Early Masses in Malabar: the St Thomas Christians of India November 19, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in India, Mulerikkal, Jaison.Tags: Christianity, Kerala, Malabar Coast, religion, St Thomas Christians
Comment
Jaison Mulerikkal
Not many people know that Christianity in India is as old as Christianity itself, and older, in fact, than many of its European counterparts. Indian Christians are well-integrated in Indian society and have flourished on Indian soil.
India, along its southern Malabar Coast, developed maritime trade links with the ancient Greco-Roman world from as early as the 10th century BC. Roman coins have been unearthed in different parts of South India, providing evidence of this early contact. During this period, the ancient port of Muzaris on the Malabar Coast was a principal export hub for various spices bound for the Greco-Roman world. Muzaris is today known as Kodungallur and was a major port on the Malabar coast until a great flood in 1341, which created a new harbour called Kochi, now the economic capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala. Jewish merchants arrived in the region from the 5th century BC and built settlements in various towns along the Malabar Coast. Even today a synagogue exists in Kochi and a handful of Indian Jews can be found around Jews Street of Fort Kochi.
According to the lively traditions of the St Thomas Christians of India, St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, came to the port of Muzaris in AD 52. The main intention of St Thomas seemed to preach gospel to the Jewish Diaspora in Malabar Jewish settlements. However, Apostle Thomas went beyond this, preaching gospel to local Hindus and gradually forming seven and a half churches, or communities, on the Malabar Coast. Interestingly, all of them were near Jewish settlements. This marked the beginning of a church with apostolic traditions in India in the very first century of Christianity. Its followers called themselves St Thomas Christians. Later, Apostle Thomas died as a martyr in Mylapore near Chennai (Madras) and today a beautiful cathedral marks the site of his martyrdom. (more…)
Sri Lanka: towards a more inclusive political process? November 18, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in Perera, Jehan, Sri Lanka.Comment
Jehan Perera
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was expected to utilise the ruling party’s special convention on November 15 to announce the dates of both the general elections and presidential elections. The speculation centred on whether he would declare that the presidential election would be held prior to or after the general election, or that the two would be held be held concurrently. It was widely held that, as the President is more popular than the rest of his government, he would confidently go in first and notch up a big victory. He would then lead his team to another resounding victory at the general elections and possibly even obtain a two-thirds majority that would enable constitutional change to the government’s advantage.
At the convention the President made no categorical statement as to which election would take place first, but there was a hint that it would be the general election. Taking a statesmanlike approach, he said that he would not alter the election schedule as other political leaders had tried to do. Since Parliament ends its six-year term in April of 2010, and the next Presidential elections are not due until November 2011, it seems fairly certain that general elections are to come first. On the other hand, there was always an element of doubt about the holding of Presidential elections in the immediate future. This was due to the shortening of the President’s first term of office by two years. (more…)
Right to Education: reservations, reimbursements and repercussions November 16, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in India, Sundaram, Manu.Comment
Manu Sundaram
By passing the landmark legislation guaranteeing elementary education as a fundamental right, the Indian Union Minister for Human Resource Development – the Hon’ble Kapil Sibal – has stirred the education system into action. Even though The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 was passed by both Houses of Parliament unanimously and expeditiously, it met with opposition from sections of civil society.
While the single-minded commitment to universalising education is commendable and bureaucratic efficacy desirable, the challenges facing the operationalisation of the Right to Education, as it is commonly known, are extraordinary. Nearly 200 million children aged 6 – 14 years, comprising students currently enrolled in government and public schools along with those who are ‘out of school’, will be affected by the legislation.
Section 12 of the Right to Education – reservation of at least 25% of seats in government-aided, private unaided and special schools for children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups – provides the clearest indication of the Government’s vision of social inclusion. This section stands out as the harbinger of educational equality by creating opportunities for underprivileged children to study in private schools. Some liberal commentators have welcomed this provision since it resembles a voucher scheme, while a number of school leaders have rallied against the implementation of this Section on the grounds that it interferes with the management of private unaided schools. A closer look at the prospects and pitfalls of this contentious section in the Right to Education bill is presented here. (more…)
Can privatisation help? November 12, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in Guest authors, India.Tags: education, India
Comment
Guest authors: Elizabeth Hill, Anuradha De and Meera Samson, Collaborative Research and Dissemination (CORD), New Delhi
This article first appeared in The Hindu, 30 October 2009
With the Right to Education Bill now awaiting only the signature of the President to become law, children between the ages of 6-14 across the country are about to be guaranteed access to a neighbourhood school. This is good news indeed! But as with all visionary Bills, the question of who will pay for and provide the new schools required to implement children’s newfound right to education remains. While work continues to be done on costing the Bill, those working in the area of education policy have long debated how to best provide quality education for India’s children. There are many who argue that the state alone cannot provide adequate schools for India’s children and that private providers must be allowed to contribute. Some argue that private providers not only relieve pressure on the state but that they also deliver a higher quality of education than that offered at government schools. The private provision of education is well established in India’s cities and towns, though less well established in her villages.
A field survey was done in 2006 to capture changes in the primary school experience in the previous decade by revisiting villages covered by the PROBE study in the low-literacy states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Between 1996 and 2006, we found that total enrolment rates for 6-12 years olds have increased from 80 percent to 95 per cent. In the same period, we found that there has been a large increase in the number of new government and private schools, and the proportion of government to private schools has shifted from 83:17 to 75:25. But even with private schools making up an increased proportion of schools in the villages surveyed, government schools still educate 8 out of every 10 enrolled children. This figure has remained stable over the decade. Nevertheless there is a view that private schools are superior to government schools. This discourse is well established in the cities but is fast catching on in the rural areas too. But is this perception true? Are private schools able to provide high quality education to children across India? Our research shows there are problems of access and quality.
APEC: an Indian view November 10, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in India.Tags: APEC, ASEAN, Asia-Pacific, India, Kevin Rudd, regionalism
Comment
Guest author: Dr Pankaj Jha, Associate Fellow, IDSA
The annual summit of APEC, opening in Singapore this week, should be an occasion to toast two decades of persuasive and consultative economic regionalism. But it should also provide an opportunity to scrutinize the achievements of the organization.
The question is whether in terms of economic cooperation APEC has achieved anything worthwhile, or whether it needs mid-life up-gradation and reorganization so as to cater to the changing global economic and strategic scenarios.
Though the mandate of APEC is primarily economic, in the 2002 APEC Leaders’ statement titled ‘Fighting Terrorism and Promoting Growth’ and in the endorsement of APEC’s Counter Terrorism Action Plans (CTAPs), the organization went well beyond this mandate. This was a forced metamprphosis of the organisation and for many in India it represented the US agenda hijacking the multilateral forum. (more…)
India’s toughest contest November 5, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in India, Sullivan, Kate.1 comment so far
Kate Sullivan
Reprinted from Inside Story. Read the full article …
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in early October and Prakash is taking me to his afternoon preparatory class at Vajiram & Ravi, one of the dozens of institutes in Delhi that train candidates for India’s civil services exams. Still buoyant despite two failed exam attempts, Prakash is heading for a class that prepares students for the optional paper in psychology he hopes to tackle next year. The classes last two and a half hours and run seven days a week for twenty weeks or more.
The classroom is already half full, with around 200 chairs crammed into a room that can’t be much more than fifty square metres. Once the students have manoeuvred their way into a seat, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to get out again until after the class. And it’s unlikely they’d want to. The scarcity of places and the high cost of the course spell a dropout rate of less than 1 per cent. Though October marks the tail end of the course, and several students are immersed elsewhere in preparation for the fast-approaching Mains exams, the room fills quickly. Prakash points out three young women – a doctor, an engineer and a journalist – sitting pressed up behind us.
Mukhul Pathak, a well-known psychology lecturer whose coaching successes have made his subject a popular choice for the optional paper, marches up to a narrow podium and begins his class. Within seconds he has the entire room in uproarious laughter. Dressed in a striped cream and peach short-sleeved shirt and moss-green corduroy trousers, energetic and humorous, he shows no trace of having taught this same course perhaps twice a year for the past fifteen years. On his wrist hangs a thick gold watch of such proportions that from the fifth row I can see that it runs ten minutes fast. He radiates commitment, efficiency and affluence.
Above: Govind Jaiswal, whose father (right) was a rickshaw driver, was a successful candidate in the 2006 civil services exam. His coaching classes in Delhi were financed by the sale of family land. Photo: OutlookIndia
Red Terror, sloppy state October 28, 2009
Posted by sandygordon in India.Tags: India, Maoists, Naxalites
Comment
Guest author: Dr Nihar Nayak, Associate Fellow, IDSA, New Delhi
This article first appeared in The Pioneer on 24 October 2009.
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram has good intentions but would do well to carry out a SWOT on the government’s position before launching his operation to end the Maoist menace.
October 2009 will be recalled for long as the ‘red’ month. Maoist insurgency has captured the collective imagination of India on an unprecedented scale. The resolve of the government, as articulated by the Home Minister, is also one of the most significant in our times because though Maoism/Naxalism has been around for a while, the ruthlessness and brutality with which these Communist terrorists operate was somehow accorded less attention than the more glamorous jihadi variety.
Also starkly evident is the lack of preparedness of the Indian State to meet this kind of terror. The security forces don’t seem to have learnt from past incidents involving Naxalite violence. They have repeatedly ignored, at considerable cost to themselves, the standard operational procedure circulated by the Centre to states affected by the menace. Such negligence becomes even more worrisome in the light of the resolution passed by the Communist Party of India-Maoist Politburo to prepare and mobilise the People’s Liberation Group Army (PLGA) and sympathisers to carry out tactical counter-offensives and various forms of resistance to inflict maximum losses targeting the security forces. (more…)
Sino-Indian relations: Beijing muffs its hand October 22, 2009
Posted by sandygordon in Gordon, Sandy, India.Tags: Arunachal Pradesh, China, Dalai Lama, India, United States
Comment
Sandy Gordon
Australia is not the only country on the receiving end of China’s new-found diplomatic ‘forthrightness’. India too has recently received a sizzling serve from the Beijing end of the court.
As we pointed out in South Asia Masala, the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is also claimed by China, is the current immovable object in the Sino-Indian relationship. However, on this occasion that tricky problem has been exacerbated by a planned visit of the Dalai Lama to the disputed state and to Tawang, birth-place of the revered Sixth Dalai Lama, which lies within the borders claimed by India.
A hard-hitting editorial in the People’s Daily on 14 October accused India of “hegemony” and of a policy of “befriend the far [the US] and attack the near [other South Asian powers]”. On the same day the paper claimed that India’s yet-to-be tested Agni V strategic ballistic missile would be capable of reaching the northern Chinese city of Harbin if launched from North East India. (Agni V is scheduled to be tested in 2011). The next day the People’s Daily contained a scathing critique of child labour in India and India’s poor performance in education. (more…)
Commonwealth Games: post-imperial conflict October 21, 2009
Posted by sandygordon in India, Stoddart, Brian.Tags: Commonwealth Games, India, sport
Comment
Brian Stoddart
When New Delhi won next year’s Commonwealth Games, it was rightly regarded as a “break through” opportunity much as the Asian Games were in 1982. Here was the chance for the “new” India to show its stuff, and there was considerable talk about this being the test run for a Delhi bid on the Olympic Games. That, of course, would set the national capital for a Beijing-style moment, heralding India as a genuine world power.
From the outset, though, realizing the Delhi Games would be a difficult task. The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), like most international federations, is a complex body with its own patterns of powers and procedures. While the host city organising committee has responsibility for delivering the Games, the CGF keeps close oversight on developments and is never shy about giving advice. Then, India’s democratic structure would never allow organizers the same power as, say, Beijing to make sweeping changes to city infrastructure, alleged social problems and budget allocations. Further, Delhi organizers would never bow to external pressure in the way some other hosts had, mainly because of the elaborate interplay between Indian sport and politics. (more…)
Agreeing on change in Sri Lanka’s tea industry October 20, 2009
Posted by southasiamasala in Niewójt, Lawrence, Sri Lanka, Uncategorized.Tags: labour, Sri Lanka, tea plantations
1 comment so far
Lawrence Niewójt
Major changes are under way in the Sri Lankan tea industry. Despite the global economic slowdown, a few weeks ago trade unions and plantation owners agreed to a deal that will give labourers substantially higher wages and encourage productivity gains in the industry.
On 13 September 2009, a ten-day trade union action that blocked the transport of tea from estates ended after the planters agreed to raise workers’ wages by 40 per cent, from 290 to 405 rupees per day. Having rejected an earlier offer that would have bumped up daily earnings only Rs. 40 in the first year and an additional Rs. 30 in the second year of the collective agreement, unionists retreated from original demands for a Rs. 500 daily wage after planters threatened to halt wage payments for October and the festive season. Whilst the tea industry’s three largest unions – the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union (LJEWU) and Joint Plantation Trade Union Committee (JPTUC) – signed the two-year deal, smaller unions such as the Up-country Peoples Front (UPF) and the All Ceylon Plantation Workers Union (ACPWU) remain unsatisfied and have been responsible for isolated disruptions in tea-producing areas. (more…)