Dharampal - an historian who lived and inspired the Indian World View

Dharampal passed away early this evening. As I write this I think of all the time spent with him and what he has meant for me personally and in developing an understanding of the Indian World View, I started learning of these things with him.

He came from a large family near Meerut in UP, got involved with the freedom struggle, married a British women in 1948, his children today live in Britain and Germany, his wife died many years back. His personal life perhaps has to be written in such a single long sentence and the rest is his public life, his ideas often laced with a sense of humour, his utter humility with which he would listen with rapt attention to very simple people. His attention for details, his need for perfection in everything, particularly the written word (he would certainly have looked down at the blog kind of impulsive writing, his every word is weighed so much you often got an impression that he actually weighs it with a small scale or something), his insight into the internatinal politics that made him come up with some amazing predictions about the way the world is and would change...I can go on.

For someone who has spent a large amount of time with him in the past few years, it is a sad day to know that he is no longer going to be around, to argue, to fight, to agree and disagree, to listen to, talk and discuss things, ...he was one intellectual on whom the intellectual label didn't sit very heavy.

He was a gentle Indian teacher, at times very harsh, at times extremely soft. He could not give lectures to big audience like many teachers cannot, he was always best with a small group of people sitting close by and having a long interaction.

Will continue...

Indian village deities worth a billion

This is an interesting news report. As far as I know there has never been an estimate made of the amount of resources at the disposal of the village dieties across India. This is meant to be common property of the public in the village and that it is held in the name of the village diety provides a sense of security for the property. There was never a question of material valuation or external security for these.
That there is a news report (below) on the security needs indicates that the 'other india' (that one which looks at every village resource as a commercial opportunity) is taking note. Is this a threat?? Flag this and keep watching.

Indian
village deities worth a billion: "Indian village deities worth a billion
Baldev S Chauhan in New Delhi October 06, 2006 02:20 IST"