JUN-22 BOUDHIK YOJANA

5^th June: National Family Health Survey

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today (24 November) released the findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-21, the fifth such survey since it started. NFHS provides information on population, health and nutrition for India and its states and union territories.

The survey shows that the total fertility rate (children per woman) has fallen to 2 from 2.2 in 2015-16, which is below the replacement rate of fertility of 2.1 (estimated by the UN population division).

The replacement rate is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. Below this, the population is expected to start declining. The total fertility rate (TFR) for urban areas stands at 1.6 and for rural areas at 2.1.

There has been a substantial increase in the use of family planning methods from 53.5 per cent to 66.7 per cent over the last five years. Moreover, the percentage of women currently aged 20-24 years who married before the age of 18 years also decreased from 26.8 per cent to 23.3 per cent.

The reduction in TFR can be witnessed in most of the states surveyed. In Arunachal Pradesh, TFR has declined from 2.1 to 1.8, in Chhattisgarh from 2.2 to 1.8, in Haryana from 2.1 to 1.9, in Jharkhand from 2.6 to 2.3, in Madhya Pradesh from 2.3 to 2, in Odisha from 2.1 to 1.8, in Rajasthan 2.4 to 2 which is the biggest decline witnessed among all the surveyed states, in Uttar Pradesh from 2.7 to 2.4, in Uttarakhand from 2.1 to 1.9, in Chandigarh from 1.6 to 1.4, in Delhi from 1.8 to 1.6 and in Puducherry from 1.7 to 1.5.

Religious demographics

According to the NFHS-5, the TFR for Muslims in 2019-21 was 2.36—essentially 236 likely births by 100 women, adding up to more than two and less than three children by each woman. The Time Series Data shows that over the past 25 years, the TFR among Muslims has fallen sharply from 3.6 in 1998-99 to 2.36 in 2019-21. And with the TFR among Hindus recorded as 1.94, every 100 Hindu women are giving birth to 42 children less as compared to Muslims

It can be deduced from data as pointed out by clamor among Liberals that Muslims TFR has fallen faster than Hindus in % so explosion of Muslim population is a myth. However Muslims are the only religious group to have TFR which is higher than replacement rate (2.1) while Hindus have already fallen below replacement rate. Hence Muslim % of population will keep on increasing in years to come.

Secondly TFR is measured in NFHS only for women aged 15-49. So births of these women are not counted in TFR. If example of Kerala is taken where TFR difference between Hindus and Muslims is 35-40% but when births from women outside the 15-49 age group are taken into account then the gap increases to 100% can be a warning sign for Hindus about the impending demographic dangers.

 

12^th June Boudhik: Hindu Samrajya Diwas

Context

Hindu Samrajya Divas, Jyeshta Shukla Trayodashi is the coronation day of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Those who don't know why this day is celebrated by the Sangh in today’s circumstances, may be afflicted by several questions. There is no shortage of kings in our country, even of kings who fought for the country and were victorious. It is not as if Shivaji Maharaj’s Coronation day is celebrated as Hindu Samrajya Divas because Sangh was first established in Nagpur, and the first activists of Sangh were all from Maharashtra.

If we look at the times of Shivaji Maharaj, we will perceive several similarities between those times and our own circumstances. Just as those times were fraught with dangers, society was afflicted by atrocities and was suffering, our times too are afflicted by dangers, not only foreign and military, but dangers of all kinds. In those days, these dangers were also there, but society had lost its self confidence. This was the biggest danger of all.

These dangers had their inception in the invasion of Mohammad bin Qasim. We fought on, but were repeatedly defeated, were cut down, beaten. And when Vijayanagar empire vanished, a sense of despair pervaded the society, a type of despair that we see today. If we visit people who ponder about our society, sit with them, listen to them, we will find this sense of despair in all of them.

There is no ray of hope, and the first child of despair is the loss of self confidence. Self-confidence has been lost. Once self confidence disappears, all kinds of faults appear. Selfishness enters. Internecine conflicts appear. And foreign powers taking advantage of this, advance, and advance till life becomes difficult for ordinary people.

The True Message

The coronation of Shivaji Maharaj is not simply a matter of victory of Shivaji Maharaj. Ever since the invasions from Kabul started, till the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj, efforts to achieve an allround progress of Hindu Rashtra based on its religion, culture and society, failed repeatedly. There were many experiments. Kings fought using different strategies of war; Saints struggled to unify society, to consolidate society, and to keep alive the spirit of devotion in different ways. There were some momentary successes. There were some total failures. But the success that society sought and needed remained elusive. Shivaji Maharaj’s coronation was the final successful consummation of all these efforts and experiments.

This is not the victory of Shivaji Maharaj alone. It is a victory of a warring Hindu Rashtra over its enemies. It ushered in a new era, which aimed not at power or loot of property, but which tried to transform mankind, extirpating those refusing to change; protecting the tolerant, peace loving, non- violent, all embracing, philosophy of India from destructive, anti-religious, divisive invasions; fighting victoriously for the protection of such a philosophy and religion — this was a five hundred year old problem which was resolved by the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj. This is the significance of this day. After seeing the efforts of Shivaji Maharaj, everybody came to believe that only he could find a solution to this problem, and put Hindu society, Hindu religion, culture and nation on the path of progress.

It is not as if only people from Maharashtra thought that Shivaji Maharaj should become a king. Of course, they thought so. But even saints of India thought that Shivaji Maharaj should become a king to establish Dharma. Jijamata thought that her son was capable of leading the Hindu society. Gaga Bhatt, the descendant of the traditional priests of Kashi Vishweshvar temple, started making inquiries after witnessing the destruction of the temple as to who could stopped such destruction of temples in the county, and heard of Shivaji Maharaj. He came to Maharashtra. From Nasik till the time he reached the court of Shivaji Maharaj, he collected all information, directly experienced his rule, and then on meeting Shivaji Maharaj, he said: “You must be enthroned!” That is why the effects of the enthronement of Shivaji Maharaj were not restricted to Maharashtra.

When Shivaji Maharaj went to Agra to meet Aurangzeb, then the eyes of the entire Hindu world, nay the world itself were on him. But the Hindu world was watching this with a special reason. It understood that this was the ultimate test. Would the experiment of Shivaji Maharaj succeed? All were fighters. They wanted Hindu Swarajya. The language might differ. But the this was the real test of whether final success would crown the hitherto successful endeavours of Shivaji Maharaj.

That is why, when Shivaji Maharaj successfully escaped from the court of Aurangzeb, revived his struggles, and enthroned himself, the results were far reaching. The Rajputs of Rajasthan buried their internecine conflicts and united under the the leadership of Durgadas Rathod, and within some years of the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj created such a situation that foreign invaders had to vacate the lands of Rajasthan. After that, no Moghal or Turk set his foot on the soil of Rajasthan as a ruler, although they may have come as servitors of the Indian rulers. Chatrasal was actually directly inspired by Shivaji Maharaj. The fight against moghals had been going on till the time of his father, Champatrai. After witnessing in person the methods of Shivaji Maharaj, Chatrasal left and finally won against the moghals, and established an empire.

Even the king of Assam, Chakradhvajasimha used to say “I will adopt the same policies as Shivaji and prevent any foreigner from stepping on the soil of Assam.” So the foreign marauders had to return from Brahmaputra. Assam never became subservient to the Moghals, to Islam. But Chakradhvajasinha said and wrote that we should adopt policies like Shivaji and drive out the Moghals. And after this, even Raja Rudrasinh who was fighting in cooch-bihar succeeded. He said, “we must drown the hypocrites in the Bay of Bengal just like this”. For this, he drew inspiration from Shivaji Maharaj. All this is in history. The coronation of Shivaji Maharaj was a clarion call to the whole Hindu Rashtra,that this is a the path to victory. Take this path! This was the purpose of the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj. This was the purpose of all his endeavours.

Dhyeyvaad

His endeavours were not for himself. Shivaji never fought for his personal fame, respect and power. This was not in his nature. On his return from a visit to Qutb Shah in the south, Shivaji visited the temple of Shrishaila Mallikarjuna. It is said he became so ecstatic on having a darshan of the Shiva that he prepared to cut off his head and sacrifice his life for Shiva. His ministers and bodyguards who were present saved him from this act. Leave alone personal gain, he was not even attached to his life.

If he was for personal gain, he would have made a vassal of Chatrasal who had come to his court to seek a chance to serve the nation. He did not do so. Instead, he told him: “Are you born for serving? You are born a Kshatriya, will you serve other kings? Carve out your own kingdom!” He did not tell him to carve out a kingdom and then join his empire, or become his vassal, in order to gain his support. He did not say so. That is because this was never his aim. His object was never to elevate his small jagir into a kingdom, and become the most influential king of all.

Pan India vision

There is a letter from the Governor of Goa in Lisbon’s Portuguese archives. One servant of the Governor of Goa, was a relative of a commander of a fort belonging to Shivaji Maharaj: Raoji Somnath Patki. He asked Raoji “Why is this Shivaji causing such commotion?” Patki asked Shivaji Maharaj: “Maharaj, we have borne a lot of suffering in course of this work, and now Swarajya has become very big. Your jagir at Poona was very small, but now it has expanded a lot. What should we do? How much farther have we to advance?” Shivaji Maharaj replied: “ Listen! Our land stretches from the starting point of Sindhu to the southern bank of Kaveri. Our objective is to drive out the foreigners from here and to restore the holy places that they have destroyed.” This reply given by Shivaji is recorded in Portuguese Archives. Raoji Somnath related this to his relative, who reported it to the Governor, and the Governor reported this in a letter to Lisbon. This letter is available in the archives.

Exemplary Message in Contemporary Context

Circumstances remain the same today. Today’s need is the same. We have to rouse the same spirit of conquest, self-confidence, and endeavour in today’s society. Every individual needs to emulate Shivaji Maharaj’s character, his virtues. And living in Hindu society, become an able leader of Hindu society, not for self, but for the allround progress of Hindu Rashtra; raise the self-confidence of the entire society to new heights, helping the society to establish a Hindu rule, that is, a rule in people’s interest: wise, compassionate, egalitarian, and driven by tough policies. This is the remedy for today’s ills and it will emerge from the organisation of the society. It will emerge on the foundations of the society’s virtues, endeavours and self-confidence. We have a living example in the endeavours of Shivaji Maharaj in similar circumstances in the past. In those days, he had become an living example to all people. Bringing together all past experiments, correcting their mistakes, and putting them to practice in this final successful experiment was the Shivaji Maharaj’s achievement, and that is why his coronation day is a memorable day.

Reference: Pa Pu Mohanji’s Boudhik in 2010 on Hindu Samrajya Diwas

19^th June Charcha: Places of Worship Act-1991

The Places of Worship Act, 1991 was an Act passed by the Parliament when Prime Minister P.V.R. Narasimha Rao’s government was in power. It was a time when the Ram Janambhoomi movement was at its peak.

What does the act say ?

Short title, extent and commencement.—

(1) This Act may be called the Places of Worship
(Special Provisions) Act, 1991.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
(3) The provisions of sections 3, 6 and 8 shall come into force at once and the remaining provisions of
this Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the 11th day of July, 1991.

“place of worship” means a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any other place
of public religious worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof, by whatever name
called.

Bar of conversion of places of worship.—No person shall convert any place of worship of any
religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same
religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof.

Declaration as to religious character and bar of jurisdiction

(1) It is hereby declared that the religious character of a place of worship existing on the
15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day.

(2) If, on the commencement of this Act, any suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to the
conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, existing on the 15th day of August, 1947, is
pending before any court, tribunal or other authority, the same shall abate, and no suit, appeal or other
proceeding with respect to any such matter shall lie on or after such commencement in any court, tribunal
or other authority:

Provided that if any suit, appeal or other proceeding, instituted or filed on the ground that conversion
has taken place in the religious character of any such place after the 15th day of August, 1947, is pending
on the commencement of this Act, such suit, appeal or other proceeding shall be disposed of in
accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1).

(3) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) shall apply to,—
(a) any place of worship referred to in the said sub-sections which is an ancient and historical
monument or an archaeological site or remains covered by the Ancient Monuments and
Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (24 of 1958) or any other law for the time being in
force;
(b) any suit, appeal or other proceeding, with respect to any matter referred to in sub-section (2),
finally decided, settled or disposed of by a court, tribunal or other authority before the
commencement of this Act;
(c) any dispute with respect to any such matter settled by the parties amongst themselves before
such commencement;

(d) any conversion of any such place effected before such commencement by acquiescence;
(e) any conversion of any such place effected before such commencement which is not liable to
be challenged in any court, tribunal or other authority being barred by limitation under any law for the
time being in for

Act not to apply to Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid.

What happened in debate ?

The act was a clever ploy by Congress to stop the rapid growth of BJP on back of Ayodhya movement and rapid Hindu consolidation. The following statements by Congress leaders removes any doubt that this Act was just another trick by Congress under the garb of secularism to deny Hindu rights.

Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress stated the true intention of bringing such a bill. He said, “the time has come when through this Bill we can impose some check on some political parties which adopt the religion as a mean to win the Election be it a Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly election.”

Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his address, started with ridiculing BJP’s Uma Bharati for her lack of English-speaking skills and then went on to call the Act of building a mosque by demolishing Visheshvara's Temple in Kashi, ‘a symbol of secularism’.

Congress MP, Bh. Vijaya Kumar Raju, wondered, “In the name of religion BJP wanted to grab the power at the centre. But invoking Lord Rama's name, by flaring up the Hindu sentiment, they somehow wanted to come to power. In 1984, they had only two seats in Lok Sabha. If not for the religion how could they bag so many seats in 1989 elections?”

The BJP, which had opposed the Bill by staging a walk-out, back in 1991, today stands at a point where it can correct another historical wrong committed by Congress. History is on its side and so are the people of India. It must rise to the occasion and revoke the law that bars Hindus from reclaiming its civilisational past as any other self-respecting nation would.

Reference: 1) https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/the-places-of-worship-act-a-historical-wrong

2) https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A1991-42.pdf

 

26^nd June Katha: B B Lal

His complete name is Braj Basi Lal and he was born on 2nd May 1921 in Jhansi. So he completed 101 yrs last month and has done grand contributions to archaeology.

Education

He obtained his master's degree in Sanskrit from Allahabad University, India. After his studies, Lal developed interest in archaeology and in 1943, became a trainee in excavation under a veteran British archaeologist, Mortimer Wheeler, starting with Taxila, and later at sites such as Harappa. Lal went on to work as an archaeologist for more than fifty years. In 1968, he was appointed the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India where he would remain until 1972. Thereafter, Lal served as Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla.

He has also served on several UNESCO committees and was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the president of India in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2021.

The B. B. Lal Chair at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT, Kanpur) has been established by his son Vrajesh Lal to encourage research in science and technology related to archaeological work.

Work in Archaeology

Between 1950 and 1952, Lal worked on the archaeology of sites accounted for in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, including Hastinapura, the capital city of the Kurus. He made discoveries of many Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites in the Indo‑Gangetic Divide and upper Yamuna‑Ganga doab.

And there was also evidence that this PGW cultural settlement had suffered from a flood. This corroborated the account of Vayu Purana that the city of Hastinapura was destroyed by a flood and that the capital was moved to Kausambi.

Subsequent excavations at Kausambi at the lowest levels revealed the kind of degenerate PGW as was obtained from Hastinapura – clearly establishing movement of people from Hastinapura to Kausambi.

In 1975–76, Lal worked on the "Archaeology of Ramayana Sites" project funded by the ASI, which excavated five sites mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana – Ayodhya, Bharadwaj ashram, Nandigram, Chitrakoot and Shringaverapur.

One of the convincing proofs that the Vedic and Harappan civilisations were synonymous was the fire ritual which was initially considered as being absent in Harappa and was thought to have been brought by the ‘Aryans’.

Dr B B Lal reported the discovery of fire-altars in Kalibangan. Here is what he reported in his original 1979 report:

... atop one of the platforms there lay a series of seven ‘fire-altars’ in a row. Behind these fire-altars ran a wall in a north-south direction, which shows that people had to face the east while performing rituals at these altars. The altars were oblong on plan, sunk into the ground and lined with clay. They contained ash and charcoal, besides a cylindrical and faceted clay (burnt or unburnt) stele standing up near the centre. Though in the series under discussion only fragments of what are called ‘terracotta cakes’ were obtained, elsewhere these were found in sufficient numbers showing that they formed some kind of an offering. To the west of these fire-altars lay embedded the lower half of a jar. It contained ash and charcoal and was evidently connected with the use of fire-altars. Within a few metres of these altars were a well and a few bath-pavements suggesting ablutions before the performance of a ritual - a tradition still in vogue in India amongst the Hindus.

Prof. B. B. Lal has published over 20 books and over 150 research papers and articles in national and international scientific journals.[3][17] The British archaeologists Stuart Piggott and D.H. Gordon, writing in the 1950s, describe Copper Hoards of the Gangetic Basin (1950) and the Hastinapura Excavation Report (1954–1955), two of Lal's works published in the Journal of the Archaeological Survey of India, as "models of research and excavation reporting."[17]

Stance on Ayodhya

On October 1990, with the Ayodhya controversy also raising it head, Dr B B Lal’s paper ‘Archaeology of the Ramayana Sites Projects: Its Genesis and a Summary of Results’ was published in Manthan – the research journal of Deendayal Research Institute which was the research initiative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Marxists, as expected, attacked the veteran archaeologist for publishing the paper in a 'communal publication' and not in a professional journal.

Much water has flown down the Sarayu since then along with the blood of the karsevaks massacred by Mulayam Singh Yadav's administration.

Today B B Lal stands vindicated regarding his discovery of pillar bases below the disputed domed structure built over the janma sthaan. It is paradox that a paper that challenged the belief of traditional chronology placing Mahabharata before Ramayana should become the tool to establish the presence of a Sri Rama temple and a magazine sympathetic to Hindutva published such a paper without censoring the content.

The Padma Vibhushan that this great archaeologist has been honoured with, shows us not only a great archaeologist who has contributed decisively to the emergence of Sri Rama temple but also a professional with ethics of science and love of truth, who could go beyond his own hypothesis and embrace the truth through facts and not deny it for ideological vested interest.

Reference: 1) https://swarajyamag.com/culture/bblal-a-life-in-search-of-truth