The Inclusive Nationalist

Sensitive to Hindu interests, Lala Lajpat Rai championed diversity in unity

In recent years, champions of Hindutva have claimed Lala Lajpat Rai as their own. Indisputably, Lajpat Rai was an advocate of an assertive Hindu politics, exemplified by his participation in the Punjab Hindu Sabha in 1909 and Hindu Mahasabha in the mid-1920s. Even then, his vision of Hindu politics was very different from the exclusivist Hindu nationalism that demanded that either India’s religious minorities be forcefully assimilated into Hindu culture or be excluded from the nation.

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Here I focus on Lajpat Rai’s attempt to go further and articulate an entirely different vision of nationhood. His birthday today is a good opportunity to remember this vision, articulated exactly a century ago. Having earlier conceived of Hindus and Muslims as separate “religious nationalities”, by 1915, he proclaimed that “religious nationalism” was a “false idea”, embodying a “narrow sectarianism” which could never be “truly national”. “Religion was a matter of individual faith,” he proclaimed, which “must not interfere with the common civil life of the country”. Instead, every person must transcend their religious community to realise their larger common interest as Indians. Lajpat Rai had fulsome praise for the 1915 speech of the Muslim League president, Mazharul Haq, who declared that “when a question concerning the welfare of India and of justice to India arises, I am not only Indian first, but an Indian next, and an Indian to the last”.

What made the diverse people inhabiting India one common nation? Lajpat Rai argued that India’s natural geography brilliantly marked it off from the rest of the world, endowing its people with a common nationhood. At times, he pronounced that Indians — whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Parsi — were a common race. He argued that Indian Muslims were descendants of the Aryan race who had merely converted to Islam — they continued to be influenced by their ancestral Aryan-Hindu culture. However problematic or mythical, his emphasis on the Aryan lineage of Indian Muslims sought to establish their indigeneity to India, challenging those who used the trope of Indian Muslims’ foreign descent to exclude them from definitions of the national community.

At other times, Lajpat Rai did not hesitate to repudiate the idea of the common Aryan race of Hindus and Muslims. He dismissed the idea that nations of the world comprised of single pure races to proudly proclaim that the Hindus, Muslims and Christians of India were a “racial mix-up”. “The Mussulman descendants of Persian, Afghan, Turkaman, Mogul and Arab invaders have a great deal of Aryan blood in their veins and the Hindu descendants of the Aryans have a great deal of Mongolian blood,” he said. But this racial heterogeneity did not disprove Indian nationhood.

He sometimes ceased speaking of a common Hindu culture to talk of a larger distinctive Indian culture that bound India’s diverse peoples, emphasising a notion that would become a standard slogan of the Nehruvian era: “Unity in Diversity”. He also argued that Indians must develop for themselves a pluralist public national culture. This was evident in his claim that since “national festivals are the milestones on the road to national life. Hindus and Muslims would do well to take part in each other’s festivals and religious ocaasions like Basant Panchami, Baisakhi, Dussehra, Diwali, Muharram and Shab-e-Barat” .

In his 1918 book, The Problem of National Education, Lajpat Rai insisted that “we modern Indians can be as well proud of a Hali, an Iqbal, a Mohani as of Tagore, Roy and Harishchandra. We are proud of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as of Ram Mohan Roy and Dayanand”. Similarly, he insisted that “the educated Mussulman does not withhold his admiration from the religious, philosophic, and epic literature of India, just as the educated Hindu reckons the Taj and Fatehpur Sikri among the glories, not of Muslim but of Indian architecture”. For the Lajpat Rai of these years, Akbar was a role model whose memory ought to inspire Hindus and Muslims “in building the future national edifice in such a way as to combine not just the best of the two cultures, but also the best of the new one, that has since been born in the West, from which India is drawing copiously”.

Lajpat Rai’s embrace of diversity as a crucial ingredient of national culture was evident in his strong aversion to the imposition of a homogenous culture on the Indian nation. He declared: “To require India to coalesce into a nation with one religion and one tongue… would revive the medieval idea of one empire, one people, one church.” Even after Lajpat Rai turned to the Hindu Mahasabha for numerous complicated reasons, he never renounced his commitment to India’s religio-cultural diversity. Lajpat Rai shows that a politics sensitive to the interests of Hindus can be free of a “tyrannical” desire to impose religio-cultural homogeneity on the nation.

Since we seem to still be wrestling with these issues, is not Lajpat Rai’s birthday an apt occasion to contemplate his complex normative vision?

The writer has a D.Phil in history from Oxford University. Her dissertation was on Lajpat Rai’s nationalist thought

Source: Indian Express, 28.01.2019

A clean environment will be our best gift to posterity

We have already compromised a lot on the prospects of the future generations to live in a healthy environment.

Early this year, Oxfam reported that the richest 10% of India’s population owns 73% of its wealth. As the graph of earnings of the rich climbed, and as the residence of the richest Indian was aiming at the sky, the poorest half of Indians was struggling, with a mere 1% growth. It is in the backdrop of this glaring disparity, that we have to read Robbie Andrew’s (CICERO Center for International Climate Research, Norway) comment that India’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions grew by an estimated 4.6% in 2017, despite it being a turbulent year for its economy. India’s emissions are low at 1.8 tonnes of CO2 per capita, compared to the world average of 4.2 tonnes, but it is a growing economy with an increasingly urbanising population. Andrew makes an interesting observation that demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had noticeable effects on the economy and, therefore, on emissions, in the first eight months of 2017. Two contributing factors to this decline were the reduction in the consumption of petroleum products and the decline in cement production.

As one of the world’s largest economies, China ranks the highest in CO2 production. It is also the world leader in the fight against climate change, through its energy efficient green buildings and technological innovations and adaptations. According to China’s official news agency, its carbon intensity fell 5.1% in 2017 compared to the previous year. Its plans include commissioning eight large scale, carbon capture storage facilities, following the “Climate Works”, a Switzerland-based company that works on technologies for carbon footprint reduction. Their commercial plant, the first in the world, established in Hinwil was commissioned in May 2017. The plant removes 900 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by passing it through a proprietary filter. This gas is then fed to nearby greenhouses with 20% increase in the yield of crops such as lettuce.

India was ranked as the third highest CO2 emitter in the world in 2015 after China and the US by the International Energy Agency. It has pledged under the Paris Agreement to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 33-35% by 2030. As a leading destination for private sector players in clean technology sectors, India is committed to achieve the renewable energy commitments made for the Paris Agreement, having created a 13-gigawatt-plus market for solar energy and the fourth largest wind power market in the world. However, if India is to lead climate change initiatives, it has to make more investments in technologies such as carbon capture. Developed nations are discussing several strategies for reducing carbon. These include higher efficiency at the coal-fired power plants, expanding the use of wind, solar, or other low/zero emitting alternatives, increasing energy efficiency in homes and businesses, and more. Steps suggested at the societal and individual levels are lifestyle related- energy efficient homes, solid waste reduction/recycling, choice transportation etc. Of course all this points to a sustainable style of living for generations to come.

One of my favourite definitions of sustainability is: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Our Common Future, a Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development). A few years ago, an elderly friend of mine, who lives in a plush area in Delhi, stayed at my home in Bangalore. Her stay at Bangalore was to relive two sights that she loves most: a starry night and a blue sky. Still possible to do both in Bangalore, perhaps not as spectacularly as she must have done in her youth. I asked her what our grandchildren would do and she replied sadly, “They will never miss this, as they would not have a chance to see them in the first place.” We have already compromised a lot on the prospects of the future generations to live in a healthy environment, to be able to breathe good air and drink pure water, or watch blue skies and starry nights. As political parties wrestle for power, let this be a pledge, an obligation to posterity: a clean and healthy environment.

Kusala Rajendran is professor at the Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India

Source: Hindustan Times, 28/01/2019

Intuition And Insight

Albert Einstein discovered the law of relativity in a flash of intuitive insight; it was only years later that he was able to justify his discovery logically to other scientists. The same is true of most scientific hypotheses: First comes intuition, which conceives them. Only then comes the painstaking process of reasoning it out persuasively for others. Logic itself is a more intuitive process than most people realise. At every stage of the reasoning process one is faced with numerous alternative directions. When people think of pure consciousness, they usually visualise an abstract mental state like “the cosmic ground of being”. The state they contemplate, in other words, is one from which feeling is totally absent. To attempt to be unfeeling in one’s search is to dull one’s awareness. Feeling is as intrinsic to awareness as heat is to fire. Calm feeling is intuition. When that calm feeling is disturbed, it becomes emotion. Calm feeling is like a lake without ripples; emotion is like ripples appearing on the surface of the lake, that change the appearance of whatever is reflected there. Until clarity of feeling is achieved, the meditator will be forever vacillating in purpose. Wisdom, without devotion, is like knowing that there is a good restaurant next door, and even committing its entire menu to memory, but not being hungry enough to go there and eat. Feeling is what makes it possible to commit oneself to the spiritual search.

Source: Economic Times, 28/01/2019

Bad news for girls: Sex ratio at birth plunges in south

Kerala Is Lone State To Buck Alarming Trend

Abysmal sex ratios have generally been associated with states like Haryana and Punjab. However, the data for 2007 to 2016 on sex ratio at birth, an indication of which way the sex ratio will move in coming years, shows that southern states barring Kerala have witnessed some of the most dramatic drops. Data collated by the office of the Registrar General of India from the civil registration system (CRS) showed that in 2016, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan had the worst sex ratio at birth (SRB) of 806. Tamil Nadu was sixth from the bottom with its ratio falling from 935 in 2007 to 840, compared with the all-India figure of 877. In Karnataka, it fell from 1,004 to 896. In Telangana, it fell from 954 in 2013, when the state was formed, to 881. Since most of these states have achieved near 100% registration of births, the low ratios cannot be because large numbers of female births aren’t getting registered. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, the drop to 806 in 2016 from 971 the previous year does seem abnormal. LN Prema Kumari, joint director of census operations in Andhra, said the sudden fall was due to the confusion created by the bifurcation of population between Andhra and Telangana. However, the bifurcation happened in 2013 and the data from then till 2015 does not show any sharp variations though the data for both states see-saws over the years. Also, in 2016 both states have witnessed a fall in the ratio. Tamil Nadu had dropped steadily from an SRB of 939 in 2006 to an all-time low of 818 in 2015. Compared to that, 840 in 2016, though lower than even Haryana’s 865, was an improvement. Since 2011, the state’s SRB has been lower than the all-India one. In Karnataka too, ever since 2011, when it achieved 98% birth registration and an SRB of 983, the ratio has steadily declined. ‘Fall in sex ratio due to registration system’ Sabu George, an activist who has worked for decades on the issue of falling sex ratios, explained that while declining sex ratios in southern states were a worry and a reality, they seem to be too low in 2016. “I think there is a problem in the birth registration system in some districts in these states, which is pulling the overall ratio down,” he said. This analysis by TOI does not consider the smaller states and Union territories since the number of births in these are too small for any firm conclusions. Between 2007 and 2016, states which earlier had extremely low sex ratios at birth such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, have improved, with Delhi and Assam showing the most significant jump from 848 to 902 and from 834 to 888 respectively. But many others like West Bengal, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Goa are slipping downwards.
 In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the SRB fell from 924 to 837 and from 930 to 885 respectively. With just 60% birth registration, these numbers may not give an accurate picture. But anecdotally sex selection is leading to lower ratios in these states too. Madhya Pradesh too had just about 75% registration of births.

Source: Times of India, 28/01/2019

Are we undermining our scientific temper?

Science funding is inadequate and science management is problematic

There was much angst early this month about the disgraceful remarks that have been over the last few years at the Indian Science Congress (ISC) meetings, to the point where even the organisers felt the need to take a stand. This is unfortunate because the ISC has traditionally been a forum for scientists from all parts of the country to present their work. It is a forum where research that is grounded in rationality has always been given a hearing, even if it did not make it to peer-reviewed journals. The vast majority of Indian educational institutes actively discourage learning, not to mention research, and the ISC is the only venue where scientists meet their peers and get affirmation of their work. It is truly a shame that a handful have brought disrepute to the entire Indian science community, particularly to those at less favoured institutes who, if nothing else, spread scientific temper through their own actions to the broader community.

Nehru and scientific temper

The broader question to be answered here is whether the nation is undermining its scientific temper. The British understood that scientific temper would result in a questioning of their rule and preferred to keep their subjects subservient. It was only after Independence that the need for scientific temper was considered to be important. It was even felt that scientific temper should be protected as a fundamental duty. For Jawaharlal Nehru, scientific temper did not mean that everyone had to study science; rather, it was a way of thinking, a way to break the hold of superstitions by applying rationality and thought. Educational structures in ondependent India were to spearhead the transition of the nation from a people stifled by the medieval darkness of the British to a people united in the pursuit of knowledge and a search that would bring prosperity in its wake.

Superstitions hold

Unfortunately, the vision of the giants of our freedom struggle foundered in a morass of mediocrity. Even those educated in the best institutes in the country never lost their superstitions. They studied modern science, used modern devices, achieved material prosperity and yet held the most regressive views. ‘God-men’ catering to the educated middle class have used the power of the media and social media to spread their superstitions and broadcast messages that should have been laughed at by those at the kindergarten level.

It is now not only acceptable but fashionable for public figures to utter scientific nonsense. For instance, the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University, who represents the academics of not just his university but the country, feels no shame in talking about test tube babies in India’s ancient history at the ISC. This man holds important roles in the science hierarchy and yet no one in authority finds the necessity to comment on this, let alone punish him. Even the science academies are silent. One may easily conclude that scientific temper is not important to the government and, perhaps even more tellingly, to scientists.

It is hard to know how to reverse this deterioration in scientific temper. While the Chinese are on the far side of the moon, Indians are busy treating cancer with cow urine and looking to the past for modern fighter jets.

Changing facts

Funding for science is inadequate, the management of science is problematic, and the university system has failed. Teaching has become a political game in schools, with facts changing according to the government of the day. A few brave organisations, such as the Breakthrough Science Society (of which I am a part), are trying to break the chains of superstition, but they are lonely voices in the wilderness.

Source: The Hindu, 25/01/2019

An inside problem

Household air pollution is the invisible factor increasing ambient air pollution

The problem of air pollution and its ill-effects on people has gained significant traction in the media, largely driven by the abysmal air quality in Delhi and the dubious honour of Indian cities repeatedly topping global air pollution charts. Naturally, this has led the conversation to be primarily about ambient air pollution (AAP), particularly in urban areas. In turn, this has turned the spotlight on issues such as emissions from transport, crop burning, road dust, burning of waste and industries large and small.

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However, this discourse leaves out the single largest source of air pollution — the pollution from our homes. Burning of solid fuels such as firewood and dung-cakes, mainly for cooking, results in emissions of fine particulate matter and form by far the single largest source of air pollution in the country. Various pieces of evidence underscore this fact.

Given the scepticism in some circles about the validity of such evidence based on its source, it is important to state that this evidence mostly comes from Indian studies, often involving some agency of the government of India.

First, various studies point out that the single largest cause of AAP is actually household air pollution (HAP). According to a 2018 international study led by many reputed researchers including five Indians titled “Burden of disease attributable to major air pollution sources in India”, 11 lakh deaths were attributable to AAP in 2015. Of this, as many as 2.6 lakh were due to HAP. A 2015 report of the Steering Committee on Air Pollution and Health Related Issues available on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s website, (henceforth MoHFW, 2015), reached a similar conclusion that about 26 per cent of particulate matter AAP was caused due to combustion of solid fuels in households.

Second, HAP is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the country on its own. The MoHFW, 2015 report states that HAP by itself, that is apart from its 26 per cent contribution to AAP, contributed to about 10 lakh deaths in 2010 and is the second biggest health risk factor in India (in comparison, AAP was seventh). A 2017 study spearheaded by the Indian Council of Medical Research titled “India: Health of the Nation’s States” found that the five leading causes of mortality and morbidity in India are, respectively, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infection and stroke, of which there is strong and quantifiable evidence linking

HAP to four with diarrhoeal diseases being the exception. In other words, the overall, total health impacts attributable to HAP are more than half the health impacts attributable to air pollution. Therefore, there is a strong case to be made for tackling HAP on a war footing: This requires households to predominantly use fuels that burn cleanly, because even partial use of solid fuels can have significant health impacts.

On the policy and programme front, a scheme such as Ujjwala for providing LPG connections recognises this challenge and represents an important first step to tackle the problem, though it needs to be strengthened to improve affordability and reliability of supply.

However, addressing this challenge requires going beyond Ujjwala. In a country as large and diverse as India, LPG need not be the only solution to address this problem and consumers should be given a wider choice of clean-burning options. Demand-side interventions to encourage people to switch to cleaner options, in order to address any behavioural or cultural barriers, and, to track HAP and associated health impacts, are also critical.

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This requires a coordinated strategy involving multiple government agencies and programmes. It also requires setting well-defined targets for HAP and its associated health impacts, and having systems to monitor and publish them. Since mitigating the health impact of air pollution is the primary motive, this initiative could be anchored in the Ministry of Health, as indeed was recommended in MoHFW, 2015.If we really want to breathe clean air outside, we need to look inside our homes, particularly our hearths, first. We need to address the challenge within.

Source: Indian Express, 25/01/2019

We cannot aim to be global without an active interest in India’

Laurie Pearcey, pro-vice-chancellor of Sydney’s University of New South Wales, discusses the India centre at New Delhi, and his many visits to the country.

At 33, Laurie Pearcey is the youngest pro-vice-chancellor in Australian higher education. And he has his hands full. Part of his job involves attracting at least 4,000 Indian students to the university by 2025, under the university’s global impact strategy.

He’s had some experience – Pearcey has previously facilitated youth engagement between Australia and its Asian partners. Laurie was selected as a delegate to the 2018 Australia-India Youth Dialogue and sits on the advisory board of the Australia-China Youth Association. There have been surprises along the way too. Pearcey discusses setting up the university’s India centre at New Delhi, his many visits to the country, and discovering that we’re friendlier than he’d imagined.

What does an India centre mean for students and your institution?

The University of New South Wales had been active in India for 11 years now. Our flagship centre in George Institute, New Delhi, is our hub for knowledge exchange. We will invite international researchers, professors and academicians for discussion panels.

With the guidance of experts in the sector, many students will be recruited to work on our research projects. Our faculty at the centre will reach out to companies for tie-ups and undertaking research in their field. We are also collaborating with Indian universities to facilitate our mission. We also intend to hold student exchange programmes through the centre.

Which Indian universities have you collaborated with?

Our faculty members are actively working on projects with the Manipal Institute of Technology, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, and the IITs in Delhi, Bombay and Madras. Students from these universities work on research papers in fields ranging from engineering and public health policy to green energy and innovation in global planning.

How many Indian students currently study at UNSW? do you have programmes where our students can participate remotely as well?

We cannot be a global university if we are not active and focussed in India. We have 21,000 international students and 1,200 of them are Indians. Our ‘Future of Change’ scholarships have been of great help to students from India and China. This year, we awarded scholarships of $5,000 to $10,000 to 61 students, including a full fee waiver for a Bengaluru medical graduate to pursue a two-year public health programme. In this digital world, students need not travel all the way from India to our college campus. We have many online certificate courses and a Masters in public health.

In the last three years, you have travelled to India 11 times. What have your experiences been like?

I did not know what to expect in India, honestly. I had heard that things don’t always work by the system - be it a small business or the government. But I was proved wrong by the thriving startup ecosystem. I also got interested in the extraordinary history and diverse cultures the country has fostered through the years.

Source: Hindustan Times, 24/01/2019