My Musings

 Musings....... Uighur Muslims and Chinese Communist Party  The Uighur are a Turkic- speaking minority ethnic group culturally affiliated to the Central and East Asia. Within China, the Uighurs are native to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.  The Chinese government recognises the Uighurs as a regional minority within a multicultural nation. The Chinese reject the idea of the Uighurs being an indigenous group.  The Uighurs traditionally inhabited the Tarim Basin within the Taklamakan desert. Over the times they remained as independent states and were controlled by many civilisations including the Chinese, Mongols, the Tibetans and Turks. Islam has played a major role in Uighur culture and identity.  Initially the term Uighur was used to refer to a small coalition of Tiele tribes in Northern China, Mongolia and Altai Mountains, which was later usurped by the Uyghur Khaganate.  The fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842, led to ma...

Musings....... Pandemic or Syndemic ?  The great William Shakespeare famously wrote - “ What is in a name ?”.  In the present scenario we must say that everything is in a name.  Up until the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised COVID19 as a pandemic - many did not take the disease seriously. It was when it was officially declared as a Pandemic - it positioned the virus as something that should now concern ‘us’ and became something that should be taken seriously.  Infectious disease epidemics is generally portrayed in the Western world as a problem of the post colonial “developing” third world country.   According to them “Epidemics” and “disease” occur out there !!  Recent examples include the Zika Virus in the jungles of South America, the Ebola in civil war ravaged Congo,Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Saudi peninsula, SARS in Southern China and Nipah in our own Kerala.  However, COVID19 has challenged all these western world po...

 Musings....... I would like to write about an incident, one about which I read sometime ago.  It was the early 1990s when few corporate companies in the United States of America (USA) came up with a scheme for the pig and poultry farmers.  The Corporate company would provide Piglets to the farmers at low cost. The farmers just had to grow them in their farm and the company itself will buy back the fully grown pigs at the market price.  Superficially this looked like a brilliant plan where both sides benefitted. The farmer didn't have to run around small markets for their pigs and the Corporate company didn't have to spent the time, money and space of growing the animal.  The first year went all fine, farmers were paid the market price and everyone was very happy. The second year too went without incident. However,by the third year citing some difficulties the Corporare company halved the price of the pigs. The farmers thought this to be an aberration and bore t...

 Musings....... Keshavananda Bharati- The sage who saved Indian Democracy  Edneer Mutt in Kasargod District of Kerala has a rather inadvertent distinction of having as its Seer Keshavananda Bharati who's case turned out to be a landmark ensuring constitutional law prevailed in India.  The seer who passed away recently, moved the Supreme Court challenging the land reform laws of Kerala. He was 79.  The land reforms introduced in Kerala in 1969 deprived the Edneer Mutt of its land property - which is believed to have been founded by one of the first four disciples of Adi Shankaracharya.  Keshavananada Bharati challenged the Kerala Governments takeover of its land in the Supreme Court in 1970. The mutt had lost income, and found it difficult to manage its affairs.  The Keshavananda Bharati vrs State of Kerala case is the longest hearing held in the Supreme Court with over 68 hearings.  Legal luminary Nani Palkhivala who appeared for the seer, argued that ...

 Musings....... Gupkar Decleration - Hope  The decleration passed at an all - party meeting on August 4th 2019, at Farook Abdullah’s Gupkar residence, said the parties were united in their resolve to protect the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.  Recently the Gupkar residence is again in news for the Gupkar Decleration 2.0 which reiterated the earlier resolve, of protecting the special status of J&K.   The Decleration read -  “ That modification, abrogation of Articles 35A and 370, unconstitutional delimitation or trifurcation of the state would be an aggression against the people of J&K and Ladakh.”  The signatories to the Decleration, as you would have guessed include the rest of the political parties excluding the ruling party at the Centre.  It was last year on August 5th that Article 370 and Article 35A were abrogated without debate in the Indian Parliament.  Since then the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have been living in vi...

 Musings....... Freedom Fighters- Part 15  Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru -  (The Architect of Modern India)  Born 1889 in Allahabad, his father Motilal Nehru was a self made wealthy barrister from Kashmiri Pandit community. Motilal Nehru previously served as the President of Indian National Congress twice in 1919 and 1928.  His elder sister, Vijayalakshmi Pandit was the first female president of the UN General Assembly. His Youngest sister Krishna was a writer and has written many notable books on her brother.  Nehru himself described his childhood as “ sheltered and uneventful one”.  He became a strong Nationalist in his youth.  Nehru was influenced by the Boer war and the Russo- Japanese war. Nehru graduated from the Trinity college, Cambridge in 1907.  Nehru completed his law degree from the Inner Temple inn, London in 1912.  In 1916 Nehru joined both the Home rule leagues- the ones led by Annie Besant and by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.  The ...

 Musings....... Freedom Fighters- Part 14  Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - The Mahatma  Father of our Nation  At this point of time what more can be said about this great "Yugpurush" that hasn't already been said or that is not known ! Born October 2nd, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat. His father was a diwan of Porbandar.   At the age of 9, he went to study in Rajkot, however had to discontinue his studies owing to his marriage to Kasturba Gandhi at the age of 13 years.  Later he joined Sayamal Das College in Bhavnagar in 1888.  Gandhi got the chance of studying law in London and joined the Inner Temple -one of the four London Law Colleges where he studied and practiced law.  Here Gandhi joined the Vegetarian society, was introduced by friends to the Bhagavat Gita which played a prominent part throughout his life. Gandhi was also influenced at this time by the philosophies of Leo Tolstoy, John Ruskin and Henry David Thoreau.  Upon returning to India ...