Baisakhi or Vaisakhi Festival is celebrated as the Sikh New Year and the founding of the Khalsa Panth. History of Baisakhi traces its origin from the Baisakhi Day celebrations of 1699 organized by the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh to form Khalsa - Brotherhood of Saint Soldiers to fight against tyranny and oppression.
Story of Baisakhi
The story of Baisakhi Festival began with the martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru who was publicly beheaded by the Aurungzeb, the Mughal ruler. Aurungzeb wanted to spread Islam in India and Guru Tegh Bahadur stood up for the rights of Hindus and Sikhs and the Mughals therefore saw him as a threat.
After the death of Guru Teg Bahadur, his son, Guru Gobind Singh became the next Guru of the Sikhs. Guru Gobind Singh wished to instill courage and strength to sacrifice among his fellow men. To fulfil his dream, Guru Gobind Singh called on the historic Baisakhi Day congregation of Sikhs at Keshgarh Sahib near Anandpur on March 30, 1699.
When thousands of people assembled for Guru’s blessing, Guru Gobind Singh came out of the tent carrying an unsheathed sword. He gave a powerful speech to infuse courage amongst fellowmen. At the end of the speech he said that every great deed was preceded by equally great sacrifice and demanded that anyone prepared to give his life come forward. On the Guru’s third call, a young man offered himself. The Guru took the man inside a tent and reappeared alone with a bloodied sword. Guru Gobind Singh asked for another volunteer. This was repeated another four times until a total of five Sikhs had gone into the tent with the Guru. Everyone present was worried and though that Guru Gobind Singh has killed five Sikhs. At this point Guru presented all the five men before the people. Every one present was surprised to see all five men alive and wearing turbans and saffron-coloured garments.
These five men were called Panj Piara or 'Beloved Five' by the Guru. The Guru blessed them with a Pahul ceremony. In an iron vessel, the Guru stirred with a sword called Khanda Sahib, the batasha that his wife, Mata Sundari Ji had put into water. The congregation recited verses from scriptures as the Guru performed the sacred ceremony. The water was now considered the sacred nectar of immortality called amrit. It was first given to the five volunteers, then drunk by the guru and later distributed amongst the crowd. With this ceremony, all those present, irrespective of caste or creed, became members of the Khalsa Pantha (the Order of the Pure Ones).
The Guru regarded the Panch Piaras as the first members of the Khalsa and the embodiment of the Guru himself. With the constitution of the Panj Pyare the high and low castes were amalgamated into one as among the original Panj Pyare, there was one Khatri, shopkeeper; one Jat, farmer; one Chhimba, calico printer; one Ghumar, water-carrier; and one Nai, a barber. The Guru gave the surname of Singh (Lion) to every Sikh and also took the name for himself. From Guru Gobind Rai he became Guru Gobind Singh. This was seen as a great step in national integration because society at that time was divided on the basis of religion, caste and social status.
Guru Gobind Singh also bestowed on Khalsa, the unique Sikh identity. He directed Sikhs to wear five K's: Kesh or long hair, Kangha or comb, Kripan or dagger, Kachha or shorts and a Kara or bracelet. Guru Gobind Singh also discontinued the tradition of Gurus and asked all Sikhs to accept the Grantha Sahib as their eternal guide. He urged them to come to him with their hair and beard unshorn to get baptized by the sword.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Female Foeticide : A Hall of Shame
More than a hundred million women are missing because their parents wanted a son.
Female foeticide is a process of aborting perfectly healthy female foetuses after about 18 weeks (or more) of gestation just because they are females. The same foetuses would've been allowed to live if they were males. There is no question that female foeticide is not just unethical but it is downright cruel as well.
Despite a law banning sex selective abortion is in force for a decade, as many as half a million female foetuses are aborted each year in the country. Gender discrimination in our society is so entrenched, that it begins even before a girl is born. Baby girls are throttled, poisoned or drowned in a bucket of water.
A baby girl tied in polythene bag and dumped in a public dustbin left to be torn away by wild stray dogs. An incident that took place nowhere else but in the very capital of our country.
To cite a couple of more examples, of many, the recovery of pieces of bones of newly born female fetuses from a hospital backyard in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh in February 2008. And bodies of more than 100 fetuses found outside an abortion clinic in Pattran town in Punjab in August last year were both deplorable.
Though India has a history of skewed female sex ratio, what the country is witnessing today is the systematic extermination of the female child, with the ultrasound machine serving as an instrument of murder.
Clinics offering ultrasound scanning facility have mushroomed throughout the country, and despite making pre-natal sex determination a penal offence, doctors and parents alike rampantly violate this law. A survey in Maharashtra showed that an alarming 95% of the amniocentesis scan were being carried out for sex determination.
In India, the 2001 census reveals that the overall sex ratio is 933 females for every 1000 males, showing a marginal increase of 6 points from the 1991 census of 927. However, this is a very sorry state indeed and we are doing much worse than over a hundred years ago when the sex ratio was 972 in 1901, 946 in 1951 till the 933 today.
More and more baby girls have either been aborted or killed as infants since 1961 and that this trend continues strong even today. Indeed, an improvement in the child sex ratio has only been marked in one state, Kerala, and two Union Territories, Lakshwadeep and Pondicherry. Everywhere else, there is a decrease in the number of girls.
The greatest offenders in this area are the northern and the western states, with Punjab and Haryana leading the pack. In Punjab, the child sex ratio has decreased by 77 points to a new and horrifying low of 798 females to a 1000 males, and Haryana has seen a decrease of 60 points, meaning there are now only 819 females to a 1000 males. Other offenders high on this list are Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Gujarat.
This is not so much a legal problem as it is a social disease. The son-centric model of our society forms the foundation of the practice of female feticide and infanticide. Girls are made to face discrimination before birth, at birth, and throughout their lives at the hands of their families. Even those girls who are allowed to live get second-class treatment. They are denied adequate medical and health care facilities, they are denied adequate nutrition, and they are denied educational facilities. They are often subject to physical and sexual abuse.
This is not so much a legal problem as it is a social disease. The son-centric model of our society forms the foundation of the practice of female feticide and infanticide. Girls are made to face discrimination before birth, at birth, and throughout their lives at the hands of their families. Even those girls who are allowed to live get second-class treatment. They are denied adequate medical and health care facilities, they are denied adequate nutrition, and they are denied educational facilities. They are often subject to physical and sexual abuse.
Unfortunately, various schemes to counter this situation brought out by many states as well as at the central level have been ineffective in reducing the extent of this problem. Removal of this practice must involve:
• Focus on the humanist, scientific and rational approach and a move away from the traditional teachings which support discrimination.
• Empowerment of women and measures to deal with other discriminatory practices such as dowry, etc.
• A strong ethical code for doctors.
• Simpler methods for complaint registration for all women, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
• Publicity for the cause through the media and increasing awareness amongst the people through NGOs and other organizations;
• Regular appraisal and assessment of the indicators of the status of women such as sex ratio, female mortality, literacy and economic participation.
Infanticide is a crime of murder and punishment should be given to both parents. There ought to be stricter control over clinics that offer to identify the sex of a fetus and stronger check on abortions to ensure that they are not performed for the wrong reasons. Doctors must also be sensitized and strong punitive measures must be taken against those who violate the law.
It has been calculated that more than a hundred million women are missing because their parents wanted a son. We have made significant scientific and technological progress and we churn out some of the brightest minds every year in every area possible. But if we can’t check female feticide all this progress is absolutely worthless.
How can a society expect to survive without women? Indeed various studies have shown that having far fewer women in a society leads to increased violence in a society, particularly against women. If the macabre practice continues, it would spell doom for both sons and daughters and will have a disastrous impact on the future generations.
Female foeticide is a process of aborting perfectly healthy female foetuses after about 18 weeks (or more) of gestation just because they are females. The same foetuses would've been allowed to live if they were males. There is no question that female foeticide is not just unethical but it is downright cruel as well.
Despite a law banning sex selective abortion is in force for a decade, as many as half a million female foetuses are aborted each year in the country. Gender discrimination in our society is so entrenched, that it begins even before a girl is born. Baby girls are throttled, poisoned or drowned in a bucket of water.
A baby girl tied in polythene bag and dumped in a public dustbin left to be torn away by wild stray dogs. An incident that took place nowhere else but in the very capital of our country.
To cite a couple of more examples, of many, the recovery of pieces of bones of newly born female fetuses from a hospital backyard in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh in February 2008. And bodies of more than 100 fetuses found outside an abortion clinic in Pattran town in Punjab in August last year were both deplorable.
Though India has a history of skewed female sex ratio, what the country is witnessing today is the systematic extermination of the female child, with the ultrasound machine serving as an instrument of murder.
Clinics offering ultrasound scanning facility have mushroomed throughout the country, and despite making pre-natal sex determination a penal offence, doctors and parents alike rampantly violate this law. A survey in Maharashtra showed that an alarming 95% of the amniocentesis scan were being carried out for sex determination.
In India, the 2001 census reveals that the overall sex ratio is 933 females for every 1000 males, showing a marginal increase of 6 points from the 1991 census of 927. However, this is a very sorry state indeed and we are doing much worse than over a hundred years ago when the sex ratio was 972 in 1901, 946 in 1951 till the 933 today.
More and more baby girls have either been aborted or killed as infants since 1961 and that this trend continues strong even today. Indeed, an improvement in the child sex ratio has only been marked in one state, Kerala, and two Union Territories, Lakshwadeep and Pondicherry. Everywhere else, there is a decrease in the number of girls.
The greatest offenders in this area are the northern and the western states, with Punjab and Haryana leading the pack. In Punjab, the child sex ratio has decreased by 77 points to a new and horrifying low of 798 females to a 1000 males, and Haryana has seen a decrease of 60 points, meaning there are now only 819 females to a 1000 males. Other offenders high on this list are Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Gujarat.
This is not so much a legal problem as it is a social disease. The son-centric model of our society forms the foundation of the practice of female feticide and infanticide. Girls are made to face discrimination before birth, at birth, and throughout their lives at the hands of their families. Even those girls who are allowed to live get second-class treatment. They are denied adequate medical and health care facilities, they are denied adequate nutrition, and they are denied educational facilities. They are often subject to physical and sexual abuse.
This is not so much a legal problem as it is a social disease. The son-centric model of our society forms the foundation of the practice of female feticide and infanticide. Girls are made to face discrimination before birth, at birth, and throughout their lives at the hands of their families. Even those girls who are allowed to live get second-class treatment. They are denied adequate medical and health care facilities, they are denied adequate nutrition, and they are denied educational facilities. They are often subject to physical and sexual abuse.
Unfortunately, various schemes to counter this situation brought out by many states as well as at the central level have been ineffective in reducing the extent of this problem. Removal of this practice must involve:
• Focus on the humanist, scientific and rational approach and a move away from the traditional teachings which support discrimination.
• Empowerment of women and measures to deal with other discriminatory practices such as dowry, etc.
• A strong ethical code for doctors.
• Simpler methods for complaint registration for all women, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
• Publicity for the cause through the media and increasing awareness amongst the people through NGOs and other organizations;
• Regular appraisal and assessment of the indicators of the status of women such as sex ratio, female mortality, literacy and economic participation.
Infanticide is a crime of murder and punishment should be given to both parents. There ought to be stricter control over clinics that offer to identify the sex of a fetus and stronger check on abortions to ensure that they are not performed for the wrong reasons. Doctors must also be sensitized and strong punitive measures must be taken against those who violate the law.
It has been calculated that more than a hundred million women are missing because their parents wanted a son. We have made significant scientific and technological progress and we churn out some of the brightest minds every year in every area possible. But if we can’t check female feticide all this progress is absolutely worthless.
How can a society expect to survive without women? Indeed various studies have shown that having far fewer women in a society leads to increased violence in a society, particularly against women. If the macabre practice continues, it would spell doom for both sons and daughters and will have a disastrous impact on the future generations.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Onset of Baisakhi; Canals yet to be cleaned up
photo by Sansar Singh
Irrigation Department apathetic
PS BALI
Jammu, Apr 5
What could be more apathetic on the part of Irrigation Department that the canals, which are thrown open with the onset of Baisakhi every year, are yet to be touched for de-silting and cleaning.
Contradicting tall claims of the Irrigation Department of performing their duty with devotion and integrity, most of the canals in the Jammu are craving for attention of the Irrigation Department.
With the continuous negligence of the Irrigation Department, the canals are turning into dumping site.
Regretting over the working of the Irrigation Department, the local residents rued that just a few days are left for Baisakhi, no work of clearance on this canals yet has been initiated.
“Every year, these canals are being cleaned and de-silted properly before throwing water into it, but this time the situation is not same as 5-6 days are left, but no work has been initiated,” said Atul Malhotra, a resident of Resham Ghar.
He lamented that with such attitude of the concerned authorities, it seems that this time the water will be released without cleaning of the canals, thus making water of no use for the agriculture and other purpose, as would be filled with dirt.
However, official sources claimed that the process of cleaning of canal is under progress at some areas, but due to apathy of the concerned authorities, there is no supervision from the higher officials. Moreover the residents maintained that the working agency is just mowing weeds from sides of the canal and the actual waste is not properly removed.
“Though the work over canal has been initiated, but the concerned authorities are only mowing weeds and picking some waste from the sides of the
canal, which is sheer wastage of money,” maintained Balbir Singh, a resident of Sehora.
He regretted that the government is spending huge money for cleaning and hygienic purposes, but the lethargic approach of the departments causes suffering and inconvenience to the people.
“JCBs are installed for the clearance, but the problem is that the department lacks sufficient manpower, and those at work are lethargic to understand their responsibility,” said an official in Irrigation Department, wishing anonymity. He added that normally every year canal cleaning process is complete before Baisakhi, but this time the situation seems different.
Denying the allegations, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Avinash Sharma said that the machinery is being put onto work and within a day or two canals would be cleaned up.
“We are already done with the process of de-silting, but at some places where the road widening project is undergoing, we are waiting for signal from PWD,” he said, adding that although the working is complete, but due to the lack of civic sense, we are facing huge quantity of polythene thrown by people to be removed, which would otherwise be washed away with the flow of water.
Admitting that the Department lacks sufficient manpower, Chief Engineer said that they are dependent on Service Selection Board (SSB) for the recruitment of permanent employee. He further claimed that some distributaries are under jurisdiction of Ravi-Tawi Irrigation Complex and they are responsible for their clearance.
Irrigation Department apathetic
PS BALI
Jammu, Apr 5
What could be more apathetic on the part of Irrigation Department that the canals, which are thrown open with the onset of Baisakhi every year, are yet to be touched for de-silting and cleaning.
Contradicting tall claims of the Irrigation Department of performing their duty with devotion and integrity, most of the canals in the Jammu are craving for attention of the Irrigation Department.
With the continuous negligence of the Irrigation Department, the canals are turning into dumping site.
Regretting over the working of the Irrigation Department, the local residents rued that just a few days are left for Baisakhi, no work of clearance on this canals yet has been initiated.
“Every year, these canals are being cleaned and de-silted properly before throwing water into it, but this time the situation is not same as 5-6 days are left, but no work has been initiated,” said Atul Malhotra, a resident of Resham Ghar.
He lamented that with such attitude of the concerned authorities, it seems that this time the water will be released without cleaning of the canals, thus making water of no use for the agriculture and other purpose, as would be filled with dirt.
However, official sources claimed that the process of cleaning of canal is under progress at some areas, but due to apathy of the concerned authorities, there is no supervision from the higher officials. Moreover the residents maintained that the working agency is just mowing weeds from sides of the canal and the actual waste is not properly removed.
“Though the work over canal has been initiated, but the concerned authorities are only mowing weeds and picking some waste from the sides of the
canal, which is sheer wastage of money,” maintained Balbir Singh, a resident of Sehora.
He regretted that the government is spending huge money for cleaning and hygienic purposes, but the lethargic approach of the departments causes suffering and inconvenience to the people.
“JCBs are installed for the clearance, but the problem is that the department lacks sufficient manpower, and those at work are lethargic to understand their responsibility,” said an official in Irrigation Department, wishing anonymity. He added that normally every year canal cleaning process is complete before Baisakhi, but this time the situation seems different.
Denying the allegations, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Avinash Sharma said that the machinery is being put onto work and within a day or two canals would be cleaned up.
“We are already done with the process of de-silting, but at some places where the road widening project is undergoing, we are waiting for signal from PWD,” he said, adding that although the working is complete, but due to the lack of civic sense, we are facing huge quantity of polythene thrown by people to be removed, which would otherwise be washed away with the flow of water.
Admitting that the Department lacks sufficient manpower, Chief Engineer said that they are dependent on Service Selection Board (SSB) for the recruitment of permanent employee. He further claimed that some distributaries are under jurisdiction of Ravi-Tawi Irrigation Complex and they are responsible for their clearance.
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