Dharampal, Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science :
"All histories are elaborate efforts at mythmaking. Therefore, when we submit to histories about us written by others, we submit to their myths about us as well. Mythmaking, like naming, is a token of having power. Submitting to others' myths about us is a sign that we are without power. After the historical work of Dharampal, the scope for mythmaking about the past of Indian society is now considerably reduced.
If we must continue to live by myths, however, it is far better we choose to live by those of our own making rather than by those invented by others for their own purposes, whether English or Japanese. That much at least we owe ourselves as an independent society and nation." - Claude Alvares
Dharampal Ji's unmaking of the English-generated history of Indian society has in fact created a serious enough gap today in the discipline. The legitimacy of English or colonial dominated perceptions and biases about Indian society has been grievously undermined, but the academic tradition has been unable to take up the challenge of generating an organized indigenous view to take its place. The materials for a far more authentic history of science and technology in India are indeed now available as a result of his pioneering work, but the competent scholar who can handle it all in one neat canvas has yet to arrive. One recent new work that should be mentioned in this connection is Helaine Selin's Encyclopaedia of Non-Western Science, Technology and Medicine (Kluwer, Holland), which indeed takes note of Dharampal's findings. Till such time as the challenge is taken up, however, we will continue to replicate, uncritically, in the minds of generation after generation, the British or European sponsored view of Indian society and its institutions. How can any society survive, let alone create, on the basis of its borrowed images?
According to Dharampal, the British purpose in India, perhaps after long deliberation during the 17th century was never to attempt on any scale the settlement of the people of Britain or Europe in India. It was felt that in most regions of India, because of its climate, temperature range, gifted, industrious and dense population, the settling of the people of Europe would serve little purpose.
Therefore the purpose was defined as bringing to Britain and Europe, surplus products of the varied industry of the people of India, and the taxes imposed on this industry. Such a proposal, in fact, was very clearly put forward around 1780 by Prof. Adam Ferguson of Edinburgh. Ferguson was a professor of moral philosophy. (Interestingly. he is also regarded as the founder of British sociology.)
Dharampal found that for long periods in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, the tax on land in many areas exceeded the total agricultural production of very fertile land. This was particularly so in the areas of the Madras Presidency (comprising current Tamilnadu, districts of coastal Andhra. some districts of Karnataka and Malabar). The consequences of the policy were easy to predict: in the Madras Presidency, one third of the most fertile land went out of cultivation between the period 1800-1850. In fact, as early as 1804, the Governor of the Madras Presidency wrote to his masters (the President of the Board of Commissioners) in London : - "We have paid a great deal of attention to the revenue management in this country...the general tenor of my opinion is, that we have rode the country too hard, and the sequence is, that it is in a state of the most lamentable poverty. Great oppression is I fear exercised too generally in the collection of the Revenues."
Of course, Dharampal also found within the same archives, information about the Indian civil resistance in various regions of India in the early stages of British rule, like the one in Varanasi region around 1810-11 and in Canara around 1830 and how they were contained. But such events are not taken note of in the formal record as deliberate policy. Even petitions against grievances, though invited, would not be office recorded, unless, the wording of the petition, conveyed a sense of the petitioner's humility and of his (or her) limitless respect for authority.
Excerpts from one such rejected petition against the tax imposed in Varanasi highlight this : - "...former sooltauns never extended the rights of Government (commonly called malgoozaree) to the habitations of their subjects acquired by them by descent or transfer. It is this account that in selling estates the habitations proprietors are excepted from the sales. Therefore, the operation of this tax infringes upon the rights of the community, which is contrary to the first principles justice..."
"...It is difficult to find means of subsistence and the duties, court fees, transit and town duties which have increased tenfold, afflict and affect everyone rich and poor, and this tax, like salt scattered on a wound, is a cause of pain and depression to everyone, both Hindoo and Musulman: - let it be taken into consideration that as a consequence of these imposts the price of provisions within these ten years increased sixteen fold. In such case how is it possible, for us who have no means of earning a livelihood to subsist ?..."
By their methods of extortion and other similar means, the British were able to smash, Indian rural life and society by about 1820-1830. Around the same period, the extensive Indian manufactures met a similar fate. Because of deliberate British policy, the famed Indian village communities so eloquently described by Thomas Metcalfe around 1830, and by Karl Marx in the 1850s, had mostly ceased to exist.
Similar comments could be made about the narratives on Indian science and technology. Initially they were desired for their contemporary relevance and usefulness to the advancement or correction of their British counterparts. But soon after the British began to rule and control Indian life and society, the continuity of Indian knowledge and practice seemed to them a threat.
Therefore it was something to be put aside so that it crumbled or decayed. Dharampal found that such a programme of 'making extinct' was contrived in practically every sphere of human activity, including the manufactures of cotton textiles, the production of Indian steel, and even the Indian practice of inoculation against small pox as early as A.D. 1800.
A similar fate awaited the extensive network of Indian schools and institutions of higher learning when they began to be surveyed in the 1820s and 1830s. Ironically, it is mainly through the British archival records that one becomes aware of the extensive nature of the education network, as well as its speedy decay in the Madras and Bengal Presidency, and somewhat later in the Presidencies of Bombay and in the Punjab. Of course, the view, which we get from such archival material is splintered and not integrated. But the indicators in themselves are of great value. They also provide us glimpses of pre-British life and of aspects of India's society of which we had lost track from about A.D. 1850 when society was broken up and sup- pressed, and an imposed alien system of education made us ignore and forget the innumerable accomplishments of our people.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Among the world's Hungriest and Poorest - Incredible India
Dear All,
With respect to "crude statistics", I do tend to take alarmist global indices published by global think tanks on a whole range and variety of global issues, with a "pinch of salt".
The question still remains :
1. How do we respond to such "crude statistics"
2. What do we actually manage to do about these issues with the resources at our disposal.
There is no doubt that a country with 1.2 billion people has its politicial leaders pining and whining for the embrace and pats on the back, of the outgoing White House resident, backed by well funded Washington based policy think tanks, rather than evolving long term food security policies and development paradigms.
In the backdrop of the US Farm Bill 2007, continued and insistent EU and US farm subsidies, the arm twisting of developing economies by the diplomats and negotiators of the same countries and economic blocs, in global trade forums, so called respected think tanks which routinely spew out alarmist statistics have a habit of hijacking agendas for reasons best known to them.
In this, they do seek the support and mental attention of diaspora communities as well as of the Oxbridge / IMF / World Bank / Brussels trained economists who keep kicking the stirrups of Indian economy.
This routinely brings to my mind the statement of Leo Tolstoy - " I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. "
At the same time, serious and more appropriate analysts like Devinder Sharma and P Sainath are continually sidelined and merely tolerated, in the cacaphony raised by these strategic policy think tanks with vested agendas.
Warm Regards,
Nagarjuna
----------------------
The Indian elite keep ranting about the economy's growth rate while the corporate papers (Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express etc) get all excited about the bullish stock market that has crossed the 19,000-point mark.
But what about half the population grinding under poverty and malnutrition?
The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute released its report "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" on 6th Nov 07. The Institute devised the global hunger index (GHI) as a measure of poverty & hunger in a country.
This report is the first of its kind to use household survey data to look at those living below the one-dollar-a- day line. The index is designed to capture three dimensions of hunger: lack of economic access to food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which is largely attributable to malnutrition.
1) India ranks way down at 96 among 119 developing countries included in the report. Even Nepal is four notches higher at 92, Pakistan 88, Myanmar 68, Sri Lanka 69, China 47.
In contrast, Mauritius is among the top 20 of least hungry countries.
The report commented "The lack of improvement in India's GHI score between 1997 and 2003 despite continued growth is a cause for concern, since India's GHI still indicates alarming levels of hunger".
Across all developing regions of the world, the poorest households are most often located in remote rural areas with limited access to education, roads, and health services and members of these households often face exclusion due to their ethnicity, gender or disability.
Nagarjuna has interest in Food Policy issues and may like to comment further.
2) While child malnutrition has reduced, a separate study (see www.Indiatogether. org) finds that 1 in 2 Indian rural children under 3 is hungry.
3) And nearly 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in the period 1997- 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States where just a third of the country's population lives. (See P Sainath, ZNet www.zmag.org, 12 Nov 07).
Two more recent statistics:
4) INDIA also leads the world in the number of women dying in childbirth - 117,000 in 2005.
This means a maternal mortality ratio of 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. The Pakistan figure is 320, Sri Lanka 58 and China 45 (one tenth of India's) [R Hensman, 19 Nov 07 www.countercurrents .org
5) Times of India, 20 Nov 07 reported that India has the largest number of illiterates in the world.
It ranks 126th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2006)
Eddie
With respect to "crude statistics", I do tend to take alarmist global indices published by global think tanks on a whole range and variety of global issues, with a "pinch of salt".
The question still remains :
1. How do we respond to such "crude statistics"
2. What do we actually manage to do about these issues with the resources at our disposal.
There is no doubt that a country with 1.2 billion people has its politicial leaders pining and whining for the embrace and pats on the back, of the outgoing White House resident, backed by well funded Washington based policy think tanks, rather than evolving long term food security policies and development paradigms.
In the backdrop of the US Farm Bill 2007, continued and insistent EU and US farm subsidies, the arm twisting of developing economies by the diplomats and negotiators of the same countries and economic blocs, in global trade forums, so called respected think tanks which routinely spew out alarmist statistics have a habit of hijacking agendas for reasons best known to them.
In this, they do seek the support and mental attention of diaspora communities as well as of the Oxbridge / IMF / World Bank / Brussels trained economists who keep kicking the stirrups of Indian economy.
This routinely brings to my mind the statement of Leo Tolstoy - " I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. "
At the same time, serious and more appropriate analysts like Devinder Sharma and P Sainath are continually sidelined and merely tolerated, in the cacaphony raised by these strategic policy think tanks with vested agendas.
Warm Regards,
Nagarjuna
----------------------
The Indian elite keep ranting about the economy's growth rate while the corporate papers (Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express etc) get all excited about the bullish stock market that has crossed the 19,000-point mark.
But what about half the population grinding under poverty and malnutrition?
The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute released its report "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" on 6th Nov 07. The Institute devised the global hunger index (GHI) as a measure of poverty & hunger in a country.
This report is the first of its kind to use household survey data to look at those living below the one-dollar-a- day line. The index is designed to capture three dimensions of hunger: lack of economic access to food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which is largely attributable to malnutrition.
1) India ranks way down at 96 among 119 developing countries included in the report. Even Nepal is four notches higher at 92, Pakistan 88, Myanmar 68, Sri Lanka 69, China 47.
In contrast, Mauritius is among the top 20 of least hungry countries.
The report commented "The lack of improvement in India's GHI score between 1997 and 2003 despite continued growth is a cause for concern, since India's GHI still indicates alarming levels of hunger".
Across all developing regions of the world, the poorest households are most often located in remote rural areas with limited access to education, roads, and health services and members of these households often face exclusion due to their ethnicity, gender or disability.
Nagarjuna has interest in Food Policy issues and may like to comment further.
2) While child malnutrition has reduced, a separate study (see www.Indiatogether. org) finds that 1 in 2 Indian rural children under 3 is hungry.
3) And nearly 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in the period 1997- 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States where just a third of the country's population lives. (See P Sainath, ZNet www.zmag.org, 12 Nov 07).
Two more recent statistics:
4) INDIA also leads the world in the number of women dying in childbirth - 117,000 in 2005.
This means a maternal mortality ratio of 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. The Pakistan figure is 320, Sri Lanka 58 and China 45 (one tenth of India's) [R Hensman, 19 Nov 07 www.countercurrents .org
5) Times of India, 20 Nov 07 reported that India has the largest number of illiterates in the world.
It ranks 126th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2006)
Eddie
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Headless Chickens ? And Indian Foreign Policy ?
Dear All
1. I have not read the texts of Naomi Klein and Milton Friedman being referred to in this group - but I would tend to weigh in on the side of Joe and Peter - by this I mean that, I find Eddie's
characterization of the character of western liberal democracies underpinned by the more general economic and globally expansionist post Marxian philosophy characterized by the "smoke screen antics" of the Chicago school - as being a bit less finely nuanced than I find Eddie's
views in general.
An analysis, or for that matter a criticism, of periods of history and its dominant players - must be nuanced in my opinion - if they are to be useful for coming generations and not just talk that can be disregarded by those who hold power in particular societies at particular epochs in history.
This in my opinion holds true for all ages and is a condition of humanity that we must avoid over simplifying in our quest for easy recourse to criticism and analysis of swathes of human thought and achievements.
Post Marxian Chicago school inspired neo liberalism - the core ideology of western democracies that have collectively ganged up as federations to play the role of global policemen - as the basis of the dominant economic conglomerates of US and EU must also be seen in this light. This is my opinion and I think that this kind of view - allows for more nuances of real politik - to be seen clearly in the light of liberal western democracy as a post Marxian ideology that is packaged into a product fit for export around the world.
2. With regard to the Myanmar crisis, I note the extreme reluctance in supporting an obvious revolution from the bottom - of the same policy architects of Indian foreign policy - who get together in Washington and criticize Indian parliamentarians as a group of headless chickens and yet cry themselves hoarse in saying that India must not let go of the historic opportunity to come out of its nuclear pariah status holding the coat tails of the US president who is himself now on his way out from White House as well as the pages of history.
Indian foreign ministry is supposedly weighing up the strategic losses and gains of supporting an obviously brutal military junta on its extreme eastern borders - the issues of Myanmar's natural gas reserves and Chinese real politik in the Bay of Bengal have been often commented on.
However, I would like to step back a bit and see in the reluctance of Indian democracy that is pallying up with Washington corridors of power - a certain unanimity of interest in supporting military dictatorships in critical parts of the world. Is this not the quintessence of the Chicago school economic doctrines, now emerging as a starkly Indian response to the unrest on its eastern borders ?
It is time we now begin asking ourselves the question, what is it really that now separates New Delhi from Washington ?
1. I have not read the texts of Naomi Klein and Milton Friedman being referred to in this group - but I would tend to weigh in on the side of Joe and Peter - by this I mean that, I find Eddie's
characterization of the character of western liberal democracies underpinned by the more general economic and globally expansionist post Marxian philosophy characterized by the "smoke screen antics" of the Chicago school - as being a bit less finely nuanced than I find Eddie's
views in general.
An analysis, or for that matter a criticism, of periods of history and its dominant players - must be nuanced in my opinion - if they are to be useful for coming generations and not just talk that can be disregarded by those who hold power in particular societies at particular epochs in history.
This in my opinion holds true for all ages and is a condition of humanity that we must avoid over simplifying in our quest for easy recourse to criticism and analysis of swathes of human thought and achievements.
Post Marxian Chicago school inspired neo liberalism - the core ideology of western democracies that have collectively ganged up as federations to play the role of global policemen - as the basis of the dominant economic conglomerates of US and EU must also be seen in this light. This is my opinion and I think that this kind of view - allows for more nuances of real politik - to be seen clearly in the light of liberal western democracy as a post Marxian ideology that is packaged into a product fit for export around the world.
2. With regard to the Myanmar crisis, I note the extreme reluctance in supporting an obvious revolution from the bottom - of the same policy architects of Indian foreign policy - who get together in Washington and criticize Indian parliamentarians as a group of headless chickens and yet cry themselves hoarse in saying that India must not let go of the historic opportunity to come out of its nuclear pariah status holding the coat tails of the US president who is himself now on his way out from White House as well as the pages of history.
Indian foreign ministry is supposedly weighing up the strategic losses and gains of supporting an obviously brutal military junta on its extreme eastern borders - the issues of Myanmar's natural gas reserves and Chinese real politik in the Bay of Bengal have been often commented on.
However, I would like to step back a bit and see in the reluctance of Indian democracy that is pallying up with Washington corridors of power - a certain unanimity of interest in supporting military dictatorships in critical parts of the world. Is this not the quintessence of the Chicago school economic doctrines, now emerging as a starkly Indian response to the unrest on its eastern borders ?
It is time we now begin asking ourselves the question, what is it really that now separates New Delhi from Washington ?
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Indian Agricultural Collapse Courtesy British Experts
Indian Agriculture Collapse courtesy British Experts :
Courtesy of HVK Editor -
India - Once Plentiful -
Hinduism Today May 1997 -
Records reveal British schemes diminished crops and dismantled a native system of abundance
Most of us college - educated Indians were taught that inefficient technologies and low productivities pervaded through long ages in practically all parts of India," states Dr. S.K. Bajaj, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai think tank.
In the 1920s Gandhi's Young India presented some proof of a rich and prosperous pre-British India. Then in the 1960s, the Centre's founder, historian Sri Dharampal, discovered at the Thanjavur Tamil University a set of palmleaf records documenting a British survey of 2,000 villages of Chengalpattu, a large area surrounding present-day Chennai. "
Startling features of Tamil society in the 18th century emerge from these palmleaf accounts," said Bajaj.
"Between 1762 and 1766 there were villages which produced up to 12 tons of paddy a hectare. This level of productivity can be obtained only in the best of the Green Revolution areas of the country, with the most advanced, expensive and often environmentally ruinous technologies. The annual availability of all food averaged five tons per household; the national average in India today is three-quarters ton. Whatever the ways of pre-British Indian society, they were definitely neither ineffective nor inefficient."
Food production is just one aspect of the colonial impact being addressed by the Centre.
The Chengalpattu records are part of Dharampal's research which has uncovered a politically, technologically and economically vibrant Indian society of the 18th century.
"That society was dismantled and atomized by the British, by force," states the Centre's brochure, "and the diverse skills of the Indian people were pushed out of the public sphere and made to rust and decay. For India to become a vibrant and dynamic nation again, we only need to re-awaken the political, economic and technological skills of our people."
The records are especially useful for understanding how Hindu religious institutions were originally supported, and why they declined under Britishrule.
Dharampal believes Indians must rediscover their nation's traditional sense of chitta, mind, and flow of time, kala.
"Since we have lost practically all contact with our tradition, and all comprehension of our chitta and kala, there are no standards and norms on the basis of which to answer questions that arise in ordinary social living.
Ordinary Indians perhaps still retain an innate understanding of right action and right thought, but our elite society, seems to have lost all touch with any stable norms of behavior and thinking. The present attempt at imitating the world and following every passing fad can hardly lead us anywhere. We shall have no options until we evolve a conceptual framework of our own, based on chitta and kala, to discriminate between right and wrong, what is useful for us and what is futile."
The Centre's three main researchers are: M.D. Srinivas, a theoretical physicist teaching at the University of Madras, who specializes in Indian science; T.M. Mukundan, a mechanical engineer specializing in technologies such as water management and iron smelting; and J.K. Bajaj, also a theoretical physicist, now involved in economy, agriculture and energy.
The Chengalpattu data was a Godsend for the Centre, and has allowed them to support many of their central theories about pre-British India. The accounts detail a complete economic, social, administrative and religious picture of the society.
Every temple, pond, garden and grove in a locality is listed, the occupation, family size, home and lot size of 62,500 households meticulously recorded. Crop yields between 1762-66 are tallied.
Per capita production of food in this region (which is of average fertility) was more than five times that achieved on average today.
Bajaj and his associates didn't do all their work in a library. The team set off in person across the Chengalpattu region to verify the picture presented in the leafs. They found most of these villages deserted--perhaps since the beginning of the 19th century--by all who had any resources, education or skills.
Inhabitants had left behind their palatial houses, their temples and groves. Abandoned as well were the eyrs--the irrigation tanks and channels--often cut across by British-built roads which left dry land on one side and stagnant water on the other. Their on-the-ground inspection confirmed many aspects of the inscribed leaves.
Of importance to Hindu history is how the religious institutions were maintained. Lands called manyam were assigned for the support of various functions, including religious activities. Certain percentages of the production from this land were divided among the various public functions, such as administration, army, education and religious institutions.
Small temples received income from nearby villages. Larger ones, such as those of the great center of Kanchipuram, received income from over a thousand villages. The amount dedicated to religion from the manyam lands, according to the leaves, was a substantial four percent of the total produce of the region. It supported temples, academies of learning, dancers and musicians. A portion was also provided for Muslim and Jain institutions. This system resulted in the vast network of temples, most now neglected, seen across South India.
The British government changed this system. In some areas they calculated a percentage figure of total tax revenue going to the institutions and fixed it as a dollar amount, in 1799 dollars. Some institutions still receive this same government allotment--worth next to nothing today. Others became owners of the land from which a share of production once came. This introduced its own set of problems, also still with us today, where temples are unable to collect the rent. The collective result was that the great religious and cultural institutions of the 18th century decayed and lost touch with the community.
The British taxes were so high there was no money left to support the administration or cultural establishments. School teachers, musicians, dancers, keepers of the irrigation works, moved away, or took to farming. By 1871, 80% of the area was engaged in agriculture (up from less than 50% earlier), and many of the services and industrial activities that dominated the Chengalpattu society of the 1770s ceased to exist.
The value of the Centre's research is obvious: India, and Hinduism with it, flourished in the not-so-distant past--without the Green Revolution or the Industrial Revolution or the Worker's Revolution.
Dharampal, Bajaj and their associates want India to look back at this time, dissect and understand it, and use that indigenous knowledge to reinvigorate the world's largest democracy.
How the Green Revolution failed :
Dr. Ramon De La Peqa of the University of Hawaii is one of the world's foremost experts on rice. He also happens to be a neighbor of the ashram from which Hinduism Today is produced. Asked to comment on the Chengalpattu reports, he said: "Such yields as 12 tons per hectare were definitely possible with the old methods and two crops a year. The best modern US production is eight to nine tons per hectare (one annual crop). The world average is presently three to five tons/hectare. Before the Green Revolution[which introduced new, high-yielding strains] the average was one to one-and-a-half tons/hectare.
The Green Revolution worked in some areas but not in others. The short variety of rice developed for it grew just one meter high. To be productive, it needed fertilizer, and the fields had to be kept weed free. The old varieties were two meters high, not so suspectible to weed competition, resistant to insects and did not need fertilizer. If the new varieties are not managed correctly--with fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides--the harvest is less than with the old methods of minimum input. New is not always better."
Courtesy of HVK Editor
- Jai Maharaj
Courtesy of HVK Editor -
India - Once Plentiful -
Hinduism Today May 1997 -
Records reveal British schemes diminished crops and dismantled a native system of abundance
Most of us college - educated Indians were taught that inefficient technologies and low productivities pervaded through long ages in practically all parts of India," states Dr. S.K. Bajaj, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai think tank.
In the 1920s Gandhi's Young India presented some proof of a rich and prosperous pre-British India. Then in the 1960s, the Centre's founder, historian Sri Dharampal, discovered at the Thanjavur Tamil University a set of palmleaf records documenting a British survey of 2,000 villages of Chengalpattu, a large area surrounding present-day Chennai. "
Startling features of Tamil society in the 18th century emerge from these palmleaf accounts," said Bajaj.
"Between 1762 and 1766 there were villages which produced up to 12 tons of paddy a hectare. This level of productivity can be obtained only in the best of the Green Revolution areas of the country, with the most advanced, expensive and often environmentally ruinous technologies. The annual availability of all food averaged five tons per household; the national average in India today is three-quarters ton. Whatever the ways of pre-British Indian society, they were definitely neither ineffective nor inefficient."
Food production is just one aspect of the colonial impact being addressed by the Centre.
The Chengalpattu records are part of Dharampal's research which has uncovered a politically, technologically and economically vibrant Indian society of the 18th century.
"That society was dismantled and atomized by the British, by force," states the Centre's brochure, "and the diverse skills of the Indian people were pushed out of the public sphere and made to rust and decay. For India to become a vibrant and dynamic nation again, we only need to re-awaken the political, economic and technological skills of our people."
The records are especially useful for understanding how Hindu religious institutions were originally supported, and why they declined under Britishrule.
Dharampal believes Indians must rediscover their nation's traditional sense of chitta, mind, and flow of time, kala.
"Since we have lost practically all contact with our tradition, and all comprehension of our chitta and kala, there are no standards and norms on the basis of which to answer questions that arise in ordinary social living.
Ordinary Indians perhaps still retain an innate understanding of right action and right thought, but our elite society, seems to have lost all touch with any stable norms of behavior and thinking. The present attempt at imitating the world and following every passing fad can hardly lead us anywhere. We shall have no options until we evolve a conceptual framework of our own, based on chitta and kala, to discriminate between right and wrong, what is useful for us and what is futile."
The Centre's three main researchers are: M.D. Srinivas, a theoretical physicist teaching at the University of Madras, who specializes in Indian science; T.M. Mukundan, a mechanical engineer specializing in technologies such as water management and iron smelting; and J.K. Bajaj, also a theoretical physicist, now involved in economy, agriculture and energy.
The Chengalpattu data was a Godsend for the Centre, and has allowed them to support many of their central theories about pre-British India. The accounts detail a complete economic, social, administrative and religious picture of the society.
Every temple, pond, garden and grove in a locality is listed, the occupation, family size, home and lot size of 62,500 households meticulously recorded. Crop yields between 1762-66 are tallied.
Per capita production of food in this region (which is of average fertility) was more than five times that achieved on average today.
Bajaj and his associates didn't do all their work in a library. The team set off in person across the Chengalpattu region to verify the picture presented in the leafs. They found most of these villages deserted--perhaps since the beginning of the 19th century--by all who had any resources, education or skills.
Inhabitants had left behind their palatial houses, their temples and groves. Abandoned as well were the eyrs--the irrigation tanks and channels--often cut across by British-built roads which left dry land on one side and stagnant water on the other. Their on-the-ground inspection confirmed many aspects of the inscribed leaves.
Of importance to Hindu history is how the religious institutions were maintained. Lands called manyam were assigned for the support of various functions, including religious activities. Certain percentages of the production from this land were divided among the various public functions, such as administration, army, education and religious institutions.
Small temples received income from nearby villages. Larger ones, such as those of the great center of Kanchipuram, received income from over a thousand villages. The amount dedicated to religion from the manyam lands, according to the leaves, was a substantial four percent of the total produce of the region. It supported temples, academies of learning, dancers and musicians. A portion was also provided for Muslim and Jain institutions. This system resulted in the vast network of temples, most now neglected, seen across South India.
The British government changed this system. In some areas they calculated a percentage figure of total tax revenue going to the institutions and fixed it as a dollar amount, in 1799 dollars. Some institutions still receive this same government allotment--worth next to nothing today. Others became owners of the land from which a share of production once came. This introduced its own set of problems, also still with us today, where temples are unable to collect the rent. The collective result was that the great religious and cultural institutions of the 18th century decayed and lost touch with the community.
The British taxes were so high there was no money left to support the administration or cultural establishments. School teachers, musicians, dancers, keepers of the irrigation works, moved away, or took to farming. By 1871, 80% of the area was engaged in agriculture (up from less than 50% earlier), and many of the services and industrial activities that dominated the Chengalpattu society of the 1770s ceased to exist.
The value of the Centre's research is obvious: India, and Hinduism with it, flourished in the not-so-distant past--without the Green Revolution or the Industrial Revolution or the Worker's Revolution.
Dharampal, Bajaj and their associates want India to look back at this time, dissect and understand it, and use that indigenous knowledge to reinvigorate the world's largest democracy.
How the Green Revolution failed :
Dr. Ramon De La Peqa of the University of Hawaii is one of the world's foremost experts on rice. He also happens to be a neighbor of the ashram from which Hinduism Today is produced. Asked to comment on the Chengalpattu reports, he said: "Such yields as 12 tons per hectare were definitely possible with the old methods and two crops a year. The best modern US production is eight to nine tons per hectare (one annual crop). The world average is presently three to five tons/hectare. Before the Green Revolution[which introduced new, high-yielding strains] the average was one to one-and-a-half tons/hectare.
The Green Revolution worked in some areas but not in others. The short variety of rice developed for it grew just one meter high. To be productive, it needed fertilizer, and the fields had to be kept weed free. The old varieties were two meters high, not so suspectible to weed competition, resistant to insects and did not need fertilizer. If the new varieties are not managed correctly--with fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides--the harvest is less than with the old methods of minimum input. New is not always better."
Courtesy of HVK Editor
- Jai Maharaj
Google Group - Dharampal
A new Google group has been created for people interested in the work of Shri Dharampal to discuss and network, and hopefully find new ways of carrying historical and philosophical research forward. All are welcome.
Feel free to ask questions, answer questions and network.
We feel that possibly the best way of remembering Shri Dharampal, is to find new ways of collaborating with a new generation of Indian youth, forming and encouraging responsible and creative networks, that advance the spirit of enquiry and humble teaching that Shri Dharampal Ji personified.
Dharampal - http://groups.google.com/group/dharampal
Feel free to ask questions, answer questions and network.
We feel that possibly the best way of remembering Shri Dharampal, is to find new ways of collaborating with a new generation of Indian youth, forming and encouraging responsible and creative networks, that advance the spirit of enquiry and humble teaching that Shri Dharampal Ji personified.
Dharampal - http://groups.google.com/group/dharampal
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Ooranis - PreColonial Water Management in South India
Ramanathapuram District : Ooranis, locally managed water tanks : Colonial decay
Ramanathapuram district is drought prone and water scarcity is the biggest problem here.People migrate after January and return by August when the monsoon sets in. The northeast monsoon (September to November) is expected to bring maximum rain and usually chilli, cotton, onion and paddy are cultivated.
Charcoal is produced in Ramanathapuram and adjacent Tuticorin districts. Agriculture, charcoal production and fishing in the coastal areas are the sources for livelihood of the people. There are some industries in nearby Virudhunagar district where people migrate for work. A good number of workers in hosiery and knitwear units of Tiruppur are from the district. Usually men go out in search of jobs and women, old people and children stay home.
Once upon a time the ooranis and tanks had been maintained by the people through a group of individuals chosen by the villagers and called kudimaramatthu . This practice stopped after the British regime took over. Tanks and ooranis became Government property maintained by the Public Works Department.
With the arrival of bore wells, the concept of conserving water through such water bodies was forgotten. The ground water level plummeted and water turned saline. The Government-sponsored desalination plants in the district are insufficient to meet the demand.
Every village has one to three ooranis for drinking water, domestic water needs and livestock and temple pond.
The main water source is rain, but the district falls in rain shadow belt with scanty rainfall. People could at most store water in ooranis and tanks for three to six months a year. Rest of the time women, girls and men must trek three to five kilometers every day in search of water. This affected their livelihood, health, and the education of girls. There are incidents of conflicts for drinking water among villages.
On the other hand, there are instances of sharing oorani water between villages. If an oorani is built, the water would be shared by about 500 families of three villages. Most of the ooranis are either dilapidated or small.
In some areas, the percolation rate of water is high because the base layer is sandy.
If an oorani is renovated and technically modified, it would quench the people's thirst in three to four villages. Besides it would improve the quality of life. Girls could go to schools; women could finish their household chores faster and help in the fields. The search for water has affected health, education and livelihood. It is common to find men and women in the district spending a whole day in search of water. The family income is Rs.1, 500 to Rs. 2,500 a month and lower during the summer. People have to spend Rs.150 to Rs.250 on water every month.
You can also do it ….To help save the lives of the Life saving Ooranis -
Kind hearted well-wishers -- Can sponsor an Oorani - Dhan Foundation -
Website - http://www.dhan.org/ooranis/districts.php
Ramanathapuram district is drought prone and water scarcity is the biggest problem here.People migrate after January and return by August when the monsoon sets in. The northeast monsoon (September to November) is expected to bring maximum rain and usually chilli, cotton, onion and paddy are cultivated.
Charcoal is produced in Ramanathapuram and adjacent Tuticorin districts. Agriculture, charcoal production and fishing in the coastal areas are the sources for livelihood of the people. There are some industries in nearby Virudhunagar district where people migrate for work. A good number of workers in hosiery and knitwear units of Tiruppur are from the district. Usually men go out in search of jobs and women, old people and children stay home.
Once upon a time the ooranis and tanks had been maintained by the people through a group of individuals chosen by the villagers and called kudimaramatthu . This practice stopped after the British regime took over. Tanks and ooranis became Government property maintained by the Public Works Department.
With the arrival of bore wells, the concept of conserving water through such water bodies was forgotten. The ground water level plummeted and water turned saline. The Government-sponsored desalination plants in the district are insufficient to meet the demand.
Every village has one to three ooranis for drinking water, domestic water needs and livestock and temple pond.
The main water source is rain, but the district falls in rain shadow belt with scanty rainfall. People could at most store water in ooranis and tanks for three to six months a year. Rest of the time women, girls and men must trek three to five kilometers every day in search of water. This affected their livelihood, health, and the education of girls. There are incidents of conflicts for drinking water among villages.
On the other hand, there are instances of sharing oorani water between villages. If an oorani is built, the water would be shared by about 500 families of three villages. Most of the ooranis are either dilapidated or small.
In some areas, the percolation rate of water is high because the base layer is sandy.
If an oorani is renovated and technically modified, it would quench the people's thirst in three to four villages. Besides it would improve the quality of life. Girls could go to schools; women could finish their household chores faster and help in the fields. The search for water has affected health, education and livelihood. It is common to find men and women in the district spending a whole day in search of water. The family income is Rs.1, 500 to Rs. 2,500 a month and lower during the summer. People have to spend Rs.150 to Rs.250 on water every month.
You can also do it ….To help save the lives of the Life saving Ooranis -
Kind hearted well-wishers -- Can sponsor an Oorani - Dhan Foundation -
Website - http://www.dhan.org/ooranis/districts.php
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Trans Atlantic Slavery - African Artist Hazoume
I recently had the fortune of viewing a free, thought provoking exhibition in British Museum commemorating 200 Years of the Abolition of Trans Atlantic Slavery.
It was a feast for my visual senses, my ears, as well as for my mind, which has often struggled to come to terms with the intellectual legacy of colonialism in India and the question of whether the past and colonial history, have a bearing on the modern Indian consciousness. And the question of whether, if they have a bearing, what could it likely be ?
The exhibition was hosted by The British Museum and was the creation of an artist from Republic of Benin in West Africa - Romuald Hazoume. It was billed as artwork and a meditation on human greed and exploitation, the Atlantic Slave Trade of the past, and the different forms of oppression that continue today.
The exhibition brochure informed me that the 25 March 1807 Act of the British Parliament, banning Atlantic Slave Trade, was in response to the anti slavery campaigning of a British anti slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson. It seems abolition was ultimately achieved by the continual resistance of enslaved people like Toussaint L'Ouverture who led the slave revolution in 1791 in Haiti.
However, it was another over thirty years before slavery itself was abolished through out the British Empire.
The European links with, and interest in Africa over last 500 years - Portuguese, French, British, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians colonists - have had very colourful and intricate ( synergistic and competitive), and the motivations of the slavery banning by British Parliament, were no doubt more than the campaigning of Mr Clarkson and resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and experts have studied some of these motivations.
It was heartening as an Asian writer, to confront the reflections of a contemporary middle aged, African artist - on history, legacy of colonialism, the present day space for discussions on colonialism, the brief discussions of neo liberalism and neo colonialism, in which there might be no need to make the debates amenable to Western ears and sensibilities.
Visual arts offer a wealth of such opportunities, especially in the hands of a multi talented Aftrican artist, working in many mediums and media - like Hazoume.
I look forward to seeing a tradition of Asian and African exchanges on legacy of colonialism established, especially in the visual arts and what is called intermedia, where artists are not constrained by European sensibilities / moderators / gate keepers - and can explore common understandings in more universal settings.
Hazoume's comment echoes with my sensibilities, when I examine the environment of the Liverpool slave ship he has represented with oil cans. He says of his West African people from the Mono River estuary, Grand Popo -
" They didn't know where they were going,
but they knew where they had come from.
Today they still don't know where they are going,
and they have forgotten where they come from."
- We, the big strong Africans, the Yoruba, we caught our brothers from Nigeria, and sold them to the White Man.
Nagarjuna - 06 May 2007
It was a feast for my visual senses, my ears, as well as for my mind, which has often struggled to come to terms with the intellectual legacy of colonialism in India and the question of whether the past and colonial history, have a bearing on the modern Indian consciousness. And the question of whether, if they have a bearing, what could it likely be ?
The exhibition was hosted by The British Museum and was the creation of an artist from Republic of Benin in West Africa - Romuald Hazoume. It was billed as artwork and a meditation on human greed and exploitation, the Atlantic Slave Trade of the past, and the different forms of oppression that continue today.
The exhibition brochure informed me that the 25 March 1807 Act of the British Parliament, banning Atlantic Slave Trade, was in response to the anti slavery campaigning of a British anti slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson. It seems abolition was ultimately achieved by the continual resistance of enslaved people like Toussaint L'Ouverture who led the slave revolution in 1791 in Haiti.
However, it was another over thirty years before slavery itself was abolished through out the British Empire.
The European links with, and interest in Africa over last 500 years - Portuguese, French, British, Dutch, Spanish, Germans, Italians colonists - have had very colourful and intricate ( synergistic and competitive), and the motivations of the slavery banning by British Parliament, were no doubt more than the campaigning of Mr Clarkson and resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and experts have studied some of these motivations.
It was heartening as an Asian writer, to confront the reflections of a contemporary middle aged, African artist - on history, legacy of colonialism, the present day space for discussions on colonialism, the brief discussions of neo liberalism and neo colonialism, in which there might be no need to make the debates amenable to Western ears and sensibilities.
Visual arts offer a wealth of such opportunities, especially in the hands of a multi talented Aftrican artist, working in many mediums and media - like Hazoume.
I look forward to seeing a tradition of Asian and African exchanges on legacy of colonialism established, especially in the visual arts and what is called intermedia, where artists are not constrained by European sensibilities / moderators / gate keepers - and can explore common understandings in more universal settings.
Hazoume's comment echoes with my sensibilities, when I examine the environment of the Liverpool slave ship he has represented with oil cans. He says of his West African people from the Mono River estuary, Grand Popo -
" They didn't know where they were going,
but they knew where they had come from.
Today they still don't know where they are going,
and they have forgotten where they come from."
- We, the big strong Africans, the Yoruba, we caught our brothers from Nigeria, and sold them to the White Man.
Nagarjuna - 06 May 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Dharampal on Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dharampal, is a Gandhian thinker, historian and major philosopher from India. He authored The Beautiful Tree, and Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century, among other seminal works. He was born in January 1922 in a rich Jat family of Kandhla, a small town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company, and commissioned surveys, conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India.
His writings are abundantly rich in written references and references, to documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as "divide and rule" rationale.
Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society. His complete works, were published a few years ago by Shri Claude Alvares of Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, in six volumes.
Another major result of Dharampal's work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi's ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal's work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.
He passed away on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram (Gandhi’s ashram) near Wardha (Maharashtra).
He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.
Shri Dharampal had no formal training in history, but maybe, precisely because of this, he was able to chart a new path in analysis and study of pre colonial Indian history. He effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times.
He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history.
His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.
- External links
Dharampal, the Great Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science
http://www.dharampal.net/ : online repository of the works of Shri. Dharampal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal"
Categories: New Imperialism History of Asia British rule in India
Dharampal, is a Gandhian thinker, historian and major philosopher from India. He authored The Beautiful Tree, and Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century, among other seminal works. He was born in January 1922 in a rich Jat family of Kandhla, a small town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
Among the established Indian historians, Dharampal has yet to find his place compared to the sheer significance of his contributions. His books are based painstakingly, and entirely, on colonial British documents of East India Company, and commissioned surveys, conducted in parts of India, before the annexation of India.
His writings are abundantly rich in written references and references, to documents outlining the deliberate colonization agenda of British imperialism. He shows the determination of British civil servants in colonizing India as per set patterns, often referred by Gandhi as "divide and rule" rationale.
Dharampal effectively dispelled colonial myths and facile untruths about Bharat, the deliberate underplaying of civilizational achievements, and at bringing out the real strength, structure and working of the Indian society. His complete works, were published a few years ago by Shri Claude Alvares of Other India Press, Mapusa, Goa, in six volumes.
Another major result of Dharampal's work among contemporary Indian thinkers, is how he was able to establish the intellectual connection, between Gandhi's ideas and his politics of non violence. Today, based on Dharampal's work, Gandhi can be seen as a visionary philosopher, while at the same time, an earthy political man, who understood the compulsions of the British, as well as the strengths of non violence as a strategy, appropriate for mainstream Indian freedom movement.
He passed away on October 24, 2006 at Sevagram (Gandhi’s ashram) near Wardha (Maharashtra).
He is survived by a son and two daughters. His son, David, lives in London and a daughter, Gita, is a professor of history at Heidelberg University of Germany. His wife died in London in 1986.
Shri Dharampal had no formal training in history, but maybe, precisely because of this, he was able to chart a new path in analysis and study of pre colonial Indian history. He effectively dispelled many colonial myths about the state of Indian society pre British, generated by a body of British and British universities trained and influenced Indian historians of recent times.
He took the focus away from Marxian and colonial interpretations of Indian history.
His body of writings, serve now as a seminal and powerful inspiration, for many foundational reinterpretations and interventions, in Indian society, and its rationale, in contemporary Indian thinking.
- External links
Dharampal, the Great Gandhian and Historian of Indian Science
http://www.dharampal.net/ : online repository of the works of Shri. Dharampal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal"
Categories: New Imperialism History of Asia British rule in India
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Dharampal Net Resources
Dear Friends and Associates of Shri Dharampal,
Today (19th February) is the date of birth of Shri. Dharampal. Since his demise there have been many discussions on how to take his work forward. We at Samanvaya have done what we know best, put together the material that we have in our collection in the form of a website.
We are happy to announce the new website www.dharampal.net which will be an online repository of Dharampalji's website. Among its features, it contains a downloadable version of some of his publications, a collection of unpublished archival compilations, his note on possible future work based on them, related initiatives, life sketch, etc.
Currently the site is hosted in the Samanvaya website. Some of the features are not currently available or fully ready yet. This we will have ready in very soon.
We have provided a few snippets of the material in the website at the end of this mail. It is our hope that this Endeavour will be found useful by not just his friends, but, also those who want to embark on a journey of a discovery of India anew.
We welcome your comments and participation. We wish to thank many friends of Dharampalji for their voluntary interest and association in this effort, without their guidance this effort would not have been possible.
Warm regards,
Ramasubramanian
Chief, Samanvaya
chief@samanvaya.com
mob : 9444957781
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Samanvaya - Knowledge Services for Development Sector
www.samanvaya.com
Please Note: Samanvaya New Office Address from 1st March 2007:
Samanvaya, 2nd Floor, Old No. 94, New No. 179, Royapettah High Road,
Mylapore, Chennai - 600004
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dharampal.Net --- Some of the current information include:
Work Ahead :
It may be worth mentioning that, these researches and studies were taken up by Dharampal in his individual capacity, also because he was not considered a scholar or a historian and did not even have a University degree. It may be mentioned that a question about his not having a degree was raised in the Bihar legislature during 1973.
Archival material :
"...The extent to which it has been carried throughout all the irrigated region of the Madras Presidency is truly extraordinary.
An imperfect record of the number of tanks in 14 districts shows them to amount to no less than, 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 out of repair, or 53,000 in all.
It would be a moderate estimate of the length of embankment for each to fix it at half a mile; and the number of masonry works, in sluices of irrigation, waste weirs, & e., would probably be not over-rated at an average of 6.
These data, only assumed to give some definite idea of the extent of the system, would give close upon 30,000 miles of embankments (sufficient " to put a girdle round the globe" not less than 6 feet thick) and 3,00,000 separate masonry works. The whole of this gigantic machinery of irrigation is of purely native origin ..."
India 1947 - 64 : Events and their background - "When I first read President Roosevelt’s advice on India to the British in August 1942 (India: The Transfer of Power, vol 3), I took his statement to imply that the British should "act in such a way that India stays in the western orbit", quite literally.
It was only years later that I understood that Roosevelt was not thinking in terms of his preference for the West or the USSR, but rather that they, he and the British, "should try to think of some arrangement by which India found its place in the European and American, i.e., western orbit, rather than the Asiatic."
Quite naturally, Roosevelt and his friends, could not conceive an India, run according to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.
Relevance of Dharampal :
... His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so was obviously attached with the corollary why can’t things change from this situation...
Today (19th February) is the date of birth of Shri. Dharampal. Since his demise there have been many discussions on how to take his work forward. We at Samanvaya have done what we know best, put together the material that we have in our collection in the form of a website.
We are happy to announce the new website www.dharampal.net which will be an online repository of Dharampalji's website. Among its features, it contains a downloadable version of some of his publications, a collection of unpublished archival compilations, his note on possible future work based on them, related initiatives, life sketch, etc.
Currently the site is hosted in the Samanvaya website. Some of the features are not currently available or fully ready yet. This we will have ready in very soon.
We have provided a few snippets of the material in the website at the end of this mail. It is our hope that this Endeavour will be found useful by not just his friends, but, also those who want to embark on a journey of a discovery of India anew.
We welcome your comments and participation. We wish to thank many friends of Dharampalji for their voluntary interest and association in this effort, without their guidance this effort would not have been possible.
Warm regards,
Ramasubramanian
Chief, Samanvaya
chief@samanvaya.com
mob : 9444957781
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Samanvaya - Knowledge Services for Development Sector
www.samanvaya.com
Please Note: Samanvaya New Office Address from 1st March 2007:
Samanvaya, 2nd Floor, Old No. 94, New No. 179, Royapettah High Road,
Mylapore, Chennai - 600004
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dharampal.Net --- Some of the current information include:
Work Ahead :
It may be worth mentioning that, these researches and studies were taken up by Dharampal in his individual capacity, also because he was not considered a scholar or a historian and did not even have a University degree. It may be mentioned that a question about his not having a degree was raised in the Bihar legislature during 1973.
Archival material :
"...The extent to which it has been carried throughout all the irrigated region of the Madras Presidency is truly extraordinary.
An imperfect record of the number of tanks in 14 districts shows them to amount to no less than, 43,000 in repair, and 10,000 out of repair, or 53,000 in all.
It would be a moderate estimate of the length of embankment for each to fix it at half a mile; and the number of masonry works, in sluices of irrigation, waste weirs, & e., would probably be not over-rated at an average of 6.
These data, only assumed to give some definite idea of the extent of the system, would give close upon 30,000 miles of embankments (sufficient " to put a girdle round the globe" not less than 6 feet thick) and 3,00,000 separate masonry works. The whole of this gigantic machinery of irrigation is of purely native origin ..."
India 1947 - 64 : Events and their background - "When I first read President Roosevelt’s advice on India to the British in August 1942 (India: The Transfer of Power, vol 3), I took his statement to imply that the British should "act in such a way that India stays in the western orbit", quite literally.
It was only years later that I understood that Roosevelt was not thinking in terms of his preference for the West or the USSR, but rather that they, he and the British, "should try to think of some arrangement by which India found its place in the European and American, i.e., western orbit, rather than the Asiatic."
Quite naturally, Roosevelt and his friends, could not conceive an India, run according to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi.
Relevance of Dharampal :
... His interest in history or his work on the archives has been according to him, only an incidental outcome of his quest for understanding the reasons why the nation was in the state he found it in.
Perhaps that is why he never sought company among ‘historians’ and always seemed to befriend politicians, activists and such kind. His quest for understanding why things were so was obviously attached with the corollary why can’t things change from this situation...
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