You Could Achieve Global Peace Through Mysticism

Talk: Sant Rajinder Singh





Everyone wants peace. People want peace in the world ­ in their country , their city and in their home. Mostly , they want peace within their own selves. How can we achieve this universal dream? The world has seen numerous conferences, peace marches, and conventions for peace.What can we do about this so that we can build a peaceful world?
I believe that we can have global peace through mysticism which is the study of our own inner mystic self. It is the path of discovering who we are, why we are here, life after death ... It is the science of uncovering the greatest mysteries of the universe ­ God and our soul. Building a peaceful world begins with the first foundation stone ­ our own selves. We must first find peace ourselves through mysticism to attain global peace.What can a single individual do for world peace by attaining personal inner peace? Let me tell you a story. A man was walking along the beach and he spotted a second man from afar picking something up, twirling it around, and tossing it in the water. The second man kept repeating these movements, so the first man was curious, he approached him and asked, “What are you doing?“ The second man called back, “I am throwing the starfish back into the ocean. If I do not do this, they will die on the shore.“
Scanning the beach, the first man said, “But there are thou sands of starfish on the beach. What difference can you possibly make?“ Without the least hesitation the second man picked up another starfish, threw it back in the water, and said, “It made a difference for that one!“ We too can make a difference for all humanity and for posterity by the actions we choose to take. Let us begin with our own transformation and pursuit of peace. If you find inner peace and i find inner peace and the person on our right finds inner peace and the person on our left finds inner peace, then one by one, brick by brick, we will have built a world whose principles rest on peace.
Nobody wants to be told what to do by someone else.We resist when someone tries to make us do something in a new way . Knowing this, we persist in trying to change others. We try to change our spouse, our children and our relations. We propose that everyone else in our community be peaceful. We want to make all other cities and countries peaceful. Just as we do not want anyone criticising or changing us, so do other people dislike being changed. All the efforts in the world will not make others peaceful. All we can do is work on ourselves.
When we find that a new product, service, or technique is benefiting someone else, we ourselves feel motivated to try it. Similarly , if we find peace ourselves, our life will be transformed and others will be curious as to why we are experiencing such joy and happiness in our life. They themselves will want to learn how we achieved it. Example is one of the greatest teachers. Therefore, let us light the lamp of peace in our own hearts and shed that luminosity on all we meet.

LEARNING WITH THE TIMES - First ATM is believed to have been set up in 1967





When was the ATM invented?
An automated teller machine (ATM) is a telecommunication device that enables a financial transaction between a bank and its customer without involving any human cashier. Perhaps the first device on this concept was in stalled in Japan in 1966. Known as computer loan machines, these devices supplied loans to a bank customer after inserting a credit card. It is believed that the first cash machine that enabled withdrawal of money from a custom er's bank account was installed by Barclays Bank in the UK in 1967. Users had to in sert a special cheque issued by the bank and a six-digit per sonal identification number (PIN) to withdraw cash. The first modern ATM relying on an online network and capable of dispensing variable amounts of cash by deducting the money from the user's ac count was installed by Lloyds Bank in England in 1972.
How does the ATM work?
At its simplest, an ATM is a data terminal connected to an ATM controller (ATMC) like a computer connected to an internet service provider. Al so known as `EFTPOS (Elec tronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) Switch', the ATMC is used in financial institutions to route transactions between ATMs, the core banking system of the card-issuing bank and other banks.When a message enters an ATMC from an ATM, it examines the message, validates the PIN and routes the message to the core banking system of the bank.
How do interbank transactions work?
Initially, ATMs were connected to only one bank and a cardholder could withdraw money only if she was using the card issued by the bank. Later, to cut costs as well as provide more facilities to cardholders, an interbank network also known as an ATM consortium was established. This is a computer network connecting ATMs of different banks.Apart from connecting ATMs, these networks also connect EFTPOS terminals -the devices used at shops where one can insert or swipe their card to buy goods or services. India's largest interbank network is the National Financial Switch (NFS), which is a network of over 2 lakh ATMs.It has more than 90 banks as its direct members. Apart from the NFS, other ATM networks operating in the country include Cashnet, Immediate Payment Service, Banks ATM Network, Customer Services and so on.
What are card associ ations?
Card associations are the organisations that licence a bank's card programme and provide technology and access to various networks that help in transactions. These associations perform operational functions for their members.China Unionpay , VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Diner's Club are among the largest card associations.India has also started a similar payment service for domestic transactions known as RuPay.

Source: Times of India, 24-10-2016

BRICS and walls

Contradictions are mounting within. India’s diplomacy could explore alternative groupings.

With the benefit of hindsight, one can learn several lessons from the BRICS summit in Goa. Before this event, close observers of India’s foreign policy in general and of BRICS in particular, Samir Saran and Abhijnan Rej, had emphasised the need “for creating new and agile institutions that can help the group”. Such an objective was ambitious and the Goa meeting has allowed BRICS to work in that direction.

In the final declaration, the members countries not only felicitated themselves for “the operationalisation of the New Development Bank (NDB) and of the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)”, but agreed to set up a credit agency. Here, BRICS are true to their DNA: Basically, this “geo-economic alliance”, to use the words of Saran and Rej, “perceives power concentration in the hands of Bretton Woods institutions as unfair and seeks to promote alternative models of development”. This is why, like in every summit since 2009, BRICS have targeted the governance of the IMF in Goa. Not only have they asked for a new quota formula that would “ensure that the increased voice of the dynamic emerging and developing economies reflects their relative contributions to the world economy”, but they have also called for the European countries to cede two chairs on the Executive Board of the IMF. For years, the targeting of West-dominated institutions has provided BRICS with a common cause.

But is it still sufficient today? The question is particularly relevant from the point of view of India after the acceleration of its rapprochement with the US in several domains, including economic and defence matters. This rapprochement has been resented by two key BRICS players, Russia and China, which have recently made moves bound to be perceived as provocations by India. Russia, which has already agreed to sell attack helicopters to Pakistan, sent troops to this country in September last for first-ever military joint manoeuvres. The Indian ambassador to Moscow had to convey to Russia New Delhi’s views that “military cooperation with Pakistan which is a country that sponsors terrorism as a matter of state policy is a wrong approach.”. Relations with China were even more tense since, over the last six months, China blocked India’s attempt at joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), made military incursions in Arunachal Pradesh and vetoed in the UN an India-supported resolution designating Masood Azhar as a terrorist. (Azhar is the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the Pakistani groups already on a UN blacklist, which has been held responsible for the Uri attack and the killing of 19 Indian armymen).The Goa summit was bound to be “a moment of reckoning”, as Harsh Pant pointed out, precisely because of this context. All the more so as it happened at a time when the Indian government had initiated moves to isolate Pakistan on the international stage in the wake of the Uri attack. On that ground, the glass remained half empty. Certainly, the Indian attempt of isolating Pakistan from other South Asian countries — that had resulted in the cancellation of the Islamabad SAARC meeting in October — found another expression in the Outreach Summit of BRICS leaders of BIMSTEC countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, a clear signal that, in its region, India will look east even more than before. But the final declaration spared Pakistan.

On the first day of the summit, Modi had targeted Pakistan calling it the “mothership” of terrorism: “Terror modules around the world are linked to this mothership. This country shelters not just terrorists. It nurtures a mindset,” Modi said. However, the final declaration did not mention Pakistan, nor key words like “cross-border terrorism” or “state-sponsored terrorism” and the only terror groups named — ISIS, al Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra — were not Pakistani. Russia and China were not on the same wave length so far as this security issue was concerned. This hiatus may be due to Russian and Chinese perceptions that saving the Syrian regime is their priority and that both countries will need Pakistan to fight the Islamist groups listed above if they regroup in Afghanistan after being defeated in the Middle East.

In Goa, China has taken Pakistan’s side more explicitly than Russia, which somewhat bowed to Beijing instead of supporting New Delhi. A day after Modi called Pakistan a “mothership of terrorism”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared that their country opposed “linking terrorism with any specific country or religion”. It also said: “China and Pakistan are all-weather friends”.

Such divergences did not prevent India from using the Goa meeting to relate to China bilaterally. For instance, President Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi agreed to hold a dialogue on New Delhi’s bid for membership of the NSG. But China will clearly not help India to isolate Pakistan, as it was already evident from the CPEC project and, more precisely, from the fact that “its” Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (which is much bigger than the NDB) has recently granted a $300 million loan for extending the hydropower plant of Tarbela, jointly with the World Bank. Incidentally, Xi Jinping also used China’s financial resources to relate more effectively to another neighbour of India, Bangladesh: He stopped over in Dhaka on his way to Goa to sign off loans worth $24 bn, with a country to which India has lent $2 bn last year.

The Goa summit enabled India to re-engage Russia (or vice versa). On the one hand, New Delhi and Moscow signed a $4-5 billion deal on the S-400 defence missile system. On the other, “India recognised Russian side’s effort towards achieving a political and negotiated settlement of the situation in Syria”. This joint statement was issued by Vladimir Putin and Modi at a time when the Obama administration was highly critical of the Russian strikes on Aleppo.

The contradictions between India’s policies vis-à-vis Pakistan and the US and its membership of the BRICS, a
grouping dominated by Russia and China, have led observers to think about alternative routes, like the revival of IBSA. In a post BRICS summit article, Samir Saran mentions that IBSA countries have met “on the sidelines” in Goa and that such a grouping (“in many ways more organic than BRICS”) “should engage with both the US and one European power, like Germany, to promote a concert of democracies across continents, bringing advanced economies alongside emerging ones”. More than one European country might support such a move.

The writer is senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London.

Source: Indian Express, 22-10-2016

No proof required: When liberals are not liberal

When even Pakistan has banned triple talaq, our ‘liberals’ argue the uniform civil code should not be introduced until India solves all problems related to women — nay, all problems related to womankind.

The introduction of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been talked about for decades, indeed since Independence. It was part of the BJP’s 2014 manifesto, and the attempt at reform of triple talaq has sent alarm bells ringing among liberal intellectuals and conservative Muslims. The uniform liberal view seems to be that the UCC is an imposition by a right wing Muslim-unfriendly government and that reform of triple talaq is just a way to beat up or subjugate the Muslim community. The “liberals” (I will have the word in quotes until it is established that the “liberals” are actually liberals) claim that there are discriminatory anti-women laws among the majority Hindu community, and that these need to be reformed first, before imposing majority views on the minorities.

Let us start with first principles. In a fair, just and ideal world, rights should be human rights, unaffected by sex, or religion. The Indian Constitution came close to defining it in this manner. Article 44 of the Constitution, “Uniform civil code for the citizens” states: “The state shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India”. Unfortunately, the Constitution writers inserted this clause in the non-binding Directive Principles of State Policy section.

The Constituent Assembly debates make up for the lack of appropriate specification in the Constitution. Particularly relevant for today’s debate are the comments of K.M. Munshi, made 68 years earlier. His summary view on the UCC, which he supported, was “This attitude of mind perpetuated under the British rule, that personal law is part of religion, has been fostered by the British and by British courts. We must, therefore, outgrow it.”

At the time Munshi made his comments, Hindu law was very anti-women. However, post 2005 and passage of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005, men and women have equal rights to inheritance, property etc. Besides some possible capital gains benefits for those filing under HUF (Hindu Undivided Family), there are no differences (that I can surmise though I am willing to be corrected) in the rights of Hindu men and Hindu women.

However, this was not the case in 1948 when Munshi said: “I know there are many among Hindus who do not like a uniform civil code, because they take the same view as the honourable Muslim members who spoke last. They feel that the personal law of inheritance, succession etc is really a part of their religion. If that were so, you can never give, for instance, equality to women. But you have already passed a Fundamental Right to that effect and you have an article here which lays down that there should be no discrimination against sex. Look at Hindu Law; you get any amount of discrimination against women; and if that is part of Hindu religion or Hindu religious practice, you cannot pass a single law which would elevate the position of Hindu women to that of men. Therefore, there is no reason why there should not be a civil code throughout the territory of India.” (emphasis added). Not surprisingly, Munshi, a Congressman and governor of Uttar Pradesh during 1952-55, resigned from the Congress and became the vice-president of the newly formed Swatantra Party. He recognised early on that the Nehru-led Congress was no party for liberals.

The Muslim community has attacked the suggestion of a UCC as a direct attack on itself. A recent press release, signed by 103 “Muslims and people of Muslim descent” states at the outset that it is “against the instant arbitrary triple talaq as practiced in India and we support the demand of the Muslim women to abolish it.” However, the statement goes on to add that “The present regime and their earlier avatars have used the Uniform Civil Code as a stick to frighten and demonise the Muslim community and polarise opinion. Uniform Civil Code has been always been projected by such regimes and right wing politics as a Hindu vs Muslim tool. The fact of the matter is that many of the personal laws irrespective of which religion they belong to are archaic and anti-women… We appeal to all liberal, progressive sections of the Muslims as well as all other citizens to support the struggle of the Muslim women for reform and to expose the nefarious designs of both the present regime as well as of the patriarchal conservative Muslims who are colliding with the retrogressive forces to take the attention away from the most important issues and the failures of the present government on all fronts.” (emphasis added)

It is intriguing that the “liberals” have moved from attacking triple talaq and women’s rights to an all-out attack on a “right-wing” government. Let me see if I understand this right. The previous Congress governments went all out for appeasement (remember Shah Bano?) of Muslims to get a few extra votes and irrespective of the fact that they were being blatantly anti-women; the present government, even if it is against triple talaq and pro-women rights is suspect because it has failed on all fronts?
Even “liberals” like Flavia Agnes (interview to Firstpost.com, October 19) have problems with implementing the UCC at this time. In a not too dissimilar statement than the one above, she states “today the faith of Muslim communities in the present right-wing government is at very low ebb. Hence the political climate is not conducive to reforming laws of minorities or for bringing in a Uniform Civil Code”. (emphasis added)

When asked about why the UCC should not be implemented, she counters by obfuscation. “When discriminatory practices within Hindu law and cultural practices are discussed they are not framed as ‘Hindu’ but are discussed in general terms as ‘women’s problems.’’’ One such Hindu problem coming in the way of the UCC is “the problem of dowry-related violence and dowry deaths. There is no research conducted as to how many women who are murdered for dowry are Hindus. A research done by our organisation about cases which have reached the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court revealed that more than 90 per cent were Hindus. Less than 10 per cent were Muslims and others.”

Assume for a moment that all 100 per cent of dowry deaths are Hindu. What does that fact have anything to do with the desirability of a UCC? These deaths are illegal; are not sanctioned by law, Hindu or otherwise. If not implemented, it is a law and order problem, not a UCC problem. It is somewhat disappointing to note that whereas a fundamentalist Muslim country like Pakistan has banned triple talaq our “liberals” are arguing that UCC should not be introduced until India has solved all problems related to women — nay, all problems related to womenkind. Masha Allah, “liberals”.

Implementation of the UCC will not result in zero dowry deaths, or make zero the practice of bigamy among Hindus, or the practice of “quadrigamy” among Muslims. Further, the UCC will not end violence against women. To ask for a solution to all women-related problems before introducing the UCC is to blatantly argue against the interests of women. Which is why the quotation marks on “liberals” remains.

The writer is contributing editor, ‘Indian Express,’ and senior India analyst, The Observatory Group, a New York based macro policy advisory group

Source: Indian Express, 22-10-2016

Going over to the dark side

The arrest of a group of men in Kannur in early October raises questions about the influence wielded by the Islamic State on misguided Muslim youth in south India.

“My son hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s not that kind of a boy. He’s been working and supporting the family for the past 15 years, and now they have taken him away,” says Hasina, mother of Manseed Mahmood, one of the six men arrested from Kerala recently for alleged terrorist links. Standing in the sit-out of their single-storey house in Aniyaram, some 25 km south of Kannur, Hasina opens up about her 30-year-old son with tears in her eyes and folded hands. Manseed, who was working in Qatar as an office assistant, came home with his wife on September 30, two days before he and his friends were arrested from Kanakamala, a hilltop location some 3 km away from his home. “He told us some friends would come home and that we should prepare food for them as well. We never knew who was coming. He went out in the morning and then what we heard was that he got arrested from Kanakamala,” says Nafiza, Manseed’s grandmother.

Arrests on a hilltop

Kanakamala is a small village on the border of Kannur and Kozhikode districts. The eponymous hill, part of the Western Ghats, is revered by the locals because they believe it possesses spiritual powers. It takes at least 10 minutes by foot to reach the hilltop where an ashram of Nataraja Guru, the successor disciple of social reformer Narayana Guru, is located. The hilltop is usually deserted unless there are some events being held at the ashram, the only building existing there. Local police say Manseed may have chosen this place for a meeting because it might escape the attention of the public. But intelligence people say Manseed and others were under surveillance for almost a year and the Kanakamala meeting was the third of its kind.

A local police officer involved in the operation says he got a call on October 2 from his superiors to get ready for an important raid. He and other police officers joined officials from the Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), who flew in from other parts of the country. When they reached Kanakamala, Manseed and others were standing in a circle next to a telephone tower on the hilltop discussing something. “They didn’t run when we approached them. Nor did they resist when we detained them,” says the police officer.

According to the NIA, Manseed and four others were arrested from Kanakamala, while an accomplice of theirs, Ramshad Nageelan Kandiyil, was picked up from Kuttiady in Kozhikode district. The NIA terms them an Islamic State (IS)-inspired module that has “entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit terrorist acts by collecting explosives and other material for targeting important persons and places of public importance in various parts of south India”. All in the team are youngsters from different parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Manseed being the only local. Abu Basheer came from Coimbatore, while Swalih Mohammed, a native of Chelakkara in Thrissur district, was living in Chennai. The two others in the team are Safwan P., who is from Tirur in Malappuram district, and V. Jasim Nageelan Kandiyil, Ramshad’s cousin, who’s also from Kuttiady. From Kanakamala, they were taken to the Armed Reserve Police Camp in Kozhikode for preliminary questioning and after registering the case, to the NIA office in Kochi, says the aforementioned police officer. An NIA court later sent them to police custody.

Shock and disbelief

“We visited him in Kochi,” says Hasina, Manseed’s mother. “He asked us not to believe what appears in the media and stay strong.” Other parents also share the same views. Abdullah N.K., father of Jasim, said he never noticed anything amiss about his son. Jasim is a B.Tech student in Bengaluru who usually comes home during the weekends. On September 30, Friday, he was home, and on Sunday, he told the family that he’s going to Vadakara, a municipality town in Kozhikode district, for a friend’s party. “He didn’t tell us anything about the Kanakamala meeting. We don’t even know who this Manseed is. He just said it’s a party and that he’ll be back by the evening, but in the evening we got to know that he was arrested,” says Abdullah, standing in front of his two-storey house in Kuttiady. Dressed in white mundu and shirt, Abdullah, a short man with a neatly trimmed white beard, speaks in a soft voice that’s barely audible, his hands trembling as he speaks. “We believe Jasim and Ramshad are innocent. We have approached an advocate. But if they are proven guilty, they deserve to be punished. Because Islam is a religion of peace. We are peace-loving people. IS has nothing to do with Islam,” he says.

Fassil, a childhood friend of both Jasim and Ramshad, says he was shocked when he heard that they were arrested. “I have known them for many years and I have never noticed anything unusual about them. It was difficult to believe that they were arrested on charges of terror,” says Fassil, who works in a shop in Kuttiady.

The cousins don’t have any criminal background either. T. Sajeevan, Circle Inspector of Kuttiady, says there was no case registered against them and that the local police had not noticed any terror-linked activities in the area earlier. But intelligence officials claim otherwise. “We have a dedicated cyber team to monitor suspicious online activities. This group fell under the radar a year ago and since then we began closely watching their discussions. It’s only after we got credible information that they are meeting in Kannur that we got the NIA involved to arrest them,” says an intelligence official.

Four days after the Kanakamala incident, the NIA arrested Subahani Haja Moideen from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. Originally from Thodupuzha, Idukki district in Kerala, Moideen had got military training at IS camps in Syria and Iraq, claims the NIA. The intelligence official says Moideen was also part of the online groups of the IS and in touch with the youth held from Kanakamala.

Some family members and co-workers of the arrested agree that they were involved in IS-related online groups and discussions. Haris Ali, younger brother of Abu Basheer who hails from Coimbatore, says his brother was a member of a Facebook group and a Telegram channel that discussed IS-related issues. “But he was only a passive member. We don’t believe he was in any way involved in extremist activities,” Ali says. Like others in the Kanakamala team, Basheer told the family on October 1 that he’s going to Kerala for a programme; they came to know about the arrest only when NIA sleuths landed in their house at 8 p.m. the next day for searches.

Social media propaganda

K.H. Nazer, State secretary of the Popular Front of India (PFI), a hard-line Muslim organisation, says there are dangerous propaganda groups and pages on social media. One of the arrested youth from Kanakamala, the 30-year-old Safwan, was a member of the PFI and working as a graphic designer atThejas, the Malayalam newspaper run by the organisation.

PFI members have been involved in a number of cases related to violence, of which the most sensational was a professor’s hand being chopped off in July 2010 in Muvattupuzha near Ernakulam for “insulting the prophet Muhammad” in an examination paper. Thirteen PFI activists were found guilty in the case. But Nazer says the PFI is in the forefront of the campaign against the IS, and had warned its members to stay away from IS-related online groups. “We expelled Safwan from the PFI after the arrest. There are concerns in the organisation that he was involved in some social media discussions on the IS. We find it a breach of organisational discipline,” Nazer says. Thejas has also suspended Safwan from his job after the arrest.

There are a number of Facebook pages and accounts that propagate the IS’s messages in Malayalam. There was a Malayalam blog, Muhajir, that had at least 40 articles on issues such as the life in ‘Caliphate’ (in Syria and Iraq) and the “responsibility” of Muslims to fight for ‘Caliph’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the IS. Wordpress took the blog down after complaints from Indian security agencies. It reappeared last month as muhajiraun2016, but vanished again after the Kanakamala arrest. Ashabul Haqq is a Facebook page which also has pro-IS posts. One article on the page says it’s obligatory for Muslims to go to the ‘Caliphate’. Another one slams Muslim organisations in Kerala for not taking up arms and fighting the “opponents of true religion”. Yet another post, titled “Shed a Kafir’s blood”, says “unless there’s no peace agreement with Muslims, a Kafir’s (non-Muslim) life and property won’t be protected”. Yunus Saleem, Amir Ali, Abdullah Ibn Abdullah are some other Facebook accounts that have declared loyalty to Baghdadi and spread IS propaganda in Malayalam.

Even when Muslim youth went missing from Kasaragod and Palakkad districts of Kerala a few months ago, investigation agencies and Muslim organisations had claimed that they were drawn to extreme ideas through online groups. The IS has over the years built an online ecosystem to draw people into its fold and inspire others to carry out terror attacks, from around the world. The number of Indians believed to have joined the IS ranks is low compared with other nationalities. According to a December 2015 report by The Soufan Group, a U.S.-based private intelligence company, some 40-50 Indians are expected to have joined the IS in Iraq and Syria, compared to 330 from Pakistan and 250 from the United States. “The number of people getting inspired by these extremist ideas may be very few. But still, it’s happening among a few Muslim youth. We can’t live in denial,” says N. Ali Abdullah, secretary, Kerala Muslim Jamaath, the mass organisation of the “A.P. Sunni” faction led by Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar.

Innocent or guilty?

The NIA has so far arrested at least 25 Indians only in south India for alleged IS connections. In June this year, the agency arrested 11 people from Hyderabad and later let off four of them as there was no evidence. The Kanakamala incident is the latest crackdown on “IS-linked modules”. Asked if the NIA version would sustain in court, Kaleeswaram Raj, an advocate practising in the Supreme Court, says, “In general, when the UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] is invoked, the judiciary takes it very seriously since national security is involved. The accused will be put under stringent judicial scrutiny,” adding, “but we should also keep in mind that it’s a draconian law. And draconian laws such as TADA [Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act], POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) or UAPA have a history of being misused and several individuals in the past have been victimised.”

“We can’t just accept the police version as it is,” says P. Koya, editor-in-chief of Thejas, “We have seen police cases related to terror crumble in the court several times in the past. We should wait till the court finds them guilty before arriving at a judgment on the accused.”

Reasons for radicalisation

But for the Muslim organisations in Kerala, the real problem lies beyond this specific case. “Why is that the youth are being attracted to these extreme ideas? Because they don’t learn what real Islam is. They don’t understand the message of mercy and forgiveness which the Prophet showed,” says Ali Abdullah, who’s also the managing editor of Siraj, the Malayalam newspaper of the AP Sunni faction. Sitting in the dimly lit air-conditioned conference room in the ground floor of the Samastha Islamic Centre, the Kozhikode office of the AP Sunni faction, Ali Abdullah speaks of the virtues of Islam and the dangers of radicalisation that Muslim youth face. “Those who got arrested, or those who get inspired by IS-like ideologies, may not have any direct link with any of the organisations here. But clearly there are ideological links between these youngsters and Salafi groups and political Islamists such as Jamaat-e-Islami [Hind],” he says.

Salafism is a conservative reform movement within Sunni Islam which urges its followers to emulate Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers. The Mujahid movement in Kerala, spearheaded by Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, is a Salafi movement. Jamaat-e-Islami, on the other side, is a political Islamist organisation founded by Pakistani religious scholar and Imam Maulana Ala Maududi.

There’s little consensus among Kerala’s Muslim organisations on the cause for radicalisation. The conventional sociological theory that poverty and lack of education breed extremism has been called into question by the recent cases. The people who went missing from Kasaragod and Palakkad are highly educated and hail from well-off families. Those arrested from Kanakamala are also from middle-class families. In an earlier interview, O. Abdurahman, editor of Madhyamam, the newspaper run by the Jamaat-e-Islami, said the problem is the textual interpretation of Islam which Salafis do. But there’s a large spectrum of people, from Ali Abdullah of the AP Sunni faction to K.M. Shaji, an MLA of the Indian Union Muslim League, the largest Muslim political party in Kerala which has the backing of the E.K. Sunni faction, who believe Jamaat-e-Islami’s “extremist” ideals are also influencing the youth negatively.

Asked if there’s an alarming trend of radicalisation among the Muslim youth, Shaji says that’s not the case. “But at the same time, the community has to remain vigilant. There is extremism. It can’t be called spiritual extremism as there’s no extremism in spirituality. The problem is imbibing religion madly,” he says. “This problem can’t be solved by the government and investigating agencies alone. Only responsible Muslim organisations can address the real issue of radicalisation,” he adds.

With Ananth M.K. in Coimbatore and Marri Ramu in Hyderabad.

Keywords: Islamic State, Kerala, National Investigation Agency, Kanakamala, Manseed, Kerala’s Muslim organisations, radicalisation, Muslim youth

Source: The Hindu, 22-10-2016

TISS students chafe at increased surveillance

Ankita Bhatkande





Students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences have raised concerns over the increasing number of restrictions and security on the campus after the institute decided to bring in a biometric system for marking attendance from the next semester.In a letter sent to the institute management, students expressed concerns over the `increasing surveillance' in the form of the biometric attendance system that will be introduced from the next semester, more security guards and needing to obtain permissions from various government organisations to bring guests on campus.
The students' letter, a copy of which is with Mirror, stated that the increased surveillance served two purposes: to clear the path for privatisation of the institute and to control the movements and activities of the students.
The letter also stated, “When the University Grants Commission issued security guidelines which included installation of CCTV cameras, biometric identification for marking attendance of students in classes and hostels, setting up police stations inside the university campus, and having a `Student Counselling System' through which parents, teachers, and hostel wardens can exchange information about the `personal details of students, academic record, and behaviour patterns' TISS's response was that we have already been following these guidelines! Then, this semester we received a notification for procedures to be followed for inviting guest speakers wherein students need to not just inform the administration but also the local police, Crime Branch and other government intelligence organizations.“
Students said that such restrictions would not go down well. An internal survey revealed that 66 per cent of students did not want such security measures on campus. “We have asked the administration to consult us or at least take us in confidence before imposing such restrictions,“ one stu dent said.
Some TISS students also posted this message on Facebook: “We, as students of TISS, must come together and fight these attempts of the administration to sabotage and control activities and movements of students. This should be seen as part of larger scheme to promote privatisation and Brahminisation of higher education institutions. We must claim our democratic right to educate, agitate and organize and be part of the larger struggles for creating a more egalitarian and just society.“
In September, Mirror reported about how students, in the middle of a gender-sensitisation week, found themselves confronted with the very misogyny they were trying to fight after a blank poster put up on the campus for students to write about their experiences of sexual harassment had the following scribbled in bold, red script: “Sexism is an accusation sluts level against dissenting voices for recognising that a slut is a slut.“
Students said that since then, instead of looking at the larger issue of sexism and discrimination, the authorities have only hired more security guards. “There is surveillance at every step,“ a female student said, on the condition of anonymity. “Why doesn't the institute focus on real problems like scholarships and sensitivity training?“ While asked about the students' concerns, professor Shalini Bharat, deputy director, (Academics), TISS said that the biometric system was only to mark attendance and would not be linked to any database. “The acting director has constituted a committee to look into all the concerns and issues regarding the proposed biometric system. A decision on the process of implementation will be reached by a five-member committee comprising the deputy director (Academics), the registrar, a senior professor and two student representatives.No decision will be taken without the approval of this committee. The institute shall not give the data to any third party. At the end of the final semester, the fingerprint data will be deleted and that process will be overseen by the committee,“ Bharat said.

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 22-10-2016

Look For The Causes Of Suffering

Talk: Osho





Dostoevsky's statement, “In suffering look for happiness“, will appeal to many people be cause many are suffering. And one can tolerate suffering only if one goes on looking for happiness; if not today then tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.Suffering can be tolerated only through hope. Then one can suffer his whole life, just looking for happiness.Being impressed by Dostoevsky's statement is dangerous. One should not look for happiness but look for the causes of suffering, because that is the way to come out of suffering. And the moment you are out of suffering there is happiness. You can wait for infinity and happiness will not come to you, unless you destroy the causes of suffering.
I would say, “In suffering look for the causes of suffering.“ Jealousy, anger, inferiority complex ­ what is causing these? And the miracle is: if you can go into your suffering as a meditation, watching, to the deepest roots of it, just through watching, it disappears. You don't have to do anything more than watching. If you have found the authentic cause by your watching, suffering will disappear; and if it is not disappearing, that means you are not watching deep enough.
So it is a very simple process and with a criterion: if your watching is deep enough ... just the way you pull out a plant to look at its roots, it dies, because the roots outside the earth cannot t survive. Suffering can exist only if its roots remain in the unconscious of your being. Happiness has not to be found somewhere else; it was always with you, but the cloud of suffering was covering it. Happiness is our nature. For suffering you have to make much effort, for happiness you don't have to make any effort. Just stop making the effort to create suffering.
In fact, everything of authentic value is achieved by relaxation, by silence, by joy . The idea of sacrifice and hard work will create more suffering for you. But once the idea gets settled in your mind, your mind will go on telling you that you are suffering because you are not working hard enough, that your sacrifice is not total.
Hard work is needed to create things. Sacrifice is needed when you have something of value, truth, love, enlightenment.
Sacrifice is not in finding the truth; sacrifice is when you have found it ­ then you will be in trouble. Sacrifice is not in finding when you have found it you will love, but when you have found it you will be in trouble. Then either compromise or sacrifice. Cowards compromise. People who have guts sacrifice ­ but sacrifice is not a means to attain anything.
Dostoevsky lived miserably and has always written that existence has no meaning, no significance, that it is accidental, that there is nothing to find ­ no truth, no love, no joy. All his conclusions are wrong. But the man was tremendously capable, a great genius. Even if he writes things which are wrong, he writes with such art and such beauty that millions of people have been influenced by him.
The danger is: words can be beautiful and the message can be poison. His insights are deep ­ to find more suffering and misery in life. He is determined in all his works to prove that life is an exercise of utter futility.He influenced the contemporary philosophical movement of existentialism ­ he became a pioneer.