Battle has gone worse. Google+ (G+) has taken on Facebook (FB) by opening up the gates to the world 2 days ago. Now anyone can join G+ without an invitation. Also, FB has redesigned its user interface to “better express who you are” & have added many features such as subscription, ticker. Google has been trying hard for past 3-4 years to crack the puzzle called “Social Networking” with attempts such as buzz, Google wave. It’s been more than 3 months G+ has come into picture with a controlled release through invitations. Paul Allen (G+’s unofficial statistician) puts recent G+ user base at around 43 million. FB is at 750million. There is no comparison right now. FB has been enjoying sheer dominance in Social Networking space for a considerable time now. Social Networking has become a place to be. Businesses have realized this too. FB has been able to make inroads into Google’s play ground - “Internet Advertising” & that’s making Google uncomfortable.
If features are to be compared, both the sites are almost neck to neck with the exception of Privacy controls (Lists in FB, Circles in G+), Group Video chat (Hangouts in G+). The wall looks almost similar. FB has a strong developer community & application base. G+ has just opened their API (Application programming Interface) for developers to try out the platform. G+ has strong parent, Google, which has many more services like Calendar, Docs, and Reader to integrate with Social Network.
Both entities are facing challenges. With the huge user base FB is catering to, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to introduce changes especially the way user interface works. If it decides to discontinue some feature which is even if used by a small fraction of users, these users go crazy. Satisfaction index goes down. It will be interesting to analyze how the change in an interface has gone down with the users. On the other hand G+ is having its own set of issues. There are very few things to engage users on G+. The stream of updates seems quiet with very few updates. It’s boring for someone who has just shifted from FBs happening wall. There are just 16 games available. Games have been the most scintillating thing on FB with the games like Farmville, City Ville from Zynga.
There are people with different psyche. Some people like changes in day to day things. Some don’t. There are people who are complaining about new FB look. Some might have shifted G+. Some like to try out new things. Some like to stick with existing ones. G+ users are excited & very receptive to changes they are making. The people who are reluctant to try new things will continue to use FB in the whatsoever form it is. FB changes always look like a knee jerk reaction of something, but people have got used to it. The war is on & it’s not going end anytime soon.
Where this all is heading? My sense is that, Social Networking sites will no longer remain the way to connect with your friends. Social Networking is at its nascent state. Opportunities are abundant. Currently it’s being injected in our life one small droplet a day and its overall effects are still to be felt. Remember how difficult it was to raise money for a social cause? Now it’s just few clicks away. Social revolutions are being planned, propelled through networks. Every business is having an icon on their packing saying “Like us on FB.” Networks are going to be the way in which we all will be reached by everyone – living & non-living things.
No one knows who is going to win this. My take - FB is going to stay but G+ will also its own say. For us it’s a good thing. Competition has got healthy.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Lost in Ghat
How many people have tried to frame the flavour of Mumbai? How many writers she has seduced? How many dreams she has bolstered? Myriad is the only word which can count all of these. But still Mumbai questions everybody. The transitions she has been witnessing throughout her existence make her so much alive every other day that one just cannot pay any heed towards her growing age & decaying features. Kiran Rao (Mrs. Aamir Khan) is the latest prey which she has engrossed. I went for the movie (Dhobi Ghat) with hell lot of expectations. Don’t know why, but I was under the preoccupied mindset that it will be a nice entertainer. As soon as the movie started my impression was shattered into pieces. There was a warning displayed after the titles “Smoking is injurious to health.”
Arun, who is a painter by profession & loner by nature, shifts to a new apartment for his next canvas expression. It’s an old house in the mess of Mumbai. (You can smell what is been cooked in the apartment in front of you.) He meets a charming investment banking consultant, Shai, who is on sabbatical to do a research on small businesses, in the party arranged to float his new paintings. Third character is Munna. He does all the filthy chores one can imagine. His shanty depicts the true image of Mumbai by all means. In a room (?) of the size little more than a toilet, 4 people are trying to change their destinies - Munna, his 2 brothers, & their mom. Forth character is Yasmin. It’s the most intriguing character. She has got married newly & has shifted to Mumbai with her husband. Dhobi Ghat is interweaving of these 4 & Mumbai acts like a silent observer.
Munna is Dhobi (in a daytime), a typical yokel, trying to resonate on multiple frequencies. His aspiration to become actor & the efforts he takes amaze us. You will be definitely stunned to see how he lives, exercises, eats, works, safe-keeps his money; in his 70 square feet shanty. His interaction with Shai as her Dhobi, friend & one-way lover is excellent to watch. Shai is an amateur photographer & is shown capturing any thing which you would imagine. Black & white, Colour photos of Mumbai, characters, Dhobis is not only artistic but paints the image of the film inside you. She is in love with Arun because she feels there was more than a sex when they met after party which threw open Arun’s work. She always enquires his whereabouts to Munna, as he is a common link (Dhobi) for both of them. Yasmin, which we see only through her recordings with husband, keeps haunting us. Arun has got these recordings in his new home & has got attracted towards it. He is painting his new work – recordings of Yasmin are running side by side. Yasmin’s videos keep showing us flavours of Mumbai, beaches, crowded shops, Yasmin’s own messages to his brother, etc. These recordings are filled with mystery, curiosity, uneasiness.
The performances are mind blowing. Yasmin (Kirti Malhotra) has done a stupendous job. Her eyes speak lot more than anything else. Shai (Monica Dogra) has managed to show ambivalence arising out of situations quite well. Munna (Prateik Babbar) has played an innocent folk. But at the same time he is shown to handle strange situations with quite stubbornness. Arun (Aamir Khan) has acted well to adjust himself to not so core role. Background score is awesome & makes necessary impact when required. Cheers to Gustavo Santaolalla. Entire movie is shown in frames. Arun is painting – Scene is cut to show recordings of Yasmin - Scene is again cut to show Munna washing cloths. It has some strange effect on the psyche of viewer. It can’t be expressed so well in words. In the film too, Silence speaks more than words. This is where Kiran emerges as Kiran Rao & not as Mrs. Aamir Khan.
What happens to Arun & to his paintings? What about Munna’s love for Shai? Will Shai tell Arun what she is feeling? What about Yasmin? Do her recordings reach their destination? What is her story? Why one old lady, a neighbour of Arun, does not speak at all. She just looks messed up. Hmmmm. Some of these questions will get answered once you watch the movie. But you will have lot many questions left unanswered.
One thing is for sure – The texture & the feel of this movie is very different. You are always made to think the missing. This very effect i had witnessed after a Marathi movie Vihir, which has been acclaimed internationally.
I came to know why warning was shown after the titles.
Prasanna Vaidya.
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
29/01/2011
Arun, who is a painter by profession & loner by nature, shifts to a new apartment for his next canvas expression. It’s an old house in the mess of Mumbai. (You can smell what is been cooked in the apartment in front of you.) He meets a charming investment banking consultant, Shai, who is on sabbatical to do a research on small businesses, in the party arranged to float his new paintings. Third character is Munna. He does all the filthy chores one can imagine. His shanty depicts the true image of Mumbai by all means. In a room (?) of the size little more than a toilet, 4 people are trying to change their destinies - Munna, his 2 brothers, & their mom. Forth character is Yasmin. It’s the most intriguing character. She has got married newly & has shifted to Mumbai with her husband. Dhobi Ghat is interweaving of these 4 & Mumbai acts like a silent observer.
Munna is Dhobi (in a daytime), a typical yokel, trying to resonate on multiple frequencies. His aspiration to become actor & the efforts he takes amaze us. You will be definitely stunned to see how he lives, exercises, eats, works, safe-keeps his money; in his 70 square feet shanty. His interaction with Shai as her Dhobi, friend & one-way lover is excellent to watch. Shai is an amateur photographer & is shown capturing any thing which you would imagine. Black & white, Colour photos of Mumbai, characters, Dhobis is not only artistic but paints the image of the film inside you. She is in love with Arun because she feels there was more than a sex when they met after party which threw open Arun’s work. She always enquires his whereabouts to Munna, as he is a common link (Dhobi) for both of them. Yasmin, which we see only through her recordings with husband, keeps haunting us. Arun has got these recordings in his new home & has got attracted towards it. He is painting his new work – recordings of Yasmin are running side by side. Yasmin’s videos keep showing us flavours of Mumbai, beaches, crowded shops, Yasmin’s own messages to his brother, etc. These recordings are filled with mystery, curiosity, uneasiness.
The performances are mind blowing. Yasmin (Kirti Malhotra) has done a stupendous job. Her eyes speak lot more than anything else. Shai (Monica Dogra) has managed to show ambivalence arising out of situations quite well. Munna (Prateik Babbar) has played an innocent folk. But at the same time he is shown to handle strange situations with quite stubbornness. Arun (Aamir Khan) has acted well to adjust himself to not so core role. Background score is awesome & makes necessary impact when required. Cheers to Gustavo Santaolalla. Entire movie is shown in frames. Arun is painting – Scene is cut to show recordings of Yasmin - Scene is again cut to show Munna washing cloths. It has some strange effect on the psyche of viewer. It can’t be expressed so well in words. In the film too, Silence speaks more than words. This is where Kiran emerges as Kiran Rao & not as Mrs. Aamir Khan.
What happens to Arun & to his paintings? What about Munna’s love for Shai? Will Shai tell Arun what she is feeling? What about Yasmin? Do her recordings reach their destination? What is her story? Why one old lady, a neighbour of Arun, does not speak at all. She just looks messed up. Hmmmm. Some of these questions will get answered once you watch the movie. But you will have lot many questions left unanswered.
One thing is for sure – The texture & the feel of this movie is very different. You are always made to think the missing. This very effect i had witnessed after a Marathi movie Vihir, which has been acclaimed internationally.
I came to know why warning was shown after the titles.
Prasanna Vaidya.
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
29/01/2011
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Indian Railways
Travelling with Indian Railway is always a stunning experience. Rich in experience travel starts as soon as one gets to the railway station. And these experiences keep pouring on you throughout the travel irrespective of whether you want it or otherwise. You may get perplexed – which train travel am I talking about? Focus is on long route train travel in India - on the normal trains, which myriad number of people in India use to connect with each other or to go & worship a god or to go & work. What Uttar Sampark Kranti Express, which travels from the capital city of India towards the town in world’s terrorized paradise Jammu & Kashmir – Udhampur, has on the table to offer? How Gitanjali Express, which connects India’s financial hub to the eastern metro city of Kolkata, takes care of passengers travelling in it?
In India, express train travels at 40-45 Km per hour on an average. There are many types of classes in trains, may be maximum in number than any other such setup. Not all trains have all the classes. General class, second sitting, sleeper class, AC chair car, AC 3 Tier, AC 3 Tier Economy, AC 2 Tier, First class, First class AC – these many classes are due to the mix of affordability factor & services which railway has to take into account. One can travel as much distance as one wants on a simple card ticket without any reservation or seat number by getting into general class. This class is generally jam packed with young people going out station for earning livelihood. One has to be very lucky to first get into it & then get a seat. Second sitting is mainly for 2-3 hours of travel. It is available on routes like Delhi- Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune. AC Chair car is also available for such short distances. In all other classes passengers are allocated a berth & a seat. Except general class, reservation is must for getting inside the compartment. But in India, very much people are considerate. So you will always find people only with tickets or sometimes without any tickets sitting in the lobbies in front of toilets of reserved compartments. Except general class, sleeper class & chair car all the other classes differ in their coziness amongst themselves. Some have air conditioners. Some have less number of seats relative to others in the same space. Some have additional facilities like electricity points to charge mobiles & to operate laptops. Also to facilitate reading, small light bulbs are provided near berths in AC compartments. Things like pillow, bed sheet and blanket are provided when there is a night travel in some classes. The Top most class (fare & facility wise) is the First Class AC. In this 3-4 compartments of 4 people each are designed. It has quite specious & superior arrangements when compared to other classes. Apart from facilities mentioned, Indicators to inform the busy - not busy status of toilet have been placed in each compartment. Every now & then room freshener is sprayed through the air conditioner. Full time attendant is put in place to serve the requests of passengers.
There is a basic difference in AC & Non-AC classes which puts the entire travel experience in two different orbits altogether. In AC coaches, No hawkers except the official ones are allowed to serve the needs of the people. In AC one will get the things served by Indian Railways subsidiary – IRCTC - which looks after catering services. This rule is followed strictly out of economic interests of IRCTC, I guess. But trains near the ambience of Jalsa (Hindi word) in other coaches due to these hawkers. Heavily crowded with the passengers to a maximum possible extent, these hawkers play a hurdle race jumping around the luggage kept in the gangway & bypassing the passengers standing in between, and at the same time doing their business of selling the goods which they have brought. Also IRCTC vendors try to make a point by competing with them to add to the anxiety of standing passengers. All of them come shouting the name of the thing which they have brought. The sound gets mixed with train’s sound & noise made by passengers. Ant it tries to form a very good rhythm. Private hawkers & IRCTC vendors both generally bring food items to satisfy the gastronomic needs of passengers. They carry a variety according to the timings of breakfast, Lunch, Snacks & Dinner. These articles range from Bonda in south to Vada-pav in west to Samosa in North. But Bread Omlet, Cutlet, Soups seem to be in the realm of official vendors. If you are travelling by Kokan railway (Connecting costal Maharashtra, Karnataka till Kerala) a special variety of Banana Pakoda can be tasted. Lunch & Dinner is simple & generally preferred choice is official vendors. These days Veg, Egg & Chicken Biryani seem to be the popular choice of passengers for dinner. Other snacks items include Bhel, Chikki, Laddu, Puri – Sabji & many more. Beverages like Tea, Coffee, Cold drinks, and Mineral water are served incessantly. Recently I have seen Bournvita, Complan (health drinks) being sold.
Let’s move from food items to utility items. Again wide range of products is put in front of sea of people. This includes Maps of different states in India, Road Maps, Wallets, Combs, Mobile Covers, Pens, Batteries, Pirated books (of Arvind adiga’s to Robin Sharma’s to Paulo Coelho’s), Magazines, Newspapers, Some Aayurvedic medicines. These days a new entrant is head massaging unit which has a funnel like shape with a straight stick attached to it. It has 5-6 palettes similar to flower but thin ones. It is to be put inside the hair & moved up–down so as to get read of headache. It is made in China. To allure female passengers, boxes of Earrings, Bangles, Bindis and Hair Bands are brought to the floor. But this is time consuming business. Interested passengers keep on searching for the best one till the time vendor gets frustrated. Finally a transaction worth of 5-10 Rs. happens after a rigorous selection. This entire saga continues till either the train reaches its destination or passengers start looking mobiles & watches to check whether they can call it a day. But if somebody tries to compile the list of the things which you can get in the train in India, It will be the most incomplete list.
I feel it’s the great Indian Bazaar which makes its way in the trains. Indian Railway drives two economies. One is direct. The other one is indirect. Most importantly Indian Railways, 5th largest network in the world with 63,140 km of rail network, brings in Indianness by offering tremendous amount of diversity in the way one can travel.
- Prasanna Vaidya
In India, express train travels at 40-45 Km per hour on an average. There are many types of classes in trains, may be maximum in number than any other such setup. Not all trains have all the classes. General class, second sitting, sleeper class, AC chair car, AC 3 Tier, AC 3 Tier Economy, AC 2 Tier, First class, First class AC – these many classes are due to the mix of affordability factor & services which railway has to take into account. One can travel as much distance as one wants on a simple card ticket without any reservation or seat number by getting into general class. This class is generally jam packed with young people going out station for earning livelihood. One has to be very lucky to first get into it & then get a seat. Second sitting is mainly for 2-3 hours of travel. It is available on routes like Delhi- Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune. AC Chair car is also available for such short distances. In all other classes passengers are allocated a berth & a seat. Except general class, reservation is must for getting inside the compartment. But in India, very much people are considerate. So you will always find people only with tickets or sometimes without any tickets sitting in the lobbies in front of toilets of reserved compartments. Except general class, sleeper class & chair car all the other classes differ in their coziness amongst themselves. Some have air conditioners. Some have less number of seats relative to others in the same space. Some have additional facilities like electricity points to charge mobiles & to operate laptops. Also to facilitate reading, small light bulbs are provided near berths in AC compartments. Things like pillow, bed sheet and blanket are provided when there is a night travel in some classes. The Top most class (fare & facility wise) is the First Class AC. In this 3-4 compartments of 4 people each are designed. It has quite specious & superior arrangements when compared to other classes. Apart from facilities mentioned, Indicators to inform the busy - not busy status of toilet have been placed in each compartment. Every now & then room freshener is sprayed through the air conditioner. Full time attendant is put in place to serve the requests of passengers.
There is a basic difference in AC & Non-AC classes which puts the entire travel experience in two different orbits altogether. In AC coaches, No hawkers except the official ones are allowed to serve the needs of the people. In AC one will get the things served by Indian Railways subsidiary – IRCTC - which looks after catering services. This rule is followed strictly out of economic interests of IRCTC, I guess. But trains near the ambience of Jalsa (Hindi word) in other coaches due to these hawkers. Heavily crowded with the passengers to a maximum possible extent, these hawkers play a hurdle race jumping around the luggage kept in the gangway & bypassing the passengers standing in between, and at the same time doing their business of selling the goods which they have brought. Also IRCTC vendors try to make a point by competing with them to add to the anxiety of standing passengers. All of them come shouting the name of the thing which they have brought. The sound gets mixed with train’s sound & noise made by passengers. Ant it tries to form a very good rhythm. Private hawkers & IRCTC vendors both generally bring food items to satisfy the gastronomic needs of passengers. They carry a variety according to the timings of breakfast, Lunch, Snacks & Dinner. These articles range from Bonda in south to Vada-pav in west to Samosa in North. But Bread Omlet, Cutlet, Soups seem to be in the realm of official vendors. If you are travelling by Kokan railway (Connecting costal Maharashtra, Karnataka till Kerala) a special variety of Banana Pakoda can be tasted. Lunch & Dinner is simple & generally preferred choice is official vendors. These days Veg, Egg & Chicken Biryani seem to be the popular choice of passengers for dinner. Other snacks items include Bhel, Chikki, Laddu, Puri – Sabji & many more. Beverages like Tea, Coffee, Cold drinks, and Mineral water are served incessantly. Recently I have seen Bournvita, Complan (health drinks) being sold.
Let’s move from food items to utility items. Again wide range of products is put in front of sea of people. This includes Maps of different states in India, Road Maps, Wallets, Combs, Mobile Covers, Pens, Batteries, Pirated books (of Arvind adiga’s to Robin Sharma’s to Paulo Coelho’s), Magazines, Newspapers, Some Aayurvedic medicines. These days a new entrant is head massaging unit which has a funnel like shape with a straight stick attached to it. It has 5-6 palettes similar to flower but thin ones. It is to be put inside the hair & moved up–down so as to get read of headache. It is made in China. To allure female passengers, boxes of Earrings, Bangles, Bindis and Hair Bands are brought to the floor. But this is time consuming business. Interested passengers keep on searching for the best one till the time vendor gets frustrated. Finally a transaction worth of 5-10 Rs. happens after a rigorous selection. This entire saga continues till either the train reaches its destination or passengers start looking mobiles & watches to check whether they can call it a day. But if somebody tries to compile the list of the things which you can get in the train in India, It will be the most incomplete list.
I feel it’s the great Indian Bazaar which makes its way in the trains. Indian Railway drives two economies. One is direct. The other one is indirect. Most importantly Indian Railways, 5th largest network in the world with 63,140 km of rail network, brings in Indianness by offering tremendous amount of diversity in the way one can travel.
- Prasanna Vaidya
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
BHARAT BANDH!!
Date – 05th July, 2010. Place – India. Reason – Inflation. All opposition parties involved.
While I was writing this post, India was observing a voluntary off from their daily routine. School, Colleges, Private Offices across the country were shut. People also had taken a break to support a Bandh called against rising costs of primary articles.
If one observes the price of any primary food article, one would have to say there should be this kind of Bandh everyday. Since 2004, prices of articles like rice, pulses, milk, sugar and edible oil increased in the range of 150 to 200%. Adding to the woes of common man, Government recently decontrolled the auto fuel prices to curtail the fiscal deficit. The decision was bold. It was perfect if looked with an eye of economist. But timing of the same is in question. With food price inflation already ruling in double digits, decontrol at such time was certainly unwarranted.
Economic growth taken place since 2004, globally, was stupendous. World has witnessed highest ever growth rates from 2004 – 08. It has resulted in raising the income levels across the globe. Each & every commodity traded on bourses was witnessing a tremendous increase in trading volumes both due to speculation & supply constraint. In India, middle class population has been increasing with fast pace as sectors like Auto, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Financial Services, IT are doing fantastically well. Farmers have got never seen Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for wheat, rice, cotton in last few years. It has helped them to get some cash in their hand. National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (NREGA) has also helped rural people to get cash in the off-agro season. This all has resulted in placing more money in the hands of people. Though wheat, rice & other agro products in India have witnessed record level of production; it is not enough for meeting needs of the people. With agriculture growth rates not surprising us on the positive side, prices are bound to move up. Traders which have become oligopolistic in nature are making it worst.
Government has its task cut out. First of all, they should invade all warehouses & streamline the supply. Book the traders which are holding the grains in warehouses. This would tackle the sporadic price rise in primary articles. This would certainly make sure the price correction in the short term. Secondly, Government should seriously start reforming agriculture sector. They should indulge in finding ways which would raise the farm productivity in India in a sustainable way. This would make sure food sovereignty of our nation. These are obviously not easy tasks to do. But Government should start taking steps in these directions. Their attitude towards the issue of inflation right now is too adamant to accept. If government is not position to do anything, they should come up with the white paper on this. These price levels are hurting common man & their silent support for nationwide strike shows it clearly.
Opposition parties have done a stupendous task of taking up this issue. Yes, they are politicizing the things but which party would not have? It was heartening to see opposition parties coming together & showing their strength. Some agencies are coming out with estimates of amount of national loss happened due to this. Estimates are in the range 13000 Crore Rs. Huge amount!!! But it was necessary to wake up New ICC chief & his bosses. Yes - reduce fiscal deficit, but not at the cost of lives of people. Find new ways to solve the issues. Don’t just sit & say inflation is a global phenomenon & normal monsoon will pacify the things. Act or face the consequences.
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
While I was writing this post, India was observing a voluntary off from their daily routine. School, Colleges, Private Offices across the country were shut. People also had taken a break to support a Bandh called against rising costs of primary articles.
If one observes the price of any primary food article, one would have to say there should be this kind of Bandh everyday. Since 2004, prices of articles like rice, pulses, milk, sugar and edible oil increased in the range of 150 to 200%. Adding to the woes of common man, Government recently decontrolled the auto fuel prices to curtail the fiscal deficit. The decision was bold. It was perfect if looked with an eye of economist. But timing of the same is in question. With food price inflation already ruling in double digits, decontrol at such time was certainly unwarranted.
Economic growth taken place since 2004, globally, was stupendous. World has witnessed highest ever growth rates from 2004 – 08. It has resulted in raising the income levels across the globe. Each & every commodity traded on bourses was witnessing a tremendous increase in trading volumes both due to speculation & supply constraint. In India, middle class population has been increasing with fast pace as sectors like Auto, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Financial Services, IT are doing fantastically well. Farmers have got never seen Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for wheat, rice, cotton in last few years. It has helped them to get some cash in their hand. National Rural Employment Guaranty Act (NREGA) has also helped rural people to get cash in the off-agro season. This all has resulted in placing more money in the hands of people. Though wheat, rice & other agro products in India have witnessed record level of production; it is not enough for meeting needs of the people. With agriculture growth rates not surprising us on the positive side, prices are bound to move up. Traders which have become oligopolistic in nature are making it worst.
Government has its task cut out. First of all, they should invade all warehouses & streamline the supply. Book the traders which are holding the grains in warehouses. This would tackle the sporadic price rise in primary articles. This would certainly make sure the price correction in the short term. Secondly, Government should seriously start reforming agriculture sector. They should indulge in finding ways which would raise the farm productivity in India in a sustainable way. This would make sure food sovereignty of our nation. These are obviously not easy tasks to do. But Government should start taking steps in these directions. Their attitude towards the issue of inflation right now is too adamant to accept. If government is not position to do anything, they should come up with the white paper on this. These price levels are hurting common man & their silent support for nationwide strike shows it clearly.
Opposition parties have done a stupendous task of taking up this issue. Yes, they are politicizing the things but which party would not have? It was heartening to see opposition parties coming together & showing their strength. Some agencies are coming out with estimates of amount of national loss happened due to this. Estimates are in the range 13000 Crore Rs. Huge amount!!! But it was necessary to wake up New ICC chief & his bosses. Yes - reduce fiscal deficit, but not at the cost of lives of people. Find new ways to solve the issues. Don’t just sit & say inflation is a global phenomenon & normal monsoon will pacify the things. Act or face the consequences.
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Monday, May 17, 2010
Battle of the Jhelum
Preface
It was an early June of 326 B.C. Both armies were huddled on either banks of the river ‘Jhelum’, the north-western outline of the house of Paurava’s. Soon they were to fight a ferocious battle of all times. India at that time was divided into many small kingdoms & republics. They used to fight amongst each other frequently, many times for the territorial sovereignty. The king ‘Ambhi’ amongst them who was ruling the kingdom of ‘Gandhar’, the Indian borderland, succumbed to the Alexander. But his neighbor & enemy ‘Puru’, king of Paurava’s, decided to forbid the advance of this foreign invader. He had a full confidence in his huge ‘chaturang sena’ but he was aware that sovereignty & independence of his kingdom spread between the river ‘Jhelum’ & ‘Chenab’ was at bet.
Alexander, the king of Macedonia having conquered whole of the Greece had already subdued many of the kingdoms from Africa & central Asia. He was under the impression that he will be at earth’s edge once he will reach the river ‘Indus’. When he subjugated the Persian Empire under ‘Darius III’, he came to know about the region ‘Indica’ across the river ‘Indus’. The local Persians told him about splendor & wealth of the Indian kingdoms, rich & fertile northern plains & powerful ‘Maharajas’. The mad Greek king with his ambition to conquer the world marched towards the Indian border.
Before the battle
Having ‘Ambhi’ in his pocket, there were two obstacles in front of Alexander. First was the river ‘Jhelum’ ( known as ‘Hydaspes’ to Greeks ) now swollen to the great extent due to monsoon & the other was the Puru’s army guarding eastern bank of the river. Alexander knew that crossing the river in front of the opponent would be like a suicide especially considering bulge of the river. The enemy would have doomed the Macedonians before they reach other side of the river. The cunning commander planned to play his cards in a different manner. He moved his troops up & down side of the river during night. He also sent some of his men to the middle of the river inside & then brought them back. War trumpets were kept blaring purposely & troops themselves were made to make a lot of noise. The scenario continued for several nights. Puru’s troops who were also moving accordingly from the eastern bank soon got fed up and gave up following a hostile from the other bank. They were baffled & couldn’t judge the place from where enemy will cross the river. Alexander also spread a rumor that he is planning to withdraw his army & come back when the water level would be more manageable & let Indians became complacent & lethargic.
Under a cover of one dark, stormy night Alexander with a contingent of his army moved upward side of the river silently. Greeks left their tents as it is at their camp. Some of the force was also kept behind at the camp itself, exactly in front of Puru’s army on the other bank, making him feel that it’s a main Greek force. Soon he was to experience a surprise. When the dawn broke, Puru’s scouts brought the information that Macedonians had
crossed a river. With an apparent main Greek force on the other bank in front of him, he thought that it must be a small platoon performing reconnaissance. Under the command of his son ‘Puru junior’ he sent a small troop of horsemen & chariots to handle the situation. Soon he regretted his decision. Small Indian troop was easily annihilated by the actual main Greek force managed to cross the river. Puru junior got killed. Indians now awakened, marched towards the enemy with all of their force. Looking at the tents on the other bank they also kept some of their force at the camp itself fearing landing of the Greeks at the rear end.
For diagrams one may refer the following link -
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Battles/Hydaspes.html
Face off
Puru fielded his infantry at the centre with elephants in front of them while half of the cavalry was kept at each of the wing along with the chariots. Greek companion cavalry stood in front of the Indian left & phalanxes besides them were in front of Indian elephants. Alexander opened a battle with a heavy companion cavalry on his right flank. Puru’s horsemen at his left wing were facing this attack. Apart from having numerical edge over Indian cavalry Macedonians were technically superior. They were guarded with metal greaves, armors, shields & helmets whereas Indians wore cotton turbans & held shields made up of hide which got easily punctured by Greek lances. Moreover, cushions or blankets tightly tied on a horseback gave better grip to Greek horsemen & horse archers & they proved accurate than their Indian counterparts who rode on bare horses. Well trained Greek cavalry arranged in successive lines performed superior than chaotic Indian cavalry & started retreating. Puru looking at his left wing getting collapsed decided to reinforce the same with a cavalry on his right flank leaving chariots as a guard for the right side. This proved to be a terrible mistake on Indian part. Alexander was the supreme General indeed. Reading these movements he changed strategies right at the battlefield. He asked his troop of Scythian horse archers to encircle the Puru’s army & attack Puru’s left wing from the rear end. Lumbering Indian chariots couldn’t stop these troopers. Their wheels got bogged down in a swampy, soggy ground & were shot easily by Scythian arrows due to immobility.
By now, Indian armored elephants at the centre had started crumbling the Greek phalanxes. Many of the phalangites were lifted & flange by the trunks of the huge creatures. Others were trampled down under pillar like legs & some were impaled by tusks & iron spikes attached to the metal plates covering the tusks. While both of the Indian wings were being crushed, the situation was somewhat stabilized by these giant beasts. But now Greek infantrymen started stabbing elephant legs & eyes making them crazy with pains. They also shot many of the mahouts with their javelins. The trumpeting animals now mostly without mahouts fall back on Puru’s infantry creating havoc. As such Indian infantry fighting with the support of the elephants had already started retreating. They could not stand their ground in front of the organized, disciplined phalanxes. Greek phalangites arranged in rows drilled their troops using drums & vanquished chaotic Indian infantry. They wore metallic armors, helmets & held ‘sixteen feet long’ spears (called ‘Sarissa’) along with the metal shield. Before Indian swords could reach their opponents, Sarissa’s slew Indian soldiers without armors & helmets. Actually Indians had powerful huge bows ‘five feet long ’. To shoot their long arrows which could penetrate even the strongest of the armors, archer had to press the bow on the ground using his leg. But it had rained heavily the earlier night. Indian archers couldn’t hold their bows on a swampy, sticky & slippery surface firmly, losing their accuracy. They lost the strongest weapon they had.
All this was no less when invaders hammered their final stroke. Encircling platoon of Scythian horse archers carrying light composite bows, attempting to traverse the Indians reached at the back of the Indian cavalry now gathered at the left wing. They were crushed between the companion cavalry from the front & horse troopers from the back. Indian horsemen were finished. Most of the elephants being cordoned by Alexandrian infantrymen were captured by now. With Indian pikes already annihilated Indian defeat became merely clear before the dusk fell. But Puru was not going to give up. Truly he was a man of courage. He had already lost his son & now his entire army was being shattered in front of him. Still the ‘seven feet tall’ graceful figure rode on the elephant kept on fighting valiantly. Wounded badly in the right shoulder & with his ‘mahout’ slain, finally he was captured by the enemy. When taken in front of Alexander & asked that how he wished to be treated, he famously replied ‘As befits a king’. Alexander spared life of the king Puru for political reasons & assigned him as a ‘Satrap’ (Governor) of his own kingdom.
The battle was extremely difficult for the Alexander & probably the toughest one he had ever fought. Macedonians had never seen such lethal use of war-elephants here before. It is said that the situation was somewhat similar to infantry fighting with tanks. The fact that they pulled a victory was an aftermath of their tremendous discipline, bravery & off course their superb leader. The casualty figures & number of soldiers each of the opponents had, remains unknown. Some saying Puru’s force contained 22000 infantry, cavalry, chariots & 200 elephants & Alexander equipped with 35000 soldiers & 11000 more on the other bank as a diversionary force. Some claim that Puru fielded approximately 40000 people with a contingent of 15000 Macedonians in front of him. Each of the references gives its own figures of casualty & number of combatants. It is better to leave the dispute for the historians.
Alexandrian retreat
Having defeated Puru, Alexander marched ahead towards the Indian heartlands but when he reached the river ‘Beas’, his soldiers refused to move forward. They heard about the powerful armies & elephant forces of the Indian kingdoms ahead. Rumors spread about the strange Indian weapons. Unwilling to face the elephants in the battlefield again, frightened soldiers simply rejected to go ahead. They had been away from their homeland for more than eight years. The men had done too much. Alexander hardly had any choice rather than to move back towards Greece. On his way back through the river Indus, kingdoms situated on the banks preferred to dispute his Advance than to surrender. Alexander himself got severely injured in one of those combats. We are not to discuss those battles. Over here it is sufficient to say that almost none of the kingdoms on the banks of the river ‘Indus’ spared him without a battle. Indian valor taught him an unforgettable lesson.
Undoubtedly, Alexander was one of the best commanders of all times. But his depiction as a ‘conqueror of the world’ is entirely untrue. Despite the fact that he didn’t even turned towards countries like China, he could hardly manage to subdue small north-western strip of the Indian subcontinent. That too immediately got restored back after his death in 323 B.C. in Babylon. King Puru got assassinated after some years.
At last
‘Battle of the Jhelum’ is one of the earliest recorded battles of the Indian king with a foreign invader. It proved supremacy of ‘disciplined, organized & professional full time army’ over the ‘troops of part time soldiers & peasants’. Importance of quick maneuvers of a mobile army was marked. Limitations of lumbering chariots got highlighted. Indian warfare underwent remarkable changes. Irrespective of military limitations Indians came to know that country broken into small kingdoms couldn’t defend itself effectively from the foreign invaders. Probably that itself was the inspiration behind the revolution in 321 B.C. which gave rise to ‘Maurya’ dynasty.
SAURABH JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 12th September, 2009
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Inflation Vs IPL
Its Sunday, Sunny & Simran are enjoying their weekend at home. Suddenly, while pouring milk in tea cup, Simran says: Do you know milk price has gone up once again. 35 Rs. / Lit.
Sunny: Yes, I heard our cancerous agriculture minister predicting the same 10 days in advance. Such a nice minister he is!! Every time the price of any article is to go up, He makes sure all citizens are aware of it well in advance. I like the way he manages the prices.
Simran: Have you gone mad? Is he there just to tell what the next thing to blow up is? Should he not try to control the prices? Look at the prices of primary articles. Go to some mall, then you will understand.
Sunny: See, first of all you don’t understand what he is trying to convey. (Sunny cuts lose….) Why the hell IPL is on? So that people should stay at home, watch cricket, drink beer & sleep. Who has told you to go out & shop daily? Look at me; I don’t go for shopping, so I don’t feel inflation. It’s all how you take it dear. Perception you know!!!
Simran: Keep your crap jokes with you. We don’t have to worry about our tonight’s food, that’s why you have lost your feet from the ground. Look around. People are starving. Even income of 10k per month is not sufficient these days. Do you remember your father’s first salary? It was 500 Rs. /month. Still all were happy.
Sunny: Please. Don’t compare. These are just unfair comparisons. Our life styles have changed & rather improved.
Simran: Tell me what has changed? (Voice & temp both are rising with each passing second)
Sunny: When my father was on job, there was no IPL.
Simran: You are just hopeless. There is no point in having healthy discussion with you.
Simran gives a cup of tea to Sunny & goes back to her work. These days she is doing painting to keep her mind stable.
After taking in some sips of Tea, Sunny start fighting with his excited neurons.
What are the real issues? Inflation or IPL? Amitabh or Afzal Guru? Shashi Tharoor or Shoib Malik? Dantewada or Dance India Dance?
Nobody seems to be worried about daily perils experienced by common man. We have a load shading of immense magnitudes. Those who can afford put generators, inverters. Those on the margins mess up their day & night without electricity. But our politicians are busy in managing their own egos, interests. Media channels continuously for 2 days reported what tricks Maharashtra CM applied so that he won’t share stage with our “Actor of the millennium”. People watch it religiously. Overall none seem to care.
IPL is of utmost importance to India. Even if “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” sneezes, it becomes a Breaking News. These days “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” & “Mr. Class within the Cattle” are having their own IPL running. Kochi team has managed to come into IPL with the blessings of our MoS External Affairs. But “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” wanted something else. Already Minister has lost his wicket along with the stake in Kochi, other scams related to IPL have come to the fore now. While all this was happening, ISRO has failed to launch its GSLV, “Mr. Be the change” has praised our cross border friend once again for showing some action dramas against Kasabs, Our “Red friends” have attacked investigating team itself in Dantewada, & Mumbai University, is bored of printing Question Papers itself.
How come we are not able to understand what is important for our lives, for our future generations? Agreed, we can’t do anything to change all this. But we can help ourselves. “Jo Khud ki Madat karana nahi janata, usaki madat to Bhagwan bhi nahi kar sakata” – dialog by Kaveri Amma in block buster movie Swades. Government, Politicians won’t be able to do anything for common people. Politicians are totally immersed in making their own life good, so we have to change our lives for good too. Only thing which we need to keep in mind is “Our lives can be improved without degrading someone else’s life.” We should strive for this. We can’t expect that government will provide enough electricity; those who can afford should search for their own ways to keep their homes enlightened. Same is the case with all other needs. Government is just not needed. We are our own government!!!...
Umpires start walking into the middle. After them comes Kolkata Knight Rider’s Team – Prince of Kolkata leading from the front. Young blood from Delhi is to carry a new ball. And suddenly a well known roar feels the stadium, Master Blaster is about to face the first ball.
IPL is on. Today it’s MI Vs KKR. Inflation? What it is?
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Sunny: Yes, I heard our cancerous agriculture minister predicting the same 10 days in advance. Such a nice minister he is!! Every time the price of any article is to go up, He makes sure all citizens are aware of it well in advance. I like the way he manages the prices.
Simran: Have you gone mad? Is he there just to tell what the next thing to blow up is? Should he not try to control the prices? Look at the prices of primary articles. Go to some mall, then you will understand.
Sunny: See, first of all you don’t understand what he is trying to convey. (Sunny cuts lose….) Why the hell IPL is on? So that people should stay at home, watch cricket, drink beer & sleep. Who has told you to go out & shop daily? Look at me; I don’t go for shopping, so I don’t feel inflation. It’s all how you take it dear. Perception you know!!!
Simran: Keep your crap jokes with you. We don’t have to worry about our tonight’s food, that’s why you have lost your feet from the ground. Look around. People are starving. Even income of 10k per month is not sufficient these days. Do you remember your father’s first salary? It was 500 Rs. /month. Still all were happy.
Sunny: Please. Don’t compare. These are just unfair comparisons. Our life styles have changed & rather improved.
Simran: Tell me what has changed? (Voice & temp both are rising with each passing second)
Sunny: When my father was on job, there was no IPL.
Simran: You are just hopeless. There is no point in having healthy discussion with you.
Simran gives a cup of tea to Sunny & goes back to her work. These days she is doing painting to keep her mind stable.
After taking in some sips of Tea, Sunny start fighting with his excited neurons.
What are the real issues? Inflation or IPL? Amitabh or Afzal Guru? Shashi Tharoor or Shoib Malik? Dantewada or Dance India Dance?
Nobody seems to be worried about daily perils experienced by common man. We have a load shading of immense magnitudes. Those who can afford put generators, inverters. Those on the margins mess up their day & night without electricity. But our politicians are busy in managing their own egos, interests. Media channels continuously for 2 days reported what tricks Maharashtra CM applied so that he won’t share stage with our “Actor of the millennium”. People watch it religiously. Overall none seem to care.
IPL is of utmost importance to India. Even if “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” sneezes, it becomes a Breaking News. These days “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” & “Mr. Class within the Cattle” are having their own IPL running. Kochi team has managed to come into IPL with the blessings of our MoS External Affairs. But “Mr. Arrested for Drugs” wanted something else. Already Minister has lost his wicket along with the stake in Kochi, other scams related to IPL have come to the fore now. While all this was happening, ISRO has failed to launch its GSLV, “Mr. Be the change” has praised our cross border friend once again for showing some action dramas against Kasabs, Our “Red friends” have attacked investigating team itself in Dantewada, & Mumbai University, is bored of printing Question Papers itself.
How come we are not able to understand what is important for our lives, for our future generations? Agreed, we can’t do anything to change all this. But we can help ourselves. “Jo Khud ki Madat karana nahi janata, usaki madat to Bhagwan bhi nahi kar sakata” – dialog by Kaveri Amma in block buster movie Swades. Government, Politicians won’t be able to do anything for common people. Politicians are totally immersed in making their own life good, so we have to change our lives for good too. Only thing which we need to keep in mind is “Our lives can be improved without degrading someone else’s life.” We should strive for this. We can’t expect that government will provide enough electricity; those who can afford should search for their own ways to keep their homes enlightened. Same is the case with all other needs. Government is just not needed. We are our own government!!!...
Umpires start walking into the middle. After them comes Kolkata Knight Rider’s Team – Prince of Kolkata leading from the front. Young blood from Delhi is to carry a new ball. And suddenly a well known roar feels the stadium, Master Blaster is about to face the first ball.
IPL is on. Today it’s MI Vs KKR. Inflation? What it is?
Prasanna Vaidya
Prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Origins of the caste system
Formation –
If we shall try to trace back roots of the Indian caste system, we will have to go back to those ancient days when Aryan invasion took place in the Indian subcontinent. Most of the historians & erudites roughly estimate this period & one can go by rough estimates only, around 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. approximately after 1000 years after death of the Indus valley civilization.
Fair skinned Aryans not only invaded the subcontinent but they disregarded the indigenous culture to a large extent. They were much superior in war-techniques than people over here & locals hardly had any choice rather than to surrender themselves to the invaders. It is difficult to say whether mass killings of the losers took place or not but it is certain that process of accommodating these aboriginals must had been initiated, once initial feeling of the enmity started receding.
Even then the conquerors were not ready to bestow the equal status in community to the losers. Their intellectual mind soon discovered apparently softer solution & they simply divided the society into four parts. Thus, masses of agriculturists, artisans, traders formed a 'Vaishya' fraternity; rulers & warriors formed 'Kshatriya' fraternity & 'Brahmins' used to profess priesthood & thinking. They were supposed to guide a policy & perform rituals during a holocaust. In a social hierarchy ' Brahmins' used to command highest respect, then 'Kshatriyas' & then 'Vaishyas'. 'Shudras' were placed at the bottom of this scale & all indigenous tribes were accommodated in this class. 'Shudras' were the largest in numbers amongst all these classes. They were simple workers & used to perform tasks involving heavy toils & less regard. But still there situation was much better than forest dwellers & nomadic tribes who were not given place in a community & were made outcast. They were treated as 'Untouchables' & they had to do hideous works involving disposal of a sewage & dead bodies, tanning hide etc. Thus, Aryans found a peaceful but tyrannical solution to accommodate the conquered races rather than to exterminate or enslave them directly.
Our first prime minister & freedom fighter Pandit Nehru has given a convincing explanation in his classic 'Discovery of India' for this classification of the community also called as ‘four varna system’. He writes, “The Indian mind was extraordinarily analytical & had a passion for putting ideas & concepts & even life's activities into compartments. The Aryans not only divided society in four main groups but also the individual’s life in four parts. The first part consisted growth & adolescence, the student period of life, acquiring knowledge, developing self discipline & self control, continence; the second was that of the householder & man of the world; third was that of the elder statesman who had attained certain poise & objectivity & could devote himself to public work without any selfish desire & last stage was that of a recluse who lived a life largely cut off from the world's activities.”
Mr. Nehru further explains that it was not only discrimination. It was something more than that. Rather it was an attempt to accommodate all groups of the society so that synthesized community would be formed & indeed it was a synthesized community in initial stages. Rigidity came in much later. It is believed that the ‘four varna system’ was interchangeable & elastic social system at the beginning. Why it became rigid later on would be a different study altogether but as of now we shall focus on some other facet of the subject.
Aspiration to farm & role of Iron –
Probably the ‘four varna system’ was not merely an idea. It was an outcome of the materialistic conditions in those days. One of the references over the internet sheds some more light on another aspect of this discussion. It says that use of iron must have played a vital role in these regards. It says that such a connection was first established by famous Mr. D.D. Kosambi. Indo-aryans used to use iron tools in those days. They penetrated into India through north-western mountain passes & over a period of several hundreds of years they spreaded right up to the fertile and densely forested gangetic plains. Nomadic though initially they were, by the time they reached India they had learnt art of the agriculture. Fertile northern plains were waiting for getting farmed. They cut down the jungles using fire & iron axe & cultivated the land using iron ploughs ensuring them an assured food supply. This devastated forest dwellers whose resource base for living was hampered.
The author says =>
Gadgil & Guha quote Iravati karve to the effect.
“They (Brahmins) served as pioneers establishing their outposts in forests & initiating rituals which consumed large quantities of wood & animal fat. Thus, provoked native food gatherers termed demons or rakshasas would attempt to disrupt the holocaust & save their resource base in order to retain the control over their territory. Specialist warriors, Kshatriyas would then rush to the rescue of the Brahmins.
……….Dushyanta combs the forest with the help of hundreds of assistants, killing wild animals with complete abandon. It appears reasonable to conclude that the purpose of this slaughter was to destroy the resource base of hunting & gathering tribes who lived in the forest.”
Caste Genetics –
While we have sufficiently churned this subject it would make sense to percept it in the light of recent discoveries; especially when we know that there are streams of opinions who completely doubt whether any kind of Aryan migration had taken place in the ancient years.
One such discovery led by the scientist Bamshad et. al. (2001) claims that upper caste Hindus are more similar to Europeans where as lower caste Hindus are more similar to Asians. Mr. Partha Majumdar’s commentary on this study says that Aryan people’s contact with the indigenous Indians must have been progressively lower as one descends the varna hierarchy. The genetic expectation therefore is that, proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Aryan people’ goes on decreasing & proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Indigenous Indians’ goes on increasing, as we descend the caste ladder. Bamshad’s team’s results are congruent with the expectation and is a landmark, says Majumdar. He further says that results of similar kind of studies done previously were equivocal because of small sample sizes of genomic markers used for the study. Instead Bamshad used a very large battery of genomic markers & DNA sequences spanning three kinds of DNA. They were maternally derived Mt-DNA (i.e. Mitochondrial DNA), paternally derived Y- chromosome & biparentally derived Autosomal DNA. Mt-DNA was overall much similar to Asians than to Europeans & similarity to Asians goes on decreasing as we step up the caste hierarchy. Paternally inherited Y- chromosome was overall much similar to Europeans & similarity to Europeans goes on increasing as we step up the hierarchy. This confirms greater west Eurasian male admixture in the Indian community in those days. To say in simple words migrated Aryans are likely to have been mostly males & might have integrated themselves in the upper castes. Though as per the old Hindu tradition, inter caste marriage was a cultural taboo; women from lower castes used to marry with upper caste men occasionally and step up the caste ladder. This could have taken place because of less number of women in upper castes due to greater Aryan male admixture. Mr. R. Ramchandran in his article ‘Genetics of the caste’ published in the magazine ‘Frontline’ has written that this particular trend caused a female gene flow across the castes. He further writes that according to researchers, this could be the reason for differences in sex specific & caste specific genetic variation in Indian population. Thus, study concludes that Indian populations are of proto-Asian origin with west Eurasian admixture.
Epitome –
It is difficult to judge whether Aryans brought or imposed the stratification of the society or it was already prevailing & being conquerors they integrated themselves in the upper layer of the hierarchy. But later possibility appears more plausible; especially when we know that though Aryan sway never crossed the gangetic planes, all of the southern Dravidic speaking states do exhibit the caste system more or less in a similar fashion. Late Mrs. Karve (1961) has also said that ‘Something very like castes was already there in India even before coming of the Aryans’.
It is also believed that Aryan migration had taken place in successive waves. Period which we are talking about (i.e. 2000 B.C. approximately) deals with most of the recent wave. So it could also be the case that process of the stratification of the community might have been initiated when older waves of Aryan people came to India. All this is entirely baffling & ambiguous though; it appears reasonable that seeds of the stratification of the society might have been sown in even more ancient past.
SAURABH ASHOK JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 18th July, 2009
References –
Reference Name Author
The Discovery of India, PENGUIN BOOKS Jawaharlal Nehru
The Beginnings of the caste system,
© Aharon Daniel.
http://adaniel.tripod.com/origin.htm
Iron in India and the Caste,
http://www.dalit.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67%3Airon&catid=29%3Amicropediadaliticagtol&Itemid=64
Indian Caste Origins: Genomic Insights and Future Outlook, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/931.full.pdf Partha P. Majumdar
The genetics of caste,
Frontline from the publishers of HINDU,
http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1812/18120840.htm R. RAMACHANDRAN
Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/994.full 1. Michael Bamshad
2. Toomas Kivisild
3. W. Scott Watkins
4. Mary E. Dixon
5. Chris E. Ricker
6. Baskara B. Rao
7. J. Mastan Naidu
8. B.V. Ravi Prasad
9. P. Govinda Reddy
10. Arani Rasanayagam
11. Surinder S. Papiha
12. Richard Villems
13. Alan J. Redd
14. Michael F. Hammer
15. Son V. Nguyen
16. Marion L. Carroll
17. Mark A. Batzer
18. Lynn B. Jorde
Internet
If we shall try to trace back roots of the Indian caste system, we will have to go back to those ancient days when Aryan invasion took place in the Indian subcontinent. Most of the historians & erudites roughly estimate this period & one can go by rough estimates only, around 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. approximately after 1000 years after death of the Indus valley civilization.
Fair skinned Aryans not only invaded the subcontinent but they disregarded the indigenous culture to a large extent. They were much superior in war-techniques than people over here & locals hardly had any choice rather than to surrender themselves to the invaders. It is difficult to say whether mass killings of the losers took place or not but it is certain that process of accommodating these aboriginals must had been initiated, once initial feeling of the enmity started receding.
Even then the conquerors were not ready to bestow the equal status in community to the losers. Their intellectual mind soon discovered apparently softer solution & they simply divided the society into four parts. Thus, masses of agriculturists, artisans, traders formed a 'Vaishya' fraternity; rulers & warriors formed 'Kshatriya' fraternity & 'Brahmins' used to profess priesthood & thinking. They were supposed to guide a policy & perform rituals during a holocaust. In a social hierarchy ' Brahmins' used to command highest respect, then 'Kshatriyas' & then 'Vaishyas'. 'Shudras' were placed at the bottom of this scale & all indigenous tribes were accommodated in this class. 'Shudras' were the largest in numbers amongst all these classes. They were simple workers & used to perform tasks involving heavy toils & less regard. But still there situation was much better than forest dwellers & nomadic tribes who were not given place in a community & were made outcast. They were treated as 'Untouchables' & they had to do hideous works involving disposal of a sewage & dead bodies, tanning hide etc. Thus, Aryans found a peaceful but tyrannical solution to accommodate the conquered races rather than to exterminate or enslave them directly.
Our first prime minister & freedom fighter Pandit Nehru has given a convincing explanation in his classic 'Discovery of India' for this classification of the community also called as ‘four varna system’. He writes, “The Indian mind was extraordinarily analytical & had a passion for putting ideas & concepts & even life's activities into compartments. The Aryans not only divided society in four main groups but also the individual’s life in four parts. The first part consisted growth & adolescence, the student period of life, acquiring knowledge, developing self discipline & self control, continence; the second was that of the householder & man of the world; third was that of the elder statesman who had attained certain poise & objectivity & could devote himself to public work without any selfish desire & last stage was that of a recluse who lived a life largely cut off from the world's activities.”
Mr. Nehru further explains that it was not only discrimination. It was something more than that. Rather it was an attempt to accommodate all groups of the society so that synthesized community would be formed & indeed it was a synthesized community in initial stages. Rigidity came in much later. It is believed that the ‘four varna system’ was interchangeable & elastic social system at the beginning. Why it became rigid later on would be a different study altogether but as of now we shall focus on some other facet of the subject.
Aspiration to farm & role of Iron –
Probably the ‘four varna system’ was not merely an idea. It was an outcome of the materialistic conditions in those days. One of the references over the internet sheds some more light on another aspect of this discussion. It says that use of iron must have played a vital role in these regards. It says that such a connection was first established by famous Mr. D.D. Kosambi. Indo-aryans used to use iron tools in those days. They penetrated into India through north-western mountain passes & over a period of several hundreds of years they spreaded right up to the fertile and densely forested gangetic plains. Nomadic though initially they were, by the time they reached India they had learnt art of the agriculture. Fertile northern plains were waiting for getting farmed. They cut down the jungles using fire & iron axe & cultivated the land using iron ploughs ensuring them an assured food supply. This devastated forest dwellers whose resource base for living was hampered.
The author says =>
Gadgil & Guha quote Iravati karve to the effect.
“They (Brahmins) served as pioneers establishing their outposts in forests & initiating rituals which consumed large quantities of wood & animal fat. Thus, provoked native food gatherers termed demons or rakshasas would attempt to disrupt the holocaust & save their resource base in order to retain the control over their territory. Specialist warriors, Kshatriyas would then rush to the rescue of the Brahmins.
……….Dushyanta combs the forest with the help of hundreds of assistants, killing wild animals with complete abandon. It appears reasonable to conclude that the purpose of this slaughter was to destroy the resource base of hunting & gathering tribes who lived in the forest.”
Caste Genetics –
While we have sufficiently churned this subject it would make sense to percept it in the light of recent discoveries; especially when we know that there are streams of opinions who completely doubt whether any kind of Aryan migration had taken place in the ancient years.
One such discovery led by the scientist Bamshad et. al. (2001) claims that upper caste Hindus are more similar to Europeans where as lower caste Hindus are more similar to Asians. Mr. Partha Majumdar’s commentary on this study says that Aryan people’s contact with the indigenous Indians must have been progressively lower as one descends the varna hierarchy. The genetic expectation therefore is that, proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Aryan people’ goes on decreasing & proportion of genomic features that characterized the ‘Indigenous Indians’ goes on increasing, as we descend the caste ladder. Bamshad’s team’s results are congruent with the expectation and is a landmark, says Majumdar. He further says that results of similar kind of studies done previously were equivocal because of small sample sizes of genomic markers used for the study. Instead Bamshad used a very large battery of genomic markers & DNA sequences spanning three kinds of DNA. They were maternally derived Mt-DNA (i.e. Mitochondrial DNA), paternally derived Y- chromosome & biparentally derived Autosomal DNA. Mt-DNA was overall much similar to Asians than to Europeans & similarity to Asians goes on decreasing as we step up the caste hierarchy. Paternally inherited Y- chromosome was overall much similar to Europeans & similarity to Europeans goes on increasing as we step up the hierarchy. This confirms greater west Eurasian male admixture in the Indian community in those days. To say in simple words migrated Aryans are likely to have been mostly males & might have integrated themselves in the upper castes. Though as per the old Hindu tradition, inter caste marriage was a cultural taboo; women from lower castes used to marry with upper caste men occasionally and step up the caste ladder. This could have taken place because of less number of women in upper castes due to greater Aryan male admixture. Mr. R. Ramchandran in his article ‘Genetics of the caste’ published in the magazine ‘Frontline’ has written that this particular trend caused a female gene flow across the castes. He further writes that according to researchers, this could be the reason for differences in sex specific & caste specific genetic variation in Indian population. Thus, study concludes that Indian populations are of proto-Asian origin with west Eurasian admixture.
Epitome –
It is difficult to judge whether Aryans brought or imposed the stratification of the society or it was already prevailing & being conquerors they integrated themselves in the upper layer of the hierarchy. But later possibility appears more plausible; especially when we know that though Aryan sway never crossed the gangetic planes, all of the southern Dravidic speaking states do exhibit the caste system more or less in a similar fashion. Late Mrs. Karve (1961) has also said that ‘Something very like castes was already there in India even before coming of the Aryans’.
It is also believed that Aryan migration had taken place in successive waves. Period which we are talking about (i.e. 2000 B.C. approximately) deals with most of the recent wave. So it could also be the case that process of the stratification of the community might have been initiated when older waves of Aryan people came to India. All this is entirely baffling & ambiguous though; it appears reasonable that seeds of the stratification of the society might have been sown in even more ancient past.
SAURABH ASHOK JOGLEKAR
E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com
Date - 18th July, 2009
References –
Reference Name Author
The Discovery of India, PENGUIN BOOKS Jawaharlal Nehru
The Beginnings of the caste system,
© Aharon Daniel.
http://adaniel.tripod.com/origin.htm
Iron in India and the Caste,
http://www.dalit.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67%3Airon&catid=29%3Amicropediadaliticagtol&Itemid=64
Indian Caste Origins: Genomic Insights and Future Outlook, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/931.full.pdf Partha P. Majumdar
The genetics of caste,
Frontline from the publishers of HINDU,
http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1812/18120840.htm R. RAMACHANDRAN
Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Populations,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/6/994.full 1. Michael Bamshad
2. Toomas Kivisild
3. W. Scott Watkins
4. Mary E. Dixon
5. Chris E. Ricker
6. Baskara B. Rao
7. J. Mastan Naidu
8. B.V. Ravi Prasad
9. P. Govinda Reddy
10. Arani Rasanayagam
11. Surinder S. Papiha
12. Richard Villems
13. Alan J. Redd
14. Michael F. Hammer
15. Son V. Nguyen
16. Marion L. Carroll
17. Mark A. Batzer
18. Lynn B. Jorde
Internet
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