Tag Archives: Hindutva

BJP, Modi win Indian elections with largest mandate in 30 years

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The coalition led by the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, and its leader Narendra Modi, have won the just concluded Indian elections, with the largest mandate in the last 30 years.

The international reaction:

British business interests were enthusiastic:

“British business is particularly buoyed by Mr. Modi’s victory and expects his government to quickly take forward economic ties, the groundwork for which has been laid by Mr. Cameron during his visits to India.

Patricia Hewitt, Chair, United Kingdom India Business Council, in her congratulatory message said: “The election of a new Government of India — and the improvements in the business environment that will follow — should prompt those British businesses who have been hesitating about entering the Indian market to put aside their doubts and seize the India opportunity with both hands.””

Chinese business interests are happy and think he will make working with India easier and have a more independent policy toward the US:

“To my observation, this general election was fought on India’s domestic agenda and China was not a significant topic. This indicates the China-India relationship has become more mature and shock-resistant. Relations are national interest-centric, not party-oriented.

Indian parties don’t have much policy differences towards China. Historically speaking, China has been even more skilful in dealing with “right-leaning” political entities.”

The New Yorker cites the comments of economists Jagdish Bhagwati (supportive) and Amartya Sen (critical):

It will be fascinating to see if Modi can replicate his success in Gujarat on the national stage. Many, though not all, economists believe the Indian economy needs another wave of liberalization that builds upon the one that Singh introduced in the nineteen-nineties, when he was minister of finance. Those measures cut the budget deficit, stripped away some of the country’s infamous licensing restrictions, and made it easier for foreigners to invest in Indian companies. Jagdish Bhagwati, the Columbia University economist who is one of Modi’s most prominent supporters, has criticized Singh for not following up on these reforms during his time as Prime Minister.

It has been widely reported that Bhagwati and his Columbia colleague Arvind Panagariya, another supporter of free-market reforms, will play some role in the new Indian government. Modi, however, also has his critics in the academy. Some studies suggest that Gujarat, despite enjoying stronger than average growth, has a questionable record relative to other Indian states in reducing poverty, improving child nutrition, and promoting education and social inclusion. Last year, Amartya Sen, perhaps India’s most famous economist, came out strongly against Modi’s candidacy, criticizing his failure to protect religious minorities, and saying, “His record in education and health care is pretty bad.”

Indians and people the world over will be watching to see how far Modi goes in the direction of liberalization. Reforming India, which has many powerful states and innumerable vested interests, is much harder than reforming an individual state like Gujarat. And while Modi has obtained a historic mandate for his economic agenda—the B.J.P. will be the first party in thirty years to have an outright majority in Parliament—there are still widespread concerns that the fruits of economic progress are not being spread widely enough, concerns that more business-friendly reforms are unlikely to alleviate. “It felt like a vacuum period,” Modi said on Friday, addressing his supporters in Ahmedabad. “Now we will fill that vacuum.”

Comment:

I don’t have a clear-cut opinion of the man yet. I’ll wait and see…. and hope that the massive PR efforts (APCO, billionaire Adani) poured into his election are justified by something more than whose bread he can butter.

India’s Muslim and Christian minorities are probably more than a bit worried, but the stock market, not surprisingly, took off…..

Proving the existence of Lord Krishna

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Indians are taught that Krishna was a myth and did not exist. This is the inevitable byproduct of an educational system and mentality put in place by the British empire. But things are changing. In response to the question of whether Krishna existed amateur historians are coming up with new evidence of the authentic nature of the Hindu scriptures:

“Most certainly, says Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician who teaches in the United Kingdom, proffering astronomical, archaeological, linguistic and oral evidences to make his case.

“I used to think of Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. Imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (a professor of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy. I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions [as him],” Pandit says.

Which meant, he says, that what is taught in schools about Indian history is not correct?

The Great War between the Pandavas and the Kauravas took place in 3067 BC, the Pune-born Pandit, who did his MBBS from BJ Medical College there, says in his first documentary, Krishna: History or Myth?.

Pandit’s calculations say Krishna was born in 3112 BC, so must have been 54-55 years old at the time of the battle of Kurukshetra.

Pandit is also a distinguished astrologer, having written several books on the subject, and claims to have predicted that Sonia Gandhi would reject prime ministership, the exact time at which Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati would be released on bail and also the Kargil war.

Pandit, as the sutradhar of the documentary Krishna: History or Myth?, uses four pillars — archaeology, linguistics, what he calls the living tradition of India and astronomy to arrive at the circumstantial verdict that Krishna was indeed a living being, because Mahabharata and the battle of Kurukshetra indeed happened, and since Krishna was the pivot of the Armageddon, it is all true.

You are a specialist in nuclear medicine. What persuaded you to do a film on the history/myth of Krishna? You think there are too many who doubt? Is this a politico-religious message or a purely religious one?

We are always taught that Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. And this is exactly what I thought as well. But imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (of the Department of Physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research somewhere in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy.

I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions. This meant that what we are taught in schools about Indian history is not correct.

I also started wondering about why this should be so. I think that a mixture of the post-colonial need to conform to western ideas of Indian civilisation and an inability to stand up firmly to bizarre western ideas are to blame. Also, any attempt at a more impartial look at Indian history is given a saffron hue.

I decided that I could take this nonsense no more, and decided to make films to show educated Indians what their true heritage was. The pen is mightier than the sword is an old phrase but I thought of new one: Film is the new pen.

Any ideas I have will receive wide dissemination through this medium.

I wanted to present a true idea of Indian history unfettered by perception, which was truly scientific, not just somebody’s hypothesis coloured by their perceptions and prejudices.

Why not a documentary on Rama, who is more controversial in India today? Proof of his existence would certainly be more than welcome today…

A documentary on Rama is forthcoming in the future. But the immediate reason I deferred that project is the immense cost it would entail. Whereas research on Krishna and Mahabharata was present and ready to go.

Further more, Rama according to Indian thought, existed in the long hoary ancient past of Treta Yuga, where science finds it difficult to go.

There is a controversial point in your documentary where someone Isckon monk alludes to Krishna as being the father of Jesus. How can you say that since there is an age gap of roughly 3000 years between the two spiritual giants?

Is Krishna the spiritual father of Jesus? That is what the person who was training to be a Roman Catholic priest, and who now worships Krishna, asks. The answer comes within the field of comparative religion and theology.

The Biblical scriptures qualify Jesus as the son of God. Most Indians have no problems accepting this as Hindus are a naturally secular people. However, then the question that arises is, if Jesus is the son, then who is the Father or God Himself?

[Lila: The word secular in India means not-communal or not provoking religious animosities.]

Now, Biblical scriptures do not really give the answer except to say that the Father is all-powerful and omnipresent. Now, of course, we know that Jesus does not say that he is omnipresent or omnipotent.

[Lila: Jesus both says that he and his father are “one,” implying omniscience and also says at other times, “No man knoweth except the father,” implying limitation.]

Now, no scripture can live as an island, all by itself, and the Srimad Bhagavatam and other scriptures such as the Bramha Samhita all call Krishna as an all powerful, omnipresent being.

So, if we use these words of Bhagavatam, there can be no other truth, which means that Krishna is the father of all living creation.

But it does not mean that Jesus is not divine. Jesus is indeed divine. What I liked about the monks in my documentary is that they do not denigrate Jesus although they worship Krishna as God. They keep Jesus in their hearts, while worshipping Krishna. What could be more secular or more Christian?”