RSS that we do not know (Part II)

http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/History/Achievements.jsp

Much has been said and written about RSS and people take pride in maligning right wing organizations in India in the name of secularism. But we should not overlooked the fact that no other organization is survived over 80 years and still growing. Here is the brief overview about role of RSS during invasions by neighbouring countries on nascently independent nation, which even many swayamsevaks are not aware of!

During 1962 Chinese Invasion

Deep concern for the national sovereignty over every inch of the country has ever remained the life-breath of Sangh all the years. The Indian Government, for the umpteenth time, tried to buy peace with Pakistan by appeasing her with the gift of certain areas in West Bengal. In December 1959, the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal (the All-India Executive Committee) of Sangh warned that "The introduction of a bill to amend the Constitution for transfer of Berubari and other Indian territories to Pakistan is detrimental to our national pride and solidarity." It also urged all members of Parliament "to vindicate their supreme duty of safeguarding the nation's sovereignty by firmly rejecting the suicidal bill and allaying the fears of the people in that regard."

When the Kashmir issue was taken to the UNO, Shri Guruji publicly warned that the step would boomerang and pose serious problems in future for the security and integrity of the country. Again, he was the first public leader to give out the news of illegal occupation by the Chinese of large chunks of our strategic Himalayan borders. In 1960, when Pandit Nehru and Chou-Enlai were jointly touring our country singing the lullaby of "HindiCheeni bhai bhai", Shri Guruji's was the one voice laying bare the dragon's teeth hidden behind that enchanting slogan.

And two years later, when the Chinese openly invaded our territory in 1962, the Swayamsevaks swung into action mobilising support to the governmental measures in general and to the jawans in particular. Pandit Nehru was so much impressed that he invited a Sangh contingent to take part in the Republic Day Parade of 26th January 1963. At a mere two days' notice, over 3,000 Swayamsevaks smartly turned up at the parade in full Sangh uniform. Their massive march, in fact, became the major highlight of the programme. When, later on, some Congressmen raised their eyebrows over the invitation to Sangh, Pandit Nehru brushed aside the objections saying that all patriotic citizens had been invited to join the parade.

During the war, the attitude of labour becomes a crucial factor. When China invaded Bharat, a section of the Communist Party of India proclaimed that Chinese forces were here for 'liberating' Bharat (from capitalist domination). Their leaders like Basavaponnaiah went to the extent of saying that Bharat was the aggressor and had occupied Chinese territory. Their unions were made tools to sabotage or obstruct our defence efforts. Their water-transporting union in the North-Eastern region served a strike notice. Transport of food and other materials to the jawans at the Front was hampered. However, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh decided otherwise. At once it withdrew all agitations by its unions. All the pending demands were put off for the time being. A call was given to workers to give top priority to stepping up defence production and assisting all defence efforts.

The BMS did not stop at that. It decided to end the potentiality for mischief in future by such Trojan horses. In strategic sectors such as defence production, transport, power generation, transmission, etc., special efforts were made. Two decades of such persistent efforts have secured for the BMS federation in the defence sector-the Bharatiya Prati Raksha Mazdoor Sangh- a premier position. BMS is now confident that the leftist unions dare not try their 1962 tactics in the future. So also, in other lifelines of the nation like power generation, road and railway transport, the BMS has established a clear lead over others.

During 1965 Pak Aggression

When Pakistan attacked Bharat in 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Prime Minister, personally rang up Shri Guruji who was then touring Maharashtra and requested him to be in New Delhi for the All-Leaders Conference the following day. At the conference, Shri Guruji extended complete co-operation on behalf of the Sangh. He also urged that the hands of the Indian army should not be tied down to a defensive posture but allowed to evolve its own offensive strategy. At the conference, when one of the representatives, while addressing Shastriji, kept on saying 'your army', Shri Guruji corrected him with a sharp reminder: "Say, 'our army'."

In Delhi, for the entire period of 22 days of war, police duties like traffic control were transferred to Swayamsevaks to free the police for more pressing tasks. Ever since the beginning of war, batches of Swayamsevaks daily reported at the General Military Hospital, Delhi, to offer blood. The military looked upon the Sangh as a friend in need. Whenever they felt the need for any kind of civil assistance they would just ring up the Sangh Karyalaya. When the war was at its peak a military train carrying wounded jawans arrived in Delhi. Hundreds were urgently in need of blood transfusion. The army officers telephoned to the Delhi Sangh Karyalaya. It was midnight. The very next morning 500 Swayamsevaks reached the military hospital to donate blood. According to the hospital rules, each of them was offered 10 rupees. But the Swayamsevaks returned the amount saying that it could be better used for the wounded jawans.

The Sangh Swayamsevaks of Amritsar organised four canteens on the border within the shelling range of the enemy. It was indeed a sight to see the supreme courage of the young men working in such dangerous areas. The villagers used to donate huge quantities of milk free of charge to these canteens. They would bring meals prepared in desi ghee to these canteens, where hundreds of jawans took their food. On 8th September, when the Government authorities wanted clothes for a large number of injured soldiers, they were got ready in just four hours. The leadership provided by two Swayamsevak MLAs of the Jana Sangh during those crucial days was exemplary.

Prior to the commencement of the undeclared war, the civilian aspect of work was mostly on paper. But the superb way in which cent per cent black outs, night patrols and other items of civil defence measures were performed by the civilians was a miracle. The unarmed civilians successfully caught the Pakistani paratroopers who were armed to the teeth. Every mile of rail track, every bridge and culvert over rivers or canals and every aerodrome was guarded by the civilians in a most courageous and determined manner. And in all these efforts, needless to say, the Swayamsevaks were in the vanguard.

When the war broke out, the Jana Sangh MLA-a Swayamsevak-in Ferozepur district, whose village was situated in the border area just near the theatre of war, promptly told his villagers: "I will stay in my village and shall remain here whatever may happen." Whenever people, terror-stricken by Pakistan's shelling, wanted his consent to leave the village, he would tell them, " You can leave the village, if you so desire. But mind you, I will remain here and fight against Pakistan to my last." Listening to such heroic words, the villagers would again stick to their posts of duty, their morale steeled. Another Jana Sangh MLA, a Swayamsevak, continued to stay in Ferozepur even when the city was actually being bombarded and shelled by Pakistan. Fazilka town had a normal population of about 40,000. Hardly 5,000 persons stayed on eventually, and they were almost all Swayamsevaks and their families.

In Rajouri in Jammu, when two Swayamsevaks-one of them a leader of Jana Sangh-observed Pakistani troops proceeding towards the town, they hastened to the Army Cantonment to give the news. The Army Officer, on his part, had already prepared himself to face the enemy, but he suggested to the two Swayamsevaks to immediately shift to Jammu for safety. He offered them an army vehicle also for the purpose. But they refused the offer saying that their duty lay in their own place for maintaining people's morale and mobilising civilian support for the Army. The next day, a committee was formed for the purpose, which performed its job admirably and thus helped saving Rajouri from the enemy hands.

From Meindhar in the same area comes the story of a Swayamsevak, who dared to enter the enemy trenches. He snatched the stengun from the Pakistani soldier who was firing upon the neighbouring village, killed him and his comrades in the trench and saved the lives of hundreds of our countrymen. Another Swayamsevak of Pathani, in Naushera Taluk, sneaked through the Pak military formation which had surrounded and ambushed a section of the Indian army, and supplied the jawans the much needed water and foodstuffs. When the soldiers tried to shower presents on him he refused them saying that he had only done his duty towards the Motherland.

In Jammu, where the influx of displaced persons swelled into lakhs, the Sangh-sponsored Sahayata Samiti was the one foremost in the field of mobilizing the civilian co-operation for their relief. Right from 15th August up to 6th September, it arranged daily meals for about 25-35 thousand persons and supplied them with all the daily necessities of life. In Gujarat too, a Sangh Swayamsevak working at Okha near Dwaraka shot down two Pakistani satire jets flying low to bombard that port. When he was profusely congratulated by the army men, he remarked, in the true spirit of a Swayamsevak, "I have just done my duty, that is all." When the fighting ended, General Kulwant Singh told a Sangh worker, "Punjab is the sword-arm of India, and RSS is the sword-arm of Punjab." Soon after the war, when the Prime Minister was invited to Tashkent, Shri Guruji sent a message urging him not to go. When, however, he decided to go, Shri Guruji sent a letter to him through Atal Behari Vajpayee, wherein he had urged him to stand During 1971 War of Bangladesh Liberation When war with Pakistan broke out again in December 1971, Shri Guruji's advice to the Government and the people was clear and crisp: "At least now, we should be shaken out of our illusion that an appeal to the so-called international conscience would work wonders." He also said, "Our war aims should be clear. As our Shastras have declared, no shatru shesh, residue of the enemy, should be allowed to remain." However, the Government, in the wake of the heroic liberation of Bangladesh by our jawans, again relapsed into its old groove. With what results we all know now - with both Pakistan and Bangladesh becoming more and more belligerent all the time.

During the war, as on previous occasions, thousands of Swayamsevaks throughout Rajasthan, North Punjab, Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal pledged their services with the authorities for every kind of mobilisation of civilian support. At several important cities and towns, hundreds of Swayamsevaks enlisted themselves as blood donors as well as volunteers for civil defence and first aid. Patrolling during black-out and undertaking relief works became their normal duties. In Uttar Pradesh, a sustained programme for public awakening was undertaken. Prabhat-pheris (early morning marches) and public contacts were taken up for exhorting the people to remain vigilant about the pro-Pale elements and their possible fifth column activities. In Delhi, the Kingsway Camp police station authorities requisitioned the services of the Swayamsevaks to guard the broadcasting and other vital installations in Radio Colony and the water works at Wazirabad. The Swayamsevaks also looked after the wounded jawans in hospitals at many places. Army hospitals were often flooded with fruits and other consumer articles for the use of the wounded jawans.

On 7th December 1971, when the Barmer railway station in Rajasthan was bombed by Pakistani planes, about 40 to 45 Swayamsevaks rushed to the dangerous spot. A goods train carrying petrol drums was likely to catch fire. The Swayamsevaks, unmindful of the intermittent bombing, removed the drums to safer places. During those critical days, senior defence and government officers insisted that only the Sangh men be permitted to run the canteens in those sensitive border areas.

During 1971 War of Bangladesh Liberation

When war with Pakistan broke out again in December 1971, Shri Guruji's advice to the Government and the people was clear and crisp: "At least now, we should be shaken out of our illusion that an appeal to the so-called international conscience would work wonders." He also said, "Our war aims should be clear. As our Shastras have declared, no shatru shesh, residue of the enemy, should be allowed to remain." However, the Government, in the wake of the heroic liberation of Bangladesh by our jawans, again relapsed into its old groove. With what results we all know now - with both Pakistan and Bangladesh becoming more and more belligerent all the time.

During the war, as on previous occasions, thousands of Swayamsevaks throughout Rajasthan, North Punjab, Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal pledged their services with the authorities for every kind of mobilisation of civilian support. At several important cities and towns, hundreds of Swayamsevaks enlisted themselves as blood donors as well as volunteers for civil defence and first aid. Patrolling during black-out and undertaking relief works became their normal duties. In Uttar Pradesh, a sustained programme for public awakening was undertaken. Prabhat-pheris (early morning marches) and public contacts were taken up for exhorting the people to remain vigilant about the pro-Pale elements and their possible fifth column activities. In Delhi, the Kingsway Camp police station authorities requisitioned the services of the Swayamsevaks to guard the broadcasting and other vital installations in Radio Colony and the water works at Wazirabad. The Swayamsevaks also looked after the wounded jawans in hospitals at many places. Army hospitals were often flooded with fruits and other consumer articles for the use of the wounded jawans.

On 7th December 1971, when the Barmer railway station in Rajasthan was bombed by Pakistani planes, about 40 to 45 Swayamsevaks rushed to the dangerous spot. A goods train carrying petrol drums was likely to catch fire. The Swayamsevaks, unmindful of the intermittent bombing, removed the drums to safer places. During those critical days, senior defence and government officers insisted that only the Sangh men be permitted to run the canteens in those sensitive border areas.

In the era of information explosion, these things need to be told again to generations to come!

RSS that we do not know (Part I)

http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/History/Achievements.jsp

Much has been said and written about RSS and people take pride in maligning right wing organizations in India in the name of secularism. But we should not overlooked the fact that no other organization is survived over 80 years and still growing. Let us look in to the other aspect of RSS that is not even swayamsevak are aware of!

In Freedom Movement THE SPIRIT of freedom Dr. Hedgewar had embodied in himself and had infused in the Swayamsevaks has continued to blaze radiantly. Several have been the occasions when this quality has come to the fore-both when the British were ruling and after they left.

By the early forties, the war took an adverse turn for the British. Shri Guruji had just assumed the leadership of Sangh. The urgent and paramount task of mobilising and training the Hindu youth brooked no delay. His hurricane tours over large parts of the country began . The message went home. Hundreds of young Swayamsevaks gave up their studies, left their hearths and homes and began spreading the message of national emancipation through Sangh.

The launching of the 1942 'Quit India' agitation by the Congress proved more like a sporadic outburst than as an organised and well-planned rebellion. There was no prior consultation by the Congress with other organised, patriotic groups like the Sangh. Nevertheless, several Sangh workers took active part in it. They played a notable role in Chimur in the famous Ashti Chimur rebellion in Vidarbha. The British fury in suppressing it was unparalleled. The putting out of action of the Delhi Muzaffarnagar railway line was the handiwork of young men from Delhi, mostly Swayamsevaks. While Nana Patil of Patri Sarkar fame in Maharashtra was sheltered by Pandit S. D. Satwalekar, the celebrated Vedic scholar and Sanghachalak of Aundh, Sane Guruji, an underground Socialist leader, was under the protective wings of Pune Sanghachalak Bhausaheb Deshmukh. Inside the capital Delhi itself, Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali took asylum with Lala Hansraj Gupta, the Delhi and Punjab Sanghachalak. The waning of the 1942 movement left behind a gaping void in the people's mind. There was yet another growing threat looming on the national horizon. With all the nationalist leaders of Congress lodged behind bars, the Muslim League had a field day. Egged on by the British, their posture now became more recalcitrant. The League had already passed, in 1940 at Lahore, the 'Pakistan' Resolution. By now the League's designs had become crystal clear. It had taken recourse to violence and bloodshed to browbeat the Congress leadership into accepting Partition. The 'Direct Action' call and the great Calcutta killings had left no one in doubt about the dreadful shape of things to come. During those days Gandhiji's stay was in Bhangi Colony in Delhi. On one night, when Muslim ruffians surrounded the place and hurled vulgar abuses and threats at Gandhiji, the Sangh Swayamsevaks stalled further mischief by their night-long vigil thereafter.

By now, the spectre of Partition had begun to haunt the nation's mind. The Hindu masses instinctively felt that a militant and organised Hindu force was the urgent need of the hour. That alone could rescue the integrity and freedom of the Motherland from the gang-up of the twin hostile forces of the British and the Muslim League. No wonder, to the average Hindu, the Sangh appeared as the only ray of hope. The result was a tremendous Hindu upsurge sweeping all over the country.

During the 1947 Crisis

The sudden and unexpected decision on 3rd June 1947 of the Congress leaders to accept Partition came as a stunning blow to the Hindu people, and more so to the Sangh Swayamsevaks. The British, more than anyone else, knew what the Sangh was all about. Their intelligence records had referred to Shri Guruji as an astute leader. Their report with the National Archives in New Delhi, referring to one of his speeches at the RSS training camp, says: "Golwalkar denounced those persons who render every possible assistance to the present government for their own selfish ends... He declared that the Sangh had resolved to do its duty even though the whole world goes against it and impressed on the volunteers that they must be ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause of Bharat Mata."

The British also unerringly read the pulse of the nation. They knew that time was running out against them. The INA trials had revived the stirring memories of Subhas Chandra Bose. The sparks of naval revolt in Bombay flew to distant cantonments touching off sympathetic strikes by the airmen and the army. This was followed by the British Prime Minister's declaration to quit Bharat at the earliest date. And on 20th February 1947, he also announced the date of their quitting as not later than June 1948.

However, Mountbatten, the last Viceroy who carried out the final operation of Partition, fixed 15th August 1947-a full ten months earlier-for quitting. Leonard Mosley, who accompanied Mountbatten, laid bare the chief reason behind it. He wrote that the advancement of the date of transfer of power, in spite of opposition from army commanders, was "to jostle a settlement through before any really effective opposition to the partition of the country had time to develop." One of the more crucial forces which could have contributed to the opposition was, obviously, the rise of Hindu power spearheaded by the Sangh. The British clearly knew that the Sangh was committed to Complete Independence of Akhand (Undivided) Bharat. They were also aware that Shri Guruji in his countrywide tours was invoking the inspiring vision of Akhand Bharat, and that his call to the youth to consider no sacrifice too great in the cause of safeguarding her unity and integrity was eliciting tremendous response. To the Rescue of Delhi

However, Partition did come about. The country was gripped in a terrible convulsion. The Swayamsevaks who had day in and day out cherished the picture of a free and united Bharat were plunged in deep anguish. However, they responded to the call of duty to protect the integrity of whatever portion of the land had been liberated and to save the life and honour of the Hindu brethren left in the lost portions.

Delhi was then in the throes of violence and intrigues by the Muslim Leaguers. When later on Dr. Bhagawan Das, the great sarvant and a recipient of the Bharat Ratna award, came to know the details of the role of Sangh in those crucial days, he wrote feelingly on 16th October 1948: "I have been reliably informed that a number of youths of RSS were able to inform Sardar Patel and Nehruji in the very nick of time of the Leaguers' intended coup on September 10, 1947, whereby they had planned to assassinate all members of Government and all Hindu officials and thousands of Hindu citizens on that day and plant the flag of Pakistan on the Red Fort and then seize all Hindusthan." He added: "Why have I said all this? Because if those high-spirited and self-sacrificing boys had not given the very timely information to Nehruji and Patelji, there would have been no Government of India today, the whole country would have changed its name into 'Pakistan', tens of millions of Hindus would have been slaughtered and all the rest converted to Islam or reduced to stark slavery. Well, what is the net result of all this long story? Simply this-that our Government should utilise, and not sterilise, the patriotic energies of the lakhs of RSS youths."

In the Integration of Kashmir

Immediately after Independence a most serious challenge to the freedom and integrity of independent Bharat was posed in Kashmir. Briefly told, the Declaration of 3rd June 1947 had left all the princely rulers of undivided Bharat free to join either Bharat or Pakistan or even remain independent. However, Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, was in an awful fix. The Maharaja, a devout and patriotic Hindu, could not think of joining Pakistan. In view of the marked Muslim majority in the State, he felt hesitant to straightway join Bharat either. Mountbatten specially flew to Kashmir in the third week of June in a bid to persuade the Maharaja to join Pakistan. The Maharaja, however, resisted the pressure and as a stop-gap arrangement executed a 'Stand-Still Agreement' with Pakistan and wanted to have a similar link with Bharat. But the Indian leaders would not consent to that proposal. Inside the State itself, the Muslim Conference began pressing the Maharaja to opt for Pakistan. R. C. Kak, the then Prime Minister of Kashmir, however, advised him to remain independent.

Amidst these conflicting pulls, the Sangh leaders in the State began exerting every possible influence to persuade the Maharaja to declare his accession to Bharat before the deadline of 15th August 1947. The State Sanghachalak, Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, submitted several memoranda and followed them up with personal interviews with the Maharaja. Several social and political organisations in the province were also persuaded to pass resolutions urging the Maharaja to join Bharat without delay. Thousands of telegrams were sent to him from all parts of Kashmir and other neighbouring states. Badridasji, Sanghachalak of Punjab whom the Maharaja held in high esteem, hastened to Srinagar to meet and advise him.

However, forces inimical to Bharat would not let the Maharaja have his way. When 14th August came, the postal authorities in Srinagar hoisted the Pakistani flag on their office because the post offices within the State came under Sialkot circle which now formed part of Pakistan. Promptly, the Sangh Swayamsevaks and sympathisers saw to it that the postal authorities pulled down the Pakistani flag. On the next day, i.e., the 15th of August, the Indian Tricolour flew over most of the houses and shops in Srinagar. The flags had been prepared in hundreds in the Sangh Karyalaya and distributed to the people.

In the meanwhile, the pro-Pakistani elements inside Kashmir intensified their propaganda to pressurise the Maharaja to join Pakistan. Large-scale smuggling of arms into the State to foment internal rebellion was on. Economic blockade from outside was clamped by Pakistan. The Sangh leaders were the first to realise the gravity of the situation; and again they sent memoranda to the Maharaja. A Sangh Swayamsevak in the guise of a Muslim had wormed himself into the camp of the Muslim personnel of the State's Armed Forces at Srinagar and secured detailed plans of the projected Pakistan invasion. A prominent Sangh worker of Kashmir personally informed the Commander of the State Forces about the plan and the impending tragedy. Later developments tallied word to word with the details of that plan.

At the diplomatic level at the Centre, too, Sangh had made certain moves in the crucial mid-October days. Sardar Patel, knowing the mind of the Maharaja, had pitched upon Shri Guruji to talk to him. Shri Guruji, he knew, commanded the implicit confidence of the Maharaja. Shri Guruji flew to Srinagar on 17th October 1947. He brought home to the Maharaja the futility of harbouring any idea of retaining Kashmir as an independent kingdom and advised him to join Bharat straightway. Finally, the Maharaja expressed his readiness to sign the Instrument of Accession to Bharat. Shri Guruji returned to New Delhi on 19th October, and reported to Sardar Patel about the Maharaja's readiness to accede to Bharat.

The sudden and massive invasion of Kashmir on 23rd October by Pakistani tribesmen, the SOS to Delhi by the Maharaja for help, agreeing to the accession of the State to Bharat and the flying of Indian troops to save Kashmir-all these followed in lightning succession. The first attack by Pakistani raiders was made on 11th October 1947. Many on the Indian side were butchered and large numbers of women abducted. Then began regular raids on a long stretch of the border. By October 22-23, the entire Jammu Sialkot border was aflame reducing scores of border villages to ashes. Within the city of Jammu itself, the local Muslims numbering about 20,000 were in a rebellious mood. The first shot was fired in Talab Katikan area which was followed by a series of riots. The fate of Jammu city and the entire countryside, with no troops on hand, hung in a precarious balance. A terrible tragedy stared everybody in the face. But the young men of Sangh rose to the occasion. They faced the pro-Pakistani Muslim elements inside, repulsed their repeated attacks and shattered their designs.

Thus was saved Jammu. But for the Swayamsevaks' valiant efforts, Jammu could never have been saved; and without Jammu, there was not the ghost of a chance to save Srinagar even by Indian forces.

Once the backbone of internal saboteurs was broken, Swayamsevaks took up the urgent task of broadening the Jammu aerodrome. Five hundred Swayamsevaks toiled round the clock for seven days and made the aerodrome ready for the Indian dakotas to land. Roads for the movement of Indian Army were also repaired and constructed by them in record time. In the meanwhile, in several villages on the border, the local Muslims had joined hands with the invaders and butchered thousands of Hindus and abducted thousands of Hindu women. In that critical hour, once again the indomitable spirit of heroism and sacrifice of the Sangh Swayamsevaks came to the fore. Hundreds of Swayamsevaks from Jammu laid down their lives in saving the lives and honour of tens of thousands of Hindus remaining in Mirpur, after it fell into Pakistani hands.

The helpless refugees struggling towards Jammu had no other protection against the Pathan snipers except a hundred and more Sangh men moving by their side, in a day-and-night vigil. Kotley was a strategic border town.. Pak raiders assisted by local Muslims intruded into the town repeatedly and carried out killings and other atrocities. But the Hindus did not give up. Every time they fought back and almost every street and house became a fortress of defence. Scores of our mothers and sisters perferred martyrdom through poison or at the hands of their own male folk rather than sacrificing their honour at the hands of invaders. For six weeks, the Hindus held on to their post. The entire credit for this historic defence of a vital border post goes to the Sangh Swayamsevaks. Led by their heroic Nagar Karyavaha (city secretary of Sangh) the Swayamsevaks strengthened the people's morale, roused their spirit of patriotism and organised them for heroic resistance.

Swayamsevaks felt no sacrifice too great when the call came to assist our Army. The garrison inside Kotley had run out of ammunition. 20 chests of ammunitions dropped by our Air Force had fallen off a steep slope, well within the range of Pakistani artillery. The Commander of the garrison thought it unwise to risk the life of the few available soldiers to salvage the material as the task seemed to entail sure death. However, a local Sangh worker, Krishnalal, along with 20 other Swayamsevaks, accepted the challenge and brought back 17 chests. But they had to pay the price of six precious lives, including their leader. In lieu of the six, however, they had saved the life and honour of six thousand Hindus in the town. And right at the fag-end of the battle, Prakash, the Nagar Karyavaha, also fell a martyr while defending the town.

In Kashmir Valley, too, the situation was similar. Though Sheikh Abdullah, assured by Delhi of his supreme position in Kashmir, stood firm against the Pak invasion, his followers joined the raiders being carried away by the Islamic frenzy let loose by Pak propaganda. The Swayamsevaks joined the militia in large numbers and stood by the Indian Army in throwing out the raiders. The defence of Srinagar claimed the life of Pandit Manmath, a Sangh worker in the militia. Sheikh Abdullah's government allowed the Sangh Swayamsevaks to work in the militia till the Kashmir Valley was cleared of the raiders and his own regime was well settled. And once that purpose was served, the Sangh Swayamsevaks were eased out of the militia and even out of Kashmir in a planned manner.

In the Liberation of Goa

The struggle for Independence was not over with the quitting of the British. On 2nd August 1954, one hundred Sangh Swayamsevaks stormed the remaining Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The attack was led by the late Vinayak Rao Apte, Pune Sanghachalak. The group included several prominent Sangh workers. They formulated the guerilla strategy and attacked the main police headquarters at Selvassa and forced the 175 soldiers there to surrender unconditionally. The National Tricolour was hoisted and the region handed over to the Central Government on the same day. On 2nd August 1979-the occasion of the silver jubilee of that historic event-the people of Selvassa invited the 100 freedom-heroes and felicitated them. In 1987, the Maharashtra State Government too recognised them as freedom fighters and honoured them.

The Portuguese still held sway over Goa. The first to unfurl the Tricolour Flag over the Panaji Secretariat in 1955 was a Swayamsevak working as a teacher in Goa. He remained in the Lisbon jail for full 17 years-well after Goa was liberated in 1961. In 1955, Swayamsevaks took a leading part in the all-party national struggle for its liberation. The task of providing food and shelter, all along the Goa border, to the Satyagrahis who were streaming from different parts of the country was shouldered by the Swayamsevaks. Prominent workers of Sangh and Jana Sangh led several batches of Satyagrahis and a number of them suffered bullet wounds and inhuman tortures in Portuguese jails.

Rajabhau Mahankal of Ujjain was among the prominent Swayamsevaks who led a batch from Madhya Bharat. Right at the border, the Protuguese police were ready with their bayonets and bullets to 'welcome' the Satyagrahis. Before Rajabhau proceeded into Goa border, the first three columns of Satyagrahis were fired upon. They fell down wounded. When the daring Sahodara Devi of Saugar in the third row fell wounded, Rajabhau took the Tricolour from her hands and stepped forward with the roar of 'Bharat Mata ki jai'. Rajabhau fell with one of his eyes pierced right through with a bullet. In those few seconds, before he became unconscious, he commanded others to take care of the Flag and of the other wounded Satyagrahis. And within a few minutes, he joined the rank of martyrs who had covered themselves with immortal glory in the cause of the freedom of the Motherland.

Relevance of Vedanta and Hinduism in Modern Days

Modified from (By Swami Amarananda - courtesy Prabuddha Bharata)

The term ‘Hindu’ is the dis-figuration of the word ‘Sindhu’ the great river of the northern India (this river-Indus-is still called Sindhu in Indian languages). 'Hindu' has been in the Indian vocabulary since about 1200 years.We shall, however, use the term ‘Hinduism’ to denote our religion of even earlier epochs. The closest Sanskrit word for ‘religion’ in the distant past was dharma. Dharma was the prescribed, correct mode for individual and social life.

Swami Vivekananda was the first Hindu to discover the common basis of the creeds of the Hindu sects. These are:

(i) veneration of the Vedas,

(ii) theory of reincarnation and karma,

(iii) theory of the cyclic creation, sustenance and destruction of the cosmos,

(iv) goal perceived as liberation from suffering and access to bliss, and

(v) acceptance of diverse spiritual paths and the individual’s right to choose one or more among them.

It is the avastha-adhikara doctrine (avastha means the level of evolution and the corresponding aptitude for a spiritual discipline; adhikara means the competence of a person to take up a particularly higher course) - as illustrated through the spiritual ministration of Sri Ramakrishna - that helps the modern man to comprehend the seemingly contradictory approaches in different areas of Hinduism, or to appreciate the life of an aspirant who takes up several of such approaches.

The excellence of Hinduism should be evident :

(a) acceptance of plurality of a approaches, democracy in establishing creeds,

(b) balance between the two ideals-monarchal and social,

(c) basic formulations espouse the scientific vision,

(d) great elaboration of steps leading to inner transformation, and

e) abundance of saints suffused with spiritual force.

The Vedas say: When you have doubt regarding an act or a profession, go to a scholar who is a yogi, who has not lost his independence by being salaried: ask him what he will do if put in a similar situation, and do as he would have done.’

One Hindu custom, generally found in Vedic literature and developed in post-Vedic Puranic lore, is considering God as mother. Historically speaking, this had a salutary effect. India’s ancient history gives proof of the existence of women philosophers, saints, poets, artists and administrators. Saunaka in the 5th century BC mentions 27 women seers of the Rig Veda, the ancient-most literature of mankind.

The intellectual conviction that transcendental mysticism is the goal of religion; this is the central message of Hinduism.

We should bear in mind that from the date of the demise of Emperor Harsha in the year 647 AD up to 15 August 1947 there was no Hindu governing any vast portion of India, and that for a period of 1300 years Hindus were at the mercy of rules of alien faiths. Therefore the Hindu society today is like an unmended old boat which requires repairs. There is need of a fresh look at our marriage system, at our democracy-shy priest craft, at our service-shy religiosity. Our women should be given proper education; and all gender-related inequalities, in social as well as religious practice, should be brought to an end. Our tribal populations should be brought into the national mainstream through the sharing of our cultural heritage.

The major religions of the world fall under three categories: those arising on Indian soil, those formed by the lapping of the former Sino-Japanese ethics and art, and those issuing from the Middle East.

The spiritual feast is one great particularity of Hinduism Religion ultimately is an individual affair, to be taken seriously; this is illustrated through the system of having an ishta-devata, i.e. each person having the right to choose his or spiritual ideal. Hindus can resolve the dichotomy between the two ideals-the personal God and the impersonal one. This is the watershed between Abrahamic religions and eastern religions such as Theravada Buddhism, Jainism and Vedantic Monism. So, Hindus as a class are better suited than the members of other religions to have genuine sympathy for both the ideas. This is a great advantage when inter-religious dialogue is gaining momentum.

When our religion is thus made comprehensible to the modern man, when the practices incompatible with Vedanta are purged, when our education is spiritualized through de-secularization, when our nation gets united by the application of Vedanta, only then will Hindus be able to impress the world outside. Only then can our acharyas deliver what is expected of them - showing how to have the correct attitude to solve modern and ultra-modern problems: pollution, population explosion, escalating terrorism, ecological imbalance, unprecedented pauperization of man, ‘genetic bomb’ etc. Only then the song of the Puranic ballad will have significance today.

A Brief History of Indian Mathematics

http://www.esamskriti.com/html/essay_index.asp?cat=938&subcat=937&cname=history_of_indian_maths
Prof. Vijaya Kumar Murty

MATHEMATICS has played a significant role in the development of Indian culture for millennia. Mathematical ideas that originated in the Indian subcontinent have had a profound impact on the world. Swami Vivekananda said: ‘you know how many sciences had their origin in India. Mathematics began there. You are even today counting 1, 2, 3, etc. to zero, after Sanskrit figures, and you all know that algebra also originated in India.’

It is also a fitting time to review the contributions of Indian mathematicians from ancient times to the present, as in 2010, India will be hosting the International Congress of Mathematicians. This quadrennial meeting brings together mathematicians from around the world to discuss the most significant developments in the subject over the past four years and to get a sense of where the subject is heading in the next four. The idea of holding such a congress at regular intervals actually started at The Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. This exhibition had sessions to highlight the advancement of knowledge in different fields. One of these was a session on mathematics. Another, perhaps more familiar to readers of Prabuddha Bharata, was the famous Parliament of Religions in which Swami Vivekananda first made his public appearance in the West.

Following the Chicago meeting, the first International Congress of Mathematicians took place in Zurich in 1897. It was at the next meeting at Paris in 1900 that Hilbert formulated his now famous 23 Problems. Since that time, the congress has been meeting approximately every four years in different cities around the world, and in 2010, the venue will be Hyderabad, India. This is the first time in its more than hundred-year history that the congress will be held in India. This meeting could serve as an impetus and stimulus to mathematical thought in the subcontinent, provided the community is prepared for it. Preparation would largely consist in being aware of the tradition of mathematics in India, from ancient times to modern and in embracing the potential and possibility of developing this tradition to new heights in the coming millennia.

In ancient time, mathematics was mainly used in an auxiliary or applied role. Thus, mathematical methods were used to solve problems in architecture and construction (as in the public works of the Harappan civilization) in astronomy and astrology (as in the words of the Jain mathematicians) and in the construction of Vedic altars (as in the case of the Shulba Sutras of Baudhayana and his successors). By the sixth or fifth century BCE, mathematics was being studied for its own sake, as well as for its applications in other fields of knowledge.

The aim of this article is to give a brief review of a few of the outstanding innovations introduced by Indian mathematics from ancient times to modern. As we shall see, there does not seem to have been a time in Indian history when mathematics was not being developed. Recent work has unearthed many manuscripts, and what were previously regarded as dormant periods in Indian mathematics are now known to have been very active. Even a small study of this subject leaves one with a sense of wonder at the depth and breadth of ancient Indian thought.

The picture is not yet complete, and it seems that there is much work to do in the field of the history of Indian mathematics. The challenges are two-fold. First, there is the task of locating and identifying manuscripts and of translating them into a language that is more familiar to modern scholars. Second, there is the task of interpreting the significance of the work that was done.

Since much of the past work in this area has tended to adopt a Eurocentric perspective and interpretation, it is necessary to take a fresh, objective look. The time is ripe to make a major effort to develop as complete a picture as possible of Indian mathematics. Those who are interested in embarking on such an effort can find much helpful material online.

We may ask what the term ‘Indian means in the context of this discussion. Mostly, it refers to the Indian subcontinent, but for more recent history we include also the diaspora and people whose roots can be traced to the Indian subcontinent, wherever they may be geographically located.

Mathematics in ancient times (3000 to 600 BCE)

The Indus valley civilization is considered to have existed around 3000 BCE. Two of its most famous cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, provide evidence that construction of buildings followed a standardized measurement which was decimal in nature. Here, we see mathematical ideas developed for the purpose of construction. This civilization had an advanced brick-making technology (having invented the kiln). Bricks were used in the construction of buildings and embankments for flood control.

The study of astronomy is considered to be even older, and there must have been mathematical theories on which it was based. Even in later times, we find that astronomy motivated considerable mathematical development, especially in the field of trigonometry.

Much has been written about the mathematical constructions that are to be found in Vedic literature. In particular, the Shatapatha Brahmana, which is a part of the Shukla Yajur Veda, contains detailed descriptions of the geometric construction of altars for yajnas. Here, the brick-making technology of the Indus valley civilization was put to a new use. As usual there are different interpretations of the dates of Vedic texts, and in the case of this Brahmana, the range is from 1800 to about 800 BCE. Perhaps it is even older.

Supplementary to the Vedas are the Shulba Sutras. These texts are considered to date from 800 to 200 BCE. Four in number, they are named after their authors: Baudhayana (600 BCE), Manava (750 BCE), Apastamba (600 BCE), and Katyayana (200 BCE ). The sutras contain the famous theorem commonly attributed to Pythagoras. Some scholars (such as Seidenberg) feel that this theorem as opposed to the geometric proof that the Greeks, and possibly the Chinese, were aware of.

The Shulba Sutras introduce the concept of irrational numbers, numbers that are not the ratio of two whole numbers. For example, the square root of 2 is one such number. The sutras give a way of approximating the square root of number using rational numbers through a recursive procedure which in modern language would be a ‘series expansion’.

This predates, by far, the European use of Taylor series.

It is interesting that the mathematics of this period seems to have been developed for solving practical geometric problems, especially the construction of religious altars. However, the study of the series expansion for certain functions already hints at the development of an algebraic perspective. In later times, we find a shift towards algebra, with simplification of algebraic formulate and summation of series acting as catalysts for mathematical discovery.

Jain Mathematics (600 BCE to 500 CE)

This is a topic that scholars have started studying only recently. Knowledge of this period of mathematical history is still fragmentary, and it is a fertile area for future scholarly studies. Just as Vedic philosophy and theology stimulated the development of certain aspects of mathematics, so too did the rise of Jainism. Jain cosmology led to ideas of the infinite. This in turn, led to the development of the notion of orders of infinity as a mathematical concept. By orders of infinity, we mean a theory by which one set could be deemed to be ‘more infinite’ than another. In modern language, this corresponds to the notion of cardinality. For a finite set, its cardinality is the number of elements it contains. However, we need a more sophisticated notion to measure the size of an infinite set. In Europe, it was not until Cantors work in the nineteenth century that a proper concept of cardinality was established.

Besides the investigations into infinity, this period saw developments in several other fields such as number theory, geometry, computing, with fractions and combinatorics. In particular, the recursion formula for binomial coefficients and the ‘Pascal’s triangle’ were already known in this period.

As mentioned in the previous section, astronomy had been studied in India since ancient times. This subject is often confused with astrology. Swami Vivekananda has speculated that astrology came to India from the Greeks and that astronomy was borrowed by the Greeks from India. Indirect evidence for this is provided by a text by Yavaneshvara (c. 200 CE) which popularized a Greek astrology text dating back to 120 BCE.

The period 600 CE coincides with the rise and dominance of Buddhism. In the Lalitavistara, a biography of the Buddha which may have been written around the first century CE, there is an incident about Gautama being asked to state the name of large powers of 10 starting with 10. He is able to give names to numbers up to 10 (tallaksana). The very fact that such large numbers had names suggests that the mathematicians of the day were comfortable thinking about very large numbers. It is hard to imagine calculating with such numbers without some form of place value system.

Brahmi Numerals, The place-value system and Zero

No account of Indian mathematics would be complete without a discussion of Indian numerals, the place-value system, and the concept of zero. The numerals that we use even today can be traced to the Brahmi numerals that seem to have made their appearance in 300 BCE. But Brahmi numerals were not part of a place value system. They evolved into the Gupta numerals around 400 CE and subsequently into the Devnagari numerals, which developed slowly between 600 and 1000 CE.

By 600 CE, a place-value decimal system was well in use in India. This means that when a number is written down, each symbol that is used has an absolute value, but also a value relative to its position. For example, the numbers 1 and 5 have a value on their own, but also have a value relative to their position in the number 15. The importance of a place-value system need hardly be emphasized. It would suffice to cite an often-quoted remark by La-place: ‘It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity.

A place-value system of numerals was apparently known in other cultures; for example, the Babylonians used a sexagesimal place-value system as early as 1700 BCE, but the Indian system was the first decimal system. Moreover, until 400 BCE, THE Babylonian system had an inherent ambiguity as there was no symbol for zero. Thus it was not a complete place-value system in the way we think of it today.

The elevation of zero to the same status as other numbers involved difficulties that many brilliant mathematicians struggled with. The main problem was that the rules of arithmetic had to be formulated so as to include zero. While addition, subtraction, and multiplication with zero were mastered, division was a more subtle question. Today, we know that division by zero is not well-defined and so has to be excluded from the rules of arithmetic. But this understanding did not come all at once, and took the combined efforts of many minds. It is interesting to note that it was not until the seventeenth century that zero was being used in Europe, and the path of mathematics from India to Europe is the subject of much historical research.

The Classical Era of Indian Mathematics (500 to 1200 CE )

The most famous names of Indian mathematics belong to what is known as the classical era. This includes Aryabhata I (500 CE) Brahmagupta (700 CE), Bhaskara I (900 CE), Mahavira (900 CE), Aryabhatta II (1000 CE) and Bhaskarachrya or Bhaskara II (1200 CE).

During this period, two centers of mathematical research emerged, one at Kusumapura near Pataliputra and the other at Ujjain. Aryabhata I was the dominant figure at Kusumapura and may even have been the founder of the local school. His fundamental work, the Aryabhatiya, set the agenda for research in mathematics and astronomy in India for many centuries

One of Aryabhata’s discoveries was a method for solving linear equations of the form

ax + by = c. Here a, b, and c are whole numbers, and we seeking values of x and y in whole numbers satisfying the above equation. For example if a = 5, b =2, and c =8 then x =8 and y = -16 is a solution. In fact, there are infinitely many solutions:

x = 8 -2m

y = 5m -16

where m is any whole number, as can easily be verified. Aryabhata devised a general method for solving such equations, and he called it the kuttaka (or pulverizer) method. He called it the pulverizer because it proceeded by a series of steps, each of which required the solution of a similar problem, but with smaller numbers. Thus, a, b, and c were pulverized into smaller numbers.

The Euclidean algorithm, which occurs in the Elements of Euclid, gives a method to compute the greatest common divisor of two numbers by a sequence of reductions to smaller numbers. As far as I am aware Euclid does not suggest that this method can be used to solve linear equations of the above sort. Today, it is known that if the algorithm in Euclid is applied in reverse order then in fact it will yield Aryabhata’s method. Unfortunately the mathematical literature still refers to this as the extended Euclidean algorithm, mainly out of ignorance of Aryabhata’s work.

It should be noted that Aryabhata’s studied the above linear equations because of his interest in astronomy. In modern times, these equations are of interest in computational number theory and are of fundamental importance in cryptography.

Amongst other important contributions of Aryabhata is his approximation of Pie to four decimal places (3.14146). By comparison the Greeks were using the weaker approximation 3.1429. Also of importance is Aryabhata’s work on trigonometry, including his tables of values of the sine function as well as algebraic formulate for computing the sine of multiples of an angle.

The other major centre of mathematical learning during this period was Ujjain, which was home to Varahamihira, Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya. The text Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta by Brahmagupta, published in 628 CE, dealt with arithmetic involving zero and negative numbers.

As with Aryabhata, Brahmagupta was an astronomer, and much of his work was motivated by problems that arose in astronomy. He gave the famous formula for a solution to the quadratic equation

It is not clear whether Brahmagupta gave just this solution or both solutions to this equation. Brahmagupta also studied quadratic equation in two variables and sought solutions in whole numbers. Such equations were studied only much later in Europe. We shall discuss this topic in more detail in the next section.

This period closes with Bhaskaracharya (1200 CE). In his fundamental work on arithmetic (titled Lilavati) he refined the kuttaka method of Aryabhata and Brahmagupta. The Lilavati is impressive for its originality and diversity of topics.

Until recently, it was a popularly held view that there was no original Indian mathematics before Bhaskaracharya. However, the above discussion shows that his work was the culmination of a series of distinguished mathematicians who came before him. Also, after Bhaskaracharya, there seems to have been a gap of two hundred years before the next recorded work. Perhaps this is another time period about which more research is needed.

The Solution of Pell’s equation

In Brahmagupta’s work, Pell’s equation had already made an appearance. This is the equation that for a given whole number D, asks for whole numbers x and y satisfying the equation

Xsquare – Dysquare = I.

In modern times, it arises in the study of units of quadratic fields and is a topic in the field of algebraic number theory. If D is a whole square (such as 1, 4, 9 and so on), the equation is easy to solve, as it factors into the product

(x- my ) (x + my) = 1

where D = m square. This implies that each factor is + 1 or – 1 and the values of x and y can be determined from that. However, if D is not a square, then it is not even clear that there is a solution. Moreover, if there is a solution it is not clear how one can determine all solutions. For example consider the case D=2. Here, x = 3 and y=2 gives a solution. But if D=61, then even the smallest solutions are huge.

Brahmagupta discovered a method, which he called samasa, by which; given two solutions of the equation a third solution could be found. That is, he discovered a composition law on the set of solutions. Brahmagupta’s lemma was known one thousand years before it was rediscovered in Europe by Fermat, Legendre, and others.

This method appears now in most standard text books and courses in number theory. The name of the equation is a historical accident. The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler mistakenly assumed that the English mathematician John Pell was the first to formulate the equation, and began referring to it by this name.

The work of Bhaskaracharya gives an algorithmic approach ------- which he called the cakrawala (cyclic) method ------ to finding all solutions of this equation. The method depends on computing the continued fraction expansion of the square root of D and using the convergents to give values of x and y. Again, this method can be found in most modern books on number theory, though the contributions of Bhaskaracharya do not seem to be well-known.

Mathematics in South India

We described above the centres at Kusumapara and Ujjain. Both of these cities are in North India. There was also a flourishing tradition of mathematics in South India which we shall discuss in brief in this section.

Mahavira is a mathematician belonging to the ninth century who was most likely from modern day Karnataka. He studied the problem of cubic and quartic equations and solved them for some families of equations. His work had a significant impact on the development of mathematics in South India. His book Ganita– sara– sangraha amplifies the work of Brahmagulpta and provides a very useful reference for the state of mathematics in his day. It is not clear what other works he may have published; further research into the extent of his contributions would probably be very fruitful.

Another notable mathematician of South India was Madhava from Kerala. Madhava belongs to the fourteenth century. He discovered series expansions for some trigonometric functions such as the sine, cosine and arctangent that were not known in Europe until after Newton. In modern terminology, these expansions are the Taylor series of the functions in question.

Madhava gave an approximation to Pie of 3.14159265359, which goes far beyond the four decimal places computed by Aryabhata. Madhava deduced his approximation from an infinite series expansion for Pie by 4 that became known in Europe only several centuries after Madhava (due to the work of Leibniz).

Madhava’s work with series expansions suggests that he either discovered elements of the differential calculus or nearly did so. This is worth further analysis. In a work in 1835, Charles Whish suggested that the Kerala School had laid the foundation for a complete system of fluxions. The theory of fluxions is the name given by Newton to what we today call the differential calculus. On the other hand, some scholars have been very dismissive of the contributions of the Kerala School, claiming that it never progressed beyond a few series expansions. In particular, the theory was not developed into a powerful tool as was done by Newton. We note that it was around 1498 that Vasco da Gama arrived in Kerala and the Portuguese occupation began. Judging by evidence at other sites, it is not likely that the Portuguese were interested in either encouraging or preserving the sciences of the region. No doubt, more research is needed to discover where the truth lies.

Madhava spawned a school of mathematics in Kerala, and among his followers may be noted Nilakantha and Jyesthadeva. It is due to the writings of these mathematicians that we know about the work of Machala, as all of Madhava’s own writings seem to be lost.

Mathematics in the Modern Age

In more recent times there have been many important discoveries made by mathematicians of Indian origin. We shall mention the work of three of them: Srinivasa Ramanujan, Harish-Chandra, and Manjul Bhargava.

Ramanujan (1887- 1920) is perhaps the most famous of modern Indian mathematicians. Though he produced significant and beautiful results in many aspects of number theory, his most lasting discovery may be the arithmetic theory of modular forms. In an important paper published in 1916, he initiated the study of the Pie function. The values of this function are the Fourier coefficients of the unique normalized cusp form of weight 12 for the modular group SL2 (Z). Ramanujan proved some properties of the function and conjectured many more. As a result of his work, the modern arithmetic theory of modular forms, which occupies a central place in number theory and algebraic geometry, was developed by Hecke.

Harish-Chandra (1923- 83) is perhaps the least known Indian mathematician outside of mathematical circles. He began his career as a physicist, working under Dirac. In his thesis, he worked on the representation theory of the group SL2 (C). This work convinced him that he was really a mathematician, and he spent the remainder of his academic life working on the representation theory of semi-simple groups. For most of that period, he was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. His Collected Papers published in four volumes contain more than 2,000 pages. His style is known as meticulous and thorough and his published work tends to treat the most general case at the very outset. This is in contrast to many other mathematicians, whose published work tends to evolve through special cases. Interestingly, the work of Harish-Chandra formed the basis of Langlands’s theory of automorphic forms, which are a vast generalization of the modular forms considered by Ramanujan.

Manjul Bhargava (b. 1974) discovered a composition law for ternary quadratic forms. In our discussion of Pell’s equation, we indicated that Brahmagupta discovered a composition law for the solutions. Identifying a set of importance and discovering an algebraic structure such as a composition law is an important theme in mathematics. Karl Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, showed that binary quadratic forms, that is, functions of the form

axsquare + bxy + cysquare

where a, b, and c are integers, have such a structure. More precisely, the set of primitive SLsquare (Z) orbits of binary quadratic forms of given discriminant D has the structure of an abelian group. After this fundamental work of Gauss, there had been no progress for several centuries on discovering such structures in other classes of forms. Manjul Bhargava’s stunning work in his doctoral thesis, published as several papers in the annals of mathematics, shows how to address this question for cubic (and other higher degree) binary and ternary forms. The work of Bhargava, who is currently Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, is deep, beautiful, and largely unexpected. It has many important ramifications and will likely form a theme of mathematical study at least for the coming decades. It is also sure to be a topic of discussion at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad.

Why India Is A Hindu Rashtra

Originally from (http://psomax.blogspot.com/) with few modifications

Secularists just don't get it. They are simply not willing to admit that India is a Hindu country. The point is so obvious that one
doesn't know where to begin 'proving' it.Firstly, it's a matter of simple numbers. India is 80.5% Hindu. Muslims and Christians are 13.4% and 2.3% respectively. That alone should be enough to clinch the case. But there is more.

Throughout India's history, Hinduism has been the land's dominant tradition. In fact, for a long time it was the only tradition.

India's history began with the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000 BC –1700 BC). Elements from this civilisation were absorbed into the way of life that developed during the Vedic Period (1500 BC – 500 BC), forming what we today know as Hinduism.

The first alien faith (Christianity) arrived in India only in 50 AD, when we had been a purely Hindu civilisation for 3000 years! (And how much headway was made by this faith can be judged by the fact that after 2000 years of missionary activity and 200 years of European rule, it is still a mere 2% of the population) The second alien faith (Islam) arrived in India in 712 AD. So Islam has been in the subcontinent for only 1300 out of 5000 years of our history.

Secularists disagree with the above argument, saying that India was a "multi-religious" civilisation long before Christianity and Islam arrived. They point to Jainism and Buddhism. What they don't realise is that Jainism and Buddhism are not separate religions. These are just two of the many schools of thought (or 'sects') within Hinduism. Mahavira and Buddha did not teach anything fundamentally different from the Vedas. Their revolt was against the empty ritualism and ill practices that Vedic religion had degenerated into, not against the Vedas themselves. With their emphasis on concepts like satya and ahimsa - which are what the Vedas also teach - they succeeded in restoring Sanatana Dharma to its true spirit (A similar revival can be
seen in the Upanishads during the same period, albeit at the intellectual level). The teachings of Guru Nanak 2000 years later
should also be seen in the same light. Thus Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism are just different streams (and such beautiful streams!) flowing into the great river of Sanatana Dharma. Yet secularists like Amartya Sen insist on saying that Ashoka, arguably India's greatest ruler, was "a Buddhist, not a Hindu".

A nation is defined by its culture. Secularists want us to believe that a piece of land + some people + some laws are enough to make a nation. This is a dry and lifeless idea of nationhood. It is incapable of inspiring love, loyalty, pride and a sense of belonging – all of which make life meaningful and give us a reason to sacrifice for the common good.A nation is above all a cultural entity. This is especially true of India. And Indian culture is basically Hindu culture. This is reflected in our greatest achievements in art, architecture and literature. The Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the great
temples of South India, the plays of Kalidasa (the list is endless) -which are the wonder of the world - are all essentially Hindu. It is also reflected in the lives of the greatest men produced by this land. From Buddha and Shankara down to Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi,they are all known primarily for their contribution to Hindu thought and their upholding of Hindu values.True, other religions have also made their contributions. Islam, Hindustani classical music among other things. But these achievements were the result of foreign cultures mixing with the foundational culture, like rivers merging with the mighty ocean. And there can be no doubt what that foundational culture is. Secularists talk about composite culture.They refuse to recognise that we have a 'composite culture' if one want to call it is precisely because of Hinduism's tolerant and assimilative nature. Honesty lies in giving credit where it is due.

India is the oldest surviving civilisation in the world. The older civilisations (Sumer and Egypt) vanished long ago. Many younger
civilisations (Greece, Rome, Persia, etc) also arose and fell. But India is still standing after 5000 years – despite being subject to
countless invasions, conquests and long periods of foreign rule. How is this possible? How can a nation survive such severe trials? What gave it the strength to go on through its dark periods? What held it together through all the ups and downs of history? The answer is Sanatana Dharma.

Secularists say there was no India before 1947. They say the British made us a nation. I repeat: our nation is first and foremost a cultural entity. India may not have seen much political unity in its long history, but there was no lack of cultural unity. This land bound by the seas, the Himalayas and the Indus was one cultural unit. Its people may have followed different sects and worshipped different gods, but they all shared certain common core beliefs (such as karma and moksha). Irrespective of where they lived, they made pilgrimages to holy places scattered all over the country. The great epics were treasured in every home across the length and breadth of the land. It is not a coincidence that Shankara set up his four mutts in the four corners of India.

Thus it is Hinduism that binds this country. Secularists talk only about India's (and Hinduism's) diversity. They do not see the unity underlying this diversity. What unites us is much more than what (apparently) divides us. They say Hinduism is just one of the many religions in India. They are wrong; it is the first among equals. They say India is a salad bowl and Hinduism just one of the ingredients in the bowl. They are wrong; Hinduism is the bowl.

The case is overwhelming. Yet secularists refuse to accept the obvious truth. What could be behind this cussedness? A desire to be broad minded, open, universal and tolerant? But those are exactly the values Hinduism stands for! There is no contradiction between asserting India's Hinduness and wanting India to continue as a tolerant,pluralist society. Secularists say declaring India a Hindu country would undermine the secular nature of our Constitution. They don't see that a secular state is perfectly consistent with Hinduism. In Hindu India the state was always secular; there was never such a thing as a Hindu state.
Whichever sect a king belonged to, all his subjects had complete freedom of belief and worship. He did not discriminate among his subjects based on their sects; all subjects were equal; all sects were respected. Thus when the founding fathers of our Republic made India a secular state, they were not importing anything from the West (never mind what Nehru thought). They were merely staying true to Hindu tradition. Incidentally the Constitution did not originally contain the word 'secular'. The founding fathers saw no need for it. A secular state was given. It needed a cynical politician like Indira Gandhi to insert the word into the Preamble. How unnecessary!

Secularists say declaring India a Hindu country would pave the way for a Hindu theocracy. A Hindu theocracy is not possible because Hinduism is not an organised religion. Secularists are unwilling to admit that Hinduism – with its tolerance and catholicity – is responsible for India being a multi-religious country today. If India is a vibrant, pluralistic democracy, it is mainly because of its Hindu majority.Thus accepting India's Hinduness will only strengthen, not weaken, our secular polity.

"Why make such a fuss over this issue? Why not just maintain a polite silence? All this talk of Hindu rashtra may offend some people. Why is it so important that we openly proclaim this truth?" Because identity is important. It is important to know who we are and where we come from. Every individual is special. Who you are is your unique gift to society. What is true for individuals is also true for civilisations. Every civilisation has something to give to the world - which it can give only if it knows its true nature. A civilisation that loses its sense of identity is of no use to the world.

Yes, it is important to be welcoming and hospitable to others. But you can be welcoming and hospitable only if you have a house of your own. Identity is that house. Gandhiji said, "Keep your doors and windows open. Let the winds come in from all over the world. But do not be blown off your feet." Note that he said, "Keep your doors and windows open". He did not say, "Break your walls down". Just as we need four walls and a roof to protect us from heat, cold and rain, we need an identity to survive in the real world, in the world of culture and politics.

"Who am I?" is the most fundamental question a human being faces. Our civilisation gives us the answer to this question at two levels: the ultimate and the immediate. The answer at the ultimate level is "I am Brahman" |अहं ब्रह्मास्मि|. And the answer at the immediate level is "I am a Hindu". To give up lower identity for higher one is what our tradition taught us. But all identities are necessary at different point of time in life.

त्यजेदेकम कुलस्यार्थे | ग्रामास्यार्थे कुलम त्यजेत|

ग्रामम जनपद्स्यार्थे | आत्मार्थे प्रिथिवी त्यजेत|

India’s Scientific Heritage: Measurement of time
By Suresh Soni

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=202&page=22

In India, sages contemplated on this and perceived it. Describing the condition before the creation of the universe, the Naasadiya Sookta of the Rigveda says that there was no truth or untruth, neither atom nor leisure. Then what was there? There was neither death nor immortality, neither day nor night. At that time, there was an element with the power of pulsation.

Darkness was enveloped with the darkness before creation and there was an element which had the power or the strength of penance. It was first the power of the effect of desire that the equilibrium was shattered and the universe was created from the unexpressed state. And the journey of time also began. This is how the journey of the time moves on along with the universe.

Defining this, Sages have described it as ‘kalayati sarvaani bhootani’ that is one that drives the entire universe or creation. It is also said that this universe is made once and then, gets destroyed, this is not the end. The cycle of birth and death, creation and destruction goes on. The giant wheel of time goes on with its creation, position, change and destruction. The poets of India and the west have described the all-eclipsing form of time alike. Kshemendra, a renowned poet of India has expressed his views thus-

Aho kaalasamudrasya na - lakshyante atisantataah
Majjantontaranantasya - yugaantaah parvataa iva.

“There is no such interval as compression in the ocean of time; huge mountains like massive ages come to submerge into it.” Octavia Paz, the poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1990, has, in his poem ‘Into the Matter’, described the all engulfing nature of time in the following words-

A clock strikes the time
Now it’s time
It is not time now, not it is now
Now it is time to get rid of time
Now it is not time
It is time and not now
Time eats the now
Now it is time
Windows close
Walls closed doors close
The words go home
Now we are more alone…….

The shortest as well as the largest unit of time has been described in our country.

There is a reference to this in the Shrimad Bhagwad Mahapurana. King Pareekshit asks Sage Shukdev what is time? What are its minutest and greatest forms? The reply that the sage gives is amazing because in today’s modern age, we know that time is an abstract element. We know it because of the incidents that occur. Thousands of years ago, Sage Shukdev had said, “The changing of subjects is the form of time. The element of time expresses itself through it (change). It expresses itself through the unexpressed.”

Measurement of Time
The minutest part of time is the atom and the greatest is Brahma Age. Explaining it in detail, Sage Shuk gives its various measures-

2 paramaanu - 1 Anu
3 Anu - 1 trasrenu
3 trasrenu - 1 truti
100 truti - 1 vedh
3 vedh - 1 lav
3 lav - 1 nimesh
3 nimesh - 1 kshan (moment)
5 kshan - 1 kaashthaa
15 kaashthaa - 1 laghu
15 laghu - 1 naarikaa
2 naadikaa - 1muhoort
30 muhoort - 1 day-night
7 day-night - 1 week
2 weeks - 1 fortnight
2 fortnight - 1 month
2 months - 1 ritu (season)
3 ritus - 1 ayan
2 ayans - 1 year

According to the calculations of Sage Shuk, there are 3,28,05,00,000 paramaanu of time in a day and night and 86,400 seconds in a day and night. This means that in its minutest measure, one paramaanu of time is equal to 37968th part of a second.

In A 231 of the Moksh Parva in the Mahabharata, time has been calculated as under-

15 Nimesh - 1 kaashtha
30 kaashthaa - 1 kala
30 kala - 1 muhoort
30 muhoort - 1day and night

There is a slight difference between the two calculations. According to Sage Shuk, there are 450 kaashthaas in a moment and according to the Mahabharata, there are 900 kaashthaas in a moment. This implies the different methods of calculations.

These are the unites for ordinary time calculations. But to measure the age of the universe or the changes therein, bigger units will be required. That measurement unit is yug.

Kaliyug - 432,000 years
2 Kaliyug Dwaparyug - 864,000 years
3 Kaliyug Tretayug - 1296,000 years
4 Kaliyug Satyug - 1728,000 years
The four ages together make a Chaturyuge - 4320,000 years
71 Chaturyugis make a Manvantar - 306720,00 years
14 Manvantaras along with 15 Satyugs as a part of the dusk make up a kalp that is - 4320,000,000 years

One kalpa means one day of Brahma. One night of His is equally long. One Brahma lives for 100 years and when one Brahma dies, it is Lord Vishnu’s nimesh (blinking of the eye), and after Vishnu, the age of Rudra starts. He is himself a form of kaal and is, therefore, eternal. That is why time is said to be endless.

After reading this description of Sage Shukdev, a thought that comes to mind is that this description is fantastic imagination and an intellectual game. What is the significance of such things in today’s scientific age? But this is not fantastic imagination. It is related to astronomy. India’s calculations of time were made on the basis of a minute study of the speed and changes in the astronomical bodies which means solid scientific truth; whereas in the calculations of the Anno Domini era prevalent today, the only scientific thing is the fact that the year is based on the calculations of the time that the earth takes to revolve around the sun. Otherwise, there is no relation between the calculations of the months and days and astronomical speeds.

STRUGGLE IS OVER HISTORY, NOT BRICK AND MORTAR

Dr. N.S. Rajaram (mathematician, linguist and historian)

The Ayodhya dispute

The Ayodhya dispute is over four hundred and fifty years old. It came to head on December 6, 1992 with the demolition of the structure known as the Babri Masjid (Babar's Mosque) by Hindu activists. This event has been seen as marking a watershed in modern Indian history. Some like the British writer V.S. Naipaul see it as an event marking the birth of a new historical awareness on the part of the Hindus; while others, calling themselves the 'Secular Forces' — actually little more than a motely mix of Leftist academics and politicians, and right-wing Muslim leaders and the clergy — see it as the beginning of the transformation of India into a Hindu theocratic state.

I see Ayodhya as the symbol of the emergence of the Indian Civilization — more specifically, the Hindu Civilization — from the grip of alien imperialistic forces and their surrogates that have tried to hold on to their privileged positions by suppressing the legitimate national and cultural aspirations of the Hindus. In this they have tried whitewashing the record of vandalism by Medieval Islamic rulers. This is what brought together this seemingly ‘modern’ and 'Westernized' Leftist intellectuals and right wing Islamists with their roots firmly in Medieval history and tradition. Koenraad Elst calls this whitewashing of history 'Negationism', more particularly 'Jihad Negationism'.

Negationism: Accepting the Islamic version of history

The present volume is only peripherally about Negationism. It is in the main a concise summary of the latest evidence on the Temple-Mosque controversy based on the primary sources including recent archaeological finds. I found it necessary to prepare this volume because there is still much confusion in the minds of many Indians about the existence of a Rama temple and its destruction by Babar in 1528. Many educated Indians still believe that there are some doubts about the historical question; many honestly believe that no temple was ever destroyed by Babar because he was tolerant towards the Hindus. (Towards the end, I have included a brief discussion of Babar’s famous work Baburnama to give an idea of what he was really like.)

This view, while a tribute to the effectiveness of negationist propaganda, is not a true representation of facts. In reality there can no doubt about either the existence or the destruction of a Rama temple by Babar at Rama Janmabhumi. What 'controversy' there is, is a modern concoction, the result of a massive disinformation campaign by 'Secularist' scholars, politicians and a large segment of the English language press. What is more important is that this happens to be part of a larger agenda of denying altogether the destruction of any Hindu temples by Muslim rulers — a step towards whitewashing the record of Islam in India. This is what Elst has called Negationism in his remarkable book Negationism In India: Concealing the Record of Islam. The reader will be the best judge of the facts upon reading the material presented in this volume.

A point that I wish to emphasize: any effort aimed at understanding the history leading up to the Ayodhya demolition must be careful not to view the events of December 6, 1992 in isolation, ignoring the thousand year history leading up to it. This would cause one to lose sight of the single most important historical theme in India today: the ongoing struggle between the two versions of history — the nationalistic and the imperialistic. Those calling themselves 'Secularists' in the Ayodhya dispute are representatives of defunct imperialisms — the Islamic and the European. What they fear most is the loss of their privileges following the rise of nationalism. This is the real battle over Ayodhya

The negationist version of Indian history means accepting the Islamic view of history — to wit, that the history of any place begins with its Muslim takeover; nothing that happened before is of any account. This is how Muslims view the history of all the conquered lands — from Egypt to Iran and even Pakistan. They have been defeated in their purpose to impose this version of history on India also. The struggle over Ayodhya is but a facet of this larger struggle.

This is best understood by recognizing that there are really two Ayodhya disputes. The first is over the right of possession to the site known since time immemorial as Rama Janmabhumi. The second is over the version of history to be imposed on the people of India today. The beneficiaries of defunct imperialisms — Islamic and the Eurocentric — are using the first dispute as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from their real concern; their real concern is the unraveling of an imperialistic version of history highly advantageous to themselves. As surrogates of past imperialistic movements, they have also been its main beneficiaries. Once the true history comes to the fore, it will mean the end of their privileged existence.

To achieve their goal, the agents (or surrogates) of imperialisms have found it necessary to preserve and protect their (negationist) version of history. No imperialism can succeed unless the subject people are made to forget their history. This is what Islam did to Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan; this is what Christianity did to Europe and the Americas; and this is what Mao also did to China, and later Tibet. And this is what the Secularists would like to see happen in India also. Destruction of history is the goal of every imperialism. Speaking of imperialisms and their specially crafted language, more specifically Islam, Sita Ram Goel observes:

... every language of imperialism divides human history into two sharply separated periods — an age of darkness which prevailed before the birth of an incomparable person, and an age of light which followed thereafter. The entire past history of every nation preceding the age of darkness is painted so black that nothing in which the nation can take pride is left unscathed. [This 'incomparable person' is Prophet Muhammad in the case of Islam, and Karl Marx in the case of the Secularists. So it is essentially a personality cult. Such cults were built around ‘incomparable persons’ Stalin and Mao also.]

The Secularists see India's indigenous Hindu Civilization as the dark force whose entire history should be blackened beyond redemption and ultimately effaced, to be replaced by its own Age of Secular Light. The first step is to coin a derogatory term for it — 'Hindu Communalism' (or Kaffir Communalism). They see India as an impure land plagued by pluralistic Hinduism that awaits Secularist cleansing. This is the Secularist version of the Islamic concept of Dar-ul-Harb and Dar-ul-Islam. Their version of the Ayodhya dispute which seeks to erase a thousand years of history leading up to December 6, 1992 is part of this enterprise.

End to Negationism

This again highlights the two Ayodhya disputes: the first ancient and historical, the second recent and ideological. To understand the second — the 'real dispute' so to speak — we must perforce study the first. To this end, I will present here the essential facts of history relating to the Ayodhya dispute. Once these are understood, readers will be in a better position to appreciate the real struggle that Ayodhya represents.

I recognize that much of what I have written here will make for unpalatable reading for many Muslims. But history is history, whether we like it or not. Also, no one is asking for revenge or retribution for past crimes. Nor has anyone the right to object to another's belief, as long as that belief remains personal. All one is asking is that Negationism must stop, so a true history can come to the fore. Above all, we cannot expect the Hindus to accept the Islamic view of history — that their civilization had engulfed India in a Dark Age to which light came only with the arrival of Islamic invaders. Nor can Muslims expect the Hindus to accept their version that nothing that happened at Ayodhya before the arrival of Babar is of any account, let alone their theology that there was no history before the arrival of Islam.

This is in the interests of all concerned — not just the Hindus. Communal harmony in India is an unattainable goal as long as one side keeps insisting on whitewashing its own record, while blaming the victims for all the problems. And the victims of such propaganda will never rest content until they feel their case has been justly treated. Here is where the Secularists have done immense harm to the cause of communal harmony in the name of 'secularism' — whitewashing Jihad Negationism, while heaping abuse and blame on the victims.

This is not a new or recent development. Within four years of Indian independence and the Partition, the late K.M. Munshi had warned Nehru of the dangers of this less than honest stand on secularism. In a now famous and remarkably prophetic letter, Munshi, one of the foremost constitutional lawyers of the day wrote Nehru:

In its [i.e. secularism's] name, again, politicians adopt a strange attitude which, while it condones the susceptibilities, religious and social of the minorities, it is too ready to brand similar susceptibilities in the majority community as communalistic and reactionary. How secularism sometimes becomes allergic to Hinduism will be apparent from certain episodes relating to the reconstruction of Somnath Temple.

These unfortunate postures have been creating a sense of frustration in the majority community. If, however, the misuse of this word 'secularism' continues, ... if, every time there is an inter-communal conflict, the majority is blamed regardless of the merits of the question, ..., the springs of traditional tolerance will dry up.

While the majority exercises patience and tolerance, the minorities should adjust themselves to the majority. Otherwise the future is uncertain and an explosion cannot be avoided. (Emphasis added.)

Prophetic indeed, written forty years before the explosion at Ayodhya! And this has gone on for nearly fifty years. It looks as though nothing has been learnt by the Secularists and their allies. The politicians too keep on promising the impossible to the Muslims in the hope of garnering their votes. If this goes on much longer, more explosions like Ayodhya become all but inevitable.

The result of this has been most unfortunate; it has turned the traditionally tolerant Hindus into a majority community with a persecuted minority complex — making them believe that they are second-class citizens in their own country. (This has now been aggravated by the aggressive behavior of Christian missionaries caught in a millennium frenzy.) This is a dangerous development that bodes ill for the minority community, and for the country at large. In this the culprit is Jihad Negationism, and the suspicion and hatred that it breeds.

What are we to do about it? In this regard, one can learn a valuable lesson by looking at European history. The record of Christianity in Europe and the Americas is no less blood-soaked than the record of Islam in India. But there are no 'Crusade Negationists' or 'Inquisition Negationists' in Europe comparable to the Jihad Negationists in India. This has allowed communal harmony to prevail in Europe.

The lessons for India are clear, she must come to terms with her history. A similar situation prevailed in the United States over the question of slavery. There was no shortage of negationists who argued that slavery was a natural law that contained much good. But Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest men of modern times, would have none of it. He told Americans to face up to their history:

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. ... No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.

Truer words were never spoken. Its message is clear: for peace and harmony to prevail in India, Negationism must end. Indian history must be freed from the shackles of its imperial surrogates acting in the name of 'secularism'.

It is time now to look at the Ayodhya dispute against the background of this brand of 'secularism' and the conduct of its votaries.