Monthly Archives: August 2008

The American Gift

The year was 1969. The American company Union Carbide set up a giant pesticide manufacturing plant in Bhopal. They were excited about selling their pesticides to millions of Indian farmers.

Soon it employed a large workforce and settlements/shanty towns came up around the factory.

In 1979 a plant for producing Methyl Isocyanate (required for ‘SEVIN’) was added.

Then things started going wrong. Due to falling crops the sale of pesticides went down. This led to massive layoffs at the Bhopal plant as well as scaling back of the saftey systems. Systems which were critical since the plant used toxic substances like Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) and Phosgene.

Early morning of the 3rd of December, !984 all the pieces of the puzzle came together and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place. Till date it is the biggest industrial disaster taking approximately 8,000 lives within few weeks.

Obviously the people responsible for it and the ‘big fish’ got away. Their ‘gift’ left behind a poisoned land. The main reason for this was improper technology transfer. The workers at the plant were never told that water could enter the MIC tank and make the chemical unstable.

 

Now, the year is 2008.

The Americans are offering another gift. That of nuclear technology. Possibly looking to increase the use of nuclear power in India which leaves behind radioactive waste. Much more harmful than Methyl Isocyanate. What do we do with this gift?

Should we get ready for a bigger disaster? Will we be left hanging in the middle?

The only option is to keep it in our hands. To take it forward on our own. Control should always remain with Indians. So that never in the future do we curse the ‘gifts’ we have received.

 

 

 

Hinduism and the Devadasi: Religious Sanction for Prostitution and Pedophilia

This post aims to enlighten people about the concept of the Devadasi and how it has been twisted around its head to justify pedophilia and prostitution.

If you are blindly religious or just weak hearted do not read any further.

Devadasi concept (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi for details) goes back to 9th century BC. It is described as:

The term Devadasi originally described a Hindu religious practice in which girls were “married” to a deity. In addition to taking care of the temple, they learned and practiced Bharatanatyam and other classical Indian arts traditions, and enjoyed a high social status.

This practice has been corrupted over the ages. The initiation process and so called coming-of-age rites for girls are used by the temple priests to have sex with 12-13 year old girls. All this is done willingly, under the cover of ‘religion’.

This practice is still carried out in parts of Northern Karnataka and Andra Pradesh.

I did not want this post to be a one-dimensional attack on this practice. The basic fact is if you want to go and dedicate your life to God then it is your choice. The key word here is choice. Can a 12-13 year old girl choose this? Or is it just something that she is forced to do?

I don’t think a child of that age can understand the implications of what takes place. This practice can be carried out once the girl becomes an adult if she wants to go ahead with it. But no way should innocent kids be pushed into this.

This for one warns us about how religious practices, when carried out blindly, harm society and damage Hinduism!