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Origin of Khoja community

 

There are many versions of the origin of this community. Since, we did not have a regular practice of keeping records there always is a wave of controversy about almost all the matters related to history. We have to depend on either unfounded information carried by mouth and to that added are the references of some old books such as puranas and other ancient literature such as a poetry or a drama. Some people who claim to be authority on such matters come with many other references such as travelogues by foreign travelers. In spite of all this there always is a wind of some controversy about the acceptability of all these theories propagated to explain origins of communities. Today we are going to discuss my findings about the origin of this very important community of Khojas.

 

Sassanid Empire of Iran was the last Zoroastrian kingdom and the explosive growth of the Arab Caliphate coincided with the chaos caused by the defeat of Sassanids in wars with the Byzantine Empire. Most of the country was conquered between AD 643 and 650 with the Battle of Nihawand marking the total collapse of the Sassanids. Arabs defeated Persians and other Iranians and introduced their religion Islam.

 

Yazdgerd III, the last Sassanid emperor, died ten years after he lost his empire to the newly-formed Muslim Caliphate. He tried to recover some of what he lost with the help of the Turks, but they were easily defeated by Muslim armies. Then he sought the aid of the Chinese Tang dynasty. However, the Chinese help did not avail and Arab Muslims ultimately defeated the Chinese forces in the battle of Talas, a century after death of Yazdgerd III. The Umayyad would rule Persia for a hundred years. The Arab conquest dramatically changed life in Persia. Arabic became the new lingua franca, Islam eventually replaced Zoroastrianism, and mosques were built. Most of the Zoroastrians went into hiding to avoid conversion to Islam and those who could not were forcibly converted. 

In 750 the Umayyad were ousted from power by the Abbasid dynasty. By that time, Persians had come to play an important role in the bureaucracy of the empire. The caliph Al-Ma’mun, whose mother was Persian, moved his capital away from Arab lands into Merv in eastern Iran. Almost all people were converted to Islam and in the process a large number of foreigners who were traders from India were also forcibly converted to Islam and in that two communities, from Gujarat of business, called Bhatia and Lohana were involved. During those days Indian businessmen of these two communities were carrying a lot of import and export business with Iran and through that place they were doing trade with other countries up to Greece, Turkey and Rome.

Conversion was an extraneous effect but as they came to India and told the gory tales of what was happening in those countries they casually told about the so-called conversion to Islam of them. Actually nothing particular had happened and the matter could have been canceled out but unfortunately things did not happen that way. The Mahajans of Bhatia community of Gujarat took it in the most erroneous way and told these Bhatias that they are thus excommunicated henceforth. They were a few hundred of them, these innocent people with their families had to accept the foolish verdict of those Mahajan and after that they began to stay separate from the usual colonies of the Bhatias. It is believed that the same fate befell the converted Lohanas who were converted almost during the same period. It is guessed that this happened around 8^th century. The people who were only apparently and not actually at mental level converted were per force made to accept that they are no more Hindus but Muslims, however, in these Bhatias only men were converted and their women and children were still Hindus and as a result they considered themselves as only half Muslims and half Hindus. This attitude of this very proud community gave it many interesting facets in the later period. Even until recently many Khoja ladies continue to worship their chosen god lord Krishna! These converted Bhatias did not accept the idea of Islam that woman is nothing better than a pet and be cared for as that and used as that; this is why most of them still believe that their women are Hindu even though the men are Muslim! Many Khojas used Muslim names in the Muslim countries while in India they still preferred the Hindu names. Over all relations between the Hindu Bhatia mahajans and Muslim Bhatia was not very bad since they still had many common relations. Their relations continued to be cordial. Over the period however, it changed and after a few generations the relations were almost completely severed. This was mainly attributed to the fact that these converted Bhatias had intermarriages with new relations in the Iran and Turkey. Other important reason was that in the mean time the Hindu Bhatias accepted Vaishnava sect of the Hindus and became vegetarians and stopped meat and flesh eating which was their original diet. There is a set of arguments given by some to explain why in those days Bhatia Mahajans accepted Vaishnava cult and that is; during Muslim rule Muslim Bhatias progressed enormously and that began to attract more and more Hindu Bhatias towards them. To save the community from being totally converted to Islam the Mahajans converted the community to the Vaishnava sect. Whereas the Muslim Bhatias were changing in blood and habits at the same time. In spite of all these; one thing remained constant that they were always very proud of their whatever Bhatia pedigree. They did not intermarry with lower class people but insisted that they marry with the people of proper standard only. That way these people continued to maintain their blood quality almost on per with their Hindu counterpart. Bhatia word means warrior or Kshatriya. Bhatias are considered as the most high class amongst the Gujarati people.      

After this very unfortunate incidence these Bhatias continued their business activity in great strength because the Muslim aggression was ever increasing and the success in conquering lands made them all the more important to the new order of rulers. Bhatias became principal suppliers of valuable merchandise to the new Muslim rulers and in that one item was the women!

Amongst many items one item that these people traded in was human slaves! These people would buy slaves and sell them after ferrying them to the markets of proper trade. Amongst them were many women slaves sold by their family to make money. These slaves were mostly sold to the rulers and the nobles from the Muslim community. Very often the sultans and the Khans from these communities would order for good and beautiful woman for their harem. Muslim masters had a very special interest in their harem, they would proudly tell their guests the number of beautiful women they had in it! Since according to Islam a woman is like a pet, not supposed to have any freedom of choice, and will be looked after as that, this practice was very common in those societies as it is understood that this religion is meant for only men and women are to be taken care of as pet, like cats and dogs and nothing more! As pets are well taken care of but still they have a belt or chain in their neck so that they do not escape; similar attitude was found towards women by the men of Muslim communities. It was considered proper and so no body ever objected to that practice. In India we see amongst Brahmins similar attitude towards women and that is explicitly shown in their book, Manusmruti. Bhatia traders would satisfy their clients and for that they were moving places mostly in Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan also some east European countries since the most beautiful women were found in these countries and that too very easily and cheap! They after purchasing these girls would train them to be able to live in their master’s home comfortably. Quite habitually they would buy sisters and one may be sold to a sultan for a good price while the other sister may be accepted by the owner Bhatia as his consort! That way this community came to be related to many rulers. This new relation gave them additional power on the business. The noble bearing and kindheartedness of these people often made them help even their Hindu counterpart since a Khoja never forgets that he is a Bhatia first in fact. The business grew together in that Muslim period for both Bhatias. As these people quite frequently preferred to marry the beautiful slave girls who were very nice to be their wife the community slowly changed in its looks. These converted Bhatias became more decent and beautiful looking and fairer than their Hindu counterpart. As a rule we find that these people are normally good looking, their women are worth watching at, well behaved and kindhearted. A perfectly and highly civilized community indeed. The cruelty of other Muslim groups such as Arab, Pathan, Turk, Tajik and Iranian is not seen in them even though they have their blood in them due to intermarriages. They are mostly Shia but over a period some took to Sunni sect for better business opportunity in that Sunni Muslim world. This is by all standards a perfect business community though; lately we do see some of them taking to career in big businesses at executive level. Such changes are unavoidable.

Why called Khojas?

This name to this community came to be in vogue when they took to supplying wives to the sultans and sardars of the Muslim kingdoms. To search means Khoj in the Persian and so these traders were nicknamed as Khojas meaning those who do the search for the best girls! They were considered as expert in the business. Later on that became the real name of the community. I was told that the Sulemani Khojas are the most original amongst all the Khoja communities. The chief of them is called Agakhan! Interestingly this person never marries in the community because all Khoja women are supposed to be his sisters! This way the blood of this family has already almost completely changed from the original Bhatia strain. I was told that at present the Agakhan is more a European than Indian, also prefers to stay in France.

Lohana community who were converted had similar fate but because their trading items were far removed from those of the Khojas they were called memon. Similar things might have happened within them; and to protect Lohanas from being converted to Islam their Mahajans preferred to convert to Vaishnava sect; and become vegetarians. Originally Lohanas are vaishiya, meaning traders.

In Gujarat three important business communities are found and they are, Bhatia, Lohana and Bania. Bhatia and Lohana were mostly in import, export, and big business since ancient times while Bania are always in the local trade, mostly shop and such small business. In later period as Jainism spread overriding Vaishnava cult, Banias converted to that faith.   

 

 

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Wonder Economics of Pakistan

 

 

This is an incident happened almost thirty years ago. In those days I was working and for some work I had gone to a place called Bhendi bazaar in Mumbai. While I was standing on the road near a shop and talking with the shop keeper I saw two boys and one of them was mercilessly beating the other boy. The other boy was almost bleeding from his mouth and shouting for help. To my surprise no body in the vicinity was bothered about that. While I was watching I saw that a decent Parsee gentleman was passing by and at that moment the other boy who was bleeding approached him crying and asked him to help him. The Parsee gentleman intervened and stopped the other boy; on enquiring he came to know that the boy being beaten owed the other boy some 25 rupees and unless he gets that he was going to hit that boy. On hearing this story the Parsee gentleman took out his wallet and took out 25 rupees and giving that money he warned the boy not to hit him again. The other boy promised not to hit him since he got his money. The Parsee fellow went away and then to my shock I saw both the boys smiling to each other and playing as if nothing had happened; then they shared the booty. I could not understand the whole affair and so I asked the shop keeper what is this all. He, with a mischievous smile, told me that it is the way of fooling people and these boys make some 100 to 200 rupees in this way every day. In the meantime, I saw they had again started the game but this time the boy who was getting beating was now beating and the other boy was getting the hammering. On enquiry I was told the names of the boys were Abdul and Yaasin.

 

Bhendi bazaar is called mini-Pakistan of Mumbai. Now I remembered it because when we read of the clash of so called AlQaeda and Pakistan forces fighting each other and the US intervening and offering help in billions of Dollars; I saw some resemblance in the two instances. Abdul is AlQaeda and Yaasin the Pakistani forces and the gentleman Parsee is the US government, and I got the shock of my life to understand the game. Well, it is the same game they are playing these days in Pakistan which the two boys were playing some thirty years ago at Bhendi bazaar or mini-Pakistan. 

 

Friends, have you got the idea of the Pakistani wonder economics? No, not understood! No problem, I shall explain it to you. Here it goes; pretending to the world that AlQaeda are fighting in Pakistan for nothing sensible but fighting and killing some ordinary people on the street. Occasionally exploding bombs to kill innocent people and in that to kill if possible some foreigners and in this way to create a picture of great commotion. At that Pakistan will begin to shout about the great danger of AlQaeda possibly taking over the region and by that to make US and those allies keep worrying about the peace in that region. When the impression is properly created stupid US diplomats come to offer 100 billion Dollar or more in help to surmount the problem! Pakistan gets the help and the game is over for the time being! After some time again the trouble begins under some other pretext again Pakistan starts to cry aloud and redeemer US comes with some more billion Dollars to Pakistan. I was told that by this method Pakistan has almost made at least one thousand billion Dollars so far.

 

To earn this money any country would have had to do so much of manufacture and so much of marketing efforts and so much of infrastructure building no body can imagine of! Pakistan is earning this money just by killing some useless and worthless Pakistani citizens, occasionally destroying some building by some powerful bomb blast the cost of which is very small; since the cost of life of any number of Pakistani nationals is zero, and the cost of broken house could be around some few thousand rupees. So the total investment, liability and risk in the venture are very small and as against that small investment Pakistan is getting a lot of Dollars and over and above that great sympathy! So that the same game can be played over and over again and again to make money - free money! So friends, how do you like this new wonder economics of Pakistan. I am overwhelmed! Hats off to Pakistani economist who invented this method of making quick money.

 

Yes, what about the last part of the game, mischievous smirk of Abdul and Yaasin after the Parsee went away? Of course, both AlQaeda and Pakistani politicians must be enjoying the last laugh on the stupid US diplomats; sharing the booty!

 

Pakistan playing innocent to the US, crying hoarse against India as if India is doing all the bad things on earth and US like a real permanent fool keeps on believing that drama of Pakistan; this is going on for many years and I feel it will continue like that for some more time until some really intelligent man comes to take over and replace the present idiot government of USA!

 

China needed a quarter century to earn one thousand billion Dollar reserves; India is struggling hard to get near this figure but in vain; whereas Pakistan has earned it in just about a few years, ten or so! If this game goes on like this a time will come when Pakistan will be a rich nation without any industry or any sensible development plan of any value.

 

Some times I wonder how these US diplomats are being fooled by this Pakistani game; then I feel some US officers may be getting commission from Pakistan to continue this money making game! I am sure it is a big racket. Making ruler-class of Pakistan very rich while the gentry remaining as poor as anything. I feel no economist in this world has ever thought of this unique method of making quick money. We know various types of economic schools but in none this method is explained. I christen it ‘Wonder Economics of Pakistan’. 

 

 

 

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Maldives can be saved

This time we are thinking about a serious problem, one of our friendly nations and a member of SARC countries, Maldives is facing.

President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives government announced last year; plans to look into purchasing new land in India, Sri Lanka and Australia, due to his concerns about global warming and the possibility of much of the islands being inundated with water from rising sea levels. Current estimates place sea level rise at 59 centimeters (23 in) by the year 2100. He said;

“We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades”.  

To resolve this problem I suggest following remedy. I do not think that they will have to shift anywhere if they raise the ground level by method given below. Before we read my suggestion let us first know some basic information about this archipelago, in Maldivian language Atoll.    

Basic information about this archipelago

The Maldives consists of approximately 1,190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls (a Maldivian language word, meaning ‘a ring shaped coral islands’), along the north-south direction, spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometers, making this one of the most disparate countries in the world. The atolls are composed of live coral reefs and sand bars, situated atop a submarine ridge 960 kilometers long that rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean and runs from north to south. Only near the southern end of this natural coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship navigation from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other through the territorial waters of Maldives. For administrative purposes the Maldives government organized these atolls into twenty one administrative divisions. The largest island of Maldives is Gan, which belongs to Laamu Atoll or Hahdhummathi Maldives. In ‘Addu Atoll’ the westernmost islands are connected by roads over the reef and the total length of the road is 14 km.

The Maldives holds the record for being the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 meters (7 ft 7 in), with the average being only 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, although in areas where construction exists, this has been increased to several meters. The reef is composed of coral debris and living coral. This acts as a natural barrier against the sea, forming lagoons. Other islands set at a distance and parallel to the reef, have their own protective fringe of reef. An opening in the surrounding coral barrier allows access to the calmer lagoon waters. The barrier reefs of the islands protect them from the storms and high waves of the Indian Ocean.

A layer of humus 152-millimeter (6.0 in) -thick forms the top layer of soil on the islands. Below the humus layer are 2 feet (0.61 m) of sandstone, followed by sand and then fresh water. Due to high levels of salt in the soil near the beach, vegetation is limited there to a few plants such as shrubs, flowering plants and small hedges. In the interior of the island, more vegetation such as mangrove and banyan grow. Coconut palms, the national tree, are able to grow almost everywhere on the islands and are integral to the lifestyle of the population.

Climate

Two seasons dominate Maldives’ weather; the dry season associated with the winter northeast monsoon and the rainy season brought by the summer southwest monsoon. In Maldives, the wet southwest monsoon lasts from the end of April to the end of October and brings strong winds and storms. The annual rainfall averages 2,540 millimeters (102 inch) in the north and 3,810 millimeters (158 inch) in the south. Because of eight months of rainy season potable water is not a serious problem. Proper storage of water makes the country suitable for hotel business. Waste disposal to avoid environmental hazards will be done by first compacting the waste material into pressed cakes and then those cakes will be lowered in the sea within the region of the coral reef.

Environmental issues

Over the last century, sea levels have risen about 20 centimeters (8 in); further rises of the ocean could threaten the existence of Maldives, being the lowest country in the world, with a maximum natural ground level of only 2.3 meters (7 ft 7 in), with the average being only 1.5 meters (4 ft 11 in) above sea level. However, around 1970, the sea level there dropped 20–30 centimeters (8–12 in).

To resolve this problem, Basic concept details

After knowing the basic information of the island we can work out the plan to raise the ground level of this archipelago. Fundamental method that will be used is to first build a barricade of large sized boulders (average weight 200 kg.) on the periphery of each island. Height of the boulder wall will be about 20 feet and width also about 20 feet. after placing boulders in position using cranes the gaps in between the rocks will be filled by concrete mix. Top will be finished with stone slabs and the sides will be plastered with concrete rich in cement (water proof) no steel will be used in the construction of this wall. A gap of 40 feet is kept between the actual shore and the wall out side surface like a terrace. This will be filled with heavy boulders (average weight 500 kg.) to make a buffer so that the thrashing water waves will be arrested and the wall will be saved from the ravaging effects of the waves.

We expect that the coral shall grow in due course on these rocks and the wall; build the natural binding to make them last long; that means no special measures will be required to maintain this buffer.

After the barricade is completely built, the surface of the ground which is naturally coated with humus is scraped and kept in heaps on one side. The opened sandstone ground surface is now filled with imported sand and soil up till one foot below the top level (20 feet) of the bordering barricade. The fillings are compacted by rolling. After the compacting sand and soil filling, original top soil of humus which has been removed and kept, will be spread over it; again roller pressed and the ground is created. After this bore well are done to get the rain water that is stored within the sandstone below. 

How to get material

Indian coast is the near most and so primarily we can say that Indian main land material will be sold for the purpose. This will save the cost of ferry. Indian contractors from Kerala and Mangalore will do the work. If proved cheap, sand filling may be brought from the Arabian Gulf and soil from Sri Lanka (Ceylon).  

How to finance

According to one estimate the total cost could be about 120 billion USD. Maldives government can issue bonds in the international market; each bond of 100 USD. At the interest suitably calculated. To pay back the loan money Maldives island nation will have a few options,

• To encourage tourism,
• To encourage free port market economy on the line as Dubai,
• To develop economy based on casinos like Monaco at France.

All these three can be encouraged and that will earn enough revenue to repay the loan with interest. In view of the fact that, all the three options suggested here are prone to damage basic cultural values of this country it is recommended that these activities shall be allowed on certain islands where local people do not regularly live. Connecting these islands by a regular yatch ferry service so that local people will be going to work on the islands but will not stay there. This will help keep the privacy of the people intact. If free port market economy is encouraged a few important jobs will have to be done by foreign people, they will stay on those islands and they will not stay on islands where local people are living. This will help avoid cultural pollution of which particularly Islamic societies are wary.

I expect the work will take at least 20 years to complete the barricade and land filling and repayment may be completed in about 60 years hence.

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Profitable wars

 

War and human history are intimately related and there will not be a single event in the history of any human society without a war. Today we shall be considering economics of war. You may wonder what I mean by that; as we know that all activities of human society are controlled by one element and that is economics. Per se, even a war cannot be considered without its economics. In consequence automatically factors like profit and loss or even, come up to explain the exact results of the war. I mean to say, a war is either profitable, loosing or even. Even means neither profit nor loss. When the wars are profitable the kingdom who wedges the war on other kingdom prospers; when looses the war, it declines. When the war is even, usually they have negotiation to settle the issues that caused the war.

 

Other aspect concerning a war is; how to finance the war. Napoleon had said that, an army walks on its stomach. This was other way to suggest that a war is an expensive bargain. In this we find after studying many examples of wars that the finance of a war is a very important issue. A well-financed war is seldom at loss. Almost all the loosing wars are found to be not well financed. One example is that of war at Panipat wedged between Abdally of Afghanistan and the Marathas of Maharashtra. Marathas lost the war to Abdally and by record, one can say that it was end of the Maratha supremacy in India. That war was very expensive and it was a big problem for the Sadashivrao the commander of the Maratha army to arrange the finance. The local moneylenders from Delhi did not give money to Sadashivrao at the request of the East India Company. He offered the expensive ornaments he was carrying to them as surety but even after that they refused him the credit. As a result Sadashivrao had to hire services of local inexpensive garrison made of untrained and ill experienced combatant. They were fighting against the well-prepared and experienced forces of the Afghan king and the result was evident, Marathas lost the war. It is said that if the Maratha army had proper finance they would hire services of the best Maratha soldiers from nearby Maratha kingdoms and the results would have been otherwise! In many wars fought all over the world we find that many coalitions amongst the groups are essentially based on the finance and not on any other principle such as nationalism, patriotism and self-respect.

 

When I was studying economics of East India Company, who subdued all Indian kings and finally took over the seat of power in India very honorable by the expressed consent of defeated kings, I find that almost all the wars played by this company were not financed by any money from England but that they were financed by Indian money lenders! Not only that but the army who fought for the Company were mostly Indian soldiers, well paid out of the borrowed money from the Indian Money lenders and as a result they were winning everywhere. East India Company was very well known to Indian moneylenders for prompt repayments and without any hassles. Other Indian rulers were at times very nasty and dangerous with these moneylenders on loosing the war. Some Muslim rulers were so bad that they would even kill the moneylender on his demanding the interest on the loan they had taken to finance the war. Many kings would either avoid or delay payments; all these things had made Indian financers weary of Indian Kings both Hindu and Muslims. We know the event of Shivaji, The founder of the Maratha dynasty, having looted Surat city; that was because moneylenders from that place refused him finance for the war! Those moneylenders were not sure of his creditability! Shivaji could not convince them of his good intentions may be due to lack of relationship. For them nation and freedom were not the concern, they were merely interested in return, who ever paid them well, they favored! May be the concept of freedom, of Shivaji, was not understood by them due to ambiguity. Some historians say the concept of nationality and “to be proud of your nation” were absent; probably they were introduced in our people after we learned western ideologies! Moreover Shivaji was an alien king to the Gujarati traders who had very good rapport with then ruler of Gujarat who was brother-in-law of Aurangajeb! Concept of freedom from foreign rule was also not well understood by those people from Surat and all these things caused non co-operation from these moneylenders. The concept of India as one nation was also not known to these lenders, because all these modern ideas were introduced in our people only after the British taught us the western concept of nationalism, patriotism and political freedom. Until that time India was only a geographic entity and had no political connotation. One other reasoning proposed is that these moneylenders were confident that this Shivaji will not be able to succeed against the Mogul rulers and so they refused the money. Finally, Shivaji attacked Surat, looted it; and that gave birth to the permanent animosity amongst the Gujaratis and the Maharashtrians until today! Shivaji could finance many battles with that money and finally built his kingdom! It is believed that most of the skirmishes done by Maratha warriors were profitable wars; each one earned fabulous wealth making Shivaji a worthy conqueror in the end.   

 

Some Maratha kings would prefer to give away portion of land to the moneylenders as against the interest and the principal amount; those lands were very uncomfortable to the lenders because those lands were either far away or not suitable to hold. All these things were not done by the Company and therefore most of the lenders were very happy with the Company. I can say with some confidence that this was one very important reason for the success of this East India Company in India; they were honest with the moneylenders! In Calcutta, it is seen that there were competitions amongst the lenders to finance the Company! A large part of the loot Company army would do after the conquest was used to repay the loan and interest. The policy of the Company was simple, they held the rule so that they could tax the people and make profits for the posterity. The moneylenders had no disapproval to that looting as they knew the return of the loan is done out of that loot! Many a times they recommended looting their opponents in the conquered region! Economics of war was different in those days; it was more guided by above given views of return and repayment of loan, since the concept of economics was very different in those days. Nation, patriotism all these ideas were alien to them. All wars were considered as private wars and theory of national war was not known.

 

Wars financed by the country to enslave itself were a very surprising and astonishing findings, I had made during the study. One more interesting fact that became very clear to me was that, even army who fought to subdue local rulers were made of local mercenaries. Most of them were fighting on contract with the Company. Company paid them well and also allowed them to loot the conquered province freely. That way the mercenaries were doubly compensated. All these policies of the Company made the wars very profitable! The Company on winning the country changed its attitude towards the mercenaries who were prone to do the looting everywhere, they were declared criminal tribes and banished them! Soldiers or Sipoys were recruited on meager salaries, one record shows that a Sipoys was paid only rupees 18 per month while the European officer drew 1800/- Rupees per month. India was drained of its wealth gradually. One more interesting thing to be noted is that the local rulers were paying only Rs. 4/- to their soldiers! One can understand why the Company was winning all over.    

 

I studied other wars financed by the warring party by its own money; they were found to be less profitable particularly, if they were fought by the army of the same party and not hired local mercenaries. In many such self-financed wars the defeat was terminating the kingdom permanently. When local mercenaries fought, only those who survived, were paid and the rest who died had fought for free! This made war finance all the more profitable. As for salaried soldiers, even after death some payments were made and that added to the cost of the war.

 

I concluded after my study that the grand success of the British in India can be attributed to this policy. Today wars are not financed that way and so they are becoming very expensive. Wars are no more profitable to the subjugators and so they are talking of peaceful negotiations to settle the issues. Nevertheless we are going to keep army and other forces, since that is the need of the situation.

 

A new concept of war called economic wars and economic aggression are developed by countries like US to hold sway over the world. In this new concept MNC are important to work as arms of that government. World Bank and IMF are other handy tools to support the MNCs. These concepts of economic empire are mooted by US. Presently what we see going on in the world is connected with this activity. Profitability of economic wars is dubious. In conventional wars two parties are clearly demarked whereas in this economic war that is not possible. To make it possible we often see that all US, MNCs insist on governmental protection to their entry in an alien country by making various so-called international obligations compulsory (structural adjustments, Conditionality) on that country to which, US based MNCs want to loot by trade agreements. Utilizing local laws to protect US interests; it is somewhat similar to using local mercenaries to fight local power! The British formula in modifies form!

 

Recently a unique war affair has been noticed and that is between Saudi Arabia and US. I have discussed it in my article “Saudi designs in Pakistan to fool US”. This war affair is unique in the sense; it does not kill people or financially destroy them or even does not destroy property. This war affair devastates minds of the opponent party. We may call it psychical war; Saudi diplomats are fighting this war via Pakistan with US for many years. Involving US forces and war equipment in fighting so called AlQaeda insurgents. I consider this is by far the most remarkably efficient method of war to finish the opponent. Such wars will be always profitable since the monetary involvement is at the minimal and risk of causality and loss of property is nil. This war affair is based on the principle that human activities are guided and monitored by the minds and if the mind is weak the activity is weak and so can be overcome. Warring nation equipped with the best arsenal and other paraphernalia but not mentally prepared to war can be defeated by other nation with lesser quality arsenal and paraphernalia but fully geared to fight. That means the fight is at the mental level; more important than actual physical fight. In the example of Saudi versus US we see Saudi initiating it on US without US knowing about it. A perfect example of psychical war.

 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

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Saudi designs in Pakistan to fool US

 

 

Considering the present position of Dollar we know that Dollar will never be able to come to that previous position to serve as standard international currency for exchange. The news of US government wanting to print clandestinely, additional 5 trillion dollars to overcome present problem and the fear expressed by China, at G20 meat at London, about the falling real value of US Dollar the problem of medium of exchange for international trade is going to be a serious one. Many economists are working to find out how this problem can be resolved successfully. 

 

There are two possible solutions, out of them one is to get US Dollar its previous position and the other option is that the world accepts new currency of strength as international exchange medium. The first option is all that every body concerned is hoping for; but the news we get about the manner in which US government is trying to do things it is becoming all the more clear that the overconfidence which has caused this dismal state of affairs for Dollar has not abated a little bit. This shall ultimately make all nations in the world including allies of US to abandon any hopes of revival of US Dollar. The other option is not any difficult to accept and for that we should begin to survey various currencies and get to the one which has strength. I have done my individual study and in that I came to know some very interesting and encouraging facts. Here I wish to share them with you.

 

I am of the opinion that Dinar of Saudi Arabia could serve as a suitable alternative. The strength of Dinar is very good and it is very stable amongst all the currencies of the world. Before we review the possibility of Dinar to replace Dollar we should take a note of the clandestine activities of Saudi in Pakistan to weaken US, economically. This inquiry is important to Indians because, that concerns power balance in the Middle East and the subcontinent.

 

If you remember a few weeks ago I had published my dialogue with four Arab businessmen. They were from Saudi Arabia. While talking with them I came to know quite a few things; in that they elaborated how Saudi are manipulating things in Pakistan and Afghanistan region to keep US government engaged in a Machiavellian trap to reduce its strength and develop in it a feeling of uncertainty about its capacity as a superpower! I am telling hear what the trap is.

 

Really speaking the trap is very deep and planned to hold US in a fix so that it can not move much. To understand the plan we should know a little about the recent history of things happening in that region. We know that alQaeda was primarily developed and encouraged to fight USSR forces in Afghanistan by US diplomats. After that war was over, immediately, Saudi diplomats entered the scene in the masquerade as Islamic revolutionary with Laden as the front man. Every body knows that Laden was a hand of Saudi kings men, even though they often pretended to be opposite; just to fool US intelligence (?). If one carefully studies the activities of this so called Islamic outfit, some things become very clear and one of them is that; how is it that in a totally Islamic country an agitation in the name of Islamic revivalism is at all possible? Another one point to be noted is that all the fights of these people are confined to a certain area in the region and that is the province of Waziristan bordering on the two countries and the surrounding region of Swat. We seldom hear about these fighters going in other provinces like Punjab, Multan or Sindhh in Pakistan. Waziristan province is known for such fights since time immemorial. The Waziry and Pashtun tribes take pride in keeping on such fights to show that they are resistant to opposition and also to show valor. It has nothing to do with Islam; they have been doing this since the pre-Islamic period. The only difference is that presently these fights, which are essentially local skirmishes, are getting international publicity as ‘AlQaeda resistance’ and that makes people all over the world think that something new is happening!

 

Saudi plan goes this way, Pakistan to show to the US politicians that these skirmishes are done by AlQaeda forces; so that US continuously keeps bothered about it. That way clever Pakistan keeps on extracting as much as possible military aid from US. Very little or none is used in these fights. Obviously since these fights are not to bother about, they are a usual occurrences in that region. Recent confession by the earlier president of that country, that the aid from US is mainly used to strengthen Pakistani army on the borders of India. Pakistanis and their mentor Saudi are having laughed at the way US is bothered about these phony AlQaeda fights. All the information to US intelligence is primarily supplied by Pakistani intelligence, US does not have independent espionage activity in that country to give unbiased information; as such Pakistan can fool US easily. A few journalists prodding that region were killed to stop any genuine investigation that US papers may do.

 

The Arab businessmen told me that the so-called AlQaeda militants are just a decoy! They are good friends of the Pakistan government and by arrangement they are to pretend to the world that they are fighting for Islam! Occasionally a few people are killed and that too by the US air attacks and not by Pakistani forces, but then that is the part of such political games everywhere. Pakistan always pretends to be fighting against these people but in actual they do not. Most of the killing is being done by the US forces. This arrangement is keeping US totally engaged in the warfare in that region, having telling effect on present US economy. They told me that this show will go on until US understand the conspiracy however at present we see that US diplomats have up till now not got even the slightest idea that this is a trap to keep them engaged in that region and that it is set by Saudi!

 

Why should Saudi? I asked, what is the advantage to Saudi in that matter?

 

Saudi wants their powerful currency to replace Dollar so that they can establish Arab Supremacy on the world commerce; at present US is not allowing anybody to substitute Dollar. By exhausting US in such skirmishes they hope to achieve that!

 

Simple method of exhausting the superpower.

 

Saudi want to get rid of US clutches on it and wants to have the freedom to sell their oil in the open market, they also want proper price for the oil, which is not possible at present. Saudi are not militarily anywhere around this US power and so this method is used to exhaust its stamina and also kill its confidence that it can beat any body in this world. As far as military competency is concerned it is debated that in ancient times Mongols were the most untiring fighters after that the Pathan, who are part of this region are rated as the most untiring fighters. In India Maratha are known to be similar as recorded by both Mogul and British conquerors. Americans are least capable of sustained fights and so this plan; to keep the American soldiers at fight until they are exhausted physically and mentally. The plan is very well made and is based on study of human capacities as warriors. At present we see that Americans are using automatically working planes to target the places but soon these tribal people shall learn to blow apart these fighter planes and that training will be imparted to them by none other than the Pakistan army! For that Pakistani army will first learn the short comings of the gadget. Keeping US intelligentsia at bay!   

 

After that what?

 

Saudi are good friends of all the important Pakistani politicians and actually they work for the Saudi interests in their country. Those who genuinely opposed Saudi influence in Pakistan like Mrs. Bhutto are done away with the way Bhutto was killed. Bhutto’s husband is good friend of the Saudi and so he is doing well.

 

Unluckily for the US, present time is not favorable. Their economic condition is, day by day in stead of improving, declining. Recent meeting between the Federal Bank of America chief and the President Obama has established this fact. In that, this unwanted fight in an alien country where US has no immediate concern at all. But it has become a prestige issue for the US. The way they retreated in Vietnam, if they do now the world will scoff at it and that this very proud country will not put up with.

 

To thwart this foul play of Saudi, what US should do.

 

Well, since it has become a prestige issue it is very difficult to withdraw military presence in that region unceremoniously. Notwithstanding, US can openly declare that it is the problem of that region and they should handle it the way they want and withdraw forthwith. My Arab friends told me; that is unlikely due to many commitments US has towards NATO and such other international agreements. One more sensitive thing they told me and that is concerning our India, they told me that US in collaboration with Pakistan has done many clandestine activities to disturb peace and stability in our country just to appease Pakistan. If in future US threaten to withdraw their involvement in that region under whatever pretext, Pakistan will blackmail US to continue or else all those covert activities against India particularly related to counterfeit currency printing will be exposed to the world; destroying position of that country in the world society. Since Pakistan is already known to be a thug country to the world it has nothing to loose in the process. US cannot afford to accept that and so they told me that America will have to continue its involvement in that region until it is fully exhausted and finished. Saudi’s are confident of their plan. American military experts have asked for more troops of armed forces to be deployed in that region to combat the AlQaeda. That means more innocent young US men will be killed like real idiots at the hands of political jokers of that country! More young widows and more orphans and resultant demoralization of that society; and all this for what??

 

I suggest, if it is difficult to withdraw unceremoniously then US president should hold opinion poll as they did at the Viet Nam war and American people preferred to withdraw and the withdrawal took place; similarly as situation is more or less similar now again president should go for opinion poll. I am sure people will vote in favor of the withdrawal.    

 

I was all appreciation for the way Saudi’s have made the plan to subdue US indirectly using Pakistan. We all were enjoying the game Saudi were playing with US and laughing whole heartedly. Saudi has made US a big joker; I said to them and at that, they all enjoyed it, we were cutting comments and that was good fun. Saudi is obviously wedging a silent war on USA via Pakistan.

 

Pakistan will as well use China as excuse to frighten US and out of that fright we expect, US shall continue its involvement in that region, which is the plan of Saudi diplomats. Earlier Pakistan had used USSR as excuse to frighten US and it worked! All these things clearly indicate that US is not mature enough to handle the problems of the old world. Pakistan, a very poor and ordinary country, appears to be smarter than US. 

 

In spite of the Arab opinion I am still of the view that if US withdraws from Pakistan the way I said and also stop giving monetary help under any pretext to that country; Saudi will realize that US are smart and not fools; that will help US control their downfall. As for alleged involvement in, counterfeit currency printing, any accusation from Pakistan can be destabilized since the world knows that Pakistan is a country without any position, a thug, as mentioned earlier and so that will not matter at all. Another important point is that counterfeit currency within the country does not destabilize the economy of that country.  

 

Lastly I can say one thing, US has great scientists but stupid economists and childish politicians (I call them American jokers); what the society of scientists gave to that country, these silly economists and childish politicians are going to squander and ultimately loose. May God bless this unlucky country and save it from the hands of those economists and politicians on this auspicious occasion of Diwali!

 

 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

 

ashokkothare@gmail.com

 

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

 

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

 

You may visit, Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.    

Diwali and the crackers

 

 

Diwali or we call this festival Deepawali meaning the festival of lamps was under my studies some years ago. I was wondering since when did this crackers was introduced during this festival. My search showed to me that nowhere else were crackers played except in the city of Mumbai. Very old records did not show any practice of exploding crackers during Diwali festivals in any other part of the country even though fire works to show lights were quiet common in places like Mysore.

 

More search revealed that four decent communities were invited by the East India Company to come and settle in this town of Bombay and help build it. These communities were already in the contact with this company. Pathare Prabhu community who was also having landed properties in the islands of this Mumbai, Bhatia community mainly from Surat and Parsee also from Surat had come and joined the administration of the East India Company and the business. The other two are from originally Goa and they had come along with a big financer, well known as Nana Shankara Seth. His community of Devadnya accompanied him, was the fourth community invited by the East India Company to join but along with the Devadnya came the Saraswat or smartha Brahmins totaling five groups, later on Khojas joined after the town of Bombay was successfully functioning. The original inhabitants of the island, the humble folks from koli and Bhandari had no contribution to the building of the modern city according to the plans of the Company excepting for providing the labor and servants to serve these more civilized communities. What we call Mumbai’s culture and style was developed by these four communities along with the British.

 

Amongst these five decent class communities only Pathare Prabhu community had the practice of exploding crackers and no other community did it. Why Pathare Prabhus had this practice was the topic of my research. After elaborate research I found that originally these people did not explode crackers at all! The original practice was of firing guns on the occasion of coronation of Lord Bali on the day of Varsha pratipada or popularly known as Balipratipada day, the third day of the festival.

 

Almost every family had a small gun made of brass having a barrel ten inches long pointing slightly upwards to the horizon equipped with the two wheels to move the gun. It was a sort of toy gun but all functioning. The ceremony was to fill the gun with gun powder and keep it ready to declare the coronation of the lord Bali in the early hours on that day. A puja would be performed by the ladies of the house, all members of the family and the friends in their best attire along with the servants who were mostly from the kunbi community were all ready to blow the gun. On declaration of the coronation of the lord Bali, who as given in the mythology ruled only for a very small period of three hours, the guns were fired. There were many round of the fire to celebrate his coronation. At times 20 to fifty were fired to celebrate the occasion. After that the usual fire works to illuminate was performed and thus the festival was enjoyed. There used to be a competition amongst the neighbors in the Pathare Prabhu people to give maximum fires and more the merrier was the game. Pathare Prabhu community believed that Lord Bali is one of their ancestors and so to commemorate his memories the gun fire was performed. Firing guns has been otherwise also a custom even today to honor the arrival of the royal guest.

 

Around 1920 Chinese crackers became available in the market. Loading the gun and firing was not an easy task and so these crackers gradually replaced the gun fire. It was easy and even women, children could enjoy cracking them, and so the crackers became more popular. As crackers became available other communities also joined but that was as late as 1950 and onwards. Now every body enjoys cracking fires. Ironically today we see that more fire is done on other days and the Balipratipada day is comparatively silent! It looks; the concept of Bali pratipada is special only to this community of Pathare Prabhus.

 

As Govinda during Gokulashthami was introduced by the Pathare Prabhu culture, this is yet another contribution to the culture of Mumbai by this community. 

 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

 

ashokkothare@gmail.com

 

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

 

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You may visit blog Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.    

Rain water harvesting

Rain water harvesting is a new concept in management of rain water. Everybody observes that the water of rain flows down the line and is wasted away causing other spoils such as soil erosion. Nobody bothered about it for all these years but ever since we experience water shortage the concept of preserving this rain water where it falls became quite popular amongst the environmentalists. In this article we shall see various ways and means of doing this preservation of this rain water and also the limitations and scope of this technique.

After many experiments five methods of preserving this water were developed and they are recommended according to different situations of the rain water and the terrain on which it is incident.

 

City rain water: rocky ground   method 1.

Rain water falling on buildings and streets is usually drained away into the sewerage line and in that way it is disposed off like sewer. However, lately we found that our cities are finding water shortage for other applications than drinking and they are bath, washing clothes, cleaning pots and flooring, gardening, cleaning of cars and other vehicles and so on and so forth. To solve this shortage of water people drilled bore wells and began to use underground water; this eventually exhausted the supply of this underground water. Some body came with the idea that if rain water is allowed to get into these bore wells or even other regular open wells it may replenish the supply of water to the underground water stock and eventually it will help solve the water problem. On trying out the concept it was found to be helpful to some extent. Special contrivances were mooted to achieve this and that a method is developed to preserve rain water.

This method of preserving water has following steps, 1. Collect water by putting pipes, 2. Pass the water while being collected through a filter system to separate any rubbish and dust that comes with that water, 3. Collect that water in a suitably sized tank made on ground with water proof bottom also covered by a thick protective cover with a manhole, 4. A bore well or preferably two are drilled at the bottom of that tank with the openings protruding about 30 cm. above the floor level of the tank, 5. At a certain level in that tank additional opening is provided and the pipe from that is connected to the regular sewer pipe.

 

Function of this method 1

Rain water is passed through the pipe lines coming from the buildings and the surrounding areas of the building and collected in the tank after passing it through the filters. Filters clean the water and only cleaned rain water is collected in the tank. Any residual rubbish in the water that could pass the filter system will settle on the bottom of the tank and only clean water will enter into the one or two bores provided in the tank. If there is heavy and incessant rain the tank will feel and begin to overflow because the rate at which water can be infused is less than that of rain input at that situation tank must be vacated through the sewer pipe. Usually rains are intermittent and so this arrangement works satisfactorily. Excellent quality filters are recommended here.

 

City rain water: soil ground method 1b.

 

 

Method 2b

 

 

 

In this alternative arrangement tank is having fully covered waterproof quoting so that water does not seep through it’s walls or the bottom. And at the same time it has a bore well or two in it’s bottom. These tanks can be used as swimming pool during rainy seasons and so they are recommended for a colony. After rainy season this tank works as a tennis or badminton court or play ground. If this is used in a colony and not enough space in available then tree cover recommended may be avoided. Very good quality filters are required on this tank.

Selection of these alternatives depends upon the condition of water, rainfall, topography, surrounding needs of the water and such other many conditions. Size of the tank is designed according to the rainfall, water conditions of the underground water table and water utility in that place.

Filters

In rainwater harvesting filters are very important. If correctly designed filters are not used clogging of the bore well tubes could be the serious problem.  

Inverted filter beds are more common in these filters. Figure given here is of one type of filter. Where water comes from one tube and first settled in the tank of appropriate size. There rubbish settles at the bottom. As water rises it gradually leaks through the side perforations of proper size to allow water to pass into the tank. Many different designs of filters can be used as per the requirement.

Water table decides the efficiency of the bore well replenishing. If the water table is near the ground, harvesting is fast otherwise slow.  

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

 ashokkothare@gmail.com

 You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

You may visit blog Freedom of Expression for intelligent discussions.   

 

Marathas of Maharashtra

 

There are many versions of the origin of this community. Since, we did not have a regular practice of keeping records there always is a wave of controversy about almost all the matters related to history. We have to depend on either unfounded information carried by mouth and to that added are the references of some old books such as puranas. Some people who claim to be authority on such matters come with many other references such as travelogues by foreign travelers. In spite of all this there always is a wind of some controversy about the acceptability of all these theories propagated to explain origins of communities. Today we are going to discuss my findings about the origin of this very important community of Maharashtra State.

 

When I decide to investigate about the origin of this community my first interest was to find out what is the present conventional theory for that. I was told by many a scholars that this community is the descendents of ancient Kshatriya community which was having 96 “kula” or in English we may call “family”. It is popularly believed that these 96 kulas were of pure Aryan origin and that they ruled then existing earth, or to put it in other terms, we may say India. They were followers of king called Kartaveerya and the history as given in the puranas or in some versions of Mahabharata epic are; these families refused to accept dominance of the Brahmin community and at times even punished erring Brahmins. In those days Brahmins were very powerful but these Kshatryas of Kartaveerya challenged that authority. It is further said in those scriptures that Brahmins were very much annoyed by this outrageous behaviour of these rulers and wanted to destroy them. It was not an easy task. At that time one person called Parshuram belonging to the Brahmins of Konkan who was very good in war affairs and was very much confident that he can do it; came forward and accepted the challenge. He eventually destroyed all the Kartaveerya Kshatriya save some 27 families who could successfully escape Parshuram’s attack. It is believed that those 27 families fled to eastern part of India and Nepal.  

 

On successfully destroying almost all these Kshatryas, Parshuram held a meeting of Brahmins and declared that all Kshatryas have been destroyed and he wanted to be blessed. To his surprise not a single Brahmin was ready to bless him and this behaviour of these Brahmins infuriated Parshuram. He roared and on that all Brahmins were truly alarmed. Finally a very frail and old Brahmin who was as bad as dead already; attempted to stand and spoke to Parshuram, “there still is one Kshatriya to be annihilated”. On hearing this Parshuram without further ado understood that this remark is referring to him and no body else! This revelation shocked him and he realized that these Brahmins have fooled him. He began to recollect the best qualities of those Kartaveerya Kshatryas and began to lament for the blunder he had done at the instance of these callous Brahmins. He immediately left the meeting and it is believed that after that no body saw Parshuram since it is popularly considered that he went for final penance.

 

This anecdote I gave here in detail to show that the 96 kulas are long wiped out and there is no chance that the present Maratha community could have been the descendents of these Kshatryas. When I was convinced of this; I understood that the real origin of this community is somewhere else. Hereafter I began to search for any pliable theory that may explain the origin of the community and decided to go into the details about how various communities came in Maharashtra. Primarily I found that as of this land there were only three communities settled and one may consider them as the most original inhabitants of this land. They are Mahaar, Kolis and Kunbis. Out of them Kunbis are the one who are the original people who made communities of adivasis (indigenous people). Kolis were mostly settled near the water bodies and their primary occupation was to catch fish but a few of them were farmers and they were called Agaris (agar means farm). Amongst the three, Kolis were most advanced and they had developed modern civilization. There were kings amongst these people and they had their own religion (precursor of Hinduism); Shiv and Parvati or Baya were their primary Gods. This religion was eventually transformed into modern Hinduism and Shiv was considered as the first God in the pantheon of Gods in Hindu religion. Mahaar were primarily hunters and they roamed this region looting and killing any body who dared challenge them. The first ever known king of these people was called Dindi. We really know very little of this Dindi and this information is also not accepted by many; however, I want to accept it as that gives me some foot hold to develop my theory of the origin of the community of Maratha. Of these three communities Mahaar were most populated and were spread every where in the region. Mahaar people refused to accept any rule on them, they refused any order and with their brutal power they could evince the opponent that they better keep away. It was not a civilized community from the point of many kings of that time and the reason was that they refused to pay taxes. Mahaar were firm believers in only barter and refused to accept any currency. As a result commerce with them was sparse. In the ancient literature these people are also referred to as Rakshas or Danaw. They were terror for all but at the same time these people had some qualities, they were kind to those who submitted to them. They feared demon and worshiped black spirits. Lack of intelligence was a big defect in them and so any cunning talker could easily misguide them and benefit by that. That was the situation around two thousand years in the past. A king from Andhra by name Satvahana was requested by the people from Ruishi community, who had settled in this region and who were conducting gurukul to educate wards from the then civilized community of Aryan, to come in this region to protect them from these uncontrollable Mahaar people. In those days this land was called not Maharashtra but Dandakaranya. Satvahana came and established a kingdom making, present day, Paithan his capital city. This Satvahana gave this land new name, Mahaar rashtra or Mahaarrattha (Land of Mahaar). Today it is called Maharashtra and erroneously interpreted as Maha Rashtra (Great nation). To run a nation king needs revenue and as we have seen earlier that Mahaars were least bothered about paying any taxes; not only that, they would loot the garrisons of the kings and were even not interested in joining the forces of the king (the great wars of Dindi). Luckily for Satvahana there was a big and incessant famine in the neighboring region of Magaddha (present day south Bihar). Famine stricken Magaddhi who were excellent farmers and artisans were in need for a place where they may be able to settle. The search for new land and Satvahana invited them in his kingdom. These people were citizens of Magaddha and they were used to pay taxes. Satvahana helped them settle in his kingdom and now was in a position to run this place economically. Land of Mahaarrattha prospered. Things became easy and now the Mahaar people realized the advantages of a civilized society. Many decided to join the society (the end of Dindi). Mixing of people eventually took place and a society of Magaddhi and Mahaar was formed, it might have taken a few decades or even a century to happen that but a new community was formed. That is called Maratha community. In spite of this, original Mahaars also remained on the outskirts of the civilization until present time. The new community had spread in the region today called Nagar, Jalana, Aurangabad, Parbhani and Bid.

 

This explains origin of Marathas of that region but DNA tests of Marathas from other regions could not be matched with this theory and I was surprised as to how Maratha from other region such as Nasik, Dhulia, Nandurbar, Jalgaon and Buldhana did not match them exactly. Some theorists suggested that this is possible as a few centuries have passed since the time and so it is possible; but that was not the case. I found that when Satvahana was ruling in the region mentioned earlier some gujjar kings were making inroads into this region from Gujarat (originally called Saurashtra) and were also trying to settle their people called Gujjar (Leva patil and Ahir) in this land. Something similar might have happened there also; and as a result a cross community was forming there. A mix of Gujjar and Mahaar was taking place in this region. I called them Gujjar Marathas while those from earlier mentioned region under Satvahana I named, Magaddhi Marathas. Now a distinct pattern became available, I began to search the history of other regions and also began to match that with the people of that place, and I found three more distinct patterns of Marathas. They were Rajput Marathas from region today called, Akola, Vardha, Amaravati, Nagpur, Gondia, Chandrapur and Bhandara. Rajput had migrated in this region around the same period from Madhya Bharat and settled with Mahaars from that region. In many quarters the mixture appears to be of unequal type; by that I mean stronger trends of Mahaar and lesser trends of the Rajput are seen as well as in some parts stronger trends of Rajput and lesser of Mahaar. That means the mixing was not as thorough as it is seen in Satvahana area and also other areas. Two other patterns were found in other parts of Maharashtra. One pattern found in districts of Pune, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur were having keenness with Shettys from Karnataka admixed with the common link, Mahaar. Them I named Shetty Maratha. Marathas found in districts Solapur, Usmanabad, Latur, Nanded and Yawatmal distinctly showed admix of Telagu and Mahaar and so I named them as Telagu Maratha. From my this hypothesis I found that the Maratha community is having a common link that joins them and that is the Mahaar link. While other five are distinctly separate from each other. Behavioral pattern of Marathas from these areas corroborate for this hypothesis that present Maratha community is not one coherent community as it is believed but is made up of five distinct combinations as I call them Magaddhi Maratha, Gujjar Maratha, Rajput Maratha, Shetty Maratha and Telagu Maratha. Marathas in konkan are primarily migrants from Shetty Maratha stock and they migrated during the Bahamani period along with karhade Brahmin from Karad. Marathas in Thane region are essentially of Gujjar Maratha stock. Some districts shows admix of more than one for example Chandrapur can show Rajput, Telagu and Solapur can show admix of Kannadi (not Shetty) and Telagu. Some Maratha families show pure Rajput or pure Telagu or pure Kannadi devoid of Mahaar links. That means over the period migrants from these regions in Maharashtra were accepted and intermingled in the Maratha community. Quite often the surnames reveal this fact. Panch mahali Marathas are essentially from Shetty stock.

 

I can understand if some readers will feel embarrassed to see this finding but DNA tests can give evidence for this explanation. Behavioral pattern very distinctly reveals the difference in behavior of Marathas from these different parts of the State. Over many centuries some mixing of these otherwise different Marathas has not changed much; since the marriages are often solemnized within the same kith and kin for the safety of their girls. Very few intermarriages amongst Marathas from distant districts are taking place and that is one reason why the distinct characters of these different Marathas can be noticed even today. Facially one can detect different racial links amongst these people. Warrior character is noticed in all these ranks and that is due to Mahaar common link. Gujjar Marathas are more prone to trading while Magaddhi Marathas are hardy and capable of carrying heavy loads similar to Biharis. Shetty Marathas show distinct Shetty features and arrogant behavior characteristic of that race. Distinctly civilized mannerism noticed in the Telagu Marathas shows the link with the Telagu people. Fine test of behavior and style of living reminiscent of Rajput life style is evident in that region’s Marathas. Marathas from Konkan are now a mix of many local communities like Kunbis, Bhandaris and Agaries with whom Marathas intermarried to settle peacefully in that region. Marathas from Thane district are similar to those in Nasik region.  

 

Finally we may say that Marathas is a truly cosmopolitan community and has nothing to do with those ancient 96 kula kshatryas as it is popularly believed.     

 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

 

ashokkothare@gmail.com

 

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

 

Ashok Kothare’s Blog

 

 

You may visit blog Freedom of Expression for interesting discussions.    

                     

Please read this request from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

 

The President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam’s Speech in Hyderabad. He asks why our media is so negative?

Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? Are we going to overcome that age old bias of slavishness or not? 

We are the first in milk production.

We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.

We are the second largest producer of wheat.

We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr. Sudarshan; he has transferred the tribal village into a self sustaining, self-driving unit. Singh of Rajasthan and Anna Hazare of Maharashtra are second to none in rural development.

 

There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed with the bad news; failures and disasters, accidents, riots, killings and abductions all negative news are on the front and news of construction, innovation, development and improvement based activities are not even inside the newspapers, why? A lot of positive work is going on in our country but they are not taken note of, why?   

 

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

 

In India we only read in our media and on TVs about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

 

Why are we so NEGATIVE?

 

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.

Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. You and I will have to build this developed India for her. You must proclaim; India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation!

 

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read;

YOU say that our government is inefficient.

YOU say that our laws are too old.

YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.

YOU say that the phones don’t work; the railways are a joke,

YOU say the airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.

YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

 

You must remember the people give all these services are coming out of you and now just see for yourself what you do!

 

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road ) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don’t say anything, DO YOU?

 

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs. 650) a month to, see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else. And consider yourself a very smart person!

 

YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, ‘Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am son of so and so. Take your two bucks and get lost.’ And consider yourself a very smart person!

 

YOU wouldn’t chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

 
Why don’t YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don’t YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU…

 

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

 

We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin.

 

We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We do not bother to dirty public urinals and toilets, we do not care to keep public places clean and throw rubbish on street, we spit any where and every where!  

 

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

 

This applies even to the staffs who are known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! And others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. And see what our excuse is!

 

“It’s the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons’ rights to a dowry. My case is different!”

 

So who’s going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not ME. Be sure that if you change and accept good changes then and then only the system shall change and so first you will have to take to better habits. Can you do it?

 

We even do not mind using our religions to justify many a wrong habits we have inculcated in us over many generations. When nation calls for family planning we refuse and keep producing children, whom we can not feed, can not educate properly and when asked we say; my religion says so and so!! And so I do it.

 

When you mistreat your wife and throw her out; you tell this is what my religion has told me to do, this is my birth right as I belong to this religion, what can I do when my religion asks me to do it! When you are asked to refer to your conscience you say my religion is above my conscience!

 

We want to have food at proper price but for that we have to control our population; who shall do it, while you keep producing children? Everybody wants other to be disciplined and for you, I Am Different!

 

When it comes to us, actually making a positive contribution to the system, we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to US to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to UK. When UK experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

 

Now remember, if you cannot change, how you expect your brethren who man the government to be perfect. If you want government to work properly you will have to discipline yourself first. You blame yourself for your faults and correct them then and then only you can demand government run by your brethren to work properly; I do not mean to justify the wrongs of our government by this argument nevertheless, I suggest that blaming others does not work, first correct ourselves and then blame the government. That Shall Work.

 

If you want trains to work properly ask yourself if you work in your office SINCERELY?

If you want others to behave properly with you ask yourself if you behave properly with others?

If you want your boss to respect you, ask yourself if you respect your servant?  

If you want to earn by bribe from others then if others do it why complain?

 

You say government is made of criminals, what you wish to do in your work. Just be sincere and then demand change in this government. Remember, this government is made up of people just like you! If you cannot be sincere then how you expect your brethren to be so?

If you hate Marathi while staying in Maharashtra then if Maharashtrian hate you, why complain? If you have to stay in other State than yours then you must learn to respect that State and their language and customs, if not then on those people reacting; you can not object.

If you want integrated India to stay that way you must respect other people and not consider yourself great. OTHERWISE DO NOT COMPLAIN IF INDIA BREAKS!

Can you stop hatred for others? If not then why blame others if they hate you?

Let us build INDIA with mutual respect and not make it weak by mutual hatred!

If you think other Indians inferior to you then why complain if others consider you inferior to them?

Jains say we are great, Brahmins say we are great, Parsees say we are great, Muslims say we are great then why not say WE ARE ALL GREAT!!! 

 

ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA ABLE AND STRONG.

 

Let us do what India needs from us.

Thank you,

Dr. Abdul Kalaam

I humbly request you to give this, sincere attention and please implement it; forward this to every Indian…

 

Dear Indians, the article is highly thought inductive; and pricks one’s conscience too.  

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

ashokkothare@gmail.com

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

http://ashokkotharesblog.blogspot.com

You may visit blog http://blogs.siliconindia.com/kothare/ for intelligent discussions.  

Epidemic and cure

 

In these days we are getting horrid news of the wild spreading of various diseases. Presently it is swine flue. I have carefully studied this topic and found that the way these epidemics come and go is having some sort of method. Many scientists have worked on this topic and some of them have shown that if a graphical representation is made we see that the epidemic comes and spreads with great force irrespective of what medical care is available. Many people get inflicted with it and some unfortunate even succumb to it. But after some time the disease eases out and vanishes as if all forgotten. In ancient times when logical approach to such things was not in practice usually people would blame the devil or any such bad force for the coming of the disease and when it vanishes; it was usually attributed to the blessings of some god!

 

As logical approach to all human problems became a common practice amongst the intellectuals science developed and also otherwise, many things became more clear so that blaming the devil and thanking the God was discarded at least by the intelligent people in the society.

 

Let us study the graphical representation of the strength of any epidemic. We have some data of ill famous plague epidemic that inflicted the whole of erstwhile Bombay State in the 19^th century. The disease of plague was supposedly brought in the city of Bombay by some ship that came from England and it spread to the interior. People were not prepared to tackle with the menace of that disease and the medical science of those days was not developed enough to give effective remedy. People were infected and many succumbed to it. But after some time the epidemic turned weak and eventually vanished. As it vanished people forgot it.

 

Researchers did not want to forget the event and they investigated to find out how this dreaded disease vanished. As per simple expectation one would believe that this incurable (in those days) disease should have completely wiped out the whole of the population rendering the land empty of people but that did not happen. Why? Other circumstances were also studied and it was found that all diseases curable or not, do not completely wipe out the population. Detail study showed that out of 100 persons only 15 were inflicted by the disease and out of them 7 died. The question asked was, why the remaining 85 persons were not affected at all!

 

As science of medicine developed, the body mechanism became more clear to the scientists; they found that our body has an inbuilt system called self immunizing power and that builds necessary arrangement by which our body can resist and repel the attack of a disease. That explained why those 85 persons were not affected by the epidemic. They had the essential immunizing power already built in them and so they were not affected while those who did not have that, suffered and worst were dead.

 

But this finding does not satisfy the question. Further it was hypothecated that as the epidemic spread over larger areas human mind concentrated on this danger and by some hitherto unknown contrivance that connects body and mind together the mind triggered the immunizing power in the body and more people became immunized to that disease naturally. Some scientists who do not believe in such relation between the body and mind refused to accept it and insisted that preventive medications must be used to keep the disease from further spread.

 

Ayurved and Homeopathy accepted the above given hypothesis but allopathy did not accept it. They gave many examples from America in which original inhabitants succumbed to diseases Europeans brought in that continent with them and almost all population was wiped out by these diseases. Even so they could not explain why some of them survived in spite of the diseases. Believers in the above hypothesis explained that may be the mind of those red Indians was not positive enough to trigger the immunizing mechanism in the body. Hindu yoga science suggests that our mind can perform by some unknown method many changes in our body. People with strong mind always have good immunizing power while those with weak mind are always subjected to many diseases.

 

How to make strong mind?

 

Strong mind is developed by an exercise of meditation along with healthy thinking pattern. Meditation is an exercise for mind by which one can concentrate his or her mind on something and continuously be with it. Usually yogis prefer to concentrate on the God of their belief. When you concentrate, all your organs of sense should be stopped from receiving any sense for example, eyes do not see, ears do not hear, nose does not smell, tongue does not taste or utter word or any sound and skin does not feel any touch. That means all five sense organs (panchendriya) are like paralyzed from within. At this condition mind can concentrate on whatever you want to concentrate and it is this type of complete concentration that influences the body changes. If and when a person does that he/she benefits by that. Both body and mind improve their respective performance. When an epidemic creates a type of fear in the minds of people many of them without their knowledge go into this concentration and at that their mind concentrates not on any god but on the possibility of that disease. As a result immunizing power is developed in that body.

 

To achieve such concentration at the time of meditation the person prefers to close eyes, puts ear plugs or does it in a silent place, breathes slowly, mouth closed without any food in it, jaw closed with teeth pressed lightly on each other, sleeping posture is recommended for best results since in that posture no body muscle is stressed. Totally relaxed body gives best results. On what you concentrate is important; if you do it on something turbulent such as love or hate then that concentration becomes impossible as due to turbulence they create mind becomes restless. Always prefer such passive subjects as God or just your own breathing action (to observe inhalation in and out slowly and most naturally), as practice improves mind concentrates easily and you go into a trance like position (some go into sleep, that is not bad). That is the way you may be able to make your mind powerful. Simultaneously you get immunizing power for almost all diseases. Minor concentrations mentioned in the yoga are concentration on your studies or office work. While you are doing it not all sense organs are at rest and so the effect is not complete but nevertheless that type of concentration does help in spiritual uplifting. Sound sleep (sleep without any disturbances of dreams) is a type of meditation.   

 

This explains why an epidemic is resisted by the people. People without their awareness go into concentration, one by one they acquire immunizing power in the body, number of people who could be inflicted reduced and finally the epidemic vanishes. In addition to that of course effective medical service if comes that adds up to that and that hastens the process of eradication of the epidemic.

 

Many people are of weak mind and they simply can not do such concentration are not protected by this mechanism and they continue to suffer by that disease but since the number of such persons is very small we do not call it epidemic however if number of such weak minded people is very big in a society the epidemic can wipe out the population if medication is not available.

 

What is weak mind?

 

Weak mind is that mind in which four defects are active. They are desire to hate for no sensible reason, desire to be jealous for no reason (by habit), inferioritive complex and superioritive complex. Thought of these types are called defective or unhealthy thinking. Any body indulging in these defects develops a weak mind if he/she continues in them all the time. Unfortunately in these days almost every body does it and so our society is by and large made of people with weak minds.

 

The habit of hatred and jealousness increase your heart beats and so the blood pressure repeatedly changes and affects all body mechanism causing many a diseases and complains in your body. Usual complains one suffers due to that are, heart attack, blood pressure, diabetics, kidney failure.

 

Inferioritive and superioritive complexes have direct effect on your confidence and it spoils your mannerism while moving in the society. Many effects due to these defects are enlisted for better understanding of the topic: fear, sorrow, rapid anger, sleeplessness, worrying, doubting other people without any apparent cause, quarrelsomeness, numbness, desire not to speak to any body, loneliness, desire to cry, desire for vengeance on small brawl, desire to misguide other people, desire to tell untruths (lie). All sadistic behaviours come under this. 

 

The effects enlisted here are found in all persons having both inferioritive complex as well as superioritive complex. When you are free from them at a given time you still suffer from these defects only because you were indulging in them in the earlier times; but the effects, are greatly reduced and as the practice of meditation continue they are cured completely, depends upon how seriously you do it. To think without these defects is called healthy thinking.

 

It is recommended that one should begin to practice healthy thinking and meditation at teen age and continue throughout the life for a happy and full life.

 

Finally I may suggest to the readers that if you can have a strong mind you really need not bother for not only swine flue but any disease however dreaded it may be. Medicine or no medicines! Only things you must keep in mind are those, do not indulge in defective thinking (hate, jealousness, inferioritive and or superioritive complexes) and regularly do meditation for at least 15 to 20 minutes every day. And remember, you need not be religious or even a believer for this exercise!   

 

 

You may contact me on my Email ID given below,

ashokkothare@yahoo.co.in

 

ashokkothare@gmail.com

 

You are invited to visit my other blog if you are interested in stories.

 

http://ashokkotharesblog.blogspot.com

 

You may visit blog http://blogs.siliconindia.com/kothare/ for intelligent discussions.