Ethnicity in Israel: Moroccans and others

Prior to 1948, Morocco had the largest Jewish population of North African countries. It was not one community, but several that differed in history, tradition, socio-economic traits, and language. One component traced its heritage to Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century. Another may have been there since migrations out of Judea at the time of the destruction at the hands of Rome, or even earlier. There were urban Jews, and Jews living in mountain villages. Most lived in the area controlled by France, with the well-to-do thinking of themselves as French as well as Jews. There were also Jews in the region controlled by Spain, and they used Spanish along with Arabic and their own dialect.

Since 1948, the number of Jews in Morocco has shrunk from an estimated quarter-million to 5,000 or less. France received the bulk of educated, upper income Jewish migrants from Morocco, as well as the better-off from Tunisia and Algeria. Most of the remaining Jews came to Israel. Until the migration of Russian-speakers that began in the late 1980s, the Moroccans were Israel's largest Jewish ethnic group.

And they were the most troubled. Disproportionately poor and living in unattractive "development towns" away from the vibrant center of the country, they also figured disproportionately in the statistics for crime and the prison population. They spawned political protest against what was perceived as a lack of concern, or discrimination at the hands of the Ashkenazi elite. They took cues (and the name "Black Panthers") from African-Americans who were mobilizing at the same time.

The Moroccans have been something between opportunity and a thorn for the Labor Party. Given the party's socialist roots and its ostensible concern for social programs and helping the disadvantaged, the marriage would seem to be inevitable. But Labor segued away from its working class roots toward highly educated and upper income yuppees with a social conscience, but not much of a commitment to equality. For years Labor members were at the peaks of government, industry, and culture, with those at the peaks disproportionately Ashkenazi. Labor politicians have spoken the language of social and economic uplift, but their emphasis has been more to help Palestinians via a posture of accommodation than to work assiduously for Israel's own poor.

In case you haven't noticed, there have not been many votes going to the Labor Party from any source. What is left of the party in the Knesset is eight members, and opinion polls are not indicating that it would win significantly more seats in the next election.

Among the problems of the Labor Party is that many of the Moroccans and others like them long ago found the nationalist postures of Likud more to their liking, and perceived that Likud's populism--although wrapped along with an affinity for free enterprise--was no less appropriate for them than the faux socialism of Labor.

The Ashkenazi establishment also displayed a lack of comfort with the Moroccans. Golda Meier's comment about a delegation of Black Panthers from the early 1970s as "not nice people" remains part of the country's memory and embarrassment.

Israelis of Moroccan origin may be still below average on income, education, and occupational prestige, but who is a Moroccan is increasingly problematic in the face of substantial intermarriage with other Sephardi groups and with Ashenazim. Moreover, the Moroccan post-Passover festival of Mimouna has acquired the status of a national holiday, with politicians competing for media attention by visits to Moroccan homes and parks where they mingle with Moroccans and others gorging themselves on North African delicacies.

Since the appearance of the Black Panthers, Labor politicians have struggled to keep the "ethnic demon" in the bottle, and away from Israeli politics.

With mixed success.

The main headline, with picture and article covering the top half of page one of Ha'aretz: "Herzog to a senior American: Amir Peretz is seen in the public as inexperienced, aggressive, and Moroccan."

The source was Wikileaks, publishing an internal American communication reporting a conversation with Yitzhak (Buji) Hertzog. He is a 50 year-old lawyer, educated in Tel Aviv and Cornell Universities, Member of Knesset as a result of three national elections since 2003, son of the late President Chaim Herzog, and grandson of the late Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Rabbi Herzog had been Chief Rabbi of Ireland and was Israel's first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. Yitzhak Herzog is as close to an intelligent, soft-spoken, modest, iconic member of upper crust and decent Israeli society as can be found. Until the Labor Party split and the component holding on to the name left Netanyahu's government, Herzog served as Minister of Welfare. He positioned himself as genuinely concerned with the details of the function, and often expressed his concern for the country's needy. He affiliated with those Labor Party members who pushed hardest in support of a forthcoming posture with respect to the Palestinians.

The comment Herzog is said to have been made occurred in 2006, in the context of an election campaign where Labor, then led by Peretz, was declining in the opinion polls.

Now Herzog himself is involved in a primary contest for the leadership of Labor, and Peretz is trying to win back the position he once held.

Herzog denies that he said what is attributed to him. He and his friends assert that such language counters his beliefs and his manner of speaking. He has demanded an investigation by the current American ambassador, as to how he was quoted in official American documents for a comment he did not make.

While Herzog's alleged comments about Moroccans headed the morning talk shows, the evening featured the Russians (better described as "Russian speakers" in light of the large number of Jews who have come from the Ukraine as well as other Eastern European and Central Asian republics). After years of police investigations and dithering by the Attorney General's Office, the current Attorney General has published a draft indictment against Avigdor Lieberman on charges of money laundering, breach of trust, and witness tampering.

Lieberman's party, Israel Our Home, is said to be just that, i.e., Lieberman's party. It is the third largest party, with 15 members in the Knesset. Not all its voters are Russian speakers, and not all Russian speakers support the party. However, it is known as the party of Russian speakers, and Lieberman runs it like Vladimir Putin runs the post-Communist but not-so-democratic Russia. One of my Russian friends considers Lieberman as a gangster, but supports him on account of his assertive postures with respect to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.

The rules are that a public figure is entitled to a hearing prior to the formal presentation of an indictment. Insofar as the Attorney General's Office required years to prepare a draft indictment, it is assumed that Lieberman's attorneys will have months to prepare for the hearing. It may be a year or more before there is a formal indictment, and Lieberman's position as Foreign Minister is secure until then.

Commentators have referred to Israel Our Home as a party of Lieberman and his 14 dwarfs, but it is not exactly that. Two members, in particular, have been prominent. Both are Israeli-born, and either may emerge as leader of a right wing, secular party that has a future beyond Lieberman and migration from the former Soviet Union. Minister of Domestic Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch has the Israeli Police as a prominent feature of his responsibilities. Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon is a former career diplomat who has been doing at least as much of the heavy lifting with respect to foreign affairs as Lieberman.

Neither Aharonovitch nor Ayalon is a political dwarf, but neither may be able to mobilize Israel's Russian speaking population like Lieberman.

List of Ethnic Groups

By linguistic phylum


Further information: List of language families

Altaic speaking people

Mongols ~1 million

Tungusic peoples ~11 million

Turkic peoples ~180 million

Afro-Asiatic ~350 million

Semitic ~250 million mother tongue

Arabs

Maltese people ~740 000

Coptic Egyptians

Austronesian peoples ~380 million

Dravidian peoples ~200 million

Niger-Congo

Bantu peoples ~335 million

Indo-Europeans ~3 billion

Celtic

Latin (Romance) European peoples

Germanic

Kurds ~27 - ~30 million

Baltic peoples ( Latvians and Lithuanians )

Slavic peoples ( East Slavs,West Slavs and South Slavs )

Armenians ~11 - ~12 million

Greeks ~14 - ~17 million

Iraqis

Albanians

Iranian peoples

Indo-Aryans

Dravidian

Tai peoples

Uralic

Finno-Ugric peoples

Finnic peoples

Ugric peoples

Samoyedic peoples

By status


List of stateless ethnic groups:

This is a list of currently active separatist movements in Africa. Separatism includes autonomism and secessionism. What is and is not considered an autonomist or secessionist movement is sometimes contentious. Entries on this list must meet two criteria:




1.They are active movements with living, active members.

2.They are seeking greater autonomy or self-determination for a geographic region (as opposed to personal autonomy).

Under each region listed is one or more of the following:



De facto state: for regions with de facto autonomy from the government

Proposed state: proposed name for a seceding sovereign state

Proposed autonomous area: for movements toward greater autonomy for an area but not outright secession

De facto autonomous government: for governments with de facto autonomous control over a region

Government-in-exile: for a government based outside of the region in question, with or without control

Political party (or parties): for political parties involved in a political system to push for autonomy or secession

Militant organisation(s): for armed organisations (sometimes called terrorist organisations)

Advocacy group(s): for non-belligerent, non-politically participatory entities



Algeria

Kabyles

Proposed state: Kabylie

Political party: Mouvement pour l'Autonomie de la Kabylie



Angola

Cabinda (member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Proposed state: Republic of Cabinda

Government-in-exile: Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC)

Political party: Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC)

Militant organization: Forças Armadas de Cabinda (FAC)



Cameroon

Bakassi Peninsula

Proposed state: Democratic Republic of Bakassi

Southern Cameroons (member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Proposed state: Federal Republic of Southern Cameroon, Ambazonia

Political party: Southern Cameroons National Council



Comoros

Anjouan

Political parties: Anjouan People's Movement, Mouvement Populaire Anjouanais, Mawana

Mohéli

Proposed state: Democratic Republic of Mwali

Côte d'Ivoire

Northern Regions

Proposed state: Republique des les Regions Nordenses.

Pressure groups: Patriotic Movement of Côte d'Ivoire" (MPCI), Mouvement populaire ivoirien du Grand Ouest (MPIGO), Movement for Justice and Peace (MJP)



Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa)

Bas-Congo

Pressure group: Bundu dia Kongo

Proposed state: Kingdom of Kongo

Katanga

Political parties: Confédération des Associations de Katanga Tribales, Union of Independent Federalists and Republicans

Militant organizations: Mai-Mai community-based militia groups

Status: Sporadic violence

Kwili, Kivu, Bukavu

Status: Confused fighting in progress



Egypt

Copts

Proposed state: Coptic Pharaonic Republic

Pressure group: Coptic Christians living abroad



Equatorial Guinea

Bioko

Pressure group: Movement for the Self-Determination of Bioko Island

Status: The indigenous Bubi people are now outnumbered by Fernandinos and Fang immigrants from the mainland.



Ethiopia

Gambela Region

Militant organization: Gambella Peoples Liberation Front

Ogaden ( Somali Region)

Proposed state: Republic of Ogadenia (member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Political party: Ogaden National Liberation Front, Western Somali Liberation Front, Ogaden Republican Army

Pressure group: Ogaden Youth Association

Oromia Region

Militant organizations: Oromo Independence Movement, Oromo Liberation Front, Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia, Conference of Oromiya Peoples Liberation Front



France

Réunion

Secessionist movements

Political party: Lorganizasion Popilèr po Libèr nout Péi (Lplp) – Popular Front for National Liberation: comprising of Nasion Rénioné, Mar, Drapo rouz, Patriot rénioné and Mir.

Political party: Marxist–Leninist Communist Organisation of Réunion

Mayotte continues to have autonomist movements despite the island having voted to become France's 101st department in 2011.



Mauritius

Rodrigues Island



Morocco

Western Sahara

Proposed state: Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Ethnic Group: Sahrawi people

De facto state: Free Zone

Government-in-exile: Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic based in refugee camps in Tindouf Province, Algeria[15]

Political party: Polisario Front

Militant organisation: Polisario Front



Namibia

Caprivi

Ethnic Group: Lozi

Proposed state: Free State of Caprivi Strip/Itenge

Political party: Caprivi African National Union

Militant organization: Caprivi Liberation Army



Niger

Agadez Department

Ethnic Group: Tuareg people

Militant organization: Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara

Political parties: Taniminnak Tidot N Tenere, Tidot Union of Tenere.

Proposed state: Akal N Tenere, Tenere Republic



Nigeria

Bakassi Peninsula

Proposed state: Democratic Republic of Bakassi

Igbo

Proposed state: Biafra (defunct)

Political party: Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra

Ijaw

Proposed state: Niger Delta Republic

Militant organization: Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force

Ogoni

Political party: Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People

Yoruba

Proposed state: Oduduwa Republic of the Yorubas

Political party: Oodua Republic Front



Rwanda

Batwa (member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Political party: Association for the Promotion of Batwa



Senegal

Casamance

Militant organization: Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance



Somalia

Jubaland

Proposed state: Republic of Jubaland

Militant organization: Somali Patriotic Movement

Maakhir

Puntland

Autonomous region: Puntland State of Somalia

Political party: Somali Salvation Democratic Front

Somaliland

De facto state: Republic of Somaliland

Political party: Somali National Movement

Southwestern Somalia

Proposed autonomous region: State of Southwestern Somalia

Militant organization: Rahanwein Resistance Army



South Africa

Boere-Afrikaners

Proposed state: Volkstaat

Political Party: Freedom Front Plus

Pressure group: Orania Movement

Militant organization: Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, Boeremag

Cape Party

Thembu people

Proposed state:Thembuland.



Spain (Africa)

Canary Islands

Political party: Congreso Nacional de Canarias (MPAIAC party), Alternativa Nacionalista Canaria, Unidad del Pueblo

Revolutionary Organizations: Inekaren

Youth movement: Azarug

Trade union: Intersindical Canaria, Frente Sindical Obrero de Canarias

Militant organization: MPAIAC (defunct)



Sudan

Beja

Militant organization: Beja Congress

Darfur

Militant organization: Darfur Liberation Front

Eastern Sudan

Militant organization: Eastern Front

Southern Sudan

Proposed state: Southern Sudan



Tanzania

Zanzibar (member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization)

Political party: Civic United Front



Zambia

Barotse

Ethnic Group: Lozi

Proposed state: Barotseland

Militant organization: Barotse Patriotic Front






List of indigenous peoples

Uncontacted peoples

Punjabi Dress-Patiala Salwar Kameez

Patiala salwar kameez are taking the fashion world by storm nowadays. Their stunning silhouette has swept away hearts of many women. Loose fitting, comfortable yet fashionable is their eye catching part. Their one fleeting look is sufficient to imprison your attention.

Basically it is a dress from Punjab but its enticing appeal gradually has made an impact in other parts of India as well. Many women have adopted this self-effacing outfit as it is just the right mix of traditional as well as stylish look.


Patiala Salwar Kameez or Patiala Suit has a special historical background. There is a legend behind the name. Patiala is a place in Punjab in North India. In olden times, the Maharajas (King) of Patiala were very famous. Their dress was a pleated and baggy type salwar with long loose kameez in full sleeves. The dress emanated ethnicity, culture as well as royal comfort. In the new modern era, women copied this dress and named it Patiala Salwar kurta or Patiala Suit.

Patiala salwar kameez has pleats on the salwar in a falling manner. This draping effect imparts an attractive look and the drape falls like a fluid. It is worn with a short and tight kameez for balancing the ratio. Just like other salwars, patiala salwar also has drawstring waist. Falling pleats of salwar provides ease on wearing it.

Patiala salwar kameez actually look like this. It has printed salwar as it is the main pattern of the dress. The dupatta has phulkari work in satin or silk threads while kameez is basic, uncomplicated, fitted and is high above knees. Go for cotton fabric to look stylish in this fabulous outfit. There are specific figures of women on which this fashion looks remarkable. For pear shape figures, it does wonders by camouflaging their bottom weighty part with the drape and pleats. It is very fine wear for the summer season to remain cool due to its comfy and slack fit.

On short stature women this Indian Patiala salwar kameez looks excellent. It is because the tight fitting kameez and draping salwar give a false notion of height. But the kurta should remain above the knee.also, the kurta should be short enough so as to display the loveliness of the salwar. Long kurtas can also be worn but do not look good. Also keep the slits at the sides of the kurta can be kept long i.e. up to the waist.


There is no stringent set of rules for the designs and patterns for sleeves, neck designs, front and back neckline depth and curves and cuts. Patiala salwar is very comfortable to wear because of its wonderful fit. The whole set comes in variety of fabrics, colours and patterns starting from plain, printed and embroidered designs. This is a very common dress for Punjabi ladies in India and abroad.

With times this Indian salwar kameez has advanced a lot. Today it has taken a quick gorgeous turn. This evolved form has set no rules and is absolutely versatile and adaptable with respect to fabrics, colors, sleeves, necklines, curves, styles and cuts. It all depends on your individual preference. Though fabric wise it is obtainable in all known materials like cotton, georgette, crepe, silk, etc. but with silk and rich fabrics it significantly raises the glamour quotient.

Patiala salwar kameez can be kept plain or can be embellished depending on the event. It can be embellished with diverse works or embroideries like sequins, stones, beads, lace, thread, patch work and so on. When it comes to footwear flats, chappals, kolhapuris or juttis are be worn as they showcase your femininity even better.

Accessorizing it is a must to complete the look. It may be much or less depending on the style of dressing and the occasion. With patiala salwar kameez minimum accessories are more than enough as the salwar of the attire is the focal attraction. Thus do not over do accessories. A simple and minimalist choker, bracelet, simple earrings will do the trick for you effortlessly.

Designer Salwar kameez in the patiala pattern apply work like uneven patches of different fabrics on the base fabric and do an assortment of resham embroidery, silver embroidery, golden embroidery adding metal beads, real pearls, different shapes and curves, stylish cuts, buckles, wood beads, glass beads, glass work, lace work, net work with sexy looking linings. Designer salwar kameezes are ideal for marriage and party wear.

Hence it’s proved meticulously that the patiala salwar kameez is indeed vastly accepted in the fashion world of today. It finds the finest place in the wardrobe of women for its cut, style, embellishments, fabrics and color blends. Go out wearing a patiala salwar kameez and find eyes stalking you wherever you walk.

Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi was delighted by the success of the Opening Ceremony and he hope that everything goes the same during the whole period of the games.

For the first time in the history of the Games, teams marched into the stadium before the Opening Ceremony so that they would not miss the programme.


A 7 year old tabla prodigy, thousands of folks and other dancers, a spectacular aerostat that hovered above the stadium, fireworks, and Rahman.This was the look and feel of the Opening Ceremony.


Seven thosand men, women and children took part in Opening Ceremony, seen live by 65,000 people. The theme was 5,000 years of Indian culture and the diversity of Indian religions.



The king of music A R Rahman performed the final act of the Opening Ceremony with the CWG theme song and the Oscar winning 'Jai Ho'.


Among those who watched the Opening Ceremony with pride were Indians settled in Australia. This is their verdict.



Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman, Suresh Kalmadi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was clearly the crowd's favourite.

" Ayodhya "(The Author Reviews)

After going through the whole "Ayodhya" issue,i still wonder
Who is fighting with whom ,for what and who is benefited by all this mess ?I am not sure whether its right or wrong but i firmly believe that the story behind the curtains is always totally different from what it seems and how it is represented.
The decision that came now ,after more than 18 years, which was very much obvious, could have come much earlier and there could have been some kind of reconciliation also between the two parties, religious or political. They should have sit together and find a way to settle this dispute long time back. However ,there was no initiative of any kind from any political party or identity due to which we lost thousands of innocent lives, who infact didn’t know the motive behind all this.

I can tell you, if two kids are fighting for the same thing whatever it is, even the dumbest of the parents will give the decision of dividing that among them either equally or depending upon their authority to create peace and harmony and a sense of relativeness among the two kids.

So i mean to say that this decision that has come today was very much obvious. it shouldn’t have taken so long to come after taking so much lives . This is because of personal benefits and political motives of some selfish and greedy people that this Ayodhya issue has been provoked and maintained in headlines.
I also believe that media plays a big role in helping these political parties to create an issue in the peoples’ mind for their personal benefits. Even if there is nothing bad they will make it look like worse. Media has always highlighted this verdict and created a sense of horror, hatred and insecurity in the minds of people of the two religious parties.

Talk about hindus,muslims or any other religion,as i know one thing is common in all.All of them believe that the whole world belongs to the most powerful and Almighty God.Then howcome the matter of a small and specific place to worship became a controversial issue to fight upon and break the peace and hormony which is the most necessary element and is always been stressed upon by all the religious beliefs.All of them says that God is in their hearts so why to fight for land than.

According to Islam, you cant offer prayer at any place without the permission of its owner and according to some historians,its been disscussed and negotiated that Babar(The Mughal Emperor) built the mosque on the same place where there was a Lord Rams' Temple and birth place.Moreover its also not clear that whether the mosque is built after destroying the Temple or not.So,if it would be confirmed that the mosque is built at the temples place after destroying it,than that place is of no worth to the muslims as they would not own that land.

Sharafi on Ethnicity and Gender in Indian Colonial Courts

Mitra J. Sharafi, University of Wisconsin Law School, has posted a full Ph.D. dissertation and an article, both on Indian legal history, on SSRN. The article is The Semi-Autonomous Judge in Colonial India: Chivalric Imperialism Meets Anglo-Islamic Dower and Divorce Law. It appeared in the Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 57-81, 2009. Here's the abstract:

Through a survey of nineteen leading cases on Islamic dower and divorce between 1855 and 1924, this article explores the ways judges acted as semi-autonomous agents by undermining the colonial legislation and personal law treatises they were expected to apply. Contrary to the view that colonial judges consistently reinforced the patriarchal authority of husbands in direct and immediate ways, it suggests that some colonial judges were working in the service of their own chivalric imperialist agenda: the defense of Muslim wives. The article focuses on two particular moves. First, colonial judges encouraged the use of inflated dower, a device intended to make the husband's power of triple tal-q too expensive to use. Colonial legislators invalidated inflated dower in various parts of India, but judges confirmed the validity of inflated dower sums whenever possible. Second, judges expanded the use of delegated divorce, a device that helped Muslim wives counter their husbands' right to polygamy and unilateral divorce. In doing so, judges undermined the restricted approach to delegation taken by colonial treatises on Anglo-Islamic law.
Professor Sharafi's dissertation for a Ph.D. in History, Princeton University, is Bella's Case: Parsi Identity and the Law in Colonial Rangoon, Bombay and London, 1887-1925. Here's the abstract:

This dissertation explores the ways in which the ethnic identity of South Asia's Parsis was forged through litigation in the British colonial courts. The Parsis were Zoroastrians who fled to India after the seventh-century conquest of Persia by Arab Muslims. Under British rule, they became an elite of intermediary traders and professionals. Around 1900, a series of lawsuits erupted on the admission of ethnic outsiders into the Parsi community through intermarriage, conversion, and adoption. This dissertation is a study of the most extensive of these cases, the Privy Council appeal of Saklat v Bella (1914-25). The case erupted when an Indian orphan named Bella was adopted by Parsis in Rangoon, initiated into the Zoroastrian religion, and taken into the Rangoon fire temple, a space arguably desecrated by the presence of ethnic outsiders. Through an examination of case papers and judges' notebooks from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (London) and the Bombay High Court (Mumbai), the dissertation explores competing visions of Parsi identity that were promoted by reformist and orthodox Parsis as litigants, witnesses, lawyers, judges, and journalists. Bella's case highlights two sorts of displacement. First, a patrilineal definition of Parsi identity was overtaken in this period by a more exclusive, eugenics-based racial model. As anxieties over communal extinction peaked with the advent of the census, orthodox Parsis clung to the notion of Persian racial purity, excluding Indian, Burmese, and European outsiders with renewed tenacity. Second, the colonial legal system's reconfiguration of Parsi religious institutions as trusts unravelled the authority of Zoroastrian priests as arbiters of religious doctrine. On a larger scale, Saklat v Bella illustrates how a "centripetal jurisprudence" contributed to the creation of a unitary "legal India" and an empire of common law. It is also a story about legal pluralism and the rise of a non-European legal profession in the colonial context. Parsis rose to prominence as lawyers and judges in this period, and used their legal influence to carve out a space for Zoroastrian legal

Happy Independence day -15th of August 1947

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath Tagore
Gitanjali

Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Indian Declaration of Independence, on eve of independence, August 15 1947.

We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?
Jawaharlal Nehru
Indian Declaration of Independence, on eve of independence, August 15 1947.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Indian Declaration of Independence, on eve of independence, August 15 1947.

How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.
Mahatma Gandhi

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!
Albert Einstein

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!
Romaine Rolland, French scholar

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!
Mark Twain

She (India) has left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim ... her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to Islands of Java and Borneo, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and her civilization!
Sylvia Levi

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border!
Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA

So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.
Mark Twain

If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.
Max Mueller, German scholar

This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of traditions, whose yesterday's bear date with the modering antiquities for the rest of nations-the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined.
Mark Twain

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.
Albert Einstein






India - The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas.
Wheeler Wilcox, American poet

India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.
Will Durant, American historian

So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.
Mark Twain

There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds... I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor.
Keith Bellows, VP - National Geographic Society

India has two million gods, and worships them all. In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only millionaire.
Mark Twain

Ethnicity and Surnames in Goa

The people of Goa are Indo-Aryan and are closely related to the neighbouring Marathi people. The majority of Goa’s population comprises of the Aryan Marathas. The present chief minister of Goa, Pratapsinh Rane belongs to a royal clan of Maratha. The common surnames of Marathas are Rane, Sawant, Kadam, Porob and many others. For a listing of Goan Maratha surnames, see Maratha Clan System. Most of the Goan Marathas are closely related to the Maratha people of the neighbouring region of Sawantvadi, which was a former princely state and is often called the sister-region of Goa. The other major ethnic groups of Goa are Goud Saraswat Brahmins and Christians. The Goud Saraswats trace their lineage to the Saraswati river, although the exact location of which is unknown. The surnames amongst Saraswats include Benegal, Bhat, Shenoy, Pai, Prabhu etc.
Goan Hindus of all castes converted to Catholicism, either through Catholic missionary efforts or as a result of the Inquisition. The new converts to Catholicism adopted Portuguese surnames such as Silva, Souza or Sousa, Pereira, etc. and some Catholic Goans have no Portuguese descent what-so-ever. This is evident in the caste system used by the Catholics. Some Goan Catholics still have records of their original Hindu surnames. Portuguese surnames are also present further down the West Coast in the largely Catholic city of Mangalore, in Karnataka State. Similar surnames are also prevalent in the neighbouring country, Sri Lanka, but with some variations. Most of the Goan Hindus surnames end with “-Kar” suffix, similar to the surnames of Maharashtrian people. eg. Chandavarkar, Usgaonkar, etc. However, some Goan Hindus prefer the “-Car” suffix a konkani version of ‘Kar’, eg. Salgaocar, Caro, Verlecar, Domotcar, Raiturcar, etc. The local influence goes beyond the “Kar” suffix as some traditional Maratha surnames are influenced by konkani eg. Parab to Porob, Kadam turned to Kadoum, etc.

First Woman PM of Trinidad of Indian Origin

The nation of Trinidad and Tobago has finally got its first woman Prime Minister. But that is not the important aspect here. Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a 58 year old woman of Indian origin.
Of the forty one seats in the Parliament, the People’s Partnership which is Persad-Bissessar party won twenty nine seats in the elections. This win by the People’s Partnership has brought to an end the rule of the Ruling Party which has been in power since the last forty three years.
Persad-Bissessar was also the first woman who became the Attorney General in her nation. She was also elected the Legal Affairs Minister and also, served as the Minister of Education. Her forefather was among 1, 48,000 laborers who were transported from India between the timelines of 1845 to 1917. These laborers were brought to work in the plantations of cocoa and sugar.
On the occasion, Persad-Bissessar said that she is very grateful for the constant support that she received from the women in her nation. At the same time, she made it clear that her government would not permit any form of social or ethnic group to reign on the nation. It is important to work on the nation’s strengths as a collective that would help everyone rise.
Trinidad and Tobago is a Caribbean island country. It was once a Spanish colony. Major part of its population which consists of 44 percent is of Indian origin. This makes up for 1.3 million people in the nation who belong to the ethnicity of India.

Egyptian NOT Arab!

May 27th, 2007D.B. Shobrawy (Egypt)
It’s fair to say I grew up in an environment that convinced me of having a purely Arab identity. Referring to myself and other Middle Eastern people as Arab was very convenient, anyone I met from other Arabic speaking countries felt like brethren by virtue of being “Arab.”
My Arab identity was not of my parents making, actually it was public opinion and the prevalence of ignorance around me which assured me of my Arab-ness. I remember once I referred to myself as Arab in front of my father, I’ve rarely seen such a furious combination of anger and mentoring from my father.
My Dad: What!? What did you say? You’re not Arab, don’t ever say that, you’re Egyptian!
My father always had a great influence on me, every word he spoke was like Divine word to me. But in that moment I still had trouble accepting I wasn’t Arab, The influence of popular opinion was that pervasive.
I was especially curious and my fathers stern words weren’t pacifying enough for me so I had to ask, “but why?” So typical of a curious child, right? It was at that moment my father said something that I’ve carried with me in this debate until this day.
My Dad: Who settled America?
Young Me: The British.
My Dad: Bravo! And what language do they speak in America?
Young Me: English.
My Dad: Good, Good! Do you know who the Native Americans are?
Young Me: Yea the Indians.
My Dad: Exactly the Indians, they were there before the British and the British took over and now the Indians speak English right?
Young Me: Yea? (with my curiosity increasing)
My Dad: So why don’t we call the Native Americans Englishmen?
Finally I was able to understand and you should too. Replace “America” with Egypt, “English” with Arabic, “Indians” with Egyptians and “British” with Arabs.
In reality the word “Arab” is the second largest misnomer and most presumptuous ethnic label (after African American). Sadly in history, groups of people have given up their identities in order to accept a foreign one and I find myself ashamed when I listen to them talk about their ancestors as if they are a foreign and imperfect race. Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Berbers, Philistines and many others all now calling themselves Arab.
These groups have become recognized as Arabs not because it was forced upon them to be called Arabs but because they gave into the cultural imperialism which is and was Arabization and called themselves Arab. The Iranians are a good example of a group who were too proud of their own rich history to call themselves Arab and to this day refuse to be called Arab and so called “Arabs” refuse to call them Arab.
So who is Arab? The answer is SOOOOOO much easier than you may think, especially if you’re having trouble accepting what I’m saying. Prepare yourself for a mind blowing revelation. People from the Arabian Peninsula ARE Arab, those include the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Declaring yourself as Egyptian has negative ramifications in the Arabized world though. We are often accused of nationalism (a faux pas both culturally and Islamically) and failing to unite the so-called Arab nations. I resent that accusation, I just want to be identified with my true ethnic identity and not one we’ve been borrowing for 1000+ years.

Bengalis are the Largest Desi Ethnic Group

If you look up any random encyclopedia, it’ll tell you Bengalis are known to overpopulate the Bengal region. “Bangla” is the second most spoken language in India after Hindi. And prior to 1971 the Bengalis of Pakistan composed 55% of the total population of the Pakistani Union. Even in Pakistan today there are around 2 million or more Bengalis (I may be wrong) residing there, some from the time of East Pakistan and most of them from current Bangladesh. Bengalis are the largest ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. But how is that possible?
In the Deliberation of Samiha Esha blog, Samiha throughly explained that arranged marriages is the main reason for the Bengal to be densely populated. In America and in the rest of the West, a person usually has to find someone for himself or herself. However in the East, a person will get married no matter what; it’s not always true but it happens to most people. In the Bengali community and in the rest of the Indian subcontinent, love is ignored and honor, authority, and power is more favored in the foundation of marriages which forms alliances between families. The male spouse usually says yes, but the female partner usually has a hard time accepting the marriage despite pressure from her family. In the Bengali society marriage is one of the most important factors of a person’s life, especially for females. Since a girl’s teenage years, her mother will be discussing her marriage and plan for the great day.
Arranged marriages in the Bengali community and in other Desi communities has caused a massive exponential growth throughout the centuries in the Indian subcontinent. When the bride and groom tie the knot under expectations of their families, they get all the privacy they need. When they are together privately it’s in their human instinct to get their groove on in bed; they get to have all the sex they want. Until modern times Desis did not familiarize themselves with contraceptives unlike the Europeans and other civilizations. With the lack of contraceptives comes a lot of offspring. In my case my father has 7 brothers and 3 sisters plus himself; on my maternal side my mother has 7 sisters and 1 brother. Yeah I know, my grandparents just didn’t know when to say no.
Another reason that Bengalis are high in numbers is the Ganges Delta. The delta provides surplus food available to the population that surrounds it. With surplus food, people tend to reproduce more and more. The Ganges Delta is under the Muslim-controlled territory of the Bengal that’s why there are more Muslim Bengalis than there are Hindu Bengalis.
Bengali population has surpassed all other Desis in numbers; therefore, even without the Bangladeshis the numbers of West Bengalis of India have made Bangla the second most spoken language in the country.

Adapt or die – Science

Adapt or die – Science

how does this mean and how is it related to genetics

“Adapt or die”, is referring to the fact that all organisms, of any species, adapt to the environment they are in so that they can survive. For example, fish have fins, and polar bears have thick fur for cold weather. The genetics of an organism is a subtotal of all of its previous ancestors, therefore making it who it is today. So, without the genetics given to them previously, the would have not been able to adapt to their environment and died. E.g – Fish with no gills, no breathing. This could also relate to the slightly frightening prospects. With the world changing at such fast rates, it will become harder for humans to adapt. Deforestation, Global warming, and many other environmental issues. If global warming really hit, we would find it difficult to survive, therefore ” Adapting, or dying”



Deficient dollar disease



1) Create a catchy title for the blog post.

2) Show one picture of Banksy and a description of who he is and how his work/ style ties into the global issues project. (Min. 5 sentences)

Banksy is a british street graffiti artist who expresses his messages though his art. His style of irony helps display the messages he sends to the english public. He stays anonymous, and sprays his work at night. His graffiti ties into our global issues unit because most of the messages he says through his art are about issues currently effecting the world. For example, the picture on my post is about the fact that giving small change to beggars won’t help them. You need to change the whole situation so there ARE no beggars.

3) Attach a photo of your graffiti work.

4) What is your Global Issue? What symbols did you use?

My Global issue is globally infectious diseases, mainly focusing on tuberculosis. Some symbols that I used were a dollar bill, representing money, a crying baby, representing sadness, a mask, representing disease. There is also an arm in the picture, which makes it appear like the child is protruding from it. This show that the issue is just coming into view.

5) Then include an interpretation about your own work. What message you would like the viewer to take away from seeing your finished graffiti work. (Min. 5 sentences)

The dollar bill in this picture is used as a mask. Masks prevent disease, but the dollar bill as a mask wont. This shows that the money is being used wrongly. Also, the child looks sad, like the dollar bill is not enough to help the child. It needs more than a simple dollar to be cured. The child is also almost emerging from the arm, This issue is finally coming out and being recognized.


Science Warm-up
As a human, who am I am today is a component of all the genes of my ancestors. The success of living to the age of 14 so far, is thanks to many factors that are available to me in my daily life. One of these factors is medicine, with so much disease this is an essential to my health. Another is food. This is an extremely important component, because without essential nutrients you can easily become weak and die. Also, provided by my parents, an important factor is a house. This provides warmth and safety. One of the most important factors, is money. We use this to buy other important items for hygiene, warmth, and other needs. These factors are provided by my parents, and my older generations. Without them, it would be very difficult for my survival.

Anne Frank Essential Questions Humanities

Anne Frank Essential Questions Humanities

I find that all of the essential questions of this unit are prominent within the film “Anne Frank, Diary of a young girl “. Human rights are affected by systems of government, plays along with the storyline of Anne Frank. As a Jew, Anne’s government and Hitler forced her out of her home and into hiding. Because of the laws placed, she was not allowed to be seen, or would be sent to a concentration camp. Because of this, Anne’s human rights were violated and she was not allowed the freedom to live like all humans should. Her rights were violated because of discrimination, and her government and Hitler.


Also, Social change begins with an individual or small group ties into the story. Hitler was the man that started this uproar of a social chance. It was him that discriminated against the Jews, and sent them off to concentration camps to die, as if they were not people at all. Because of him, and a small group of followers, he impacted history and made a huge social change on life, as we know it today.


Finally, Human rights are impacted by the perception of the majority. The citizens had a choice whether or not to follow Hitler, but those who disagreed with him were threatened or worse. Eventually, the perception of the majority was that Jews should be killed, and therefore their human rights were violated. The human rights that the Jews were entitled to were impacted strongly by the eventual perception of the majority. In this case, the government, and the majority of the population.

February 22, 2010. Humanities. 1 Comment.

Improv Reflection Questions
1. If you were in the audience watching a successful improv actor, what specifically would this actor be doing? (4-5 sentences) – remember the 3 rules of improv and techniques such as verbal details and reincorporation.

This actor would be doing all of the things that we have learned so far in our improv unit, plus some extra techniques. They would be using re-incorporation alot, and would be cheating towards the audience the entire time. They would follow a specific story, with a background, an event, a resolution, and a conclusion. They wouldn’t pause, and they would say the first thing that came to their mind. They would reveal everything to the audience, and not leave them questioning what the W’s were. And most importantly, they would make their partner look good at all times.

2. What improv skill do you feel is your strongest? Which skill is your weakest? (2-3 sentences)

I feel like saying the first thing that comes into my head is a good skill, and so is making my partner look good. I usually am a quick thinker, and what I say accepts my partners offer, or makes a new offer. I think that my re-incorporation is my worst skill, because I usually bring something in and forget about it later. For example, My partner dropped a water bucket, and I later stood where she put it.

3. Overall, do you enjoy improv? Why or why not? (3-4 sentences)

I enjoy improv, because its much more fun than other types of acting. Usually when someone says the first thing that comes to their minds its funny to watch. It’s also really interesting to see what you can make out of nothing, because thats really what it is, making something out of nothing. Improv is all about the imagination.

On the Consequences of Famine

The consequences of these famines were quite dramatic. South Asian scholars like Kinsley Davis, Tim Dyson and others who study demography and productivity agree that between 1870 and 1920 the life expectancy fell by 20%, population declined by 10% and net cropped area decreased by 12%.i It can also be argued that although the colonial state reluctantly recognized only three famines in the late 19th century, yet drought like conditions prevailed in general throughout Central India taking a heavy toll of human and cattle lives.
Despite extracting millions of pounds in revenues, the state developed cold feet when it came to spending on public relief. The government was always worried about commensurate returns on its investments. And expenditure on famine relief was considered wasteful and uneconomic. In fact it was even looked down upon in official circles. Keeping in line with the imperial ideology, every effort was made to discourage people from seeking relief. The relief camps were not only hard to reach but were in fact deliberately kept in remote locations and beyond the reach of the physically weakened population. And those who somehow managed to reach these camps soon found that the conditions were more horrifying then the villages they had left behind. The sanitation was often very poor and prison like conditions prevailed while the relief camps gained notoriety as centers of epidemic diseases. It will be worth repeating here that all government relief was conditional upon heavy work in colonial projects on which both cash and kind wages were deliberately kept low.ii And in general, the state did not show much interest in famine relief.
But even in this weakened state, there was resistance to what Partha Chatterjee has called the ‘colonial [in]difference.’iii There are innumerable recorded instances of grain riots, attacks on grain trains, protest against high prices and grain exports, hoarding and speculative trading, house trespass, bazaar unrest, offence against property, raids on standing debt crops held by moneylenders, raids on government establishments, robberies, thefts, incendiaries, and dacoities.iv Some of them like the Deccan Riots in Poona in 1870s became symbols of bigger protests launched by the nationalist organizations like the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Indian National Congress.v
Coda for the Victims of Famine in Colonial India:
In conclusion then, the laissez-faire ideology of the British Empire prevented state intervention in times of calamities such as droughts and famines. Western technology like the railways took grains out and brought famine even to surplus areas. This paper argues that the famines were caused not so much by the failure of rains but by artificial price inflations driven by the colonial policies and export trade. In an oppressive situation of colonial subjection and imperial domination over forests, grazing lands, and agriculture, the society remained socially and economically involuted. But most significantly it got exposed to droughts and famines that mercilessly decimated millions in the late 19th century. However, even in their weakened state the people resisted to their last breadth and gave birth the Indian nationalism.

land survey and settlement operations

It can be noticed from the above table that as the land survey and settlement operations progressed, cultivated acreage dramatically increased from 45.7% to 71.3% of the total acreage. The result of this was a simultaneous decline in the unoccupied areas to the point of total extinction. This meant that the grazing lands and common grounds virtually disappeared under the onslaught of colonial commercialization. The official term for designating such areas was ‘wastelands.’ For the British this meant lands that did not generate revenues, hence uneconomic and therefore the need to make it productive and economic by putting it under the plough. But for people in the villages, these lands were a part of their daily life and survival in times of calamities such as famine and drought. Its disappearance had serious repercussions. In the most populated plain districts of Amraoti, Akola, and Buldana, the wastelands completely disappeared falling under 1%. In other districts also, it fell below 2%. In Wun district it stood at about 5%. Every district experienced the problem of space and overcrowding. Amraoti and Akola district suffered the worst because of the topography. When cotton cultivation expanded in the 1860s, these two districts were the very first to be denuded of all tree and forest cover. Most of the railways passed through these two districts. The population density got high and the ravage of drought, famine, disease, and death became intense.i
The Empire’s voracious appetite for revenues targeted the mobile people to sedentarize. The pressure of colonial institutions like the police, law and courts were employed to coerce pastoral nomads and forest dwellers to settle on the land and take up agriculture. Further pressure of imperial revenues forced pastures and common lands under the plough. Neeladri Bhattacharya in his study of the Punjab pastoralists shows how the extension of British control through punitive grazing taxes hit the transhumance pastoral nomads while depriving the peasantry of the traditional grazing runs and common lands.ii Thus the extension of the imperial arm deprived pastoralists of their main source of survival while survey operations extended and froze the boundaries of agriculture. Revenue and Agriculture Department was the largest and the most organized executive arm of the British Empire in India. In fact it extracted more then 85% of the imperial revenues and made sure that agriculture closed boundary with forests. It also encouraged cash crop cultivation and helped connect India to the London based world economy.iii
While commercialization of land and agriculture threatened the existence of pastoral nomads, control over forests put pressure on forest dwellers. Writing in the context of Central India, Mahesh Rangarajan has aptly described the colonial commercialization of timber and other resources as ‘fencing the forest.’iv From time immemorial everyone in the subcontinent had depended on forest and common land resources for their daily survival. According to Neil Charlesworth, the ratio of plough cattle to land in the Deccan plateau heavily depended on the availability of these resources.v As mentioned before, the people also fell back on these resources in times of drought, famine and other natural calamities. Ramachandra Guha in a recent article has suggested that historically, forests in South Asia had been under the management of local society and utilized as a common property resource.vi The forest dwellers and plains agriculturists had always exchanged goods and services on balance.vii The colonial Forest Department took control of forests and began putting restrictions on people’s access to its resources through a series of Forest Acts and Laws beginning 1866.viii The forest dwellers were gradually pushed out of their natural habitat and dhya (slash and burn agriculture) was prohibited. The forests were taken over and declared government reserves in order to serve the needs of imperial railways and the military.ix The commercialization of forest resources such as wood, leaf, manure, grass, fodder, wild grains, fruits, roots, nuts, honey, vegetables, flowers, medicinal herbs, gums, plants, spices, lac, game, etc., removed the famine and drought cushion on which the people had traditionally relied in times of crisis. According to the well known famine scholar B.M. Bhatia, this resulted in general environmental deterioration that transformed minor calamities into disastrous events taking millions of lives.x
Bipan Chandra, Sumit Sarkar, and Amiya Bagchi in their studies have shown that the lack of economic diversity was the reason for India’s backwardness and poverty under the British Empire. Society was restrained to remain agrarian and feudal. The British imperial policies prevented the transformation of Indian economy from agrarian to industrial by skimming off the raw material and revenues without plowing anything back in return. Trapped in this classical political economy of the British Raj, India exported raw material and consumed finished goods. State investments mostly went into maintaining the institutions of control like the vast army, police, bureaucracy, and the espionage network of the Empire. Very little was made available for the development of human capital resource or even the economic infrastructure that would benefit the general populace. The colonial state and local moneylenders became parasitic classes that were not interested in either economic development or improving the material condition of the peasantry. Commercial crops not only encroached on food grains but pushed peasants into a debt cycle from which it was impossible to get out because the primary producer lost control over the crops. The burden of high state revenue demand and government refusal to remit even in times of famine made the suffering of the people intense and death difficult to allude.xi
During the great famine of 1877-78, a noted Victorian journalist William Digby observed that the root causes of famines in India was railways and markets. Accordingly, the railways carried famine to grain surplus areas through artificial price inflation in the face of any government check or control.xii Many studies since then have shown that there was never a shortage of food grains even in years of official famines. The problem was with grain prices. They were so high that the people could not afford to buy it.xiii However, one thing remained unchanged in British India and that was the wages of labourers.xiv The wage stagnation and very little movement in per capita income made food grains beyond the reach of ordinary persons trying to eke out a living off their labour. The following table explains this phenomenon for the region of Berar in Central India.
the 19th century famines in Central India were basically price-induced famines that could have been avoided with timely government intervention. However, that never happened because of the official adherence to the laissez-faire ideology of non-interference. In fact there is even evidence of grains being exported to England and Europe for speculative trading in international market while millions were dying of disease and starvation in the sub-continent.i Similarly, the problem of food shortages in colonial Berar is associated with grain exports and high prices. It is rather appalling that while majority of the Berar’s population was suffering from poverty and hunger, the region was exporting food grains. This was in fact the case even during years of drought and famine. The following table illustrates exactly how much of food grains were actually exported. These food grains included the staple crop jowari (millet), wheat, and other edible grains such as gram, bajri, masur, tur, rice, urad, etc.
Berar was exporting precious food grains worth 979,910 maunds (40,176 tons). This enormous quantity was primarily snatched from the mouths of the hungry and the poor. With the average population of 2,637,958 persons at any given point between 1867 and 1901,i this loss amounted to approximately 30.4 lbs per person. According to the general administration report of 1882-83, an average individual required 0.96 lbs of food grain per diem for survival.ii Even if this relatively low consumption figure is applied, the surplus food grain that was exported could have sustained the entire population of Berar for up to 31.7 days. Even in the worst of famine and drought years (1877-79; 1896-97; and 1899-1900) a total of 2,375,509 maunds of food grains were exported out of the province. Similarly, the people of Berar never got anything in return for the raw cotton exports that formed on average 42.9% of the total exports in any given year. The colonial roads and railways became the artery of people’s misery. With such large quantities of grains leaving the province, the traditional custom of storing grains in ‘peos’ completely declined.iii Thus the high grain prices and exports did not necessarily translate into increasing incomes for peasants as Michele McAlphin and Morris D. Morris have surmised.iv Nor did it mean a change in their material condition. In fact it led to worsening of their lives.
Vasant Kaiwar in his studies of the Deccan has suggested that the incorporation of local economy into the world market network brought devastating famines to central India. The encroachment of imperial policies and imposition of a colonial infrastructure based on conditional private property in landv and a high rate of revenue demand undermined the traditional food security chain.vi Similarly, David Hardiman argues that the neglect of traditional water works by the colonial state brought drought and famine to the Deccan plateau. These water works in the form of small irrigation systems like tanks, masonry dams, anicuts, reservoirs, lakes, ponds, canals, etc., had successfully avoided the problem of salination and malaria by tapping water for local irrigation and daily use. In pre-colonial times, the maintenance of these water works had been through local communal labour financed by the state in a situation where land, grazing grounds and surrounding forests were a common property resource of the village. The introduction of conditional private property rights in land under colonial aegis and withdrawal of state support led to the decline of local irrigation works.vii Not surprisingly, one of the most acute problems during famine in Central India was that of water scarcity. Elizabeth Whitcombe, Ira Klein, and David Gilmartin have also suggested that the British neglect of small water works in favour of large irrigation canals were the chief cause of salination, silting, leaching, disease, and famine that were triggered by a general environmental collapse.viii
P.A. Elphinstone conducted extensive survey and settlement operations in the Deccan in 1860s and 70s. In his reports he poignantly noted the neglect of traditional water works and the acute problem of water scarcity.ix But every subsequent colonial official in this cotton rich region of Central India came to believe that there was no need to develop irrigation or water works because the black cotton soil was naturally rich and did not need much water to grow crops. A strong anti-irrigation lobby among the officials created this myth that Berar was immune from drought and famine. Therefore the need for a famine code or relief measures were neither felt nor devised. With this attitude, the officials in fact refused to even acknowledge that drought, disease, and famine related deaths were taking place.x This denial and failure to put in place even a semblance of infrastructure made the famine in Central India all the more devastating. Similarly, the sanitary commissioner’s reports actually drew a strong connection between contaminated water and diseases like cholera, malaria, diarrhea, dysentery and smallpox, not to mention undernourishment caused by the low calorie intake of the general mass of population.xi Yet, no public action was forthcoming. And when serious famines did hit the region (1877-78; 1896-97 and 1899-1900) and the state was forced to recognize it on account of millions of deaths, the blame was put on natural causes like the failure of rains and crops.xii However, a simple common sense query would demolish this colonialist argument. If the region is naturally rich with black cotton soil and does not need much water to grow crops, then how can failure of rain cause famines?
Radhika Ramasubban in her work on epidemic diseases and medicine in colonial India has argued that government sanitation measures were primarily geared towards protecting British cantonments and civil lines where most of the European population was concentrated. This ‘enclavist’ nature of colonial medicine failed to protect the vast majority of the people not just during famines but also in ordinary times.xiii And the railways took plague and cholera along with grains to every nook and corner of Central India from the port city of Bombay.xiv However, Irfan Habib states that the dark underlying cause of all famines in British India was the intense poverty of its masses. And this suggests a deep relationship between the colonial political economy of exploitation and the material condition of the masses.xv
As already mentioned, the extensive land survey operations conducted in Berar in 1860s and 70s were designed for revision every thirty years. The first revision took place in 1898-99, but unfortunately most of the revision settlement reports have either been lost or yet to be found. However, only one of the report survived through time and this report was done in 1900 for the Basim talukaxvi in Basim district by a one F. W. Francis, the Director of Land Records and Agriculture. In this report there is one extremely interesting data that shows a rather rare comparison in the people’s standard of living during these two time periods twenty-five years apart. It is worthwhile here to reproduce

An Examination into the Nature and Causes of Famines

The scholars of ancient and medieval India like H.D. Sankhalia, D.D. Kosambi, Romila Thapar, D. N. Jha, R.S. Sharma, Irfan Habib and others have observed that the South Asian society had always been shaped and reshaped by a close interaction between pastoral nomads, agriculturists, and forest dwellers.i Sumit Guha in his recent book has further elaborated this observation by stating that the boundary between the three environmental regions, i.e., forests, grazing grounds, and cultivated fields had always been fluid before the advent of British rule. And this fluidity also extended to occupational flexibility whereby people acquired skills in accordance with the political economy and social culture of the times.ii However, this fluidity and flexibility threatened the colonial state’s greed for revenues and desire for territorial expansion. The fluid boundaries had to be frozen and occupational flexibility had to be put into the straightjacket category of caste for better control and management of the empire and its subjects.iii
So the first order of business for the colonial state was to conduct extensive land survey and settlement operations while the process of empire building was in progress during the nineteenth century.iv The following table shows the movement of cultivated and wasteland acreages as a result of British survey and settlement operations in six selected districts of Central India collectively called Berar.

Atlantic slave trade

Just as the Europeans justified the Atlantic slave trade in terms of civilizing the savage, Christianizing the heathen, and making the barbarian productive through a work ethic based on reason, so was the British imperialist project in India and Asia.i Here the so-called ‘tropics’ were condemned as naturally unhealthy, diseased and famine prone.ii Overtly implying that somehow European weather, climate and geographical environment was healthier than the conquered territories.iii But the most influential ideology behind western imperialism was the classical political economy propounded by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations. Accordingly, a laissez-faire doctrine of market capitalism was introduced in the late 18th century, which guided the European imperialist project whereby government interference in the economy was objected to even in the face of acute crisis like the famine. Although it should be noted here, this market capitalism was in fact imposed on conquered territories with the might of European gunboats and arms. However, to this doctrine was later added the Malthusian theory of population whereby famine was regarded as a natural check to over population, relieving the state and government from the responsibility of expenditure on relief.iv However, the driving ideas behind the Indian Famine Commission Reports of the 19th century were those of Jeremy Bentham. The utilitarian principle that relief should be bitterly punitive in order to discourage dependence upon the government was purely Benthamite. The reports relieved the British government of India any responsibility for the horrific mortality. It was asserted that the cheap famine labour could be fruitfully used in modernizing projects such as the railways, road construction, and repair of tanks, stone and masonry works, etc. The famine reports further held that the calamity was caused by natural phenomenon and that human agencies have no control over it. The staunch Benthamite cronies like James Mill and his son John Stuart Mill also supported this utilitarian orthodoxyv of the East India Company and the British Empire after 1857.
All the British imperial viceroys, governors, and proconsuls like Lytton, Temple, Elgin, and Curzon strongly adhered to the doctrine that it was the climate and failure of rains that caused failure of crops and famine. It was believed that the empire had to be governed for revenues and not expenditure. And any act that would influence the prices of grains such as charity was to be either strictly monitored or discouraged. Even in the face of acute distress, relief had to be punitive and conditional. So the ‘Temple Wage’ propounded by Sir Richard Temple, a staunch laissez faire doctrinaire on government famine relief was set at only 16-22 oz of food or 1-2 annas with a minimum of 9-10 hours of work per day. The whole idea was to strongly discourage dependence on government relief. Viceroy Lytton (in late 1870s) vehemently supported the Temple wage of below minimum while Curzon (in early 1900s) implemented a tight press censorship to prevent Indian nationalists from making a political capital out of the macabre famine of 1899-1900.vi Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze in their study have suggested that the reasons why famines suddenly seized with the end of British Empire (post-1947) was not so much because the nationalist government was more benevolent but because the free press and public opinion put constant pressure on the government to respond. This kind of pressure could not be exerted under conditions of colonial subjection.

The British Empire, Ecology and Famines in Late 19th Century Central India

More than thirty million famine related deaths occurred in British India between 1870 and 1910, a phenomenon Mike Davis in his recent book has called the “Late Victorian Holocaust.”i The Deccan region of central India was the worst victim of these famines. This paper will analyze the official ideology, the reasons, and consequences of these famines.

Equality and Human Rights News

On 2 February, young activists from the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) will call for the Government to take action to address key children’s rights issues at a reception in Parliament. (more…)

Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Press Releases, Reports and Papers
NEP: An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK
February 2nd, 2010

On THE 27th January 2012, the National Equality Panel (NEP) published its evidence on the relationships between inequalities in people’s economic outcomes – such as earnings, income and wealth – and their characteristics and circumstances – such as gender, age, ethnicity – and the ways in which who you are affect the resources and opportunities available to you. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion, Race/ethnicity
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
Centre for Cities index: gap between UK cities has widened
February 2nd, 2010

Centre for Cities annual index published on the 18th January shows recession has widened the gap between UK cities. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
Work Entry, Progression & Retention, & Child Poverty
February 2nd, 2010

The Department for Work and Pensions published on the 21st January 2010 the report ‘Parents’ work entry, progression and retention, and child poverty’. (more…)

Subject(s): Age - children/young people, Employment, Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
Update on Single Equality Bill
February 2nd, 2010

Click here for an update on the Single Equality Bill from the Winning the Race Coalition (http://www.rota.org.uk/pages/WTRC.aspx) (more…)

Subject(s): Age - older people, Equality general, Multiple discrimination, Race/ethnicity
Posted in Briefings and Leaflets, Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News, Other, eNewsletter
Consultation: Indicators for Children & Young People
February 2nd, 2010

This is a specialist consultation launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the 25th January 2010 and is about selecting a set of indicators for children and young people. (more…)

Subject(s): Age - children/young people, Equality general
Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News, eNewsletter
Voluntary measures proposed for publishing pay gaps
February 2nd, 2010

On the 19th January 2010, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) released proposals outlining the voluntary measures organisations with more than 250 employees can use to publish information on pay differentials between men and women. (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Ideas and Policy, eNewsletter
WNC consultation on single sex services
February 2nd, 2010

The WNC has launched a consultation on single sex services after concerns raised by a number of partner organisations that women-only services are currently under threat. (more…)

Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News, eNewsletter
Public Appointments- Awareness, Attitudes & Experiences
February 2nd, 2010

On the 14th January 2010 the IPSOS MORI research ‘Public Appointments- Awareness, Attitudes & Experiences’ was published. (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
New websites bringing together data & statistics
February 2nd, 2010

The data.gov.uk site enables the public to freely access government data in one place. (more…)

Subject(s): English regions, Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Other, eNewsletter
The TUC and Volunteering England: Volunteers’ Charter
February 2nd, 2010

On the 7th December 2009 the TUC and Volunteering England produced a joint ‘Charter for Strengthening Relations Between Paid Staff and Volunteers’. (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Training and Guidance, eNewsletter
Call for evidence on the impact of hate crime
February 2nd, 2010

Stop Hate in Central Scotland is a group of public and voluntary sector organisations working together to identify and eliminate unlawful discrimination, attacks and harassment and to promote good relations. (more…)

Subject(s): English regions, Equality general, Scotland, Sexual orientation, Violence/hate crime
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, eNewsletter
EU Rules on Gender Equality and national law
February 1st, 2010

The European Commission has published its report ‘EU Rules on Gender Equality: How are they transposed into national law?’ (August 2009). (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general, Europe, Gender
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
GEO Responses to the Proposed Equal Treatment Directive
February 1st, 2010

On 2 July 2008 the European Commission published a draft anti-discrimination Directive. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Europe
Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News, eNewsletter
Survey: ‘Transatlantic Trends: Immigration’
February 1st, 2010

‘Transatlantic Trends: Immigration’, a collaboration led by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, German Marshall Trust and three other foundations, has carried out a survey into attitudes about immigration in the UK, as well as the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, International, Refugees/migrants
Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News, eNewsletter
Call for Abstracts: European Diversity and Autonomy Papers
February 1st, 2010

The European Academy in Bolzano, Italy, seeks papers contributing to the development and exploration of various approaches to diversity in Europe. Closing date for abstracts is the 20th February 2010.

Click here for more information:

Subject(s): Equality general, Europe
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers, eNewsletter
Access to Volunteering: 2nd Round of Funding
February 1st, 2010

The £2million fund aims to increase the number of disabled people volunteering through giving grant funding to volunteer-involving organisations. (more…)

Subject(s): Disability, Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Vacancies, eNewsletter
EHRC: Equality Impact Assessment Guidance
January 20th, 2010

This document published on the 21st December 09 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) provides a step-by-step guide to integrating equality impact assessment into policymaking and review. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Training and Guidance
Letter from Commissioner for the Compact on New Compact
January 20th, 2010

On the 19th January Sir Bert Massie (Commissioner for the Compact) sent an open letter to the Equality and Diversity Forum highlighting the content and relevance of the refreshed Compact including the “advancing equality” section and what the third sector is specifically asked to take forward. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general
Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News
The Equality Bill: Duty to Reduce Socio-Economic Inequalities
January 20th, 2010

This is a guide published by the Government Equalities Office (GEO) in January 2010 designed to form a bridge between the wording of the socio-economic duty, which was published in the Equality Bill in April 2009, and the draft statutory guidance to go with it, which we will be drafting and consulting on formally in the summer of 2010. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Training and Guidance
Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation
January 20th, 2010

This report was launched on the 6th January 2010. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
DCLG: Tackling Race Inequality – A Statement on Race
January 20th, 2010

On the 14th January 2010 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) launched a report detailing the progress made in recent years on tackling racism and securing race equality. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Race/ethnicity
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
Call for Evidence Showing Positive Value of Human Rights
January 20th, 2010

The British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) is coordinating a new micro-website to showcase the powerful stories about how the Human Rights Act (HRA) is making a positive difference to people’s lives. (more…)

Subject(s): Human rights
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News
Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Guidance
January 20th, 2010

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has launched a communications guidance and toolkit: ‘Tackling Violence against Women and Girls: a guide to good practice communication’, in order to support and inform government communication in the area of violence against women and girls. (more…)

Subject(s): Gender, Violence/hate crime
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Training and Guidance
Government Response to Report on Fair Access to Professions
January 20th, 2010

On the 18th January the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published: ‘Unleashing Aspiration: The Government Response to the Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions’. (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
DCLG Report on Tracking Economic Deprivation
January 20th, 2010

‘Tracking economic deprivation in New Deal for Communities areas’ was launched on the 7th January 2010 by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
ONS Report: Wealth in Great Britain
January 20th, 2010

The ‘Wealth and Assets Survey 2006/08’ by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) collected information about the economic well-being of households and individuals in Great Britain. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
Tackling Worklessness & the Social Impacts of the Recession
January 20th, 2010

The Cabinet Office’s Social Exclusion Taskforce published in December 2009 a report outlining how previous recessions have resulted in not just rising unemployment, but also increases in crime, mental health problems and family and relationship breakdown. (more…)

Subject(s): Employment, Equality general, Poverty/social exclusion
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Reports and Papers
European Commission: UK breaches two EU Equality Directives
January 11th, 2010

In November 2009 the UK was found by the European Commission to have incorrectly implemented two EU Equality Directives. The first breach concerns the EC Equal Treatment Framework Directive, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. The second relates to the EC Equal Treatment Directive, which covers equal treatment between men and women in employment. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general, Europe
Posted in Equality and Human Rights News, Press Releases
Refreshed Compact is Launched
January 6th, 2010

On 16 December 2009, the refreshed National Compact document was launched. (more…)

Subject(s): Equality general
Posted in Consultations and Responses, Equality and Human Rights News

Journey of a 60-year-old republic |

Journey of a 60-year-old republic
By Tushar Gandhi Jan 24 2010
Tags: Opinion
Tomorrow, we will be a 60 year-old repu­blic. On this day, 60 years ago, we ado­pt­ed our Constitution. It took a lot of collective effort to arrive at what was then the perfect Constitution for a newly liberated nation. Our founding fathers took gre­at care to create a document that would serve everyone eq­ually and fairly. The docume­nt addressed the needs of ev­ery group that comprised a diverse amalgamation of the privileged and those who enjoyed none, the various religi­ous groups and their need to maintain their distinct identities, the discriminated gender and the vast number of poverty-stricken, illiterate Indians. The Constitution has stood us in good stead for 60 years, but six decades is a long time, changes occur and to accommo­date those changes, the systems must also evolve, and so should our Constitution.

We are a 60 year-old republic, but have our democratic institutions and practices be­en audited honestly and sincerely? Some will say that el­ections are people’s audit in a democracy. This may be true in many democracies, but in India, we don’t have free and fair elections. Elections are rigged and unfairly conducted. Many people will object, but take a look at how political parties manipulate elections. Candidates are selected based on the caste mix of the consti­tuency, not on ability but ‘win-ability’. Political parties have the caste equations perfected for every constituency, so a candidate from the influential or ‘vote bank’ caste wins.

Since there are no debates in Parliament and Bills are pa­ssed with negligible participation from people’s representatives, the ability of the member of Parliament to understand the Bill and then vote, is not essential. This is how our democratic system is rigged.

We call ourselves a democratic nation, but in 60 years, we have never had a referendum on any issue. At present, Andhra Pradesh is burning on the issue of a separate Telangana. Why is the government dithering and allowing the iss­ue to become vitiated? Why isn’t it holding a referendum on Telangana? Let the people, who are directly affected by the move, vote and decide.

There are demands for oth­er smaller states, too. Let the­re be a nationwide referendum on whether these dema­nds should be accepted and smaller states created. Then, based on the results of the refer­en­dum, constitute a states re­organisation commission and let it carve out smaller states.

People’s representatives, bu­reaucrats and the judiciary are constantly attempting to snatch away citizen’s rights. Take the example of right to information (RTI). In a demo­cracy, why should anyone be permanently protected from RTI queries? On issues that are confidential, the questioner can be told that it cannot be answered. Why keep someone permanently immune to qu­es­tioning. Isn’t that undemocratic? On the one hand, we ta­lk about the need for transpa­rency, and on the other, we pro­tect people behind ‘privileges’.

For too long our judiciary has been shielded by the provision of ‘contempt of court’. People questioning the judiciary have been bullied into silence with the threat of ‘contempt’ proceedings. Why sh­ou­ld the system of delivering justice be thus protected? Th­ere have been many instances of intentional miscarriage of justice, why can’t it be expos­ed and challenged just like ev­erything else in a healthy, fun­ctional democracy? Why are­n’t judges punished when they act illegally and immorally? With the number of cases of corruption at the highest levels in our justice system coming to light, one wonders if justice in India is free and fair any more.

Our founding fathers realised that the persecuted cl­ass of our untouchables and other lower castes were not equipped to be able to stand on equal terms with the upper castes, so a time-bound incentive of reservations was introduced. Let no one misunderstand this, but BR Ambedkar was convinced that after 10 years of reservations in education and jobs the persecuted and deprived classes would be able to hold their own in our democracy.

Sixty years have passed since the equalising incentive was introduced but there is no equality. Post-‘Mandal’, reservations, which have become a tool for electoral gains, are becoming a tool for fragmenting our nation on caste lines. Sh­ouldn’t there be a healthy debate on the efficacy of reservations, and why they haven’t ac­hieved the results that Ba­basaheb was convinced wou­ld occur within 10 years?

In a healthy democracy, why should there be any unchallengeable holy cows? It’s time that an honest, unselfish and sincere audit of our de­mo­cracy and democratic machinery is conducted. Why can’t citizens be trusted to be mature enough to vote on issues that vitiate and weaken the fabric of our nationhood? At 60, shouldn’t we now truly become a democracy?

I leave you, with the words of the Father of our Nation, “You may get the finest constitution that is conceivable... It will be worthless, if there are not men and women fit enough to work that constitution.” Young India; September 15, 1927.