The Kautilya Society blog

Despite the presence in Banaras of thousands of temples, the centre of religious practice in this city is a vast hidden altar. Most people can’t see it even while moving over it. There is a threshold to cross over in order to perceive it, the threshold of devotion. The altar is revealed to the pilgrim performing purification’s rituals.

It is the altar of the great Sun Temple, that rises on the banks of Ganga-ji, (the name devotees use to refer to their mother, the river Ganges). It is a temple in the form, of an amphitheater, where the ghats form the platforms, the water the altar and the sun is God. Here Ganga-ji, which normally flows eastward, takes a sudden turn towards the North. Banaras is situated on its western banks where it flows northwards. That is why the sun rises perpendicularly to the river forming a burning line that cuts across the river at dawn.

Raising from the purifying dip in the river, the devotee opens joint hands and pours the Ganga water into the burning stream of light. In the offering of water to the Sun, a unity is created between the Sun and Earth, between the fire and the water, between the source and receiver of the offering, between the soul of man and the soul of nature.

Though a bit forgotten in today’s Hindu pantheon, the Sun God was at the core of the original Vedic experience. That was the first religion of the Aryans who had declared Banaras to be the holiest amongst their cities, because of its unique combination of primary elements. Here, they worshipped Aditya, Surya the Sun, Usha- the Dawn, and Indra- the Rain with elaborate rituals.

Hinduism has changed in the past five thousand years. It is Shiva and Vishnu, with their female counterparts and their incarnations who are praised in the temples and addressed in the religious songs. Vedic Gods receive little attention in daily worships. But even now the holiest prayer of Hinduism has remained the Gayatri Mantra, the Vedic hymns to the Sum God. It is this mantra that the Hindu devotee recites as he /she rises out of the cold water, eyes closed, facing the warm, rising Sun. A main stream in the changing currents of Hinduism, the continuous performance of the Gayatri Mantra has given unity to a religion which manifests itself in hundreds if different Shiva, Vaishnava and Shakta sects.

Though over the centuries, temples and palace have been built long the river, such constructions have always maintained a curtain of respect for this ancient sacrifice performed on the altar of the Sun Temple. The kings built their palaces, but bowed before austerity. Wealthy merchants, as well, lived in palaces, but they came to Banaras to adopt a discipline. The flaunting of one’s status was expressed through the promotion of learning the building of schools, the erecting of temples. One came to Banaras to make contact with the beyond, not to exhibit wealth.

The adhesion to this philosophy of life laid the foundation for the architectural and social unity of the Sun Temple which, astonishingly enough, continues to exist. But even if palaces crumbled to rubble, the place would simply return to what it was before, nature’s temple where the sanctifying elements of water, sun and prayers are all that are needed.

For this reason, the Mogul armies failed to destroy the true altar of the temple though they destroyed its walls several times. They may have succeeded only if they had managed to change the course of the river, obliterate the sun rise, of cut the faith out of the hearts of devotees.

In many humanitarian situations, attention to gender equality can be lost in the rush to save lives. Recognising and addressing women’s rights in humanitarian work is key in contributing to the primary humanitarian aim of saving and protecting lives. It is vital to understand and be aware of how emergencies affect women and girls differently from men and boys. In wartime, men are often primary casualties, while women are targeted and subjected to physical and sexual violence that can lead to death, disease and social exclusion. Women in situations of armed conflict, civil unrest, or natural disasters often lose their capacity to sustain their family’s livelihood. Women often still carry the responsibility of meeting their family’s day-to-day survival needs, but with greatly limited access to resources. Women may also face increased vulnerability to violence by their own family members or strangers.

It is important to ensure gender equality in humanitarian work since:

o emergency interventions and life-saving strategies have a greater impact when there is understanding of men’s and women’s different needs, interests, vulnerabilities, capacities and coping strategies;

o aid interventions must support and not diminish the role of women, impact on her workloads, access to and control of resources, decision-making power, and opportunities for skills development;

o aid interventions must enhance equal rights and opportunities for both men and women;

o effective humanitarian aid must ensure increased protection from violence, coercion and deprivation, particularly for women and girls, but also for specific risks faced by men and boys;

o Humanitarian work can also provide a useful entry point to promoting gender equality, as it can enable new roles and responsibilities to be given to women and men, and also help to promote lasting changes in gender relations.

Minimum standards include:

o Active involvement of women in the design and targeting of humanitarian programme activities (type and amount of food to be distributed, distribution of food rations directly to female household members, etc.);

o Including issues of dignity, for women and girls in particular, in all humanitarian assessments (clothing needs, menstrual protection, bathing facilities, etc.)

For the first time, IANSA, Oxfam, and Safeworld have estimated the economic cost of armed conflict to Africa’s development. Around $300bn since 1990 has been lost by Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.

This sum is equivalent to international aid from major donors in the same period. If this money was not lost due to armed conflict, it could solve the problems of HIV and AIDS in Africa, or it could address Africa’s needs in education, clean water and sanitation, and prevent tuberculosis and malaria.

Research estimates that Africa loses around $18bn per year due to wars, civil wars, and insurgencies. On average, armed conflict shrinks an African nation’s economy by 15 per cent, and this is probably a conservative estimate. The real costs of armed violence to Africans could be much, much higher.

See the full paper can be found by following this link -africa missing billions

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