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The Daily Janchetna

Year11, Issue:20, Saturday, Nov.28,2020.

. Message of the Day .

The concept of accepting basic needs of humanity as fundamental right is not new. At every junction of the civilization, we find a Gautam Buddha who did feel the agony of the hapless, innocent man being ground in the mill of time. The individual has to face problems at every step of his life. Needs for his survival are, indeed, very limited but he has created unlimited wants in the wake of being civilized and he has to toil very hard to get each want fulfilled. Some do become rich and amass uncountable wealth but many are left with empty belly. The concept of charity was emerged with the feelings of mercy, sympathy and compassion for the poor. The hungry started reporting the charitable to fill his belly. The rich took no time in managing alms to the hungry because of the recognition attached to a bountiful in the society. But begging is a curse. To maintain self respect of the poor, fulfillment of the basic needs ought to be declared fundamental rights of every citizen.

History of Mankind-7.

Understanding life’s origin may involve unraveling the mystery of DNA's formation.

Nowadays DNA needs proteins in order to form, and proteins require DNA to form, so how could these have formed without each other? The answer may be RNA, which can store information like DNA, serve as an enzyme like proteins, and help create both DNA and proteins. Later DNA and proteins succeeded this "RNA world," because they are more efficient.

RNA still exists and performs several functions in organisms, including acting as an on-off switch for some genes. The question still remains how RNA got here in the first place. And while some scientists think the molecule could have spontaneously arisen on Earth, others say that was very unlikely to have happened. Other nucleic acids other than RNA have been suggested as well, such as the more esoteric PNA or TNA.

A study in 2015 suggests the missing link in this RNA puzzle may have been found.

. Today’s History .

28th November

Important Events:

1962 — Krishna Chandra Dey, Bengali actor and musician, passed away

1890 ---Jyotirao died on 28^th November,1890.

Social activist, writer, educationist and radical intellectual, Jyotirao Phule was born on April 11, 1827, in Maharashtra’s Satara district. A stanch critic of the Brahmin domination of Hindu society, he robustly analysed the caste system and its appalling effects on the lower castes. He died on November 28, 1890.

Phule’s father, Govindrao, was a vegetable vendor. Since Phule’s father and uncles once worked as florists under the Peshwas, the family began to be called ‘Phules’. Phule’s mother died when he was barely a year old. He had to leave school at an early age and get married as a child.

Seeing that he was a bright child, two neighbours of the Phules urged Govindrao to make him study further. Accordingly, in 1841, he was admitted to the Scottish Mission’s High School in Pune (then called Poona). Interestingly, some of the Brahmins that Phule met at the school remained his friends and fellow activists for life.

In 1848, Phule was insulted at the wedding of a Brahmin friend for being a member of the Mali caste, an incident which made him acutely aware of caste prejudice in the Hindu society. Influenced by Thomas Paine’s 1791 book Rights of Man, he realised that education of women and lower castes was an important measure to address social inequalities. He started teaching his wife Savitribai at home, and opened a girls' school in 1848, which had to be shut down but was subsequently reopened in 1851. He followed this with establishing more schools, including ones for lower castes like Mahars and Mangs. This angered the orthodox upper-caste Hindus, who unleashed a campaign against Phule’s activities. But such opposition did not deter him. Against all prevailing norms of that era, he asked his wife to teach at the girls' school, one of the many progressive steps he took.

The scholar and activist Gail Omvedt writes in her book Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond: “Apropos women, his [Phule’s] personal life stands in contrast to the compromises made by almost every other social reformer and radical: he not only educated his wife, Savitribai, and encouraged her to become a teacher in a school for girls, but also resolutely withstood all community pressures to take a second wife in spite of their childlessness…[I]n his later years…he took a stronger position describing male patriarchal power as a specific form of exploitation.”

Phule believed that the “deplorable state of education among the peasantry” was responsible for “a good deal of their poverty, their want of self-reliance, their entire dependence upon the learned and intelligent classes”.

In an essay titled Ishara, he wrote: “Not long ago, until the end of the regime of the last Arya Peshwa, Rao Baji, if a peasant committed a slight default in payment of land revenue, he was made to stand half-bent in the blazing sun, a big stone put on his back, and his wife was made to sit on it, and down in front of him was lighted a fire with chillies thrown on it. The ruler treated his subjects as animals. Their only use was to produce for the ruler and the men and women of his caste, food and clothing by toiling hard in the sun and the rain, and to keep them provided with their numerous luxuries….”

Challenging the hegemony of the Brahmins and other upper castes in Indian society was a major focus of his life and work. He established the Satya Shodhak Samaj in 1873 that aimed to prevent the Shudras and Ati Shudras from being exploited. As Omvedt puts it: “The Brahmins whom Phule attacked so strongly were not only the orthodox. They also included the ‘moderates’, liberals and reformers, grouped in organisations such as the Prarthana Samaj, Brahma Samaj, Sarvajanik Sabha and the Congress. All of these were seen by him as elite efforts, designed to deceive the masses and establish upper-caste hegemony. Caste, to him, was slavery, as vicious and brutal as the enslavement of the Africans in the United States…”

In 1876 Phule became a member of the Poona Municipality. He helped in arranging relief when a famine struck parts of Maharashtra in 1877.

Besides theorising about caste, Phule focussed on a wide range of issues including people’s livelihood and sustainable development (in today’s parlance), and many of his concerns are relevant in the 21st century. For instance, on the complex issue of state ownership of farmland and forests, he wrote: “Previously those farmers who had very little land…used to go to the hills to eat fruit from figs or jambhuis or other trees, and they could scrape together a bit of money by selling fruit and leaves from the trees and wood cut from the forest, or by grazing one or two cows or three or four goats on the village pasture… However, the European administrators…set up for the first time a gigantic forest department. Since they have included all the mountains, hills, peaks, glens, dales and all the uncultivated lands and pastures as ‘forest’, this forest department has risen to such a

pinnacle of power that the poor helpless paralysed farmers have an inch of ground left on earth for their goats to even inhale the wind of the fields.”

Jyotirao Phule’s hard-hitting analyses were often ahead of their times. As the academic and Marathi playwright G. P. Deshpande put it: “Phule’s thought proved that socio-political struggles of the Indian people could generate universal criterion…[his] efforts were to change the world/society with the weapon of knowledge.”  

. Current .

Secure, Comfortable Humanity

The man has been toiling hard for a secure, comfortable living even before the dawn of civilization but in vain. He has been forced to face scorching heat of deprivation of necessities: food, clothing & shelter. He did question his pathetic fate despite the hardest labor he put in time and again but of no avail. No one has been able to give logical reply till date.

History of mankind starts with Stone Age. The man was not familiar with fire even. Evidently, he led life of an animal. Surface of the earth or at the most branches of trees under specific conditions was his abode. He had to collect vegetables, fruits and other eatables to fill his belly. Some times, he got them in abundance and some times, they were scarce. Evidently, he had to remain hungry at times. What to think of wild animals, protection from heat, cold, rain is unassumable under the circumstances. Life was basically insecure and full of scarcity. Experience taught him strength of union and benefits of division of labor. Groups were formed, families were established and ultimately states came into existence. Foundations of civilization were laid.

After advent of civilization, man realized hard pinches of insecurity and hardships in life. ”I put so much of labor but unable to get enough food to fill my belly. My near & dears die and I can do nothing to save them. Why does this all happen? What has rendered me so helpless? What should I do to be out of this menace?”

By this time, many gods, goddesses and one Almighty had emerged in. An Almighty God was there at the helm of affairs. He not only created this universe, but was supposed to be managing its day to day affairs through reliable agents. All functions of nature had been attributed to this or that supernatural power. People were afraid of them and started worshipping them out of fear and greed for favor. Wisest among them became officiant (now priest). When people complaint of their hardships, he used to console them by saying,” It is He that sent you in the world. And He Himself marked your fortune. Whatever is determined by Him, you have to bear. Do it willingly. He will be happy and bless you”

Spiritualism could never be expected to deal with the question of hardships faced by humanity because of its basic conception that man had been a part of the Almighty God/ Allah/Sadguru and was separated from Him because of follies he committed. “Man is sent to this planet as punishment and will remain unhappy till the reunion takes place. Reunion is an uphill task: soul in the living man has to be made pious detaching himself from all the worldly comforts, find a solitary place for meditation, locate and persuade Him for a reunion. Persuasions constitute penances, self-mortification and submission to His will. Votary has to use all means to convince Him of his complete submission: butter Him by singing in His praise, endeavor for His clemency & grace, cajole Him by concentrating on Him only discarding all others and frighten Him by observing long fasts & undergoing other painful activities. Complete security and comfort prevails in His place after reunion but this is possible at His will only.”

Since this concept did not bring enough offerings for priests, they went on amending it to their convenience. The most popular amendment was that the Almighty God is one. He created this universe at His will and is operating it through his agents (gods & goddesses). Man’s fortune is also predetermined by Him and there can be no change in this. Ya! If one is able to oblige the operating god by offerings and worshipping, some alteration may be made and results are liable to be changed in favor of the devotee.

Results of this amendment were amazing. Number of gods and priests increased many folds.

. Informative .

Guru Harkishan Public School

Vasant Vihar, New Delhi

Have seen a newspaper reporting by the President of DGMC, casting aspersions on Mr. Manjit Singh ( presently – President of SAD – Badal ) for his role in the year 1995 – 96, as Chairman of Guru Harkishan Public School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi.

First of all, it is absolutely unbecoming of any person to say something about others, without verifying the facts and especially, when the matter relates to a period which is sixteen years old.  I would like to straighten the record in this regard, as during this period, I happened to be the Vice Chairman of the School.  At the time of taking over by Mr. Manjit Singh as Chairman, the School functioning was pathetic, the class-rooms’ position was deplorable and the relations of the teachers with the management probably were far far away from being cordial.

It goes to the absolute credit of the Chairman of the school to have brought out improvements in all aspects like  -  taking initiative in introducing online academic and other information system for the first time in the school.  We were told by the teachers that the school governing body never had any  meetings with  the teachers, seeking their suggestions for the over all improvement and thereby involving them in all spheres.  I recall that Mr. Manjit Singh, even addressed the school students and gave full freedom to the Principal and the teachers with regard to admissions in the school, something which has been ailing the Sikh Institutions, the most.  It was during this period that there was hardly any interference by the governing body.  Some of the issues like – tax payment and penalty thereon were amicably sorted out by him, using his personal rapport with the authorities. 

I would say that it was Mr. Manjit Singh’s initiative that in every class, a separate section was carved out for weak students.  Sports and other events were introduced by involving sponsors and getting advertisement for the brochures, thereby with no financial burden on the school.

I would not have joined the unwanted debate between the two groups, but I consider it my moral duty to bring out the correct facts in this regard and further would urge the contesting groups to refrain from attributing allegations on each other.