tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26704894611055233592024-02-20T12:00:07.600-08:00Biplab speaks on SpiritualismThis is a blog on scientific approach to spirituality without any religion and God. Also takes into account of religious politics and how it is becoming anti-thesis to modernization.Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-32253501988880283492018-05-05T06:54:00.002-07:002018-05-05T06:54:25.283-07:00Spirituality vs Religiosity <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span data-offset-key="cutee-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Number of people who are displaying the affection, love and loyalty for the religion of their birth and parent are increasing alarmingly. Most of them have been brainwashed by their parent, society and the state. This is a dangerous trend considering following :</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2n4ib-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> 1. In 21st century, the battle-line is already drawn-it is man vs machine. Our kids, children have to be educated differently, more efficiently so that their skills should be unmatched by the machines. Incidentally be in America or in India, politics is so skewed towards religion and race, politicians who can think of the future need, are not emerging or getting to the top. Because all of a sudden twisted vision of history become a priority instead of future. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="b0097-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> 2. Every human being has his/her spiritual need simply because there is no absolute purpose of life. This issue of existentialism is well known and well understood. Question is for most of the people, they do want to raise a good family, good children and want to live a secured life. Surely this requires a strong state mechanism which can ensure this level of security. It must be understood that the states which will adopt technology at faster rate-be it for agriculture or policing will be able to offer this to their citizen at much faster and better rate. Do we need religion for that? Absolutely not.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8d0t6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Even if I agree spiritual or transcendental need is real & necessary, it is a personal affair. You read and try to understand beauties of all religious practice, all traditions. Don't confine to one if you want to define your own path of purpose. Being religious is imprisonment while being spiritual is liberation. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="30b7h-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">4. And finally religious politics. It exists because majority of the people feel they are Hindu, Christian, Muslims etc before they think they are human being and want to be productive. There is a dangerous predicament if you want to define your identity by religion. Because all religions were born as a part of the history and geography that have nothing to do with you in 21st century and unknowingly you will impose traditions which are harmful your competitive ability to grow bigger. Because you won't be open to examination of what is better for you.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5mcpa-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Incidentally during the time Buddha and Mahavira, India has exactly that kind of society where everyone was free to select his or her path of spiritual journey. So unfortunate Buddha and Mahavira would be killed in 51 Islamic countries and India today for being apostate and heresy. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3j94n-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Think carefully, are we progressing or retrogressing ?</span></div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-10413389819531158072017-03-04T04:45:00.001-08:002017-03-04T04:45:48.786-08:00I like Hinduism but not Hinduvta <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I need to explain why I do not like Hinduvta or Hindu nationalists despite, I am follower of Indian philosophy in my own life. In fact, it is precisely because I follow or try to follow life/wisdom suggested by Upanishad, I would be distancing myself from any kind of Hinduvta element.<br />
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Ancient India had wonderful understanding of life. They realized a life and society can't be led without a proper foundation of philosophy that should guide them. In Ancient India, everyone was free to select his own way of salvation-his own journey of realization. India never stressed on religious identity and religion-it was all about everyone of us should find our own place in the universe and live in harmony.<br />
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A summary of what Indian wisdom stands for, can be found in the story of Astavakra debating with scholar Bandi in the court of King Janaka. We have defined "Bidya" or true learning as knowledge of self recognition. Abidya or ill fated learning for us -is the knowledge that makes us parochial, that instigates a division that I am different than others-I am not part of this cosmos. Avidya is what instigates us to hate others.<br />
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Now when you read fathers of Hindu nationalist movement, either it is Savarkar or Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, it is clear they were not guided by core Hindu Philosophy. Hindu philosophy has no place for identity politics-as for us, we are all but one. Their writing is full of hatred towards Muslims and danger they pose to India. I am not debating the fact, Islam is bad for India- clearly Islam is an ideology that is a clear cut political fascism for most of the practiced version ( again Islam is not monolithic and Sufism is certainly very close to Vaishanvite cult of Hinduism ) and I get that. But to stop Islam or its spread in India, Hindu Gurus have shown the way. Didn't we hear the story of Javan Haridas? He was a Muslim who embraced Sri Chaitanya for which he was beheaded by local Kazi for his apostasy which is condemned by death in Islam. On his death sentence, he commented to Kazi, he has no regret of leaving Islam because in reality division created by religion only deters the people from way to salvation.<br />
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Chitayna was born in a time, when almost whole Bengal was being converted to Islam being influenced by Sufi Guru. Bengal was Buddhist for a long time during Palas and then during Sen dynasty, Brahmnical Hinduism was imposed on Bengali population. They didn't like exactly that Vedic religion and revolted. So when Muslim rulers came to Bengal with Sufi Gurus, they embraced them as liberator. By beginning of 14th century, Bengal was almost on verge of being converted fully into Islam. And then Shri Chaitanya launched his movement of love and passion-many converted Muslims embraced back Hinduism. Mass conversion of Hindus into Islam stopped forever as lower caste Hindus embraced his casteless version of Hinduism that promotes love and devotion.<br />
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Even when British and European came with their pastors, they couldn't succeed with their Christianity in INDIA- but they have baptized everywhere in Africa and America. Why? Because Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekanda reformed Hinduism and made it attractive for most of the people. They didn't need to fight politically like Savarkar.<br />
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Hinduvta movement alienated the Muslims in India because it is spreading parochialism which Hinduism is not- it is the most liberal humanist form of ideology. Hinduism is criticized for its caste system but if you read Mahabharata, castism has been totally condemned. Chaitanya condemned and abolished it. Castism is the worst form of misinterpretation of Hinduism. <br />
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My point is- it was possible to win the heart of the Muslims by love and humanism of Hinduism -most of them would have converted back to dharma of the soil by its strength of love and compassion. Instead, Savarkar and SP Mukherjee created a movement which alienated Muslims of India. And the communalism in India is only getting worse.</div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-68957581208224222232016-07-02T21:35:00.000-07:002016-07-02T21:35:51.951-07:00Terrorism in Bangladesh -when politics of appeasement is sinking a whole continent <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I looked at the FB profile of one of the terrorists (Nirbas Islam) in Gulshan attack in Bangladesh. Nirbas looks perfectly normal teenager coming from affluent family and his profile shows no inclination that he is at all a radicalized religious youth. However, it is quite clear the guy had a deep interest in international politics. He shared a post, which was apparently made to protest against refugee policy of the Europe, describing how Europeans flooded to North Africa for safe shelter during second world war. There is no doubt, a kid like him was deeply influenced more by International politics and religion served him a purpose to the concerns he had for something he found unjust.<br />
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In 2003, when I started writing in Mukto-Mona forum founded by Avijit Roy, we thought Internet will dawn a new civilization of knowledge, wisdom and rationalism in our part of South Asia which is deeply buried under ignorance and toxic influence of religions. We thought now that knowledge is made free, wisdom will flow like a free flowing river. We hoped people will adopt to science and rationalism over superstition and fictional tale of religion. Least we knew, within a decade, it would turn out to be other way around. Internet will spread more radicalization of Islam. ISIS will use social media more effectively to radicalize gullible Muslim youths who are already soft to Islamic cause given their family culture which may not be hardliner but surely believes in all sort of conspiracy theories for injustice meted out to Muslim populations in Middle East, India and Myanmar.<br />
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However, I am deeply introspecting everything I thought and preached about rationalism. Did I miss something? I think I did. For once, I never thought root cause is religious text unlike many of my friends in MM forum but I was sure it was more political than religious. Most likely, I failed to understand deep empathy created by religious culture for fellow religious people-they call it brotherhood. It defies all rationalism when someone seating in Bangladesh feels more strongly for a suffering Muslim in Syria or in Palestine ignoring probably half of the Bangladeshi people are suffering a lot more living in abject poverty.<br />
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Empathy for the people suffering from illness, political persecution, poverty is the at the heart of all religions and very basic reason why religion is still surviving despite most of it is merely fairly tales and fictional prophets. However, when such a blind sighted empathy is created, when you can only see suffering of the people of your religion while ignoring people who are living in slum next to your palace, clearly such empathy has been manufactured by media, family culture and politicians who aspired to profit from such blindness.<br />
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Children of internet age are vulnerable to media propaganda. We need to encourage critical thinking from very childhood. Let them be critical of each and everything we tell them to be true and traditional. They must be enabled to handle information with their critical mind so that they can easily find inadequate logic and ill reasoning in every propaganda and every thought presented to them. They must be taught to understand there can be several contradicting truths of same reality. For example, if we blame America for suffering of people of Iraq, it will again be a half baked truth. Fact is --such suffering is a combination of multiple things starting from feudal Islamic culture of the Middle East to imperial design of the West.<br />
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Nirbas, like many Muslims ( and many leftists) were only convinced of imperial design of the West while forgetting stagnated Islamic culture is also equally responsible for not having democracy in that part of the world. You can blame West as much as you want and West won't mind. But you can't conveniently forget Mullahs in Iran think democracy is a sham, and men should have no power to make law when Allha made Sharia laws for them. If anything, West gave them a complete opposite kind of governing system in the form of liberal democracy.<br />
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When kids like Nirbas turns to radical political ideology, I am not surprised. Most of the Muslims in South Asia hail radical preacher Zakir Naik as a hero whose knowledge will not surpass that of a class 4-th grade student. For me that is the real concern when even highly educated Muslims are unable to comprehend unscrupulous nature of radical preaching because formal education failed to build a foundation of critical mind.<br />
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Practically I don't see a solution to the problem of Islamic terrorism unless and until we all admit, we need to change our school education system for developing a more scientific and critical mind. Cry as much you want, speak as loud as you want, roar as thunder as you want against terrorism, denounce as hard as you can -but Islamic terror will only escalate. Unless we all understand, we are not doing a good job to develop critical, rational and scientific mind in schools and homes so that our kids are not vulnerable to radical preachers in the Internet. It is already late. There are too many radical preachers and millions of vulnerable kids getting ready to be next Jihadi John. None of us are safe.<br />
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-35340384555340585622015-11-15T19:37:00.001-08:002015-11-15T19:37:05.814-08:00Keep your children safe from ISIS online recruiters..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In first glance, we may feel, it's a difficult time. You or your family can be a victim of terrorist attack any time, any where. Nobody is immune. No country is safe. Your skin color, wealth, apolitical standing nothing can save you. Only death appears to be more certain than terrorism.<br />
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Unfortunately, when I explored history, I couldn't find a place or time which was safer for humanity for a long time. Yes, there was relative peace and prosperity for a decade but world was always torn by war, skirmishes and genocides.<br />
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However, we are experiencing unprecedented high volume of terrorist attacks globally that is unparallel in world history. Who are those terrorists ? Why do they kill? What do they want?<br />
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This is where ground reality gets far more complex than what most of us love to think - a simple hypothesis of Islam inspired Jihad. Islam does play a critical central role in global terrorism but for that matter if we pump money and arms to any religious extremist group, dis-chanted and disillusioned from harsh reality of society and state politics, terrorists can be manufactured like a factory assembly line.<br />
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Which country suffered mercilessly at the hand of terrorists more than any of us ? It is country of Colombia. Where even presidents and ministers were not safe and have been killed at will by mafia sponsored terrorism. Pablo Escober, the most notorious nacro terrorist of all the times, literally wiped out Supreme court of Colombia and killed any presidential candidate which vowed to eliminate drug smuggling. What we have seen in Paris and 9/11 is a child's play compared to what Colombians experienced throughout 90s.<br />
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From Colombia to Paris, lesson for terrorism remains simple. If there are vested interest groups which can profit from terrorism, and a weak democracy where leaders clasp with that interest group either for vote or money, none can stop growth of terrorism. Why Paris is burning today? Their intelligence agency is admitting they have a potential list of 5000 jihadist but they can't monitor or detain them for political pressure. In India and Bangladesh-situation is worst. These jihadists are needed and wanted by many political parties to secure minority vote bank.<br />
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This is where issue of Islam becomes complex and murkier. As a religious text or fundamentals of religion, Islam is no different than other religion. Purported text of violence or Jihad , cited by many from Koran are not exclusive to Islam-it can be found in Bible too.<br />
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But it is not through religious text, Islam become a dangerous religion. It has become so by not allowing criticism to its religion. Islam is a political system as well. If criticism of Islam is not allowed, all the Muslim majority countries will be governed by Islamic law. This is where major riddles played out in 20th century. Post colonial modernization movement by Atartuk or Gamal Abdel Nasser have largely failed because Islam has an alternative political system which is contradictory to western liberal democracy. Clearly to control Middle East, a large number of dictators were supported by the western powers since democracy was leading to the way of more Islamization and thus medieval barbarism. As it happens in all dictatorial rules, a large section of population have seen their political right confiscated and thus whole Middle East become larva breeding ground for terrorists. Terrorists are born in middle east like mosquitoes.<br />
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However, at this point, focus is more on home grown terrorism where Muslim youths are radicalized even when they are born in France or USA. This is probably a very small tiny faction but still a happening and dangerous trend because of their callous immigrant parents who started thinking their children are becoming more pious Muslim! Least they know their children are being exploited by online ISIS sponsored radicals who are teaching and showing them how their Muslim brothers are suffering in Middle East because of Iraq invasion. And a religious person without critical thinking is a danger to society. He is religious because he believes in myths of his religion-which are fairly tales. And if he can be made to believe in fairly tale because he is not rational, he can be made to believe in all kind of stories in which USA is a villain. And that is where radicalization of Muslim youth is becoming an issue in USA because they are vulnerable to online recruit of ISIS. Only Muslim parents can stop them-they must keep strict vigil on their children if they do not want to bring shame to their family reputation and want their children to be safe.</div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-85273460734384097502015-11-14T19:57:00.002-08:002015-11-14T19:57:53.568-08:00Whom to blame for Islamic terrorism ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Incidents of Islamic terrorist attack have gone up from couple of times a month to couple of times a week. However that didn't change the discourse of debate in social media. Every time such heinous attack shocks us in disbelief ( primarily because we have convinced ourselves that we live in a progressive civilized society and therefore in our Utopian world, barbaric massacre of medieval propensity can't happen any more ), social media splits vertically to defend and accuse faith of Islam. This blurs and obliviates real masters and fundamentals behind act of terrorism.<br />
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First let's scrutinize whether or not to blame Muslims and Islam for act of terrorism perpetrated by Islamic Jihadist. There is no doubt terrorists are inspired by their religion. Debate of whether Islam or Quran sanctions such act of violence is useless one. Arguments can swing both way since religious texts are weak text and therefore can be interpreted whichever way you want. A comparative study of all religious texts will tell you, all religious texts barring Jainism and Buddhism, do have elements of violence. Bible is more violent than Quran. Therefore correct statement on this matter is perhaps- Yes, Islam is responsible but it is wrong to isolate Islam in this matter. Most of the major religions produced their own version of terrorists historically. Therefore even if Islam is not an unique ideology for terrorism, principle of Islam, that instills sense of justice does play a big role in psychological mold of the terrorists. It is undeniable. Whether that is right or wrong version of Islam is also immaterial because no religion has correct or incorrect version. All religions by nature is heterogeneous and never practiced uniformly. Therefore this extremist Jihadi version is also very much part of Islam. Similarly, we must acknowledge all religions have their extremist version. It is a different issue that extremist elements of Islam have political sponsors. And that is where, we have a real problem.<br />
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Question is-what is the role of Muslims on this issue of Islamic radicalism. I agree most of them don't support such extreme version of Islam. Their world view and aspiration is no different than ours. Unfortunately that kind of thinking will also be naive and oversimplification.<br />
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I will cite a simple example to defend my argument. Aggressive US foreign policy is also responsible for this mess-specially in Iraq and Syria. When people outside USA, blames us for bringing miseries in their lives, whom should we or they should blame? Only policy makers, war monger factions of US Govt? After all, I want peace. I will never endorse such war effort. Then can I be blamed for aggressive US foreign policy ?<br />
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Answer is absolutely yes-as US citizen I can't absolve myself from crimes of bringing miseries to millions of people who have suffered for wrong US foreign policy no matter how opposed I might be to those policies. Reason is simple. Did I ever do enough to oppose the politics of war mongers in the democracy? Answer is no. I am busy making money and in pursuit of happiness for me and my family. Miseries of Iraqis don't touch me at all!<br />
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A Muslim, if he is still endorsing his faith as Islam -is definitely responsible for such heinous act of terrorism in the name of their religion. They have not done enough to stop hijacking of their religion to the extremist elements. How many Muslims are vocal against radical version of their religion? It is tiny, minuscule faction. Worst survey reveals, quite a sizable moderate portion of Muslims endorse Sharia laws or believe Islamic laws are the best!! Which is no different than what these terrorists believe in!! They should be held responsible for providing passive moral support. Period.<br />
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However, we must understand, terrorism and its root cause is much bigger than Islam. Nothing is possible without money. And money doesn't flow without vested interest in politics. Who are financing these terrorists ? Where are they getting moral support from ? How they could smuggle AK-47 ?<br />
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More we dig deeper into it, no matter how naive we pretend to be, we will end up in some uncomfortable questions of US foreign policy that used this brand of Islam during cold war. And matter didn't end there. US repeated same mistake even for ISIS. They are former Syrian rebels whom US was funding against Bassad. When we try to use venomous snakes as weapon of war by domesticating them, they can bite back their masters too!</div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-36736654505363579092015-11-14T05:52:00.000-08:002015-11-14T05:52:01.185-08:00Progressive liberal ideas can't stop totalitarian barbaric Islamic radicalism.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
French president promised merciless response. That is a joke. Liberal progressive society can't be merciless in response. It reminds me of a dialogue between Hun legend Attila and Roman general Arnegisclus before Battle of Utus. Arnegisclus wanted to know why Attila is so confident of winning against Romans everytime. Attila replied, that he knows Romans have become too civilized to defeat Hun's barbarian army. His specific point was-civilized societies when challenged by the barbarians, never fared well historically because civility limited their response-all civilized societies are fearful.<br />
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How can they be merciless? Thousands of Muslim youths have been radicalized all over the world. Are they going to kill them all? Killing will bring no solution. It will produce more terrorists. Killing doesn't kill an idea. Good or bad.<br />
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We all need to think this problem as structural issue of politics of our time. Failure of democracy and failing to strike right balance between liberal and collectivist ideas. It is clear religious ideas can be deadly-at least some of them and it can damage minds of the youths as it did to millions of Muslim youths. And as a counter response, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist-all kinds of radicalism is on rise.<br />
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Freedom of religion and ideas must be restricted. Govt needs to impose strict laws against those spreading radical version of any religion or political ideas-either in social media or in place of worship. Preachers, writers of these deadly ideas must be prosecuted by law and by the society.<br />
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Liberal progressive ideas can't stop totalitarian barbaric radicalism.</div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-61855361983333871682015-05-13T21:48:00.001-07:002015-05-13T21:48:50.078-07:00Murderers of the atheist bloggers of Bangladesh-will the nation of Bengal fall in the hand of the Islamic extremists ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I knew religion breeds hatred and specially religion of Islam is nothing but another deadly virus of faith, but stark reality of merciless killing of atheist bloggers of Mukto-mona rattled me to the core. Avijit brought me to Mukto-mona platform in 2004 and since then, I have been in touch with most of the Mukto-mona writers either through email or facebook. Therefore, each death is so personal to me, I can barely express my anger and frustration on inaction of Bangladesh Govt to bring justice and ensure security of the atheist bloggers. I have not only lost faith in whatever I believed in but for sure, I am leaning towards more extremist ideology which I myself categorized and denounced in several writing.<div>
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Death does not frustrate me that much as death is the final destiny and supreme reality. Almost a decade back, when Mukto-mona founder Avijit Roy wrote to me for being vigilant and being careful as writing against extremist elements will ire many, I wrote him back stating, I would consider myself fortunate if I have to die for a cause than for no cause. After all in Mahabharata, Duryodhana wanted to fight against Kaurava all because he thought death with glory is much better than living with a defeated soul. I firmly believe all of my dearest friends of Mukto-mona who have given their lives to safeguard the supreme principle of humanity and reason over darkness of religion, have attained that glory in their lifetime. This does not make me sad at all. After all we are all soldiers fighting against dark and evil forces of religion. </div>
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What is frustrating is the politics of South Asia. I am a firm believer of democracy and I was delighted when democracy was established in Bangladesh in 1991. It is difficult to describe the system of politics in West Bengal and Bangladesh as ruling party makes sure victory by every possible vile means. People's choice is reflected sometimes but most of the time voting and therefore selection is rigged. All the parties are involved in rigging the election. So I would prefer to call it a "semi-democratic system". Yes, change does happen sometimes when anger of the people can no longer be managed. </div>
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My frustration starts with our evolution. We the Bengalis are peace loving, fish eating, music loving race from land of river-translated as Bang+aal-meaning land of river. Thousand years back, we had our own religion-commonly known as Sahajiya or easy path. Which is a relaxed form of paganism where poetry and music from deep understanding of life formed the core of our spiritual practice. That religion knew no king, no superiority, no killing. </div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-36915778645880444262015-03-30T19:14:00.002-07:002015-03-30T19:14:14.605-07:00Murder of Washiqur Rahman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When we live in the "so called" first world, speak for first amendment, right to freedom of speech, we forget about another world on our planet where people can't criticize their tyrant rulers, oppressive religions and unacceptable condition of living. If they do, they are dead already!</div>
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Washiqur Rahman added me in Facebook almost two years back. I know he was vocal against Bangladesh Govt for its failure to curb religious fundamentalism. Yesterday, he was killed by two illite<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">rate Madrassa students who admittedly didn't read his blogs. Those two Islamic students acted to "save" their religion as directed by their Madrassa teacher.</span></div>
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Washiqur was quite talented-specially he had a style of his own satire. In him we found a young writer who could see the social injustice and oppression coming from low-middle class background but instead of sulking at it, he could extract his best parody.</div>
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Bangladesh for a long time has been a fertile breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. I guess one should be happy that, it may be an issue confined in Bangladesh but as we know, they also have their free shelter in West Bengal.</div>
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However, not sure, it is just law and order issue. After Avijit was hacked to death, majority of Bangladeshi Muslims rejoiced in social media blaming him for his criticism of religion. Washiqur murder met no different reaction-it is extremely disappointing to see, a large section of Bangladeshi Muslims rejoiced his death as well in social media.</div>
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Murders may be criminal, but when you see a large section of Muslims are supporting it, you will immediately realize why Islamophobia is growing in the west.</div>
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Unless everyone of us realize, human beings are more valued than mythical religions and fictitious prophets, world will continue to remain a bitter place to live as politician will exploit this hatred and fanaticism to fuel more hatred and genocide.</div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-27550230855436258782015-03-15T19:05:00.000-07:002015-03-15T19:05:56.805-07:00Existential crisis of Bengali Babus in North America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">By</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><a href="http://www.vinnomot.com/BiplabPal/Index.htm"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Biplab Pal</span></a></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="style8"> </span><br />
<span class="style8"><span class="style2"><span class="style4">We are the hollow men<br /> We are the stuffed men<br /> Leaning together<br /> Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!<br /> Our dried voices, when<br /> We whisper together<br /> Are quiet and meaningless<br /> As wind in dry grass</span><span class="style3"> </span></span></span><br />
<span class="style8"> <div class="style3">
<span class="style12">-Hollow Men, T.S .Elliot</span> </div>
</span><span class="style2"> <span class="style5">*********************************</span><span class="style9"> </span><br />
<div class="style9">
For those who have been to Laguna Nigel’s Kali temple, Prufullada (real name withheld) is a ubiquitous face. In his late fifties, he still looks pretty young. Although, I have been living in Orange County for last three years, I never visited the Temple . Couple of weeks back, I drove there for a melodious evening of Shyama Sangeet. </div>
<span class="style8"> <div class="style3">
-You must be new to this area. </div>
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I heard an amiable voice. </div>
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- I am Prafullad Sarkar. And you? </div>
</span> <span class="style8"> </span><span class="style3"><span class="style8">- </span></span><span class="style4"><span class="style8">Amio</span></span><span class="style4"><span class="style8"> Bangali. Bolun. Ami Biplab</span></span><span class="style9"> </span><br />
<div class="style9">
(Am also Bengali, ya tell me, I am Biplab). </div>
<span class="style8"> <span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Tai vabchilam. Katodin halo Americai ?</span><span class="style3"> </span><br />
<div class="style3">
(I was thinking the same. For how long you are here in America?) </div>
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I have perfected this trail of conversation. He wanted to claim his superiority by virtue of his arrival date in America . Immigrant population of any ethnicity follows this hierarchy-first come first seniority basis status in the community. That’s why any senior person you would meet will kick off by reminding his seniority. A very linear story. </div>
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Cha bachar</span><span class="style3"> </span><br />
<div class="style3">
( Six years) </div>
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Bah. Amar kuri bachar haye gelo. Software ye naki? Ekhanei permanent thakcho</span><span class="style3">? (I am here for twenty years. Are you in software? Will you be staying here permanently? ) </span><br />
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Na software noi. Dwitio prashno tar uttar to jani na dada</span><span class="style3"> </span> <br />
<div class="style3">
(Not in software, but I don’t know the answer of the last question) </div>
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Family niye thaka hoi ?</span><span class="style3"> </span><br />
<div class="style3">
(Do you stay with family?) </div>
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Ha, kintu sobai pujote Kolkatai</span><span class="style3"> </span><br />
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(Yes, I do. But they are in Calcutta now. Puja time.) </div>
<span class="style3">- </span><span class="style4">Kolkatar</span><span class="style4"> pujo katodin dekhi ni</span><span class="style3"> </span><br />
<div class="style3">
(For how long I have not seen Pujas in Calcutta ) </div>
<span class="style3">Then he introduced me to his teenage daughters Tanisha and Rina. They greeted by saying </span><span class="style4">"Hi Uncle"</span><span class="style3">. Yes, anybody in America with an Indian accent is uncle to second generation Indians. We are uncle by association of accent-eternal guilt, perennial fate of being born in another land. </span> <br />
<img alt="" src="http://www.vinnomot.com/BiplabPal/img65.jpg" height="589" width="621" /><br />
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We exchanged a few trifles. Prafullada is a Shivpur BE college alumni, who settled here as an Engineer during ‘80s. We promised we would meet again. </div>
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But that didn’t happen. He handed over his phone number to me. Since he is a senior, I was supposed to call. My wife does not like to be in touch with senior Bengali families. She thinks their wives are worst than torturous and slightly better than mother-in-laws. True, Bengali wives of America , even in their fifties put up a heavy make up. Quite unusual by Bengali modesty standard. But hay we are in America . Gotta understand most of them are working women. In America , you must look younger. Either by make up or by exercise. Bengali diet is not too healthy. So veil of make-up is the only way out.. </div>
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-You go and meet with those old witches, I can’t. Their make-up, hoity-toity attitude towards new comers like me is simply unbearable! They pretend to be helpful but in reality that was a gesticulation for superiority. They like to advice on everything-starting from butts and boobs to what I am supposed to feed to my kids. You can’t even talk about any singer. They would rather boost how close she was to him! Bunch of morons. </div>
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I thought my wife is over reacting. Some of the Boudis are quite accommodating and helpful to new generation. It is always true, immigrants are so busy in managing their lives, earning a little more by working a little extra, they do not have time to groom themselves to the latest cultural fad and greatest literal output. This is true all across the board. Amidst the assiduous schedule, their cultural mind does stretch beyond a few movies. A weekend meet (Dawat for Bangaldeshi and Nemanttana for Bengalis of Indian origin) among the families serves as the only refreshing recreation in the absence of close friend circles. </div>
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What’s about the identity then? </div>
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What nonsense, I am talking about! Just think. I am into office, working as a middle class hardworking American. I am 100% American in the office including my lunch. I step out; drive back home and then I become a dad. Dad of an American. Given the cultural difference between these kids and the dads, it is not the same dad-son chemistry we have enjoyed in our teens. There was depth of criticality and appreciation which is obviously missing here. So I am a half dad and a half Bong. </div>
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What’s about my Bengali identity? </div>
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The hardest part. When I go out and meet new people in the job, I hear the phrase-Are you an Indian? Yes, sir. That’s about being an Indian. My colleagues are such a bosom friends and cohorts, my ethnic identity already desiccated into cosmopolitan American whirlwind. </div>
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And of course, I have a Bengali wife, few Bengali friends, a Bengali TV channel and once a year Durga Puja. Thanks to my wife, I still enjoy some of the ethnic Bengali dishes. And thanks to Internet, I am connected to my motherland. Yes BS from Ananda Bazar, I am relying on-what else to do. But that’s all about it </div>
<div class="style3">
Death of a Bengali inside the Babus is not as painful as the death of a feudal lord inside. Adjustment from feudalism to capitalism. In our homeland, most of us were somebody. We were made to feel somebody-either by virtue of good academic career or by the respect from commoners who can not afford two squares meal a day. What ever it is, we were identifiable somebody-either as a secretary of student organization or as a good student. </div>
<div class="style3">
In America , we, the Babus are nobody. Very few make it to the top management –because success as a manager needs cultural assimilation with its own accent. Mathematical skill is not much of a help to ride in the ladder. Bengali immigrants of post IT era are still better off-at least they are the proud Indians who have a Bangalore in their pocket. Old Bengalis of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s suffer from a chronic inferiority complex. Despite their talents, they never made it to the cream of the American Corporate except with a few notable exceptions. Blame it to discrimination, but one can clearly see its lasting effect on their lives. </div>
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After IT revolution, Indians made it to the top of the American society-as venture capitalists, managers, scientists and doctors. So young Babus like us have very little corpus to complain-no room to blame discrimination for our flop career. But for the senior Babus, it is still a big sore. Chronic discriminations they have faced in their days when Indians were not that of a recognized face, still make them depressed. At least when asked about my education, I can proudly say I am IITian. I don’t need any American stamp what so ever, to prove myself further. Surely that was not the case in the seventies and eighties. Hard works of our seniors established the Indian brand-name. Beyond doubts, we are the beneficiary of their hard work. </div>
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But then comes the worst part. In America , we can exist in a real or virtual ghetto in our cultural life. We were, somewhat, forced to. I don’t know of many first generation Bengalis or Indians, who would be comfortable with American night life. First, scary discrimination from the blonds in the night clubs. To those bimbos, our physique and look is slightly better than that of a monkey. An au fait revenge on the behalf of womanhood for au courant racist Babus who have very little appreciation for swarthy Bengali brides back home. Second, many do not like acid rocks. Immature death of eardrum smoothened by RabindraSangeet and chocolate melodies. </div>
<div class="style3">
I have a lot of good American friends but in general they are not very sociable outside office relation-specially in comparison to the Europeans. I have lived with American families twice as a paying guest. They do not socialize copiously even with other Americans in comparison to what we Bengalis like to do. In the matter of social skills, Americans in the mid-west are better off than those from the coast. Mid-westerners are better cultured than coastal people, specially the yahoos of west coast. Europeans are somewhat like Bengalis-they love adda as much as we like it. That’s why I have more European friends than Americans. </div>
<div class="style3">
But what ever it is-the fact remains the same. We need Bengali friend circles, Hilsa and a Durga puja to keep alive. Hilsa Vape is still substitutable by smoked Salmon. But Bengalis friends and Durga puja are indispensable. </div>
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Hence comes the reality. And a bitter truth. Every senior Babu wants to rein his control over Puja committee. Just to save himself from a losing identity of nobody. I saw the same among Bangladeshi community. In their case, identity crisis metamorphosed into a meaningless Awami League versus BNP tug of war in a foreign soil. Jahed Ahamed may not appreciate it. But I have full sympathy for those people who are struggling, fighting, throwing extravagant parties to be a leader in the community-striving to be somebody from the eternal hollow of nobody. </div>
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Allusive pursuit of existence in a meaningless ruckus. </div>
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Well, that’s what the life is all about! Isn’t it? </div>
<div class="style3">
Anaheim 10/26/06</div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-80807359703435905392015-03-15T18:35:00.001-07:002015-09-11T20:40:42.277-07:00Avijit Roy, as I knew him <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(1)<br />
It was perhaps fall of 2004. I relocated from New Jersey to California in a new job. I don't remember exactly how but I found a Yahoo group called Mukto-mona [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mukto-mona/info]. The group immediately pulled my attention and time. Keep it mind, in those days, Yahoo group was the most vibrant of all social media forums for debate and discussion. MM group was a great place for debating on topics like philosophy, religion, science and politics with like minded rationalists from South Asia.<br />
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This was our first personal exchange after a few months of debate in MM forums on myriad of topics like "whether religion is the true cause of misery in South Asia ", " Ethics and Darwinism", "Communism as Religion" , " Is Capitalism the end solution ? "<br />
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<li id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151248" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative;"><span class="base-lozenge from-loz" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151247" style="font-weight: 700; padding: 0px 2px 0px 0px;"><span class="lozenge-static hcard " data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="charbak_bd@yahoo.com" data-name="Avijit Roy" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151246" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease; background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent; border-radius: 2px !important; cursor: default; display: inline-block; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -4px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center; transition: all 0.1s ease; white-space: nowrap;"><a aria-haspopup="true" aria-label="From Avijit Roy" dir="" href="https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=3j5hh13oqbjdj#" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151245" role="button" style="background: transparent; color: #454545; cursor: default; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" tabindex="0" title-off="" title="charbak_bd@yahoo.com">Avijit Roy</a></span></span></li>
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<li aria-label="Fri, Dec 3, 2004 at 12:27 PM" class="msg-date" style="display: inline-block; float: right; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative; top: 2px;" title-off="" title="Fri, Dec 3, 2004 at 12:27 PM">Dec 3, 2004</li>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151261" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151260" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151259" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151258" style="color: blue;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151257" style="font-size: x-small;">Dear Biplab,</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151227" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151226" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151225" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151224" style="color: blue;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151223" style="font-size: x-small;">W<span class="yiv4746617678426414316-03122004" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151222">e would really appreciate your help to bring other scholarly people in Mukto-mona. If you like we can also send him an initiation to join. Please send us an exclusive article (and please ask your friend too) for our new web page. We are planning to keep only scholarly articles on Science, freethinking, rationalism, Human rights issues and other progressive material, in our new web page which will be updated monthly. We would like to build an archive on these topics which is very rare to find in South Asian web pages. You can write a series every month on a popular science topic if you like. Please see the initial design (which is still under construction now) of our new web page in this link</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151268" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151267" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151266" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151265" style="color: #003399; font-size: x-small;"><span class="yiv4746617678426414316-03122004" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151264"><a href="http://www.designdhaka.com/2-muktomona-new-web.htm" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151263" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.designdhaka.com/2-muktomona-new-web.htm</a></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151270" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151220" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151219" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151218" style="font-size: small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151217" style="font-family: Arial;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151216" style="color: blue;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151215" style="font-size: x-small;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151213" style="font-weight: 700;">Please do not donate to general Mukto-mona fund right now.</span> We are collecting money only for Shahriar Kabir Fund at this moment. I would suggest you to donate next year when we will collect our Yearly subscription from the core Mukto-mona group. <span class="yiv4746617678426414316-03122004">We will be glad to have some donation at that time according to your convenience, if you still feel passionate for MM. </span>We also have a MM Publication core group and hoping to publish our first book "Alo Hate Adharer Jatree' (in Bangla) during Ekushe mela in Feb 2005 in Bangladesh. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks for your support. We will be looking forward to your article. Please send it by Dec 20th for the first edition of our New Web page. Hoping to launch it on Jan 2005 if everything goes well.</span></span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151212" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regards</span></span></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151271" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Avijit</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On behalf of Mukto-Mona advisory board</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<b><i>Dr Biplab Pal <biplabpal2000 yahoo.com=""></biplabpal2000></i></b> wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="yiv4746617678replbq" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151121" style="border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; margin: 1em 1em 1em 5px; padding-left: 5px;">
<div>
Dear Avijit,</div>
<div>
Please don't call me a Dr..Call me by first name..</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151272">
</div>
<div>
I think you did a mervellous job by bringing all the people together. So,</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151273">
my sincere gratitude to you!</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151274">
</div>
<div>
I will definitely contribute an article in the new webpage. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151202">
Yesterday, I went to donate in your website. However, it was down because</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151201">
paypal was down. What is the typical amount of contribution that you need from</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151200">
an individual? Without funding nothing will survive.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151199">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151198">
-Biplab<br />
<br />
<b><i>Avijit Roy <charbak_bd yahoo.com=""></charbak_bd></i></b> wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="yiv4746617678replbq" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151120" style="border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; margin: 1em 1em 1em 5px; padding-left: 5px;">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151197" style="padding: 0px;">
Dear Dr. Pal:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151119" style="padding: 0px;">
I am enjoying your writings in MM. Please keep it up. Hope you are also enjoying debate/discussion in MM.</div>
<div style="padding: 0px;">
BTW, we have created an author page for you in our site. Please chek it out:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151276" style="padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/biplab_pal/index.htm" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151275" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/biplab_pal/index.htm</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151277" style="padding: 0px;">
We are planing to launch our new web-site in January. I will be obliged if we get a complete article from you. Article can be of any topic according to your choice. Better if you can send it before mid december or so.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151278" style="padding: 0px;">
regards.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425732785133_151279" style="padding: 0px;">
avijit</div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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It would be wrong, entirely mistaken to assume Mukto-mona was founded for Islam and religion bashing.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
In 2004 if you look at the appeals posted in MM website, it was full of humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh.</div>
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<br /></div>
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On our second exchange, he showed me how to get a new Bengali software called Borno-soft and type in Bengali.</div>
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Not only that. As soon as I finished my first Bengali write-up almost after 13 years, he quickly edited that</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
and posted in MM website.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="contents" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6507" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; height: auto;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<dd class="hdr-info" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6506" style="color: #777777; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="inline-items" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6505" role="presentation" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6504" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative;"><span class="base-lozenge from-loz" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6503" style="font-weight: 700; padding: 0px 2px 0px 0px;"><span class="lozenge-static hcard " data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="charbak_bd@yahoo.com" data-name="Avijit Roy" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6502" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease; background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent; border-radius: 2px !important; cursor: default; display: inline-block; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -4px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; text-align: center; transition: all 0.1s ease; white-space: nowrap;"><a aria-haspopup="true" aria-label="From Avijit Roy" dir="" href="https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=3j5hh13oqbjdj#" role="button" style="background: transparent; color: #454545; cursor: default; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" tabindex="0" title-off="" title="charbak_bd@yahoo.com">Avijit Roy</a></span></span></li>
<li aria-hidden="true" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative;"><b class="msg-hdr-srch" data-action="hdr-frm-srch" title-off="" title="Search for messages from this sender"></b></li>
<li aria-label="Mon, Dec 27, 2004 at 9:39 AM" class="msg-date" style="display: inline-block; float: right; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative; top: 2px;" title-off="" title="Mon, Dec 27, 2004 at 9:39 AM">Dec 27, 2004</li>
</ul>
</dd><br />
<div class="info expanded twolines" id="msg_details" style="overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 3px; position: relative;">
<dl class="details" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6519" role="presentation" style="display: table; margin: 0px; width: 1966.66662597656px;">
<dt aria-hidden="true" class="hdr-info" id="hdr-to" style="color: #777777; display: table-cell; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px;">To</dt>
<dd class="hdr-info" role="presentation" style="color: #777777; display: table-cell; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: top;"><ul aria-label="All recipients" class="inline-items" id="msg-header-to" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title-off="" title="All recipients">
<li class="hLozenge" style="color: black; display: inline-block; line-height: 21px; margin-left: -4px; margin-right: 1px; max-width: 380px; position: relative; white-space: nowrap;"><span aria-haspopup="true" aria-label="Dr Biplab Pal" class="lozenge-static hcard " data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="biplabpal2000@yahoo.com" data-name="Dr Biplab Pal" role="button" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease; background-color: transparent; border-color: transparent; border-radius: 2px !important; cursor: default; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 4px; text-align: center; transition: all 0.1s ease;" tabindex="0" title-off="" title="Dr Biplab Pal">me</span></li>
</ul>
</dd></dl>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="base-card-body" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6482" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 6px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div class="msg-body inner undoreset" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6436" role="presentation" style="background-color: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; display: table; padding: 0px 27px; width: 2020px;" tabindex="0">
<div class="email-wrapped" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6481" style="display: table-cell; width: auto; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div id="yiv6872356332">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6489">
Dear Biplab:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6490">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6491">
Your article is good. I did some minor corrections. I kept it temporarily at:</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6492">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6493">
<a href="http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/Articles/biplab_pal/golpo_laboratory.pdf" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6520" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/Articles/biplab_pal/golpo_laboratory.pdf</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6494">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6495">
We will publish it on January 1st. while we are planning to launch our new site.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6496">
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6497">
Regards,</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6498">
Avijit<br />
<br />
<b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6522"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6521">Dr Biplab Pal <biplabpal2000 yahoo.com=""></biplabpal2000></i></b> wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="yiv6872356332replbq" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425733821467_6480" style="border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; margin: 1em 1em 1em 5px; padding-left: 5px;">
Avijit,<br />
I wrote a Bengali article after 13 years! I am not<br />
sure, I could reach to the level of high standard of<br />
Bengali in Mukto-mona, but please let me know whether<br />
it reached any level at all!<br />
<br />
You can publish it in Mukto-mona or in your new<br />
website, if you think it has any standard about which<br />
I am not very confident.<br />
<br />
-Biplab<br />
<br /></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
There is no doubt in my mind, without him, I would not have been a writer.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
(2)</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
We had first close encounter for review of his first book "Alo hate chaliyache andharer jatri"- Journey from </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
darkness to light! He sent me the book from Dhaka so that I can write a review on that. I was a </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
passionate student of physics for five years and therefore, highly curious what he wrote on his book as it was </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
a brief history of modern physics. Being familiar with the content because of my background, it was also easy for me </div>
<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
to write a review on that<span style="background-color: inherit;">. Link to the review is here:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/biplab_pal/Review1_alo_hate.pdf</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">***********************************</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">And this was what Avijit wrote to me:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: inherit; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hi Biplab:</span><br />
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10114" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
Thanks for taking your time and writing a nice review of my book. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10115" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
This is one of the detailed review of my book so far. Despite the fact that I have minor disagreement, I thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts on various issues you cited. Indeed you spared a lot of your valuable time. Many thanks for this.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10116" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
I kept it in the following link :</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10072" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/biplab_pal/Review1_alo_hate.pdf" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10071" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/biplab_pal/Review1_alo_hate.pdf</a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10070" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
you might want to send it in other forums/newspapers where you are associated in.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10069" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
I will send a short response soon in MM.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10068" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
Best regards,</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
avijit"</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
*******************************************</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
****************</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
In those days, I was living in Anaheim. I was supposed to go to Kolkata via transit in Singapore. First time, </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
I tried to meet him on 8th Jan, 2005 when I was supposed to be in transit for eight hours in Singapore. Little I </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
knew that he was actually visiting Bonya in Atlanta! I came to know only when I told him I wanted to meet him in </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_10067" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; padding: 0px;">
Singapore. It turned out he is also returning on Singapore on same day and we checked there is no way I can </div>
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meet him. Later on several times, we missed each other closely. But I remember I called him in Bonya's residence</div>
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in Atlanta. We chatted for hours and I knew he is coming to US to marry Bonya as soon as possible.</div>
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So we decided to call it a day</div>
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<br /></div>
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***************</div>
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*****************************</div>
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Biplab,</div>
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</div>
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I am in USA now. Please give your phone number, I will call you...</div>
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</div>
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I am in Atlanta. here is my number: xxxxxxxxxx.</div>
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Quite strangely I am also returning to Singapore on the same day. my singpore number: (65)- 67750843</div>
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Regards,</div>
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avijit<br />
<b><i>Dr Biplab Pal <biplabpal2000 yahoo.com=""></biplabpal2000></i></b> wrote:</div>
<blockquote class="yiv0014540082replbq" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426044523250_19772" style="border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 1em 1em 1em 5px; padding-left: 5px;">
Avijit,<br />
On 7th January, on my way to Calcutta,<br />
I will be visiting Singapore for that day.<br />
<br />
What do you suggest I must see there?<br />
Also if you are not so busy, we could meet over<br />
tea/coffee if you wish!<br />
<br />
-Biplab</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
******************************<br />
(4)<br />
I started writing in Bengali in 2005. Initially with low pace and then it become my passion.<br />
I was working in a job where everyone would have been happy if I become less productive as thanks to corporate politics, being productive would have been counterproductive for my job security and position. I was expected to do pretty trivial work, not worth challenging my intellect or qualification. In fact, giving two hours a day in the job was more than what I needed!<br />
<br />
Rest of the time, I have utilized in MM platform. I had a strong passion for literature. But due to lack of proper association, never I got a chance before to cultivate it.<br />
<br />
Avijit and me both had a strong obsession with Tagore but with a different outlook. First time we seriously debated with each other is on "Feminism and Tagore". There was no doubt in personal life Tagore was parochially conservative. But I differed on his view that Tagore's write-up does not reflect feminist movement of his time. We exchanged several posts and sometimes with bit of personal attack but we always talked to understand each other.<br />
<br />
This is one of his post on Tagore rebutting my position on Tagore:<br />
https://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/avijit/biplab_rabindra_puja.pdf<br />
<br />
And then followed <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/22286198/%E0%A6%98%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A6">my rebuttal </a> available in the link.<br />
<br />
The discussion and debate turned nasty. So Bonya came into both of our rescue calling both of us in a conference call and dissolved the debate for time being. She has played referee times and again for our debates and we had a great faith on her neutrality.<br />
<br />
<br />
Matter of fact, year of 2005 has been the most productive for me on Mukto-mona Yahoo group and the website. I started reading mostly on Marx and his critics. And I discovered Sir Karl Popper, greatest known philosopher of science. Learning the basis of Poperian falsification changed much of my thinking.<br />
<br />
It is on that year, we got engaged in largest philosophical debate in MM platform- on scope of science in defining our philosophy. In general, academically, this is known as naturalism. Debate started with one of my article on <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/22240607/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9C-%E0%A6%9E%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%A8">"Bigganbad"</a> which is lose translation of naturalism. Link to the<br />
article:<br />
<br />
And debate is here:<br />
<br />
Most of the celebrated members of the forums participated. Avijit, Bonya and Jahed opposed my view. I had a long debate and discussion with Bonya on the forum. Jahed got nasty and wrote a piece linking me to my background in RKM for writing such a piece but later on he retracted understanding nowhere, I meant any theology at all.<br />
<br />
************<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">WRT: </span><a data-rapid_p="3" href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/28355" id="yui_3_15_0_1_1426469215343_904" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/28355</a><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Following science means, freeing your mind from any dogma, rationally. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">You have failed to do so in this posting and become dogmatic as a logical consequence as predicted by Popper. Which is actually the warning from Sir Popper. Let analyze who is becoming dogmatic based on same method of science. I am glad, you provided me with this opportunity.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV:"I dont think "voting" by common people can give any "scientific </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">criterion" in any subject whatever it is (1a). What is popular may not be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">true, and what is true may not be popular always (1b). Science does not </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">allow taking a stand just because it is politically correct or </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">popular to majority (1c)." </span><br />
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP: Let again analyze your view on this point. My point was:</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Because 70% people thought Aiswaria is the most beautiful woman, I can used this as a counter evidence against what we believe as purely subjective choice of beauty being guided by our chemistry. If we have 10 beauties to vote and 70% of large sample size voted for Aisharia , can be taken as a clear counter proof that our choice of beauty is not purely subjective unless you have different definition for subjectivity. Subjectivity is the word under hypothesis and the example served is an evidence against the hypothesis.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Besides if your (1a) is true, you have just made all the statisticians jobless! Do you know, testing of tea, smelling of perfumes, liking of advertisements, rating of the movies are all done on statistical liking? Remember, we are looking for statistical hypothesis testing based on a hypothesis. I suggest you take a course of hypothesis testing to understand what is scientific evidence and method. Your statement is a proof of your ignorance in statistical method. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And turn to (1b),"What is popular may not be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">true, and what is true may not be popular always (1b). "</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">I am surprised a logical person like you is bringing this point. Because the hypothesis was on 'popularity' in the beauty. The hypothesis is not about finding any other 'truth' other that subjectivity of beauty which is being tested trough the popularity of beauty. In this case 'popularity' is a direct "parametric measure' of truth and not the truth is an inductive one based on the popularity.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Now to your confusion of (1c):</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">"Science does not allow taking a stand just because it is politically correct or </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">popular to majority (1c)." </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">How is this related to our hypothesis of subjectivity? You made a completely uncorrelated statement. We are not taking stand. We are looking for evidence of failure which is the basic method that separates science from non-science. In this case 'popularity' itself is the parameter we are looking for and not that we are taking a popular or politically correct decision on popularity number. Please do not confuse popularity as a statistical measure versus, popular choice of popularity. Again, I suggest you to read measure theory in Mathematics.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"Science solely depend on scientific proof. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">There should not be any confusion on this."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP: What is scientific proof for the null hypothesis, i.e, some artistic views can be objectively perceived or viewed! I gave you (3) counter evidences-1. Algorithmic evolution of subjective prose 2. Study of cyber-pschycology 3. Popular choice of beauty of Aiswaria. which in a way to show that people does have a pattern in selecting beauty.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Explain to me why these can not be accepted as evidences for null hypothesis?</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">What are the scientific proofs for null hypothesis? Ofcouse it can be how human brain image or human brain radiation behaves while evaluating beauty and such research is being carried out!</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">As said before, you need to take a course on statistical hypothesis testing and experimental design to understand what is the definition of scientific proof. Problem is, now a days because of advanced software we always do research using software and tend to forget the basics. That's what happened to you in this case.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV" Love, fear, altruism, conscience (sense of right </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">and wrong), admiration for beauty - these are biologically rooted instincts."</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP>> How do you know it is only intrinsic? You mean to say love, fear has nothing to do with the society and upbringing? Why Muslims hate non-muslims and love their brotherhood? Biologically intrinsic? kidding me! Poor you!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Would you behave same as a postune (pathan) when you have to fire a AK47 against your enemy? This is not true and if true, in this case, after statisticians you have made all the practicing psychiatrists out of their jobs.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"Instincts are not controllable or influenced by "scienticsm"."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP>> If instincts would not have been controllable or influenced by our knowledge or acquired knowledge, we would have been raping all the beautiful women now and then! We do control our instincts based on learned ( cognitive) behavior). I am disappointed that you made this statement.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"Science does not decide to control or the tastes or </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">flavor of pupulation such as : favourite poet, favourite </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">acctress, "greatest Bangalee", "greatest beauty" ..etc (to be frank </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">these sort of listing greatest beings gives emotional hype, not </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">logical/scietific. :"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP: Though you have written a book on science and also wrote that science means its method and not the laws, it is clear, deep down in your mind, you also understand a set of a laws as science! Which is common among students of subcontinents, for the very reason, the way they are trained in science.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">The statement is the clear example. If science is a method to understand love, fair and rage in this case, how will you make a meaning out of the above? Clearly you are viewing a set of laws as science and then only above statement does bear a meaning. If science is a method, we can come out with answer</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">(1) The hypothesis is unscientific (2) It is scientific but rejected under testing (3) accepted under testing. We can have a lot of hypothesis on this, few of them will be unscientific, few will be accepted, few negated!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"Science doe not deal with those short listing </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">unless you dogmatically try to promote as a "ism", which I dont </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP>> Your statement is dogmatic because you are declaring 'rigidly' such things can not deal with such things ( though pretty much we do in behavioral science ). The statement is a dogma. Because, my statement " Science can deal with it' is viewed and analyzed as falsifiable hypothesis. Which means, I assume " Science can deal with such things wrong' and then look for counter evidence to find out whether it can!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"But of course science can certainly help explain the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BIOLOGICAL ORIGIN of love, affection, admiration for beauty, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">morality, altruuism and/or other human values and attributes. "</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP: Again if you are right, I am afraid so many psychiatrists are out of job at this moment! There is learned behavior added to it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">AV"Once again I repeat: To understand or to seek the biological roots </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">of love, or admiration of beauty is scientific, but to take decision </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">on some emotional criterion thru popular vote is purely unscientific."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">BP: Prove your statement by method of science, because unscientific is a well defined word. But I can prove your statement is unscientific.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">"to take decision </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">on some emotional criterion thru popular vote is purely unscientific"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Because of the word 'some', one will not find a counter evidence! Therefore the statement is unscientific.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Summery:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Method of science has been discovered to end dogma and if you oppose it, by rules, you will become dogmatic and irrational as happened in this posting. There is a beautiful writing by Sir Popper, Rational scrutiny of man. You will realize, if you do not follow prescribed method of science, you will produce more and more irrational and dogmatic statements as you did in this case.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">In any case, I suggest you to do some serious reading on Statistical methods, hypothesis testing and experimental design. Then you will realize power of null hypothesis to end dogma. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">But I am glad, you did so many mistakes. Otherwise I would not have get this chance to show, how a rationalist can slip into irrationalism if fails to follow the method of science!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f3f; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, san-serif, Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Anyhow, do not take it otherwise. If you would have taken some courses on Statistical measures,measure theory etc., I am sure you would not have posted this.</span><br />
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In fact, Avi wrote a complete rebuttal to my position on science and its efficacy. It can be found in </div>
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<b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53993"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53992" style="font-size: 18pt;">Bigganbad and Falsification: Few comments </span><a href="http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/avijit/index.htm" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Avijit Roy</span></a></b></div>
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WRT: <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/28370" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53969" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/28370</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Biplab, </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53966" style="font-family: Verdana;">I don’t want to take our debate to typical cyber “<i>Bangali Jhogra</i>” that is very much evident in all typical Bengali forums. Normally most of the cases, a thread starts with innocent disagreement but ultimately ends with personal attack. I thought ours will be different. But, unfortunately, after reading your last response I had to think whether it’s really worthy to continue the debate. I seriously do not want to take our discussion in a heated nasty clash as we both know each others’ position pretty well. Your last response shows perhaps you’ve become frustrated dealing with the issue over and over, hence to much irrelevant comment was made. For example: </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53921" style="font-family: Verdana;">a) Though you have written a book on science … it is clear, deep down in your mind, you also understand a set of a laws as science! Which is common among students of subcontinents,..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">b) I am surprised a logical person like you is bringing this point….</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53962" style="font-family: Verdana;">c) Why Muslims hate non-muslims and love their brotherhood? Biologically intrinsic? kidding me! Poor you!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">d) Your statement is a proof of your ignorance in statistical method. Etc..</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53959" style="font-family: Verdana;">This kind of <i>Ad Hominem</i> attack is a general category of fallacy because irrelevant attack against the character of person making the claim, his/her circumstances, or his/her actions cannot give any lift logically, in any debate. If you think making personal attack will lead you to winning situation, then I have nothing much to say. However, I will try one more time (may be this is the last time) to clarify my position. </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53955" style="font-family: Verdana;">I gave enough evidences in my previous write-ups that beauty is a relative thing. My idea of beauty may differ from another person’s concept of beauty. This does not mean that the concept of beauty changes at all, just my perspective of it is different. In a nutshell, relative truths (there is a scientific definition of this term; for ref. see <b><i>sokal’s book</i></b>) change with time and perspective. They are useful in experiencing the world around us, but are different for each individual. Some criterion like beauty, poetic artwork, literary values are sometimes impossible to define, and must be understood largely on the basis of personal experience, not by any strict scientific laws. It seems you do not want to agree, even though you are aware of the facts. You used “statistical methods” to calculate majority people’s taste and called the process scientific. I agree that you maintained a scientific process here. However, just following a scientific process in any matter does not necessarily lead to scientific reality. Astrologers also sometimes uses statistics or mathematics to calculate individual’s fate (I have seen some astrologers even uses computer to generate the result), but that undoubtedly does not make astrology scientific. Willium Dembski is also using lot of statistical theory for formulating thesis on ID (he even claims that his mathematics have replaced Darwinism), which also does not make it ‘scientific’ to the scientific community. Just Scientific Language or some statistics does not Make a topic Scientific (For details please check <em>How thinking goes wrong</em> by Michael Shermer). This is a danger that Sokal and Bricmont pointed in their “<b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53954"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_53953">Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science</i></b>” explaining why they feel that each is misusing specific scientific concepts without understanding their scientific meaning. Even if we want to use “statistics” here we should not debate anymore; as all of the members (at least 4 out of 5) responded to the thread disagreed with your view. So will you accept that your theory was wrong based on this statistical result?</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54001" style="font-family: Verdana;">You said, “Your statement is a proof of your ignorance in statistical method.” I am afraid it’s you who are not aware how scientific method works. Science is no politics, it’s rarely any matter how much vote one can obtain like a political leader in a competition. Also please think that if Aishwaria did not appear in world beauty contest (he could have made that decision) and did not come to the world of hindi movies, only few people would be aware of her “beauty”. Certainly she would not be in the top list in such popularity vote. However, not attaining a competition does not mean that the beauty of Aishwaria can be changed at all, only truth is people would not be aware of her “beauty”. You so called “scientific” analysis completely missed this point. And you are suggesting me to learn statistics! Same goes to your citation of “Algorithmic evolution of subjective prose” or kind of “poetic software” which cannot produce a Lalon, Tagore or Shakespeare (or Picasso in the world of art) . Artistic/poetic genius is more than your stated poor algorithm, and of course still in the area of subjective judgment. </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54003" style="font-family: Verdana;">Again, arguing with you it gave me impression that you are also not aware of the logical fallacies like – “<i>Argumentum ad numerum</i>” and “<i>Argumentum ad populum</i>” while you propose majority vote as a criterion in a scientific analysis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">You have some other important flaws in your analogy. Let me remind you from where the main conflict started. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">[1] You used a term “scientism” in one of your messages (message # 27919) and wrote a Bangla piece on “bigganbad”. However some members showed the definition (dogmatic form) of scientism and you shifted your position saying, you did not mean it rather you meant scientific methodology (which is already an established term, why we need Biggan baad then, is still beyond my understanding!).<i>Scientism</i> is a century old term which has already been rejected by many sociologists, economists and even the scientists again and again for it’s own self-annihilating view. And any ‘ism’, I clarified many times, represents just a specific doctrine, cannot be a representative of complete science. You are somehow overlooking the important aspect, Biplab. Let’s see who you fell in your own loop-hole while preaching ‘scientism’. You criticized Marxism for being dogmatic/unscientific for using it in political aspect (check your Marxism ki biggan?), however it is you who argued that you want to make use of science politically (scientism) to fight against Mullahs. How much different is this approach? Please check :This is what you wrote in “Bigganbad ekti purnango dorshon” : </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">“.. Birodhider kono rajnoitik Dorshon nei, Nana Munir nana Mot. Nanan Dol. Moulobadider biruddhe ebhabe ki lorai shombhob? …chai shoktishali dorshon. Ekmatro Bigganei pawa shombhob” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is purely self-contradictory. Again, you accused Marx and Lenin for not to be skeptical about their own theories or conclusions, however, I also find the same attitude in your writing too :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">[2] Your Bangla article started defining <i>scientism</i> by formulating hypothesis. However conclusions you drawn many times are oversimplified and self contradictory. For example, to formulate the root cause of Islamic terrorism you have pointed two mutually exclusive factors – Islam’s teaching vs US policy; this is a typical example of "black and white" / "false dichotomy" or bifurcation as it presents a situation as having only two alternatives, where in fact other alternatives exist or can exist (For example, socio-political reasons for raising of Islamism basically in ‘80s: example : decolonization such as Ba'athism, Arab Nationalism, vigor in the Iran-Iraq War, conflict against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Zia-ul-Haq’s exploitation Islamist sentiments, Khomeini’s revolution etc. ). Your “Bigganbaadi” conclusion (especially for mukto-mona) came from a wrong hypothesis, which I think, is inevitable if one follows the philosophy of scientism dogmatically. See, this is what you argued : </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">“Abar Keo Keo bolchen Koran ebong America ubhoyi shoman dayee” [Mukto-Mona] </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Mukto-Mona did not preach Koran and/or US – such silly bifurcation, let alone be it “equally” (another intentional mistake of yours) responsible. I wonder what let you take such silly conclusion. Scientism? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">[3] Your “Bigganbaadi” conclusion on divorce is also a classic example how Bigganbad can be promoted as a dogma. This is what you exactly argued : </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">“Shontan Dharoner por Divorce kono motei kammyo noy. Shontan na thakle oboshho ekta lok kota divorce korche tate kichu jay ashe na” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">See how desperate you are in preaching your own biased conclusion in the name of “Bigganbaad”. It can be argued that divorce is very closely associated with women’s liberation and women’s rights issue. All these centuries, religion and society did not let us fight against the oppression on women; they were forced to stay in a marriage because they had no other choice. It is really interesting and entertaining to see that you are also coming to the same conclusion with your ‘bigganbaad’. So, an abused woman has to stay in an abusive marriage only because of bigganbaad; at least your theory suggests so. If it’s not dogmatic, what it is! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In the same respect I wish to remind you how by implementing Darwin's theory of evolution in social context with a hidden agenda, some “scientists” tried to associate in the public mind with racism, imperialism, eugenics etc. Hope your enthusiasm for scientism would not be of this kind. </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54007" style="font-family: Verdana;">[4] In general I agree the method of falsifiability in the case of strict scientific (experimental) research at least; however we must also know even in those scientific realm many “real” physicists, including Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg (in case of string theory he rejected Popper) and Alan Sokal, have criticized falsifiability on the grounds that it does not accurately describe the way science really works. For e.g, Sokal writes, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> "When a theory successfully withstands an attempt at falsification, a scientist will, quite naturally, consider the theory to be partially confirmed and will accord it a greater likelihood or a higher subjective probability. ... But Popper will have none of this: throughout his life he was a stubborn opponent of any idea of 'confirmation' of a theory, or even of its 'probability'. ... [but] the history of science teaches us that scientific theories come to be accepted above all because of their successes." [Ref : <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability</a> ] </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Let me give some precise examples to show the limitation of falsifiability: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">a) Astrology is an example which most rational people would agree is not science. However, if we follow Popper’s theory, it has to be a part of science, cause, astrology constantly makes falsifiable predictions -- a new set is printed every day in the newspapers -- yet only few dogmatics would argue this makes it scientific. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">b) The proposition that the patient is homosexual is not falsifiable as according to Popper’s theory, there is no way the patient could convincingly demonstrate his heterosexuality to the analyst ( check<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_circle" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_circle</a> for details). This eventfully can lead to another dangerous proposition; some may argue supporting homosexuality right is not scientific (your “scientism” would surely lead to this conclusion). Now check your very simplified conclusion on divorce etc, you will get your answer where you were wrong. I do not consider that your wrong conclusion is just a lack of hypothesis, rather inevitable loop of holes for following “scientism” dogmatically. </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54012" style="font-family: Verdana;">c) Another good example can be cited from laws of physics: remember - Isaac Newton's laws of motion in their original form were falsified by experiments in the twentieth century (eg, the anomaly of the motion of Mercury, the behavior of light passing sufficiently close to a star, the behavior of particle being accelerated in a cyclotron, etc), and replaced by a theory which predicted those phenomena, General Relativity, though Newton's account of motion is still a good enough approximation for most human needs. It’s not still “entirely” rejected. Now I give exactly opposite examples in the following passages: </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54015" style="font-family: Verdana;">Consider “Super String” theory where string is considered as one dimensional object which is yet to be verified experimentally. Many scientists think it’s really impossible to experimentally verify this theory, even though they accept the theory as scientific. But, it is not a falsifiable theory in the sense of Popper. Now please let me know your opinion - whether it’s really a scientific theory (Please do not argue that String models have mathematical formulations etc. Astrology or Ptolemy’s geocentric models also had mathematical formulations). </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54017" style="font-family: Verdana;">Another good example in physics is <i>Higgs field</i>, which has not experimentally verified (Check the book <b><i>The Fabric of Cosmos</i></b> by Brian Green, pp 269) in a sense that observations do not prove that Higgs field exist. It’s kind a like (but not exactly) a concept of Eather. Obviously, these concepts are not falsifiable in the strict sense of Popper, but still considered as scientific to almost all physicists. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">d) Thomas Kuhn’s influential book <b><i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i></b> argued that scientists work in a series of paradigms, and found little evidence of scientists actually following a falsificationist methodology. His argument was totally opposite of what popper’s theory. Personally I think scientific research proceeds accepting delicate balance of both Khun and Popper. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Perhaps you know that Popper's student Imre Lakatos (later an influential philosopher) attempted to reconcile Kuhn’s work with falsificationism by arguing that science progresses by the falsification of research programs rather than the more specific universal statements of naïve falsificationism (this is where I argue). Another of Popper’s students Paul Feyerabend (another influential philosopher) ultimately rejected any prescriptive methodology, and argued that the only universal method characterizing scientific progress was anything goes. </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54020" style="font-family: Verdana;">e) Popper himself argued that Marxism was not science. Again, this does not mean, that any of these types of theories are necessarily invalid or unacceptable (just as gay rights/divorce rights etc.) in the society. Popper considered falsifiability a test of whether theories are scientific, not of whether theories are valid. Many sociologist today argue that social theory does not needed to be falsifiable always (I am not arguing for Marxism here, just giving a thought whether falsifiability can be taken seriously as a sole criterion for social/political/cultural acceptance). </span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1426467530927_54024" style="font-family: Verdana;">f) Many argues that falsificationism in its various forms is an interesting idea but insufficient either to characterize science or solve the demarcation problem. It suffers from a series of logical and philosophical difficulties that should perhaps give us pause if hoping to find a single answer to what makes good science and what does not. Please check : <a href="http://www.galilean-library.org/falsificationism.html" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.galilean-library.org/falsificationism.html</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /> Again Biplab, my intention is not to make you frustrated and put you in an attacking or defensive mode. I thought we can both learn and grow from our friendly interchange. If you keep on attacking me on silly issue without understanding my points, then please consider this as my last response in this thread.</span></div>
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<i>Avijit Roy writes from Singapore. e-mail: <a href="mailto:charbak_bd@yahoo.com" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank" ymailto="mailto:charbak_bd@yahoo.com">charbak_bd@yahoo.com</a></i></div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-21917461378736911822014-08-03T21:48:00.001-07:002014-08-03T21:48:42.371-07:00Israel -Gaza conflict : Which side you are supporting ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Israel -Gaza conflict : Which side you are supporting ?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">-Biplab Pal, 3rd August </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The most complex philosophical problem I have ever faced is this one! On one side, plight of people of Palestine is undeniable and on the other side, Israel has right to defend their own citizen. How can you take side except you may wish they should converge into table of negotiation ?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I tried to understand the logi</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">c of my friends from Israel on the issue of plight of the Palestinians. Some are sympathetic-most of them are not. They think people of Gaza deserve this treatment because they elected Hamas as their leader! They should have known whom they are voting for!! Upon digging a little deeper, I found it is easy to speak that way. People of Gaza voted for Hamas because they were fed-up with corruption in the rank and file of Fatah. Drug was killing the society. Hamas brought some sense of order needed in Gaza. People outweighed their evil ideology against practical utility. Can that be enough reason for punishment ?<br /><br />On the other side- I tried to understand why Israel will be stripped of their right to defend. Or is Israel response disproportionate ?<br /><br />I have my own ambivalence on this issue. Firstly, when you clean weeds, you clean it totally. Half done weed cleaning is of no use. In that respect, I see no reason why Israel will show any leniency in terrorist cleaning operation.<br /><br />But there is other side of the story. Sun Tzu in art of war suggested no war is won by brute force. A true win happens without killing in battlefield. Frankly, I have failed to see any such strategy from Israel that solves this issue. Let's say Hamas is cleaned. So what? You have 80% population in Gaza unemployed! They are receiving donations, but it will be of no use till they have a way to do commerce.<br />Perhaps IT and BPO can be a solution to Gaza. Israel must be actively involved in creating a sustainable economy in Gaza without endangering its security. Disarm them. No issue. But plan to give them jobs. Israel must show at least this much of compassion to the people of Palestine so that they can get some employment. They should get respectable living.<br /><br />Israel can't afford to have a state on their border where humanity is humiliated and unemployment is a triggering ground for breeding terrorism.<br /><br />As an Indian American, my practical choice is simple. In both the countries, we have suffered at the hand of Islamic terrorism and Muslim radicals. So at no point of time, I can support Hamas which promotes radical ideology of Islam which is nothing but cancer of the civilization. But at the same time, I can not ignore what triggers such radicalism. It is easy to say, all blame to Islamic ideology but in true scientific spirit, religion is a product of social evolution. Theologically, Islam is no more or no less evil that other religions. Geopolitical situation, lack of democracy in Middle East is spreading religious radicalism. Hardworking workforce can't afford to be radical-survival makes them practical.<br /><br />In my view, Israel must have to think for a long term solution. They have to think how these people can be involved in jobs, employment so that they can damn the radical ideology. Without jobs and hopes, Palestine youth will have only one option-fight against Israel.<br /><br />Did you see Tibet rebel against Chinese occupation? They didn't simply because China created opportunity for them-for their work. So who in Tibet except for their exiled community in India bothers for the Tibetian freedom instead of jobs provided by Chinese economy ?<br /><br />Likewise, I believe solution to this conflict lies in making Gaza a protectorate state of Israel at least for a decade where people of Gaza be given factories and business for their living from the state of Israel. They should live a dignified living, learn skills and be focused on their economy under Israeli occupation because under their own leadership this is not possible. However, this occupation should be for a limited time and when economy will improve, Israel can phase out their occupation of Gaza. At the end, people of Palestine deserve their own state and leaders-but perhaps, not under the present condition.<br /><br />I know Arab and leftist world will make a lot of hue and cry-but who cares for tears of Dalai Lama when Tibetian people are better fed and financially more secured under China? Likewise, once living condition of people of Gaza will be improved, they will not call for desperate measure of throwing rocket.<br /><br />Israel has nothing to worry. All the world powers are behind them. Arab states are also largely behind them because they are autocratic and need easy arm from Israel to be in power. So why should Israel bother if they occupy Gaza for a limited time and provide jobs/employment for the people of Palestine?</span></div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-54579574289398338822014-07-18T15:06:00.001-07:002014-07-18T15:08:11.657-07:00On the question of justification of a Jewish state <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Over the last few days, I read the history of formation of Israel and Jews in general with a great interest. There is no doubt in my mind that Jews needed a state of their own after 2400 years of continued persecution in the hand of European rulers. It is only in 19th century Jews were admitted as equal citizen in the laws of England and France. Holocaust may be the final straw, but expulsion of Jews forms the most common pattern in history everywhere and in every time with exception to Jews in India! Therefore, a Jews state was badly needed but question is definitely-was the land of Palestine a right choice? Historically or by religious text, it may be-but practically, to accommodate 5-6M jews, present land of Israel was neither suitable nor politically viable given the presence of a large native population. I am not bringing the issue of justification here because if Jews state in Israel is not justified on the ground of displacement of native, then none of the countries in North and South America is justified as all of the states have been formed by replacing the native population. Therefore displacement of local population does not form a sustainable logic but it is definitely a major humanitarian concern which if ignored, can be inflamed only.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> What a few handful Jews did in 1948 to establish a Jews state is the greatest story of dedication, sacrifice and unparalleled valor in human history. I followed that history almost day by day from 1947 to 1949, and what can be found very easily-during that time whole Jews population of Israel would have been killed by local and invading Arab army. Therefore, Jews had no choice but to form Israel. From the riots of 1930s, it was clear not a single Palestine leadership wanted a Palestine state where Jews and Arab could live peacefully. So when Palestine leadership wanted to fight it out instead of peaceful negotiation, why are they crying after losing the war after war? If they would have won the war, would they have left any single Jew alive? Palestine wanted to solve it out through war and they got what they deserve. Before 1st and 2nd Israel-Arab war they were asking for total annihilation of Israel and it is only after defeat, Israel become oppressor ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> Instead of war, if people of Palestine wanted peaceful negotiation, they would not be in a position where they are today. Israel can not and would not have done any aggression against a non-violent population. Arab tribes in Israel are doing far better than any Arab in Middle East. Are they deprived in Israel of education, food, their religion etc? Were they afraid of Irgun in 1947-48? But truth is Haganah and world Jews population never approved them ( directly opposed them) and a settlement of a future state was always possible under British rule as India was divided into Hindu and Muslim population areas, It was the people of Palestine who wanted war from day one and they got it. They made it complicated by not accepting British attempt of secular state of Palestine or two states where both communities could have lived in peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I personally salute those 600,000 Jews who defended their land and homes in 1948 against British and Arabs. In contrast, most of the Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan could not resist rioting Muslim mob. Same is true for Indian Muslims who face rioting Hindu mobs in UP and Bihar. 1947 partition was a great tragedy and again British was completely responsible for it as they are responsible for Israel-Palestine mess as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I do not think world will have any religion in another 100 years and I strongly believe even the basic concept of state will be almost meaningless in another 50 years or so given the emergence of stateless economy and communication. Therefore fighting for political determination of a new state is already a meaningless activity. If future is what should be guide and not the past, people of Palestine should be allowed to be become Israeli citizen with equal right or form their own state and focus on their economic development by accepting Israel as their peaceful neighbor and a partner in their economic growth. Future of mankind does not have any space for the concept of enemy states. There will be only a global economy where everyone of us will participate.</span></div>
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-81467060862673371082013-04-06T13:47:00.002-07:002013-04-06T13:47:54.093-07:00Arrest of the "atheist bloggers" of Bangladesh- A country sinking further into Islamic fundamentalism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I can't recollect how I lost my faith in God but as far as I recall, I never had one since my parent didn't force me to think of God and fairly tale of religion. They forced me to study hard so that I could survive well for my future.<br />
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But I am watching my son growing up without faith. I never told him about non-existence of God. Rather we live in a catholic neighborhood infested with God loving neighbors and he does go to temple twice a month for Indian culture class. He never read any atheist literature. He is only seven- too young to understand atheism! But for last two years, he is telling me, he is quite sure of God as a make-belief story because God is more akin to Spider man and Superman. Indeed, one day he told me why so many people believe in God when God does not exist!! It was difficult for me to explain him the evolution of God with human civilization and history. Therefore I told him to recollect how many of his friends believe in spider man ? He agreed it must be a large number and he understood myth does play a strong role on human mind. I am quite confirmed, all children are born atheist but society and their parent force them to be theist. Fear of God is cultivated in young mind by their family. You do not force them or teach them to be afraid of God, and all children by default will be atheist. You do not need to teach them to be atheist. They will be so by their own rational, common sense and realization. Atheism, therefore is the most natural unperturbed state of human faith. Theism on the other hand is a cultivated state of human mind which is forced upon by the family, politics and society.<br />
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Lack of belief can make you an outcast in the theist society.My son too is facing problem in the neighborhood. Neighborhood kids are from devout catholic families. His loss of faith in God already made him slightly isolated and being subject to ridicule by his friends. But he learned to ignore. As such, I never faced issues with my atheism as Indian philosophy has place for all kinds of people. Indeed all the major philosophical branches of Indian philosophy are atheist in nature. Indian philosophy has the foundation where atheists and theists can live in peace and harmony. Besides, most of the scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs with whom I work, are atheists. Atheists are majority among accomplished citizens of US. Therefore, it is difficult for me to realize and understand state repression faced by the atheists in a Muslim country where they are viewed as an alien.<br />
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Monotheist religions like Jews, Christians and Islams leave no space for atheism. Atheists were not treated kindly in their holy text and in the due course of their religious history. Therefore in an Islamic country like Bangaldesh, proclaiming to be an atheist can be dangerous. You can be jailed or imprisoned for losing faith in God! <br />
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Yes, you heard it right. In Islamic country you can rape women, kill men of other religion in the name of Allah and instead of being punished, you will be patronized just because you claimed yourself to be a fighter or Jihadi of your religion. This is the continued story of Bangladesh and Pakistan. Your religion and faith brings your supreme justification in the society. It does not matter whether you are an accomplished doctor or engineer or a writer. If you do not comply as a good Muslim-- in the most of the Islamic countries, you can be discriminated, bullied and worse, can be languished in prisons like atheist bloggers of Bangladesh.<br />
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Yes, civil societies in the most of the Muslim countries didn't progress at all-they have equivocally given in fearing criminal persecution and death. Questioning existence of God can be seen as blasphemy and therefore in Pakistan you can be stoned to death as punishment of blasphemy. In Bangladesh, which was a more moderate and tolerant country, blasphemy law is not well defined but now an union of Islamic groups is demanding death for blasphemy as mandated by Sharia law of Islam!<br />
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So what is the reality in an Islamic country like Bangladesh? A quick review may make you laugh but even that can be construed as "hurting religious feeling"<br />
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- Most of the Muslim criminals, rapist, thieves in the world are named Muhammad. Because Muslims love to name their son after their prophet. This does not denigrate or insult their prophet. But if a cartoonist draws a cat naming Muhammad he will be in Jail!!<br />
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- All business and politics must have their allegiance and loyalty to Islam. Recently there was a Bank called "Bismillah Bank" ( Bank of Allah) in Bangladesh which looted nearly $120M of poor people. This is not blasphemy in Bangladesh. This is not insult to their God!<br />
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- Bangladesh and Pakistan constantly ranked topmost position in corruption. Islam as a religion strictly opposes corruption and dishonesty. The religion of Islam also advises to live like a poor to remain less greedy and honest. These are good and valuable teaching of Islam to mankind. But "Islamism" or adherent of Islamic thoughts have been used by all the political parties of Bangladesh to loot the country and its people further. Islam didn't reduce their greed of great loot.<br />
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Then what purpose did Islam serve to the people of Bangaldesh when none of them accepted the core message of Islam and almost everyone of them is using Islam for meeting their political and material greed? These bloggers of Bangladesh, specially Asif was raising this question. It was clearly uncomfortable for the ruling class of Bangladesh and therefore, they dumped him in prison!<br />
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Islam or any religion is a political decoy for the ruling class. Although all religions, including Islam was born as a revolution against existing corrupt ruling class, in the end, it is now a tool for the ruling class to deprive the common people of their political and material right. Bloggers of Bangladesh started raising these uncomfortable questions for their ruling class. Therefore, ruling class replied with their police power by cracking down on them.<br />
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Yes, that is the real situation in Bangladesh. You can open a Bank like " BisMillah Bank " ( Bank of Allah) and perhaps a Bismillah brand POT-Nobody will mind. As long as you add word like Bismillah, ummah you are in good book even if you continue to be corrupt. But questioning this corruption in the name of Allha is blasphemy in Bangladesh and be aware, Govt wants to see you in prison!<br />
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It is impossible for any country to make progress without freedom of speech and religion. Only a critical society makes progress. Other society can be a corrupt follower at best in absence of freedom.<br />
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Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-83042009473971739502012-09-09T13:24:00.000-07:002012-09-11T15:23:07.334-07:00"Raising a father"- Incredible biographical novel of Arjun Sen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My son handed me the book once it arrived via UPS. He chuckled "Dad, are you reading this?" - I guess for the lack of a better narrative, he wanted to drop me a message - Are you the same dad who is reading this book?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78L_QYCZP2LjQQEb_XgFKA3iCA0slDMNhQkgauYqCG6KQw2fk4sde_loffNT4Q6YbAboKMu41bTmxtARo51lds0Ir3b4aViv7i-ZwTPW1PCZSyz-_8feU5Yd38JsGFPMArb3V16wC/s1600/Arjun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj78L_QYCZP2LjQQEb_XgFKA3iCA0slDMNhQkgauYqCG6KQw2fk4sde_loffNT4Q6YbAboKMu41bTmxtARo51lds0Ir3b4aViv7i-ZwTPW1PCZSyz-_8feU5Yd38JsGFPMArb3V16wC/s1600/Arjun.jpg" /></a></div>
Implication is simple. For last couple of months, I have failed to take him to swimming and soccer regularly and he is also missing his bed time stories with me which used to span across all the amazing development in the scientific world. I have given him an excuse- a professional one. I was too busy or showed him hope, I would take him to swimming next day. Finally my son came to realization, dad does not have much time for him.<br />
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When I started reading the book- <a href="http://raisingafather.com/buy.html">Raising a father</a>, I realized, author Arjun Sen started his journey from where I am today. But he asked himself the fundamental question-what is the definition of success? What does that success mean if achieved at the sacrifice of time with our kids? How much is that worth?<br />
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So Arjun started his journey with a new realization of success and the story unfolds more interesting and thrilling twists than any novel. He and his daughter Raka chartered a territory of surrealist dreamland in their own company "Zen Mango" and there begins a journey more thrilling and enticing than magic realism. It's the narrative of a father as seen by his daughter and the way the little girl transformed her dad's life and realization upside down.<br />
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There can not be and should not be a life without purpose and realization. Arjun's book will kindle the hope and realization among millions of dads like me who are otherwise forced to believe the rules of competitive survival are more real than our own sweet time with our kids.<br />
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Every corporate dad should read this book at least to realize how they are missing a life which can offer a lot more rewarding treasure hunt. The book is available in Amazon/Kindle and in almost all the online book stores ( <a href="http://raisingafather.com/buy.html">Click on this link to get all the buying URL</a> ) .</div>
Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-1031455293437424572011-06-04T20:14:00.000-07:002011-06-04T20:16:56.663-07:00Police action against Baba Ramdev's supporters is a national shame for a democratic nation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaH0wtFV6s0tt7hyphenhypheniMCuuTTxsCvihHUtrpFvFgc3fT8L4KtzLvsAAEzQzMDHbqb1ZxwHUd0iprGjE8fZMVrlvLhWz3Ni0bllB98D1Vpcf_4wYHfieaVEPMpixoc3YKur7JSPcKdpiq/s1600/Baba-action.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaH0wtFV6s0tt7hyphenhypheniMCuuTTxsCvihHUtrpFvFgc3fT8L4KtzLvsAAEzQzMDHbqb1ZxwHUd0iprGjE8fZMVrlvLhWz3Ni0bllB98D1Vpcf_4wYHfieaVEPMpixoc3YKur7JSPcKdpiq/s400/Baba-action.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614569405909376978" /></a><br />I am not a big fan of Baba-but that does not mean, I do not support Baba's movement against corruption. One can smell political motivation, a stooge campaign but having said and heard all, any attempt to curb corruption must be supported irrespective of political colors.<br /> <br /> What Delhi police did in Ramalila Moidan in the middle of the night, would have even ashamed the British Police during Raj. Ramadev and his supporters were excercising their democratic right in non-violent manner. Satyagraha is the most proud invention of Indian democracy. Civil liberty activists all over the world look to India for its unique non-violent protest movement of Satyagraha.<br /> <br /> But Mr Prime Minister sent a wrong signal to the people of India who want to end corruption in India which is ranked as the 5th most corrupt nation in the world. Even if Raja or Kanamajhi is in Jail, there are thousands of corrupt Rajas roaming free and stashing their wealth in Swiss Bank which otherwise would have been used as investment in India. We understand there are a lot of leaders of India who would be in trouble if Swiss accounts are exposed, but so what? Indians do not have much respect for political leaders or IAS officers who are the helm of corruption and they want them to bring to justice. <br /> <br /> And that justice must be served by action and not by verbal promise. Releasing lethal police force is no solution for a rising mass who want justice against corrupt leaders.Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-70616896685086099022010-12-26T03:38:00.000-08:002010-12-26T04:48:25.475-08:00Verdict on Dr Binayak Sen : An insult to Indian democracy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEf38yK-plWJUeJR2xWqz8aWdMXQpGRnERTWXb7mavtiqJSS_vdCMTlYWdvo60YRrkzjk-HrQO9tY-KoMIb_ItAZH6EG2MFYqkk-DrwG4BTr3rsiroqoXDVHMIhVwgxa3KjPUm_uSs/s1600/binayaksen_315995e.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 277px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEf38yK-plWJUeJR2xWqz8aWdMXQpGRnERTWXb7mavtiqJSS_vdCMTlYWdvo60YRrkzjk-HrQO9tY-KoMIb_ItAZH6EG2MFYqkk-DrwG4BTr3rsiroqoXDVHMIhVwgxa3KjPUm_uSs/s320/binayaksen_315995e.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554963700832931186" border="0" /></a><br />I didn't feel like writing this blog. But today when I see Twitter and Facebook are overflowing with zealot BJP supporters who are cheering at the life imprisonment of Dr Binayak Sen, I am left with no choice but to expose these groups of BJP netizens most of whom are half literate and a potential danger to Indian democracy.<div><br /></div><div> First, take a look at most of the Twitter feeds on Dr Binayak Sen-it seems BJP netizens are convinced</div><div><br /></div><div> 1. He is a communist</div><div> 2. He acted against the state</div><div> 3. Therefore justice is served</div><div><br /></div><div>Wonderful. They even didn't bother to look at his biography, what is his life and philosophy etc. I don't expect that level of literacy from either left or right wing supporters but a simple googling skill would have told them he led a Gandhian life throughout his career. He professed nonviolence mode of resistance and led a life true to the spirit of Gandhi. A gold medalist from Velore CMC sacrificed his whole life to champion the cause of the tribal. He</div><div>won several awards and highest level of International recognition to take health care to the poor. He set an example and inspired many other doctors to work among the poors.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you read or watch interviews by him, there can not be any doubt about the true Gandhian values he is practicing and professing. Even all the people close to him, testified his conviction to Gandhism and not to Maoisism.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Now comes to 2nd point. Did he act against the state? Here is the charge sheet by the court</div><div><a href="http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne230208listofcharges.asp">http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne230208listofcharges.asp</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Tell me in your sane mind, can anybody be convinced that any of the evidence presented here is enough to prove his guilt? His sedition? It is laughable -a mockery of Indian justice system as India's ex-attorney general had mildly put it.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div></div><div>I am worried about this fanatic growth of false sense of nationalism.</div><div><br /></div><div> What is a nation my dear friends? Does it consist of poor tribal of India or numerous corporates who want to destroy forest to set up mines in Chhattisgarh? </div><div><br /></div><div>After this verdict, can anybody will have any doubt who are behind this mockery of Judicial system? It is clearly vested interest groups who want to cleanse the tribal from the forest for mining.</div><div><br /></div><div>So which India you people are talking about? As Swami Vivekananda once wrote-India lives in the villages, India lives among these people who are oppressed and exploited. There is no India without them. A nation is not an abstract concept. </div><div><br /></div><div> Dr Binayak Sen is a true nationalist because he serves India and not these netizens of BJP whose illiteracy is serving corporate interest in Chhattisgarh.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indian left and right wing supporters must learn, humanity is above the idealism. I was equally appalled by left wing supporters who supported Chinease action against Liu Xiaobo. Basically left and right wing politics are two sides of the same coin-which is illiteracy and insensitiveness for human cause.</div>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-77552326343921557382010-11-26T22:27:00.000-08:002010-11-26T23:46:53.446-08:00সিদিকুল্লার সাথে সেকুলার জ়োট!একটি খবর বাজারে ভাসছে-সইফুদ্দিন চৌধুরী, সিদিকুল্লা চৌধুরী এবং মানস ভুঁইয়া মিলে নাকি বাংলায় একটি ধর্ম নিরেপেক্ষ জোট তৈরী করছেন। জামাত উলেমা ই হিন্দের এক নেতা ( প্রাত্তন না বর্তমান, তা জানা মুশকিল) কে নিয়ে, যিনি সারা জীবন আইডেন্টিটি পলিটিক্সের বেশী কিছু করেন নি, তার সাথে ধর্ম নিরেপেক্ষ জোট হচ্ছে শুনে আপনি ও হাঁসছেন-আমিও হাঁসছি।<br /><br /> জামাত উলেমা ই হিন্দ ভারত ভাগের বিপক্ষে ছিল এবং এরা তত্ত্বগত ভাবে "ধর্ম নিরেপেক্ষ" ভারতকে মানে। এই পর্যন্ত শুনলে মনে হয় ঠিকই আছে-কিন্ত জামাত উলেমা হিন্দের শেষ দশ বছরের ইতিহাস ঘাঁটলে খুব পরিষ্কার ভাবে প্রতিভাত হয় এরা ইসলামিক মৌলবাদের আরেকটা কুৎসিত মুখ ছারা কিছুই না। জামাত উলেমা হিন্দের শেষ কয়েক বছরের কার্যকলাপের নমুনা<br /><br /><ul><li> তসলিমার বিরুদ্ধে কোলকাতায় সংগঠিত ইসলামিক মৌলবাদি আন্দোলনের পুরোভাগে এরা ছিলেন<br /></li><li> মেয়েদের ৩৩% রিজার্ভেশনের বিরুদ্ধে-এরাও অগ্রভাগে আছেন। কারন মেয়েদের বাইরে কাজ করা বা রাজনীতি করা এরা পছন্দ করেন না। অল ইন্ডিয়া প্রগ্রেসিভ উইমেন এসোসিয়েশনের সেক্রেটারী তাহিরা হাসান খুব কড়া ভাষায় জামাত উলেমা হিন্দের নিন্দা করে এই সংগঠনটি যে মহিলাদের অধিকারের বিরুদ্ধে কাজ করে, তা পরিস্কার করেছেন। সুত্র ঃ http://www.sacw.net/article1238.html</li><li> ২০০৬ সালে বন্দে মাতরম মুসলিমদের জন্যে হারাম করার আন্দোলনেও এরা পুরোভাগে ছিলেন। সূত্রঃ http://www.india-server.com/news/jamiat-e-ulema-e-hind-supports-decree-15213.html</li></ul> কংগ্রেস স্বঘোষিত ভোটবাদি সংগঠন-ভোট ইঞ্জিনিয়ারিং যাদের একমাত্র কাজ। তাছারা পশ্চিম বঙ্গের মুসলিম বেল্ট ছারা তাদের কোন ভোট ব্যাঙ্ক নেই। সুতরাং মানস ভুঁইয়ার এই কাজে কেও আশ্চর্য হন নি।<br /><br /> তবে সইফুদ্দিন চৌধুরী কিভাবে এই সিদ্ধান্ত নিলেন-সেটা খুব রহস্যজনক। আমার কাছে বোধগম্য না। জামাত ই উলেমা হিন্দ এবং সিদিকুল্লা ইসলামি মৌলবাদি কাজকর্মের একদম পুরোভাগে আছেন-সেটাত জলের মতন পরিস্কার। পিডিএস একটা ছোট পার্টি-একমাত্র কিছুটা আদর্শবাদের ওপর জোর করেই এরা এগোতে পারত। কিন্ত এই ভাবে কিছু ভয়ংকর মৌলবাদিদের সাথে জোট বেঁধে এবং সেটাকে গালভরা "সেকুলার" আখ্যা দিয়ে লোক হাঁসানোর কি মানে হয়? উনাদের কি ধারনা পশ্চিম বঙ্গে বিজেপি ভোট পায় না বলে বাংলার লোক নির্বোধ?<br /><br /> একটা জিনিস সইফুদ্দিন চৌধুরী এবং মানস ভুইয়া খুব বড় ভুল করছেন। পশ্চিম বঙ্গে বিজেপির অস্তিত্ত্ব নেই কারন এখানে সিপিএম এবং সিপিএম-বিরোধি রাজনীতি ছারা কিছু হয় না। ফলে বিজেপি বা পিডিএস কেও কিছু করতে পারে নি। ২০১১ সালের পর সিপিএম ভেঙে পড়বে। তারপর থেকে পশ্চিম বঙ্গের রাজনীতিতে অনেক পোলের সৃষ্টি হবে। সেখানে যদি একটি তৃতীয় শক্তির উত্থান না হয়, বিজেপি ঢুকবেই। এবার সেই তৃতীয় শক্তির জন্যে লোকজন যাদের ওপর ভরসা করছে, তারা যদি সিদিকুল্লার মতন মৌলবাদির ( যারা বন্দে মাতরম, নারী স্বাধীনতা ইত্যাদি অনেক কিছুর বিরুদ্ধে) ল্যাজ ধরে থাকেন, লোকে বিজেপিকেই তৃতীয় শক্তি করবে। বিহারের নির্বাচন আমাদের শিখিয়েছে লোকে এই সব মেকি সেকুলারদের ধার ধারে না। তারা চাইছে কাজ এবং উন্নয়ন। তারা চাইছে সিদিকুল্লার মতন মৌলবাদিদের রাজনীতির বাইরে রাখতে বা লালুর মত ভেকধারী জাতপাতের নেতাদের লাথি মারতে।<br /><br />সিদিকুল্লাকে যারা প্রাসঙ্গিক করতে চাইছেন, তাদের স্বপ্ন ১০০% সফল হবে। কিন্ত ইতিহাস বড় নির্মম। যারা ওই মৌলবাদের ল্যাজ ধরেছেন, তারা কিন্ত অপ্রাসঙ্গিক হয়ে যাবেন। বা এই ঘটনার পর হয়ে গেছেন।Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-34732042359322460522010-11-24T07:28:00.001-08:002010-11-24T07:28:54.926-08:00Analysis of Bihar Election: Are you hearing what Indians want?Let put bullet items<br /><br />1. People want good Governance-caste, communal politics, minority appeasement politics not working any more.<br /><br />2. Failure of left to win even a single seat is clear indication, a party cry for helping the poor will not help to get the vote of the poors. They are also looking at what you deliver for them. You don't deliver them roti and sabjji and instead keep on speaking of bakvas of idealist equality, minimum wage etc. It will not work. They need to see what is coming to their home-that is bottomline.<br /><br />3. Defeat of Sadhu Yadav, Ravri and Lalu is clear indication that Mafiaraaj is seeing its end. Populism will not work any more,<br /><br />Add up your views please.Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-53250023059412120412010-11-20T10:58:00.000-08:002010-11-20T11:54:53.202-08:00My vision of a Green Party in India<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaq6mMZdeF1mabQUf6GDYc0sZrxzOsxlCWA4PtIFftyOrhMjexyN4N8JWghSILBqVYVHOTcWHUwmJr-0sYLCtjpK85ggLcIbtVD_FZ6_pVxcV11Z5XVuvXwdQY-x4WggvElFBQMbY/s1600/c59ed7f07d45b629a5e8fe9d3dd0-grande.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaq6mMZdeF1mabQUf6GDYc0sZrxzOsxlCWA4PtIFftyOrhMjexyN4N8JWghSILBqVYVHOTcWHUwmJr-0sYLCtjpK85ggLcIbtVD_FZ6_pVxcV11Z5XVuvXwdQY-x4WggvElFBQMbY/s320/c59ed7f07d45b629a5e8fe9d3dd0-grande.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541721240271114050" border="0" /></a><br />Perhaps the most finest and strongest realization of my life is coming to terms with essence of life which defies any scientific rational except survival-survival for families, children and for the next generation. Now imagine, what are we leaving behind for next-generation? Will that be habitable India at all? Truth is, our modern cities have less amenities and urban planning than Harappa and Mahenjodaro civilization. On the top, the whole population is the victim of a system where political parties do not pay any heed to environmental need of India. The result is worse than a terrible impending environmental catastrophe- our forests are getting depleted faster than we can even fictionalize, rivers are being killed rampantly by greedy population supported by a very short sighted politics (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiwWG1ZDmjc"> I made a documentary on<br />killing of rivers 3 years back -please watch i</a>t ), the entire political process of the country has been hijacked by the nexus of BIG corporates, mainstream media, bureaucrats and politicians and the quality of Indian water and air is degrading every day. Food security is worsening, energy security is in political quagmire and a roadmap to green economy is unheard!<br /><br />That does not mean green activism is new to India. There are thousands of NGO working in this area but unless we can form a political force, a formidable voice of India for green and environment, these NGOs will not be able to execute efficiently. Green economy which needs Government support can not get any sailing wind unless a political force is born to push our policy makers.<br /><br />On the top, there are issues of democracy. Our political parties allow very little democracy to its members as evident from the expulsion of Jaswant Singh, Ex-speaker Somnath Chatterjee and many more incidents exposing the lack of intra-party democracy inside our political parties.<br />Yes, there are a lot of corruption issues and I believe only technology and democracy-working in unison can solve most of it. Technology provides an efficient system of monitoring and<br />democracy provides a public vigilance. Therefore, instead of taking to street, we need to strengthen democracy and adopt more technology in Governance.<br /><br />What's about country's 300 million half starved people and 400 million illiterates?<br />What I hate in all political parties is their crocodile cry for India's poor. Experience<br />and history taught us-poverty has been eliminated only in the system that guarantees<br />and promote high level of production, innovation and entrepreneurship in a social<br />welfare set-up. Instead of taking up battle for rural economy, our political system<br />is more interested to show their face in camera. And taking a photograph with the<br />poor people is as good as it gets for their concern for India's poor.<br /><br />Possibilities of a green economy is enormous-and yes, we need a Green party of India.Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-92209611902824555632010-09-30T14:32:00.000-07:002010-09-30T15:33:20.851-07:00Verdict of Ayodhya : A 21st century perspective<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0Y2TT1IeprjbwaDGkX_cUslT0H0PswkdXNykNZ2YP-DQsbcHWXFCpzEj1Nl5gjOkOHfRDmjCETEzhnCTB6OpCkvtVOpqxsxG7GpHrBipC2kutkdTwMizsWj3Ccd5Mzr4yHlECrHM/s1600/mosque_1728027a.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522836832952655506" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0Y2TT1IeprjbwaDGkX_cUslT0H0PswkdXNykNZ2YP-DQsbcHWXFCpzEj1Nl5gjOkOHfRDmjCETEzhnCTB6OpCkvtVOpqxsxG7GpHrBipC2kutkdTwMizsWj3Ccd5Mzr4yHlECrHM/s320/mosque_1728027a.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Finally Lucknow High Court delivered the much awaited verdict on Ram Janmbhoomi versus Babri Masjid debate. Instead of reading from News Papers, I started reading the court orders<a href="http://rjbm.nic.in/"> (available in this link) </a>and somewhat shocked on the level of disagreement and ambiguity among the Honorable Judges on issues which are expected to sync after the monumental evidences being brought to the case for last 13 years. For example <a href="http://rjbm.nic.in/suk.pdf"><span style="color:#990000;">Justice S U Khan observed </span></a><span style="color:#990000;">:</span><br /><br /><br /><em>3. No temple was demolished for constructing the mosque.<br />4. Mosque was constructed over the ruins of temples which were lying in utter ruins since a<br />very long time before the construction of mosque and some material thereof was used in<br />construction of the mosque.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em>On the same issue of demolition of Rama Temple by the Muslim invaders,<br /><a href="http://rjbm.nic.in/dv2.pdf">Hon'<span style="color:#660000;">ble</span><span style="color:#660000;"> Dharma Veer Sharma is certain:</span></a><span style="color:#660000;"> </span><br /><br /><em>3. Whether the mosque was built after demolishing a<br />Hindu temple?<br />The disputed structure was constructed on the site of old<br />structure after demolition of the same. The Archaeological<br />Survey of India has proved that the structure was a massive<br />Hindu religious structure.</em><br /><br />Honerable Sudhir Agarwal is rather more agnostic towards this issue. Also there are stern differences among the judges on the issues of whether it is the birth place of Lord Rama. Honerable Veer Sharma's statement on this matter that , this temple is the birth place because Hindus believe in so, makes me nervous because then any group can claim to any property just by belief! What is the status-qua of belief in the eyes of Indian constitution?<br /><br />To me, even these are minor issues. What bothered me most is the clear indication that Honorable S U Khan and D V Sharma could not rise above their religious identity. Root cause of Ayodhya dispute is the venom of religious identity which is poured to our head by our families when we were kids. Research in Social Science conforms firmly that sense of religious identity is born into a teen's head in his or her impressionable age when their families teach them that they are a separate group to boost them with a false sense of pride. Therefore Ayodhya becomes a battle line for those who believe themselves as a Hindu or Muslim. I am sure those<br />who believe themselves as Indian must have cherished for a University or Hospital instead of a Temple or Mosque on that disputed land.<br /><br />Because modern India, the new image of India lies in her ability to compete with NASA by ISRO, by millions of software engineers who made us proud as software super house, by thousands of young scientists for whom every multinational is establishing R&D in Delhi or Bangalore and because of India's successful corporate management which has launched Tata, Reliance, Infy, Wipro and Mittal as global brand, we can't project ourselves like kids fighting for Rama or Allah.<br /><br />And then there are scope to do more as we are also ashamed to be the nation with highest numbers of illiterates, beggars and malnutritioned kids. We are seating on environmental bomb in India. Now instead of solving our real problems like soaring food price, if we fight like a kid over Allah vs Rama as if they are Spider man vs Superman ( frankly speaking to an atheist, that is as much of importance we can attach to them) , who are going to benefit?</div>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-7045028557701082332010-04-14T15:24:00.000-07:002010-04-14T15:50:26.754-07:00Unmasking the Moist movement in India<a href="http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00103/Edited_text_of_12_2_103996a.pdf"></a><br /><br />Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Azad</span>, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), recently defended Maoist movement in India in an exclusive interview in "<a href="http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00103/Edited_text_of_12_2_103996a.pdf">The Hindu".</a> For those who are not familiar with history of communism or some factual news on the Maoist movements in India, may very well be impressed by soft spoken <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Azad</span>. But once we start peeling off his <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">augments</span>, we would figure out Maoists are indeed misleading a lot of progressive Indians who are otherwise fed up due to prostitution of politics and corruption in India.<br /><br />His interview is full of contradictions and if somebody is not aware of communist history or Indian constitutions, one can easily be mesmerized by his sweet talk. But behind the sweet talk, he left a pack of lies and self contradictions which can not be denied.<br /><br /> Firstly, he is claiming Maoists are in favor of democratic movements and want to join hands with progressive democratic fronts. Those who are familiar with history of communism-can ask this question point blank. What is the history of the democratic force which joined hands with Lenin, Mao,Castro? Were not they all killed or admitted to change their political view under gun point?? How does a Leninist speak of democratic force when Lenin dismissed elected socialists from the Constituent Assembly after losing in November, 1917 election? Similarly history of the progressive force which joined Mao also suffered equal dark history of brutal state oppression during cultural revolution. He wanted to showcase democratic face of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Moists</span>! How can he do that when their Godfathers left such a brutal legacy of killing democratic movements and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">betrayal</span> with progressive democratic force which joined hands with them during revolution?<br /><br /><br /> Second point is practical consideration for cease fire. He is stressing on following Indian constitution. If that be it, then first condition would be simple- they have to surrender arms-because their arms are illegal. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Chidarmbaram</span> didn't ask more than this. So pointing at him for violating constitution would be backfiring argument.<br /><br /> Thirdly, on his defense of killing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">CPM</span> workers, he made baseless comments. Many of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">CPM</span> workers may be oppressors but not all of them. Many of them were killed just because they were <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">CPM</span> workers. It may be a tit-for-a-tat for a party like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">CPM</span>, which also does not believe in Human Rights but an eye-for-an eye is no way civilized norm. May be communists have a different meaning for the word "Human Rights" not understood by the mortal people like us.<br /><br /> Fourthly he supports all the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">separatist</span> movement of India as struggle against imperialism and at the same time, he calls for patriotic Indians to support them. This is height of contradiction. Also for more clarity, an organization like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">JKLF</span>, whom he is supporting for their anti-imperialist struggle, is not at all progressive-they believe in Sharia and all kinds of outdated misogynist social orders mandated in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Islamism</span>. Even in other day, I saw <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Kishenji</span> supported <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Osama</span> for anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">imperialism</span>! So supporting Islamic radicals as anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">imperialist</span> progressive, pro-people force is more than a raving <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">fanaticism</span>!<br /><br /> Finally, his defense of human right violation and opposing development process stands no merit. No development is perfect. Even Stalin industrialized Soviet by putting 5 million <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Ukraninians</span> to starvation. It happens only at small steps. If he can not <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">appreciate</span> that, he can very well form a party and ask others to vote for him! His opinion does not justify gunning down the development process in the tribal areas. Also he distorted facts. In <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Lalgarh</span> uprising started as a popular tribal movement. But these days, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">where ever</span> there is a popular uprising, Maoists <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">under covered</span> as progressive democrats infiltrate the movement. We have seen how they worked in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Nandigram</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Lalgargh</span>. Indeed, they are the ones who are insinuating democratic movements into an armed resistance for no valid reason when we do have a functioning democracy.<br /><br /> One should not be fooled by Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Azad's</span> interview and his sweet talk on his love for democracy. One can not love democracy and communism at the same time. Communism is anti-thesis of democracy and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">in order</span> for somebody to claim himself to be both democratic and communist -either ignorance or hypocrisy should prevail at its best.Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-33796654444027833372010-03-09T11:29:00.000-08:002010-03-09T11:48:09.465-08:00Simultaneous Release of Bengali Movies in North America<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BVH92H7NjYRbhf64f1Tg5fxrg0srv0b5PvEA8MJYF3KWOF80EyqRc9gB2ibfKV1o_A5WEb9WWnb4s4NLYjD3o-tLIWFuzjE3zilnfEsqnq3ygb45MHwGJhBHMeqMnrEsr_x8_cKz/s1600-h/dwanda22.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446721426408196290" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 247px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6BVH92H7NjYRbhf64f1Tg5fxrg0srv0b5PvEA8MJYF3KWOF80EyqRc9gB2ibfKV1o_A5WEb9WWnb4s4NLYjD3o-tLIWFuzjE3zilnfEsqnq3ygb45MHwGJhBHMeqMnrEsr_x8_cKz/s320/dwanda22.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><br /><p><strong>Dear Leaders of the Bengali Community and Organizations:</strong> </p><br /><p><br />You no more have to wait six months to see that new Bengali movie! Nor will you have to suffer bad quality pirated DVDs from your local grocery store. </p><br /><p><br />The newest and latest Bengali movies will now be released simultaneously in North America and be available in USA & Canada wherever we <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">NRIs</span> usually Buy, Rent or Download movies --- <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Netflix</span>, Blockbuster, Best Buy, Target, Amazon, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">iTunes</span> and many, many more retail and online outlets. </p><p><br />Through a revolutionary business model and exclusive arrangements, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Databazaar</span> Media Ventures ( <a href="http://www.databazaarmedia.com/" target="_blank">http://www.databazaarmedia.com/</a> ), will make the above possible for movies that it undertakes to distribute. The first Bengali movie already to take this route and currently available for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">pre</span>-order at all the above-mentioned outlets, is “<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Dwando</span>” --- by national award winning director <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Suman</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Ghosh</span>, starring <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Soumitra</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Chatterjee</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Ananya</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Chatterjee</span>. Releasing in early June will be “Beyond The Stars” ( <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Ekti</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Tarar</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Khonje</span> ) from the team that produced “<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Antaheen</span>”. There will be releases every month and community members are encouraged to sign up on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">DMV</span>’s website to be notified of all upcoming releases. </p><br /><p><br />For a longtime the Bengali community in North America has been deprived of new Bengali movie releases and even good quality DVDs for Bengali films never existed. Therefore the present drive by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Databazaar</span> Media Ventures will fulfill a long felt need of the Bengali community. Besides, these movies will also be available to the wider American audience that is interested in foreign films thereby opening up the international market for modern Bengali cinema --- an industry which is in dire need of increased revenue for bare survival. The Bengali film industry does need your help and this is your chance. As a community leader please send this email to your members and encourage them to order the new releases from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Netflix</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Blockbluster</span>, Amazon, etc. Higher order flow will encourage <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Netflix</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Blockbluster</span> and others to carry more Bengali movies which in turn will also be available to the international market. </p><p><br />We request that you kindly circulate this news among your community members so that everyone can enjoy this new opportunity as well as help in the growth of the legendary Bengali film industry. </p><a href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Dwando/70130585?trkid=1660&utm_source=lolitamitter+List&utm_campaign=9927b92ac1-dwando_test3_1_2010&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">Watch it on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Netflix</span></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dwando-Suman-Ghosh/dp/B002SRQLLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1266678669&sr=8-1&utm_source=lolitamitter+List&utm_campaign=9927b92ac1-dwando_test3_1_2010&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">Buy it from Amazon.com</a><br /><p><br /><em><span style="color:#993300;">In appreciation,</span></em> </p><p><br /><strong><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">VNN</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Bangla</span> (</strong><a href="http://www.vnnbangla.com/"><strong>http://www.vnnbangla.com/</strong></a><strong>)</strong> : <em><span style="color:#660000;">First online 24 hour Bengali Social News Media : Register and upload your news (text, html, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">youtube</span>) in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">VNNBangla</span>. It will publish your news automatically.</span></em></p><p><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=383465650999"><span style="color:#330000;">Join Bengali Film Review in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Facebook</span>:</span></a></em></p><p><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=454031185407"><span style="color:#330000;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Jojn</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">VNNBangla</span> in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Facebook</span>:</span></a></em></p><p></p><br /><p></p><p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p></div>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-91204084582158530022010-03-08T18:28:00.000-08:002010-03-08T18:30:45.453-08:00Bengali Movies are now available on first day of release in North American Market<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dear Leaders of Bengali Community and Organizations</span>,</span><br /> <br /> We are excited to share a community news.<br /><br />Bengali Movies now will be available in North America on first day first show release through Netflix, Block Bluster and ITune. Oney Seal, CEO of <a href="http://travelparadise2000.blogspot.com/2010/03/www.databazaarmedia.com">DatabazaarMedia Ventures </a> took initiative to make this possible so that North American Bengalis now can have easy access to new Bengali releases.<br /><br />As you all know, we had to wait for 3-4 months after new Bengali release before pirated DVD becomes available in the Indian Groceries. We also shared painful experience of running bad Bengali DVDs which we could barely watch without any interruption. Hopefully those days are history now.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Dwando/70130585?trkid=1660">Dwando</a> will be the first release available on 16th March (<a href="http://www.dwandothefilm.com/trailer.html"> movie trailer</a>) . Acted by Soumitra Chatterjee, Koushik Sen and Ananya Chatterjee, Dwando is an ethical "love storm". You can also buy downloads from the sources listed below.<br /><br />As an editor of online Bengali magazine VNNBangla( www.vnnbangla.com), I appeal to all of you to spread this email to your contacts. Please understand that distributing Bengali movies in North American market costs a fortune and unless we support this venture by ordering DVD in Netflix or renting it from Block Bluster we, the North American Bengalis will be the biggest loser because this venture is serving a long-time need of our community.<br /><br />Yours sincerely<br />Dr Biplab Pal<br />biplabpal2000@gmail.com<br />www.vnnbangla.com<br />Elkridge, Maryland<br /><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 0in; width: 100%;" valign="top" width="100%"><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 0in;"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qqzdtkdab.0.0.xtdgmkdab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netflix.com%2FMovie%2FDwando%2F70130585%3Ftrkid%3D1660&id=preview" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="" alt="Dwando. The Conflict." name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.2" border="0" height="733" width="596" /></span></a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 0in; width: 100%;" width="100%"><br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 3.75pt; width: 100%;" width="100%"><br /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 0in; background: black none repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 100%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" valign="top" width="100%"> <table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in; width: 33%;" valign="top" width="33%"> <div align="center"> <table style="background: black none repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 100%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 2.25pt;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style=";font-size:10pt;color:white;" ><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qqzdtkdab.0.0.xtdgmkdab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netflix.com%2FMovie%2FDwando%2F70130585%3Ftrkid%3D1660&id=preview" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="" alt="Watch it on Netflix." name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.3" border="0" height="100" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="100" /></span></a> </span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> </td> <td style="padding: 0in;" valign="top"> <table style="background: black none repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 100%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 2.25pt;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style=";font-size:10pt;color:white;" ><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qqzdtkdab.0.0.xtdgmkdab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FDwando-Suman-Ghosh%2Fdp%2FB002SRQLLU&id=preview" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="" alt="Buy it at Amazon.com" name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.4" border="0" height="100" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="100" /></span></a> </span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td style="padding: 0in;" valign="top"> <table style="background: black none repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 100%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 2.25pt;"> <div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style=";font-size:10pt;color:white;" ><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qqzdtkdab.0.0.xtdgmkdab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2FDwando%2B-%2BSubtitle%2B-%2BDVD%2F9824677.p%3Fid%3D2084662%26skuId%3D9824677%26st%3Ddwando%26lp%3D1%26cp%3D1&id=preview" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="" alt="Buy it at Bestbuy.com" name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.5" border="0" height="100" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="100" /></span></a></span></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding: 0in; width: 100%;" width="100%"> <table style="background: black none repeat scroll 0% 0%; width: 100%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 3.75pt;"> <div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(247, 195, 57);font-size:10pt;" >End your promotion with a kick -- consider a postscript to reinforce one of the key product or service benefits.</span></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-26264698965138441922009-12-27T11:18:00.000-08:002009-12-27T11:20:55.262-08:00Dialectic Materialism is outdated<div> </div> <div>I was reading this book in defense of dialectic materialism.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.marxist.com/rircontents.asp">http://www.marxist.com/rircontents.asp</a><br /></div> <div> </div> <div>The book is really funny ( strangely they claim it to be popular). It belongs to the same plot, same strategy I have seen in defending Vedas, Gita, Koran and Bible by bringing modern laws of Physics without understanding basic methodology of science.</div> <div> </div> <div> Let me cite an example:</div> <div> </div> <div>Authors write:<a id="publishButton" class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" target="" onclick="if (this.className.indexOf("ubtn-disabled") == -1) {var e = document['stuffform'].publish;(e.length) ? e[0].click() : e.click(); if (window.event) window.event.cancelBubble = true; return false;}"><div class="cssButtonOuter"><div class="cssButtonMiddle"><div class="cssButtonInner">Publish Post</div></div></div></a></div> <div> </div> <p><em>The fundamental proposition of dialectics is that everything is in a constant process of change, motion and development. Even when it appears to us that nothing is happening, in reality, matter is always changing. Molecules, atoms and subatomic particles are constantly changing place, always on the move. Dialectics is thus an essentially dynamic interpretation of the phenomena and processes which occur at all levels of both organic and inorganic matter.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>Further, he wants to defend:</p> <p> </p> <p><em>"My dialectic method," wrote Marx, "is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e. the process of thinking, which, under the name of ‘the Idea,’ he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of ‘the Idea.’ With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.</em></p> <p><em></em> </p> <p> The whole aspect of dialectic materialism is really funny. Time dependent quantum mechanics and General theory of relativity (GTR) that define the basic laws for the change- the evolution of material with time, have been discovered as a consequence of series of experimental discoveries. And not by following dialectic materialism, because it is too general and non-sense to a Physicist unless he is a devoted Marxist who is looking for physics in dialectic materialism like a devoted Hindu professor who looks for quantum mechanics in Veda. </p> <p> </p> <p>The physics is all about evolution of any material ensemble that has its diffusion (non-steady, evolving or chaotic) and steady state behavior ( equilibrium behavior).</p> <p> In that sense whole physics is dialectic materialism because it is all about motion and evolution of material ensemble! While this is true, what can be more nonsense than claiming that dialectic materialism is Physics? Just because Upanishad stated 'Sam Sarati Ati' -the material world is in a state of change always, we will conclude that Upanishad contains whole physics because it revealed core theme of physics like dialectic materialism?</p> <p> </p> <p>Even in quantitative social evolution theory, scientists are using time dependent equations always-which means any social evolution is considered close to statistical mechanical model of molecular evolution (Pregonin). This development owes it root in theoretical development in statistical mechanics and not in dialectic materialism. Now, just because this evolution explains a society in motion and in equilibrium, will we say anything and everything that is happening in the social evolution is dialectic materialism?</p> <p> </p> <p>Here is simple summery. Science developed its model of evolution in physics,biology and social sciences as a consequence of experimental observation. Philosophical thinking of dialectic materialism never influenced or inspired Newton, Einstein, Darwin or Heisenberg to discover their epoch making laws of science! It is the dedicated labor of experimentalists and force of production of capitalism that have forced the discoveries of modern method of science.</p> <p> </p> <p> So our conclusion should be simple. Dialectic materialism is a completely unnecessary hypothesis for any modern research of any discipline. Anybody who is trying term any science as dialectic materialism, is politically motivated and is unwarranted.They are enemy of a free society. As we all know, such fraud of dialectic materialism killed 100M people in last century in the form of communism.</p>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670489461105523359.post-18973767859453933712009-10-31T07:24:00.000-07:002009-11-01T11:13:30.950-08:00To the critics of Indira Gandhi<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/Guardian/news/gallery/2007/aug/13/internationalnews/U1502709-6011.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 412px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 390px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/Guardian/news/gallery/2007/aug/13/internationalnews/U1502709-6011.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Ever since the British handed over the power, the greatest challenge in Indian politics till today always revolved round the alleviation of poverty and dissemination of national policies to the hand of the marginal people tickling down through the gigantic corruption of Indian Bureaucracy. Nevertheless, throughout in the first four decades of post Independence era, when neo-liberalism was not a fad of state policy and populism ruled a great part of democratic spectrum in the Europe and the India, Indira's legacy was one of the consistent mark of progress and social justice deeply entrenched in the Indian values of peace and harmony. However, for the most part of her career as a president of Indian National Congress and Indian prime minister, she has been branded as an autocratic and intolerant leader. Her opponents jump into the immediate example of emergency she imposed in 1975 suspending democracy of India. Besides, they bring several examples of small incidents where she treated ministers and office bearers as her own servants-she changed their chair at her mercy.<br /><br />While all of this is true, we need to analyze her actions and consequences with historical context and further view it with the personality cult of Indira which was built as an assimilation of ideas from the greatest leaders of the 20th century like Gandhi, Rabindranath, Krishna Memon and not to mention Neheru himself. She had witnessed the brutality of British police in India with sharp contrast to British liberalism in Britain, lived in austerity with great defiance of materialism inspired by Krishna Menon, Gandhi and Tagore and finally for the most part of the second world war, although bed-ridden for acute tuberculosis, she volunteered to help the wounded in the battle of Britain. She had first hand experience of savagery of second world war and imperial police storming into Neheru's house almost as a monthly affair. Growing up with the bitter experience of western materialism and teaching of eastern spiritualism by Tagore and Gandhi, she developed a profound liking for social benevolence as opposed to aggression and inhumanity perpetrated by western imperialism. Therefore, for the rest part of her life, we would find her as a fierce leader against American imperialism, Pakistani atrocities in Bangladesh and social menaces of Indian tradition. She championed social democracy by nationalizing the banks and other national wealth solely inspired by cause of social justice rather than any left leaning ideology-she had none.<br /><br />It will be worthwhile to take deeper look into emergency in India. On June 26th, 1975, why was she compelled to sacrifice democracy of India? Remember she admitted her mistakes publicly in 1980 for imposing the emergency. But was that too bad of a decision? Was it solely motivated by the greed of power when Alahabad High Court disqualified her MP status and subsequently imposed a ban of six years for fighting in the election?<br /><br />Decree of emergency suspending all the civil liberties was issued by president Fakhruddin Ali Ahamed by article 352 of Indian constitution as advised by Indira Gandhi on 26th June, 1975. Wikipedia version of the situation that led to the event of emergency is quoted below:<br /><br /><br /><em>Raj Narain, who had been defeated in parliamentary election by Indira Gandhi, lodged cases of election fraud and use of state machinery for election purposes against Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the Allahabad High Court. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court found the Prime Minister guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her election campaign. The court declared her election null and void and unseated her from her seat in the Lok Sabha. The court also banned her from contesting any election for an additional six years. Ironically some serious charges such as bribing voters and election malpractices were dropped and she was held responsible for misusing the government machinery, and found guilty on charges such as using the state police to build a dais, availing the services of an IAS officer, Yashpal Kapoor, during the elections before he had resigned from his position, and use of electricity from the state electricity department. Because the court unseated her on comparatively frivolous charges, while she was acquitted on more serious charges, The Times described it as 'firing the Prime Minister for a traffic ticket'. However, strikes in labor and trade unions, student unions and government unions swept across the country. Protests led by J.P.Narayan, Raj Narain and Morarji Desai flooded the streets of Delhi close to the Parliament building and the PM's residence. The persistent efforts of Raj Narain, was praised worldwide as it took over 4 years for Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha to finally pass judgement against Indira Gandhi. The ruling later became the primary reason for the imposition of emergency by Indira Gandhi. It also encouraged greater belief in the judiciary and democracy in India.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em>When you read the history like this, anybody will get into a convincing belief that Indira had no other reason but to save her chair and power when clearly she was deposed by ruling of Alahabad High Court. But in all fairness, did we ask ourselves the question, was that ruling so unsettling for her as we all may think? Sonia Gandhi is no prime minister of India and yet she is still Congress supremo, the most powerful politician of India. Indira would have stepped down very easily as PM and would have continued to be president of INC-would that had taken her out of power corridor? No way. Then when there was no reason to believe she would not have lost any control of power even by following High Court ruling of Allahabad Court, why did she impose emergency? Remember Supreme Court of India granted a conditional stay of execution on 24th June-2 days before the emergency. Therefore, she was not at all under constitutional crisis when she declared the emergency as the case was hanging in Supreme Court with a clear stay order. She would have fought and won easily given that the allegation was not good enough to unseat her from PM position although Supreme Court might have ordered re-election as she indeed violated the election laws in 1971 which she admitted in later years. Later in 1975 Supreme Court nullified Alahabad High Court order but since, it happened during suspension of democracy, we should not view that to be a perfectly neutral judgment.<br /><br />Indeed, all evidences in hand suggest, it was not the lust for her power but for the fact Jayprakash Narayn almost brought India to a virual halt, Indira was forced to take a very unpleasant decision as patriotic nationalist. GDP growth was sinking to worst during 1973-1975 as opposition movement unleashed reign of strikes throughout the country and Indira observed "<em>People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights</em> ".<br /><br />Last sentence was the clue. In 20th century all the great civil and communist movements fell flat on the face because of the fact that while fighting for the right of equality and civic liberties, those political systems ignored production and logistic need to be maintained , people need to be fed and jobs have to be generated. Else, the state would collapse. In West Bengal, I do believe we have achieved more social equality and removed caste barriers than other parts of India because of progressive Left Front Government but at the end, the state is simply collapsing because of what Indira said- Left Front government was more concerned about the political right of the people than make them aware of their duties. This resulted in a complete stagnation and virtual collapse of the state economy which has the highest number of registered unemployed youths and lowest median salary even for those who are employed.<br /><br />Indira believed in Nationalistic Socialism and as it was true for other leaders of same ideology, national progress always outweighed democracy in their line of thinking. Indeed Indira was quite aware of this when she said "<em>My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not."</em> And she had courage to speak that because she was imbibed with nationalism "<em>Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood... will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic"</em><br /><br />And she looked back at JP's movement from two angles-first it was impediment and obstacle to national growth and secondly, she has been victimized by conspiracy of male politicians all over the India because guided by inherent male ego, they could not put up with the image of a strong woman. Therefore she said "<em>All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake." </em><br /><br />So it is clear that she saw JP's agitation as danger to national growth as it can easily be cited by the GDP growth data during 1974-1975 when per capita GDP fell from $164 to $156 ! One of the rare year in the history of post Independence in which India achieved negative growth thanks to JP's call to shutdown the whole country! I don't think, Indira would have at all cared for her possible ousting from Indian PM position as she was well secured in the INC but such a cataclysmic failure of Indian economy thanks to JP's agitation had to be put to an end or else, India as a nation was clearly sinking. Remember she was able to reverse the trend of negative growth to highly positive one-in 1977 when India's per capita GDP roofed to $184! Almost more than 15% growth over 1976 which India would never achieve again even in the early years of vibrant neo-liberalism of 91-2000! While I would never advocate growth by sacrificing democracy but when India was sinking to nadir, people were losing jobs left and right, whatelse she would have done? And indeed emergency achieved what it was intended for-reversing the negative GDP trend to a very high positive growth which a poor country like India desperately needed to struggle against hunger and chronic unemployment.<br /><br />So to all of her critics, I would speak what she spoke "<em>There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten</em>" . Yes, when such is the pathetic state of populism in the politics of India, we do need a leader like Indira Gandhi who would have courage to take unpopular decision for the sake of national interest.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><p></p></div>Biplab Palhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10458134262997135419noreply@blogger.com0