Can't always blame Al-Jazeera

[Lurker]

The language spoken by most people in the world today is Mandarin. While most of you may know it is the language of Chinese do you know that Mandarin has been derived from Sanskrit? From Mantra or Mantri..the language that Chinese travellers on their visit to India, saw spoken by the ministers? The greatest of such travellers was perhaps Huein Tsang and his contribution to both Chinese and Indian culture remains stellar. So when India and Chinese Government decided to open a Hall in one of the proudest part of Indian Heritage, Nalanda University, you can imagine the Indian media to stay away from it. After all Indian media excels in writing about Lalloo and his family and that should cover pretty much Bihar is it not? Saw this piece on Al-Jazeera. Was not sure to be happy that it appeared there or sad that couldnt see it on Indian Express, Hindu, TOI etc..

NEW DELHI, 13 February 2007 ? Giving a new thrust to history and culture of Sino-Indian relations, the two countries yesterday opened a hall built in memory of the 7th century Chinese traveler Xuan Zang (Huen Tsang) in Bihar?s Nalanda district. Planned initially in 1957, construction was halted midway as India and China fought a brief war in 1962, which soured their ties for the next three decades. Relics of the ancient traveler, sent by China in 1957, were brought out for display yesterday, but only for the day. They were interred in a special casket at a memorial hall. As 80 monks chanted Buddhist prayers near Xuan?s bronze statue, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni cut a ribbon to open the memorial hall. The hall is about a kilometer from the site of partly excavated Nalanda University, which was established in the 5th century. ?Xuan Zang is considered a symbol and an instrument of cultural exchange between the two great civilizations of India and China,? an Indian government statement said. Describing the traveler?s relics as a symbol of Sino-Indian cordial relations, Li said that it was a matter of great pride for China that they were being displayed. In his address, Li also expressed China?s willingness to invest in the development of sites of Buddhist interest in Bihar. Li, who arrived here Sunday, attended the inauguration along with Ven Xue Cheng, vice president and secretary general of the Buddhist Association of China, Ye Xiaowen, administrator of the state administration for religious affairs, and a large contingent of Chinese monks. India was represented by Bihar Gov. R.S. Gavai, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tourism Minister Soni and Indian Center for Cultural Relations Chairman Karan Singh. Indian and Chinese engineers, artisans and craftsmen had worked together for 45 days to give a unique look to the memorial hall, officials said. Xuan Zang, known for his 17-year trip to India, was a student of the ancient Nalanda University for five years and taught here for a year. During his trip, Xuan studied with many Buddhist masters, particularly at Nalanda and also helped in spreading teachings of Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. India and China plan to convert Nalanda, the ancient seat of learning, into an international university. Li and his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee, will hold discussions in New Delhi today. The two ministers are expected to announce the establishment of a hotline between them, increase in air links and easing of visa requirements. China is confident that Li?s visit will contribute to narrowing of Sino-India differences on the boundary issue. On this, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing: ?In line with consensus between two leaders, special representatives on boundary issues of the two sides will intensify their work to seek a fair, rational framework acceptable to both in accordance with the political guiding principle so as to solve the issue in the end.? Tomorrow, Li will participate in an India-China-Russia trilateral foreign ministers? meeting. Referring to this, Jiang said: ?The cooperation among the three is constructive and transparent, without targeting any third party.? Economic cooperation and exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern are high on the agenda of this meet, Indian sources said. While in Delhi, Li will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and meet several other Indian leaders.

http://www.aljazeera.com/muslims.net/content_four.asp

[kumble_rocks]

Re: Can't always blame Al-Jazeera Good of them to carry this article. But , I personally find al jazeera distasteful just like fox news.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Can't always blame Al-Jazeera Japan was ready to make this kind of investment 10 years back too bad we had a clown as leader during those years.. Chalo der aaye durust aaye

[Lurker]

Re: Can't always blame Al-Jazeera

Japan was ready to make this kind of investment 10 years back too bad we had a clown as leader during those years..

Indeed they were but there was a difference. They were more interested in Buddhist religious centers like Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda etc. This was obviously a good idea and should certainly have been followed. How unfortunate it sounds that India, and specially Bihar, is the home to some of the most religious site for Buddhist from around the world and absolutely nothing is done about it. China's case is a little different. Indian-Chinese connection go back a long time in history. However it has been affected more by what has happened in past 50 years and less by what happened a millenium or so back for many centuries. What worries me is the general apathy of Indians(media included) who are absolutely ignorant about rich cultural history of India. Specially those in Bihar. Call me cynical but how in the freaking world is the news of Lalloo Yadav's in-laws getting caught without ticket bigger news than this?? xxx

[Guest dada_rocks]

Re: Can't always blame Al-Jazeera Once Buddhist centre had opened rest of the discipline would have followed. You know what i think it's law of average at work, Bihar has enjoyed the unprecedented sheet of power in indian subcontinental history. Just imagine India/Pakistan/Bangaldesh/Part of Burma/Afghanistan all these places used to be governed from Pataliputra/Patna during Mauryan and Nanda dynasty. I am not sure any other Indian ruler can boast of such a far and wide empire. If I am not mistaken even Samudragupta's empire was not that vast. It used to have Stanford/MIT of olden times Nalanda and Vikramsheela university. Even till 60's Bihar had big name in terms of edcuation system all over India. Patana science college used to be called Cambridge of the east. Even in terms of prosperity well peopple from Punjab used to migrate to Bihar in search of job. Yes u heard me right. So it was not that bad after all. So many things went wrong and worst of them all was freight equalization legislation and this virtually turned Bihar into colony of other states where Bihar turned into exporter of raw materials and importer of finsihed goods. Agriculture industry of north Bihar met its waterloo in form of myriad floods in every calnder year thanks to Kosi/Adhwara group of rivers orginating from Nepal. See in south bihar particularly in Madheupra Katihar region there is detailed canal system and that region in foodgrians produce per capita rivals best in the country, had the same infrastructure been laid in north Bihar things would have been different. People are very laborious there and even refreshingly unselfish to their own detriment. Will give u an anecdote: I am not a landlord by any stretch of imagination but whatever land I have I had given it to one poor guy on bataidaari syste. After completion of B tech I was loitring in my village before reporting on my job and took little interest in paddy crop sowing which was on during that period. What i witnessed was apalling to say the least. Four round of floods came within span of 2 months and the poor guy had to sow the crop four times. He had to buy the sapling for the last two turns of sowing. I asked him how much he expects to make out of this crop. His answer was that he will incur some loss at the end. So the obvious question I raised was why does he even bother going through this process he can very well buy the foodgrains. His rejoinder, well just silenced me: Babu agar sare log aise hi sonchenge to ham paisa to nahin na kha sakate [ If everybody starts thinking like this then what are we going to eat, money can't fill the stomach after all]. I had never felt more humbled in my entire life. How many of us socalled educated folks think in these terms.