For now, let’s refrain from discussing the commitment and the integrity of the Maoist movement in Bastar towards the welfare of the local ‘Adivasis’ or the indigenous tribal community. Let’s also not discuss if Bastar’s Maoist movement truly represents the Adivasi community, and whether or not the Mao activists there even understand Maoism. The fact is, I want to refrain from this discourse in this book, because there’s a possibility of it being laced with prejudices and because, different experts will claim different realities based on their individual biases. In this book, I will instead discuss only the factual information related to the efforts being made in Bastar. My hope is that after reading this book, you will have enough information to debate and discuss about the Maoist movement in the Bastar area.
One of the major paradoxes for maoists is that they consider the conversion of Aristocratic rule to communist rule as revolutionary. However, they do not consider conversion of communist rule to democratic rule as revolutionary; give various arguments to not consider it valid. This paradox exists despite the fact that both conversions require a change in ruling structures, and both are carried out by common people. It seems that the definition of a ‘revolution’ is framed according to biases.
When considering Maoism, a fundamental and important question is how a person, who has never ever even killed a fly (figuratively speaking), finds honour and pride in the gory murders of other people? This person rationalises killings and murders as a sacrifice for the great cause of transition and considers him/herself also as a sacrifice. How does this person accept the murders of innocent and harmless people, with pride and adulation, all for contribution towards revolution!? The following discussion will help us understand why this happens.
Strong social conditioning provides that power is necessary and a change in power structures is presented in a certain way. Changing power structures is seen as the only way to reach a “better” system. This is called revolution and its associated persons are revolutionaries. An individual’s ideas, thoughts and thinking are all conditioned. This conditioning makes them believe that if the current system is destroyed, it will create lots of chaos, which can be then used to create a classless social order. Even the current order of the things is considered as chaos. The massacre of people are considered merely a necessary sacrifice in the process and creation of an ideal classless social order.
The scariest fact about revolution is that the value of life of existing people is seen as less than the value of life of people that are not even born yet. It is so negligible that it justifies the feeling of pride to kill people, in the hope of an imaginary and better future for imaginary people ahead.
However, the future is uncertain. To sacrifice the present for an imaginary future is nothing but propaganda, sophistry and trickery. How is it that revolutionaries are so sure about the future? How do they claim to have a humane order and structure in the future, when they carry out murders, establish fear and restrain human freedom in the present? Is it that violence, killings, using weapons, and establishing fear enable them to see and feel future?
Maoism may be good or ideal, but violence cannot be ideal, it cannot be good. Violence is unreasonable, unacceptable, trickery and self-deception. Non-violence is reasonable and good. This fact cannot be rejected by any human being. Maoism indoctrinates people and makes them lose their consciousness. It makes them violent, and they feel proud about being violent. Such a person cannot survive without violence and does it for revolution, which is unacceptable and unreasonable.
Such revolutions are merely reactions. Reactions of being in the opposition, reactions to reactions. These are nothing but a series of reactions. And no matter how strongly one insists on naming it a revolution, a revolution based on reactions, assumptions and a fanciful future cannot be revolution.
No matter how much one glorifies the revolution based on assumptions and a non-existent future, gives coherent arguments, or validated based on historical evidence; such revolution cannot bring equality. Let’s look at it another way. Some people try to save the world by their methods and thought process. Others use their thought process and methods to disrupt mutual symbiosis and eradicate each other’s existence from the very root. All this for creating a better and an ideal order. However, neither really wants to create a better society. They merely want to shape the structure to suit their needs and use deception, lies, violence, power, corruption and other such tools to achieve this objective. It is ‘the assumption’ that creates differences between human beings and makes them consider other people and groups as inferior.
This revolution merely replaces the groups in power, establishing one group rather than the other. The new ruling group then controls different powers. Then a new upper class emerges, which empowers itself through different types of special rights. For revolution, this process is repeated multiple times on various levels and through various methods. However, a power-centric revolution doesn’t destroy inequality, nor is it capable or desirous of doing so. It is merely a cobweb of swindling, based on a reaction or a series of reactions, with an objective of becoming important. Reaction causes strife, which means never-to-be resolved conflict, violence and the massacre of symbiotic reciprocity. How can such a revolution be meaningful, humane and equanimity?
Broadly, the current communism is based on the opposition of capitalism. In communism, an illusion of financial equality is served. I call it an illusory dream because if we examine it in depth, communism is similar in its inherent nature with capitalism. The capitalism of communism is the state ownership in nature, the state-capitalism. Capitalism, whether personal, or of an elite group, or of state, can never be oriented around welfare and equality. It’s not possible.
So far it is deemed that the difference between communism (or even socialism) and capitalism is that the autonomy and control of capital is with the governance and the state rather than the individual. This is in no way related to the creation of the better society and the governance, since the state is not a live object with functional autonomy. The state is controlled by individuals or the groups of individuals. Thus, despite changing the name, control and power stay concentrated around some individuals or groups.
Just like capitalism, the basis of communism is also financial, hence their basic natures are not different. The desire for financial prosperity is the prerequisite for financial equality of communism. Communism is based on reaction and this is why it got entangled in class conflict. It thus became a system to use humans. It establishes and nurtures the fanatic, rigid and self-deceiving ideas that hatred, violence, malice, and killing are essential and necessary. There is no fundamental difference of character between capitalism and communism.
Democracy requires the fundamental ideal to be strong. To name the mindset of ruling and governing, to refer to democracy in scriptures, documents, language, and arguments casually, actually belies democracy. The fundamental principle of the real democracy lies in providing ample opportunities for the human potential and the establishment of a rule-free society, while reducing state-governance by establishing policies based on public trust and participation.
Destruction can be stopped only by a democracy which will accept non-violence, social equality and welfare as its long-term policy and will frame its financial, bureaucratic and political structures accordingly. So far, the best method humanity has for governing is democracy. Merely to repeat older revolutions in an organised or a disorganised manner has no significance. The basic fundamental is in living authentically, understanding and accepting the most important creation, value and strength of human history – ‘non-violence’/AHIMSA, with insistence for truth. I consider Gandhi as great and visionary because he envisioned a humane democracy. His Ahimsa or non-violence was closer to truth and was self-disciplined.
I do not wish to discuss communism, Maoism, capitalism, and democracy in detail within this book because the objective of this book is about the constructive efforts for conflict resolution in Bastar. I do not wish for the book to deviate from this objective. I do hope however, that the brief discussion here on these subjects in this prologue will give you an insight into my understanding of communism, Maoism, revolution, system-change, capitalism, and non-violence. Also, I hope that the book does not seem to be merely singing accolades of constructive efforts. Rather, you should find the book useful in helping you understand the ground reality and constructive approach for conflict resolution, and also help you contemplate and rectify your understanding for better contribution for the conflict resolution.
She identifies herself as a young, energetic, thoughtful and sensitive human being before anything else. An author, a content strategist, a communications expert, a ghost writer, a blogger, a devil’s advocate and a woman are some other hats she wears. She writes books on controversial subjects, expresses her opinions and thoughts vocally and believes in empowerment and responsibility of expression. She can be reached on her LinkedIn/Facebook profile(s) at :
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent traveller, a social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist.
He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, indigenous community development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek organised many national and state levels tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
Nowadays, He is writing a book on the theme of the Constructive Conflict Resolution in the Maoists affected region Bastar Chhattisgarh.
Admirable.The use of violence in any shape whatever is due to ignorance going back to the dawning of human society.Before that, one can only speculate.If humans evolved from animals, violence existed amongst the animals from which humans evolved or violence evolved as a concomitant in the process of evolution from animal to human consciousness.Myths relate that humanity was perfect to begin with and fell into sin, or ignorance, somehow sometime.This is unconvincing.It stands to reason that perfection is a state of incorruptibility.More plausible is to posit a state of innocence lost and as a consequence ignorance made an entrance.
Since ignorance begets ignorance, the only way from a disturbed state of innocence is a slow journey of learning through suffering to gain insight, understanding, wisdom and, ultimately, Enlightenment.
Ahimsa is a curious concept.It is a utopian idea which can be useful only to yogis and like people who are prepared to have everything taken from them, even their very lives, in support of the belief that to defend one’s “property” and one’s life against encroachment by others constitutes violence in one form or another.
Yoga references Natural Law as the highest law in the Universe.The law of nature as observed by wise people and as genetically endowed is clear.Competition in life is a given.People compete for food if there is scarcity of that which is necessary.Next they compete for that which is more desirable and not overly plentiful.Males compete for the affection and/or possession of females.Then there is struggle for land and water, competition for the better lands and water supply, etc., etc.
Non-violence is concept which cannot survive in a world where human society exists.Even within isolated family groups and singular tribes anthropologists have found that violence is visited upon the weaker members by the stronger and/or aggressive members of such family groups or tribes.
There is a natural balance at work which eleminates by means of natural selection they who are unable to defend themselves against attack on their person or on their sources necessary for their survival.The strong survive, up to a point.Ultimately, the most intelligent survive longer than the strongest, but they who are intelligent enough to survive the onslaught from the strongest of humans able to organise for survival will need to cooperate intelligently in order to survive.
I wish the author well in his endeavour to seek resolution of conflict, wherever, but wise counsel must needs take heed of certain contingencies, the facts of life.Once the mindset of a person is beyond the reach of reason, especially when such a person is captured by group-think under the influence of ideology, ahimsa is counter-productive and will, indeed, invite violence from such quarters as are bent on subjugating, enslaving, exploiting and, ultimately, destroying the other.
Although the psychological sciences and arts as practiced by the mainstream have evolved towards the science and art of amassing power and profitability, enough can be understood from the knowledge gained in the pursuit of psychology and related practices to allow one to come to an understanding about the workings of the human mind, severally and collectively, combining such knowledge in conjunction with facts gleaned from the other, true, sciences and pure philosophy.
There is a moving equilibrium in human affairs.The parts affect the whole and vice-versa.At any one time the survivors remain to survive another day by a combination of intelligence, strength, wit, perseverance,etc.A struggle in which cooperation within cohesive units is paramount, yet must such cohesive units allow for competition within to maintain an edge, lest competitors get the advantage.
Utopian idealism is not fit for survival in this our manifest world.This applies to the more spiritual realms no less than the more obviously material one.Salvation in the sense of bodily survival, therefor, only applies to yogis, and only then as long as they are able to find refuge from those inclined to do violence to the other.
The answer is obvious for everybody else.One must find ways to organise and cooperate for self-defence.The best unit for such sociopolitical endeavour is the nation-state, either big enough to see off any state or federation which might be a threat, while being not too big as to be in danger of falling into disarray, or as a smaller nation-state cooperating with like-minded in a defense pact of sorts.
The breaking up and joining up of sociopolitical units, however, will not cease until all the world has become the preserve of the wise, led by the enlightened, served by such as are docile/without any competitive spirit whatever.
Dear Chief Editor
I have read the preview of the book on ground reality.
Fact is that Our Rashtrapita Mahatma K Gandhi was more than sure in his heart that Congress has compromised Freedom with British at the cost of Partition of India. To save Muslims lives who in any case would not have migrated to Pakistan he supported Muslims cause. He paid the price with his life. He was also sure that
Congresses will go corrupt with time as a price/ reward for their sacrifices. And they have a burning desire to become Rulers. Worldwide innovations and adoption of new technologies right from the use of one nuclear arsenal in Japan has given more stimulus to the development of the global world. China has gained the maximum and India is just struggling to survive, grow as much possible, changing Governance ideologies and Individualistic dictatorships. Maoism is the worst ideology and Terrorism is the adoptive format of coercion.
I look forward to read your book.
Regards.
Navin Chant Gupta
Dear Vivek-ji,
I read the prologue of your book on Bastar with deep interest.
While I find many new and interesting insights into the issue of “communism” as practised by many, I was dismayed and disappointed to find the whole writing as an apologetic of the heinous state terror.
I am not going to deal with many of your controversial points in your analysis of “communism”, except the most prominent misunderstanding that ‘communism is state capitalism’. However, my chief concern is that it’s not, as you describe, the state’s reaction to the communists/ Maoist insurgents in Bastar. This position actually absolves the state of all its responsibility and commitment to the people of the country. This also suppresses the fact that the prime motive of the state terror is only to capture the land of the indigenous people solely in order to facilitate industry.
The biggest mining companies have been trying to capture the land rich in minerals, and destroy the pristine forest tract, which is the habitat of the indigenous people, and the major resource for their livelihood. Since the British forestry regime in the 1860s onwards, the resident tribals have been denied of their traditional customary rights over their own forests, and now the Indian government only exacerbates the same forestry reign of enclosure of the commons. This has given rise to a series of protests and unrest in the region, each time cruelly quelled by the government, which only represents the interests of what Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha call “the clique of big industry, bureaucracy and politicians”. The Indian government in the recent decades has launched a war against its own indigenous people in Kashmir, Meghalaya, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, southern Odisha and Jharkhand – and in each instance unleashed terror by its Security Forces.
I hope you are aware of the frequent episodes of gang rape of tribal women by our “heroic” Jawans, and gratuitous murders of innocent villagers, including children – all in the name of “counter-insurgency” action! Numerous ‘non-communist’/ non-Maoist intelectuals and activists – from the famous Gandhian activist Himanshu Kumar to Prof. Jean Dréze of Delhi University to Prof. Felix Padel to the writer Arundhati Roy – wrote and spoke in protest against this state terror, and exposed the lies propounded by the mainstream media. In retaliation, Himanshu Kumar, Prof. Padel and Prof. Dréze were incarcerated. Padel and Roy continues to receive threats from the Home Department for speaking against the government’s action. In the Niyamgiri villages, where there is no trace of any Maoist activism for the past 10 years, the Security Forces raid the villages, gang rape some women before killing them, and kill even little boys below 12 years when they want to save their mothers and sisters. I ask you, if you were in this position, would you accept this state violence as benevolent? Would you consider violence from the state acceptable and just, but any retaliatory violence – or even for self-defence – unacceptable, “wrong” and “biased”?
It’s amply clear that this widespread terror in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Niyamgiri hills in Odisha is geared only to push bauxite and iron mining by Vedanta, Ambani and Tata companies. The government is also orchestrating to evaporate the minimum requirements of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and rehabilitation measures, by repealing certain legal provisions! The government has already waived hundreds of millions of rupees of bank loans to all these mining corporations, and also giving enormous tax exemptions to the same companies.
Anyone who opposes these shameless acts are being labelled “anti-national” and “terrorists”. The pretext of “war against Maoism” is an easy stratagem for the state to legitimise terror. Volumes of reports from PUCL, APDR and Amnesty International have complied enough evidence. I am dismayed to find no mention of these pieces of reality in your entire prologue.
Hope you will consider this error in your analysis, and be careful to record these ground realities in your rounds of “social wayfaring”.
Amicably yours,
Seek permission to publish Vivek’s “Prologue” (part, or in whole) to his new book. If Maoist revolutionary thinking allows and encourages violence against the innocent, then this spiritual/moral evil needs to be addressed. The Earth Federation movement is designed for nonviolent solutions from the top to the bottom, and from the bottom to the top. It’s Constitution for the Federation of Earth has been drafted to replace the failed UN Charter. The UN is of little help when it comes to war and other violent conflicts. The Maoism that Vivek describes is psychopathic, and gives communism and socialism a bad name.
Warning: Undefined array key 0 in /home/shi9fruqstv087j9/public_html/monthly/wp-content/plugins/wp_edit_pro/main.php on line 1765
Warning: Undefined array key "wp_edit_pro_buttons_wp_visitor" in /home/shi9fruqstv087j9/public_html/monthly/wp-content/plugins/wp_edit_pro/main.php on line 1795
Insert WP Edit Snidget
Select a WP Edit Snidget below to add it to your post or page. Yes, they can be used in content areas too!
He has been a radio producer (Earthstar Radio, San Francisco), organized and worked with the homeless, and is an advocate/activist in the nonviolent protest movement for safe energy, human rights, and peaceful solutions.
He is USA Vice President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association whose mission is to build a parallel world body to the United Nations, an emerging Earth Federation with a Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
[/themify_box]
First published at:
">Roger Kotila PhD Dr Gary G Kohls MD[/caption]
is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his forty year family practice career. He is a contributor to and an endorser of the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and was a member of MindFreedom International, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
While running his independent clinic, he published over 400 issues of his Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, which was emailed to a variety of subscribers. (They have not been archived at any website.) In the early 2000s, Dr Kohls taught a graduate level psychology course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Mind-Body Connection”.
Since his retirement, Dr Kohls has been writing a weekly column (titled “Duty to Warn”) for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota. He offers teaching seminars to the public and to healthcare professionals.
[/themify_box]
">Gary G Kohls George Monbiot[/caption]
Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature and other.
Prof Johan Galtung was born in Oslo. He earned the PhD degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956, and in 1957 a year later completed the PhD degree in sociology at the same university.
Prof Johan Galtung received nine honorary doctorates in the fields of Peace studies, Future studies, Social sciences, Buddhism, Sociology of law, Philosophy, Sociology and Law.
State Councilor of St. Petersburg, Russia. Founding President, Global Harmony Association (GHA) since 2005. Honorary President, GHA since 2016. Director: Tetrasociology Public Institute, Russia. Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony. Author of more than 400 scientific publications, including 18 books in 1-12 languages. Author of Tetrism as the unity of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology – science of social harmony, global peace and harmonious civilisation. Director, GHA Web portal “Peace from Harmony”. Initiator, Manager, Coauthor and Editor in Chief of the book project “Global Peace Science” (GPS).
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Leo M SemashkoRobert C Koehler[/caption]
writes for the Huffington Post, Common Dreams, OpEd News and TruthOut. He considers himself a “peace journalist.” He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, Chicago. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Robert Koehler has received numerous writing and journalism awards over a 30-year career in USA. He writes about values and meaning with reverence for life. He is praised as “blatantly relevant” and “a hero of democracy”.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Robert C KoehlerRobert J Burrowes PhD[/caption]
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?‘
[/themify_box]
">Robert J BurrowesProf Richard Falk[/caption]
an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.
Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Richard FalkDr Gray Corseri, PhD[/caption]
is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch.
He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Gary CorseriAntonio Carlos Silva Rosa, Editor, TMS[/caption]
born 1946, is the editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, and Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
He completed the required coursework for a Ph.D. in Political Science-Peace Studies (1994), has a Masters in Political Science-International Relations (1990), and a B.A. in Communication (1988) from the University of Hawai’i.
Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe/India since 1994.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist, Associate Professor Emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory.
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist;He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, tribal development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek had been organising national or semi-national tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
worked as a mediator for the church in Belfast; as faculty at The School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. He has founded several Indian NGOs, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
[/themify_box]
First published at -
">Vithal RajanRene Wadlow[/caption]
is the President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social issues.
[/themify_box]
">Rene WadlowBaher Kamal[/caption]
[themify_box]
Baher Kamal
Egyptian-born, Spanish-national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of Human Wrongs Watch. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, coexistence defender, with more than 45 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.
[/themify_box]
Credits :
">Baher KamalRosa Dalmiglio with Lama Mongolia[/caption]
She is a member of the China Council Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (special art, culture and humanity), which touches the hearts of all people and portrays the strong willpower so encouraging to 60 million Chinese disabled persons.
Ms. Dalmiglio is Intermediary Agent of CICE, Centre International Cultural Exchange, a direct subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. CICE is a comprehensive institution engaged in cultural exchange programs, professional publication and presentation of cultural art works such as exhibits, receiving foreign art troupes and artists, holding international cultural research programs, and producing intercultural and interreligious documentary films.
She is a member of China Disabled Person’s Federation, CDPF. She is also a member of the International Women Federation, which is concerned with the financial ethics of women s enterprises in underdeveloped areas.
[/themify_box]
credits:
">Rosa Dalmiglio
Director, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies.
A recipient of Cultural Doctorate of Philosophy of Economics from USA. He is an active member of various professional bodies, namely -
He participated and presented papers in various International/national/regional seminars, conferences etc.. He remained member of the Academic Council of Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. An unwearied researcher has about 200 research papers published in various international and national journals of repute and 15 research monographs to his kitty. Besides, he has authored/co-authored /edited 15 books which have been well received and highly acclaimed during his three decades of professional career. He was honoured by various national and international awards, namely, Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award and so on.
Dr Ron Paul served in U.S. House of Representatives three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.
During his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics. In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group founded by Charles Koch and David Koch 'to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.' CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.
Dr Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving a few terms in the House of Representatives. In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that 'Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.'
He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry.
In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces.
[/themify_box]
Credits:
">Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.Jason Hickel[/caption]
He is international consultant of the UN – FAO and international consultant for sustainable development and sustainable future of humankind of Universal State of the Earth - USE.
On 8th October 2016 he was appointed as The Chairman of the Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment protection Committee of the USE, the Supreme Council of Humanity - SCH from Athens, Greece and London, UK.
He is researcher working on: Nature; the Nature, Space and Environment protection; the Climate change system; System thinking; Globalization and global studies; Networking, Complexity and Swarm research: Sustainable Development and Sustainable Future of Humankind. He was among the pioneers researchers (1986 – 1994) to apply nature, space, and environment protection in a local community by activities we call today Local Agenda 21 Processes – a holistic program for survival of our civilization under new challenges of the third millennium.“Commencing from Local Community Sustainable Future and moving towards Sustainable Future of the Global Community of Humankind”.
He is independent researchers with many domestic and international publications and talks. Together with many researchers in co-operation worldwide within philosophy, operational research, global studies, case studies and complex problem solving research, system thinking, requisitely holism, networking and complexity, swarm research, integration and disintegration of matter and energy and universal upbringing, education and lifelong learning. He is contributing a systemic, requisitely holistic and a better understanding of the present. His latest research within the system theory, system thinking, networking, complexity and swarm research may provide a possible answer enabling people to better understand our world of humans.
During 2014 he completed 50 years of research work (1964 - 2014). This year he completed 50 years of been Dr. Vet. Med. Since 1986 he worked on the protection of Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment and completed 30 years of research.
For research on the climate change system and the book “System Thinking and Climate Change System (Against a big “Tragedy of Commons” of all of us), Ecimovic, Mayur, Mulej and co-authors, 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 2003. His work on “The Information Theory of Nature” was his second nomination for The Nobel Prize during 2007 in Physics. His third nomination for The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was for “The Environment Theory of the Nature”, published in the book “Three Applications of the System Thinking”, Ecimovic, 2010. Within last 10 years he has contributed trilogies: “The Nature”, “The Sustainable Future of Mankind” and “The Life 2017” – please see at: www.institut-climatechange.si
I grew up in Chile, got my medical degree there, began an academic career in 1970, and left for the USA due to the military coup in early 1974. My first job in the USA was working as a public nutrition professor in the international programme of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
I started to travel to Africa in 1975, and worked a year in Cameroun in 1980 helping to prepare their five-year nutrition plan. I then moved to New Orleans, to Tulane University’s School of Public Health, and taught in the department of nutrition for ten years, before moving to Nairobi where I was an advisor in the Ministry of Health. Seven years there got me into extensive consulting in Africa, often on nutritional issues. In 1995 moved to Vietnam where I worked for two and a half years in the Ministry of Health as a senior primary health care advisor.
Many years of touching the reality on the ground, in Latin America, then the USA, then Africa and Asia, has made me understand that the real challenge is in the social and political determinants of malnutrition. I have devoted my writings and teaching to that. Over the years, I have found an important shift in my colleagues’ attitude and understanding towards acknowledging the basic causes of malnutrition. But yet I see little happening as a result. I submit that it is our guild’s lack of experience in the political arena that explains this dichotomy. I devote much of my energy to bridge this gap, and am a fervent advocate of empowering claim holders to demand needed changes from duty bearers. Nutrition is a perfect port of entry for that. Equity, social justice and people’s empowerment in a human rights sense is what really will make a difference.
There is no alternative but to deal with nutrition problems as indivisibly linked to social, political and environmental problems. We need to address them as such. The question is: are we all prepared to do that? The answer, in my view, decides whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. Travelling and living in different parts of the world has reinforced my conviction that we need to get down from our academic ivory towers, and need to change the curricula of our young and upcoming colleagues, to give them the tools to act in such a context. To me, public health nutrition cannot be anything but that.
[/themify_box]
">Claudio Schuftan Dr MDProf. Ram Puniyani[/caption]
Jacob Jonker
February 16, 2017 @ 9:19 PM
Admirable.The use of violence in any shape whatever is due to ignorance going back to the dawning of human society.Before that, one can only speculate.If humans evolved from animals, violence existed amongst the animals from which humans evolved or violence evolved as a concomitant in the process of evolution from animal to human consciousness.Myths relate that humanity was perfect to begin with and fell into sin, or ignorance, somehow sometime.This is unconvincing.It stands to reason that perfection is a state of incorruptibility.More plausible is to posit a state of innocence lost and as a consequence ignorance made an entrance.
Since ignorance begets ignorance, the only way from a disturbed state of innocence is a slow journey of learning through suffering to gain insight, understanding, wisdom and, ultimately, Enlightenment.
Ahimsa is a curious concept.It is a utopian idea which can be useful only to yogis and like people who are prepared to have everything taken from them, even their very lives, in support of the belief that to defend one’s “property” and one’s life against encroachment by others constitutes violence in one form or another.
Yoga references Natural Law as the highest law in the Universe.The law of nature as observed by wise people and as genetically endowed is clear.Competition in life is a given.People compete for food if there is scarcity of that which is necessary.Next they compete for that which is more desirable and not overly plentiful.Males compete for the affection and/or possession of females.Then there is struggle for land and water, competition for the better lands and water supply, etc., etc.
Non-violence is concept which cannot survive in a world where human society exists.Even within isolated family groups and singular tribes anthropologists have found that violence is visited upon the weaker members by the stronger and/or aggressive members of such family groups or tribes.
There is a natural balance at work which eleminates by means of natural selection they who are unable to defend themselves against attack on their person or on their sources necessary for their survival.The strong survive, up to a point.Ultimately, the most intelligent survive longer than the strongest, but they who are intelligent enough to survive the onslaught from the strongest of humans able to organise for survival will need to cooperate intelligently in order to survive.
I wish the author well in his endeavour to seek resolution of conflict, wherever, but wise counsel must needs take heed of certain contingencies, the facts of life.Once the mindset of a person is beyond the reach of reason, especially when such a person is captured by group-think under the influence of ideology, ahimsa is counter-productive and will, indeed, invite violence from such quarters as are bent on subjugating, enslaving, exploiting and, ultimately, destroying the other.
Although the psychological sciences and arts as practiced by the mainstream have evolved towards the science and art of amassing power and profitability, enough can be understood from the knowledge gained in the pursuit of psychology and related practices to allow one to come to an understanding about the workings of the human mind, severally and collectively, combining such knowledge in conjunction with facts gleaned from the other, true, sciences and pure philosophy.
There is a moving equilibrium in human affairs.The parts affect the whole and vice-versa.At any one time the survivors remain to survive another day by a combination of intelligence, strength, wit, perseverance,etc.A struggle in which cooperation within cohesive units is paramount, yet must such cohesive units allow for competition within to maintain an edge, lest competitors get the advantage.
Utopian idealism is not fit for survival in this our manifest world.This applies to the more spiritual realms no less than the more obviously material one.Salvation in the sense of bodily survival, therefor, only applies to yogis, and only then as long as they are able to find refuge from those inclined to do violence to the other.
The answer is obvious for everybody else.One must find ways to organise and cooperate for self-defence.The best unit for such sociopolitical endeavour is the nation-state, either big enough to see off any state or federation which might be a threat, while being not too big as to be in danger of falling into disarray, or as a smaller nation-state cooperating with like-minded in a defense pact of sorts.
The breaking up and joining up of sociopolitical units, however, will not cease until all the world has become the preserve of the wise, led by the enlightened, served by such as are docile/without any competitive spirit whatever.
Navin Chand Gupta
February 16, 2017 @ 9:42 PM
Dear Chief Editor
I have read the preview of the book on ground reality.
Fact is that Our Rashtrapita Mahatma K Gandhi was more than sure in his heart that Congress has compromised Freedom with British at the cost of Partition of India. To save Muslims lives who in any case would not have migrated to Pakistan he supported Muslims cause. He paid the price with his life. He was also sure that
Congresses will go corrupt with time as a price/ reward for their sacrifices. And they have a burning desire to become Rulers. Worldwide innovations and adoption of new technologies right from the use of one nuclear arsenal in Japan has given more stimulus to the development of the global world. China has gained the maximum and India is just struggling to survive, grow as much possible, changing Governance ideologies and Individualistic dictatorships. Maoism is the worst ideology and Terrorism is the adoptive format of coercion.
I look forward to read your book.
Regards.
Navin Chant Gupta
Dr. Leo Rebello
February 16, 2017 @ 10:48 PM
VERY GOOD OPENING PARAGRAPH.
When the book is ready it will be my pleasure to write a Foreword to it.
Sankara Narayanan
February 17, 2017 @ 5:56 AM
To quote Gandhi: To kill for freedom will legitimise killing after freedom
Dr Debal Deb
February 18, 2017 @ 7:00 AM
Dear Vivek-ji,
I read the prologue of your book on Bastar with deep interest.
While I find many new and interesting insights into the issue of “communism” as practised by many, I was dismayed and disappointed to find the whole writing as an apologetic of the heinous state terror.
I am not going to deal with many of your controversial points in your analysis of “communism”, except the most prominent misunderstanding that ‘communism is state capitalism’. However, my chief concern is that it’s not, as you describe, the state’s reaction to the communists/ Maoist insurgents in Bastar. This position actually absolves the state of all its responsibility and commitment to the people of the country. This also suppresses the fact that the prime motive of the state terror is only to capture the land of the indigenous people solely in order to facilitate industry.
The biggest mining companies have been trying to capture the land rich in minerals, and destroy the pristine forest tract, which is the habitat of the indigenous people, and the major resource for their livelihood. Since the British forestry regime in the 1860s onwards, the resident tribals have been denied of their traditional customary rights over their own forests, and now the Indian government only exacerbates the same forestry reign of enclosure of the commons. This has given rise to a series of protests and unrest in the region, each time cruelly quelled by the government, which only represents the interests of what Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha call “the clique of big industry, bureaucracy and politicians”. The Indian government in the recent decades has launched a war against its own indigenous people in Kashmir, Meghalaya, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, southern Odisha and Jharkhand – and in each instance unleashed terror by its Security Forces.
I hope you are aware of the frequent episodes of gang rape of tribal women by our “heroic” Jawans, and gratuitous murders of innocent villagers, including children – all in the name of “counter-insurgency” action! Numerous ‘non-communist’/ non-Maoist intelectuals and activists – from the famous Gandhian activist Himanshu Kumar to Prof. Jean Dréze of Delhi University to Prof. Felix Padel to the writer Arundhati Roy – wrote and spoke in protest against this state terror, and exposed the lies propounded by the mainstream media. In retaliation, Himanshu Kumar, Prof. Padel and Prof. Dréze were incarcerated. Padel and Roy continues to receive threats from the Home Department for speaking against the government’s action. In the Niyamgiri villages, where there is no trace of any Maoist activism for the past 10 years, the Security Forces raid the villages, gang rape some women before killing them, and kill even little boys below 12 years when they want to save their mothers and sisters. I ask you, if you were in this position, would you accept this state violence as benevolent? Would you consider violence from the state acceptable and just, but any retaliatory violence – or even for self-defence – unacceptable, “wrong” and “biased”?
It’s amply clear that this widespread terror in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Niyamgiri hills in Odisha is geared only to push bauxite and iron mining by Vedanta, Ambani and Tata companies. The government is also orchestrating to evaporate the minimum requirements of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and rehabilitation measures, by repealing certain legal provisions! The government has already waived hundreds of millions of rupees of bank loans to all these mining corporations, and also giving enormous tax exemptions to the same companies.
Anyone who opposes these shameless acts are being labelled “anti-national” and “terrorists”. The pretext of “war against Maoism” is an easy stratagem for the state to legitimise terror. Volumes of reports from PUCL, APDR and Amnesty International have complied enough evidence. I am dismayed to find no mention of these pieces of reality in your entire prologue.
Hope you will consider this error in your analysis, and be careful to record these ground realities in your rounds of “social wayfaring”.
Amicably yours,
Debal
Dr. Roger Kotila
February 20, 2017 @ 11:02 PM
Seek permission to publish Vivek’s “Prologue” (part, or in whole) to his new book. If Maoist revolutionary thinking allows and encourages violence against the innocent, then this spiritual/moral evil needs to be addressed. The Earth Federation movement is designed for nonviolent solutions from the top to the bottom, and from the bottom to the top. It’s Constitution for the Federation of Earth has been drafted to replace the failed UN Charter. The UN is of little help when it comes to war and other violent conflicts. The Maoism that Vivek describes is psychopathic, and gives communism and socialism a bad name.
Dr Robert J Burrowes & AMcKone
February 21, 2017 @ 5:03 PM
Dear Vivekji
I enjoyed getting a clear sense of your own efforts. Many thanks for this distribution my friend.
In love and solidarity; Robert