Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts

Monday 13 February 2023

Understanding and Promoting Empowerment

I have been involved in Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) initiatives in different parts of the world. The goal of Emancipatory Research is to promote empowerment of marginalised people. Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves what is empowerment? Can it be promoted? If yes, how?

Persons with disabilities in Mongolia

This post talks about some ideas of empowerment and how it can be promoted. It includes ideas from some of my discussions with young persons with disabilities in Mongolia during 2017-2020, who had taken part in an emancipatory research.

Emancipatory Research (ER)

Normally the main goal of a research is to gain new knowledge or new understandings. The main goal of a Emancipatory Research (ER) is to help marginalised persons to gain understanding about factors which cause or worsen their marginalisation.

ER can be done by individuals (IER) or by groups or communities (CER) of marginalised persons. My professional experience relates mainly to ER conducted by groups of disabled persons.

From my experiences, my understanding is that each kind of marginalisation and thus, each specific group of marginalised persons (for example, persons with mental health issues, sex workers, persons with alternate sexualities, persons with disabilities, etc.) is associated with specific kinds of barriers - such as attitudinal, social, economic, legal, cultural and physical barriers. Each kind of marginalised group also also needs to understand its own internalised barriers (barriers located in the persons themselves).
 
I would like to see more research in this area of differences and similarities in barriers faced by different marginalised groups.

The ER process can help in promoting a systematic collective examination of the different barriers in understanding how they affect their individual life-experiences. The ER process conducted jointly by a group of persons facing similar marginalisations can also help in finds ways and strategies to overcome those barriers.

Apart from its impact on the barriers, this whole ER process is also expected to promote empowerment of the participants. I asked a group of 34 young persons with disabilities in Mongolia about the meaning and significance of empowerment for them. The following ideas came out from these discussions.

Meanings of Empowerment

Empowerment can be at individual level and collective level (of groups of people or communities) and of their organisations and institutions.  Empowerment of an individual usually means taking control of his/her own life, having opportunities and abilities to make their own life-choices, and, the capacity of speaking out and making their voices heard.

However, persons from different cultures can different expectations from their empowerment because they may make very different life choices. For example, in an individualistic culture, living independently and ability to say whatever we wish may be seen as an important (or even the most important) part of empowerment. In other cultures where family values are seen as more valuable, empowered persons may still prefer to stay with their parents or listen to their elders, instead of insisting on making their own choices, and empowerment may be perceived in their family status and roles.

Zimmerman (1995) proposed that empowerment is both a process and an outcome. He identified different contributing factors of empowerment, such as - control and access to resources, participation with others, and critical understanding of socio-political environment.

I feel that empowerment is a never-ending process and it relates to different facets of life, so that while we may be more empowered in one life-domain, we can still be less empowered in other life-domains. It also means that our life-circumstances can lead to a reduction or strengthening of our empowerment. For example, finding a job or receiving pension and improving our economic independence may strengthen our empowerment.

Meanings of empowerment for Persons with Disabilities

Different groups of marginalised persons may have different ideas about empowerment. For example, for persons with disabilities, physical and material barriers such as lack of wheel-chairs, lack of ramps and lifts, lack of sign language translation, and lack of Braille materials are a very significant barrier and findings ways to overcome these barriers will play an important role in their empowerment.
 
For an Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) project in Mongolia conducted during 2017-2020, I asked its participants (young adults with moderate to severe disabilities of different kinds) about the meaning of empowerment and what were the barriers to empowerment for them. 

For some of them, empowerment meant overcoming fear of the negative views and opinions of others, in their families, among friends, among peers and in communities. For them the biggest barriers to empowerment were the negative attitudes in the family and in the community.

Others looked at positive qualities to define empowerment, such as having self-confidence, having courage, and to be able to hold responsibility. One person said, “We have to first recognise our own skills and show our skills to others. If we change, we can change attitudes of the society, like Stephen Hawkins did, even if he can’t speak or move.”

For most of them, making independent decisions was a key to empowerment. Most felt that having a work and being financially independent helped in the process of empowerment.

Some persons shared their life stories to explain how they had fought against family attitudes to assert their need for making their own life-decisions. This raised the question about the links between personalities of the persons and their empowerment. Some persons are born fighters, they do not give up and insist on following their decisions, so they are naturally empowered. Others do not have fighting personalities and need help in developing their empowerment skills.

For some persons, parents' love and protectiveness were the barriers to their empowerment. One person said, “Barriers are also inside us, we are sensitive and feel hurt. Lack of accessibility restricts us, forcing us to depend upon others. Going to school is important for empowerment, not only to learn to read and write, but it is an opportunity of meeting others, talking, expressing ourselves, and having friends.”

How would you define empowerment?

Some Questions

One question in my mind is: does collective empowerment automatically lead to individual empowerment? If a group of persons undertakes a joint action to correct an injustice and through their efforts they manage to change the situation, I think that it will promote feelings of value and self-confidence among all members of the group. Thus, it will promote both collective empowerment and individual empowerment. However, I feel that those persons who play a more active role will gain more self-confidence and become more empowered. Therefore, group action may promote different levels of empowerment among the group members.

On the other hand, I think that when unjust situations change, this may help other persons to become empowered by showing that a change is possible, even if they did not take part in the fight to change the situation.

Another question I ask is: does individual empowerment automatically lead to collective empowerment? If a group of empowered persons agree and come together to fight, then they can be more effective in changing the unjust situation. However, if persons are individually empowered but do not agree with each other, and do not come together to change the situation, then probably there will not be any collective empowerment. I see collective empowerment as a process of inter-action and exchange between persons.

Conclusions

Empowerment can have different meanings for different groups of marginalised persons and across different countries and cultures. It is not a question to which you can answer with a yes or no - it is a process. It starts when we become aware that we can also make our own decisions. It is easier for us if we are economically independent and educated, but that does not mean that without education or financial independence we can’t be empowered.

Empowerment means not just getting respect for your decisions, but also respecting the others by listening to them and allowing them to make their decisions. It also means accepting that sometimes, some of us can also decide that we do not wish to make our own decisions.
 
Conducting EDR in Mnadya district, India

 
Meeting others, learning from their life experiences, sharing our doubts and fears are all steps towards empowerment.

As Zimmerman (1995) wrote, “asking why” is a key part of promoting empowerment. Emancipatory Research (ER) approach facilitates groups of marginalised persons to come together, ask questions and understand the reasons behind their life situations, to discuss how to overcome the obstacles they face and thus promotes empowerment.

*****

Saturday 11 February 2023

"Eliminating" Infections In India

In today's FirstPost, an online newspaper from India, there is a cover story on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) by Kalikesh Singh Deo, "a member of the Biju Janata Dal party. He is the Convenor of the National Coalition on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Malaria".

I have some concerns about the use of term "elimination" for reducing the number of certain diseases like Kala Azar and Lymphatic Filariasis, under the guidance of the World Health Organisation (WHO). I hope that bodies advising the Government of India would have discussions with stakeholders to ensure a reduction in the negative fall-out from the use of such terminology.

Let me explain why I think that using terms like "elimination" in such campaigns is a double-edged sword. (The image below presents some ASHA workers from Maharashtra, India - all public health programmes reach people through these front-line workers in India - without them no campaign or programme can work).

ASHA Workers, the courageous frontline health workers of India

WHO's Definitions

In 2016, WHO produced a document about the use of terms like "elimination". According to this document, the following terms have following meanings for the infectious diseases (page 3):

Control: Reducing the number of cases of a disease

Elimination: Reducing a disease to zero new cases (incidence) in a country or an area

Eradication: The causative organism has been eradicated from nature and laboratories so that it can not cause any new infection

In addition, there is a 4th definition, which is called "Elimination as a Public Health Problem" - this means reducing the numbers of cases of a disease so it is no longer a problem for the health services.

Advantages of Using terms like Elimination

In his article, K.S. Deo explains: "By December 2023, the Government of India plans to reduce kala-azar cases to less than one per 10,000 people at the block level and, by 2030, to eliminate haati pao as well."

Reading the strategy and such explanations, the readers feel that the problem is going to be solved. In this article, he does not use the term "elimination as a public health problem" because he understands that this won't make much sense to ordinary readers.

There are different advantages of using words like "elimination", including getting more resources from the Government and greater commitment from health services and health personnel.

There are real gains on the ground as well. For example, Deo writes: "10 February 2023, India will conduct Mass Drug Administration (MDA) rounds in Mission Mode in 10 affected states". This means that a large number of people will receive medicines to treat and to prevent new infections.

Disadvantages of Using Terms like Elimination

The first time the term "elimination as a public health problem" was used was in 1991, when WHO had launched its Leprosy Elimination Strategy (LES) - to reduce leprosy by the year 2000. At that time I was a member of the the medical commission of the International Leprosy Associations Federation (ILEP) and many of our members had concerns that people will not understand the term "elimination as a public health problem" and will think that the disease has been eliminated, they will believe that it no longer requires resources and services.

The LES had a huge impact in India. In most of north India very few public health services were reaching leprosy patients and most of them were being treated by older lesser-effective medicines. For example, due to LES, by 1998 even states like Bihar and UP managed to provide almost 100% coverage with newer and more effective anti-leprosy drugs to all those who needed them.

The problem came after India had reached the LES goal (in 2005). Many states reduced their support for leprosy services. It was not only decision-makers or general population who had thought that leprosy will be actually eliminated and there won't be any more new cases, even doctors and public health specialists believed it.

For example, 4 years ago, Dr Madhukar Pai, director of McGill International TB Centre and a well-known and influential public health specialist based in Canada, in his article "Failures of Public Health" wrote the following:

In 2005, India declared leprosy to be eliminated and scaled-back on its leprosy programmes. Today, according to WHO, India harbors 60 percent of the world’s cases, with more than 100,000 new diagnoses each year

I can tell many anecdotes of people coming up to me with questions about why governments had declared "leprosy is eliminated" when they still had the disease. I have even seen a sociology thesis from a country in Africa, which had a theory about the LES declaration and a national conspiracy to marginalise the poor persons for the benefit of the rich.

Conclusions

I think that it will be good if Mr. K.S. Deo and his team will bring together different stakeholders, including representatives of leprosy-organisations to find ways which allow us to use the term "elimination" for the advantages it provides and at the same time, find alternate ways to mitigate the damage caused people's expectations that these diseases will disappear.

For example, it might be important to use some other word and not use the word "elimination" in the local language translations about the campaigns.

18 years after Eliminating Leprosy as a public health problem in India, it continues to be a public health problem and is a part of NTD strategy about which Deo has written. LES had an impact, the number of new cases of leprosy in India has been halved (partly this may be due to covid-related reduction in services, so that many new cases were not detected) but the disease is still there and it requires services. It is crucial to avoid mistakes of the past.

*****


Thursday 19 January 2023

Wonderful Magic Realism of Jacquet

I have always loved art ever since I can remember. As a child, I loved painting with water colours. In early 1990s, while living in Imola (Italy), I had done a short introductory course on oil paintings. At the same time, I love looking at art and knowing the artists.

This post is about a French artist called Philippe Charles Jacquet, whom I discovered some time ago and whose art-style I like very much. Apart from talking about Philippe Charles Jacquet and why I like his art, this post briefly touches on some other artists whose work I like. 


Philippe Charles Jacquet

Here is some information about Jacquet which I have gathered from internet:

Jacquet, born in Paris in 1953, studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. After working as an architect for about 20 years, in 2000 he decided to focus exclusively on painting. His background in architecture is reflected in his artwork in the symmetrical and geometric landscapes as well as in the way he sculpts rocks and designs houses. Brittany coasts and estuaries feature commonly in his works.

He did not have any foral training in art. He works with industrial gloss paint, an unusual medium for artists, which gives a sheen to surfaces as it dries. He begins by painting his plywood surface with a uniform base of an off-white color. Creating a variety of textures is an important part of his paintings, for which he uses different techniques such as creating several transparent layers and using a razor blade to scratch the surface.

Jacquet currently lives and works in Pantin, a suburb north of Paris, in France.

What Captures Me in Jacquet's Works

I prefer traditional approaches to arts and I am not much of a fan of the concept art. Liking or not liking an artist's work can be very subjective - something which touches me very deeply, may leave you cold or indifferent, so I don't know if looking at Jacquet's works would affect you the way it does to me - I can look at his paintings literally for hours.


Jacquet's art calms me down and sometimes they draw me into a meditation-like trance. Looking at some of his paintings make me feel as if I am in a tunnel, going deep inside myself. Some of his works make me experience a kind of silence - I love books and words, and perhaps because of that, the voices in my head are always talking, thus, I love this experience of silence.


I love the colours he uses - a lot of pale colours, a lot of greens and blues and an occasional red. I like the early mornings or late evenings of his paintings where a lighted window, often with a vague presence of someone inside, calls me like a beacon. I like the pebbled surfaces underneath the water and along the sea-shores, and the thousands of blades of grass which seem to be moving in a gentle breeze. I like the boats anchored or floating gently on still water. I like the lonely figures standing still, lost in thought, waiting for something or someone. I like his lone bicycles moving along the edge of the water. And, I like the stairs cut into the rocks which come down towards the water.


There are some of his paintings which I wish I could have on a wall in my room, so that I can look at them when I fall asleep or when I wake up. However, I love the fact that I can find a lot of images of his paintings on internet, so that I can have them as backgrounds on the screens of my computer and tablet and I can keep on changing them.


So thank you Mr. Philippe Charles Jacquet for your wonderful magic realism and for giving me so much joy. I am glad that in 2000 you decided to follow your passion and devote full-time to paintings.

My Other Favourite Artists

Philippe Charles Jacquet is not the only artist whose works I like!

One of the first artist whose work I loved was B. Prabha, whose paintings of peasant-women and fisher-women with elongated bodies were published in the Hindi weekly Dharamyug during 1960s. I think that her art-style was somewhat inspired by the Mannerism school, which had developed in post-renaissance Europe in 16th and early 17th centuries. During renaissance, artists had developed techniques focusing on realistic representations of human bodies, ensuring life-like proportions and perspectives. In Mannerism, artists started to move away from realistic towards more emotional representations, giving rein to their imagination and fantasies. Perhaps, she was inspired by the works of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) who had used similar elongated bodies in some of his portraits.

Through my father, who was active in Socialist Party of India under Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, I had met some well-known Indian painters such as Makbool Fida Hussein and J. Swaminathan, whose works I used to like. I remember sitting as a child with Hussein saheb at India Coffee House in Connaught Place in Delhi in early 1960s, which was located in those days where today there is the underground Palika Bazar - at that time, it had the coffee house in the centre surrounded in a semi-circle by the different state emporiums in wooden buildings. I also remember walking towards Triveni Kala Sangam with Hussein saheb to see his exhibition and meeting Dr Zakir Hussein, who was then the vice-president of India. I also remember the dismay of all the socialist friends of my father a decade latter, when Hussein saheb had defined Ms. Indira Gandhi as Durga and painted a whole series of paintings on that theme.

In Europe, I have been absolutely smitten by the paintings of Caravaggio and the surrealism of Salvador Dalì, both of whom do not need any introduction and have enormous fan followings. At the same time, in more recent times, I like many lesser-known water colour painters, some of whom I follow on Instagram - I love to watch their Reels where they show the development of a painting.

In The End

I hope that through this post you can understand why I like the art of Philippe Charles Jacquet. If you also get a special feeling when you look at these, do share about it in the comments below.

I am passionate about water-colours but they don't affect me like the art of Mr Jacquet. I think that to be so affected by art is a gift, a special way of communication between me and the nature through its forms and colours.



I dream of having time to dabble with water colours though I suspect that I like expressing myself more through words than through colours, so that dream will continue to be only a dream. But I can imagine the kind of art I would like to make even if the reality never matches that fantasy. In the mean time, I can enjoy the works of artists like Philippe Charles Jacquet!

***

Friday 20 May 2022

Importance of Alternative Medicine

Over the past couple of years, ever since we have broadband internet with unlimited use, I often watch some YouTube video channels including lessons on cooking and about the use of specific software. I also like some channels on politics, health related issues, Indian classical music and dances.

One of health related channels which I often watch is Medlife Crisis by Dr Rohin Francis from UK. Recently, I came across one of his older videos, which was about "alternative medicine". In this video he had explained about the importance of evidence-based medicine and how this scientific approach ensures that we can truly understand the efficacy of treatments and make rational choices about medicines. The other aspect of his intervention was that alternative medicine lacks this evidence-based approach and thus for him it was mostly hogwash.

In his intro on this channel he also says that "There's a lot of bad science on YouTube, especially medicine, with quacks and clowns peddling garbage", which probably also refers to alternative medicine, apart from other conspiracy theorists and No-Vax groups. The image below shows a person receiving a traditional treatment in Mongolia.

Alternative medicine treatment in Mongolia - Image by Sunil Deepak


In another tiny video titled "How does Homeopathy work?", he has a short no-nonsense answer to this question - "It doesn't".

Rohin Francis is not the only one who speaks out against wasting money on alternative medicine. Some of my other doctor friends have been very active against quacks and untrained persons masquerading as doctors in India. Some doctors on Twitter regularly rant against homeopathy and alternative medicine practitioners.

I understand from where all these persons are coming from. However, I do not agree with them that alternative medicine is all about non-evidence based quackery. In this post I want to share some personal experiences and some opinions regarding the role of alternative medicine in today's world.

Disclaimer: Quacks & Clowns Peddling Garbage

I know that there are persons who claim to have miracle-powers and who can cure all kinds of conditions. They prey on people when they are most vulnerable and psychologically fragile and they do it to earn money and gain power. Some of these frauds may be mentally ill and may actually believe in their supernatural powers. This post is not about justifying any of them. They do need care and treatment for their delusions and if needed, deserve law-suits and prisons.

I also do not wish to say that alternative medicine can cure everything such as conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes or cancer. People who give up their blood pressure or diabetes medicines because of their beliefs in alternative medicine, often end up with irreversible body damage to their vital organs like kidneys or eyes. Conventional (western) medicine is a better choice for most such persons.

Origins of Alternative Medicine

For thousands of years, ancient humans have tried looking for treatments for common health conditions. They did it mainly by looking for plant-based treatments. The plant-based medicines they identified, did not have the backing of double-blind studies on random samples of carefully chosen groups, but to call those "non-evidence based" would be a bit of stretch. Many of our common modern medicines from Aspirin to Quinine and Artemisia come from those traditional experiences. Guys looking for the next blockbuster drugs have often stolen the knowledge of plants and herbs from traditional healers. Scientists carry out experiments with synthetic derivatives based on those same plants and herbs and then do scientific trials to show their effectiveness. Many of them call as quacks the traditional healers in villages who are using those same herbs, simply because they base their knowledge on the oral transmission of experiences and tradional learning.

In countries like India, China and Mongolia, people practicing traditional medicine, study in their medical collages just like students studying modern medicine. For example, in Ayurvedic medical collages in India (I have visited 2 of them), students study for their medical degree for 6 years and their curriculum includes all the subjects such as anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology, taught in conventional medical colleges.

However, a part of their studies is based on beliefs which modern science does not accept. For example - the Chinese beliefs about meridians running through the body with the energy points and the balancing of Yin and Yang forces; or the Indian beliefs about the three body humours (vayu, kaffa and pitta); or the homeopathy belief about using "like to counter like" and the power of dilutions of medicines. These beliefs do not fit with the understanding of modern science, because they do not follow the logical-thinking paradigm but follow some other esoteric or intuitive paradigms.

Shaping of Our Beliefs - Personal Experiences

Our beliefs are predominantly shaped by our own life experiences. Scientists say that our experiences are anecdotal evidence and are unreliable and usually biased. So we should only believe in what scientists and experts tell us. However, from personal experience I know that if I have experienced something, I may accept scientific opinions but I will also find a way to keep my own opinion based on my experience, even when the two are contradictory. This seems to be a common human trait.

Let me share a few experiences regarding alternative medicine, which have shaped my ideas on this theme.

My first experience with alternative medicine was with homeopathy in 1980s, when I was a community doctor. I had developed a strong pain in my left shoulder and had difficulty in lifting that arm. For many days I had taken anti-inflammatory and pain-killer medicines. In those days my paternal aunt had high blood pressure and I often visited her house for her check-ups. My aunt's husband, my uncle, had retired and taken up homeopathy as a hobby. He gave free homeopathic medicine to anyone who came to him. During one visit, after checking my aunt's blood pressure, I told my uncle about my shoulder pain and that I was tired of taking pain-killers as they were giving me gastric problems. He asked me numerous questions about the pain and then gave me a small dose of small sweet-tasting pills. He also wrapped in an old newspaper, two more doses of those pills and told me to take them after some hours. In less than 15 minutes after the first dose, my shoulder pain had disappeared and I had no difficulty in raising my arm. It was like a miracle and it changed completely how I felt about homeopathy.

My second experience of alternative medicine was more recent. In 2015, while living in Guwahati in India, I developed a severe knee pain. It became so bad that it curtailed my walking. I stopped going out for walks and took frequent anti-inflammatory and pain-killing tablets. In 2016, back in Italy, I went to an orthopaedic specialist for a few visits. A scan of my knees showed myxoid degeneration of Cruciate ligaments. I was given Hyaluronic acid injections in my knees, wore knee supports and took pain-killers. But nothing seemed to help me. After a few visits, the orthopaedic specialist told me that I had to learn to live with the pain as I was too young for knee replacement surgery. I was also told to reduce weight and do physiotherapy. I shared my scan results with an orthopaedist friend in USA and even his opinion was the same. Talking about it with a Catholic priest, who had become my friend in Guwahati, he suggested that I should try Ayruvedic treatment in a hospital in Kerala.

In January 2017, I went to the Ayurvedic hospital suggested by my friend for a one week of treatment. The treatment consisted of daily massages with oils containing different herbs. After a week's treatment, I was advised to rest for a few days. After that one week of treatment, my knees improved greatly and I could again walk without pain. I went back to that hospital for a week in 2018 and 2019. However, in 2020 and 2021, because of Covid-19, I have not been able to go there and lately, I have again started to have some knee-pain after walking for a few kilometres, though the situation is yet not as bad as it was in 2015. I am hoping to go back for this treatment later in 2022. The image below from 2019 shows Dr Vijayan, the chief Ayurvedic doctor of this hospital, together with his 3 students from the Ayurvedic Medical College who were doing internship with him.

Dr Vijayan and Aurvedic treatment in India - Image by Sunil Deepak


A couple of years ago, I had talked to an orthopaedist friend to explain what had happened, to try to understand why I had responded to the Ayurvedic treatment. His answer was that it was possibly a placebo effect. According to him, another possibility was that the effect of medicines taken in Italy had arrived after a few months.

Perhaps it was indeed a placebo effect, but I would like to know why I didn't have this placebo effect after treatment in Italy and after the injections in my knees? Are traditional treatments likely to induce more placebo effects? If yes, why?

Finally, a friend from Mongolia told me about her experience with traditional Mongolian traditional medicine. We are working together for a project and communicate frequently. Last week she told me that her mother was very unwell due to Biliary colic caused by stones in her gall-bladder. Her mother is quite old and she was in a great deal of pain. However my friend was hesitating to take her to hospital due to Covid-19 fears, so she was visited at home by a doctor and was given pain-killers. He had suggested that if the pain would not pass, they might need to do surgery for removing the gall stones. After 3 days of injections, her conditions had continued to be serious, so the family invited a traditional healer to visit her. The traditional doctor visited her and wrote some herbal medicines. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, it was not easy to buy the traditional medicines but somehow they managed. That night, after taking the herbal medicine her mother slept well after many days of pain. The morning after, it was the day of Lunar new year, she woke up completely pain free - she got up from bed as if she had not been seriously ill till the previous evening. My friend who had been so worried was overjoyed. She said that it was like a miracle. Once again, I am sure that if we ask, most doctors in the hospital will explain it as placebo effect or some kind of psychological effect.

These are all anecdotal stories without any scientific value, they do not prove anything. But if any of these had happened to you, will you be able to forget them? Such experiences illustrate why so many persons, especially in traditional and rural societies, continue to go to traditional healers even when experts tell us that there is no proof regarding their usefulness.

For persons like me, strongly anchored in the Western Medical Paradigm, alternative medicine may not be the first line of treatment for any problem, but I will seek it if modern medicine are not able to resolve my health condition.

A Role for Traditional Medicine

Even for persons who feel that alternative medicine is not effective or is illogical, I feel that in today's world there are some functions for which it can be very suitable. For example, think of illnesses like flu and viral fevers. Doctors say that these should be given only some symptomatic treatment and not treated with antibiotics because they are not useful. Still a large number of people take antibiotics for such conditions. I think that taking alternative medicines for such illnesses is a good strategy to discourage the antibiotic abuse.

There are so many chronic non-infective conditions accompanied by pain, like the ones I had in my knees or in my shoulder, where long-term treatment with conventional medicines can have many side-effects. So if persons can feel better with alternative medicines, why not encourage them to try?

When modern medicines can do little because we have not found treatments for some conditions, I feel that people should be given the option of trying alternative medicines. The image below shows a modern pharmacy plant for making Ayurvedic medicines based on herbs and oils in India.

Alternative medicine treatment in India - Image by Sunil Deepak


I know the situation in India - alternative medicine is usually cheaper and is much more accessible to persons. Unless it is a life-threatening condition, often alternative medicine can provide psychological support and even serve as placebo and reduce suffering. In many villages, traditional medicine is all they have because modern medicine is costlier and located far away.

I feel that demonising alternative medicine as fraud and quackery and to think of people preferring it as gullible or stupid, is not the right approach towards it.

(An earlier version of this post was first published on my blog in 2021)

Thursday 19 May 2022

Schio’s Old Water Canal

The north Italian town called Schio, where I live, has a one thousand-years' old water-canal. It starts from Leogra river and ends in another river called Timonchio. On its way it passes through different suburbs to the north and south of Schio, going underground for a brief part in the city centre. It is called Roggia Maestra (Master Canal).

Over the centuries, this canal has played a key role in the city’s life and history. Today, it has lost its importance for the city’s industries, however it accompanies some of the most beautiful walking areas around the city and continues to be important for the farmers.

Beginning of Roggia Maestra canal at Pieve Bel Vicino, to the north of Schio - Image by Sunil Deepak


I am always interested in discovering the history of old places. This post is a result of my search for information about this canal. I had found some information on internet, but most of it came from some books in the Schio library. There are some bits of information which are still missing.

The River-Crossing Canal

Schio’s water canal has one peculiarity, which I think is rare among the water-canals – it comes out from one side of the river, after a few kilometres it crosses over the river in a tube-bridge and then continues on the other side of the river. Have anyone heard of any such river-crossing canal in another part of the world? Do share information in the comments below.

Originally there were two water canals on the river Leogra. One was built on its western bank along the little town of Pieve Belvicino, a few kilometres to the north of Schio and it ended in a place called Ponte Canale (canal bridge), which had a wood-bridge for crossing the river. This was the old canal built around 1000 AD. The image below shows this part of the canal.

Initial part of the canal on the western bank of Leogra - Image by Sunil Deepak


The second canal one was located along the eastern bank of the river, starting near Poleo area at the northern edge of Schio. It was much longer, it proceeded to the south of Schio towards a suburb called Giavenale where it accompanied the river Timonchio for a distance and then joined it. This canal was probably built later (after 12th century) though I could not find specific details about its construction.

During the second half of the 19th century, when the industrialist Alessandro Rossi was setting up his wool factory in Schio, he decided to combine the two canals by building a tube bridge because there was not enough water in the second canal.

Thus, the western branch of the canal in Pieve was deviated and connected through a tube bridge to the eastern canal. (The image below shows the starting of the tube-bridge where the canal from Pieve crosses over the other side).

Crossing of the Roggia Maestra canal - Image by Sunil Deepak


On the other side, ruins of an old sawmill covered with vegetation marks hide the exit of the tube-bridge. At this point some water-basins and closes are also located, so that at times of high water levels the excess water can be diverted back to the river. (In the image below, water coming out of the tube-bridge on the eastern side).

Exit of Roggia Matra to the east of Leogra river - Image by Sunil Deepak


Northern Part of the Canal in Pieve Belvicino

“Pieve” was the first important urban settlement of the Schio area. It had come up during the first millennium on the western bank of Leogra. It was connected to the settlements of Magre, San Vito, Malo and Vicenza on the south through a Roman road. It had the mother-church, an old fort and a tower. The people living on the mountains around it, came down here to sell their wool and dairy products. It still has an area called Valle dei Mercanti (Valley of the merchants) from those early days. At that time, Schio was a little settlement, cut off from the Roman road by the Leogra river. (The image below shows the Pieve part of the canal)

Pieve part of Roggia Maestra - Image by Sunil Deepak


The Republic of Venice (Serenissima) and the Holy Roman empires (from Charles the Great to Fredrick Redbeard) competed for power in this area. In the 11th century, it belonged to the Malatraversi family, the Counts of Vicenza. At that time, the old St. Mary church of Pieve was the principal church of this whole area. The first water canal of Pieve probably pre-dates this period. It still passes next to that old church, though it seems that its specific course was changed over the centuries. It provided hydraulic energy through the use of water-wheels for setting up flour mills and wood-sawing mills. It also provided water for agricultural use.

Building the canal must have needed a lot of money – who had paid for it? The church or the Malatraversi family? There are no clear answers to this question, though it seems likely that the costs were covered by the noble family.

Schio's development had suffered as it was located between two rivers, Leogra on the east and Timonchio on the west. It only had small foot-bridges over the two rivers. Probably a carriage-bridge on Timonchio was built in 14t-15th centuries, which allowed it to be connected to Thiene and Vicenza. Thus, In late 15th century, a new cathedral was built in Schio while Pieve lost some of its importance.  The arch-priest also shifted from the old St Mary church of Pieve to the new Duomo church of Schio.

The area had many flour mills and weavers, which used the force of the water-torrents coming down from the mountains. In 18th century, the "Council of 150" approved the production of "Panni Alti" (fine clothes) in the valleys around Schio, so this activity increased. In the 19th century, wool mills arrived in the city.

Old Roaai wool factory in Pieve - Image by Sunil Deepak


Among the wool factories set-up in Schio, there was the factory of Francesco Rossi. His son, Alessandro Rossi, took over the factory management in 1849 and slowly became the biggest wool producer. (In the image above the abandoned Rossi wool factory in Pieve, which once had its own rail line). 

Pieve regained some of its importance in 1870s when a Rossi wool factory was opened there along the old canal. Electricity had not yet arrived and thus wool-factories used the water-power to run their machines. However, by the end of the 19th century, gradually steam and hydro-electric powers had replaced the simple hydraulic power of the water-flow and thus the canal slowly lost its importance for the wool factories.

The Canal in Schio’s Centre

The water-canal in Schio was built in the 12th centuy CE. Most of the early churches of Schio including the Duomo came up two centuries later along its western bank. The Schio part of the canal starts in the northern end of the city where the Gogna torrent coming down from San Martino merges with Leogra river.

Soon after it enters the old Cazzola wool mill, which was converted into a war hospital during the First World War, where a young Ernest Hemmingway had worked for a few months as an ambulance driver. (In the image below, the old Cazzola mill, where my mother-in-law also used to work)

Old Cazzola wool factory which was a hospital during WW1 - Image by Sunil Deepak


The canal then proceeds towards the Rossi and Conte wool mills, which were also built along its western bank, near the city centre. Building of the big wool mills brought immigrants from surrounding countryside to Schio. My wife's grand-father had also arrived in Schio to work in the Rossi wool-mill around the end of 19th century. Thus, in late 19th and early 20th century, new houses were built and the urbanisation of Schio increased. New housing areas for the mill-workers were built on the agricultural lands on the eastern bank of the canal. Thus, new bridges were also built in the city and some parts of the canal in the city centre were covered and it became underground. (The image below shows the canal under the old Conte wool mill).

Water canal under the old Conte wool factory - Image by Sunil Deepak


Some of the old names of city areas are the only memory of those early days of urbanisation along the canal. For example, Via Pasini, the main street in the centre of Schio today, was once called Via Oltreponte (Beyond the Bridge street) as it had a bridge over the canal - this part of the canal was later covered and today many persons passing from there are not aware of the waters passing underneath the street. 

Towards the end of 20th century, with the advent of a new phase of the globalisation, the wool factories of Schio gradually lost their markets and closed one after another. With urbanisation of the past 2 centuries, most of the agricultural use of the canal water had also decreased. Thus, the water-canal has lost some of its importance.

The last part of the canal located in the city centre of Schio still has the old “lavanderia”, the community washing space, where a wooden sculpture of a washer-woman remembers those days when women used to gather here to wash clothes.

Old washing place with the Lavandaia statue - Image by Sunil Deepak


Southern Part of the Canal

After passing through the Schio city centre, the canal comes out near Via Paraibo and proceeds to the rural part of the periphery along Via Mollette. The old ruins of the Cavedon sawmill are located here. The last tract of Via Mollette running along the canal has been converted into a beautiful walking/cycling area (in the image below).

Water canal near Via delle Mollette - Image by Sunil Deepak


From here, the canal comes closer to Timonchio torrent and runs alongside it to the area known as Giavenale-Maglio. Another new cycling and walking path has been created along this part of the canal. (The canal in Giavenale in the image below)

Water canal in Giavenale-Maglio - Image by Sunil Deepak


A few kilometres down this walking/cycling path, finally the water-canal ends in Timonchio. The image below shows the last part of the canal along the cycling-walking path).

Terminal part of Schio's water canal - Image by Sunil Deepak


Conclusions

Today the economic and industrial importance of the old water-canal of Schio has decreased, yet it has become important in other ways. Evolution has taught human beings about the importance of water. Schio and its surroundings are full of beautiful walking and cycling areas that are located next to its two rivers, Leogra and Timonchio, and its water-canal. It also continues to supply water for agricultural use.

Schio's water canal Roggia Maestra - Image by Sunil Deepak


Perhaps one day the cycle of the history will turn once again and the water-canal of Schio will restart play an important role in the city’s economic life. Till then, the aesthetic pleasure of its beauty and its importance for the nature are its contribution to the city life.

Researching the history of the canal and exploring its passage through the city was a rewarding exercise. It made me aware of how our landscapes change along the passage of time and events. For thousands of years, this landscape was only changed by the nature, but over the last few centuries, humans have accelerated the pace and scope of this change. Schio and its surroundings are beautiful and I am glad that the city could use some of those changes to improve its beauty through the old canal.

(An older version of the post was first written in June 2021 in my blog)

Saturday 23 April 2022

Meet the Artist - Eva Trentin

Eva Trentin is an artist from Marano Vicentino, a tiny commune a few kilometres away from Schio (Veneto, Italy), where I live. Her art is closely linked to the nature and the natural world, such as flowers, leaves, plants and trees. Her works combine the organic world with UV photography and some special techniques of imprinting on paper and clothes, creating designs which look like rain-washed shadows of fossils.

I am always very keen to meet artists and to understand the ideas underlying their artistic evolution. Recently, I had an opportunity to talk to Eva and to visit her art-studio. This article is an introduction to her and her art-world. Let me start it by showing you an artwork called "289" which had a profound impact on me when I had seen it at the Mutazioni exhibition in Schio in 2021.

Eva Trentin and her art - Image by Sunil Deepak


Meeting Eva

This work "289" was my first real encounter with her at the Mutazioni art exhibition held in Palazzo Fogazzaro, our local venue in Schio for important art events. I was captured by it and in an article about that art event, had described its impact on me with the following words: "I want to close this article with the work I liked most in this exhibition - I absolutely loved the mosaic like works of Eva Trentin from Marano Vicentino, with each piece of the mosaic expressing nature, places and moments of life. I felt that I could look at them for hours, find new points of reflection and at the same time, feel an emotional connection with them."

The image below of her another artwork titled Mare (Sea) is also from the same exhibition.

Eva Trentin and her art - Image by Sunil Deepak


My second encounter with Eva came during a visit to the fifth Schio Biennale on Paper-art, when I was invited by Valeria Bertesina, the curator of the Biennale, for a special guided tour of the exhibition. Eva was also invited to it. We were together in a small group for a few hours. We spoke briefly but at that time, I didn’t realise that she was the same artist whose work I had liked so much.

Fortunately, some weeks later Eva saw my article on this blog and contacted me. So, recently I went to visit her home and her art studio in Marano Vicentino, where she lives with her husband and twin daughters. It was an opportunity to talk to her about her artistic journey and the ideas underlying her art.

Eva’s Artistic Journey

Her artistic journey started in an art institute when she attended the G. de Fabris artistic school in Nove (VI), which was followed by a degree in interior design at ISAI Academy in Vicenza. For many years Eva worked in a studio of interior designers and architecture, till about 6 years ago when she started a new phase of her life as an artist, after her husband gifted her some plastic art materials, which led her to taking up art more seriously. Soon, she gravitated towards the use of flowers in her art.

During the last couple of years, she has started experimenting with botanical printing inspired by the works of Australian artist India Flint, who uses leaf printing, eucalyptus dyes and botanical alchemy, garment cutting and stitching, paper-folding, bookbinding and a little poetry; and by the Israeli artist Irit Dulman, who makes monochromatic and colour botanical prints on silk and cellulose fabrics.

Thus, Eva started experimenting and combining different techniques which use organic materials such as tree-barks, leaves, flowers and resins for paper-printing and then combined them with photography, cyanotype and fabric-printing.

Art Techniques of Eva Trentin

Eva has developed her own art techniques which I call “delicate imprinting” - it involves organic matter such as leaves and flowers which leave their imprints on paper and tissues such as silk, and which look like fossils drawn in gentle lines and soft colours. These imprinted papers and tissues can then be combined with resins or cut into different shapes, can be placed on different surfaces covered with gold-leaf or cyanotype, sometimes combined in mosaics of hundreds of small pieces, which look like scrolls telling stories like the two works presented above.

I am not sure if these techniques of imprinting organic matter (Botanical Prints on Paper or fabrics) to create art have a specific name.

She explained to me about the Cyanotype technique, as I was not aware of it. Later, I searched for it online to understand it better. Wikipaedia defines it as “is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300nm to 400nm known as UVA radiation. It produces a cyan-blue print used for art as monochrome imagery applicable on a range of supports, and for reprography in the form of blueprints. For any purpose, the process usually uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate or ferric ammonium oxalate, and potassium ferricyanide, and only water to develop and fix. Announced in 1842, it is still in use.”

Over the years, Eva has made a conscious choice of moving away from chemical products and using only natural materials in her art. For example, she experiments with the extraction of natural colours from the flowers, barks and leaves for her art. She defines these natural colours as being “multi-vibrational with specific mutating tones, because every colour is composed of different shades whose vibrations combine together, and which transmit a sense of equilibrium and aesthetic pleasure”.

Eva Trentin and her art - Image by Sunil Deepak


Eva’s Studio

Eva Trentin and her art - Image by Sunil Deepak
Her studio is a workshop where she keeps her collections of leaves, flowers, tree-barks and their extracts. “I am not very orderly, sometimes, I forget to label the things and then I have to throw them away”, she confesses candidly, while showing off a box full of barks of different trees which her father had collected for her.

Actually, her studio, located in the attic of her home, seemed to be in perfect order, everything was labelled and placed in boxes, though the fridge was kind of overflowing with them. A microwave oven and a couple of steam baths are part of her art equipment as she needs to keep her leaves and flowers wrapped in the paper for many hours at a time, while they leave their imprints.

Eva Trentin and her art - Hand-pained kimono


Eva is also experimenting with other ways to use her art for making daily use objects. She is collaborating with a jeweller for making ear-rings while her imprints on silk are being used for making unique kimono-like jackets (image above).

For learning more about Eva’s art and for buying her art works, ear-rings, textiles and kimonos, you can check her Facebook page, Instagram Page and her website.

Conclusions

Meeting Eva and learning more about her artistic process was like opening a door and discovering a new world of conceptualising and experimenting with art. It was a world where nature and natural processes, some what similar to the those which lead to the making of fossils, are used to create art. It also made me think of the prehistoric artists who had left their hand-prints and drawings in the caverns and rocks in different parts of the world.

Every encounter with a new artist is a journey for discovering new ways of expressing artistic impulses, sometimes through new materials and/or techniques. That artistic expression can be seen as a continuum on a spectrum, which goes from sparse lines drawn on sand or rock, to paintings using different materials, to sculptures of stones and metals, to new ways of combining emerging technologies. Eva's work are located on that spectrum close to nature where dream like delicate figures in soft colours become manifest through her imagination.

I love meeting artists and trying to understand their specific gaze and thinking which underlies their creative expressions. Meeting Eva was a wonderful part of that journey.

Friday 25 March 2022

The Angry Indians

There are some persons on the Social Media, whom I call the "Angry Indians". They can be broadly divided into 2 main groups. One group is of persons who claim that they are trying to safeguard Indian culture and Hinduism. Often they have furious fights amongst themselves and some of them are full of hate. They often act in ways contrary to the beliefs they claim to defend.

The other group of that of persons who define themselves as progressives or liberals. They claim that they are trying to safeguard India's plurality and diversity. However, their main aim seems to be to counter BJP-Modi, and they are not really concerned about anything else. Like the first group, often they also act in ways contrary to the beliefs they claim to defend.

I call these 2 groups, the Hindu Cultural Warriors and the Progressive Cultural warriors. They are also co-dependent on each other, creating spaces for their fights and constantly, feeding-off each-other. Here are some recent examples of issues around which they fight.

India Versus South Asia

Recently the American vice-president Kamala Harris greeted the "South Asians" on the Holi festival and the Hindu Warriors erupted in protests. Don't you know that Holi is a festival only of Hindus of India, they asked. They don't like to be grouped together with India's neighbours, especially with Pakistan. On the other hand, Prograssive Warriors love using the term South Asia, I think mostly because Western progressives like it and even more, because they know that the other group hates it.

I need to confess that I am partial to Kamala Harris, since she has my mother's name, but my defense of the term "South Asian" has nothing to do with her name. I feel that the term "South Asian" acknowledges the common cultural identity of what was once known as Indian subcontinent. It is an identity which is shaped mostly by Indian culture, by its tradition of creating and accepting, even encouraging, blurred boundaries between the religions and its basic idea of "all the different paths lead to the same God".

All countries of South Asia have some Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhists - in India and Nepal as majorities and in other countries as minorities. So wishing "Happy Holi" to all the people of these countries, did not seem like a bad thing to me and I can't understand why the Hindu Warriors don't like the term South Asians.

I can understand if conservative persons of other religions in "South Asia" resent Harris' greetings, because that is happening in some parts of the world. For example, there are many persons in Europe who get offended if you wish them for festivals which do not belong to their religions (for example, some Muslims get offended by the widespread Christian symbols in public spaces around Christmas and Easter times. So they are coming out with ideas like hiding Christmas trees in private spaces and saying "Season's greetings" instead of "Happy Christmas").

However, in India, festivals of all the religions are holidays for everyone and I have grown up in an environment where we wished everyone for all the festivals. For example, we always said "Happy Eid" or "Happy Gurupurab" and not "Happy Eid to Muslims" and "Happy Gurupurab for the Sikhs". So, if Harris is treating all South Asians as "people who celebrate Holi", why should the Hindu Warriors get offended? They should be jumping with joy!

Indian Festivals

Another issue which often leaves me confused is when Hindu Warriors get offended if someone dares to say anything about an Indian festival. I can understand the irritation about the extreme positions of some Progressives, who may be motivated by virtue-signalling - for example, their calls for "water saving" at Holi or for not making bonfires on Lohri and Holi. I can also understand the irritation because Progressives seem to focus only on Hindu festivals. However, I don't see the need to feel offended if someone says that Deewali can be hazardous for environmental pollution or the Durga and Ganesh statues pollute our rivers and lakes - I think that we need to look at these seriously and search for solutions.

Compared to other religions, Hinduism is not bound by any one book or any one tradition, so it is easier for us to question our old cultural practices and start new ones. For example, over past decade, I have seen different variations about the way we celebrate Rakhi, the festival in which sisters tie a rakhi on their brothers' wrists. Now, for promoting greater inclusion, some of our family celebrates it by sisters tying rakhis on the wrists of both, their brothers and their wives; and, at Karvachauth, both husbands and wives together keep fast. If we can change our rituals and practices according to the changing times, it is good for us as a community, and is certainly better than to remain with outdated practices and ideas.

Therefore, if the fire-crackers of Deewali cause horrendous increases in pollution and problems for people with breathing difficulties, especially in the big cities, and there are calls to limit their use, why should that be seen as an attack on Hinduism? IMO, it does not matter that traffic or industry or crop-burning are more polluting. On Deewali evenings, even 30-40 years ago, when traffic and other kinds of pollution were much less than today, the doctors' clinics used to be full of people with asthma attacks and breathing difficulties. I can vouch for it because I practiced medicine in Delhi in the 1980s and saw it every year. So why can't we use this opportunity to find alternative joyful and fun ways to celebrate Deewali? BTW, even Europe has campaigns around Christmas and New Year to limit the use of fire-crackers.

If chemical-based colours used in Holi can cause skin allergies or dermatitis, they also end up in our sewage waters and rivers. Our rivers and lakes are usually in terrible shape at festival-times. Use of chemical colours painted on the Durga and Ganesh statues, are bad for our environment in the same way. The answer for Hindu Warriors should not be to shout about these as "attacks on Hinduism" but to think of how to promote a wider use of plant-based natural colours. If we can promote our local artisans and organic colours' and dyes' industries by doing that, it will be even better. It can become an economic opportunity and also in line with our scriptures, which ask for the respect of nature.

BTW, the fun of Holi and the joy of covering people's faces and clothes with colours is increasingly finding emulators in Europe. Vicenza, the provincial town near which I live, has been organising "Holi celebrations" during summers, where it is an opportunity for people to drink, dance and play with colours.

Hinduism - Hinduttva

Many of the Hindu Warriors are promoting a version of Hinduttva which seems to be inspired by the ultra-conservatives of Christianity and Islam. Progressive Warriors are their partners in this, they also agree that Hinduttva means only that and nothing else. In fact for Progressives, the word Hinduttva belongs only to BJP, so they are fighting against it (they also think that the colour saffron belongs only to BJP and it should not be used).

I personally think that the word "Hinduttva" or the "essence of Hinduism" can not be reduced to only one meaning. Hinduism has developed along thousands of streams of ideas and practices across different parts of India, which have a lot in common and at the same time, an incredible amount of variations. Thus, if our ideas about Hinduism are infinite, the meanings of Hinduttva should also be infinite. So, why do we accept to let the idea of Hinduttva be hijacked by these 2 groups?

IMO, a wide public debate on the meaning of Hinduttva would be beneficial to India. It might help us to understand which cultural values are shared by the majority of Hindus and by majority of Indians. Though I don't think that we shall ever reach a consensus, this discussion would be useful. Probably, this commonly shared idea of Hinduttva would be closer to the results of the PEW survey in 2021 on the Religions of India. This survey report had shown that in spite of different religions, most Indians hold similar common beliefs. The "common shared cultural values of India" should be valued and safeguarded. Such an understanding of Hinduttva will be forged by the encounters of different religions of India and it will acknowledge the blurred boundaries between the religions, as one of its key characteristics.

The more conservatives among the Hindu Warriors do not accept anything except their ideas about traditions of Hinduism. At the same time, the ideas of blurred religious boundaries and common traditions shared across religious diversities are increasingly non-acceptable also to Progressives. They often talk about India's past and how it gave a home to persecuted minorities of the world, to cry about the lost Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb and the lost traditions of accepting religious diversities in ancient India. However, for today's world they do not want to look at the norms and processes governing the acceptance of other religions in India's past. Instead, they would like to follow the ideas of secularism developed in the west, which are based on separation of religious identities. In India, the Progressive Warriors seem most concerned about how to safeguard the more conservative ideas of minority religions. I personally feel that the ideas of identity-politics developed in the west are problematic for a harmonious multi-cultural living in India because they destroy the blurred religious boundaries which has been a fundamental characteristics of Indian cultural world. For the same reason, Progressives defend maintaining separate specific laws for minority religions and fight the idea of common civil code.

Insulting Religions

Some of the Hindu Warriors are always looking for people insulting Hinduism, to fight with them. If you use a Sanskrit verse from a Veda in a rock-song or if you print the picture of a Hindu God on a bag or god-forbid, a pair of shoes or underwear, they are waiting to rise up and start a campaign to destroy you. The Progressive Warriors are willing to overlook all insults to Hinduism but are very careful in making sure that you do not insult the minority religions.

I think that the idea of "insulting God" is stupid because it does not fit in with the basic ideas of Hinduism, which include the belief that God is within each of us. "Aham Brahm asmi", "Aham Shivam asmi", "So Hum" - all mean "I am" or that "God is inside me". In Shrimad Bhagvad Geeta, Krishna shows his Virat Roopa to Arjuna to explain that he is there in every particle of this universe. These fundamental ideas should guide Hindus to the respect of nature and respect of every human being.

So, how can anyone justify killings in the name of Gods or religion if one believes in this teaching? If one believes that God is inside every being, how can anyone justify discrimination towards any person because of his caste or his religion? And, once you accept that God is there in every particle of the universe, how can anyone offend God?

Recently, I had read about people being killed in Punjab for "offending" the Sikh sacred book Guru Granth Sahib. I wondered if they had forgotten the story of Guru Nanak's travel to Mecca? The story says that some men complained that Guru Nanak was sleeping with his feet pointing towards Mecca and thus offending God. So, Guru Nanak told them, shift my feet towards another direction where there is no God. The story says that in which ever direction they shifted Guru Nanak's feet, Mecca appeared on that side. Therefore, the idea of Sikhs who get offended because someone disrespects their holy book and kill those persons, seems incomprehensible to me.

It is a pity that such messages of "offending God" are also spoken by people wearing saffron, who talk of beheadings and killings. Their saffron clothes should signify spirituality and learning. Yet, they can refuse the temple drinking water to a thirsty boy, because he belongs to another religion and say that they are defending Hinduism. How can they defend Hinduism if they do not believe in the ideas contained in the Veda and Upanishads?

IMO, Progressives have facilitated this rise in the Hindu chauvinism by closing their eyes to similar ideas and practices of conservatives of minority religions by suggesting that only the majority bigotry matters. Every time, there is violence or aggression involving persons of different religions, it seems that the Progressive speak out only if victims are from the minority religions.

In The End

The Hindu cultural warriors are convinced that if they don't save Hinduism then it is in great danger. The progressive cultural warriors believe that the problems lies only with the Hindu chauvinists and they are blameless. The thinking of both the groups is a problem.


Fortunately, in spite of everything, life goes on. I have great faith in common Indians, as shown by the findings of the PEW survey. I think that in spite of all the mutual hate expressed by the two groups, common Indians will find the right balance and a way to go forward.

Day before yesterday was 23rd March, the birthday of Doctor Saheb (Dr Ram Manohar Lohia), the iconic socialist leader, whose ideas had so much impact on me as a child. Today it is 25 March, the day on which papa had died 47 years ago at the age of 47. He was an associate of Doctor Saheb. If he was alive today, he would have been 94. Even after so many years, I miss him. I think that I would have loved to talk about the subject of this post to him and to Doctor Saheb - though I am not sure if they would have agreed with me!

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