Notes of Nagesh

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/abolition-of-tamil-nadus-devadasi-system-an-inspiring-saga/article67308852.ece Abolition of Tamil Nadu’s Devadasi system: An inspiring saga  PREMIUM The passage of the Bill against the Devadasi system marked the culmination of a struggle spearheaded by Muthulakshmi Reddy September 14, 2023 10:54 pm | Updated September 15, 2023 04:52 pm IST T  RamakrishnanT. RAMAKRISHNAN Muthulakshmi Reddy, left, greeting Sarojini Naidu at an event held in Madras in 1938.  Muthulakshmi Reddy, left, greeting Sarojini Naidu at an event held in Madras in 1938.  | Photo Credit: Hindu Photo Archives Tamil Nadu is no stranger to public discourses on culture, traditions, customs and societal norms. On some occasions, the discourses did not lead to any substantive outcome other than creating controversies. On some other occasions, they succeeded in addressing the problem effectively. One such success story pertains to the abolition of the Deva...

MOHAN GURUSWAMY: ♦️ *2024 Elections: Modi up a steep and slippery slope?*   Be it a democracy or a dictatorship, regimes are almost always changed by throwing out the incumbent. The former is called a democratic transition and the latter is inevitably a revolution. Even if it is, as usually is the case, more of the same.   India’s electoral process that begins on April 19 will be concluded on June 4 when the results are announced.  Most psephologists, commentators, astrologers and bazar gossips are sanguine that Narendra Modi will be easily re-elected to a third successive term. I do not agree with that sanguinity. I think Modi has a hard hill to climb and the slope may be too steep and slippery for him. Look at the objective reality. In 2019 the BJP won 303 seats or almost 56% of the Lok Sabha with 37.4% of the popular vote. This skew is how it usually is in a first past the post system. Even a minority mandate translates into an overwhelming outcome.  But the probl...

Mohan Guruswamy  Today is Chandrashekharji’s birthday. Friend, hero and mentor. He didn’t fulfil his promise, but what he did was so much!  At a time when an inconclusive mandate seems a very likely outcome, we will miss personalities like Atal Behari Vajpayee and Chandra Shekhar, more so the latter, who had larger than life personalities and whose appeal cut across party lines so as to be able to weld together many factions in a united cause. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s acolytes know this well and hence they keep asking: “If not Modi, who?” Clearly, a person like the late Chandra Shekhar will be missed in the next Lok Sabha. I met Chandra Shekhar for the first time in early 1981 shortly after his party was decimated by the Congress(I) in the mid-term elections that followed the collapse of the dismal Janata Party experiment. We were on a flight to Kochi to Bengaluru and since he and I were seated next to each other, and since it was a hopping flight, we had much time toget...

NA Prasad Deccan Council, Hyderabad  In response to my commentary on `BJP's Tryst with Third Term', an American friend of Pakistan origin, who is positively inclined toward India, expressed fears of BJP-RSS going in the Islamic State way.  I have sent a fairly detailed response to it.  I thought it would be of interest to you as well and hence posting it:                                                                                                                   "I am aware of these concerns.  Let me give my thoughts from a purely objective analyst view:                       As I understand, such comparisons are based...

MANGAL PANDEY WAS HANGED TODAY IN 1857. BY MAY 10 THE NATION WAS ALAME IN REBELLION. "At Barrackpore on the afternoon of 29 March 1857, Lieutenant Baugh, Adjutant of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI), was informed that several men of his regiment were in an excited state. Further, it was reported to him that one of them, Mangal Pandey, was pacing in front of the regiment's guard room by the parade ground, armed with a loaded musket, calling upon the men to rebel and threatening to shoot the first European that he set eyes on. Baugh immediately buckled on his sword, placed loaded pistols in his holsters, mounted his horse, and galloped to the lines. Pandey took position behind the station gun, which was in front of the quarter-guard of the 34th, took aim at Baugh and fired. He missed Baugh, but the bullet struck his horse in the flank, and horse and rider were brought down. Baugh quickly disentangled himself and, seizing one of his pistols, advanced towards Pandey and fired...

MOHAN GURUSWAMY: . The media made a frenzied meal out of the alleged snooping of the remnants of Netaji Subhaschandra Bose family in Calcutta from 1948 to 1968. According to official sources in Japan, Bose died on August 18, 1945 from third degree burns when the overladen K1-21 Mitsubishi bomber crashed at shortly after take-off from Taihoku in Formosa (Taiwan). Bose was accompanied by Lt.Gen. Tsunamasa Shidei, Vice Chief of Staff of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria and his secretary, Col. Habibur Rahaman of the INA. While the Japanese crew and Gen. Shidei died immediately, Bose survived the crash with severe burns. Habibur Rahman escaped unscathed and was there when he died. Bose was treated by Japanese doctors but did not survive.  He was cremated on August 20, 1945 and his ashes were flown to Tokyo where they were handed over to the President of the Tokyo Indian Independence League, Mr. Rama Murti. On September 14, after a ceremony the urn was placed in the Renkoji temple...

https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/manoj-mitta-dalit-book-caste-pride/article66747167.ece An extract from Manoj Mitta’s *Caste Pride: Fight for self-respect* Watch Science Journey  https://www.youtube.com/live/NPABYNtgySY?si=9T71ZEhF0ra3KKoj   PREMIUM Manoj Mitta’s new book Caste Pride looks at caste through the legislative and judicial lens April 21, 2023 09:03 am | Updated April 23, 2023 11:40 am IST MANOJ MITTA ‘The catalyst for social change in Madras was the Self-Respect Movement led by Dravidian icon E.V. Ramasamy or Periyar.’ ‘The catalyst for social change in Madras was the Self-Respect Movement led by Dravidian icon E.V. Ramasamy or Periyar.’ | Photo Credit: The Hindu Photo Archives In the 1880s, a radical form of wedding took place in the Bombay Presidency, which did away with any kind of Brahmin priest. The moving force behind this reform was the Satyashodhak Samaj or the Truth Seeking Society established by social reformer Jotirao Phule in Poona in 1873 “...