No Need To Grieve

Steve Jobs once said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.” Death, indeed, is one of the worst fears we harbour either consciously or subconsciously, despite knowing that once we are born, death is certain. Birth and death are two sides of the same coin. The Bhagwad Gita emphasises this aspect when it talks about Sankhya Yoga. If we dive deep into this aspect, we would realise that we are not afraid of death per se, but concerned about the element of uncertainty surrounding it. It is the unexpectedness coupled with suddenness that leaves us shattered, and more so if we are emotionally attached to the person. If death is expected for known reasons like old age, a terminal illness or some such reason, then we are mentally prepared and to that extent there is lesser element of surprise. Krishna, therefore, advises Arjuna that the “wise grieve neither for the dead nor the living”, because the “spirit never dies and hence rebirth is certain for the dead”. The type of rebirth, however, depends on our karmic account, which, in turn, depends on the quality of karmas, or actions, performed by us during the course of our lives. That’s how “some people die while they live, whereas others live even after they are dead”. Says the Dalai Lama, if we wish to die well, we must learn how to live well. Hoping for a peaceful death, we must cultivate peace in our mind and the way of our life.

Source: Economic Times, 4/03/2020

UN: World still violent, biased place for girls

One In 20 Girls Aged 15-19 Faced Rape In Lifetime

Despite gains in education, the world is still a violent, highly discriminatory place for girls, according to a new report released by Unicef, Plan International and UN Women ahead of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday. The report, “A New Era for Girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress”, underlined, among others disturbing trends, that despite the number of out-of-school girls having dropped by 79 million in the last two decades, one in every 20 girls aged 15-19 — around 13 million — has faced rape in their lifetime. In south Asia, while the report notes that the practice of child marriage has almost halved in the last 25 years, 30% of girls are still married before they reach their 18th birthday. The report found prevalence of ‘overweight’ among girls aged 5-19 nearly doubled touching 155 million from 75 million in 1995 due to negative trends for girls in nutrition and suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15-19. While girls became more likely to be in secondary school than boys in just the last decade, violence and harmful practices against women and girls was the harsh other reality. Around one in five adolescent girls aged 15 and 19 in South Asia who have been married or lived with a partner, have experienced intimate partner violence. “...While the world has mustered political will to send girls to school, it has come up embarrassingly short on equipping them with skills and support they need not only to shape their own destinies, but to live in safety and dignity,” said Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore. Girls are at risk of violence in every space — both online and in classrooms, home and community — leading to physical, psychological and social consequences. The report says harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation continue to damage lives and potential of millions of girls.

Source: Times of India, 4/03/2020

Quote of the Day

February 28, 2020

“Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”

‐ Plato

“माता पिता अपने बच्चों को उत्तरदान में धन दौलत नहीं, बल्कि श्रद्धा की भावना दें।”

‐ प्लेटो

The Indian Economic & Social History Review: Table of Contents

Volume 57 Issue 1, January–March 2020

Modernity and ‘publicness’: The career of the Mysore matha, 1880–1940 Janaki Nair First Published January 2, 2020; pp. 5–29 Abstract Preview |

Long-distance trade in ancient India: Evidence from Kauṭilya’sArthaśāstra Patrick Olivelle First Published January 2, 2020; pp. 31–47 Abstract Preview |

Descending from demons, ascending to kshatriyas: Genealogical claims and political process in pre-modern Northeast India, The Chutiyas and the Dimasas Jae-Eun Shin First Published December 22, 2019; pp. 49–75 Abstract Preview |

Styles of mastery of a Calcutta Brahman family: Krishnachandra Ghoshal’s pilgrimage to Gaya, Kashi and Prayag, 1769, in Vijayram Sen’s Ti-rthaman.gala David L. Curley First Published February 25, 2020; pp. 77–123 Abstract Preview |

Book Reviews

Book review: Vasudha Dalmia, Fiction as History: The Novel and the City in Modern North India Prabhat Kumar First Published February 25, 2020; pp. 125–127 Abstract Preview |

Book review: Sunil Sharma, Mughal Arcadia: Persian Literature in an Indian Court Anubhuti Maurya First Published February 25, 2020; pp. 127–129 Abstract Preview |

Book review: Aishwary Kumar, Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi, and the Risk of Democracy Santosh Kumar Rai First Published February 25, 2020; pp. 129–133 Abstract Preview |

Setting the Record Straight

British writer Hallie Rubenhold’s latest book tells the story of the five victims of Jack the Ripper.

Underneath the jacket of Hallie Rubenhold’s latest book, The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, the names of five women are printed — Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly — the canonical victims of the unidentified serial killer, who brutally murdered them in and around the Whitechapel district in London in 1888. It is by design, she says, as we sit down for a quick chat in the midst of sessions at the recently-concluded Zee Jaipur Literature Festival. “Over the past 131 years, there’s been such a fascination with the murderer. So much time and effort has been invested in finding out the minutest details of these horrific crimes and yet not much was done to find out who these women really were,” says Rubenhold, who has upset ‘Ripperologists’ with her devastating deep dive into the other side of the horrific killings that continue to captivate lovers of true crime the world over.

“Ripperologists focus on the last days or the final hours of these women; the newspapers of the time were quick to paint them with the same brush and say they were all prostitutes. When I started my research, I failed to see evidence that three of the five were sex workers at all,” says Rubenhold. Identifying the women as such was easy for the police, the papers, for Victorian society at large, for the idea of a woman’s work is intrinsically tied to her worth; the killings were an event that single-handedly vilified sex work, a profession that serves men the most.

Rubenhold describes herself as a “social historian” interested in the lives of ordinary people, especially women in the UK. “How women lived in any particular time will tell you what you need to know about society. For this book, I had to peel back all the conspiracy theories and locate primary sources of information such as birth and death certificates, marriage certificates, census and workhouse records. Poor women, as these women were, have a very narrow range of possibilities in their lives — it helped me trace their journey. The inquests that were held were like morality trials — held not tWinner of the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction, The Five is Rubenhold’s bold attempt to not only rewrite a sordid history, but also claim a sliver of dignity for the victims. From Jack the Ripper tours in Whitechapel to Hollywood fare like From Hell, the deaths of the five have been capitalised to no end. “The tours have been there since the first murder — these women die over and over again, for entertainment and commerce. The best ammunition to fight those lies is knowledge and an awakening of empathy. I want my book to be the antidote to that venom,” she says.

The London-based writer is now working on her next book, another true crime story that became the biggest newspaper headline in 1910. “It’s about the Crippen murder: Dr Hawley Crippen, an American quack medic, murdered his wife, dressed as a boy and ran off with his secretary, and boarded a ship to Canada. He was caught, brought back and tried for murder and he was hanged. The trial was extraordinary, because nobody could understand how this meek little man could kill a woman much larger than him — she must have ‘asked for it’. But the most incredible thing about this story is how 25 women brought this case to court, helped to catch him, and have him prosecuted. It’s a story of women’s empowerment at the turn of the century, and unsurprisingly, it has been erased,” says Rubenhold.o ascertain the cause of death but to find out if these women merited their deaths,” she says.

Source: Indian Express, 28/02/2020

Passport online application: How to apply for passport online

For the documents, applicants can submit their Aadhaar card, birth certificate, PAN card with date of birth or transfer/school leaving/matriculation certificate with their DoB as a proof of their birth date.

With the Ministry of External Affairs’ scheme that allows application of passport from anywhere in India, it has become very easy for a person to apply and get the passport.

The scheme, which was launched in June last year on the occasion of the Sixth Passport Seva Diwas, helps a person to apply for a passport from anywhere in India by choosing the Regional Passport Office (RPO) and their desired Passport Seva Kendra (PSK)/Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) under the RPO where they wish to submit their application.

For the documents, applicants can submit their Aadhaar card, birth certificate, PAN card with date of birth or traHere’s how you can apply for a new passport online:

STEP 1: Open the passportindia.gov.in page and select the ‘Ordinary Passport’ option in their Online Services portal.

STEP 2: Once you open the page, instructions to submit an online form will be given. Click on the ‘Register Now’ option.

STEP 3: Once you click on it, it will direct you to a page in which relevant information about the applicant needs to be filled. Fill the information and register yourself. Once registered, login with the given ID and password.

STEP 4: When you are logged in, click on the Apply for New Passport link and make sure that you never held a passport of the applied category.

STEP 5: Fill the required details as per the form and click on submit.

STEP 6: Further, click on the ‘Pay and Schedule Appointment’. When you click on this, you will be directed to a page where you can choose the mode in which payment can be done. Online payments are mandatory for booking appointments at any Passport Seva Kendra/Passport Office.

Step 7: You can either click on the ‘Print Application Receipt’ and carry the print-out to the Passport Office or an SMS with your appointment details sent to your registered number will be accepted as a proof of your appointment at the Passport Office.

Step 8: Visit the Passport Office where the appointment is made, with all your original documents for verification.

For online submission of form:

Step 1: Download the e-form from the ‘Download e-form’ option available on the homepage.

Step 2: Fill the needed information and click on the ‘Validate and Save’ button. An XML file will be generated which will be uploaded in the system.

Step 3: After generating the file, follow the above mentioned steps in the same way. Start by uploading the XML file in the ‘Upload e-form’ option and proceed to the payment.

Step 4: Visit the Passport Office where the appointment is made, with all your original documents for verification.nsfer/school leaving/matriculation certificate with their DoB as a proof of their birth date.

Source: Indian Express, 13/03/2019

What are Electoral Bonds?

The Finance Bill, 2017 introduced “Electoral bonds” as interest-free bearer instruments (like Promissory Notes) that will be available for purchase from the State Bank of India within a designated window of 10 days in every quarter of the financial year. 

A day after the Congress alleged that electoral bonds have turned out to be a black money recycling and political bribery scheme, the raised the issue in Lok Sabha Thursday, with senior party leader Manish Tewari saying it has made corruption official. On Wednesday, Congress demanded that the government disclose the identity of all donors and reveal in Parliament information regarding donations received by all political parties.

Alleging that the scheme of electoral bonds resulted in money-laundering and destroyed transparency in the funding of political parties, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “What we are talking about today leads straight to the PM’s office. The BJP govt is running 90 per cent of the business in this country with a few industrialists.”

What are electoral bonds?

The Finance Bill, 2017 introduced “Electoral bonds” as interest-free bearer instruments (like Promissory Notes) that will be available for purchase from the State Bank of India within a designated window of 10 days in every quarter of the financial year.  The scheme, which was notified on January 2, 2018, allows individuals and domestic companies to present these bonds — issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore — to political parties of their choice, which have to redeem them within 15 days. Buyers of the bonds have to submit full KYC details at the time of buying. But the beneficiary political party is not required to reveal the identity of the entity that has given it the bond(s).

How will electoral bonds help?

Terming its decision to introduce electoral bonds as “a big step towards electoral reform”, the Centre had told the Supreme Court earlier this year that the process envisaged in acquiring and encasing the bonds “will ensure transparency” and “accountability”.

The Union Finance Ministry had said this in an affidavit filed in response to petitions filed by the CPM and others, who alleged that the bonds, by way of which contributions can be made to political parties, sought to create an anonymous and secretive mechanism for increasing the wealth of parties and brought in unreasonable restrictions on the freedom to know the identity of the contributor.

The move, the Centre had said, was part of a “conscious legislative policy” to further electoral reforms “to defeat the growing menace of black money, especially when the country is moving towards a cashless-digital economy”.

What does the Election Commission think of electoral bonds?

In its affidavit to the Supreme Court filed on March 25, the EC said that “any donation received by a political party through an electoral bond has been taken out of the ambit of reporting under the Contribution Report”, and if information on the money received through such bonds is not reported, “it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation in violation of provisions” of the Representation of the People Act, which “prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government companies and foreign sources”.

The Commission also flagged the issue of laws being changed to allow political parties to receive contributions from foreign companies, which would “allow unchecked foreign funding of political parties in India which could lead to Indian policies being influenced by foreign companies”.

Congress on Electoral bonds 

The Congress demanded on Wednesday that the government must disclose all details about electoral bonds before Parliament. The party claimed that RTI replies have shown that Prime Minister’s Office intervened to open special windows for political donations through electoral bonds before the Karnataka Assembly elections last year.

While the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said RTI replies have shown that rules regarding the scheme were flouted at the PMO’s instance, Randeep Surjewala said, “The electoral bond scheme of the Narendra Modi government is a modus operandi to receive thousands of crores from big business houses through secret donations.”

Source: Indian Express, 21/11/2019