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DISTANCE EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT Both education and development go together. Education is a prerequisite for emancipation of a man from ignorance and his empowerment for achievement in life. It is a casual development because of his need for existence - an existence aspiring for self- aggrandisement in this material world which is possible only when he strives to become dynamic in his all walks of life. But his priority has to be determined by education. Unless educated to the brim of his need, he cannot expect more than what he is. In this regard the idea of perspective planning envisages a dynamic relation between education and economic development of modern man.

The value and necessity of education from the point of view of development have varied according to the historical needs of any society at different stages of its evolution. The part played by education in Japan’s rapid emergence after the Meiji Restoration into a modern industrial nation has been the object of much attention. Dore has noted how “education seems to have become a major means of social selection at an earlier stage of industrialization in Japan than in Western countries” not only in government but also in business, presumably because Japan was a late developer catching up by learning. It is important to note that in the case of Japan the wide base of literacy maximized the talent available to the development process and the success of the development process was also ensured by the situation in which almost all traditional institutions and values were mobilized in favour of the development process. Education is regarded as a value in itself since it develops the personality and the relationship of individuals. World Development Report (1998-99) correctly states, “For individual and for countries, education is the key to creating, adopting and spreading knowledge. There is enough evidence to support a high correlation between educational levels and rates of social and economic development. Besides alleviating poverty, prompting social well-being and reducing income disparity, education is a basic ‘investment’ necessary to improve the overall quality of life and equitable nation building. The development of human capital, which is the end product of the educational process, is regarded today as a main engine for progress and modernization.”

In the age of liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation, the fast pace of innovation, high rate of obsolescence and global ‘High-Tech Revolution’ has upheld the new key to success-‘knowledge’. Today knowledge and information has become the fundamental source of wealth. The new theories of economic growth revealed that while physical capital and natural wealth respectively accounted for 16 and 20 percent of the total growth of the country, the human capital is estimated to account for remaining 64 percent of the wealth. The human capital model shows that educated people use capital more efficiently and effectively resulting in enhancement of productivity, when innovation and idea have become the substance of production and development and paradigm has shifted from primary economy to tertiary. Knowledge based education is globally valued as the backbone of the progressive enterprises. The emerging knowledge industry will need knowledge workers and good knowledge workers are the product of qualitative higher education. Any nation that marginalizes higher education will never play any significant role in the development of economy or the community of nations. In the fast changing world, where new challenges, technologies, competition and opportunities are emerging constantly, our success depends on how well we exploit our most valuable resources, our knowledge, skills and creativity. These are the key to design high value goods and services and advanced business practices. Unfortunately, ignoring the ‘economism’ factor of development, planning and thinking, in last five decades, India have misfired in certain crucial issues and have contributed to the perpetuation of the colonial situation of underdevelopment. Though our earlier national leaders and planners were fully aware with the fact that economic development depends greatly on the levels of human resource development with technology being the key to economic transformation from traditional subsistence economic to industrial economies but due to managerial failure, lack of story will-power, ‘populist’ socialism and conflicts and inner-contradictions in socio-political system, education a problem-solving instrument, has become a problem-generating mechanism; the system which should have been functional to national development has actually become dysfunctional.

To make the educational system respond effectively and face the emerging challenges of the 21st century there should be a focus on transforming the higher education system into a dynamic, flexible and diversified system having better linkage with social demands. In a country like India, with a lot of diversity different standard of education in terms of quality and duration with a vast population of learners, majority of learners with limited resources, distance learning can help the nation in creating learning community, to meet the challenges of globalization. This system has the capacity and capability to cope up with the sufferings of traditional education system, which can be identified as: i.	Unequal access to education. ii. Inequalities in educational achievement between males and females, between urban and rural 	  area and between different social groups. iii. Limited access to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. iv. Increasing cost of education becoming unaffordable to large section of people. v.	High rates of drop-outs at different levels of learning. vi. High and rising expenditure on providing and running education system.

Distance education means different things to different people. Some in their over enthusiasm tend to overemphasize the potential of the concept while some others, because of their inherent skeptism about every new strategy for education refuse to accept the need for distance education in whatever form. The only way to strike a balance between these extreme position, as Joseph and Muthiruland Raja says, is to see clearly what distance education can and can’t do in a given situation. A closer look in the Indian sub-continent reveals that constitutional obligation of ‘education for all’ and heightened aspiration of people have further increased gap between demand and supply of education. By the year 2020 our population of 1.10 billion would be increased by another 350 million of which 200 million will be joining the workforce. This new generation will grow up in an environment of rising aspiration, fuelled by the communication revolution. In view of the shortage of educational resources and serious handicaps of means, distance education is a strategy to extend access to education for the large population of our country and, therefore, the development of this important infrastructure must be intensified.

India’s current participation rate of about 6 percent of the concerned age-group in higher education is no match for the 50 percent and above participation rate in the U.K. and other OECD countries. In this crucial situation, when higher education is facing the dual challenge of internal pressure for expansion with quality and external pressure of being globally competitive, distance education (DE) is the only ‘mantra’, as former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi had stated, to accommodate vast number of learners in our existing universities-- both conventional and open.

Some educationist have an idea that the DE is an alternative to the conventional system of education, which is not the truth. Though it is a new educational movement and has emerged as the substitute of traditional education system but it can’t be separated from our existing educational network. In isolation distance learning programmes are not the solution to the problem. Nonetheless, if used effectively and supported by the available range of technology and infra-structural assets of conventional educational units, they can make a significant contribution in the educational profile of India in future. To make the education system respond effectively and face the emerging challenges of the 21st century, transformation (not transportation) of the education system into a dynamic, flexible and diversified system having better linkage with social and global demand is the need of hour.

MODERN DISTANCE EDUCATION (MDE)
The modern world is swept by change and every change re-defines old concepts. Today, when we talk about distance education, it refers to ‘Modern Distance Education’, which is a new type of flexible, open and limit-free education that has come into being with the development of modern information technology. It is implemented on the basis of existing distance education for making full use of modern information technology, which can effectively take full advantage of educational resources.

As recently as a decade ago, many institutions were only marginally involved in distance learning as a ‘learning resources’. Indeed it is only in the past few years that a plethora of Modern Distance Learning Programme and consortia are being introduced. To the general public, the term distance learning was once an unknown, reserved for academia, now it is the subject of advertisement that flood the mainstream public. MDE is one-step forward, one-stop solution to the adults who wish to pursue life-long education, not only to enhance their specific skills in order to meet the dynamic environmental challenges but also to improve their quality of life. Peters has described it as an industrialised form of teaching and learning. He says that distance education is a method of imparting knowledge, skills and attitude, which is rationalised by the application of division of labour and organisational principles as well as the extensive use of technical media, especially for the purpose of reproducing high quality teaching material, which make it possible to instruct great number of students at the same time, wherever they live. Actually, the MDE symbolises the transformation of education from the stage of craft to technology, enduring it with high flexibility and vastly increased productivity by transforming knowledge to the people, in place of transporting people to the place of knowledge.

Today, MDE is an effective instrument of democratising education and an indispensable agent to bring about the changes between what we are and what we want to be. If we analyse the ratio of growth and trend of enrolment in distance education it will become clear that the share of enrolment in distance education programmes rose to 11 percent in 2000 from only 2.35 percent in 1975-76. It is also surprising that all the centres of distance education and correspondence courses together enrolled more students than the combined enrolment of the open universities of India. Open universities account for 39 percent and all the centres of distance education 61 percent in 2000.

Obviously, the overall development of MDE over the last 10 years are evolutionary as well as revolutionary. It has become evolutionary with the support of recent technological development and it is a revolution because it has broken open the strait jacket of the triangle of access, cost and quality that has always constrained attempts to educated people. MDE is no longer looked upon as a vehicle for repairing some shortcomings of the education system at a particular stage of development. It is now conceived as a regular and necessary element of the education system and not only for some particular and rather marginal target groups, but for quite central functions within the education system, serving considerable parts of the adult population. Adoption of the new mode of distance learning in India is applauded for its following role:

	Balance inequalities between age groups. 	Offer ‘second chance’ updating. 	Deal with information and education Campaign for large audiences. 	Speedy and efficient training of key target groups. 	Education for otherwise neglected target groups. 	Extend geographical access to education. 	Expand the capacity for education in new areas. 	Offer the combination of education with work and family life. 	Develop multiple competencies. 	Offer transnational programme.

CONCEPTUALISING DISTANCE EDUCATION IN UNDER-DEVELOPED REGIONS

Some critics may raise doubt that while many institutions of distance education in India rallied heavily on the use of print medium, how they can be interpreted as the providers of MDE (because they have not adopted the electronic mediated system). Before deciding the nature and stage of distance learning system, it is necessary to know where the system is working, where the consumers live, what is their socio-economic viability, level of sophistification, their occupations and annual income including family background and stature of the state. We can’t draw a straight line on the socio-political and economic condition of the people of Kerala and Bihar; Assam and Andhra Pradesh; Delhi and Chhatishgarh and Maharashtra and Meghalaya. Most of the participants in distance education in the backward states live in rural and semi-urban areas where there is no regular supply of electricity, for their very low income level and non-accessibility to teleconferencing, electronic mails and uninterrupted power supply on a regular basis print course materials supplemented by occasional face-to-face contact programmes are still viable and best way of distance learning.

A general survey in the north gangetic belt of North-Bihar revealed that study materials and counselling programmes have a great impact on career development of distance learners whereas assignment responses and audio/video lessons facilitate career development to a certain extent. MDE system has attracted a sizeable proportion of learners who are academically strong and talented, but would like to pursue some vocational job while continuing their higher education simultaneously or anytime according to their convenience. Today, when many developing countries are experiencing economic recession and many organisations are not in a position to release their staff members on full time study leave with salary, a good number of employees face the job risk if they have to embark upon personal professional development with regard to technical studies. For them the only option is to engage in any of the following strategies for professional development, while still retaining their jobs:

	In Service training 	Pre-service training 	On the Job training 	Continuing education 	Workers education

CONCLUSION

If we want to achieve the goal of ‘need-based, result oriented qualitative education for all’ by 2020, we should have to develop a wide network of flexible learning centres as nodal agency of innovation developing relevant courses to the requirements of the region, research and development in the emerging remote areas, the indigenous knowledge system as expertise to meet the challenges of globalisation of education, on the pattern of American community colleges, which are a go-between school and university, and offer occupational courses. To create a favourable condition for the development of ‘Modern Distance learning system’ it is for the Ministry of Human Resource Development to formulate and implement the ‘plan for developing modern distance education’; for the Department of Telecommunication and companies to give preferential treatment to the operation of modern distance education network by reducing the rates of fees for both donated and purchased items; for the Doordarshan to provide high-speed as well as flexible connection of EDUSAT to all the nodal agencies of MDE on subsidized basis; for conventional universities to develop and deliver qualitative educational programmes and for the DEC to re-define its role in promotion and advancement of Modern distance learning as a means of contributing to the developmental goal of the Indians, foster an understanding of the theory and practice of distance learning and facilitate research and disseminate information on distance learning within own country.'''

REFERENCES

Dore, R.P. (1965) Education in Tokugawa, Japan. London. World Bank, ‘World Development Report, 1998-99’, Oxford University Press. Harbinson, Fredrick and Charles Myers (1968) Education Manpower and Economic Growth, Oxford. Rao, M S A., Education, Social Stratification and mobility in M.S. Gore et. al. (eds.) Papers in the Sociology of Education. NCERT. New Delhi. Singh, Amrik ‘Reaching the unreached through Open and Distance Learning’ Inaugural address. VII Annual Conference of Indian Distance Education Association. Kumar, Arun (ed) Challenges Facing Indian Universities (2004). JNUTA 2004, New Delhi. Takwale, Ram - Challenges and opportunities of Globalisation for Higher Education in India- Alternatives through e-Education. UGC Golden Jubilee Lecture Series- 2002-03. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AJIT KUMAR BHARDWAJ (talk • contribs) 06:33, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

TOURISM IN INDIA THROUGH TRAVELLERS PERSPECTIVE
(From 5th Century B.C To 7th Century AD)

Over the centuries India has attracted a wide variety of tourists—scholars and adventurers; philosophers and writers; enticed travelers and ‘nirvana’ seekers; enthused missionaries and enlightened sufies; photographers and artists. No country can evoke passionate feeling to the degree that India can. It’s landscapes, natural beauty, noises, smells, have excited foreigner’s imagination for centuries, filling with wonder some appalling others. The endless variety of India is striking; costume, speech, the physical appearance of the people, customs, standards of living, food, climate, geographical features, all offer the greatest possible differences and thus, when any foreign traveller, who looks at India with detachment and penetration would be struck by two mutually contradictory features – “diversity and unity” at the same time.

India, “the country of monsters” and India “the cradle of wisdom” are two frequently recurring themes that have fashioned the archetypal image of India since antiquity and that is to be found even today, though in different forms. India is in the western perception could be linked to a two headed creature incarnating at the same time - the civilized and the barbic; wisdom and gross ignorance; the beautiful and the monstrous. Actually, this classical image was established by travellers from outside -those remarkable people, who ventured to remote land in the garb of merchants, soldiers, ambassadors, conquerors, rulers, administrators, artists, writers, poets, seekers of philosophical or religious teaching or missionaries, many conveyed back impressions to their countrymen through living tales or their travel journals

How Indian culture influenced the foreign tourist in earliest period is a matter of extensive research and great pain. In this process, at the very outset, any scholar may face acute shortage of reliable records worth the name. India has virtually no historical records worth the name. Not one Indian source exists of comparable value. For historical description of ancient Indian scenes and people; system and society, class and caste, religion and rituals, even for the identification of ruins, we have to rely either upon Chinese pilgrims. In ancient Indian literature there is only vague popular tradition with very little documentation above the level of myth and legend. We cannot reconstruct anything like a complete list of kings, sometimes whole dynasties have been forgotten. What little left is so nebulous that virtually no dates can be determined for any Indian personality till the Muslim period. It is very difficult to say over how much territory a great king actually ruled. There are no court annals in existence, with a partial exception of Kashmir and Camba (Chamba). Similarly, for great names in Indian literature, the work survives but the author’s date and identification is rarely known. With Luck, it may be possible to determine roughly the century to which the writing belonged; often it can only be said that the writers existed. Sometimes even that is also doubtful; many a work known by a particular author’s name could not possible have been written by any one person.

It perhaps unjust to maintain that ancient India had no history in general and History of Tourism in particular. The Brahmins had a long list of holy places for pilgrimage all over the country and beyond its frontiers, as far away as Baku and Egypt. Many of them remain unidentifiable as no records of travel and accurate location was even given. Is it possible that without any close linkage, the Arabs, when they were intellectually the most progressive and active people in the world, took their treaties on medicine and a good deal of their mathematics from Indian sources? Indian religious philosophy was welcomed in Japan and China without the force of Indian arms ?, even though almost no Indian visited or traded with those lands. It is remarkable that Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Ceylon owe a great deal of their cultural history of Indian influence without Indian occupation

History is the presentation in chronological order of successive changes in the means and relation of production. It must be pieced together from passing references in text, both religious and secular, from a few drama and work of fiction purposing to describe historical events form the many references to rigging monarch and their ancestors, which have been found engraved on rocks, pillars and temple walls or incorporated as preambles to the title-deals of land grants. The early history of Indian resembles a Jigsaw puzzle with many missing pieces. Some parts of the picture are fairly clear; other may be reconstructed with the aid of a controlled imagination. The many gaps in the ancient history may be filled with the records and accounts of foreign travellers.

In one of the earliest known pieces of foreign writing on India—the 400 BC account by Ktesias, India emerges as a land of untold wealth, exotic landscape, unknown spices, rich brocades, brilliant jewels, inhabited by the weirdest fauna and the most curious looking people. Ktesias’s version reinforced a century later by the account of Greek envoy Megasthenes. Indika recreated India as a mythical land of marvels, the fabulous and the monstrous. The birth of India as a land of wisdom in western perception dates back to Alexander’s campaign. Scylaz of Caryanda, was the first Greek historian and geographer, who came India is the sixth century B.C. to explore the course of the Indus. Next, Nearchus, the Macedonian officer who accompanied Alexender in 326 B.C. recorded first-hand information, The accounts of Nearchus’s voyage from the historian of second century B.C. The book deals with the geography of Punjab, the wealth and population of the area besides other details of the journey to the delta of the Indus. Arrian observes that –“The Indians are in person slender and tall and of much lighter weight than other men. The animals used by the common sort of riding are camels and horses and asses, while the wealthy use elephants---. The conveyance which ranks next in honour is the chariot, the camel ranks third, while to be drawn by a single horse is considered no distinction at all”.

To trace the perception of foreign traveler about India, Indian society, kingship, role of state, cultural life, wealth and beauty, the record of Megasthenes is of a great importance. Megasthenes was the ambassador of selucus, who reside at the Mauryan court at Patliputra.(Patna) and wrote a detailed account of India, which became the standard text book on the subject for later classical writers. Unfortunately no manuscript of Megasthenes’s “Indika” has survived but many Greek and Latin Authors has made abundant use of it and from their work, it may be partially reconstructed. It is evident from a comparison of the fragments of Megasthenes with the Arthashastra that the Mauryan empire had developed a highly organized bureaucratic administration, which controlled the whole economic life of the state and that it had a very thorough secret service system, which was active among all classes from the highest minister to the submerged tenth of the town.

Megasthenes much admired the emperor Chandragupta for his energetic administration of justice, which he presided over personally in open ‘Darbar’. He dwelt in great luxury in an enormous palace at Patliputra, which though built wholly of wood, was a large and fine city, surrounded by wooden wall. It was controlled by an administrative board of thirty members, who regulated in detail the whole social and economic life of the city. Description of Megasthenes shows that fortification was an important branch of ancient military architecture in India.“At the meeting of river Ganges and other is situated Palibothra, a city eight stadia in length and fifteen in breadth. It is of the shape of a parallelogram and is girded with a wooden wall, pierced with loopholes for the discharge of arrows. It has ditch in front for deference and for receiving the sewage of the city”

An important example of this military architecture is the long wall of rough-hewn stone protecting the site of the ancient Rajgraha, the capital of Bimbisara of Magadh, which probably dates back to the Buddha’s days. Another example is Sisupalgraha in Orissa, where a small section of the city wall dating from pre–Gupta times were built. It was a workmen like brick wall, set on an earthwork and probably surrounded by a moat. The Ideal ‘durga’ constructed for the protection of Patliputra was of mighty wooden wall with 570 towers and 64 gates. Though Arthashastra creates some confusion when it advises against the use of wood for fortification, owning to its liability to fire and rod, but archaeology bears out Megasthenes for the remains (of same of the gigantic timer of the wall of Mauryan Patliputra have been esclavated near the modern Patna).

Megasthenes has noted that Indian society was divided into seven craft–exclusive classes–philosophers, peasants, herdsman, craftsman and traders, soldiers, government officials and councilors. In this seven occupational classes, two were connected with the Government: the last of the seven – “those deliberate on public affairs”, while the class of overseas are superintendent or ‘Adhyakas’ of Arthashastra, which enumerates many others–the superintendent of crown land, of forests, of forest produce, of state herbs, of wastelands, of the treasury and of mines, of chief goldsmith, of comptroller of state granaries, the superintendent of commerce, of tolls and customs, of state spinning and wiving workshops, of slaughter houses, of passport and of shipping. Military requirement were cared for by the superintendents of the armoury, of cavalry, of elephants, of chariots and of footmen, all of whom seen to have been rather civil then military officials.

Though the information about sevenfold division of society may be erroneous but Megasthenes has given sufficient evidence to show that in Mauryan times class divisions were hardening. He has also described that there were no slave in India. Some Historian says that Megasthenes was wrong and slavery was prevailing as the Socio–economic system. It is remarkable that during those days Indian slavery was much milder than the form in which it had been used in the history of western civilization and thus Megasthenes may not recognized the ‘dasa’ as a slave. Arthashastra also admits that servitude is not the nature of the Aryans.

The ancient Indian kingdom was divided into provinces and these into divisions and districts; all with very variable terminology. Patliputra, the capital city of Mauryan empire too had its own council. Megasthenes has described that the city was governed by a committee of thirty members, divided into six sub–committees. The most important element is the city administration was the governor. His chief responsibilities were revenue collection and the preservation law and order by means of police, secret agents and troops, which were stationed in the cities under a captain. Megasthenes informs us that the spies did much of their work with the help of prostitutes. He also confirms that prostitutes were protected and supervised by the state and state gave more and more encouragement to the teachers and trainers of prostitutes. Megasthenes was the great admired of Mauryan administration, especially of provincial autonomy. He says that some cities of Mauryan Empire availed considerable local autonomy and they issued their own coinage too. Council existed in small towns and large villages in various part of India were vigorous.

Megasthenes was highly impressed by the pomp and luxury of the Indian king. He mentions that the palace of Chandragupta Maurya though very large and luxurious, was built of covered and gilded wood and the earliest stone building those who have survived were evidently modeled on wooden originals. We must not assume, from the complete lack of material remains that Indian building in Mauryan period or even before was mean or primitive. The Mauryan monolithic columns prove that he craftsmen of those days had a thorough mastery of working on stone and if the great cities of Mauryan times were built of wood, we must attribute this chiefly to the comparative scarceness of stone in the gangetic plain and the abundance of timber.

All ancient Indian authorities on statecraft stress the importance of a full treasury for successful government. Megasthenes give an account haw a regular system of taxation working during his period in India. Bhaga or share was the basic tax–a tax on land, which was fixed proportion of the crop. The figure generally given in the Smriti literature is one sixth, but Megasthenes gives it as one quarter. The tax was usually paid in kind and the Jatakas refer to the royal officers measuring out grains on the threshing floor for conveyance to the king’s granary. Apart from the basic tax several other taxes also fell upon the cultivator – such as fixed annual cash payment and dues for the use of water from a tank or canal owned by the king. Tax were paid on cattle and other livestock and on all kind of agricultural and daily produce. Though the Arthashastra suggests that essential goods such as grain, oil, sugar, pots and cheap textiles should be at one twentieth of their value and other goods at rates varying from one fifteenth to one fifth, but one information, which recorded in Megasthenes’s account that the revenue department was collecting ten percent sales-tax during Mauryan period, is no where mentioned in any Indian source. It was only Megasthenes who had informed that during Maruyan rule peasants would till their fields peacefully even when a battle was raging nearly. Devastation of the crops to weaken the enemy was quite legitimate according to the other books but Megasthenes says that there was a strong feeling that the lives of non-combatants should be respected, although this rule was not always kept.

Apart from the economic and political system of India, Megasthenes has also focused the Indian social life. He observes that “The Indian all live frugally, especially when in camp. They dislike a great undisciplined multitude and consequently they observe good order. Theft is a very rare occurrence……………………..They never drink wine except at sacrifices. The bevarage is a liquor composed from rice instead of barley and their food is principally a rice – pottage. The simplicity of their law and their contracts is proved by the fact that they seldom go to law. Their houses and property, they generally leave unguarded. These things indicates that they possess good, sober sense.”

By the beginning of the Christian era, Jews and Christians had started landing on the Indian shores. St Thomas a reputed to have preached Christianity in India from AD 21 to AD 52. Around AD 68, a number of Jews apparently under the threat of Roman persecution seem to have reached the South and settled in Malabar. After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, Jewish merchants sailed towards the Indian ocean and settled along the Malabar Coast. Pliny (AD 27 to AD 79 ) has observed that the demand in Rome for pepper and ginger from India was such that they were brought by weight, like gold and silver. Large sums were spent by the Roman empire for the purchase of oriental products.

The first important Chinese traveller in India was the Buddhist priest Fah–Hein. He started his journey by land to India in AD 399 via the south of the Gobi desert and Yarkand. During those days travelles coming from china could take numerous routes. Starting from Burma, they could cross northern Burma and reach Assam. To do so three routes could be used. From upper Burma through the Patkoi range and its passes they would cross into Brahmaputra valley and Assam, from the chindwin valley they could reach Manipur and through the Irrawadi Valley they could reach the Arrakans ; from Tibet they could cross into Sikkim through passes such as the Chorten Nyima la, Kangra la and Gora la or they could cross into Western Nepal via the Kagmara Pass. Again travellers could cross the Lipu lakh pass and they could reach Gangotri and via the Mana and Niti pass they could reach Badrinath.

Entering India through the Indus Valley Fah–Hein spent about ten years (AD 401 to AD 412) in India. He travelled all over northern India and was in Patliputra for about three years. Fah–Hein main interest was the study of Buddhism and obtaining authentic copies of Indian scriptures, which he fulfilled at Patliputra. The account of his travels gives much information about temples and monasteries and repeats many Buddhist legends, but only a few passing phrases mention social conditions and nothing at all is said about Chandragupta II, although Fah–Hein was in India for some six years of his reign and during his stay, he found this land completely at peace and prosperous beyond words. He observed that it was possible to travel from one end to the other end of the country without the need of passports.

The records of Fah–Hein shows that India had changed much since the days of Megasthenes, some seven hundred years earlier. The mild ethics of Buddhism and Jainism had gradually leaved Indian society which was now more gentle and human then in the days of the Mauryas. At this time India was perhaps the happiest and most civilized region of the world for the effete Roman Empire was nearly its destruction and China was passing through a time of trouble between the two great periods of the Hans and the Tangs.It is said that by the time Buddha, hardy sailors had probably circumnavigated the sub–continent and perhaps made the first contact with Burma, Malaya and the islands of Indonesia. Indian literature mentions ships carrying one thousand passengers during Gupta period. The largest Indian ship known to Pliny, Who obtained some accurate information about the maritime trade of the Indian ocean measured three thousand amphorae or seventy five tons, in the 5th century Fah–Hein, who had no reason not to tell the truth in this respect travelled from Ceylon to Java in a ship carrying two hundred people, which is the largest complement of passengers and crew attested in a reliable source relating to early India He also gave us an another important information how the Indian craftsmen built a boat or ship. Normally the timbers of ancient Indian ships were not nailed but lashed together. This was done to avoid the imaginary danger of magnetic rocks. In fact, sewn or lashed timbers were more resilient than nailed one and could stand up better to the fierce storms of the monsoon period and the many coral reaps of the India Ocean.

Some eight centuries after Megasthenes Indicopleustes, a merchant who later become a Christian monk has prepared a detailed, travel account. He was in Western India and Sri Lanka from AD 535 to AD 547 and wrote Topographia Christiana. It contains valuable information on Indian trade relations with Sri Lanka and countries in touch with its Southern coasts. It reveals that Tamils were famous for their trade into pepper, pearls and beryl, which attracted travellers from east to west.

Indian History is also very thankful to an another Chinese pilgrim-Husn-Tsang, who wrote a very valuable description of India, which unlike the account of Megasthenes has survived intact, while his main purpose like that of Fah-Hein was to obtain Buddhist manuscripts and visit sacred sites. Hsuan-Tsang was less other-worldly than the earlier pilgrims and he was in close touch with Harsha, whome he much admired and who gave him an honoured place at his court. His work is therefore of much greater historical value than that of Fah-Hein.Hsuan-Tsang was himself twice robbed by bandits in Harsha’s domains and on one river pirates, in the very heart of the empire. Hsuan-Tsang says that most probable the humanitarian ideas, encouraged by Buddhism, was the root cause of declining law and order situation.

Hsuan-Tsang’s Chinese accounts of India shows that he was well aware of the four classes and many mixed classes of Indian Society. Interestingly, he observes that there are nine methods of showing outward respect: (i).by selecting words of soothing character in making request, (ii) by bowing the head to show respect, (iii) by raising the hands of and bowing, (iv) by joining the hands and bowing low, (v) by bending the knee, (vi) by a prostration, (vii) by a prostration on hand and knees, (viii) by touching the ground with the five circles and (ix) by stretching the five parts of the body on the ground.

Conclusion

With this brief description of traveller’s accounts I have to say that every traveller, who has written anything, has painted a picture of ‘Mona Lisa’. They have mentioned, what they observed. They were not the ‘modern political historiographers’, who created history from their preconceived notions or from thoughts, sprang from the organic unity of historical experience. It’s all depends on the spectator in which way he conceive or analyse the brightness or darkness or contrast of the picture. I have a strong belief that every historian should must admire the traveller’s eye witness account because they are the people who travel extensively and dangerously in alien society, scaled the unexplored areas, collected basic informations and on the basis of the existing ground realities depicted certain ages as the “the golden period” or as “the age of darkness”.

Reference

1.	Basham, A.L. The wonder that was India-Delhi, 1967 2.	Koshambi, D.D. The cultural and civilisation of Ancient India in Historical outline 3.	Peter, R and Mahindra, U - Panorama of Indian culture (In 4 vols) New Delhi – 2001 4.	Stein, Burton - A History of India. Oxford. Delhi. 1998. 5.	Maurya, Vibha. Encoutering the Indian contemporary European image of India - New Delhi. 1999 —Preceding unsigned comment added by AJIT KUMAR BHARDWAJ (talk • contribs) 07:20, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Maoist Movement and Human Security in Nepal
The phenomenon of Globalisation and ‘Capitalist Expansion’ 1 has changed the meaning of many words. The traditional concept of Security is not resilient enough to address and to deal with new dimensions of diversified threat in modern days. The shift from the traditional concept of Security, which emphasized military and political concept of State Security to comprehensive and human security, has gained a definite momentum with the end of the cold war. Governance, economics, humanitarianism and the environment has become the new agenda of Security Studies. 2

Today, traditional threats of Foreign invasion are replaced by other threat of varied nature and dimensions. The agenda of security has become multidisciplinary in nature and in this process non-traditional security with a large canvas of human security and development is become the prime concern of state, society and democracy. Empowerment of all people living within a state is one of the core area of today’s governance, despite the continued struggle between the traditional ethos of the state will all sorts of authoritarian tantrum. 3 Democracy and human freedom become the mantras of today’s security discourse.

In the late 1990’s the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan strongly advocated the “Humanitarian Intervention” and said: “We will not and we cannot accept a situation where people are brutalized behind national boundaries.” 4 The UNDP Development Report in 1994 has also focused attention on nine areas of human security that ranged from food and health security to personal, community and Political Security. The report said : Job security, income security, health security, environmental security, security from crime, these are the emerging concerns of human security all over the world. “5 Indrajit Rai has rightly observed that the concept of security must be change urgently in two basic ways-from an exclusive stress on territorial security to a much greater stress on people’s security and from security through armaments to security through sustainable human development. 6 He says-”The world will never be secure from war if men and women has no security in their homes and in their jobs”. Kanti Bajpai has also precisely identified four means of human security. They are: human development and human governance, state’s cooperative role both at the national and international levels, soft power and collaboration between state and the non-governmental organizations. 7 I have chosen this subject specially to discuss the role of state and political parties in Nepal where human security and democracy are flagrantly violated. Terrorism, in the name of “People’s war” has posed a formidable challenge to the Nepal and in combating terrorism. Human rights to life and freedom have been seriously curtailed. Though everyone admits the responsibility of the state in the dismal human security but it would be misleading that only the state is the culprit in this respect in Nepal. A virtual ‘reign of terror’ prevails in Nepal due to atrocities committed by both the Maoist and the security force. Human security in Nepal is in a very pathetic condition. Innocent people are being crushed between the governments’ security forces and the rebel’s forces. The Amnesty International Report 2005 put Nepal in the second rank for its gross violation of human rights. The report said that the security forces continued to kill unarmed civilians, often claiming that they had died in an encounter with the Maoist or while trying to escape from custody. Similarly, the report of the World Wide Incidents Tracking System (WITS) of the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) says that human security is under severe threat in South Asia ‘the global terror hot spot’. The report indicates that though India is the worst-hit country on the terror charts after Iraq on all counts (incidents, deaths and injured), Nepal is No. 1 in large scale kidnapping and disappearance. If these findings are the ground reality of world’s largest established democracy and a democracy under making, then the question arises as to which kind of system will secure the “human security”.

The “neo-realist school of security” believes that “Security of the State constitutes the security of citizen and those within it. Violence and other threats emanating from different sources should be averted by state.” The United Nations Development Report -1994 has paid much attention to the basic needs of human being and emphasized that if the people are empowered in every sense-social, economic, political and psychological or mental, then only human security can be achieved.”

Today, Nepal is in deep crisis. It is passing through the ‘reverse wave’ of democratization showing no trace of a new roadmap for the country. The trajectories of Nepali democracy have created direct and indirect impact on the situation of human security. The triangular confliction relations amongst the king, the Maoist and political parties has blocked nation-building process and has changed the image of Nepal from a peaceful mountainous country with peace-loving people  to a corrupt and war torn country with unprecedented human right violation. 8 Brutalisation of violence is one of the developing phenomenons in Nepal, as inhuman violent actions are becoming regular events of society. 10 Experiences around the world show that brutalisation of violence occurs when certain principles of war and armed conflict are undermined or ignored, which often happens when the political process becomes weak and use of arms dominates course of action in the war. Reports in newspapers say that rape of wife in front of husband and family members, forceful eviction from home, murder and assassination of people after capture, torture and retaliation are frequent and society is forced to accept it as usual”.

In a situation of war and escalated conflict, society often develops a negative psyche, as everywhere they observe negative character. In middle class intellectuals and urban elites this negative psyche can be seen easily. It is difficult to say that on which scale ongoing armed conflict will increase the rate of migration and displacement but updated reports say that a large number of Nepali people has left their mother land in search of security and livelihood. A recent report of the Inter Agency Internal Displacement Division (IDD) Mission to Nepal based on the consultation with senior government officials, donors, the UN country team, ICRC, International and National NGO’s and representatives of IDP and field visit to kapilvastu, Banke and Kailali districts concludes that -”while the full magnitude of population displacement is unknown, best reliable estimates suggest that up to 200,000 Nepalese may have been  internally displaced by the conflict with perhaps  2 million or move moving to India in recent years.”12  Similarly, the study of the Duijn says that “Monitors at the boarder  estimated  that between November and December 2003 over 1,200 people were crossing the Indo-Nepal boarder per day in Nepalganj.”

Many researchers and analysts have identified age-long rampant poverty, abject destitution, systematic and deliberate exclusion, severe caste, gender and ethnic discriminations and greater injustice as structural causes of the ongoing armed conflict.13 The theoretical documents of Maoist say that “the principal objective of the people’s war is to develop the social productive forces and create a higher form of society through a continuous revolution………by putting ‘Politics in command” 14 Dhami and Deuba Commission has also observed that Maoist started their “People’s war” to dismantle the existing feudal socio-political structure of  production relation. Theoretically, we can accept the Marist argument that “Maoist insurgency is the manifestation of the failure of 236 years of governance system of Modern Nepal” but practically what we see in Nepal is not a revolutionary process to solve the socio-economic problems of the nation.

Actually Maoist have established a “reign of terror” in Nepal and are working in false imagination, perceived risks, sense of supremacy and wrong  cause of action,  which have betrayed the people and pushed the country into deep crisis. All those people who were frustrated with the post 1990 polity and gave full moral support to the Maoist armed rebellion to reduce poverty, control exploitation of the disadvantaged communities by those  in power and generate  employment opportunities for the large mass of unemployed youths are feeling cheated. At the initial period of People’s war immediately after the 1990’s political change, the frustrated society with very short memory appreciated the move of Maoist mainly because of hope of some positive change towards governing system situation. Unfortunately, the sand castle of people’s imagination and dream was razed on the ground when Maoist changed their socio-economic agenda and developed a new ideological framework of “Prachanda Path”. Inspired by the shining path Insurgency of Peru and influenced by Revolutionary International Movement and Coordination Committee of Maoist parties and Organization of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) the  Nepalese Maoist, going beyond the classical communism, adopted a new model of revolution combining theChinese strategy of protracted people’s war and Russian strategy of armed insurrection.

Conversely, the ‘People’s war’ as a vocabulary of violence used by the Maoist insurgents is fundamentally a militaristic pursuit of the non-state actor in course of the armed struggle against the state. Maoist ideologue Baluram Bhattarai says that People’s war was initiated with a proclaimed aim of establishing a new domestic socio-economic system and state…………………..The people’s war is the inevitable instrument in the process of the historic new democratic revolutionary transformation .15 Here the question arises: Can violence be used as a poverty alleviation measures or signaling of discontent for changing power relation in the state? Can any democratic socio-economic system and state be imagined? When social resilience has been severly disrupted by forcing society to reluctantly accept violence as a legitimate made of Political behaviour of the state and non-state. There is a general belief that in Nepal “people’s war” has no dispersed target or aim other than coaxing the state to transfer the power by dethroning monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The Maoist have camouflaged their basic instinct for grabbing power at the center behind the facade of their ideology, which they were certainly not capable of wrenching from the competitive electoral politics they have tasted between 1991 and 1994.

Today, the Maoist have proven their ability to destroy the authority of the state: first by pushing the state’s presence out from almost three quarters of the territories of the country by confining the government to the district headquarters and second by establishing their political and military acumen by creating the condition for the government to concede to the reality of the “two states and two armies” within the state.17 It is obvious that Maoist ideology of revolution has been completely shaken off by greed of political power and economic benefits derived from violence and intimidation. Al present Maoist extortion network is not only confined to villages and towns but to the capital city of Kathmandu and beyond. Perhaps this is the reason why no body doubts that the Maoists are amongst the richest “terrorist groups” in the world with a ‘money bag’ 64 to 128 millions dollar. The Maoists have ascertained this position not because of their economic or social reform programme but because of their militaristic prowess and capacity to indulge in violence. 18 They have practiced to raise protection money regularly from rich politicians, business persons and industries, charge 5 to 10 per cent and sometimes even 25 per cent of the monthly income from salaried persons, exploit laboures, collect charges of work permit from INGOs and NGOs, receive kickbacks from petty transactions conducted locally by traders and merchant with artificial fixing of prices of commodities and stealing resources from relief supplies. The large scale looting of banks and households have also enriched the Maoist enabling them even to finance arms purchase and war.

There is thus a probability that this fling with monetary benefits may perhaps became a temptation for the Maoist to continue violence and threats of intimidation that have already paid high dividends in different kinds. To gain from such economic dimension of conflict does not requires the Maoist to succeed in holding the veins of power of the state, it requires just breaking the law that the power of the state cannot preserve.19

Foot Note:

1.Edward. J. Amadco and Tariq Banuri, “Policy, Governance and the Management of Conflict:” in Banuri 			         (ed.), Economic liberalisatin : No panacea, oxford, 2.John chipman : “The Future of strategic studies : Beyond Grand Strategy” Survival, IISS, London, Vol 34,No-1, 1992, PP-109-31. 3.Baral, Lok Raj, Non-Traditional Security : State, Society and Democracy in South Asia, New 				Delhi, 2006, P. 17. 4.See Kofi Annan : The Question of Intervention, New York, 1999, PP-6, 13, 20. 5.See-”Redefining Security: The Human dimensions” in Current	History.No.94, May 1995. 6.Rai, Indrajit-”Human Security: Poverty Alleviation, Education and Health Services “ in L.R. Banal (ed.)Non-Traditional Security, New Delhi, 2006, P.67 7.Kanti Bajpai- “Beyond comprehensive Security: Perspective from India’s Regions “ Seminar Proceedings,Aut 2001, New Delhi, PP-1-27. 8.Baral, L.R. -op cit p. 15 9.Upreti, Bishnu Raj. Armed Conflict and peace process in Nepal, New 	Delhi, 2006, P-279. 10.Op cit- P. 253. 11.Ibid. 12.Report of IDD Mission to Nepal (11-22 April, 2005). 13.Thapa. D (eds)- Understanding The Maoist Movement in Nepal, Kathmandu, 2003; Rana, R.S. and Sharma-Development Cooperation and conflict, 2004; Karki, A and Seddon, Delhi-The people’s war in Historical Context. Delhi, 2005; Mishra, C-”Locating the Cause of the 	Maoist Struggle” paper presented at International workshop on causes of Internal conflict and means to Resolve Them (22-24 Feb. 2004). 14.Kumar, D. -”Proximate causes of Nepal” (A paper presented at international workshop on causes of Internal conflict and Means to Resolve them: Case study of Nepal organized in 22-24 Feb. 2004). 15.Bhattarai, Baburam-The Politico -Economic Rational of the People’s war, Kathamandu, 1998. 16.Baral, L.R. -Non Traditional Security, N. Delhi, 2006, P-146. 17.Op cit-150 18.Ibid. 19.Op cit- 151. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AJIT KUMAR BHARDWAJ (talk • contribs) 07:22, 19 March 2010 (UTC)