Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was a selfish, power crazy, arrogant crook, who imposed a fake Emergency in 1975 to remain in power when the Allahabad High Court had found her guilty of corrupt election practices. This fake Emergency caused untold misery to the Indian people. Tens of thousands were falsely imprisoned and tortured. She sought to thrust her unworthy son Sanjay down the throats of Indians, just as Sonia has sought to thrust her unworthy son Rahul who has nothing in his head down the throats of indians.

My fight against corruption

Many people have asked me why I did not speak out against corruption when I was a Judge.

My answer is that there is an unwritten code of conduct for sitting ( not retired ) Judges that they should not go into the public domain. However, though there was this constraint on me when I was a sitting Judge, I was not silent.

 I  repeatedly spoke out against corruption when I was Chief Justice of High Courts and a Supreme Court Judge, e.g.

 (1) I said in my judgment in the Supreme Court in Raja Khan vs. U.P. Sunni Central Waqf Board, 2011 (see online ) " Something is rotten in the Allahabad High Court ".

 (2) In the chicken fodder scam case i said " The corrupt politicians and bureaucrats should be hanged from the nearest lamp post ". 

(3) When I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court I wrote to the then CJI Lahoti against continuation of a corrupt Additional Judge of the Madras High Court who had the support of a leading politician in Tamilnadu, and for whom 3 CJIs made improper compromises with politicians ( by continuing him ), although there was an adverse IB report against him

 (4) When I was Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court I met the then CJI Justice Lahoti in Delhi and informed him about some corrupt Judges of Allahabad High Court. On this information some were transferred.

 (5) When Judge of the Supreme Court I informed in writing to the then CJI Justice Sabarwal about a corrupt senior Judge of the Delhi High Court. 

(6) I informed Justice Kapadia about a corrupt Chief Justice of a High Court ( who was earlier a Judge in the Madras High Court when I was the Chief Justice there ), who was proposed to be elevated to the Supreme Court

(7) I gave CJI Kapadia the mobile numbers of 3 agents of a corrupt senior Judge of Allahabad High Court Judge through whom he was making deals.

  (8) When I was in the Collegium of the Allahabad High Court, I objected to the then Chief Justice of the High Court to recommending the names of some very senior district judges for elevation to the High Court on the ground that they were known to be corrupt, although they obtained good entries in their service record by obliging their Administrative judges ( portfolio judges )  in some ways.

I can give several other instances where I fought against corruption. But surely I alone could not eliminate all the corruption in India

Thus Spake Their Lordships

So even if the truth is that most of the members of the Indian Parliament are corrupt, and many of them have criminal antecedents, this truth must not be spoken. Wonderful pearls of wisdom, Your Lordships !

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/wont-allow-insult-of-mps-parliament-supreme-court/

Enemies of the Nation

RSS and Muslim League were two sides of the same coin. Both were part of the British policy of divide and rule. Hence both were British agents.

  India ia a country of great diversity, having so many religions, castes, races, languages, cultures, etc. Hence the only way we can remain united and prosper is to be secular and give equal respect to all communities. Organizations like RSS, Muslim League and other communal bodies are enemies of the nation

Go mata ki jai

Hindus object to slaughter of go mata ( mother cow ). But most of them do not mind if tens of thousands of their mothers ( cows ) starve painfully to death by being driven out after they are old and/or past their milk producing stage, or cannot produce milk for some reason.  They do not mind if their mothers eat filth and garbage, and discarded polythene bags on the roadside, which cause a horribly painful death.That does not bother these lovers of their mothers at all.

The R.S.S.

A few months back a friend of mine wanted to join the B.J.P. and consulted me. I advised him against joining any political party as in my opinion none of them have genuine love for India or its people, and are only interested in power and pelf.

 A few days later he again met me and said  he had made some enquiries and came to know that the persons who rose high in the B.J.P. government or organization were those who had many years background as a member of the R.S.S. Also, the 'ghar wapasi' and other policies had antagonized him. Hence he decided not to join B.J.P.

 The truth is that the B.J.P. is dominated by the R.S.S. and all its top ministers and party officials have decades of membership of the R.S.S.

What is the R.S.S. ? It was an organization created when India was under British rule, and its object, like that of the Muslim League, was to further the British policy of divide and rule.

 I have interacted with many R.S.S. officials and members, and found that they are rabidly anti Muslim and anti Christian. They have closed minds about Indian history and culture. According to their way of thinking, all Muslims and Christians are devils, and Muslim rule in India was a period of slavery for India. Also, Hindus invented aeroplanes (as 'pushpak viman' is mentioned in the Ramayana ), atom bombs guided missiles, genetic engineering and head transplant surgery ( as was done to Ganesh ).

 R.S.S. and B.J.P. thrive on hatred, that is, communal tension and communal riots, because that is all they have in their ideological arsenal. All the talk of 'vikaas' was really hogwash, as Arun Shourie, who had earlier supported Modi, has pointed out now.

A Tale of Two Idiots

Indians call that British agent Gandhi as Father of the Nation.
Pakistanis call that British agent Jinnah as Qaid-e-Azam.
Is it not a Tale of Two Idiots ?

Do imperialists give up their Empire peacefully ?

I want some of you to make cartoons with the heading ' Do imperialists give up their empire peacefully ? '
 Below this heading should be these figures :
1. George Washington presenting flowers to King George the Third of England and asking him to leave the American colonies
2. Bolivar offering sweets to the Spaniards and asking them to leave Latin America
3. Ho Chi Minh and the Algerians giving lollipops to the French and asking them to leave Vietnam and Algeria
4. The French  and Yugoslavs offering chocolates to Hitler and asking him to leave France and Yugoslavia
5. Gandhi fasting, doing satyagraha and singing ' Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram ' and asking the British to leave India.
 As I said in an earlier post, it was not because of Gandhi that we got Independence in 1947 but because of German attacks on England in the Second World War and American pressure on the British

These cartoons should be posted as comments to this page or messaged on fb

Jeeves

 I read P.G.Wodehouses humourous fictional books as a young man, 40-50 years ago, and now I have started reading them again sometimes.

There are many fascinating characters in these stories, e.g. the Earl of Emsworth, Ukridge, Psmith, etc, but in my opinion of all the characters created by him Jeeves is easily the best. The stories which feature him also have interesting characters like Bertie Wooster, Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Roderick Glossop and his daughter Honoria, Roderick Spode, Gussie Fink Nottle, Bingo Little, Madeleine Bassett, Catsmeat Potter Pirbright, the cousins Claude and Eustace, Bobbie Wickham, etc

 I remember when I was in College in Allahabad I asked some of my friends ( who also read P.G.Wodehouse ) : what does Bertie Wooster do for a living ? It surprised me that he does nothing, and goes sometimes to the Drones Club.

 There are numerous Jeeves' stories, but the one I found most hilarious was the the one when Gussie Fink Nottle went in an inebriated state to Market Snodsbury Grammar School to present prizes to the schoolboys. Bertie Wooster's lunch with Sir Roderick Glossop, confrontation with Sir Roderick Spode, and with the police constable at a girls' school, etc were also hilarious.

 Long live Jeeves. May he keep providing some laughter in this sordid world for several generations.

Changez Khan ( 1162-1227 ) and the Mongols

 Changez Khan ( also known as Chingiz Khan or Ghenghis Khan ) has often been vilified as a brutal, bloodthirsty barbarian who massacred millions of people.

I remember when I was in Switzerland many years ago to attend a conference, I was having a discussion with a young,white Australian. One of the topics we discussed was Changez Khan. He was very critical of Changez, calling him a monster, whereas I defended Changez.. What is the truth about him ?

 The truth is that the European imperialists could simply not accept an Asian as a great historical figure. So they downgraded Changez to the lowest level of barbarianism,although the truth is that their own compatriot, Adolf Hitler, who sent millions of Jews to gas chambers simply because they were Jews, and the British who made over a hundred million Indians to starve to death ( see my blogs' Dinner at the German Embassy ', and ' The Great Bengal Famine, 1943 on justicekatju.blogspot.in ) were at that level. In their self imposed mission to 'civilize' the world ( white man's burden ), the Europeans sought to 'rescue' Asians and Africans from the alleged horrible legacy of bloodthirsty savagery symbolized by Changez Khan.

 In 1964, Pravda, the official newspaper of the then Soviet Union, issued a stern warning against attempting ' to place the bloodthirsty barbarian Ghenghis Khan on a pedestal as a historical progressive personage '. The Chinese countered this attempt by stating that instead of vilifying Changez the Russians should appreciate him, because the Mongol invasion of Russia gave the Russians an opportunity to get acquainted with a higher culture.

Changez Khan united the warring nomadic Mongol tribes, and then began his conquests of much of China, Asia and Eastern and Middle Europe, which created an Empire larger than any the world has ever seen. an Empire stretching over 90 degrees of the globe, 4 times the size of the Roman Empire at its zenith, and twice the size of the Empire of Alexander the Great.

 The belief that Changez slaughtered people he had conquered is a totally one sided, biased view. It was a common practice in the medieval age that if a city was surrounded by an attacker, its inhabitants were spared if they surrendered. But if they refused, or if after surrender they again revolted, there would be a slaughter. In this respect Changez was no different from other conquerors. But ordinarily. Changez did not resort to slaughter, and the view to the contrary is false

Economic policy of the Mongols

The Mongols realized that if they spared the lives of people they had conquered, it would benefit them too, since these people produced valuable goods needed by the Mongol Empire and outside it.. Consequently, after the period of Mongol conquests ended, the era of Mongol Peace arrived. Western scholars designated the 14th Century as Pax Mongolica or Pax Tartarica, in which peaceful commerce thrived, protected by the Mongol armies and administration.

 Throughout the Mongol Empire, trade routes were built or maintained ( e.g. the Silk Route from China ), with shelters or inns for travelers interspersed every 20 to 30 miles. These stations or inns were like the modern motels, providing merchants and others rooms for rest, food, etc and also transport animals and guides for travel through difficult terrain. To promote trade along these routes, the Mongol authorities issued early forms of passports, which guaranteed the holder protection, accommodation, transport, and exemption from local taxes and duties.

 Marco Polo frequently used these Mongol relay stations in his travels. He described them as beautiful, having ' silk sheets and every other luxury suitable for a king '.

 Under the Mongol Empire, civilizations that had once been separate worlds unto themselves, became part of a single intercontinental system of communication, commerce and technology. The Mongols realized that goods which were commonplace and taken for granted in one place, were very valuable and marketable at high prices elsewhere. Consequently Mongol workshops began producing goods which were not merely traditional Chinese silk and porcelain,but also a host of entirely new items e.g. images of Madonna and Christ carved in ivory for export to Europe.

 Realizing that goods moved best on water, the Mongols built and expanded canals and water projects, for transporting grain and various products. Some of the dams and reservoirs they built have survived to this day.

 In view of this economic policy, people living in the Mongol Empire prospered greatly

 Religious Policy

Like the Mughal Emperor Akbar,  (whose grandfather Babur was said to be Changez' descendant from his mother's side ), Changez practised a policy of universal toleration of all religions. Like Akbar, who abolished jaziya and taxes on pilgrimages by Hindus, Changez granted tax exemptions to all places of worship. While Changez and his Mongols practiced the shaman religion, worshipping the sky, woods and mountains, his subjects, who belonged to diverse religions were totally free to practice their own religions--Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. Like Akbar, Changez often invited religious leaders of different religions to teach him about their faith.

 Changez is quoted as having said " It is proper to keep the commandments of God. But the Jews say they have received these commandments from Moses, the Muslims say they received them from Mohammed, and the Christians from Jesus. There are other nations who honor their prophets through whose hands they assert they received the divine precepts. Therefore how shall we arrive at concord ? It can only be by respecting all religions. ". This was precisely the policy of the great Emperor Akbar, his descendant.

 This policy of religious freedom can be contrasted to the religious bigotry prevailing in Europe at that time. In 1287-88 Rabban bar Sawna, the envoy of Kubilai Khan, grandson of Changez, came to the Court of the English King Edward 1 ( at the time Marco Polo had travelled to China ). On the way Rabban had visited Jerusalem, Baghdad, Persia, Constantinople, Rome and France. As contrasted to the total religious freedom in the Mongol Empire, Rabban was surprised to see that in all European countries, only a single religion was tolerated, and that priests exercised tremendous power over the common people. Accounts of his Rabban's travels have been recorded in ' The History of the Life and Travels of Rabban bar Sawna '.

Culture

The Taoist philosopher Qiu Chuji, also known as Changchun zi ( 1148-1227 ) was invited by Changez to his Court. He advised Changez to love his people and work for their welfare, have a pure heart, and few desires for himself. Changez was greatly impressed by Qiu, and honoured him with the title ' The Great Master '. Following his advice, Changez always wore the same clothes and ate the same food as the cow herds and horse herders, and hated luxury. He treated all his subjects as his children, and promoted talented men no matter what their origin. He told his sons " You may conquer an army with superior tactics, but you can only conquer a nation by winning the people's hearts by your good deeds. A king can never be happy unless his subjects are happy "

Most Empires of conquest in history tried to impose their own culture and civilization on the conquered. Thus, the Romans imposed their language Latin, their gods, etc. Each Roman city from Ephesus in Turkey to Cologne in Germany had the same urban design and architectural style, from markets and baths to the smallest details in columns and doorways. Similarly, the British erected Victorian style buildings in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, so much so that in some of these cities one feels one is in Central London. The Spanish constructed their own style of cathedrals and plazas in Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Wherever the British established colonies, the elite among the natives learnt to speak English.e.g. in India. French is still spoken by the elite in Algeria, Vietnam, etc, and Spanish in Latin America ( except in Brazil where they speak Portuguese ).

 In contrast, the Mongols never tried to impose their culture, language, religion and customs on the people they had conquered.

Communications System

Since they had set up a vast Empire, Changez and the Mongols needed an efficient communications system to govern it. Hence they created the ' Yam ', or mounted courier service. this consisted of post houses or stations strung on roads across the whole Empire.  By stopping to rest or take on a fresh mount every 20 miles or so, official riders could travel over 200 miles a day. Goods and information could travel at unprecedented speeds. This was also the eyes and ears of the Emperor, who could easily keep abreast of the latest military and political developments.

 Assessment of Changez Khan and the Mongols

 From the above discussion it is obvious that far from being barbarians, Changez and the Mongols have been vilified and demonized by Europeans. The truth is that they were progressive in history, having established religious tolerance ( at a time when most Europeans were religious bigots ), and by promoting commerce and communications, which led to prosperity of people in their Empire.