A memorable year for India (part II)

This is the second part of this blog. And I will write today about another great son of this divine land. His name is Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, popularly known as 'ShriGuruji'. He was born on 19 February 1906. This is his birth centenary year.

The name could be little unfamiliar to many. He was the second sarsanghachalaka of RSS. One of the largest voluntary organisations in world. And he has played a key role in taking RSS to its present heights.

Born in Nagpur, sriguruji was a very bright student. After schooling and preliminary college education, he went to BHU, where he completed his M.Sc. in zoology and then became a lecturer there. During these days he came in contact with Ramkrishna Math in Nagpur and soon went to swami Akhandananda for Deeksha. He came back to nagpur after swamiji passed away. Soon he came in close contact with Dr. Hedgewar.

He then became the closest kin of doctorji, and he guided him through various responsibilities in organisation. After doctorji, he became the chief of RSS. He was authority in indian scriptures and was in some sense succesor of Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. He proposed in neat and clear way 'Hindu Rashtra Hypothsis' and provided a very strong philosophical foundation to the organisation.

But he was also a true karmayogee and contributed a lot in spread and proliferation of RSS to every part of India. He inspired many other organisation like VHP, ABVP and BJP. But he always engrossed himself in root level work of character building. During his period nation saw the assasination of Mahatma Gandhijee and ban on RSS followed after. He guided his volunteers through this tough period. He had also fortold the danger of China and that of Bangladesh which we are realising now. During his tenure many movements were started like ban on cow slaughter and foundation of vivekananda rock memorial.

He has also contributed through his books, many articles and interviews. The most famous being compilation of his writings 'Bunch of Thoughts'.

This is his birth centenary year and we can atleast decide to read and know about this sanyasee leader of modern time.

A memorable year for India (part I)

India has been, since last many thousand years, the motherland of many great sages and philosophers, kings and warriors, scientists and artists. This is the year we witness 150th, 100th and 50th birth year of three such sons of this land.

The first among them is 'Lokamanya' Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Nobody in India needs any introduction for this great warrior of indian freedom struggle. He was one of the frontline leaders in indian national congress. He was the first person who vividly said 'Political freedom is my birthright'. He started many movements against british rule, most famous being 'VangBhang Andolan' or movement against unfair division of Bengal. Contrary to popular belief, he was the first person who gave the idea of 'Swadeshi', not Mahatma Gandhiji. He also emphasized on 'Rashtriya Shikha' or education in harmony with our national culture. The idea of total boycott (Bahishkar) also originated from his mind.

Apart from politics he was renowned mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. In fact these words seem quite short to me and not really capturing his true intellect. The books he has written are the quite vivid proof of it. 'Geeta Rahasya' and 'Arctic orgin of Vedas' are the most famous ones. These were written when he was in jail for 6 years. Apart from these there are many editorials he has written.

Although a person in congress he supported other groups fighting for freedom. V.D.Savarkar and many other revolutionaries had taken their inspiration from him. Also he contributed actively in education, social reforms and newspaper which was a new medium those days.

He was born on 23rd July 1956. This year we will be selebrating his 150th birth anniversary. Let us have him as a role model in front of us.

India in UN's Human Rights Council

India is elected as a member of Human Rights Council today. She got maximum number votes amongst asian group of countries tallying 173 out of 191. We had large margin over China and Japan. Indonesia which is closest to us got 165 votes.

This shows the confidence world still has on India. And it also reminds us that we, as a nation, the oldest nation on earth, have a duty to fulfil. The whole world is looking towards us. We are not permanent member of security council. One may say that it is harbinger of permanent membership in security council. But we should notice that when it comes to human rights world is looking to us. It wants us to show a path where everybody can live happily. This stems from our philosophy of 'Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah'. Now we also need to show a way by which this can be realized in practice.

A great task which stands at first is to give equal human rights to people in our society. Still we have depressed classes. Upper classes sucking their blood. Malpractices of dowry, child marriage and female infanticide. We should make society free of casteism. We should start from ourselves and build a new society free from all differences and hierarchy.

World is looking ...

Nepal and maoists

I refrained for so many days from writing about current situation in Nepal. Till this moment the picture was that the struggle in Nepal is of common people for the freedom and democracy, against monarchy or this king, king Gyanendra in particular.

Indeed this was true in some sense. But we should not forget maoist hands behind it. There is no doubt that poeple's rule should have been restored much before. The days are over when king was considered as the the 'Avtar of Vishnu' (Naavishnuh Pruthivipati). So it was a right move by India to interfere, and also by King Gyanendra to revive the democracy.

But maoists are not happy with it. The reason seems that they don't themselves believe in democracy. They just wanted change of rule from the king to maoist party. That's why they have refused to accept the solution which is accepted by all other party. And they have now forced PM Koirala to cease all activities against them.

These groups can be having some international support. The reason is obvious. To create checkpost on Indian border. Nepal has been the part of Brihat-Bharat since this country existed. And it is having a very important role of border security. Also the remaining Bharat has a role to play when Nepal is in turmoil. We have taken steps to restore democracy. Now its our duty to support this new government on all fronts to restore the peace. This is a duty of a big brother which India has to fulfil !