Kashmiri Pandits

I have banned several persons who made impertinent or abusive comments on my previous post. I am quite a democratic person, and I do not mind people disagreeing with me, but I will not accept impertinence or abuse. And why should I ?

  All I had said was that no atrocity or oppression should be committed on any one, whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or of any community. Whenever any atrocity was done on Muslims, I was perhaps the first person in the country to condemn it, and my track record can be seen in this connection. But I had also noticed that very few Muslims condemned atrocities on Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis, Shias, etc in Pakistan, Kashmir or Bangladesh. To that I strongly objected.

 I remember when I was in Allahabad, I told a Muslim friend that I have always stood by Muslims whenever there was any atrocity on them, so why are Muslims not speaking out against the horrible atrocities on Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir ? He asked what could he do ? I replied he can write a letter to a local newspaper against it, which I would get published, but he did nothing.

 I know about the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits because I am myself a Kashmiri Pandit, and  my wife and her relatives are from there. Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits were selectively killed. Kashmiri Pandits were only 3% of the population of Kashmir, and were not doing any harm to any one. But it often happened that if in a village of Kashmir there were , say, 1000 people, of which only 20 or so were Pandits, a group of persons with fire arms would come and selectively kill these 20 Pandits. This happened on many an occasion. One of my wife's cousins, who is a doctor in Delhi, told me that when she was studying in a Medical College in Kashmir, a group of people came to her home and shouted that the males in her family should get out of Kashmir, leaving the females behind. There were many such other stories of horror against Pandits of Kashmir, due to which they had to leave their homes and hurriedly leave Kashmir. Many of such Pandits and their families are still living in camps in Jammu, Delhi, etc in horrible conditions. Instead of condemning such atrocities many Kashmiri Muslims blamed Jagmohan for the mass migration of Pandits from Kashmir, which was a total lie. They should have blamed themselves for failing to protect the tiny Kashmiri Pandit community.

 No one wants to leave his home, where his family has lived for generations, and this itself proves what horrible things were done to Kashmiri Pandits, but because it is a tiny community with no vote bank, nobody bothered. Hardly any Muslim raised his voice against these atrocities, or on atrocities on non Muslims, Ahmadis etc in Pakistan.  Hindu girls were forcibly abducted and converted to islam, Hindus were often kidnapped and held to ransom. Blasphemy laws were applied against Christians, who were sometimes killed, and few lawyers dared to take up their case, as those who did were often killed. Hardly any Muslim in India raised his voice against these atrocities, but when people in Gaza were attacked they raised a big hue and cry.

I am not saying one should not raise his voice against atrocities on people of Gaza. What I pointed out was that Kashmir and Pakistan are nearer to India. Surely Muslims in India should have also protested against atrocities on non Muslims and Ahmadis in Pakistan and Kashmir. I saw photographs in the newspapers of demonstrations by Muslims in many cities in India against atrocities in Gaza, but where were the demonstrations by Muslims against atrocities on non Muslims and Ahmadis in Pakistan and Kashmir ?

  As I said, secularism cannot be a one way traffic. All atrocities on everyone should be condemned.

  However, I am prepared to unban those I banned provided they apologize unconditionally. They can send a message on my facebook page, or send an apology through some other computer. By nature I am quite a forgiving person

India conquered the world without soldiers

India is perhaps the only country in the world which conquered large parts of the world without sending a single soldier ! This was due to Buddhism, and Emperor Ashoka, who got converted to that religion after the battle of Kalinga, and sent missionaries to many places. China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Srilanka, Afghanistan, Tibet, Kazhakstan, Tadjikstan, Uzbegistan, Indonesia,etc. all became Buddhist. This was really marvellous !

In Japan I saw hundreds of Buddha statues, e.g. the Kamakura Buddha, which is huge. In Bangkok I saw the golden Buddha.

I have never been to China ( except Hong Kong, which I visited a few times ), but I have with me the book ' The Quest of the Buddha : A Journey on the Silk Road ' by Sunita Dwivedi ( wife of my friend Rakesh Dwivedi, senior advocate, supreme court ) which is a remarkable book, describing Sunita's journey in much of Asia, where she found thousands of Buddha statues. 

Of course Hinduism also spread to many parts of Asia. Bali, where I went a few years ago, is Hindu, and the famous Khmer city of Angkor Wat in Kampuchea ( Cambodia ) shows Hindu influence. Even in Indonesia, which is largely Muslim, many people have Hindu names, and the Indonesian Airlines is called ' Garuda '

Addresses To The Indian Nation

When Napoleon's army crushed the Prussians at the battle of Jena in 1806 and conquered Germany ( which was then not one united nation ) the German philosopher Fichte ( 1762-1814 ) wondered what could have been the cause of such a monumental calamity.

He found it in the lack of nationalism and patriotism in the German people. In his famous ' Addresses To The German Nation ', a series of 14 lectures he delivered in Berlin between 1807-1808 Fichte pointed out the way of recovery to the German people.

In one of his speeches he said :
" Hence the noble minded man will be active and effective, and will sacrifice himself for his people. Life merely as such, the mere continuance of changing existence, has in any case never had any value for him, he has wished for it only as the source of what is permanent. But this permanence is promised to him only by the continuous and independent existence of the nation. In order to save his nation, he must be ready even to die, so that it may live. "

The posts I have been putting up on Facebook and on my blog may, similarly, be regarded as Addresses to the Indian Nation. Their whole purpose is to tell the Indian people what they are ( see my article " What is India " on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in and the website kgfindia.com ), why we have fallen behind Western nations, economically and socially, and how we can and must rise again as a powerful, highly industrialized nation, providing a high standard of living and welfare for our masses

Mimansa Rules of Interpretation

Mimansa Rules of Interpretation

            This is the story of the discovery of the Mimansa Rules of Interpretation.

Rules of Interpretation are very important in law courts. When the British came to India they introduced the principles of interpretation of Maxwell, laid down in his classic treatise ‘Interpretation of Statutes’ and these principles are broadly still being followed in our law courts in India.

            However, our ancient thinkers had created a system of interpretation called the Mimansa Rules of Interpretation, which appears to have been totally suppressed by the British, evidently because they wanted to create an impression that Indians are a race of fools and savages with no worthwhile intellectual achievement to their credit.

            I, too, did not know about the existence of our native system, until I discovered K.L. Sarkar’s book ‘The Mimansa Rules of Interpretation’.

            Prof. Sarkar’s book was published in 1909 in the Tagore Law Lectures volumes.  Prof  Sarkar had delivered 13 lectures at Calcutta in 1905 in the Tagore Law Lecture series. Those lectures were collectively published in 1909, as a book entitled ‘The Mimansa Rules of Interpretation’. It is easily the best book in English on the subject (the original texts on Mimansa are all in Sanskrit). Surprisingly, no second edition of the book was ever brought out, and may perhaps never have been brought out, but for my meeting at Delhi with Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah (former Chief Justice of India) in December 1991, that is, shortly after I had been appointed a puisne Judge of the Allahabad High Court, and he was a puisne Judge of the Supreme Court.

            In this meeting, which was only a courtesy call on my part. Justice Venkatachaliah told me that while a Judge of Karnataka High Court he regularly visited a Sanskrit Scholar in Bangalore to learn the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation.

            Before this meeting I had never even heard that there was such a thing as the Mimansa Principles of Interpretation. Of course as a student of Philosophy at Allahabad University I had heard of a school of Philosophy called Purva Mimansa, (which is one of the shatadarshanas or  6 classical schools of Indian Philosophy) but my teachers had not taught me that there is a whole system of interpretation in this school (probably they, too, did not know about it).

            On returning to Allahabad after meeting Justice Venkatachaliah I read P.V. Kane’s monumental work ‘History of the Dharmashastras’, in which there is a discussion on the Mimansa Principles in Volume 5, Part II, Chapter XXX. Reference has been made there about K.L. Sarkar’s book, and hence I started searching for it. I visited library after library, but could not find the book. Ultimately with the permission of my friend late Prof.  A.K. Shukla (then dean of Law, Allahabad University) I visited the Allahabad University Law Library. With great difficulty I traced out a copy of Sarkar’s book. It was covered with dust and in a dilapidated condition.  Probably nobody had touched it for the last 70 or 80 years. I took this book home to read.

            This was sometime in the month of May or June when it becomes very hot in North India. I had to turn off the fan to read the book since the pages were so brittle and yellow that even the pressure of the breeze generated by the fan would make the pages crumble. The pages had to be turned very slowly, otherwise they would break. Sweating profusely, I read the book in this manner.

            On reading the book I realized I had come across a veritable treasure of knowledge lying unearthed which could be of profound use in judicial work. Principles of interpretation are very important in interpreting  statutes and till then I had known only Maxwell’s book on ‘Interpretation of Statutes’ and other books which are all based on Maxwell’s work, e.g. the books of Craies, Crawford, Sutherland, G.P. Singh, V.P. Sarathy, Jagdish Swarup, etc.

            On enquiries I learned that the greatest living exponent of Mimansa in India is Prof. Pattabhi Rama Shastry, a South Indian Scholar settled in Varanasi. He was then over 80 years of age. I took an appointment with him, and was about to travel to Varanasi for this purpose when I heard on T.V. that he had died. Fortunately his students, Dr. Mandan Mishra (now deceased) former Vice Chancellor of Banaras Sanskrit University, and Prof Vachaspati Upadhyaya,  former Vice Chancellor of Lal Bahadur Sanskrit University, New Delhi  (now also deceased) were alive and I contacted them.

            I was very keen that a second edition of K.L. Sarkar’s book be published, as the existing copies were all in a dilapidated condition. I contacted many persons in this connection, but my efforts were all in vain. I remember contacting a Professor of Sanskrit of Mithila University to whom I said “Sir, you are from Mithila, the land of Raja Janak, the great philosopher king, and of Vachaspati  Mishra, one of the greatest scholars India has produced. Please get a second edition of K.L. Sarkar’s book published”. He gave a positive response, but did nothing. 

            In the meantime I started using the Mimansa Principles in some judgments and I also wrote articles and gave speeches to revive and propagate the use of Mimansa Principles.

            In this connection I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Ram Shanker Dwivedi, Senior Advocate of Allahabad High Court and former lecturer in Sanskrit in Allahabad University, who was of great help and guidance to me. Dr. Dwivedi is now over 90 years of age and holds a Ph.D in Sanskrit. My own knowledge of Sanskrit is fragmentary, and hence I regularly consulted Dr. Dwivedi for guidance.

            My efforts in getting a second edition of Sarkar’s book published were ultimately successful when Modern Law Publication, Allahabad agreed to publish it. The problem, however, remained of getting a good copy of Sarkar’s book. In the dilapidated copy I had obtained from the Allahabad University Law Library about 60 pages were in such a bad condition that they were hardly legible. Dr. Dwivedi contacted Dr. Goparaju Rama, Principal, Ganganath Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Allahabad who procured a good copy from India Office Library, London after great effort.

            I, therefore, wish to acknowledge the help and kindness of all those involved in bringing out the second edition of this book Justice Venkatachaliah, Dr. Ram Shanker Dwivedi, Dr. Goparaju Rama, Prof. K.T. Pandurangi (Vice Chancellor of Purna Prajna Vidyapeeth, Bangalore), late Prof. A.K. Shukla and several others including the publishers.

            I finally wish to bow down with reverence before the spirit of our great ancestors, the giants who created and developed the Mimansa system --- Jaimini, Shabar, Kumarila Bhatta, Prabhakar, Parthasrthy Mishra, Shalignath, Shree Bhat Shankar, Apadeva, Madhavacharya, Vachaspati Mishra, Laugakshi Bhaskar, and scores (if not hundreds) of others who contributed in this field. (It is a pity that most Indians have not even heard of them). Reference must also  be made to Dr. Ganganath Jha, former Vice-chancellor of  Allahabad University who made a great contribution by translating many of the Mimansa texts e.g. Shabarbhashya, Shlokavartika, Tantravartika, etc. (which are all in Sanskrit) into English, which were published in the Gaekward Oriental series.

            A fourth edition of Prof. Sarkar’s book has now been published which includes judgments I delivered in the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court using the Mimansa Principles.

            My earnest hope and wish is that with the publication of the new edition the use of the Mimansa principles of interpretation will begin in our law Courts. If that happens, I will have the satisfaction that my efforts were not in vain.

                        

Two stories of my Courtroom

Let me tell you two stories about what happened in my Courtroom in the Supreme Court. 

The first story is about Mr Soli Sorabji, the former Attorney General of India. One day he appeared before me in Court in some case. Before he could begin his arguments I remarked : " Mr. Sorabji, do you know what is your reputation? ".

He was at first a bit puzzled, but then enquired " What is it My Lord ?".

I said " Your reputation is that you are a ladies man ".

He blushed, and then got on with his case.

In the evening he telephoned me and said " Judge, you embarrassed me a lot today. When you made that remark in Court a lot of ugly looking women started staring at me, and I felt very uncomfortable ".

The other story is about Mr. Ram Jethmalani ( another ladies man ).
One day he was sitting in my Court in a corner of the Courtroom, waiting for his case to be taken up. Another lawyer was arguing a case, in which his client was accused of committing rape.

This lawyer argued that his client was 65 years old, so how could he commit rape ?

I replied that when I was a young lawyer in Allahabad High Court I one day asked a very senior criminal lawyer, Mr. P.C. Chaturvedi, at what age does the sex instinct die out ? He replied " Any time between 30 and 80 "

Having said that, I remarked " And here is Mr. Ram Jethmalani, with vast experience in these matters " ( Mr Jethmalani was then 85 or so, and now he is above 90).

At this Mr. Jethmalani stood up sheepishly and said " I plead guilty, My Lord! "

Ashtaavakra

In my Court some lawyers pretended to be very learned, though they were not. I used to tell these lawyers that they were Ashtaavakra gyanis. At this they were baffled, and asked me who was Ashtaavakra ?

I would then tell them the story about Ashtaavakra.

When Ashtaavakra was still in his mother's womb, his father, Kahod, was performing a yagya. From inside his mother's womb Ashtaavakra pointed out to his father some mistakes he was making in performing the yagya. This made his father very angry, as he thought this boy has not even been born, and he is trying to teach me. So he cursed his son that when he will be born he will have 8 physical defects.

When Ashtaavakra was born he had 8 physical defects, his head was bent to one side, his legs and arms were twisted, etc ( in Sanskrit the word 'ashta' means eight, and the word 'vakra' means twisted ). However he became a very learned scholar.

Once it so happened that Raja Janak ( the father of Sitaji ) held a sabha in which he announced that whoever can tell him a method of getting moksha immediately will get half his kingdom.

Many learned scholars assembled there addressed the king. One said that to get moksha you have to stand on your head for 20 years, another said that you can get moksha by standing on one foot for 20 years with your hands clasped above you, yet another that you have to say "Shiva, shiva" for 20 years etc However, the king said that he was not prepared to wait for 20 years, and wanted moksha immediately.

Ashtaavakra, who was then only 14 years old, had also come to this sabha. He had been stopped at the palace gate by the kings' guards,who at first refused to let him in, saying that he was only a boy, and so was unfit to attend such a sabha where very leaned pandits had come.

Ashtaavakra told them that there was a difference between a vayovriddha ( one who was only physically old ), and a manovriddha ( one who was mentally developed). The guards then let him in.
Coming into the sabha, and seeing that all the pandits assembled there had failed, Ashtaavakra then approached Raja Janak and told him that he could give him moksha immediately.

The king wondered how a mere boy could give him moksha immediately when all the learned scholars had failed. However, he told Ashtaavakra to go ahead and tell him the method of getting moksha immediately.

Ashtaavakra asked the king whether the necklace of gems and gold which the king was wearing belonged to him. Raja Janak replied that it belonged to the state.

Ashtaavakra then asked Raja Janak whether the palace with so much gold and so many jewels embedded in it belonged to him. The king replied that it belonged to the state and not him.

Then Ashtaavakra asked the king whether the 10,000 cows near his palace belonged to the king. The king replied that they belonged to the state.

In this way Ashtaavakra kept asking the king whether such and such thing belonged to him, and to every question the reply was that it belonged to the state.

Ultimately Ashtaavakra asked the king " O king does anything in the world belong to you ? ". On hearing this question Raja Janak fell into a swoon, and collapsed on the ground.

When he got up, he said "Nothing belongs to me"

Ashtaavakra then said " O king, you have attained moksha"

Wajid Ali Shah

Once it so happened that coincidentally Holi and Muhaaram fell on the same day.

Holi is an occasion for joy, while Muharram is an occasion for sorrow. The Hindus in Lucknow, which was the capital of Avadh, the kingdom of the Nawabs of Avadh, decided not to celebrate Holi that year out of respect for the sentiments of their Muslim brethren.

The Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, took the tazia from the Bada Imambara in Lucknow to Kerbala and buried it there. Then he enquired why Holi was not being played. He was told the reason.
Then the Nawab declared that since Hindus had respected the sentiments of their Muslim brethren, it was the duty of the Muslims, too, to respect the sentiments of their Hindu brethren.
Having said this he proclaimed that Holi will be celebrated the same day throughout Avadh, and he himself was the first to start playing Holi, although it was Muharram.

This is the kind of approach all Indians should have.

Begum Akhtar

There have been many good ghazal singers in India and Pakistan, but Begum Akhtar ( 1914-1974) is generally regarded superior to all of them ( just as Mirza Ghalib is generally regarded as superior to all Urdu poets ). I have referred to her in my post on Barrister Abbasi, who married her.
Begum Akhtar not only sang ghazals but also other kinds of light Hindustani music like thumri ( the serious form is known as khyaal, which i have referred to in my post on North Indian Hindustani music).
So please hear the bewitching voice of Begum Akhtar.

Some of her ghazals: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFoI4tNIch0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0iWPWV-O0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzq1rpuFMig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpmKZPJe7l4

How to defeat the Germans!

Many people are saying it is impossible to defeat the Germans in football. I can give a sure shot method of defeating the Germans, and I hope some reader of this post will convey this to the Argentine team.

The method is simple : whenever an Argentine player sees a German with the ball he should look straight into his eyed and shout " Stalingrad ". This will so rattle the German player that he wiil leave the football and run away ( just as the Germans dropped their guns and ran away at seeing a Russian soldier at Stalingrad ). Then the Argentinian can take the ball and score a goal !

Contempt of Court

This is a story told to me by my uncle, Brahma Nath Katju, who later became Chief Justice of Allahabad.
The story is about an incident in the early 1950s in the Allahabad High Court. My uncle was then a very junior lawyer, who had just started practice in the High Court. Junior lawyers often have no work, so my uncle used to sit in some Court to hear senior lawyers argue.

One day a contempt of court case came up before a bench of the Chief Justice, Justice Mootham, who was an Englishman ( and whom I met in England at his residence in 1994 when he was 90 years old), and Justice P.N. Sapru. For the state of U.P. the Advocate General, Pt. Kanhaiyya Lal Mishra appeared. My uncle, was sitting in court at that time, and was thus an eye witness of what transpired.

The case arose out of a postcard sent by a 75 year villager of Meerut District to the District Judge of Meerut. In this letter, the villager wrote that the Indian judiciary was still behaving like the colonial British judiciary although India had become independent in 1947.

The District Judge had forwarded the letter to the High Court, and the High Court had issued summons to the villager. When the villager did not respond to the summons, a bailable warrant was issued to him, and when the villager did not even respond to that, a non- bailable warrant was issued, and the police went and arrested him and brought him to Allahabad.

The Chief Justice observed that the notice may be discharged as it was a trivial matter. The statement of the villager was only mentioned in a postcard, and had not been published in any newspaper. Contempt jurisdiction is discretionary jurisdiction, and hence the High Court was not bound to take action even if contempt had been committed.

However, Justice Sapru was not to be so lightly put off, and was not inclined to take the matter so lightly, and ultimately he asked the villager, who was present in court, why he did not appear when summons or bailable warrant had been issued. The villager replied that he was a poor man, and hence he thought that if non-bailable warrant was issued he would be brought to Allahabad at state expense, and would not have to pay for his train journey from Meerut. The Judges then smiled and said he could go. At this he said how could he go ? He had no money for the train journey.

The Judges then took out their wallets and each of them took out Rs.15, and the Advocate General Pt. Kanhaiyya Lal Mishra also took out Rs.15 from his wallet, and the 45 rupees so contributed was given to the villager for his return journey to Meerut.

This story should be related to all judges who readily issue contempt notices. Lene ka dena pad ja sakta hai !