DEC-20 BOUDHIK YOJANA
Dec-06-2020 Samachar Sameeksha: Bihar Elections and Breaking India Forces
Ø Bihar Elections have been concluded with NDA achieving a clear majority of 125 seats in an assembly of 243.
Ø UPA has also not lagged behind at 110 seats, 12 short of majority with RJD actually emerging as single largest party
Ø However if one observes the results closely, 2 parties have emerged stronger in this election i.e AIMIM and CPI-ML with 5 and 12 seats respectively
Ø AIMIM has garnered 1.24% of total votes and won 4 seats in Kishanganj Loksabha constituency i.e Amour, Baisi, Bahadurganj and Kochadhaman and Joikhat in Araria Loksabha constituency
Ø As per 2011 census, Hindus are 31.4% and Muslims are 68% in Kishanganj district
Ø What makes it more sinister is the strategic location of Kishanganj as part of India’s chicken neck or Siliguri Corridor
Ø It is a narrow strip of land at one point only 22kms wide but connects the whole of North East to the whole of India. Remember Sharjeel Imam’s statement during anti-CAA riots to cut off North East from India
Ø CPI-ML (Marxist-Leninist) has won 12 seats in Bihar, its highest tally in 30 years.
Ø CPI-ML is the over-ground organization of Maoist insurgency, and was actually founded as the revolutionary party by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal
Ø They believe in creating liberated zones through armed struggle and expanding them to gain political power, a typical façade of Maoists to create anarchy and over-throw the constitution
Ø Communists always sing paeans to democracy till they capture power and then destroy the same democracy completely as seen across the globe.
Ø It is this deep link between CPI-ML and Maoists which poses a danger to country’s security
Ø As Maoists owe their allegiance to external forces like China which is the numero-uno adversary for India
Ø All the seats won by Communists are in Patna’s neighborhood or border UP, Jharkhand and Nepal (which is already plagued by a Maoists insurgency)
Dec 13-2020 Boudhik: English or Mother Tongue ?
English is the lingua-franca in international relations. It is driven by the fact that two super-powers i.e UK and US in the past two centuries speak English as their primary language. However English is not the most spoken language in the world but it is actually Mandarin i.e Chinese language and English comes second. Two Bhartiya languages i.e Hindi and Bengali are in top 10 most spoken languages of the world. However in India, English has eclipsed all Bhartiya languages be it from media to internet, bill-boards to sign-boards, government notifications to court judgements, personal communication and most importantly it has become a medium of instruction in education.
Medium of instruction
English is thought as a medium of upward mobility. A person who can speak English earns 30-50% more than a person who cannot. This led to a mad rush of learning English i.e rise of English speaking courses but now it is replacing regional languages as medium of instruction in schools. Even government schools are being converted into English schools so that children can learn in English right from childhood.
English can be learnt as a language but making it a medium of instruction creates havoc in education system. It has been a well-accepted fact among educationists that education is best imparted in mother tongue. The language a child speaks at home is normally referred to as ‘mother tongue.’
While there are many factors involved in delivering quality basic education, language is clearly the key to communication and understanding in the classroom. Instruction through a language that learners do not speak has been called “submersion” because it is analogous to holding learners under water without teaching them how to swim. Compounded by chronic difficulties such as low levels of teacher education, poorly designed, inappropriate curricula and lack of adequate school facilities, submersion makes both learning and teaching extremely difficult, particularly when the language of instruction is also foreign to the teacher.
Use of a familiar language to teach beginning literacy facilitates an understanding of sound-symbol or meaning-symbol correspondence. Learning to read is most efficient when students know the language and can employ psycholinguistic guessing strategies; likewise, students can communicate through writing as soon as they understand the rules of the orthographic (or other written) system of their language. In contrast, submersion programs may succeed in teaching students to decode words in the foreign language, but it can take years before they discover meaning in what they are “reading.”
New Education Policy’20
NEP’20 makes a case to introduce the mother tongue as the medium of instruction up to class 5 and even higher classes wherever possible.
A child’s learning begins at home in the mother tongue and when a child comes to school to learn in a foreign language, it does slow down the learning process. Continuing the learning in the mother tongue will ensure faster learning and retention.
Exposure to more than one language leads to higher synaptic activity in the brain of a child and the multi-language processing leads to higher mental agility. This mental flexibility transfers to all areas of brain functioning.
The use of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction will also result in a higher rate of parental participation in a child’s learning. In India due to a lack of knowledge of English, many parents are unable to participate in their child’s schooling effectively.
Learning in the local language boosts the self-confidence of children and they will be able to express themselves better without any hesitation.
Mother tongue isn’t just a language but a sense of belonging for an individual. Learning in the local language helps to preserve our cultural roots and deepen our understanding of our heritage.
With the use of local languages for learning, dropout rates can be dramatically reduced in rural India. A lot of students show disinterest to go to school because they are unable to connect with English and with no substitute coaching and lack of parent’s intervention, the odds are against them. The use of a known language can dramatically alter the situation.
The switch to the local language will be a big boon for teachers, too. The realistic situation on the ground is that many teachers in “English medium” schools are not actually fluent in English.
Recent announcements
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will start offering engineering courses in mother tongue for the academic session 2021-22, the Ministry of Education said in a press statement.
For now we have zeroed down on IIT BHU to start engineering courses in mother tongue. More institutes — IITs and NITs, will be shortlisted for the purpose in the coming days. Sources in the ministry said it was felt that the effort should be started in IIT BHU initially as it has a strong base in Hindi. Names of other institutes will be decided after meeting with officials from IIT, NIT and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the coming days.
What is the experience?
All the countries who have excelled in development have done it through their own language i.e Germany, France, Japan, S Korea, US and even recently China. Asian countries like India and African or Latin countries which have relied on foreign language be it English, French or Spanish for education have languished in development.
Just as a case in point, the biggest discovery in Physics in last century has been ‘Theory of Relativity’ and it was published by Einstien in his mother tongue i.e German and not English.
Gandhiji’s observation
Gandhiji made a scathing observation on English in education .
“It is worth noting that, by receiving English education, we have enslaved the nation. Hypocrisy, tyranny, etc., have increased; English-knowing Indians have not hesitated to cheat and strike terror into the people”
“It is we, the English-knowing men, that have enslaved India. The curse of the nation will rest not upon the English but upon us.”
Reference: 1) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000146632
Dec-20-2020 Love Jihad: Hoax or Reality
Multiple BJP states have stated that they will bring a law to stop the menance of ‘Love Jihad’. It has started a war of words with Leftist-Liberal gang making the same old-worn argument that this is a communal ploy to divide the society.
What is Love-Jihad ?
It is made of 2 words ‘love’ and Jihad which is a holy war waged by Muslims against Kafirs. The common argument to hide this fact is that, it is a personal matter between 2 adults and so should not be a concern for others. However with multiple cases being reported across the country and no state or city or locality being free of it, then it cannot be just a personal matter.
Modus Operandi
But the question still remains, is it true or just a label given to inter-faith marriages. It is said that such training is provided by mosques or madarsas, but there is no highlighted evidence. In Cases like Hadiya (converted name) case from Kerala, Supreme Court over-ruled the Kerala High Court ruling and allowed her to live with her Muslim husband. The court also rejected any conspiracy angle.
So How does it work ??
First Stage:
Normally the girls have some problem, either poverty or financial difficulty, family problems like disinterested parent, low education, lack of freedom, desires not being fulfilled, attraction towards enjoyment in youth and similar thinking friend circle. The age-group of girl is normally 13-22 but not in all cases.
The friendship happens in a group, a common friend, close friend or even a retailer does the first introduction. Then this group helps to increase the intimacy.
After friendship the girl is flooded with presents according to her financial status like a lower income group girl will get a nail-paint while a high income group girl will get an imported perfume. The second gift is by default a mobile phone, again as per income status, it creates a direct and private link with the girl.
Boys use common names like Pappu, Bunty, Bobby, Raju, Veeru and are not well-educated. They work in mobile repair shops, auto-repair or even temples selling flowers and other stuff.
If the girl discovers his identity then the boy will criticize the Islamic fundamentalism and showcase his liberal behavior.
Second Stage:
In this stage the girl is encouraged to elope with the boy, friend circle or mediator who introduced them provides full support in elopement. The girl asks about marriage but it is refused or postponed to later day and said that it can be formalized with a Qazi.
All encouragement is given for live-in relationships by the mediators and all help is provided during this time by the boy’s friends and relatives.
Physical relations are established in this stage and most of the time they are filmed or photographed so that girls can be blackmailed later and continue to remain under control. Although there is no formal conversion, girl is forced to practice all the tenets of Islam i.e five time prayers, Burqa or Hijab, Ramzan. Once the girl gets pregnant, she is taken care for a few months but later on dumped in a village or a relative place and she rarely sees the boy.
Third Stage
As the woman gets pregnant she contacts her family and then her family members along with social activists, sometimes with police help try to get her back.
If the girl is minor, parents have gone to police and registered a case and have tried to trace the girl back.
In this stage the woman realizes that she is one of the many Hindu girls targeted by the boy. She will be one of the wives of the person and will be just used as a pro-creating machine, she also comes to know about other affairs of her boy-friend.
If it is discovered that the girl has moved to Rajasthan or Hyderabad, most probably she is forced into prostitution or sold off in Gulf countries. The family will never see the girl again.
There are legal angles too, but if you see the pattern, it shows complete lack of awareness of Hindu society. Still there are people who will completely deny this conspiracy and talk about communal harmony. The need is to not only create an awareness among our family, colleagues and friends but make it a movement to stop this menance as governments will be able to achieve little for a societal problem.
Reference: 1) Love Jihad- muted horror by Sunila Sovani. https://bhavisa.org/ebook/love-jihad-english/
2) https://www.opindia.com/2020/10/kavita-krishnan-love-jihad-ten-cases/
Dec-27-2020 Katha: R C Majumdar
Born on 4 December 1888, at Khandarpara district, Faridpur ,now in Bangladesh. He was the youngest of three brothers.
Early Life
Acharya Ramesh Chandra Majumdar’s early life wasn’t easy. He lost his mother when he was just 18 months old and was brought up by his aunt along with his siblings. He was born in a family which was in utter penury. He describes:
“There were times when we went without food for more than two days at a stretch. When we were around five or six years old – we were given “Nima”(A bush shirt like apparel with buttons), costing about five or six annas…those days were highly painful. We didn’t even have a pair of shoes.
In those days, there were neither buses nor trains; there were not even the roads. So learning swimming was inevitable. No need for fuel, no need to stand in the line just jump into the water and swim to the destination. When we went to school we used to make rafts from the banana tree stamps or hollow palm logs to stay dry. There were palm leaves to write upon, but in my school, we preferred banana leaves as they were available in plenty. We used sharp bamboo sticks to write on them.”
From a very early age, he distinguished himself as a scholarship student and consistently secured great levels of academic merit. While in college, he developed a lifelong love for the study of history and dedicated himself to it for more than seventy years.
Here is how he describes a historian:
“A historian must divest his mind of sentiments, prejudices and preconceptions, and all kinds of human emotions which are likely to distort his vision and judgement.”
Professional Life
On the advice of brilliant educationist and multifaceted scholar, Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee, the then Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University, R.C. Majumdar joined the University as a Lecturer in the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture in July 1914.His PhD thesis titled Corporate life in Ancient India was published to acclaim.
At various points, he became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dacca, was appointed as the first Principal at the College of Indology, Benares Hindu University (BHU), and then, Nagpur University. He was Visiting Professor of Indian History at the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania. He was Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and Bombay.
He became the president of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, a Honorary Member of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona. He was made president of the Indian History Congress and the All India Oriental Conference.
Inspiration
R.C. Majumdar was influenced by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in his school days and eventually became a great devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda. Till the very end of his life, R.C. Majumdar proudly displayed a life size painting of Swami Vivekananda in his living room. From these and other inspirations, he developed an unshakeable conviction in the eternal genius of Bharatavarsha and distinguished himself as a great patriot. In fact, it was his attachment to India that led him to investigate our past and establish the fact that we were the greatest civilization in the world, uninterruptedly for over two thousand years.
Magnum Opus: The History and Culture of the Indian People
The greatest achievement of his life was the eleven-volume masterly work titled History and Culture of the Indian People of which he was the general editor. This colossal project was the result of an extraordinary intellectual, spiritual, and patriotic marriage between Acharya R.C. Majumdar and K.M. Munshi. In K.M. Munshi, R.C. Majumdar found an unstinted supporter who shared his passion for historical truth, and in R.C. Majumdar, Munshi found the best man to implement his grand vision of writing Indian history. At no point did Munshi question the Acharya about any aspect of the project.
The History and Culture of the Indian People took thirty-two years to complete, a task for which R.C. Majumdar assembled a veritable army of the finest scholars of India who shared both his passion and dedication. Published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, these eleven volumes are still the most definitive body of historical work documenting the entire history of India from the Vedic period up to 1947.
Fallout with Government
R.C. Majumdar was conscientious to a fault, honest to his own detriment, and fearless in face of adversity. No matter who it was, he would not compromise on truth. To quote his own words, “History is no respecter of persons or communities, and one must always strive to tell the truth.” And the Acharya told the truth and paid the price for it. India’s first Prime Minister Nehru ensured that R.C. Majumdar’s career would never be the same again. Why? Because R.C. Majumdar openly wrote that he would tell the true story of the Indian freedom struggle including some stark truths about the role played by Gandhi and Nehru.
Perhaps the best homage and tribute that we can pay to Acharya R.C. Majumdar is to revisit and read and re-read and widely disseminate his invaluable body of work. These are not merely works of historical scholarship but civilizational guideposts.
Reference: 1) https://www.dharmadispatch.in/culture/remembering-acharya-ramesh-chandra-majumdar-a-century-of-spotless-scholarship-and-inspiration
2) http://www.rameshchandramajumdar.com/
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