debater

Jail Bharo has become the new dictum of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare at present. If the agitation against corruption moves ahead with this present mantra a sizeable number of Indian citizens will start the New Year in jails.  It seems natural to me to think that education has a greater share in bringing about a just, humane, egalitarian society. It is one thing to be concerned about the immediate results in the society by way of showing our discomfort to the culpable by way of hunger-strike and through other non-violent protests. This cannot go on. Our method of tackling the social menace also must change and take into account the future of the country. One of the best ways to work for a just society is to turn our attention to the field of education. We need to tell our younger generation School bharo and learn karo! The Problem of Illiteracy Soon after the independence of India the political leadership swore to achieve the goal of primary education for all by 1960.

“To you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” Lk 2:10-11. Dear fathers and brothers this is how the angels announced the good news of our Lord’s birth to the poor, illiterate shepherds of Bethlehem. I wish to reflect on the manger in which our Lord was born. First of all, the Scripture says there was no place in the inn for Jesus to be born. As the popular world turns its back on the son of God, the manger, the cave of animals offers a place. A manger is anything but a place for a baby to be born. It is the place for beasts. Animal nature is often equated with violence; but our Lord’s birth in the manger tells us that sometimes better sense can prevail even in the animal world. Another interesting thing about the manger is how men enter into it. Obviously the entrance into it is lower and those who wish to enter in have to stoop and enter. In t

Until last Sunday I thought of everything that have happened to me ever since as an experience. Barat Kumar taught me otherwise. Barat Kumar is from a southern most part of India, Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu. He is sixteen. He came to work in Nashik to feed his family members, more so to find a temporary heaven from his step-mother's tortures. He is kept in the juvenile home for the thing he says he didn't commit. Almost all  the minors who land up in the juvenile home say the same thing but their attitude towards life is one of fatalism; however this boy proved to be different. He learnt the language in less than ten days and began to move with the inmates. He has not taken to drugs as most of the  adolescents do it by all means. He keeps writing something. He thought me a big lesson for life:  Experience is not that which happens to you but what you do with that which happens to you. One of the ways of finding meaning in life is to foster a healthy attitude according to Victor Frank

Many acclaim Darwin's theory of evolution. No doubt there are insights in Darwin's theory to understand human anatomy. However, I find it intriguing whenever I hear the dictum Survival of the Fittest. It may be true that in the animal kingdom the strongest prey on the weak ones. This can't be with human beings. For we have feelings, we feel for the other. We feel morally impelled when one of our fellow men is abused. The higher form of human evolution would mean a kind of social responsibility, otherness, and empathy.  

Meena Kandasamy in an article to Time (titled the Fallen Angel)  tells the tale of of Kanimozhi, one of the accused in the infamous 2G Spectrum case. Something got my immediate attention when I was reading through her article.She tells how the DMK Patriarch M. K. had double standard of dealing. This much revered leader of Tamils once upon a time considered the people, the Tamils, entirely different from his own children. When bombs were raining in Vanni this leader had set a stage with air-conditioner to lay down and occasionally make a political rhetoric. All that he did was to fill a few pages with his eloquent poetical language for the suffering Tamils in the Island nation. But when his daughter was jailed for swindling the public money, misusing the trust of the people he did pay occasional visits to her in Delhi, pleaded for her in the highest of the places. Worse thing happened when the tainted M.P. was released on bail. She had a grand welcome in the home state. Definitely all t

Technology, for certain is a god-sent gift to the human world. It has made our lives easier to live and communicate. It would be truly difficult, impossible for many even, to think of a world devoid of modern technology. Technology, particularly communication technology has revolutionized the world. God-men of all religions are becoming increasing open to the virtual world. The Catholic Church is not an exception to it. However something needs to be set aright in our being in the virtual world. It seems to me that most of our church sermons are information Googled. It is imaginable that humans will not think in some years from now. Everything will be done by a thinking machine. Though technology such as Google search engine is a valuable help in coming to know different things what is posted in a website cannot be just read out in our churches. Preaching is not to give information but for transformation of lives. Transformation comes when we proclaim God with conviction than with Googl

Ever since the introduction of socialism many churchmen and women have championed the cause of the poor and the oppressed. It is very true especially in the Latin American countries. Many of the paid a high price for their stance fearlessly. In the 1960s many claimed to be the voice of the voiceless poor the third world countries. One such a person was Rev. Jim Jones. Born in Lynn, Indiana, in 1931, he became widely known for his zest for preaching and his loving kindness towards all, especially the poor and oppressed. He founded the people’s Temple and had followers across the States. He was appreciated for his efforts to bring about peace, equality and harmony. However, his followers and statesmen failed to notice a blood-thirsty, sadistic monster in him. He misappropriated the funds received and built a ‘Jonestown’ in the jungles of Guyana. A thousand devoted men and women followed him to Jonestown in 1977. For sometime nothing was heard about those in Jonestown and people in the

For most of us education has little to do with politics. Some even argue that education is a neutral process. This view is contrary to the desired results we expect from our students in the long run. By and large, all of us agree that education is not only alphapatization or memorization of some theories and vomiting them in the examination. On the contrary, education is as a process of holistic development of a person – for instance, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore opined that it is a process of character-making besides technical and entrepreneurial skills. The post-colonial educationists, such as Paulo Freire (a Brazilian educationist and philosopher) expressed that education necessarily is and has to be political for a simple reason that knowledge is developed in communion and not in isolation. When students come together to learn and discuss with their teachers they come with their own bundle of knowledge and for the most pick-up things apparently untaught. Politics need n

Recently I was reading Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth.   The following dialogues are worth mentioning. "Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desire." Macbeth before murdering the king.  "Is this a dagger I see before me? I have thee not, and yet I see thee still." Macbeth's guilt is manifested in the form of a dagger. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" Lady Macbeth washes her hand every quarter of an hour. She sees blood stains in her hand. Her guilt is manifested in this way. She again says: "Here is the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." It was a pleasant reading. There are a lot of things we can learn from this tragedy. There are Macbethian symptoms in our modern age. There are people who live in guilt and die of it eventually. Perhaps Shakespeare helps us to see the psychotic and neurotic tendencies that our mod

If there is anything that leaves us with much thought when thinking about the life our Blessed Lord that is the betrayal of Him. Betrayal is nothing but a breach of trust.  We cannot complain saying that someone we have never known over the years betrayed us. Betrayal is hard because one who has known and shared our life alone can betray us. When being betrayed we feel as if a part of ourselves that was extended in friendship and brotherhood being lost. It takes courage to forgive someone who breached our trust and carry on as if nothing had happened. A betrayer is not easily identifiable by others; the traitor and the victim alone are aware of the happenings. He or she is understood by others as one who does good for others. That was the understanding of the apostles when Judas Iscariot went out on the night of our Lord's supper. The end of a traitor is drastic. He dies in guilt.

Many books have come out against the Catholic Church, especially criticizing the clergy. One of the books that almost tempted to believe in the popular lie is Amen by an ex-nun. I read nearly all the interviews of this ex-nun soon after the publication of her book. I must frankly admit that I was scandalized to read them. Thinking over this I am convinced the fallen aways of the Church leave for thing than for a reason. Judas Iscariot left Christ not because he had a reason to leave Christ but because he wanted a thing. We don't lack many Judas Iscariots in the Church. They leave the Church for their personal gains but under the guise that the Church is unholy. It is not so. The Church is we. Down the centuries, my not so systematic study of the Church says, the Church has suffered greatly by those men and women with habits than the laity. It is they who do not find justification for their infidelity who blame the Church. I don't mean that we are all-holy. In no way we are; we

Not even a threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan at the wake of Mumbai terror attacks produced such an upheaval in Indian politics like the one anti-corruption movement is producing now. I believe people have awaken from their slumber and ready for a revolution. However like in all revolutions I fear we will make the same mistake of attacking a particular structure without addressing the core of the problem. The problem is the epidemic of corruption not democracy or parliamentary system. No doubt it is a noble thing to fight for a cause but that does not dismiss anyone from distancing oneself from common sense and basic principles of democracy.  It seems to me that India Against Corruption Movement itself needs a purification. The earlier intentions were too good and a common man had difficulty in embracing it. Now it appears as if the few who constantly shout slogans in this movement are the saviours of the country and immaculate in their dealings (while they the

One of the novels that I cherished reading is Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Something of what the Novelist tried to drive home through the novel rings in my ears even after two year and half. Amir's father, a well respected man of his locality, tells him that stealing is the worst crime. The reason he gives is something amazing. He gives rather a broad meaning to it. For instance, when I speak ill of someone I steal of him of his right for good reputation. When I kill someone I steal his right to live; rob his relationships with so many people. when I tell a lie I steal someone's right to know the truth. Hence, stealing becomes the worst crime.  What thrilled me most when I read that Amir's father himself stole Amir's right to know the truth that Hassan, his friend, is his brother. In it I discovered the intensity our thoughts and actions. The consequences of them are far from our imagining at times. 

Lovely Lady dressed in blue teach me how to pray! God was just your little Boy, Tell me what to say! Did you lift Him up, sometimes, Gently, on your knee? Did you sing to Him the way Mother does to me? Did you hold His hand at night? Did you ever try Telling stories of the world? O! And did He cry? Do you really think He cares If I tell Him things–— Little things that happen? And Do the Angels’ wings Make a noise? And can He hear Me if I speak low? Does He understand me now? Tell me - for you know! Lovely Lady dressed in blue, Teach me how to pray! God was just your little Boy. And you know the way. Note: This Poem is taken from The Child On His Knees  (pages 24 and 25) This prayer-poem was popularized in  the 1950s by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. I would have listened to this poem being recited by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen number of times in his talks. Every time I heard it I felt so inspired. I hope you would love it too. You can find the same in  http://www.catholictradition.or

Was I dreaming? It was far from a wild dream I could have had on my nice bed. The stench of the place added to it the foul words made me only blink now and then in a desperate attempt to feel one with those of my friends for whom - if I have say as they would describe it - the fate had little concern. A few days back while being with the delinquents I happened to see one of the rare incidents that one sees that a kind-hearted director thought of showing in his movie. Someone against whom a dozen cases are bending in the courts had a special visitor. That was his lover. She was modestly dressed. She came on her new Scooty. I couldn't believe my eyes. Everyone told me that the girl was his lover. She fell in love with the so called "criminal" or whatever the society would call him, when he was roaming about the city. Believe it or not it took some time for me to understand the significance of what we all heard from somebody or other that love is blind, because it does not s

For us who live in these modern times the word contest is not a strange word. We see it in our televisions, in our net working sites, in the newspapers, in life too. Contest is formally defined as a competition between individuals or groups with the aim of proving one's ability, nobility and superiority. What leaves me baffled is that many of us, teens and adults, think life in terms of a contest, to be precise as a popularity contest.  Popularity as we know refers to being known and accepted widely. We are in a contest to become popular without ever giving a single thought to significance our life should make to the world. Life for me can never be a popularity contest and I hope many will agree with me. We are here for a reason no matter whether or not we are noticed or looked upon or admired we must carry out those which we think good, noble and spiritual. May be life has many things in store to teach me regarding this but what I am right now convinced is that we can never be

Dear Friends, for the weekend ministry I am frequenting the Government Shelter home rather minor jail or Remand home together with two of my friends here. Something horrified me last Sunday as I was listening to three boys who were arrested on charges of rape and murder. What i am sharing here therefore is the version of the story the boys told me. The three boys - whose name I would not like to state here - are from a slum in Nashik. One of them is sixteen year old and the other two are eleven and thirteen. The sixteen year old lad at the invitation (I don't know what kind of invitation that could be!) went into a physical relationships with a girl of seventeen year old at her house. The smaller boys accompanied the bigger lad at his persuasion and they told me that they only touched the parts of the body (I wonder what these two kids knew of sex). Someone happened to see it and he reported to the brother of that girl. The girl sensing the consequences immolated herself (th

Rayappan, Pathiaraj. Intention in Action: The Philosophy of G.E.M. Anscombe. Bern/Berlin/Bruxelles/Frankfurtam Main/New York/Oxford/Wien: Peter Lang, 2010. ISSN 0721-3417; 978-3-0343-0471-9. Pathiaraj Rayappan is a Catholic priest presently teaching in Jnanodaya, Salesian College of Philosophy and Religion, Yercaud, Salem. He holds to his credit a Master degree in philosophy from Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, India, and a Master of Arts from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. In 2010 he successfully completed his doctoral dissertation on “Intention in Action: The Philosophy of G.E.M. Anscombe” and obtained his doctorate from the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. He contributes his might to the academic world by his articles and he is the editor of the Jnanodaya Journal of Philosophy . The book Intention in Action: The Philosophy of G.E.M Anscombe is the doctoral dissertation of the author. The book consists of five chapters with a bibliography. The author speaks of the releva

Of late I have become apprehensive of statements such as "India is competing the rest of the world" in terms of economy. A couple of days back I happend to be in a city super mall, here in Nashik. It is certainly one of the richest commercial centres I have ever visited. On my way back I did observe our citizens carrying logs on their heads, children roaming the streets in tattered clothes. Something struck me hard as I gave thought to popular saying of the day "India shines." Can we call India a growing country or a swelling country? Does this sound funny, perhaps yes. Growth is intergral development and never scattered development. What we see in India is the accumulation of riches by a few and an existential struggle for survival by the majority. We never call "swelling as a growth." It is not even a symptom of growth. Rather it is a sign of  maladies. In the name of industrialization and modernization today the indigenous people in many parts of the s

Ajita, Mary. Women’s Empowerment from a Subaltern Perspective. With a             foreword by Sister Sabeena. New Delhi: Media House/IGSS, 2010. ISBN:       978-93-7495-300-6. Pp. 118. Rs. 125. The book under review is the result of Sister Mary Ajita’s sixteen long years of commitment in training women and adolescent girls to create a just, humane and transparent society in which women become agents of change and transformation. Sister Mary Ajita, the author, holds a master’s degree in social work from Mumbai University. She is the key trainer as well as a state level resource person for Bihar Mahila Samakhya Society since 1994. The book aims to be of aid to those involved in the cause for empowering women. The book could well be divided into two parts; first and foremost the author presents the reality of the status of Indian women and what she means by empowerment; in the latter part of the book she discusses the methods that she employs to awaken a critical consciousness in wome

Anyone who critically follows the developing news in Tamil Nadu will laugh at us. It is saddening to see our people being cheated in public. Despite the number of educated people and those being educated, we still  do not comprehend the ways of our politicians. Politics, it seems, has nothing to do with the life of a common man more so the true yearnings of the citizens. It is a special business done to get the consensus of people to rule them for a period of time. I am saddened to see that not many of us criticize what happens around. People are not animals their needs are higher than that of fulfilling than which is immediate. No amount of rice, no number of free television sets and  flocks of sheep and goats can give us human dignity.  In fact no one can give dignity but every one can help us be aware of our basic inalienable right to be human. I think this is one of the prime duties any leader. Dear Sir and Madam of "good-will" can you ensure that? Can you face the hones

Paulo Freire is one of the luminous intellectuals of the 20 th century whose words and deeds are closely intermingled with his experiences of poverty, hard work, oppositions, and exile. He is concerned with humanization of man, which is to be brought about through the process of conscientization. [1] Freire’s encounter with different systems of thought in his early years, such as catholic liberation theology, marxism, personalism, phenomenology and existentialism influenced him in forming a humanistic outlook towards man and the world. Though his immediate concern was the reality of oppression in the Latin American countries, he did share the aspirations of the oppressed sections in the third world. [2]             Education, for Freire, is never neutral. [3] It is a subversive activity, and is beyond just learning to read. He envisages education in terms of the development of critical consciousness for social transformation. It must lead us to ‘make and re-make’ ‘name and re-name