Codes and Conduct

The responsibility of superintendence, direction, control and the conduct of all elections (to Parliament and to the Legislature of every state and the elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President) shall vest in the Election Commission of India. The quoted expression in Article. 324 of the Constitution of India remained just another set of lifeless words from January 1950, when the Constitution came into force, to December 1977, when the Supreme Court infused life into them through the case of Mohinder Singh Gill. Gill's case arose out of election to the Lok Sabha held on 16th March, 1977. Counting took place as scheduled, on 20th March, 1977, in five Assembly segments peacefully. However, the balance of the counting on the next day was halted by violence acts allegedly by the Akali Dal candidate. On a report from the returning officer, the Election Commission of India ordered cancellation of polls in the entire constituency - as was the wish of the Akalis - and directed fresh elections.

Gill, while conceding recount, challenged re-poll before the Punjab High Court and the case eventually landed before a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court. In the course of upholding the decision of the EC, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, speaking on behalf of the Bench, held: "...situations may arise which enacted law has not provided for. Legislators are not prophets but pragmatists. So it is that the Constitution has made comprehensive provision in Article. 324 to take care of surprise situations. That power itself has to be exercised, not mindlessly nor malafide, not arbitrarily nor with partiality but in keeping with the guidelines of the rule of law and not stultifying the presidential notification nor existing legislation. More is not necessary to specify; less is insufficient to leave unsaid. Article. 324, in our view, operates in areas left unoccupied by legislation and the words 'superintendence, direction and control', as well as 'conduct of all elections', are the broadest terms. Myriad maybes, too mystic to be precisely presaged, may call for prompt action to reach the goal of free and fair election".

Dealing with the objection that this will create a constitutional despot beyond the pale of accountability, a Frankenstein's monster who may manipulate the system into elected despotism, the bench's answer was that the judicial bench, at the appropriate stage, can "call the bluff, quash the action and bring order into the process". Thus, the concept of "free and fair election" was read into Article. 324 - a phrase that became the goal of that Article. And eventually the Article became the fountainhead of the EC's powers to meet the "myriad maybe" situations. The election manual and the official website of the EC contain hundreds of instructions and guidelines, all claiming parentage to Article. 324. The model code of conduct is a unique document in as much as it has evolved with the consensus of political parties themselves. It has no statutory backing and many of its provisions are not legally enforceable. Public opinion is the moral sanction for its enforcement. It was first conceived in 1960 in Kerala - a state that has turned coalition politics into a fine art. The EC issued a revised model code of conduct on 01st January, 1974, which was further modified and the model conduct as is prevalent now was re-issued in January, 1991 - all on the basis of consensus of political parties.

The parties, thus, reached an understanding that they would play the game of elections in accordance with the model code of conduct. The EC is like the umpire in a game of cricket. It has no police force of its own to bodily throw out an offending player - like the umpire, it only signals. So far the code has worked - in the sense that no one has openly defied the EC whenever infraction has been pointed out. The alleged offender has either denied the allegation or offered an explanation. Frequent appeals for LBW verdicts even from a fielder on the mid-wicket boundary are not uncommon. In affidavits furnishing information regarding own criminal antecedents, truth was often a regular casualty. Therefore, the Parliament in 2002 had to amend the 1951 Act and make filing of a false affidavit or concealing the truth of an offence. Demands for inclusion of more of the code in the already bulky statute book have mostly been ignored, and rightly so. However, the experience of post-2002 amendment does not encourage making of more laws. The code comes into force from the date of official announcement of election schedule. It applies only to elections to the lower houses - Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas - where voters directly elect the members. And it comes to an end with the declaration of the results.

It generally prescribes good behaviour for the political parties and candidates, thus making it amply clear that politicians are fully aware of what is good. However, the meat of the code lies in the last part that prescribes "dos and don'ts" for the governments in office. State governments have to obey them only during the general elections and elections to the assembly of that state. However, the Central government has to be watchful not only during the general elections, but also during the elections to one or the other state assemblies, which keep occurring periodically, thus hindering its normal functioning frequently. Once the schedule of elections is announced, the EC is the boss. It can do anything that is not prohibited by any statute - all in the name of free and fair elections. Curbing the influence of black money in the elections is a major concern of the EC. In this regard, there are nearly hundred written instructions from the EC. One such instruction prohibits carrying large amounts of cash. It was under this provision that the former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's son with Rs. 4.6 lakh in cash was questioned. 

Does the Prime Minister offend the code by continuing with his Mann Ki Baat on All India Radio? The EC has answered this question when it said you can speak all that you can at rally. May be, the EC should permit the use of radio for all concerned, without the obligation to supply the audience.

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic, Tarnaka, 

Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State.

email id: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com

Cell: 9985732397.

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EYES LEFT. EYES RIGHT. DEBATE.

While travelling in the US over a seven week period in 2014, I was amazed by the animosity in their public debates. The so-called 'Left' and 'Right' commentators hold pre-decided positions on most issues. Their job: garner support for their side. Convinced that theirs is the Absolute Truth and the other side is 'pure evil' (I heard such phrases), they do not aim to find common ground. This debating style has, of late, stormed into the Indian media space. Earlier, there was no public acrimony, because the Left dominated academic and communication platforms. Monopolies oftentimes drown out acrimony along with competition! 

The rise of the Right has energised debate; that's the good news. This manthan of points of view will lead to much needed nuance. However, emulating the antagonistic American approach will derail the possibility of a common ground emerging. I propose re-adoption of the principles of debate drawn from many ancient cultures (including our own), whose underlying premise was: nobody can know the Absolute Truth. Modern science gave this esoteric idea, that your values and expectations impact your perception of 'facts', a cool term - observer bias. Even physicists factor it into their conclusions. 

Accepting this can instil humility, thus opening the possibility of listening to another point of view. Approaching even political events in the light of this prism-setting leads to interesting insights. For example, judging by journalists I have encountered, the Western media (New York Times, Economist, etc.) often sees itself as a force for Moral Good, readily pronouncing judgments and marketing 'universal values' in the world at large. However, the unfortunate Arabs in Iraq, Libya and Syria see them differently. Western media predominantly cheered the invasions / bombings of these ill-fated countries, which have led to over one million Arab deaths. Yes, I underline, over one million deaths. An Arab friend remarked that he 'holds Western media too responsible for these lives; it cheered these invasions repeatedly. It's either colossally stupid or pure evil'.

However, one cannot deny that Western media has done some good, at least in their own societies. Perhaps if you accept the reality of observer bias, you may realise that the subtle truth, whatever it may be, lies somewhere in the much ignored middle. Also, it's perhaps wise to be wary of the 'investigative skills' of Western media in non-Western countries. The second suggestion is also based on the ancient world view. Absolute Truth was elusive in all fields, except one: mathematics, also called 'language of the universe'. To make arguments a little more 'truthful', use numbers in support of your proposition. In other words: use data.

Recently, there's been a raging debate on rising intolerance in India, based on a few horrific incidents and some intemperate words. Every single life lost in violence, or in any other unnatural form, is tragic. But does the data reflect that religious violence is high or has ever been high in the last fifty years, compared to other forms of unnatural deaths in India? No. More women are killed in all religious violence cumulatively in the last fifty years. Consider this: if you could stop all female foeticide for just a fortnight, you would have saved more than if you did prevented every single religious rite / violent incident of the last fifty years.

Some more data...more Indian children die of diarrhoea every 45 days and more Indians are killed in road accidents every month than the total number killed in all religious violence cumulatively in the last fifty years. Moreover, the numbers also show that religious violence has reduced considerably from its peak (the peak of post-independence religious violence was from the 1960s to early 1990s). We know where our efforts, even our noise decibels, need to be directed. Data lends perspective. Lastly, I propose we approach serious issues with a calm mind. We should wait for investigations to be completed before passing judgments and conducting media trials. In the matter of the 'church attack incidents' of early 2015, it later emerged that many of them didn't have any religious angle at all. Some were plain robbery, one even attributed to the anger of a jilted non-Hindu lover. 

Also, at the time that four Delhi churches were vandalised, 200 temples, 30 gurudwaras and 15 mosques were also vandalised. This suggests a state of general lawlessness rather than any religious persecution. Even the Christian nun rape case of West Bengal (some in the media instantly held right-wing Hindus responsible) was actually perpetrated by Bangladeshi Muslim illegal immigrants. Before someone imputes any crusade-jihad angle on this case, let me also clarify that investigations blamed a money dispute. I am not suggesting that there are no religious fundamentalists or that there's no religious violence in India. But fortunately, the data reveals, relative to our population, it's in smaller numbers. India cannot be called misogynist. Or uncaring about hygiene or road-traffic rules. If Indians debating in the public square can accept observer bias, develop the ability to listen, use data and most importantly, stay calm, we may just avoid the American spectacle where debates have degenerated to gladiatorial matches rather than an attempt to develop collective thought that is sophisticated, nuanced and productive.

Note: This is an article written by Mr. Amish, a best selling author, published in 'The Tines of India' dated 21st, November, 2015 (Saturday).

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic Apartments,

Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State, India.

e-mail id: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com

Cell: 09985732397.

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WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS WHAT YOU SEE.

Little Billu was wide awake and was staring at the artificial stars and the moon on his ceiling. He could not sleep that night as the excitement over his grandpa's visit was still lingering in his little heart. His grandpa had got him lots of toys that day, but even before he could play with them,mummy had asked Billu to go to bed early. He loved his grandpa and wished he could spend more time with him. The voices outside the bedroom were so clear and Billu's heart ached to be a part of those voices. Just then, the voices grew louder and Billu realised that they were nearing the bedroom. As the lights were switched on, Billu jumped out of bed and hugged his grandpa. He knew that his grandpa would sleep with him.

Billu got onto the bed quickly and was waiting for his grandpa to finish his prayer. Grandpa winked at Billu after finishing his prayer and got into bed. "Story! Story! Story?" little Billu demanded and Grandpa read him a story from a book:

Once upon a time, there was a well-educated man who announced to his friends that he would not believe in the existence of God! He said that he would never believe anything,which he could not understand.

An old farmer overheard the remark,turned to the young man and said,"As I went into town today, I passed a field where some sheep were feeding. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", said the young man."Not far away from the sheep some cows were also grazing. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", was the reply! "Not far from the cows were some pigs eating grass. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", "All right, now you listen to this", said the farmer."The grass the sheep ate turned into hair. The grass the pigs ate turned into bristles. The grass seeds that the chickens eat turn into feathers. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", the young man said."Do you understand it?"

"No", admitted the young man. "Young man", said the farmer."if you live long, you will find that there are a good many things which you believe without understanding. God is one of them".

Billu smiled and slept peacefully in the cosy arms of his Grandpa.

Next day morning Billu could not spend time with Grandpa and left for school with a longing heart. But when he returned, he was in for a pleasant surprise. His Grandpa has arranged for a small picnic and away he went, along with his parents to a beach resort. After spending a lot of time in the beach the family sat together for dinner. Grandpa started talking about his next book: "On Belief and God!" But, daddy didn't seem too interested in it. Daddy quickly finished his dinner and commented, "I will not believe in the imaginary God. I believe only in things that I see, hear and understand". Grandpa just smiled, he did not answer. Instead he asked Billu to tell everyone a story. Billu got excited and narrated Grandpa's latest story without skipping a beat. Daddy stood up and said, "I don't understand how the same grass changes into hair, wool, bristles or feathers, but I do see it. I believe it because I see it. I can now understand it with science. So, it again comes back to my belief on things that I see and hear. What I see and hear is what I believe. I don't want to understand everything, but I need to see or hear to believe in something. So I don't believe in God! I have never seen him or heard his voice".

Grandpa was silent. He again had an 'all-knowing smile' on his lips. After helping mummy set all things right, Grandpa invited Daddy for a walk. Billu understood that his Daddy has won the argument, but he did not want his Grandpa to lose. He knew that Grandpa was taking Daddy out to talk more on this. Billu stayed back indoors for a minute, he knelt down and prayed. He then jumped up and ran out to catch up with Grandpa.

Grandpa walked slowly and was waiting for Daddy to complete his call on his mobile. After the call got over Grandpa asked Daddy, "Imagine if I gather a motley crowd and utter the word 'cell' and ask them what I was referring to, what do you think they would answer?" Daddy thought over it answered, "They would definitely tell that you were referring to a cell phone", Grandpa looked at Daddy in the eye and smiled. Daddy started thinking again and said, "Well, it could have also been a 'battery cell' or to 'sell a product'. Grandpa said, "It could have also been perceived as a 'bacterial cell' or as a 'prison cell', right?" Daddy nodded.

"But why were you so confident when you said I was referring to a cell phone?" Grandpa enquired. Daddy said, "That's because I thought that you were referring to the cell phone". Grandpa nodded. Daddy added, "The context in which the word was spoken also matters and in the current context I believe you spoke about the cell phone".

Daddy was sporting a victorious smile as he sat down on the shore of the beach. Grandpa sat next to him and said, "Son, have you ever wondered why two different people see an elephant and a mouse in the same shapeless cloud?" Daddy said, "It depends on their perception as to what they think the cloud looks like". "Exactly!" affirmed as he stood up. He continued, "See son, the act of seeing and hearing when understood deeply will reveal you the truth. You told me that you will believe only things that you hear, but did you know that you only hear what you believed you heard? The act of seeing is coordination between your eye and your mind. The eye presents the picture and the mind attributes a meaning to it. This attributed meaning is what you see. Your belief system pre-programs your mind and this directly is responsible for your perception and the context you are referring to. So, your belief is the base. If my mind is pre-programmed with 'fullness', I will see a half-filled water bottle; but if my mind is pre-programmed with 'emptiness', I will see the same water bottle as a half-empty bottle".

"When I asked you what will people perceive when I say 'cell', you were very sure that everyone will perceive it as a cell phone. You claim that in this context this was applicable. But if I had asked the same question in the same situation to a school goer, he would have heard it as a 'bacterial cell'. A shop-keeper would have heard it as 'sell' and a jail warden would have perceived it as a 'Prison cell'. So don't you realise that there is something deeper than a context or a situation?" the Grandpa enquired. 

Daddy just blinked. Grandpa continued, "You need not accept my view now, but think over it. You will understand that beliefs drive you. So the fact is: What You Believe Is What You See and What You Believe Is What You Hear".

"Son, I believe God created everything and so I am able to see God's hand in everything. You believe that everything has a scientific tint to it and you are able to see it. On a larger scale, this is exactly what al religious doctrines tell us: Believe and you shall see".

Daddy looked up and smiled. His smile was his affirmation. Billu did not understand anything that was going on. But he understood that Grandpa has won the discussion. Billu believed his Grandpa would win, and he saw what he believed in.

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9, 

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic, Tarnaka,

Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State.

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Comments of Chennai Floods, 2015.

Chennai is inundated but the water is not potable. There's no power or mobile connectivity. No newspapers. No essentials whatsoever. People have been dislocated and the damage to property and loss incurred is unaccountable. Daily wage earners have lost their jobs. Over 250 people have lost their lives. It is widely believed that a natural disaster such as the floods in Chennai lead to an inevitable loss of life and property. The rainfall in Chennai and adjoining districts this year has broken a hundred year record. But should the magnitude of rainfall in 2015 have come as a surprise? Chennai. Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts are not unfamiliar to heavy rains and cyclones during the north-east monsoon months. Heavy rains during the month of November are a way of life for the people of coastal Tamil Nadu. Therefore, can it be called a disaster? If yes, appropriate preparedness could have been minimised it enormously. The most relevant question therefore is - what was the administrative preparedness for such disasters? What lessons have we learnt from the tsunami of 2004 and a series of cyclones experienced by the state recently? 

For any city to survive the current disaster in Chennai, the fundamentals should be in place. In the present case, these fundamentals were bypassed and deviated from, i.e., the basic infrastructure, especially drainage. If that had been taken care of, the state would have saved such a huge economic loss. This wasn't the case with Chennai and so everyone suffered and paid for the establishment's inefficiency. Isn't this wrong? Geographically, Chennai is actually placed very uniquely and it is a blessing. We have three water-ways, something very few other places can boast of. We have the Cooum river which takes of Central Chennai, the Adyar which caters to the south and kosasthalaiyar running through the north. And then there is the Buckingham Canal which cuts across all three. It is the most fantastic macro drainage system for a city. Unfortunately, these major drainage systems are in a pretty bad shape due to heavy encroachment, reduction of bed-width by more than two-thirds, heavily silt and sludge deposits and formation of heavy sand bars at the mouth of the rivers. In addition to these major drainage systems, there are medium drainage systems. At the moment, it is difficult to trace these medium canals. Indeed, most of Chennai's prided IT corridor on old Mahabalipuram road is situated on the flood plains of Pallikaranai wetlands. And finally, there are the storm water drains constructed by the government which are today heavily clogged because of garbage and so narrow that they cannot even manage if there is persistent rain of one centimetre every hour. Put together, all these networks comprehensively failed to carry water during the recent rains and that is why I state that the city's most important 'fundamentals' have failed.

The Chembarambakkam reservoir overflow is not the only reason for the flooding. Adyar river is fed by 25 other tanks. On the night of 02nd December, 2015 only 30,000 cusecs of water was released from Chembarambakkam, but near Siadapet the river was carrying over 50,000 cusecs. Still, it was less than the river's original carrying capacity of 72,000 cusecs and much less to the flow of 60,000 cusecs in 2005. Then why was there so much damage this time around? Obviously because of the enormous scale of encroachments during the last ten years. Isn't Chennai a man-made disaster then?

The floods in Chennai are certainly part of the larger changing weather patterns across the globe and similar to the Uttarakhand floods, and the floods in Orissa, Mumbai, Copenhagen and, more recently the UK. This is due to the changing weather and climate patterns of the northern hemisphere, largely due to 'developmental activities' undertaken by industrial countries. In the pre-industrial era, the concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere was only about 240 ppm. But at present, it is at 350-400 ppm. Thus the increase in global temperatures. This rise in temperature is because of larger industrial activity like construction, automobile emissions, thermal power stations, cement industries, glass industries, etc., especially in developed countries. Rapid industrial activity has contributed to the global rise in temperatures, which has resulted in the melting of ice in the Earth's polar regions. And finally, the mismatch between the evaporation and precipitation rates of water in the atmosphere leads to so numerous many complexities visible in the form of climate change.

Post the industrial revolution the atmospheric temperature is increasing day by day and, consequently, oceanic evaporation and precipitation rates are increasing, leading to heavy rains and floods, or severe drought. This will also result in the increase of flies, insects, weeds, reptiles, mosquitoes and other unwanted components of the ecosystem, something we see in abundance in Chennai today. Severe drought and dry weather, always likely to come soon enough after the rains, will be seen. The consequences will be water scarcity which is as capable of causing untold harm as excess of water, though a deluge makes for more compelling visuals in newspapers and on television. We need to restrict our industrial, automobile, thermal power and urban expansion activities if we are to make any difference to our atmosphere. Only if we preserve our forests, our treasured flaura and fauna can we hope to bring the planet's climate back to sustainable levels.

What we are facing today are the consequences of thermal power generation, cement industries, glass, paper industries, port, road, mining, deforestation, reverse coastal management with tourism activities, rapid urbanisation, slum dwellers, population explosion, hydrocarbon industries, unscientific agricultural practices, household instruments and equipments and unscientific waste management, etc. Unless we rein in some of them, there is no way to control the change in the atmosphere. Chennai floods are not exactly a man-made calamity but part of this global phenomenon. It is not a localised problem as many argue it to be. Countries like the US and China most of Europe are the major contributors to global warming through gaseous emissions like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. This has resulted in a sharp rise in temperatures and we should not blame state and national governments for it. 

Developed countries are exploiting the natural resources of developing countries in Asia to produce commodities consumed in quantities disproportionate to the finite volume of our planet's resources. Despite this knowledge, developed countries are not responding to international agreements and protocols on global warming generously enough. Irrespective of what city administrations do, these extreme weather patterns will continue to cause havoc in cities like Chennai and the world.

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic Apartments,

Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State, India.

E-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com

Cell: 09985732397.

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THE IMMEDIACY OF LOSS AND AMNESIA AFTER.c

Narratives of disasters are are virtually summoned by the urgency and intensity of the event. They convey the immediacy of the loss, the helplessness and the range of destruction. It is as if the narrative turns from noun to verb,from an act of reflection to an act of doing. Such narratives are dramatic, hurried but often avoid major issues countering on the disaster. The recent description of the Chennai rains shares this predictability. I want to begin by creating a distance to assemble a perspective. One is reminded of a Franz Katka story, probably the only one he wrote in India. It is about a village near a forest which decided to hold a sacrifice. On a full moon day, the village square was decked in wreaths and food. The Brahman priest came out to perform the sacred rituals. when a tiger came and ate the priest. The villagers were undaunted and decided to go ahead with the rituals on the next full moon, but again the tiger ate the priest. This happened on one more occasion and the villagers met to discuss the crisis. Ar the meeting, the village idiot came up with a brilliant solution. He suggested that the tiger's act has to have a theory of man-made causation locating responsibility of different levels.
Legend has it that the village idiot later became a World Bank consultant. The narratives of the Chennai rains have shades of the Katka story. They make the rains sound inevitable,an act of God, a message from nature, but few speculate on the man-made nature of many of these disasters. As a result, the newspapers tell two different stories: one about the Paris talks on sustainability and climate change, and the second on the Chennai rains. There is no sense of connection. Otherwise, the drama would have escalated. Imagine if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone to Paris and submitted a Bill for climate change asking the rich countries to pay for Chennai and Uttarakhand.
This one act would have changed the Paris Conference from its stereotyped scripts and made the world sit up. Thinking that such disasters are man-made, let the affluent West get away with its depredations of nature. The new political economy of disasters has to have a theory of man-made causation locating responsibility at different levels. It is not just Western society, our State and our systems of governance have to be analysed in terms of a disaster perspective - the old "3R model" of relief, rescue, rehabilitation with a wider model of responsibility which starts long before a disaster and continues long after. As the political sociologist Chadrika Parmar put it in her essay on the multi hazard state, disasters from flood to cyclone, drought, famine are part of the everyday facts of governance. The old 3R model merely talked of rescue but little of state presence of responsibility in the first parts of a disaster. Disasters completely transform the notions of governance and the evaluation of state competence. The lack of preparedness of the state in handling this calamity was obvious. One,in fact, wishes the critique were more systematic, but the media often handles the Jayalalithaa administration with kid gloves.
What is heartening is not the performace of the state, but the role of civil society of individuals at every level. The word often used is resilience, but resilience is a polysemic. The courage of the ordinary survivor - in the Orissa cyclone of 1999 or the victims of the Chennai 2015 - remarkable. What differentiates them are the different networks that come into play. In fact, when one looked at studies of Gujarat earthquake, Parmer has pointed out that ordinary people suffered but were hard at work, at rescue and relief, without complaint. One must be careful here in creating an ideal of resilience which might be exaggerated. What is impressive is stories of courage, resilience and stoicism.
Yet what worries one is not resilience, which is welcome, but the nature of memory after disasters. Memories tend to be shortsighted and states drift away in indifference. Public policy often becomes an act of amnesia. Disasters narratives often point out to what they call the domain of amnesia. After a bit of acrimony and a touch of nitpicking, society and state settle down to a period of normalcy, as if nothing had happened, as if pain and suffering belonged to a parallel life. There is little follow up, no real attempt to use repair to create reform. It is almost as if amnesia is the preferred state and the only memory one has is a few anecdotes. It is time disasters are linked to development and climate change, otherwise we are guaranteeing the reproduction of such tragedies. The sadness is what we need in policy and planning: a society that cares. Heroism is a desperate answer of a society that cannot plan or think about its future. A caring society may be more humane than a purely heroic one. One is not denying the creativity and power of improvisation. One is enthralled by series of amphibian seeps first used in World War II returning to perform rescue functions during the devastation. The radio, especially FM, was used in a creatively desperate way to send messages about being marooned. Suddenly the radio, which had been suffering from benign neglect as a secondary toy, acquired a new life. The FM radio virtually played the role of a substitute telephone with FM companies organising volunteers to affected areas. Yet the innovation of civil society and the heroism of individuals and the community hid the fact that the state had failed to respond. One saw little of the functionaries of the state or political parties. It was as if they had decided that there was little that was political. Party protest and concerns of the vulnerable behave like two different worlds and even disasters fail to make them meet. 
What one needs now is a civil society audit of the disaster and the evaluation of responses to it. One has to have narratives of lives and livelihoods lost, homes destroyed and the nature of state response. Democracy has to come alive to make disasters a part of the institutional rules of the game. Otherwise, all one adds is a cynical selfishness which does little to minimise suffering.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St.No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat.No. 203,
Satya Classic Apartments, 
Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,
Telangana State, India.
E-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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REASON AND FAITH.

When there is quarrel between religion and religion, one is sure to find out, if one observes closely, that the feud ensures, not because of religion, but because the people have become irreligious--they have forgotten the essential truths of their religion or at best they have not the ardour and the intensity to follow them in practice. When the whole mind is bent upon realising the truths of any religion, - and without that religion can hardly be brought into our life - we cannot have the surplus energy to look into the affairs of others and not to speak of, to have the readiness to fight with them, because they are on the false track. No religion is so bad but gives an ample opportunity to make one's life better to help one--to go Godward and thereby kill the hunger of the world for wars and battle, feuds and quarrels, national or international, directly or indirectly. So the religious quarrel is an expression which contradicts itself. We must seek the cause elsewhere.

As between religion and religion, similar strife arises within a religion when it is in a downward way towards degradation. Within a short time of the passing away of Buddha, his religion split up, till at last we find so many schools of Buddhism at the present day, which differ as widely from each other, as two different religions, and who knows if in the debris, the real words of the Master have not been well-nigh lost.

Christ was one individual who gave out his message to the world, for the regeneration of humanity, but now we find so many hundreds of sects in Christianity, so many interpretations and interpolation about the words of the great Master, while somebody will have the impudence enough to doubt the historicity of the Saviour himself. The fact is, in order to understand a man or a prophet, we must be one like him. The farther we fall off from him, the greater the difference and the keener the strife on that. When the sun is up high in the sky, it exposes and burns up many of the impurities of the earth which gather again in the darkness of the night. Nearer religion we live, the less animosity between different sects and religions, but after some time we oust religion altogether and plunge into internecine struggle in the sacred name of God and term it our religious zeal. No religion requires any external protection, if its internal life is all right and without that religion will defeat the real purpose for which it stands.

It is interesting to see how religion declines and how gradually we fall away from religion without our notice. Religion demands that we must have faith because it goes much farther than reason can approach. In religion, to solve the problems of that unexplored land we have to tread the ground, where the light of reason is too faint to illumine our path, where only faith can sustain us. This has been the shelter for all credulity in the world and all mischiefs that are done in the name of religion. This has been the point, where every man that raises any questions or doubts can easily be thwarted or any man can be attempted to swallow any pill that any miracle or mystery-monger likes. Nobody denies that the ways of God are mysterious, but every mystery is not the work of God. We forget that we are to pass through the sea of intellectual doubt, before we can reach the safe shore of faith, which will be its own security. 'If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, "Remove hence to yonder place"; and it shall be removed'. How true the words are! But how few are those, who can have that tremendous faith? The result is many simply waver between doubt and credulity and run the risk of either being scorched for life, or falling into a quagmire, from which there is no rise again. We forget that only after a long struggle, we can have that reason which can be trusted or that faith which is true,--and that not before our lower self has altogether been burnt. Till then, there is no shame in having recourse to either--very often to put our faith into the anvil of reason or to let our reason be winged with faith. For both faith which is in fear of reason, and reason, which has no strength for action, come to nought. But blessed are those persons, who come in contact with men, whom to obey means to go forward, to trust means to be strong, to love means to be invincible. The pity is such persons, though not scarce are very rare in the world. So the rest of humanity have to plod through chimerian darkness in land, where for a long time there is no trusted guide or safe light, excepting his sincerity of the struggle. 

Without due balance between reason and faith, we cannot very often understand the spirit of the Scriptures and words of sages and prophets, and so we fight with the letter and write hundred of useless commentaries on a simple piece of advice that dropped from the lips of a master but went straight into the heart of his disciple without the help of a linguist. Sometimes our heart is torn away to give up a custom, which had some use in one time, but no longer serves any purpose because it has become a part and parcel of a religion due to the sanction of time. All these happen because we have not a reason, which can penetrate into the nature of things or a faith which can get over the weakness of mind. Possessed of child-like faith, any chance is sufficient for us, because that itself has got a flow of life, which breaks down all opposition, but without that faith turns into bigotry and meaningless superstition, as rationalism very often ends in a theism. Both are sources of great danger to the society as well as religion itself. 
From theory, when we go to practice, we meet with greater difficulties, internal as well as external. A false sense of religion sometimes makes us weak in mind and spirit, curbs our activity and unconsciously we hug into our bosom a sort of 'pious imbecility' in the name of religion and shamelessly go to the extent of even gloating over it. When we really feel even to a slight extent that 'we are He' or a 'part of He' we find a strength within, which defies the whole universe and once we leap up to an ethereal height, where even joy cannot reach us, not to speak of woes. Far behind we leave this world with its daily round of deceitful pleasure and heartbreaking pains and when we come back, we are altogether fresh beings, bathed in a new shore, and talk things, which others understand not but gapingly wonder at.
We make the same mistake about prayer. Prayer does not mean imploring to a tyrant Jupiter, who at any moment is ready to throw the thunderbolt upon us, prayer does not signify to beg for drops of Manna, to be dropped from heaven, it does not indicate to vie with one another how to be more and more sleepish, how to make a more and more parade of our weakness and sins, real or assumed, but true prayer means the assertion of our rights as inheritors of Immortal Bliss, as sons and daughters of an affectionate father or a loving mother. If we have strayed away, it is a maya. The more we forget that, the better for us. So a healthy form of prayer proceeds not so much from weakness, as from strength--it is not a piteous cry to escape from the clutches of Satan to whom we are eternal victims, but a bold attempt to defy and suppress him...
And when we fail even in action and practice, religion to us becomes a bundle of superstition and creeping fears. We miss to keep a healthy outlook over life. We spend our whole energy to find out what is auspicious or inauspicious, whether our destiny is ruled by a Zeus in the star or a man in the moon, whether we should bow before God or prostrate before Him--we feel that we are inviting the deadliest wrath of heaven by a single instance of oversight in the observance of the minutest detail of an unimportant religious formula--all these because our heart is away, our love for God is not so strong that it can drown all petty considerations that make us falter at every step; because we have not the vigour enough to rise up and knock at the gate till it is opened and so with vengeance we dip into the stinking ditch, there to wallow and roll and spread the contagion on all sides. When the mind is weak we swallow everything that is given in the name of religion, we become easy prey to charlatans and cheats, we bind down society with all sorts of fetters and make a frantic effort to preserve the form where the substance is gone, to make a show of the crust where the kernel is dried up and every religion says it is the best in the world.
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A MORAL GYMNASIUM.

Getting Into a Gym: 'Exercise!' 'Please exercise daily'. 'Exercise is what you need'.

This is the most frequently and widely 'prescribed' advice given by medical practitioners to deal with life-style diseases caused by sedentary habits, overeating and stress. More and more studies conducted by researchers substantiate the need for this advice. Doing physical exercises is thus getting widely accepted as a necessity for the present day life-style, and not just for the youth who do it for building their muscles and biceps. No wonder in most public places, especially in big cities and towns, such as parks, roadside pavements, beaches and so on, one sees, in mornings and evenings, people dressed in sportswear, in groups or individually, often with an earphone attached to an MP3 player or mobile.

Those who do not find going to open spaces feasible or for other reasons, often become members of local gymnasium. 'Gyming' is what they call their act of exercising their bodies there - using various equipments and special techniques.

While setting up or becoming a member of a gym requires some space, expenditure and planning, there is another kind of gym which is much more easily accessible but is rarely recognised as such. This 'gym' is the world we live in - with all its complexities, challenges and experiences. Swami Vivekananda called this a 'moral gymnasium'. In his nine-volume Complete Works, Swamiji refers to it in various contexts and ways such as:

1. We only help ourselves in this gymnasium of the world. (CW, 1.106).
2. The world is a grand moral gymnasium wherein we have all to take exercise so as to become stronger and stronger spiritually. (CW, 1.80).
3. The world is neither good nor evil. It is the Lord's world. It is beyond both good and evil, perfect in itself. His will is going on, showing all these different pictures; and it will go on without beginning and without end. It is a great gymnasium in which you and I, and millions of souls must come and get exercises, and make ourselves strong and perfect. This is what it is for. (CW, 4.207).
4. God has not fallen into a ditch for you and me to help Him out by building a hospital or something of that sort. He allows you to work. He allows you to exercise your muscles in this great gymnasium, not in order to help Him but that you may help yourself. Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most errant blasphemy! (CW, 5.245).
5. This world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong. (CW, 5.410).
6. Work of your free will, not from duty. We have no duty. This world is just a gymnasium in which we play; our life is an eternal holiday. (CW, 7.49).
7. Thank God for giving me this world as a moral gymnasium to help your development, but never imagine you can help the world. Be grateful to him who curses you, for he gives you a mirror to show what cursing is, also a chance to practice self-restraint; so bless him and be glad. Without exercise, power cannot come out; without the mirror, we cannot see ourselves. (CW, 7.69).
8. This universe is simply a gymnasium in which the soul is taking exercise; and after these exercises we become gods. (CW, 5.308).

In other words, we are all gyming! Not in a man-made gymnasium to cure or manage a life-style disease but in God'd gymnasium -- thus the very act of living is a kind of exercise. We are all born in a gym! And whole life is an exercise to regain our lost sense of true identity and eternity.

What Happens In a Gym?--Anyone who has been to a gym knows one thing for sure -- it is place to exercise. And generally every gym will have equipments such as dumb-bells, weights, skipping ropes, and so on. Now-a-days, the concept of multi-gym is catching up. A multi-gym is a fairly large-sized machine on which one can do several different fitness exercises, or a room in which several different exercise machines can be used.
Swami Vivekananda himself believed in doing physical exercises. The visitors to Swamiji's room in Belur Math can see the dumb-bells, generally covered with a piece of cloth, which Swamiji would use. A firm believer in developing physical strength, Swamiji urged everyone to be strong:
What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made. (CW, 5.117).
And especially to the youth, he thundered them to be strong! He said,
We speak of many parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything; we must strengthen it. First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of the Gita. These are bold words; but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches. (CW, 3.242).
But the nature of strength is not only physical but something deeper; one needs moral and spiritual strength without which one remains incomplete as a human being. As Swamiji explains:
We also know that the greatest power is lodged in the fine, not the course. We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell, and all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think the muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread-like things, the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the amount one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are not able to work at all. These tiny nerves bring the power from something still finer, and that again in its turn brings it from something finer still - thought, and so on. (CW, 2.16).
How does one develop moral and spiritual strength? By doing moral and spiritual exercises. All through our lives, we make certain choices which represent our moral and spiritual inclinations and the result of these choices is what we call our lives.
Now let us look at a gym. In a gym, one uses the equipments and machinery in order to 'bring out' the physical strength and shape up the muscles. When we use the dumb-bells, we become strong, and not the dumb-bells that become strong. They remain what they are--just dumb-bells. So also, the world--or life experiences that we undergo--is a gym 'in which the soul is taking exercise; and after these exercises we become gods'. This is the purpose of life's journey--to 'become gods'.
Godliness is what man essentially seeks in life. By 'godliness' is meant the manifestation of the inner potential which is essentially divine by nature. It is not material but divine. Hence it is not subject to what matter is subjected to--decay, death and destruction. We are not matter but Pure Consciousness presently intertwined with matter.
To rediscover his lost divine entity, that is the purpose of human life. Man is born, suffers and dies. But if he has learnt his lessons he will not return. What are the lessons? That this world is only a gymnasium for the soul to exercise and manifest its real nature. Says Swami Vivekananda,
It (this world) is like chronic rheumatism: you drive it from the head, and it goes to the body; you drive it from there, and it goes to the feet. Reformers arise and preach that learning, wealth and culture should not be in the hands of a select few; and they do their best to make them accessible to all. These may bring more happiness to some, but, perhaps as culture comes, physical happiness lessens. The knowledge of happiness brings the knowledge of unhappiness. Which way then shall we go? The least amount of material prosperity that we enjoy is causing the same amount of misery elsewhere. This is the law. The young, perhaps, do not see it clearly, but those who have lived long enough and those who have struggled enough will understand it. And this is Maya. These things are going on, day and night, and to find a solution of this problem is impossible. Why should it be so? It is impossible to answer this, because the question cannot be logically formulated. There is neither how nor why in fact; we only know that it is and that we cannot help it. (CW, 2.94).
Doing good to the world is very good. But can we do much good to the world? Have we done much good these hundreds of years that we have been struggling--have we increased the sum total of the happiness in the world? Thousands of means have been created every day to conduce to the happiness of the world, and this has been going on for hundreds and thousands of years...Is the sum total of the happiness in the world today more than what it was a century ago? It cannot be. Each wave that rises in the ocean must be at the expense of a hollow somewhere. If one nation becomes rich and powerful, it must be at the expense of another nation somewhere. (CW, 4.205).
Look at the sum total of good and evil in this world. Has it changed? Ages have passed, and practical religion has worked for ages. The world thought that each time the problem would be solved. It is always the same problem. At best it changes its form...It trades consumption and nerve-disease for twenty thousand shops. ...A hundred years ago man walked on foot or bought horses. Now he is happy because he rides the railroad; but he is unhappy because he has to work more and earn more. Every machine that saves labour puts more stress upon labour. (CW, 4.241).
So, what is the purpose of work? 'The work against evil is more educational than actual, however big we may talk'. (CW, 3.214). When we work for others, they may or may not benefit but we are surely benefitted--spiritually speaking. By all the works and experiences that we undergo we get more educated and wiser as to real nature of the Self and of the world. 'Gymnasium' remains what it is. We become strong which is what leads to Self-knowledge. 'This Self cannot be attained by the weak', says the Mundaka Upanishad. We become strong but the gymnasium of life continues to exist and function for others to come, exercise and become free.
Spirituality lies in understanding this and spiritual life is the art of putting this understanding into practice. The nearer we reach the goal of this 'exercising', the more we develop detachment, calmness, purity, generosity and love. And when one is done with one's gyming, one knows 'what needs to be known', the ever fulfilled and blissful Atman within. That state beyond death and sorrow is our state or being, the Eternal Essence of Existence, the Atman.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
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Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,
Telangana State, India.
E-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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