devi. Over 300 RJD leaders, party workers and mediapersons attended the celebrations. "Makar Sankranti is our New Year. All auspicious occasions start from this date," Lalu said.

Makar Sankranti was also celebrated with traditional fervour at the LJP office. State LJP president Pashupati Kumar Paras had organised a feast of chura-dahi for LJP leaders and party workers. An LJP leader also distributed chura, dahi and tilkut to the needy outside Mahavir Mandir and Sheetala Mandir.
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Lakhs take holy dip in Ganga

Braving the intense cold wave conditions and early morning chill, lakhs of devotees from across the country took a holy dip in Ganga on Thursday on the occasion of Makar Sankranthi, marking the first ritual bath of the Mahakumbh at Hardwar in Uttarakhand.

Huge crowds of devotees, including women and children, thronged the holy Har-ki-Paidi and other bathing ghats of the Ganges for taking a dip to attain “moksha” (salvation) in the chilly waters amidst unprecedented security arrangements.

The main “snan” (bath) took place at Brahma Kund, Har-Ki-Paidi, though there was a rush of pilgrims also at Daksh Ghat, Raj Ghat, Vishnu Ghat, Hanuman Ghat, Bairagi Ghat and other ghats.

Much to the cheer and joy of the devotees the weather, after three consecutive days of foggy conditions, turned better and clear sky and bright sunshine greeted the bathers.

While some devotees were seen taking bath in the river, some were also seen offering “tarpan” (offering puja and giving alms praying for peace of the departed souls of their ancestors) at the ghats.

A large number of foreigners were also seen on the ghats of the Ganga enjoying the Mahakumbh Mela. Elaborate arrangements have been made for controlling the huge crowds.

Thursday’s “snan” is being taken as a rehearsal for the “shahi snans” (royal baths), falling on February 12, March 15 and April 14. source