Hindustan extended from present day turkey to Indonesia and Japan.
Benzeiten is the Japanese goddess of learning. That is our saraswathi. Benten in Japan is our brahma. Read about this on Wikipedia if you like.
The Kushan empire, based out of present day Afghanistan was one of the mightiest known to man. They occupied the same areas mentioned earlier. But they came later.
Semula was an island continent about 300 miles off the east coast of India. This was the site of the epic war between Shri Ram and Ravan. The war did not happen in Lanka.
Lanka was 20–30 miles away from Semula separated by sea. It was not more than that because periodically the parties would eyeball each other.
The present day Lanka is one small portion that is left over after Semula went beneath the waters in a cataclysmic volcanic eruption.
This Semula (or kumari kandan or Lemuria) is the same place known later as Atlantis that Greek philosopher Plato mentioned.
However, Plato did not discover this. He heard the story from another Greek, Solon. He too is not the original source.
Solon heard about it from Egyptian priests.
The Egyptians were land lubbers. Their sea going adventures were limited to the Nile and minor forays into the Red Sea.
So the priests heard this from Indian traders of that era. Indian traders built their ships out of teakwood. So these did not rot in salt water. They sailed the world and populated the areas of south and North America.
Look at the incas, Mayas and red indians. They are all brown skinned Indians. The swastika symbol is common all over South America. The temples in Mecca destroyed by Mohammad in 600–700 AD were all Hindu temples.
Before the Kushan line around 5000 BC came the Harappa civilization. By the way Mohenjodaro built at the same time was not a fancy touristy place. It was merely a place of burying dead bodies. There isn't even a semblance of living arrangements in that area. You conducted ceremonies and then cremated the dead in that place. Then you went elsewhere. The name Mohenjodaro is itself a clue. It means “mound of the dead”.
So that is the story. Or at least a bit of it.
And where is the rest of it you may ask. I'll share one more bit.
Suvarna Dwipa (sometimes spelt as Suvarnadvipa) is a term you come across often in ancient Indian literature. It means “The Golden Island”.
Our ancients had a tough time as it is making sure their knowledge was passed on to us.
Oral transmission to each generation worked to some extent. They sometimes painfully etched out granite stones with the highlights of their times.
Typically they left clues on their monuments and prayed that future idiots (me; you;) will decipher WTF they were communicating.
So ancient Indians would not invent grandiose words like this unless it meant something.
It does.
I will tell you about SD. Very briefly.
For reasons that I may share later Garuda (Shri Vishnu’s preferred ride) was extremely hungry. He was holding on to something when Hanuman set fire to the original Lanka. Garuda let go of what he was grabbing with his beak.
It turned to gold.
The heat of Hanuman’s pyrotechnics melted it. 1/3 rd of Lanka got covered in molten gold. That portion of the land sank beneath the waters.
Hanuman most definitely did not care about gold. Mortals living in that era did.
They may have attempted to retrieve the gold. On the day when they knew that their time on earth was over, they passed on that information to subsequent generations.
And that is the origin of the word Suvarna Dwipa.
Jai Shree Ram

Please bear with me as my past few posts have been rather long winded. And, this one won’t be different.
I’m currently re-listening to the entire serious yet again. I just came to the part where cowel and Kumari first spoke to dresden. I found this part particularly interesting:
“I’ve seen you two before.”
Neither of them moved.
“At Bianca’s masquerade. You were on the dais with her.”
“You were the ones that gave the leanansidhe that anathema.”
“Perhaps.” Said Kumari but there was an inclination of her head that seeded me the truth of my statement.
“That was an amazingly screwed up evening that has been haunting me for years.”
“And will for years to come.” Said Cowel.
“A great many things of significance happened that night most of which you are unaware.”
(Skipping the bits about the book as they aren’t necessary to this theory.)
“Are you with the council?”
“Obviously not.” Kumari said from the depths of her hood.
“It seems to me that if you were on the up and up you’d be working with the council.”
“And it seems to me that if their motives where as pure as they claim you would have already notified them yourself.”
“Who says I haven’t?”
“If you can agree that the knowledge in that book is dangerous what makes you think that the wardens or the council would use it any wiser than kemlars disciples”
“Because while they are a bunch of assholes they try to do the right thing.”
“All of them? Are you sure?”
“The council is not what it was. It has rotted from the inside and many wizards who have chaffed under the council’s restrictions has seen the war with the redcourt reveal it’s weakness. It will fall soon.”
This conversation for the very first time has struck me as really more meaningful than I had thought.
I believe that night may have very well been the formation of the black council. The questions are you sure? All of them?
Seem to be a foreshadowing of Cristos and his contemporaries. Cristos hadn’t made a name for himself at this point. He wasn’t even noticed until the Raksasha event.
I had originally thought that this conversation had meant Peabody, but in hindsight Peabody was just a tool manipulating council members to pave the way for Cristos to become a senior council member as he himself was no where near consideration.
“Many wizards who have chaffed at the council’s restriction.”
Cristos represents a large number of the council members who felt La Fortia (spelling) was the only one to treat them right backed Cristos in fact the threatened mutiny if he wasn’t elected.
This could very well mean that a good portion of the council are with the black council. I mean the threat was big enough that freaking Langtry caved in on it.
The problem with this is that they only see Cristos as the threat. They completely overlook the possibility of the rest of the members that back him.
I also believe that the events of that night precipitated the rise of the Fomor.
I mean duh right? I’m looking at it from this angle. The fomor kidnap and augment mortal practitioners even ones with the least bit of talent.
Mortals are the only ones that can call up outsiders. It’s hinted at that Bianca was nfected. What if the Fomor used some of her prostitutes to get to her.
And uses her to set up the war thus depleting resources and numbers of both sides. Even if Dresden had not genocides the redcourt to hell and the war continued one if not both of the sides would be too weak to defend themselves against a fomor incursion.
The obvious sub plot to destroy the fae and get Mab’s mantle would have allowed Maeve to open the gates completely while the council was too busy to do anything about it.

Y'all made have heard of Gizzle from "Jump" by Lupe Fiasco, but she's a pretty great rapper in her own right. She's also a ghostwriter and butch lesbian, which is cool.
Here's a summary of this P4k interview

She first got a writing gig from Nelly and Ma$e’s manager for his new signee, B2K boy bander Lil Fizz, who was striking out on his own. Gizzle had never written for another artist before, but she rose to the occasion and even penned Fizz’s local hit “Beds” on a bus ride.
Gizzle’s first major placement and credited work came under the auspices of her early mentor, legendary producer Teddy Riley, who is her god-brother’s father. Riley had been tapped to help produce Snoop Dogg’s 2008 album Ego Trippin’ and asked Gizzle to help write songs for it.
“Back then, there were no girls writing for boys,” she recalls. “I wrote full songs that Snoop rapped word-for-word.” Riley was drawn to Gizzle due to her unique ability to not only execute but also to conceptualize—a rare talent. “I’ve witnessed Snoop Dogg say, ‘Lady G what would you do? What’s your take on this?’” says Riley over the phone. “Most writers just write about what they’re told to write about, but she comes up with the concept. That’s how Pharrell was.”
Diddy: “She’s a one-of-one. If you’re trying to do the same thing everybody else is doing, it’s probably not the best use of her time. You need that unique type of perspective, especially if you’re trying to do something that’s going to shake the game up.”
Ty$, who has worked with Gizzle since 2008, is drawn to her open-mindedness and versatility as a writing partner. “She can talk about anything,” he says. “I fuck with her on every level when it comes to writing. She’s just not afraid to say shit.” Though she’s one of just a handful of women writing for men in hip-hop, for Ty$, her identity as a queer woman is an advantage: “You know she gets both sides ’cause Gizzle got bitches too!”
And interpreting a rapper or singer’s creative goal means taking an immersive approach: “I’ll be over here talking with them, and then actually hanging out and partying with them and knowing exactly what they on.” Though she’s written complete songs for artists, she makes it clear that she often plays a smaller role in a song’s creation. “If I work on a song with T.I. or Kanye or Jay Z, don’t think I’m writing these mans’ raps!”
For Gizzle, a songwriter need not be the one who comes up with all the lyrics and melody by herself. In the studio with clients, she moves between the roles of writer, coach, editor, idea person, and the one who simply sets the mood for optimal creativity. “I’ll do whatever my role calls for me to do,” she says. “So if that’s just coming through with the ambiance or giving my support, like, ‘That shit’s hard’ or ‘You can do that shit better,’ I’m into all of that.” Most great things are the result of a concerted effort, and songs are no different: “People can’t be narrow-minded about what the actual process is—there are very few hit songs where you only see one or two names in the credits.”

From a Pitchfork interview:

Gizzle attributes this shift, in part, to the era of transparency we live in today. “Something that’s supposed to be a flaw about you is becoming the positive now,” says the rapper, who came out when she was 15. “People in general are craving individuality and authenticity.” For her part, Gizzle isn’t interested in crusading to make hip-hop more socially progressive; a more inclusive landscape will be the byproduct of her success. She plans to win not by argument but by action.
One of the songs she’s working on is written from the perspective of her 15-year-old self. She’s petitioning a local dope dealer to put her on: “Dope man, can I ride in your Murciélago?/While your eyes low/I’ma keep watch for 5-0/Just drive slow/Let me take a toke then show me the ropes.” Back then, she was tempted by the street life that some of her friends, and even her father, a Rollin’ 60s Crip, were involved in. “I wanted to do the same shit everybody else was doing, selling drugs and all that,” she explains. “I tried to do it a little bit but I couldn’t really go far in it, because the older people wouldn’t let me in.” That elder class of hustlers always saw something bigger and better for the gregarious young woman with the outsize personality and a gift for rhyming. Deep down, she saw more for herself too.

She's written on:

Ty Dolla $ign

B.o.B

Diddy

Boosie

Snoop

Kevin

G-Eazy

Iggy

T.I.

T.I. - How Life Changed (feat. Scarface & Michel'le)

Yachty

Travis

Misc

I mutter faex on pure instinct as I blink away the sensations of a tremendous roar and find myself sitting in a wooden chair on a rickety porch somewhere unknown. The day is warm, distant pine trees murmur in a rich breeze, and the sky... shimmers. I recognize the subtle pattern instantly.
I'm home.
I'm home the way I remember it, from before the Troubles, the Time of Sickness, the Rotation, and the Grey Flood. All political issues aside, it was a natural paradise before, and this world is just as clean, beautiful, and safe as I remember it being when I was a child. From everything my Empire friends have told me about philosophies and religions, this has to mean...
I'm dead.
Sitting stunned for a moment and looking around to check the realness of the moment, I let the soft windy whispers fill my thoughts, so that I will not instead explode with a thousand pained emotions. After all that—after how far we went, how bitterly we struggled, and how deeply we refused to give up—to die simply because the Earth exploded underneath us—! Is it ridiculous that I still feel such an apocalyptic and cataclysmic death does not truly honor the bravery of the Second Tribe?
I didn't look when the time came, but Ed described what would happen well enough while we were hooking ourselves to conduit handholds during the ruby cube's ramping-up. The anti-gravity field, he said with sad eyes that now haunt my thoughts, might continue to grow until it pushes too deeply into the crust. Once it breaches even a small part of the inner magma, a catastrophic cascade of releasing pressure will eject core material in an explosion forceful enough to shatter the planet—and the moon, and everything else nearby. "It'll be so fast, so loud, and so hot, we'll die instantly," he said blankly. "There won't even be time to comprehend it happening."
And he was right. They were right. Here I sit, somewhere else, suddenly and unceremoniously deposited in paradise.
But if this is truly my paradise, a world crafted for me...
I reach down behind my chair, and my bare hand closes on an assault rifle.
I have not forgotten the promise I screamed into the storm.
I'm only clad in some sort of light sundress, but I'm on my feet, loading ammunition, grabbing gear from a nearby table, and running out across waving grass without hesitation. It doesn't matter which direction I go, just that I go with such speed that the forces of the afterlife will be caught off guard. Where are the others? There should be seven billion of us arriving around the same time.
My running gait feels off somehow, and I feel weaker than I remember, but I think it's because I'm merely human here. It doesn't matter. I've trained my whole life for physical exertion—and physically exert I shall. Curving around a corner in the path between trees, I recognize a wooden palisade and many rustic buildings. This is the distant town somewhere near New Moscow where my parents were exiled when I was young.
And the battle has already begun.
Two dropships lay burning on a green hill, but eighteen are unloading. Hundreds of soldiers clad in the colors of the Amber Three military spill out, only to be met by a screaming charge of green-and-brown-draped rebels from every direction. I run between two hills, dashing headlong into the sounds of gunfire, and I am soon joined by decrepit old men and fiery-eyed women. Exiled, outcast, they have nothing left to lose, and I can immediately understand why they are part of the rebellion.
But who is in charge? I release a small burst to down two of the closest enemies, then lead my stream of fighters around a low hill to fire from another angle, downing five more. There is no time for tactics or communication, but none is needed. It was obvious from the moment I left the trees that this was a trap laid by the resistance, and I continue in that vein, pushing forward, felling soldiers from a flank they don't expect. The old man to my left and the wild-eyed woman to my right dash with me to the nearest dropship with such energy that we crash right into the opposite inner wall at a full run, already firing. The men still inside die with a choir of surprised shouts. Only one manages to return fire.
The wild-eyed woman slumps, bleeding from six places, but the old man closes the back ramp while I push the dead pilots out of the way and grab the dropship's controls. Lifting off ever so slightly, I pitch the flying boat one way, then the other, getting a feel for it—then, I soar sideways, crushing an entire row of fleeing soldiers. It's a brutal action, but necessary, and I have a feeling those soldiers are less than real.
The battle is over.
Not from my actions alone, but it's over. The rest surrender.
I bring the craft to rest with an exhausted sigh. Combat is difficult and draining without the gifts of my father's lineage, but there is so much more ahead. Turning, I watch the rear ramp of the craft as it opens at the old man's behest.
My heart leaps in my chest.
Tacitus lowers his rifle and smiles.
But it is not he who speaks. "Venita, you pulled that crazy stunt?" Celcus pushes in quickly to check on me. "What are you even doing here? You promised you would stay home!"
From the back, tending to the injured woman, Porcia quips, "You know how hard-headed she is."
Rufus laughs. "You can say that again."
They're all here. They're all here! Flavia and Sampson pull dead soldiers out of the craft swiftly, readying for immediate takeoff. Looking at each of them with wide eyes, I ask, "Where's Septus?"
"That traitorous bastard?" Rufus asks. "At the target compound, if we're lucky. I'll shoot him myself."
There must be more to the ambush. "Compound?"
Touching my forehead, Celcus says with concern, "Yeah, the compound we're leaving to attack in two minutes? Legate Blue is supposed to be there in person today?"
Sitting roughly in the pilot's seat, I ask warily, "But we already—I killed him."
That gets their attention. Porcia asks hopefully, "Where? Was he in this dropship or something?"
"No, years ago," I tell them, feeling very strange. "I died doing it."
Sampson raises one eyebrow at Celcus, and my antikin puts a hand on my upper back. "Is the pregnancy making you hallucinate?"
Wait, what? I look down, only now noticing that I'm slightly fat. Is this why I find myself so tired? Also—what?!??!
I—
I'm—
If this is the afterlife, it has a very strange way of playing things.
No. Something's wrong. My entire life has been uprooted and rewritten. I can almost hear Ed's words, advising me to keep my 'yap shut' until I learn more. They're all here, and my heart is swelling with a storm of emotions I can't possibly face, but it's too much to accept at face value. There's only one person who might have answers for me. "Is my father in town?"
Compassionately, Celcus nods. "Yeah."
"I have to go see him right away." Halfway to the exit ramp, I pause. "Don't go attack that compound. It's a trap."
They all stare at me.
"Legate Blue's reaction to strife is to lock himself away behind a dozen walls and thousands of lackeys," I tell them from experience. "I guarantee he's not randomly at some base here in the middle of nowhere. It's a trap. They let you have this success just to get you to rush headlong into danger."
My squadmates look at each other worriedly.
If I stay, it will give them a chance to debate it. Knowing that, I leave quickly, not letting myself look back. If I look back, I'll stay with them, and I'll never want to leave.
Walking past hundreds of prisoners being corralled into one controllable area, I make for the town's entrance. I feel strange and sick watching the captured soldiers. I just crushed a swath of my fellow Ambers with a ship. What if they are real? It's not their fault the Legates are corrupt. My chest is a horrible vortex of hope, anticipation, sadness, and confusion. I fight to keep that all down as I enter the town proper.
The wooden palisade gates look exactly as I remember them, and I know the way to my father's little house in the back by heart. I shout as I approach, "Dad!"
He's already coming out, and he leaves the wooden door swinging open behind him. "Beloved daughter, what have you done?"
I throw my rifle aside and hug him hard. "I don't know. Where are we? What's going on?"
"I can only guess that Time suffered a schism, daughter," he says with awe and worry, clasping me in return. "A great deal changed in a single moment of blasting white. What did you do?"
Frowning, I think back on what happened. "Someone in the future told us we were all going to die. So we tried to survive. It doesn't make sense. We failed. We did die. I thought this was the afterlife!"
Letting me go, he regards me with a piercing gaze. "Are you sure you died? Did you feel the pain? Did you travel through the Restless Hedrons?"
"Well, no..."
"Then you have not died. More likely, someone was not where they were supposed to be when Death came for them."
They followed me... were we all supposed to still be hanging on to the conduits when the Earth exploded? "But we were going to die in a few seconds anyway!"
"Are you sure? Did you manage to save anyone who should have died?"
Trying to think through the emotions clawing for supremacy, I can't help but let a small brimming layer of moisture rise under my eyes. Billions dead in every which way, and all of it fated. It was a tapestry of pain and hopelessness, and, with all our years of struggle and sacrifice, we only managed to tug a single thread—the engineer, Neil, was headed off into the future on Gisela's ship despite Kumari telling us that never happened. "Just one."
My father nods slowly. "That would be enough. Time is a crystal lattice, and any change propagates outward in many dimensions." His eyes turn to the distant horizon. "This isn't supposed to be possible. It's never happened before. I'm going to retreat into my home and meditate on this. It may take some time, perhaps months. I will find you when I know more."
I understand, but I still feel strange watching him enter his house and shut the door. My rifle lies on the ground, and I am alone under a placid shimmering sky. Shimmering? I recognized it immediately when I awoke here, but I didn't think it through. If the sky is shimmering, the Inner Shields are still in place, which means the Crushing Fist never happened.
Is Ed still living in the Empire somewhere? All the people I've met, all the places I've been, all the victories we won together... is Cristina still out there, and still cold and hard without the lessons she learned along the way? Is Conrad still asleep in his distant facility? Is Gisela out there making machines in exile? All the threads of my life are separate once again, and I never knew how much I valued my experiences. I hated Gisela and waged war on her at one time, and thought Conrad an ass and an idiot for years, but now my ancestors will never know me. Cristina, too, the woman who filled the role of my mother in some part...
I do have a family. I sit in our house each day, surrounded by my brothers, sisters, and beloveds. Tacitus, Porcia, Rufus, Flavia, Celcus, Sampson; they move around me, saying and doing things in ways that I remember, alternately breaking my heart and making me smile. This is the life I once dreamt of, a dagger through my heart which was at its greatest when I aligned with Noah to sense the Empire and felt someone's whole lifetime go by in their red zone of fast-time.
But this is the Empire, and that timeline is gone. That person's life is gone.
This is what I wanted; what I felt incomplete without. My belly keeps getting bigger, and my family happier. The rebellion against the Legates goes well with my knowledge of events, and nobody understands how I know.
But it doesn't fit. It's wrong in a way I can't quite pin down. It's not the loss of my father's gifts. Those are still there in my genetics, just dormant, because I never went through countless near-death experiences to activate them through overwhelming stress. Flavia says it is due to 'epigenetic markers,' and I understand enough without needing to know the actual science: this Venita has made a trade. The Venita of this life chose family.
Some nights, I sit on a high hill near our house. The sunsets in this part of the world are pretty enough, but they hold nothing on the raw wild horizons I saw out in the multiverse. I was never more myself than wearing that jade armor and that grey uniform while sitting on a high crag and watching a blazing red or green sky sink into primordial night on a world that had never known mankind. Our enemies were so much more than the Legates; our challenges so much greater than mere soldiering. After such a bitter conflict against existence itself, why would Fate let us dodge out like this?
Epigenetic markers...
This Venita may have made a trade, but I don't have to. I absolutely love Valentina, my adorable little daughter, but she's a year old now, and can be without me for a little bit.
There is a facility on Amber Three that can sometimes send messages to the Empire, and I direct the others to assault it. For the first time since I got here, I go on the mission with them. The townsfolk will watch Valentina.
The mission goes smoothly, for the facility is of little tactical use to anyone else, and I find myself standing in a control room filled with darkened monitors. "Everybody out," I request calmly. "This is for me to undertake alone."
I sit, and I send out messages.
I get no response.
After the first week, Celcus suggests we return home. The forces of the Legates will eventually notice our presence.
"No," I tell him, and continue to keep my intentions secret.
The second week, I try a different tactic. I begin saying key words I heard in my previous life.
The third week, I start messaging out names that I remember.
Apparently, someone was listening, because eight seconds after I say, "Ward Shaw," one of the monitors finally flares to life.
A bearded man with a grim face stares back at me. "Stop spamming these channels."
"I know you!" I reply, energized at finally getting a response. "We need to talk about—"
His eyes grow dark, but not the black I heard about. "The timeline, I know."
"How do you—?"
"We all remember," he says, his tone haunted. "Every single citizen of the Empire is well aware that hundreds of billions died in another timeline. Our worlds are in absolute chaos."
I almost tell him that nobody on Amber Three remembers, but I realize why as soon as the thought occurs to me. "So what do we do?"
"Nothing. The Amber Worlds are surrounded by Shields. You can't get to us, and we can't get to you. That's it. That's how it is."
His monitor goes dark.
I guess I have my answer.
We abandon the facility and return to safer lands.
I sit each day at our house, watching our daughter grow up. She's two, then she's four, then she's eight.
The Legates cede power when she is sixteen. Our world is free at last.
It's strange, but not being allowed to fight makes my soul feel strange. There is nobody to resist, nothing to defeat, and nowhere to go. The Empire no longer sends us cultural media blasts every ten years, so we have no idea what is happening to them outside our Shield.
Every year, I wait and I watch for an opportunity to rise, but none ever comes. Is Fate actually going to leave us alone? This is safety, but also a prison.
It's taken two decades to feel this way, but maybe I should finally let myself be happy. I can't save the Empire, but I can be here for those I love. I encourage my daughter to go on a first date with someone, and, before I know it, Valentina is getting married. I'm at the wedding when my father finally emerges from his house.
He sits next to me at the reception table and picks up a name plaque with a worried gaze.
I haven't seen him since my first day in this timeline. "Father?"
"It's cruel," he whispers. "Beyond simple torture. Unbelievably cruel."
Alarmed, I ask, "What is?"
He finally looks at me. "My beloved daughter. I haven't been here for you, but I am now. It's me. Truly me."
"Truly you?" I sit up taller in my chair and smooth my dress down in anticipation of danger.
He looks past me at Valentina and her new husband, who dance on the floor in front of our friends and family. "I don't know how to get you out of this."
"Out of what?" I ask the question, but I think I always knew. I never let myself care too much, not like I did before. I was full of so much love in my previous life, but this just never felt right. People and events moved around me, rather than with me, and I always kept myself guarded against happiness. Fate was never going to simply let us live and be happy. It had simply been biding its time, waiting for us to lower our defenses—but I never did. Tacitus, Rufus, Porcia, Flavia, Celcus, Sampson—and now Valentina. I will never let the cruelty of the multiverse harm them. "How's the attack going to happen? What's it going to do to get at us?"
He's still looking at Valentina. "Is that your daughter?"
I nod warily.
"You should say goodbye to her."
How bad is it? Nearly in a trance, I rise and find her as the dance ends. She's smiling at someone, and I touch her shoulder.
She turns. "Hey, mom."
Strangely, it's like it's the first time I've heard her voice. Tears are brimming in my eyes. "This has all just happened so fast. I feel like just a moment ago, you were a baby."
She nods. "Time does fly." Her hair bounces with her nod. It's red like mine, and like my mother's before me. "I want you to know, I'm glad I got to exist."
I hug her hard. "You know about the other timeline?"
"Yeah." She grasps me back. "Aunt Flavia figured it out. I would have said something, but you and I didn't meet until just now."
I don't let go of her. "I want to stay. I want to see this, so badly."
"I know. But that's not the kind of person you are. Uncle Tacitus said you would do the right thing, and staying here isn't it."
Laughing and crying at the same time, I ask, "Tacitus said that?"
"He talks," she replies, also laughing and crying. "But only to me."
For some reason, the laughter in my heart swells, and I can face it for just a moment: this is, actually, completely, and literally what would have happened. The Purple Madness is a monstrous bastard like that; making people crazy with broken perceptions of Time instead of simple insanity. I pull back and memorize her face. Tears run down her cheeks, but she's not sad.
I mold my mind to the shape I learned from Noah, gaining his immunity.
The scene in front of me fades away in a tremendous monsoon of purple.
Glowing hurricane winds batter at every corner of me as I flail about—but I am not falling. Looking down, I see Sampson, wild-eyed and sweat-soaked, holding my ankle with one outstretched hand. With the other, he holds on to a pylon made by the black spheres. All around me, the Second Tribe is comatose, their bodies strewn about the structure or simply falling into open space. The all-encompassing winds of madness have them all locked in their own minds.
It wasn't real, but it would have been.
I can't breathe. For an interminable moment, the pain is physically too much to bear. The life I dreamt of—the family I wanted—and Valentina was such a kind soul—and I—
I kept myself wary and guarded.
For twenty years, I never let myself truly be there.
I... was no good at civilian life.
The pain passes, and I clench my fists before climbing back onto the structure with Sampson's help. He's at the end of his endurance, but he's saved my life yet again, and I clasp him with all the warm thanks my heart has to offer. Around us, without a guiding willpower, the spheres are beginning to lose cohesion. The structure bends; time is short. "Beloved, keep me safe for a little longer." He nods, and I close my eyes, letting the Noah-defense fall from my mind.
Edgar Brace sits eating cereal in his boxers in a small apartment.
Rachel walks in and shouts, "Jesus Christ, are you just going to play videogames the entire weekend? Shouldn't you be looking for a job?"
Miserable, he ignores her. It's not her fault. Their relationship just doesn't work, and he's driving her crazy by making promises he can't uphold. He looks out the window and sees a blazing angel searing a thin line of blue across the distant sky.
Casey sits in a living room with her husband, Cade. Those aren't their names, of course, but they had to change them to lay low, lest the First Worlders find her.
He's a farmer, and she's a teacher. It works. They were happy, for a time, but she knows the world is so much larger than some small plot of land in the middle of nowhere, and the home she ran from so long ago now calls her back. She worries what the people there might be doing as their wills to live continue to fade.
But Cade wouldn't understand any of that. There was a time he might have, but she kept it all hidden instead of revealing it to him. Now, Laura's off at college, and there's nothing to do but... be a farmer and a teacher. Honest work, but...
She looks out the window and sees a blazing angel searing a thin line of blue across the distant sky.
Conrad sits in a field on a summer day, constantly replaying the only moment he was truly and profoundly happy. Gisela sits across from him, smiling. She is not an Empress, and he is not an Emperor. There are no responsibilities today. The future holds horrible revelations and unending pains of a thousand different varieties, but today is pure, innocent, and warm.
He looks across the plains and sees a blazing angel searing a thin line of blue across the distant sky.
To himself, he whispers, "Hundreds of years in my life spent practically comatose thinking about this day, and I can't have five more minutes?"
The distant angel flares.
He grins.
I feel them, billions of them alone in their miseries, living the wrong lives in their heads. The destruction of the planet below us and the release of the conduits' energy was part of our plan, but nobody expected this. The people of the Second Tribe are an ocean of clever agonies, but I soar above their quiet desperations. I remember now, how to fly. I remember leading armies in dreams, and I raise my sword again, calling for them to follow me.
And they do. For a second time, they all follow me.
For they, too, can shape that part of themselves that is vulnerable to the Purple Madness. For those whose spiritual presence is weaker, well, they have less to defend. For those with greater presence, their ability to defend themselves is also greater. Together, our collective barrier is stronger than the sum of its parts.
The Second Tribe awakens.
I open my eyes, still in Sampson's arms, to see them grabbing on to the structure and helping each other recover. In equal measure, the spheres begin to reassert their proper shape, and the gigantic black lattice becomes strong again, standing firm despite the raging purple storm.
Below us, the anti-gravity field has continued to grow, and magmatic glows are visible around floating continents circling and crashing into one another. The vortex we rode to get here is gone, scattered by the explosion of the conduit network; it won't be long now before the planet's core ruptures outward.
I expected despair to surround me, but instead I sense the Tribe is unified in a new way. Like me, did they learn that there was never any other path for us? We can stop lamenting about timelines and futures we'll never have, because our choices brought us here. With any other choices, we wouldn't have been us anymore.
Finding the radio at my belt, I bring it up and ask, "Ed, or Casey. Can we land this sphere-ball thing?"
"Not with that in the way," comes Ed's response, referring to the ocean of floating continents and exploding magma below.
Beside me, Sampson judges the distant chaos below.
Breathing hard from the sheer overwhelming thought of what I'm considering, I ask, "If I can stop the ruby cube, end the anti-gravity field, what about then?"
It's Casey this time. "And how are you going to do that?"
Conrad answers for me: "She's going to jump."
"No way!" Ed shouts over the radio. "Those landmasses are ripping themselves to shreds down there. The ruby cube is in the middle of all that. You'll never make it!"
Sampson motions for my radio. "Not alone. If enough of us jump ahead of her, we can radio the right way."
"Yeah, just before you—"
"Die," Sampson says calmly. "I know. This is that kind of mission."
After a moment of silence, Ed says, "Then we'll use the flares. Vanguard tactics. Spread and compress the formation on the way down. They taught us that because it was the best way to make it through unknown territory at speed. It'll work. She can follow the flares better than trying to guess who's on the radio, anyway."
While Ed calls for volunteers, Sampson nods and hands me the radio.
Only then do I process the fact that he means to go himself. "No!"
He smiles wearily. "Remember what I said?"
I do. That morning, we were sitting on a high crag watching the dawn. He said, I know you. To save everyone else, you're going to jump right into the eye of the flaming storm. The absurd, exploding, flaming, crashing storm. Just know that when that moment comes, if you jump, you won't be alone.
He nods as I recall. A cloud of specks is already leaping off from the gigantic structure around us; men and women jumping to their certain deaths in formation simply to show me the way. I don't even know what I'll do if I manage to make it to the ruby cube. The plan isn't complete, but they're jumping anyway, because there's no time. The planet could explode at any second.
Sampson gives me no time to argue. I know that he knows that arguing with him will just cause a fatal delay. His weary smile becomes wide and unburdened; he salutes me, and falls backward.
Time's violin and my father's guitar are no longer playing. Though moons are crashing into one another around us and the Earth is in a volcanic death dance, space is silent as I leap after him. As that absurd, exploding, flaming, crashing storm of a planet fills my vision, there is no sound at all.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu for 5 separate terms between 1969 and 2011, passed away on Aug 7th at the age of 94.
He was the most major and consequential face of the “Dravidian movement” since Annadurai’s death in 1969
A lot of obituaries will no doubt focus on his political career and his legacy. But in my view this is a good time to take a step back and better understand the “ideas” and prejudices that Karunanidhi championed.
"Views" that predate him by decades and that he did not originate. While it is all very well to focus on people, a discussion of ideas and their place in history is always more useful.
What was the “Dravidian movement” all about?
Was it something that emerged all of a sudden with the DMK’s victory in 1967 TN elections - as an outcome of a mass outrage against “North Indian” hegemony and the imposition of Hindi?
Or do we go further back and place its origins in the late 19th / early 20th century with the Justice Party and the Self-respect movement - a political assertion of the “non brahmin” tamil people against the perceived Brahmin dominance in Tamil Nadu during the British Raj?
But these are proximate ways of thinking about political movements. Which are not satisfactory. Why Tamil Nadu?
The Brahmins were arguably even more “dominant” (as measured by literacy rates and occupancy of government jobs) in Mysore than in Madras. Yet there was no “Dravidian movement” in Mysore / Karnataka.
The Brahmins were pretty “dominant” in Bombay Presidency as well, yet we didn’t see a “Non-Brahmin” maratha assertion in Maharashtra, until much later in the 20th century.
Why is it that this political movement rooted in
a. Tamil exceptionalism b. Dislike of the Brahmin c. Dislike of Northern cultural influences (Sanskrit, Hindi, “Brahminical” Hinduism)
Emerged ONLY in TN and not in other southern states, or in other non-Hindi parts of India?
These are questions that haven’t been asked enough by historians and discussed even less in media
This thread is a modest attempt to answer these qns, and examine briefly the political/social circumstances in Tamil Nadu over the past 1000 yrs, which help answer these questions
So let’s first try to understand the Tamil country. A land that has been extremely well integrated with “Aryavrata” for nearly 2000 years. In fact one can legitimately regard it as a part of “Aryavrata” starting with Pallava rule in the middle of the 1st millennium CE
The period from about 5th / 6th century CE to 13th century can be regarded as a “Golden age” for the Tamil country - a period when the land was first ruled by the Great Pallavas, and later the Cholas (with a brief Pandya revival in 13th cen)
It was a period when Tamil Nadu emerged arguably as the citadel of Hindu culture in all of subcontinent - a culture that enmeshed the great Sanskritic traditions of the north with the local Tamil traditions - and in the process enriching both
Now why do I regard the cosmopolitan Tamil culture of 6th to 13th centuries as the high point of Tamizh civilization? It is on account of its remarkable accomplishments
This period saw some of the greatest works in Tamil (and Hindu) literature - - The great Bhakti poetry of Azhwars and Nayanars (6th to 9th century CE) - Kamban’s Rama-avataram (12th century)
The period was also the emergence of the great Tamil empires - when Tamil maritime flourished like never before, and Tamil / Hindu influence extended into much of South East Asia
The Medieval Cholas were that rare Indian exception- an expansionist Indian Empire. An empire that defeated and subjugated the great Srivijaya kingdom of Indonesia, and also conquered much of Sri Lanka in 11th cen. Sri Lanka was under Chola rule for nearly all of 11th cen.
The period was also marked by great architectural innovation - all the great Chola and Pallava temples of Tamil Nadu - be it Brihadeeshwara & Airavateshwara (in Tanjore region) or Kailashnathar / Mahabalipuram (near Kanchi) date to this period of hectic architectural activity
Finally the period is most distinguished for its massive, I repeat massive, contribution to the Hindu religion. The Vaishnava and Shaiva faiths consolidated during this period.
The great Hindu theologians - Sankara and Ramanuja - belong to this period
It was also a period when Tamil devotional literature was integrated with the Sanskrit mainstream. The devotional literature gained intellectual legitimacy in temples across Tamil Nadu notwithstanding the low origins of many of the Tamil poets who wrote this literature.
So why are we discussing all this. The point to note here is that during this heyday of Tamil civilization, the Tamil country was arguably the shining light of India (esp given the decline that had set in much of the North after the fall of Harsha)
And this civilization was not marked by any “revolt” against brahmins or Sanskrit or northern influences. It was a confident Tamil culture that embraced northern influences as well as northern migrants.
One example of seamless migration from the north is that of the great Sanskrit writer Dandin, who was a part of the Pallava court in early 8th century. His family was one that had immigrated to Tamil Nadu from Vidarbha in the North in the 7th century
So it was a confident civilization, with none of the Tamizh insecurities that characterize the modern Dravidian movement.
So what changed?
Things began to change around the 14th cen, when Tamil Nadu gradually lost its political sovereignty. The Cholas faded. The Pandyas of Madurai were overthrown by Delhi Sultanate
The Madurai Sultanate’s rule of terror over southern Tamil Nadu in the 14th cen left tremendous scars
By the end of the 14th cen, all of the Tamil country was under Vijayanagar rule, which had its base in northern Deccan (Hampi). Following the fall of Vijayanagara, the Tamil territories came under the rule of the Nayakas - who were originally governors of Vijayanagara Empire
Post late 17th century the Nayaka influence also waned, and Maratha influence gradually increased. Thanjavur became a seat of Maratha power. Elsewhere in Northern Tamil country, the Muslim Nawabs established their rule centered in the town of Arcot (modern Vellore).
So what do we gather about this long period from 14th century to 19th century? It was a period of Non-Tamil rule in Tamil Nadu. Starting with Vijayanagara, then Nayaks, then the Marathas, the Nawabs, and finally the British.
Quite naturally it was also a period of Tamizh decline. Vast populations of non-Tamil origin (particularly from Andhra) moved into Tamil Nadu during this period, especially due to Vijayanagara patronage So Telugu (and to a lesser extent Sanskrit) became very dominant languages in the corridors of power. Tamil receded.
Telugu was perceived as the language with some class! The language used by respectable people. Tamil - the language of the masses and the subjects.
To me this phase of Telugu’s rise and Tamil’s decline cannot be over-emphasized. It is very important to understand the roots of Tamil rage and Tamil insecurities
One way to understand the predominance of Telugu in Tamil country is to examine Carnatic Music - an art form whose formal development was primarily in Tamil Nadu in late 18th / early 19th century
The three giants of this art form in late 18th century were - Tyagaraja, Shama Sastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar. Atleast two of them, we are sure, had Telugu as their mother tongue
But where did they live? In Andhra? No . They lived in the vicinity of Tanjore - the Tamil heartland
How about their compositions? - Well the compositions were primarily in Telugu, and some in Sanskrit. Hardly any in Tamil, the language spoken by the masses around them
So we have this long long period of Tamil decline, which no doubt hurt Tamil pride a lot. This is after all the land of Silappadikaram and Tirukkural. The land of Rajaraja Chola and Kamban
But by 19th century, the language and culture had been reduced to a second rate status thanks to the remarkable growth of Telugu - an upstart language which barely even existed in literary form back in the 1st millennium CE when Tamil was the pre-eminent southern language
There was a lot of frustration of course. And it needed venting. It also needed a scapegoat. Who to blame? You can’t blame old and bygone kings, nor can you blame “Telugu” people who were too numerous, and well integrated into Tamil society.
The scapegoat was the Brahmin and also his “Sanskritic” ways.
But why was the “Brahmin” singled out? Now to understand this we need to change our tracks a bit and now switch our focus to the British Raj
Let’s go the 1820s - a period when Thomas Munro reigned as Madras Governor. It still marked the initial phase of British rule over Southern India in its entirety
Munro undertook a survey to assess the educational conditions in the Presidency - the results of which are revealing
Does the survey suggest a very high degree of Brahmin dominance in education?
Let’s pick two districts in the Tamil country where the Brahmins were most numerous back then (> 5% of pop). These were also temple towns where much of the “brahmin cultural capital” was concentrated
Here’s the caste distribution of Male school going students in these 2 districts b/w 1822 and 1825
https://preview.redd.it/46gwajrslwe11.jpg?width=591&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb3e93b7d4130c23b4f8e2c6f9701723747c4427
What do we notice -
Sure, there is some over-representation of Brahmins ( a share of 10-15% suggests a 2x over-indexing relative to their share in population - around 5% or more in these districts)
But this is far from the stereotypical view of education being denied to the non-twice born castes.
A very vast majority of students in both these districts were “Shudras” (which in the south is a blanket term covering over three quarters of the population)
So the educational reality of the 1820s did not warrant any grudge against the “Brahmins” as a class in society that monopolizes education
The data on schools back then was only indicative, as a very large section of kids used to be home-schooled. As per Munro’s own report, in the city of Madras, 26,446 boys were being schooled at home, in contrast to only 5,523 boys who were attending the Patha-shalas
We have these numbers thanks to Dharampal’s painstaking research whose book “The Beautiful Tree” demolished many myths about late medieval / early modern India, at the time of the British encounter
However as the 19th century proceeded, there was considerable social change. Firstly it was a period of relative economic stagnation / decline (a process that had started much earlier in 17th century), causing many traditional pathashalas to close down.
Secondly with the formal establishment of British Raj, and the new opportunities in the bureaucracy, and in urban professions, the Brahmin ascendancy began. An ascendancy without a precedent for the community in Indian history. Nowhere was this ascendancy more marked than in TN
By 1912, the Brahmin dominance was very real particularly in the British bureaucracy. Here’s a table from that year -
https://preview.redd.it/sci3i896mwe11.jpg?width=584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=559feb7a2cd75f534aa675f287089b29a5a4c6f8

So what had changed between 1820 and 1912?
And who was to blame for this remarkable change in social equations?
That is a puzzle for which there are no simple answers

It is all very well to say the British “favored” Brahmins. But that to me sounds too fanciful and conspiratorial
What is more likely is that Brahmins embraced the change in climate better, and took to English education in a big way - unlike a lot of other communities
One way to understand the “Brahmin rise” is to look at specific cases of Brahmins whose lives were transformed during this period of late 19th century.
Take two famous instances - VS Srinivasa Sastri (1869 - 1946), Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar (1883-1953)
The former became a famous Indian politician, diplomat and administrator. A famed “Moderate” leader of the Gokhale wing within Congress.
The latter was a famous lawyer and member of the Drafting committee and Constituent assembly which framed the Indian Constitution
Now why am I picking these two names? There is a common thread. Both were born in villages, and were sons of temple priests! They were not well-connected aristocrats. They came out of nowhere.
So in the 1820 setup, kids like these were no different from a thousand other kids (Brahmin or Non Brahmin) leading a mediocre existence in small towns. But the British Raj provided opportunities for several such “outliers” (incidentally Brahmin) to max out their potential
So this was the story of the 19th cen. A century during which there was considerable change in the economy. More opportunities than ever before for the creme-de-la-creme. But stagnation for everyone else
This meant greater social inequality, and a widening rift between castes. This was also coupled, if you remember, by the larger story of Tamil decline we discussed earlier.
But then 19th century changed the language equations for the first time in 500 years. Tamil made a comeback!
And this comeback was partly because of the rise of the professional middle class (mostly Tamil speaking Brahmin) without any “connections” in the old Telugu set-up. A lot of these new kids on the block were key in reviving the Tamil language
Take a couple of names -

UV Swaminatha Iyer - instrumental in the rediscovery of several Tamil Sangam texts
Subramania Bharati - a great Tamil poet, who was key in creating a Tamil consciousness that had been dormant for several centuries.

Interestingly both were Brahmin
Even the current obsession with Lemuria / Kumari Kandam among Dravidian chauvinists in our times actually dates back to the late 19th century - a period of Tamil revival
Lemuria interestingly was the speculation of a submerged continent connecting Australia and India - it was originally a theory suggested by 19thc European / American scholars - now a discredited theory ofcourse.
In the heady days of Tamil revival of late 19th century, connections were drawn between Lemuria and Kumari Khandam (a lost continent of Tamil civilization) which ironically first finds mention in a 15th century Tamil adaptation of Skanda Purana (titled Kanda Puranam).
This connection of Kumari Kandam with Lemuria was actually first made by a Brahmin young man named VG Suryanarayana Sastri - who died at 33
To him, Kumari Khandam was a part of Brahmanic lore, which he was indiscreet enough to connect with Lemuria -a discredited 19th c construct
Little did the young lad know that his fanciful speculations would capture the movement of the Dravidian movement in the decades to follow
So let’s get back on track on where Tamil Nadu stood at the beginning of 20th century -
On one hand, there was this increasing rift between Brahmin and Non Brahmin driven by education and the English language. On the other, we had a revival of Tamil consciousness
Both very much key to the emergence of the Dravidian movement. And not surprisingly this movement did not work out too well for the Brahmin. He was the scapegoat for 500 years of Tamil decline.
The earliest manifestation of this movement was not particularly rabid or secessionistic. It was in the form of a party called the “Justice Party” founded in 1916 by Sir Thyagaraja Chetty and TM Nair.
A point to note that the leaders of this non brahmin Justice Party - were by no means “low caste”. These were typically upper caste non brahmins - who resented the brahmin ascendance the most
This was also the period of Morley Minto reforms (1909) which had greatly increased Indian participation in provincial govt. So populism was very much in the air
A characteristic of Justice Party was that it combined anti-Brahminism with a hostility towards Home rule (Annie Besant and her friends were not viewed positively). It was also opposed to Gandhi and his noncooperation movement
Its stance was that home rule meant “Brahmin rule" So while it was radical in its anti-brahminism, it was oddly a conservative party in the way it stood right behind the British like a loyal bulldog
The Justice Party was no minor fish. It was the major political alternative to Congress in Madras Presidency and dominated power for 14 of the 17 years from 1920 to 37
Some of its prominent leaders included Subbarayulu Reddiar, Munuswamy Naidu, and the Raja of Bobbili
The Justice Party when in power, had some firsts under its name. It was the first govt in India to introduce caste-based reservations back in 1921 for certain govt jobs. A legacy that we are left with to this day.
To its credit, it did make voter-qualifications gender neutral and also allowed women to become legislators in 1921 (reversing a Govt of India Act policy from 1919)
In 1925 it passed an act which brought for the first time many temples under the direct control of state govt.
State meddling in temples is something that bothers conservatives to this day. The genesis for this lies in this act passed by the Justice Party govt back in 1925
The party leaders were drawn from the great landed castes. Given the dominance of zamindars in the party, it often supported the harsh measures of the British govt. An example being its refusal to support reduction in taxation in non-zamindari areas leading to peasant protests
It was a not a surprise then that this party of the elites united on a casteist plank of anti-Brahminism suffered a massive defeat in the provincial elections of 1937 - when the Franchise was much wider than in previous elections
The Congress under the leadership of the brahmin and Gandhian leader Rajaji assumed power in 1937. But the new Congress govt in its nationalist zeal, did a mistake, Rajaji introduced compulsory Hindi education in all schools in the Presidency in 1937 sparking great protests from ’37 to 40. An awful mistake by a wise politician
This was capitalized by an emergent face on the Dravidian front - EV Ramaswamy Naicker (also known as Periyar)
Periyar has to rank among the half-a-dozen most influential politicians in Indian history. Whether one likes him or despises him.
Now who was he? And where did he come from? He was born in 1879 in the town of Erode in Coimbatore district in a very rich Balija Naicker family of Kannada antecedents. It is even claimed that his mother tongue was Kannada not Tamil!
It was by no means a humble beginning Unlike Justice party leaders, Periyar has a Congress past. He had joined the Party back in 1919, and worked with Rajaji in organizing the non-cooperation movement.
But when he did not find enough support for his reservation campaigns, he left the party in a huff in 1925 He was a major figure in the Vaikom Satyagraha, a movement against untouchability circa '24-25
But Vaikom was a mainstream movement supported even by upper caste men like Gandhi as well as the regent of Travancore kingdom. So Periyar hardly was unique for his participation there.
But it was after the Justice party’s thumping defeat that Periyar found his big opportunity. There was a power vacuum in the party. In 1938 he took over as the President of the party.
And it was the Hindi imposition issue of 1937 - which gave him a big voice!
Under his leadership the Justice Party was transformed from a party of rich non brahmin landlords serving their own interests, to a populist, often rabble rousing outfit.
The fear of Hindi among the Tamils was exploited fully by Periyar in his rhetoric. He somehow succeeded in blending the Tamil fear of Hindi with the dislike of Brahmins and the “Sanskritic value system” more broadly.
It was a heady mix that was bound to work. In 1944, he renamed the party to Dravidar Kazhagam.
The DK employed the methods used by RSS in the north - volunteer efforts positioned as “social reform” that campaigned aggressively against the Hindu religion, brahmin priesthood, and so-called religious “superstitions”
While the DK did engage in some positive constructive measures like opposing untouchability, working for women’s education etc, this hardly distinguished it from the much maligned “brahminical” Congress (which also fought against the said evils).
What distinguished DK was its negative plank built on a dislike of brahmins and “Northern influences” but disguised very well under the garb of “rationalism” / “reason”
The Dravidar Kazhagam was also secessionist in its demand for a separate “Tamil nation”. This led to a split within the party in 1949 when Periyar’s disciple CN Annadurai left him to form “Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam” (Munnetra interestingly means “Progressive” in Tamil)
Anna sought a compromise with the Central Govt and Congress, where the Tamil country remains a part of the Indian Union albeit with greater autonomy
There was also a great deal of unrest within Dravidar Kazhagam against Periyar and his ways. In 1948 at the age of 70 the man married a 32 year old - a move that drew the ire of many of his own party members, causing the split
So while DMK tried to gain respectability to contest elections competitively in a post-independence India, Periyar and his DK continued with their extreme, often rabble-rousing positions against Brahminism, Theism among other things
While Periyar remained an important voice in Tamil Nadu, he was not in active electoral politics post split. He died in 1973 at the age of 94
CN Annadurai on the other hand, was the leading electoral leader for the DMK for much of the 50s and 60s. As we discussed, he was not always explicit and aggressive in pushing for the claim for secession. But he never abandoned the goal until the 60s. Nor did the DMK
In 1963, the 16th amendment to the Constitution was passed, which basically banned any party that is contesting elections from espousing secessionist principles. Annadurai actually debated against this amendment but could not prevent its passage!
Post this amendment, DMK had no choice but to give up entirely on the claim for Dravida Nadu. It was an ideal they had cherished, but gave it up in order to remain in the electoral game. The prospect of power was too attractive
For the period between 1952 and 1967, DMK gained in popularity in TN with every passing election.
But the Congress remained firmly in Power. Rajaji was the chief minister till 1954, to be succeeded by Kamaraj from '54 to '63, and Bhaktavatsalam from 63 to 67
The Congress was too strong to be uprooted throughout the 50s and early 60s. But again it was Hindi that did the trick for DMK. Things materialized In 1967
We have already discussed the first anti-Hindi agitation of 1937. In 1965, there was originally a plan laid out in the Constitution to make Hindi the sole official language of the country - a very impractical somewhat hare brained idea to begin with
As 1965 approached, the anti-Hindi sentiment rose by the day, Full-scale riots broke out in many parts of TN. The death toll was in several hundreds. Eventually the PM LB Shastri pacified the state by assuring that English would continue as the official language along with Hindi
But the anti-Hindi movement had done the trick for DMK - something that years and years of anti-brahmin and “rationalist” rhetoric had not managed to do
In 1967, when the assembly as well as general elections were held, the unpopular Congress govt headed by Bhaktavatsalam was trounced and Anna-led DMK stormed to power.
The Dravidian movement had triumphed
Since 1967 Tamil Nadu has been ruled by Dravidian parties. By DMK for much of the 70s, ADMK for much of the 80s, and then alternating between the two parties since. The national parties have not stood a chance in any election
From 67 to 69 - Anna was the CM. But in 69, he succumbed to cancer. The reins of the party now moved to M Karunanidhi, who we mentioned at the start of the thread
Karunanidhi, like his one-time friend, MG Ramachandran (MGR) came from the movie industry. He started his career as a screenwriter for Tamil cinema in the late 40s / early 50s and was an enormously successful figure
The DMK had started leveraging movie guys like Karunanidhi, MGR, Kannadasan, and others starting from the 50s, to increase its popularity in a state where Congress reigned supreme. Leveraging movie men has always been the tactic used by the Dravidian parties since independence
Karunanidhi became CM pretty early in his life. At the age of 45 in 1969. And he remained the Chief Minister of the state till 1976, when Indira Gandhi dismissed his govt during the Emergency
Post Anna’s demise , Karunanidhi had to contend with MGR, arguably a more popular leader with the masses. In 1972, MGR was expelled from the party. Which was inevitable, given Karunanidhi’s ambitions for his own family, as well as MGR’s discomfort with DMK’s explicit atheism
MGR was a Malayali Nair by origin, and was a devout man. He neither shared Karunanidhi’s anti-brahminism, nor his atheism. While very much a Dravidian populist, he felt he had a better chance in politics with his own front that was formed in 1972
It called itself Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - invoking itself to be the true heir of Anna’s legacy - a legacy that Karunanidhi had purportedly betrayed with his corruption and nepotism
But Populism remained a feature of Dravidian politics in both parties right from 1967. Anna himself was the first politician in India to use a promise of “rice subsidy” to secure the win in '67
His election slogan was “rubaikku moonu padi arisi” (3 measures of rice for a rupee)
Karunanidhi continued in the same vein. He lifted Prohibition in 1971, not unexpected, as DMK’s materialist philosophy has always struck a contrast to the high Gandhian moralism of the high-minded Congress leaders like Rajaji and Kamaraj
In 1977, MGR led ADMK trounced Karuna’s DMK, and MGR became the CM of the state - a post he held from '77 till his death in '87 MGR was succeeded by his brahmin wife Janaki (who was CM briefly) and later by his protege J Jayalalitha (a cine-star of repute and also a Brahmin)
The two parties have established a more or less bi-polar set-up in TN with the Congress vote share waning with every passing election
Jayalalitha emerged as a worthy successor and a worthy rival to Karunanidhi, and was CM from 1991 to 96, 2001 to 2006 and then from 2011 till 2016 - though she was often made to step down for brief periods due to corruption allegations and arrests
Karunanidhi was CM during the late 90s (96-2001), and again the late 2000s (2006-11). Basically during the intervals when Jayalalitha was out of power
But broadly the two parties have contested on a plank of populism. There has been little to distinguish the two parties ideologically.
While DMK still retains an “anti-hindu” / “anti-brahmin” edge to its rhetoric - that flavor is increasingly irrelevant in a vastly different state where a good chunk of brahmins have bolted in search of jobs elsewhere
Tamil Nadu remains a deeply religious state and DMK’s atheistic rhetoric is now more of a liability than an asset.
The ADMK has always been without that edge to its rhetoric, while it has competed nonetheless with DMK when it comes to placating religious minorities for votes
Jayalalitha died in 2016 and Karunanidhi now in 2018. With the demise of the two great leaders, is there a vacuum that can be filled by the national parties - the BJP in particular?
Perhaps, but the national parties need to be mindful of the Tamil exceptionalism we have discussed in many parts of this thread. They need to groom leaders attuned to the Tamil psyche in order to succeed.
Something that they have traditionally failed to do. Tamil Nadu, notwithstanding the populism of its politics, has been one of the more successful states in the Indian union. It’’s PPP adjusted per-capita income of around $10.5K is well in excess of the national average of $7K.
Who should we credit for this?
The Dravidian parties will of course be glad to accept credit, by talking up their “social empowerment” as an enabler of economic success The truth however is more nuanced.
Maybe Tamil Nadu was always a “better than average” state in Indian history. Going all the way back to Pallava heyday. So it is not a surprise it is doing well
Populism still needs to be resisted. We must not fall prey to the post-hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy and give credit to “Dravidian politics” for TN’s relative success
Tamil Nadu has done well despite its politicians and not because of them. If anything we must credit its people
Post-script : Thanks for reading, if you got this far!
Would like to acknowledge @entropied - my many conversations with him helped clarify some thoughts, and also thanks to his pointer to Dharampal's research on 1820 Madras school data - something that I was unaware of.
The entire thread can be found here - https://twitter.com/shrikanth_krish/status/1026967892125003776
@shrikanth_krish
Data scientist. NYC-based. Writes on Politics, Economics, Religion, Classics and Intellectual History

September 11, 2019 at 10:00PM
https://www.a108.net/blogs/entry/30585-vishvarupa-mahotsava-and-the-sannyasa-ceremony-of-shrila-bhaktivedanta-swami-prabhupada/
Vishvarupa Mahotsava and the Sannyasa Ceremony of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Shrila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha, Mathura, India 13th September 2000 [The lecture below was given on the first day of the second half of Caturmasya at Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha in Mathura, India, on September 13, 2000. Shrila Gurudeva’s lecture was on the topics of Shri Visvarupa Mahotsava and the sannyasa ceremony of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada.] Caturmasya-vrata Today is a very sacred day in our line. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken sannyasa and had begun to search for his brother, Shri Visvarupa. While searching, He found out that on this day His brother had been in Pandarapura, and there he had disappeared from this world and had taken samadhi on the bank of the river Bhima. Then, although Mahaprabhu was observing Caturmasya-vrata very strictly for four months, He shaved off His hair on this day. Before this year, He had never shaved during these four months, nor did He cut His nails. He observed all the rules and regulations of Caturmasya.a There are many items that are not allowed during Caturmasya, such as leafy vegetables in the first month, yogurt in the second month, milk in the third month, and mustard oil in the forth month. Besides this, throughout all four months, tomatoes, eggplants, and several other foodstuffs are prohibited. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would follow all these rules very strictly, but nowadays we see that devotees don't follow. Our Guru Maharaja, Shrila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, and Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada were very strong in this regard. Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada said, "Take my photo during the four months of Caturmasya-vrata to show that I never shave at that time. Always keep it; otherwise so many so-called disciples will say, 'Oh, Prabhupada never observed Caturmasya-vrata'." Parama-pujyapada Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja gave concessions in the Western countries, and that is the only reason he also would shave. The Westerners could not follow strictly at that time. That is why he allowed tomatoes and eggplant, and that is also why he would take them. And that is why he also allowed carrots. I am therefore also giving concessions, not here in India, but in Western countries. If the devotees there like, they can take these items, but we don't take them. We should strictly follow our proper line from Mahaprabhu to Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada and my diksa and siksa-gurus. In Western countries some concession should be given, but here in India we are very strict. If we cannot follow this, then how can we follow Krsna, and how can we serve Radha and Krsna? Mahaprabhu shaved – after two months – and we follow this. Taking Sannyasa After taking initiation, Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, who, in his youth was known as Abhaya Carana De, became Abhaya Carana dasa Adhikari. After some time he became penniless; then he arrived here – Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha – about one month prior to this day. I requested him, "Don't stay anywhere else. You are my siksa-guru, you are the friend of my guru, and you are a very senior devotee of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada. I have known you since 1946." He accepted and said, "I will stay here." There were two rooms here. I was in this room, and I requested him to stay in the room next to mine. When this temple room was made, however, I went to that room and I requested him to go to the room opposite that one. He stayed there, and he would write the entire night. He would publish a magazine from here. It was from here that he established the 'League of Devotees', and later on he named it 'The International Society for Krsna Consciousness.' He published the first three volumes of Shrimad-Bhagavatam in Delhi, and he presented them to me. I would edit his Hindi in the magazine Bhagavata Darsana, and he also continued that magazine while he was in Jhansi. While he was here I requested him, "You are so qualified, and Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada wanted you to preach, especially in English, and to go to Western countries. You served him by writing so many articles in the Harmonist and other magazines. You are very qualified. Why not try to follow the order of your Gurudeva and take sannyasa?" He replied, "Oh, I used to fear this. When my Prabhupada initiated me, I began to read Shrimad-Bhagavatam, and I saw in a sloka there: sri-bhagavan uvaca yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaih tato 'dhanam tyajanty asya svajana duhkha-duhkhitam (Shrimad-Bhagavatam 10.88.8) ["The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another."] "'Those whom I accept, I make them street beggars.' So I feared that would be my fate. I thought, 'I have a good family – my wife, and my sons and daughters. What will become of them? Now I'm very wealthy; but if that happens, what will become of them?" One or two months after taking initiation he became the manager of Bengal Chemical. Later he left that and came to Allahabad, where he started his own business called Prayaga Chemical. That business failed. Then he started a very large medical shop, and after one year it also failed. Then he began to advertise medicines, as a medical representative. That failed, and he became poor like a beggar. Then he came here to Mathura to sell his medicines, and in the meantime I requested him, "What are you doing? You have not come to this world to sell medicine. You are a representative of Krsna and Mahaprabhu. You should remember who you are, and take sannyasa. You are a friend of my Gurudeva – a very bosom friend. He is just about to come here. He will be here in about four or five days, so please be prepared to take sannyasa." Muni Maharaja was here, and at that time he was about ninety-five years of age. He told Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, "If you take the renounced order, then I must take it with you." In this way he very much inspired him. Soon our Gurudeva came and I told him, "Why are you not compelling him? He cannot disobey you. He is your bosom friend. You must insist that he take the sannyasa order." Then, one day, Gurudeva and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja were sitting in Gurudeva's room and were joking and talking with each other. I went there and requested my Gurudeva, "Why are you not telling him to take sannyasa?" My Gurudeva said, "Oh, now it is the best time to take sannyasa. You should not fear. What was to be done has already been done. Your wife has left you, your sons have left you, and everyone else has left. Your wealth is gone and now you are like a street beggar." He became ready and took sannyasa where you are sitting, in the middle of this room, in front of the Deities. His own Deity, Mahaprabhu, is also here with Radha-Krsna, the Deity from Jhansi. I was the priest. I made his danda, uttariya (sannyasa upper cloth), and all other items; and I taught him how to use them. Though he was so much senior to me, though he was my siksa-guru, I also became his siksa-guru in this – how to take sannyasa and how to use all these paraphernalia. Kirtana was performed by Shrila Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja and Sesasayi Prabhu, and so many others were chanting: "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." During the ceremony, kirtana was always going on. Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja continually performed kirtana. After this, Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja began to preach in Agra, then he went to Delhi, and then he came to Vrndavana, to Radha-Damodara. In order to receive the blessing of Shrila Rupa Gosvami, he stayed there, very near to him. At that time also he was penniless. I would go there and gave him my chadar to sit on. He had no bed, and practically no other possessions. He was very simple. Somehow he would make capatis. He would roll them and I would put them on the fire and cook them with ghee. He knew how to make beautiful and tasteful preparations, and he would teach others. From his letters I came to know that he himself would cook and teach others how to cook delicious preparations. He would write to me from New York, "Please send very sweet pera from Mathura; not less than ten kilos." Especially you senior devotees should remember his pastimes – how he was a very strong personality, how he preached throughout the world in a couple of years, established so many preaching centers, and wrote and published a variety of books in many languages. He did parikrama of the entire world about twelve times, and now he is ordering me, "You should do it more times than I did." He is arranging everything, and he is always calling me, "You have done it ten times, and now you should complete at least fifteen times". Sometimes the guru wants to make his disciples look greater than himself; and then he becomes very happy. He says, "My disciple is preaching so much here and there." He is like a father. When Maharaja Dasaratha heard that Ramacandra was very strong and could defeat the entire world, he was extremely happy. When Nanda Maharaja heard that his son Krsna has lifted Govardhana for seven days on the little finger of His left hand, he became so happy and said, "Oh, how my son is victorious!" A guru becomes so happy if his disciples are qualified. My Gurudeva will also be very happy if I'm going here and there. He will shower his mercy on me, and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja is also like this. In this meeting, his dear senior disciples will speak something in his glorification, and thus offer puspanjali at his lotus feet. After that we will perform arcana. At Shrila Maharaja's request, some senior disciples of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja spoke (such as Vrndavana Vilasini dasi, Krsna Kumari dasi and Radha-kunda dasa), after which Shrila Maharaja continued: Bosom Friends I met Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja in 1946 in Calcutta, before ISKCON was established. He was apparently simply a grhastha Vaisnava. He had been a friend of my Gurudeva's since 1923. My Gurudeva was somewhat senior because he joined Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada in 1916. He left his university studies and everything else in 1918, and at that time he fully joined. Then, in 1923, Shri Abhaya Carana De was initiated by Shrila Prabhupada – first harinama and then diksa initiation. In 1941 our Guru Maharaja established Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was also one of the establishers. From the beginning, therefore, as one of the founders, he was very intimate with Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. When I met him in 1946, there was no ISKCON. He was alone, but he was serving his Gurudeva, Shrila Prabhupada, in so many ways. When I saw him I was very attracted. This is my intrinsic nature – that person who is a friend of my Gurudeva, who helped my Gurudeva, who has done a little service for my Gurudeva, who glorifies my Gurudeva – I like that devotee very much and can give my life for him. I saw that although my Gurudeva was a sannyasi and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was a grhastha, Gurudeva gave him the same seat as himself. He never gave him a lower or inferior seat. The devotion of any person is the only standard of how much we should respect him. My Gurudeva was giving very much importance to this person, and therefore I also accepted him in that way. I thought, "He must be someone special; some qualification compels my Gurudeva to honor him so much." I therefore began to serve him, and he was also very attracted to me. At that time I was very young, only twenty-five years old, but he would talk with me in a friendly way. He Was Fearless I know him very well. He had a strong character and never feared anyone. He was like a lion, like his Prabhupada, and like our Gurudeva. He would cut all the arguments of the mayavadis, sahajiyas, and many other non-bona fide groups. He never tolerated their misconceptions and he made no compromise with them. He was very strong. At that time Dr. Radha-Krishna was the president of India. He was one of the intellectual giants of the entire world, and a very learned person, especially in mayavada philosophy. He wrote an article about Bhagavad-gita, and there he said that Krsna's soul is Krsna, but His body is not His soul. There is some difference between the possessor and possession. In reply, Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja wrote a very powerful article in our Bhagavata Patrika magazine, and it was sent to that president of India. In that article he challenged all his arguments and said, "You can reply and try to defeat my arguments. I'm not writing to you as the president of India, but I'm writing to you because you are a learned person of Advaitavada philosophy (the philosophy of absolute oneness taught by Saìkaracarya, and whose conclusion is advaita-siddhanta)." Dr. Radha-Krishna could not reply. Such persons cannot reply. He also cut the arguments of the 'murghi' mission. Do you know the murghi mission? It is the mission whose members kill murghis, hens, and eat them. What mission is that? The Rama-Krsna mission – they are not religious persons. They are not even a welfare society because they will even eat cow flesh and other forbidden things. They don't want to honor the Gita; they simply give importance to bread and butter. They don't believe in God, who can give eternal bliss in heaven; they believe in bread and butter. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja never cared for them. He was against their philosophy and activities, and he cut all their arguments. Perhaps Vivekananda had never read scriptures like the Vedas, Upanisads, and Shrimad-Bhagavatam. His followers are only social persons; they have nothing to do with religion. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was fearless like a lion, and he defeated all their arguments. He was in the line of our guru-parampara. He would follow all the doctrines, all the acaranas (practices and behavior), vaisnava-sadacara (pure habits), and Vaisnava etiquette. I've never seen him wearing so many kanti-malas around his neck, as some of his disciples do. We should totally follow him. We should also try to be like strong lions. He was like this. He jumped the seven oceans from India and went to New York. What did he do there? He performed a miracle. He turned hippies into 'happies.' They are now happy. A gang of hippies became a high class of devotees. He gave a lesson to this world, that even a street beggar who has very strong faith in serving his Gurudeva and Radha-Krsna, Mahaprabhu, and Nityananda Prabhu, can jump anywhere – in fire, over the Alps and the Himalayas, in the ocean – anywhere. He can go anywhere and Krsna will help him. Although penniless, he 'jumped over the ocean.' Somehow he traveled on the Scindia Navigation, and simply chanted the holy names of the Panca-tattva: Shri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda Shri-advaita gadadhara Shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda; and the Maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. He never took note of whether anyone was looking at him or not. We think, "Oh, all are seeing me," but he was never like that. Sometimes hippies used to dance to his singing. They sometimes offered him a bottle of wine or cigarettes and addressed him, "O my friend." They were very quickly attracted to him and they gradually gave up everything else. He never made any compromise, especially with the babajis of Radha-kunda who speak sahajiya philosophy. He was like my Gurudeva and his Prabhupada. Nowadays, however, so many are going to Radha-kunda and taking babaji-vesa from the babajis who are not actually following Mahaprabhu. So many ISKCON members are also doing this. What becomes of them? They will also become like those bogus babajis. We should try to be like Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and follow his process, line and instruction. The Blind and the Lame He would say that if a blind person and a lame person travel together, they can go anywhere they like. The blind person will take the lame person on his shoulders. The lame person has eyes and he will say, "You should go this way and that way." The blind person will walk and the lame person will direct. The western world is blind and India is lame. What is the meaning? India has no source of wealth to preach this mission throughout the world. It has eyes but no legs; it is so lame. America and all western countries are very wealthy, but they have no eyes. If both combine and co-operate, we can preach this mission to the entire world. Put Me in Samadhi Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja would say, "Bombay is my office, Mayapura is my sadhana-bhumi or place of sadhana-bhajana, and my home is Vrndavana." That is why he came to Vrndavana in his final days and took samadhi there – in his home, in Vrndavana – Goloka Vrndavana. I don't know why he was so pleased with me that he always loved me so much. He gave me so many occasions in which I was able to fully serve him. He was very much attracted to me, and it was my good fortune that he gave me so many orders to serve him. He told me, as his last service, "Put me in samadhi with your own hands." There were so many god-brothers who were very scholarly and very high-class. And there were more than a hundred very qualified GBC and others. I had never been to university or anything like that. Still he had so much faith in me, and therefore he ordered me in this way – and I followed his instructions. Don't Quarrel He also told me, "You should try to help my devotees. I brought them, but I could not train them fully due to their inability to fully accept my instructions." Then I called Tamala Krsna, Brahmananda, Bhagavan, Kirtanananda, and so many others, and I told them, "Don't quarrel after his departure. You should not think that he will die. A Guru like him never dies. He is always in this world. He is eternally present. So if you want to serve him, you should try to preach his mission all over the world – as he wanted. Don't quarrel for position, name and fame, wealth, or disciples. I know that after the disappearance of a high class of acarya, some quarrel, and some problems come. But I think that you are qualified persons, and you should therefore not quarrel for all these things. Try to give respect to all the disciples of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, regardless of whether they are senior or junior. You should be very liberal to all, and then you can protect his mission. Otherwise you can destroy his whole mission. I know that you have learned something – how to make money. I know that He has trained you all how, very easily, in a moment, to make so much money. But I think that you'll have to learn more." His Real Mission "You will have to learn his intrinsic moods, why he descended here from the transcendental world, and what his mission was. You should try to understand this. His mission was the same as that of Mahaprabhu. And they both did it through sankirtana. anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam harih purata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah (Chaitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 1.4) ["May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Shrimati Saci-devi be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love."] "You know what kirtana is, but you do not know what real kirtana of the heart is. You do not know what the pure name is. If the pure name manifests, a man is totally changed. Love and affection comes for all, even for creepers, trees and everything else. There will be no quarreling, and then you will be: trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada hari (Chaitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 17. 31) ["One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly."] "Then I will think that you know his intrinsic mood and you are following that." If they will honor all devotees, I think that all will return back to Godhead. But if they are not giving honor and respect to the devotees, no one will join them. Even a dog knows. If you will call a dog, "Oh here, here, here," he will come. All can understand if you have bhakti in your heart and honor for all devotees. As Shrila Rupa Gosvami has told: krsneti yasya giri tam manasadriyeta diksasti cet pranatibhis ca bhajantam isam susrusaya bhajana-vijnam ananyam anya- nindadi-sunya-hrdam ipsita-sanga-labdhya (Nectar of Instruction, Text 5) ["One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the holy name of Lord Krsna, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation and is engaged in worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others."] We should try to honor all, according to their qualification in bhakti, and then everyone will be trained and no one will fall. Otherwise, all are going to fall down. If anyone has a strong personality like your Prabhupada, serving gurudeva and preaching like him, he will be a very high class of devotee. So it was here, on this day that your Prabhupada took the renounced order, and he preached over the entire world in a couple of years. This miracle has not been seen before. He was one of the arms of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada and Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and they predicted his coming. Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written, "I think that within a very few years, thousands of western devotees, wearing sikhas, tulasi malas and chanting Hare Krsna, will join Indian devotees. Both will chant and dance together." This is what we are now seeing everywhere. So we should chant and remember in the proper line, and all other things will come automatically. The maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, are Radha and Krsna Themselves, and Mahaprabhu Himself. If we are chanting and remembering with sadacara, we will achieve the goal very soon. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja is showering his blessings upon all those who, although having left Krsna consciousness, are now coming again to this Krsna consciousness movement. The Real Meaning of ISKCON What is the real meaning of ISKCON, International Society for Krishna Consciousness? krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita matih kriyatam yadi kuto 'pi labhyate tatra laulyam api mulyam ekalam janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate (Chaitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 8.70) ["Pure devotional service in Krsna consciousness cannot be had even by pious activity in hundreds and thousands of lives. It can be attained only by paying one price – that is, intense greed to obtain it. If it is available somewhere, one must purchase it without delay."] If anyone is following this principle, then he is an ISKCON member in the real sense; otherwise not. So we should try to know his mood – krsna-bhakti rasa bhavita matih. If our hearts are saturated with the bhakti-rasa of Vrndavana, then we are ISKCON members in the truest sense. If anyone is falling down, he was never a real ISKCON member, because anyone who has a taste in bhakti-rasa will never fall down. A true ISKCON member can never fall down. Gaura-premanande!

September 11, 2019 at 10:00PM
https://www.a108.net/blogs/entry/30585-visvarupa-mahotsava-and-the-sannyasa-ceremony-of-srila-bhaktivedanta-swami-prabhupada/
Visvarupa Mahotsava and the Sannyasa Ceremony of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Shrila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha, Mathura, India 13th September 2000 [The lecture below was given on the first day of the second half of Caturmasya at Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha in Mathura, India, on September 13, 2000. Shrila Gurudeva’s lecture was on the topics of Shri Visvarupa Mahotsava and the sannyasa ceremony of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada.] Caturmasya-vrata Today is a very sacred day in our line. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taken sannyasa and had begun to search for his brother, Shri Visvarupa. While searching, He found out that on this day His brother had been in Pandarapura, and there he had disappeared from this world and had taken samadhi on the bank of the river Bhima. Then, although Mahaprabhu was observing Caturmasya-vrata very strictly for four months, He shaved off His hair on this day. Before this year, He had never shaved during these four months, nor did He cut His nails. He observed all the rules and regulations of Caturmasya.a There are many items that are not allowed during Caturmasya, such as leafy vegetables in the first month, yogurt in the second month, milk in the third month, and mustard oil in the forth month. Besides this, throughout all four months, tomatoes, eggplants, and several other foodstuffs are prohibited. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would follow all these rules very strictly, but nowadays we see that devotees don't follow. Our Guru Maharaja, Shrila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, and Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada were very strong in this regard. Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada said, "Take my photo during the four months of Caturmasya-vrata to show that I never shave at that time. Always keep it; otherwise so many so-called disciples will say, 'Oh, Prabhupada never observed Caturmasya-vrata'." Parama-pujyapada Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja gave concessions in the Western countries, and that is the only reason he also would shave. The Westerners could not follow strictly at that time. That is why he allowed tomatoes and eggplant, and that is also why he would take them. And that is why he also allowed carrots. I am therefore also giving concessions, not here in India, but in Western countries. If the devotees there like, they can take these items, but we don't take them. We should strictly follow our proper line from Mahaprabhu to Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada and my diksa and siksa-gurus. In Western countries some concession should be given, but here in India we are very strict. If we cannot follow this, then how can we follow Krsna, and how can we serve Radha and Krsna? Mahaprabhu shaved – after two months – and we follow this. Taking Sannyasa After taking initiation, Shri Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, who, in his youth was known as Abhaya Carana De, became Abhaya Carana dasa Adhikari. After some time he became penniless; then he arrived here – Shri Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha – about one month prior to this day. I requested him, "Don't stay anywhere else. You are my siksa-guru, you are the friend of my guru, and you are a very senior devotee of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada. I have known you since 1946." He accepted and said, "I will stay here." There were two rooms here. I was in this room, and I requested him to stay in the room next to mine. When this temple room was made, however, I went to that room and I requested him to go to the room opposite that one. He stayed there, and he would write the entire night. He would publish a magazine from here. It was from here that he established the 'League of Devotees', and later on he named it 'The International Society for Krsna Consciousness.' He published the first three volumes of Shrimad-Bhagavatam in Delhi, and he presented them to me. I would edit his Hindi in the magazine Bhagavata Darsana, and he also continued that magazine while he was in Jhansi. While he was here I requested him, "You are so qualified, and Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada wanted you to preach, especially in English, and to go to Western countries. You served him by writing so many articles in the Harmonist and other magazines. You are very qualified. Why not try to follow the order of your Gurudeva and take sannyasa?" He replied, "Oh, I used to fear this. When my Prabhupada initiated me, I began to read Shrimad-Bhagavatam, and I saw in a sloka there: sri-bhagavan uvaca yasyaham anugrhnami harisye tad-dhanam sanaih tato 'dhanam tyajanty asya svajana duhkha-duhkhitam (Shrimad-Bhagavatam 10.88.8) ["The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another."] "'Those whom I accept, I make them street beggars.' So I feared that would be my fate. I thought, 'I have a good family – my wife, and my sons and daughters. What will become of them? Now I'm very wealthy; but if that happens, what will become of them?" One or two months after taking initiation he became the manager of Bengal Chemical. Later he left that and came to Allahabad, where he started his own business called Prayaga Chemical. That business failed. Then he started a very large medical shop, and after one year it also failed. Then he began to advertise medicines, as a medical representative. That failed, and he became poor like a beggar. Then he came here to Mathura to sell his medicines, and in the meantime I requested him, "What are you doing? You have not come to this world to sell medicine. You are a representative of Krsna and Mahaprabhu. You should remember who you are, and take sannyasa. You are a friend of my Gurudeva – a very bosom friend. He is just about to come here. He will be here in about four or five days, so please be prepared to take sannyasa." Muni Maharaja was here, and at that time he was about ninety-five years of age. He told Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, "If you take the renounced order, then I must take it with you." In this way he very much inspired him. Soon our Gurudeva came and I told him, "Why are you not compelling him? He cannot disobey you. He is your bosom friend. You must insist that he take the sannyasa order." Then, one day, Gurudeva and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja were sitting in Gurudeva's room and were joking and talking with each other. I went there and requested my Gurudeva, "Why are you not telling him to take sannyasa?" My Gurudeva said, "Oh, now it is the best time to take sannyasa. You should not fear. What was to be done has already been done. Your wife has left you, your sons have left you, and everyone else has left. Your wealth is gone and now you are like a street beggar." He became ready and took sannyasa where you are sitting, in the middle of this room, in front of the Deities. His own Deity, Mahaprabhu, is also here with Radha-Krsna, the Deity from Jhansi. I was the priest. I made his danda, uttariya (sannyasa upper cloth), and all other items; and I taught him how to use them. Though he was so much senior to me, though he was my siksa-guru, I also became his siksa-guru in this – how to take sannyasa and how to use all these paraphernalia. Kirtana was performed by Shrila Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja and Sesasayi Prabhu, and so many others were chanting: "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." During the ceremony, kirtana was always going on. Krsna dasa Babaji Maharaja continually performed kirtana. After this, Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja began to preach in Agra, then he went to Delhi, and then he came to Vrndavana, to Radha-Damodara. In order to receive the blessing of Shrila Rupa Gosvami, he stayed there, very near to him. At that time also he was penniless. I would go there and gave him my chadar to sit on. He had no bed, and practically no other possessions. He was very simple. Somehow he would make capatis. He would roll them and I would put them on the fire and cook them with ghee. He knew how to make beautiful and tasteful preparations, and he would teach others. From his letters I came to know that he himself would cook and teach others how to cook delicious preparations. He would write to me from New York, "Please send very sweet pera from Mathura; not less than ten kilos." Especially you senior devotees should remember his pastimes – how he was a very strong personality, how he preached throughout the world in a couple of years, established so many preaching centers, and wrote and published a variety of books in many languages. He did parikrama of the entire world about twelve times, and now he is ordering me, "You should do it more times than I did." He is arranging everything, and he is always calling me, "You have done it ten times, and now you should complete at least fifteen times". Sometimes the guru wants to make his disciples look greater than himself; and then he becomes very happy. He says, "My disciple is preaching so much here and there." He is like a father. When Maharaja Dasaratha heard that Ramacandra was very strong and could defeat the entire world, he was extremely happy. When Nanda Maharaja heard that his son Krsna has lifted Govardhana for seven days on the little finger of His left hand, he became so happy and said, "Oh, how my son is victorious!" A guru becomes so happy if his disciples are qualified. My Gurudeva will also be very happy if I'm going here and there. He will shower his mercy on me, and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja is also like this. In this meeting, his dear senior disciples will speak something in his glorification, and thus offer puspanjali at his lotus feet. After that we will perform arcana. At Shrila Maharaja's request, some senior disciples of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja spoke (such as Vrndavana Vilasini dasi, Krsna Kumari dasi and Radha-kunda dasa), after which Shrila Maharaja continued: Bosom Friends I met Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja in 1946 in Calcutta, before ISKCON was established. He was apparently simply a grhastha Vaisnava. He had been a friend of my Gurudeva's since 1923. My Gurudeva was somewhat senior because he joined Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada in 1916. He left his university studies and everything else in 1918, and at that time he fully joined. Then, in 1923, Shri Abhaya Carana De was initiated by Shrila Prabhupada – first harinama and then diksa initiation. In 1941 our Guru Maharaja established Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was also one of the establishers. From the beginning, therefore, as one of the founders, he was very intimate with Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. When I met him in 1946, there was no ISKCON. He was alone, but he was serving his Gurudeva, Shrila Prabhupada, in so many ways. When I saw him I was very attracted. This is my intrinsic nature – that person who is a friend of my Gurudeva, who helped my Gurudeva, who has done a little service for my Gurudeva, who glorifies my Gurudeva – I like that devotee very much and can give my life for him. I saw that although my Gurudeva was a sannyasi and Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was a grhastha, Gurudeva gave him the same seat as himself. He never gave him a lower or inferior seat. The devotion of any person is the only standard of how much we should respect him. My Gurudeva was giving very much importance to this person, and therefore I also accepted him in that way. I thought, "He must be someone special; some qualification compels my Gurudeva to honor him so much." I therefore began to serve him, and he was also very attracted to me. At that time I was very young, only twenty-five years old, but he would talk with me in a friendly way. He Was Fearless I know him very well. He had a strong character and never feared anyone. He was like a lion, like his Prabhupada, and like our Gurudeva. He would cut all the arguments of the mayavadis, sahajiyas, and many other non-bona fide groups. He never tolerated their misconceptions and he made no compromise with them. He was very strong. At that time Dr. Radha-Krishna was the president of India. He was one of the intellectual giants of the entire world, and a very learned person, especially in mayavada philosophy. He wrote an article about Bhagavad-gita, and there he said that Krsna's soul is Krsna, but His body is not His soul. There is some difference between the possessor and possession. In reply, Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja wrote a very powerful article in our Bhagavata Patrika magazine, and it was sent to that president of India. In that article he challenged all his arguments and said, "You can reply and try to defeat my arguments. I'm not writing to you as the president of India, but I'm writing to you because you are a learned person of Advaitavada philosophy (the philosophy of absolute oneness taught by Saìkaracarya, and whose conclusion is advaita-siddhanta)." Dr. Radha-Krishna could not reply. Such persons cannot reply. He also cut the arguments of the 'murghi' mission. Do you know the murghi mission? It is the mission whose members kill murghis, hens, and eat them. What mission is that? The Rama-Krsna mission – they are not religious persons. They are not even a welfare society because they will even eat cow flesh and other forbidden things. They don't want to honor the Gita; they simply give importance to bread and butter. They don't believe in God, who can give eternal bliss in heaven; they believe in bread and butter. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja never cared for them. He was against their philosophy and activities, and he cut all their arguments. Perhaps Vivekananda had never read scriptures like the Vedas, Upanisads, and Shrimad-Bhagavatam. His followers are only social persons; they have nothing to do with religion. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was fearless like a lion, and he defeated all their arguments. He was in the line of our guru-parampara. He would follow all the doctrines, all the acaranas (practices and behavior), vaisnava-sadacara (pure habits), and Vaisnava etiquette. I've never seen him wearing so many kanti-malas around his neck, as some of his disciples do. We should totally follow him. We should also try to be like strong lions. He was like this. He jumped the seven oceans from India and went to New York. What did he do there? He performed a miracle. He turned hippies into 'happies.' They are now happy. A gang of hippies became a high class of devotees. He gave a lesson to this world, that even a street beggar who has very strong faith in serving his Gurudeva and Radha-Krsna, Mahaprabhu, and Nityananda Prabhu, can jump anywhere – in fire, over the Alps and the Himalayas, in the ocean – anywhere. He can go anywhere and Krsna will help him. Although penniless, he 'jumped over the ocean.' Somehow he traveled on the Scindia Navigation, and simply chanted the holy names of the Panca-tattva: Shri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda Shri-advaita gadadhara Shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda; and the Maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. He never took note of whether anyone was looking at him or not. We think, "Oh, all are seeing me," but he was never like that. Sometimes hippies used to dance to his singing. They sometimes offered him a bottle of wine or cigarettes and addressed him, "O my friend." They were very quickly attracted to him and they gradually gave up everything else. He never made any compromise, especially with the babajis of Radha-kunda who speak sahajiya philosophy. He was like my Gurudeva and his Prabhupada. Nowadays, however, so many are going to Radha-kunda and taking babaji-vesa from the babajis who are not actually following Mahaprabhu. So many ISKCON members are also doing this. What becomes of them? They will also become like those bogus babajis. We should try to be like Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and follow his process, line and instruction. The Blind and the Lame He would say that if a blind person and a lame person travel together, they can go anywhere they like. The blind person will take the lame person on his shoulders. The lame person has eyes and he will say, "You should go this way and that way." The blind person will walk and the lame person will direct. The western world is blind and India is lame. What is the meaning? India has no source of wealth to preach this mission throughout the world. It has eyes but no legs; it is so lame. America and all western countries are very wealthy, but they have no eyes. If both combine and co-operate, we can preach this mission to the entire world. Put Me in Samadhi Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja would say, "Bombay is my office, Mayapura is my sadhana-bhumi or place of sadhana-bhajana, and my home is Vrndavana." That is why he came to Vrndavana in his final days and took samadhi there – in his home, in Vrndavana – Goloka Vrndavana. I don't know why he was so pleased with me that he always loved me so much. He gave me so many occasions in which I was able to fully serve him. He was very much attracted to me, and it was my good fortune that he gave me so many orders to serve him. He told me, as his last service, "Put me in samadhi with your own hands." There were so many god-brothers who were very scholarly and very high-class. And there were more than a hundred very qualified GBC and others. I had never been to university or anything like that. Still he had so much faith in me, and therefore he ordered me in this way – and I followed his instructions. Don't Quarrel He also told me, "You should try to help my devotees. I brought them, but I could not train them fully due to their inability to fully accept my instructions." Then I called Tamala Krsna, Brahmananda, Bhagavan, Kirtanananda, and so many others, and I told them, "Don't quarrel after his departure. You should not think that he will die. A Guru like him never dies. He is always in this world. He is eternally present. So if you want to serve him, you should try to preach his mission all over the world – as he wanted. Don't quarrel for position, name and fame, wealth, or disciples. I know that after the disappearance of a high class of acarya, some quarrel, and some problems come. But I think that you are qualified persons, and you should therefore not quarrel for all these things. Try to give respect to all the disciples of Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, regardless of whether they are senior or junior. You should be very liberal to all, and then you can protect his mission. Otherwise you can destroy his whole mission. I know that you have learned something – how to make money. I know that He has trained you all how, very easily, in a moment, to make so much money. But I think that you'll have to learn more." His Real Mission "You will have to learn his intrinsic moods, why he descended here from the transcendental world, and what his mission was. You should try to understand this. His mission was the same as that of Mahaprabhu. And they both did it through sankirtana. anarpita-carim cirat karunayavatirnah kalau samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasam sva-bhakti-sriyam harih purata-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandipitah sada hrdaya-kandare sphuratu vah saci-nandanah (Chaitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 1.4) ["May the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Shrimati Saci-devi be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love."] "You know what kirtana is, but you do not know what real kirtana of the heart is. You do not know what the pure name is. If the pure name manifests, a man is totally changed. Love and affection comes for all, even for creepers, trees and everything else. There will be no quarreling, and then you will be: trnad api sunicena taror api sahisnuna amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada hari (Chaitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 17. 31) ["One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and should be ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly."] "Then I will think that you know his intrinsic mood and you are following that." If they will honor all devotees, I think that all will return back to Godhead. But if they are not giving honor and respect to the devotees, no one will join them. Even a dog knows. If you will call a dog, "Oh here, here, here," he will come. All can understand if you have bhakti in your heart and honor for all devotees. As Shrila Rupa Gosvami has told: krsneti yasya giri tam manasadriyeta diksasti cet pranatibhis ca bhajantam isam susrusaya bhajana-vijnam ananyam anya- nindadi-sunya-hrdam ipsita-sanga-labdhya (Nectar of Instruction, Text 5) ["One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the holy name of Lord Krsna, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation and is engaged in worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticize others."] We should try to honor all, according to their qualification in bhakti, and then everyone will be trained and no one will fall. Otherwise, all are going to fall down. If anyone has a strong personality like your Prabhupada, serving gurudeva and preaching like him, he will be a very high class of devotee. So it was here, on this day that your Prabhupada took the renounced order, and he preached over the entire world in a couple of years. This miracle has not been seen before. He was one of the arms of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada and Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and they predicted his coming. Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has written, "I think that within a very few years, thousands of western devotees, wearing sikhas, tulasi malas and chanting Hare Krsna, will join Indian devotees. Both will chant and dance together." This is what we are now seeing everywhere. So we should chant and remember in the proper line, and all other things will come automatically. The maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, are Radha and Krsna Themselves, and Mahaprabhu Himself. If we are chanting and remembering with sadacara, we will achieve the goal very soon. Shrila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja is showering his blessings upon all those who, although having left Krsna consciousness, are now coming again to this Krsna consciousness movement. The Real Meaning of ISKCON What is the real meaning of ISKCON, International Society for Krishna Consciousness? krsna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita matih kriyatam yadi kuto 'pi labhyate tatra laulyam api mulyam ekalam janma-koti-sukrtair na labhyate (Chaitanya-caritamrta Madhya-lila 8.70) ["Pure devotional service in Krsna consciousness cannot be had even by pious activity in hundreds and thousands of lives. It can be attained only by paying one price – that is, intense greed to obtain it. If it is available somewhere, one must purchase it without delay."] If anyone is following this principle, then he is an ISKCON member in the real sense; otherwise not. So we should try to know his mood – krsna-bhakti rasa bhavita matih. If our hearts are saturated with the bhakti-rasa of Vrndavana, then we are ISKCON members in the truest sense. If anyone is falling down, he was never a real ISKCON member, because anyone who has a taste in bhakti-rasa will never fall down. A true ISKCON member can never fall down. Gaura-premanande!

Apologies, I had some personal issues.
-Netflix Confirms Partnership With Telenor Pakistan – Discount Bundles Expected
Telenor Pakistan has unveiled its partnership with Netflix Pakistan, the global leading internet video streaming service. As a part of Partnership, Telenor’s corporate and postpaid users in Pakistan will have the accessibility to add Netflix subscription fee to their monthly bill, eliminating the need of having Debit or Credit card to their Netflix accounts. New and existing Netflix users having Telenor sims will be able to select Telenor Pay options in their checkout box, so they can pay it via mobile.
-Pakistan Hindu Council dedicates upcoming Holi to Pakistan Day
Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) Sunday unanimously decided dedicating upcoming Holi festival, being celebrated on March 20, to Pakistan. Pakistan Hindu Council, in connection with Holi festival and Pakistan Day, will hold a colorful mega event on Wednesday, March 20, at the Shri Panchumukhi Hanuman Temple, Soldier Bazar, Karachi.
A large number of Pakistani Hindu families, holding national flags, will be present to demonstrate their love for beloved Pakistan. Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, who is also patron-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Council said that patriotic Pakistani Hindu community has decided to celebrate the Holi in a very unique way.
-SBP Plans Low-Cost Housing Scheme for Disabled, Widows & Transgender
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is planning to launch a low-cost housing scheme for widows, children of martyrs, special persons, transgender citizens and people severely affected by terrorism. In this regard, the beneficiaries of the scheme will get a financing facility of up to Rs. 2.7 million from Islamic banks and Islamic banking divisions for housing units with a maximum limit of Rs. 3 million.
The beneficiary will be required to buy a plot and construct a house on it but they should be first time owners and should never have availed any financing facility from any bank and financial institution. The beneficiaries will repay the amount of financing in the next 12 and a half years including a maximum grace period of six months. The repayment of the amount will be made with a 5 percent additional amount.
-First plea filed in tribal court as judicial system becomes functional in erstwhile FATA
First plea has been filed in a tribal court on Monday after establishment of the judicial system in the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa (KP), ARY News reported. The newly established judicial system has started working in the tribal districts in which a student hailing from Khyber Agency has filed plea for not registering him in the college.
-Turkish firms to modernise Pakistani submarines.
Turkey's Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. (STM) will add some state-of-the-art features to Pakistan's Agosta 90B submarines as part of a modernization program. Pakistan's Ministry of Defense in 2016 chose STM over the submarines' French manufacturer for the modernization. The company has since paved the way for Turkish engineering exports, in an area that requires expertise in advanced technology.
The tender initially included an Agosta 90B submarine half-life modernization and was later expanded with the addition of modernization works for a second submarine. As part of the program, STM will enhance the capabilities of Pakistani submarines with the addition of Torpedo Countermeasure Systems and acoustic measurement sensors. To that end, an amendment to the initial contract was recently signed by STM General Manager Murat İkinci.
-Canadian investors urged to benefit from Pakistan’s liberal market economy
High Commissioner of Pakistan in Canada Raza Bashir Tarar urged the Canadian investors to avail the opportunity of investment in Pakistan as the country had a liberal market economy with no restraint on repatriation of dividends for the foreign investors. The high commissioner said this in a meeting with Canada Pakistan Affiliated Chamber of Trade (CPACT) to discuss strategy to facilitate trade contacts between business platforms of Pakistan and Canada, according to a press release on Sunday.
He informed the businessmen associated with the chamber that improved security situation and restored macroeconomic stability in Pakistan had created a favourable environment for economic growth. The envoy emphasised on developing synergy between the chambers and trade bodies of the two countries to exploit full potential of the economic opportunities. He added that the high commission would work with the Canadian chambers and trade bodies to develop partnership with their Pakistani counterparts to explore avenues available to enhance trade relations.
-$4.1bn inflow in next two weeks, says Asad Umar
Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Saturday that there will be an inflow of around $4.1 billion in the next two weeks after which the State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves will swell to over $12bn. Addressing a seminar on “Financing to Support Make in Pakistan”, organised by Pakistan Business Council (PBC), the minister said that an agreement has been reached with Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) for a loan of $2bn and the amount is expected to be remitted next week. He said that China is also expected to provide $2.1bn in the week thereafter.
Responding to a question, the minister said that loan from ADFD is being sought at a fixed interest rate of three per cent whereas the loan from China is being charged at 2.5pc. He explained that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves, which stand at $8.116bn, will climb to over $12bn after these inflows. He said that the country’s bank deposits as a percentage of GDP stand very low as 85pc of the population believes that conventional banking is not Shariah-compliant, therefore Islamic banks will have to play their role in ensuring availability of funds in the banking system.
-Transport group imports decline 28.87pc
The imports of transport group decreased by 28.87 per cent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to the same duration last year. The transport group imports during July-January (2018-19) were recorded at $1,826.127 million against the imports of $2,567.322 million during July-January (2017-18), according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Among the transport group, the imports of Completely Built Units (CBU) buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles decreased by 40.05 per cent – from $147.743 million last year to $88.574 million, whereas the imports of CBU motor cars decreased by 36.08 per cent – from $302.616 million to $193.430. The imports of CBU motorcycles also witnessed a negative growth of 41.19 per cent by falling from $3.982 million to $2.342 million.
-Promotion of fintech imperative for economic growth: Asad Umar
Pakistan Business Council on Saturday organised an event titled “Financing to Support: Make in Pakistan” at a local hotel in Karachi. The event was attended by important stakeholders ranging from startups, SMEs, agribusinesses to regulators, bankers and government officials.
In his opening speech, PBC CEO Ehsan Malik said, “The theme of the event, ‘Make in Pakistan’, reflects the council’s efforts in promoting the industrial sector of the country. Pakistan is deindustrializing at an alarming rate, from a high of 17.5pc of the GDP, the share of manufacturing dropped down to 12.1pc in 2018. This drop in the share of manufacturing has led to a reduction in the share of manufactured goods in Pakistan’s exports, besides a reduction in Pakistan’s share in the global exports.” Although the speakers were only given a time slot of 20 to 25 minutes to submit their presentations, they were still able to touch upon a variety of financing issues plaguing their respective sectors and present alternate models that could work as solutions.
-Around 835 people will be given jobs in Qatar, KP CM vows
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan announced on Saturday that around 835 skilled workers from Miramshah will be given jobs in Qatar.
After Prime Minister Imran Khan’s meeting with his Qatari counterpart Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani in Doha on January 21, a foreign office official had said that Pakistan would also discuss the issue of exporting Pakistani manpower to Qatar under which the people of Miramshah will be provided employment. During his speech, CM Khan said that the students who score well in their exams will be granted Rs30,000 to Rs50,000 as a prize.
“An interest-free loan will also be provided to the youth of Miramshah to set up businesses,” the CM stated. “Tourism will be promoted in Miramshah and all the problems regarding the IDPs of Waziristan will be resolved at the earliest.”
-Govt to Privatize TIP, PTCL and 47 Other Organizations
The federal government has decided to privatize Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL). This was revealed before the National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatization which met with Syed Mustafa Mahmood in the chair. The committee was informed that the government has decided to privatize 49 organizations within the next five years, comprising of two phases.
-Set up of the first information security conference in Pakistan
-Pakistan Foreign Exchange Reserves register significant increase
The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$14,956.2 million on March 01, 2019, said weekly report issued by the State Bank here on Thursday.
-Popular Youtube Tourist Drew Binsky annoucnes Pakistan tour.
-Pakistan's first Dalit woman senator to champion girls' education
As the first woman senator from Pakistan’s lowest Dalit caste, Krishna Kumari Kohli has an ambitious to-do list, from tackling honor killings to kidnappings and child marriage. But for the former child bride from a poor Hindu family, the need to improve women and girls’ health and education in the conservative Muslim-majority nation is closest to her heart.
“Never in my wildest of dreams did I think I’d ever become a senator,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Kohli’s election on Saturday marks a milestone in Pakistan both as a woman - who hold about one in five parliamentary seats - and as a member of the Dalit caste - a term she rejects as derogatory.
-PM Imran approves first-ever tariff policy
Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved first-ever tariff policy recommended by the Ministry of Commerce devised after detailed consultation, ARY News reported on Wednesday.
The new policy formulated on basis of transparency is being termed as an effective tool to simplify existing tariff structure. PM Imran Khan was briefed on the new tariff policy by the commerce secretary which will be presented before the federal cabinet after its formal approval. The premier was apprised that the policy was focused on gaining access to raw material and generation of employment.
-SECP: Company registration up by 26 percent
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 1,290 new companies in February. As compared to the corresponding month of last financial year, it represents a growth of 26 percent raising the number of registered companies to 96,510.
The massive increase is the result of the SECP’s various reforms measures, i.e. introduction of simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, one window facility for company incorporation and NTN generation, reduction of fee, assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings of CROs etc. Around 75 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 22 percent were registered as single member companies. Three percent were registered as public unlisted companies and limited liability partnerships (LLP).
Foreign investment has been reported in 39 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Jordan, Kenya, Korea South, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden and the US. The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 468 were registered in Islamabad, followed by 322 and 240 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively.
-Govt in talks with potential buyers for Pakistan Steel privatization: official
The government has been in talks with five to six parties for privatization of Pakistan Steel, Secretary Privatization on Wednesday told the National Assembly’s standing committee on privatization.
Federal Secretary on Privatization, Rizwan Malik, in a testimony on privatization programme before the National Assembly’s standing committee here said that from Year 1991 to 2018, the governments privatized 172 state-owned entities. The buyers interested in Pakistan Steel intend to enhance the production capacity of the mill to 3.5 million tonnes, the secretary said.
-Pakistan makes offer to Iranian government over various new Railways Routes
Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has emphasized the need to strengthen the two-way cooperation between Pakistan and Iran in rail sector.
He was talking to Islamic Republic News Agency during his visit to Iran. The Minister said Pakistan can send its products to Central Asian and European states using the Iranian rail network. Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad said Iran and Pakistan should cooperate in building railway links between Taftan and Quetta and Chahbahar and Gwadar.
-Pakistan foreign remittances register significant growth
The workers remitted US $14350.53 million in the first eight months (July to February) of FY19, showing a growth of 11.82 % compared with US $12833.64 million received during the same period in the preceding year. During February 2019, the inflow of worker’s remittances amounted to US $1576.51 million, which is 9.56% lower than January 2019 and 8.71% higher than February 2018.
-Pensioner's benefits to increase
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari has said the government is committed to raise Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution pension amount up to minimum fifteen thousand rupees by 2023. Talking to APP, he said it is imperative to utilize EOBI funds rationally to handle the expenses to be incurred in five years.
-Pakistan Arms imports reduce significantly, Weapons imports from US drastically cut by 81%: Report
Pakistan's arms imports have reduced significantly during the last five years. Pakistan Arms imports decreased by 40 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18. US arms exports to Pakistan fell by 81 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18, it said. Pakistan has instead turned to other suppliers. For example, in 2018 it ordered 4 frigates and 30 combat helicopters from Turkey.
-PM Khan issues orders issuing of directive banning ministers from using more than one car
Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of ministers using more than one official car and has directed the Chief Minister of Punjab, Usman Buzdar, to issue a notification banning all provincial ministers from using more than one car.
In this regard, CM Usman Buzdar has issued a notification and has directed Additional Chief Secretary Punjab and the Department of Administration and General Services to ensure that the policy is implemented with full effect; they have been further directed to enforce this policy forthwith.
-Pakistan Turkey FTA to take bilateral trade near $4 billion
President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai has appreciated the efforts of Governments of Pakistan and Turkey to enter Strategic Economic Framework (SEF) for enhancement of bilateral relations in various sectors including trade, tourism, healthcare, hospitality, industry, education, housing, agriculture, aviation and banking. He stated the main purpose of SEF was to enhance bilateral trade by five times from current volume of $ 800 million (approximately). For achieving this goal, it was expected that both the governments might sign Free Trade Agreement during the current year. Pakistan and Turkey both were the members of ECO, D-8, CACCI and OIC and the existing trade volume does not reflect the strong friendly relations, said a FPCCI release here on Monday. FPCCI president urged the government of Pakistan to resolve/negotiate on all anti-dumping barriers imposed by Turkey on Pakistani textile and other items before the signing of the FTA .
-Pakistan inks CPEC Phase II with China
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday said Pakistan had made an agreement for phase two of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement with China
-KP launches afforestation plan
The Khyber Pakthunkhwa Government has started work on a gigantic afforestation plan to increase forest areas up to 30 percent in next five years to mitigate growing effects of global warming and climate change in the country.
Under the plan, Billion Trees Afforestation Project (BTAP) has been extended to merged tribal districts of erstwhile FATA to use its vast land for plantation and efforts would be made to enhance forest cover to 30 percent from existing 26.3pc by 2023 in Khyber Pakthunkhwa, a senior official of Forest Department KP told APP on Sunday.
-Pakistan to receive $2 billion cash from friendly country
Abu Dhabi has agreed to deposit US$2 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan as part of its agreement to loan $3 billion to Islamabad. A deposit agreement was made between the State Bank of Pakistan and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development on Saturday. The funds are expected to be received shortly. In January, the State Bank of Pakistan received $1 billion of the $3 billion loan promised to the country by the UAE . The rate of return for the loan is 3%.
-Pakistan National Savings register unprecedented rise of 126%
The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has achieved the net target of Rs217 billion during first eight months (Jul-Feb) of the financial year 2018-19, as compared to the collection of Rs96 billion during the same period last year, showing a surge of 126pc. The total savings held by the CDNS stood at Rs1,376 billion as of February 28 while the directorate had Rs726 billion by the same date a year ago, a senior official of CDNS said.
-26 LPG Plants worth Rs 48 billions to be installed in Balochistan
Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar on Friday said that Rs48 billions has been released for establishment of 26 LPG air-mix plants in Balochistan to meet the gas demand there.
-Exxon Mobil report on Pakistani oil and gas discoveries to be released on March 15th
Drilling was stopped due to the srill strking ample rock, causing damage. The drilling will be resumed again in next two to three days after replacement of necessary parts in the equipment. Mehmood Molvi said offshore drilling report was due to be submitted on March 7, but it will now be released after March 15.
-PM Imran Khan launches medical package for the people of Tharparkar
Prime Minister Imran Khan said it was his first public meeting after the general election 2018, and he opted to visit Tharparkar as it was one of the most backward districts of Sindh, where 75% people were living below poverty line and some 1300 children had died due to malnutrition over the last three to four years. Imran Khan said his main objective behind the political struggle and reaching the power corridors was to pull the people of Pakistan out of poverty. He said today 112,000 families of Chachro were getting Sehat Insaf Cards, which would provide them Rs 720,000 per annum facility for free of charge treatment of various diseases at public and private hospitals. “We will provide this facility to every family throughout the district”, he added. The Prime Minister also announced two mobile hospitals equipped with medical and surgical facilities as well as four ambulances to cater to the medical needs of people in far flung areas of District Tharparkar. In order to address the water problem faced by the people of Tharparkar, he also announced the sanction of 100 reverse osmosis (RO) plants, to be installed in the area. The Prime Minister said the federal government would also provide electricity to the far flung areas of Tharparkar through solar system, which would also help run the RO plants in the area. He said the federal government would do whatever it could to help lift up the people of Tharparkar, who had left behind other areas of the country. The Prime Minister announced the launching of a political campaign in Sindh and invited the political workers and leaders to join Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf in serving the people of the province.
-Chinese company expresses interest in investing billions of dollars in PM's housing plan
HSS Group Wednesday expressed its commitment to allocate US$2 billion in partnership with Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co Ltd (XCMG) of China for building the five million homes project of the prime minister. This commitment was expressed by a delegation headed by XCMG General Manager Dr Hanson Liu and HSS Facility Management Chairman Syed Saman Hashemi, which called on Prime Minister Imran Khan here. Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood and Special Assistant to PM Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari were also present during the meeting. HSS Group is a global partner of XCMG and other major Chinese companies. XCMG is China’s nimber one leading total solution provider for global construction industry equipment and machinery. XCMG also expressed its willingness to set up a heavy equipment manufacturing plant/assembly-line in Pakistan. The prime minister was apprised that XCMG with its expertise of constructing high-rise buildings and housing units wanted to partner in prime minister’s five million housing program.
-NFIS targets three million new jobs, $5.5bn additional exports by 2023
The government has set a target of creating at least three million new jobs and additional exports of $5.5 billion by 2023. National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), according to the Ministry of Finance, will enhance the usage of digital payments to 65 million active digital transaction accounts, increase deposit-to-GDP ratio to 55pc, promote financing to 700,000 small and medium enterprises, increase agricultural finance disbursements to Rs.1.8 trillion, serve six million farmers through digitalised solutions and enhance the share of Islamic banking to 25pc in the banking industry.
Chairing a meeting of the NFIS Council on Tuesday, Finance Minister Asad Umar said that his government was fully committed to improving the livelihoods of Pakistanis through job creation, promotion of entrepreneurship and enhancement in the access to formal financial services. During the 6th meeting of NFIS Council, Asad Umar said that the government prioritized NFIS as part of its agenda to achieve inclusive economic growth through digitalization of government payments, enhanced access to finance and deposit base, promotion of SMEs, easy and affordable access to finance to farmers, facilitation in low-cost housing finance and provision of Shariah-compliant banking solutions.
-Opportunity for Pakistan as US withdraws duty-free benefits from India
Pakistan is ready to avail the opportunity that emerged after the announcement made by the US that it was withdrawing special duty benefits on Indian exports under the Generalized System of Preference (GSP). “On March 5, the United States decided to withdraw import duty benefits which were in the range of 1-6pc, under its GSP programme,” a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce and Textiles told APP on Thursday.
He said that the US gave the status of GSP to 121 developing countries, including India, Afghanistan and Botswana, in order to get non-reciprocal, duty-free imports of certain products. “Around 2,000 Indian products were enjoying the duty-free status before the announcement.” The senior official said that the United States and Pakistan would discuss the matter in the coming meeting of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which would be held this month. The meeting would also deliberate upon resolving different trade issues between the two countries, he added.
-South Asia’s first ever remote-controlled cranes arrive in Pakistan
Hutchison Ports Pakistan received three new remote-controlled quay cranes to mark the beginning of the terminal’s second phase in Karachi. The development will make Pakistan the first country in the South Asia region to install semi-automated, cabin-less cranes.
Hutchison Ports Pakistan, the country’s first and only deep-water container port, received the first installment of these high-tech cranes as part of its agreement signed with Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd (ZPMC) for the purchase of eight new cabin-less remote-controlled quay cranes and 24 remote-controlled rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGCs). This incoming equipment will be the first of its kind in the country. Hutchison Ports Pakistan is the first container terminal in Pakistan that has adopted remote-controlled, semi-automatic and driver-less cab technology for its quay cranes. The new remote-controlled quay cranes will be able to lift a container weighing up to 65 tonnes under the spreader, ensuring safe and smooth operations.
-Rs 530 million illegally sent abroad have been recovered through its Assets Recovery Unit (ARU).
Rs 530 million illegally sent abroad have been recovered through its Assets Recovery Unit (ARU). “The amount has been recovered after tracing offshore properties and bank accounts”, sources said.
-Delegation of Mitsubishi Corporation encouraged by the business friendly policies
Kimihide Ando said that the company is encouraged by the business friendly policies of the present government and intends to further strengthen its footprint especially in meeting energy requirements of the country.
He also conveyed to the Prime Minister that the Government of Japan has decided to increase its engagement with Pakistan and support Japanese companies in increasing investment in Pakistan. The Prime Minister welcomed the decision of Japanese Government and the interest of Mitsubishi Corporation regarding exploration of greater business opportunities in Pakistan.
-Benami law implemented
PTI government has finally implemented the Benami Act in a bid to document the economy. It has given a go-ahead to the tax officials to seize properties, vehicles, and bank accounts registered with fictitious individuals. From now onwards, all moveable and immovable assets registered with fictional entities to avoid taxes will be confiscated.
The law will finally take effect today following a delay of more than two years. Notably, the term ‘Benami’ means holding assets or properties in the name of a person other than the benefiter of that account.
-Pakistan and Turkmenistan sign final version of TAPI Gas Pipeline network
Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed the final version of the Host Government Agreement on TAPI Gas Pipeline network in Islamabad today. The agreement was signed by the Secretary Petroleum Mian Asad Hayauddin and Chief Executive of TPCL Amanov.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan reiterated Pakistan's commitment for an early and successful implementation of the TAPI project. He hoped the ground breaking of the project will be held in Pakistan this year.
-230 Pakistanis released from Saudi Arabia jail reach home
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development Zulfikar Bukhari on Tuesday said 230 Pakistanis released from Saudi Arabia’s jail had reached the country, ARY News reported.
“The previous governments did not do anything for overseas Pakistanis. The ministry of overseas Pakistanis was known for corruption in Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) and Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI),” Zulfikar Bukhari said in a statement.
Every department of the ministry was ruined and the incumbent government would require some time to fix them, he said adding that he was not eager to announce new housing scheme for the OPF. “I want to first deliver to those from whom the ministry got money in the past.”
-Pakistan successfully test fires extended range missile from JF-17 Thunder
Pakistan Air Force successfully test fired indigenously developed extended range smart weapon from JF-17 multi-role fighter aircraft, today.
It is indeed a great milestone as the weapon has been developed, integrated and qualified solely through indigenous efforts of Pakistani scientists and engineers. The successful trial has provided JF-17 Thunder a very potent and assured day and night capability to engage variety of targets with pinpoint accuracy.
-Barca legend Puyol to visit Pakistan for WSS promotion
Barcelona legend Carles Puyol will land in Karachi on March 16 to officially kick-off the ticket sales for the 2019 World Soccer Stars event. Teams led by football greats Luis Figo and Ricardo Kaka will play two matches in Lahore and Karachi respectively between April 26 and 29. Earlier, french great Nicolas Anelka visited Islamabad for the promotion of the event, after Figo and Kaka visited Pakistan too.
-Choppers to take tourists to northern areas
In line with directives of the prime minister, the government has decided for the first time to issue licenses to private airlines to commence helicopter services in the northern areas. The separate category of license will be issued in order to promote licenses and will be known as Tourism Promotion and Regional Integration (TPRI). The firms desiring to offer helicopter services at the tourist spots will have licenses issued on their requests in two months and they will be valid for five years.
-Punjab aims to achieve 7% economic growth by 2023
After seven months in power, the provincial government of Punjab has revealed its growth strategy for 2018-23, reflecting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) long-term plan. The five-year plan is aimed at developing a people-centric growth strategy and addressing fundamental and structural imbalances in Punjab. Economic managers of the province want to move towards sustainable and regionally equitable economic growth.
The provincial government aims to achieve annual growth of 7% by 2023 through these strategies. The government also plans to reduce the ratio of idle youth in Punjab from 10.3% in 2017-18 to 8.8%. The success of the policy is conditional as the provincial government needs to launch vigorous efforts to raise its own resources.
-Govt approves machine tool factory’s revival plan
The government has approved the handing over of Pakistan Machine Tools Factory (PMTF) to the Strategic Plans Division in an effort to turn around the ailing state-owned tools manufacturing unit. The Ministry of Industries and Production informed the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, in a meeting held last month, that PMTF’s assets as on June 30, 2018 were worth Rs6.92 billion and its liabilities stood at Rs5.59 billion. The liabilities included overdraft of Rs1.108 billion, accrued mark-up of Rs700 million and outstanding arrears of Rs865 million in salary and retirement benefits.
The ministry proposed three options for PMTF’s revival which included injection of Rs3.94 billion by the government comprising a soft loan of Rs2.105 billion and grant of Rs1.84 billion. The company management has projected a pre-tax profit of Rs195 million by financial year 2022-23.
-Govt approves Rs2bn worth Ramazan relief package
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, while deliberating upon a summary proposed by the Ministry of Industries and Production on Tuesday, approved Rs2 billion worth Ramazan relief package for the year 2019. According to sources, the Ministry of Industries and Production recommended the ECC to add 19 essential commodities, including ghee, sugar, flour, oil, pulses (channa, moong, mash, masoor), white gram, baisen, dates, rice (basmati, sella, broken), squashes & syrups (1,500ml and 800ml bottles), black tea, spices and milk, in the relief package for Ramazan.
“The main objective of the subsidy is to ensure the availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices for low-income families,” sources said, adding that the ministry also proposed the ECC to bring the Ramazan relief package to effect from May 1, 2019, as the holy month would commence from the second week of May. Sources said that the cabinet in its sitting this Thursday would most likely endorse the ECC’s decision with regard to the Ramazan package.
-Pakistan to offer gas fields to foreign explorers, investors
Pakistan plans to offer dozens of gas field concessions in the coming year to fill in a fuel shortage, a senior official said, with Islamabad hoping a sharp drop in militant violence and changes to exploration policy will attract foreign investors. Much of the mineral-rich South Asian nation remains unexplored despite gas discoveries dating back to the 1950s. Conventional gas reserves are estimated at 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 560 billion cubic meters, and shale gas reserves, which are untouched, at more than 100 tcf.
Italy’s ENI and US oil major Exxon Mobil are jointly drilling for gas offshore in Pakistan’s Arabian Sea, but many other Western companies have not returned after leaving more than a decade ago because of Islamist militant violence. Nadeem Babar, head of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Task Force on Energy Reforms, said that the government was amending its natural gas regulation and drawing up its first-ever shale gas policy, with licensing rounds to follow later this year.

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