Hargovind pant

Hargovind Pant, after completing his Masters in Life Sciences, chose to be an educator and had a fulfilling career spanning forty-eight years as a teacher and Principal of schools in India and Kenya. Having spent his almost entire life with “young Homo – sapiens” ( as he prefers to call his students ), he has immense faith in the capabilities of youth. He is firm in the belief that in the next two hundred years (only eight generations from today) humanity will have achieved much more than the cumulative achievements of almost half a million years Homo -Sapiens have been in existence. About The Book “Eko Aham Dwitiyo Nasti, Na Bhuto, Na Bhavishyati.” “I am the only one, there is no other like me, neither in the past, nor will there be another in the future.” A personal sounding email in the midst of so much unsolicited junk, announcing “Your friend passed away” captures the author’s attention and takes him to a flashback mode. A long-lost friend with whom he had spent hours in deep, animated conversations, his views on varied topics ranging from the Universe, Origin and evolution of life to the Gods up there in the sky, and many others flashed past the mind. And then, the next day a parcel containing the dear departed friend’s writings, arrives with a note from his son that Mr. Shrestha had wished all this to be sent to his friend - the author, for his keepsake, and as a reminder of the good times spent together engrossed in such stimulating conversations. “The Diary” takes...

This month marks the centenary of a remarkable (and successful) peasant protest in Uttarakhand. The British had inherited from native maharajas a system of forced labour known as begar, which they imposed on the peasantry. Under this system, villagers were compelled to carry the loads of British officials and European travellers, and also provide them with milk and vegetables when they were on tour. It was an onerous and much-hated system, which so angered the peasants, that, after a series of petitions had been rejected, they went on strike in January 1921, refusing to carry luggage or supply provisions, and brought the system to an end. Forms of begar and early opposition to it Begar generally implies unpaid forced labour, extracted either by landlords or the state. In the agrarian system of British Kumaun, there were three distinct forms of begar in operation. Coolie begar meant forced labour without any payment. Coolie utar carried an obligation of a minimum wage payment, although this was often not given. Finally, coolie burdayash referred to the extraction of different forms of produce – food, fruits, milk, fuel and fodder – for officials, soldiers, hunters, surveyors, tourists and their animals, again, generally taken without any payment. The Kumaun Division had three administrative districts, Almora, Nainital and Garhwal respectively. Every landowner in thsee hill districts was obliged to render begar or compensation in lieu of it. About 85% to 90% of the local pop...

The great problems, said Nietzsche, are in the street. True. The real fight for human rights and restoration of dignity can not take place in limited spaces through civilised conversations that debate the law and legalities. The great problems of the nation come alive, when they do, in the streets. And it is there that they must be debated and resolved. For the streets hold both the flesh and the word. The atmosphere of the street protests by India’s young people against Citizenship Amendment Act and the drive to register all citizens that hangs over the country today is amazingly similar to the time when Gandhi launched his fabled satygraha in 1919, just over 100 years ago. While Gandhi launched the satyagraha to protest against the violence unleashed at Jallianwala Bagh by General Reginald Dyer and the promulgation of a hated Rowlatt Act, the hills suddenly became alive with their own variety of satyagraha. Here is the story. The Congress branch of the Uttarakhand (known then as Kumaon) launched a major public movement triggered by the Gandhian Asahyog Andolan down below in the plains. The resentment against the Act was spontaneously linked to the anger of locals against the British system of using locals for free labour – a system known as kulli begar. When rapacious British officials returned to the plains, they carried loads of free gifts acquired as a matter of course from the poor villagers. The trail of locals made to carry these loads down the tricky mountain slop...

Postage stamp,1965 5th In office 10 January 1955–7 March 1961 Prime Minister Preceded by Succeeded by 1st In office 26 January 1950–27 December 1954 Preceded by Office Established Succeeded by 2nd In office 1 April 1946–25 January 1950 Preceded by Vacant Succeeded by Office Abolished In office 17 July 1937–2 November 1939 Preceded by Succeeded by Vacant Personal details Born ( 1887-09-10)10 September 1887 (Present-day Died 7 March 1961 (1961-03-07) (aged73) Political party Children 3, including Relatives Residence(s) No. 6, Maulana Azad Road, Profession Awards Govind Ballabh Pant (10 September 1887 – 7 March 1961) was an Indian freedom fighter and the first chief minister of Today, several Indian hospitals, educational institutions and foundations bear his name. Pant received India's highest civilian honour, the Early life [ ] Govind Ballabh Pant was born on 10 September 1887 in Khoont village near Pant studied at parishad, or village council, in their successful coolie begar, a law requiring locals to provide free transportation of the luggage of travelling British officials. In 1921, he entered politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the In the freedom struggle [ ] Known as an extremely capable lawyer, Pant was appointed by the In 1930, he was arrested and imprisoned for several weeks for organising a In 1940, Pant was arrested and imprisoned for helping organise the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh [ ] Pant took over as the In 1945, the British His judici...

The nature of new legislation to promote Hinduism, the extent of which remained very limited, indicates that it was not through lawmaking that the BJP primarily intended to operate: discourse and practices were the preferred means of action in their repertoire, as can be seen in debates about the respect owed to India’s very name. The country’s Constitution baptized it both India and Bharat in article 1, which states, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of states.” This duality, at the root of a fundamental ambiguity, refers to debates in the Constituent Assembly from 1946 to 1950 in which two ideas of India were competing. The idea of India promoted by Nehru and Ambedkar was embodied in the English word India, whereas Hindu traditionalists in the Congress had opted for the Sanskrit Bharat, the name of the tutelary figure who, in Hindu mythology, presided over the creation of the territory bearing the same name. Their demand reflected a very Hindu conception of the nation. One of the champions of this idea of India, Hargovind Pant, made no secret of it: “The word ‘Bharat’ or ‘Bharat Varsha’ is used by us in our daily religious duties while reciting the Sankalpa. Even at the time of taking our bath we say in Sanskrit: Jamboo Dwipay, Bharata Varshe, Bharat Khande, Aryavartay, etc.” Bharat Mata has moreover been depicted as a mother goddess in the popular imagination ever since the famous novel by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Anandamath ( The Abbey of B...