This is what you might have heard, or may be variant of it “This Maharashtra Police, I tell you, they are second to only the Scotland Yard of Britain – Big B“. I have heard the same about Hyderabad police , even Vijaykant (Captain) quotes in a movie that Tamilnadu police is second only to Scotland Yard.

Its a lie , it’s a bigger lie than “Salman Khan” can act !!. In fact, there are three lies in one statement.

• Scotland Yard is not a police force. Its an address of a (one of a )London City police force headquarters. Metropolitan police headquarters is at Scotland Yard , Westminster London with some post code.
• There is no citation that Met police is number one in world. Even if it there (citation needed) , on what basis ? what are the qualities analysed ?
• There is no reason that, one of Indian police force is second to that. Its just way to convince people with the information crowd is not going to verify , forever.

“Second only” song for those people who may go to google and try to verify if they were told it is “the best”. i.e. If you say “we are the best” could get “get lost…!” from some people. To convince these set of people try saying “we are not best , but we are right behind the best..” and the reaction would be “possible ..hm!!”.

There are so many other facts convinced with these kind of lies, for example :

• “India produces maximum wind power in whole world and Tamilnadu accounts for 80% of it”. This gem was by a key note speaker in a Electrical Engg. conference. He had authority on this topic since he was in Electricity Board.
• “It is scientifically proven that animal does not feel any pain if it is butchered as Halal and Kosher (religious way)”. I am not going to believe this till a dead bird or a goat explains me this logic. If you need proof , just go to PETA site and watch some videos on religious butchering, you will see everything yourself.

Its easy, you can always use words like ’scientifically’ and ‘technically’ to prove anything. See , I will create one theory right away : “Its is scientifically proven that “ginger-garlic paste” used in tikka masala has medicinal value and is a natural cure for Anthrax.

Imagine a situation where your boss gave you a day off. To spend time he gave you one boooring book (say Ayn rand ) and a stupid movie ( say some karan johar). Which one would you chose ?

That was just a question, for answers just look at these maps.

Books published, including school textbooks.  and boy !!! where is Africa ?

Movies watched, I am accountable for nearly half of this bulge

PS: Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

I recall some of my super seniors took seven to eight years to finish their engineering. During exams some of them used to come to me (also) for tuitions on several engineering theories.

Next year they just drop by and tell “No yaar, I don’t clear it this time. BTW… Are you there in college next year? I need the same tuition again”. They some time accumulate 10 to 15 un-cleared subjects in their hand. Here is one of such guys. He goes into records for clearing 29 subjects in one shot.

In our terms we call it “morning show – matinee show” Just observe the timings he has written the papers. Hats off Man.

This is to inform you that our alumni, ___ has appeared 29 engineering theory subjects’ examinations conducted by Karnatak University in our college; the detailed report of the examination schedule is mentioned below. Its his sincere effort to register his name into Limca book of record for passing 29 engineering theory subjects during the examinations held in Jan/Feb 2003,

There is one more chain mail; it’s about the plastic bottles we use. There is a number written on the bottom of every plastic bottle, which varies from one to seven. Hoax Chain Mail claims that the number indicates how many times that particular plastic is recycled in reverse order. So anything above 5 is good.

It’s actually nothing to do with the number of recycling of the bottles. It’s just the type of plastic which is used for that particular bottle. 5 is polypropylene and 1 is PET that is polyethlyene terephthalate. The numbers below is useful while sorting the collected bottles while recycling. In other words it is plastic identification number.

1 – PET, polyethlyene terephthalate
2 – HDPE, high-density polyethylene
3 – PVC, polyvinyl chloride
4 – LDPE, low-density polyethylene
5 – PP, polypropylene
6 – PS/PS-E, polystyrene / expanded polystyrene
7 – OTHER, resins or multi-materials

Google yourself if you are not satisfied. But don’t panic if you receive the same chain mail tomorrow.

Here is copy paste of that mail

How to avoid:
Check on the bottom of the bottle there is a triangle sign and there will be a number on it. If the number is higher than or equal to 5 –> then this bottle is safe to use.

Whatever number under 5, will release the chemical. For most bottle water, the number is 1.

Did you know chemical released by plastic water bottles can cause cancer

(It is not the water that affecting you but the chemical releasing from the bottle)

Pass this to all your friends and also make them aware of it…

Technorati Tags: polyethlyene, terephthalate, PET, bottles, plastic, recycle, hoax, chain, mail

Blank noise project is one interesting thing happening around metros in India. It started in Bangalore (as I know) against all leaching, touching, pinching, stalking and “ನೊಡ್ಲಾ ಮಗಾ…@^#%@$! ” (FAQ). I did not see anyway to help these heroes, thought I ll give them some more publicity.

Basically it’s a message to women who have experienced this one or the other way.

So girls forget Orkut for a day and stand in footpath near M.G. Road.

You might get a chance to insult a pervert.

Road 1. Road to temple. This road leads to the temple of worship , the ladies hostel.

Road 2. Road to Ecstasy , Road Leading to a shop which leads to a shop which supplied cigerettes the entire customer base, even during “strict” non-smoking days.

3. Way of freedom : Track to get out of the college , yes finish your digree and go home.

This photo is by mani

Technorati Tags: NITK, college, surathkal, photos

I‘ve been watching lot of south park lately. I started to like them. Fourth grade kids experiencing life in weird way (always). They have opinions on everyone bush, Osama, Saddam, Budda, Jeasus… You guess the rest. They are like some social commentary blogs

The main character of the show is Eric Cartman. To explain his character briefly (wikipedia) :

Catalyst for the plot, Cartman is portrayed as an abusive, anti-Semitic, violent, campy, aggressive, greedy, corrupt, bigoted, self-centered, rude, racist, wildly insecure and extremely manipulative young man who is possible to have antisocial personality disorder.

These two videos are of a normal day of south park fourth grade math class. Mr. Garrison is teaching arithmetic and kids just came learning some F words.

Mr. Garrison: OK children; let’s start the day with the few new math problems
(Writes on the board)
Mr. Garrison: What is five times two?
(Silence)
Mr. Garrison: Come on children don’t be shy, just give it your best shot
(One hand rises)
Mr. Garrison: yes Clive ….
Clive : …..twelve?
Mr. Garrison: OK.., now let’s try to get an answer from someone who is not a complete retard

….any one… come on… don’t be shy…
Kyle: I think I know the answer Mr. Garrison…
Cartman: Mememem memme memmemmemme
Kyle: Shut up fat boy
Cartman: Hey, Don’t call me Fat, you f***ing Jew!!
Mr. Garrison: Eric…!!!! Did you just say the F word?
Cartman: … “JEW”..??
Kyle: No he was talking about “f***”… you f***ing fat a**. You can’t say f*** in school
Mr. Garrison: Kyle…!!!!!!!!!
Cartman: Why the f*** not?????
Mr. Garrison: Erric…!!!!!!!!!!
Stanly: Dude you just said f*** again!!
Mr. Garrison: Stanly…!!!!!!!!!!!
Kenny: F***..!!!
Mr. Garrison: Kenny….!!!!!!!!
Cartman: What’s the big deal it doesn’t hurt anybody…!!! F*** f***ely f*** f*** f***
Mr. Garrison: How would you like to go see the school counselor?
Cartman: How would you like to suck my b***s?
Mr. Garrison: WHAT did you say??
Cartman: I am sorry I am sorry actually what I said was How would you like to suck my b***s?Mr. Garrison?
Stanly: Holy shit dude…!!

Later in counselor’s chamber , only Cartman, Stanly, Kenny and Kyle are sitting.

Cartman: Mr. Macky., Can I ask you a question?
Mr. Macky: OK ….What?
Eric: Whats the big F***ing deal b****h????
Stan: Yeah..!!
Mr. Macky: Now I wanna know where you heard these horrific obscenities
Technorati Tags: south, park, eric, cartman, stan, kyle, kenny

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ,

ತುಂಬಾ ದಿನ ಆಯ್ತು, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದು (ಟೈಪಿಸಿ). ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಅಧಿಕ ಪ್ರಸಂಗದ್ದು, ಎನ್ಮಾಡ್ಲಿ blog ಹೆಸರೇ “ನಾನು, ನನ್ ಗೀಚಾಟ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಅಧಿಕ ಪ್ರಸಂಗ”. ಹೆ ಹೆ ..

ಕನ್ನದ ಸ್ವರಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಯಾಕಿದೆ ?

ಇದೊಂದು ಹತ್ತು ಹದ್ನೆಂಟು ವರ್ಶದ ಹಿಂದೆ ಬಾಲಾವಡಿ , ಅಂಗನವಾಡಿ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆಯ chart ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ತಲೇಲಿ ಬಂತು. ಆಗ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಕಲ್ತಿದ್ದೆ… ರಾಮ: ರಾಮೇ ರಾಮೈ .. ಗೊತ್ತಲ್ಲ ಹೈ ಸ್ಕೂಲ್ ಪಾಟಗಳು.

ದೇವನಾಗರಿ ಲಿಪಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಗಳಿಗೆ ಬೇರೆ ಬೇರೆ ಚಿಹ್ನೆಗಳಿವೆ . So.. ಅದರ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ specific ಆಗಿ ಬರೆಯದಿದ್ರೆ ಒದುಗರು confuse ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಆದ್ರೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ಞ” ಒನ್ದೇ ತರ ಬರೆಯುವುದು ತಾನೇ. “ಕ್ಷ” – ಯಕ್ಷ, ತ್ರ – ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ , ಙ್ – ಯಜ್ಞ ಅಂತ

ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಓ. ಕೆ. … “ಕ್ಷ” “ತ್ರ” ಮತ್ತು “ಜ್ನ” ಯಾಕೆ ?

ಸಂಪದದಲ್ಲೂ ಇದನ್ನೇ ಪೊಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ, ನೂರು ಜನ ಓದಿದ್ರು ಯಾರೂ ಉತ್ತರ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿಲ್ಲ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರ ಮಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಮೂರು ಅಕ್ಷರಗಳನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದು ಹಕಿದ್ದರೇನು ?

privious posts : ಹುಚ್ಚು ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಹತ್ತು confusion..!! , ನನ್ನ ಓದುವ ಹುಚ್ಚು, ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರೇ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ !!

Free advertising.: If you recognize this font, please try to reply in the same. Use typepad or quillpad for the typing

Disclaimer: I have not seen Kannada text books from long. If they have removed those symbols from alphabet list, I have no questions to ask. I heard they did for a vowel “Ruu”, which was not getting used at all.

Technorati Tags: kannada, fonts, alphabet, sanskrit, hindi, devanagari, ksha, tra, jnya, quillpad, translitrator,

To agree with Amitabh Bachchan English is very Phunny (or funny) language. A language which has greatest number of literature works happening (or happened) has serious scarcity of generalized language rules, e.g. how to spell a sound or how to pronounce a word. There can half a dozen different ways to pronounce one sound. Similarly it has half a dozen different spellings for a word which is pronounced uniquely.

Trouble comes when one needs to write on Indian word in English (karma, nirvana, guru, pundit etc) and otherwise also. I have encountered three names written in three different spellings but pronounced the same. Sandhya , Sandya , Santhya, Santhiya.. Which one is correct? Technically going, none of them. No combination of English alphabet can accommodate these kinds of thousand words (except otherwise UNICODE). Its English, you can spell your name the way you want, where is the problem? Problem is the attitude of “you way of spelling is not correct”.

In one way these differences are very useful, to guess where that is person is from. If a girl writes her name as Sandhya, she is south Indian. If Sandya , she is north Indian. Any “th” ( like “Santhya” or “Santhiya” ) is either from Tamilnadu or Kerala and north-east people don’t name their name daughter as “sandya”. Cool isn’t it ?

Anyways come to the point. To go technically, South Indians pick letters as exactly it sounds in alphabetical chart, north Indians pick it from English words where they are used. For example letter “t” sounds retroflex in alphabetical chart , in English words it can be dental , or retroflex.

So “Bindhu” in south is “Bindu” in north, “Prashanth” in south is “Prashant” in north. ( What is dental what is retroflex , please refer the chart below ). So who is right ? No one. None of these are not following any standards, then where is the question of who is correct ?

Copy paste from wikipedia

To those friends who argued with me on mail, phone or personally: please spell my name as I asked you to do.

To those who still dint understand what I was talking about:

English do have these have rules, but with around million exceptional cases. Sarcastically no one has any trouble memorizing all those exceptional cases. During school education I remember we students had a discussion among us to use “phonetic symbols “write English.

Indian languages are of course not flawless, but surly free from above two problems. In other words (to repeat) if a person knows all (around 52) symbols of an Indian languages (any of them which has a script), he can read whatever written (exactly the way it suppose to sound) without even knowing what is written. Basically this is the feature of every one’s grandmother Sanskrit.

Technorati Tags: names, spelling, indian, languages, pronounciations, phonetic, UNICODE

ನಾನೂ high school ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ, ಎಲ್ಲರಂತೆ. ಅದೊಂದು ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಬಾಳಿಲ ಎಂದು. ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಜನಾವಾಸದಿಂದ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ದೂರ. ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದಲ್ಲೇ ನನ್ನ ಈಗಿನ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಹುಚ್ಚನ್ನು ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು. ಕೈಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕ ಪುಟವನ್ನು ಓದುವುದು, ಏನಾದರೂ ಗೀಚುತ್ತಾ ಇರುವುದು etc.etc. ಎಲ್ಲ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರೂ creativity ( ಸೃಜನ ಶೀಲಾತೆಗೆ ) ಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಒತ್ತು ಕೊಡುತಿದ್ದರು.

ನಾನೂ ನನ್ನ ಚೆಡ್ದಿ ದೋಸ್ತು ಮಂಜು ಮತ್ತು ಕೆಲವರು ವಿಪರೀತ ಪ್ರಸಂಗೀಗಳು ( ಇದು ಅಧಿಕ ಪ್ರಸಂಗೀ ಗಿಂತಲೂ ಮೇಲೂ ). ಒಬ್ಬರ ಮೇಲೊಬ್ಬರು ಹಟ ಹಿಡಿದು ಓದುತ್ತಿದೆವು. ಪಾಟ ಅಲ್ಲ , ಆದೇ ಕೈಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು. ಶಲ್ಲ ಗ್ರಂಥಾಲಯದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಒಳ್ಳೇ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು ಮೂರು ವರ್ಷಗಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿ ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೆವು. ಅದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿಗಳ ಮನೆಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ತರುತಿದ್ದೆವು. ಆಗ ಓದಿದ್ದೆ ಕೊನೇ . ಅದರ ನಂತರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದುವ ಅವಕಾಶ್ ಸಿಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವೊಂದು ಇನ್ನೂ ಮನಸಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಉಳಿದಿವೆ ..

ಕೆಲವು ಬರೆದಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಉಳಿದದ್ದು ನೆನಪಾಗುತಿಲ್ಲ.

ವ್ಯಾಸರಾಯ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ – ( ಬಂಡಾಯ )
ಎಸ್ ಎಲ್ ಭೈರಪ್ಪ ( ಭಿತ್ತಿ , ಪರ್ವ, ದಾಟು )
ಶಿವರಾಮ ಕಾರಂತ ( ಮರಳಿ ಮಣ್ಣಿಗೆ , ಮೂಕಜ್ಜಿಯ ಕನಸುಗಳು, ಚೋಮನ ದುಡಿ )
ಕುವೆಂಪು ( ಮಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮದುಮಗಳು , ಕಾನುರ ಹೆಗ್ಗಡತಿ )
ಯಶವಂತ ಚಿತ್ತಾಲ ( ಶಿಕಾರಿ , ಪುರುಷೋತ್ತಮ )
ಕೆ ಪಿ ಪೂರ್ಣಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ( ಕರ್ವಾಲೋ , ಪರಿಸರದ ಕಥೆ )
ಬಿ ಜಿ ಎಲ್ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ( ಹಸಿರು ಹೊನ್ನು )
ಯು ಆರ್ ಅನಂತಮೂರ್ತಿ ( ಸಂಸ್ಕ್ರಾರ )
ಗೊರೂರು ರಾಮಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಅಯ್ಯಂಗಾರ್ ( ನಮ್ಮ ಉರಿನ ರಸಿಕರು )
ವೋಲ್ಗಾ ಗಂಗಾ ( ರಾಹುಲ ಸಂಕೃತ್ಯಾಯನ ) – ಅನುವಾದಿತ

: kannada books balila reading bhairappa kuvempu karantha thejaswi chittala goruru

Related post : ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರೇ ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ !!

Previous Entry : Since it is written in books,

purAnamityeva na sAdhu sarvam , na chApi kAvyam navamityavadyam
santaha parikshatart bhajante, muDhah parapratyayena buddhihi

पुरणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं न चापि काव्यं नवमित्यवद्यं |
सनः परीक्श्तरत भजन्ते मूढः परप्रत्ययेन बुद्दिः ||

- Unknown

Can be interpreted as :

Concepts need not be valid just because they are told in books (holy books especially )), mythologies etc. Nor things are right if they are modern. Gentlemen test and then trust, fools believe what is told and written.

I don’t remember who wrote it, guess it is Brutruharai. This is the best spelling I can give for the quote here. If anyone finds better please comment. And also if you find a similar one.

Quote is quite relevant. People when can not justify what they are practicing and what they believe, just hold some outdated books responsible. “Since it is written in…”

Related Posts : The weak, the god and sacrifice

Previous Post >> Our Bangalore to Namma Bengalooru

Next Post >> ನನ್ನ ಓದುವ ಹುಚ್ಚು

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College administrations are known for its strict rules, specially about social life of students. Set the hostel timing , lights “OFF” timings etc. One of the most controversial is “dress codes”. Friend of mine had mailed me ‘rule page” of one of the engineering colleges of the city. Just read and have a nice laugh. If cant think of a word comment, try “pity”.

This was posted in my previous blog. Since it is here, its not there now.

: Random humour Life Education College India

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Whenever I roam I around Chennai streets I see some school uniforms, are “sari”s. which is very rare to see. I was wondering when and how did we migrate form some thing Indian to some thing which is not , sari to mini skirts. How come our schools look exact replica of an European school. Never thought..!!

Recently I got a mail from tarang telling about the colonizing Indian thoughts

“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation“.-Lord McCauley in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British Parliament.

Lord McCauley - A British writer, historian and Parliamentarian, responsible for making the choice of Modern English Education for Indians stated in his speech of 1835 at British Parliament. To sum up what I have said, I think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of parliament of 1813; that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied; that we are free to employ our funds as we choose; that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing; that English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic; that the natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanskrit or Arabic; that neither as the languages of law, nor as the languages of religion, have the Sanskrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our engagement; that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed. In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them, that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people.

We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colors, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”“The destinies of our Indian Empire are covered with thick darkness. It may be that the public mind of India may expand under our system till it has outgrown that system; that by good government we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better government; that having become instructed in European knowledge they may, in some future age, demand European institutions. Whether such a day will ever come, I know not. But never will I attempt to avert or retard it. Whenever, it comes, it will be the proudest day in English history.”

And some more resources gave extremely eye-opening and intereting articals ( I have shown selected parts of it) This paper was presented at a seminar on “Decolonization and its Cultural Problems” organized by N. V. Krishna Warrior Smaraka Trust at Tripunithura (Kerala) on 9-10 October 1999. As we must rule 150 millions of people by a handful (more or less small) of Englishmen, let us do it in the manner best calculated to leave them divided (as in religion and national feeling they already are) and to inspire them with the greatest possible awe of our power and with the least possible suspicion of our motives.

CameIndependence. If India did achieve political independence—at a terrible cost and by amputating a few limbs of her body—she hardly achieved independ- ence in the field of thought. Nor did she try : the country’s so-called elite, whose mind had been shaped and hypnotized by their colonial masters, always assumed that anything Western was so superior that in order to reach all-round fulfillment, India merely had to follow European thought, science, and political institutions.

Swami Vivekananda was the first to give this call : “O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotize yourselves !”The SymptomsA hundred years later, at least, we can see how gratuitous those assumptions were. Yet the colonial imprint remains present at many levels. On a very basic one, it is almost amusing to note that Pune is sometimes called “the Oxford of the East,” while Ahmedabad is “the Manchester of India”—and since Coimbatore is often dubbed “the Manchester of South India,” we have at least out-Manchestered England herself ! The Nilgiris are flatteringly com- pared to Scotland (never mind that Kotagiri, where I live, is called “the second Switzerland”), and I understand that tourist guides refer to your own Alappuzha as “the Venice of the East.” Pondicherry, also to attract tourists, calls itself ” India’s Little France” or “the French Riviera of the East.” India’s map seems dotted with European places. And “east” of what, incidentally ? This is something like India’s learned “Oriental” institutes—what “orient” do they refer to ? Thailand or Japan, perhaps ? Things become more troublesome when Kalidasa is called “the Shake- speare of India,” when Bankim Chatterji needs to be compared to Walter Scott or Tagore to Shelley, and Kautilya becomes India’s very own Machiavelli. We begin to see how our compass is set due west. Would the British call Shakespeare “England’s Kalidasa,” let alone Manchester “the Coimbatore of Northwest England” ? But I think the most alarming signs of the colonization of the Indian mind are found in the field of education.

Take the English nursery rhymes taught to many of our little children, as if, before knowing anything about India, they needed to know about Humpty-Dumpty or the sheep that went to London to see the Queen. When they grow older, some of them will be learning Western psychology while remaining totally ignorant of the far deeper psychology offered by Yoga, or they will study medicine or physics or evolution without having the least idea of what ancient India achieved—and often anticipated—in those fields. Which teacher, for example, will tell his or her students that Darwinian evolution was always at the back of the Indian mind, as the sequence of the Dashavatar shows ? Or that the speed of light is clearly given, to an amazing degree of precision, in Sayana’s commentary on the Rig-Veda ? And can it be a coincidence if a day of Brahma, equal to 4,320,000,000 years, happens to be the age of the earth ?

Many such examples could be supplied in other fields, from mathematics and astronomy and quantum physics to linguistics and metallurgy and urbanization. If teachers were not so ignorant, as a rule, of their own culture, they would have no difficulty in showing their students that the much vaunted “scientific temper” is nothing new to India. Even in medicine, we know how Ayurveda and Siddha systems of medicine have been neglected under the illusion that modern medicine is the only way to provide “health for all.” Our educational policiessystematically discourage the teaching of Sanskrit, and one wonders again whether that is in deference to Macaulay, who found that great language (though he confessed he knew none of it !) to be “barren of useful knowledge.” In the same vein, the Indian epics, the Veda or the Upanishads stand no chance, and students will almost never hear about them at school. Even Indian languages are subtly or not so subtly given a lower status than English, with the result that many deep scholars or writers who chose to express themselves in their mother-tongues (I have of course N. V. Krishna Warrior in mind) remain totally unknown beyond their States, while textbooks are crowded with second-rate thinkers who happened to write in English. If you take a look at the teaching of history, the situation is even worse. Almost all Indian history taught today in our schools and universities has been written by Western scholars, or by “native historians who [have] taken over the views of the colonial masters,” in the words of Prof. Klostermaier of Canada’s University of Manitoba.

All of India’s historical tradition, all ancient records are simply brushed aside as so much fancy so as to satisfy the Western dictum that “Indians have no sense of history.” Indian tradition never said anything about mysterious Aryans invading the subcontinent from the Northwest, but since nineteenth-century European scholars decided so, our children still today have to learn by rote this invention now rejected by most archaeologists ; South Indian tradition said nothing about the Dravidians coming from the North, driven southward by the naughty Aryans, but again that shall be stuffed into young brains. No Indian scholar or grammar or tradition ever claimed that Sanskrit and Tamil languages were great rivals belong- ing to wholly separate families, but this shall be taught at school in deference to Western linguists or to our own “Dravidian” activists.

The real facts of the destruction wreaked in India by Muslim invaders and also by some Christian missionaries must be kept outside textbooks and curricula, since they contradict the “tolerant” and “liberating” image that Islam and Christianity have been projecting for themselves. Even the freedom movement is not spared : as the great historian R. C. Majumdar and others have shown, no serious, objective criticism of Mahatma Gandhi or the Indian National Congress is allowed, and the role of other important leaders is systematically belittled or erased.As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once put it,The mistake of the West is that it measures other civilizations by the degree to which they approximate to Western civilization. If they do not approximate it, they are hopeless, dumb, and reactionary.Educated Indians virtually admitted they were “hopeless, dumb, reactionary,” and could only stop being so by receiving salvation from Europe : they pinned their hopes on its democracy and secularism, ignoring all warnings that those European concepts would wreak havoc once mechanically transposed to
India. Worse,

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