Indian unity in diversity

Indian unity in diversity

India is a multiracial country. People of various faiths and religions live here in harmony. There are the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians, the Sikhs, the jains, the Buddhists, the parsis, the Jews, the zorastrians and others. The Hindus are in majority. The Muslims constitute the largest single minority community. This great pageantry of people and faiths is unique to India. Indian ethos reflects the continuity and tolerance-tolerance of faiths, religions, languages, dialects, ideas, lifestyles and cuisines. There are at times frictions, communal conflicts and tensions but they are exceptions and not the rule and just aberrations. These are the legacy of the British rule and raj.

The Englishmen followed the policy of 'divide and rule' and many politicians and leaders in India still follow and practice this policy to keep their vote banks intact. India is a secular country. There is no state religion. All faiths and religions are equal before law. No faith is considered superior or inferior and people are absolutely free to preach, follow and practice any faith till it does not interfere with the freedoms of other people. India has been a secular state and country from the time immemorial and peoples of many faiths and religions sought shelter here in times of persecution in their own lands and countries. The Christian church here is much older than the coming of Islam.

The parsis came here seeking refuge in the eighteenth century from religious persecution in Iran and brought zorastrianism. The Jews came quite early about 2,000 years ago and settled down chiefly in Bombay, puna, Cochin and Delhi. In Hinduism itself there are hundreds of sects following different religious practices, rites, rituals and ways of worship and prayer. This religious diversity represents a complete and wonderful pattern of unity, integrity and wholeness. Variety is the spice of life and it is there in abundance in India. The sub-continental size and long history have been instrumental for all this richness, variety and diversity which converge into one people and one nation. They look like the different colours of a rainbow which in ultimate analysis belong to one pure, white light.

In such a huge country differences of ideas, opinions, tastes, faiths, ways of living etc. are bound to be there and they reflect the country's democratic traditions, liberal attitudes, toleration and spirit of accommodation and adjustment. There is a basic cultural unity which runs through its mainstream. It is this variety, diversity, dynamism, and resilience which have lent indian culture and civilization a ceaseless continuity and unity. There have been in the world a few other cultures and civilizations as old as that of India but they lacked continuity and did not survive as did the indian culture. In indian culture there have been many currents, cross currents but they have been merged, synthesised and digested into one organic whole of indianness.

The unity of thoughts, outlook, ethos and culture has had always been there in spite of apparent variety and diversity. Diversity and variety are apparent and their unity and integration real and historical. Indian culture is a composite culture, a common inheritance of which all are equally and immensely proud in spite of religious, linguistic, regional or geographical variations. One may be a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh or Kashmiri, Bengali, Tamil or Telugu but above all these denominational variety, all are Indians.

Their indianness is the first and foremost characteristic. Unity never means regimentation, uniformity or monotonous similarity. Unity is basically a feeling, an emotion, a sense of belonging to one nation, one culture, one common historical past and heritage. And these are there in plenty throughout the country. India is not only geographically one and united but also emotionally and culturally so. The emotional integration and cultural unity of India is perfect and well established. The deep faith in values of life, moral teachings and practices, one common and rich heritage can always be found among all the citizens of India through all its expanse.

This similarity in outlook, thoughts and ethos make India a strong and enviable nation. It is this basic framework on which indian polity has been based. The loyalty, faith, devotion and patriotism of its millions and millions of people are unquestionable. Their unity, oneness and common brotherhood can be seen in hours of crises, in fairs, festivals and such other cultural occasions. Absorption, assimilation, tolerance, continuity, diversity, etc. have been the sterling qualities of indian culture. Veneration of other faiths, ideas, concepts and ways of life have been essential ingredients of indian civilization.

They very well account for its strength and unity. Wide and universal outlook are the hallmarks of indianness. They lend strength, integration and unity in a way that is matchless. These varieties, diversities and multiplicities are the archways through which the royal road of indianness passes leading one to national unity and emotional integrity.

Freedom of press in india

Freedom of press in India

Despite being the largest democracy in the world, the indian press has never been accorded a free status. A survey of civil and political liberties carried out by freedom house listed the indian press as being "partly free". What is of concern here is that it figured even below countries like Burkina Faso, cape verde, Comoros, Ecuador and EI Salvador.

Ever since, the time of hickey, the administration has recognized the potential of the indian press to be severely anti-establishment. To check the growth of the indian press without seeming overtly restrictive, the British government enacted several legislation that were successful in restricting the indian press. This restriction has carried on to present times.

A major reason to doubt India's freedom of the press stems from the times of the emergency when constitutional safeguards meant to protect freedom of speech and expression were set aside. Even today the official secrets act allows the government to ban publication of articles dealing with sensitive security issues. However, journalists feel that in practice this is occasionally used to limit criticism of government actions, particularly in Punjab and Kashmir. The government controls even the issual of subsidized newsprint to newspapers.

The mass media in India works in the absence of an absorptive infrastructure and hence widespread illiteracy and a limited audience weaken the media's efficiency. It has been alleged that the most important limitation to the media's efficiency in India is its inclination towards being a "unidirectional transmitory mechanism", I.e., a center to periphery type of direction that is unable to represent particularistic interests.

The situation is however not so dismal. By looking at the role played by the press especially the electronic media, in the recent years, in reporting extreme situations like that of the Gujarat earthquake or other such situations, one notices the crucial role the press plays in bringing to the forefront the concerns of the affected populations.

Despite the fact that press freedom in India is not totally without hindrances in some form or the other, an active judiciary works consistently to safeguard the provisions of the Constitution and this was seen during the emergency of 1975-77. The judiciary is independent of the government in ordinary cases, although the system suffers from overload and is often inaccessible to the poor.

India has a large and conscious private press and although it has not always been successful in providing "early warnings" to the authorities, it has definitely succeeded in extracting political accountability from the government, an achievement that rightly needs to be acknowledged.

Moguls in india

Moguls in India

Moguls were a Muslim dynasty in India from fifteen twentysix to about eighteen fifty-seven. Let's first define the word mogul. The word mogul means an indian Muslim of or descended from one of several conquering groups of mongol, Turkish, and Persian origin. The word mogul is the Arabic and Persian version of mongol. The moguls were a Muslim dynasty founded in fifteen twenty-six by a man named babur. Babur was a descendent of both Genghis Kahn and timur. The dynasty ruled much of the Indian subcontinent until the mid eighteenth century.

Babur claimed the subcontinent as his right of inheritance because of the conquest of Delhi by his ancestor timur. Babur was a highly cultured man from Persia who disliked many facets of indian life but nonetheless established the most glorious empire in India's history. Babur reigned util fifteen thirty and was a man of culture as well as a military genius. Babur defeated the last Lodi Kind of the Delhi sultanate at Panipat. He then established a policy of tolerance toward his Hindu subjects even though he disliked India. Babur had a son named humayun. Humayun ruled from fifteen thirty to about fifteen-forty. Ten years or so. And again from fifteen fifty-five to fifteen fifty-six. He ruled despite the challenge mounted by the Afghan sher shah who ruled north India for five years. Humayun spent most of his reign attempting to consolidate mogul rule over baburs conquests.

Humayun had a son named Akbar. Akbar was said to be the greatest of all moguls in India. Akbar and hi successors, Jahangir, shah jahan, and Auramgzeb are generally considered to be one of the finest group's of kings that ever ruled in succession over such a long period of time. Akbar built the administrative machinery that forms the basis for many present day practices in India. Akbar was one of the most tolerant moguls in India. Akbar abolished a discriminatory tax on Hindus and did much to combine Hindu and Muslim motifs in palace architecture, art, literature and music. Akbars son and successor Jahangir was a heavy drinker who reveled in luxurious living. Jahangir's son shah jahan followed very closely in his father's footsteps. He too was a heavy drinker and also loved the luxurious lifestyle. Shah jahan was best known for his great building program, which culminated in the Taj Mahal. Shah jahan was also instrumental in extending the mogul empire to the Deccan plateau.

Shah jahan had a son named Aurangzeb who was to follow his father to the throne in India. Both shah jahan and Aurangzeb were much less tolerant of Hindus than their predecessors had been. After the death of Aurangzeb the mogul empire disntegrated quickly. Although the moguls were diminishing quickly ineffective rulers remained on the throne at Delhi until 1858.

Following the indian mutiny of 1857 the British exiled the last mogul emperor, bjahadur shah 2. The mogul's main legacy to India consisted of an administrative machine, land-tenure patterns and a system of revenue collection. All of these ideas have lasted a very long time. Also the magnificent mogul art and architecture have had a lasting impact on indian lifestyles.

Computers in education

Computers in education

There is quite a debate on whether or not computers have positively effected education. Some proponents of computers in school argue the fact that computers are vast in the supply of resources as well as the fact that computers dominate society and will continue to do so. Opponents of computers in education take the position of experiencing things actually and not just on a computer screen, a reality versus virtual reality argument. In addition to this, there is the aspect of time involved with using a computer as opposed to interaction with actual living things. Computers have in many ways enhanced education but it has also weakened other skills taught in school as well.

The first skill lost is obvious with the use of word processing programs today. Of course they are convenient for typing papers because of the neatness and uniformity they provide as opposed to handwriting. Computers also make it easy to fix mistakes without using white out or scratching out words. However, it is discouraging children to learn how to spell correctly, use correct grammar, and in some word processing programs use more vibrant and exciting words.

With spell check students don't need to know how to spell words correctly because the computer will fix the words for them. With grammar check students are given the correct ways to fix their grammatical errors without even noticing them for themselves. And in certain programs equipped with the Thesaurus, children's unique thoughts are enhanced without doing it themselves. Whatever happened to the do-it-yourself dictionary, grammar book, and thesaurus, and not to mention proofreading.

Some say that computers promote literacy because of all of the text present on web sites and everything else on the computer, which is okay, but what good is reading if students don't know about sentence structure, how to notice errors, or what certain words mean because the computer has done all of this for them already.

Computers provide for a vast world of resources which is very helpful in education. Teachers can go onto the internet to find added information on a topic and find useful fun activities for lessons. The internet can be used for students to find information and do research for projects and assignments as well. The danger behind this is the fact that students can also find term papers and other assignments on the computer done by other people and use them as their own works without the teacher knowing. This is not only deceitful, but the students learn absolutely nothing.

One area where I think computers greatly impact education beneficially is the use of computers as teaching tools by the teacher. Teachers can construct powerPoint presentations in order to provide their students with necessary information. Teachers can use different software programs to show geography, science, history, and math, among other things, and help their students learn visually. However, the argument presented by Clifford stoll is one in which he feels that experiencing the real thing is far more beneficial as opposed to being shown on a computer screen.

With computers in school there are a couple of problems. Obviously computers can be used as a learning tool with software to aid in learning, but there are some problems with this. In poorer school districts computers cannot be afforded, it is unfair for one school to have a ratio of five students to one computer and then an entire school have only twenty computers for the entire student body. Another problem facing schools is where they are putting these computers. According to stoll, libraries, art rooms, shop classes, and music rooms have been replaced by computer labs.

Computers may be informational, but they cannot teach you how to play an instrument, cut a piece of wood, or give you the supplies to paint a picture. And this human interaction being lost by replacing these experiences is effecting the student's creativity.

Another big question when computers are discussed is funding for these tools. Stoll adds "money spent on computers means money not spent on something else," and some schools really push for extra computers, but what about another teacher to lower class size, or new text books, or something else that could be more beneficial. According to www.realworld.org " the best teacher has always been a person not a machine." This can be reaffirmed by stoll "time on the computer inevitably means time taken away from real interaction with teachers and other students"

Computers have been a serious convenience in our lives in many ways. In relation to education they have made it easier to write essays and term papers. Students can make mistakes and correct them easily with their personal computer. However, sometimes these mistakes are corrected without the student using their knowledge. Computers have opened up a new world with the internet, enabling information and activities to be easily accessible, but it has also donestudents work for them allowing them to cheat and be lazy.

Computer labs have replaced rooms once used for art, music, and shop classes and in some cases even libraries. Computers also have programs available in order to reinforce learning like math games, geography and history games, science games and software to show scientific events like plants growing, but these programs are no replacement for the actual human interaction and discussion provided by a teacher and other students. Computers have impacted education both positively and at the same time negatively, but there is one thing that is for certain: Computers should be used as a learning supplement, not a learning substitute.