Friday, October 18, 2013

RAM – A REAL HERO OR VILLAIN?

“A Hindu is not fighting to construct a temple using sand and stones. His fight is to protect his culture, religion, and his national consciousness. But Muslims are praising Babur – who is an invader, an occupier and one who demolished temple of Lord Ram. They are not willing to accept Ram as an incarnation – as an avatar purush”
 - Ms. Uma Bharti, the then Sports Minister in Vijaya Bharatham, an RSS Mouthpiece

‘Ram’ is an investment used by the BJP-RSS clique for the past more than 15 years to promote their ‘business’. The kind of fraudulent advertisements and false propaganda they unleash are in no way lesser compared to the multi-million dollar charming & selective promotion strategy of fraudulent MNCs. “Golden era”, “nationalism”, “national pride”, “swadeshi…videshi”, etc etc. are a few of those deceptive misconceptions that are being reeled-off in these ‘promotions’. These fraudulent stories are the foundations for the ‘Hindu Consciousness’ they are trying to create. Babur, Babri Masjid, Muslims are invaders – traitors etc. are a web of conspiracies they are trying to spread, upon which they are trying to create an illusion about Ram, Ayodhya, Hindu sentiment, national hero – nationalism etc. As far as Hindu fanatics are concerned, it is the duty and a pre-condition for every Indian citizen to accept and worship Ram. Those who don’t accept or worship Ram are traitors. This idea of ‘Hindu sentiment’ and ‘Muslim aversion’ has spread and has poisoned the minds of majority of population; in many cases, this has happened to many without their conscience. Fraudulent projection of Ram, as mentioned above, is one of the primary reasons for that. In this given situation, it becomes extremely important and urgent for us to examine and understand this in detail; along with it, we should also be ready to shoulder the responsibility for rooting-out such a fraudulent manifestation. To understand the real history of Ram, who is being projected as a national hero, we should try to analyse the ancient, medieval and modern histories of India in the light of dialectical materialism i.e., the science of Marxism. The Hindu religion as mentioned in varna and caste fanatic epics and puranas – Vedas & Upnishads - Aryan invasion – racism etc tell us the stories of Brahmanism destroying the lives, culture and civilizations of the Indian aboriginal tribes. We will have to learn the entire history starting from the Indus valley civilization to what is happening today, including origination of religions and saints who had sole objective of opposing the oppressions and atrocities of brahminism – sanscritisation – arrival of the Moghuls – relationship between the Hindu and Muslim kings – historical reasons for the formation and destruction of kingdoms – invasion by the English – division of India in 1947…

The current objective of this pamphlet is not to deal with all of these; we will stop with examining whether the ‘avtar’ Ram has qualities required for a real hero (b) whether the ‘invader’ Babur led an oppressive regime. If we go by the argument that all invaders are occupiers, then Aryans were the first invaders into India. Story of described in the ancient source tale Ramayana is nothing but a proud description of how the Aryan invaders hunted down, tortured and killed the Dravidians, Nagas, and other Indian aborigines. That original ancient tale Ramayana is not in vogue anymore. A few hundred centuries later, Valmiki created Ramayana with all qualities required for an Epic. From Valmiki’s time to till date, Ramayana has undergone a number of changes, corrections and insertions as it passed through the times of history. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan as shown on television and Valmiki’s Ramayan are too different from each other. Under the rule of America, most of the Hollywood movies are getting dubbed into most of the Indian local languages and are getting screened in small towns and villages. Similarly, Ram’s story of invasion, was also translated into many different languages all over India. Why and how these concepts from Aryan epics, puranas, Vedas and upnishads invaded into Indian languages, arts, culture and civilization? Majority of the aboriginal population was denied right of education; spreading of such stories through arts and diluting the culture served the purpose of inculcating the Aryan concepts of ‘discipline’ among the people and also to warn them about the punishments if such discipline were not adhered to. Deepest and most detailed analysis of different versions of Ramayana translated into a number of different South Asian languages will reveal only Aryan qualities Rama. As per the order of his Rajguru Vashisht, Ram kills Shambhuka, a shudra; Shambhuka’s only crime was doing penance with the objective of attaining God directly without any help or assistance from the fraudulent Bhraminical ‘intermediaries’. The aboriginal tribals were resisting Vishwamitr, who had occupied their lands. Ram kills the Asura tribals and saves Vishwamitr. Ram, like a coward, kills Vali, a master warrior, hiding from behind. He also kills his own wife Sita by burning her alive, on suspicions about her chastity - thus it was Ram, who initiated the culture of daughters-in-law murders in India (due to male-chauvinistic suspicions as well as dowry related murders). Ram, in totality, is a symbol of invasion and occupation in India, who has committed gruesome murders of tribal and their leaders like Ravana. Till date, Rama worship is not prevalent among majority of the population in South, East, North West and North East India. So, Rama, who is a symbol of racism, varna fanaticism, caste fanaticism and male-chauvinism, CANNOT be accepted as a real hero. Instead, he has to be hated as one of the worst and ghastly villains of our country.
Babur, like every other king, wants to become an emperor. You cannot find any of the Aryan qualities of Rama in Babur. Among the kings who fought against Babur, there are Muslims as well as Hindus. It is Babur’s Hindu generals, who presented a number of victories to Babur in many of the battles. There are historical records which talk about Babur providing subsidies to a number of temples and also Bhrahmins. In Babri-nama, a book with rare historical records, there is no mention or even a hint about Babur demolishing any of the Hindu temples. He has ordered demolition of naked Jain statues near Gwalior, that too with the objective of protecting public decency.The same book Babri-nama talks about the Will that Babur has written to his son Humayun (original Will document is also said to be available in the State Library of Bhopal):- "My son take note of the following: Do not harbor religious prejudice in your heart. You should dispense justice while taking note of the people's religious sensitivities, and rites. Avoid slaughtering cows in order that you could gain a place in the heart of natives. This will take you nearer to the people. Do not demolish or damage places of worship of any faith and dispense full justice to all to ensure peace in the country. Islam can better be preached by the sword of love and affection, rather than the sword of tyranny and persecution. Look at the various characteristics of your people just as characteristics of various seasons."

If we just compare the hatred speeches of the saffron gang of our times with that of the thoughts of religious harmony of a king some 500 years ago, we will come to know the worthiness of Ram and his heirs. This Will of Babur is not a fraudulent bhraminical legendary distortion; it is a historically documented record which can never be denied. In his will to his son, a father need not write a lie. Even if we assume that there had been a Ram temple, and even if Babur has really demolished it, there is absolutely no need for Emperor Babur to hide it at that time. Because, by no way he could not have predicted that the RSS lunatics would accuse him 500 years later. Poor Babur, he did not have the Gyan Drushti which was privy ONLY the ‘blessed’ bhramin rishis!! Still, the RSS and other Hindu fanatic gang has created a number of lies and concocted tales about Babur and other Mughul kings. Akbar, who came in the lineage of Babur, tried to unite different religions. He brought together a number of good aspects from different known religions of his period and created a new religion called ‘Dīn-i Ilāhī’. Akbar promoted tolerance of other faiths. In fact, not only did he tolerate them, he encouraged debate on philosophical and religious issues. Though his new religion was a failure, it was a very progressive thought for that time. Though he faced strong opposition from bhramins, he banned cruel practice of Sati. These are revealed in ‘Ayini Akbar’, a book which talks about his history. A general analysis will reveal that Mughul kings, like all other kings, were also exploiting people and were leading a sensuous life. But in administration and social aspects, they were much more exemplary when compared to Ram. In human history, there were a number of leaders whom we praise as ‘National Heroes’. These leaders understood the changes of their times, understood the reasons behind peoples’ sufferings, and have lead and participated in struggles for liberating people. Though the role of not leaders are not primary, they are important.

Spartacus, who organized the slaves of Rome, who have not even realised about their slavery, to stand together and struggle for freedom and equality; Jesus who worked to get rid of the cravings of the slaves; Mohammed, who regulated the lives of Arabian ethnic nomads; Buddha, who dreamt of creating a fraternal community by annihilating the brutal bhraminical rituals; Che Guevara who fought the American Imperialism till his last breath; Kamal Basha who relieved Turkey from the clutches of religious fanatics; Nelsan Mandela, who expended whole of youth in prison in his struggle against the racism; Bhagat Singh, who gave new confidence to the Indian youth in struggle against the British; the leaders of Naxalbari and Telengana struggles; Ambedkar, Periyar, Mahatma Phule are all National Heroes who have worked for betterment of lives of their fellow human beings. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao are great leaders who dreamt of creating a communist society in future are fondly being remembered by the proletariat all over the world. Thus history has created a number of revolutionary leaders all through. But still these Hindu religious fanatics are issuing decrees to celebrate Ram as a national hero. Does Ram have even a single quality possessed by any one of these leaders?
Just for the sake of argument, even if we assume that the story of Ram is true, what is that he has done that is so extraordinary and precious? To save his father’s promise, he went on to live in the forest as instructed by his aunt; he made his brother the king, to rule the nation till his return; he conducted a huge battle, leading to loss of thousands of lives, just to save his wife; ruled Ayodhya again on his return. Still the only glory of Ram that every devotee of Rama, preachers and the RSS clique repeatedly describes is that he has remained faithful to his wife. Though there are claims contrary to that in Valmiki’s Ramayana, let us, for the sake of argument, accept that it is true. If we have to make a person a national hero, just for the sake of being faithful to his wife, what should we say about the worthiness of that particular religion or nation?

Thus, exposing all these fraudulent concocted tales about ‘great’ avtar Rama is not just an atheist debate – it is a freedom struggle against brahminical Hindu social structure for relieving the whole society from the clutches of brahminical deception. Ram is NOT A real hero; he is a villain. 





Thursday, October 17, 2013

THE RAMAYANA (A TRUE READING)- E.V.R.PERIYAR

The stories of Ramayana were foisted that the heroes, their relations and their helpers are regarded as gods and super human beings and venerated by the people as worthy of being worshiped. A careful and analytical study of the original legends would reveal that the happenings and the events alleged to have taken place are most uncivilized and barbarous. Evidently, these myths are written so that Brahmins may look great in the eyes of others. The originals of these stories are written in Sanskrit. This enables those Aryans to put their interpretations really imaginary, differently at different times to suit the occasions and according to the intellectual capacity of the people in the midst of whom they preached. They call these stories the essence of Vedas, the 5th Veda and so on. The original Ramayana contains nothing appreciable, nothing divine, nothing moral to be learnt and followed and nothing would stand to reason and that we should open our eyes and see for ourselves the fair pretences and hollowness of these stories. The Aryans when they invaded the ancient land of Dravidians maltreated and dishonored the later and had written a false colored history. The Hanuman, Sukriv and natives were called as monkeys and rakshasas. It is this they call Ramayana. While it is stressed that Ram the hero of the story should be valued as god descended from heaven in human form Valmiki the author depicts that Ram was wicked in thought and deed was an embodiment of lies, treachery, artifice, cunningness, greediness, murder, drunkenness and unmanliness and what not. The story of Ramayana is neither religious nor rational.
When we consider Rama and his character, he was nothing more than a casteist, patriarchal, cowardice, power hungry, selfish person. His amiable conduct towards the people his father and Kaikeyi was only motivated by his desire to usurp the throne. He was all along a snake under the grass. When Kaikeyi said to him, the king desired me to convey to you that Bharath should be crowned king of Ayodhya and you should go to forest. He replied the king has never told me that he would give the kingdom to Bharath. He told his wife Sita, ‘you cater to the taste of Bharath without earning his ill feeling. This will yield much benefit to us later.’ (Chapter 26, Ayodhya Kand) Bharath assured to Ram that he gave his claim to throne. Then only Ram disclosed to Bharath the secret that Dasrath had already handed over the kingdom to his mother Kaikeyi.(Chapter 107, Ayodhya Kand) Ram was ever suspicious of Sita’s character and ask her to plunge herself into the fire and come out to prove her chastity. Rama said, ‘Sita, how could Ravana have left you without being seduced and seeing her pregnancy Rama’s doubt increased. Rama took Sita to forest and left there when she was pregnant. Rama disfigured, mutilated many women by cutting of their noses, breasts, ear etc and tortured them (Surpanaka, Ayomuki). Rama also insulted women and said women should not be trusted and secrets should not be confided to wife (Chapter 100, Ayodhya Kand). Rama married many wives. Ram said to his mother, ‘it has been ordained that I have to lose the kingdom, forego the princely comforts and the tasteful meat dishes and to go to the forest to eat the vegetables and fruits.’ (Ayodhya Kand) Similarly Sambuka was killed by Rama because he was making penance which was forbidden to him by Vedas, as he was a Sudra (Chapter 76, Uttarkand) Looking at his hand Rama recited the Sanskrit slogan ‘O, right hand, you kill this Sudra, unhesitatingly as killing the Sudra is the only way to get back the life of deceased Brahmin boy.’ (Valmiki Ramayana). Rama stealthily killed Valli who had done no harm to him, from behind for the sake of Valli’s disloyal brother Sukriv. Rama who had not dared himself to fight face to face with Valli, is hailed as a hero by the ignorant masses and greatly praised by the Brahmins. The bow that was broken by Rama was Shiv’s bow. This bow was already a broken one. (Abhidana sindamani, pages 157, 331, 571,663, 894)
On the other hand Vibishna envious of the sovereignty of his brother Ravana, betrayed him, brought about his death. When Ravana died Vibishna overwhelmed with fraternal feelings fell on the corpse and wept paying tributes to Ravan and describing his nobel qualities and said, ‘you never failed to do justice, you respected the great men.(Chapter 111, Uttarkand) Similarly Hanuman himself described about Ravan’s character that he has not touched any women without her consent. (Chapter 9, Sundar Kand). Ravan fought against deva’s because they in the name of yagya committed the most heinous crime of killing the poor animals in a torturous manner. Ravana carried away Sita to lanka because his sister was tortured and humiliated by Ram. Even at the gravest provocation Ravana, said Valmiki, had not even thought of mutilating the ears, the breast and the nose of Sita as a revenge. Valmiki himself said, ‘Ravan was a good man and magnanimous, but he chastised Brahmins whenever he saw them performing yagya and drinking soma juice.’ (alcohol)



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

THE CRITICISM OF RELIGION IS THE PREREQUISITE OF ALL CRITICISM – MARX

(Extracts from Periyar’s writing on Hindu Religion)….
“Generally and especially, among the people of Hindus, hardly one person among a thousand has knowledge and that too limited knowledge about what is God, what is proper protection of values, what is religion and what is the moral order or dharma to be followed. There is nothing more degrading than this state of affairs in a society. What do most of these people think about God? Many think God is also having a human form, that he is also having wife, son, parents, place of residence, properties, pleasures: that God also has marriage, nuptials, bedroom, seemantham (a ceremony when the wife is several months pregnant), childbirth, etc. They think that there are thousands of Gods with thousands of names; and devotion to God means nothing but to perform to the figurine of God abhishekam, offerings, worship, showing lighted camphor or conduct festivals and processions. Similarly, when they think of religion, they think Hinduism is applying on the forehead namam, sacred ash, or sandal paste and categorizing each another as high caste and low caste people. They think that conducting festivals, to construct places of rest for those who come to such festivals i.e., construction of mutts, and feeding them is dharma or high moral act. To do these things, they indulge in propagation, perform such activities and spend public money, which they consider as fulfilling and protective.
In the matter of taking food, some think it is sin to eat the flesh of cow. Some think eating the flesh of pig is a sin. Some consider it a sin to partake any form of poultry. Even among the Hindus some say that it is no harm to beat a cow and extract work from it, but it is sin to beat or kill a snake. Some say that no animal should be harmed in any way. Others say that all animals were created just to be consumed by man! What is true in all these? What is God‘s orders? How can one conclude which is sin? If anybody wants to find out by research, the truth about these, he is dubbed as ‗atheist‘, non-believer and is told: ―Why are you concerned with all these? Just lead a life according to what elders (wise men) had said and had lived. If you want to find out who the elders (wise men) are, there is no end to difficulties in coming to a conclusion on that. And if you deeply consider what they said and how they lived, the difficulties and contradictions multiply.
For example, someone will say there is Veda and everybody must follow its dictates. ―If we ask, what is said in it, can we look into it? they say, ―It contains God‘s utterances: it is a sin for you to read and hear it. You just obey what we say. How many Gods could be there in the world! They say there is only one God. In that case, should it not be accepted as such by people all over the world? Why then has God not made it acceptable to Christianity, Islam—, and all other countries in the world to accept it? Therefore, it is a lie to say that God has said this. If someone has to point this, he would be branded as ―Veda Brashta (outlawed by veda). In this way, in the name of Hindu religion, principles contrary to nature, experience, honesty and transparency are abound and are ruining the edifice of a great society. In the name of protecting and administering this, precious time, intelligence and money are squandered. In order to abolish untouchability our friend Gandhi has shouted as much as possible. Collected many lakhs of rupees to achieve that end and handed them over to higher caste or varna people. He was not able to bring about the slightest change. On the other hand, he also supported Gita, manu code, varna system and caste. Today those who are doing service, involved in the abolition of untouchability, 100 out of 100 such gullible people have full belief in and support for Gita and manu code. It is just like trying to fill up a water tank, drawing water from a well using a vessel full of leakage. So, for abolition of untouchability or caste, you must first destroy or abolish your religion. If you are not able to destroy the religion, you must atleast leave that religion. It is a firm position that unless your religion is destroyed, you cannot destroy untouchability or pariahhood.

‘I have been saying that the so-called politicians and nationalists in the name of politics, have been cheating and ruining common people for their selfish interests: no less than these politicians, people belonging to the priestly or Brahmin community cheat us in the name of religion, break our unity, loot the wealth we have earned through hard work, ruin our society and country and has made us live like lifeless bodies without any self-respect.’ 
-Periyar


Wednesday, October 02, 2013

WHAT’S BEHIND THE UNDEMOCRATIC CIRCULARS UNDER DRACONIAN “LYNGDOH REGIMES”!

STUDENT COMMUNITY MUST FIGHT AGAINST LYNGDOH AND UPHOLD THE JNUSU CONSTITUTION!

It is ridiculous to be blind about the hunter and asking who killed the bird. The same can be applied in the case of recent events in the campus. One overlooks the present socio-economic order while explaining the incidents in the campus whether it is the case of violent attack against a female student, whether it is the caste discrimination against students belonging to backward and lower castes, or excessive charges and fines against the students by hostel warden, the recent draconian circular against protests of all kind. The re-colonisation of India has changed the whole scenario within the campus too. While the campus was much more politically active without elections too, these elections under the Lyngdoh’s regime the campus have increasingly become depoliticized. While capitalist forces have continued their witch-hunting of workers’ movement, we have seen in the case of Maruti workers who were fired by the management for protesting against their exploitation, their right to form the unions is under attack, and the latest interest has been in the destroying ‘organized student’s movements’.It was inevitable as India signed WTO agreements in 1995 and thus began the process of ‘re-colonization’ whereby imperial forces were allowed to loot the natural resources, destroy the working class movement, through Multi-national institutions i.e. world bank in the name of ‘development and growth’, It has also initiated conspiracy against the politically active universities for which the Birla-Ambani Report argues for “obedient” students who should just go to classes, must be apolitical, score good marks and serve the capitalists’ interests. The JNU administration is working under these regimes of neoliberalism and imperialism. Since the Lyngdoh has been garlanded and embraced shamelessly by the ruling organizations in the campus in the guise of “interim measure”, student community has witnessed stark differences in the language of JNUSU.JNU Administration has shown its true face in the case of setting up JNU Press, where no information was shared with JNUSU, and no student representation has been allowed in the management of JNU press. We protest against any collaboration of JNU press with corporate publishers i.e. Cambridge University Press, Oxford Univ. Press or Taylor and Francis etc. It is these corporate publishers who have denied the availability of photocopy of the books (although the photocopy is allowed for educational purposes under Indian copyright Act 1957) under the regimes of ‘monopoly publishing’. The case is pending in the high court. In the last elections, during the presidential speech when one candidate raised our issue of food fascism, the same EC sanctioned it, calling the word “beef” as non-parliamentary. The same GRC (Grievance Redressal Cell) issued show cause notice to presidential candidate for using that so called un parliamentary word. And during the mobilizations against the imposition of Brahmanical food habits, the Procter issued show cause notice to one member of our organization, rusticated another member. Similarly, in the recent JNUSU elections, students who were raising question of the role of Election commission was asked by these ruling organizations as “why are you contesting elections when you don’t believe in Lyngdoh elections” (mark the words, which exposes their “increasing faith in Lyngdoh elections”. Why JNUSU can’t lead the fight against the Lyngdoh?- when the present JNUSU has been formed under the Lyngdoh guidelines’ based elections, it is impossible for the same Union to fight against the privatization and neoliberal assaults on the student community.  Now JNUSU has been transformed (or degenerated) into a “negotiating body/managing body” from an union for leading struggles and fighting against the administration’s dictats. Thus, when these organizations have accepted the “Lyngdoh Committee’s mantras”, what are we expecting from them?

We call the radical and progressive organizations, and individuals, of this campus to come forward and fight firmly for upholding the JNUSU Constitution ( which had been buried down three elections back) and fight against Lyngdoh in every possible manner.