Why did Ganguly announce sudden retirement?
The Holy Grail! The news channel famous for its sting ops claimed to have laid its hands on the "real" truth. Whole affair was portrayed as some Watergate scandal waiting to be unearthed. The news went, "Ganguly ki beizzati ki thi tyaari. Dada ko nahin chahiye thi yeh beizzati. Dada ne kiya kinare hone ka faisla". According to the channel, Kumble had plans to leave out Ganguly from the first test match squad. He wanted to avenge the insult that Ganguly laid on him by not playing him during the 2003 World Cup despite his constant pleads. According to the "well placed" sources it would not be possible for Kumble to keep Ganguly out now.

Kumble and the 2 CD’s
The same channel claimed that Kumble-the captain have played 2 VCD’s to the team. First one contained clippings from the farcical Sydney test, Australia claiming dropped catches and the Monkeygate scandal. The second one relived Kolkata 2001. It got players pumped up. CD may or may not have pumped up the players but this news would for sure have left viewers boiling and hungry for revenge against the Australians.

Oz media slam Ganguly for delaying tactics in 'farcical draw'
This was a heading from the PTI. I searched online for related articles by the Australian media. I checked Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and others but couldn’t find any such report. What I found was a single article titled "Farcical draw like kissing mother-in-law" by some Andrew McKinlay. PTI claimed as if the entire Oz media was after Ganguly.

Recently, according to a report BCCI advised a sports channel not to advertise this as revenge and hatred filled series. Whatever be the case, sometimes such reporting do help in keeping up the popularity of the sport. I for one enjoyed run-in’s between Zaheer and Haddin, Shane Watson’s antics and Brett Lee’s glare a lot among other things. In fact I might not have enjoyed the match so much but for the media backed controversies.

The woman beside me vomited in my lap but I was too far gone to care. It was 1am and we were approaching our 30th hour packed, knees to chins, inside an ancient bus as it coughed and spluttered up and down barren Himalayan mountainsides towards Leh, capital of Ladakh. My head was swimming from fever and altitude sickness, my mouth so caked in phlegm that swallowing was impossible, and white lights flashed agonisingly behind my eyes.

As we climbed towards the Lachlung La, a pass 250m higher than the summit of Mont Blanc, the groaning engine spluttered and died. Turning the ignition had no effect, so the driver tried a bump start, letting us roll backwards down the bumpy road towards the hairpin bend and the 500m drop below, then slamming the bus into reverse with a mighty jolt that made my head throb still harder. After a dozen tries, and a few false starts, he conceded defeat and ordered the passengers off. We were left by the side of the windswept road, in the dark, gasping in the thin air and shivering in the cold, with no option but to hitch the remaining 160km to Leh.

More:

While digg is a fabulous site it fails to satisfy the regional aspirations of the community worldwide. The diggsamachar was created with Indian community in mind.

For example take the sport of cricket. Now matter how good a news or an article is about cricket, it will never make it to the main page of the digg or similar website. Similarly the so much talked about Bollywood themes will go unnoticed in digg and digg clones. And the Indo Pak relations - In US people do not understand the difference between India and Pakistan.

So here we have diggsamachar which aims to satisfy the regional aims of the India and Indian subcontinent. Visit diggsamachar read rated Indian News, rate news you like and post you news your blogs - your own blog that you want the world to see.

After completing my M. Ph. in Film, Drama & Media Research from Vienna University and working meanwhile originally for puppet theatre, children theatre, Austria's most renowned newspaper and 7 yrs in Austrian Film & TV production I needed a serious break. (That time university education was free in Austria and everybody used to study and work at the same time.) Crazy working hrs. in TV shows, cinema feature films and ads plus a thesis for which I read more than 200 scientific works took its toll. In others words, I was burned out.

I considered doing my civil service in some orphanage in India, but as I couldn't find a place willing to take me, I decided to do my Ph. D. in Cinema Studies in Delhi.

So beginning of Dec 2005 I sat in a plane with my poet/painter friend Christian heading through the clouds towards Delhi. My friend and his wife had entrusted their children to an unique educational institution in the lap of the Himalayas. As I had met the children in their holidays in Austria and found them bubbling with life, dignified and smart, I was quite curious to visit this boarding school on 2000 m height.

As I walked into the school area with the snow-peaked Himalayas in the background and children from all over the world all over the place, I was struck by Kama's arrow. I felt in love with the place.

There it was, my own personal Laputa, the Castle in the Sky. A place to enjoy, to live, breathe, dance and develop my stories for novels, radioplays and feature films.

I spent three awesome yrs. in this magical place and was teaching 250 children from 20+ countries German, Sports, Drama and Yoga from Mar 2005 - Dec 2008. I cannot go at this point into all the amazing adventures I expereinced at this place and all the lessons I learnt from the kids aged 6-16, but if you want to read reminiscences from former students, check out:

www.sahajayoga.org/swan/view/swan_106_2003.asp

Wait wait , am not going to write on the various elements of Sari but am going to post on my personal experience with sari draping and its influence on my blood pressure. My wife never was comfortable wearing sari prior to her marriage , barely a couple of times she would have wore it that too with the help of her mother and mausi ! When we got married , her mother adviced her to wear Sari often. She didnt knew that her daughter's M-I-L ( mother in law ) is a sport when it comes to dressing and loves her D-I-L in wester dresses and all kind of good clothes ! Anyways , my wife ended up with quiet a good number of saris in her wardrobe ! ( Thanks to many gifts from relatives and yours truly ) So she decided to wear atleast once in a week sari to her office , so that she perfects the art of sari draping ! Good ! Not a bad idea , considering she looks cuter in sari ! I didnt realise then that there could be connection in her sari draping and my blood pressure !!!!

So this is how a typical sari day starts in our home. My wife decides that she will wear sari to office. So after bath , puja etc . She gets into the "great art of sari draping " For men , it will look so easy to wear a sari ! After all , all one needs is to wrap the 6 meters around the body . Oh may be its just a little more of fabric than the dhoti that men wear. For me it doesnt seem so easy considering the fact that i cannot even wear a dhoti properly ! ( wearing is one aspect and managing the dhoti in the body is an eternal fear i tread) So my wife starts excitedly to wear her lovely sari ! Women glow when they are happy ! Emotions reflects very easily on their face ! At the initial moment , i would be relaxed . Time ticks . She will drape the sari and when it comes to pallu ( the upper pleated portions ) then comes the tricky part and anxious moment of my life ! She will arrange , rearrange , dearrange , arrange again , rearrange again , dearrange again .. this goes on and on . . She is a perfectionist . She likes her sari to set right to the perfection. ( In this matter , she discards the vital instruction her mom gave that is to wear the sari even if its not very perfectly sitting on you ) She likes the pally to set to the perfection. She starts sweating. My heart beat slowly increases the pace like Ussain bolt sprint. She asks me to switch on the fan . I jump and does it. She asks me if the sari is set right. I stumble for words and say yees er yes. . She knows am not sure . She looks at mirror and works on the sari again . By this time , my BP would have sure hit the roof. My mind desperately searches for  any excuse to run out of the room but then i can i leave my dearest alone in this adventure ! No way . So i stick there in the room . Finally she comes with the perfect drape that she looks for ! Phew ! what a relief ! The smile we have in our face that moment makes one forget the nail biting moments earlier !

Nevertheless, the barbs and scrambling for position has commenced!

Zaheer Khan already fired the first salvo when he said, "I have never seen an Australian team play such defensive cricket, which is a good thing for us," at the post-match interview. Is he right? He need not be. It is just his view.

I am not a big fan of players using post-match, man-of-the-match interviews to fire barbs at the opposition. It was not in good form, in my book. Podium-interviews are to recognise your teams' efforts, applaud the opposition, thank the sponsors, collect the cheque and make a hasty retreat. Yet, Zaheer Khan did utter those words.

Instead of accepting it and analysing it as nothing more than an opinion, several radio stations here in Melbourne do what some Australians do best -- mock the opposition and run them down. A local radio station continued to play a clip from his interview in which he says, "I wanted to raise my bar" and pillory the Indian pace bowler rather than analyse what he was actually trying to say about the defensive tactics adopted by Australia. Yes, nice one guys. Shallow, no doubt. But very Australian! How is your Hindi, guys, I wonder? Naah! Let's not go there. But more seriously, I reckon that that is the best form of respect that Zaheer Khan can get! Australian media seems to hate in-your-face sports-people. Wonder why?

So was Zaheer Khan right? He need not be. It is his view. Ricky Ponting provided a strange counter to Zaheer Khan's barb in which he attacked the number of drawn games India play and added that Australia was the only one doing the running in the drawn Bengaluru Test.

Mahesh has provided an excellent analysis to counter Ricky Ponting's wild (in my view) claims.

If you thought that the pre-tour lead up was without much of the customary, distasteful and disrespectful Australian reporting, you can bet your bottom dollar that it has erupted like a never-extinct volcano. There are reporters erupting wildly everywhere!

Take this vitriol-filled and bitterness-soaked gem from Channel-9's sports reporter (as reported in the Indian Express). Here are some of the gems:

• Serial offender Sourav Ganguly firstly persuaded the umpires to go off. Then when play resumed, Ganguly made Australia's fielders and partner VVS Laxman wait an eternity because he'd apparently 'forgotten to put his thigh pad on'.
• Please! Can't you be timed out in this game?
• The spectators were the obvious losers in the entire exercise.
• The players got something out of it. Pedantic officials got their moment of the glory. But billions of fans and more importantly -- the game itself -- got nothing out of this farcical finish in Bangalore.
• With the match in the balance, a crucial hour's play on the final day was lost, with not one, but two stoppages for bad light -- when at times the sun was shining!
• Umpires strutted about like Emperor Penguins, holding out their light metres -- a device that like performance enhancing drugs should be banned.
• If Test cricket continues to produce farcical finishes like this one in Bangalore, this great game's Bradmans, Gavaskars, Tendulkars and Pontings will also be soon forgotten... Even by their mothers-in-law!

I did think, at the end of day-1 itself, that Australia's tactics defied belief. I did decry this so-called "new age cricket". This is un-Australian, in my view. I do not like it. I do hope Australia junk this and adopt Australia's style of positive, dominant cricket. I knew then that this new age nonsense won't get Australia to victory! I admire Australia's tenacity and resolve. But this new age nonsense is chanelling that tenacity and dogged determination down the wrong channel; the boredom channel. Australia needs to play like they have in the past: attractive, dominant, foot-on-the-pedal stuff. They were, instead, trying to play like India in India! Why? Is this Guru Greg Chappell gone mad? Surely, this is not a Ricky Ponting theory? It can't be! I can understand choking four-scoring opportunities for the free-wheeling, fat, old, puffing, lazy and immobile Indian batsmen. But it was inconceivable to me that Ricky Ponting had a spread out field with 25 overs to go, with India intent on saving the game! This is new age cricket? What was the worst that could have happened had India hit 4 sixers in a row at that point?

Australian tactics in this game did leave me a bit dumbfounded. This is not quite the dominant, foot-on-the-pedal Australia that I have seen in the past. And I can't imagine that this emanated merely from being a quality spinner short! This is, I believe, management theory and hype running amok in the dressing room.

So, in my view, Ricky Ponting did get it wrong. The match ended in a draw. I do believe that after being on the top from the moment he called the toss correctly, Ponting let this game slip from his grasp. Apart from one single session in the game -- session-9 on day-3 when Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan batted -- India didn't dominate any session comprehensively! Yet, the result was a draw! This can't be an easy pill for the Australians to swallow. And for this, they only have themselves and their "new age nonsense" to blame. What is wrong with "plain cricket"? Will someone tell me?

-- Mohan

Srinagar, Oct 13 (PBI): Stating that New Delhi's claim of being the largest democracy in the world having "fallen flat" in Kashmir, a human rights group comprising  educationists came up with a list of demands on Monday which  included stopping of "military might" against peaceful protesters in Kashmir.

Revealing details to media persons, of their nine-day long 'fact-findings' visit to the valley starting from October 4, a member of the team, Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, lecturer at Delhi university, who was acquitted in parliament attack case, said that the claims of India to be the largest democracy in the world have ended in fiasco in view of the present scenario in Kashmir.

"The most disturbing sight during the whole fact finding mission was the over-bearing presence of the army, paramilitary, police and the SOG personnel. This has become part and parcel of the everyday life of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The blanket powers given to the army, paramilitary, SOG and police under the garb of fighting militancy has only increased the cruelty of the state forces."

Geelani, flanked by two other members, Prof. Amit Bhattacharyya and Rona Wilson V. lbrahim told reporters at a hotel here.  "The display of this power is visible in the way, the forces have been dealing with the recent rallies in the valley."

"The accounts of the doctors of Baramulla District Hospital as well as the testimonies from the injured confirm that the peaceful demonstrators were fired in the abdomen, chest or head. This shows a clear intention of shooting to kill."

The team expressed concern over 'implication in false cases' of the people who participated in the rallies.

"False cases have been framed against many people who have participated in peaceful protests. Most of them have been booked under PSA. The draconian laws such as the PSA, DM, AFSPA have been used in the most arbitrary manner, so much so that even when someone who has been charged under PSA gets that quashed in the court, soon after he or she is charged afresh under the same act. Even those acquitted of PSA charges will have to endure an unending wait for the security forces to release them," he said.

The team comprised Prof Amit Bhattacharyya (Jadavpur University, Kolkata), S. A. R. Geelani, (Delhi University), Prof. A. Marx (Chennai), Advocate Sugumaran (Pondicherry), Prof. Pranab Nayak (Kolkata), V. M. Ibrahim (Executive Editor, Madhyamam, Kerala), Rona Wilson (Research Scholar, JNU), Raja Sarkhel (Kolkata), Sitangshu Chakraborty (Film maker, Kolkata), Maitreyee Nayak (Student, Rabindra Bharati University,Kolkata) visited various areas of the valley to ascertain the facts.

Visiting medical stores in the valley, he said, proved beyond doubt the impact of the economic blockade and the total failure of the government to provide relief to the people.

"The Government of India's effort to deny the economic blockade only brought to the fore the silent sanction of the establishment for such an inhuman. Life saving drugs, baby food and other drugs were in terrible shortage. Despite the letter written by the Divisional Commissioner, Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies such like Cipla, Cadilla, Glaxo, FDC, Emcure, Sun Pharmaceuticals have stopped their operations."

The group called for repealing of all the draconian laws including ULPA, AFSPA, DAA and PSA. "Ensure life saving drugs, baby food and other medicines.  Stop the use of military might on the peaceful demonstrations, Withdraw troops, Stop all efforts to foment communal hatred against the people, release all political prisoners unconditionally, initiate steps to address issue of right to self determination per the norms set by the UN and other International bodies" the group demanded.

Singh lamented "the assault on our composite culture" [Reuters]

India's prime minister has said that increased religious and ethnic tensions are threatening the country's social stability and blamed those "encouraging" hatred and violence.

"There are clashes between Hindus, Christians, Muslims and tribal groups. An atmosphere of hatred and violence is being artificially generated. There are forces deliberately encouraging such tendencies," Manmohan Singh said on Monday.

Against a backdrop of religious unrest in eastern Orissa and tribal clashes in southern Karnataka, Singh said the violence threatened India's proud "inheritance" of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-caste society.

"Perhaps the most disturbing and dangerous aspect today is the assault on our composite culture ... we see fault-lines developing between, and among, communities," he told a conference of chief state ministers in the capital, New Delhi.

In August, at least 35 people were killed in Orissa after the death of a hardline Hindu priest and four of his followers sparked violence between Hindus and Christians.

Indian Maoists claimed responsibility for killing Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, saying he was forcing tribal people to reconvert to Hinduism.

They also claimed that the state government had "made it look like Christian groups [were] responsible for the attack".

But Hindu hardline groups rejected the Maoist claim, saying Saraswati opposed conversions to Christianity and his elimination could only benefit Christian missionaries active in the area.

In India's northeastern Assam state, 50 people were killed in clashes between Muslim migrants and tribal groups earlier this month.

Curfew imposed

Violence between different religious groups have flared in several states [EPA]

The prime minister's warning came as police imposed a curfew in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh two days after the latest clash between Muslims and Hindus which left three people dead.The country has also been rocked by a series of bomb blasts targeting major cities this year which killed more than 100 people killed.

A home-grown Islamic group, the Indian Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and New Delhi, saying they were in revenge for attacks on Muslims across India.

Singh said in his speech that "there can be no compromise with terrorism, and terrorists have to be dealt with firmly".

"We need to meet today's mindless violence with the requisite amount of force but must also ensure that this is tempered by reason and justice which is the normal order of governance," he added.

India, which is majority Hindu with a large Muslim minority, is officially secular. ]]> http://tushizap.wordpress.com/?p=474 Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:08:10 +0000 clash http://tushizap.de.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/mumbai-fc-the-new-kid-on-the-block-the-story-so-far/ Mumbai F.C is a relatively new club that is setting the i-league on fire. After finishing their first 3 games, they have defeated the power houses in Indian Football. During this ramapage they ran over Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mahindra United; the 3 top clubs in i-league.

Here is their story so far....

An overview of the 2^nd edition of i-league so far.

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Kalia Kulothongan’s only goal earned Mumbai Fc their 3^rdwin in the league which took them to the Numero Uno position after 3 matches along with Sporting Club de Goa

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 3 cheers to them…

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 For a newbie in the National Scene, it was quite stunning!

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 Oh.. yeah, of course they are the giant killers now!

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It is not the usual news papers that are spreading the vibes; here Business Standard goes ga ga about a club supported by Essel group.

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3 straight wins against 3 big shots is no easy task !

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One among the 3 big shots: East Bengal, no mean feat!

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Team spirit is an undeniable quality that every winning team posses and Mumbai FC are not short of it in any terms!

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Bimal Ghosh is man who leads a quiet revolution Indian Football. There is a team that has hardly dropped off from the National scene but some how doesn’t generate much news – Air India. This astute man seems to be happy for Mumbai FC

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Mumbai Boys have quiet rocked Kolkota now. The again only 3 matches are over; it is far too early to predict anything. Let me remind you, this is a just an attempt to celebrate the entry of new kid in the block and their current winning streak! But the article is quite rhetoric!

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The man behind the show: David Booth has his legs firmly grounded even after toppling East Bengaland Mohun Bagan.

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Yes they did overpower East Bengal!

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 The man behind the scene; David Booth wants more of this :

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Very rarely would you find the so called beacons of our society these days; the television news channels finding time for Indian Football. Now, it seems Mumbai FC has finally caught their attention. Hope they don’t end up conducting candle light vigils for the Kolkotan clubs. Here goes a report from NDTV

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I seriously had a quintal load of hopes on Mohun Bagan this season, but seems like they are faltering big time.

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The man behind the scene David Booth about tactics and sorts :

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Player ratings for the East Bengal match :

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Twins from Malappuram a district in Kerala which has produced a host of Indian internationals are enjoying a good stint with Mumbai FC. They are the right role models for any aspiring football professionals from Kerala. Anees and Assem who are raking up good ratings for their performance for Mumbai FC have traveled quite a lot for a footballer in India. From Goathey have hopped to Mumbai, where they seem to have settled in now. Kudos to Hindustan Times for carrying this story.

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 Oh.. yeah a rude jolt for Bagan.

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 Shock!

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 Timely reminder right at the beginning of the league for Karim and his boys.

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 Player ratings for the Bagan match:

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Mumbai FC definitely did not turn up to be an easy opponent

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Mumbai outfits hoped to tilt the balance of power. Mumbai FC now seems to have strengthen the feeling a bit more

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 Mumbai FC with the support Essel group has big plans. Stadiums, academy and so on. 

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For all the action from I-league and daily new dosage of Indian football book mark this link available here.

Terrorist India that occupies its neighbor Jammu Kashmir by brutal force has over decades created a terror force to kill Kashmiris and groomed a band of anti-Muslim militant-minded journalists to pursue the state agenda of anti-Muslimism who in the name of combating terrorism only keep the inter-civilization wedge intact if no t further fueling it. They promote only anti-Islamic opinions in the media under their control and influence abroad especially in developing world, more importantly in Middle East. Indian journalists, thriving on "terrorism" cash, see only terrorism in Indian and Kashmir Muslims in one form or the other. They denounce any thing "not pro-India' and term them as " anti-India" and terrorize even the non-Muslim journalists who make living on terrorism theme.

India is country of hidden agendas at home and abroad. State terrorism has remained the hallmark of Indian policy. As soon as it clinched the nuclerism with USA, it went further to showcase its power to Jammu Kashmir. Indian leaders, including the military top brass, are yet to admit the fact that terror forces are illegally occupying Jammu Kashmir. India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to stay away form Kashmir issue and let the Kashmiris seek independence all by themselves. It is very particular that Kashmir is kept out of purview of any bilateral talks between them. Will India, then, resolve the issue now and surrender Kashmir for good?

Indian and JK governments have complicated the life of freedom leaders particularly Syed Ali Geelani who is being repeated arrested and mentally tortured. During the recent curfew clamped by Vohra regime in Srinagar has further deteriorated the health of this veteran leader. The Majlis Shoura of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC-G) has appointed Ghulam Nabi Sumji as acting chairman of the amalgam because of the ill-health of Chairman Shah Geelani, who has been advised to get his pacemaker replaced and is being shifted to Delhi for treatment. The condition of Geelani had deteriorated because of his continuous detention and house arrest. He was admitted to a local hospital on October 5.

Geelani criticized the authorities for imposing curfew in the valley and arresting separatist leaders and asked the people not to heed rumors and foil any attempt by miscreants to harm unity. However, in a message to the people of Kashmir, he stressed the need for unity among all pro liberation groups.

ONE

People's power is indeed great and purposeful. Kashmiris have shown that if people are united and fight for a just cause the rulers would be ruined sooner than later.

Discovered by UK in 19th century, the Amarnath temple structure outside India has all of sudden become a Hindutva symbol of Hindus in India and Jammu region of Kashmir. India and its Hindu representatives in Jammu Kashmir seem to have accorded to the Amarnath the status of NRI. After the destruction of Babri Mosque on the pretext that it was once Hindu structure, the Hindu India has taken up a new agenda in Hinduizing occupied Jammu Kashmir. They were under illusion that what they want to do in India and Jammu Kashmir will have to be accepted by Muslims as the final law. But Muslims Kashmir are totally different form those in India made with completely pro-Hindu mindset, and they don't want to be a part of terrorist India that has killed over lakh Kashmiris so far.

Unlike the slavery minded Muslims in India who even don't have the capacity to fight for the reconstruction of the Babri Mosque demolished by Indian Hindu terrorists, Kashmiris continue to demand freedom from occupying India. Muzaffarabad March sacrificed a prominent freedom leader among others, but it evoked the inner consciousness of freedom seeking Kashmiris who are overwhelming in Jammu Kashmir. After protestors thronged the United Nations Military Observer Group's (UNIMOGIP'S) office in Srinagar demanding the resolution of Kashmir dispute the United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has formulated plans to pay a visit to India towards the end of this month or early November. Ban has criticized the India terrorism in Kashmir but, as usual, prompted resented by India. UN chiefs visit to India will be closely watched by the pro liberation camp in the Valley. Many pro liberation leaders are planning to seek a rendezvous with the UN chief and plead for his intervention in resolving the six decades old Kashmir sovereignty issue.

Pertinent to mention that freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had during a rally held at TRC grounds on August 18 asked Ban Ki-moon to pay a visit to the Valley and ascertain the facts, besides getting a first hand account on the uprising in Kashmir. Hopefully, UN chief's visit to this "democracy' killing Kashmiris for fun will pave way for freedom of Jammu Kashmir.

Not by Curfew alone!

A high level meeting held in New Delhi discussed the Kashmir situation and unanimously decided to impose curfew in the Valley to scuttle the Lal Chowk March. The security agencies were already directed to erect long iron-made barricades at various entry points including Kokerbazar, Amira Kadal, Jehangir Chowk, Regal Chowk to prevent people from marching towards Lal Chowk. "Massive deployment of troops has already been put in place and Lal Chowk will be made out of bound for the people. Meanwhile, authorities have imposed section 144 in Ganderbal and Baramulla districts of Kashmir to prevent assembling of more than four persons at a place.

The curfew comes in the wake of Lal Chowk Chalo March call given by Coordination Committee, a freedom conglomerate, to press for its demands which include opening of Line of Control roads for trade, release of all detainees and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. A number of freedom leaders, including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yaseen Malik were put under preventive custody. Hardline freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was shifted to a hospital after he complained of pain in lower abdomen. Among those placed under house arrest were Chairman of moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Showkat besides senior separatist leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Sajjad Lone.

A virtual siege was laid around Lal Chowk as a large posse of gun-toting security personnel took up position in and around the area. All entry and exit points in Srinagar city have been sealed. There were some sporadic protests when the paramilitary forces refused to entertain curfew passes. However, the issue was resolved later. The new anti-riot vehicles, procured by the Jammu and Kashmir Police recently, were positioned at strategic locations, especially those which had witnessed violence earlier. Due to indefinite curfew imposed by the authorities in Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir and the government's failure to provide adequate number of curfew passes to our staff, distributors and hawkers, the print editions. Some of the local newspapers failed to hit the stands as publishers decided not to print them accusing the government of not providing enough curfew passes to their staff, a charge denied by the government. A private television channel -- Sen TV-- was banned for allegedly inciting people to disturb public peace and tranquility.

Indian agents in Jammu Kashmir headed by Governor Vohra are trying all tricks including state terrorism techniques to quell the freedom move in Jammu Kashmir by clamping curfews intermittently adding more harm to the Kashmiris. After creating enough trouble for the Kashmir Muslims the Hindu "brethren" in Jammu region are enjoying life by being agents of New Delhi.

Moral Victory for Kashmiris

Putting all speculations to rest, State administration decided on Oct 04 to impose curfew in Kashmir on 05 to abort the October 6 "Lal Chowk March". Administration has decided to impose curfew. "The announcement in this regard will be made anytime on Sunday. Another senior official said that the administration has decided to impose the curfew to prevent the situation from taking an ugly turn. A top police official said that imposition of curfew is a move to prevent the "separatists" from calling the shots. He said that State authorities were in a fix whether to impose curfew this time around.

Freedom leaders try to see if they could cushion the effects of harm being done intentionally by New Delhi to them. India terror forces want to kill Kashmiris for no reasons. Curfew would give enough opportunity for that. After facing repeated curfews against public mobilization calls, top freedom leaders on 05 Sept called off agitation for October considering the ongoing harvest season and scheduled exams for College and University courses. Syed Ali Geelani urged the people to resume their routine chores and accomplish the social and economic goals during October. Geelani appealed people to resume work from October 7 saying the future strategy will be set on October 8 in a special session of Jammu Kashmir Coordination Committee (CC). The senior resistance leader Geelani said: "Our October 6 program was sabotaged by using unprecedented force and clamping of curfew. The ailing leader said October is the marriage and harvesting season. He said it is a crucial period for the school and college children too. People should resume their routine work from October 7 and wait for the future program of the CC. "No marriage or examination should get affected by the CC program. Our farmers should also complete the process of harvesting at ease. But it was our victory and the real face of Indian democracy got exposed by what they did. Lal Chowk March continues to remain on stand-by, the date of which will be announced soon.

Senior leader of the Coordination Committee and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has termed the state's use of force against the Lal Chowk March as "People's moral victory" and asked the people restore the normal activity from Oct 05 and called for resumption of normal activities. People should resume their routine activities because the message is conveyed loud and clear. We had asked the people to come with white flags without any slogans except for one demand of right to self-determination; the world has seen how peaceful programs are quelled through brute force." Reacting harshly to what he termed "undemocratic and uncivilized" response to peaceful means of resistance, Mirwaiz said: "Indian response to this extremely peaceful program has shown how vacuous her claims about democracy and ideals of free speech are." Mirwaiz further informed that the Coordination Committee – a coalition of pro-freedom leader, trade lobby groups and civil society representatives – would shortly convene a session and work out the "future course of action".

But one still fails to understand why can't these freedom leaders make joint statements after debating the current situation in Jammu Kashmir? What exactly stops them form coming together to take a common stand and firmly fighting for that? Don't they really seek sovereignty back form the terrorist Hindu nation? Indian strategist do claim that way and many paid newspaper columnists, aided by Indian intelligence, do write about the "double-speak" of the "separatist s"! The Kashmir freedom leaders have to call them a bluff only through joint action henceforth and let the world know the Kashmiris are together on their resolve to get away form the terror India as quickly as possible!!

But why curfew again and again? Can't the freedom leaders talk to their people? During the previous rallies we have observed that people did maintain peace as far as possible and did not resort to violence generally experienced on such occasions. . We don't think Lal Chowk March would be peaceful as there was every possibility that people would create law and order problems."

Vohra must stop terrorizing Freedom leaders!

It is shame on the Indian "secular democracy" that Kashmir is being controlled by India Hindu leaders, officers and other officials. No one is really bothered as Kashmir Muslims re being tortured and killed on a regular basis. In this connection, briefing Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) about present political scenario, Governor Narender N Vohra and gave a nod for holding polls in the State as per schedule saying the situation was returning to normal from the worst. Last week the Election Commission of India visited Srinagar on a two day visit to make an assessment of the situation for the forthcoming elections to the J&K Assembly. The Commission 'meets' the representatives of political parties of the State tomorrow and obtain their views on holding of the elections. The Chief Secretary, S. S. Kapur and Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda "briefed" the Commission on law and order situation and the assessment of the Administration for conduct of polls in the state.

Recently, on an almost secret journey to Indian colony Jammu Kashmir, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan intruded into Jammu Kashmir almost like a cross-border terrorist to pursue the Indian agenda in this alien nation effectively controlled by his terror forces. Manmohan was in occupied and militarized Jammu and Kashmir on 10 Oct to inaugurate the 450 MW Baglihar hydroelectric projects and switch on a new rail track to Kashmir. Indian premier landed at Udhampur to the loudest protests form natives of Jammu Kashmir and then flew to the Baglihar project site in Doda. On Oct 10 he (ie his forces) killed mercilessly Kashmiris protests who sought freedom and asked the outside to quit their nation.

Pakistan has been raising the Baghliar Dam issue with India at the bilateral level since 1992. It was only after all bilateral talks with India on the issue had failed that Pakistan decided to request the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert as an arbitrator. Under the Indus Water Treaty, India can use the waters of the Chenab for hydro-electric generation, but not for irrigation or any other consumptive use. In violation of this provision, the Baghliar Dam will allow India to draw up to 7,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water a day from the Chenab river for irrigation purposes, thereby reducing the quantum of river flows available to Pakistan.

Pakistan says this would not only be a violation of the treaty but also an infringement of its rights as a lower-riparian state. India's stand is that the controversial 450 megawatt hydro-electric project "fulfills" the requirements of the Indus Water Treaty, a claim contested by Pakistan. In 2005, Pakistan had sought the World Bank's intervention to stop construction of the Baglihar dam and the hydroelectricity power project. An expert appointed by the World Bank had allowed India to go ahead with the project after a few minor modifications. The issue came up last month as well when Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari brought up the Baglihar dam issue during talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

On the eve of Manmohan's visit to Kashmir to open the hydro and rail projects, on Oct 04 Governor Vohra stressed authorities to complete construction on the road to Muzaffarabad within 15 days. Reviewing arrangements for cross-LoC trade, Vohra visited Salamabad in Uri and reviewed the ongoing work for establishment of Trade Facilitation Centre, coming up on war footing for meeting the deadline of October 21, the date set for cross-LoC trade with Pakistan administered Kashmir. The Governor reviewed the preparedness and arrangements for launching an important event and called upon executing agencies to complete the remaining work on a time-bound basis. Vohra personally monitored the arrangements made for cross-LoC trade via the Salamabad and Chakan-da-Bagh routes. Accompanied by senior Army officers, the Governor visited the Kaman Post and was given a detailed briefing about the arrangements and services which were being provided for the passengers traveling to Muzaffarabad, now on weekly basis. Vohra had also visited Chakan-da-Bagh and Zero Point in Poonch on September 28.

For reasons known only to itself, India seems to tighten the security position in Kashmir region. Kashmir remained under curfew for days off and on with police and paramilitary forces deployed heavily in the Valley to thwart any attempt by separatists to hold a protest march to Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Barring minor incidents of slogan shouting by groups of people that gathered in old Baramulla town, the situation in the entire Valley was peaceful and there was been no report of any violent incident.

India must stop terrorizing Kashmiris directly or through proxy wars. Curfews, torltures andgenocides cannot go on fo rever and India has to surrender Jammu Kashmir.

An Observation

India at long last says it welcomes bilateral and trilateral talks and the freedom leaders should come up with specific proposals. I s Manmohan joking right being in Kashmir where thousands and thousands of innocent Kashmiris have laid their lives for the cause of freedom? But even a child in Kashmir and perhaps India knows that Kashmiris have only complaints and grievances and they seek final withdrawal of Indian terror forces from Jammu Kashmir and Let Kashmiris live peacefully as free independent citizens of their own country.

India suffers form superiority complexes and it might not come forward to talk to "small fellows" who don't have a unified vice, especially under the nuclerism era. India strategists, including the media lords and intelligence, would like to divert the world attention form the present crises and keep postponing talks to finalize the sovereignty issue indefinitely if freedom leaders are still behave irresponsibly even after letting terrorist India to butcher over lakh innocent Kashmiris.

Obviously, India leaders and being ill-advised by the strategists including the media lords to go ahead with its scheduled poll in Jammu Kashmir and create a lot confusion to divert the attention of Kashmiris fighting for their independence and survival. That way India could showcase its power to the world. Bulk of India media and Kashmir newspapers have not changed their anti-Kashmir attitude so far and continue harp on espousing hatred in the minds of Indians including the Muslims, who have been brain-washed by the media and leaders.

As it shows JK is being run by Hindus and their supporters against the will and wishes of Kashmiris. Indo-US nuclerism is considered by Indian leaders as a victory for its terror policy in Jammu Kashmir. USA has in effect strengthened the dirty hands of Indian terror forces to strangle the innocent Kashmiris. USA should be beware of an arrogant India!

Manmohan belongs to the category of those trained Indian bureaucrats who speak only the words they are allowed by the "Ups" and generally keep tight lips on every issue. But even after becoming the premier, although quite unexpectedly, he has continued to behave like a bureaucrat, rather than the leader of Indian people and, therefore, he keeps his mouth shut on Kashmir issue too. However, he knew the exact words to denounce the Iranian legitimate nuclear program to appease the EU and USA, he still has not found the right word s to declare independence for Kashmir, and notwithstanding the fact Kashmiris now demand their sovereignty and asks the India terror forces occupying Jammu Kashmir to quite.

These days India shows any inclination to talk to freedom leaders and announce a date for the transfer of power to Kashmir freedom leaders. It is unfortunate that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in his own capacity has volunteered to talk to Indian leaders on sovereignty issue. It would be better for the Kashmir's future goals and innocent Kashmiris left behind alive by Indian terror forces occupying Jammu Kashmir, if all leaders discuss and decide the issues and how to proceed further as one single freedom groups, in stead of making independent statement by individual leaders. India has already capitalized the division among the Kashmiris leaders to kill their kith and kin and it would not hesitate to kill every single Kashmiris if the leaders don't shed their "separate' identity. For the sake of independence and freedom they have to scarify their complexes.

The conflicting statements made not only by the Kashmir freedom leaders, but also by the Pakistan leaders creates a conflicting situation in Jammu Kashmir and as they mislead the ordinary Kashmiris to a great extent. More crucial is the fact that Indian leaders in New Delhi remain silent on the issue now that Kashmiri freedom leaders have opted for peaceful resolution, but their continued criminal silence also is injurious to Kashmir peace in the long run. Because, India cannot fool the Kashmiris for too long, however powerful they might be and how many weapons arsenals they have n the arms depot.

The crux of the Kashmir crisis is the Indian continued military occupation of Jammu Kashmir and the crucial issue creating confusion not only both in India and Kashmir, but also Pakistan and word at large is criminal silence being skillfully maintained by India on its intentions about a free Kashmir.

-----------------------
DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
Researcher in International Affairs,
South Asia
E Mail : abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com

http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=225112

Isha Khan   bdmailer@gmail.com

NEW DELHI, October 13 (Compass Direct News) – The Christian community of Chhattisgarh state is rattled after a gruesome mob attack and torture in Surguja district.

At midnight on Oct. 3 in Dumarbhavna village, 110 kilometers (68 miles) from Premnagar, three jeeps full of Hindu nationalists broke open the door of a house where a three-day prayer meeting was taking place and attacked participants as they slept – ultimately forcing two Christians to beat one of their own prayer partners unconscious under threat of death.

The mob from the Hindu extremist Dharma Sena (Religious Army) beat the participants in the prayer meeting, including women, and dragged three of them from the house of Parmeshwar Beik, dumping them into the jeeps.

“We thought that they were taken to the police station, but instead they were taken to a secluded place where they were beaten all night,” Yahoshu Kujur, pastor of Blessing Church of God, told Compass.

Muneshwar Ekka and Beik were beaten first, and then the Hindu nationalists ordered them to beat the third captured Christian, Ravi Devangan.

“They threatened to kill us if we did not beat Ravi,” Beik told Pastor Kujur. “We were so scared and left with no option, so we beat Ravi until he dropped unconscious.”

After failing to find the three Christians at the local police station the next morning, the pastor found them at the Srinagar Government Hospital, where Devangan was admitted with internal injuries and injuries to his chest, legs and other parts of the body.

“Ravi, who is a driver by profession, was just visiting Parmeshwar from Mehagai village,” Pastor Kujur said. “He was the worst hit, at home and outside during the attack.”

He added that Devangan’s wife witnessed the attack on the house.

Police Inaction

Pastor Kujur told Compass that police admitted all three kidnapped Christians to the Srinagar Government Hospital with Devangan in serious condition and the other two in shock.

Beik’s wife also sustained internal injuries during the attack, Pastor Kujur said.

“Mr. Ashok Sahu and four other local Christian leaders went on the morning of Oct. 4 and reported the matter at the police station, but so far no action has been taken,” the pastor said.

Police reportedly deceived local Christians into believing that no complaint would be filed against the prayer team members for “forced conversion” if they would agree not to file any complaints against the Hindu nationalists.

“They told us that they would set the three free if we did that,” Pastor Kujur told Compass.

Instead police registered a case of “forced conversion” against the three Christians under sections 3 and 4 of the Chhattisgarh Dharma Swantantraya Adhiniyam (Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Bill).

If convicted, the Christians could be sentenced up to a year in prison and/or pay a fine of up to 5,000 rupees (US$100). They appeared in Surajpur local court on Oct. 6. A fourth Christian, Fakir Chand Toppo, was also falsely implicated, Pastor Kujur said.

At press time all four Christians were in Surajpur jail, though attempts to secure bail for them continued.

Political Influence

Pastor Kujur said police officers who are friends of his informed him that police were forced to prosecute the Christians on “orders from above.”

Internal police sources told him, he added, that police in the state were working against Christians under Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pressure that has the support of the Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Christians from Surajpur have received news from sources who wish to remain anonymous that, emboldened by the BJP government that rules the state, Hindu nationalists have announced a cash award of 100,000 rupees (US$2,092) to anyone who murders a Christian preacher.

In Premnagar, also in Surguja district, Hindu extremist mobs have mounted similar attacks, Pastor Kujur said. He told Compass that in 2004 a Christian convention was attacked during which a mob surrounded the venue and shouted anti-Christian slogans. Police intervention averted casualties.

In another incident in 2005, Hindu extremists incited villagers of Premnagar to attack local Christians, reportedly wounding many.

The Dharma Sena was relatively unknown until nearly three years ago, emerging suddenly in the central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Attacking Christians throughout the two states, the Hindus extremist group is reportedly backed heavily by the BJP, with BJP leaders pressuring police officials not to register any First Information Reports against it.

It is widely believed that the Dharma Sena is nothing more than the Hindu extremist youth group Bajrang Dal in another form.

Report from Compass Direct News

The formal/informal inauguration was done by the behind the scenes slide show and video by picturulize featuring the key guys behind this wonderful unconference.

Then the talks/sessions proceeded, I attended a talk on Pylons and Schevo , It seems Pylons might be better than django in terms of modularity, but django has become a rockstar for python community and  django has much more active community than pylons.

The other talk i really liked was about Building a scalable architecture of web applications by Bhavin Turakhia, CEO Directi, It was very much power packed and a must see for any web developer.

The talk of the day was The Global Financial Crisis and India by Pankaj from Teknatus, It was very interactive talk and if we can get the video of the talk that would be far more informative, It tells about the harsh realities India might face in near future. Some keypoints of the talks were :

• Indian Economy is very much integrated  with global economy, so it is prone to be hit by global slowdown, we may see its consequences in coming six months or so.
• 30 years back Indian saved 70 percent of there income, These days it has gone down to 11 percent. So the if the economic disaster strikes, It is going to be a nightmare for many.
• The US financial crisis is result of sheer ignorance of US policy makers and same can happen to India

This presentation was a big hit with the listeners, it got extended to 90 minutes session from an alloted 30 minutes. The day ended with the coyright infringement talk by twilightfairy and how she fought with mainstream media big wig TOI for her rights .

The second day of barcamp started with an interactive discussion about blogging and as the participants arrived ,There was a talk by Barcamp4 and Barcamp5 Coordinator Piyush about Entrepreneurs and Marriages, as most of the Entrepreneurs face matrimonial issues , There was very healthy discussion about it .

Fabian form Ubuntu told the audience about its importance. A hackathon was called on by two young hackers Pratul and Parteek , but it turned out to be a ubuntu installation and  support session for newbies.

Nikhil from Medianama, interacted with enterprenures about there ventures. The day ended with a call to change the conversation to 'Poverty' on blog action day by simply arun.

You can search youtube and slide share with tag bcd5 for videos and slides respectively.

THE QUINCENTENNIAL FLOOD OF WRITING and arguing about Columbus and everything he can possibly be taken to stand for has involved surprisingly little attention to the "Indies" he hoped to find-the Spice Islands and, more broadly, the whole network of Asian maritime trade that linked the spice-producing regions with China, India, the Muslim heartlands, and indirectly with Europe. The opening of direct European voyages to Asia does not represent a world- historical transformation as fundamental as the establishment of the transatlantic routes but rather a reshaping of connections that had been developing for many centuries. Still, in the centuries that followed the arrival of Vasco da Gama in Calicut in 1498, the continued expansion and interweaving of maritime connec- tions within and between the hemispheres was a basic factor in the creation of what Immanuel Wallerstein and others have called the modern world-system. The contributions of maritime Asia to this evolution are not nearly as thoroughly studied or as well integrated into theories like Wallerstein's as those of the American connections. The remarkable surge of good writing on aspects of the events represented by the list of books under review published since 1987 makes this field accessible as never before, both to scholars who may wish to touch on it in teaching and summary writing and to those who are open to the challenges of the many opportunities for research and interpretation in an area of study that still is far from being fully developed. The historiographical transformation of these studies in recent decades can be suggested by a change of name. Around 1960, when I began studying them, they were part of the "history of European expansion." Today, the phrase "history of maritime Asia" is more acceptable and more indicative of the nature of thinking and writing in this specialty. Where previously even Asian nationalist scholars saw a rapid shift to European dominance of the seas in the "Vasco da Gama epoch,"' and saw the Asians largely as passive victims, today's historians see that participants in the maritime history of every part of Asia included Asian navigators, merchants, pirates, investors, and merchant-princes, and that these Asian participants remained effective competitors of the Europeans far longer than earlier scholars had thought. Thus the long drift to European hegemony in Asian waters seems less overdetermined, less a foregone conclusion, much more multi-causal and contingent, and a much more challenging and rewarding area of study. In the works here discussed is an even more interesting paradigm shift, in which Asian patterns of production, trade, and governance are seen to have fundamentally shaped the long process of emergence of the Asian maritime facets of the modern world-system. Many important aspects of European-Asian inter- action in maritime Asia cannot be understood if we maintain an analytic separation of European intrusion and Asian response; they emerged in highly contingent and specific ways from the interactions, the congruences and mutual adaptations, of specific facets of the European and various Asian civilizations. Here, a sketch of what this story of interactive emergence might look like seems in order, to alert the reader to some of the main lines of change and interaction.

IN THIS STORY OF INTERACTIVE EMERGENCE, a first set of preconditions for the growth of commercial and cultural connections around the Indian Ocean was provided by the rise of Islam, which made the eastern Mediterranean and Persia an area of common religion and frequently of unified political authority, prosperous and safe for merchants. Muslim traders who settled in the ports of India and Indonesia brought with them a unified set of commercial and legal practices that facilitated the growth of trade. The pilgrimage to Mecca added to the volume of maritime trade from India and Southeast Asia. A second great set of contributions to trade was Chinese. China's "economic revolutions" after about 900 C.E. made it a source of large quantities of porcelain, silks, and other consumer goods that found markets throughout Eurasia. The superior ships and advanced commercial techniques of Chinese merchants facilitated the spread of Chinese shipping and enterprise across maritime South- east Asia and into the Indian Ocean and contributed to the growth of indigenous trade-oriented economies and polities in many areas.
2 Finally, the fine cotton and silk fabrics of the Indian subcontinent found markets everywhere and established especially enduring and structurally impor- tant linkages in two directions, to Island Southeast Asia and to the world of Islam, from Persia to the Arab lands to the Swahili ports of East Africa. The political and cultural dimensions of this picture of interactive emergence are intriguing. The role of Islam in maintaining connections and spreading common practices has already been mentioned. The Portuguese carried the Christian war on Islam into the Indian Ocean, and that conflict eventually spread all the way to the Spice Islands and Mindanao. Asian Christian communities emerged from the interactions of European and Asian. religious, cultural, and social idioms. From the beginning, Indians did not just tolerate the Europeans; they em- ployed them, rewarded them with revenue rights, and sought their protection in trade, in the process teaching them how to exploit the immense talents of the Indian peoples for production, commerce, and warfare. Thus European partic- ipation in Indian politics and political economy, not just profits of trade, sustained the European presence in the Indian Ocean from the sixteenth century on. Until about 1750, the Europeans had demonstrated distinctive "statist" modes of cohesion in simply surviving in the Indian Ocean and in articulating unusually wide systems of commercial coordination. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the British in Bengal combined these advantages with their own adeptness in exploiting Indian forms of political economy to outpace their Indian rivals, who also sought to build more effective mobilizing states. As a result, India became the prime fiscal and military base for the spread of British power in Asia. Island Southeast Asia, the original goal of European voyages in search of the sources of spices, did not turn out to have the open-ended potential for empire building that was found in India, but its fractious small polities offered opportu- nities for meddling and domination that the Europeans found irresistible, and efforts to make territorial dominion profitable led to a series of important experiments in exploitative plantation monoculture. China was as attractive to the Europeans as India for fine consumer goods, but China's centralized bureaucratic efforts to limit interaction with foreigners presented a very different mode of what I have called interactive emergence. Political order and mercantile sophistication made possible large-scale trade with almost no foreign presence outside a few closely controlled ports. At least as important for the long-run evolution of maritime Asia was the anomalous situation of the maritime Chinese. The Chinese state almost never intervened in support of its maritime traders and emigrants. Commercially dominant but politically very much on their own, the overseas Chinese frequently became adept commercial and political allies of local rulers, whether Asian or European. Such key nodes of commerce and power in maritime Southeast Asia as Manila and Batavia were fundamentally dependent on Chinese productive, commercial, and organizational skills. Even stranger were the consequences of dramatic political and social changes in Japan, which eventually led to complete prohibition of Japanese sea voyages. An early modern maritime Asia in which Japan projected beyond its shores its economic and military power would have had patterns of trade and power strikingly different from those that did develop. The articulation of this picture of interactive emergence requires the compar- ison of several aspects of the cultures, economies, and polities of maritime Europe, the world of Islam, India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. These comparisons can contribute to many forms of history and also help to explain how it was that, of all these sophisticated and dynamic civilizations, the Europeans emerged in a position of steadily increasing dominance in Asian waters after about 1750. This field has implications for a variety of modes of thinking about the modern world as well as for the theory of the modern world-system.

UNTIL WORLD WAR II, scholarship in the history of European expansion in Asia was dominated by the European imperial powers, and many of the scholars and their readers were officials or former officials of the European empires. The postwar collapse of these empires led to a waning interest in and volume of scholarship in the European countries. A small number of scholars, most notably J. H. Parry and the remarkable C. R. Boxer, continued to make major contribu- tions to the study of early European expansion. Eventually, a new generation of scholars developed who defined themselves as historians of one part of Asia or another, not of European expansion, and who frequently were themselves natives of the part of Asia they studied. These scholars use Asian-language sources, are interested in the internal dynamics of the various Asian civilizations, and read European-language sources for information about the Asian scene, not just the Europeans in it. This indigenization makes it much harder to keep up with the historiography and maintain a rounded picture of the subject. Historians of India, of Indonesia, and of China do not ask the same questions, do not read the same journals. I think it fair to assume that many of the authors of the recent books listed at the head of this essay and mentioned in its notes would not be aware of all the other books mentioned. Scholars wanting to enter this field will find that there is a substantial multinational network of communication. The Centre for the History of Euro- pean Expansion at Leiden has been especially active in promoting conferences and interchanges of information, and its lively, solid journal Itinerario is the best single medium for keeping up with developments. Another center of current scholarship has formed in Paris.3 By far the most energetic center of activity outside Europe is at the University of Delhi; some of the most interesting articles by scholars there and elsewhere in India appear in the Indian Economic and Social History Review. The rich "European expansion" summaries of Parry, Boxer, and others are still indispensable reading for every student of this field.4 It is regrettable that there has been more good summary writing on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than on the eighteenth, when some of the long-run consequences of the enduring European presence in Asian waters became dramatically apparent. This makes all the more welcome the excellent eighteenth-century material in Holden Furber's fine survey of the East India Companies and the rich and interesting works on this era by Parry and by Glyndwr Williams.5 Among the books listed at the head of this essay, the two distinguished conference volumes edited by James Tracy offer the most sophisticated and multidimensional access to what is going on in this area. The Rise of Merchant Empires includes several essays focused on Asian commercial history, some good examples of quantifying economic history relevant to European trade in the Indian Ocean, and a series of surveys of the overseas trade of European countries that vary considerably in their attention to trade with Asia. Tracy's introduction gives an intelligent summary of some key issues. With the more recent Political Economy of Merchant Empires, several key methodological issues come nicely into focus. What were the relative contributions, on the one hand, of new modes of organization of force and articulation of power and commerce and, on the other, of reductions of transport and other costs to the long drift to European dominance over world trade? Russell Menard's carefully argued essay on trans- port costs finds the evidence for major European reduction or advantage in this important and often-discussed factor uneven for most lines of maritime trade and weak for European-Asian trade. On the political economy side, M. N. Pearson's "Merchants and States" opens up key comparative dimensions; I will return to it below in connection with his other work. Tracy's introduction again does an admirable job of laying out these issues and adds some especially telling detail on Southeast Asian examples of maritime profit and power mobilization. Two other works may be noted as fine examples of the contributions to Asian maritime history that can be made by works focused primarily on Europe. Jonathan Israel's Dutch Primacy in World Trade gives full coverage to the rise of Dutch power in Asia, with an excellent grasp of fact and literature. Israel makes two useful contributions to understanding the Dutch in Asia. First, by arguing that Dutch trade hegemony in Europe was advanced at several crucial points by state naval power, he makes the precocious "statist" centralization of the Dutch East India Company seem less anomalous than did the older view of an almost stateless Dutch dominance in Europe and the Atlantic. Second, his emphasis on the economic functions and power of Amsterdam as an entrepot for all kinds of goods, especially luxury goods, from all parts of the world reinforces the emphasis on entrepots in Asian maritime history and gives more importance to Asian trade as a source of Dutch domination of European trade than did the earlier emphases on quantities of goods imported and money earned. Geoffrey Parker's Military Revolution, parts of which are summarized in his essay in Tracy's Political Economy, begins with an expert summary of changes in military organization and technology in early modern Europe and then in its last two chapters turns to the roots of Europe's growing ability to project its power around the world.6 Parker draws on a remarkable range of relevant scholarship in Asian and African history to compare the military, technological, and organizational goals and capacities of the Asian and African peoples to those of the Europeans and to isolate the multiple and contingent origins of European naval and military superiority. This is an elegant example of the way in which comparative thinking can yield insight into the emergence of a world-historical trend. The issues of the comparative history of political economy and of state building opened up by the Tracy volumes and by Parker are developed with some fascinating twists in Bayly's Imperial Meridian. This book begins with a sweeping account of parallel economic, political, and cultural changes in the great Muslim empires during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Then it turns back to changes in relations among England, Scotland, and Ireland and the projections of British power across the Atlantic and in Europe. But India and the world of Islam repeatedly come into focus. The increasing effectiveness of organization and will to control in India and other parts of the British empire is seen as analogous to the state-building efforts of regional hegemons in the Islamic empires. Resistance to indigenous and colonial power and Islamic revival march alongside the ideas and stimulus of the French Revolution as sources of popular turmoil around the world. This book will be a profoundly de-centering experi- ence for many historians, especially those of the French Revolution and of the "Early National" period in the United States. 6 This theme has attracted the attention of a number of other eminent historians. See McNeill, Pursuit of Power, chaps. 3-5; Carlo M. Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700 (New York, 1965), chap. 2; and Parry, Age of Reconnaissance, chap. 7. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY 1993
90 John E. Wills, Jr. Bayly's Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire presents a more detailed picture of efforts in several regions of India to build up state structures that would extract larger resources of wealth and military manpower from their subject populations than the Mughal empire, for all its effective central control, had wanted or needed to. Bayly interprets these efforts notjust as results of group and regiQnal conflicts that intensified as Mughal control declined but also as responses to the growth and specialization of commerce and agriculture that made greater resources available. The English in India emerge as one of these regional state- building powers, competing with and learning from the others, given an edge by their external resources but still finding some of the other state builders formidable adversaries. This is brilliant and provocative comparative history of polities and political economies, and it makes crucial contributions to an indi- genized interpretation of the drift to European maritime hegemony in the Indian Ocean. Other works listed offer abundant evidence both of the richness of facts, topics, and sources in Asian maritime history and of the uneven state of development and the difficulty of keeping it all in focus. The volume edited by Ptak and Rothermund contains revised versions of papers presente