Karnataka Government's 'Improper Use of Magic' Office

[updated Dec 9]
The 'secular' states of Karnataka and Maharashtra in India (both ruled by so-called secular parties that were decimated in the recent assembly elections in several other states for their unprecedented corruption and misrule) have drafted an 'anti-superstition' bill. Here's the text of the bill, and a factual critique of the bill that exposes the government plan for what it is: a lousy, unscientific, and politically motivated plan that gives a beleaguered government the right to wantonly interfere in the affairs of any religious group and attack personal liberty, as long as the groups and persons of interest belong to a dharmic faith (like Hinduism), and prosecute them legally, as convenient.

The tragi-comic part of the bill is that these "rational" governments have pretty much recognized the historicity and authenticity of claims of a person that he, and he alone, was (and will ever be) the recipient of a one-time wireless download of divine literary material from a male-only god atop a mountain, which contradicts the prior claims of another person that he was the only (male) progeny of the same god and a human mom, conceived immaculately, and who died and will come back to life at a suitable time. Note that history-centric faiths like Islam and Christianity cease to exist if such superstitions are not accepted into evidence as historically observed and verified data. Hypothetically, if Rama is considered to be a natural human being by Hindus, who then use the Ramayana solely for its ethical and dharmic teachings, Hinduism would continue to flourish. But if Islam and Christianity likewise assumed 'son of God' and 'Koran as word of God' to be useful myth built around non-supernatural human beings, and similarly treat the text they generated as human-generated moral teachings for a peaceful and prosperous life, it invalidates the very basis of their religion in its current form!

To summarize, these truth-claims of History-Centric faiths are superstition that have to be accepted as historical fact by everybody, else they die. Rajiv Malhotra's 'Being Different', among other things, contrasts the top-down History-centric thought systems versus the ground-up dharmic thought systems, and scientifically analyzes the implications, in-depth. This book is now available in Hindi as well. 


Let the full details of this debate be made public, and let the hypocrisy that defines 'secularism' in India be exposed to its gullible public - that a secular government has used superstition to go on a witch-hunt and decide what is superstition and what isn't. Now where have we read of such a crazy scenario before?

Read the critique posted above and then the description below posted from http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Improper_Use_of_Magic_Office.
 

" The Office is responsible for investigating offences under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Confederation of Wizards Statute of Secrecy. The Decree prohibits an underage wizard or witch from performing magic, while the Statute of Secrecy prohibits wizards and witches from performing magic in the presence of Muggles or in a Muggle-inhabited area. 

On receiving intelligence reports of a violation of the Decree, a note is sent to the offender detailing actions that will be taken by the Office. First-time offenders are usually let off with a warning while extreme cases may be referred to the Wizengamot. Thus, it appears that the Improper Use of Magic Office deals with offences that are more regulatory in nature than criminal, ... penalties can still be harsh.
Also, this is where the Animagus registration is posted, and that all Animagi must register with all their distinguishing features and traits noted, in order for them not to abuse their abilities. The registry is open to public viewing. Failing to register will receive a sentence in Azkaban.

Contact with Harry Potter

The Improper Use of Magic Office came into contact with Harry Potter repeatedly during his childhood. He received a warning letter from them when Dobby, ..... years later, Harry received notice of expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after he used a Patronus Charm against threatening Dementors .... The letter informed him that his wand would be destroyed by Ministry officials and he would be detained until Court notice; this appears to be the standard procedure.... 
It is suggested that the Improper Use of Magic Office attends Wizengamot Court services,... It is presumed that this department has several positions and that they remained loyal to the Ministry even when Cornelius Fudge denied Lord Voldemort had risen again. 

.... it was highly unusual procedure for a case of underage use of magic. The hearing was held in Courtroom Ten below the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. Incidentally, it was the same courtroom Harry had previously visited via the Pensieve. It was a horribly intimidating room with a chair that self-locks when the defendant sits down..."


Substitute
'Hindu Gurus' for Harry Potter,
'Yoga and dharmic institutions' for Hogwarts
'Secular Indian gov' for 'Improper Use of Magic Office''Secularist/Monotheist goon squads' for 'Dementors',
etc.
and re-read the description above. 

Of course, who 'he who must not be named' maps to in real-world India is left as an exercise to the reader. Clue: person turned 666 yesterday. Oops, mea culpa.

NeMa and NaMo

Update#1 Dec 6, 2013: added link to Rajeev Srinivasan's 2004 Rediff article "Apartheid in India'.

While re-reading the decisive role played by the great Nelson Mandela (may his Atma be liberated) in shaping the destiny of his once-divided nation, I could not help but see the similarity to the present situation in India.

Mandela was the voice of native Africans oppressed by a racist minority that was supported covertly and overtly by powerful forces in the west, and also by monotheist scripture. His people were oppressed for centuries by white rule and their native knowledge systems digested or destroyed. The system of apartheid, that has biblical blessings, was used to eradicate native black culture and rights.

Modi has travelled far, but he also has a lot more to do, but already, he is the voice and the unifying force of the dharmic, peaceful, and pluralistic peoples that have formed the heterogeneous majority of India over many a millennium. However, they are controlled by a west-sponsored Stalinist-Nehruvian minority that has looted India for more than 60 years and stays in power by the vice of divisive vote banks that perverts democracy. The intellectual wing of this militant leftist minority (who self-deprecatingly mock themselves as 'liberals') have borrowed the racist Aryan-race and Aryan-language theory that Mandela's captors so cherished, to divide India and allowed their white sponsors to intervene in India's fault-lines (read 'Breaking India'). The leftist monopoly over the discourse and media, the appeasement of fundamentalist monotheism, promotion of divisive racist fiction (Aryan/Dravidian) under the garb of secularism, the targeted shaming of innocent people over their dharmic faiths, entrapment of their Gurus for propaganda, weakening their educational and leadership institutions, the takeover of their temples, the divisive anti-Hindu legislations, the digestion of indigenous knowledge systems of its artisans and Rishis into Western monoculture, the ethnic cleansing and takeover in Kashmir and Assam, the fundamentalist Christian (missionary) activity that is destroying the social fabric in many parts of India, the institutionalization of poverty ...the list is endless. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that the dharmic peoples of India live in bondage despite gaining political independence, and have been persecuted based on a policy that looks, smells, and feels like apartheid.  The similarities are quite shocking, frankly. Let us today resolve to fight this apartheid in India.
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Narendra was born in poverty in an economically backward community, worked humble blue-collar jobs and rose up the ranks despite all odds (If not for the single reason that he acknowledged his deep faith in dharmic ideals and patriotism, his lotus feet would've been worshipped by leftists and secularists, and they would be constructing his statue of unity!). He wandered through many parts of India to obtain a grass-roots level understanding of the Indian society and its problems. For the last twelve years, he has been vilified and made a target of a concocted witch hunt for the riots of Gujarat that was triggered by the burning alive of scores of innocent Hindu pilgrims, including women and children by an Islamic mob, encouraged by their 'liberal' protectors. It has now been acknowledged that Evangelists and leftists in the US teamed up to deny him a visa. Now it is also clear to everybody, except the the chauvinists, that he was not responsible for the 2002 riots. Moreover, what is now becoming increasingly known, thanks to the internet, is that this left "liberal" minority was actually responsible for instigating or participating in several pogroms (not riots) such as the one in 1984) that have been orders of magnitude more disastrous in terms of the human toll and the divisiveness it has caused to India. In fact, it is also reocgnized that Modi saved the lives of thousands of Haj pilgrims via his decisive actions during the riots. These stage-managed attacks have only made Modi stronger.

Nelson's imprisonment for 27 years is well known. What many do not know is that the US regarded him as a villain and placed him and his followers on a terror list until just 5 years ago. The decades of imprisonment did not break Nelson, but only made him more determined.

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Modi, a Gujarati,  is inspired by Swami Vivekananda, and Mahatma Gandhi (who was inspired by Vivekananda), and Sanathana dharma.

Mandela was also inspired by the Gujarati Gandhi, other Indians, and it is now known, how the Hindu festival of Deepavali lit a lamp in Mandela's heart and mind during his incarceration.  Many Indians of Gujarati origin reside in Africa, and contribute to the continent's prosperity.

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Nelson was a unifying force for his peoples and polarized world opinion into taking a clear moral stance on whether they were for, or against apartheid.

Similarly, Narendra has unified those who consider India to be their 'Bharat Mata', and polarized opinion - those who want the destructive western proxy rule in India to continue, and those who want India to take control of its own destiny.

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Modi's idea of development based politics and dharma-based messaging is inclusive of all Indians, including equal roles for women and men, young and old, rural and urban, and is a wonderful living example of India's pluralism. He has been very clear in not blaming the present day citizens of India who are born in the religions of India's invaders. He has demonstrated his commitment to the Indian concept of dharma-Sapeksha (not the silly Marxist import of secularism, which is dharma-nirpeksha) by showing no fear or favor to any community while making policy. He has lived his talk, and today, Gujarat is the best example in India, of what a positive, corruption-free, optimistic approach to governance can achieve.

Mandela's efforts in the reconciliation of the native majority and white minority, and his work resulted in a stable South Africa that is called a "rainbow nation". He did not launch a revenge campaign against the white minority after coming to power, and instead proposed a unified model of growth and prosperity that has worked well so far.

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I can go on, but these few examples will suffice for now.

Long Live NeMa. Namaste to NaMo. There are many differences between them, but both have exhibited a grace under pressure that has been unmatched in recent times.

Tipu Sultan, Paper Tiger

Update: My Amazon.com review of the kindle book.

I just finished a first reading the Amazon Kindle edition of Indian scholar Sandeep Balakrishna's new historical book 'Tipu Sultan: The Tyrant of Mysore', published by RarePublications. The chapters in the book are covered in about 200 pages - relatively short in comparison with the bloated 'epics' written by India's eminent historians, but the beauty about simply stating the facts is that it does not require lengthy justification. It is what it is. The book is very economically priced, and is a steal for the treasure trove of data it provides us about the political and social landscape of 18th century South India. 'Tyrant of Mysore' is also available in hardcopy edition and the Android-compatible digital format via Google Play.  I found the Kindle edition more convenient since one can read it using a dedicated Kindle reader, or simply using Amazon's Kindle-app or their cloud reader on a web-browser, in large font.

Note: This post is simply a collage of thoughts after an initial reading of the book, jotted down in no strict order.


Take a few seconds to examine the book cover. It has a popular portrait of Tipu, captioned using an Arabic-like font, a blood-tipped sword in the darkness, and a leg in weighed-down chains. A first glimpse of the person hidden behind the fabrication.

A forceful and insightful foreword by Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh sets the stage for Sandeep to let us rediscover for ourselves, the events that occurred more than two hundred years ago in South India, and comprehend the magnitude of the disaster that befell the dharmic peoples who came under Tipu's demonic shadow. The real story of Tipu was one waiting to be told. Indeed, as Sandeep himself says, there are plenty of primary sources that talk about the real Tipu, yet it is curious that no 'big' Indian historian has come forward to do the job of stating the facts for what it is. The reasons for this situation become apparent when we read about how SL Bhyrappa was sidelined by Government officials in India's education department for wanting to simply state the facts about other despots of India like Aurangazeb (the person who murdered at least 4.6 Million Hindus: New York Times). The book exposes prior fictional works, notably Bhagwan Gidwani's 'Sword of Tipu Sultan', and Girish Karnad's 'Dreams of Tipu Sultan', for what they self-admittedly are: commercial scripts of fiction, which have little correlation with the actual events that transpired. Rather, these works come across as using the standard "secularist" template adopted by Indian Marxist intellectuals ("Sepoys" as Rajiv Malhotra so aptly describes them) to create a false equivalence in the Indian discourse. Luckily for us, Sandeep has no agenda, and simply presents the facts tracked down meticulously from multiple primary sources, including the English translations of Tipu's own Farsi words; the letters he wrote, the orders he gave, the places his armies travelled to, the kings he fought, the deals he struck, the administrative methods he used - all speak clearly of a person who is entirely different from that manufactured in the aforementioned dramatizations.

Tipu's story starts with his father Hyder Ali, an opportunist soldier of fortune,  who rode his luck to become the ruler of Mysore. In this path, one finds violence and death - the description of the decimation of Chitradurga stands out. Hyder Ali who also gets to bask in Tipu's halo in popular dramatizations turns out to nothing more than a bandit who had the will and the luck to take advantage of political chaos to achieve his ends. As the reign of Hyder Ali comes to an end, we see a young and frightened Tipu, running away from battle, and being flogged by his dad. Evidence suggests that Hyder understood his son's incompetent, and somewhat unhinged personality quite early, and never entrusted him with serious responsibility. In reality, there seem to be few, if any, redeeming qualities in Tipu's personality - quite the opposite of what you get to read in his Wikipedia entry. Here, we read of a Tipu with a zeal for Islam, and his self-expressed need to impose it on a land that he considered to be full of infidels. The British soldiers were clearly referred to as 'Christians', and towards the end of his reign, the French soliders were also characterized in the same way in his letters. It is crystal clear in Tipu's mind at least that his fight was for his prophet and his exclusive brand of monotheism, not for liberty or as a dharma-yudh. It mattered little who his foes were. Brave opponents who offered heroic resistance were treated most cruelly. Gruesome torture, as one can expect, was used routinely to keep the civilian population frozen in terror.  The mass slaughter, the genital mutilation and conversions, and savage violence in the Malabar, and in the Coorg area, is a pattern that we find being repeated wherever Tipu goes. 8000 temples destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Hindus were converted, maimed or killed. All this in just seventeen years.  A small sample of the facts from the book encapsulated in tweets:

Large sections of the book are in the form of an annotated bibliography of primary sources (and their English translations), where you have Tipu pretty much tell his own story: he was neither freedom fighter nor secular hero; neither a brave 'tiger', nor a lover of languages and literature (it is heartbreaking to read how he burnt the entire collection of rare and precious Indian manuscripts and inscriptions in the Mysore palace library as fuel to boil gram for his horses). Some of his bizarre actions bear resemblance to another crazy despot - Mohammed Bin Tuglaq. In short, Tipu's fanatical loyalty was to his religion (as inscribed on his tombstone). He fought the British, but also many Indian kings and rulers, to gain more territory, slay the unbelievers or convert them, and of course, for loot. As you read through the book, the reader may be tempted to root for the armies of the despicable East India Company that finally put him out of his misery, such was the savagery of Tipu.  Near Bengaluru in Nandidurga (Nandi Hills), you can find this place depicted below, known as Tipu's drop. He followed a barbaric practice of having enemies thrown off the precipice. Tipu's real legacy, set in stone.

(http://dreamerz.co.in/nandi_hills.html)

Tipu only brought ruin to the region he ruled. After knowing these facts, it is quite unlikely that any sensible Indian citizen today, of any religion, will relate to, or even care to associate with Tipu's fanaticism and violent methods. Now that would be a true and lasting victory for India's 'secularism'.

What the heck does 'minority' mean, anyway?

This post is written in the Indian context.

If minority status means 'economically backward', join the queue, there are millions ahead of you in the line. You are not a minority (thanks to Nehruvian socialism).

If minority status means 'socially and educationally backward', then petition the leaders of your community to adopt more liberal, dharmic, and scientific thinking, and do away with dogma. Seek government intervention if things don't change, but the ultimate solution lies inside, not anywhere outside (thanks to Nehruvian secularism).

If minority status means 'numerical census count by religion', then check if your religion is monotheist. If not, you may indeed be a minority. If it is, then your religion is almost surely a global, several trillion-dollar power center that supports you and advocates on your behalf on every single important religious issue. Its headquarters is located either in the middle east or Europe, and you will find that you are reporting to the local leader in this mammoth chain of command, and your organization is free from government interference. You even have the powers to convert people to your religion by persuasion, force, or, bribe. This more likely makes you a 'majority', rather than a 'minority'. anywhere in the world.

If minority status means 'minority voice in a democracy', then check if you are voting as a group. If you are a vote bank, and your vote bank is bigger than other vote banks, you aren't really a minority.

So the smallest minority is an individual. Not so fast. A single person armed with a semi-automatic weapon in a crowd of thousand, while technically being a minority, practically represents the majority despite being outnumbered 1000:1. Numerical metrics mean little. The group or person that controls the rights to, or can buy the biggest gun in town is the majority. Examples:

The apartheid minority in South Africa versus the native African majority, the colonizing European minority versus the Native American, and of course, the adharmic dynasties lording over the dharmic majority in India over the last millennium. If you have the means to directly or indirectly control the majority market-share of wealth, public discourse, foreign policy, populist projects and 'quotas', real estate, legislations and ordinances, then you certainly aren't a minority.

Reverse the gaze, and what was obfuscated becomes clear. Terminological tyranny is another clever means of achieving mental colonization. In the pluralistic Hindu culture of India, the meaning of 'minority' is unambiguous and useful only when it is applied in context; universal application of this term is extremely fuzzy if not outright gibberish. For example, if minority is applied in the context of "maliciously neglected, and deliberately vilified people", then patriots are India's only real minority.

Crusades 2.0 and the Indian Sepoy

Some rambling thoughts that arose from informal discussions with some engineering and B-school professors from universities around the globe...

The crusades aren't really over. The skirmishes are quite clear. A Syria here, an Iraq there, a Pakistan somewhere else. In response, a 9-11 here, a Kenya mall quiz there... World domination is a ludicrous movie theme that never goes out of fashion.The contemporary crusade is couched in modern language and subterfuge, but at the end of the day, it is still a Pax Romana versus Dhimmicracy, where dharmic peoples are expendable. A Darwinian battle between two history-centric systems. China may seem to be making it a tri-cornered fight, but really, it is being digested by the former, what with their huge underground church movement.

Which really leaves us with the pluralistic, dharmic Indian systems as the only viable, scientific and sustainable alternatives. As it has invariably been since forever. As the battle between these two Tamassic park dinosaurs begins to overflow into India, enter: India's secularist sepoys. A bunch of English-speaking Desi Don Quixotes and Def Sufi poets. Conquering heroes in the battle of futility fought and won entirely against vast strawmen armies, sailing their battleships through storms in many a teacup. Oblivious to data-driven methods, unhindered by fact, these dharma-illiterates remain supremely confident in their theoretical ability to alter the center of mass from within a closed physical system, despite failing in every single experiment. The more opportunistic sepoys get rewarded and graduate into prize idiots, while their subalterns remain content as intellectual coolies for either side.  Satyam eva Jayate in the long run, but in the short term, secular Mithya rules the roost in India.

Updated October 28
The blasts in Bihar during the Hunkaar political rally that killed many innocent civilians, is a gentle reminder from sepoys for their fellow Indians to renew their membership of (Pax Romana + Dhimmicracy) and not strive for dharma based governance.