📰 In Cave 16: the Kailasa temple
A walk through one of the largest rock-cut temples in the world
•According to a legend cited in the 10th century book Katha Kalpa Taru, some time in the 8th century, the queen of the Rashtrakuta ruler Elu made a vow that she would not eat till a magnificent temple was built to Lord Shiva, and she saw its amlaka (finial). The king invited many architects, but none of them was able to fulfil this vow. Finally, an architect named Kokasa from Paithan completed the task in no time. This story is narrated by M.K. Dhavalikar in Ellora: Monumental Legacy.
•Legend aside, the construction of the temple began during the rule of the Rashtrakuta king, Dantidurga (735-757 AD). A group of skilled artisans cut and carved the vertical face of the basalt rock of a hill in Elapura, known today as Ellora, near Aurangabad. Unlike the Buddhists who made carvings inside the rock to construct cave temples, this group cut the rock internally and externally, with exquisite precision, to build a monolithic rock temple. The result is the magnificent Kailasa temple, one of the largest rock-cut temples in the world. Major work on the temple was done by King Dantidurga’s successor, Krishna I (757-773 AD), although work continued under many successive kings for more than a century.
A treat
•There are 32 caves in Ellora, numbered according to their age. Temples 1 to 12 in the southern side are the Buddhist caves. Temples 13 to 29 are the Hindu caves, and in the northern side are the Jain temples. I knew that if I started at cave 16, the Kailasa temple, I would never see the rest. So, keeping it as a treat for myself, I started at cave 32.
•The first thing I saw when I finally reached cave 16 was a huge rock screen with carvings and a two-level doorway with eaves on top. A door on the lower level leads into the double-storey gopuram, which has exquisitely carved sculptures on the walls. Goddesses Ganga and Yamuna flank the entrance gateway.
•The gopuram at the lower level leads to the portico. The full glory of this colossal monolith hits you when you leave the portico, on either side of which are the north and south courts with life-size elephants and a victory pillar framing the Kailasa. It is this iconic image that I had seen many times in photographs.
•There are five subsidiary shrines around the main temple in the circumambulatory path that runs along the side of the hill. This includes a shrine dedicated to river goddesses Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, and a yajna-shala (hall of sacrifice).
•However, the main temple is the most impressive. The elephants and lions that form the high plinth of the main temple signify Rashtrakuta power and prosperity. Rock steps in the left court lead up to the top where Nandi and a 36-column mandap with a Shiv ling are located. There are many beautiful carvings: of Durga, Mahishasuramardini, Gajalakshmi seated in a lotus pool, Shiva as Ardhanari and Virbhadra, Ravana shaking the Kailash parvat , and the Mahabharata and Ramayana panels. After spending many hours looking at these perfections, I climbed up to the top of the mountain from which the temple is carved. You can see the whole complex from there.
•The carving of the temple started from the top of the mountain but a pit was later dug around the temple on the sloping side of the hill, about 106 feet deep at its innermost side, 160 ft wide and 280 ft in length. The temple stands in the middle of this pit. Its highest point is the shikhar at 96 ft.
Features of the main temple
•Apart from the gopura , the main temple has a sabha griha ( hall), vestibules and a Nandi mandap which leads to the garba griha (sanctum) with the Shiv linga, all of which are profusely carved and with Dravidian shikharas (towers). A bridge connects the Nandi mandap to the gopuram .
•The stiff climb up the hill was made worthwhile by the loveliness of the lotus on the roof of the sanctum. The lotus is crowned by a finial with four mythical lions, each facing one cardinal direction. Looking at the magnificence of the temple, I wondered: Was all this made using just a hammer and a chisel or was there a divine force at work too?
📰 The state of statelessness
It is to experience the worst imaginable nightmare, not a natural disaster but a man-made malaise
•It is frightfully disturbing to learn that 40 lakh people, currently living in Assam, find no place in the draft of the National Register of Citizens. Therefore, they could be deprived of their Indian citizenship and become stateless. Can those of us secure in our nationality ever put ourselves in the shoes of such disenfranchised people? What is it to be deprived of citizenship, to experience the horror of statelessness?
Citizenship and belonging
•Citizenship is frequently associated with political rights but it is linked, first and foremost, to belonging. To be a citizen is to belong to a particular politically organised community — the state, in the widest sense. True, it is not the only form of belonging. One can belong to a village, to a language-, religion- or occupation-based community. But particularly under modern conditions, belonging to a politically organised community has become more important than other belongings. Our identity as citizens is more basic than other identities. Why?
•This is because everything we need or desire, and any reasonable goal we pursue, depends today on our membership of a state. We may have moral rights as human beings but they are ineffective or meaningless without social-political recognition within a legal regime supported by the state. Thus, our life, family life, basic liberties, employment, education, mobility, even everyday security depends on the overall protection and support of the state. If we do not belong to a state, and carry no proof of it (ration card, driving license, Aadhaar card or passport), we have nothing. These passive citizenship rights cannot exist without authoritative, juridical backing. Nor can active citizenship rights that enable us to participate in the making and the remaking of our political community. In short, it is only as a member of a particular state (India, Bangladesh, the U.S.) that we are able to live well, indeed to live at all.
•It follows that to not be a citizen — to be stateless — is to experience the worst imaginable nightmare, worse than long-term confinement in jails, worse than a politically alienated life, worse even than living as an oppressed minority. In fact, the right to vote or be political is far from the mind of those threatened with statelessness. For such people are not covered by any law. They can be detained merely on the ground that they are stateless. They can be separated from their family. If their possessions are taken away, they can’t report the matter to anyone. If they have no job, there’s no one to appeal to. If they are hungry, no public distribution system can help them. They can be denied access to basic health services, even as they suffer from life-threatening diseases. They are homeless outsiders who can be deported any time with no one having an idea where they must go. Their whole social and political existence is illegal. Socially and politically dead, they barely exist. A deep existential insecurity is bred by statelessness.
•Statelessness invariably begets an irreversible dehumanisation: criminalisation is common among stateless people; as is involvement in abusive relationships and ‘survival sex’; as also is invisiblisation — every act must remain hidden from the state and the public. Stateless persons live in perpetual disguise, submerged in complete anonymity. They are truly the wretched of the earth. Worse still, statelessness often paves the way for genocidal violence. Can one forget what happened to German Jews after the revocation of their citizenship? Divested of political belonging and social identity, they became sub-human. Wanted nowhere, they were rounded up and despatched to extermination camps.
•This atrocious state of statelessness usually occurs when political persecution, declaration of war on certain ethnic groups or economic destitution forces people out of their homeland but the state where asylum is sought or where they have been managed to temporarily find work doesn’t eventually recognise them as citizens. Statelessness can also occur when new ethnically based borders are born. The creation of Bangladesh rendered thousands of Urdu-speaking Bihari Muslims stateless in their homeland. Bangladesh stripped them of their citizenship but Pakistan refused to accept them. Living on either side of the border but without the requisite ethnicities, suddenly, for no fault of theirs, they found themselves stateless. This has also been the fate of pastoral groups, who have no real idea of settled existence, no permanent home, who once travelled freely in a region but are now confronted with borders they can’t easily cross. And because they thought of the entire region as their own, and never belonged anywhere in particular, new borders liquidated their multiple belongings, rendering them stateless.
Nowhere to go
•Imagine what might have happened to Ugandans of Indian origin if, after expulsion by the brutal regime of Idi Amin, they were also denied entry into the U.K., despite holding British passports? The much maligned but truly hapless Rohingya, with neither passport nor identity card, are denied effective citizenship in their homeland, and subjected to various forms of extortion, land confiscation, forced eviction, marriage restrictions and forced labour on roads and military camps. Yet, they have nowhere else to go. Many therefore experience the nightmare of statelessness.
•Statelessness is not a natural disaster but a man-made malaise, a consequence of recently formed nation states obsessed with borders. True, this is an international humanitarian issue, but don’t contiguous states (Myanmar, Bangladesh, India) have a special obligation to those groups who not long ago lived as one people in a borderless territory? Can a newly erected virtual barrier completely erase centuries-old practice of habitation and mobility?
📰 Refugees in J&K await citizenship
People who migrated from West Pakistan pin hopes on hearing on Article 35A.
•The release of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has once again turned the spotlight on the refugee problem in Jammu and Kashmir,with many representatives of displaced people seeking a one-time settlement in the State.
•Labha Ram Gandhi, president of the West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee, told The Hindu that abrogation of Article 35A, which defined State subject laws and granted special privileges in matters of property and jobs, was the shortest route to access the pending citizenship rights in India.
Long fight
•“If Article 35A goes on August 6 [the day the Supreme Court will hear multiple petitions filed against it], we will get citizenship rights, including the right to vote for the Assembly. We are fighting for our rights since 1947. We are Indians and not Bangladeshis, who need to be thrown out. It’s because of the local governments, a puppet of Pakistan, we failed to get citizenship rights. This government [the Centre] will deliver us justice,” Mr. Gandhi said.
•The BJP in J&K has been campaigning for full citizenship rights for West Pakistan refugees.
•These refugees are mainly Hindus, with 80% of them belonging to the Scheduled Castes, who migrated during Partition from Sialkot to J&K. By an assessment, their population of these refugees is estimated at between 2.5 lakh and 3 lakh.
•Rajiv Chuni, president of SOS International, an NGO fighting for the cause of displaced citizens of erstwhile J&K who shifted into this part during the 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars, said the case of displaced population should be “looked through the humanitarian prism”.
•“I doubt the sincerity of purpose in Assam. It’s taking a Hindu-Muslim colour. In J&K, I am held back in a territory that is not mine. I am from Mirpur [in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir] and wants the right to vote from there,” Mr. Chuni said.
•Independent MLA Engineer Rashid, while accusing the Centre of “dislodging Muslims in Assam”, said: “If the Centre wants foreigners to be identified and deported it must start with the West Pakistani refugees in J&K.”
📰 Frequent digital media use increases risk of ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder risk higher among boys; teens suffering from depression vulnerable
•All that time teens spend glued to their phones may be affecting their brain and leading to symptoms of what is called the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
•A recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA) revealed frequent digital media use appeared to increase the risk of having symptoms of ADHD by about 10%.
Poor performance
•The risk was higher among boys than girls, and among teens suffering from depression or have a previous history of getting into trouble.
•ADHD can have many negative effects on teenagers including poor school performance.
•It can also increase their likelihood of getting involved in risky activities like substance abuse and legal problems.
•Speaking about this, K.K. Aggarwal, Indian Medical Association (IMA) former president said, “With the growing popularity of smartphones, one is addicted to the Internet — Facebook, Twitter and other such applications. These can cause insomnia, fragmented sleep, etc. Smartphone is a cause for parent-child conflict in 30% of the cases.”
Common symptoms
•“Often, children get up late and end up going to school unprepared. On an average, people spend 30 to 60 minutes on bed playing on their smartphones before sleep. A new spectrum of diseases related to the use of mobile phones has also come to the notice of medical profession and it is anticipated that 10 years from now they will take an epidemic shape. Some of these are Blackberry Thumb, cellphone elbow, Nomophobia, and Ringxiety,” added Dr. Aggarwal.
•Some of the most common symptoms of ADHD include inattentiveness (being easily distracted, having difficulty getting organised or remembering to do things), hyperactivity (having difficulty sitting still), and impulsivity (making decisions without thinking through the possible consequences).
•Doctors add that — having access to so many different streams of information through gadgets has been found to decrease the brain’s grey matter density, which is responsible for cognition and emotional control.
•In this digital era, the key to good health should be moderation i.e. moderate use of technology.
•Most of us have become slaves to devices that were really meant to free us and give us more time to experience life and spend time with people.
📰 Asian nations slam U.S.-China trade war
Call for free trade talks with Beijing
•Asian countries have voiced concern about the potentially devastating impact of a U.S.-China trade war, with Ministers calling for the acceleration of talks for a gigantic Beijing-backed free-trade deal that excludes the United States.
•Fear that a simmering trade spat between the world’s top two economies could spiral into a full-blown trade war — with painful consequences for China’s neighbours — was among topics dominating discussion at a regional summit in Singapore on Saturday.
•The prospect of a trade war is a “real threat” to Asian countries, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit.
•Other top diplomats at the forum, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, spoke out against protectionism, warning that it places the region’s development in jeopardy. Some Ministers also called for the early conclusion of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a 16-nation free trade pact.
📰 ‘Corporate governance standards at PSBs better’
•Emphasising that corporate governance standards being followed by public sector banks are much better than ever before, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said the government has stopped the “phone-call thing” coming in from Delhi to the banks.
•In an apparent dig at the previous UPA regime, Mr. Goyal said that not a single phone call would go to “give a loan, to address a loan, to restructure a loan or to settle a loan.”
•Against the backdrop of high amounts of stressed assets in the banking system, the ruling BJP had alleged that earlier, banks used to get calls from the higher ups in the national capital to provide loans to various entities.
•Mr. Goyal told the Lok Sabha that the corporate governance standards being followed by public sector banks now are much better than ever before.
•“We are proud to say that in these four years of this government, we have stopped the phone call thing coming in from Delhi to the banks.
•“Not a single phone call will go to give a loan, to address a loan, to restructure a loan or to settle a loan,” the Finance Minister said.
•“We have given autonomy to the banks,” he said during Question Hour.
📰 Mcr-1 gene seen in K. pneumoniae bacteria
The gene endows resistance against the last-hope antibiotic colistin
•Increased prevalence of mcr-1 gene that confers multidrug-resistance has now been reported in Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria, increasing the fear of infection by pan drug-resistant bugs. This gene endows resistance against last hope antibiotic — colistin. A study published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy found that about 10% of the K. pneumoniae bacteria studied were resistant to colistin.
•During January–February 2016, a total of 200 K. pneumoniae isolates from pus, blood, sputum, and urine were studied. Of this, 21 were resistant to colistin, and further screening revealed that four harboured mcr-1 gene.
•“This gene was first reported in December 2015 in E. coli isolated from chicken in China, and by 2017 it had spread to all continents and [is] seen in bacteria isolated from humans, chicken and environment,” says Prof. Kashi Nath Prasad from the Department of Microbiology at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, and the corresponding author of the work. “Evidence suggests that the overuse of colistin in farm animals has given rise to the emergence of mcr-1 gene. Since this gene is present on a mobile genetic element (plasmid) of bacteria such as E. coli and K. pneumoniae, the frequency of transmission to other bacteria is likely to be very high.”
•Molecular studies revealed that one particular isolate carried mcr-1 gene and blaNDM-1 gene. “The blaNDM-1 encodes for a protein that gives resistance to all beta-lactam antibiotics. This shows that the particular isolate was resistant to carbapenems, third-generation cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin) making the treatment very difficult,” says Sanjay Singh, research scholar at the institute and first author of the work.
Evolved gene
•Interestingly, mcr-1 gene was seen in the chromosomal DNA of the bacteria. “The mcr-1 gene is usually found in the plasmid (small DNA in the cytoplasm) and the resistance gene is transmitted among different species. But now we have found this gene in the chromosome showing that it has evolved and stabilised. Whole genome sequence studies are needed to understand the exact location of this gene to decode how they are transmitted from one bacterial species to another,” adds Mr Singh. “The presence of the gene in the chromosome also means that Indian population may be harbouring mcr-1 gene for a longer period of time and it remained undetected.”
•Further studies by the group also found that mcr-1 gene was more prevalent inK. pneumoniae than E. coli, which is in stark contrast to findings from other countries. While less than 1% of the E. coli studied was resistant to colistin, it was about 10% in the case of K. pneumoniae. More studies are needed to understand this contrasting behaviour. The team is also looking for this gene in other bacteria causing human infection and its mode of dissemination.
