CM

YK
ND-ND
13 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
COMMENT
>>EshaanShevate should be about 19years old now not 12 as the headline
of the story, Andes no uphill climb for 12-year-old diabetic (Sept. 2, 2014,
Variety/ Northern Region Page) made it out to be. The opening paragraph of
the story says that in 2007, swimmer Eshaan Shevate, then a 12-year-old, was
diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
>>The Business page report, Diesel under-recovery drops to eight paise a
litre (Sept. 2, 2014), said: Diesel prices in Delhi went up from Rs. 47.65 in
January 17, 2013, to Rs. 68.51 after the revision on Sunday. The price after
revision should be Rs. 58.97. (Actually, Rs. 68.51 is the current petrol price in
Delhi).
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
A
n India-backed mining consorti-
um could shelve controversial
plans to dump dredging waste in the
Great Barrier Reef, with alternative
sites on land being considered amid
growing environmental concerns,
Australia said on Tuesday.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt
said there was an emerging option
that could see the consortium In-
dias Adani Group and Australias
North Queensland Bulk Ports and
GVK Hancock submit a proposal
suggesting onshore dumping
locations.
There is an emerging option which
Ive said wed welcome and consider
on its merits, Mr. Hunt told the Aus-
tralian Broadcasting Corporation. I
cant put a time frame. It may be a
month, it may be less, it may not occur.
But we have encouraged and invited
(another option).
The Ministers comments followed
a report in The Australian Financial
Review that the government-ap-
proved marine dumping plan would
be abandoned toneutralise controver-
sy over the possible damage it could
cause to the World Heritage site.
Conservationists have said the
dumping of three millioncubic metres
of material dredged from the seabed
as part of a major coal port expansion
at Abbot Point on the Great Barrier
Reef coast in Queensland could has-
ten the natural wonders demise.
The dredging, which was approved
in January, will allow freighters to
dock at Abbot Point, increasing the
coal ports capacity by 70 per cent to
make it one of the worlds largest.
Activist group Greenpeace cau-
tiously welcomed the good news,
but warned there were still concerns.
AFP
Great Barrier Reef dredge
dumping plan could be shelved
It is the policy of The Hindu to correct signicant errors as soon as possible.
Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.
The Readers Editors office can be contacted by
Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to
Friday); E-mail: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
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A
ll those who have been anxious
to gure out the direction of
Indian politics after the un-
precedented victory of the Bha-
ratiya Janata Party (BJP) in May this
year have had their eyes xed on Bihar,
where a newly formed alliance between
LaluPrasads Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)
and the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal
(United) took on the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance in the recent by-
polls to 10 Assembly seats. The grand
alliance as the coalition of the two
Socialist leaders, who were together until
1993 and bitter enemies subsequently, is
called won six seats; the BJP won only
four. The Congress had also hitched onto
this bandwagon.
The victory in six seats has been al-
most universally described as a clear suc-
cess of the grand alliance experiment in
turning the tide for secular politics, so
much so that archrivals in Jammu and
Kashmir, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh
are being advised by commentators to
join hands to push back the BJP, taking a
lesson from the Bihar experiment. But a
closer look at the results would show that
describing the Bihar outcome as proof of
the success of the new alliance may be an
exaggeration.
To understand why, we rst need to
examine what the new alliance set out to
achieve. The BJP-led alliance had won 31
of the 40LokSabha seats inBihar inMay.
Paraphrasing and summing up the argu-
ments of the Nitish-Laluduo, the alliance
sought to consolidate the backward
castes and the Muslims in a social coali-
tion to stop the BJP in its tracks. The
grand alliance dened its politics in
terms of the twin principles of secular-
ism and social justice. Inthis parlance,
secularism is used and understood as a
willingness to reach out to, and accom-
modate, Muslim minorities in power
sharing; social justice broadly implies a
pre-eminence of backward castes in
representation.
Outcome of the polls
If we examine the by-poll results
against this backdrop and organise the
outcome accordingly, it would be as
follows:
One, in the grand alliance, all upper
caste candidates wonand all Muslimcan-
didates lost.
Two, of the six seats that the JDU-
RJD-Congress grand alliance won, four
were won by upper caste candidates
two Bhumihars, one Rajput and one
Brahmin. A Dalit won from a reserved
constituency and the other seat was won
by a Yadav. Bhumihars are cut up with
the BJP, their favourite party, for not
getting a ministerial berth in the Centre.
Three, two of the ten candidates eld-
ed by the alliance were Muslims, and
both lost. In Narkatiaganj, the defeat of
the Congress candidate Fakhruddin
Khan by a margin of 15,742 votes clearly
conrms abundant oral evidence of a
sharp religious polarisation. In Banka,
the defeat of the RJD candidate Iqbal
Hussain Ansari by 711 votes does not al-
low us to conclude that there was polar-
isation along religious lines, but there
wasnt a backward consolidation behind
himevidently.
Four, in the other two of the four seats
lost by the grand alliance, one candi-
date was a Yadav and the other a Dalit.
Five, the four seats of the BJP were
won by a Kayasth, a Dalit, a Baniya and a
Kurmi. In Hajipur, the Kurmi candidate
of the BJP won with substantial support
from the Yadavs, in a completely coun-
terintuitive churning, as the Kurmis and
Yadavs castes of Mr. Kumar and Mr.
Prasad respectively joined hands,
though not wholly, not behind the grand
alliance but behind the BJP. And it was
in Hajipur that Mr. Kumar and Mr. Pra-
sad rst appeared together to canvass for
the new alliance.
Hardly a success
All this indicates that the six of the 10
seats won by the alliance is hardly a suc-
cess of the politics it claimed to repre-
sent, of secularism and social justice.
Votaries of the grand alliance say such
an interpretation is unfair and irrele-
vant. Chandan Yadav, Congress spokes-
person, said: The whole attempt of our
politics is to take the debate beyond caste
and religion; so what matters is the fact
that we have won an ideological battle.
Manoj Jha, spokesperson of the RJD,
said: This outcome is an affirmation of
our politics which is about next gener-
ation issues of social justice that devel-
opment cannot be a rhetoric devoid of
equity and secularism. We are 100 per
cent condent that this alliance will
ourish.
However, to conclude that a social coa-
lition of the backward castes and Mus-
lims is possible, yet again, and can act as
bulwark against the BJP tide, we need
more evidence than provided by the La-
lu-Nitish alliance experiment. In fact, for
those who are looking for quick-x strat-
egies to ght communalism, by stitching
up opportunistic alliances devoid of any
positive programme but driven merely
by a claimed apathy for Sangh Parivar
politics, the Bihar results are a warning.
If there is a counter to the Modi-led BJP
narrative that combines Hindu identity
politics with the promise of economic
prosperity, that has yet to emerge. While
parties opposed to the BJP are trying
tired tricks such as quota the latest is
for the Marathas in Maharashtra ahead
of the polls the Bihar results suggest
that anti-Muslimpolarisation and Hindu
voter consolidation that transcend tradi-
tional caste barriers are driving politics,
and an opportunistic alliance may not be
able to offer any meaningful and sustain-
able alternative to it.
The Bihar by-polls had no bearing on
who would rule the State or the country,
and in that sense, the stakes were limited
for the public. The real test of the grand
alliance will come towards the end of
next year when the State goes for As-
sembly polls, and when the fundamental
question will be framed as who will rule
Bihar? Mr. Kumars governance creden-
tials are formidable but his caste support
base is thin; for Mr. Prasad, the caste base
is formidable, but his governance track
record is nothing to advertise. The alli-
ance seeks to overcome their respective
weaknesses. The alliance cannot be writ-
ten off as yet, but one must remember
that alliances can have unexpected con-
sequences as George Bernard Shaw told a
beautiful actress who suggested they
have a child who would get his brains and
her beauty. Shaw is believed to have told
her: What if the child gets my beauty and
your brains?
varghese.g@thehindu.co.in
An inconclusive victory
WHAT LIES AHEAD? The real test of the grand alliance will come towards the end of 2015 when the State
goes for Assembly polls. Picture shows Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad (left) and Janata Dal
(United) leader Nitish Kumar at an election meeting in Hajipur, Bihar. PHOTO: RANJEET KUMAR
More evidence is needed before the grand alliance in Bihar is termed a success, as strong
indications of communal polarisation exist despite its victory in the by-elections
Varghese K. George
For those who are looking
for quick-x strategies to
ght communalism, by
stitching up opportunistic
alliances that are driven
only by a claimed apathy
for Sangh Parivar politics,
the results are a warning
G
ujarat has made it compulsory for
school students to read the texts of
DinanathBatra, endorsed by Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi. According to news
reports, Mr. Batra has now proposed a
non-governmental education commis-
sion which will Indianise education
through, for instance, Vedic mathemat-
ics. The Minister for Education has also
mentioned Vedic mathematics as part of
her agenda.
Ignorant of tradition
One appreciates the desire of these
people to work for Indian traditions. But
where in the Vedas is Vedic mathemat-
ics to be found? Nowhere. Vedic mathe-
matics has no relation whatsoever to the
Vedas. It actually originates froma book
misleadingly titled Vedic Mathematics
by Bharati Krishna Tirtha. The book ad-
mits on its rst page that its title is mis-
leading and that the (elementary
arithmetic) algorithms expounded inthe
book have nothing to do with the Vedas.
This is repeated on p. xxxv: Obviously
these formulas are not to be found in the
present recensions of Atharvaveda. I
have been pointing this out since 1998.
Regrettably, the advocates of Vedic
mathematics, though they claim to
champion Indian tradition, are ignorant
of the actual tradition in the Vedas. Sec-
ond, they do not even know what is
stated in the book the real source of
Vedic mathematics. Third, they are
unaware of scholarly writing on the sub-
ject. Wheneducationpolicy is decided by
such ignorant people, they only end up
making a laughing stock of themselves
and the Vedas, and thus doa great disser-
vice to the very tradition which they
claimto champion.
Everyone learns how to add, subtract,
multiply and divide in school. Why
should we replace those algorithms with
Vedic mathematics? Will that Indian-
ise education? No. The standard arith-
metic algorithms actually originated in
India, where they were knownby various
names such as patiganita (slate arithme-
tic). However, the word algorithm
comes fromalgorithmus: the Latinised
name of al Khwarizmi of the 9th century
House of Wisdomin Baghdad. He wrote
an expository book on Indian arithmetic
called Hisab al Hind. Gerbert dAurillac
(later Pope Sylvester II), the leading Eu-
ropeanmathematicianof the 10thcentu-
ry, imported these arithmetic
techniques from the Umayyad Khilafat
of Crdoba. He did so because the prim-
itive Greek and Roman system of arith-
metic (tied to the abacus), then
prevailing in Europe, was no match for
Indian arithmetic. However, accus-
tomed to the abacus (on which he wrote
a tome), Gerbert was perplexed by algo-
rithms based on the place-value system,
and foolishly got a special abacus (apic-
es) constructed for these Arabic numer-
als in 976 CE. Hence the name Arabic
numerals because a learned pope
amusingly thought there was some mag-
ic in the shape of the numerals which
made arithmetic efficient.
Later, Florentine merchants realised
that efficient Indian arithmetic algo-
rithms conferred a competitive advan-
tage incommerce. Fibonacci, whotraded
across Islamic Africa, translated al
Khwarizmis work, as did many others,
which is why they came to be known as
algorithms. Eventually, after 600 years,
Indian algorithms displaced the Europe-
an abacus and were introduced in the
Jesuit syllabus as practical mathemat-
ics circa 1570 by Christoph Clavius.
These algorithms are found in many
early Indian texts, such as the Patiganita
of Sridhar or the Ganita Sara Sangraha of
Mahavira, or the Lilavati of Bhaskara II.
So, advocating Vedic mathematics as a
replacement for traditional Indianarith-
metic is hardly an act of nationalism. On
the contrary, it only shows ignorance of
the history of mathematics. Spreading
this ignorance among future generations
will weaken the nation, not strengthen
it.
The techniques of Vedic mathemat-
ics are designed for mental arithmetic,
traditionally used by
lower caste artisans such
as carpenters or by peo-
ple like Shakuntala Devi.
There are many other
such systems of mental
arithmetic today. If that
is what we intend to pro-
mote, we should rst do a
systematic comparison.
We should also be honest
and refrain from using
the misleading label
Vedic whichis the mainselling point of
Bharti Krishna Tirthas system, and
which attracts gullible people who infer
value just fromthe wrapper.
Suppressing real Mathematics
Promoting the wrongly labelled Ved-
ic mathematics suppresses the mathe-
matics that really does exist inthe Vedas.
For example, Yajurveda 17.2 elaborates
on the decimal place value system (the
basis of Indian algorithms) and some of
those names for numbers are still in use,
though terms such as arab (arbudam)
have changed meaning. That passage
shows that the place value system ex-
tends back to Vedic times, and it was a
late acquisition only in mathematically
backward Europe.
Likewise, the theory of permutations
and combinations is built into the Vedic
metre (and Indian music in general), as
explained in various texts fromPingalas
Chandahsutra to Bhaskars Lilavati. The
aksa sukta of the Rgveda gives a beautiful
account of the game of dice, which is the
foundation of the theory of probability.
The romantic story of Nala and Da-
mayanti in the Mahabharata further re-
lates dice to sampling theory (to count
the number of fruits in a tree).
More details are in my article on
Probability in Ancient India available
online and published in the Elsevier
Handbook of the Philosophy of Statis-
tics. However, all these scholarly efforts
are jeopardised, for they too are viewed
with suspicion.
We need to change the Western and
colonial education system, especially
with regard to mathematics. Traditional
Indian ganita has much to offer in this
process, but Vedic mathematics is de-
nitely not the right way.
Wrong solutions like Vedic mathe-
matics persist because an insecure po-
litical dispensation values the politically
loyal over the learned who are loyal to
the truth. (Merit appar-
ently is important only in
the context of reserva-
tions.) Such political
processes are historically
known to damage real
traditions.
As I wrote over a dec-
ade ago in my book The
Eleven Pictures of Time,
those who attain or retain
state power through reli-
gion are the worst ene-
mies of that religion, whatever be the
religion they claim to represent: Chris-
tianity, Islam, or Hinduism.
(C.K. Raju is author of Cultural
Foundations of Mathematics. He was
professor of mathematics, and Editorial
Fellow of the Project of History of Indian
Science, Philosophy and Culture.)
Nothing Vedic in Vedic Maths
Advocating Vedic mathematics as a replacement for traditional Indian arithmetic is hardly
an act of nationalism; it only shows ignorance of the history of mathematics
C.K. Raju
Wrong solutions
persist because an
insecure political
dispensation
values the
politically loyal
over the learned
ILLUSTRATION:
SATWIK GADE
T
he toughest part of governing is the effect on the mind of those who
govern. As Henry Kissinger said, once you get in government you are
not building up human capital; you are just spending it down. People in
senior positions are simply too busy to learn fundamental new
viewpoints. Their minds are locked within the ones they brought into
power.
Then there is the problemof myopia. People at the top of government
confront such a barrage of immediate small issues frompersonnel to
scheduling that it is hard for themto step back and see the overall
context in which they operate.
Finally, there is the problemof the bunker. People in power are hit
with such an avalanche of criticism much of it partisan and ill-informed
that they naturally build mental walls to protect themselves from
abuse.
All of which makes it hard to govern now. We
are not living in a moment of immediate
concrete threat, but we are in a crisis of context.
The specic problems that make headlines
right now are not cataclysmic. The venture by
President Vladimir Putin of Russia into
Ukraine, for all its thuggery, is not, in itself, a
cataclysmic historical event. The civil war in
Syria, for all its savagery, is not a problemthat
threatens the daily lives of those who live
outside.
These problems are medium-size, but the
underlying frameworks by which nations
operate are being threatened in fairly
devastating ways. That is to say, there are
certain unconscious habits and norms of
restraint that undergird civilisation. These
habits and norms are now being challenged by a
coalition of the unsuccessful.
What were seeing around the world is a
revolt of the weak. There are certain weak
movements and nations, beset by internal
contradictions, that cant compete if they play
by the normal rules of civilisation. Therefore,
they are conspiring to blow up the rule book.
The rst example is Russia. Mr. Putin is poor
in legitimacy. He is poor in his ability to deliver
goods and dignity for his people. But he is rich
in brazenness. He is rich in his ability to play by
the lawlessness of the jungle, so he wants the
whole world to operate by jungle rules.
There has been a norm, generally operating over the past few decades,
or even centuries, that big, powerful nations dont gobble up everything
around themjust because they can. But this is precisely the normthat
Mr. Putin is brazenly crushing under foot. If Putinismcan effectively tear
down this norm, more and more well live in a world in which brazenness
is rewarded and self-restraint is punished.
Then there are the Islamist movements like the Islamic State. This
movement is poor in offering a lifestyle that most people nd attractive.
But it is strong in spiritual purity, so it wants to set off a series of religious
wars and have the world organised by religious categories.
There has been a norm, developed gradually over the centuries, that
politics is not a totalistic spiritual enterprise. Governments try to deliver
order and economic benets to people, but they do not organise their
inner spiritual lives.
This is precisely the normthat the Islamic State and other jihadi
groups are trying to destroy. If they succeed, then the Middle East will
devolve into a 30 years war of faith against faith. Zealotry will be
rewarded, and restraint will be punished.
Mr. Putin and the Islamic State are not threats to U.S. national
security, narrowly dened. They are threats to our civilisational order.
Weakness, the driving power
If you are caught up in that day-to-day business of government, you are
likely to see how weak Mr. Putin and the Islamic State are. You are likely
to conclude that you dont need to do much, because these threats will
inevitably succumb on their own to their internal contradictions. But
their weakness is their driving power; they only need to tear things down,
and, unconfronted, will do so.
People who conduct foreign policy live today under the shadow of the
post-war era. People instinctively understand that just after World War
II, Harry Truman, George Marshall, Dean Acheson and others did
something remarkable. They stepped outside the immediate crush of
events and constructed a context in which people would live for the next
several decades.
Some of the problems they faced did not seemgigantic: how to prevent
a Communist insurgency fromtaking over a semi-failed government in
Greece. But they understood that by projecting American power into
Greece, they would be establishing certain norms and creating a
framework for civilisation.
Then, democratic self-condence was high. Today, unfortunately, it is
low. This summer, the bad guys have looked energetic while the good
guys have looked tired. Well see at the NATOsummit meeting in Wales
this week if theres a leader who can step outside the crush of events and
explain how fundamental the threat to the rules of civilisation now is.
New York Times News Service
The revolt of the weak
WORLD VIEW
Mr. Putin and the
Islamic State are
not threats to U.S.
national security,
narrowly dened.
They are threats
to our
civilisational
order
DAVID BROOKS