SALVATORE BABONES AND THE DEFENSE OF INDIA, INDIAN DEMOCRACY AND CIVILIZATION; AN ESSAY

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Dr Salvatore Babones

  Dr Salvatore Babones,a Sociologist trained in the John Hopkins University and now an Associate Professor of Sociology in Sydney University, Australia, has kicked up a huge storm by coming out in defense  of India, with all guns blazing. While there is a sharp polemical streak in his popular writings, Dr Babones as a Sociologist he is essentially a sympathizer  of the Left with a bias towards World Systems approach pioneered by Immanuel Wallerstein. Therefore, he does not take the received discourse at its face value. He excavates the evidence and vivisects te data for possible errors and inconsistencies. Nothing remarkable about the method as Historians have been doing just that for over 2000 years, What is new and novel is the ease with which Dr Babones is able to deconstruct the hegemonic discourse from Western Capitals and of course, his own homeland, the USA. 

Dr Salvatore Babones knows how to handle Big Data and subject them to critical scrutiny. All the Data that the ranking agencies lie V-DEM, Freedom House, and the Economist deploy in their Reports are all available in public domain and are generated by the Government of India through its own specialised Statistical wings like the National Sample Survey, Niti Ayog, Reserve Bank of India, and of course, Crime Statistics compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Ranking Agencies do not contest the validity of the Data and when China provides falsified and inaccurate data none of them dare call out the communist entity due perhaps to the heavy load of western investments there. The narrative report created by the ranking agencies are based on the information provided by "intellectuals, journalists and professors" in the target countries. Dr Babones is certainly right when he says, and he received considerable flak for his intellectual honesty, that Indian "intellectuals" are anti India and are willing partners in the international game of demonising India and vilifying the country. He  however takes a Pollyanna view when it comes to the Ranking Agencies themselves and he says that they are objective but are misled by the Indian informants. I think the answer is not so simple. The Western Ranking Agencies choose "experts" who are known for their political views and ideological pretenses. They essentially round up the usual suspects and ask them to provide an analysis which the "expert" gladly does thereby winning the kudos from his backers and can strut in India with the injured look of a martyr who "speaks truth to Power". 

Where does the problem start, at the Indian end or in Europe and USA. Dr Babones has rightly stated in his now famous article in The Quadrant that  the fall in India's ranking as a Democracy dates back to 2014, the very year Narendra Modi came to Office following an electoral landslide in his favor. And the criticism grew even sharper after he repeated his victory in 2019. It is obvious that the discourse on Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights, carries a huge burden of western liberal expectations, and has nothing to do with  ground realities. Some of the prominent figures who are known to be pro western and who are able to get published in the liberal platforms such as Washington Post, New York Times and the Guardian have been booked by the Government of India for fraud and that has nothing to do with their journalism but more related to crowd funded scams for COVID relief which were conveniently transferred to personal accounts. Even USA has laws against Money Laundering, Wire Fraud and the like. The context is deliberately obscured and a discourse of Freedom of the Press being threatened with the active collusion of such hucksters.

The fall in India ranking in the Hunger Index caused considerable consternation in India with loud mouths in India latching on to what appeared to be a drastic fall under the watch of Narendra Modi. Even I was taen by surprise as I have mentioned in my Blogs that the Direct Transfer Benefits to the low income groups and the free distribution of food grains directly to the target population were some of the innovations introduced by Modi through the linking of National Identity Card (AADHAR) with Bank Accounts.  Babones pointed out that the fall in ranking was due to the false data given in 2013 by the UPA regime which was not corrected by the new Government. In a poor resource constrained country like India, targeted distribution is the only solution. There can be no Universal Distribution Scheme  in India and if ranking agencies cannot understand the rationale, India could care less.

Indian Social Sciences is a discipline that mimics, imitates and copies the intellectual trends in western countries and so we are not surprised that "Social Scientists" in India have a Pavlovian response to the promptings of their handlers and so play ball. Most of the assessments provided by the Indian informants are either misleading or deceitful as Dr Babones has stated on several occasions. Another flawed method used to downgrade India and its Civilization is to use absolute figures, especially crimes against women, and paint a dreadful picture. However when factored for population, then India comes across as a safe country. While I do not want be belabor the point, there is no escape form the fact that the false reportage is due to the complicity of Indian "experts". And most of them work in Public funded Universities and face no administrative or legal issues shows that academic  freedom/license is indeed very high and is systematically misused against India and its image.

People of India must be grateful to scholars like Dr Salvatore Babones for their trenchant rebuttal of the fae narratives pedaled against India.

Was Rajaraja I a Hindu? Let the Historical Evidence speak fr itself

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

 Rajarajesvara Temple, Tanjavur

  Rajaraja I (985-1014), a splendid   monarch, has now become the   centre  of an unseemly controversy   over his depiction in Mani Ratman's   magnum opus, Ponniyin Selvan, a   film based on Kalki's novel of the   same name, published more than 70   years ago. Virulent debates over   identity  and ideology are the stuff of Indian public discourse, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The term "Hindu" was first used by Al-Biruni in his book/kitab on India and he used that term to designate the indigenous people of India, as opposed to the invading Turks/ turushka as they were called in Indian records. Obviously then we cannot hope to find a "Hindu" identity expressed as such in the contemporary Chola records. However, the fact remains that the Cholas were deeply embedded in the practice and propagation of Saiva religion with a pronounced leaning towards Saiva Siddhantha. Aghorasivacharya and Umapatisivacharya were both important commentators on Raurava Agama, a foundational text of Saiva Siddhantha.

In the nineteenth century, Saiva Siddhanta became the ideological armature of the nascent Dravidian Movement and hence tried to distance  itself from mainstream Saivism and the hangover of this ideological rupture exists until this day. Let us look at the contemporary evidence and see where it leads us.

The deity enshrined in the Great Temple consecrated by Rajaraja I on the 20th day of the 26th year of the reign of Rajaesari, the regnal title of the King was Dakshina-Meru-Vittankar. a definite indication of adherence to Isvara/Siva. On the same occasion Rajaraja I assumed the title, Siva-pada-sekara, a potent exhibition of a leaning towards Saiva faith. Another important piece of evidence is the reference to Pasupatas and Kalamukas, radical Saivite sectarian groups who were placed in charge of the funerary shrines built by Rajaraja I (pallippadai) at Melpadi for Arinjiya.

Rajaraja I signature

K A N Sastri on whom Kalki depended for the historical details has stated that Rajaraja I was an "ardent follower of Siva" and the titles that he displayed on the walls of the Temple at Tanjavur stand testimony to his religious faith.

The beautiful mural found in the Temple is a depiction of the king with his Saiva preceptor, and this mural puts paid to any lingering doubts one may entertain about the religious affiliations of Rajaraja I.

The term Hindu carries with it, at least in the medieval period, the sense that the term refers only to the indigenous inhabitants of Bharatvarsha and was not used to express the religious identity. The confusion between an ethnic label with a religious identity which was distinct from Islamic identity was caused by the Turkish Sultans who began to talk of non Moslems as Hindus. And it appears that the confusion still persists.