Religion : A Lesson from Class VII Kerala Textbook

No religion for Jeevan

Jeevan’s parents came to school seeking admission for him. The parents were seated on the chairs and the Headmaster started to fill up the application form.

“What is the name of your son?”

“Jeevan”

“ Good, nice name; Father’s name?”

“Anwar Rasheed”

“Mother’s name?”

“Lakshmi Devi”.

The Head master looked at the parents and asked, “What about the religion of the child?”
“Need not record anything. Write no religion.”

“Caste?”

“No need of that too”

The Headmaster reclined in the chair and asked seriously, “When he grows up, if he wishes to have a religion?”

“In that case , let him choose the religion of his choice”

Nuclear Deal : It's not about Left or Right

"Nothing in this world is ever completely wrong, even a stopped clock is right twice a day." - Paulo Coelho

The growing chorus of criticism of Left Front’s stand on the nuclear deal is a classic example of growing intolerance in the country. Left has been presented as traitors and pimp working at China's behest. But nobody is ready for dissection to find out its merits and demerits. Even the ardent champions of this deal are not ready to discuss the same in public. Unfortunately, all the discussions (whatever little discussions we have till now) centered around Left and not around the nuclear deal. We have forgotten that this deal is not about Left or Right; this deal is about the sovereignty of the country.

Nuclear deal will off course provide India an opportunity to become a close ally of US. But this will come at dearly cost of losing sovereignty in terms of foreign policies and defense strategies. Even after ceding our sovereignty ,this deal is not going to guarantee continuous supply of nuclear fuel, alternate supply arrangements, spent-fuel reprocessing techniques, and Uranium enrichment for full cycle.

To understand the deal ,it’s important to understand the gimmicks that US always try to play. US always want to have a polar world and therefore ,never wish any country to have independent foreign, defense and other strategic policies. To achieve this goal, US created NPT which prevented the countries from developing their own nuclear program.

But US cannot have such an agreement with India, Pakistan, and Israel. To prevent these countries from developing their own nuclear program US had taken lots of decisive measures to dissuade, isolate, and sanctions (remember sanctions imposed by US after nuclear test). But when US couldn't persuade India to sign the treaty and relinquish its foreign and defense strategies, US used nuclear energy as bait to lure India to have an agreement with US and enter NPT and CTBT through backdoor.

US passed “Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006’’ in 2006 to enable US to sign an agreement with India. The core essence of this act is same as that of NPT and CTBT.

Hyde Act clearly states. “It is the sense of Congress that it is in the interest of the United States to the fullest extent possible to ensure that those countries that are not States Party to the NPT are responsible in the disposition of any nuclear technology they develop”.

Here, act doesn't distinguish between nuclear technologies developed for nuclear arms and that is developed for civil uses. This will force India to dispose all the nuclear technologies even if it’s meant for civil purposes; this will not only mean to halt all the research and development in the nuclear field but also in the fields such as software development , material technologies and other related technologies which will be decided by NSG.

Hyde Act also states that it is in the interest of US to enter into an agreement for nuclear corporation with a country if the country has “a foreign policy that is congruent to that of the United States, and is working with the United States on key foreign policy initiatives related to nonproliferation”. There is no need to mention that after agreement India will be forced to adopt the foreign policies prepared by US.

This act goes one step further to state: “such cooperation will induce the country to give
greater political and material support to the achievement of United States global and regional nonproliferation objectives, especially with respect to dissuading, isolating, and, if necessary, sanctioning and containing states that sponsor terrorism and terrorist groups that are seeking to acquire a nuclear weapons capability or other weapons of mass destruction capability and the means to deliver such weapons”.

Act also forces India to join US in any future war against Iran. It demands “India’s full and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate, and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear weapons capability and the capability to enrich uranium or reprocess nuclear fuel, and the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction”. This policy will not only increase enmity between India and Iran but also cloud the relationship with other Iran supporter countries, including major oil producing countries, which will jeopardize any plans of having an agreement for Oil and will put the energy security plans off the track.

Moreover, Hyde Act doesn’t guarantee continuous fuel supply, alternative source of fuel, and spent-fuel enrichment technologies. A panel of eminent nuclear scientists, including four former directors of Atomic Energy Commission, former director of BARC, former MD and chairman of Nuclear Power Corporation of India, and former director Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, had prepared a note on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal and made certain recommendations to address their concerns. Thy mentioned that full co-operation in civilian nuclear energy has been denied to India. They had certain reservations about the act:

a) U.S. unwillingness to co-operate in the areas of spent-fuel reprocessing and uranium enrichment related to the full nuclear fuel cycle.
b) Denial of the nuclear fuel supply assurances and alternate supply arrangements mutually agreed upon earlier.
c) Limits co-operation in the GNEP programme. India will not be permitted to join as a technology developer but as a recipient state.

In nutshell, this act contains many objectionable clauses which will force India to relinquish its sovereignty. Once this Act is signed into law, all further bilateral agreements with the U.S. will be required to be consistent with this law.

These clauses will not only benefit US but also China. Brahma Chellaney, a prominent independent strategy thinker, mentions in an article, published in The Hindu on June 29, 2008:

“The political passions the deal is generating make it all the more important that spin should not be allowed to obfuscate facts. Both America and China stand to gain from the qualitative and quantitative fetters the deal imposes on India’s deterrent, including the test prohibition and the forced shutdown of Cirus — one of the two research reactors producing weapons-grade plutonium. Yet vicious attacks have been orchestrated on the Left for allegedly acting at China’s behest. Disinformation has been planted to sow confusion in the BJP ranks and break the party’s steadfast opposition to the deal. Can slogans and taunts serve as a substitute to an informed debate on an increasingly complex and technical deal?”

He also says, "Fundamentally, the US aim is to deter the rise of a nuclear India that can threaten US global or regional interests. By playing to India's ego and desire for status, the nuclear deal offers an attractive avenue to the US to get a handle on the Indian nuclear program and influence Indian foreign policy".

The time has come that we go for an informed debate leaving behind rancorous prejudices.

References :

Hyde Act of 2006
Note Prepared by eminent nuclear scientists
Brahma Chellaney's view

Brida : An Act Of Faith

"Never be ashamed, accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one.”
-- Paulo Coelho in Brida

Brazilian born publishing phenomenon, Paulo Coelho is always known for his simple but lyrical stories, bursting with positive energy. His stories reaffirm our faith in the struggles of life. They show us path in dark and ask us to plunge in straight whenever we want to know about something. He tells what we love to hear; the story of a man in the street, his struggles, and his dilemma, his defeat and lessons learnt by the defeat, and his fearless continuance of the path and finally the win which was predestined. They also touch perception of love, passion, betrayal and other related issues. Off course there are lots of other philosophical messages intertwined in his stories. Coelho’s stories prepare us for another battle of life irrespective of win or lose in the previous one. It’s always easy for us to correlate the situation faced by his characters with our own life. And perhaps that’s the reason his books win accolades across the globe and become international bestsellers.

Brida, Paulo’s third novel written just after The Alchemist, reestablishes Paulo Coelho as an author of distinguished genre and philosophy of life. In this book, Paulo uses mysticism and different traditions of sorcery as a theme. He uses mundane affairs to explain greatest mysteries of life and helps a voyager to find his way. And it’s done in a very simple but poetic manner; flow is steady and continuous like the flow of a river.

Brida is a story of a young Irish girl and her quest for knowledge. She wants to understand about the greatest mysteries of life. On her journey, she meets Magus, a great teacher of occult practices and tries to learn the language that will help her to make a bridge “from visible world to invisible world and to learn lessons from both the worlds”. She also meets a witch Wicca, who teaches her how to dance to the hidden music of the world. Both the teachers see in her a gift, but they want her to make her own voyage of discovery.

Initially she has certain doubts about her ability to learn, about the ability of her teachers, about the path she has chosen and about her fate. But she never hesitates to plunge in whenever she needs to find about something.

On her path, she faces disappointment, pain, loss, separation, joy, win, love and passion. She tries to learn from all and continues to walk on the path which leads her to attain her goal; a goal to find out Truth.

Dream and Courage are the central motives in Brida also as they were in almost all of his earlier works. Paulo’s main message is again same: “follow your dreams”. He says that at any time, we may have different options. But to chose a right path we need to eliminate wrong ones and this can be done only by exploring all the paths till we come to know the right one. And for that, we should never be afraid to try any path, even if it is wrong because “life is about making mistakes”.

"Once we've got over that initial fear, however, we gradually become accustomed to the only possible solution: to follow our dreams. Having the courage to take the steps we always wanted to take is the only way of showing that we trust in God.”

Paulo also tries to explore different perceptions of love and passion. According to him, love is the only bridge between the visible and the invisible known to everyone. It is the only effective knowledge for translating the lessons that Universe taught to human beings everyday. But love doesn’t mean possessing the lovable; “Love is liberty”. He also accepts the ability of sex to channelise five senses towards absolute cognizance.

Coelho uses the concept of pagan religions, Great Mother, different traditions of sorcery, Soul of the World, tarot cards and other occult practices to create a mystic atmosphere, sometimes to an extent of being gloomy. Interestingly, names of the teachers of two different traditions of sorcery Magus and Wicca represents two different traditions of occult practices in real world. While searching about the symbols used in Brida, I found interesting explanations of Magus and Wicca.

Magi (singular Magus) were a tribe from ancient Media, who were responsible for religious and funerary practices of the ancient Iranian peoples. In English, the term may refer to a shaman, sorcerer or wizard; it is the origin of the words magic and magician. Wicca is a pagan religion with distinctive ritual forms, seasonal observances and religious, magical and ethical precepts. Wiccans practice a form of witchcraft.

Although in his blog Coelho accepts that in Brida, he has tried many themes that are dear to him, such as The Great Mother and pagan religions, I feel he used these mystic symbols and practices to emphasize the importance of faith and ignore the medium to find the Truth. In all his previous works this was clearly reflected. All of his protagonists learnt wisdom on their path irrespective of the extent of the correctness of the path.

Moreover, Coelho has used the path of magic to underline its similarities with the path of life; both are full of mystery. He says:
“The path of magic – like the path of life – is and always will be the path of Mystery. Learning something means coming into contact with a world of which you know nothing. In order to learn, you must be humble.”

The language that Coelho has used in Brida is very simple. And almost all the descriptions are with great detail and this is the detail where beauty lies. The depiction of the forest and fear of Brida, the description of Cathars and the delineation of the jungle viewed from the top of a tree is really wonderful.

Although I liked Brida very much, I felt the messages are repetitive. He uses the same motives and tries to deliver same messages in all his works. Perhaps that’s the reason, his works have been accused of too simple and similar to self help guides. A reader who is not a hardcore fan of Paulo may find Brida a little dull because of these repetitions. One may not even like necromancy as a theme. The first time reader of Coelho may avoid this book. But this is certainly a novel for his fans who love his works despite all unfavorable criticism.

Some memorable quotes from Brida:

"Life is about making mistakes. Never be afraid of making a mistake." pp 252

"No desire is vain and no request is futile." pp 103

"Nothing in this world is ever completely wrong, even a stopped clock is right twice a day." pp 99

"Whenever you want to find out about something, plunge straight in." pp 96

"I must take risks." pp 107-109

"We are responsible for the Universe, because we are the Universe." pp119

"Only the present has power over our lives." pp 122

"Live every thing as intensely as you can and keep whatever you felt as a gift from God." pp 87

“You had to take risks, follow some paths and abandon others. ….. No one could make choice without feeling afraid.” pp98

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.” pp17

"We surrender ourselves fully to each moment , knowing that there is always a hand to guide us, and whether we accept it or not is entirely up to us." pp 173

“We are all masters of our own destiny. We can so easily make the same mistakes over and over. We can so easily flee from everything that we desire and which life so generously places before us.” pp188

"Love don’t require kind of renunciation. True love allowed each person to follow their own path, knowing that they would never lose touch with their Soulmate.”

“I will always remember now that love is liberty. I will always remember you and you will remember me, just as we will remember the evening, the rain on the windows, and all the things we will always have because we cannot possess them."

“What is outside is harder to change than what is inside."

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers India
Cover Price: Rs. 295.00
Format: Paperback
Extent: 304 pages