RIC meeting

 The RIC meeting, drawn by Google Gemini:

Ripudaman Singh Malik - a time line

June 23, 1985: 329 people were killed when a bomb explosion took down the Air India plane Boeing 747 named Emperor Kanishka off the coast of Ireland. The plane was flying a Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai route. About an hour before, a bomb went off inside the terminal building of Tokyo's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers. The bomb went off early because its timer was set incorrectly; it was intended to take down a second Air India plane. 

 Among the several accused in this terrorist plot was Ripudaman Singh Malik (Malik, henceforth in this post).

March 16, 2005: Malik was acquitted of the charges because of inadequate evidence. Two key witnesses had been murdered. Second (Wiki), "Justice Ian Josephson "cited "unacceptable negligence" by CSIS when hundreds of wiretaps of the suspects and other informants were destroyed. Of the 210 wiretaps that were recorded during the months before and after the bombing, 156 were erased. These tapes continued to be erased even after the terrorists had become the primary suspects in the bombing."

Malik of course maintained his innocence, and even tried to collect damages for his prosecution from the Canadian government. 

 Malik was put on a blacklist along with many other names, not allowed entry into India. 

 When Sri Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, he caused to be made backchannel approaches to members of the organizations that these terrorists belonged to, trying to bring about a reconciliation. It seems this outreach worked with Malik. In September 2019, Malik's name was removed from the blacklist and in December 2019, Malik made a visit to India. 

 In January 2022, Malik wrote the following letter to PM Modi:

(via The Hindustan Times)

"At the same time, Malik showed concerns at an “orchestrated campaign” by some misguided members of the Sikh community against the Modi government and India. This, he said, is being done at the behest of some foreign powers which are interested in destabilising India and challenging its national integrity." "Malik promised to work with the government of India for redressal of pending issues." In a separate letter to the Sikh community, Malik urged them to desist from the vicious and motivated campaign. 

“Violence in Punjab only ends up hurting the interests of the Sikh community in Punjab and throughout India and around the world. I do my daily Ardaas for world peace as I do not like seeing my community or any community suffer due to violence,” he said in the letter. “I do not believe it is right to unfairly criticise the Prime Minister given his many positive gestures towards the Sikh community. Instead of criticising we should be appreciating and engaging meaningfully with the government of India under his leadership towards a positive partnership for the future,” Singh furthers said in the letter.

These letters earned Malik the sobriquet "“kaum ka gaddar” (traitor) by the terrorist organizations. 

Going back a couple of years, via the Times of India, August 22, 2020:

AMRITSAR: Various Sikh bodies across the world are questioning the alleged printing of Guru Granth Sahib by a Canada-based Sikh society and the permission to print it. Canada-based British Columbia Gurdwara Council (BCGC) spokesperson Moninder Singh on Friday said they had issued a notice to Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted for his role in the 1985 Kanishka airplane bombing, and Balwant Singh Pandher of Satnam Parchar Religious Society (SPRS), Surrey, British Columbia, for violating the Akal Takht directives on the printing of Guru Granth Sahib saroops (copies).

One of Malik's projects was a Khalsa school (Sikh religious school). 

 (Via The Tribune)

In June 2022, "Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh was scheduled to visit Canada for three days. The programme included laying the foundation of Khalsa College. “The Jathedar’s visit to the Malik’s function was opposed by certain groups, who threatened to gherao the venue. Subsequently, the visit was cancelled."

(Via Global News, Canada, in a story dated June 22, 2023: )

A later dispute over a commercial printing press may have put Nijjar at odds with Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted of involvement in the deadly 1985 Air India bombings. The machine was purchased by Malik and a partner, who intended to use it to print Sikh religious scripture, according to court documents. Malik handed the press over to Nijjar in November 2020 “for safekeeping,” according to B.C. Supreme Court records. But Nijjar refused to return it, a civil suit alleged. Malik was murdered in July 2022. A lawsuit launched in February 2023 sought the return of the equipment.

July 14, 2022 : Ripudaman Singh Malik was shot dead by two gunmen. 

July 27, 2022 : Canadian law enforcement charged Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, with the murder of Malik. The charge was for murder in the first degree. 

May 27, 2023: Tanner Fox charged with the with second-degree murder in the death of Chad Colivas, 41, of Abbotsford. March 21, 2022. Also charged in Colivas’s death is Laetitia Acera, 30, of Abbotsford. She is facing a charge of manslaughter. 

October 21, 2024: Tanner Fox and Jose Lopez plead guilty to second-degree murder; but we are told they have not revealed who hired them. 

The Canadian government and its intelligence and investigative agencies keep alleging the involvement of the Government of India in the murder of various Canadians. These Canadians are members of the various terrorist or gangster organizations; Canada has denied extradition requests from India and Interpol Red Corner notices. 

 (Via CBC):

Fox and Lopez are not of Indian origin; sources told CBC News they're believed to have connections to organized crime in B.C. Investigators have told CBC they do not believe Lopez and Fox were contracted directly by Indian diplomats, but rather through criminal intermediaries.

What the Canadians do not acknowledge is the later history of Malik, and how it dilutes any possible motive for the government of India to have Malik assassinated.  On the other hand, the darling terrorist of the Canadians, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, certainly had more than one motive; and the Canadians have reason to cover up any involvement of Nijjar.  Their actions in the Kanishka bombing prove that no chicanery is beyond them.

The Way the Media Game is Played

There was a recent headline (I won't link it here), somethng like "Hedge Funds threaten to leave India over new regulations". Well, they may have threatened or not. That is not the point I'm raising here.

India recently issued new regulations adding certain reporting requirements on short-selling in market.  A little deeper look shows that the European Union had such rules since 2012, and the US just added such rules in October 2023.

A more fair and informative headline would be something like "India follows the US in regulations on short selling". 

But that is not the way the media game is played.

A spin on history: Gujarat 2002

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra on PGurus: {lightly edited transcript}

 

Sri Iyer: Next question, please!  Thank you!  Rajesh {asks} "Can you explain what exactly happened in the Gujarat riots?

 

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra:  Yes, it was very simple. Modi anticipated.  What happened was the Godhra train got burnt by people from the outside.  It wasn't from the inside as some nonsense investigators told you.  They expected things to blow up.

 

Modi realized things were going to blow up.  He desperately asked for Central troops, he asked for police reinforcements from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra.

 

The center said no because, remember at that point of time, there was a massive mobilization, Parliament attack had happened and Operation Parakram was on, where the entire Army had been mobilized across the border.  So, they could not spare troops to come to Gujarat.  What else happened was that the three neighboring states said no and within about 24 hours as expected the riots broke out.  

 

Modi did the best he could with the small number of police he had with bolt action 303 rifles which you have to keep loading, one extracting, one loading, one extracting one bullet; you can't really do crowd control with that, and he tried his best as much as he could. You have to make some very tough choices--you can protect these neighborhoods, you can't protect these neighborhoods.  You decide to sacrifice some neighborhoods.  This is one of the ugly things about law-and-order maintenance which you have to do.

 

 He did, given what few troops he had and police he had, and that's exactly what happened and remember it was controlled within about 48 to 72 hours. Also, it wasn't a one-sided program, never forget that.  Yeah, both sides died and the other side, the so-called victim side also died in very significant numbers, never forget that,  many of them shot by police during rioting caught on camera. So it wasn't one-sided at all.

 

Sri Iyer:  One thing that BJP needs to do is to go on the front foot on this. The Congress knew Modi, that he was going to be a threat to the center,  to the Sonia Gandhi family even though they were not in power yet they understood. This is like a snake knowing another snake's legs.

 

I do not subscribe to Anglosphere solidarity

 I do not subscribe to Anglosphere solidarity.

 ---

The idea that since the US government has supported Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's allegations against India in murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the allegations must be credible is not logical.

 

Among the allegations that Trudeau has raised against India, there is one that can be readily checked.  

 

In stripping 41 diplomats of their diplomatic immunity, Trudeau claims that India is in violation of international law and in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. [1]

 

"Trudeau made the remarks in Brampton Ont. a day after his government confirmed that 41 Canadian diplomats had left India after New Delhi threatened to revoke their diplomatic immunity."

 

"This is a violation of the Vienna Convention governing diplomacy," Trudeau said. "This is them choosing to contravene a very fundamental principle of international law and diplomacy. It is something that all countries in the world should be very worried about.

 

The US government supports Canada on this [2]:

 

"Resolving differences requires diplomats on the ground. We have urged the Indian government not to insist upon a reduction in Canada’s diplomatic presence and to cooperate in the ongoing Canadian investigation," the U.S. State Department said, adding that it expects "India to uphold its obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."

 

Fact of the matter is that the Canadian mission in India is much larger than the Indian mission in Canada. Around September 20th,  India asked Canada to reduce its mission to parity and gave Canada up to October 10th to do so. [3]

 

This is perfectly fine per the Vienna Convention [4], Article 11, specifically Article 11.1.

 

Article 11

 

1.In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission.

 

2.The receiving State may equally, within similar bounds and on a non-discriminatory basis, refuse to accept officials of a particular category.

 

Canada did not comply by October 20th and so India withdrew their diplomatic immunity.  That is perfectly fine per Article 9 of the Vienna Convention.

 

Article 9

 

1. The receiving State may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata or that any other member of the staff of the mission is not acceptable. In any such case, the sending State shall, as appropriate, either recall the person concerned or terminate his functions with the mission. A person may be declared non grata or not acceptable before arriving in the territory of the receiving State.

 

2. If the sending State refuses or fails within a reasonable period to carry out its obligations under paragraph 1 of this article, the receiving State may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the mission.

 

The above thus establishes:

 

1. The Canadian Prime Minister made a patently absurd allegation against India.

2. The US, UK and the Anglosphere nevertheless supported the Canadian Prime Minister on this patently absurd allegation.

 

The only plausible reason for the US Department of State to do such a thing is Anglosphere solidarity.   But if they would do so an easily demonstrated absurdity, then it places in doubt the "credible allegations of a potential link" of Indian agents to the murder of Nijjar, for which no information has been provided at all.  It could simply be Anglosphere solidarity.

 

The Indian Minister of External Affairs, Dr S. Jaishankar has said, while in the US and elsewhere , that such foreign operations are not India's policy. [6]

 

The Canadian Prime Minister's unsupported allegations are credible only to those who share an Anglosphere solidarity.  I am not among those, and in addition, I have shown you how threadbare is the Anglosphere's charge of "violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations" by India.

 

[1] India making life 'unbelievably difficult' for millions by ordering diplomats out, says Trudeau, CBC News, Peter Zimonjic, Posted: Oct 20, 2023 12:56 PM EDT

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-india-making-life-difficult-1.7002961

 

[2] US and UK back Canada in dispute with India over diplomats, Reuters, By Kanishka Singh and Costas Pitas, October 20, 20239:13 PM EDT https://www.reuters.com/world/us-backs-canada-dispute-with-india-over-diplomats-2023-10-20/

 

[3] Diplomatic row escalates, India asks Canada to downsize missions, pauses issuing visas, The Deccan Herald, Anirban Bhaumik DHNS,  Last Updated 21 September 2023, 11:18 IST 

 https://www.deccanherald.com/world/canada-asked-to-downsize-diplomatic-presence-in-india-2695819

 

[4] Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, United Nations, https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf

 

[5] India withdraws immunity from 41 Canadian diplomats, EFE, 20 October 2023,

https://efe.com/en/other-news/2023-10-20/india-withdraws-immunity-from-41-canadian-diplomats/

 

[6] ‘Foreign ops not part of govt policy’: Jaishankar in US, Hindustan Times, By

Prashant Jha Sep 28, 2023 04:26 AM IST

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/foreign-ops-not-part-of-govt-policy-eam-in-us-101695839606336.html

Four talks

External Affairs Minister of India at the Hudson Institute:

External Affairs Minister of India at the Council of Foreign Relations:

External Affairs Minister of India at a Press Conference:

The National Security Advisor:

The Future of The University in India

About Free Speech in India

J. Sai Deepak is a lawyer, self-described 85% commercial litigation, 15% Constitutional Law. He is also an author and public speaker; his detractors call him an Ultra-Nationalist and so on.

The first eleven minutes of this Youtube has some remarks of J. Sai Deepak from a public debate. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q-UIVvWHyg 

 

 

{lightly edited and annotated Youtube transcript}

 

J. Sai Deepak:  

 

This is the Shri Ram College right, Jai Shree Ram! 

 

So first of all, thanks to the organizers for putting together such a fantastic event and the audience for turning up in such brilliant numbers as usual.

 

I think the aisles have been converted into pathshalas {traditional India school where students sit on the floor}

 

Thank you so very much!   You know, I was wondering - I was just going through the e-mail that was sent to us on the topic.  The topic was "Can western narratives and Indian narratives or western media and Indian media co-exist?"

 

If I were on the other side, I would have stuck to the topic.  This is a textbook instance of

Aa Bail Mujhe Maar {literally, "'Come bull, do hit me!", figuratively , "invite trouble upon oneself"}.  You've opened the Pandora's box by speaking about freedom of speech when instead the topic was slightly different. A good can of worms has been opened,  so,  let the flood gates open.

 

Democracy in Crisis

Once upon a time, to board a domestic flight was almost as easy as getting onto a bus at a bus terminal. Global terrorism put an end to that.  Is this a reduction in freedom?  Absolutely.  The requirement of the right kind of government-issued ID to board a flight is an intrusion into individual liberty. 

 

Is it a reduction in democracy?  Absolutely not.  The people remain free to make the government change the regulations, repeal them altogether, or as is more likely, to make obtaining the required ID and the security checks less onerous.  

 

Professor Salvatore Babones, an American sociologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, uses this kind of distinction, and argues that India remains a democracy, though less free than Australia or the United States, for instance in freedom of speech.  Watch this debate between Salvatore Babones and Anand Rangarajan.  (Trigger-alert: Anand Rangarajan is boorish; and Salvatore Babones loses the audience because he acknowledges learning about India from a trio of journalists whom the audience happens to despise.)   But Babones' arguments are sound.   

 

Let's examine this further. In one of the many "India's Democracy in Crisis" panel discussions,  there is the criticism of the Modi government that it does not do enough to curb hate speech.  On the other hand, district authorities have been given the power to simply shut down the internet, and in 2022, of 187 shutdowns of the internet world-wide, 84 occurred in India, and the Modi government is criticized for this, too.

 

It does happen in India that social media is used to spread "hate-speech" and start a riot or lynching.  It may be rare on a per capita basis (1.4 billion people in the denominator!), but it does happen.  The district authorities can nip this in the bud by simply turning off the internet for a period.  "Hate speech" is poorly defined, there are no standards, and asking the district authorities to selectively censor social media will bring in their bias.  Turning off the internet makes sense.  Whether this is a good strategy requires research into its effectiveness in keeping the peace, and not some theoretical notions about freedom.

 

Regarding the disruption to life by an internet shutdown, India is prone to "rasta roko"/"rail roko" -- people block roads or railway lines - and city-wide or state-wide bandhs, where the entire area is coerced into shutting down business.  This kind of protest is part of India's political culture and has a history.  Lack of internet is yet another disruption to add to this.  

 

But it is up to the Indian people to decide whether all this is acceptable or not.   Right now, perhaps the safety of life and property, and the avoidance of disruption of life by violence outweighs the loss of the internet.   Maybe some time the balance will change and then the voters will make a political issue of it and force a change.

 

Which leads to another observation - the Indian Constitution is relatively easy to change, with the Supreme Court on guard to preserve the basis structure of the Constitution.  From January 1950 to October 2021, there have been 105 amendments.  America's Constitution has had 27 since 1789.  It is much more difficult to amend, and popular causes such as regulating money in politics, or making the Presidency be determined by the popular vote rather than the Electoral College which overweighs states with tiny populations are stuck.  That is, the American people remain free to change their Constitution, but in practice, it is very hard.  

 

Freedom of speech is virtually absolute in the United States; the restrictions that can be placed by law are very limited.  We thus get the situation where e.g., Fox News can knowingly, even maliciously, propagate a democracy-damaging falsehood, and the only recourse is for a private party who suffered economic damage by the lies to take them to court.  If the situation gets unbearable, Americans will no doubt try to change this, but the barriers to change are enormous.   

 

Does comparing among countries the ease of amending the Constitution make any sense?  I don't think it does, any more than the freedom indices and such.  India's Constitution and America's Constitution were written to meet the needs of their respective people with their histories and circumstances.  The ease or difficulty of amendment was also decided because of history and circumstances.

With any democracy, what one can meaningfully ask is, are the people free to change their laws and regulations and do the laws and regulations that get made diminish that freedom in any way?  Only in the latter case need an alarm be raised (e.g, Hungary or maybe even Israel).  

When in the debate mentioned above, Anand Rangarajan feels patronized when Babones says India is less free in some respects than Australia or America and asks why he can't be as free as an American, he is asking for India to be America; but India's history and circumstances can't be so readily erased.  Nor is less freedom necessarily bad - in aviation, it keeps terrorists at bay.  

It is up to Indians collectively whether they want a perfect Jeffersonian Republic, or whether the trade-offs to preserve their way of life are acceptable to them; and Anand Rangarajan has the freedom to try to persuade them as to which would lead to their greater flourishing.

India in Medieval Jewish Literature

The search for the sources of Judah Halevi's opinion led me to a publication by The Jewish People Policy Institute, titled India, Israel and the Jewish People, (2017), by Shalom Salomon Wald and Arielle Kandel.

 

They write as follows (the relevant end-notes are copied at the end of the excerpts):

 

From the 9th or 10th century on, India appears in the books of several of the most important Jewish writers – rabbis, philosophers, historians, and travel writers. India is not a central issue but it is a part of the intellectual inventory of the Jews of the Middle Ages, as it had been in Hellenistic times. 

 

The historian of religion R. G. Marks counted at least 19 Jewish texts written between the 10th and 14th centuries that speak of India.⁶⁵ His collection is heterogeneous. It includes the most important works of the period as well as some long-forgotten books. During this period many Arab travelers visited India and some wrote travelogues that mention the presence of Jews in the country. In contrast, only one of the Jewish authors writing about India, the Karaite scholar Jacob al-Qirqisani (10th century), is believed to have visited the country himself. His Book of Lights and Watchtowers describes Hindu customs and compares them to Jewish religious practices and those of other nations. 

Judah Halevi: The Kuzari

Wiki:

Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; Hebrew: יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi יהודה בן שמואל הלוי‎; Arabic: يهوذا اللاوي Yahuḏa al-Lāwī; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela,^[2] in 1075^[3] or 1086, and died shortly after arriving in the Holy Land in 1141, at that point the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

From his work "In Defense of the Despised Faith", know as "The Kuzari", in the form of a dialog between a Khazar king and a rabbi, Hartwig Hirschfeld's translation from 1905:

https://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/khz/khz01.htm

Excerpts:

44. Al Khazari: It is strange that you should possess authentic chronology of the creation of the world.

45. The Rabbi: Surely we reckon according to it, and there is no difference between the Jews of Khazar and Ethiopia in this respect.

46. Al Khazari: What date do you consider it at present?

47. The Rabbi: Four thousand and nine hundred years
.......
.......

60. Al Khazari: Does it not weaken thy belief if thou art told that the Indians have antiquities and buildings which they consider to be millions of years old?

61. The Rabbi: It would, indeed, weaken my belief had they a fixed form of religion, or a book concerning which a multitude of people held the same opinion, and in which no historical discrepancy could be found. Such a book, however, does not exist. Apart from this, they are a dissolute, unreliable people, and arouse the indignation of the followers of religions through their talk, whilst they anger them with their idols, talismans, and witchcraft. To such things they pin their faith, and deride those who boast of the possession of a divine book. Yet they only possess a few books, and these were written to mislead the weak-minded. To this class belong astrological writings, in which they speak of ten thousands of years, as the book on the Nabataean Agriculture, in which are mentioned the names of Janbūshār, Sagrīt and Roanai. It is believed that they lived before Adam, who was the disciple of Janbūshār, and such like.

62. Al Khazari: If I had supported my arguments by reference to a negro people, i.e. a people not united upon a common law, thy answer would have been correct. Now what is thy opinion of the philosophers who, as the result of their careful researches, agree that the world is without beginning, and here it does not concern tens of thousands, and not millions, but unlimited numbers of years.

 

More recently, about the translations of the Kuzari:
https://seforimblog.com/2017/06/translations-of-rabbi-judah-halevis/

Less than thirty years after R. Judah ben Samuel Halevi completed his Book of Kuzari in approximately 1140, it became one of the first Judaeo-Arabic compositions to be translated into Hebrew. This pioneering translation marked part of the cultural transfer of Andalusian Jewish culture, written in Judaeo-Arabic, into Hebrew, and was accomplished in 1167 by R. Judah ben Saul Ibn Tibbon, “the father of the translators.” As the centers of Jewish intellectual life moved to Christian areas where Hebrew was the predominant Jewish literary language, it was only through this translation that the Kuzari was known to generations upon generations of Jews. 

...

With the birth of Jewish studies in the nineteenth century, scholars began publishing original texts in academic editions. Thus, Hartwig Hirschfeld (1854-1934), working with Oxford-Bodleian Ms. Pococke, the only complete, or almost complete, version of the work, produced a first edition of the original Judaeo-Arabic text of the Kuzari. He published with it a version of the Ibn Tibbon translation which was partially corrected to correspond to the Judaeo-Arabic version, but not in a consistent manner. Thus, Hirschfeld changed some passages in the Hebrew despite their being attested in all the Ibn Tibbon manuscripts and editions, but left other problematic passages untouched.

...

In addition to editing the Judaeo-Arabic text of the Kuzari, and producing an edition of Ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation, Hartwig Hirschfeld also translated the book into English.

There is a recent translation by Rabbi Chanan Morrison, based on a Hebrew translation of a new critical edition by Rabbit Yitzhak Shilat (2010)  "utilizing several Arabic manuscripts, including texts from Russian collections inaccessible to earlier researchers" : Sefer Ha-Kuzari: Precise Hebrew Translation in the Style of the Period of Its Composition.  Morrison also writes: "In preparing the text, I found Prof. Hartwig Hirschfeld's classic (but antiquated) 1905 English translation to be of great assistance.

60. The Kuzari: Does it not weaken your belief that the people of India are reported to have ancient relics and buildings that they are certain are millions of years old?

61. The Rabbi: It would weaken my belief were it based on accurate knowledge or a written historical record that is universally accepted.  But that is not the case.

They are an unreliable people, lacking clear historical account.  They anger the followers of religions with these claims, just as they anger them with their statues, talismans and practices.   They say these things are effective, and they ridicule those claiming to possess a book from God.

This conjecture is only found in a few books written by a few individuals -- books that only mislead the feeble minded.   To this category belong some of their astrological writings, which speak of tens of thousands of years, and The Book of Nabataean Agriculture, which mentions the names of Janbushad, Sagrit and Duani.  They say that they lived before Adam, that Janbushad was Adam's teacher, and other such claims.

---

Note: The Book of Nabataean Agriculture is, per what I can find, about the people termed as the last pagans of Iraq.  I haven't been able to find out whether there is any mention of India/Indians in that book.

----

Just to contrast the Morrison vs Hirschfeld translations, Morrison has:

62.  The Kuzari: Granted, had I based my argument only on the traditions of a fractious people who cannot agree about anything, your answer would be excellent.  But what will you say about the philosophers, who as the result of careful research on their erudite level, have concluded that the world is eternal, without beginning?   And here it is not a question of tens of thousands or even millions of years, but an infinite number of years!

Hirschfeld has:

 62. Al Khazari: If I had supported my arguments by reference to a negro people, i.e. a people not united upon a common law, thy answer would have been correct. Now what is thy opinion of the philosophers who, as the result of their careful researches, agree that the world is without beginning, and here it does not concern tens of thousands, and not millions, but unlimited numbers of years.

 

-----

 

Eliding over the modern phenomena of a fractious negro people,  it would be interesting to trace from where Judah Halevi obtained his opinion of India.

 

A review of Audrey Truschke's Aurangzeb

Linked here is clear-eyed assessment by SadhanaG of the problems with Audrey Truschke's opus on Aurangzeb.

Part I.

Part II.

Part III.

Left as a latter exercise is so, what does it mean to us? What should we do about it.

Order in Chaos

The video at this tweet.

Sten Konow: The Aryan Gods of the Mitani People

Recent findings in ancient human DNA are leading to narratives like the following, e.g., Tony Joseph in Outlook India, September 12, 2019:

And here is an equally unambiguous and clear statement from the study published in Science a few days ago, titled: "The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia": "Using data from ancient individuals from the Swat Valley or northernmost South Asia, we show that Steppe ancestry then integrated further South in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE, contributing up to 30 per cent of the ancestry of most modern groups".

So it is clear, without even a shadow of a doubt, that both the studies support the migration of Central Asian pastoralists who brought Indo-European languages to India, between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE.

For our purposes, let us stipulate that the genetic evidence of the handful of ancient individuals has been interpreted correctly to show a migration into India of Central Asian Pastoralists between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE.   The problematic assertion is this:  "who brought Indo-European languages to India, between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE."  

The only direct evidence of language in India from that era is of the Vedic language, of the Rg Veda and subsequent works.   The theory of Aryan Invasion/Migration is that these Central Asian pastoralists brought the Vedic language to India, and so the Rg Veda, if composed in India, must date to 2000 BCE - 1500 BCE or so.

The Rg Vedic hymns sing the praises of the mighty Saraswati river, and the geographical information in later texts of the drying/dried-up Saraswati plus modern science enables us to identify the ancient perennial river that the Saraswati must have been, and it last flowed 9000 to 4500 years before present. 

The Rg Veda places the Saraswati along with the Ganga, Yamuna and the rivers of Punjab and so the theory that the Vedic people transferred the name of some river outside of India to the river that was already desiccated when they arrived is hardly tenable.  Why they would not transfer the holy name of Saraswati to one of the great rivers they newly encountered is another mystery.   Totally far-fetched is the notion that the Vedic people took an older tradition from non-Indo-European inhabitants and translated it into their hymns.

Next, we have the treaty between the Hittites and the Mitani, found in the cuneiform library unearthed at Boghazkoi in Turkey which mention Vedic gods - specifically Indra, Mitra-Varuna and the Nasatyas.   The dates given via Egyptian and Middle Eastern chronologies for the Mitani treaty are 1375 BCE - 1350 BCE.   The lineage of the Mitani signatory, Mattiuaza (a.k.a. Shattiwaza) is known, via the cuneiform libraries,  to have extended at least four  generations prior, and his ancestor, Shuttarna I, son of (legendary?) Kirta is dated to early 15 century BCE.

So how did Indra, Mitra-Varuna and the Nasatyas make their way to ancient Mesopotamia around 1500 BCE?  The Aryan Invasionist postulates that these deities developed before the Aryans reached India and then some branch of the Aryans carried these gods to the Mitani lands and some other branch carried them to India.

 Norwegian Indologist Sten Konow, in his paper published in 1923,  argues persuasively that the Vedic gods were of Indian development.  Since I found it difficult to get hold of a copy of this paper, I imagine it is the same for others,  and so I present here a scan (link) and a transcript (link) of the paper.

 Konow like the other Indologists of his time, believed in the Aryan Invasion Theory.  His chronology seems to be an early Indo-European period, followed by a period of Aryan unity, when the ancestors of the Indian/Iranian Aryans ranged from perhaps the Volga to the outskirts of India; and lastly the Indian period, after the Aryans split into Indian, Iranian and possible other branches.  Konow argues that the Vedic gods as mentioned in the Mitani treaty are developments from the Indian period, and not from the period of Aryan unity.   Konow writes:

"As far as I can see, everything points to the conclusion that Jacobi was right in maintaining that the Mitani gods were Indian and not Aryan, so that we must, in fact, assume that the sphere of Indian civilization had, in the middle of the second millennium B.C., extended into Mesopotamia. The epoch of the Aryan conquest of India and the beginning of Indian civilization must consequently be relegated to a still earlier period, though we have no means of stating how long an interval we must assume between the Aryan invasion and the Mitani treaty. There is, however, one small detail which prevents us from thinking that this interval was quite short."
...
...

"I hope to have made it probable that these gods were Indian and not Aryan or even Iranian. If the conception of the Aśvins as groomsmen belongs to the later phases of the Ṛgveda period, as it seems to do, we must further draw the conclusion that the extension of Indo-Aryan civilization into Mesopotamia took place after the bulk of the Ṛgveda had come into existence. The oldest portions of the collection would consequently have to be considered as considerably older than the Mitani treaty. "

If you accept Konow's conclusion, this means there is simply not enough time for Central Asian Pastoralists to enter India between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE, with Indo-European languages and the precursor forms of Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Nasatyas; to develop the later forms of the deities, and then carry them to the Mesopotamia by 1500 BCE."

The modern Aryan invasionist/migrationist, as far as I know, conveniently doesn't address Konow's arguments.  It would be interesting to see a modern response to Konow.  It would also be interesting to see how the non-invasionist accommodates or dismantles Konow's arguments.

What are the possibilities that the Aryan invasions might entertain?

One could open a can of worms by casting doubt on the Mitani chronology.  One could also cast doubt on Konow's (invasionist) reading and interpretation of the Vedic literature. One might argue that developments in the Vedic pantheon were being contemporaneously being transmitted from northern India to Mesopotamia -- but in that case, one would have to rethink how language and Indo-European culture was transmitted, migrations and invasions are hardly necessary.

One might argue that the ancient human DNA is wrongly dated, and the invasion/migration that the genetic evidence indicated actually occurred a thousand years earlier.  But the geneticists are unlikely to have the eras so wrong. In any case, the Aryan invasionist won't want to give up the 2000 BCE-1500 BCE chronology in any case.

IMO, the most viable conclusion is that the Vedic pantheon was developed in India much before 1500 BC and migrated from India to the Mitani lands.   In which case the people that genetics says were migrating into India between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE did not introduce Indo-European languages to India, the Vedic language was already there.  This is not impossible, the Sakas around 200 BCE - 100 CE, and the English, 1700-1950 CE also carried with themselves Indo-European languages to India, but did not introduce them to India.   The Aryan invasionist can continue to postulate that the first entry of Indo-European language into India was via invasion or migration, but the evidence of the Mitani treaty is that this event has to be much prior to 1500 BC; and via the evidence of the Saraswati, prior to 2500 BC.

A point peripheral to the above, but of interest is that Konow argues on linguistic grounds that the dasyus/dasas mentioned in the Rg Veda as the enemies of the Vedic people were not speakers of Dravidian languages, but rather spoke in Kolarian tongues (the Austroasiatic language family in India).

Satellite Remote Sensing Techniques to Unearth the Lost Sarasvati River & its Palaeochannels

Dr. B.K Bhadra from ISRO presents detailed multi resolution satellite studies of the river Saraswati in northern Haryana. He discusses the specifics of the remote sensing techniques, including satellite imagery, used to study the paleo channels of the river and related analysis. In his present research, he focuses on high resolution optical and microwave satellite data in delineating the paleo channels in Haryana and Punjab as well as the Sarasvati delta structure in the Rann of Kutch to present an integrated map of the Sarasvati paleo channels. He presents material to show that paleo channels have also been validated through collateral ground data such as published maps during British and Mughal periods, as well as paleo geomorphic structures, hydrological parameters and radiometric ages of river sediments. By considering evidence from archaeology as well and the spatial distribution of the Harappan settlements, Dr. Bhadra presents how the entire course of the river Sarasvati has been delineated and the growth of Indus-Sarasvati civilization studied from these disciplinary perspectives.

India has no native religions - a summary

From Dr Pingali Gopal's book summary of Europe, India and the Limits of Secularism by Jakob de Roover.


The two important properties of religion are: first, it must make a claim about the origin and purpose of the world (the how and why of the Cosmos); and secondly, this message must be true This is the ‘metaphysical’ position of any religion.

Based on the metaphysical conditions, Indian traditions are not possibly religions. They do not properly raise the issue of origin of the Cosmos. Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas, Puranas, Itihaasas have multiple stories of creation and purposes of Cosmos. The ideas in the multiple stories say just about everything and everything. Depending on the context, an individual in the multiple narratives may call the question of Cosmos origin illegitimate; or consider it pure speculation lacking any truth value; or say that all claims are true; or even suggest that Cosmos has no origin and is always present. The Buddhists and the Jains have no conception of a God in the first place! Strangely, in Indian tradition and culture, a person can equally believe all the stories and may equally reject all of them. Finally, it looks almost as if the ‘origin’ question and the place of God are irrelevant.

Religion is thus impossible in a culture where the questions of origins can be an illegitimate one. The Western world is always in a grip of historicity trying to find the truth value of its scriptures. The Biblical history is right in the center of investigation with advocates and opponents on either side of the battle line trying to prove or disprove. This attitude hardly excites or disturbs their counterparts in India. It is the attitude of a culture towards the holy books that generates questions or fails to do so. Literature investigating the truth claims made by ‘religious texts’ is absent in India. To ask whether they are true or false is to exhibit a profound ignorance of the culture whose stories they are.
As another component, there must be certain sociological conditions absolutely required for guaranteeing the identity of religions. These are:

• a world-view codified in a textual source called a ‘holy-book’ and must be widely known
•  a standard world-view with clear boundaries and which cannot undergo changes across generations
• an authority to settle disputes in transmission and interpretation of stories and legends (thus having a hierarchy of texts)
• a source of excommunication when two interpretations collide (say Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism)
• an organization to transmit and propagate its world-views.

These five sociological conditions are necessary to allow the transmission of the world-views across space and time so that they may preserve their identity over generations. None of these conditions fulfil in India with respect to Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and so on. Hence, in metaphysical and sociological terms, it is an impossibility that Indian culture knows of religions or its secularized version-a world view.

The obliquity of the ecliptic

On IndiaFacts, Anil Narayanan makes the case that the astronomers who wrote the Surya Siddhanta measured the obliquity of the ecliptic to be arcsin(1397/3438) = 23.975° and not 24° as has been translated by Whitney et. al. since 1858; since 24° would be expressed as arcsin(1398/3438) or arcsin(1399/3438) and never arcsin(1397/3438).

This is an important observation which bears repeating: The precision of the Indian R-Sine is 1/3438.

This puts the Surya Siddhanta to some 3000 BC.  Anil Narayanan promises more to support this date.

We currently know of at least 3 other items in Indian astronomy that point to 3000 BC, or thereabouts.

1) The value of the Sun’s equation-of-center given in the SS indicates a time range of 3000 BC or older;

2) The ubiquitously mentioned pole-star in Indian astronomy and literature, namely Dhruva (modern name Thuban), indicates a period about 3000 BC;

3) It is mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana text that the Krittika Nakshatra rises exactly in the East, which occurred only in ancient times, around 3000 BC. Nowadays Krittika rises between East and North-East.

We will discuss these in other articles.

If Anil Narayanan is right, then he is also right about this:

The misconception, which has to do with the tilt, or obliquity, of the earth’s axis, also ranks among the most clever and successful obfuscations in Indian astronomy carried out by the European scholars of yesteryear. They skillfully achieved the difficult task of hiding the treasure in plain sight, so to speak.

The two questions that I have are - how was this angle measured or inferred, and what is the origin of the Indian standard radius of 3438?

Answer to 3438 - it is the approximate radius of the circle in minutes (the exact value is  3437.74677078...).

My criticism of Anil Narayanan's article - see Aryabhatta's sine table on Wiki.  1397 comes from a linear interpolation for 24° between rows 6 and 7 of that table.

That is,
22° 30' = 1350' has jya = 1315
26° 15' = 1575' has jya = 1520
What is the angle whose jya = 1397?
The linear interpolation answer is 1350' + (1397 - 1315) * (1575' - 1350')/(1520 - 1315)
= 1350' + 82 * 225'/ 205 = 1440' (exactly!)
1440' = 24°.

This is probably how Whitney et. al. came to 24°.   The question then was linear interpolation the method of calculation used? e.g., see the same Wiki article.  I think to establish the point made Anil Narayana's article, we have to know how intermediate values in the R-sine table were computed.

Or, following Anil Narayanan's philosophy, that the precision of the Indian R-Sine is 1/3438, the obliquity of the ecliptic in the Surya Siddhanta is not an approximate 24°:

According to Mr. Bentley, the Hindu astronomers (unless in cases where extraordinary accuracy is required) make it a rule, in observing, to take the nearest round numbers, rejecting fractional quantities: so that we have only to suppose that the observer who fixed the obliquity of the ecliptic at 24 degrees, actually found it to be 23 and 1/2.

 Rather the measured obliquity of the ecliptic is bounded by arcsin(1396/3438) and arcsin(1398/3438), i.e, between 23° 59' and 24° 1'  (23.983° and 24.017°).

Using the formula here: http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Obliquity_of_the_ecliptic

or a more exactly formula one can estimate the range of times of that observation.

Talk by Bibek Debroy | The relevance of Mahabharata for our times

The start of India's space program

On the centenary birthday of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, some remembrance of the beginnings of the Indian space program.

A Brief History of Rocketry in ISRO (2012)
PV Manoranjan Rao & P Radhakrishnan
Universities Press (India) ISBN 978-81-7371-763-5
page 2

"Independent India was lucky to have Jawaharlal Nehru as its first Prime Minister, for he shared a common ideal with Bhabha and Sarabhai.  He believed that modern science and technology were indispensable to the development of the country......Bhabha, in the 1950s and 60s, was considered the czar of organized research in India and, more importantly, had Nehru's ear!  Thus, when Sarabhai, with Bhabha's support, came up with a space initiative for the country, Nehru said 'yes' even though  the country was passing through a very difficult phase both economically and politically.

From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India's Space Journey (2015)
Chief Editor P.V. Manoranjan Rao
HarperCollins, ISBN 978-93-517-689-5
page xix

"At that time India was facing severe economic and political hardships - there was a food shortage and that humiliating war in the north east.   Yet when Bhabha and Sarabhai came up with the space initiative, Nehru lent his wholehearted support.

India's Rise as a Space Power (2014)
Professor U.R. Rao
Foundation Books, ISBN 978-93-82993-48-3
Pages 7-8

"Given the background work of Dr Sarabhai and his co-workers at PRL and the expertise developed by Prof. Bernard Peters, Prof. M.G.K. Menon and their colleagues at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay, who had flown a number of balloons from Hyderabad to carry out cosmic ray investigations,  Dr Homi Bhaba [sic] invited Dr Vikram Sarabhai to become a member of the Atomic Energy Commission and initiate space activity under the the umbrella of the Department of Atomic Energy.  Dr V. Sarabhai constituted the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with Prof. E.V. Chitnis, ...."

Vikram Sarabhai - A Life (2007)
Amrita Shah
Penguin Books India, ISBN 978-0-67099-951-4
Pages 120-122, scattered excerpts

"When exactly Vikram came up with the notion of a space programme for India is not known.  R.G. Rastogi, his former student, claims to have heard him talk prophetically of setting up a rocket-launching programme 'by 1963' as far back as in the 1950s.  Praful Bhavsar, who had taken a leave of absence from PRL to do post-doctorate work at the University of Minnesota, recalls Vikram telling him something similar in 1959..."
"According to Rastogi, even Vikram's co-director at PRL, K.R. Ramanathan, was openly skeptical. 'He is too young, he has no idea how the government functions.  He will not get the money nor will establishment scientists allow it to happen.'...But Ramanathan had not counted on the chief weapon in Vikram's formidable arsenal of contacts: Homi J. Bhabha. 

It is tempting to speculate that Vikram and Bhabha, the two princes of Indian science, used their youthful days in Bangalore to spin up dreams for the future......It is tempting because of the uncanny sureness with which they set about their plans and their suggestion of complicity in so many of their actions. 

In August 1961, for instance, more than a year before the Chinese invasion and at a time when Nehru was still very much at the helm of the country's affairs, the union government, urged by Bhabha, identified an area known as 'space research and the peaceful uses of outer space' and placed it within the jurisdiction of the DAE.  As a part of the move, PRL was recognized as the 'appropriate centre' for research and development in space sciences.  And Vikram was co-opted into the board of the AEC.  More interestingly, in February 1962, the DAE created the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) under Vikram's chairmanship to oversee all aspects of space research in the country.  Vikram had overcome the first seemingly impossible hurdle.

Stanislaus versus State of Madhya Pradesh - Historical Context

{Wiki}

Rev Stanislaus vs Madhya Pradesh, 1977 SCR (2) 611, is a matter where the Supreme Court of India considered the issue whether the fundamental right to practise and propagate religion includes the right to convert, held that the right to propagate does not include the right to convert and therefore upheld the constitutional validity of the laws enacted by Madhya Pradesh and Orissa legislatures prohibiting conversion by force, fraud or allurement.

Here is a timeline.