thedailyjanchetna@gmail.com

The Daily Janchetna

Year11, Issue:7, Monday, Nov.9,2020.

. Message of the Day .

No matter, wish or don’t wish, we have to depend on the society to exist and meet our needs to make both ends meet. At the time of the birth, man is nothing more than a breathing piece of flesh. Had the family, a unit of the society, not extended a helping hand, we would have been finished there and then. Even after that, one has to depend upon the society for the basic needs and security. Life without society is not possible. Now, if we have to live in the society, why should the necessity be not made a virtue? We ought to organize a loving and caring society at service in fever and fret and still liberal in independent living. And this is possible only when we socialize ourselves to participate in its activities even at our personal costs.

. History of the Day.

On August 4, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (“Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen”), a statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). The document proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the ancien régime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government.Drafting a formal constitution proved much more of a challenge for the National Constituent Assembly, which had the added burden of functioning as a legislature during harsh economic times. For months, its members wrestled with fundamental questions about the shape and expanse of France’s new political landscape. For instance, who would be responsible for electing delegates? Would the clergy owe allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church or the French government? Perhaps most importantly, how much authority would the king, his public image further weakened after a failed attempt to flee in June 1791, retain? Adopted on September 3, 1791, France’s first written constitution echoed the more moderate voices in the Assembly, establishing a constitutional monarchy in which the king enjoyed royal veto power and the ability to appoint ministers.

. Today’s History .

9th November

Important Events:

1954 — Shankar Nag, Kannada film actor, was born

1969 — P.V. Cherian, Governor of Maharashtra, passed away  

1988 — Thengai Srinivasan, Tamil film actor, passed away  

2005 — K. R. Narayanan, President of India, passed away

Dhondo Keshav Karve

Social reformer Dhondo Keshav Karve, whose pioneering contribution to women’s education in India has rarely been surpassed, died on November 9, 1962.

Karve was born on April 18, 1858 at Sheravali in the Khed taluka of Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. From an early age, education was an important aspect of his life. He once walked 110 miles on a difficult terrain and amid rain to the city of Satara for an examination, but was not allowed to appear in it because he looked very young -- a very disheartening experience for Karve!

Later, he studied at Bombay’s Elphinstone College and secured a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

Since child marriage was the norm those days, his family found it fit to get him married at the age of 14. His wife was an eight-year-old girl called Radhabai, someone he was used to playing with in the neighbourhood. But after marriage, the two children had to “forget our old relation as playmates and to behave as strangers, often looking toward each other but never standing together to exchange words”, Karve later recalled in his autobiography.

Radhabhai died 19 years later during childbirth. 

Against his father’s wishes, Karve, in a fairly radical decision for that era, decided to re-marry a widow, Godubai, who had also started receiving an education. When he started teaching mathematics at Pune’s Fergusson College in 1891, Karve decided that women’s education would be his goal in life.

His influences were wide-ranging — from educationist Pandita Ramabai and social reformer Vishnu Shastri Pandit to British intellectual and scholar Herbert Spencer, whose works he read.

In the 1890s, Karve founded the Widhawa-Wiwahottejak Mandali, an organisation which encouraged widow re-marriage and supported their children; he also started a school and shelter for women and widows near Pune. In 1907, he started Mahila Vidyalaya, and in 1908 a society to train workers for the widow home and the vidyalaya. Many orthodox Brahmins of Pune opposed these progressive steps, some even severing all links with him.

Inspired by the opening of a women’s university in Japan, Karve was determined to start one in India. As he saw it, the objectives of the university would include imparting education that would develop women’s personalities and prepare them to participate as citizens in nation-building. He went around the country to collect funds for the university and established it in 1916.

In 1920, the university was renamed Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University or SNDT Women’s University after an industrialist from Mumbai, Vithaldas Thackersey, donated Rs 15 lakh to the university.

Besides being the first women’s university in India, SNDT Women’s University was also the first women’s university in all of south-east Asia. The first proud batch of five women graduated in 1921 from here. Currently, the varsity is headquartered at Churchgate, Mumbai. Its other campuses are at Juhu, Mumbai and Karve Road, Pune. 

True to the vision of its founder, the motto of SNDT University is Sanskrita Stree Parashakti (“An enlightened woman is a source of infinite strength”). In its modern-day avatar, the SNDT University’s goals include providing access to higher education for women through formal and non- formal streams including adult and continuing education, and a wide range of professional and vocational courses; and developing scholarship and research in emerging areas of study, especially from women’s perspectives.

Between 1929 and 1932, Karve toured extensively, visiting Europe, United States, and Africa to attend conferences and give talks on education, sharing his experience as a pioneering educationist from India and learning about developments in the field in other nations.  

For his lifelong contributions, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1955 and the Bharat Ratna in 1958.

Born a year after the 1857 revolt, Karve led a long and rich life, and when he died, having crossed the age of 100, India was a free nation. Because of people like Karve, 1947 didn’t mean attainment of mere political freedom but also the possibility of forging new, progressive social ideals. He had realised early on that without taking women forward, freedom could not be fully realised. It was easier for other like-minded men and women who came after him to build edifices on the building blocks of women’s education that Dhondo Keshav Karve so tirelessly put together.

. Current .

The Demons of Fake News

The real is finally mythical; and fake news, much like the golden deer in the Ramayana, is leading the world from order into chaos.

Fake news is real, morphed images are used freely to make a point, quotes are repurposed to state what they never did or to make a point different from the original one.

The golden deer was a demon in deerskin and it presents a turning point in the epic. It led to Sita's abduction and the subsequent battle between Rama and Ravana, and changed the course of the narrative -- just as misinformation, white lies, hyperbole and outright lies are doing today.

There are two parts to the problem of credibility today: One is the dwindling trust in people who wield power and the second is the lack of faith in the words they use.

For instance, when politicians talk about the demonetisation exercise or growth or religion, the words used are the same but intent and understanding differ.

Words have lost their power, being used to make a point rather than reveal a truth.

In myths, the word is sacred. It is the beginning of the world and brings the universe into being.

Ancient cultures imbue a sense of infallible divinity in the word; a goddess in most cultures. Aletheia is the Greek goddess of truth while Vac is the Vedic goddess of speech. (Vac and Saraswati are used interchangeably in the later texts.)

If the word is divine, she must be upheld and hence myths were fashioned around principles that aimed to drive home the importance of being true to a promise or a curse or a boon.

In the Ramayana, for instance, there are stories that set down the dire consequences that may result if the word of Brahma, the creator god, is proven false.

Brahma had granted Ravana the boon of immortality. Drunk on his power, the king of Lanka stormed into the realm of Death.

Brahma had also granted Yama the kaldanda, the weapon that gave him authority over the end of every creature's life.

So when Ravana faced off with Yama, Brahma was rattled.

If Yama killed Ravana using Brahma's weapon, his boon would be rendered false.

And if Ravana survived, then his word to Yama would be untrue.

So Brahma asked Yama to stand down because he said that making his word false would put all the three worlds at risk.

Truth was more important than anything else.

Brahma's veracity has to be absolute if the universe has to keep its consistency, wrote Robert Antoine, a Belgian Jesuit priest who taught comparative literature at Jadavpur University (Rama and the Bards: Epic Memory in the Ramayana).

Brahma's word stands for universal truth, and when that is challenged or rendered futile by misuse, the world falls into an abyss.

The Greek myths add another layer to the power of truth in the story of Aletheia's origin. Prometheus sat down to sculpt the perfect goddess, one who would regulate human behaviour. He was nearly done with his work when he was called away by Zeus.

Prometheus left the workshop under the charge of his assistant, Dolus (trickery), who fashioned an identical sculpture. But just as he was about to put the feet on the sculpture, Prometheus walked back in.

The god did not question his assistant for he wanted to take credit for the work and he breathed life into both.

But, Truth, or Aletheia, walked with measured steps, while the other stood in her tracks. Her name is Mendacium, or Falsehood.

A lie wrecked the order of the universe and had to be stopped, that is what the myths said.

In the Mahabharata it was seen as the greatest sin. Yudhishthira suffered a glimpse of hell because he told a half-truth on the battlefield, not because he gambled away his brothers and wife.

In epics and myths across the world, sages took their students to task for not revealing the most inane details of an exercise and kings staked their children to keep their word.

Truth was non-negotiable, unlike the present day when it stands in front of a mirror with many faces.

. Informative .

Details given in Bank Passbook

Bank Passbooks to have more transaction details after RBI directive; 1 things you need to know

To enhance better customer service, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked commercial banks to provide adequate details of all the transactions in the passbooks of all its customers. With this, RBI makes it easy for account holders to keep a check of all their transactions in just a glance

The RBI said that many banks still do not provide adequate details of the transactions in the passbooks and/ or statements of account to enable account holders cross-check them.

1.                 According to circular released by RBI on 22 June 2017,  the transactions which banks should include in passbooks are as follows: Payment to third parties: i) Name of the payee

(ii) Mode- Transfer, clearing, inter-branch, RTGS/ NEFT, cash, cheque (number)

(iii) Name of the transferee bank, if the payment is made through clearing/ inter-branch transaction/ RTGS/ NEFT.

2.        Payment to ‘self’: This should indicate “Self” as payee. The name of the ATM/ branch if the payment is made by ATM/ another branch

3.        Reversal of wrong credits will need to have the date of the original credit entry reversed and reasons for reversal, in brief.

4.        Cash deposit: It should be indicated that it is a “cash deposit”. It would require name of the depositor i.e. self or third party

5.        Interest on deposits: (i) Mention if it is interest paid on the Savings Account/ Fixed Deposit (ii) Mention the respective Fixed Deposit Account/ Receipt Number if it is interest paid on Fixed Deposit(s).

6.        Bank charges: i) Nature of the charges – fee/ commission/ fine/ penalty etc. (ii) Reasons for the charges, in brief – e.g. return of cheque (number), commission/ fee on draft issued/ remittance (draft number), cheque collection charge (number), issuance of cheque book, SMS alerts, ATM fees, additional cash withdrawals, etc.

7.        Receipt from third parties: (i) Name of the remitter/ transferor

(ii) Mode-Transfer, inter-branch, RTGS/ NEFT, cash, etc.

(iii) Name of the transferor bank, if the payment is received through inter-branch transaction, RTGS/ NEFT

8.        Maturity proceeds of fixed deposit/ recurring deposit:

 i) Name of the Fixed Deposit/ Recurring Deposit holder

(ii) Fixed Deposit/ Recurring Deposit account/ receipt number

(iii) Date of maturity