A “proud Hindu”, Zinnat?
I do not think that China stole Buddhism from India. It would be unfair to say so.
Buddhism spreads through the efforts of Asoka the Great, who devoted his life and means for this very purpose. Thus, it would be more logical to say that India exported or gifted Buddhism to China, instead of blaming China for stealing it.
[b]At the time when Budddhism was inrtoduced to China, Taoism had been evolved from Confucianism and Chinese people saw Buddhism as foreign Taoism. Thus, seeing value in it, Taoism did not tried to negate Buddhism but embraced it and tried to adopted its similar and good practices and perceptions.
Confucianism and Taoism were at the stage of quest when Buddhism entered there. Budddhism was the answer to those quests and provided those very details that those two indigenous philosophies were seeking since long.
These three philosophies interacted with each other and came out as Zeism. Contrary to general perception, the birth of Zenism is China, not Japan. Zenism spent its infant stages in China before going to Japan and becoming mature and as independant philosophy[/b].
That champaign of both countries was about making both counties as manufacturing hub for rest of the world, not only for consumer durables but all types of products. China is already more or less at that stage as it started making efforts in this direction 30 years ago.
In the 70’s, Indian and Chinese economies were at the same level but China started treating economics differently from politics and made a road map how it can use its strengths for his favor. On the other hand, Indian political brass tried to make econmany an instrument of politics for vested interests.
This is the only reason why Indian economy lagged behind. Modi is trying to correct that mistake by freeing economy from the unwarrented grip of politics.
with love,
sanjay
Arminius,
I am not sure what you mean by that.
with love,
sanjay
Modi gave his speech in the UN in Hindi, though instant translation of only six languages into English is available in the UN, and Hindi is not included in those.
He is the second PM of India to do so. The first PM to use Hindi in US was also from his party. Though, at that time, the translated speech in English was distributed later to the members. To avoid this, Modi carried his own translator right through from India to make sure that his speech will be translated live.
Contrary to the thumb rule, he does not find himself comfortable with written speeches. That restricts his flow. He prefers ex-tempore method as it brings out his extraordinary oratory skills. His tone follows the subject and goes up and down with the requirement. He likes to see the audience in their eyes rather than reading written pages with down head.
with love,
sanjay
He spoke for about 35 min in the UN assembly, though speakers are expected to finish their speeches with 20 min, and some end up even less than that, as short as 10 min.
Besides regular ones, Modi raised some different issues, which are not generally found place in the discussions of UN.
First of all, he questioned the member countries and UN itself. He asked what very purpose of UN is and whether it succeeded in achieving its goal in the last 70 years or not? Secondly, he asked whether UN is truly world forum by intention?
He indirectly questioned the vetoing power of five nations and said that the time has come when the leadership of UN must be decentralized, if it wants to remain relevant and effective. The world order has been changed a lot since its founding thus the structure of UN must be changed with the time too.
In other words, he said that UN cannot remain proxy anymore for US and handful of its allies, though he did not said that directly. I suspect that this subtle message might not go well the establishment of US.
He said that if UN were truly world forum and had been able to address the issues of all nations successfully, there would be no need for further sub-forums like G-5, G-8, G-20 and so on. These forums outside the perimeter of UN are the indication that something is lacking in UN.
with love,
sanjay
I had a (maybe funny) mental connection: A new overman in the making as the topic of this thread, your statement that you are a „proud Hindu“, and the picture of this Indian man who looks like a happy and somehow typical Indian, so that he could also be a „proud Hindu“. Don’t take it too seriously, Zinnat.
sorry
First of all, the title of this thread, an overman in the making, has nothing to do with me or Hinduism. It is about a particular person, who would eventually turn out as an overman, at least in my opinion. I am just following his journey, though, time will tell that my guess was right or wrong. So far, he has not committed any major mistake and gradually climbing the ladder. And, sooner or later, other countries would realize that too.
His this US visit is the first move in that direction.
I do not know who that person is in the picture, but i have seen him somewhere in the TV. I can tell you from his face that he must be from Indian subcontinent, though not necessarily an Indian. He may be a Pakistani or Bangladeshi as well.
He is certainly looking happy and may be a proud Hindu as well. I do not see any issue that and still not sure what was your purpose behind posting that.
I do not take things personally that easily and neither get disturbed by those. I know the difference between humor and demeaning. You need not to worry about that.
with love,
sanjay
The second issue that he took in his speech at UN, is about the diversity existed within the member countries. He said that every country is unique and should be treated differently. He said that every country has its own philosophy and culture and that should be maintained.
Like me, those have heard him before back home, are well aware that what his intention is. He welcomes western technology but not in the favor of following western culture blindly, that comes embedded with technology.
Buy one, get one free.
with love,
sanjay
His third point was terrorism. He said that the very reason of the present state of terrorism is that it was not given such attention that was required when it was in its infant stages. He recalled that, when he used to talk about terrorism to foreign leaders 20-25 years back, they used to refute him by saying that it is merely a law and order problem, nothing more than that. The same leaders and countries now consider terrorism as the biggest problem.
He further said that countries made terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy and started classifying terrorism as good terrorism and bad terrorism, in order to find excuses for vested interests. That was a serious mistake and the whole of the world is not paying the prize of that.
The indication was again Pakistan and US too.
with love,
sanjay
The fourth issue that he took was such that it could not ever come in anybody’s mind by any stretch of imagination.
Taking the issue of global nature conservation, he said that the Hindu philosophy looked into this issue centuries ago and provided a solution through the concept of Yoga.
He said that yoga is not merely twisting body in different ways but a much bigger theory of co-existence and harmony. Yoga is applicable in the every vertical of life. The essence of yoga is to join with your surroundings, try to live peacefully with it, instead of either exploit or dominate it.
He retreated that keeping this concept in the mind, the sages of India asked people to respect animals, rivers and mountains. Earth, cow and rivers were given the status of a mother and mountains as of a father. Trees were considered sacred and their cutting green trees were prohibited. He said that to solve the environment issues, we have to live in harmony with the nature.
He was appearing more a preacher or philosopher than a politician while giving speech. I am not sure how other world leaders will look at it. But, it would be certainly a new thing to them, especially for developed countries, that a leader from a third world country, is trying to preach them.
with love,
sanjay
He met the head of states of all neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but ignored Pakistani PM. That was certainly a fitting reply after raising Kashmir issue at UN.
with love,
sanjay
He is well aware of the fact that unlike China and Japan, US government will not invest directly in India. It has to come through US companies. Besides this, US corporations influence its foreign policy a lot too. That is the only reason why US has maintained normal relations with China so far, avoiding many negatives.
Thus, he met with CEO’s of all major US companies. After the Madison Square Garden event, he met with the CEO’s of 11 major US companies at breakfast. Those present at the meeting were MasterCard CEO, president and CEO of Cargill, CEO of Caterpillar, CEO of AES, Merck’s CEO, co-founder of Carlyle Group, Hospira’s CEO, Google’s CEO, CEO of PepsiCo, Citigroup’ CEO and CEO of Warburg Pincus.
Besides this, he also had one-to-one meeting with CEO’s of six biggest US corporations. This list includes CEO’s of Boeing, KKR, Black Rock, IBM, Goldman Sachs and General Electric.
with love,
sanjay
Modi is aware of the practices of US politicians how they use public gathering for other events to interact people. This does not happen in India. As a thumb rule, Indian politicians kept themselves away from such events.
Following American practice, Modi joined an unusual platform of a rock concert at Central park in NY. He was introduced to the gathering by famous Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine). Jackman introduced him as a person who started his life as a tea vendor.
Modi made a little speech of about 7 min there in English. It was apparent that he was not comfortable at all in speaking English. I think he should avoid this, unless he becomes fluent enough with the language. This gives a wrong impression. This is the only mistake that he committer so far during his long trip of US.
Nevertheless, the gathering seemed not to be too concerned about this and applauded many times during his speech.
with love,
sanjay
Besides meeting with may politicians, businessmen and officials, Modi met with the delegations of different communities, those present the different demographies of India, within the Indo-American community.
He was trying to understand what is their expectation from India, before his public address At Madison Square Garden.
with love,
sanjay
The most awaited and hyped event during his whole tour of US was his address to Indian-Americans at Madison Square Garden.
This was an entirely new thing not for India but for the world. No foreign head of any state had ever done so while visiting US.
MSG has the capacity of 18,500 and news channels were saying that even US politicians find it difficult to fill it. But, there was not a single seat vacant when Modi addressed enthusiastic audience.
The environment was electrifying and audience greeted Modi with a huge roar, when he appeared at the dais.
with love,
sanjay
sorry.
The most important thing to notice at MSG was the number of US congressmen and governors present there. There were around 40 US congressmen and senators besides former and present Meyers and one governor too. I do not think that is a small number and that happened before in the case of any foreign head of the state.
All of them appeared at the stage before Modi reached there. There were introduced to the audience one by one. Then, Modi reached the stage and national anthems of both countries were sung, before Modi started his speech.
I were very seriously looking at those US politicians and wondering if they actually knew what indication their presence there were giving? Or, what message Modi was trying to give by showcasing them?
With love,
sanjay