Mutiny Again!

Mutiny Again!

Indian HOLOCAUST My father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Forty SEVEN

Palash Biswas



The profound hypocrisy and inherent barbarism of bourgeois civilization lies unveiled before our eyes, turning from its home, where it assumes respectable forms, to the colonies, where it goes naked. Did they not, in India, to borrow an expression of that great robber, Lord Clive himself, resort to atrocious extortion, when simple corruption could not keep pace with their rapacity? While they prated in Europe about the inviolable sanctity of the national debt, did they not confiscate in India the dividends of the rajahs, who had invested their private savings in the Company's own funds? While they combated the French revolution under the pretext of defending "our holy religion," did they not forbid, at the same time, Christianity to be propagated in India, and did they not, in order to make money out of the pilgrims streaming to the temples of Orissa and Bengal, take up the trade in the murder and prostitution perpetrated in the temple of the Juggernaut? These are the men of "Property, Order, Family, and Religion."

-Karl Marx, The New-York Daily Tribune. 22 July, 1853.
http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Mutiny.html

1857 remains a major landmark in the march towards Indian Independence since it convinced the Britishers that India could not be held at leisure and fear of another mutiny continued to haunt the British rulers right till 1947. On the other side another subtle effect on the freedom movement if it can be called one was the fact that Indians realized that the military option was not viable and thus Indians resorted to social reform and inner regeneration to prepare themselves for the challenges of the modern era. In this regard the main contribution of educating the Indians lies with the British.

The Great Rebellion of 1857 occupies a decisive place in the history of Indo-Pak Sub-Continent. It destroyed the English East India Company and destroyed a social order which was many centuries old. It was a highly complex event and even today many aspects of this phenomenal event defy comprehension. It influenced every class and section of the Indo-Pak Sub-Continent and acted as a primer for the complex set of events which finally led to the partition of India in 1947.
Maj (Retd) AGHA HUMAYUN AMIN from WASHINGTON DC
http://www.defencejournal.com/jul99/1857.htm

India began celebrations on Monday to mark the 150th anniversary of an armed revolt against British colonialists, a mutiny that sparked the first Indian war of independence before being crushed.Singing patriotic songs, thousands of Indians took part in a colourful procession, retracing a march 150 years ago by dozens of mutinous Indian soldiers from the northern town of Meerut in a bid to capture the capital Delhi.Over 30,000 youth from across the country will cover a distance of 80 km in five days and reach Delhi on May 11. One third of the participants are women and in Delhi the procession will be joined by 20,000 more.

As the nation remembered the heroes of the first War of Independence on its 150th anniversary, there were no celebrations in Barrackpore - where the first seed of sepoy mutiny was sowed by Mangal Pandey on March 29, 1857, at the erstwhile army cantonment. India is commemorating a seminal revolt against the British by native soldiers 150 years ago that jolted colonial rule, but experts admit there is hardly any enthusiasm for the anniversary.Thanks mainly to the media, millions of Indians are getting to read about the known and unsung heroes of the 1857 revolt that developed into a massive rebellion and came to be regarded as the country's first war of independence.

After the mutiny, much of the Indian subcontinent passed from the control of the British East India Company to direct rule by the British government, until independence in 1947.

The Bedngali Caste Hindu Ruling Class is facing another Mutiny this time in the line of Hindu Muslim Peasant`s uprising which began against East India Company in 18th century itself and expressed well in Sanayasi Revolt. bengal witnessed Tribal Peoples fierce resistance aganist Company Raj and British empire so many times. But it is history that bhadralok Bengalies always supported the Rulers as the brahins have been during entire Muslim rule! During Mutiny of 1857 and during Neel Vidroh bengali Intelligentsia and the ruling Brahminical class aligned with the Rulers!

Particularly, this time Bengal ruling classes face the same challange as faced East India company
in 1857. The capitalist Marxists of India led by CPIM is all out to get back not one East India Company, but all mainstram MNCs worldwide! Whichever suits the US imperist corporate and Hindu zionist interests!

The marxist gestapo is Hunting the peasants in Bengal and the Slaves of World bank , IMF and US Imperalism , centred in Power in New delhi do Celebrate the 150th anniversary of India`s First struggle for Independence. they claim it first, denying Peasant`s resistance and Tribal Uprising! hopefully, they may not claim it to be the last.
From nursing the India-US civilian nuclear deal, the prime minister's special envoy Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary,seems to have seamlessly made the transition to overseeing infrastructure projects in the strategically crucial state of Jammu and Kashmir.There were many eyebrows raised when Saran's name figured in the high-level delegation that accompanied Defence Minister A.K. Antony on his just concluded visit to the Ladakh region of Kashmir.

For Saran, however, it was just another job.

"We need to focus on what we need to do (on improving Ladakh's infrastructure)," explained of this new assignment.

The shift comes in the midst of rumblings in the external affairs ministry against Saran's continuing as New Delhi's interlocutor on the India-US civilian nuclear deal long after his retirement.

Thus it was Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon who travelled to Washington last month for talks on reviving the flagging deal. Both sides later professed to be satisfied on concluding a 123 Agreement, the next step in the nuclear deal.

Saran's new assignment, in fact, takes off from a task he has previously performed. As foreign secretary, Saran had made a close study of road development projects in the border areas of the northeastern region. The aim now is to replicate this in Kashmir to push the state's economic development.

And the struggle for freedom continues!

PM advice to CM
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070507/asp/bengal/story_7744092.asp
New Delhi, May 6: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has revealed that the Prime Minister had advised him not to succumb to pressure against the Tata Motors project in Singur.

“I had a long discussion with the Prime Minister and he shared my view. He advised me that I should carry on and not succumb to anything,” the chief minister told NDTV 24X7.

Bhattacharjee’s statement confirms a report published in The Telegraph at the height of the Singur controversy that the Prime Minister shares the chief minister’s views on the project.

Bhattacharjee told the television channel that his personal prestige was at stake. “The main issue is that if I roll back (land acquisition in Singur), I won’t be able to raise my head my again.”

Advani sings Ram temple tune again

Faizabad/Ayodhya, May 6: Making a strong case for the Ram temple at Ayodhya and Ram lalla's 'darshan', senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani today wound up the party campaign for the seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls by declaring that the day was not far away when a grand temple would be constructed at the birthplace of Lord Ram.

Addressing public meetings at these twin cities, Mr Advani reiterated the commitment of BJP towards construction of Ram temple, saying ''the existing makeshift temple was not befitting the importance of the place.'' In his half-an-hour speech punctuated by the slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram', the former Deputy Prime Minister noted the Ayodhya Temple Movement had changed the course of history of BJP as well as of India.

''Ayodhya me Ram Janambhoomi sthal par ab Ram mandir ban kar rahega (a grand temple would be constructed at the birth of Lord Ram in Ayodhya at any cost),'' he asserted.

Reminding people of the Ayodhya movement as being the biggest mass movement post-Independence, he said the party's resolve about the temple construction coincided his campaign wind up meeting at Ayodhya.

The former Deputy PM, the hero of the Ayodhya movement launched 17 years back, went straight away to the makeshift Ram temple to have 'darshans' of the deity.

He observed the temple movement not only underlines the importance of cultural nationalism in the country but manages to bring forth the concept of unity. ''BJP foresees a situation where persons across the caste and religion lines participate unitedly for the construction of the grand Ram Temple at the disputed site.''

The Elephant in the Room
George W. Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating in a generation, and the leading Dems beat every major ’08 Republican. Coincidence?


WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Marcus Mabry
Newsweek
Updated: 10:31 a.m. ET May 5, 2007
May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.


Reliance spares govt acquisition hurdle
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070507/asp/bengal/story_7744094.asp
BISWAJIT ROY
Calcutta, May 6: Reliance Industries has dropped the condition that the Bengal government shall acquire land for its farm products retail project.

A new proposal made by the company waters down many of the provisions of a “confidential” draft memorandum of understanding the government had prepared in September 2006 that was never signed.

One key difference relates to land acquisition — an issue that, since the draft MoU was drawn up, has triggered violence in Singur and Nandigram and pushed the CPM into its biggest crisis in decades.

In the draft, the government agreed to sell its own “vested and unutilised” land for the 1,850-acre project as well as acquire “additional land (if) no government land was available at any of the specified locations”. If there were “disputes over the title of the land”, they were to be “sorted out by the government”.

As for the government’s own land, it was to be made available at market price and “within 30 days of the pay- ment”.

Under the new proposal, which refers to the political situation in Bengal, the government will neither sell its own land to the company nor acquire any for it.

Kalinga Nagar: Probe panel winds up
Sunday, May 6, 2007 (Bhubaneshwar)
Justice A S Naidu Commission probing the January 2, 2006 police firing in Orissa's Kalinga Nagar ceased to function from Saturday without completing its task.

The winding up of the judicial commission followed a Supreme Court order which prohibited any sitting judge of any high court to conduct a commission of inquiry.

''In view of the apex court's order, the commission ceased to function from Saturday,'' justice Naidu said in his order.

The commission also asked the government advocate to seal all documents for future use. Naidu was appointed as head of the judicial commission in February, 2006 in the aftermath of the police firing at Kalinga Nagar in which 13 persons were killed on January 2, 2006.

Subsequently, another person succumbed to the bullet wounds taking the toll to 14. One policeman was also killed in the incident.

The commission, during its 10-month tenure, held as many as 20 sittings and recorded statements of 117 persons including social activists and senior officers of Jajpur district.


INDIA DURING THE RAJ: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

Diaries and Related Records Held at the British Library, London
INDIA DURING THE RAJ: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/india_during_the_raj_parts_1_and_2/Contents-of-Reels-Part-2.aspx

Violence in West Bengal industrial hub scares natives
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/139035.php/Violence-in-West-Bengal-industrial-hub-scares-natives

East Midnapore (West Bengal), May 6: The once bustling streets of Satingabadi, Simulkundu Uttarpalli, Sonachura villages in West Bengal's East Midnapore District today wears a deserted look. Empty streets welcome visitors, as residents of the villages have fled to safer places after political groups for and against a planned industrial hub unleashed violence in the villages.Two persons were killed on April 29 in fresh clashes, while scores were injured as rival groups, affiliated to either the state's ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or the opposition Trinamool Congress, clashed with each other, exchanged gunfire and ransacked property.Villagers of Nandigram have been opposing the acquisition of their farmland to set up an industrial hub by Indonesia's Saleem Group.

KOLKATA: The CPI-M's West Bengal committee on Sunday virtually gave a clean chit to its members and squarely blamed the opposition parties for the renewed violence in Nandigram.

Opposition political forces are instigating violence in Nandigram and CPI-M supporters are being driven out of their homes, a statement issued by the party's state committee after its meeting said on on Sunday.

The attacks in Nandigram, according to the party, are still continuing with houses of party supporters being targeted, women being tortured and arson and loot taking place.

The state committee, however, believed that normalcy would have to be established in Nandigram through dialogue and peace meetings.

Earlier on Sunday, party veteran Jyoti Basu, who presided over the meeting, said police would step in Nandigram if the political process to restore normalcy failed and the opposition continued to stay away from all-party meetings.

The West Bengal government had earlier on May 3 in its status report to the Calcutta High Court referred to CPI-M supporters' role in clashes with opposition and assaults on some artistes, cultural activists and intellectuals between April 29 and may one in Nandigram.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/TOIonline/India/Nandigram_CPI-M_state_committee_gives_clean_chit_to_partymen/articleshow/2009563.cms


Impact of Nil Bidroho and Dinabandhu Mitra
In 1857, the famous 'Sipahi Biplob' (Sepoy Mutiny) took place. With the wind of it, 'Nil Bidroho'(Blue Revolt)scattered all over then Bengal region. This Nil Bidroho lasted for more than a year (In 1859-1860). The literature world was shaken with this revolt. In the light of this revolt, a great drama was published from Dhaka in the name of 'Nil Dorpon' (The Blue Mirror). Dinabandhu Mitra was the writer of this play.


[edit] Michael Madhusudan Dutt

Michael Madhusudan DuttIn this time, Michael Madhusudan Dutt emerged as the first epic-poet of modern bangla literature. Dutt, a Christian by conversion, is best known for his Ramayana-based masterpiece, "The Slaying of Meghnadh," (in Bengali "Meghnadh Bodh Kabbo" (?????? ?? ?????)), which essentially follows in the poetic tradition of Milton's Paradise Lost. Those who have read it consider this work a world-class epic poem of the modern era. Michael Madhusudan Dutta is also credited with the introduction of sonnets to Bangla literature. He ruled the bangla literature wold for more than a decade (1858-1863).


[edit] Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay starts his journey through bangla literature with his first publishd novel 'Durgeshnondini' (Daughter of the Fort Lord) in 1865. he is considered as one of the leading Bengali novelists and is popularly known as the author of India's first national song, "Bande Matarom" (pronounced in Hindi "Vande Mataram").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_literature


It is quite symbolic. May 10 marks the 150th anniversary of the great revolt of 1857. There was none to offer even a floral tribute at the park where Mangal Pandey's bust was erected years back or at the martyrs' column in Barrackpore that contains the names of those sepoys who raised the first banner of rebellion against the British Raj 150 years ago. Surprisingly, neither any official programme nor any private initiative was taken to remember the heroes of India's first War of Independence in Barrackpore, now a sub-divisional town nearly 35 km from here in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district.

Mangal Pandey, a sepoy with the British Army's 5th Company of the 34th Regiment, raised the banner of revolt as he defied his superiors to carry out orders on March 29, 1857, and this spread the message of mutiny from Barrackpore to the army barracks in Meerut, Jhansi, Gwalior and other north Indian cities.

From an act of defiance by a handful of Indian soldiers who refused to use rifle bullets said to be greased with beef and pork fat -- considered unclean by Hindus and Muslims -- the mutiny became a popular revolt against British occupation.Enraged British authorities disbanded the regiment after the mutiny. Eighty-five sepoys were court-martialled and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. On May 10, the sepoys broke out in open rebellion, shot their officers, released their fellowmen and headed for Delhi.

The rebels seized Delhi on May 12, 1857. Some Europeans were shot dead. The palace and the city were occupied and the fall of Delhi was a serious loss of prestige for the English Empire.

Very soon, the rebellion spread throughout northern and central India at Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Bareilly, Benaras, Bihar, Jhansi and other places. Although the rebellion was completely suppressed by July 1857, the momentum continued to serve as the main source of inspiration for the people who vigorously fought the British to gain independence.

After initial reverses, British troops quelled the revolt in four months and exiled to then Burma the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar who had been proclaimed India's ruler by the mutineers.

Indian Rebellion of 1857
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Indian rebellion of 1857)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rebellion_of_1857
An engraving titled Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after their mutiny against British rule gives a contemporary view of events from a British perspective.History of South Asia and History of India
The Indian Rebellion of 1857, often known as the First War of Indian Independence and the Indian Mutiny,(i) was a prolonged period of armed uprisings in different parts of India against British occupation of that part of the subcontinent. Small precursors of brewing discontent involving incidences of arson in cantonment areas began to manifest themselves in January. Later, a large-scale rebellion broke out in May and turned into what may be called a full-fledged war in the affected regions. This war brought about the end of the British East India Company's rule in India, and led to direct rule by the British government (British Raj) of much of the Indian subcontinent for the next 90 years, although some states retained nominal independence under their respective Rajas, or kings.

See also:
http://www.india-history.com/british-india/india-in-1857.html
http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/30/stories/2007043001842000.htm

The last Mughal: The fall of a dynasty, Delhi, 1857
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=7ec3a2e5-2187-4e29-a9bb-45e55e04796e&&Headline=The+last+Mughal%3a+The+fall+of+a+dynasty%2c+Delhi%2c+1857

BENEATH THE PYRAMID LIE BURIED A PALACE, ITS KING, ITS PRINCES AND THE MONSTERS OF BENGAL NATIVE ARMY THEY INCITED TO MUTINY, MURDER AND OTHER CRIMES UNUTTERABLE. STRANGER! IF YOU KNOW WHERE DELHI WAS BEHOLD ITS DEBRIS IN THE PYRAMID YOU STAND ON.

— ANNO DOMINI MDCCCL VII

That was the epitaph that an angry Englishman had written for Delhi. It was carried in a newspaper published from Bombay in the middle of 1857. It correctly sums up the insatiable thirst for revenge that the British felt whether they were in India or in Britain.

“I wish I were commander-in-chief in India”, wrote Charles Dickens on October 4,1857, “I should do my utmost to exterminate the Race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested.” He spoke for millions of his compatriots who were certain that all the stories of murder and rape carried in the British media were true. The church too joined in the demand for mass slaughter in revenge and bishops invoked the avenging Jehovah and not the forgiving Jesus Christ. In a novel,First Love and Last Love: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny, James Grant wrote, “To the brutal Mussulman and the sensual Hindu, the position occupied by an English lady or any Christian woman, seems absurd and incomprehensible; hence came the mad desire to insult, degrade and torture, ere they slay them.”

Post-mutiny investigations by British authorities found that the stories of rape were untrue. One Miss Wheeler who had reportedly killed herself for fear of violation was found living with an Indian decades later.
http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEG20070503235419&eTitle=Insight&rLink=0

The 1857 uprising

By Ishtiaq Ahmed

The month of May 2007 marks the 150th anniversary of a popular uprising in the Indian subcontinent against the English East India Company. It has been described as the Sepoy Mutiny by British writers because it originated among the native soldiers employed and trained by the Company. The sipahis (Urdu-Hindi word for soldiers) were dissatisfied with the way the British officers treated them, and were particularly enraged over the introduction of a cartridge, allegedly laced with cow and pig fat, to be used in the new Enfield rifles. It had to be chewed open and the gunpowder was poured into the rifle. Both Hindu and Muslim sipahis found such a procedure disgusting since those fats subverted their rules of purity.

There were a number of local rebellions among the sepoys in Bengal already in early 1857, which were crushed and the rebel leaders hanged. Similar incidents took place elsewhere. The revolt climaxed when the sepoys in Meerut rose in arms on May 9-10, 1857. They killed their officers and called for a general mutiny. The rebels proclaimed the Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, as their sovereign and demanded the British to leave India. Meerut, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and Bereilly were the main centres of revolt.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=54397


When Marx reported on Indian Mutiny
New Delhi, May 06, 2007
In the spring-summer of 1857, while the First War of Indian Independence was sweeping through north India, two Prussian (now in Germany) men in their late ‘30s were keenly following the developments from faraway London and Manchester.

Between 1857 and 1858, these two leaders of the international communist movement, Karl Marx, the then London correspondent for New York Daily Tribune, and Friedrich Engels were often busy sifting through newspaper articles and letters from British officers to gather information on the revolt.

Their articles on the revolt, nearly 30 of them, were published in the New York Daily Tribune (now the New York Herald Tribune following its merger with the New York Herald in the 1920s) between July, 1857 and October the following year.

Titled variously as `The Revolt in the Indian Army’, `State of the Indian Insurrection’, 'Investigation of Tortures in India’ (Marx), `The Capture of Delhi’, `The Siege and Storming of Lucknow’ and `Details of the Attack on Lucknow’ among others capture in great detail the events of those times.

Through their articles Marx and Engels attempted to refute the contention that revolt was a mere mutiny by soldiers and there was no involvement of broader sections of the society. They also wrote that the uprising had brought together religions and communities.

``That Mussulmans and Hindus renouncing their mutual antipathies, have combined against their common masters; that disturbances beginning with the Hindus, have actually ended in placing on the throne of Delhi a Mohammedan emperor; that the mutiny has not been confined to a few localities,’’ Marx wrote in one article.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=8d01efd9-b18b-4fb8-8273-faee6f9a42c5&&Headline=When+Marx+reported+on+Indian+Mutiny

And this Is The India Shining this time!


ECB.co.uk
India seeks World Cup revenge in Bangladesh
Economic Times - 5 hours ago
DHAKA: New-look India flew into Bangladesh on Monday hoping to revive the team's shattered cricketing fortunes and avenge the disastrous defeat that sent them tumbling out of the World Cup.
Bangladesh tour will be a challenge: Shastri Hindu
Dravid keen to focus on performance, not revenge Times of India

Spiderman 3 set to Break all Hollywood Records in India
Televisionpoint.com - 1 hour ago
Spiderman 3 is the most awaited film till date of 2007. Around the world, brands and companies are vying with each other to be associated with the film that is slated to be a sure blockbuster worth millions & millions of dollars.


Gujarat Encounter: The plot thickens
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2007/may/05wk1.htm
See also
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/index.html

Single parent? Tips to manage work & money

Rishi Nathany in Mumbai
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/may/07perfin.htm
Being a single parent is exactly not a cakewalk. While, there is that positive feeling that you are leading your life on your own terms, there is that extra burden of worrying about your future, your children's financial future and proper upbringing.

And, of course, the onus is now on you alone to be their provider. Here is a primer how to get started with this new way of life.




Anger on the streets over Sarkozy win
Just hours after the French presidential election result was announced clashes broke out between police and anti-Sarkozy demonstrators. Violence was reported in the capital and in other major centres. One of the main hotspots in Paris was Place de la Bastille.

In total, police arrested about 270 people throughout the country. A couple of police officers are reported to have been injured. It is estimated about 10,000 people took part in demonstrations, which included supporters of the extreme left. At least 370 vehicles were reportedly set on fire during the night.



French socialists in disarray after election defeat
http://euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=420846&lng=1
In the wake of their defeat, the French socialist leaders have wasted no time in staking their claims in the battle for control of a party that is now in disarray.

François Hollande insisted that as general secretary it was he who embodied the legitimacy of the party, saying that defeated candidate Ségolene Royal would campaign in parliamentary elections alongside other party members. His line was in headlong confrontation with that of his partner and rival Royal.

In her speech to loyal supporters last night, she laid out a clear claim to take the leadership of the movement for herself. "What we began together we will continue together," she said. "You can count on me to carry on with the renewal of the left and the search for new input from beyond our present boundaries. That's the condition for future victories."

But while Royal said she wanted to take responsibility for the future direction of the party, it remains to be seen whether the party wants her. She fought a very solitary campaign, frequently announcing policy without consulting senior party members, and in doing so irked her rivals. And her lack of mastery on policy detail left many wondering whether she was the right person to take the party forward.







Duel over the sun
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070507/asp/knowhow/story_7741099.asp
A Bangalore physicist forecasts that the next solar cycle will be one of the mildest in decades, while others in the community, including his own former student, disagree. G.S. Mudur reports

(Above) Composite image of multiple solar flares on the sun, (below) Dr Choudhuri with his students Piyali Chatterjee (left) and Jie Jiang

In about five years, the sun will turn hyperactive — as it usually does every 11 years, and physicist Arnab Rai Choudhuri is trying to predict the level of its ferocity. On his computer at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, Choudhuri has simulated the outer layers of the sun — the flow of blazing hot matter, and the twists and turns of the solar magnetic field — to produce the first forecast from India about the next solar cycle.

Working with doctoral students Piyali Chatterjee of IISc and Jie Jiang of the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing, China, Choudhuri has predicted that solar cycle 24, expected to peak in mid-2012, will be one of the mildest in decades — 35 per cent weaker than the previous cycle 23 now in its tail end.

Every 11 years, the sun enters the active phase of its cycle marked by an increased number of sun spots and gigantic explosions on the surface; these are called solar flares and they eject enormous blobs of hot solar material into interplanetary space. These solar storms bombard earth with energetic photons and charged particles that can jolt the planet’s ionosphere and geomagnetic field and threaten satellites, telecommunications and even power grids.

The IISc forecast for solar cycle 24 is based on a model of the solar dynamo — Surya — recently developed by Choudhuri’s team to simulate the solar magnetic field whose twists and turns give rise to sun spots, the dark, relatively cooler regions on the surface of the sun. Solar cycle intensity is measured in terms of the maximum number of sun spots. The more the sun spots, the greater is the chance of solar flares.

“Computer simulations of the outer layers of the sun are now sophisticated enough for attempts to predict the activity of future solar cycles,” said Choudhuri, a professor of physics. “Models today allow us to switch from forecasts based purely on empirical observations of past solar activity to forecasts based on the actual dynamo processes in the solar interior,” Choudhuri told KnowHow.







1857 celebrations start, youth exhorted to make India a superpower

Meerut, May 6: The year-long celebrations to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence in 1857 were launched here with a National Youth Rally here where speakers called on them on to emulate the principles of the freedom fighters.

Adressing the rally, which has attended by 15,000 to 20,000 youth from all the country, Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeshwar called on them to emulate the heroism of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Rani Lakshmibai, Begum Hazrat Mahal and other stalwarts of the the First War of Independence, to make the nation into a global superpower.

''Unity is the key,'' he stressed.

Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar, who flagged off the rally at the historic Victoria Park, exhorted the youth to heed ''three principles.'' ''We are one nation and one people; our unity is based on diversity; and secularism, is most important,'' he noted, underlining how various rulers and people, mostly Hindu, had accepted the leadership of the Mughal Emperor in the fight to free the country from the colonial power.

Noting it took almost a century from the revolt to ensure freedom of India, Mr Aiyar said the process of making the country a superpower would also take some time.

At the occasion, the Governor greeted 31 freedom fighters and presented each a shawl and a memento.

A book on 1857 was also released by Mr Rajeshwar.

Mr Aiyar also announced the renaming of the Victoria Park -- the venue from which the sepoys had begun their march to Delhi -- as the ''Jang-e-Azaadi' Maidan.

A cultural programme was also organised at the occasion, where famous Urdu poet Javed Akhtar recited five poetic odes he had especially composed for the occasion.