Urdu a Divisive Language must be Discouraged

The UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should be congratulated for side-stepping Urdu from the simultaneous translation in the assembly. There is hardly any doubt that except for script, there is no difference between Hindi and Urdu. Its syntax and numbers are the same as those in Hindi. It is only due to some fanatical Muslims that its script is a mix of Persian and Arabic, which has no justification whatsoever. Moreover, these fanatics made Urdu laden with Arabic and Persian words. They saw to it that Urdu remains exclusively the language of Muslims. It is a different matter altogether many non-Muslims have contributed to its literature.

In pre-partition days Aligarh Muslim University played a dirty role in driving away the Urdu from the people and the area where it was born. This university and the Urdu language provided the necessary arsenal for the creation of Pakistan. It was because of the hardened communal elements that Urdu was declared the official language of Pakistan although in no region Urdu was spoken. It was imposed on Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto, Baluchi, Pasto, and Bangali and was declared to be the lingua franca of Pakistan. It was due to the imposition of Urdu on East Pakistan that Bengalis revolted and got a separate nation i.e. Bangladesh.  

The days are not far away when Pakistan will again get divided due mainly to the fundamentalists which is what Yogi Adityanath says them to be Kathmullas. Therefore, there is no need to shed tears for a divisive language like Urdu. The only way for it to survive is to accept the Devnagari script and eschew the obstinacy of packing it with Arabic and Persian words.

However, it must also be stated that English ought not to be encouraged. More importance and encouragement should be given to the promotion of Hindi rather than dialects like Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli and Braj.

Chhattisgarh High Court Judgment in a Marital Rape Case is Shocking Denial of Justice

 

Judgment of acquittal passed by the Chhattisgarh High Court in a case of marital rape where the wife died due to the sexual brutality of the husband is nothing but a mockery of justice. The case belongs to the Jagdalpur district of Chhattigarh. The accused husband, a driver, committed unnatural sex with his wife, and left her in pain, who died in a hospital. In her dying declaration, recorded before a magistrate, the victim alleged that her husband had inserted his hand in her anus, following which she suffered excruciating pain.

The woman was admitted to the hospital for treatment, from where a report was made to the police station concerned and the offence under IPC Section 377 (unnatural sex) was registered against her husband.

The Indian Evidence Act, 1872, under Section 32 deals with the concept of a “dying declaration”. Usually, a dying declaration is only admitted as evidence in cases where the cause of a person’s death comes into question. This concept is based on the Latin legal maxim “nemomoriturus prae-sumitur mentire” which means a man will not meet his maker (God) with a lie in his mouth.

In Naeem vs the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court ruled that a dying declaration can be the sole basis of conviction, but courts must find it to be trustworthy, and one that inspires confidence.

Notably, in this case, the doctor who had conducted a postmortem of the deceased’s body had said there were “two perforations on the rectum”, one on the anterior side and another above the pelvic floor, causing him to conclude that the victim died on 11 December 2017, as a result of the same.

In February 2019, a trial court at Jagdalpur convicted the husband under Sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sentenced him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000. However, the Chhattisgarh High Court later acquitted him, citing the marital rape exception under Section 375 IPC, which states that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, if she is above 15 years of age, is not considered rape. Here the wife was said to be over 15 years.

It also cited the five-judge SC bench’s ruling in Navtej Singh Johar vs Union of India (2018) to say that if an “unnatural offence is done with consent, then the offence of Section 377 IPC is not made out”.It is ridiculous to say that the wife consented to her husband to insert his hand in her anus. The law, it is often said is like an ass but all the same, it is also true that insensitive justice is no justice. This decision was the height of insensitivity. 

Most women, from a very young age, are sold the idea that safety and prestige come with marriage. However, ironically, marriage becomes just another apparatus in patriarchy’s arsenal, to perpetuate violence, as was seen in this case. Rape isn’t merely about a violation of a person’s consent but also involves an assertion of power that men enjoy in a patriarchal society.

The central argument against criminalising marital rape is the fear of its misuse, a reiteration of each time when laws have been proposed for the protection of the marginalised. This decision of the Chhattisgarh High Court is a clear miscarriage of justice and very shocking. Sex with a wife without her consent may fall within exception 2 in section 375 but extreme brutality resulting in her death is frightening, to say the least.

 

Morons like Dayanidhi Maran must be condemned for insulting Sanskrit

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla must be admired and congratulated for reprimanding the DMK Member of Parliament, Dayanidhi Maran who, on the other day, insulted Sanskrit on the floor of the House by asking a silly question from the Speaker. The speaker informed the House that the facility of simultaneous translation is available in 22 languages. The short speech (intervention) of Dayanidhi Maran was that this facility should be made in Sanskrit, which is not the language of any state. His question exposed him as an illiterate and non-sensical bordering on the brink of insanity. What is most idiotic is that this nincompoop did not have any objection to any other language but only to the translation facility in Sanskrit. Possibly, he is not aware that Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages including Tamil, although clowns like him do not accept this fact. It appears that he does not know that even the Tamil of Chennai differs from the Tamil of Madurai and Rameshwaram. Moreover, the names like Dayanidhi, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, and Ramachandran are of Sanskrit origin.

All religious activities among Hindus are performed throughout India in the Sanskrit language. Our national song Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in Sanskrit. All Indian languages are replete with Sanskrit words. It has been the ancient language of knowledge and learning. Perhaps this man is not aware that Baba Saheb Ambedkar had proposed in the constituent assembly that Sanskrit should be made the lingua franca or official language of India, as this would not any heart burning or favour to any section of society or any state. Scientific, legal, and medical terminology is found abundantly in Sanskrit, which is the only language in the world with the most scientific grammar.

It appears that Dayanidhi Maran has been sidelined in his family politics and the days are not far away when he may have to report to the son the Chief Minister Stalin. So not finding any political space for himself in Tamil Nadu politics, he thinks that he may remain in the limelight by raising such moronic controversies.

Greek and Latin languages are not in common use anywhere in the world but still, they are respected for being the storehouse of knowledge. There is no need to pity the dimwits like Dayanidhi Maran, but such persons should be boycotted and condemned at every forum.

‘Nexus’ is an immensely captivating book

Yuval Noah Harari is a well-known Jewish writer. His books have been acclaimed all over the world. He teaches history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His book ‘Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind’ is considered a meticulously researched book on human history. His latest book is ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. There cannot be any dispute that humans today have much more information and power than in other ages, but we cannot say for certain that our role in the universe is equally better.

Science and technology have completely changed human thinking patterns, lifestyles, and interrelationships. Most of the changes have taken place in the last two hundred years but the changes in the last three decades have been mind-boggling. The writer has tried to explain the information, as it is a tool to discover the truth. Its main role is to represent the reality. Religious books like the Vedas, and Torah of Judaism have also been considered to be the representative of reality. There are two levels of reality. One is objective like stones, mountains etc. and the other level is subjective like pain, pleasure and love.

Harari is, without a doubt, a good storyteller who focuses on myths to drive his points home. He says that in Christianity and Islam, women have been considered intellectually and ethically inferior to men and suggested that women should be subjected to subordinate roles in society. Saint Paul is attributed to having said, ‘A woman should learn in quietness and full submission’. Thus, we find that Hindu scriptures and society, on the contrary, have accorded the highest respect to the women folk. However, aberrations crept into them also due more to slavery and oppression by the aliens, who became the rulers upon them. The Hindu scripture, it must be stated, never supported the principle of turning the other cheek for tyrants in the name of ‘absurdity’ that proclaims that the meek shall inherit the earth.

It is bizarre that in Christianity inquisitorial methods were adopted and even recommended in ‘The Hammer of the Witches’ to avenge personal slights or to gain personal or economic advantage. Novah Harari, therefore, is of the view that humanity will be able to explore the revolutionary implications of the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) after understanding the politics of information in historical systems.

While discussing the brief history of democracy and totalitarianism, the writer says that information networks are highly centralised, and the centre is considered to be infallible. A democracy, in contrast, is a distributed information network, possessing strong self-correcting mechanisms. Elections are a central part of the democratic tool kit, but they are not democracy. In every democracy, the limits of human civil rights are often discussed. However, allowing the governments to supervise the search for truth is like appointing the fox to guard the chicken coup. Democracy and dictatorship are not binary opposites but rather are on a continuum.

We have seen that the new information technology of the late modern era has given rise to both large-scale democracy and large-scale totalitarianism. However, there have been crucial differences in how the two systems use information technology. Technology only creates new opportunities; it is up to us to decide which ones to pursue. We are living amid an unprecedented information revolution. It is difficult to determine what is driving this revolution. Is it the internet? Smartphones? Social Media? Blockchains|? Algorithms? or AI? Computer-to-computer chains can now function without humans in a loop. For example, one computer might generate a fake news story and post it on a social media feed and the second computer might identify this as fake news and not just delete it but also warn other computers to block it. Within a few years, AI could eat the whole of the human culture and digest it. For thousands of years prophets, poets and politicians have used language to manipulate and reshape society but now computers are learning how to do it. In ancient India, Hindu and Buddhist sages argued that all humans lived trapped inside Maya- the world of illusion. The computer revolution is bringing us face-to-face with Maya or illusion. Tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba are not just obedient servants of customers’ whims and government regulations, they increasingly shape their whims and regulations. There is no doubt that AI is going to bring about unthinkable and unfathomable changes very shortly. The persuasiveness of the book ‘Nexus’ by Yuval Noah Harari is a laudable and mesmerising one that opens the eyes of readers.

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