April 2011 - RH

THE RADICAL HUMANISTRs. 20 / month

(Since April 1949)

Formerly : Independent India (April 1937- March 1949)

Founder Editor: M.N. Roy

APRIL 2011

493Vol. 75 No 1

Unity of all Religions?

Is Freewill akin to any Determinism?

Humanist movement in Andhra Pradesh

Energy Policies Effecting Humanity

Paid News, Radia Tapes and Journalistic Ethics

Cash Transfer; Central Budget; State Elections

Impending Destruction of Environment A Myth?

Editorial Comment: This world owes us a living? Tell me why?

—R.A. Jahagirdar

— N.V. Brahmam

—N. Innaiah

— J.S. Chandra Rao

—Ramendra Nath

—N.K. Acharya

—

—Subhankar Ray

— Rekha Saraswat

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar passesaway

—Rekha Saraswat

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar breathed his last on 23rd.February 2011. He was the former Editor of The

Radical Humanist. At present, he was associatedwith the journal as one of its contributing editors.

Formerly, he had also worked as the President ofthe Indian Radical Humanist Association for manyyears.

He had been seriously sick for the last few yearsand was finding it difficult to sit and do the writingwork.

But, to my pleasant surprise, only recently Ireceived three of his latest write-ups for the RHthrough email from Mr. Janardhan Nair. I could notbelieve my eyes. To confirm that he had regainedhis normal health, good enough to write againregularly for the RH, I wrote back to Mr. Nairasking him whether the three articles were his freshwrite-ups. And Mr. Nair also very optimisticallyinformed me that these were his latest contributionsand that he is getting better.

I happily put two in the February and March RH but

unfortunately, the last ‘Unity of all Religions?’ isbeing published in this issue along with thisunpleasant news of his sad demise.

I remember meeting him in Delhi in 2005, soonafter it was decided to bring RH to Delhi fromMumbai when I was to begin managing its editing.I along with the Delhi friends, had a longconversation with him regarding the desiredimprovements and changes in the journal. He wasso full of new ideas!

After he went back to Mumbai, I kept in constantcontact with him, through emails and phone-calls,planning and discussing about things related to thejournal and the movement for quite some time; butthen the frequencies became lesser and lesser due tohis failing health. He also kept promising that hewould visit us again in Delhi as soon as possible.But it could not be so!

I was informed that he had met with a stroke andwas gradualy coming back to normal under thevigilant care of his doctor wife. But it is onlythrough the condolence note from Mr. VishwadNaiknavare and his letter to me that I now came toknow of his serious ailment.

I am remembering here the incidence when I hadurgently called him up, an year ago. His wife hadpicked up the phone and when I explained to herabout a situation where I was being continuouslypestered she immediately handed over the phone tohim. His words of advice made me feel easy;laughing all the way, he explained that such issuesneed to be met without tension and that he knewabout the whole thing and would further look intothe matter, so that I am not bothered again. Allthrough, he was so gentle and composed with sucha clear and sound voice that I could not at allimagine it was going to be my last conversationwith him.......

The loss is definitely irreparable to the movementas well as to all the Radical friends.

I and all the members of the executive body of theIRI as well as all the Radical Humanist friends,convey our deep condolences to his familymembers. We stand by his wife and children at thismoment of extreme grief.

Remembering JusticeJahagirdar

—Badridas Sharma

Justice (retd.) R.A. Jahagirdar, who had been one ofthe contributing editors of the Radical Humanist forthe last 6yrs, passed away on 23.2.2011. The newsof his death came as a bolt from blue to members ofRadical humanist fraternity. He had been ailing forsome time but in spite of his ill health, he had beensending articles for being published in the RH. Infact, some of our friends were having a discussionon the legality or otherwise of death sentence whenhis article-"Death sentence-some observations"came. Only a few days before his death his article

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THE RADICAL HUMANIST APRIL 2011

on “Kabir” ‘suno bhai sadho’ was published inMarch issue of RH. Mr. Jahagirdar had anillustrious career as a judge of Bombay high courtspread over a number of years. After his retirementhe actively participated into radical humanistmovement, he had been editor of the RH quite along time it was only because he was not feelingphysically fit, that on his earnest request, themembers of the board of trustees of the IRI, at itsmeeting at Hyderabad, into year 2000 grudginglyyielded to his request to be spared of hisresponsibilities of editing RH.

Still even after Mr. Jahagirdar was not the editor ofRH, he continued writing valuable instructions andinspiring articles for the RH, these articles whichhad been published in RH give a fair indication ofhis depth not only in the knowledge of law but alsoof history of various religions, religious customs ofeminent scholars, scientists and authors who hereplayed an important role in shaping his destiny ofmen and world history. He had the ingrainedpassion in him to educate the readers of RH bywriting about our forerunners, like Ghalib, Socratesetc. In his death, we have lost one of the importantleaders of our Radical Humanist movement, whomake their presence felt. While alive, let’s pledgeto wake up from our slumbers and follow him ineducating men at large in the splendid manner as hedid.I, on behalf of the Indian Renaissance Institute aswell as all the Radical Humanists, convey myheat-felt condolence to Mrs. Jahagirdar and othermembers of the family.

Justice R.A. Jahagirdar –A truehumanist passed away

—N.D. Pancholi

Justice Jahagirdar was one of the pillars of theIndian Radical Humanist Association in particularand great source of strength to the humanist andrationalist movement in India in general. He was inthe humanist movement since his early days. As ajudge of the Bombay High Court, he saw to it that

his judgments conveyed the message of humanismand secularism whenever possible withoutsacrificing the cause of law and justice. He was astrong defender of rule of law and democraticvalues while in office or outside. Justice Jahagirdarwas a prolific writer. He contributed to largenumber of magazines, especially to the RadicalHumanist, on variety of issues and made valuablecontribution. He was trustee of the IndianRenaissance Institute for many years. The youngergeneration of Radical Humanists always turned tohim for guidance. Humanist and rationalistmovement in India has suffered a great loss in hisdemise. His life and ideas will always serve asource of inspiration to all those who are devoted tothe cause of poor and deprived section of society.

Going of Jurist Jahagirdar is anirreparable loss

—N. Innaiah

Dear Rekha ji, I am sorry to know the sad demise ofJustice Jahagirdar. That is great loss to Humanistmovement. We worked together in IRHA aspresident and secretary (myself) and sharedexperiences. I was in touch with him always. It isdifficult to replace such eminent jurist humanist.

Justice Jahagirdar: A SecularHumanist and a Committed

Rationalist—Jayanti Patel

Justice Jahagirdar was a loving friend, outspokenand clear-headed commentator on issues thatconcerned humanity. He was a chief guest at theinauguration of the first conference of GujaratRationalist Association (Buddhinisht Sammelan)held in 1983 at Nadiad. I was itsconvener-secretary. The local organisers hadinvited a reformist saint of Gujarat to inaugurate theconference. Some rationalists opposed the presenceof a saffron clad theist person on the dais of the

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rationalist-meet. Justice Jahagirdar in his lecture

contradicted some observations of that saint and later on

expressed his displeasure personally to us. This was our

first meeting. He was a voracious reader and prolific

writer. He was always prepared to lend a helping hand to

the cause of Humanist-Rationalist-Secular movement as

well as to the co-travellers interested in other similar

movements. I was the Founder-secretary of Gujarat

University Area Teachers Association and I wanted to

contact office bearers of Bombay University Teachers

association for some common problems. Justice

Jahagirdar facilitated the meeting by inviting its

secretary to meet us in his own chamber at Bombay High

Court. Later on, we met off and on during the meetings

of IRHA as well as whenever I had a chance to visit

Mumbai. He supported me in my tenure as the president

of IRHA. Though he was senior to me, he was kind

enough to agree to shoulder the responsibility of the

presidency of IRHA without any hesitation after me.

Humanist movement has lost a kind friend, committed

champion and exponent of Humanism and Rationalism.

An Unforgettable Friend—Vishwas Naiknavare

News of Jahagirdar’s death was to me a bolt fromthe blue. Not that I was not aware of his fight withcancer. But his end came, nevertheless, as a shock.A couple of months ago, when I had stood by theside of his bed, it seemed the end was still far away.Reports, I was receiving from friends who hadvisited him recently were all very optimistic. I wastherefore, not mentally ready for this sudden end.

I knew him as Marxist in our college days. He wasfurious when his teacher had made somederogatory remarks about Communism. In thosedays he was not yet a Royist. Eventually, hediscovered Roy and then he never looked back inhis political views. His article in the latest issue ofthe RH gave me a false hope that he was now on therecovery path.

Jahagirdar was a steadfast and a lovable friend.During his visits to Pune, he would visit us and wewould together visit bookshops. His personallibrary was impressive and his contributions to the

RH were always touching important issues andtherefore not to be missed. Alas, he would nolonger give us such articles. Once he discoveredthat it was my birthday. Immediately, he invited meto choose a book of my choice and that was hispresent to me. Now I shall cherish that memento forthe rest of my life.

Jahagirdar was fond of me because of the fact that Ihad attended the 1948 study camp at Dehradoonwhile I was still a sophomore. That was when I hada glimpse of Sibnarayan Ray and Amlan Datta witha slight limp at Dehradoon camp.

Jahagirdar always urged me to write for the RH.But I decided that in fact, it was more necessary towrite in regional languages to spread our ideas farand wide. We have more than enough literature inEnglish. That is why I would consider Hindi,Bengali, Gujarati or Marathi books, periodicals etc.More useful for bringing about renaissance inIndia! After all, the philosophy of New Humanismin all its glory should be available to readers in theirmother tongue. That is why I did not follow hissuggestion so far. In my correspondence withSibnarayan Ray, he agreed with me and I believe hewas himself writing a lot in Bengali, in addition tohis valuable work for Humanism in English.Presently, I am working on a Marathi biography ofM.N. Roy and hope to be able to finish it in a coupeof years. Be that as it may, but I have lost a valuedfriend and philosopher with Jahagirdar’s departure.

A Great Rationalist: JusticeJahagirdar

—Suman Oak

Justice Jahagirdar was born on 15th August, theIndependence Day, celebrated all over India. Hecertainly was a truly Independent Spirit. I met himfor the first time on the occasion of the birthcentenary of M.N. Roy and was very muchimpressed by his unassuming, friendly and helpfulnature. Till then, being a Judge, he refrained fromopenly airing his views on public platforms. But

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after his retirement he zealously inculcatedrationalist, atheist and humanist values in the youthgrabbing every opportunity that came his way.

His judgments had a humane angle. Once a poorwoman was accused of committing suicide and oftrying to kill her child along with her. JusticeJahagirdar acquitted her, reasoning that since thewoman had shouted for help she must haveinadvertently fallen into the well (as she laterclaimed) and had no intention of killing herdaughter. This was necessary because, he said;convicting the woman was convicting the innocentchild and destroying her future.

He had a very cheerful and jovial nature with atinge of childlike mischief in it. On many occasionsat CSSC Bandra and other places when snacks wereoffered, Justice Jahagirdar made it a point to takemy photograph while I was eating, telling me hewanted to keep a record of my contribution to thecause!

A few years back he suffered a stroke. He wasunconscious for over a week. Dr. SharadJahagirdar, his wife tirelessly nursed him day andnight, knowing full well the gravity of the situation.He came out of it and although physically not hisoriginal self, mentally he was as alert as ever andhad a perfect memory. He did contribute a lot to therationalist cause after his recovery. His daughterand other relatives used to tease him for refusing tosee the ‘divine hand’ in it. He gave all the credit tohis wife and called her a modern ‘Savitri’. Butsadly enough, this did not last long and within acouple of years his health started deteriorating. Thesad end came on the morning of 23rd February.

The movement initiated by Rationalist Associationof India and carried out despite insurmountabledifficulties by Prof. RD Karve, began tapering offduring the post independent era as the newlyindependent Indian society being enamored of thewelfare state concept, secularism, Nehruviansocialism, Marxism, etc. felt no need forrationalism per se any more. But soon it wasrealized that all these isms cannot take care of

human frailties like greed, hunger for power, lackof empathy, blind belief and fanaticism. JusticeJahagirdar was one of those who realized theimportance of rationalism. Unless reason is giventhe primacy of place in our mental attitude, wecannot get rid of these curses.

“Reason” magazine was the house journal ofRationalist Association of India. The publicationwas very popular among rationalists in India andabroad right from its first issue, way back, in 1931until its last one in 1942. Justice Jahagirdar broughtout a series of user friendly CDs by scanning thepages of all the old issues, lest the preciousintellectual asset be lost forever and distributed theCDs to various educational institutions anduniversities He maintained that rationalists do notswear by any set of principles or tenets like othersystems of philosophy and therefore do notdegenerate into any dogma or religion. It is amental attitude which unreservedly accepts thesupremacy of reason and aims at establishing asystem of philosophy and ethics verifiable byexperience independent of arbitrary assumptions orauthority. He, therefore, advocated rationalism onevery platform made available to him. He alsobelieved that decisions in all walks of life political,social, educational and health should be subjectedto rationalist thoughts and arguments and shouldnever be based on emotional inspiration.

With his own funds, he founded the ‘RationalistFoundation Trust’ in 1995 to inculcate rationalismin our society by arranging lectures, publishingprinted material and helping individuals who sufferfor advocating rationalism. He used to tour all overMaharashtra on the invitation from progressiveassociations and movements and used theirplatform to spread rational values in thosemovements. He wrote a large number of articles onvarious aspects of rationalism and publishedpamphlets on this subject. This trust is now ablyhandled by Mr. Prabhakar Nanavati, a retiredSenior Scientist from DRDO, himself a staunchrationalist. He has already published twoanthologies of Justice Jahagirdar’s writings and a

4


third is on its way. He is carrying out Justice Jahagirdar’s work forward despite the irreparableloss of his valuable guidance.

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From the Writings of Justice Jahagirdar:........

“Secularism sounds sweet and means different things to different people. Indian Constitution is said to

be secular. It does not favour any particular religion. That is why Indian National Congress says it is

secular. Hinduism has been the most tolerant religion for ages. Toleration pervades Hinduism which,

says Mr. Advani, is (despite Ayodhya and Gujarat) a secular religion. If Hinduism is the basis of

Constitution of India, the latter is secular. Therefore, B.J.P. is secular. The Communist parties do not

believe in God and Religion. Therefore, they say they are the real Secularists. Before anyone claims to

be a secularist, he or she must tell us what he or she means by secularism. The term itself was in vogue

from 17th

century onwards after the Enlightenment. But the philosophy of secularism was in practice.

The Church, had an ubiquitous presence in all matters pertaining to State. As the people realised that

they should live according to the dictates of present day life, the importance and the power of the

Church declined. Especially in the 18th

Century, the U.S. Constitution forbade the use of religion by the

State. Thomas Jefferson said the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution erected a wall of separation

between the Church and the State. This, despite the fact that U.S. was founded in the background of

religion. Soon after, the French Revolution took place and the Constitution mandated that therewill be no connection between the Church and the State. This, despite the fact that till then itwas the Roman Catholic Church which directed all the activities of the society and the State.Births and deaths had to be registered in the Church. Education was directed by the Church.Even awards by the State and land distribution had to be approved by the Church. By 1905France had become a completely secular State.Today even among the scholars and lawyersthere is no agreement on what is meant by secularism. The word was coined by G.H. Holyoake.Fortunately, all the dictionaries, including Oxford Dictionary, give credit to Holyoake as thefather of the term. Holyoake defined the term as an ideology, where in social and industrialmorality “hitherto determined by reference to the transcendental principles of religion, werenow to be determined by reason, and firmly anchored to the good of man in this life” (quoted inSociology of Secularization: A Critique of a concept” by P.E. Glasner, Ambika, New Delhi,1977, p.46). Incidentally it may be mentioned that atheism was not necessary for secularism.Whereas Charles Bradlaugh, his close associate, said it was. Secularism, historically, is not anevent. It is ‘the product of a long line of evolution’. In a secular society and under a secularState, people have moved away from Church and religion so that human activity in the field ofeducation, art and politics are freed from conformity to theological dogma and priesthood.Secular spirit is seen in the fact that the activities of the State are dictated and tested by reason,by experience and experiment.The fruits of secularism are many. Since secularism treats anindividual as a citizen and not as a member of a religion, all individuals are to be treated ascitizens and, therefore, equally. Each individual is a unit of secularism. The effect will be andshould be democracy and equality which all people cherish.Etymologically, that word secularin Latin meant “the great span of time” or “the spirit of the age”. Later, it got the presentmeaning, that of “belonging to this world”. Formerly, Christianity regarded spiritualism as adivisive factor in the determination of truth and life of man.............”

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The Radical Humanist

Monthly journal of the Indian Renaissance

Institute

Devoted to the development of the Renaissance

Movement; and for promotion of human rights,

scientific-temper, rational thinking and a humanist

view of life.

Founder Editor:

M.N. Roy

Editor:

Dr. Rekha Saraswat

Contributory Editors:

Prof. A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Dr. R.M. Pal, Professor

Rama Kundu

Publisher:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

Printer:

Mr. N.D. Pancholi

Send articles to: Dr. Rekha Saraswat, C-8, Defence

Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India, Ph.

91-121-2620690, 09719333011,

E-mail articles at: [email protected]

Send Subscription / Donation Cheques in favour of

‘The Radical Humanist’to:

Mr. Narottam Vyas (Advocate), Chamber Number

111 (Near Post Office), Supreme Court of India, New

Delhi, 110001, India [email protected]

Ph. 91-11-22712434, 91-11-23782836, 09811944600

Please Note: Authors will bear sole accountability

for corroborating the facts that they give in their

write-ups. Neither IRI / the Publisher nor the Editor

of this journal will be responsible for testing the

validity and authenticity of statements &

information cited by the authors. Also, sometimes

some articles published in this journal may carry

opinions not similar to the Radical Humanist

philosophy; but they would be entertained here if the

need is felt to debate and discuss upon them.

Rekha Saraswat

Vol. 75 Number 1 April 2011

Download and read the journal at

www.theradicalhumanist.com

- Contents -Justice R.A. Jahagirdar passes away—Rekha Saraswat

Remembering Justice Jahagirdar —Badridas Sharma

A true humanist passed away—N.D. Pancholi

An irreparable loss—N. Innaiah

A Rationalist & a Secular Humanist—Jayanti Patel

An Unforgettable Friend —Vishwas Naiknavare

A Great Rationalist —Suman Oak

1. From the Editor’s Desk:

This world owes us a living? Tell me why?

—Rekha Saraswat 7

2. Contributory Editors’ Section:

Unity of all Religions?—R.AJahagirdar 8

3. From the Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism: A case for Atheism 11

4. Guests’ Section:

A Travesty Of Election Law (Contd.)

—S.N. Shukla 15

Energy Policies Effecting Humanity

— J.S. Chandra Rao 20

5. Current Affairs:

Cash Transfer; Central Budget; State Elections

—N.K. Acharya 22

Paid News, Radia Tapes and Journalistic Ethics

—Ramendra Nath 25

6. IRI / IRHA Members’ Section:

Is Freewill akin to any Determinism?

—N.V. Brahmam 27

Humanist movement in Andhra Pradesh

—N. Innaiah 31

7. Teachers’ & Research Scholars’ Section:

The Judiciary and the Poor

—Sitaram Kumhar 33

8. Book Review Section:

Impending Destruction of Environment: A Myth?

—Subhankar Ray 37

From The Editor’s Desk:

This world owes us aliving? Tell me why?

I received both kinds of responsesfrom the readers of RH on my last

three months’ editorials; in my support,having faith in the younger generation’scaliber; and, against my belief, opposing thepresent youth’s mind-set.

We, in Asia, feel proud of our patriarchal lineage ofa hierarchical society. We still live in a culturewhere credence to an idea, a decision or an act isgiven on the basis of the other person’s age, sex,caste, social status, community and communalgrouping. In such a social order if we begin todevelop the idea of depending upon our youngergeneration’s sense of reason and justice it naturallymakes our established patriarchs uncomfortable, inwhat ever position they may be.

Democracy, thus, is still an alien concept being

used for the benefit of the power elite in every

segment and section of our country.

Coming to my point of emphasis, I assert that it isthe older generation which has set the wrongprecedence of taking this world as a right which theyounger group (as it claims) is now following, if atall. They have sown the seeds of‘irresponsibleness’ towards everything andanything that does not directly belong to them orimmediately affect their personal interests and nowwe are reaping the harvest of this chaos of moraland legal degeneration in the young in directproportions to our teachings!

It is now a calculated fact that India has the largestnumber of young people ever to convert intoadulthood not only in South Asia but in the wholeworld. And we continue to dread and despise theirhonesty in expressing themselves the way ‘we’have groomed them. We do not want to accept ourown responsibility of having lead lives with noauthenticity in our personalities. Ourdual-characteristics of preaching honesty, morality,

conscientiousness and devotion towardsour families, relatives, neighborhoods,society and country from without butfeeling and behaving just the opposite fromwithin has been closely watched by ourprogeny. The only difference is that it isnow more honestly and very candidlyplaying its role exactly the way we have

nurtured it.

You name any problem of our modern society andyou will find its antecedents and references notonly in our past history but also in our age-longclassical epics. For example, such issues as humantrafficking, sexual exploitation, teen-mothers, drugabuse etc. etc. are not new to us. They have beenperpetual blisters on the human labyrinth, earlierhidden and suppressed in an old, closed socialset-up, and now open in the new media-targetedworld. Again, the percentage growth in these kindsof wounds is directly proportional to the populationgrowth and nothing else.

Another point to mention is that in our type ofparasitic society we suffer from two kinds ofpsychosomatic turmoil. One that what ever wrongis happening around us is done by others and we arein no way responsible for it. It may be corruption,exploitation, violence, intolerance, lawlessness orany other such ailment. And two that others areresponsible for our being born on this earth. Andtherefore, they should continue to fend for us inwhatever role and capacity they can. They may befirst our parents then our children, our relatives, ourneighborhood, our society, our country or the worldas a whole. We keep on making others accountablefor our living in stead of owning andacknowledging our own responsibility as matureadults.

When we fail to cultivate ourselves intoindependent and conscientious adults of our societyand responsible, honest and dutiful citizens of ourcountry and this world how can we expect ouryouth and our democracies to be socially andpolitically accountable and answerable towards us?

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Rekha Saraswat

Contributory Editor’s Section:

[Justice R.A. Jahagirdar (Retd.), former

President of Indian Radical Humanist

Association and former Editor of ‘The Radical

Humanist’ is now one of the members of the

Contributing Editorial Board of The Radical

Humanist.]

Unity of all Religions?

Dr. Bhagwandas, father of Shri Prakash,sometime Governor of then Bombay,

wrote a voluminous book by name Essential Unity

of all Religions, published by Bharatiya VidyaBhavan. It is said that Dr. Bhagwandas took 30years to produce this book. It was immediately afterpartition when the injuries of Hindu-Muslim riotswere still fresh. If it was the intention of the authorto bring about the two communities, it hasmiserably failed, though it got him “Bharat Ratna”.Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is essentially a Hindurevivalist body, though occasionally it publishesnon-revivalist books.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan of Delhi has rightlypointed out that basic principles of all religions aredifferent and are mutually exclusive; it is incorrectto say that there is unity of all religions. Maulanawas commenting on a judgment of the SupremeCourt which upheld the election of Manohar Joshi.He was pointing out that “Hinduism was a way oflife” was an erroneous statement. In an earlier case,the Court pointed out several parameters which,

according to it, would dub a person as a Hindu,though not all Hindus believed in Vedas andUpanishads. In fact, there were atheists who wererecognised by the term ‘Hindu’.

If you go through the book by Dr. Bhagwandas, youwill notice that he does not refer to the originalscripture of religions. He consulted some Muslimscholars to understand what is there in Islam. Dr.Bhagwandas himself has not studied the originalbooks of other religions, let alone Muslim. He hastaken some stanzas, as given to him, from otherreligions and finding that they sound similarconcludes that there is unity in all religion. Take forexample words like “God”, “Truth” which will befound in all religions, though in Jainism andBuddhism God has no place. In order to find out theunity of all religions, one must go back to theirbasic tenets. If Quran says that truth has beendictated by Allah, though differently, this will notshow unity. Let us see the things that are essentiallyfollowed by different religions: The Prophet; Abook; A holy place; Pilgrimage.

Let us begin with the Prophet:

According to Concise Oxford Dictionary, prophetmeans a teacher or interpreter at God’s will. It isthrough him you know what is expected by Godfrom you. God does not speak to the people. It is theProphet that tells you what is expected from you.

Among Jews, you can take Moses as a prophetbecause he brought from Sinai the TenCommandments. Moses did not write any treatise,his sayings constitute the teachings ofJews. “Sabbath” is one of the commandments.Fasting a day in a week, because after creating theworld in six days, God took rest on theseventh. Fasting is observed in different ways indifferent religions, but that is not Sabbath. Is thiscommonality? Is this unity among thereligions? No other prophet teaches fasting, thatQuran – through Mohammed – does. Buddha andJesus do teach fasting.

Then there is the Book among the Jews, Talmud,which includes Old Testament, regarded as a sacred

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R.A. Jahagirdar

book. It prophesies a Messiah who will free theHebrews. That was long before Jesus Christ wasborn to expiate the sins of mankind – at least thefirst sin when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. This isthe belief of Christians. Jews, of course, did notagree nor do they agree that Jesus was a Messiah.For claiming to be a God and for other blasphemies,he was crucified. Christianity was not bornimmediately. It was St. Paul who mystified theevent and established Christianity. The Prophets ofHebrew and of Christianity are totally different.The former does not admit the divinity of Jesus.There is no similarity or unity between Judaism andChristianity. Buddha can be called a Prophet. Butwhat he taught was entirely his own. No God’swill. Jainism has no prophet. Mahavir, acontemporary of Buddha and the last ofTirthankaras, taught what is now called Jainism.

Now we come to Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.He did not interpret the will of the God. He tells thewill of the god conveyed to him through angelGabriel. The number of things Mohammed speaksof in the Quran is too many that cannot be easilysummarized in this article. Circumcision, borrowedfrom Jews, what to eat, what not to eat, when tomarry and whom not to marry – they are allordained in the Quran which is binding on allMuslims. For the sake of record, the following arethe essentials for a Musalman:

There is only one God and Mohammed is hismessenger; Five times Namaz; Thirty days fastingduring day time (Ramzan); Haj; Jakat.

A Persian couplet says that one can talk of ill ofGod; but not Mohammed. Worship anyone, butAllah, is a taboo. But Mohammed is sacred, thoughlike all of us, he is a man and mortal. Quran saysthat he is a Prophet and he is the seal of Prophet – heis the last of prophets. There is no prophet after him.Guru Nanak or Basaveshwar, though they arefounders of religions, are not prophets. Quran saysIslam is for entire mankind and not merely forArabs. Islam was born in the 7th Century, but it isonly second population-wise in the world – 14

thousand years ago it was born. What is thesimilarity among these three Semitic religions?Hinduism has no prophets. They are non-human(“apouresheya”). Upanishads are mostlycommentaries and interpretations of theBrahmanas. Idol worship is galore among theHindus. There is not one book for Hindus. For somethere is no book at all. In Hinduism there is nohatred of other religions. In Hinduism there can besub-religions – like Veerashaivism. Thoughconfined to Karnataka, does this religion havesimilarity with any other? Essential unity?

Then there is a question of Holy Place. For Jews itwas the Temple which also is no more. ForChristians it is Jerusalem where Jesus wascrucified. Mecca is the Holy Place for Muslims –Mohammed was born there. Quran says that everyMusalman must perform Haj (i.e. pilgrimage toMecca) at least once in his lifetime (provided it ispossible). Hindus regard pilgrimage to Kashi(Varanasi) as a sacred duty, though no bookconfirms it. Buddha did not recommend any HolyPlace but Buddhists regard Bodha Gaya a sacredplace. Jains have no Holy Place. So some religionshave no Holy Place. Can one regard this as unity ofreligions?

The Prophet, the Book and the Holy Place aredifferent for different religions. Though there issimilarity among them, there is no unity.

One shocking thing must be told. Though there aresects among religions, there are no castes. To ourlasting shame, we had Harijans and Mahars whowere untouchables. In no other religion you wouldfind untouchability, though now it is not there inIndia also. How did Dr. Bhagwandas find essentialunity among all religions when untouchability wasthere among Hindus?

There are certain other things which must betouched. Fasting – Muslims must fast for thirtydays (Ramzan) during days. Jews fast on Sabbathdays. So also Christians, they fast on some days.For Jains and Buddhists, there is no fasting. ForHindus things are peculiar. On the eleventh day of

9


each half of each month, fasting is recommended.On Mahashivaratri day, Shaivas fast, Vaishnavasfeast.

Births and deaths are observed in different ways indifferent parts of the country. It is only among Jewsand Musalmans that circumcision is religiously

compulsory.

Read in detail, the religions throw up different and,sometimes, mutually inconsistent principles andpractices. There is no unity among differentreligions. In the Constitution of India, Article 14says that all citizens of India are equal. But that ispolitical equality and not religious.


10

Condolence Message:

Professor A.F. Salahuddiin Ahmed, our Contributing Editor, is bereaved!

Professor Hamida Khanom, wife of Professor Salahuddiin Ahmed, passed

away in Dhaka on Friday night March 18, 2011.

Our heartfelt sympathies are with him.

We know it is very difficult to come to terms with the stark reality of

losing one’s life partner at this stage of life.

But she is there in your memories for ever, Professor!

And we are with you.

Kindly, take care of your health and well being.

The Radical Humanist family needs you now more than ever!!

Please take care!!!

[Prof. Ahmed may be contacted at [email protected];

Tele-88-02-988-0258;

UNA-Bangladesh.]

From The Writings of Laxmanshastri Joshi:

Spiritual Materialism – A casefor Atheism

Translated by — Arundhati Khandkar

[The book Spiritual Materialism – A case for

Atheism, A New Interpretation of the

Philosophy of Materialism written by

Tarkateertha Laxmanshastri Joshi has been

translated by his daughter, Arundhati

Khandkar, who was formerly Professor of

Philosophy at S.I.E.S. College, University of

Mumbai, India. He passed away many decades

ago but his contribution in building up the

philosophical base of Radical Humanism has

been no less. Roy acknowledged it in his life time

and the followers of the philosophy continue to do

so. I had requested Ms. Khandkar to translate her

father’s major works from to Marathi to English

for the benefit of the contemporary readers of RH.

And to our pleasant surprise she informed that

there is already the above mentioned book in

English done by her. It is being serialised in The

Radical Humanist June 2010 onwards. She has

also promised to send us in English, gradually,

more of his Marathi literature.

Laxmanshastri wrote this essay with the title

Materialism or Atheism in 1941. How

meaningful and necessary it is, even now, 70

years later, can be understood by the following

paragraph given on the cover page of the book.

—Rekha Saraswat]

“That religion more often than not tends toperpetuate the existing social structure rather thanbeing reformist and that it benefits the upperclasses. They perpetrate the illusions and are usedfor impressing the weaker sections of the society.Many taboos which might have had somebeneficial effects are given a permanent sanctionand these put a fetter on further progress. Theargument that religion promotes social stability andsocial harmony is examined and rejected. Withoutthe dubious benefit of religion various secular

worldly values have been developed and they havebenefited mankind more than the vaunted religiousvalues. With no sops of religion men have labouredhard and the finest admirable qualities of men’sspirit have been developed inspite of religiousinfluence – the scientists and the reformers areexamples. The humility that should force itself inthe presence of the infinite and the unknown ismore to be seen with the scientist, the philosopherthan the religious leaders and often this drives themto fathom the depths of thought in the quest fortruth. Rarely does religion explain the how andwhy. These have become the preoccupations ofpeople in secular fields. With a sense ofself-reliance and self-confidence guiding him, manhas dropped the earlier props of religion. In Indiatoo, the social order was seen as embodying moralvalues.”

Contd. from the previous issue............

Developmental Steps of Knowledge:

Human knowledge develops into two formats,direct experience and logical reasonsing. Directexperience is the first stage of development and theconsequent logical reasoning or the capacity forthought is the second higher development.Perception of external objects and theconsciousness of internal mental states such as joy,sorrow, and the rest are included in directexperience. Direct experience is called revelation.

Direct experience also moves through varioussuccessive stages of development. There exists adifference in the experiences of a primitive manand those of a cultured man. There exists a vastvariance in the reception of the musical experienceafter listening to a concert, of a great singer byeither a Vindhya mountain highlander or anAustralian aborigine and by an Indian sophisticateeither of Delhi or of Pune. That vocal music is onlya kind of some noise for the aborigine. Theaudiosensory organ of the jungle man cannotdecipher at all the design of the tones or theorganisation of the vocal run up and down the

11


musical scale. The servant who is trained to buyand bring vegetables from the market cannotdifferentiate between the quality and worth ofpearls or rubies or any other gem. Anthropologyinforms us that very many primitive tribalcommunities cannot distinguish at all, between thesubtle differences of smell and colour. Directsensory experience results in a different imprint ateach and every different stage of socialdevelopment. Experiential sophistication or skill isa result of a logical mind and prior experience.

Developmental Progression:

As society develops from higher to still higherstage, individual acquires power of experiencethrough successive stages. His experience andunderstanding grow. Man’s understanding andmental strength move hand in hand with socialprogress. The experience grows into maturity to theextent it is supported by previous experience. Itgrows in terms of clarity, analysis and richnessalong with the developmental process. Thus thehuman mind continues to undergo further training.

Emotional Development:

Just as understanding of objects, changes andgrows from lower to the higher social stage, so doesthe nature of experience of the mental states likehappiness, sorrow, love, hate, despair etc. Thenature, extent and the quality of sensations asexperienced by the members of the developedsociety are beyond the imagination even of aneducated member of the backward society. Thenature of external experiences and inner feelingsdiffer greatly in differing cultures, social classesand varying social levels.

Variability of Nature of Thought:

Simple experience amounts to perception of athing. When that experience acquires the strengthof refinement through past experience, it is calledcritical examination or a perception in philosophy.It is also termed in various ways such as sensedknowledge, comprehension, understanding, orapprehension. Apprehension or sensed knowledgeof an object is the foundation of logical knowledge.

As this foundation changes, so does the nature oflogical reasoning or thought.

Human mind while observing any event in theuniverse, knows at the same time that there musthave been some cause behind it. Having seen agarden, having observed its trees and the creepersladen with flowers and fruits, naturally, man thinksof conditions and causes of such a lush greengarden. The mind thinks of fertilisers, beneficialweather, water, light, warmth and fertile land.

Reason decides that the garden is the result of thecauses: land, water, warmth, light, seed, etc.Reason places every event in the mould ofcausality. Ideas in geometry or even inmathematics, involve relations of exceptionalinviolability. Law of determinism or necessity isthe nature of those relations. Universality ofcausality is the subject matter of reason. Reasonknows that existence and non-existence arecontradictory. They are logically opposite. Therelation of contrariety is inviolable.

Laws of Reason:

The statements “The pot is not a non-pot.”, “thecloth is not a non-cloth.”, and “the man is not anon-man”, are examples of the same sort of reason.It is the same as the Law of Identity in Westernlogic according to which, Causality, Necessity, andthe Law of Identity are the fundamental laws ofreason or logic. Our mind assures us that there is noexception to these laws. When the intellect tries tounderstand anything it does it only through thesefundamental categories. Reason cannot understandotherwise.

Reason in Western Philosophers:

According to Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant, Hegel andother Western logicians, the body of laws of reasonquoted above is the fundamental nature of truth.According to them, reason in its pure form finds itsexpression in these laws. The sensory world and itsexperience is of secondary value in their opinion.From their viewpoint, these general laws ofunderstanding are Paramartha, the ultimate reality.These logical principles of reason assign meaning

12


to the experiences of the infinite variety of objectswhich are sensory, fleeting and strange.

Kant’s theory in this matter deserves consideration.He maintains that these first principles of reasonrepresent the innate organisation of the humanmind. The human mind operates by nature,according to them. Mind has always innateorganisation that has employed the system of logicfor knowing an object. Science has grown onlybecause human mind cannot transcend the limits ofthis system of laws. Science inheres in the mindthat is governed by these laws. Who can vouch forthe validity of these laws in the external universe.Mind says that these laws are universal, but theuniverse cannot be seized by any one mind anytime. These laws are the laws of the mind. This isthe only thing that is evident.

Materialism and Immanuel Kant:

Materialism does not agree with the Kantian schoolof philosophers. All the material for thought andintellect is made available to the mind throughdirect experiences or through the knowledgegenerated by the sensory organs. Repeatedexperience alone, brings all the material of endlessevents of the external world. It teaches mind thelaws of causality, necessity and identity. Frequentrepetition of similar experience formulates thegeneral concept of causality. The concept ofgenerality is formed after the specific event isexperienced again and again. Frequent generationof sense experience itself shapes logical thought.The mind knows the sequence of events eg ‘a’ isprior to ‘b’. When it is noticed that the lotus opensup with the touch of the rising sun the mind realiseswhich of these events is earlier and which is faster.When one experiences it many a time one alsocomes to know the necessary relation betweenthem. The concept of causality is formulatedthereupon.

The concept of generality is rooted in the repeatedexperience of actuality. Repetition of senseexperience prepares the ground for logical thought.

Kant has asserted that logical frame of mind isinnate, i.e., ‘A priori’. But this is not true.

Contrary to the Kantian theory, the design of mindis neither self-evident nor ‘A priori’. It is really aprecious gift received by humans, struggling forages for livelihood and acquiring a countless chainof experiences in the world. Logical mind meaningthe development of reason is an ‘A posteriori’object resulting from experience. Reason, however,is innate to the experiences and thoughts of thepresent civilised man. The mind of a man in anon-primitive society receives direct experiencesand thinks with the help of these rules i.e. logicalreason. Logical rules of reason can be said to exist apriori in the mind of a man in a civilised society.

The ‘Pure Reason’ postulated by Immanuel Kant isa part of human mind in its evolutionary historicalprocess.

Evolution of Mind:

Kant’s ‘Pure Reason’ is the part of human mind thatitself is the part and product of historical process. Ithas developed through acquisition, choice andabsorption of laws of nature as man livedexperiencing the recurrent strokes of misfortune innature itself. The general significance of naturetaught to man by nature itself is represented in thebody of the laws of ‘Pure Reason’ or of his logicalmind: These laws are the impenetrable truth of themultiform strange universe. It is a deep seatedmystery of such a universe. From endless times itgets reflected in the human mind. That truth is thegeneral and formal result of endless and diverseexperiences.

Science and Logic:

Direct experience and logical mind are the twoprimary stages of knowledge. Although the logicalmind is the result of direct experience itself, it isalso engaged in developing the direct experienceinto more precision, subtlety and structured format.To the extent logical reasoning matures, to thatextent grows concomitantly direct experience inclarity, breadth, subtlety, and structure, and also tothat extent it becomes more capable of

13


comprehending the object or truth. Experientialwealth is what science is all about. Logic also goesalong with science in subtlety and range. If arevolution takes place in science there does occur acorresponding revolution in logic. For instance,end of classical physics ends classical logic andthen starts quantum physics and the correspondingquantum logic.

So far, the theory of knowledge in materialism hasbeen described only briefly. Without fully

understanding it, it is not possible to comprehendthe rationale for materialism. Every philosophicaltheory depends on a specific theory of knowledge.We have no scope here for explaining all theepistemological doctrines of materialism.Therefore, we have enunciated here, only a fewselect fundamental principles and commented uponthem. Hence, we review only the general theory ofmaterialism.

Contd. in the next issue....................

14


Humanists I Met / Chief Ministers I Met

by N. Innaiah

Book Release by K. Rosaiah

HYDERABAD: Former Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Sunday went down memory lane, recalling

history from the 1950s, citing experiences of his association with over a dozen Chief Ministers in the

State.

He was speaking after releasing a Telugu book, “Chief Ministers and Humanist Leaders I met', written

by senior journalist, Narisetti Innaiah. The 143-page book contains accounts of the writer's meetings

with 18 Chief Ministers starting with C. Rajagopalachari of the Composite Madras State, down to Mr.

Rosaiah of Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Rosaiah recalled his entry into politics even as a student. He had the people in the hall nodding their

heads in admiration when he narrated how Rajaji was called by then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal

Nehru to New Delhi and asked to assume the post of Chief Minister of Madras. ‘No-nonsense' scribe

Of the writer himself, Mr. Rosaiah said he had known him for decades now, as a man who never minced

words even when it came to expressing his displeasure at a particular person or any situation and

described him as a ‘no-nonsense' journalist. Former Minister T. Purshotham Rao, Indian Peasant Forum

general secretary, S.V. Panthulu and Congress leader Padmaja Reddy attended. The writer was away in

the United States and the function was conducted by Mr. Panthulu.

The book has been dedicated to Dr. Rekha Saraswat, Editor, The Radical Humanist

News received through Press Release, Hyderabad

Guests’ Section:

[Mr. S.N. Shukla belonged to 1967 batch of IAS

and retired as Chairman State Vigilance

Commission, U.P., after serving as Industrial

Development Commissioner and Administrative

Member Board of Revenue. Topper of the 1964

L.L.B. Exam of undivided Agra University, he has

taken to legal profession after his retirement from

service in February 2003 basically to take up

public issues and to procure justice for the poor.

As ‘General Secretary of ‘Lok Prahri’, he has

been conducting several PILs in Lucknow Bench

of Allahabad High Court and also in the Supreme

Court.]

A Travesty Of Election LawContd. from the last issue................

Having failed to get justice from theElection Commission and the High

Court the petitioner filed the SLP no. (C) 9801 of2006. The aforesaid SLP was heard on 5.6.2006.The counsel for the petitioner explained that whileostensibly disposing of the Election Commission’sapplication for permission to hold bye-election asmisconceived, the High Court actually gave them ago a head saying that they were free to take decisionin accordance with the law. He contended that theimpugned order of the High Court suffered fromthe following serious legal infirmities-

(1) The impugned order was passed even thoughthe Election Commission was not a party in theElection Petition and their application for being aparty was not granted.

(2) The petitioner’s request for an opportunity tofile objection/reply to the Election Commission’sapplications was turned down in disregard of thelaw laid down by the Apex Court in Reserve Bankof India Versus Sharda Devi2.

(3) While the applications of the Election Petitionfiled on 1.5.2006 were taken up, those filed by thepetitioner on 22nd and 28th March 2006 for adirection to the Election Commission not to initiateaction for holding bye-elections were not taken upor even considered while passing the impugnedorder.

(4) The observation in the impugned order thatpermission of the High Court was not required wasnot correct in view of the aforesaid pendingapplications of the petitioner on the same subjectand the decisions of this Hon’ble Court in –

D. Sanjeevayya Versus Election Tribunal and Ors.3

wherein it was held that where the returnedcandidate had resigned during the pendency of theElection Petition against him (as in the presentcase), Election Commission was not bound to holdthe bye-election forthwith but may suspend takingaction till the disposal of the Election Petition andVishwanath Reddy Vs. Konappa RudrappaNadgouda 4 wherein it was held that if the returnedcandidate is found to be under statutorydisqualification (as claimed in the present case), theother contesting candidate can be declared electedand no fresh poll is necessary.

(5) The High Court completely overlooked the factthat the prayer in the Election Petitions fordeclaring the petitioners elected in place of thereturned candidates who have ceased to bemembers may become infructuous if thebye-elections are allowed to be held.

(6) The High Court also failed to appreciate thatthere would be no vacancy to fill up if the prayer in

15


S.N. Shukla

terms of Section 98 (C) of the Representation of thePeople Act is granted in the Election Petition.

(7) In the order on the impediment application itwas mentioned that the application for permissionto hold bye-election “has been rejected”. When theapplication for permission to hold bye-election wasrejected, the Commission could not proceed withthe bye-elections.

(8) Even the impugned order required the ElectionCommission to deal with petitioner’srepresentations “in accordance with law”.However, this was not been done as evident fromthe following-

1.The notification for bye-election was issued on29.5.2006 without deciding the petitioner’srepresentations dated 22.3.2006, 28.3.2006 and9.5.2006.

2.No opportunity for personal hearing was given tothe petitioner as requested in the representationdated 9.5.2006. The Election Commission’sdecision, therefore, was in violation of the principleof natural justice as the petitioner was adverselyaffected by it. As held in Digvijay Mote vs. Unionof India5, Election Commission’s decision couldnot be sustained on this ground.

3.The Election Commission’s decision was againstthe law laid down in AIR 1967 SC page 1121 andAIR 1969 SC 604 which were brought to the noticeof the Election Commission be fax dated25.5.2006.

4.The Election Commission could easily await till18.7.2006 the decision on the petitioner’sapplications in the High Court for not holding thebye-election.

The counsel for the petitioner also submitted forphotocopies of 13 rulings of the Apex Court insupport of his various contentions. Finally, he madea very fair request in the end that the Hon’ble Courtmay at least provide that the result of thebye-elections shall abide by the outcome of thepetitioner’s Election Petition. This could meet theends of justice without holding up thebye-elections. However the SLP was dismissed in

limine even though the petitioner had made out aprima facie case duly supported by the decisions ofthis Hon’ble Court. Thereupon, the petitioner fileda review petition no. 650 of 2006 along with anapplication for oral hearing. However the same wasalso dismissed vide order dated 13.7.2006.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission announcedthe program for these bye elections fixing15.6.2006 as the date of election. Thereupon thepetitioner filed a writ petition no. 3269 (M/B) of2006 in the High Court challenging theannouncement of programme of by-elections. TheHon’ble Court heard the other writ petitions filedon the same day.

However, the petitioner’s Writ Petition was nottaken up on the ground of the absence of the learnedCounsel for the Election Commission, even thoughthere was no caveat and the Learned Counsel forthe Election Commission was informed about it onhis mobile and the petitioner’s counsel again madea mention after lunch break when the learnedcounsel for the Election Commission was alsopresent. Upon the petitioner’s counsel pressing forearly hearing the matter was fixed for hearing at10:15 A. M. the next day. The Counsel for thepetitioner made a mention at 10:15 A.M. stressingthe urgency. But the case was not taken up despitebeing mentioned again after the Lunch break. Thematter was listed at Sr. No. 44 in the SupplementaryCause List of 26.5.2006.On that date ,a similar WritPetition No. 3280 filed on 24.5.2006 by the otherCongress candidate in the same Rajya Sabhaelection (whose Election Petition was alsopending) was at Sr. No. 15 in the list of fresh cases.This was taken up in the forenoon. However, therequest of the petitioner’s Counsel to take up hiscase also along with the Writ Petition No.3280 wasnot accepted and he was asked to wait for his turn inthe Supplementary Cause List. The matter wasfinally taken up at 5:30 P.M. when the petitioner’sCounsel submitted that his case was directly andfully covered by the decisions of this Hon’ble Courtin the cases reported in AIR 1967 SC 1211 and AIR1969 SC 604 (Copies of which were submitted

16


right at the beginning of the hearing). However,brushing aside the aforesaid rulings the WritPetition was dismissed with the following oralorder — “Dismissed. Reasons to follow”.

The petitioner’s Counsel applied for an immediatecertified copy of the order on the same day.However, his request for grant of immediate copycould not be acted upon due to the non-availabilityof the file. Under the circumstances, in view of theurgency a SLP No.9844 was filed on the basis oforal order. It was heard on 5.6.2006. In view of thereluctance of the Hon’ble Court to admit the same itwas withdrawn and review application no 19 of2007 was filed in the High Court after receipt of thecertified copy of the order dated 26.5.2006 sixmonths after the dismissal of the writ petition by theoral order of the date. The said review petition wasalso not decided till the disposal of the electionpetition in January 2010.

Again, after the death of late Shri Lalit Suri(Respondent No. 11), the petitioner sent arepresentation dated 16.10.2006 to the ElectionCommission requesting them not to proceed withthe holding of bye-election for the vacancy causeddue to death of Shri Suri. The petitioner also filedan application in his election petition praying for adirection to the Election Commission not to initiateaction for filling up the vacancy in Rajya Sabhacaused by the death of Shri Lalit Suri till thedisposal of the applicant’s election petition.However, this application was not taken up thoughthe Hon’ble nominated Judge sat singly on severaldates and the matter was also listed in the cause listof 8.11.2006.

In reply to the petitioner’s letter dated 16.10.2006the Election Commission vide their letter dated6.11.2006 stated that since the High Court had notgiven any stay against holding of bye-elections forthe vacancies caused due to disqualification of Mrs.Bachchan and resignation of Mr. Ambani theCommission duty bound to hold the bye-election tofill the vacancy caused death of Shri Suri.

The petitioner thereupon, sent a representationdated 17.11.2006 to the Commission to reconsiderthe matter in the light of facts and circumstancesmentioned therein with the request that a decisionin this regard may be taken only after the decisionby the High Court on the petitioner’s applicationfor modification of order dated 5.5.2006 and aftergiving him an opportunity of personal hearing. Thiswas followed up e-mail dated 23.11.2006.However, ignoring the aforesaid representations ofthe petitioner the Election Commission went aheadwith holding the bye-election and issued thenotification dated 24.11.2006 for the bye election.

Having failed to get justice from the ElectionCommission and the High Court the petitionerapproached the Supreme Court by filing the writpetition no. 580 of 2006 under Article 32 of theConstitution for enforcement of his fundamentalright and Rule of Law. The said writ petition wasfiled on the following grounds-

A. Action of the respondents for filling up thevacancy in question is prima facie illegal, beingagainst the provisions of Sections 84 and 98 (c) ofthe Representation of the People Act 1951.

B. The action of the Election Commission is notaccordance with the law laid down by this Hon’bleCourt in the cases reported in AIR 1967 SC 1211and AIR 1969 SC 604.

C. Declaration of the program of the saidbye-election by the Election Commission withoutfirst deciding the petitioner’s representation dated17.11.2006 after hearing the petitioner is againstthe principles of natural Justice.

D. It is wrong to treat the seat as vacant as the claimof the petitioner for being declared elected againstthe seat is still sub-judice before the Hon’ble HighCourt.

E. The petitioner will suffer irreparable harm if thebye-election is held before the decision of theElection Petition.

F.The Election Commission cannot proceed withholding the bye-election, while the petitioner’sapplication for modification of the order dated

17


5.5.2006 and the application for direction (no. 1328of 2006 dated 27.10.2006) is yet to be decided bythe Hon’ble High Court.

G. The Election Commission can easily wait for adecision on the aforesaid applications are this timelimit for holding the bye-election is available tillMarch 2007.

H. Under the circumstances there is no need to rushthrough these bye-election at this time making therelief claimed in the Election Petition infructuous.

I. The petitioner has made out a prima facie caseand the balance of convenience is his also in hisfavour.

J. Under the circumstances the petitioner is fullyentitled to the interim relief in terms of the decisionof the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case reportedin AIR 2004 SC 1975.

In view of the urgency of the matter the Counsel forthe petitioner made a mention on 29.11.2006 forhearing of the writ petition on 1.12.2006. However,he was asked to go to the mentioning board.Thereupon, on 1.12.2006 the matter was ordered tobe listed on 11.12.2006.

The matter was heard on 11.12.2006 in Court No. 5.It was submitted by the Counsel for the petitionerthat the action of the Election Commission was notonly against the statutory provisions and the lawlaid down by this Hon’ble Court but was alsoviolative of Article 14 and the principles of naturaljustice. There was no valid reason for deviatingfrom the policy followed by the Commission inaccordance with the law laid down by this Hon’bleCourt in AIR 1967 SC 1211. The attention of theHon’ble Court was particularly drawn to paras 4and 5 of the judgment in that case wherein it washeld that in a case of this description the ElectionCommission was not bound to hold thebye-election under Section 150 of the Act because“If the candidate who filed the election petitioneventually gets a declaration that the election of themember is void and that he himself had been dulyelected there will be two candidates representingthe same constituency at the same time, one of them

declared to be duly elected at the General Electionand the other declared to have been elected at thebye-election and an impossible situation wouldarise”. This was exactly the position in the presentcase.

It was also pointed out that the note of the ElectionCommission at Annexure P-1 itself clearly statedthat “In cases where a member whose election hasbeen challenged in an election petition ceases to bemember of the House concerned during thependency of the election petition, the Commission

does not hold the bye-election if the petitioner has

sought the additional relief of declaring him as

elected”. Annexure P-1 gave no clue as to why thispolicy was abandoned in the case of the petitioner.The action of the Election Commission was clearlydiscriminatory and malafide. Significantly, theCommission also did not wait for the disposal of thepetitioner’s application dated 27.10.2006 in theelection petition nor considered it necessary toobtain the clearance of the High Court in thisregard.

The decision of the Election Commission to holdthe bye-election was also in gross violation ofprinciples of natural justice as no opportunity forpersonal hearing was given to the petitioner asrequested in the representation dated 17.11.2006and e-mail dated 23.11.2006, even though he wasdirectly an affected party.

As regards the bar of Article 329 it was submittedthat the same was not absolute and this Hon’bleCourt could intervene the exceptionalcircumstances in a case like this. Moreover, this barwas not applicable to the present case for followingreasons-

i. the petitioner had approached the High Courtlong before the issue of the impugned notificationfor the bye-election,

ii. the remedy of election petition against thebye-election was not available to the petitioner ashe was neither a voter nor a candidate for the saidbye-election,

iii. non-existence of the vacancy for which the

18


bye-election was being held was not covered by thegrounds mentioned in Section 100 of the RP Act,

iv.the prayer at Sr.No.3 in the WP was not hit byArticle 329.

However, the aforesaid writ petition was dismissedin limine like a SLP by a one line order. Thereupon,a review petition was filed saying that the orderdated 11.12.2006 sought to be reviewed did notindicate any reason for dismissing the writ petitionand that the petitioner had sufficient cause for beinggranted the review and taking into considerationthe application for personal hearing being filedtherewith. It was further submitted that under thecircumstances, at least the prayer at Sr. No. 3 in the

writ petition for making the by-election subject tothe out come of the Election Petition could beallowed to meet the ends of justice without holdingup the bye-election, but at the same time protectingthe relief sought by the petitioner in the electionpetition. However, the review petition was alsodismissed.

In case the election petition was eventually allowedthe relief contemplated under Section 98(c) wouldhave still eluded the petitioner. Under thecircumstances, dismissal of the election petitionsaved an otherwise possible awkward situation dueto refusal to defer bye elections or make themsubject to the outcome of the election petition.

Contd. in the next issue..................

19


[Mr. J. Sharath Chandra Rao has been

contributing articles to Newspaper like

“Vaartha” and “Andhra Jyothi” and other

periodicals on Environment, economics and

other social issues. He may be contacted

at 1-2-593/40, Gaganmahal Colony, Hyderabad

– 500 029, A.P. Phone: 040-27638039 ]

Energy Policies EffectingHumanity

The recent Ocean quake in Japanunleashing a huge wall of water several

stories tall being seen uprooting, crushing andwrecking everything that stood in it’s path whichincluded huge ships, cars, trucks, factories in theprocess effecting thousands of people with manybeing rendered homeless in a matter of minutes.Nature in its fury has tossed cars, boats, ships andhouses becoming junkyards. From automobiles tocomputer chips, all industries suffered. Theseverity of the ocean quake has also caused aserious damage to the Fukushima-Daichi NuclearPower Plant in spite of Japan being the world leaderin the design of earthquake resistant structures wellknown for their quality designing. This tragedy hasexposed the several flaws of the safeties of nuclearpower plants the world over. Though the samenuclear reactors stood the ravages of the earlierearthquakes in Japan well, could not face the stormthis time. Japan’s preparedness and their awarenessof radiation dangers and the wisdom of dependingon nuclear installation for their energy

requirements fell short of expectations. It is nowbeing questioned and debated the world over. Thisdisaster has revealed the miserable failure ofseveral nuclear safety systems, procedures andprotocols being rendered as ineffective by therecent earthquake and tsunami. All the designedsafety systems could not withstand nature’s fury inthe form of tsunami. Though several Governmentsall over have reacted to the events in Japan withconcern and sympathy, their brushing aside anddismissing such tragic implications as once in awhile happening and vociferously emphasizing oncontinuing the usage of nuclear powercharacterizing solely as a failure of the Japanesenuclear industry is not proper. Japan is bravelyfacing a situation where thousands of their peoplecould be contaminated with radiation. Also thedevastation caused by the tsunami demandsconstruction of new buildings, houses andinfrastructure that can withstand such futuredisasters.

One of the key issues in the nuclear safety the worldover should be the correct estimation of the level ofthe risks from such nuclear accidents and our levelof preparedness to deal with such calamities. Thecritics of nuclear power have been pointing outvociferously the probability of nuclear calamitiestaking place which could be fatal and catastrophic.These have also been repeatedly emphasizing ofthe dangers of the nuclear waste radiation. It isunfortunate that nuclear experts the world overhave exhibited a curious indifference to suchwarnings, their indecision and confusion in theirevaluation of the crisis and their comments fallsshort of expectations. Despite several decades of itsexistence the International Atomic EnergyAssociation (IAEA) has failed in its approach offorewarning such accidents. There is no clear cutinformation or mechanism available to deal withsuch catastrophes. There is a dire need to review thecurrent status of nuclear safety more particularlywhen people who earlier worked in nuclearestablishment are voicing concerns of the currentstatus of nuclear safety. There is also an imperative

20


J.S. Chandra Rao

need to obtain opinion from several experts drawnfrom outside the ranks of atomic energyestablishment. Routine nuclear safety audits shouldbe made stringent and accountable moreparticularly when India is aiming to boost itsnuclear energy capacity to about 60000 MW in thecoming two decades. Further some of the siteschosen for setting up nuclear power plants are inofficially designated earthquake prone areas,potentially vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.Also there is need to bring in all nuclear powerplants to be under the Environmental ProtectionAct that covers all other energy generation plants.Nuclear power plants should not be in the hands ofmen who are totally cut off from reality. Nearlyparroting of the virtues of nuclear power withouttransparency and safety requirements in the nuclearindustry will only lead to disasters. Also there isconcern of radio active spent fuels of nuclearwastes being stored in the nuclear reactor buildings.Any spent fuel due to flooding will lead todisastrous effects of radio-activity releasesresulting in increase in cancer diseases. The recentexplosion in Japan and subsequent radio-activityreveals the gravity of the problems when nuclearwastes are stored in nuclear reactor plants. Nuclearpower is bound with harmful radiation exposurewith its radio-active waste streams remaininghazardous for thousands of years. There is also animperative need for an independent safety auditwith outside experts and civil societyrepresentatives. Above all public acceptance of ourenergy power needs are more important anddesirable. No energy technology should be withoutthe approval of its people. Further, there should be atechnical review of the safety of all nuclear powerplants currently in existence as well as of those

being planned. Safeties of a nuclear power plantshould be our top priority. Our continued relianceon unstable fossil fuel energy sources have createdglobal climatic concerns due to huge green housegas emissions leading to an all time record offloods, storms, tsunamis and droughts around theworld. Such calamities led to nearly 60 millionpeople being rendered homeless in the processcreating a global food crisis. Weather inducedevents such as floods and droughts, the demise ofinsect pollinating due to disease and pollutionthrough which 1/3 of our food is produced, steepincrease in oil prices are all factors leading to a dropin food production. Such mega disaster necessitatesthe need to an alternative renewable energy usagelike Solar and wind which do not need oil andwhich are clean and safe. Such an option can alsoprovide not only gainful employment opportunitiesbut can supply electricity to our most remote ruralareas where nearly two billion people around theworld still do not have any access to electricity.This energy source being entirely dependant onsunlight which we have in abundance in ourcountry will be an ideal option unlike nuclearpower being dependant on limited uraniumresource, which also has the risk of contaminatingif something goes wrong like it happened recentlyin Japan. Also spent fuel being kept in nuclearpower plants poses a threat. Further solar energyneeds as much subsidy as nuclear power generationwhich is receiving a subsidy of $300 billion a year.This subsidy to nuclear power generation is morethan 10 times given to the cleaner energytechnologies. Switching over to solar energy sourcewill lead to people not becoming victims payingheavy sums to weather related disasters occurringevery year in many parts of the world.

21


"Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling its

energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000

generations to this lethal waste?"

—David R. Brower

Current Affairs Section:

[Sri N.K. Acharya is an advocate, columnist and

author of several books on law. He was formerly

Secretary of Indian Rationalist Association and

had edited the Indian Rationalist, then published

from Hyderabad on behalf of the Association

prior to its transfer to Madras.]

I

Cash Transfer:

The Government of India has now proposed toprovide cash to the poor to enable them to meettheir essential needs in addition to the severalsubsidies which it has been providing. Fertilizersare supplied to agriculturalists at subsidized pricesand kerosene is supplied to the poor at subsidizedprice. So also all the persons below the poverty lineare supplied food articles on concessional rates, thedifference between these rates and market rates isborne by the government. In the case of ruralemployment guarantee scheme governmenttransfers cash to such of those for whom thegovernment is able to provide work to the extent of100 days in a year. The point in controversy now iswhether government should expand the scheme ofsuch subsidized or pay directly the cash to theneedy. The several proposal in this regard are eachpayments to meet the health needs and cashpayment to the parents to meet the expenditure oftheir wards on account of their education at primaryand secondary levels. It is also proposed to makecash payments to middle class to meet therequirements of modern essential gadgets.

Whatever may be the scheme, it is essential that theprocedures to be adopted must be fool proof toavoid waste and red tape. Cash transfers shall notbe made direct to the beneficiaries in anticipationthat the same are used properly for the purposes forwhich the grants are made.

In rich countries, the educated persons are grantedwhat are called doles which are a form of cashtransfer. Such doles are limited to the period oftheir unemployment and not beyond payment ofdoles are an elite scheme and not are adapted topresent absolute poverty. Therefore cash transfer inIndia shall not take the colour of doles. It istherefore, suggested that supply of goods atsubsidized rates is definitely a superior schemeover the scheme of pure cash transfer.

II

Paid News:

Paid news becomes relevant at the time ofelections. It is prohibited as an electoral malpractice. The amount spend on paid news by thecandidate will be included in his election expenses.According to Election Commission “when there iscoverage of News disproportionate to the speechand activities of the candidate which is likely toinfluence a voter and yield election benefit to himand when the same is repeated in severalnewspapers, it shall be presumed that it is a paidnews”. According to Press Council of India, “Anynews or analysis appearing in any media (Print ofelectronic) for a price in cash or in kind asconsideration” is paid news. Therefore to beprohibited paid news it shall be for a considerationin cash or in kind and it shall be repeated in morethan one newspaper. The published material shallbe disproportionate to the speeches and activities ofthe candidate.

Paid news being an electoral mal practice it will becounted against the candidate in an election petitionwhich may be filed against him, in order todisqualify the candidate from contesting elections;the Election Commissioner may take intoconsideration for fixing the amount spent by the

22


N.K. Acharya

candidate for his election. If the practice of paidnews is indulged by the political party nothing turnsagainst it except when it is traced to the expenditureincurred on a particular candidate. When thecandidate himself owns a newspaper, advertisinghimself may not be prohibited treating it as anelectoral malpractice but the estimated expenditurewill form part of the election expenses.

III

Central Budget

The Budget is presented to the Parliament on 28th

February 2011 by the Finance Minister PrababMukherji confirms that the year 2010-2011 and theyear 2011-2012 are ordinary years. The economicsurvey presented on the eve of the budget alsorecords no spectacular events; economic growth at8.5 to 9.5% reaffirms the earlier forecasts.Therefore, what is intended to be achieved is thecontinuation of the past performance. No new taxesare proposed and no substantial reliefs to the taxpayers are granted. The marginal adjustments asregards the enhancements of standard exemptionare in conformity with the inflation. No steps areproposed to bring down the inflation or spiraling ofprices. No dramatics in containing the black moneyare indulging. The talk about the flight of money toforeign tax heavens is academic. The governmentpromised to enter into contract as regards thedisclosure of names of persons holding bankaccounts in those countries is not really the cure forpreventing the flight of money. Better investmentprospects and incentives to prompt payment oftaxes may be same of the remedies. The promise ofthe government to pass and implement direct taxcode and the Goods and Services Act, it is hoped,may fructify so that the revenue position mayimprove. There is, however an urgency in thematter of amendments to the Land Acquisition Actcontaining mandatory provisions as regards therehabilitation of persons ousted from the lands. Nocommunity or person is averse to the migration is asource for the spread of human civilization. Theearlier the amended Land Acquisition Act is passed

the better. This is a national necessity and not apartly affair.

Times were when the Finance Minister wasresorting to such drastic measures as excess profitstax, demonetization and voluntary declaration ofcancelled income in budget proposals. After theintroduction of liberalization of economy, i.e.,

liberating the business community from theGovernment of India has settled down toconstructive endeavors to increase the revenue andto increase expenditure on social welfare with aview to improve the living conditions of the poor.The aim of the budget today is to see that thedeficits are reduced and funds are built for theproductive ventures. The present day budgets arethus a reflection of the mood towards plannedeconomy.

IV

State Elections:

In the past, not long ago, the elections to theParliament and the Legislatures of all the Stateswere taking place at one and same timesimultaneously. This schedule got distorted duringthe emergency (1975-77) and since then theelections to the Parliament takes place in one yearwhich the elections do the State Legislatures aretaking place at different years depending on theschedule fixed for them at the end of five year term.Thus this year elections in the state of West Bengal,Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory ofPondicherry are taking place in March and April.Out of these elections the one relating to the state ofWest Bengal is attracting wider attention. TheCommunist Party (Marxist) has been ruling thestate with its allies for the last 37 years without anybreak. It reduced the congress to insignificance, aradical branch of which called Trinamul Congresshas since built up a strong opposition to CPM.Mamata Banerji is its leader. She had been fightingthe CPM as well as naxals. She has led severalbattles on behalf of the displaced persons who wereenacted from the land taken over the government tofavour the rich industrialists. Her cadre made a

23


name of sacrifices for the public causes several ofthem were victims of the armed gangs organized byCPM and naxals. Mamata Banerji, it is said, hasbuilt party machinery right from villages to handleelections. She is opposed to the plan of the CPM toharm its party men in the same way, perhaps as

Maoist Prachanda has done in Nepal. That is whyCPM’s claim to be doubtful while the Allies ofCPM are insignificant political entities, MamataBanerji with congress support may prove herself asa discharging a historical role in displacing CPM inWest Bengal.

24


Letter to the Editor:

Madam, We seem to be forgetting our own past. We never liked Gandhi’s mixing religion with politics.The sinister role played by Gandhiji’s non-violence in blocking the freedom movement’s naturaldevelopment has been clearly described by M.N. Roy. The capitalists, landlords and well-offmiddle-class never wanted to encourage a movement for national liberation to develop on class-basis.They were eager to compromise with the rulers so as to preserve their own vested interests. Thisposition is totally forgotten and we have started singing Gandhiji’s greatness. In the March issue of RHBalraj Puri is all praiseof Gandhiji and one gets the impression that the Mahatma won freedom for all ofusby this role of his! M.N. Roy, in his autobiography (albeit incomplete) says: “Bolshevik faith in therevolutionary significance of Pan-Islamism was shaken. But India was in revolt under the leadership ofthe Hindu saint, Gandhi and the Khan brothers. Did it not prove that in the colonial countries religionmight be a revolutionary force? I wrote an analysis of the structure of contemporary Indian society,which showed that capitalist economy had been superimposed upon feudal relations, and therefore, thesocial conditions were not analogous to those of the late Middle Ages in Europe, when priests andprincess led revolutionary movements. Religious appeal certainly moved the masses, and it was indeedthe motive force of the non-cooperation and Khilafat Movements. But the religious mentality, at thesame time, made the masses subservient also to temporal authority and accept the earthly status quo asordained by a divine Providence. The socio-cultural atmosphere, therefore, inhibited the growth of ademocratic revolutionary spirit in the masses.” (M.N Roy’s Memoirs 1984, Page 412).

Let the whole world understand the Mahatma as it may but Roy had no illusions. He had only oncewritten a few words appreciating Gandhi’s contribution and that was when the Mahatma wasassasinated by an educated Hindu zealot like Nathuram Godse for Gandhi’s efforts to ensure justice toMuslims. Even so, Roy’s evaluation of Gandhi was even-handed. Roy gave to Gandhi what was due tohim as a religious Humanist, but his role in Indian politics was deplorable and Roy never pardoned himfor it. Nor did he hesitate to say so. —Vishwas Naiknavare

PLEASE DO NOT SEND ARTICLES BEYOND 1500-2000 WORDS.

Dear Friends, Also, inform me whether they have been published elsewhere.

And, please try to email them at [email protected] instead of sending them by post.

You may post them (only if email is not possible) at C-8 Defence Colony, Meerut, 250001, U.P., India.

Do also email your passport size photographs as separate attachments (in JPG format) as well as your

small introduction, if you are contributing for the first time. Please feel free to contact me at

91-9719333011 for any other querry. —Rekha Saraswat

[Dr. Ramendra is a Radical Humanist and HoD,

Department of Philosophy, Patna College, Patna

University, Patna (Bihar).]

Paid News, Radia Tapes andJournalistic Ethics

The phenomenon of “paid news” has beenin public domain for some time. P.

Sainath, the rural affairs editor of The Hindu playeda commendable role in exposing the phenomenon,but as he himself has said, large sections of themedia maintained a “conspiratorial silence” on theissue. Selected portions of Radia tapes, on the otherhand, were made public by the news magazines,Open and Outlook. Several top ranking journalistslike Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt have figured inthese tapes. Rajdeep Sardesai, who as the thenpresident of the Editor’s Guild of India tried todefend Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt, wassubsequently caught himself talking to Niira Radia!Both the phenomenon of “paid news” and Radiatapes have raised important questions aboutjournalistic ethics. However, what can be done toremedy the present sorry state of affairs is the mostimportant question that comes to mind. Someeminent journalists have come up with their ownsuggestions. N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu,for example, has emphasized the need for aninternal news ombudsman in the press and the newschannels. He has also suggested that the Editor’sGuild of India, which is currently investigatingRadia tapes, should formulate a code of conduct forjournalists. P. Sainath, too, has given important

suggestions, such as, introducing courses in medialiteracy, initiating anti-monopoly legislation,launching a small journal movement andstrengthening journalist unions. The Indian chapterof the South Asian Media Commission (SAMC)has expressed “shock and anguish” over lobbyistsseeking to manipulate media coverage to servecorporate interests. It has asked journalists figuringin the tapes to express “regret”. It has alsosuggested that media outfits should make publictheir ownership patterns and journalists, too,should declare their assets. What can the readersand concerned citizens do to remedy such asituation?

Apart from the important suggestions mentionedabove the following suggestions, come to mind:

1. Media should be brought within the purview ofRTI act so that citizens-readers may obtaininformation about the ownership pattern ofnewspapers and news channels, social-politicalbackground of journalists and their income-assetsas a matter of right.

2. Parliament should enact a law declaringpublishing “paid news” or entering into “privatetreaties” with corporate houses as a “corrupt”practice and punishable as an offence. (Publishing“paid news” is not a part of the “freedom” of thepress.)

3. Journalists who are caught lobbying forcorporate houses should be expelled from thejournalistic community for professionalmisconduct. (Merely expressing “regret” is notenough.) If professional organizations ofjournalists are not able to enforce this, then theparliament should enact a law declaring corporatelobbying by journalists as “illegal”.

4. Media ethics should form a prominent part of alljournalistic and media related courses.5. Civil society groups should come forward toform organizations like Media Watch tosystematically document distortions in thecommercial media and bring them into publicfocus.

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Ramendra Nath

6. Pressure should be mounted on the Press Council of

India to make public its full report on “paid news”.

Citizens have a right to know which newspapers and

channels are indulging in this malpractice.

Apart from these steps, there are some small steps,which every reader or viewer can take at her or hisown level. For example, if they regularly readnewspapers or view news channels, which aremaintaining a “conspiratorial silence” on the issue,they can write a letter or send an e-mail to themexpressing concern and displeasure over theirsilence on the important issue of journalistic ethics.Even if they suppress the letters, at least they willcome to know what many of their readers or

viewers are thinking on the issue.

Secondly, readers should read newspapers andview news channels with critical eyes.

They will be able to understand whenadvertisement is being paraded as news and when ajournalist is indulging in corporate lobbying in thegarb of journalism. They may not take suchjournalists and “news” reports seriously.

Lastly, apart from small non-commercialmagazines and the ethically enlightened part of thecommercial media, readers can increasingly use theinternet for obtaining information, for expressingtheir views and for networking.

26


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¨Please log in to it to give your comments on the articles and humanist news which are

uploaded from the world over on the Website almost daily.

¨You may also send in news and write-ups from your part of the land for uploading on the

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¨Please send in your views and participate on the topics of debate given in the debate

section. You yourself may also begin a debate on any topic of your choice in this section.

¨Please suggest themes for the coming issues of The Radical Humanist, discuss them in the

Themes Section of the Website; the content of which may be later published in the RH journal.

¨It is your own inter-active portal formed with a purpose of social interaction amongst all

Radical Humanists as well as Rationalists and Humanists from different forums also.

¨Do make it a practice to click on the RH Website http://www.theradicalhumanist.com

URL daily, ceremoniously.

¨Please utilise the RH Website to come closer for the common cause of ushering in a

renaissance in our country.

—Rekha Saraswat, (Editor & Administrator RH Website)

IRI/IRHA Members’ Section:

[In the ‘Radical Humanist’ of December, 1993, I

wrote an article entitled “Determinism versus

Humanism”. The then editor, Shri Tarkunde,

published it with ‘Response of the Editor’. I wrote

a rejoinder in reply to this response. I could not

send it when he was alive. After some time, I sent

my rejoinder to the present editor, Prof. Rekha

Saraswat leaving to her choice whether to publish

it with modifications or reject it. She published it

with a few alterations. The present article is in

continuation of my previous one.]

Is Freewill akin to anyDeterminism?

M.N. Roy postulated 22 theses to put thephilosophy of Radical Humanism in a

nutshell. The fourth thesis presents physicaldeterminism as its metaphysical basis. It begins toread as “Rising out of the background of thelaw-governed physical nature, the human being isessentially rational.”

Ontologically speaking, the expression is evidentlyerroneous. Here rationality is ascribed to the humanbeing by virtue of his rising out of the backgroundof the physical nature’s law-governedness. Whatabout the other living beings and non-living things?Are they not rising out of the same background?The cause being the same, how can the effect beotherwise? Therefore, according to the letter of theabove expression, not only the human being, but

everything in the physical nature must beessentially rational. Therefore, this expressionleaves no specialty to man and goes against thespirit of humanism itself.

Rationality is said to be used here in the sense ofexplainability; i.e. what is explainable is rational,and what is not explainable is irrational. Even thisexplanation does not elevate man to a moredignified position, because explainability applies toall equally well.

If the word ‘rational’ is to apply exclusively to thehuman being then, ‘rationality’ must mean‘law-governedness on conscious level’ though theword ‘law’ however is a misfit here. Now let usdwell upon the viability of the term ‘thelaw-governed physical nature’. What is ‘law’? It is,at best, termed as “a statement of fact to the effectthat particular phenomenon always occurs ifcertain given conditions are present”. The word‘govern’ means ‘control’ or ‘influence’. Hence‘law-governed’ means “controlled or influenced bya statement of fact”.

The fourth thesis indicates that laws govern thephysical nature. Even if it is taken in figurativesense, it can mean that some factual order controlsthe physical nature. And it is curious to note thatthere appear two separate aspects – the law as thegoverning soul on one hand and the physical natureas the governed body on the other. Thus the thesispostulates duality knowingly or unknowingly.

If law is taken as a statement of fact, it is then anexpression only, and an expression can not governanything. In any way, the phrase ‘the law-governedphysical nature’ is bound to be erroneous; it spoilsthe impartial spirit of the Radical Humanistphilosophy.

Radical Humanism claims itself to be purelymonistic. But the concept of man’s rationalitybeing wedded to that of nature’s law-governedness,in either sense would have the philosophyinevitably deviated into the duplicity of dualism.The flaw lies with the concept itself. Order isobserved both in nature and in man. They are to be

27


N.V. Brahmam

studied and understood separately. No causalrelationship need be and should be establishedbetween these two orders. Our approach should beholistic, and everything has to be taken and studiedas an individual entity. The results of these separatestudies may have links and interrelations, but theyneed not be causal. Causal relationship should notbe established not only between dynamics of ideasand dialectics of society but also betweenconscious rationality of man and unconsciousorderliness of nature.

A proper approach to study nature or man may beportrayed here as being possibly realistic andsustainable. Let us see the natural phenomena as weobserve them. There are two clear categories ofthings in this phenomenal world - living beings andnon-living things. As is cognizable to us, thenon-living things possess inseparable qualities. Butthe living beings can have actions in addition toqualities. In higher animals, particularly in humanbeings, some of these actions also appear asdeliberate deeds. These qualities and abilities to acttogether may be termed as properties. Therefore,broadly speaking, there are, in this world, only‘things’ with inseparable properties. Theseproperties are at times, perhaps unfittingly, termedas laws. Law and order are also often mistaken foreach other. Neither of them is an agency thatgoverns things as neither is an entity existing apartfrom them.

Radical Humanists are used to cite someoccurrences in the phenomenal world as proof forlaw-governedness in nature. They are sunrise,sunset, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, seasons and soon. As we are able to predict the times of theiroccurrences, laws are wrongly ascribed to them.But this prediction is possible at, and limited to, agiven space and time. The predictions at twodifferent localities do likely differ. Those that arecalled laws in the popular parlance do not in anyway suffer such variations. They are said to be of alltime. The analogy of the Radical Humanists is thuserroneous. It is something like predicting apedestrian’s left step after his right step and, vice

versa as he walks his way. Does this inevitableorderly alternation of steps between the right andthe left come under the purview of law? Similar isthe case of the order of occurrences visible in thesolar system. Let us look into the matter a littleelaborately for clarification.

In the solar system, the planet earth rotates on itsown axis once in a day of 24 hours. This rotation isits property. According to this time-boundproperty, the earth seems to keep the same positionwith the sun at the same time in the 24-hour day. Aswe know this, sunrise, sunset, etc. can be predictedby simple addition or subtraction of the knownduration. This illusion of the sun’s movement fromeast to west is also caused by the earth’s property ofrotation from west to east.

The moon, the satellite of earth, has the property oftaking the same duration of about 28 days both forits self rotation and for the revolution around theearth. This is why we can always see only one sideof the moon and not the other side from the earth. Ithas another property of reflecting sunlight like amirror as it is not self-luminous. When the mooncomes between the earth and the sun, the sunlightfalls on the moon on the side opposite to the earthand reflects toward the sun and there is nopossibility for it to fall on earth. Thus occurs thenew moon for us.

When the earth comes between the sun and themoon, the sunlight that falls on the moon reflects onthe side of the earth opposite to the sun, i.e. on thedark side of the earth. Thus occurs the full moon forus.

During their regular movements, the sun, the earthand the moon come almost into a straight lineoccasionally. In such cases, solar eclipse takesplace only locally on certain new moon days atfixed timings. At no two localities does it appearthe same as the moon covers the sun differently atdifferent parts on earth. But lunar eclipse takesplace on a full moon day at all visible parts on earthequally as the moon enters into the earth’s shadowand sun’s light rays do not fall at all on the moon to

28


reflect.

The earth revolves round the sun elliptically once ina year deviating at 23.5° on each side of theequator. This fixed deviation both sides is the causeof the regularly recurring seasonal changes –spring, summer, winter and autumn.

The above mentioned regular phenomenal changesobservable differently at different parts only onearth are the results of the fixed movements of thesun, the earth and the moon, which are only theirproperties. The sequence of the time-bound orderlyoccurrences in the solar system as observed by theparts of the earth is only the property, but not thelaw. Therefore, it is ridiculous to cite some regularoccurrences from our phenomenal world as prooffor law-governedness of Nature.

If a man is destined to be a part of determinednature, he can be no more than a cog in the wheel ofa machine. He cannot then claim for possession of afree will. Determinism is lack of free-acting poweras one’s life is controlled by some external factors.Freewill is the power to act according to one’s ownwishes. Therefore, it is untenable to say thatfreewill is not antithetical to physical determinism.Determinisms are many. Each has its own maindetermining factor. It may be society, politics,economics, sex, fate, physical nature, so on and soforth. In determinism it is the determining factorthat determines the course of one’s life. If actionmoves from fate to man, it is fatalism; if it doesfrom economic forces to man, it is economicdeterminism; if it is from nature to man, it isnaturalism. None of these is humanism. Only ifaction moves from man, i.e. from man’s freewill tosomething, it can be humanism.

[Roy remained a Marxist for more than two and ahalf decades. All the while, he was more or lessunder the spell of economic determinism. He laterrealized that economics is one of man’s socialneeds. He has many other needs apart from socialone. All human aspects can be comprised innature’s canvas. Thus the physical nature was giventhe topmost priority by Roy. Here Roy committed

the error of preferring human needs to humanbeing. As the source of human needs is nature, hemoved from physical nature to man and thus hecould not outgrow the sphere of naturalism. In hisphilosophical set-up, physical nature assumedmore importance than man, because the source ofneeds was given priority to the person who needs.Thus physical determinism was made thefoundation to the super structure of RadicalHumanism.]

As Radical Humanist, Roy’s thinking moved fromphysical nature to man, but not from man to nature.Therefore, it can be termed naturalism, but nothumanism. This must be so as far as themetaphysical part is concerned; but it is, no doubt,humanism as the social part is concerned. Makingman the archetype of society, the measure of allthings and the maker of his own destiny, Roy mademan the centre of his social philosophy and movedtherefrom to periphery. Freed from themetaphysical fallacy and scientific inadequacyRoy’s social philosophy is pure humanism. This isever-growing Royism.

We understand the phenomenal world in terms ofobjects, substance, qualities, acts and relations.Objects are made up of substance, and they are oftwo types: inanimate and animate. Inanimateobjects possess qualities, and animate objects haveboth qualities and actions. Nature is meant to bepossessed (by the unborn) or to be produced (withthe born). Qualities are inseparable with the objectswhich possess them, and objects are identified bytheir uncommon and extraordinary individualqualities.

In the universe, man has the unique specialty ofbeing a doer possessing knowledge, will and effort.Doing acts in a given place and time in a preplannedway is the specialty of the doer. The deed done bythe doer is not deterministic but willful. And,hence, the word ‘determinism’ is a misfit on thelevel of the human being possessing freewill andacting consciously.

29


As a matter of fact, in all living beings, actions takeplace as responses to external stimuli. Therefore, itis better to term them as reactions instead ofactions. The reactions are the properties of theliving beings. In non-human living beings, they are

born as sub-conscious instincts. But in humanbeings, they take place as conscious acts. Thismakes him the Subject–the willful doer. Therebyman is bound to hold responsibility for his own actsdone without desire or result. Thus freewill befitshumanism, but not determinism of any brand.

30


Book Review by Jayanti Patel:

[Prof. Jayanti Patel. is Retd. Prof. Political Science. He has been the Vice-President of African Studies

Society, India, President Gujarat Rajyashastra Mandal, Founder Secretary Gujarat Univesity Area

Teachers Association and Gujarat Rationalist Association, President IRHA and Editor Vaishvik

Manavvad (Monthly). He has written scores of books and scores of research articles and contributed

number of articles on current topics in various magazines.]

A Diplomat’s Diary

[BOOK: An Envoy Looks Back – A Memoir, by K.H. Patel, Har-Anand Publications. NewDelhi-110020, 2011. P.164 and eight pages of photographs. Price Rs. 495]

Publication of memoirs by a diplomat is a rare phenomenon. Perhaps, the first publication inthis category may be attributed to Megasthenes (four volumes of Indica, c 300 BCE), a Greek

envoy at the court of Mauryan rulers of India. Reminiscences of Mr. K.H. Patel, An Envoy Looks Back,falls in this rare category. The narrative traces the journey of a Patel-boy from the small north Gujarattown-Unjha, through Foreign Service Department to the culmination as an ambassador to Africancountries. It has the flavour of a family life, interesting information and anecdotes and critical appraisalof political leaders, foreign officials and the policy decisions. He is frank, does not mince words incriticizing and expressing his opinions, and uses no vague verbosity. In this aspect Mr. Patel does notconfirm with the adage that a diplomat ‘is a person who talks at length without giving any informationor committing himself to any opinion.’

Mr. Patel’s recounting of his experiences while working with his colleagues, the Pakistan desk, HumanRights Commission to Guyana, Indian Delegation to UN and Kutch Tribunal provides us insight in thepages of history, hitherto buried in the departmental files. Particularly, interesting chapters are about hissojourn as the first Consul of India to Reunion, High Commissioner to post-Idi Amin Uganda, andambassador to Rwanda and Burundi, ravaged by tribal strife, and his effort to establish fruitfulrelationship with these countries and their people. Mr. Patel shows his true colour in the chapter dealingwith the appraisal of the decisions taken by the Indian government regarding various foreign policyissues.

I feel that, it would have added to the value of the book if a chapter on how his wife, Mrs. Kashiben – alady educated up to matriculation, coming from a small town, braved the challenges andresponsibilities of the sophisticated life of a diplomat’s hostess.

[Dr. N. Innaiah, former Director, Centre for Inquiry

(CFI), India, did his Ph.D on Philosophy of Modern

Science. He is a veteran Radical Humanist who has

translated maximum books written by M.N Roy as well

as other books on humanism in Telugu.]

Humanist movement in Indiawith special reference to

Andhra Pradesh

Humanist movement in India commencedsimultaneously on par with western

countries around 1940s. M.N. Roy was the founderof the movement in India. It was initiated during thebeginning of Second World War. To spread themessage M.N. Roy started a daily paperIndependent India. Later it came as Radical

Humanist, weekly. Roy also published Marxian

Way and Humanist Way, the two outstandingtheoretical journals. He was the first person whopleaded for renaissance, decentralization,democratic constitution, power to people, morals inpolitics, recall right for voters, and above allscientific approach to all problems.

The Radical Democratic Party set an example ofscientific politics with its study camps, trainingclasses and journals. Both at all India level and statelever the renaissance clubs played crucial role inspreading scientific politics with new orientation.The Party, started during early 1940s, set anexample how it can be different from Congress,Socialist and communist parties, both in theory andin practice.

There are numerous intellectuals, writers andpoliticians who followed the path of M.N. Roy inspreading the idea of New Humanism.

In course of time M.N. Roy came to the conclusionthat the main hindrance to scientific politics andrenaissance was political party. All political partiesthink that their party is right and all other parties arewrong. Moreover the party thinks: MY PARTY,RIGHT OR WRONG. To implement the newhumanist ideas the Radical Democratic Party wasabolished in favor of New Humanist movement.That was the historical turning point in the historyof Indian Renaissance movement. It commencedwith the advent of Independent India.

The history of New Humanist movement has to bewritten. To set an example here is an attempt madeto give a glimpse of the movement in AndhraPradesh State. Similarly each state should presentits history so that a comprehensive compendiummay be passed on to future generations.

The Role of Andhra Pradesh in Humanist

movement:

The delegates who attended the Faizpur Congressin 1936 felt that the speech and role of M.N. Roy seta different path from the traditional approach topolitics. One person from Andhra invited M.N. Royto visit Andhra. He was M.V. Sastri (MulukutlaVenkata Sastri) who represented the newspaper ofKunduru Eswar Datt journal. Roy accepted. Laterhe was invited to inaugurate the agricultural labourconference at Nellore town in coastal Andhra. Mr.Vennelaganti Raghaviah (related to President V.V.Giri) invited Roy. On 31 July 1938 M.N. Roystepped into Andhra town and inaugurated theconference. Immediately he fell sick and M.V.Sastri took him to Kakinada, coastal town ofAndhra. The news reached Andhra Universitywhere Mr. Abburi Ramakrishnarao was working aslibrarian. He brought Roy to Waltair. M.N. Roystayed with Mr. H. Gupta in Maharani Pet of Vizadwhere he recovered. By then Ellen Roy also joinedhim at Waltair. Mr. Abburi introduced M.N. Roy tothe Vice Chancellor of Andhra University. He was

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Innaiah Narisetti

late Kattamanchi Ramalingareddi (C.R. Reddi)who offered professor post to M.N. Roy in theuniversity. Roy politely declined. They becamegreat friends and C.R. Reddi wrote a brilliantintroduction to Letters From Jail. Since then M.N.Roy frequently visited the University and Andhraarea till his last days. Letters from Jail wastranslated and published as series in Radical

Humanist fortnightly in Telugu later.

By the time M. N. Roy was released from jail after6 years of imprisonment by British rulers, hecompleted his monumental work: The

Philosophical Consequences of Modern Science.That was not published fully yet, but parts of it werepublished under the title: Science and Philosophy.Roy gave comprehensive thought on variousproblems like beginning and end, Problem ofdeterminism, Origin of life etc. Later some of theseparts were translated into Telugu by N. Innaiah andpublished in Prasarita, a quarterly Telugumagazine. Prof A.B. Shah circulated the script tosome friends for discussion. Roy went on includingfew parts in his later writings.

Abburi Ramakrishna Rao became the first stateorganizer of Radical Democratic Party. He wasably assisted by M.V. Sastri, A L Narasimharao,Pemmaraju Venkatarao, Tata Devakinandan(municipal chairman of Vizayanagaram). Themessage of Roy spread quickly in Andhra.

Tripuraneni Gopichand, writer, director becamethe first state secretary of Radical Democaraticparty. He was a prolific writer who introducedpolitical short stories in Telugu. He attackedcommunists and Congress party with powerful andpungent pen. Much of Roy’s thought were broughtout into Telugu through short stories, plays andcriticism by Gopichand.

Several of M.N. Roy’s writings weresimultaneously translated into Telugu andpublished. In those days the press was verynationalistic and did not entertain the radical ideas

of Humanists. Hence Mr. GudavalliRamabrahmam, cine director started one weeklycalled Prajamitra where the articles of Royistsfound place. Ramabrahmam received Roy inMadras and gave grand reception with severaljournalists. In that party some journalists putirritating questions to Roy. One such person wasMr. Khasa Subbarao, editor of Indian Express fromMadras. He made some nasty remarks against EllenRoy and Roy violently reacted, saying that suchpersons need cudgeling. He waved the newspaperin his hand towards Khasa Subbarao. At thisincident the journalists protested and walked out ofthe reception in Madras in 1938.They boycotted thenews of Radical humanists in the press.

But the radical humanists were non-compromising.They conducted political schools in Andhra andseveral youth were trained. Few journals likeMulukola edited Bandi Butchaih from Vijayawadapublished the articles of Royists.

The first All India Radical democratic politicalschool was conducted in Dehradun in early 1940sand the whole deliberations were brought out into abook called Scientific Politics. It was translated intoTelugu as class relations which attracted theintellectuals and gave fitting reply to communists.

Mr. Palagummi Padmaraju and Mr. G.V.Krishnarao emerged as powerful literary writers insupport of M.N. Roy and Humanism. Padmarajuwrote novels with central theme of Humanism. Hegot world prize for his short story (Gaali Vaana)Storm. He also wrote script to several movies.

Mr. G V Krishnarao emerged as theoretical writerof Roy’s philosophy and countered communisttheories of aesthetics.

Mr. Koganti Radhakrishna Murty from Kuchipudivillage started publication under the name ofPrajasahitya prachuranalu and brought out manywritings and translations. He himself wrote a bookon writings of M N Roy.

Continued in the next issue...............................

32


Radical Humanist friends from all states are requested to compile their states’ RH Movement’s history for publishing in the RH.—Rekha

Techers’ & Research Scholrs’ Section:

The Judiciary and the Poor

If one looks into the history of IndianJudiciary, especially the Supreme Court

(hence forth, SC) and makes a close observation,one would find significant shift in the judicialinterpretation of the different cases. This shift isfrom one of conservatism to a more liberal one. Thevarious judgments are moving in the oppositedirections of invariable support to universal/stateinterests at the cost of individual/groups interest inthe past. Now communities and individuals aregetting priority and not subordinated to stateinterest. Nevertheless, the SC has started playingactivist role. The poor and the dispossessed havestarted approaching the court to escape fromvarious forms of sufferings and institutionalizeddiscrimination. This is probably due to growingparticipation on the part of the Civil SocietyOrganizations (CSOs) actively working on theissues of workers, displaced,ecological-environmental, and poor. The forcefulpresentation and articulation of genuine causes byCSOs has motivated the judges to interpret thevarious articles and clauses of Indian constitutionmore liberally in favour of poor and dispossessed.Yet, some scholars argue that the SC has acquiredmore power and confidence as a result ofcoalition-governments in the Centre and has startedinterpreting the constitution more freely andhumanly.

On August 13 2010, the SC had asked the Centre todistribute food. The SC said; “Give it to the hungrypoor instead of grains going down the drain”. A

bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and DeepakVerma told Additional Solicitor General MohanParasaran appearing for the Centre that waste ofsingle grain was a crime when a large number of thecountry’s population is starving due to lack of food.The government reacted by saying, “that was theopinion of the SC and not an order”. In response tothe SC judgment the Union Minister, Sharad Pawarsaid “it is not possible to implement the SCsuggestion”. He further said whatever the SC saidwas the opinion of the former and not an order to beacted upon. What followed was a quick responsefrom the SC which made it clear that the August 13judgment was an order and the government shouldpositively respond to it. The SC order should beacted upon. The government expressed inability todistribute the rotting food-grains free of cost to thepoor. The SC had asked the Centre to buildsufficient numbers of transit houses to stock thefood grains which is formally not the function ofthe judiciary. It ordered the Government toconstruct a big go-down in each of the statesbesides separate go-downs in different districts. Italso asked government to ensure that fair-priceshops were kept open throughout the year. Thegovernment needs go-downs in good condition tokeep the food-grains and distribute the same to thepoor through the PDS. It is a fact that there isinadequate space available with the FoodCorporation of India (FCI) to keep food-grains. It isstrange that people starve despite having sufficientfootstock and a large quantity of food-grains rot inFCI go-downs.

How has Indian judiciary interpreted the issues ofthe poor? What are the recent shifts that arediscernable in recent judgments? The recentjudgment by SC is a historic one. This story depictshow the SC has taken the issues of poor in asomewhat different vein. Though the CSOs used tocriticize the SC as anti-poor and pro-rich,pro-government they have now come closer to theSC. This is probably due to an extraordinary shift inthe judgments of the SC which is a clear departurefrom the earlier stands on various issues. As

33


Sitaram Kumbhar

mentioned above, the recent SC order asking centreto distribute free food-grains to families belowpoverty line (BPL) is of far reaching consequences.It asked the state governments also to confirmwhether they were distributing 35 kg of food-grainsto each of the BPL families or not. This wasbecause the Central Government had told the SCthat it was allocating 35 kg food-grains per BPLfamily to the states. The SC said that distributionshould be in proportion to the number of familymembers. A PDS card holder gets 35 kg of rice, ifthere are two members in the family or 10. Why notdistribute per member? The New York Times onDecember 2, 2002 had Said, “Despite millions oftons of surplus wheat and rice, about 350 millionIndians go to bed hungry.”

A good legal system has a role to play in alleviatingpoverty. The judicial independence (impartiality,political insularity, institutional autonomy, legalauthority, legitimacy, and probity), is crucial for ajudiciary when it is playing the role of an activist.As a matter of fact India is rightly acclaimed forachieving a flourishing constitutional order,presided over by an inventive and activist judiciary,aided by proficient bar, supported by the state andcherished by the public. At the same time, thecourts, and tribunals where ordinary Indians mightgo for remedy and protection, are beset withmassive problems of delay, cost andineffectiveness. Potential users avoid the courts. Inspite of a longstanding reputation for litigiousness,existing evidence suggests that Indians availthemselves of courts at a low rate, and the rateappears to be falling.

There is little systematic exploration of the role therule of law plays in ameliorating poverty. This issomewhat surprising since the poor are most at riskfrom the abuse of political power, and are least ableto protect themselves against the injury andeconomic loss consequent upon such abuse. Incountries all over the world the poor are more likelyto be victims of police violence than the rich. So toothey are more likely to be ignored or mistreated bybureaucrats. While poverty has traditionally been

regarded as a phenomenon least understood interms of income and productivity, it has morerecently been recognized that poverty is amultidimensional problem extending beyond lowincome to include physical vulnerability andpowerlessness within existing political and socialstructure. This view is corroborated byanthropological studies of impoverishedcommunities that highlight the prominence oflawlessness in the daily experience of poverty. Atthe same time the growing number ofneo-institutional analysis suggests that politicaland legal rules do have a direct impact upon socialpractices and economic outcomes. In short,institution matters for poverty.

Lawlessness contributes to poverty. Even, AmartyaSen in his book Poverty and Famine argues thatunchecked abuses of political power can contributedirectly to hunger and famine. Lack ofcommitment, political wills leads to huge wastagein previous schemes meant for the poor. The rottingof food-grains at FCI go-down is not new. Theshortcomings in the functioning, for instance, of theFood for Work (FFW) programme in Indian stateswere known to all. The administrativemismanagement, corruption, local power relations,design-faults excluded the deserving very poor andlower caste people from participating in theprogramme.

In previous judgments the SC supported the causeof poor. The SC constituted committees to look intothe matters of right to food. The civil societyorganizations, for instance, People’s Union forCivil Liberties (PUCL), have been spearheading inmaking the right to food a legal right. In April 2001,PUCL (Rajasthan) filed a writ petition in the SCseeking legal enforcement of right to food.According to PUCL the right to food is an essentialpart of “right to life” enshrined in article 21 of theIndian Constitution. The SC in its variousjudgments has said that the right to life should beinterpreted as a right to “live with human dignity”which includes the right to food and other basicnecessities.1 There are many such judgments. In the

34


case of Francis Carolie v. Administrator, Unionterritory of Delhi and Ors. (1981) 1SCC 608 the SCobserved: “We think that the right to life includesthe right to live with human dignity and all that goesalong with it, namely, the bare necessaries of lifesuch as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter andfacilities for reading, writing and expressingone-self in diverse forms, freely moving about andmixing and commingling with fellow humanbeings. Of course, the magnitude and content of thecomponents of this right would depend upon theextent of the economic development of the country,but it must, in any view of the matter, include theright to the basic necessities of life and also theright to carry on such functions and activities asconstitute the bare minimum expression of thehuman self”. Similarly, in Shantistar Builders v.Narayan Khimalal Tomate (1990) 1 SCC 520, theSC stated: “The right to life is guaranteed in anycivilized society. That would take within its sweepthe right to food”.

The SC order dated 20th August 2001 made it clearthat prevention of hunger and starvation is theresponsibility of government. It stated that it wasone of the prime responsibilities of thegovernment- whether central or State. The SCmade it clear on 29th October 2002 through variousjudgments that the state governments areresponsible for preventing “deaths due to starvationor malnutrition”. On 18th May 2002 the SC hadappointed two commissioners for the purpose ofmonitoring the implementation of the interimorders. One of the major order of the SC in responseto a PIL issued on 28th November 2001 hadconverted the benefits like PDS, ICDS, AAY,Mid-Day Meal Schemes, NOAPS, NMBS andNFBS into legal entitlements. If one genuinebeneficiary fails to benefit from the schemes it canmove to the court as a matter of right. It has madevarious orders on the identification of poor, BPL,issue of card and distribution of ration. The civilsociety organisations have maintained that accessto food which is one of the foremost basic needs of

life should be the birthright of every single humanbeing on this earth.

In a similar case of the poor, earlier in one of itsjudgments the SC ruled that cycle rickshaws canply in the national capital without a curb on theirnumber and criticized the government for beinganti-poor. The Delhi High Court had earlier ruledthe Municipal Council of Delhi’s (MCD) policy oflimiting the number cycle rickshaws asunconstitutional. It rejected the flawed idea thatcycle rickshaws cause congestion in a city of sixmillion personal vehicles of which over 3.8millions are four wheelers. In fact, MCD had fixedthe number of cycle rickshaws to one lakh.

What is surprising is that Indian judiciary and itsjudges are more pro-poor than others. In 1933 theBritish House of Lords affirmed its views thatpoverty is a misfortune for which the law cannot

take any responsibility at all. In 1986, JusticeBhagwati, former Chief Justice of India describedthe function of the SC, in relation to poverty andoppression in somewhat different vein: “Thejudges in India have asked themselves the question:Can judges really escape addressing themselves tothe substantial questions of social justice? Can theysimply say to litigants who came to them for justiceand the general public that accords them power,status and respect, that they simply follow the legaltext when they are aware that their actions willperpetuate inequality and injustice? Can theyrestrict their enquiry into law and life within thenarrow confines of a narrowly defined rule of law?Does the requirement of constitutionalism notmake greater demands on judicial function?”2

Despite progressive interpretation of constitutionin favour of poor and general public many continueto argue that in spite of all successes, Indiandemocracy is at the risk of becomingde-legitimized because of the increasing lack offaith many Indian have in the judicial process. Oneof the main reasons why the poor are not able to usethe legal system to prevent further impoverishmentis that the law is not framed in their favour. Manystatutes dating in particular from the colonial

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period are designed mainly to protect property,gather power in the hands of the administrators, andput down social unrest. The Code of CriminalProcedure provides that an individual accused of acriminal offence may be released on bail afterproviding sufficient security. But the price of abond is normally beyond the financial capacity ofthe poor, while the wealthy are able to buy theirway out of jail with ease. At the heart of theinequity is a system which requires rich and pooralike to post similar bonds, thus a rich individualcan secure bail after paying a tiny fraction of annualdisposable income whereas a poor individualwould need to surrender an entire year’s income to

secure the same.

References:

1. For more on this see the SC orders on the right tofood: A Tool for Action (March 2008).

2. P. Bhagwati, ‘Chief Justice on What JusticesShould Do”, The Times of India, 21st September,1986.

[Dr. Sitamram Kumhar is Assistant Professor inthe department of Political Science, ShyamlalCollege, University of Delhi. He may be contactedat Centre for Political Studies, School of SocialSciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),Delhi 110067, Mob. 9868976083]

36


Letter to The Editor:

Sub: Kashmir And The Indian Media

I bring to your notice that an independent fact-finding team, at the initiative of The Other Media(Delhi), consisting of four human rights activists, namely Bela Bhatia, Ravi Hemadri, SukumarMuralidharan and Vrinda Grover had visited Kashmir at the end of October 2010 in order to study theorigins of the problem which had led to recent mass uprising in the valley of Kashmir and to suggestways and means for its resolution. They met families of those killed during the preceding four monthsof civil unrest and assessed various shades of opinion in the valley. The team members spent about 25days and visited several villages and towns in five of the Kashmir valley’s 10 districts.

The team prepared its report entitled Four Months Kashmir Valley Will Never Forget and released thesame in a Press Conference on 26th March, 2011 at New Delhi. All segments of the media were invitedto cover the conference. But to the surprise of the team no reporter, except one, turned up and wastotally ignored by the print as well as electronic media.

There is already a feeling among the people of Kashmir that Indian establishments and majority ofIndian media are more interested in retaining the land of Kashmir rather than to have any concern forthe miseries and sufferings of its people. Human rights groups also feel that their view points in relationto Kashmir problem are mostly ignored by the media which is more prone to give wider publicity toofficial line. This kind of attitude, whether conscious or unconscious, can only strengthen separatisttendencies and feeling of alienation among the people of Kashmir on the one hand, while it deprives theIndian people of the opportunity to study and discuss all shades of views in order to form a rational anddiscerning opinion on one of the most volatile problems prevailing in this part of the world.

N.D. Pancholi,

President, PUCL (Delhi unit).

(M) 9811099532

Book Review Section:

[BOOK: The Skeptical Environmentalist:

Measuring the Real State of the World (Danish:

Verdens sande tilstand, literal translation: The

Real State of the World) by Danishenvironmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg. It wasfirst published in Danish in 1998, and the Englishedition was published as a work in environmentaleconomics by Cambridge University Press in2001.]

—Reviewed by Subhankar Ray

[Mr. Subhankar Ray is a researcher in

Biochemistry and has been, for a long time,

associated with the Renaissance movement.]

Impending Destruction ofEnvironment: A Myth?

Introduction:

At present we are all concerned aboutEnvironment. Most of us perceive that due to rapidindustrialization, random use of automobiles andconsumerism are rapidly destroying the earth. Notonly the environment is being destroyed, but alsodue to reckless use of natural resources that arestored for eons is being rapidly depleted. The netconsequence will be that the economic progressthat has already been made will be unsustainableand there will be no resources left for futuregeneration and the earth will be doomed.

In the backdrop of this all-devouring thinking thepresent book is a glaring exception. The SkepticalEnvironmentalist. Measuring the Real State of theWorld’s author Bjørn Lomborg was a professor ofStatistics in the Department of Political Science atUniversity of Aarhus in Denmark; now an AdjunctProfessor at Copenhagen Business School. TheBook was fist published in Danish in 1998. FirstEnglish translation was published in 2001 by

Cambridge University Press and it was reprintedeighteen times up to 2006. The book is widelydiscussed in the circle of scientists andenvironmentalists of USA and Europe. Still, thepresent Reviewer feels that in India the book ishardly known. This review is to introduce andhighlight this highly exceptional book and topresent very briefly its content.

In the Preface of the Book the Author hasmentioned that in 1997 he was reading in abookstore an interview published in WiredMagazine of the well-known economist JulianSimon. Simon told that the conception ofimpending destruction of environment is totallyuntrue, which could be easily substantiated byofficial statistics. Because the Author was an activemember of Greenpeace and a professor of statisticshe instantly felt that he would let Simon completelywrong by data. The Author took the challenge;however when he scrutinized all the statistics hisidea was totally changed. As a result, he wrote fourarticles in the Danish daily Politiken, which raiseda storm in all newspapers and magazines ofDenmark. Even his close friends thought that hisidea was wrong. The Author felt that all thesedemonstrated that the idea that the environment issoon going to be destroyed is ingrained in most ofus. However the Author extended the theme ofthose four articles and published the Book.

The Author emphasizes that we should look at thestatistics. Nobody including the media, theenvironmental organizations and business housesshould maneuver the data. If used properlystatistics is most sure way of understanding theEarth. There are many problems but if we avoidfruitless worry and emotion and scrutinize all therelevant facts then we shall understand that in everysphere there was and is progress. Then we shall beable to concentrate on important problems. Nodoubt the issue of environment is important but oneof the many.

The Book is divided in six parts. The first part isThe Litany meaning a long boring account. The

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Author mentions the sources from where we get thenews and views of destruction of the Earth. Hesummarizes the views and provides argumentsagainst those in a nutshell. He explains why wealways get bad news. In the second part he showsthat in every sphere there is progress. In the thirdpart he discusses whether this progress issustainable. In the fourth part he raises the issuewhether the environmental pollution will weakenthe progress. Fifth and sixth parts are respectivelyfuture problems and conclusion. A defect of theBook is that it contains many repetitions. But forour obsession with environmental pollution theserepetitions might be necessary.

The name of the book is SkepticalEnvironmentalist because the author is alsoconscious about environment. He is skepticalbecause he does not want to be swayed byimaginary but now widely prevailing view aboutenvironment. He emphasized the fundamentals thatis why The Real State of the World.

The Author mentions about some environmentalorganizations such as World Watch Institute,Greenpeace, and World Wide Fund for Nature, andalso of some persons who by making use of themedia are able to create an imaginary picture ofenvironment. For a holistic view the Author hasemphasized to use statistics. Because the picture weoften get from media and from people known to usare usually one sided and partial. Ouracquaintances are usually like us, receiveinformation from same sources and think alike.Their idea does not reflect the whole. The Authoremphasizes to evaluate global and long term trends.There might be some bad situation in some placesand in some time but these should not beoverblown. As example, 650 thousand people inBurundi are getting lesser food; whereas in Nigeria,a country of 110 million populations is gettingmore food. This means on an average 16 personsare getting more food; the situation has improvedaltogether. On the other hand the food grainsproduction per hectare worldwide was decreasingfrom 1990 to 1993. But the productions in 1960 and

in 2000 were 1.25 and 2.75 tons respectively. In1970, 35% of the population in developingcountries was starving; in 1996 it was reduced to18% although the population of all those countrieswas increased substantially within that period. In1915, 75% of the population of the developingcountries was illiterate, now it is only 16%.If weobserve that in some issues the situation isimproving then we have to accept that the situationis improving but not might be in appropriate pace.There are many problems but “Things are better butnot necessarily good enough” From theexaggerated views about the downslide ofenvironment that we often get from differentquarters fear might inflict in our mind, ourjudgment might be destroyed. We shall be impelledto use our resources and be engaged in solvingphantom problems. We could not solve all theproblems in a single stroke, we have to givepriorities.

Now-a-days many persons criticize theanthropocentric views. But is there any alternativeway? The wish and necessity of humankind isfundamental. Penguins and pine trees do not vote.Who will speak for those? Hence the final verdict isof humankind. In many respect what is good forhuman is good for the other living organisms; anexample is to get clean air. However there are manyconflicts too. We have to clear forests if we wantarable lands. On the one hand we are eating chickenand beef and on the other trying to save the aquaticanimals of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Author rightly points out that many feelpollution will increase with increase in economicprosperity. Many also feel that rich countries dumptheir polluting materials to developing countries(Reviewer). But according to the EnvironmentalSustainability Index of World Economic Forumpollution becomes lesser with increasing GDP.

There are 2730 references in this 514 pages book.The Author mentions that all the information anddata are from Governmental or Semi governmentalorganizations such as United Nations (UN) or its

38


subsidiary or associated organizations such as Foodand Agricultural Organization (FAO), WorldHealth Organization (WHO), United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP), United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP). Besides he usesdata from International Monetary Fund (IMF) andWorld Bank. Moreover he uses that data from thoseorganizations who globally collect and analyzedata such as Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and United States Agriculture Departmentof USA government, Organization of EconomicCo-operation and Development (OECD),European Union (EU) etc. According to the Authorthese information and data are easily available andanybody could verify those.

Why we always get bad news?

In 1992 there was a survey in 24 nations of theWorld to know the people’s mind about theenvironment they think good, their immediatesurroundings or of their country or of the World as awhole. Most opined that their immediatesurroundings were better than that of the World andthe country’s environment was in between. We getthe idea of our immediate surroundings from ourdirect experience. But the information about theWorld we usually get from media and also fromdifferent other sources. These are mainly fromresearch, media and from the reports of differentvoluntary organizations.

Research is mainly for solving a particularproblem. Now-a-days most of the grants forresearch are coming from government. So, societywants that it will benefit from research. If aresearcher after investigating a particular problemcomes to conclusion that there is no major problemin this field and there is nothing much to do, then heand others who are in research in that particularfield will receive no further grant to work on thisfield. On the other hand if there is some seriousproblem then there is lot of grants. So it is a generaltendency of the researchers to exaggerate aproblem. The Author has termed this phenomenonas ‘file drawer and data message’. Squeezing the

experiments over and over again and to extractsomething that indicates some serious problems.The results of nine experiments are uninteresting sokept in a file and put in the drawer; but that of tenthone indicates some problem hence received muchattention.

We often feel that only business and industrialorganizations, chamber of commerce, trade unionshave vested interest. We often overlook thatvoluntary and environmental organizations havealso. They want to convince us that in order to savethe environment there is a need for stringentregulation. We should not cut trees, we have to savepenguins; polluting industries must be closedinstead of increased production of food andindustrial goods or more hospitals and schools.Because if these problems do not persist then whatthey will live for?

Now-a-days the media is mainly responsible forproviding us information and largely influence ourthought. We could assume that they usually provideus with right information. However in most casesthese are one sided and dramatic. ’A good story isoften a bad news’. We often swayed by bad andnegative news and in particular if somebody couldbe blamed for this. We feel that we could realize thewhole from this partial and fragmentedrepresentation and could arrive at a conclusion anddebate over it

Many of us feel that the past was much better andwe are in a wrong direction. To remind this is not tosuggest that we sit idle and ignore all the problems.We have to take challenge by keeping in mind thatwe receive bad news more often. How to take thischallenge has been discussed in subsequentchapters.

Overall well-being of society:

To assess the overall well-being of society UN hasintroduced Human Development Index. The basisof this is long, free from sickness and creative life.It is difficult to evaluate this by data and statisticsbut we could get an idea of it by looking at theaverage life expectancy at birth, number of

39


school-going years etc. The Author has evaluatedthis by comparing the present state of longevity,health, availability of food, income, inequality,education and security with that of the past.

We note that the population is increasing by leapsand bounds from 1950. But by analyzing this trendit appears that it will be significantly reducedaround 2050 and around 2150 there will be noincrease in population. The reason for this rapidincrease is not that we are reproducing like rabbitsbut we are not dying like flies. In developingcountries in 1950 each female used to give birth onan average six offspring, now it is three. This trendof decrease started in developed countries quiteearly. In 1920s in Denmark and in 1960s in USAand Australia each female used to give birth on anaverage 3.1 offspring. In early 1960s populationincrease was 2% now it is 1.26%. From this trendwe could assume that the increase in populationwill stop at certain point of time. In this context theAuthor mentions that the planning for birth controlwas started in India quite early. Still the decline ofincrease in population was rather slow.

The Author mentions an interesting issue. From thepresent population and trend of increase we couldestimate how many people lived in the earth up till

now and it is 50-100 billion.

It is also to be noted that large number of people in acountry is as such no problem, because severalcountries of Europe such as Netherlands, Belgiumare more populous than India; Japan is also. In thirdworld Mauritius and South Korea are denselypopulated. The real issue is poverty and not densepopulation.

There are persons including some sociologists whothink that if a country could not produce what itneeds then that country is unsustainable. But thisconception is totally wrong because it ignores therole of trade. Production is best done where it ismost efficiently produced not there where there areconsumers.

In 1950 New York with ten million of populationwas the biggest city. It is assumed that around 2015,19 out of 23 biggest cities will be in developingcountries. It is true that in developing countries citydwellers have worst living than that of thedeveloped countries. But they live better than thevillagers. In developing countries also 60% of GDPis produced in cities.

Continued in the next issue..........................

40


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